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Old 01-11-2010, 08:42 PM   #2
PK
 
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Dobbstown Sane Asylum
Default Re: Limitation: Requires (Skill) Roll?

This can be handled with a not-quite-official limitation of mine that you can find tucked away in Pyramid #3/9. Warning: It's complicated as all hell, which is why I don't plan on ever trying to squeeze it into a book -- instead, I use it as the basis for other, simpler limitations (such as the one found on Mental Stab in GURPS Psionic Powers).
Limited by Margin (Varies)

Your advantage does not always take effect at full
power; it depends on your margin of success (or margin of
victory, for a resisted ability). Its value is -5% times the
required margin of success (minimum 2, maximum 10) for
full power; lesser margins give you proportionately less
power.

In other words, for -10%, your ability works at full
strength if you succeed by 2+, or half strength if you succeed
by 0 or 1. For -15%, you have full power with a margin
of 3+, 2/3 power with a margin of 2, and 1/3 power with
a margin of 0 or 1. For -35%, you have full effect if you succeed
by 7+, 6/7 if by 6, 5/7 if by 5, and so on, down to 1/7
for a margin of 0 or 1. Obviously, this limitation is far simpler
in play if you match the required margin of success to
the level (or an exact fraction of the level) of the advantage.

Example: Zzap has Burning Attack 12d (Limited by
Margin 6, -30%) [42]. If he shoots someone, his laser does
2d burning damage for every point by which he makes his
attack roll, to a maximum of 12d (with a margin of success
of 6 or more). His opponent’s defense roll doesn’t
affect this.

He later wants to buy the limitation down to Limited by
Margin 5 (-25%), but the GM threatens to cut off his soda
privileges if he does that, because it doesn’t divide evenly
(and fractional dice are no fun). So he instead earns more
character points and buys it down to Limited by Margin 4
(-20%), and now he does 3d burning damage per point of
success (now hitting his 12d maximum if he succeeds by 4
or more).
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