Quote:
Originally Posted by Plane
how would we know the right seconds?
|
I'm not sure I understand the question. We were just talking about the duration of an ability with Prep Required once it's activated, assuming that the base Advantage is Always On (thus infinite duration, if you want to look at it that way).
The various times are most often specified in the specific rules for the Advantages and modifiers. There's not a global rule (as far as I know) or a formal list of a range of times (10s / 60s / 10m) -- though there's Extended Duration and Reduced Duration to construct whatever time you want. For instance, Afflictions of a switchable Advantage specify that they're on for one minute per point of failure of the HT roll to resist. Limited Use specifies that abilities with that Limitation activate for one minute per use. Preparation Required (B114) doesn't actually say how long an ability with that Limitation lasts once it's activated. Maximum Duration has its own scale (applied to Switchable abilities that would otherwise be Always On), but that's an extra Limitation.
AlexanderHowl's point was that the text for defaults on B101 applies to "Advantages", strictly speaking, and so may be irrelevant once you've built an ability out of them. There's a grey zone here. Possible choices include:
- Prep Required doesn't affect the duration of an ability. If it's Always On, once you prep it and activate it, it might stay on forever if you choose never to prep another ability. If nothing says otherwise, why assume there's a limit?
- Prep Required does affect duration of activation, like so many similar Limitations. It doesn't have its own rule (like all those other relatives do), and so the base Advantage duration in the ability is covered by the B112 text, for lack of any more specific value.
- Prep Required includes a duration limit, like Limited Use -- say, one minute, as that's what Limited Use says. This assumption is more harmonious with existing similar modifiers, but it's not official (AFAIK).
My brain keeps telling me there's a rule for a default of one minute for activations, but I didn't see that in Powers when I was looking while writing my previous post.
Attacks are a little different. They're "Transient", which means that their effect is instantaneous. They go bang or whoosh or poof or whatever, without a relevant duration during the turn. It does normally take time to make that attack, typically with a Ready or Concentrate Maneuver, after which the effect just instantly happens. But that's not the same as the duration of the effect, rather the time to activate (sort of like Immediate Prep Required). If that attack is to Afflict Something Bad, then Something Bad would have that margin-of-failure-in-minutes duration I mentioned in the first paragraph. Other attacks would have other durations.