Last Gasp and Psi

[sir_pudding]

The Last Gasp (Pyramid #3/44: Alternate GURPS II p. 4-13) suggests 1 FP=10 AP for supernatural abilities. GURPS Psionic Powers gives costs of 1-2 FP for repeated attempts, extra effort, and techniques. 10-20 AP seems too high (especially 20 for techniques). I'm thinking that 4 AP for repeated attempts and 10 AP for techniques and extra effort is a better ratio. Anybody else solve this problem already, or have any good ideas?

[Mailanka]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

The Last Gasp (Pyramid #3/44: Alternate GURPS II p. 4-13) suggests 1 FP=10 AP for supernatural abilities. GURPS Psionic Powers gives costs of 1-2 FP for repeated attempts, extra effort, and techniques. 10-20 AP seems too high (especially 20 for techniques). I'm thinking that 4 AP for repeated attempts and 10 FP for techniques and extra effort is a better ratio. Anybody else solve this problem already, or have any good ideas?

I ran Last Gasp straight with my chi-powers, using things like power blow and extra effort. They ran fine. If players don't want to use AP, they spend fatigue like normal, and the 10 AP cost is important, as that's the price of one fatigue.

I'd recommend adjusting the FP cost rather than the AP cost, since they translate back and forth. If you feel repeated attempts are too costly, remove the fatigue cost. If you feel techniques are too costly, lower them to 1 fatigue. The point of Last Gasp isn't really the action points, it's that fatigue becomes very dear. Even if the player is outside of combat and thus not using action points, spending 3 fatigue on something will mean it'll be hours and hours before he has those back. That should be your prime concern.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Mailanka

I ran Last Gasp straight with my chi-powers, using things like power blow and extra effort. They ran fine. If players don't want to use AP, they spend fatigue like normal, and the 10 AP cost is important, as that's the price of one fatigue.

Isn't there room for more granular costs here? Instead of 10 and 20 can't it be 10 and 15 and so on?

I'd recommend adjusting the FP cost rather than the AP cost, since they translate back and forth. If you feel repeated attempts are too costly, remove the fatigue cost. If you feel techniques are too costly, lower them to 1 fatigue. The point of Last Gasp isn't really the action points, it's that fatigue becomes very dear. Even if the player is outside of combat and thus not using action points, spending 3 fatigue on something will mean it'll be hours and hours before he has those back. That should be your prime concern.

Yeah, it seems like you should be able to use Psionic techniques a few times in a combat without it putting you in the hospital.

So maybe reduce the cost of repeated attempts to 0 FP (4 AP) and the cost of Techniques and Extra Effort to 1 FP (10 AP)?

[Mailanka]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Isn't there room for more granular costs here? Instead of 10 and 20 can't it be 10 and 15 and so on?

I wouldn't use them. The point of AP is to have a "temporary" store that recovers quickly, vs the "heavy" use of an actual FP. AP are not "fatigue finely divided into tenths." If I can spend 10 AP out of my pool and then Do Nothing for a few turns, I have all my AP back and I'm fine. If I spend a fatigue, then I'll be out for an hour. Thus, spending fatigue out of AP is meant to be expensive. It's meant to be easier to just spend 1 fatigue.

Thus, 15 becomes weird, because in situations where AP don't matter, would you spend 1 or 2 fatigue? Or are you going to allow them to use AP and then rest for a few seconds of "non-combat time." And if you're going to make "fatigue" that cheap, why are you using Last Gasp at all? Why not just return back to 1 fatigue per 15 minutes?

If the answer to that last question is "Because I want sleep and battle to be utterly exhausting, but I don't like the idea of psi being utterly exhausting," then why not a psi-focused energy reserve that recovers 1 point every 15 minutes, and if they run out of that, they can spend out of fatigue. Use of psi still counts as an action, and thus costs 1 AP like any other action.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Mailanka

Why not just return back to 1 fatigue per 15 minutes?

Isn't that 10 minutes?

If the answer to that last question is "Because I want sleep and battle to be utterly exhausting, but I don't like the idea of psi being utterly exhausting," then why not a psi-focused energy reserve that recovers 1 point every 15 minutes, and if they run out of that, they can spend out of fatigue.

At [3/level] or as a "free" energy reserve?

Use of psi still counts as an action, and thus costs 1 AP like any other action.

Concentrate doesn't cost AP normally, does it?

[vierasmarius]

I think one point to keep in mind is that The Last Gasp introduces far harsher recovery times on any FP expended; it's equivalent to adding a Hazard like Missed Sleep to all FP loss. With that in mind, I think it's absolutely appropriate to lower the FP costs for Extra Effort and similar actions, and increase the discount for the Costs FP limitation. In many cases Extra Effort might still be rounded up to 1 FP, but an AP cost of less than 10 would still make sense.

[Mailanka]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

At [3/level] or as a "free" energy reserve?

You can grant free levels of energy reserve, and require players to purchase any additional that they want. RPM does something similar.

[sir_pudding]

I think what I want is for psi to be exhausting but not prohibitively so.

[Mailanka]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

I think what I want is for psi to be exhausting but not prohibitively so.

Depending on your definition of "prohibitively exhausting," all fatigue expenditures in the Last Gasp are "prohibitive." That's the point of the Last Gasp. I don't think AP is an appropriate expense per your requirements because it isn't exhausting under any circumstances but combat (that is, nothing stops you from spending your 4 AP and then spending one second "doing nothing" outside of combat, just like there's no fatigue cost to swinging a sword a couple of times out of combat).

It sounds to me like you want fractional fatigue, like a technique costs "half" a fatigue. But AP aren't your solution for that.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Mailanka

Depending on your definition of "prohibitively exhausting," all fatigue expenditures in the Last Gasp are "prohibitive."

I mean "nobody would ever do it".

That's the point of the Last Gasp.

I don't think the point is make PCs want to avoid doing anything.

I don't think AP is an appropriate expense per your requirements because it isn't exhausting under any circumstances but combat (that is, nothing stops you from spending your 4 AP and then spending one second "doing nothing" outside of combat, just like there's no fatigue cost to swinging a sword a couple of times out of combat).

How is this any different from costing something at 10 AP as Doug suggests?

It sounds to me like you want fractional fatigue, like a technique costs "half" a fatigue. But AP aren't your solution for that.

I want to use The Last Gasp for everything else. Why can't psionics fit?