The Megaversal system, sometimes known as the Palladium system, is a role-playing game system which involves roll-under percentile skill checks, roll-high d20 combat checks and roll-high d20 saving throws, and uses differing amounts of d4s, d6s, d8s, and d10s for damage, which is applied to Hit Points, Structural Damage Capacity (S.D.C.), and Mega-Damage Capacity (M.D.C.).
Character creation[]
Character creation varies across the games. Players may or may not select a race, depending on the game (all characters in Ninjas and Superspies, for example, are assumed to be human; in Palladium Fantasy, they very often are not). All games share the same eight [[attributes, which are randomly generated and depend upon the character's race:
- IQ
- Mental Affinity (MA) - The character's personality and how well they can deal with others.
- Mental Endurance (ME) - The character's willpower.
- Physical Endurance (PE) - The character's basic level of toughness.
- Physical Prowess (PP) - The characters agility.
- Physical Strength (PS) - The character's strength.
- Physical Beauty (PB) - The character's physical attractiveness.
- Speed (Spd) - The character's running speed.
- Hit Points (HP)
Most of these stats are determined by a roll of three six-sided die (D6) for humans, with other species' determined by more or less depending on how they compare to humanity.
Other stats that may be used are:
- Structural Damage Capacity (SDC) - Often used as a supplemental to hit points. Also serves as hit points to non-living objects.
- Potential Psychic Energy (PPE) - Energy commonly used for magic and other non-psychic supernatural abilities.
- Inner Strength Points (ISP) - Energy used for Psychic abilities.
Classes[]
The game (and the character's race and attributes) will impact their selection of one of a few types of classes:
- Occupational Character Classes (O.C.C.), which describe skills and abilities based on a person's training.
- Psychic Character Classes (P.C.C.), which focus around psychic powers.
- Racial Character Classes (R.C.C.), which describe abilities and skills which are primarily a function of race, or are limited to members of a certain race.
Skills[]
Depending upon the game, skills can come exclusively from the character's O.C.C. and a related list, or can come from a character's educational or occupational background. Games set on modern Earth tend to favor the second; all others favor the first. O.C.C.s tend to be more specific than character classes in other games, with a wide number of O.C.C.s within a profession that could be made generic (such as six or seven specialized mecha pilot classes in Rifts which could easily be boiled down to a single "Robot/Power Armor Pilot" class).
Other system variations[]
Each game has its own variations to make the system better suit its genre. After The Bomb, Splicers, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness RPG use 'BIO-E' (for 'Bio Energy') to purchase mutations; Palladium Fantasy assumes that non-humans will be routinely played, and so most races will use normal O.C.C.s instead of R.C.C.s; games with super-technology, like Robotech, Splicers, and Rifts use a special category of damage called Mega-Damage. Mega-Damage is 100 times more powerful than normal damage(i.e.: 1D6 MDC = 1D6x100 SDC), and normal weapons cannot damage a Mega-Damage structure at all, unless they are capable of inflicting 100 SDC or more in a single shot/burst; the archetypical example of Mega-Damage is a tank, which can only be effectively destroyed through the use of powerful weapons designed to overcome its armor.
Alignment[]
Palladium's alignments are described in detailed terms with alignments describing how a character acts in a certain situation; whether they will lie, how much force they will use against innocents, how they view the law, and so on. The alignments are organized into three broad categories: Good, Selfish, and Evil. The seven core alignments are:
- Principled (Good)
- Scrupulous (Good)
- Unprincipled (Selfish)
- Anarchist (Selfish)
- Miscreant (Evil)
- Aberrant (Evil)
- Diabolic (Evil)
An eighth alignment, Taoist, was introduced for Mystic China, but has not seen wide use.
Kevin Siembieda has a noted distaste for "neutral" alignments, as used in Dungeons & Dragons. This is stated in most core rulebooks in the alignment section, and stems from the idea that a truly neutral character would not do anything particularly interesting, like fight or adventure.
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