Rules you ignore/alter.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Job rolls are one of the rules I ignore. Job results really aren't that random on a scale of a month, any sudden changes to your job situation are generally going to come from independent events unrelated to your actual job skill, so there's not much point to making job skill rolls.

I've used job rolls before, but usually only for highly volatile working situations:

Finance rolls for a city spending more than it can afford. The PC's were the city founders and leaders, and we were using the rules for city management from Pyramid 54. That's a pretty high variance job, and they were pushing the city's resources. Events from outside effected the roll, but I generated them / planned them in advance separately.

Hours of study gained in a studying situation. Not for all games. This is from "Back to School", and in games where its appropriate, it helps keep time sheet abuse under control, as well as bringing in a touch of grounding.

Rolls to avoid being discovered when undercover for a long period of time, or otherwise actively doing an action in secret for a lengthy period. Is it a job roll? maybe. maybe not. But its really convenient to schedule that roll at the same time as all of the other monthly rolls.

[kirbwarrior]

Infinite Extra Lives is 250pts. Instead of coming up with a fiddly Unkillable + Regeneration build, you can just pay this cost to be allowed to come back once the current scene is over. A player came up with it and I think it's fine (it's probably overpriced to be honest, you can get something similar for 210pts).

I don't remember if I said this, but I don't drop fractions on Basic Move. That fraction can matter out of combat. Instead, you just ignore it when in combat because you have to move full hexes.

[Bucket_Head]

Originally Posted by kirbwarrior

Infinite Extra Lives is 250pts. Instead of coming up with a fiddly Unkillable + Regeneration build, you can just pay this cost to be allowed to come back once the current scene is over. A player came up with it and I think it's fine (it's probably overpriced to be honest, you can get something similar for 210pts).

I don't remember if I said this, but I don't drop fractions on Basic Move. That fraction can matter out of combat. Instead, you just ignore it when in combat because you have to move full hexes.

I quote a link from a thread I was just talking in that came to a different price.

Originally Posted by Plane

Losing the CP spent on "one use" advantages (1/5 like Favor) is bothersome.

The "effect" of a permanent limitation like "One User Ever -80%" seems like something which should vanish if you "buy up" the limitation.

Until then you should count as keeping the trait, you just can't use it. Kinda like how "requires 8 hours prep" abilities are useless if you can never actually find that prep time (there is a rat which nibbles your toe every hour and distracts you), but have a hidden value of "I can buy up that limitation and get some use"

I think the precedent for this exists in Psionic Powers when one temporarily adds the "Decreased Immunity" enhancement (pg 21) to re-use an ability against someone who already acquired immunity to it: Mind Swap on page 62

"If you lose or tie, you are stunned for 1d seconds and you cannot try to swap with that
person again without using the New Approach psi technique."

The way max immunity works for possession is like gaining "one use only -80%" only applying to "one person only", while "Decreased Immunity" gradually lessens "one use only".

So if Mind Swap / New Approach works that way, you should also be able to "buy up" any other one-use ability later on and retroactively interpret the past failure as fulfilling whatever your new condition is.

Like how New Approach turns "that one time they failed? immune forever" into "just -2, as if you had Decreased Immunity all along".

Extra Life [25] as Extra Lives (-80% one use ever) [25] variant of Extra Lives [125] probably does mean it should function like sort sort of tweaked UK2 ("I get back up") or UK3 ("I vanished in the blast but then re-appeared at a convenient time")

Actually using your "one use ever" should not remove the advantage, just make it unusable (like if you have "needs staff" magery but can't get a staff for years) until you have grounds to buy off the limitation.

If it actually costs permanent CP each time then Extra Lives (-80% costs 1-3 cp per use) [25] is the same discount, having the advantage you can use it more than once but the disadvantage that you've lost CP total while the "one use" guy has not, so he's closer to buying that limitation up to "one use per day" than you are.

[Anthony]

Speaking of rules to ignore or alter, Visualization -- I delete the roll, it's just +2 if you get it exactly right, +1 if mostly right.

[kirbwarrior]

Originally Posted by Bucket_Head

I quote a link from a thread I was just talking in that came to a different price.

I do like the idea of treating One Use as a limitation you can buy off. However, 125 seems really cheap. I guess if it's a once per session deal, then maybe.

Originally Posted by Anthony

Speaking of rules to ignore or alter, Visualization -- I delete the roll, it's just +2 if you get it exactly right, +1 if mostly right.

I don't think I've ever seen anyone use Visualization. It seems very powerful but also annoying to use (replace 'annoying' with 'broken' when adding No Roll Required). However, I kind of like the idea of dropping the need to explain it as a player and just rely on how well you succeed; +1 for any success, +2 for MoS 5, +3 for crit.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by kirbwarrior

It seems very powerful but also annoying to use
(replace 'annoying' with 'broken' when adding No Roll Required)

still not as good as Super Luck or Buying Success, since no amount of bonus can guarantee a crit success

and being able to get 1/3 the bonus w/ potentially unlimited penalties for your prediction deviating from what actually happens limits it in a lot of circumstances with last-minute deviations.

"the sword thrusts" when "the sword swings"
"at my face" when it's "at my arm"
"not spinning" when it's "spinning"
"strong" when it's "determined"
"all-out" when it's "committed"
"no extra effort" when "extra effort" is used

One of the effects of all the new combat options added in Martial Arts is you have many more criteria that your vision can be specific about, and not getting those specifics right means a less accurate version, whether that means failing to get the max +2 bonus, or having your MoS bonus divided, or getting penalties on top of that.

You need to specify all of this before your foe attacks you, even as a free action.

To do something like this on your opponent's turn should probably require a 'power dodge' roll. If it succeeds, you can activate your ability in time to penalize their roll to hit you with the added input of knowing what kind of attack they chose to make. If it fails, they hit you before you could make your visualization roll, so instead it takes place AFTER...

I think part of visualization might also be "specify the time it happens" so if you got that wrong, there could be progressive penalties too. So maybe it helps penalize his NEXT attack, but then it's not just the timing which is off but possibly the type/weapon/technique/options too.

Even when a power dodge is allowed, I think maybe GM could force you to make perception checks to discern criteria of the attack AS IT IS HAPPENING.

I don't know for example, if it should always be taken for granted "I should use Feverish Defense because my foe is using Mighty Blows"

I have heard "it's obvious they're All-Out Attacking" (not sure if that means it's also obvious they'er using Strong and not Determined) but I like the idea of perception checks being made to find out stuff like that, even if it's something like a +10 for obvious

[kirbwarrior]

Originally Posted by Plane

still not as good as Super Luck

I would hope the advantage worth 1/10 the price isn't as good as Super Luck ;)

Originally Posted by Plane

"the sword thrusts" when "the sword swings"
"at my face" when it's "at my arm"
"not spinning" when it's "spinning"
"strong" when it's "determined"
"all-out" when it's "committed"
"no extra effort" when "extra effort" is used

One of the effects of all the new combat options added in Martial Arts is you have many more criteria that your vision can be specific about, and not getting those specifics right means a less accurate version, whether that means failing to get the max +2 bonus, or having your MoS bonus divided, or getting penalties on top of that.

You need to specify all of this before your foe attacks you, even as a free action.

All of this, especially the bold, is why I called it annoying to use. It now even seems like it can easily slow down and/or get in the way of play, especially with things like Reduced Time. Simplifying it to being +1/+2(/+3) and not requiring player skill but character skill. just seems like a cleaner ability.

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by Plane

still not as good as Super Luck or Buying Success, since no amount of bonus can guarantee a crit success

Super Luck is ten times the price, so it better be more effective. As for buying success - that costs a lot in the long term, and is an optional rule that many groups don't use, and so not directly comparable.

The biggest problem I see with Visualisation as written, is that it relies on you as a player being on the same page as the GM with respect to the situation. Given the limited bandwidth of verbal communication, even with visual aids, this can be a problem. It also rewards players who are good at visualising things and describing them too much compared to those less gifted, I think.

One of the effects of all the new combat options added in Martial Arts is you have many more criteria that your vision can be specific about, and not getting those specifics right means a less accurate version, whether that means failing to get the max +2 bonus, or having your MoS bonus divided, or getting penalties on top of that.

Visualisation isn't a combat advantage unless heavily modified.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by Rupert

rewards players who are good at visualising things and describing them too much compared to those less gifted, I think.

I am penalized for lacking common sense because I need to buy Common Sense to have GM let my char roll IQ to avoid making mistakes I would make. :(

Meanwhile, people who are smart as their chars can play them w/o ever needing to buy Common Sense.

It's like... if you are suave you can just talk NPCs into doing things and the GM could be so caught up in the words YOU use that they don't even both to roll for social skills.

[AlexanderHowl]

I never allow players to replace their character's Reaction/Influence rolls with RP (though I give up to +2 for good RP and inflict up to -2 for bad RP). It is similar with IQ rolls, a player must roll IQ to see if their character comes up with a good idea and, if they succeed, then they can share their idea (a detailed description gives up to a +2 to subsequent rolls concerning the idea while a vague description inflicts up to a -2 to subsequent rolls concerning the idea).