House Rule: Drawbacks as Complications

Drawbacks are things that make your hero more vulnerable. They are kryptonite, losing your iron pants, being exposed to (or denied) sunlight, turning into a big purple jerk whenever someone stiffs you on a tip, etc. In M&M 2e, they provide you with bonus power points based on how severe they are.


Complications are more story driven. They are when your gun jams, when the car thieves escape, your grandma wanders into the vampire's den, when Dr. Hideous (the guy who killed your dog) shows up, and also when he uses his anti-duper ray on Super Duper Guy; stealing his powers. They are far more frequent because they are so varied. They reward the players for going along with plot twists and general GM jerktitiude.

Complications grant hero points when your anger management classes fail and whenever the villain uses a hero point. They do not stack with drawbacks, except for in confusing ways. Meaning, if the gm so decides, when your only weakness is fire and a villain packing a flame-thrower shows up, you may or may not gain a hero point. This is because you already gained power points from taking the drawback. But you better believe you still get hurt very badly from that fire.

In M&M 3e this is a canonical rule. Meaning there are no longer character drawbacks (which refund power points), only complications (which infinitely grant hero points). This was a genius move as drawbacks grant you maybe a few feats or a bonus to an attribute, then they're worthless. That weakness to refined sugar may allow you to jump 3 more feat and lift a few more pounds, but your character forever takes triple damage to tapioca pudding. However, a complication will forever grant you a hero point every time the Candy-Striper shows her......mug.

Using that same example, it would also grant you a hero point when your battle with Chron'Ugg the time displaced cave-man moves into the old abandoned candy factory and the somehow filled and functional vats of tapioca. Finally, you would also grant an additional hero point, when the catwalk you're on suddenly gives way due to it being old, rickety, abandoned and GM fiat.

Now, while character drawbacks are gone, power drawbacks (sometimes refered to as quirks) remain. A power drawback is a slight, well, quirk, that makes the power less effective. These are the polar opposite of feats and cost the same  (granting a single power point). Power Drawbacks tend not to cause complications outside of implausible situations created by GM fiat.


tldr; Character drawbacks are gone, power drawbacks still exists. All characters must have a minimum of two complications, one must be a motivation.

Here is a link to house ruled complications: link