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Old 09-18-2013, 10:03 PM   #1
Lameth
 
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Default Now you see me...

So there is this movie, "now you me", not great, but not bad. In it are a group of various types of magicians. A player of mine wants to play a character like one that was in the movie..or a combo of them. In the movie the character was a young guy and there was a good scene in the film where while in an apartment he used "magic" to avoid cops and escape them. It appeared he used "invisibility art" with some limitations, and slight of hand and lizard claiming and heavy stealth as well as some combo material art with acrobatics and gymnastics.

If anyone has seen this film...how would you write up skills and abilities like these in this film that are so cinematic they almost are magic, but are not with out having to do bang skills.....as example.. A guy is handcuffed and as the cop reaches for him he was able to slip handcuff and "throw" them on the cop in less then a second.

Ideas?
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Old 09-18-2013, 10:09 PM   #2
the_matrix_walker
 
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Default Re: Now you see me...

I haven't seen the film, but it sounds like several good uses of Bullet Time to me! Though I might also allow a Combination: Slip handcuffs + attack style.

If you plan on using different special effects with the esoteric martial artsy skills, you can perk them off or take Trained By A Master Magician!
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Old 09-19-2013, 09:19 PM   #3
Lameth
 
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Default Re: Now you see me...

Anyone else?
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Old 09-19-2013, 09:47 PM   #4
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Default Re: Now you see me...

That specific trick isn't hard to model. You use Escape to get out of handcuffs, at -5 because modern ratcheting models are tough to escape. Any task can be performed "instantly" if the GM allows it and you accept -10 to skill. So Escape at 25+ and a decent roll will make that work. Then just roll against Throwing Art to use them as a weapon, probably getting swing damage.

If that sounds difficult, that's because it should be! There are some ways to make it workable without obscene levels of skill though.

Efficient would knock off -2 in time penalties, and you could make a unique technique to buy some of the rest. But how often do you actually need to escape handcuffs in a second.

It's entirely plausible that the character had gotten out of the cuffs beforehand and was simply play-acting until the right moment. But this thread isn't about favoring realism over crazy awesome skills.

Probably the best option is to let the PCs buy successes with points. There's a whole book (Power-Ups 5) filled with rules and advice for that. Then you have all the esoteric martial arts skills for the everyday stuff, and the characters can have a few crucial or awesome moments happen by fiat.
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Old 09-19-2013, 10:14 PM   #5
Anaraxes
 
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Default Re: Now you see me...

Or, since we're talking magicians, rather than Escape and its double-jointed slipperiness, they might Pickpocket the key, or Holdout a piece of wire, and use that to open the cuffs.
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Old 09-19-2013, 11:23 PM   #6
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Default Re: Now you see me...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lameth View Post
Anyone else?
One way to do it may be the advantage "Ghostly movement", in GURPS Horror, page 20. It is built from Warp, Basic Set, page 97, and is used to described psycho killer's ability to suddenly disappear when you don't look a them. "In every slaher movie, there's a moment when the camera looks away - and the killer is gone ! He slipped into the closet, or the air vent, or the shed, seemingly without ever opening the door."

Here are the precise advantage as it is built in horror:
Ghostly Movement: Warp (Accessibility, Only if Unobserved, -20%; Acessibility, Only places you could walk/climb to, given time, -20%; Extra Carrying Capacity, Medium, +20%; Range Limit, -50%) [30].

It may not perfectly work but, in my humble opinion, you can easily built another limited Warp advantage that fit better to what you want thanks to this this model.
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Old 09-19-2013, 11:27 PM   #7
Crakkerjakk
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Default Re: Now you see me...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gollum View Post
One way to do it may be the advantage "Ghostly movement", in GURPS Horror, page 20. It is built from Warp, Basic Set, page 97, and is used to described psycho killer's ability to suddenly disappear when you don't look a them. "In every slaher movie, there's a moment when the camera looks away - and the killer is gone ! He slipped into the closet, or the air vent, or the shed, seemingly without ever opening the door."

Here are the precise advantage as it is built in horror:
Ghostly Movement: Warp (Accessibility, Only if Unobserved, -20%; Acessibility, Only places you could walk/climb to, given time, -20%; Extra Carrying Capacity, Medium, +20%; Range Limit, -50%) [30].

It may not perfectly work but, in my humble opinion, you can easily built another limited Warp advantage that fit better to what you want thanks to this this model.
Yeah, the in-universe explanation is ridiculous levels of Stealth, Sleight of Hand, Escape, etc. But a better way to replicate a cinematic ability is just with an advantage, IMO. Movie magic is movie magic.
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Old 09-19-2013, 11:43 PM   #8
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Default Re: Now you see me...

In the movie you don't know how long the guy was concealing the fact that he had escaped from the cuffs and he doesn't throw the cuffs on the cop's wrist - he is close enough to place them on (he just does it very quickly). So you don't have to escape from the cuffs and put them on the cop all in one turn. I'd handle it by first making the escape roll. Then roll to conceal the fact that the cuffs are undone. Then roll to quickly place the cuffs on the other cop.
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Last edited by DanHoward; 09-20-2013 at 02:35 AM.
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Old 09-20-2013, 07:05 AM   #9
Gollum
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DanHoward View Post
In the movie you don't know how long the guy was concealing the fact that he had escaped from the cuffs and he doesn't throw the cuffs on the cop's wrist - he is close enough to place them on (he just does it very quickly). So you don't have to escape from the cuffs and put them on the cop all in one turn. I'd handle it by first making the escape roll. Then roll to conceal the fact that the cuffs are undone. Then roll to quickly place the cuffs on the other cop.
Which is a very fine way to do it too!

There are several ways to handle a same situation in GURPS... It all depends on your campaign. If, in your campaign, powers like that are true powers, that is powers that ordinary people can't learn, then an advantage is the best choice. But if you think that it is just a very high level of skill, then just handle it like several skill rolls.

Harry Houdini was a famous stage magician who specialized in Evasion. For him, escaping from cuffs was very easy. And it still sounded incredibly amazing for the audiance!

So, advantage or skill? ... It's up to you, as GM, to make the choice.

Last edited by Gollum; 09-20-2013 at 07:37 AM.
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Old 09-20-2013, 09:10 PM   #10
Lameth
 
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I intend to make it all skills and based on skills.
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