Channeling Energy in GURPS POWERS

[Anaraxes]

You can use Healing (powered by your ER) to heal FP, or in this case ER, of your target at a 1:1 ratio. See the uFAQ. Reducing the ratio would then be an additional Limitation. Per Kromm's comment, "FP Only" for Healing can take the 0% Limitation from Regeneration.

In general, swapping FP effects to ER effects seems to be a 0% Feature. Though you could argue that everyone has FP while in many settings, not everyone has ER, so an ER-only version might be cheaper.

You could also use Leech to pull energy from someone else's ER, just as you would FP.

[hal]

Hi Guys,
Thus far, the pointers to the faq and the blog (thanks!) is a step in the right direction. The problem is that this level of transfer is seemingly limited to replacing lost Energy Reserve, not necessarily granting the target the ability to use the lent energy over and above their normal capabilities.

See, what is also lacking in GURPS POWERS, is a form of "limiter" that I'm trying to emulate from another game system. For instance, a single character might have an energy reserve of 24 points, but is limited to using only 1 point at any given moment due to their inherent limitation of channeling strength.

Another character with a channeling limit of 5, might be able to draw on their energy reserves at a rate of 5 per turn. They'll run out faster - but they'll also be able to do MORE things because they have access to more energy.

If you had five people with Energy Channeling 5 (for example), they could lend a total of 20 energy to one individual, who can access five energy of his own, and thereby do something that costs 25 energy to produce. If you only had 25 people, each with an Energy Channeling ability of 1 - they could do the same thing that the first FIVE could do, but would require 25 people to do instead of 5.

I'm hoping that this helps explain it better. This Power Channeling ability not only allows one to channel energy to others, but allows them to use the extra energy instead of being "healed" of previous energy drain.

That's where I'm looking at the GURPS POWERS rules and thinking to myself "This is really not directly translatable!". I could easily enough just "eyeball" this and say "it costs 10 points per level of power transfer/channeling" and simply let it go at that. As long as the cost is the same for the NPC's and other players across the board, it won't really matter THAT much. It is just an exercise in trying to translate another game system into GURPS - and failing. :(

(ie, Hal failing, not necessarily the rules failing to make it possible).

[Anaraxes]

So, you want a Limitation that imposes a restriction of how many points you can spend out of your ER per turn. (Or other time unit, perhaps; the fact that you can only take one Maneuver per turn limits you to using one ability at a time anyway.)

The GURPS ER is really a buffer that lets you burst activity. Long-term rate of ER usage is equal to the rate at which the ER recharges. So, one way to build in a rate is simply to use a small ER, but have fast Regeneration. Using an ability drains the ER; the Regen builds it back up at the end of the turn.

The size of the ER pool in the other game (if I understand correctly) is then the total amount of energy you can spend in one combat, scene, etc. (There's probably some relatively slow recharge time that resets the ER pool mechanic.) If you want to simulate this kind of maximum combat endurance, you might put Maximum Duration or Limited Use on the Regeneration. If you can only Regen for 5 seconds before losing the ability to Regen, then you can draw from your small ER for only five seconds before it runs dry.

You could, of course, just invent a brand new Limitation and define the way that it works.

[Refplace]

For the cap on how much you can spend per turn I would go with a limitation and mitigator for it that lets you work around it with others help.
Given how slow it recharges I probably would call it a very minor limitation or Feature but it would depend on setting and builds.
Others could then buy Healing or Affliction with a limitation that the energy had to be used immediately.
Dedicated Controls would be much cheaper though and you could still limit how much you can draw at once from a single source.
I had another idea that I sent into Pyramid but cant talk about it since it may eventually get published.

[sir_pudding]

A limit (probably equal to Talent) on ER spends seems like a power specific limiting option, and would just be a feature of the power modifier.

[hal]

Originally Posted by Refplace

For the cap on how much you can spend per turn I would go with a limitation and mitigator for it that lets you work around it with others help.
Given how slow it recharges I probably would call it a very minor limitation or Feature but it would depend on setting and builds.
Others could then buy Healing or Affliction with a limitation that the energy had to be used immediately.
Dedicated Controls would be much cheaper though and you could still limit how much you can draw at once from a single source.
I had another idea that I sent into Pyramid but cant talk about it since it may eventually get published.

What this "ability" does in another game system is largely, it seems, a combination of the following:

Manipulate Energy Reserves of a given name

Channel its use for either the owner of the Energy Reserve, or allows him to channel it to someone else.

Allows the channeler to temporarily raise a target's reserve attribute (very temporarily!) if they're already fully topped off with their energy reserve

That's largely the bulk of this power's attribute description. Recharge rates is not a function of the "channeler's attribute" so much as a function of how energy reserves recharge.

Linking the limit to a "talent" is one way to go it seems, but the flip side is, this talent would not be limited to a max of 4, and it wouldn't add to any skill rolls. So - it would almost need its own "newly created disadvantage or advantage" than anything else.

I'm almost of a mind to think that GURPS can't emulate something from another game system using its GURPS POWERS build - largely because of this "channeling" ability is not something in the original tool kit. It can of course, be created by fiat, or perhaps added to it in a later GURPS Publication, but for now, it can't be built with strictly GURPS Rules as written. :(

[Christopher R. Rice]

Can you post the ability you are trying to emulate please?

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by hal

Linking the limit to a "talent" is one way to go it seems, but the flip side is, this talent would not be limited to a max of 4, and it wouldn't add to any skill rolls. So - it would almost need its own "newly created disadvantage or advantage" than anything else.

The only reason why I suggested this is because it is generally good practice to incorporate power talent in beneficial and limiting options. It isn't a requirement.

I'm almost of a mind to think that GURPS can't emulate something from another game system using its GURPS POWERS build - largely because of this "channeling" ability is not something in the original tool kit. It can of course, be created by fiat, or perhaps added to it in a later GURPS Publication, but for now, it can't be built with strictly GURPS Rules as written. :(

Literally mimicking the game mechanics of other systems without reference to the in-setting description of the ability rarely works well, that said there's nothing you have said here that GURPS can't do although some of your description is vague (what does "manipulate" mean here, for example?).

[Kelly Pedersen]

For allowing someone to "overflow" their normal FP with this, I'd build that as an Affliction Linked to the Healing, afflicting them with Energy Reserve with the "Special Recharge" limitation, specifying that it can only be "charged" by energy provided by the Healing. That's about +9% per level of ER you're adding, so it's actually not too expensive as an enhancement on Affliction.

[Anaraxes]

Different characters have different spending rates, so it can't really be part of the PM. PMs don't vary per character, but per power. And thus the spend-rate-cap needs a value, so different characters get charged differently for their differing abilities. Can't really fold it into a free campaign modifier unless the group is willing to tolerate it being a little unfair.