The Luck Advantage

[nnnnn]

Is "Luck" an advantage that NPCs can have? How does this play out for game downtime?

Can the bad guy use his luck when, say, gadgeteering a doomsday device to use against the city? With Luck he can avoid the small chance of a critical failure.

Or say, a powerful enchanter NPC. Can he use his Luck to avoid critical failures when enchanting?

For worldbuilding purposes, would high level NPCs with Luck be crazy powerful?

A super diplomat would never, ever make a critical failure. His nation often get enormous advantages beyond what his nation would normally get. (opposing diplomats will crit-fail and he never will. This adds up).

A general would never, ever, make a tactical mistake.

A gadgeteer would never, ever, blow himself up on accident.

An enchanter with Luck would be, well, truly awesome.

nnnnn

[Rolando]

Luck can not be used for enchanting, also cant be used for job rolls or anithing that is more than a single action...

So it may be used for a strategy roll if it is for the purpose to bring a single conclussion of enemy plans, or to formulate some strategy/formation, but not to modify it to adapt it to changes, etc., unless some time passes.

Luck in important NPC's is mainly to explain background... how the gatget was seccessfull (beside the improbabilities), how he got the amulet, etc... And to make him/she more cinematic (a villian with last resorts).

I allways use luck only for PC's and important NPC's, a lucky minion is not a minion :)

[The Benj]

Generally, Luck isn't used in downtime. You can use it "once per hour of play" (p.66). No play, no Luck.
If you want it to be usable in downtime, I'd say you should use the conversion between game time and play time in Powers (Game Time, p.108; 1 hour of play time = 1 day of in-game time), so you can use regular Luck only once a day in downtime.

I think you specifically can't use Luck for enchantment. I could be wrong, but I remember that from somewhere. You definitely can't for casting the Wish spells.

All the examples you give are just as true for PCs in downtime, if that's the way you want to run Luck. Yes, if you let someone abuse the way Luck works, it will kick arse. This works the same for everyone.

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by The Benj

Generally, Luck isn't used in downtime. You can use it "once per hour of play" (p.66). No play, no Luck.
If you want it to be usable in downtime, I'd say you should use the conversion between game time and play time in Powers (Game Time, p.108; 1 hour of play time = 1 day of in-game time), so you can use regular Luck only once a day in downtime.

Yep. Game Time isn't a limitation -- even though it might look like one at first to action-and-adventure heroes -- because it lets you use Luck out of play, for long, slow actions, on a reliable basis. Someone with Game Time could use his Luck to justify a lucky daily roll at almost any task that requires a roll a day. The abuses possible with this tool are left as an exercise for the reader. It suffices to say that I believe that Game Time approaches being an enhancement for anyone who isn't a blood-and-guts fighter, and it appears with the other enhancements for this reason.

[PK]

Wait a sec . . . I think I just thought of an evil combo. :)

Luck (Game Time, +0%; Selectivity, +10%) [17]

I can use my luck once per real hour or once per game day, as I wish. So once I use my luck, it's unavailable until an hour passes or a day passes in game, whichever happens first. That's quite useful.

Abusive?

[Atreyu_Hibiki]

Originally Posted by Rev_Pee_Kitty

Wait a sec . . . I think I just thought of an evil combo. :)

Luck (Game Time, +0%; Selectivity, +10%) [17]

I can use my luck once per real hour or once per game day, as I wish. So once I use my luck, it's unavailable until an hour passes or a day passes in game, whichever happens first. That's quite useful.

Abusive?

Actually, I wouldn't think so. You are paying for that option, and I doubt it would actually come into play very often. I have yet to see a time when a GM passes an entire day in less than an hour of game play. The exception would be in situations like "One week passes by...", and in those cases, yes, you paid for the selectivity, so I don't think it's abusive at all.

[Big Bear]

That has to do with how the GM handles the flow of time. There are GMs who swear by the "time allocation" sheet and GMs who sneer at the thought of down time.

[laserdog]

Originally Posted by Rev_Pee_Kitty

Luck (Game Time, +0%; Selectivity, +10%) [17]

Wouldn't that be the same thing as saying:

Camoflauge (Radar Only +0%; Selectivity +10%) [6]?

Which means you're right, the +0% "short hand" really should be broken down as:
-100% Not This
+100% This

So that:

Camo (Not Visible Light -100%; Radar +100%; Selectivity +10%)

does no good?

[PK]

Originally Posted by laserdog

Wouldn't that be the same thing as saying:

Camoflauge (Radar Only +0%; Selectivity +10%) [6]?

No, because there is no such enhancement as "Radar Only". With Chameleon, you specify the source -- it's not a modifier.

In the case of Luck, "Game Time" is not some sort of +100% enhancement mixed with a -100% limitation. It's a unique +0% enhancement, that's all.

[the_matrix_walker]

Originally Posted by PK

Wait a sec . . . I think I just thought of an evil combo. :)

Luck (Game Time, +0%; Selectivity, +10%) [17]

I can use my luck once per real hour or once per game day, as I wish. So once I use my luck, it's unavailable until an hour passes or a day passes in game, whichever happens first. That's quite useful.

Abusive?

Ever decide on this one Reverend?