Adaptation

Effect: Variable

Action: Full (passive)

Range: Personal

Duration: Continuous

Saving Throw: None

Cost: 6 points per rank

You can adapt to changing conditions. When you encounter a hostile environment, you acquire the powers you need to function in that environment, up to (rank x 5) power points worth. Adapted traits cannot exceed the campaign’s power level limits. You can suggest Adaptation powers, but the GM makes the final decision as to what powers your get. See the various examples in the following section for guidelines on suitable environments and adaptations. Your Adaptation only functions once per round; it can’t adapt to changing conditions faster than that. It takes a full round to adapt to a new environment, during which you cannot take any other action. This means you can’t adapt to attacks, because the power doesn’t react quickly enough.

SAMPLE ENVIRONMENTAL ADAPTATIONS

Here are some examples of hostile environments and the trait(s) a character with Adaptation might acquire in response to them. See The Environment, M&M, pages 167–170, for details on different environmental hazards.

• Acid: Acid might exist in the atmosphere (see Corrosive Atmosphere, M&M page 170), in liquid form, or even in the tissues or secretions of certain plants or animals, especially alien ones. Immunity 5 (acid effects) is the most likely power, with additional Immunity if the acid is atmospheric (see the Poison Gas/Atmosphere listing, following).

• Aquatic: An air-breather submerged in water acquires Immunity 1 (drowning) and a water-breather surrounded by air does the same. An air-breather in especially deep water acquires Immunity 3, adding cold and pressure to the list to completely adapt to the conditions of the deep.

• Cold: One Adaptation point is sufficient to provide Immunity 1 (cold). The GM may choose to require rank 2 Immunity for extreme cold, while cold intense enough to inflict damage requires Immunity 5 at least.

• Darkness: While darkness isn’t technically a “harmful” environment, it is discomforting, and may qualify for a use of Adaptation at the GM’s discretion. Super-Senses (low-light or darkvision) are the most likely adaptations for dealing with darkness.

• Falling: A falling character may adapt Flight with the Gliding flaw; even 1 rank is sufficient to allow the character to glide gently to the ground like using a parachute. Especially high falls may also need Immunity to protect against thin air or even atmospheric friction (for falls from orbit). At the GM’s discretion a character may acquire Immunity 5 (falling damage) rather than Gliding, making for a more spectacular—but no less safe—landing.

• Fire/Heat: One Adaptation point is sufficient to provide Immunity 1 (heat). The GM may choose to require rank 2 Immunity for extreme heat, while heat intense enough to inflict damage requires Immunity 5 at least. Exposure to fire like a forest fire or house fire may also provide Immunity to suffocation (2 ranks) to deal with the thick smoke.

• Heavy Gravity: A character under heavy gravity may adapt Super-Strength to overcome some of the effects or, alternately, simply acquire Immunity 1 (heavy gravity), allowing the character to operate in all ways as if the local gravity was Earth-normal (1G).

• High Wind: Faced with wind powerful enough to push or even blow a character away, Adaptation most likely provides sufficient ranks of Immovable to counter the effects, along with Super-Movement (sure-footed) to overcome the hamper movement effect of powerful wind (such as that caused by Weather Control).

• Light: While normal Adaptation doesn’t work quickly enough to shield against Dazzle attacks, it does allow characters to adapt to continuous blinding light (whether from a bright sun or an artificial source), granting Immunity 2 (bright light). This includes immunity to sunburn, although not dehydration or other hazards.

• Light Gravity: A character in a light gravity environment may adapt Density to provide additional mass (and therefore weight) or simply acquire Immunity 1 (light gravity), allowing the character to operate in all ways as if the local gravity was Earth-normal (as with Heavy Gravity, previously).

• Poison Gas/Atmosphere: Immunity 3 (poison and suffocation) provides protection against a poisonous atmosphere, whether that of an alien world or airborne toxins introduced into a normal atmosphere.

• Radiation: Immunity 1 (radiation) is sufficient to shield against environmental background radiation. At the GM’s discretion Immunity 2 may be required for high levels of radiation exposure, like that in deep space or from powerful radioactive materials. (See the Mastermind’s Manual, page 125, for some detailed options for radiation exposure and radiation sickness.) Immunity 5 protects against radiation Damage while Immunity 10 safeguards against all radiation effects.

• Space: Characters exposed to deep space need to contend with the lack of air, intense cold, and cosmic radiation bombardment. This requires at least 5 ranks

of Immunity (cold, radiation, suffocation, and vacuum).The GM may want to add an additional rank to overcome any disorientation due to the light (micro-) gravity of space.

• Vacuum: Exposure to vacuum most likely results in Immunity 3 (suffocation, vacuum) to deal with the two primary hazards. Note the most expensive of the above environments is only about 5 points, so most characters can generally get by with fairly low ranks of Adaptation unless power modifiers like Reaction are

applied.

POWER FEATS

• Precise: Note that neither this feat nor Selective allow the user to control what power(s) Adaptation provides. That requires at least a power extra (see the following section).

• Selective: Adaptation with Affects Others and Area can have this power feat, allowing you to choose who in the area of effect does and does not benefit from the power’s effects.

• Subtle: Since Adaptation is a Continuous power, its effects are not immediately noticeable and it does not need this power feat.

• Triggered: Adaptation includes an element of this feat, activating in response to a hostile environment, so it does not require the Triggered feat.

EXTRAS

• Action: This extra reduces the amount of time it takes you to adapt. If you reduce the power’s action to a reaction, you can adapt to any harmful effect, including attacks, once per round as a reaction. So if you are hit with a flame Blast, you adapt Immunity to Fire, for example. If you’re hit with multiple harmful effects in the same round, you only adapt to the first one. You can choose to delay your Adaptation (consciously overriding it) if you wish to adapt to a later attack in the round.

• Affects Others: Adaptation with this extra can grant its benefits to another character. At the +0 level the power affects the other person and not you. At the +1 level, it affects you both simultaneously. To grant Adaptation’s benefits at a distance, you need both this extra and the Area or Range extras.

• Area: Adaptation with Affects Others can have this extra to extend to everyone within a given area.

• Controlled: You can exert conscious control over your Adaptation, sufficient to choose what power(s) you acquire in response to any given hazard. The powers must still be ones that help you overcome the hazard, but yo u can reasonably choose Flight rather than Gliding to deal with falling or Absorption rather than Immunity against heat or radiation.

The GM still has final say on the powers chosen, but you at least get to choose.

• Range: Adaptation with Affects Others can have the Range extra, allowing it to grant its benefits at a distance.

FLAWS

• Duration: Adaptation can be reduced to sustained duration for a –1 flaw, meaning if you are unable to maintain the power for any reason, you lose the benefit

of its protection. Adaptation usable as a reaction can even be reduced to instant duration (a –2 flaw) meaning it is only good for countering other instant effects like attacks, or sudden bursts of cold, heat, and such. Given its variable nature, Adaptation cannot be made permanent in duration.

• Uncontrolled: Adaptation is already Uncontrolled in most respects, so it cannot have this flaw.

• Unreliable: Adaptation with this flaw doesn’t always work (a potentially dangerous combo for a character who relies on the power). It’s wise to have some backup in case the Unreliable Adaptation fails (see the Drawbacks section, following, for some suggestions).

DRAWBACKS

• Action: Adaptation with this drawback requires more than a full round to activation. While this might seem useless, given the immediacy of most environmental hazards, such a limited form of Adaptation can still have its uses. The Gamemaster may wish to allow this form of Adaptation to “prepare” a character for nearby conditions. For example, a character with Adaptation that requires an hour (a 3-point drawback) might be able to adapt while wearing life-support gear like the space suit or SCUBA rig. When the power kicks in, the character doesn’t need to equipment any longer. The character may even be able to adapt while in a vehicle or structure exposed to the environment, like on board a submarine, starship, or moonbase.

• Noticeable: This drawback makes the effects of Adaptation clearly noticeable. The character might acquire scales, fins, and gills underwater, for example, or gain shiny, reflective metallic skin in extreme heat. The GM chooses the noticeable effects as well as the adaptive powers.

ASSOCIATED EFFECTS

• Immunity: Most configurations of Adaptation rely on the Immunity effect to one degree or another. Consult the Immunity effect description for more detail on how it works and how to apply its effects in play.