Duration limit for Affliction: Advantage

[CeeDub]

Salutations!

Say Alice can "Afflict" another with an Advantage. The Affliction ability has the Malediction enhancement (waivable resistance) and the limitations Melee Attack (C) and Contact Agent (needs to touch bare skin).

Usually, the target (Bob) would gain the Advantage for a number of minutes equal to Alice's margin of success (or instantly, if it were that kind of advantage). How would you price a limitation that causes the afflicted advantage to last only while Alice touches Bob?

[Varyon]

First, we'll need to add Fixed Duration +0% to Affliction to change it from MoS minutes to 3 minutes. Maintaining constant contact is comparable to a duration of only 1 second. To my knowledge, there is no Reduced Duration Limitation. It's arguably fair to make one by using the Extended Duration Enhancement, reading each multiplier as a divisor, and halving (and making negative) the value. A divisor of 180 is right between 100 (-40%) and 300 (-50%), so we'll go with -45%. Technically, this would require Alice to take a Maneuver to maintain it each round, but she wouldn't be restricted by having to keep constant contact (so she could freely Parry, Retreat, and so forth, so long as she gets back into Range C when her turn next comes up). This might be a wash, or we might say it's worth up to +15% or so. So, we're looking at between -45% and -30% for constant contact.

[Nereidalbel]

Originally Posted by Varyon

First, we'll need to add Fixed Duration +0% to Affliction to change it from MoS minutes to 3 minutes. Maintaining constant contact is comparable to a duration of only 1 second. To my knowledge, there is no Reduced Duration Limitation. It's arguably fair to make one by using the Extended Duration Enhancement, reading each multiplier as a divisor, and halving (and making negative) the value. A divisor of 180 is right between 100 (-40%) and 300 (-50%), so we'll go with -45%. Technically, this would require Alice to take a Maneuver to maintain it each round, but she wouldn't be restricted by having to keep constant contact (so she could freely Parry, Retreat, and so forth, so long as she gets back into Range C when her turn next comes up). This might be a wash, or we might say it's worth up to +15% or so. So, we're looking at between -45% and -30% for constant contact.

Reduced Duration exists in Psionic Powers, p21. When you fail to meet the next level of a limitation, you take the value of the lower level, not split the difference. Thus, Reduced Duration 1/180 is -40%. You actually did get that value right, fyi.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Nereidalbel

Reduced Duration exists in Psionic Powers, p21. When you fail to meet the next level of a limitation, you take the value of the lower level, not split the difference. Thus, Reduced Duration 1/180 is -40%. You actually did get that value right, fyi.

Good to know I was in the correct range. One thing I'll note is that Extended Duration works out to +20% per +3 SSR*, and thus Reduced Duration is -10% per -3 SSR. 1/180 is pretty much on-point with -13.5 SSR, which is why I went with -45%.

Of course, I now see that Reduced Duration is indeed in Power Ups 8: Limitations, so I can see how it works. In that case, it is indeed -40% by RAW, as Reduced Duration follows a different scaling than I had anticipated. -40% is x1/100, while -45% would be x1/200.

*SSR is Size and Speed/Range, referring to the table. +1 SSR is +1 step on that table.

[Culture20]

Originally Posted by CeeDub

Salutations!

Say Alice can "Afflict" another with an Advantage. The Affliction ability has the Malediction enhancement (waivable resistance) and the limitations Melee Attack (C) and Contact Agent (needs to touch bare skin).

Usually, the target (Bob) would gain the Advantage for a number of minutes equal to Alice's margin of success (or instantly, if it were that kind of advantage). How would you price a limitation that causes the afflicted advantage to last only while Alice touches Bob?

If you limit the duration to one second, then you're forcing Alice to roll every second, even while she's touching Bob. An easy method would be to place an accessibility limitation on the afflicted advantage (e.g. DR) so that it only works while Alice touches the person using the advantage. This way, Alice makes fewer rolls, and the advantage ceases to work the instant Alice stops touching the recipient.

[CeeDub]

Fixed Duration is an excellent suggestion, at least as a place to start, thank you! Right now I'm tempted to just use 1/10 or 1/20, because I expect nearly all applications of the affliction to last multiple seconds.

There is, however, one more aspect that I neglected to mention: Alice would need to keep taking Concentrate maneuvers for the whole time. No rolls except for the first one, but concentration is required the whole time she bestows the advantage.

Originally Posted by Culture20

If you limit the duration to one second, then you're forcing Alice to roll every second, even while she's touching Bob. An easy method would be to place an accessibility limitation on the afflicted advantage (e.g. DR) so that it only works while Alice touches the person using the advantage. This way, Alice makes fewer rolls, and the advantage ceases to work the instant Alice stops touching the recipient.

The re-rolls were my immediate concern, too. Not sure what you mean by the DR accessibility restriction, though. Could you elaborate, please?

[Culture20]

Originally Posted by CeeDub

The re-rolls were my immediate concern, too. Not sure what you mean by the DR accessibility restriction, though. Could you elaborate, please?

DR has nothing to do with it. Let's say the afflicted advantage is Flight. Apply an accessibility limitation of "only while Alice touches you" to the Flight advantage that gets afflicted. Then Alice can touch someone for X minutes before having to reroll, but the instant she stops touching them, the afflicted Flight advantage disappears.

[CeeDub]

Originally Posted by Culture20

DR has nothing to do with it. Let's say the afflicted advantage is Flight. Apply an accessibility limitation of "only while Alice touches you" to the Flight advantage that gets afflicted. Then Alice can touch someone for X minutes before having to reroll, but the instant she stops touching them, the afflicted Flight advantage disappears.

Ah, I see, but how much is that limitation worth?

Also, how much is a variable number of Concentrate maneuvers worth?

[roguebfl]

While Fixed Duration is part of the answer.

You can't wave the resistant of an affliction however What you want is instead you want Beneficial Affections

Originally Posted by FAQ 3.2.8

I want to use an Affliction to grant bonus to my comrades. How do I go about that?

Reverse the HT roll for beneficial Afflictions; an Affliction that's HT-x to resist instead requires a HT+x to provide its benefits. Duration becomes margin of success instead of margin of failure. Use Based on (Other Attribute) if you'd prefer an IQ roll.

GURPS Powers makes this official.

[Nereidalbel]

Originally Posted by roguebfl

While Fixed Duration is part of the answer.

You can't wave the resistant of an affliction however What you want is instead you want Beneficial Affections

False. Malediction allows any target to choose not to resist.