Summonable and Capturing New "Allies"

[Goober4473]

So I'm looking to make a character that has Summonable Allies, but has the ability to capture more of them. This seems similar to Dominance, and I'm looking at basing the ability on that, but first, is there something out there already like this?

Essentially, instead of gaining a template, they would just become a Summonable Ally with Minion, and no ability to infect others. Dominance also requires a keyed attack. I'd like something that does no damage, but on a failed resist, the target would be affected by Dominance. If the target resists, it's immune to the attack for X amount of time.

[Mailanka]

If it's unique to your character, you're running into the problem of free points. Being able to tag someone (even with effort) and gain a free, summonable ally is on par with being able to tag someone and gaining new skills or gaining new powers. It's not something GURPS (or most RPGs that give a nod towards balance) can emulate well.

So the first thing you need to tackle would be how you can acquire all these "free" allies. I would probably start with a variation of Modular Abilities (much like Chip Slots), or simply note (a zero point feature, perhaps) that your character can freely spend points on new allies after doing this particular thing (and note that after a certain point, your summonable allies become a summonable ally group, because having 20 summonable allies shouldn't be worth much more than having 19 sumonable allies.)

[Goober4473]

With Dominance, you still have to buy the new allies, or you don't get to control them. The same would be true here. I'd probably start off with some free-floating points to spend on new summons, then later drop out old summons if something better shows up, reallocating the points I spent on the earlier ally to the new one.

[Kuroshima]

If you can only have 1 ally out at the same time, then it's an example of Alternate Abilities IMHO.

My recommendation is allowing the player to tag the target with whatever means you wish to use, and then make him pay for the ally.

[RedMattis]

I'd do it like this:

1. Turning a willing being into an (summonable) Ally to 0-point feature. You'll still have to pay for the ally afterwards.

2. Making a helpless but unwilling creature of a specific but common type/class into an ally... Say a 10 point trait if it takes 10 minutes. I'd alow modifying this with Reduced Time.
Variants
Any Type: 20 points
Very Common: 15 points
Common: 10 points
Uncommon/rare: 5 points

3. Making anyone into an Ally, that I would model as an Affliction (Heart Attack), with the victim failing to resist meaning that the victim is now your ally.


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Reasoning behind the second would be that Dominance is a 25p advantage (Infectious attack being a included disadvantage) and a 1-second turning of a helpless being would cost 28 points, but has the occasionally advantageous detail of not turning the victim into the same type of creature as the user (Troublesome for a vampire when he AND his army of vampires can be chased away by priests once they figure out how).

Reasoning behind the last one is that turning enemies/hostiles into allies means getting rid of the enemy. I'd say that the advantage of the victim surviving as a (more) benevolent being instead of dying as a malevolent being evens out when you consider that you need to pay for the NPC as an ally.

- - - -



For the rarity classes to the second variant I'd write it up as follows.
Very Common: "All Spirits*", "All supernatural creatures from the corporeal world**", etc.
Common: Demons, Vampires, Canines, Fish, Lovecraftian...
Uncommon/Rare: Oni, Succubi, Brujah, Ventrue, Wolf, Dog, Deep Ones...


*Demons, Angels, Loa/lesser gods...
** Vampires, Werewolves, Swamp monsters, most creatures of myth...

[Goober4473]

I think I'll go with something along the lines of option 2 presented by RedMattis, with Modular Ability, similar to Computer Brain, which would have a limit of the number of points it would cost to get an ally of my points at a frequency of Constantly, and a limited duration, so I can have one ally out at a time, and then need a break before choosing another. New "Programs" would be gained by aquiring new allies.

Should there be a limit to the number of allies ("programs") I could build up?

[SuedodeuS]

Originally Posted by Goober4473

Should there be a limit to the number of allies ("programs") I could build up?

Yes. I'd probably allow you to build up as many programs as you could find, but only allow you to carry around a set number at a time. Kind of like the chip slots from the Megaman Battle Network series - or a closer fit, like pokemon.

[Goober4473]

or a closer fit, like pokemon.

I was thinking 6. :P

The character is a "pocket summoner" that carries crystals to store captured monsters in. Sort of like a magical pokemon trainer, only much cooler, because it's not a little kid world.

[fschiff]

Rev P. Kitty's article, on Summonable allies
http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=5583

has an example where the Modular Ability (Cosmic Pool) advantage
allows a reconfigurable pool of summonable allies.

[Goober4473]

The Cosmic Power option for Modular only works if you can summon anything, or at least can switch to something new that you make up. The version with slots that take no time to switch between (Computer Brain) fits much better with what I'm doing.