Character Creation: Power Outage

Prepare for a barrage of puns. 

The Game: Power Outage
The Publisher: Go Nerdy
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

There are many different approaches to making a kid-friendly RPG. The worst ones are to just make an RPG with a simple (or not simple) system and put all the heavy lifting on the GM, maybe with some cuter art. The best ones look at where the target audience is developmentally and what they can (on average) do and understand, and tailor the mechanics accordingly. 

I don't know if Power Outage would work for the target audience (children as young as 4), but I can't say they didn't put in the work. There's a lot of effort that clearly went into not only understanding development, but playing with kids of the target ages, and that makes a huge difference. 

Anyway, moving along. Power Outage is a supers game designed to be playable with young children. Note that I didn't say "designed for kids," because although that may be true, reading through I don't see it as simplistic enough that adults wouldn't enjoy it (unlike, say, Call of Catthulhu or Super Heroes Unite!). It's a supers game that falls very much on the silly side of the spectrum, but that's fine. It doesn't lean on gross-out or just abject craziness like Stuperpowers.

All right, so enough of linking other characters. Let's do this one!

Right off the bat, I wish there was one self-contained chargen section. As it is, it does the thing where it tells you how to assign stats as it introduces and explains the system, which leads to me not really having a good grip on start-to-finish (almost typed "farm-to-table", maybe I need to eat more) character creation. But, I do know that the game has a level system and leveling up lets you do more with your character and your powers, so I think I want to keep things pretty base level. I also know that, tone-wise, I can't be too serious or grim, because...well, check out this villain: 

That's Swagneto. Yeah. Other villains include BreakFast and the Bolshefist. So, given that, I think I want my character to be Hee-Liam! Liam Adell was a perfectly normal young man working a summer job at an amusement park. The park purchases tanks of a brand new helium compound (yes, I know) to fill up balloons, and Liam, being something of a prankster, inhaled it to make his voice all squeaky. Daily. A lot. 

By summer's end, he was able to become weightless himself, and was also able to use his mastery of the helium in his system to...I dunno yet, I'll figure out some cool power when I get to that stage. But for now, just know that he fights crime as...Hee-Liam! (No point in a secret ID, his voice is permanently squeaky.)

OK, cool. So what's next? Stats! I have 3 points to divide up among Impact (doing physical stuff), Ohmer (defensive stuff), and Power (usin' powers). They all start at 2, meaning I could divide them evenly and gets 3s everywhere. Would I like to do that? I think actually I would...well. Actually, no, I'll put two into Power and one into Ohmer and leave Impact at 2.

Yield Points (this game doesn't use hit points, because it isn't necessarily about beating someone unconscious, which I like and I kinda wish I'd thought of for FirstFable) are random; it's 10 + 1d6. A roll gives me 12. Likewise, Travel is 4 + 1d4, so (roll) 8!

I guess powers, then. Now, powers here are strange. There are great big long tables that list a power's effects, but not the flavor. So! I want Hee-Liam to be able to fly, or rather, bounce weightlessly around. Let's see if I can find something for that. Sure thing! There's a power that lets me "move over traps and hazards at normal speed." It's listed as flight, but it's not about literally doing the Superman thing, it just lets me bounce around a space. That's cool. 

One more! Ooh, I got it. Hee-Liam can emit a blast of helium (not like that) and make other people slightly bouncy. In game terms, it weakens a target's OHM against Impact attacks, meaning Hee-Liam can soften up a target so a tougher ally can take a shot.

Cool! Liam is tall, gangly, brown hair, blue eyes that kinda bulge out a big, ears that are too big for his head. He dresses in big baggy black pants, a bright pink shirt, and a multi-colored patchwork vest. When he's in crime-fighting mode, he also dons a colorful fright wig (color varies). He sometimes tries to lower his voice to sound serious, but it never really works, it's like Glomer from the Punky Brewster cartoon trying to play Darth Vader.