Challenge: Deliberately Miscost a Trait

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by ErhnamDJ

Yeah. That's another issue with playing robots. I made a combat robot--sank all my points into robot stuff--and then the other players put some points into Wealth and then had powered suits that replicated things that cost me a ton of points. Only for way fewer points.

I'd like a special, setting-dependent Limitation called 'Available as equipment'. Any Advantage or Power that is available for sale in the campaign world costs fewer CPs. The value of the Limitation would depend on the cost relative to starting wealth, the bulk, weight and inconvenience of the item that replicates the ability and on the difficulty of acquiring such items, whether social/legal restrictions, rarity or some other hindrance.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Icelander

I'd like a special, setting-dependent Limitation called 'Available as equipment'.

I used to think that, but eventually came to the conclusion that hotwiring signature gear plus payload and completely ignoring the advantage rules was likely to work better.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Anthony

I used to think that, but eventually came to the conclusion that hotwiring signature gear plus payload and completely ignoring the advantage rules was likely to work better.

What about campaigns where some PCs are cyborgs and others are the bastard children of anthropomorphic gods? The cost of DR and Innate Attacks and all sorts of Advantages would vary widely depending on the source of the power, technological or not.

The utility of the trait ought to be the guide to what it costs, not where it comes from.

[simply Nathan]

Ignoring the majority of Supernatural, Exotic, and Cinematic advantages and focusing mainly on the stuff I actually use:

Charge 10 points for Weapon Master of a single weapon, 25 for all weapons. Leave Magery exactly as-is costwise but remove prerequisites and the requirement to find a teacher. Cut the amount of CP gained from most Disadvantages roughly in half. Cut the cost of ST to 5/level, Striking ST to 2/level, Lifting ST to 2/level, and HP to 1/level. Remove the Size limitation from ST and make No Fine Manipulators a -50% on Striking ST (-20% on general ST, since striking is the ONLY thing affected by it). FP and ER cost 2/level but HT is still the same price.

And yes, I think 5/level for a Talent of "my character niche's 6 main skills" is a fair price.

Maybe I just want a deflation of CP in general...

[ErhnamDJ]

Originally Posted by Kenneth Latrans

Maybe I just want a deflation of CP in general...

I don't think so. It looks like you're leaving debutantes, detectives, Diogenes, and doctors alone. You just want the melee characters and wizards to be better than them than they are now on the same point total.

You could achieve about the same thing by increasing the price of mental and social traits and handing using higher point totals.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by ErhnamDJ

I don't think so. It looks like you're leaving debutantes, detectives, Diogenes, and doctors alone. You just want the melee characters and wizards to be better than them than they are now on the same point total.

You could achieve about the same thing by increasing the price of mental and social traits and handing using higher point totals.

Indeed, part of this may be due to the fact that IQ! is 10 points. RPK's house rules may help you quite a bit.

[ErhnamDJ]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Indeed, part of this may be due to the fact that IQ! is 10 points. RPK's house rules may help you quite a bit.

Okay. Ignore IQ; it's hopeless. But there are other mental and social traits and it was those I was thinking of.

He's still increasing the price of things like Status, Appearance, and Reputation in comparison to other traits. Wealth is already way too expensive at the low end. How's Comfortable Wealth going to look when ST is only five points a level?

Those price changes make people into mercenaries rather than knights. The price of being a knight hasn't changed, but the price of increasing combat ability has. It's gotten a lot cheaper.

Where before, you could either be a mercenary with 100% combat ability or, say, a knight with 75% of the mercenary's combat ability and also a knight, now you can either be a mercenary with 100% combat ability or a knight with 50% combat ability.

How much combat ability is being a knight worth? How much ST is being a multimillionaire worth? Or being Very Handsome?

Or, as I mentioned earlier, having Peripheral Vision?

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Icelander

What about campaigns where some PCs are cyborgs and others are the bastard children of anthropomorphic gods? The cost of DR and Innate Attacks and all sorts of Advantages would vary widely depending on the source of the power, technological or not.

Depends whether you can change special effects. On reflection, Accessory is a better thing to overload.

[Rasputin]

I'd one-up PK: Extended Lifespan is a leveled perk. Longevity is a perk (Resistant (Aging) +3; this also indicates a +8 version for 2 points). Unaging is 5 points (alright, that's PK's pricing too; Immunity (Aging)). Short Lifespan costs -2/level, and Terminally Ill just becomes Short Lifespan 5+ (assume we're starting from Maturity to get the time span before the first "aging" rolls for Terminally Ill). This comes to:

Terminally Ill 1 (2 years; aka Short Lifespan 5): -10 points
Terminally Ill 2 (1 year; aka Short Lifespan 6): -12 points
Terminally Ill 3 (6 months; aka Short Lifespan 7): -14 points

You get the idea. It isn't quite as nasty as Terminally Ill, since you're rolling to see if you stay alive, but then, it isn't as pricey.

[JCurwen3]

On Unusual Background, I never liked and never use the idea of it as a "tax". To me, it's exclusively for the advantage you get from being unusual, and thus surprising to others. For instance, in a game world with very few people with paranormal or supers powers (esp such that the existence of such people is not common knowledge), charging an Unusual Background for having such abilities makes sense. I'd never slap on an Unusual Background on something just because I thought it was "too cheap" though.

As far as repricing, I'd reduce the cost of Leech, and especially the value of the Steal Youth enhancement. That said, I've always hated Leech and would prefer better tools to build it out of things like Healing (Self), Regen, Innate Attack, and Affliction in a cost effective way.

I'd actually increase the cost of several of the cheaper Injury Tolerances, most especially No Blood, but nearly all of them really - if you're using hit locations with wounding multipliers, and / or if you are using the bleeding rules (esp with Martial Arts' added faster bleeding vein and artery locations), these just feel too cheap. Might just be me, but we're considering personal house rules here after all.