Doomed

Doomed (minor) by Senator Cybus

Simply put, the universe hates this hero. For whatever reason, the character suffers one calamity after another, his whole life being one long run of lousy luck. While this would be terrible news for most people, for a super hero it’s not all bad: the cosmos doesn’t want him dead, it wants him to suffer. This means that while his life may be impossibly screwed-up, the fates will at least conspire to keep him safe from death, if only to prolong his misery.

Bonuses:

+30% to save vs. coma/death.

+5 to save vs. fatal disease or poison.

+5 to dodge or parry any attack that would kill the character outright.

+5 to roll with any fall/impact that would kill the character outright.

Once per day, the player may call upon a Minor Miracle: this can be any extraordinary turn of luck, but only if it is something that prevents the death of the character, e.g. causing a gun pointed at the character’s head to jam, or an off-course fishing boat arriving when the super being is drowning in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The exact form that the Miracle will take is up to the GM. The Minor Miracle cannot be invoked in a non-lethal situation.

Penalties:

-2 to parry or dodge any non-lethal attack (Damn those random patches of slippery mud!).

-2 to roll with non-lethal fall/impact (Ow! Who left that broken bottle there?!).

-3 to save vs. non-lethal disease or poison (Stupid, misprinted ‘best before’ dates!).

The character will always lose at any game of chance: roulette, poker, coin toss, etc. Games dependent entirely on skill are unaffected.

Any time the character uses an electronic or mechanical device, there’s a chance that it will spontaneously malfunction: the chance is a percentage equal to the character’s experience level x 2 (2% at level one, 4% at level two, etc). This does not, of course, apply to any device that the character wants to break down. Equally, if a malfunction of the device would directly cause the character’s death, it will function normally, at least until he is out of immediate danger.

Once per day, the GM may inflict a Minor Disaster upon the character: this can be any extraordinary turn of bad luck, but only if it is something that will not kill the hero, e.g. his wallet falls down an open sewer hatch, his crime-mobile is crushed by a rogue elephant, he accidentally squirts the piping-hot contents of his fast-food restaurant apple pie into the police commissioner’s cornea, etc. The GM cannot invoke the Minor Disaster during combat.

Note: This is a variant of the minor power of Last Chance.