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Old 06-10-2018, 06:21 PM   #1
Pursuivant
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Default How to Model "Winking out of existence"?

I'm wondering how to model the ability to "vanish into nothingness" at will.

Unlike Warp or Jumper, you don't physically go anywhere, you just physically cease to exist for a period of time while your soul, computer program, or whatever, continues to exist in a state where you can't be damaged except by powerful and esoteric means.

Typically, such creatures are banished or summoned by others, but sometimes they might have the power to manifest and vanish at will.

Usually, they go into a form of "stasis" where the time spent banished is lost to them as if they were in a coma. A few might be able to exist as entities which are still capable of thought but no other action.

Examples: Traditional "genie in a bottle", demons summoned/banished to/from nothingness, science fiction holograms, magical illusions or "created beings" (e.g., products of Illusion & Creation College spells).

I'm thinking a limited version of Jumper is most appropriate, possibly combined with Unkillable 2 or 3 depending on how hard it is for you to return if you are killed or banished. For "can be summoned" creatures, add a variant of Involuntary Duty.

Possibly, it's a new advantage based on aspects of multiple existing advantages.
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Old 06-10-2018, 06:37 PM   #2
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Default Re: How to Model "Winking out of existence"?

I would go with a limited form of Jumper.
Possibly side effect like Nocturnal or even Coma.
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Old 06-10-2018, 06:38 PM   #3
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Default Re: How to Model "Winking out of existence"?

Sounds like it might be Insubstantiality with a Linked Invisibility - or a few of them, possibly also with a Linked Silence and/or Obscure w/ Stealthy for other senses.
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Old 06-11-2018, 02:15 AM   #4
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Default Re: How to Model "Winking out of existence"?

The "going someplace else" bit is easy - a variation on Jumper or Warp that allows you to bug out instantly but only allows you to go one "place."

The part that I'm struggling with is how to price the "not existing" bit. It's an advantage because you're basically immune to damage and most other bad stuff. It's a serious disadvantage because you're effectively out of the game until someone brings you back.

I'm thinking that overall it's an advantage worth about 20 points, but as part of a package, it's worth considerably more since it usually comes with Unkillable 3.

Advantages:

Jumper (Enhancement: Extra Carrying Capacity (Medium Encumbrance), +20%. Limitations: Only to "void," -80%, Nuisance Effect (Unconscious and cease to physically exist while in void), -10%, Power Limitation (Magical, Psionic, or Technological, -10%) [20].

Unkillable 3 (Physical body ceases to exist at -HP, permanent destruction requires specialized magic or ultratech attack) (Limitation: Magical, Psionic, or Technological, -10%.) [135]

Total Advantages: 155 (Note: Jumper and Unkillable not linked because you remain Unkillable even in material form.)

Disadvantages:

Duty (15-, Involuntary. Enhancement: Cosmic, +50%, Can be summoned by magic, computer operation, etc.) [-30];

Fragile (Unnatural) [-50]

Total Disad: -80

Total Package: 75
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Old 06-11-2018, 05:16 AM   #5
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Default Re: How to Model "Winking out of existence"?

I'd say it's simply Jumper (Time), only forward, only into the next closest legal moment of 'reappearance' (which may include a moment of summoning).
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Old 06-11-2018, 05:36 AM   #6
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Default Re: How to Model "Winking out of existence"?

The examples seem inconsistent on the exact effects.

A genie in a bottle, for instance, I don't usually think of as being immune or not existing. It's just inside its bottle. If you happened to be in there, it's not immune to damage. It's just in an unusual place. Getting inside the bottle would seem to be covered by the OP specification that the ability has an exception for exotic means -- like being able to follow a genie into a bottle.

If the place you Jump to is sufficiently isolated, no "wandering monsters" are going to bother you while you're there. That bottle is a tiny pocket dimension with no other inhabitants. It's safer than houses, if you define it that way.

Immunity to damage occurring in a place where you aren't present and being unkillable by enemies that can't reach you is an Advantage built into the baseline human package. All characters have that ability, for free. That is, it's already covered by Warp/Jumper (unless you use one of the special limitations in an attempt to build something like astral projection, which is a limitation precisely because it leaves behind a vulnerable target).

If you want the ability user to be unconscious until re-summoned, then add a Nuisance Effect / Backlash to that effect. Summoned creatures don't usually cease to exist; they just go back where they came from, even when we don't care about that place.

Conjured creatures literally created on the spot aren't usually enough of a character to care about what happens after they disappear, and except for a few special cases aren't the same mind from summons to summons -- or even much of mind while they're around, as they're usually automata, zombies, illusions, etc., that just do what they're told, so the question doesn't apply.

If you do want to remain present and observant, yet immune except for special abilities, then Insubstantial (as has been mentioned) is generally the place to start. If you want to be immune only in your bottle (for whatever reason), then that's just Accessbility or Environmental on the Insubstantial.
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Old 06-11-2018, 09:47 AM   #7
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Default Re: How to Model "Winking out of existence"?

D&D has a number of attacks or abilities that result in the target or the user to be "removed from play" and then either reappear in the same place or a nearby place at a set time later or once the subject makes a saving throw (checked each turn).

They have different descriptions and different subtleties, but they revolve around the same basic mechanic.

Some sends the target to an actual place(s). Hurl Through Hell (one of my favorite spell names) sends the target away for 9 turns as they spend one turn on each of the 9 layers of Hell (and take 9 different flavors of damage - In GURPS I'd probably replace some of that with Fright Checks and/or afflictions or something else more interesting).

Some basically send the user (or target) to a pocket dimension or suchlike, and they may experience time passing and get to drink potions, use spells, etc., without knowing what's going on "In the real world". The alternative is that they are suspended for the duration of the effect. The spell lasts for a set period of time (in the real world - may be a different time rate in the pocket dimension) and then they pop out where they disappeared from or as close to it as possible.

Some send the subject to a pocket dimension but allow awareness of where they left. Rope Trick and Leomunds Tiny Hut(? might be the wrong Leomund spell) are classic spells that do this kind of thing if I recall.

I'm quite sure there are effects from other tabletop games, videogames, and literature that freeze people into an invulnerable immobile condition but don't completely remove them.

Kholat (videogame) doesn't show, but describes a victim of A Supernatural Phenomenon(tm) being levitated into the air and frozen solid - immovable in space relative to the Earth, in suspension, and since it's a horror game probably going crazy the entire time. He recovers a few hours later in ... an altered mental state. Anton? WHERE IS ANTON!?
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Last edited by Bruno; 06-11-2018 at 09:51 AM.
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Old 06-11-2018, 09:50 AM   #8
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Default Re: How to Model "Winking out of existence"?

I think a Genies Bottle (and things like Rope Trick and such) may be best done as Jumper to a pocket dimension and then scrying at the fixed location of your bottle via Clairsentience. Depends on if you think of the Genie being bounced around when you shake the bottle, or having a whole palace "inside" and largely unaffected by the outside world - it's just the portal between dimensions is sealed/freed based on the status of the bottle.

I think classical genies are miserable and squeezed into bottles, and the "whole castle inside" is a more modern invention, but I could be wrong on that point.
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Old 06-11-2018, 10:57 AM   #9
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Default Re: How to Model "Winking out of existence"?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruno View Post
scrying at the fixed location of your bottle
Perhaps, assuming the genie has any knowledge of external events, and chooses to come out of the bottle of its own volition.

Instead, consider having the bottle grant a "Release Contained" ability to the owner, which Jumps the genie back outside the bottle. Because:

Quote:
I think classical genies are miserable and squeezed into bottles
Yes; they were prisons, not homes, which is one reason djinn were often supposed to be grateful for being released.

As always, the details will depend on the setting you want to build and the stories you want to tell. King Solomon is not Aladdin is not Tony Nelson.
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Old 06-11-2018, 03:14 PM   #10
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Default Re: How to Model "Winking out of existence"?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruno View Post
I think a Genies Bottle (and things like Rope Trick and such) may be best done as Jumper to a pocket dimension and then scrying at the fixed location of your bottle via Clairsentience. Depends on if you think of the Genie being bounced around when you shake the bottle, or having a whole palace "inside" and largely unaffected by the outside world - it's just the portal between dimensions is sealed/freed based on the status of the bottle.

I think classical genies are miserable and squeezed into bottles, and the "whole castle inside" is a more modern invention, but I could be wrong on that point.
For the character I had that was a genie that could go in or be trapped in a bottle, I just used Alternate Form with appropriate limitations. It's very easy as it's a 0 point form.
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