Help with Warp: Make base range lower and make high range an enhancement?

Raekai · 08-01-2015, 10:49 AM

Hey, all! It's been quite some time.

I'm back to tackle Warp. It's a lovely 100 point advantage, but 100 points means that it is still 20 points with maxed-out limitations, which can be expensive for some lower-grade characters. One of the most common limitations (I would think) to add to Warp is Range Limit. But would there be another way to do Warp? What if we started with a Warp that had a limited range of 10 yards for X amount of points? Maybe 50 points? And then made increased ranges an enhancement. This would make it more accessible to characters with lower budgets.

How would one go about doing that in the most balanced way? My GURPS theory is a little rusty, so I could use quite a bit of help.

Thanks!

weby · 08-01-2015, 04:45 PM

Well, basically warp is quite powerful and that is why it is priced so high. I do not have any suggestion as to the cost of a lesser version.

But I do offer one possibility you might try tinkering with that I have used a few times with some heavily limited abilities that are really a lot less powerful than the base. There I have taken the first -80% of limitations and then counted that as new power and started again to calculate down from that as base. It is definitely not balanced for general use, but helps me to get an idea.

As example applying that to warp as though exercise: Say we have warp that is: -50% 10 yard limit, naked -30% and causes a nausea blackslash for 10 minutes -30% would go over the -80% limit.

So taking range and naked is -80% on warp, leaving 20 points, then taking the backslash at -30% on that leaves 14 points.

Would that be balanced? No idea.

Of course in a magic world you could just use charm and the teleport spell... but that is really not balanced against warp.

Anaraxes · 08-01-2015, 06:06 PM

The definition in Basic already includes a canonical range limit modifier. 10 yards is -50%. You could reverse the math. However, I find it's already difficult enough to counter Enhancements on expensive Advantages, especially the ones that chuck around +50% to +300%.

I'm not sure I agree with the discount on B99. It seems to me that a lot of the advantage of Warp is gained even with a short range. You get essentially all of the combat power at 20 or 100 yards. You've got most of the barrier-bypassing power even at 10. Really long-range ports are convenient for travel -- but long trips are usually narrated away. You're not really skipping anything unless the rest of the party really is going to game out every day of that travel complete with wandering monsters (and in that vein, porting ahead means you miss out on the XP, so you've done yourself a disservice :)). The chart isn't linear with distance, but I might taper it even more.

The setting influences the value of long range. If you can port 16,000 miles, you can reach anywhere on Earth. In the modern day, that saves you about a day of travel time. In 1000 AD, it makes some very difficult things easy.

08-01-2015, 10:49 AM	#1
Raekai World's Worst Detective Join Date: May 2011 Location: Columbus, Ohio	Help with Warp: Make base range lower and make high range an enhancement? Hey, all! It's been quite some time. I'm back to tackle Warp. It's a lovely 100 point advantage, but 100 points means that it is still 20 points with maxed-out limitations, which can be expensive for some lower-grade characters. One of the most common limitations (I would think) to add to Warp is Range Limit. But would there be another way to do Warp? What if we started with a Warp that had a limited range of 10 yards for X amount of points? Maybe 50 points? And then made increased ranges an enhancement. This would make it more accessible to characters with lower budgets. How would one go about doing that in the most balanced way? My GURPS theory is a little rusty, so I could use quite a bit of help. Thanks! __________________ Raekai's links: My blog about conlanging, GURPS, and other stuff! — Using Knowing Your Own Strength with Conditional Injury Simulating multiple attacks Wildcard Power Pool: a flexible magic/powers system Magic to RPM complete conversion v2 (incomplete) Perussinexian Magic 2 (outdated)

08-01-2015, 04:45 PM	#2
weby Join Date: Oct 2008	Re: Help with Warp: Make base range lower and make high range an enhancement? Well, basically warp is quite powerful and that is why it is priced so high. I do not have any suggestion as to the cost of a lesser version. But I do offer one possibility you might try tinkering with that I have used a few times with some heavily limited abilities that are really a lot less powerful than the base. There I have taken the first -80% of limitations and then counted that as new power and started again to calculate down from that as base. It is definitely not balanced for general use, but helps me to get an idea. As example applying that to warp as though exercise: Say we have warp that is: -50% 10 yard limit, naked -30% and causes a nausea blackslash for 10 minutes -30% would go over the -80% limit. So taking range and naked is -80% on warp, leaving 20 points, then taking the backslash at -30% on that leaves 14 points. Would that be balanced? No idea. Of course in a magic world you could just use charm and the teleport spell... but that is really not balanced against warp. __________________ -- GURPS spaceship unofficial errata and thoughts: https://gsuc.roto.nu/

08-01-2015, 06:06 PM	#3
Anaraxes Join Date: Sep 2007	Re: Help with Warp: Make base range lower and make high range an enhancement? The definition in Basic already includes a canonical range limit modifier. 10 yards is -50%. You could reverse the math. However, I find it's already difficult enough to counter Enhancements on expensive Advantages, especially the ones that chuck around +50% to +300%. I'm not sure I agree with the discount on B99. It seems to me that a lot of the advantage of Warp is gained even with a short range. You get essentially all of the combat power at 20 or 100 yards. You've got most of the barrier-bypassing power even at 10. Really long-range ports are convenient for travel -- but long trips are usually narrated away. You're not really skipping anything unless the rest of the party really is going to game out every day of that travel complete with wandering monsters (and in that vein, porting ahead means you miss out on the XP, so you've done yourself a disservice :)). The chart isn't linear with distance, but I might taper it even more. The setting influences the value of long range. If you can port 16,000 miles, you can reach anywhere on Earth. In the modern day, that saves you about a day of travel time. In 1000 AD, it makes some very difficult things easy.