Ultimate Alliance Rulebook - Part I

If you read this blog regularly, you will probably be at least passingly familiar with my "SuperSystem - Ultimate Alliance" concept, which as an adapted version of Scott Pyle's SuperSyetem rules, Third Edition. Before we go any further, as I will be talking about some of the core concepts of the rules, I actually have written permission from Scott to do so, and won't be copy/pasting huge chunks of his work here. You will, however, need a copy of the SS3 rules to cover everything I'm going to talk about here. 

What Remains The Same?
First off, we'll talk about the elements of SS3 that remain unchanged for SSUA. 

All Measurements remain in Inches (or Centimeters for those playing in smaller scales), measure edge of base to edge of base. 

The Goal Roll is still the core mechanic, with the "Rule of 6" still intact. 

Many of the combat maneuvers from SS3 are essentially the same, but that's a fair bit down the line to talk about. 

From SS3 we'll be deriving the four Statistics that most characters have; Agility Strength, Mind and Resolve. 

Action Points are essentially the same, but with a few minor modifications that will be discussed later. 


What Changes?
Quite a few departures are made from the SS3 rules as they are written, the major ones are noted here. 

You may now premeasure. As SSUA is intended as a "Convention" game, many non-wargamers are introduced to it, being able to premeasure keeps the focus on the action and not precise estimation. 

The Dice Pool Cap is gone. Players being able to gain an absurd amount of dice for a roll is part of the fun and actually functions as a "balancing" mechanic, which we'll get to later. 

Rolls are no longer opposed (excepting Initiative), instead, Goal Rolls are made against target numbers. This helps speed play. 

Heroes no longer have a points cost. This is the big one. I'm all for balanced play and I always prefer games with a points system, but it just doesn't work with the concept of SSUA. What I want SSUA to be is a game where the superheroes are representative of what they are in the comics, films, television, video games, etc. This means balance is essentially impossible. The player using Wonder Woman is simply going to do more damage than the one using Moon Knight and there's no way around that. Trust me though, with a little bit of clever planning around games, it works fine. 

Anatomy of a Character 

Here we have an example of a fairly straightforward character, The Phantom: 

(Please excuse the dodgy layout, these are kept on A5 Word documents until I can get some help making nicer character cards)

The Phantom (Kit Walker)

Strength	5	Mind	5
Resolve	6	Agility	5

Hits:

KO

AP: 10

Physical	Hit	5	Resist	5
Mental	Hit	5	Resist	6

Attacks (3 AP)

Martial Arts [5]: Melee 5 Damage

Pistols [5]: 12" Range 6 Damage

Powers/Abilities

Ghost Who Walks (A): A Model must win an opposed Resolve Test to Charge Phantom.

Jungle Agility (A): Phantom ignores Obstacles and other Models when Moving.

Devil the Wolf (*): Devil may Activate during Phantom's Activation as a separate Model.

The Power of Ten Tigers (5): Phantom may Lift and Throw Medium Objects until the end of his Activation.

Like a ghost (A): Phantom cannot be the Target of Ranged Attacks when in Cover and the Attack originates from at least 12" away.

As you can see, we start with the name of the character and their Secret Identity (if they have one). This helps when multiple people have used the same name, like Robin (Dick, Jason, Tim, Damien, Carrie, Stephanie and Helena) or when two different comics have a character with a similar name (Stardust, Herald of Galactus and Stardust the Super Wizard). 

Next, we have the main stats. With a handful of exceptions, these numbers are between 1 and 9, with nine being the upper reaches of power. 

Strength represents how physically powerful a character is and is used to calculate Melee Damage and hit points (Hits). 

Resolve is a measure of the character's will and bravery, it is used for morale rolls and to calculate psychic damage. 

Mind is how smart and quick-thinking a character can be, it is used to calculate Psychic attacks, Action Points (AP) and can be used for initiative. 

Agility measures the physical response time of a character and their speed of motion. AP, Initiative and Attack Rolls are calculated from Agility.  

The number of Hits a character has is based on their Strength Stat (for the most part), when a character reaches 0 hits, they're out of the game. 

Action Points, or AP, is calculated from the sum of Mind and Agility. More on what these can be used for later. 

Physical and Mental Hit/Resist are one of the new mechanics. These are target numbers for Goal Rolls opponents will be making against the character. For example, to hit The Phantom, an enemy would need to roll 5 or more goals on an Attack Roll. Any extra Goals rolled against Resist become damage on Hits. 

All Attacks cost 3 AP to perform, unless otherwise noted. Many characters will have two Attacks, a Melee and a Ranged Attack. The number in the square brackets, here "[5]" is the number of dice the character can roll when making the Attack. Melee Attacks can only be made within 1" of an enemy model. 

Ranged Attacks will have a measurement in inches, this is the maximum range at which the attack can be made. There are no range modifiers in SSUA.

Regardless of the kind of Attack, the last number in the line is the Damage dice rolled for a successful attack. 

Powers/Abilities is where the elements of character come into SSUA. The number of Powers/Abilities a character has will depend on the complexity of the character and is not an indication of overall power for efficacy. As you can see, Powers/Abilities are named for elements of character's history, rather than being generic. After the name of the Power/Ability you will see one of the following notions: 

(A) - This Power/Ability happens Automatically 

(*) - This Power/Ability links to another character or only happens under certain circumstances. 
(#) - This Power/Ability costs this many Action Points to Use. 
The text of the Power/Ability should then clearly explain how the power works, in general gaming terms. 

A couple of things to note before I round off this first entry. Sometimes the "readability" of the cards and rules I'll be presenting may not be the best; this is because I'm doing this project essentially solo at the moment. Hopefully I can enlist some help as I go on and get a really nice set of rules and characters going. If you spot a mistake or something confusing, please point it out in the comments and I'll try and rework it. 

Next time, Turn Sequence and AP Costs.