Super Strength Alternative?

[AlexanderHowl]

One possible solution would be to charge the standard price for ST but to change the Extra Effort rules concerning ST. During Extra Effort, characters would ignore the impact of low HP/low FP on ST, would modify the level of ST (which woukd modify damage and basic lift) rather than the products of ST with Extra Effort, and would gain a +1/-1 on their Extra Effort roll for every level of ST above/below 10. So, a ST 20 and Will 12 character using Extra Effort to temporarily increase their ST could receive a +1 ST per -1 to Will, and would have a 75% chance of increasing their ST to 30 with Extra Effort.

In the case of Lifting Skill, Lifting Skill would increase Lifting ST (and HT to avoid lifting injuries) by one per 4 CP spent, which would modify Extra Effort. So if the previous character possessed HT 12 and Lifting-20, they would have an effective Lifting ST of 28. During Extra Effort, they could increase their Lifting ST by up to 80%, to Lifting ST 50, and still have a 75% chance of success. The character could lift 4,000 lbs off the ground with Extra Effort. By comparison, Paul Anderson backlifted over 6,000 lbs, so this would represent the maximum capabilities of people like him.

[naloth]

Originally Posted by Infornific

ST doesn't really work one the same scale as Afflictions or mind control. Yes, you can mind control the crew of a tank (or a Death Star) but the same thing applies to Influence skills. I'd also note that you can but Immunity to Psionics for a mere 30 points. You could also just as easily argue that a mind controller isn't that powerful because anyone could just sneak up and bash him.

ST is paid for with the same points as Mind Control, so uses the same accounting system. As for "value", you can weigh the benefits of what you get a number of ways, but really there's not question that going from 50->51 isn't worth the same as going from 10->11. Over ST40ish you're paying 100 points for +1d damage (base, it might be worth as much as 1d+2!) compared to IA's cost of 4-10 per die. You're not getting much lift capacity and it's unlikely that you'll be able to change your encumbrance level.

I personally don't care for KYOS because to make it work properly you need to rework damage and damage resistance to reflect that you can meaningfully have negative ST among other problems. You'll wind up with something like the damage system from the Fudge rpg which isn't wrong but is pretty far afield.

Negative ST has *never* come up in 5 years, and never has any reason to. Yes, it's you could possibly allow and use such a value, but why even concern yourself with it? It's like a mythical 1000 point disadvantage - sure it's legal, but you probably wouldn't ever assess it.

As for reworking damage and DR, I've found you only need to do so on equipment. Advantages balance fairly well as is.

You do need to keep in mind that everything is logarithmic and adjust stacking and cover accordingly, but I can generally explain that to even new players with a crib sheet of 5 examples that I keep handy.