[Powers] Elsa's ice powers in GURPS

[phayman53]

Yes, I am asking how GURPS would model the powers of a Disney princess (or, actually, a Disney queen).

Social distancing has us at home and we just watched Frozen 2 again with my daughters. I'm not so great at building powers, but watching made me wonder how one would build Elsa's fairly prestigious ice powers. Anyone want to take a stab at it? Bonus points for two sets, her powers in Frozen and her 'leveled up' powers in Frozen 2. :-)

[Phantasm]

I've only seen the first one so far....


I would start with Create Snow/Ice and Control Snow/Ice, and then work in Telekinesis (Specific: Snow/Ice). Create definitely has Super-Effort on it!

Her "Snowmen" - such as Olaf - are independent and for all intents and purposes "alive", and she can create them at will almost effortlessly. (And if the short with her having the flu is any indication, she creates them accidentally with a sneeze!) They're not exactly Allies, but neither are they Dependents nor do they classify as Enemies. They're just ... there! I have no clue where to start!


Edit: And we cannot forget Temperature Tolerance. "The cold never bothered me anyway."

[Icelander]

I've only seen Frozen, not Frozen 2, but 'leveled up'?

In Frozen, Elsa was a goddess of infinite power who could do anything she could imagine, as long as it could be argued to involve cold, frost or ice in some way. How do you level that kind of power up?

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Icelander

I've only seen Frozen, not Frozen 2, but 'leveled up'?

In Frozen, Elsa was a goddess of infinite power who could do anything she could imagine, as long as it could be argued to involve cold, frost or ice in some way. How do you level that kind of power up?

Ultrapower would be what I'd use.

[awesomenessofme1]

I'd probably go with the approach they used on the Film Reroll podcast and just give the character a large amount of Cosmic Modular Abilities. Probably Modular Abilities (Cosmic; Physical, +50%; Focus-Limited (Ice), -10%; Elemental, -10%) [13/level] (or [14/level] if you think the limitations are redundant). Not sure how that compares to Ultrapower as I've never used Ultrapower in a game or a character I've made for fun.

[phayman53]

Originally Posted by Icelander

I've only seen Frozen, not Frozen 2, but 'leveled up'?

In Frozen, Elsa was a goddess of infinite power who could do anything she could imagine, as long as it could be argued to involve cold, frost or ice in some way. How do you level that kind of power up?

Hmm, maybe not leveled up in the sense of raw power, but definitely in control and finding other applications of her power set that are not immediately obvious.

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by Phantasm

Her "Snowmen" - such as Olaf - are independent and for all intents and purposes "alive", and she can create them at will almost effortlessly. (And if the short with her having the flu is any indication, she creates them accidentally with a sneeze!) They're not exactly Allies, but neither are they Dependents nor do they classify as Enemies. They're just ... there! I have no clue where to start!

Take this with a grain of salt, but I'd call it a feature. Unlike Infectious Attack say, they aren't mad at her to begin with. It could be used as an excuse to buy Allies. It could be used as a reason to have Dependents or a large sense of duty. It could be used to take Enemies as a rogue's gallery (See Supers). It's a big piece of fluff the GM can hang anything on, but it doesn't necessarily do anything for the character so the character shouldn't get or pay anything for it.

[phayman53]

Originally Posted by awesomenessofme1

I'd probably go with the approach they used on the Film Reroll podcast and just give the character a large amount of Cosmic Modular Abilities. Probably Modular Abilities (Cosmic; Physical, +50%; Focus-Limited (Ice), -10%; Elemental, -10%) [13/level] (or [14/level] if you think the limitations are redundant). Not sure how that compares to Ultrapower as I've never used Ultrapower in a game or a character I've made for fun.

This is probably the best way to put it in a character sheet, given the flexibility of her powers set, but you still need to model the individual abilities to know the point costs and her limitations.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by phayman53

Yes, I am asking how GURPS would model the powers of a Disney princess (or, actually, a Disney queen).

Social distancing has us at home and we just watched Frozen 2 again with my daughters. I'm not so great at building powers, but watching made me wonder how one would build Elsa's fairly prestigious ice powers. Anyone want to take a stab at it? Bonus points for two sets, her powers in Frozen and her 'leveled up' powers in Frozen 2. :-)

I like Phantasm's idea of using a powers/sorcery approach.

A cursory search of the first film's transcript gives some precedent for using the Mana-Sensitive (Magical source) modifier:

"Ice has a magic can't be controlled."
"Do the magic! Do the magic!"
"I recommend we remove all magic, even memories of magic to be safe."
"Snow, it had to be snow, She couldn't have had tropical magic that covered the fjords in white sand and warm... Fire!"

The neat thing about the Magical power modifier is it gives you near-unlimited powers when utilizing Extra Effort in a Very High Mana or Wild Mana setting.

P178 "FP Cost and Source".

Wild Mana better fits her (could have the Wild Mana Generator advantage in Thaumatology) due to the lack of control she has over her abilities.

T59 defines this as even better than Very High because you don't have to spend the FP and wait 1 second to get it returned to you, successful spells just cost 0 upfront as if it were a critical success.

So even if you had something like a Crushing Attack 2 (Requires IQ roll, Magical -10%) [4] you could gamble 100 FP on Godlike Extra Effort but if your roll fails you'll probably die from the HP loss, much like magic.

That influence of Wild Mana should probably only apply if you have some kind of success roll though, since all spells do. The benefit of no FP expenditure on a crit success is offset by the drawback of the terrifying magic crit tables on failures.

I can't recall if sorcery every dealt with the "only costs 1 FP on a non-crit failure except for info spells".

Presumably the 1 FP to cancel would fall under taking Cancellation Costs Fatigue +9% as a limited enhancement for Affliction.