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Old 08-17-2019, 06:13 PM   #1
Moe Lane
 
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Default Professor Planck [250 pt]

Apropos of nothing: I'd love to know what that Pilot skill is getting that build-from-default bonus from. I generated the character via GCA and I can't figure out why it did that.


Professor Planck [250 pt]

Attributes [160]: ST 10, DX 11 [20], IQ 17 [140], HT 10

Advantages [122]: Appearance (Beautiful) [12], Charisma (1) [5], Gadgeteer (Quick) [50], Gizmo (3) [15], Magery (3) [30], Magery 0 [5], Versatile [5]

Disadvantages [-60]: Code of Honor (Comics Code) [-15], Curious (12 or less) [-5], Honesty (12 or less) [-10], Secret Identity (Serious Embarrassment) [-5], Sense of Duty (Humanity) (Entire Race) [-15], Trademark (Uses tech gear as a prop for magic) (Simple) [-5], Truthfulness (12 or less) [-5]

Quirks [-5]: Delusion (I am doing regular science.) [-1], Distractible [-1], Imaginative [-1], Likes Fiddling with electronic and mechanical junk. [-1], Vow (Stay optimistic and friendly.) [-1]

Skills [33]: Boxing DX/A - DX+1 12 [4], Computers! IQ/WC - IQ-3 14 [3], Diplomacy IQ/H - IQ-2 15 [1], Guns/TL8 (Pistol) DX/E - DX+1 12 [2], Inventor! IQ/WC - IQ-2 15 [6], Magic! IQ/WC - IQ+1 18 [6]*, Performance IQ/A - IQ-1 16 [1], Piloting/TL8 (Flight Pack) DX/A - DX+1 12 [3], Scholar! IQ/WC - IQ-3 14 [3], Science! IQ/WC - IQ-3 14 [3], Scrounging Per/E - Per+0 17 [1]

*Includes: +3 from Magery.

Stats [160] Ads [122] Disads [-60] Quirks [-5] Skills [33] = Total [250]

Professor Planck (mundane identity, Mary Pham) knows that she’s doing science, darn it. I mean, sure, she’s got super powers. That’s kind of obvious. But it’s not mad science, or anything like that! What she really has is simply the ability to manipulate forces at levels below the Planck length; down there the laws of physics are finally more or less optional, and at the command of a sufficiently determined observer. Like, say, Professor Planck.

Convincing the Professor otherwise might prove difficult, because it’s hard to say exactly where she’s wrong. Is Professor Planck an atypical telekinetic / clairvoyant with incredibly good control, or is she a wild mage operating under the delusion that she needs to focus all of her abilities through gadgets? The stats above assume the latter, but her Gadgeteer powers and Wild Card skills do still work in no-mana areas. Professor Planck’s abilities simply seem irreconcilable as a consistent power set.

But resolving that particular conundrum will likely take several years, if not a couple of decades. As for right now, Mary Pham is a college student at a major city university who is trying her best to make sure her teachers don’t notice that she’s far brighter than they are. This is proving harder than it looks, because Mary has a bad case of the four-colors; her instincts tell her to be forthright, honest, brave, and truthful -- which last can make secret identities difficult. Fortunately, Mary’s still in the stage of her college education where she can hide in big classes, but that will start changing once she hits the 300 and 400 level courses. Hopefully she can think of something else, like possibly chronic laryngitis. It kind of worked in junior high, after all.

Abilities: Professor Planck has all the advantages of a mage who has theoretical access to any spell -- and all the disadvantages of a mage who lacks Powerstones, extra FP, or even the ability to improve her mastery of any one spell. For patrols, the superheroine typically uses her Quick Gadgeteer skill to kludge together basic reflex armor, a tangler pistol, and/or a helipac, and Gizmo to make sure that she has the right gadgets for on the fly improvisation. She is absolutely not bulletproof, knows it, but if Professor Planck can get away from a fight when it’s going badly she can heal herself up fairly quickly.

Personality: as above, Mary takes the entire idea of the superhero ideal extremely seriously. Couple that with a naturally pleasant personality and outlook (not to mention a stunning personal appearance), and she’s poised for a rapid climb in superheroic status and reputation. The problems for her right now are, first, that Mary is young; and that her abilities are broad, but not deep. At the moment she’s best suited for street-level heroics, where she can easily overpower a single or pair of members of a street gang, or use her abilities to pick off larger numbers one by one. She’d also respond well to a good mentor -- but not to someone who would treat Professor Planck as a sidekick. Mary simply does not have the right mindset to be a sidekick.

300 point version: Increase FP to 15 [15], add Combat Reflexes [15], add Observation 16 [1], Search 16 [1], and increase Magic! To 20 [18]. Above this point, start adding things like Wealth, Reputation, increasing DX and HT, and increasing other wild card skill levels.

PDF found here: http://moelane.com/2019/08/17/profes...anck-gurps-4e/
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Old 08-17-2019, 08:45 PM   #2
Dalillama
 
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Default Re: Professor Planck [250 pt]

At a guess,the default is from Inventor!. You could probably suss it out by altering each of the other skills one at a time and see when Piloting changes.
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Old 08-17-2019, 09:40 PM   #3
awesomenessofme1
 
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Default Re: Professor Planck [250 pt]

2 things. First, and this isn't related to what you asked, but Truthfulness is a weird fit for someone with a secret identity. Second, no clue if this would cause any of the issues, but you don't get any benefit to putting 3 pts into a skill except Wildcard skills, so there might be some issue when it comes to defaults and total point values.
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Old 08-17-2019, 10:31 PM   #4
carllarson
 
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Default Re: Professor Planck [250 pt]

Pilot also defaults to IQ-6, which could be happening.
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Old 08-17-2019, 10:32 PM   #5
AlexanderHowl
 
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Default Re: Professor Planck [250 pt]

I am curious why you would have a character with Gadgeteer and Magery, as it seems that the character would benefit from more focus. In addition, Honesty is probably impossible for someone with a Secret Identity, as it is illegal in most settings for people to have a secret identity.

If you wanted to make a technomage, there are a couple of methods, though I prefer the following method. You could use the rules for RPM to create a technomagic focused around engineering and science (requiring Mathematics to learn the core skill and Engineer and/or Science Skills to learn each of the Paths). In that case, your gadgets would be charms.
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Old 08-18-2019, 04:53 AM   #6
johndallman
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Default Re: Professor Planck [250 pt]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Moe Lane View Post
Apropos of nothing: I'd love to know what that Pilot skill is getting that build-from-default bonus from. I generated the character via GCA and I can't figure out why it did that.
Piloting defaults to IQ-6, which gives her 11, equal to her DX. Her skill level of DX+1 should be costing her [2] not [3].

Did you change DX or IQ after you'd started buying skills? When you do that, GCA retains the number of points in skills, not the skill levels.
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Old 08-18-2019, 05:09 AM   #7
Anaraxes
 
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Default Re: Professor Planck [250 pt]

Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
it is illegal in most settings for people to have a secret identity.
What makes you say that? It's not illegal in the real-world modern US, for instance* (which is a pretty typical starting point for comics). I'm not enough of a comics fan to know whether the fictional settings usually outlaw secret identities. I'd expect that in the supers-hunting futures/alternate histories, but not in the main lines, given how popular secret identities are in the comics.


---
* consider stage names, pseudonyms, or "Doing Business As". Operating publically under a fictitious name is generally legal, unless you're intentionally doing so for fraudulent purposes. This is distinct from forged IDs or identity fraud/theft (using someone else's ID).
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Old 08-18-2019, 08:16 AM   #8
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Default Re: Professor Planck [250 pt]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anaraxes View Post
What makes you say that? It's not illegal in the real-world modern US, for instance* (which is a pretty typical starting point for comics). I'm not enough of a comics fan to know whether the fictional settings usually outlaw secret identities. I'd expect that in the supers-hunting futures/alternate histories, but not in the main lines, given how popular secret identities are in the comics.
Marvel waffles. Spider-Man and Daredevil are the big two that wrestle with secret identities, actually; most of the others are known at least to the authorities if not the public nowadays. Lately the shift in Marvel has been mirroring the MCU where no one hides their identity.

On the flip side of the coin, DC embraces the secret identity at all levels. In fact, at one point it was actually illegal to unmask a super's secret identity, even for medical reasons (including autopsies). A super who goes public - and there are only a handful of those - are usually the ones who really don't care about it getting out (Donna Troy), can't hide it anyway (Gar Logan/Beast Boy, Vic Stone/Cyborg), or go public voluntarily (Wally West/Flash III, Princess Diana/Wonder Woman). And sometimes, the best secret identity is to Clark Kent things; Superman obviously doesn't have a secret identity, and the world knows his real name is Kal-El of Krypton, because he gave it away in an interview (to himself).
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Old 08-18-2019, 10:20 AM   #9
AlexanderHowl
 
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Default Re: Professor Planck [250 pt]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anaraxes View Post
What makes you say that? It's not illegal in the real-world modern US, for instance* (which is a pretty typical starting point for comics). I'm not enough of a comics fan to know whether the fictional settings usually outlaw secret identities. I'd expect that in the supers-hunting futures/alternate histories, but not in the main lines, given how popular secret identities are in the comics.


---
* consider stage names, pseudonyms, or "Doing Business As". Operating publically under a fictitious name is generally legal, unless you're intentionally doing so for fraudulent purposes. This is distinct from forged IDs or identity fraud/theft (using someone else's ID).
It is illegal to operate under a Secret Identity though because, in all of the other cases, you have to give authorities your legal name when confronted by police, going to court, etc. A character with Secret Identity cannot give the authorities their legal name without basically losing the Secret Identity. Now, a super could register as an approved super, basically gaining Legal Enforcement Powers, and gain a legal Alternate Identity, in which they could be honest and truthful without difficulty.
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Old 08-18-2019, 10:40 AM   #10
Armin
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Default Re: Professor Planck [250 pt]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Moe Lane View Post
Apropos of nothing: I'd love to know what that Pilot skill is getting that build-from-default bonus from. I generated the character via GCA and I can't figure out why it did that.
On the Skills tab, click on Piloting, then click on Edit.

Right below the User Notes box is some text that tells you what it is "Defaulted From:" and should say IQ if that, or whatever other skill if that.

If you want more info, you can then click on the Full Edit Window button, then click on the Advanced... button.

The 'deffrom' tag shows you what trait the skill is being defaulted from. That's what's shown on Simple Edit, too.

The 'deflevel' tag shows the level you get just from defaulting, and the 'defpoints' tag shows the point investment that would get that level normally.
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