11-23-2018, 03:22 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Apr 2016
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Power Limitations with no point value
Is it correct or fair for a GM to apply a limitation to a power when it doesn't return any point savings?
For example; "Accessibility; Not During Full Moon" -10% applied to a trait or power that has a base cost < 10CP. The rounding rule means that the limitation, which can be tactically significant to the character, and may be necessary to the setting, may cost the character that Perk, Easy skill or Technique. |
11-23-2018, 05:17 PM | #2 | |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Saskatoon, SK, Canada
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Re: Power Limitations with no point value
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And, of course, the ability might be built with more limitations than just the power modifier, and that extra -10% (or whatever, not all power modifiers are confined to that value) could make the difference between saving a point or not. I suppose, if a player had a bunch of abilities that were all below the threshold where the power modifier was saving them any points, I'd consider giving out an extra point or two to that character, to compensate a little. That would be no more than 1 point per two or three abilities, mind. |
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11-23-2018, 05:36 PM | #3 |
Join Date: Sep 2007
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Re: Power Limitations with no point value
Certainly. The primary purpose of Limitations (and Enhancements) is to model the character concept with some game-mechanical effects to help the immersion. If an ability or an entire power isn't supposed to work during the full moon, then it doesn't. It wouldn't make sense for a few of the abilities of that power to keep on working while others stop.
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11-23-2018, 07:54 PM | #4 |
Join Date: Aug 2015
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Re: Power Limitations with no point value
I sometimes feel Power Modifier shouldn't even be a limitation by itself; vulnerability to specific countermeasures and such is balanced out by gaining bonuses from Talent.
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11-23-2018, 08:20 PM | #5 |
Join Date: Aug 2018
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Re: Power Limitations with no point value
Gaining bonuses from talent isn't worth anything unless you buy a talent, it's arguably built into the cost of a talent. The freedom to buy certain advantages sounds more like unusual background.
Not all powers suffer countermeasures, only those which specify that like psychic/magic. Stuff like chi or biological or cosmic doesn't have countermeasures, there's no neutralize for them since the cost doesn't reflect that. |
11-23-2018, 08:29 PM | #6 |
Join Date: Aug 2015
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Re: Power Limitations with no point value
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11-23-2018, 08:36 PM | #7 |
Join Date: Dec 2007
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Re: Power Limitations with no point value
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11-23-2018, 10:57 PM | #8 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Power Limitations with no point value
Quote:
But that's a matter of the nuances of how to use power modifiers. It's not invalidating the basic concept. I like power modifiers as a source of flavor. Giving players a cost break for taking them makes it likely that such flavor will be more prevalent. A while back, for Pyramid, I wrote up a setting where there were over a dozen different power modifiers for supers of different types—including one that came to 0%, designed to set super normals apart from mundanes—and without the Super modifier being available at all. . . .
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
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11-24-2018, 06:56 AM | #9 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Re: Power Limitations with no point value
0% power modifiers can be fun. For example, you could have a 0% power modifier with the following modifiers: Backlash, Ecstasy, Resisted by HT, -50%; Cosmic, +50%. While it would not give any points back, it offers a significant bonus and penalty, and would result in interesting RP opportunities (the reason to have Ecstasy rather than Agony would be to prevent munchkins from using High Pain Threshold to reduce the severity of the Backlash).
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11-24-2018, 08:34 AM | #10 |
Join Date: Sep 2007
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Re: Power Limitations with no point value
Power Modifiers are a convenient way to express consistent traits so that all abilities of a power have a similar feel from their common pros and cons (Enhancments and Limitations). They don't have to come out to -10% -- Powers just does it that way so they don't have to recalculate the value of all those example abilities for each different power.
And there's nothing "built in" to a Power Modifier. If you want it to come out to 0%, that's easily arranged. If a GM somehow isn't going to field opposition that can effectively oppose the characters' abilities -- well, it's your game, so just leave out the countermeasures Limitation and go mow down the hapless mooks. Powers don't automatically come with countermeasures. It's just generally a more interesting game that way. The classic counterexample is the mage in wainscot fantasy. None of those mundanes know about or believe in magic, so they don't have magical defenses. But in that sort of work, they're also not the real opposition -- and the real opponents generally are clued in, and can and do put up pentgrams and scrywalls and anti-teleport fields. In that sort of game, you'd still include a countermeasures Limitation not because every has it (not everyone in the real world wears ballistic vests with trauma plates, either), but because the significant opposition will be prepared. To truly lack countermeasures, the GM has a trickier balancing act. You could, for example, go for a technology-vs-magic game, where none of the technologists have magical defenses -- nor do any of those medieval wizards have the savvy to really defend themselves against modern technology. But then you're going to have to be careful about exactly which sorts of magic and tech you allow and how powerful they can be. You can't just mind control all the techy leaders, or send an ICBM to the Dark Lord's tower, and have much of a contest. |
Tags |
limitations, point discount, rounding |
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