Digging through my old books and actually playing a Guardian in a contemporary magical setting has got me wanting to go deeper into poking the mechanics of CJ Carella's Nightspawn (changed to Nightbane due to Todd McFarlane believing it impinged on his SPAWN IP.)
This is the cover of my copy,* bought in 1995 when it first came out. I was reading Guy Gavriel Kay's
Fionavar Tapestry and Charles deLint's books at the time, so magic and magical creatures in a modern setting was really tickling my brain at that point, so this fit really well in my life.
*actually this is taken from an Amazon image of someone trying to sell the original book for US$100, claiming it's "out of print," although you can still buy Nightbane for $25, so good luck with that.
The whole Spawn/Bane issue is probably the first time I was aware of intellectual property being such a big deal. I was kind of pleased to have the original, but I'm mostly over it. I will probably still go back and forth between the names, but try to stick to -bane since that's the one that most people are going to find or use. Ironically, I noticed that there's an NPC named Nightbane in World of Warcraft, but I don't think Palladium is going to bother Blizzard about it.
The Nightbane setting is largely post-Dark Day, a day in 2000 (keep in mind this is all written in 1995) where the sun vanishes and the sky is dark for 24 hours, causing worldwide panic. This panic is exacerbated by a percentage of the population turning into nightmarish monsters, the Nightbane, who are the central "reluctant heroes" of the setting. It turns out that monsters are real, as are psychic powers, magic, vampires, and most government conspiracies, all in a shadow war that been going on for millenia with Dark Day just being the most noticeable aspect.
Nightbane are mostly ordinary people who had a monstrous form manifest in a time of stress or on Dark Day, not unlike most X-men style mutant stories of discovering powers. The moment is called the Becoming, the monster form is the Morphus and the human form is referred to as the Facade. Nightbane can change between forms relatively easily, so they can maintain their normal identity, but can only use most of the powers in Morphus form. The Facade is basically a normal human with a little more toughness, nightvision, and a Highlander-like sense to detect other Nightbane.
UPDATE (2022-09-29): This is a new conversion interpretation using a different (better) way to translate Attacks per Melee into combat traits. The old one is at the end of the post for reference purposes.
Nightspawn (new template) - PL 7
Strength 5/2, Stamina 5/3, Agility 3/0, Dexterity 3/0, Fighting 7/0, Intellect 0, Awareness 1, Presence 0
Advantages
Accurate Attack, Daze (Intimidation), Defensive Roll 2, Improved Trip, Ranged Attack 6
Powers
Nightspawn Physiology
. .
Horror Factor: Enhanced Trait 2 (Traits: Intimidation +2 (+2), Advantages: Daze (Intimidation))
. .
Immunity 11 (Aging, Alteration Effects, Custom: Mind Control 5)
. .
Innate Combat (HTH MA 1st lvl): Enhanced Trait 26 (Traits: Fighting +4 (+9), Dodge +4 (+9), Fortitude +3 (+8), Will +3 (+4), Advantages: Accurate Attack, Defensive Roll 2, Improved Trip, Ranged Attack 4)
. .
Mirrorwalk: Movement 1 (Dimensional: Nightlands 1: one dimension, 100 lbs.; Increased Mass; Custom: Medium - Mirror w/counterpart)
. .
Morphus Attributes: Enhanced Trait 28 (Traits: Strength +3 (+5), Stamina +2 (+5), Agility +3 (+3), Dexterity +3 (+3), Fighting +3 (+9))
. .
Morphus Speed: Speed 1 (Speed: 4 miles/hour, 60 feet/round)
. .
Regeneration 4 (Every 2.5 rounds)
. .
Senses 4 (Detect: Nightbane (mental), Ranged, Extended; Low-light Vision) *note: usable in both forms
Offense
Initiative +3
Grab, +7 (DC Spec 15)
Throw, +7 (DC 20)
Unarmed, +7 (DC 20)
Complications
Monstrous: Character has a bizarre or frightneing form. They can hide it, but can't use most powers without it and can sometimes take a while to change.
Defense
Dodge 7/3, Parry 7, Fortitude 8/5, Toughness 7/5, Will 4/1
Power Points
Abilities 12 + Powers 78 + Advantages 0 + Skills 0 (0 ranks) + Defenses 0 = 90
A few notes about Palladium system: Attributes (their Abilities) are rolled randomly with 3d6 and a bonus d6 on 16+, but there are no inherent bonuses (or, at the time, even penalties) for any value less than 17, so they feel kinda same-y to start. It's possible to get training skills for physical attributes to a point, but mental attributes are basically stuck unless you get some interesting (usually randomly rolled) bonus from whatever powers. Because there's such a large "mundane range", though, even bonus attributes can have no noticeable effect if you roll too low, so cheating is rampant and occasionally encouraged. This sample Nightbane is based on having 15s for all attributes, so any bonuses will have some noticeable effect.
Still, the only two attribute that can be objectively measured are the same in both systems: strength (Physical Strength[PS] vs STR) and speed. PS 15 is capable of carrying 150lbs or lifting 300lbs, but cannot throw more than they can carry, so equivalent STR is effectively 2. True average rolls of PS 9-12 straddle the range of STR 1-2, but a greater dependence on gear keeps me leaning toward the heavy side. UPDATE: Note that since M&M is less granular than Palladium, STR ranks can cover a wide range on PS; generally Nightbane PS30 and under would be STR 5 and over 30 would be STR 6, with STR 7 being the practical maximum in roughly the 41-60 range, but only when using the Supernatural Damage rules in the Nighhspawn book. Weaker Nightbane might be as low as PS13 at minimum which still works out to STR 2, but I wouldn't recommend anything lower than STR 4, possibly with a rank or two of Str-based Damage to cover the supernatural damage rules.
Figured out a quicker and easier way to translate speed. Spd is calculated as Spdx20 = yards/minute, which means Spdx60 = feet/minute, so Spd=feet/second. Assume a Move Action at 3 seconds, and Spd 10 (an average roll) works out to 30'/move action, which is Speed 0 in M&M. So Spdx3 in feet can easily be checked against the Distance column on the Ranks and Measures chart.
The basic Morphus of most Nightbane is supernaturally strong, equal to STR 5, and can often be stronger depending on aspects of their Morphus. It also gives several other attribute bonuses that translate into various traits above, making them more resilient and even giving them natural combat ability. Transformation is "horror-based" so it normally takes 1 melee round (15 seconds) or 2.5 M%M rounds, unless the PC makes the equivalent of a DC12 Will Check in which case it take 3 seconds (Move Action). This could be another 1p Flaw on the Alternate Form, but since it's more of an issue in maintaining secret ID, I would keep it a Complication.
The Morphus also has a Horror Factor (HF) which starts at 6 and increases depending on appearance. The mechanical effect is essentially a 1 round Stun/Defenseless Affliction vs Will when an opponent first sees the Nightbane's Morphus. Since this requires no action on the Nightbane's part, I have a 2p/rank Perception Area Reaction Affliction that covers this, however it doesn't really work until the PC's HF is at least 11, otherwise it may as well be a Feature or just a function of Daze (Intimidate) and a few ranks of Intim.
Other powers include Immunity to any transformation effects or mind control, regeneration, "breaching the Mirrorwall" (more later) and some specialized Nightbane powers known as Talents that are chosen and purchased with PPE. Nightbane do not get psionics and do not get magic by default, although they can learn it (more later on that).
Skill sets are basic with some variety. The "Suddenly Nightbane" theme fits very well with teen or young adult heroes, and lends itself to a relatively basic skill set equivalent of Bystander with a few more ranks of Tech. Other variants are based on the seven secret factions of Nightbane:
Resistance/Spook Squad (also cop/military/agent types)
Tech 4, Vehicles 4, Treatment 2, some combat & weapon training
Nocturne/Seeker/Lightbringer (scholarly types)
Tech 6, 2 more Languages, Expertise: Nightbane Lore 4
Warlord (street gang/criminal types)
Tech 2, Expertise (Streetwise) 4, Stealth +2. Expertise (Burglary) 4, +1 Speed & +1 STA (running), some combat & weapon training
The rest would be based on Talents and Appearance. I will probably do a breakdown on all the Talents later, but Appearance is several random tables of various weird looks involving animals, insects, stigmata, biomechanicals, and weird beauty/face/limb features in endless combinations. I'll do a sample random build on my character thread.
Nightspawn (old template) - PL 6
Strength 5/2, Stamina 4/2, Agility 3/0, Dexterity 0, Fighting 5/0, Intellect 0, Awareness 1, Presence 0
Advantages
Daze (Intimidation), Defensive Roll 2, Power Attack, Ranged Attack 5
Powers
Morphus "True" Form (Activation: Move Action)
. .
Enhanced Trait 41 (Traits: Strength +3 (+5), Stamina +2 (+4), Agility +3 (+3), Fortitude +3 (+7), Fighting +5 (+5), Dodge +2 (+5), Will +3 (+4) Advantages: Daze (Intimidation), Power Attack, Ranged Attack 5)
Nightspawn Physiology
. .
Immunity 11 (Aging, Alteration Effects, Custom: Mind Control 5)
. .
Mirrorwalk: Movement 1 (Dimensional: Nightlands 1, 100 lbs.; Custom: Medium - Mirror w/counterpart, Increased Mass)
. .
Regeneration 4 (Every 2.5 rounds)
. .
Senses 4 (Detect: Nightbane (mental), Ranged, Extended; Low-light Vision)
Offense
Initiative +3
Grab, +5 (DC Spec 15)
Throw, +5 (DC 20)
Unarmed, +5 (DC 20)
Complications
Monstrous: Character has a bizarre or frightening form. They can hide it, but can't use most powers without it and can sometimes take a while to change.
Defense
Dodge 5/0, Parry 5/0, Fortitude 7/4, Toughness 6/4/2, Will 4/1
Power Points
Abilities 10 + Powers 61 + Advantages 2 + Skills 0 (0 ranks) + Defenses 0 = 73