Afflicting random advantages?

[WingedKagouti]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

By the book when a Secret Advantage is revealed and available for conscious use you're supposed to pay the other half of the cost.

The thing about Secret Advantage is that you get a discount because you don't know what it is when you pick it. Sure, you have to pay the full cost when a Secret Advantage is revealed, but a) I'd never charge points for a temporary advantage, b) points only matter for PCs and their Allies/Dependents and c) if a PC wanted the granted advantage to be permanent I'd certainly charge them full points. And as far as afflicting an advantage, knowing exactly what you grant is more valuable than handing out something random.

With those things in mind I feel that the afflicted advantage should work the same way as Secret Advantage, ie. the cost you pay is half of what is given.

"I can give you Flight" is generally more useful than "There's a chance you get Flight, but you might get the ability to walk through walls while hopping on one leg and farting, the ability to turn into a highly intelligent lettuce or something like that instead".

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by WingedKagouti

I feel that the afflicted advantage should work the same way as Secret Advantage, ie. the cost you pay is half of what is given.

You pay the full cost of a Secret Advantage. You pay half the cost up front, before you know what the advantage even is, and before you can actively use it for anything (since you don't know what the ability actually does). Once you find out, then you pay the second half of the full cost. You can now use the ability, and you've also paid full cost.

A Secret Advantage can benefit you passively (up to the GM) before you know what it is, but unless the GM is being particularly generous and giving you an Advantage like DR that only works passively anyway, you do lose some value from the Advantage from not knowing that you have it and not being able to activate it -- but that's only before you pay for the second half.

The analogy here would be paying half the cost that your party member's ability can grant in case they ever use it on you. And once they do, then you pay the second half of the cost if you actually want to use it. It's closer to the generic Potential Advantage than Secret Advantage.

There is no discount simply for not knowing what the Advantage is going to be. Half the price is deferred, not absent.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by WingedKagouti

The thing about Secret Advantage is that you get a discount because you don't know what it is when you pick it.

Like Heir, you get a discount because you don't get full benefit until it's revealed and paid for. In the case of secret advantage the partial benefit is unknowing use only rather than fractional effect, but it's the same concept there. You don't really get any recompense for not knowing what Advantage you'll ultimately receive.

[the_matrix_walker]

Originally Posted by Anthony

This is almost always really "Perk/Unusual Background: can permit other people to spend experience", plus allies if they turn out to be actually helpful.

My first impulse is to agree here. You have to ask the question of the player who wants the ability what they get out of it. Are they going to get rich? Gain allies? Fame? Enemies and infamy? First and foremost, you're going to get what you pay for.

There is also the question of risk. Could you accidentally give always-on or uncontrollable abilities of a destructive nature? Would you ever want to activate an ability that could turn the person you're touching into a human-sized black hole or gives them an irresistible lust for human brains and the nifty ability to gain the memories of their meal?

So I feel like this isn't something you can just slap a price on generically. We might be able to use Origins Magnet or an Unusual Background as a starting point and use modifiers for the parameters, but without taking an hour to hash it out (which could happen...), it is probably best as GM Fiat territory, because they are the ones that are going to make it work.

[kirbwarrior]

Originally Posted by Plane

"I can brew a mad science chemical that gives a random major super power"

You know, there is a much more direct answer to this; Create. Give modifiers to control how often and hard it is to make (say) 10lbs of the chemical, then work with the GM how good that chemical can be and how someone has to take it (do they drink it like a potion, get a shot with a needle, splash it in their eyes, etc?).

Then, as the_matrix_walker said, figure out if any other traits need to be bought, namely social ones.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

By the book when a Secret Advantage is revealed and available for conscious use you're supposed to pay the other half of the cost.

Usually with Affliction you do get conscious use of the ability you put on your target, but if it's random and you don't then keeping it half-price sounds right.

Shouldn't work with "Beneficial Advantages" where they can control it though.

Stuff like "I have DR but I don't know about it" might possibly work though?