Super Powered Equipments that Grants Super Powers

[Shishiwashi]

Hello fellow forum dwellers.

I currently face a problem with Equipment Creation in GURPS.

What I want to achieve is the creation of an equipment that grants the user super powers. Example: a ring that gives the user Super Strength, a Hat that gives the user Elastic Skin, and so on. At the same time, I want the equipment to have super powers of its own. For example: Mana Enhancer, Damage Resistance, Invisiblity and so on.

That is turning out be quite complicated. I do not want a ring that turns me invisible: I want a ring that is invisible. And at the same time, grants the wearer an array of new advantages.

Since the ring isn't a sapient being, it makes no sense to create it as an Ally. If I did, it would have a lot of unnecessary features like Income, Encumbrance, Basic Speed, Basic Move, all the Attributes themselves would be useless too. It's just an object with powers. I don't want to create a whole new Character for each Powered Equipment I create. And if I did, I would just reduce all those unnecessary features to zero and farm a thousand points from doing it. Creating them as Allies doesn't work.

I have been searching the books and the forum and so far haven't found any guidelines of how to proceed with that. They're not magical, therefore I don't want to use Enchantment rules for them (I also personally don't like the Enchantment rules; they're unnecessarly complicated). They're not achievable by normal means, therefore I don't want to just guess a "suitable price" for them and create them as Signature Gears.

I want to create "Equipments with their own Advantages that also grants New Advantages for whoever wears them".

During my research, I have found out that people are used to just adding limitations such as "Breakable" to the Advantages Package that the Equipment grants and that is it. But that won't do it, since the powers granted by the equipment are not mine: anyone who wears the Equipment will have those Advantages temporarly, without having to pay points for them. Imagine what a nightmare it would be if everytime someone got their hands on a "special equipment" they would have to redistribute their points to be able to "receive" those temporarly Advantages.

Therefore, just "paying for the Advantages with some extra limitations" won't work as well, since anyone who would use it would have to spend points just to be able to use them (which makes no sense).

I'm almost deciding to just create two "packages" of Advantages and labeling them as "Advantages Granted" and "Equipment Advantages", apply the appropriate modifiers and treat them as a Template.

If there was a special type of Ally, like a "Ally who is not a being, but an object with 'object-achievable' advantages", I could use the Ally rules for it, solving the problem of the "Equipment Advantages" (I would just spend the Ally points on them), but not the "Advantages Granted".

After all, how could an Ally 'grant' an Advantage simply because he is "touching" you? If I proceeded that way, I would have to create an absurdly complicated kind of 'eternal affliction' that activates automatically and affects you without any tests when you touch it, but ends with no explanation when you stop touching it, and lasts for an undetermined period of time.

Also, Afflictions are one of the most expensive Advantages. To achieve one with those results I would spend a thousand points and it would not be enough. On the other hand, an Advantage Package with Gadget Limitations would be extremely cheap, but would only work for me, not for "the person who is wearing this equipment right now".

I have created quite the problem. Does anyone have the wits to help me?

[mr beer]

If the Advantage belongs to an inanimate object, then it only needs points to the extent it assist the user, right?

So a ring which grants Super Strength but also happens to be Invisible, well, it's just an item which is harder to locate and destroy, correct? Maybe it's a Perk more than anything else. Or a +5% Enhancement, something like that.

Damage Resistance just makes harder to destroy, that's probably in RAW for items.

Mana Enhancer, that's a straight-up Advantage granted for the wielder, price as normal.

[Gef]

Default assumption is that ownership of a super item is valuable and costs points, even if the item would work for someone else. That's why "Can Be Stolen" earns a discount, and why the discount is lower if the item won't work for the thief. So the fact that the item can work for others doesn't change its point cost; build as advantages with Gadget limitations. [NOTE: It is possible that some items will have a different point cost for different owners. For instance, if a magic sword provides an enhancement like Affects Insubstantial to strength-based damage, the point cost of the sword will depend on the owner's ST.]

The fact that the item has some powers that work on itself, not the owner, is only a little more tricky. If the item having the power doesn't benefit the owner in any way, then it costs nothing! But suppose there is some benefit; for instance, an invisible ring will be harder to steal. In that case, decide on a value for the Accessibility limitation "Item Only." That's it.

It is strictly up to you as the game master to determine when a character becomes the "owner" of a super item and thus obligated to pay its point cost, and there's nothing wrong with concluding that nobody owns such items, that whoever comes into possession of one is such a target that he'd best make good use of it while he may, or that he will "pay" for retaining it with constant battle, or careful security measures, rather than points.

GEF

[zoncxs]

Pyramid issue 3-34 have biomechs. With it you can create "allies" with powers that have 0 IQ.

Then have them have an affliction that grants what ever power you want. Its a little bit of work but it will get you there.

So who ever holds the "ally" is granted the power.

[Anaraxes]

The items aren't intelligent, so they aren't allies. They're Gadgets. Build them with appropriate Gadget limitations. Point cost of the material itself is largely irrelevant. If a ring is invisible, for instance, then just reduce the discount from Can Be Stolen since it's less likely that people will know to steal it. (And be sure to have the character misplace it at least once, searching the base for their undetectable ring, unable to remember where they left it...)

Yes, usually putting your powers in Gadgets does still call for an expenditure of character points (CP). Otherwise, it's be trivial to have an infinite-point supers character. In the genre, the "equipment" is usually unique to an individual and not traded around much, so it's appropriate for a character to pay for the Advantages. Not just anyone hops into Iron Man's suit or grabs Batman's utility belt.

The reason Gadget modifiers provide a discount is that it becomes much more possible to be deprived of the Advantages and even have them used against you, compared to innate abilities.

If you don't care about CP, though, feel free to ignore them. Many GMs don't track CP totals after the game starts, and just treat Advantages and Disadvantages gained during play as the results of the game. You don't really _have_ to change CP when the equipment changes hands. However, you are going to want to keep a close eye on balance and fairness, and how the players feel about such things. You'll also face the problem that the game becomes about the equipment, and not the characters, who become colorless drones that just carry the equipment around.

If the characters are expected to swap out equipment frequently -- perhaps there's an arsenal in the super-base where they gear up for particular missions -- then I'd have the characters buy Modular Ability pools and allow them to equip gear up to that total. Trading gear or returning to base to re-equip is the method by which the MA slot points are rearranged.

The Gadgeteer advantage is another way to build changing gear that gives various Advantages.

[whswhs]

You buy the powers that it grants the user as advantages with gadget limitations. As mr beer said, the powers it has in itself really only matter if they affect the gadget limitations. For example, if you have a suit of supermetal armor with DR 20, that probably means it gives you DR 20 (when you're wearing it), but the armor itself also probably has DR 20, which makes it less breakable. If you have a ring that's invisible, your enemies are pretty much only going to be able to take it away if they hold you down and search your entire body, which is a different penalty than if they can see it on your finger. But since you're not building the ring as a character, you don't worry about the point cost of Invisibility.

You'd only need to build the ring as a character if it has a mind and will of its own, which would make it an Ally.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Shishiwashi

anyone who wears the Equipment will have those Advantages temporarly, without having to pay points for them.

If these devices will not stay with characters, but can and will be gained, lost and swapped around, you're giving up the idea that all the player characters have (approximately) the same point total, because their effective point totals will vary with their possession of equipment. They gain the use of Advantages, maybe major ones, which affects their effective point total.

Now, the idea that characters have similar point totals is not a GURPS rule, but a convention that helps avoid some characters dominating play, which can annoy the players whose characters aren't dominating events. Some games do not bother with this convention, and have characters with very different point totals, and it seems to work for them. But you should be conscious of the fact that you're abandoning the convention, because quite a lot of GURPS material and writing assumes it implicitly.

Once you abandon that convention, your problems disappear. You may have different ones, but that depends on how your game gets played.

[Shishiwashi]

Thank you for the interesting suggestion, Mr. Beer.

Are you implying that, since Advantages/Disadvantages like "Invisibility for the Item" doesn't help the user, but the Equipment, they should be treated as Perks/Quirks? If so, how would the character pay for them?

To be more specific, I've written an example below:

Invisible ring that grants the wearer +2 points of Strength. +2 points of Strength are 20 character points and the Invisibility Perk is 1 point. Adding Breakable (-20%), Can Be Stolen (-30%) and Unique (-25%), its cost will be 6 character points (21*0.25 round up).

Should my character pay those 6 points? What if I lend my ring to a friend, and he gives it back to me afterwards? My friend will use those powers freely while he has the ring? Even if it was me who paid for them? And will I be able to use them normally after I get my ring back? Those are the things that confuse me.

And what if I have an equipment with Regeneration (Fast), 1000 DR, and 100 Extra Lives? Those are all "Equipment Advantages", but I cannot simply treat them as perks. An equipment with 1000 DR should cost differently than an equipment with 0 DR.

So how should I charge those "Equipment Advantages"?

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EDIT: At the time I finished writing my response to the first comment, a lot of people had already commented, bestowing the answers I sought upon me.
Thank you all for all those kind suggestions, now I have a place to start; more than that, actually.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by Shishiwashi

Invisible ring that grants the wearer +2 points of Strength. +2 points of Strength are 20 character points and the Invisibility Perk is 1 point. Adding Breakable (-20%), Can Be Stolen (-30%) and Unique (-25%),

I'd reduce the discount for Can Be Stolen for an invisible ring, as it's harder to steal.

What if I lend my ring to a friend, and he gives it back to me afterwards? My friend will use those powers freely while he has the ring? Even if it was me who paid for them? And will I be able to use them normally after I get my ring back?

Yes, and yes. The ring turns its wearer invisible.

As a GM, I'd be keeping an eye out for abuse. But the one character's loss of the invisibility nearly cancels the other's gaining of it. You just have to beware of munchkin gimmicks like giving all the gear to one character to effectively create a single character with the whole group's powers.

but I cannot simply treat them as perks. An equipment with 1000 DR should cost differently than an equipment with 0 DR.

Gadgets with 1000 DR are considerably less "Breakable". The chart on page B117, under the Breakable modifier, suggests that any item with 26+ DR has a -0% discount, as it's not really breakable at all.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Shishiwashi

Invisible ring that grants the wearer +2 points of Strength. +2 points of Strength are 20 character points and the Invisibility Perk is 1 point. Adding Breakable (-20%), Can Be Stolen (-30%) and Unique (-25%), its cost will be 6 character points (21*0.25 round up).

Should my character pay those 6 points? What if I lend my ring to a friend, and he gives it back to me afterwards? My friend will use those powers freely while he has the ring? Even if it was me who paid for them? And will I be able to use them normally after I get my ring back? Those are the things that confuse me.

The ring's invisibility has no direct value to the wearer; it doesn't make the wearer invisible or even slightly harder to see. So the base cost should only be 20 points. However, if it's invisible, the ring can't be stolen with a Quick Contest of DX or ST, because the potential thief can't see it and doesn't know to attempt the theft. I'd be inclined to say that it can only be found and removed if you have overpowered the wearer and can do a whole body search, which would make the Can Be Stolen limitation only -10%. That's a total limitation of -55%, which makes it cost 9 points—the extra points are because it can't be seen and targeted.

And what if I have an equipment with Regeneration (Fast), 1000 DR, and 100 Extra Lives? Those are all "Equipment Advantages", but I cannot simply treat them as perks. An equipment with 1000 DR should cost differently than an equipment with 0 DR.

Having DR 1000 reduces its Breakable limitation from -25% for no DR to 0% for DR 26 or higher. Both Regeneration and Extra Lives provide that it isn't impossible to repair. I might just say that you can't call it Breakable at all. You get Can Be Stolen and maybe Unique (though Extra Lives rather counts against Unique too). So you don't get nearly as many gadget limitations. In the extreme, you don't get any; the fact that it's embodied in something outside your skin is just a special effect.

As to lending it to friends, that's implicit in Can Be Stolen; if a thief can carry off the armor of Achilles, so can his best bud Patroclus. Of course Patroclus will bring it back.