Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post

Anaraxes · 09-30-2016, 01:27 PM

I think the proposal is

build an ability the usual way, with Advantages and modifiers, to determine its CP cost
divide the CP cost of that ability by 5
use that value as the default penalty for a Technique
pick a skill (no doubt including new ones like "Telepathy" or "Psi") for the Technique
pick a difficulty level for the Technique (because they have to have one)

Then, rather than spend CP to buy the ability as normal, you just use the Technique instead. Put points into the base skill or the Technique to get better.

If that interpretation is correct:
As usual with the Technique rules, there will be little point to spending CP on Techniques unless you only have one or two. You'd just buy up the base skill as far as possible, to attain universal mastery. This suggests that those skills should be as narrow as possible for power sources that have a lot of abilities. (It's probably better to go even further, and add a "Power" rating along with the skill, to soak up many more points than the 4/level of a single skill. That is, revert to the 3e method of doing psionics. Or you could look at it as a variant of Realm magic, with the ritual magic rules for determining individual spell difficulty.)

Abilities acquired this way will be far cheaper than they will be via the normal method. Even a single 100-point ability will turn into a -20 penalty, which you can buy off for 80 points into the base skill (+20 levels). Two 100-point abilities cost that same 80 points total (look at it as 40 points each), and it just gets more cost-effective from there.

09-30-2016, 01:27 PM	#4
Anaraxes Join Date: Sep 2007	Re: Powers as techniques I think the proposal is build an ability the usual way, with Advantages and modifiers, to determine its CP cost divide the CP cost of that ability by 5 use that value as the default penalty for a Technique pick a skill (no doubt including new ones like "Telepathy" or "Psi") for the Technique pick a difficulty level for the Technique (because they have to have one) Then, rather than spend CP to buy the ability as normal, you just use the Technique instead. Put points into the base skill or the Technique to get better. If that interpretation is correct: As usual with the Technique rules, there will be little point to spending CP on Techniques unless you only have one or two. You'd just buy up the base skill as far as possible, to attain universal mastery. This suggests that those skills should be as narrow as possible for power sources that have a lot of abilities. (It's probably better to go even further, and add a "Power" rating along with the skill, to soak up many more points than the 4/level of a single skill. That is, revert to the 3e method of doing psionics. Or you could look at it as a variant of Realm magic, with the ritual magic rules for determining individual spell difficulty.) Abilities acquired this way will be far cheaper than they will be via the normal method. Even a single 100-point ability will turn into a -20 penalty, which you can buy off for 80 points into the base skill (+20 levels). Two 100-point abilities cost that same 80 points total (look at it as 40 points each), and it just gets more cost-effective from there. Last edited by Anaraxes; 09-30-2016 at 01:31 PM.