08-23-2022, 06:59 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Nov 2020
Location: USA (EST Time Zone)
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How to Make My Idea For a Support-Based Super Power?
Hello, all. Thank you for taking the time to check out my thread. I saw a post on another website about playing supers in GURPS. That's a genre I've never tackled before so I thought it would be interesting to create a super powered character as a mental exercise.
I've always loved playing supporting roles in RPGs so I thought about creating a character based on that idea. My character concept was a hero whose power enables them to "amp up" another super's power. "Amping" would essentially just increase the power and/or intensity of another character's super power. What that entails would undoubtedly depend on the character getting "amped" but I found myself struggling to create this concept in GURPS. I've read through the Basic Set and skimmed Powers in the past but nothing stood out in my memory that would fit the bill on what I wanted to do. The only thing I could think to do was give this character Affliction (Advantage) with the advantage they give be some form of Modular Abilities with a sort of "can only be used on powers" limitation. This seemed like it would be tedious to implement though. It would seem to me like the best way to actually play this advantage would be to have everyone else at the table specifically note what their abilities look like after spending those modular points and keep that info at the ready in case this character grants them the boost. I guess that seems like it would play fine but it just seemed like a big hassle to have to recalculate this info every time either another player or the player of this character spent CP on upgrading their respective powers. In the end, though, all of this is conjecture since this character was only ever intended to be a thought experiment. My question for you all is how would you stat out this premise in GURPS (specifically 4e, not it matters much as far as I know)? Is there some Advantage or Skill that I'm missing out on that would do what I'm intending to do? I think this is an interesting ability and would love to see how it could be done in the system. I also have one other question while I have you. Is there an Advantage in GURPS that allows you to borrow or clone another character's Advantages/Powers? For instance, gaining the ability to shoot a fireball by cloning another superhero's pyrokinesis. It would be done on a willing participant if that matters. That's just my idea of how this character would branch their super power out out and increase in strength as they gain CP to spend, so I was curious if it could be easy to implement or not. Thanks again for taking the time to read my ramblings. |
08-23-2022, 07:16 PM | #2 | ||
Join Date: Sep 2007
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Re: How to Make My Idea For a Support-Based Super Power?
I think you're spot on with the Modular Ability and Affliction combo. Not that I've done the math, but try it both ways to see which is more effective, a single MA that can only be used to create abilities that Afflict some chosen Advantage on the target, or a single ability that Afflicts an MA on the target, the configuration of the MA chosen by the caster (to match an existing ability), not chosen by the target. (Both ways have multiples of the points Afflicted involved, but I'm too lazy right now to go see which way is cheaper ;).
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08-23-2022, 07:29 PM | #3 | |||||||
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Portsmouth, VA, USA
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Re: How to Make My Idea For a Support-Based Super Power?
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08-23-2022, 08:21 PM | #4 |
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(If you have to ask . . .) Join Date: Feb 2005
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Re: How to Make My Idea For a Support-Based Super Power?
Hmm, Christopher's idea is an interesting take that I hadn't thought of. I'll have to give his method a try and see how it works out in a game.
I agree that it's a glaring oversite in GURPS. Hero has the Aid power that lets you, temporarily, increase the points in a power (yours or someone else's). Consequently, it also has the Drain power which lets you lower the points someone has in a power. Which led to the "I'm going to Aid/Succor Jessica's Presence while Damien Drains the enemies' Presence" so Jessica's Presence attacks were much more hilarious. (Those and Naked Modifiers--give me some Naked Modifiers, and not just because I'm a pervert!) I would be tempted to build something off of the Hero method as it's a bit easier than Control. It just requires the other players to know the Points-per-level of their abilities. Eyeballing it, I'd charge [10] for a 1d CP boost that drains at the rate of 1 CP/second. It's a Touch-range ability, like Healing. You want range, it'll cost you. But, that's me. |
08-24-2022, 01:29 PM | #5 |
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Yukon, OK
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Re: How to Make My Idea For a Support-Based Super Power?
Affliction (HT; Aid, +200%)
Aid: Will +1 [5]; Energy Reserve 5 [15] I would limit this to Extra Effort only, but the value will vary by GM so I left it out to make it simple. The above lets you boost someone's ability to use Extra Effort and also add Ultrapower as an Affliction or perhaps just with Useable by others, +50% if that was allowed in the setting. Further you could add Healing FP only for Extra Effort.
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My GURPS publications GURPS Powers: Totem and Nature Spirits; GURPS Template Toolkit 4: Spirits; Pyramid articles. Buying them lets us know you want more! My GURPS fan contribution and blog: REFPLace GURPS Landing Page My List of GURPS You Tube videos (plus a few other useful items) My GURPS Wiki entries |
08-25-2022, 07:24 PM | #6 | |||||||||||
Join Date: Nov 2020
Location: USA (EST Time Zone)
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Re: How to Make My Idea For a Support-Based Super Power?
Thanks for the replies, folks.
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I really like the idea of granting an open-ended boost that allows the other player to choose how it is used. The singular Modular Abilities that could then be used to create multiple different types of Afflictions is also really interesting, too. Not quite what I had in mind for this character but super creative and one that I will keep in the back of my mind for the future :) Quote:
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Whew. I really ought to respond more swiftly next time so that there's not as much to respond to. Thanks again for the responses, everyone. This has been a really positive experience so far :) |
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08-25-2022, 07:30 PM | #7 | |||
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Portsmouth, VA, USA
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Re: How to Make My Idea For a Support-Based Super Power?
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No worries. :-)
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08-26-2022, 03:41 AM | #8 | |
Join Date: Mar 2013
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Re: How to Make My Idea For a Support-Based Super Power?
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Sorry, I've been having some similar thoughts along these lines, wanting to work out a Cheerleader support class for DF, and have been doing some research. |
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08-26-2022, 06:40 PM | #9 | ||||
Join Date: Nov 2020
Location: USA (EST Time Zone)
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Re: How to Make My Idea For a Support-Based Super Power?
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08-26-2022, 06:59 PM | #10 | |
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Yukon, OK
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Re: How to Make My Idea For a Support-Based Super Power?
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My GURPS publications GURPS Powers: Totem and Nature Spirits; GURPS Template Toolkit 4: Spirits; Pyramid articles. Buying them lets us know you want more! My GURPS fan contribution and blog: REFPLace GURPS Landing Page My List of GURPS You Tube videos (plus a few other useful items) My GURPS Wiki entries |
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