Questions about Worm Parahumans' Powers in GURPS

[Nereidalbel]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

I have only your description to go on. "Firing ball bearings" would be a classic TK Bullet.

It's not necessarily the case that any fictional superpower consists of one single GURPS ability. That's one reason Alternative Abilities exist.

With enough ST, sure. Though you probably want Super-Effort in this case to keep the price down. There are some past threads about building bricks that have some some tips and houserules on different ways to build very high ST; some of those might be applicable to TK ST.

I don't think the throwing rules actually mention a velocity. Using the collision rules and taking damage as figure of interest, a ST of 20+17 = 37 would give a Super-Effort damage that's about the same as a 46 HP sedan (B464) at Mach 1 (about 150d crushing).

Using Super Throw instead causes the thrown objects to reach their destination in 1 second or less, regardless of distance. Thus, if your max range with a car is at least the distance sound travels in 1 second, you can throw a car fast enough to nreak the sound barrier.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

I have only your description to go on. "Firing ball bearings" would be a classic TK Bullet.

In that case, I probably misunderstand what "TK Bullet" is. It sounds like a bullet made of telekinetic energy.
Rereading that...I blame sleep deprivation.

With enough ST, sure.

Ballistic lacks general-purpose super-strength, or for that matter the ability to accelerate objects to less-than-bullet-like speeds (except by boring methods, of course). Hence, unless there is an "Only when throwing stuff at supersonic speed" clause, I don't think that would work.

[Nereidalbel]

Originally Posted by GreatWyrmGold

In that case, I probably misunderstand what "TK Bullet" is. It sounds like a bullet made of telekinetic energy.
Rereading that...I blame sleep deprivation.

Happens to all of us. TK Bullet is using your TK to turn random objects into missiles of death.

Originally Posted by GreatWyrmGold

Ballistic lacks general-purpose super-strength, or for that matter the ability to accelerate objects to less-than-bullet-like speeds (except by boring methods, of course). Hence, unless there is an "Only when throwing stuff at supersonic speed" clause, I don't think that would work.

Give it All-Out, and he'll be using it at full strength or not at all.

[GreatWyrmGold]

And now to ignore the character limit so I can ask about more characters.

Butcher
Butcher is kinda like the Dread Pirate Roberts, if he was insane and had the superpowers of a dozen superheroes or -villains. Her/His (bear me out) schtick is that s/he basically takes over the "mind, body, and powers" of her killer. She also gets to keep her old powers.
How would this work? Some kind of permanent, on-death Possession? How could you get superpowers to transfer?

Crawler
Crawler is a big, scary monster, but he didn't start that way. When he triggered, he was a fairly normal (although possibly mentally deranged) human named Ned. As far as names go, it doesn't get more inoffensive than that. Then he triggered, got superpowers, and whenever he was injured he would regenerate...and the injured bits would come back better. Over what I assume was years, Crawler became stronger, tougher (especially against whatever just hurt him), faster, but also bigger, more terrifying, less human.
He would have the highest level of regeneration possible. No ifs, ands, or buts. His healing is noted as being insanely fast even among parahumans, and having most of his brain wiped out of existence stopped him for a few seconds. (Long enough for the brain-wiper-outer to run, but still.) Past that...there can't be any advantage that lets you slowly but permanently gain advantages under X circumstances, regardless of circumstances. Is there something that would let you buy such advantages at any point or something like that?

Imp
Who?
Oh, yeah. Imp is a member of the Undersiders, whose power basically makes people forget that they saw her before they register is. This basically lets her walk past them, unseen, unheard, unsmelled. She can literally slice someone's throat open and stab them in their eye without anyone in the room noticing her, even the person being sliced and stabbed. However, machines and certain sensory powers can still sense her.
...What combination of abilities is this? Sightless, soundless, smelless, etc etc?

Siberian
Siberian is a member of the Slaughterhouse Nine, and easily in the top 10 parahumans in the world. Her power is basically a combination of unstoppable force and immovable object; nothing damages or even slows her if she doesn't want to be slowed, save at least one other "immovable object". She can walk straight through concrete walls, hop on (crashed, unspinning) helicopter propellers without even moving them, swing trucks around like unusually baseball bats...Heck, Siberian even hurt Scion! Many of these feats rely on a secondary aspect of her power, which lets her transfer it to anything or -one she touches.
How could this power be represented without resorting to ad hoc plot devices? If we had to do the latter, how much damage should something like a gouge with her fingernails do?

Tattletale
A member of the Undersiders, Tattletale's power can be succinctly described as "super-intuition". Her power fills in gaps in her knowledge, letting her learn things she shouldn't know, from passwords on peoples' smartphones to group dynamics among the Protectorate.
What advantage would fit this?

[The Benj]

Butcher is just a form of Possession, plus having an unlimited number of points to spend on buying the new form plus keeping the power he/she already had. The powers don't change and are permanently acquired, so Modular Ability's out.
Yes, it's a broken power. Yes, it effectively costs an infinite amount.

Crawler has the highest level of Regen, plus Regrowth, plus Unkillable 2.
He spends character points on appropriate defenses after being harmed by them. That's it.

Imp has Invisibility, Silence and a smell equivalent (may as well price it off Silence, but always use the stationary bonus), all with Glamour.

Siberian mostly sounds like a ridiculous amount of ST & DR. *shrug*

Tattletale, I'm not sure about. Cosmic, Inspired Intuition, maybe?

[spacemonkey]

Originally Posted by The Benj

Tattletale, I'm not sure about. Cosmic, Inspired Intuition, maybe?

She can guess 4 digit alphanumeric passwords, in gurps terms thats something like a penalty of 1.6 million on the intuition roll, so she needs super luck (active, intuition only) as well. I can't see cosmic/inspired removing the open ended penalty, but I could be wrong.

I'd say she had max psychic hunches or pattern analysis, except her power never seems to lead to the safest result, her plans often lead to an unexpected ambush or miss key threats. That's probably because she's on the main protagonist's team though, it would be a short, boring book if skitter always won with no risk because the team had a universal cheat sheet for every encounter.

[The Benj]

Originally Posted by spacemonkey

She can guess 4 digit alphanumeric passwords, in gurps terms thats something like a penalty of 1.6 million on the intuition roll, so she needs super luck (active, intuition only) as well. I can't see cosmic/inspired removing the open ended penalty, but I could be wrong.

I'd say she had max psychic hunches or pattern analysis, except her power never seems to lead to the safest result, her plans often lead to an unexpected ambush or miss key threats. That's probably because she's on the main protagonist's team though, it would be a short, boring book if skitter always won with no risk because the team had a universal cheat sheet for every encounter.

Super Luck's probably not the way to go. You're better off with Cosmic: No Die Roll Required and Inspired, as that will produce a Crit Success every time, if a 3 would be a success. It's that last caveat that's the hitch.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by GreatWyrmGold

Butcher is kinda like the Dread Pirate Roberts, if he was insane and had the superpowers of a dozen superheroes or -villains. Her/His (bear me out) schtick is that s/he basically takes over the "mind, body, and powers" of her killer. She also gets to keep her old powers.
How would this work? Some kind of permanent, on-death Possession? How could you get superpowers to transfer?

Butcher has modular abilities to copy the powers of previous hosts of his passenger.

Crawler
Crawler is a big, scary monster, but he didn't start that way. When he triggered, he was a fairly normal (although possibly mentally deranged) human named Ned. As far as names go, it doesn't get more inoffensive than that. Then he triggered, got superpowers, and whenever he was injured he would regenerate...and the injured bits would come back better. Over what I assume was years, Crawler became stronger, tougher (especially against whatever just hurt him), faster, but also bigger, more terrifying, less human.
He would have the highest level of regeneration possible. No ifs, ands, or buts. His healing is noted as being insanely fast even among parahumans, and having most of his brain wiped out of existence stopped him for a few seconds. (Long enough for the brain-wiper-outer to run, but still.) Past that...there can't be any advantage that lets you slowly but permanently gain advantages under X circumstances, regardless of circumstances. Is there something that would let you buy such advantages at any point or something like that?

Yes. Give him lots and lots of experience points. C'mon, he's a total NPC so it's fine if he grows fast.

Imp
Who?
Oh, yeah. Imp is a member of the Undersiders, whose power basically makes people forget that they saw her before they register is. This basically lets her walk past them, unseen, unheard, unsmelled. She can literally slice someone's throat open and stab them in their eye without anyone in the room noticing her, even the person being sliced and stabbed. However, machines and certain sensory powers can still sense her.
...What combination of abilities is this? Sightless, soundless, smelless, etc etc?

Actually it's best to represent powers as what they are. Her's is a limited area effect mind control.

Siberian
Siberian is a member of the Slaughterhouse Nine, and easily in the top 10 parahumans in the world. Her power is basically a combination of unstoppable force and immovable object; nothing damages or even slows her if she doesn't want to be slowed, save at least one other "immovable object". She can walk straight through concrete walls, hop on (crashed, unspinning) helicopter propellers without even moving them, swing trucks around like unusually baseball bats...Heck, Siberian even hurt Scion! Many of these feats rely on a secondary aspect of her power, which lets her transfer it to anything or -one she touches.
How could this power be represented without resorting to ad hoc plot devices? If we had to do the latter, how much damage should something like a gouge with her fingernails do?

Siberian is a heaping helping of visible telekinesis and remote sensing.

Tattletale
A member of the Undersiders, Tattletale's power can be succinctly described as "super-intuition". Her power fills in gaps in her knowledge, letting her learn things she shouldn't know, from passwords on peoples' smartphones to group dynamics among the Protectorate.
What advantage would fit this?[

Mind Reading with the Sensory limitation and a Psychology skill up around 40.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Originally Posted by The Benj

Butcher is just a form of Possession, plus having an unlimited number of points to spend on buying the new form plus keeping the power he/she already had. The powers don't change and are permanently acquired, so Modular Ability's out.
Yes, it's a broken power. Yes, it effectively costs an infinite amount.

And at that point, there isn't any point in coming up with a GURPS equivalent, because it needs to run off of GM fiat anyways.

He spends character points on appropriate defenses after being harmed by them. That's it.

Can anyone do that? No.
It strikes me that, somewhere, there is an advantage that lets you take more exotic traits or whatnot after character creation, but I don't have any ide what that would be.

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Butcher has modular abilities to copy the powers of previous hosts of his passenger.

It doesn't really fit, though. Butcher seems fully capable of using all of her previous hosts' powers at once.
It's the best solution so far that does not rely on GM fiat.

Yes. Give him lots and lots of experience points. C'mon, he's a total NPC so it's fine if he grows fast.

As noted above, I don't like solutions that rely on GM fiat, because well...you can just save yourself the trouble and fiat the whole thing.

Actually it's best to represent powers as what they are. Her's is a limited area effect mind control.

Any idea what the appropriately-priced limitations would be?

Spoiler:  

Siberian is a heaping helping of visible telekinesis and remote sensing.

That is kinda a spoiler. Not a huge one, but it's a big thing when it comes up.

Originally Posted by spacemonkey

She can guess 4 digit alphanumeric passwords, in gurps terms thats something like a penalty of 1.6 million on the intuition roll, so she needs super luck (active, intuition only) as well. I can't see cosmic/inspired removing the open ended penalty, but I could be wrong.

I'd say she had max psychic hunches or pattern analysis, except her power never seems to lead to the safest result, her plans often lead to an unexpected ambush or miss key threats. That's probably because she's on the main protagonist's team though, it would be a short, boring book if skitter always won with no risk because the team had a universal cheat sheet for every encounter.

Four-digit numeric, actually.
And she notes that her failures are due to not having sufficient information.

[The Benj]

Originally Posted by GreatWyrmGold

And at that point, there isn't any point in coming up with a GURPS equivalent, because it needs to run off of GM fiat anyways.

That's right.

Can anyone do that? No.
It strikes me that, somewhere, there is an advantage that lets you take more exotic traits or whatnot after character creation, but I don't have any ide what that would be.

Not anyone can buy such abilities at all. Functionally, what's happening here is that the character's player (if they had one) is only opting to spend points once they've been hurt.
You could make a case for an Advantage that means you can spend points in the middle of a session in reaction to being harmed, but that's as far as it needs to go, I think.
Just being able to take more exotic traits after character gen is simply an issue of negotiation with your GM; not an Advantage.