[Basic] Advantage of the Week: Jumper

[RedMattis]

Jumper is one of those traits whose values is hugely dependent on the campaign. In a dark setting where the alternate plane of reality are:

Normal World
Hellish fever-Nightmare World
Hellish abyss that will peel the skin of your body.
Actual Hell

...Jumper isn't terribly useful aside from pulling extremely risky rescue operations.

Similarly in many campaigns the party is expected to stick together, so one character being able to jump to another world is hardly useful unless he has Tunneling/Affect Others and other risky/expensive enchantments. In those campaigns it is basically just a worse version of Snatcher and a single-person 'get out of jail' card.

The only time it is worth its value is in an Infinite World-type setting where there are a bunch of world to exploit and the campaign permits characters to wreck havok wherever they want. If you have some ultra-charismatic (or sneaky) dude who uses his power to jump to a TL11 world and grab power armor from a shady merchant and jump back to rescue your TL3 buddies from prison, then yeah, it sure as heck it worth it. Nearly impossible to keep balanced unless you make some interdimensional police start chasing them if they go to far or whatever.

I think it should be priced based on what you actually get. How useful is the destinations, and how are you going to be permitted to use (and abuse) them in the campaign.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by RedMattis

J If you have some ultra-charismatic (or sneaky) dude who uses his power to jump to a TL11 world.

Note that this requires the jumper to have been taken to that TL11 world by someone else or tracked an item from it or that he have Blind and a personal TL of 11. No TL11, no ability to visualize a world above your personal TL.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Note that this requires the jumper to have been taken to that TL11 world by someone else or tracked an item from it or that he have Blind and a personal TL of 11. No TL11, no ability to visualize a world above your personal TL.

Basic doesn't seem to say that. New Worlds +50% would do it, and does not specify any such requirements with regards to TL. It does say that the roll for new worlds is "IQ-3 or worse (GM's discretion)", and of course that there's no guarantee that the world you're hoping to find actually exists.

...But I'd not really expect 'charismatic or sneaky' to be enough to enable a TL3 character to obtain power armor in a TL11 setting. Where they may not speak the language, understand less of the technology than toddlers do, and don't really know what they're even looking for. At least it wouldn't be a quick-and-easy exercise.

(If RedMattis meant 'a TL11 world-hopper with arms-dealing ultratech contacts', well, that would be more useful to mention than "ultra-charismatic (or sneaky)")

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

Basic doesn't seem to say that.

Ah, but check for a similar situation under Snatcher on p.86. If a low tech person trying to Snatch a laser pistol ends up with a toy then the same person trying to Jump to a futuristic world ends up in Tomorrowland at Disneyworld.

Perhaps it is only an individual GM's ruling but I think it one with considerable common sense behind it.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Ah, but check for a similar situation under Snatcher on p.86. If a low tech person trying to Snatch a laser pistol ends up with a toy then the same person trying to Jump to a futuristic world ends up in Tomorrowland at Disneyworld.

Perhaps it is only an individual GM's ruling but I think it one with considerable common sense behind it.

Well, I don't entirely agree with the Snatcher bit I admit. (If you can get a real-but-broken laser gun why is there no chance of getting a real-but-working one?)

But it's a bit harder for Jumper (World) to pull off that bait-and-switch, since it goes to the same place you left. It can't take you to Disneyworld unless you're standing on a site where somebody built Disneyworld in another accessible reality.

...Also, making it so that it's impossible for jumpers to discover worlds ahead of their own TL is kind of a weird restriction, provided you allow New Worlds jumpers and have high-tech worlds in your multiverse. The trait literally has no references to TL in it.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

...Also, making it so that it's impossible for jumpers to discover worlds ahead of their own TL is kind of a weird restriction, provided you allow New Worlds jumpers and have high-tech worlds in your multiverse. The trait literally has no references to TL in it.

The question is not "discover". It is "travel to at will". I listed 2 ways a Jumper could get to a world above his personal TL. I just don't think "visualize where you want to go" for a place that should be beyond your ability to clearly visualize is one of them.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

The question is not "discover". It is "travel to at will". I listed 2 ways a Jumper could get to a world above his personal TL. I just don't think "visualize where you want to go" for a place that should be beyond your ability to clearly visualize is one of them.

The question is discover. Travel to at will is a given if you can discover it, and impossible if you can't, that's just what the trait does unless very heavily modified.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

Basic doesn't seem to say that. New Worlds +50% would do it, and does not specify any such requirements with regards to TL. It does say that the roll for new worlds is "IQ-3 or worse (GM's discretion)", and of course that there's no guarantee that the world you're hoping to find actually exists.)

Well that's the issue isn't it? While you can go to any world you can imagine that exists, your imagination is going to be wildly off target when it comes to visualizing the next few centuries of technological advancement. So those worlds can't exist. Mind you, once you've seen one of them then you can imagine all kinds of plausible variations.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by RedMattis

Jumper is one of those traits whose values is hugely dependent on the campaign.
...
The only time it is worth its value is in an Infinite World-type setting where there are a bunch of world to exploit and the campaign permits characters to wreck havok wherever they want.

I think the primary case where jumper is worth the cost is Jumper(Time). Time travel is an incredibly powerful ability, and the 100 point version of jumper gives you equal access to the future, 1928, and yesterday. I'm not sure which of those is the most powerful option.


Given that jumper first shows up in Time Travel, I suspect the cost is based on the ability to time travel, not on the ability to go between worlds.



There are a number of situations where world jumper is worth those points though. If two worlds match up, you can use it to walk through walls. I've used Jumper to get my character out of sticky situations before, just vanishing and showing up somewhere my enemies can't follow.



One other case where the advantage might be worth the full 100 points is in a Fantasy world with a mirror universe that can be used for scouting and sneaking into places, or sometimes as a form of fast travel.



I do think in many cases the ability isn't worth the full 100, but I've had trouble figuring out what the real cost should be.

[kirbwarrior]

http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=5782

I explicitly allow Time Stop as a choice for Jumper and frankly it often seems the least problematic as a GM.

As for World Jumper, well plane-jumping is something I've used since before GURPS and isn't really much different from spaceships taking you to other planets or even flying at supersonic speeds to other countries. The ease of use matters more than where you can go.

I'd never use Jumper unmodified, even moreso than never using IA unmodified. Many of the built in assumptions don't make sense to me (especially the robot thing, is that a fair feature for other traits that have built in FP costs like Healing?).

Originally Posted by ericthered

I think the primary case where jumper is worth the cost is Jumper(Time). Time travel is an incredibly powerful ability, and the 100 point version of jumper gives you equal access to the future, 1928, and yesterday. I'm not sure which of those is the most powerful option.

Time traveling forward has very little impact on things. We already do it in the form of "sleep" or "skipping ahead to the action". In most settings that have time manipulation, I allow forward time travel.
Time traveling backward means being able to use information from a future, whether you come back to present from 50 years in the future or go from the present to 50 years in the past.
Time traveling to a closer point means more accurately being able to use that information.
Time traveling to any point in time you want instead of 'bus stops' (such as only being able to go to five specific points in time) makes for a much more fluid ability.

Time Jumper's big three things it does is;
Acquire information that is confirmed to be factual.
Affect things on a large scale with minimal effort.
Ctrl+Z

Take any amount of those away and the trait becomes far less useful. I'm not certain that -80% for "forward only" is unreasonable.