[Magic -> Powers] How to build the Time Out spell?

[vicky_molokh]

Greetings, all!

The title says it all. Powers doesn't seem capable of building a Magic effect (Time Out). Or is it? Does someone have a way of building such an ability?

Thanks in advance to all who answer!

[Dwarf99]

I suppose that you could use the Time Stasis modifier for afflictions applying an area, extending the time and adding a cosmic modifier that the time stasis effects the area outside the aoe

[Extrarius]

IDHMBWM, but if I'm remebering the spell correctly, it's practically an absolute effect, which means Powers doesn't deal with it. You could have an insanely priced version of the spell by making an affliction (with "Fixed Duration: 3 Min +0%") give way too many levels of ATR (limited with can't leave radius, etc), but it'd come out to cost way too many points for PCs.

[NorthSaber]

I'm thinking that it would have the Cosmic enhancement for something. :P

[Anaraxes]

Powers briefly mentions (sidebar, pg 92) the godlike powers to Control Time or Space. It mentions a cost of "at least 30 points / level" without really talking about what the levels do.

You could also think of it as a high number of levels of Altered Time Rate and super-speed -- technically infinitely high, if everyone else gets zero actions no matter how long you run around, but a mere ten or twenty or hundred levels might do depending on your purpose.

Be really careful with this one. Stopping time is one of those powers that can get way out of hand.

[cmdicely]

Assuming that the radius of the universe is on the order of 78 billion light-years (as suggested here), that requires about 90 levels of Area Effect, which is a +4500% modifier, to affect. Time Stasis is an Affliction with a +1,000% modifier. The effect is permanent (from the point of view of anyone whose time isn't stopped) with no canceling condition other than the will of the caster, so that's another +300%. It allows no resistance roll for the rest of the universe, which is a problem, because (per GURPS Powers, p. 101), this effect is specifically not allowed even with Cosmic (+300%). To get an irresistable Affliction, you are supposed to take just enough levels that nothing can resist; remember that inanimate objects get their SM as a bonus to resistance rolls, so you probably want 20+(SM of the largest single object in the universe) levels of Affliction (about 183 levels will get you 20+(SM of the universe), which is more than enough). Time Out has a 5 minute casting time (Takes Extra Time-9, -90%), and costs 5 fatigue for a one hex "excluded" area (-25% or more, depending on area).

That covers the main features except the all-important hole in the middle, without which the power is kind of pointless. Calling it a "Selective Area" +20% makes this power far more powerful than the original spell: you can selectively exclude subjects anywhere in the universe. One way to handle it (which is completely ad hoc) is just to apply an Area Effect modifier again, this time based on the maximum size of the excluded zone; and base the limitation for Costs Fatigue by analogy to the "proportional" option in powers, but proportional to the levels of Area Effect for the excluded zone rather than levels of the advantage.

[Bruno]

I'm wondering if this type of ability might almost be better served with Jumper - take your area to a parallel dimension where time moves infinitely quicker. This gets the "completely separated from the rest of the universe, funky mana laws, etc" all nicely bundled up into one ability.

However, I don't think this gets the "arrowstorm" effect, but the Gm could hand-wave that as a feature of the dimension.

[David Johnston]

Originally Posted by Molokh

Greetings, all!

The title says it all. Powers doesn't seem capable of building a Magic effect (Time Out). Or is it? Does someone have a way of building such an ability?

Thanks in advance to all who answer!

The best way to handle it to create an area of accelerated time allowing you to take as many actions as is represented by the time that the universe is apparently stopped for those inside.

[cmdicely]

Originally Posted by David Johnston

The best way to handle it to create an area of accelerated time allowing you to take as many actions as is represented by the time that the universe is apparently stopped for those inside.

The main problem with that for modelling the spell is that the spell has unlimited duration. That's actually probably the best approach, though, for making something with Powers that is similar to the spell, and allows you to have a power that can be meaningfully improved as the character develops.

[Mark Skarr]

Originally Posted by cmdicely

That covers the main features except the all-important hole in the middle, without which the power is kind of pointless. Calling it a "Selective Area" +20% makes this power far more powerful than the original spell

You could always put an accessibility limitation on Selective Area, say -10% to -20%, only works within X hexes of user.