Gurps for High Powered Supers

[Mailanka]

Originally Posted by Blind Mapmaker

For Gadgeteer I don't have a ready-made solution and would indeed be interested in one. There is the problem of either charging too many or too little points. If your Gadgeteer has, say, a battle suit that is only slightly better than what your tech level can provide it seems unfair to make him pay points for all its features. On the other hand, a Gadgeteer who constantly comes up with new stuff (mostly a problem with Quick Gadgeteer or a lot of downtime between adventures) seems too cheap without charging for new gadgets.

You’re a classic comic-book style inventive genius. You can
come up with amazing new devices on the spot with minimal
supplies; you make theoretical breakthroughs as casually as
lesser engineers do arithmetic. Most of your creations are
breadboard rigs that work only as long as the plot requires, but
you also have a collection of durable equipment that you use
for routine adventuring purposes, bought as Signature Gear.

That's how Supers handles it, and how I would handle it. If he comes to the game with a bunch of crazy inventions, he can use them, but only for a few sessions before they fall apart. If he wants to keep them, he needs to buy them as Signature Gear.

If you want to further limit people on how many whacky gadgets they can bring to a session ("I spend ALL MY TIME during downtime building gadgets!!!1"), perhaps this might work:

Gadget Hobbyist: You always use your downtime to invent gadgets. Provided you have had sufficient time to create a gadget and you succeeded at your rolls, you may always acquire one new gadget each session. Unless you purchase this gadget as a piece of Signature Gear, the GM is free to state that it "broke down" or that you "cannibalized it" in between sessions, and thus this perk also represents the maximum number of "free" gadgets you can have during a session. At the GM's discretion, this perk may be purchased multiple times (eg "Gadget Hobbyist 3" would allow you to begin the session with three gadgets).

[B9anders]

Originally Posted by Jon Wake

Now, I love how badass the characters feel at that level. My player's Superman clone (with manic depression) can flip tanks over and rip armored cars in half at Mach 1.2. He feels very rooted in the real world, and that's what I like.

That's terrific roleplaying. With a character like that, I would have succumbed to the rockstar mentality right away.

[Blind Mapmaker]

Originally Posted by Mailanka

That's how Supers handles it, and how I would handle it. If he comes to the game with a bunch of crazy inventions, he can use them, but only for a few sessions before they fall apart. If he wants to keep them, he needs to buy them as Signature Gear.

Interesting, I hadn't seen that. I guess one tiny Fairy in a man-sized "giant" robot will be very glad to hear that. Now I just have to price out things and see how to balance this with RPK's Wealth and Signature Gear rules. And I guess somebody has some mitigator coming up on their reduced ST.

If you want to further limit people on how many whacky gadgets they can bring to a session ("I spend ALL MY TIME during downtime building gadgets!!!1"), perhaps this might work:

Gadget Hobbyist: You always use your downtime to invent gadgets. Provided you have had sufficient time to create a gadget and you succeeded at your rolls, you may always acquire one new gadget each session. Unless you purchase this gadget as a piece of Signature Gear, the GM is free to state that it "broke down" or that you "cannibalized it" in between sessions, and thus this perk also represents the maximum number of "free" gadgets you can have during a session. At the GM's discretion, this perk may be purchased multiple times (eg "Gadget Hobbyist 3" would allow you to begin the session with three gadgets).

I haven't had this problem yet and was merely thinking about what would happen. With two unconventional Gadgeteers in my current campaign it might come up sooner than I think, though. I like your solution. I might be making extra levels of Gadget Hobbyist cost 5 points apiece, though. Otherwise it's not that much of a restriction in high-powered gaming.

[Mailanka]

Originally Posted by Blind Mapmaker

I haven't had this problem yet and was merely thinking about what would happen. With two unconventional Gadgeteers in my current campaign it might come up sooner than I think, though. I like your solution. I might be making extra levels of Gadget Hobbyist cost 5 points apiece, though. Otherwise it's not that much of a restriction in high-powered gaming.

Well, it shouldn't be much of a limitation. Gadgeteers make things. That's what they do. You'd expect them to have all kinds of crazy items after awhile. This perk forces them to pay points for what was free before, and most GURPS books suggest that you tightly control perks. That's what this allows: "You can have Gadget Hobbyist 3, no more." And then they spend 3 points, and you know they'll have no more than three whacky gadgets built during downtime.

Charging them 15 points for what is generally free is probably too much. Charging 3 isn't so bad, and it highlights to the players what their limitations are. At the same time, it gives them a little side-benefit as well: They don't actually have to say "I'm building gadgets during my downtime." Because they have the perk, you always assume they are.

(and note that this isn't gizmo (which IS five points). You can't use this perk in the middle of a session to say "Oh, I had a force rifle the whole time." No, this is basically "Standard Operating Procedure: Always invents stuff when time is available.")

[Blind Mapmaker]

I guess you're right. I didn't think of the SOP angle and was mainly worried about me as the GM having to come up with the game stats for all this stuff. I'd be fine with "Pay-a-point-and-give-me-your-ideas-with-stats-beforehand-to-vet" ^^

Anyway, I think I'm threadjacking.

[vitruvian]

Originally Posted by Blind Mapmaker

I guess you're right. I didn't think of the SOP angle and was mainly worried about me as the GM having to come up with the game stats for all this stuff. I'd be fine with "Pay-a-point-and-give-me-your-ideas-with-stats-beforehand-to-vet" ^^

Anyway, I think I'm threadjacking.

Well, as for coming up with game stats for things, that's still what Ultra-Tech is for. If what the Gadgeteer is shooting for isn't exactly like an item from the book, it can probably be adapted from one. Assign a few random flaws or quirks unless they get a critical success for higher TL or superscience items, since after all these are prototypes. Another good source is Magic, for magic items - if somebody wants to invent something that's basically the technological equivalent of one of these, you can use the listing to eyeball the cost, assign a relatively arbitrary TL, and go from there. I've done that for Gadgeteered upload and mind exchange thrones, on the basis of Soul Jar and Exchange Bodies magic items.

And don't forget about the costs for gadgeteering! Make the characters pay for a good high Wealth value, and possibly some Independent Income as well. After all, even if they have Quick Gadgeteer and can get by with scrounging sometimes, their inventive genius will probably result in something mass producible and marketable sooner or later, and then they'll need to buy the Wealth level up anyway...