Universal Advantages and Disadvantages

[Plane]

Originally Posted by Stormcrow

If such a character ever goes to another world where not every character has that trait, add the trait to the sheet and adjust the character's point total.

Unless of course it's a trait you only get by being in that dimension.

That's one way you could technically do it. Like instead of "I have 1 DR in other dimensions" you could just be "this is cartoon dimension where everything automatically fails to resist the affliction of 1 DR making them hard to hurt"

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Boyboy180

I would actually have liked for it to be counted as equipment but I can't think of how to price it well.
To not go into too much detail part of the tech is modular abilities that allow physical advantages. I really couldn't think of a way to price a piece of equipment that you could use one day for increased strength and the next it could give improved sword skills.
A smart phone is a good comparison in a way (Downloading different apps) but how would you compare a phone's apps (Or the memory to store them) in a way that made sense both for points and for money in a way that wouldn't make them massively overpriced.

I'm guessing your problem is that not everyone has the same one, otherwise slapping a simple price tag on them ($10,000!) would work. If that's the case, may I suggest looking at why some people in the setting have more effective versions than others?

• If its because using the technology takes extra time and training to use in that manner, you might be looking at skills that are needed to effectively use the item, and more powerful users just need higher skills.
• If its because the more powerful forms of the technology are only provided by governments and other extremely powerful groups, you may be looking at a license, or some sort of legal enforcement powers.
• If its because the more powerful forms of the tech are cutting edge and extremely expensive, you are looking at multiplying cost by many times for relatively small improvements. You are also probably looking at high skills, because cutting edge tech is often hard to use.

So what in-world characteristic distinguishes people who have more points in the advantage from those who do not?

[Boyboy180]

To ericthered,

The more powerful ones are the newest made (It is a fairly new tech in-universe) but the "Theory" of how they work is well known so they can be highly customised (if you have money).
The idea of having a base cost and then multiplying it for some amount of points over sounds good

Like a generic one (the 88 cost one for example) might cost some amount of money and as it is below 100 points that is all. But for each 25-50 points or so the price doubles?
The one I thought would be good for adventures (Very customisable but only using "Normal" slots) was 198 points, using 25 points as the increment that would be 16x price. Additionally custom ones could stick another 2x multiplier on top of that rule.
I honestly can't think of good numbers for this but I think I get what you mean.

Also to others, I already am using gadget limitations. If I wasn't the point values would be even more absurd

Edit: $2,100 at base for a month of pay at the tech level. So that would be $33,600 for the adventurer's one. Does that sound about right?

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Boyboy180

To ericthered,
The more powerful ones are the newest made (It is a fairly new tech in-universe) but the "Theory" of how they work is well known so they can be highly customised (if you have money).

Can you jump ahead of the curve, or are you limited to the very newest? If I'm an eccentric Billionaire, how high can I go before the GM says "They don't make them that good. not yet?"

do they loose value as time goes on, and how fast are the new ones coming out? If I spend 20k on my adventurer's version, how long will it be before I need to spend another 20k on this year's model in order to keep up?


Both of those questions can possibly provide useful limits to the technology that will help it make your setting rather than breaking it.



As an aside, I find that letting technology have more than about +2 to skill levels is paradigm changing in a way that raising DR, allowing flight, healing yourself instantly, or punching through a tank do not.

[Boyboy180]

"Practicality" would be the limitation. They can't really be minimized.
The Adventurer version, or maybe a little bigger might be the largest you can make that varied.
The Adventurer version looks basically like a large pocket watch and they would just grow larger.
The versions that are being statted out are the ones designed for people to carry, sure you could build them into something bigger (Like a sword or shield) but these things are not that sturdy (Imagine putting clockwork into a sword or shield and you get the right sort of idea)
Put simply: More slots (And higher quality slots) need more space, more space means a bigger item, bigger item means it is harder to carry around.

Sure they can make vehicles out of this tech but they work differently.

[ericthered]

I personally think that 25 points per doubling may be a bit generous, but if you expect adventurers to be walking around with an extra 100 points on theirs, it might be the right rate. I'd repeat my concerns about being able to throw 100 points of weapons skill (or even engineering skill) onto someone using tech though

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Boyboy180

For context (Skip this paragraph if you are not interested) the idea came when I was working on an idea for a piece of equipment in the setting (Made as an advantage with gadget limitations) that was ubiquitous in setting, to the point where almost everyone had one. The cost for a fairly simple one was still quite high (88 points) so I began to think about a theshold of "Everyone gets up to 100 points in this tech for free and pays with their own points for anything above that" and then wondered if it would be a 100 point disadvantage if a player didn't want to use it.
.

Not unless you wanted to encourage some players to forego their giant robot. If you want everyone to have one because it's a campaign about giant robot pilots then there's no reason to incentivize not having one.

[AlexanderHowl]

The problem with that rate is that Wealth becomes even more powerful of a trait. If we assume $10,000 per CP for the first 25 CP, and then doubling per 25 CP, a character with Multimillionaire 2, which is 100 CP, can spend $20 million (10% of starting wealth) to purchase 125 CP of abilities. At Multimillionaire 3, which is 125 CP, the character spends $128 million for 175 CP of abilities. At Multimillionaire 4, which is 150 CP, the character spends $576 mlion for 225 CP of abilities.