Trigger: Amount of Subtance

[supersaiyandoyle]

Hi SJGames forum, I need you help trying to price/develop the mechanics for something II'm trying to cook up in GURPS.

I'm thinking of running a game set in the mistborn universe; we have had threads about it, as seen here:forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=42204, but they don't satisfy my standards.

One set of powers in the series known as Allomancy, which allows people to use certain alloys of metal they have consumed to fuel different powers, such as consuming steel to use the ability to push metals away from the user.

I want to price it in a way that consuming certain amounts of the metal of choice fills up an energy reserve specific to that metal, with each milligram setting off a sort of high speed regeneration of ER for a second.

For example, 2 milligrams of pure iron shavings would activate 2 seconds of very fast regeneration for the Energy Reserve (Iron).

It is my feeling that the trigger modifier isn't exact enough for this situation; the wording in trigger makes it seem like ingesting any amount of a substance would activate an ability, no matter how small.

I plan on having the abilities have different ER costs that use their specific energy reserves, so I need precision.

Any help would be appreciated.

[scc]

Each power would have it's own ER reserve, you then put the Special Recharge limitation on the ER pool

[starslayer]

Conversely you could give each power limited use quick reload and a reasonable number of reloads for there metal 'capacity' .

The fact that the procedure for reloading is eating some element is just a special effect (though if the material is hard to come by our is worth an additional reduction)

Show burn vs fast burn abilities could be done via alternate abilities.

[supersaiyandoyle]

Originally Posted by scc

Each power would have it's own ER reserve, you then put the Special Recharge limitation on the ER pool

That's a given. How it recharges for exact measurements is what I need.

Originally Posted by starslayer

Conversely you could give each power limited use quick reload and a reasonable number of reloads for there metal 'capacity'.

The problem with that is that almost all of the abilities can be used more than 10 times; coinshots (steel users) jump around the city all the time, and only need a refill after extraneous use. I'd rather not take the limitation at 0% and call it a feature; plus, there are multiple powers which all share the same source for each metal. Iron and Steel have a psychokinesis with metal objects and also have the ability to sense metal. Wouldn't work.

Originally Posted by starslayer

(though if the material is hard to come by our is worth an additional reduction)

Some of the metals are really expensive, such as gold. And taking an alloy that isn't the right ratio of metals is super dangerous for an allomancer.

[starslayer]

Originally Posted by supersaiyandoyle

That's a given. How it recharges for exact measurements is what I need.



The problem with that is that almost all of the abilities can be used more than 10 times; coinshots (steel users) jump around the city all the time, and only need a refill after extraneous use. I'd rather not take the limitation at 0% and call it a feature; plus, there are multiple powers which all share the same source for each metal. Iron and Steel have a psychokinesis with metal objects and also have the ability to sense metal. Wouldn't work.



Some of the metals are really expensive, such as gold. And taking an alloy that isn't the right ratio of metals is super dangerous for an allomancer.

WRT uses >10. Would they fit under greater durations. Ie instead of using one ammo per second for a coinshot one ammo gives ten minutes of use.

WRT same source- this one is actually built into alternate abilities. If you have 5 alternate abilities of one another and they all have limited use then the number of uses is a shared.

Cost. This one can be useful for uses >10. If you're special reload has additional complication that adds to the cost reduction of special reload. So if you can special reload 100 shots (normally 0%) but you need an ultra rare chunk of depleted necrominum and the reload procedure also causes you serious radiation burns then your ammo restriction is still going to be between 10-30% depending on how much damage and how rare

[Anthony]

I'd probably just call this a -10% source limitation, and ignore the details of usage for most purposes.

[supersaiyandoyle]

Originally Posted by Anthony

I'd probably just call this a -10% source limitation, and ignore the details of usage for most purposes.

I could do that, but I'd rather get down to the nitty gritty and have hard mechanics for future reference. What if a similar question popped up in the future, that couldn't be explained away with a source limitation?