04-24-2015, 02:02 PM | #1 |
Banned
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Europe
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New Limitation: Must Have Sacrificed?
Performing a sacrifice is a very normal and common religious act among polytheists, and can be a prerequisite Limitation for some Powers in a GURPS Powers-based magic system.
But what would a Sacrifice Limitation actually be like? I mean, it's not so much a new Limitation, as a variant of existing ones, or a hybrid of existing ones. It smells a bit of Trigger, and a bit of Preparation Required (not Immediate Preparation Required - you can make the sacrifice ahead of time, and usually you should). But how much should it be, how big a percentage Limitation? GURPS Characters has -30% Preparation Required for 10 minutes and -50% for 1 hour, but if we include the material cost of the sacrificed animal (or person, as the case may be), consumables or nonconsumable items), it could be a bit higher. Trigger's -20% sounds extreme, so maybe just go with -40% total for the Sacrifice Limitation? but is there a way to make Sacrifice flexible? Ideally so that you can have any of 3 Limitations: Sacrifice Ahead of Time Sacrifice Immediately No Sacrifice, so the character "owes" the god, which is expressed as a limited-time period of bad fortune. "Bad fortune" sounds like a period of Unluckiness, but ideally it should be Aspected Unluckiness, with the Aspect being dependent upon the portfolio of the polytheistic god involved. How can that be done by RAW? |
04-24-2015, 03:16 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: L.I., NY
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Re: New Limitation: Must Have Sacrificed?
It could be described as a Required Disadvantage -15 point Trademark for animal sacrifice. (Powers p. 23)
Powers (p. 27) suggests a -10% Divine modifier for evil gods could require Vow to kill every night of the full moon. Seems harsh for 10% to me, but it is just once a month, not every time a power is used. Another way to model it would be Costs Fatigue, required to use Energy Reserve with Special Recharge. That allows the sacrifice to be done ahead of time, but I don't think it works exactly for what you are describing. |
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