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Old 04-14-2016, 05:16 AM   #1
CeeDub
 
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: UK
Default Telekinetic self-levitation vs. Flight

Salutations!

Suppose a character has 20 levels of TK and Compartmentalized Mind, i.e. he can either use two pairs of invisible hands with ST 20 each with a concentrate maneuver, or one pair and take any other action he likes, e.g. Move, Attack, play chess, Carouse, etc.

He could also use one or both pairs of invisible hands to pick himself up and move up to 20 yards per second.

Aside from being able to fly while still having both pairs of invisible hands at his disposal, how would this character benefit from the Flight advantage (which would also be an application of his TK ability, just formalized as a distinct advantage)? Let's further assume the PC has Basic Speed 5, so his Air Move would be 10 instead of 20 with TK levitation.

This is not meant to be argumentative, I'm just trying to better understand the distinction between the two advantages.
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Old 04-14-2016, 06:31 AM   #2
smurf
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Default Re: Telekinetic self-levitation vs. Flight

As as the character does not exceed the weight limits.

Note to levitate will take several seconds of lifting with TK unless you speed it up with no concentration.

But at ST20 it should not be much of a problem. Just deduct the weight of the character including things from the lifting maxes.
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Old 04-14-2016, 06:40 AM   #3
malloyd
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Default Re: Telekinetic self-levitation vs. Flight

Quote:
Originally Posted by CeeDub View Post
Salutations!

Suppose a character has 20 levels of TK and Compartmentalized Mind, i.e. he can either use two pairs of invisible hands with ST 20 each with a concentrate
Actually I think this may still be ambiguous. Compartmentalized Mind doesn't necessarily duplicate your TK advantage for free. He can't after all use two pairs of biological hands to do separate things with it unless he buys an additional set of arms too.
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Old 04-14-2016, 06:54 AM   #4
CeeDub
 
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: UK
Default Re: Telekinetic self-levitation vs. Flight

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Originally Posted by malloyd View Post
Actually I think this may still be ambiguous. Compartmentalized Mind doesn't necessarily duplicate your TK advantage for free. He can't after all use two pairs of biological hands to do separate things with it unless he buys an additional set of arms too.
Actually, it's quite official that this is how Compartmentalized Mind works.
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Old 04-14-2016, 08:32 AM   #5
spacemonkey
 
Join Date: Mar 2012
Default Re: Telekinetic self-levitation vs. Flight

Enhanced Move (Air) requires the Flight advantage, so you can't double your speed without doubling your ranks of TK. Using 20 ranks of TK starts out better than standard flight, but spending 100 points on both yields flight speed of 80 vs TK speed of 20. Spending 120 makes it 160 vs 24, and it just gets worse from there.

One thing you could do is buy Flight as an alternate advantage to 8 of your TK ranks, and Enhanced Move air as alternate advantages to the other 12 ranks. Now you can use TK 20 on the ground, 12 at move 10, 8 at move 20, 4 at move 40, or no tk at all at move 80.

Last edited by spacemonkey; 04-14-2016 at 08:40 AM.
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Old 04-14-2016, 08:35 AM   #6
Gnome
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Cambridge, MA
Default Re: Telekinetic self-levitation vs. Flight

Quote:
Originally Posted by CeeDub View Post
Salutations!

Suppose a character has 20 levels of TK and Compartmentalized Mind, i.e. he can either use two pairs of invisible hands with ST 20 each with a concentrate maneuver, or one pair and take any other action he likes, e.g. Move, Attack, play chess, Carouse, etc.

He could also use one or both pairs of invisible hands to pick himself up and move up to 20 yards per second.

Aside from being able to fly while still having both pairs of invisible hands at his disposal, how would this character benefit from the Flight advantage (which would also be an application of his TK ability, just formalized as a distinct advantage)? Let's further assume the PC has Basic Speed 5, so his Air Move would be 10 instead of 20 with TK levitation.

This is not meant to be argumentative, I'm just trying to better understand the distinction between the two advantages.
The biggest distinction is that flight using Flight does not require concentration, so you could still take two additional maneuvers while flying (one mental, one other). If you want to fly faster, buy increased Air Move for 2/level.
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Old 04-14-2016, 08:48 AM   #7
Emerald Cat
 
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: Cincinnati, OH, USA
Default Re: Telekinetic self-levitation vs. Flight

Buying flight as an alternative ability to your TK would be one of the easiest ways to handle this. That should be a lot more straight forward than trying to use TK to fly. Only problem is that you wouldn't be able to use your TK at all while flying, even with Compartmentalized Mind.

If this is an issue for you, buying Flight with the same PM as your TK would be a good compromise. Buying extra TK as an alternative ability to Flight would be completely pointless, in my opinion. ST4 TK just isn't worth the points.
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Old 04-14-2016, 09:23 AM   #8
Anaraxes
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Default Re: Telekinetic self-levitation vs. Flight

Being lifted by TK is being grappled by an invisible giant, not flying. Arguably, this inflicts the usual penalties -- perhaps even if it's a "friendly grapple".
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Old 04-14-2016, 12:33 PM   #9
evileeyore
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Default Re: Telekinetic self-levitation vs. Flight

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Originally Posted by Anaraxes View Post
Being lifted by TK is being grappled by an invisible giant, not flying. Arguably, this inflicts the usual penalties -- perhaps even if it's a "friendly grapple".
I would not penalize someone for self-grappling themselves with TK to Levitate.


Though I could see that being a nasty thing to happen to the TKer's friends when he's "Grapple-Levitating" them...
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Old 04-14-2016, 12:48 PM   #10
David Johnston2
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Default Re: Telekinetic self-levitation vs. Flight

Quote:
Originally Posted by CeeDub View Post
Salutations!

Suppose a character has 20 levels of TK and Compartmentalized Mind, i.e. he can either use two pairs of invisible hands with ST 20 each with a concentrate maneuver, or one pair and take any other action he likes, e.g. Move, Attack, play chess, Carouse, etc.

He could also use one or both pairs of invisible hands to pick himself up and move up to 20 yards per second.

Aside from being able to fly while still having both pairs of invisible hands at his disposal, how would this character benefit from the Flight advantage (which would also be an application of his TK ability, just formalized as a distinct advantage)? Let's further assume the PC has Basic Speed 5, so his Air Move would be 10 instead of 20 with TK levitation.

This is not meant to be argumentative, I'm just trying to better understand the distinction between the two advantages.
Your telekinetic capacity is not increased by being able to do more than one thing at a time. All the things you lift including your self with one set of "hands" will reduce your strength with the other.
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