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Old 03-25-2024, 08:27 AM   #1
Golgotha
 
Join Date: Mar 2024
Default [Powers] Designing a duplication ability

For an upcoming game, I’m working on a PC with a point limit of 375. The central themes is that this character would have the ability to ‘copy and paste’ items, people, and other things. The intent is that it would be restricted by the energy expenditure, and a head mounted limiter. Something reminiscent of a camera’s aperture, where it can be opened to differing sizes based off what needs to be summoned.

I’ve played around with Allie’s but found it’s too limiting, as the intent is that he’d be entirely limited by his surroundings or recently seen items. If possible, I think it would also be interesting to work through having a bank of entities he’s copied in the past but is yet to summon. How would I design this?
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Old 03-25-2024, 08:34 AM   #2
Golgotha
 
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Default Re: [Powers] Designing a duplication ability

I forgot to mention, I’d also be interested in designing a cut and paste version of the same ability? Ideally, without killing and making a copy. More like teleporting the item. Maybe he’d have a bank of ‘cut’ things, but copying could only take place by rescanning the item.
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Old 03-25-2024, 08:44 AM   #3
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Default Re: [Powers] Designing a duplication ability

Quote:
Originally Posted by Golgotha View Post
For an upcoming game, I’m working on a PC with a point limit of 375. The central themes is that this character would have the ability to ‘copy and paste’ items, people, and other things. The intent is that it would be restricted by the energy expenditure, and a head mounted limiter. Something reminiscent of a camera’s aperture, where it can be opened to differing sizes based off what needs to be summoned.

I’ve played around with Allie’s but found it’s too limiting, as the intent is that he’d be entirely limited by his surroundings or recently seen items. If possible, I think it would also be interesting to work through having a bank of entities he’s copied in the past but is yet to summon. How would I design this?
There isn't a single ability that fits this.

For objects, I would suggest one of two starting points: Either Create (in GURPS Powers) with modifiers, or Snatcher. For either one, you'd have to apply some modifiers.
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Old 03-25-2024, 09:34 AM   #4
Christopher R. Rice
 
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Default Re: [Powers] Designing a duplication ability

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Originally Posted by Golgotha View Post
For an upcoming game, I’m working on a PC with a point limit of 375. The central themes is that this character would have the ability to ‘copy and paste’ items, people, and other things. The intent is that it would be restricted by the energy expenditure, and a head mounted limiter. Something reminiscent of a camera’s aperture, where it can be opened to differing sizes based off what needs to be summoned.
That's just Affliction with Duplication. Unless you mean they can "copy" an item now and then "paste" it at will later. If so that's Snatcher with a modifier of around -20% for being limited to things you can see/understand. You can add other modifiers as needed. Do note that Snatcher is VERY expensive to get to a usable level and it doesn't do living things. You'd need to add a Cosmic modifier to get past that. Probably +50% for non-sentient living beings like plants, +100% for non-sapients, and +300% for anything living. But that's off the top of my head.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Golgotha View Post
I’ve played around with Allie’s but found it’s too limiting, as the intent is that he’d be entirely limited by his surroundings or recently seen items. If possible, I think it would also be interesting to work through having a bank of entities he’s copied in the past but is yet to summon. How would I design this?
I think making Allies with Summonable and then modifying it so it's a Wildcard Power would probably be your best bet here. Limit to taste.
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Old 03-25-2024, 10:06 AM   #5
Varyon
 
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Default Re: [Powers] Designing a duplication ability

So, we've got a character who can memorize some number of items or people, then create a singular copy of each one (with the creation removing the item/person from memory, and I'm assuming the character can't just immediately memorize the new copy). Is that correct?

For the items, this is going to be a modified version of Snatcher. I'd be inclined to use Limited Use, Slow Reload to represent the limited number of items that can be memorized; note this calls for 3+ seconds to memorize a target if you can memorize more than one (Reload typically calls for needing to purchase and carry extra "ammo," but I think the inconvenience of only being able to copy things that are present at the time of reloading makes up for this). I think there's a Limitation in Powers for Snatcher only working for things you've seen relatively recently, but if not I'd eyeball it at -20%.

For people, this is going to be an Ally with Summonable and the above Limited Use, Slow Reload. The Ally will only have two or maybe three traits - a modified version of Morph, Unkillable 3 (Mortal -20%*), and possibly Regeneration (Unkillable Only -40%) so it can be resummoned rapidly if slain. If you can have more than one summon up at a time, make it an Ally Group instead. The Morph would have some Limitations to represent that they can only take the form of someone you've memorized (I think there's a "Requires Sample" Limitation somewhere that would probably fit) and that the Ally takes the new form upon being summoned and cannot actually change again until resummoned (I'd eyeball that as somewhere between -20% and -40%).

Now make the two Alternate Abilities, and state that they share Uses. Technically, I think they should be tracked separately, but when either one is empty neither would be usable, but I think that's kind of a stupid arrangement, so I'd be more inclined to still track separately but you can still swap out when one runs dry. In that case, tracking them together is a bit of a Limitation; I'd probably just apply -10% or -20% to the lower-priced one and call it a day.


*Mortal is an unofficial Limitation from the website of RPK, the former Assistant Line Editor for GURPS. It makes it so the benefits of the first level of Unkillable - no death checks, and no automatic death until you hit -10xHP - don't apply. Essentially, a character with Unkillable 2 or 3 with Mortal -20% is not harder to kill than a normal character, they just don't stay dead.


EDIT: An alternative option is to only use Ally/Ally Group, and give their Morph the Enhancement that allows them to take any form, including an inanimate object. So that dagger you just created is actually your Ally transformed into a dagger. That may require working out how much each item would be worth as a character, however, to make certain they fit within your budget (although you may be able to just eyeball this).

EDIT2: I'll also note the above assumes the copy has the skills but not the specific knowledge of the original. So if you copied a master hacker and then directed them to break into the network of the original, they might get a bonus on account of the security being set up the same way they would have done it, but they don't automatically know the relevant passwords, where the decryption keys are stored, etc. If you want that capability, that's going to be some modified version of Mind Reading or similar.
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Last edited by Varyon; 03-25-2024 at 10:25 AM.
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Old 03-25-2024, 12:47 PM   #6
Golgotha
 
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Default Re: [Powers] Designing a duplication ability

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Originally Posted by Varyon View Post
For people, this is going to be an Ally with Summonable and the above Limited Use, Slow Reload. The Ally will only have two or maybe three traits - a modified version of Morph, Unkillable 3 (Mortal -20%*), and possibly Regeneration (Unkillable Only -40%) so it can be resummoned rapidly if slain. If you can have more than one summon up at a time, make it an Ally Group instead. The Morph would have some Limitations to represent that they can only take the form of someone you've memorized (I think there's a "Requires Sample" Limitation somewhere that would probably fit) and that the Ally takes the new form upon being summoned and cannot actually change again until resummoned (I'd eyeball that as somewhere between -20% and -40%).
Got it, do you think this would work for all living things?
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Old Yesterday, 11:45 AM   #7
Varyon
 
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Default Re: [Powers] Designing a duplication ability

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Originally Posted by Golgotha View Post
Got it, do you think this would work for all living things?
See Shapeshifting, starting on B83. The description for Morph does indeed indicate any living thing can be transformed into via Morph (provided you have the budget - bog-standard Morph isn't going to turn you into a dragon unless your own racial template is already equal or superior in value to that of the dragon). Technically, Morph allows you to assume a racial template, but it - or more often the related Alternate Form - has been used multiple times canonically for more individual shifts (Bio-Tech has an example of one that gets rid of certain mental Disadvantages and adds some more, alongside I believe some mental Advantages, for example; it's basically a programmed personality the character can switch to when the situation calls for it), so I don't see an issue with it allowing you to mimic a specific individual (so long as the GM is alright with it, anyway).

Whether plants count as "living things" would depend on the setting and GM, but inanimate objects and machines (and presumably cyborgs) explicitly call for an Enhancement. Universal +50% lets you turn into basically anything; you could potentially have a more restricted version of that at a lesser cost. If innate supernatural abilities are typically rather uncommon in the setting, the GM may opt to call for an additional Enhancement to duplicate such abilities, or may even call for such an Enhancement to be able to morph into the relevant form at all. In the first case, a character without that Enhancement would still be able to morph into a dragon but wouldn't have access to any of their magical abilities (so no fire-breathing, and possibly no flight). In the second, a character without that Enhancement wouldn't be able to morph into a dragon at all.
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Old Yesterday, 03:48 PM   #8
oneofmanynameless
 
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Default Re: [Powers] Designing a duplication ability

Quote:
Originally Posted by Golgotha View Post
I forgot to mention, I’d also be interested in designing a cut and paste version of the same ability? Ideally, without killing and making a copy. More like teleporting the item. Maybe he’d have a bank of ‘cut’ things, but copying could only take place by rescanning the item.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Golgotha View Post
For an upcoming game, I’m working on a PC with a point limit of 375. The central themes is that this character would have the ability to ‘copy and paste’ items, people, and other things. The intent is that it would be restricted by the energy expenditure, and a head mounted limiter. Something reminiscent of a camera’s aperture, where it can be opened to differing sizes based off what needs to be summoned.

I’ve played around with Allie’s but found it’s too limiting, as the intent is that he’d be entirely limited by his surroundings or recently seen items. If possible, I think it would also be interesting to work through having a bank of entities he’s copied in the past but is yet to summon. How would I design this?
Quote:
Originally Posted by whswhs View Post
There isn't a single ability that fits this.

For objects, I would suggest one of two starting points: Either Create (in GURPS Powers) with modifiers, or Snatcher. For either one, you'd have to apply some modifiers.
I'm inclined to agree with whshs. This is a power, not one ability. I think that three abilities basically do what you want here.

1) Snatcher (likely with create and with an accessibility for only for objects in your environment. Then maybe gadget limitations for the head mountain aspect, or maybe based on (photography) or something.)
2) Affliction (Duplication) for copying people. Make sure the duplication ability is appropriately modified with things like Construct and Duplicate gear as appropriate.
3) Affliction (Warp) for cutting and pasting, but there would probably be some kind of "delay" modifier on the warp. If you want to argue about nitty gritty rules you could do a more complicated build of Affliction (jumper) with a delayed (triggered) follow up of Affliction (jumper). So the ability pops them into a stasis-ey other dimensional space, and then when you trigger the follow-up they pop back. And if you want to be REALLY nitty gritty about it you should really do Affliction (jumper) with a delayed follow up (warp+jumper) that does the same thing but also takes moving them to a new location into account.
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Old Yesterday, 04:26 PM   #9
Donny Brook
 
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Default Re: [Powers] Designing a duplication ability

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Originally Posted by Christopher R. Rice View Post
That's just Affliction with Duplication. Unless you mean they can "copy" an item now and then "paste" it at will later.
Timespanning should cover that.
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