Telekinetic Levitation/Flight

Ronnke · 09-30-2020, 10:48 PM

Situation
Super character has 40 levels of Telekinesis Power (5pts/lvl) with the Magnetism only (-50%) and Psychokinesis (-10%) limitations. The character wears a ferrous metal harness so they can magnetically levitate/fly via their TK ability. Basic set says they can take a Concentrate maneuver to levitate/fly with a move equal to TK level modified by Encumbrance. In this case that would be 40 yards, due to character weight being less than the light encumbrance threshold.

Question
Is that 40 yards of TK movement subject to normal air movement acceleration/deceleration, turning radius and possibly g-forces (since they are a basically a passenger of the harness)?

AlexanderHowl · 09-30-2020, 11:23 PM

If you want to fly, I would suggest making the harness into a gadget. Flight plus Enhanced Move 2 (Air) would allow Move 40 for the majority of characters, which would end up being 40 CP after modifiers (this greatly simplifies things). The cost drops down to 8 CP if it is alternative ability to your TK (though paying the 40 CP would allow both to occur).

Ejidoth · 09-30-2020, 11:49 PM

Functionally, what you're doing is using your telekinesis to pick yourself up (which will take one action), followed in later turns by having your telekinesis take Move actions to hover you through the air at its (possibly encumbered by your weight plus the harness's weight) Move. Because of that, you don't need to worry about acceleration/deceleration/turning radius, etc. G-force stuff is kind of up to the GM, outside the scope of what the telekinesis mechanics themselves handle.

It's not totally unreasonable for the GM to treat accelerating to 80 mph from a dead stop as equivalent to a collision with your harness at 80 mph, so you'll probably want some kind of padding if you're going to be moving at full speed.

Note that telekinesis requires constant concentration actions, as well. If you don't have compartmentalized mind and you take any action other than Concentrate (to control the TK) while flying, you'll drop yourself. I highly recommend simply taking Flight as an advantage with the psychokinesis power modifier and an Accessibility (Must be wearing or standing on something ferrous, -10%)? so that you can simply fly without worrying about dropping yourself.

Ronnke · 09-30-2020, 11:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

If you want to fly, I would suggest making the harness into a gadget. Flight plus Enhanced Move 2 (Air) would allow Move 40 for the majority of characters, which would end up being 40 CP after modifiers (this greatly simplifies things). The cost drops down to 8 CP if it is alternative ability to your TK (though paying the 40 CP would allow both to occur).

It not so much as wanting to fly, it's more that flight is an added, bonus, side effect of magnetic TK. To spend points on flight would mean less points available to spend in magnetic TK ability.

Regardless, the rules relating to acceleration/deceleration and turning radius are quite explicit with the Flight advantage, but not so with Telekinesis.

transmetahuman · 10-01-2020, 12:27 AM

Despite the whole "pair of hands" description of what TK does, I prefer to treat unmodified TK as affecting the entire object (blood, bones and brains, all of the person) simultaneously, so there's no stress from acceleration. I think that models the way it works in most genres better than pretending it's literally a pair of invisible hands. I use the hands thing to determine exactly how you can make manipulate the object (frex, you can tear an arm off a guy, but you can't draw and quarter him because you can only split your force into two parts).

However, with this character, that freedom from acceleration stress would only apply to the harness itself. The character would get thrown around inside the harness, brain thrown around inside their skull, etc., for normal g-force consequences.

Refplace · 10-01-2020, 01:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ronnke

It not so much as wanting to fly, it's more that flight is an added, bonus, side effect of magnetic TK. To spend points on flight would mean less points available to spend in magnetic TK ability.

Regardless, the rules relating to acceleration/deceleration and turning radius are quite explicit with the Flight advantage, but not so with Telekinesis.

Well as an alternative ability to 40 points in TK it would cost 8 points, possibly less with limitations.
But sure those movement rules arent specific to the Flight advantage but apply to any high speed movement.

DangerousThing · 10-01-2020, 08:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ejidoth

(Must be wearing or standing on something ferrous, -10%)?

I have the image of Static from the old Static Shock animated series. He started out with a manhole cover and then one that unfolded. It was a small effect, but it was cool.

GreatWyrmGold · 10-01-2020, 09:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Refplace

Well as an alternative ability to 40 points in TK it would cost 8 points, possibly less with limitations.
But sure those movement rules arent specific to the Flight advantage but apply to any high speed movement.

At the very least, there would be Psychokinesis (-10%) and Accessibility (Only while wearing a substantial amount of metal), which should probably be at least -10%.
That alone brings the point cost down to 32, or 7 if it's an Alternate Ability (which it should be). That's less than four levels of Telekinesis Power; heck, the super-character probably has skills that cost more.

If that's still too rich for your character, a level or two of Reduced DX (representing the clumsily indirect movement and unsteady position such telekinetic flight would provide) would cut the price to 24 or 16 points (5/4 points as AA).
A nuisance effect would reduce the base cost by another two points, enough to reduce the AA price to 6 points without a DX penalty or 3 with a -2. (It wouldn't affect the AA price with a -1 DX penalty, because of rounding.) It shouldn't be hard to think of little wrinkles that would qualify for "Makes you obvious" (flailing and yelping in an attempt to stay balanced and keep your lunch) or "Physically inconvenient" (being carried by a metal harness would be freaking uncomfortable).

If you want to get a little cheesy, you might look into making the flight suit count as a Gadget. After all, without the Unique limitation, you can just make/buy another one, and a ferrokinetic flight suit probably isn't an ordinary product you can pick up at the local supermarket.
At SM 0 and DR 6, the Breakable limitation would provide -35%, while Can Be Stolen would be -5% (since it would need to be forcibly removed and wouldn't provide powers on its own), for a total of -40%. Given the relative ease of replacing a flight suit, it would probably be a good idea to apply a pre-emptive halving of the reduction before the GM trashes the whole idea, for a final reduction of -20%. Combined with Psychokinesis, that would be a total -30% reduction in cost, for a final cost of 28 points without Alternative Ability or six points with. A -1 DX penalty would reduce that to 20/4 points, and -2 would reduce it to 12/3.

Maximum frugality:
-40% for -2 Dex penalty
-20% for Gadget cheese
-10% Psychokinesis
-5% Nuisance Effect
10 points, reduced to 1/5th (2 points) as an Alternate Ability. That's equivalent to just one level of psycho-ferrokinesis, or a skill you've dabbled with for long enough to reach basic competence.

Plane · 10-01-2020, 11:09 AM

It would be neat to have SOME level of distinction between "I'm 100% metal and my TK is lifting all of me equally" vs "I have a metal helmet" or "I have metal boots" or "I have metal gauntlets".

The 1st should be a lot less stressful and a lot more balanced. The 2nd type situations while possible should be sort of like "my entire weight is dangling from a strap under my chin" or "I'm balancing on a surfboard" or "I'm dangling from a rope from a helicopter" kind of sensation.

There could be chances not just for damage to body or penalties, but stuff like strap breaking, tilting so you're not balanced over your boots, not being able to use your arms because they're grappled, etc.

TK should need to specify a body part it is grappling with appropriate penalties of some kind, and there should be risks when lifting someone by their feet that they can't stay upright and end up falling upside down and get disoriented.

That would be very hard to coordinate with allies, perhaps a little easier when you're doing the lifting yourself, but still troublesome.

09-30-2020, 10:48 PM	#1
Ronnke Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Australia	Telekinetic Levitation/Flight Situation Super character has 40 levels of Telekinesis Power (5pts/lvl) with the Magnetism only (-50%) and Psychokinesis (-10%) limitations. The character wears a ferrous metal harness so they can magnetically levitate/fly via their TK ability. Basic set says they can take a Concentrate maneuver to levitate/fly with a move equal to TK level modified by Encumbrance. In this case that would be 40 yards, due to character weight being less than the light encumbrance threshold. Question Is that 40 yards of TK movement subject to normal air movement acceleration/deceleration, turning radius and possibly g-forces (since they are a basically a passenger of the harness)? __________________ Bro! Do you even GURPS?

09-30-2020, 11:23 PM	#2
AlexanderHowl Join Date: Feb 2016	Re: Telekinetic Levitation/Flight If you want to fly, I would suggest making the harness into a gadget. Flight plus Enhanced Move 2 (Air) would allow Move 40 for the majority of characters, which would end up being 40 CP after modifiers (this greatly simplifies things). The cost drops down to 8 CP if it is alternative ability to your TK (though paying the 40 CP would allow both to occur).

09-30-2020, 11:49 PM	#3
Ejidoth Join Date: Jul 2009	Re: Telekinetic Levitation/Flight Functionally, what you're doing is using your telekinesis to pick yourself up (which will take one action), followed in later turns by having your telekinesis take Move actions to hover you through the air at its (possibly encumbered by your weight plus the harness's weight) Move. Because of that, you don't need to worry about acceleration/deceleration/turning radius, etc. G-force stuff is kind of up to the GM, outside the scope of what the telekinesis mechanics themselves handle. It's not totally unreasonable for the GM to treat accelerating to 80 mph from a dead stop as equivalent to a collision with your harness at 80 mph, so you'll probably want some kind of padding if you're going to be moving at full speed. Note that telekinesis requires constant concentration actions, as well. If you don't have compartmentalized mind and you take any action other than Concentrate (to control the TK) while flying, you'll drop yourself. I highly recommend simply taking Flight as an advantage with the psychokinesis power modifier and an Accessibility (Must be wearing or standing on something ferrous, -10%)? so that you can simply fly without worrying about dropping yourself.

10-01-2020, 12:27 AM	#5
transmetahuman Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: San Francisco, CA, USA	Re: Telekinetic Levitation/Flight Despite the whole "pair of hands" description of what TK does, I prefer to treat unmodified TK as affecting the entire object (blood, bones and brains, all of the person) simultaneously, so there's no stress from acceleration. I think that models the way it works in most genres better than pretending it's literally a pair of invisible hands. I use the hands thing to determine exactly how you can make manipulate the object (frex, you can tear an arm off a guy, but you can't draw and quarter him because you can only split your force into two parts). However, with this character, that freedom from acceleration stress would only apply to the harness itself. The character would get thrown around inside the harness, brain thrown around inside their skull, etc., for normal g-force consequences.

10-01-2020, 11:09 AM	#9
Plane Join Date: Aug 2018	Re: Telekinetic Levitation/Flight It would be neat to have SOME level of distinction between "I'm 100% metal and my TK is lifting all of me equally" vs "I have a metal helmet" or "I have metal boots" or "I have metal gauntlets". The 1st should be a lot less stressful and a lot more balanced. The 2nd type situations while possible should be sort of like "my entire weight is dangling from a strap under my chin" or "I'm balancing on a surfboard" or "I'm dangling from a rope from a helicopter" kind of sensation. There could be chances not just for damage to body or penalties, but stuff like strap breaking, tilting so you're not balanced over your boots, not being able to use your arms because they're grappled, etc. TK should need to specify a body part it is grappling with appropriate penalties of some kind, and there should be risks when lifting someone by their feet that they can't stay upright and end up falling upside down and get disoriented. That would be very hard to coordinate with allies, perhaps a little easier when you're doing the lifting yourself, but still troublesome.