Minor League Supers [Powers/Supers]

[Aldric]

I never got the joke on the name anyway.

But I did get what you wanted to achieve.

But I still think zombie Sol ends up with all the advantages and disadvantages human Sol has that are not part of a basic human template.

And that unhealing with regeneration still strikes me as odd, but I'm guessing some of the books I don't have access to atm relaxed the Basic rule.

[Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2]

Originally Posted by Aldric

I never got the joke on the name anyway.

But I did get what you wanted to achieve.

But I still think zombie Sol ends up with all the advantages and disadvantages human Sol has that are not part of a basic human template.

That's what I was aiming for. Sol has a "super-power" that provides almost no net benefit at all.

Any dolt can get use out of flying or throwing cars or eye-beams. To get any benefit out of Sol's abilities, it will require brains on the part of the player.

Incidentally, AlexanderHowl suggested a better way to writ up the Alternate Form advantage for Sol, requiring a re-wrtie. I took advantage of this to get rid of the extra powers I was forced to pad him with to get him up to 250 points, and decided I liked the talents I had added. This brought the write-up to 100 points, way below the 250 point limit this thread requires, but I think it fulfils the purpose of the thread by providing a low-powered and interesting super.


====================================

Solomon Ulrich Perman, Age 16
100 points

Attributes: ST 8 [-20]; DX 9 [-20]; IQ 11 [20]; HT 10 [0].
Damage 1d-3/1d-2; BL 13 lbs.; HP 8 [0]
Will 12 [5]; Per 12 [5]; FP 10 [0]; Basic Speed 4.75; Basic Move 4

Advantages: Pitiable [5]
Talent/Craftiness 2 [10]
Talent/Occultist 2 [20]

Magic Advantages: Alternate Form (Rotten Zombie; Once On, Always On, +50%; Non-Reciprocal Damage, +50%; Reciprocal Rest +30%; Reduced Time 3, +60%; Reflexive, +40%) [50]
Dark Vision [25]
Detect Undead [10]
Regeneration (Regular: Only in Alternate Form -10%) [23]
Regrowth (Only in Alternate Form -10%) [36]
See Invisible [15]

Perks: Honest Face [1]

Disadvantages: Bad Sight (Correctable) [-10]
Combat Paralysis [-15]
Panic Attack (Severe) [-10]
Secret Identity (May be killed) [-20]
Skinny [-5]
Social Stigma (Minor) [-5]
Squeamish (12 or less) [-20]
Weirdness Magnet [-15]

Quirks: Cyclothymic; Imaginative; Nosy

Skills: Artist (Drawing) (H) IQ [4]-11
Area Knowledge (Neighborhood) (E) IQ [1]-11
Bicycling (E) DX+1 [2]-10
Camouflage (E) IQ [1]-13 *
Current Affairs (Nerd Culture) (E) IQ+1 [2]-12
Exorcism (H) Will-1 [2]-11 [extra -4 when working]
Games (MMORPG) (E) IQ [1]-11
Hidden Lore (Necromantic) (A) IQ-1 [1]-12 *
Hobby Skill (Popular Fantasy) (E) IQ [1]-12
Holdout (A) IQ-1 [1]-12 *
Literature (H) IQ-1 [1]-11 *
Occultism (A) IQ-1 [1]-12 *
Research (A) IQ [2]-13 *
Search (A) Per-1 [1]-11
Shadowing (A) IQ-1 [1]-12 *
Stealth (A) DX+2 [8]-13 *

* = +2 to Skill from Talent
==================================================
Alternate Form Template: Rotten Zombie
-12 points

Advantages: Doesn’t Breathe [20]
Doesn’t Eat or Drink [10]
Doesn’t Sleep [20]
Indomitable [15]
Injury Tolerance (No Blood, Unliving) [25]
Regeneration (Regular: Only in Alternate Form -10%) [23]
Regrowth (Only in Alternate Form -10%) [36]
Temperature Tolerance 10 [10]
Unaging [15]

Disadvantages: Appearance (Monstrous; Universal, +25%) [-25]
Bad Smell [-10]
Dyslexia [-10]
Fragile (Unnatural) [-50]
Innumerate [-5]
Killjoy [-15]
Non-Iconographic [-10]
Numb [-20]
Social Stigma (Monster) [-20]
Unhealing (Only in Zombie Form) [-20]

Quirks: Sexless [-1]

[AlexanderHowl]

That is an illegal combination, if I remember correctly, unless the Regeneration is activated by the trigger of Unhealing, with the same applying to Regrowth. Since the healing part of Non-Reciprocal damage is dependant on that form's template, the Unhealing of that form trumps the base Regeneration and Regrowth of the character. In effect, those are illegal abilities.

Conversely, you could get rid of Non-Reciprocal Damage and have Only while in Human Form (-10%) Regeneration, which would be legal, as it would kick in while human. I would honestly replace Regrowth with Injury Tolerance (Unbreakable Bones) [10] and Regrowth (Eyes Only, -90%; Only While in Human Form, -10%) [8] because it would give almost the same functionality for less than half the price, as well as making your limbs have superior durability. So, you would save around 25 CP by making a legal and efficient form of the character.

In addition, the zombie template does not pay for the abilities that the character has already purchase (no duplication) and should not possess any ability that would be useless (such as Unaging). There are zombie templates in GURPS Zombies that would be good to build off of, increasing one of them to 0 CP would result in a super zombie.

[Aldric]

Maybe there is something I don't get about this Alternate Form thing.

I was under the impression you had to replace your base racial template with the new one. Everything else stays the same.
The Alternate Form ability itself is in a Limbo of some kind... it's cost is not included in the basic racial template, so not sure what happens to it.
Disregarding that for a second, your Zombie Sol has

Attributes: ST 8 [-20]; DX 9 [-20]; IQ 11 [20]; HT 10 [0].
Damage 1d-3/1d-2; BL 13 lbs.; HP 8 [0]
Will 12 [5]; Per 12 [5]; FP 10 [0]; Basic Speed 4.75; Basic Move 4

Advantages: Pitiable [5]
Talent/Craftiness 2 [10]
Talent/Occultist 2 [20]

Magical Advantages
(As I said, not sure what happens to the Alternate form ability itself)
Dark Vision [25]
Detect Undead [10]
Regeneration (Regular: Only in Alternate Form -10%) [23]
Regrowth (Only in Alternate Form -10%) [36]
See Invisible [15]

Perks: Honest Face [1]

Disadvantages: Bad Sight (Correctable) [-10]
Combat Paralysis [-15]
Panic Attack (Severe) [-10]
Secret Identity (May be killed) [-20]
Skinny [-5]
Social Stigma (Minor) [-5]
Squeamish (12 or less) [-20]
Weirdness Magnet [-15]

Quirks: Cyclothymic; Imaginative; Nosy

Skills: Artist (Drawing) (H) IQ [4]-11
Area Knowledge (Neighborhood) (E) IQ [1]-11
Bicycling (E) DX+1 [2]-10
Camouflage (E) IQ [1]-13 *
Current Affairs (Nerd Culture) (E) IQ+1 [2]-12
Exorcism (H) Will-1 [2]-11 [extra -4 when working]
Games (MMORPG) (E) IQ [1]-11
Hidden Lore (Necromantic) (A) IQ-1 [1]-12 *
Hobby Skill (Popular Fantasy) (E) IQ [1]-12
Holdout (A) IQ-1 [1]-12 *
Literature (H) IQ-1 [1]-11 *
Occultism (A) IQ-1 [1]-12 *
Research (A) IQ [2]-13 *
Search (A) Per-1 [1]-11
Shadowing (A) IQ-1 [1]-12 *
Stealth (A) DX+2 [8]-13 *

Plus all these

Advantages: Doesn’t Breathe [20]
Doesn’t Eat or Drink [10]
Doesn’t Sleep [20]
Indomitable [15]
Injury Tolerance (No Blood, Unliving) [25]
Regeneration (Regular: Only in Alternate Form -10%) [23]
Regrowth (Only in Alternate Form -10%) [36]
Temperature Tolerance 10 [10]
Unaging [15]

Disadvantages: Appearance (Monstrous; Universal, +25%) [-25]
Bad Smell [-10]
Dyslexia [-10]
Fragile (Unnatural) [-50]
Innumerate [-5]
Killjoy [-15]
Non-Iconographic [-10]
Numb [-20]
Social Stigma (Monster) [-20]
Unhealing (Only in Zombie Form) [-20]

Quirks: Sexless [-1]


Other question that just came up.
How come some advantages are listed as Magical ? If that's some kind of source, wouldn't they have the -10% ?

[AlexanderHowl]

Well, the racial template provided by Alternate Form replaces your base racial template. Since humans have a 0 CP racial template, they generally just acquire the template provided by Alternate Form. The question becomes what is the zombie template that is being used and what is the utility given to the charcater?

For example, you cannot combine Regeneration and Regrowth with Unhealing, they are generally mutually exclusive traits. You could have Unhealing (Partial; Except when heating human flesh) [-20], Regeneration (Fast; Trigger, only while eating human flesh, -30%) [35] and Regrowth (Trigger, only while eating human flesh, -30%) [28], as the triggers for the advantages activate during the exemption for Unhealing. Doesn't Sleep, Doesn't Eat or Drink, and Unaging are really not useful though for the zombie form, as the human form still needs sleep, food, drink, and still ages, so they are wasted points.

A better version would have the base character with the 'dead' advantages: Doesn't Breathe, Doesn't Eat or Drink, Doesn't Sleep, etc. The Intact Corpse template from Zombies without Fragile (Unnatural) would be worth 90 CP. The Alternate Form could instead allow the 'dead' character to transform into an enhanced human form with 90 CP of advantages (Regeneration (Fast) and Regrowth would be appropriate). It would also serve as the perfect disguise for the living dead.

[AlexanderHowl]

The Flying Lemur

The Flying Lemur is a powered thief who transforms into a flying lemur in order to enter into places where no human thief could enter. In addition to her ability to transform into a flying lemur, she is also a quite capable con artist, using her social graces to get into places where her abilities cannot.

[The Benj]

From a dream I had:
When Daren's (not Darren; pronounced like "daring", without the g) great aunt leaves her his house in her will, he discovers a strange, golden variety of marijuana in her greenhouse.
When he smokes it, he transforms into that sky-galloping stallion ... the Palomino Paladin ... High Horse!

Powers include:
Running on air!
Being a horse!
Woke AF!

So yeah, I guess that's an Alternate Form with a Trigger?

[Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

<snip>

I have always had problems with Alternate Form characters. Despite the rich possibilities the concept opens up, I usually get something wrong.

Well, I'll put Sol back on the shelf for a couple of weeks and focus on some other project, clear the old brain.

In the meantime, a concept ...

The Shoplifter is a petty criminal with gimmick. In his case, he can hide impossible amounts of things on his person undetectably. In game terms, that's Payload 100 (Cosmic +50%) [150 points]. Besides that, he's a fairly ordinary small-time crook in his fifties, making a living by stealing and smuggling.

On the rare occasions he participates in a violent crime, he has Kevlar, several guns, and large amounts of ammo (and a snowball's chance in hell of hitting anything, as he can't stop flinching).

[AlexanderHowl]

I am not sure if a guy that can steal 200 pounds of material would be considered a minor threat. For example, he could steal around $2,000 worth of OTC medicines from a pharmacy or $2,000 worth of CDs/DVDs from a big box store per trip. Of course, he could also move 200 pounds of contraband, which could easily have a value of over $1 million.

I would suggest No Signature as well though, to allow him to filch products without detection and to prevent electronic security devices from detecting stolen property, and it would effectively function as an extradimensional pocket when combined with Cosmic. An interesting 500 CP version of him would have him with Lifting ST+40, giving him a BL of 500 lbs, allowing him to move 5,000 pounds of contraband without detection. He could be an undetectable smuggling pipeline for contraband across international borders.

[Aldric]

While I agree that he could be very quickly taken in by organized crime once his abilities are discovered, I have no idea what No Signature can do to help him.
At some point some stuff is there one moment and gone the next, assuming he doesn't have to swallow it or open Wall-E style.