[Basic] Advantage of the Week: Jumper

[johndallman]

Jumper [100] is an exotic mental advantage that gives you the ability to “jump” through time, or between worlds. These are separate abilities, and if you want to do both, you need to buy Jumper twice. This trait first appeared in GURPS Time Travel for 3e.

Most of the mechanics of this advantage apply to all its forms. To make a jump, visualise your destination with ten seconds of concentration, pay 1FP, and make an IQ roll. You can try to jump sooner, but you are at ‑1 for each second skipped, and a roll of 14+ always fails. On a success you vanish from your starting point and re-appear at your destination. On a failure, you don’t go anywhere, but on a critical failure you go somewhere else, of the GM’s choice. There is no rule for critical success, but I’d waive the 1FP cost. Machine characters with no FP don’t pay that cost, but if they have passengers, each passenger must pay. You need to make a Body Sense roll after Jumping to be able to act immediately.

If you would appear somewhere you’d fall, or inside something solid, you’ll be automatically displaced if there’s somewhere within 100 yards of your destination that would be safe on those grounds. If not, you don’t go, and you know that was because there was nowhere to appear. This doesn’t keep you from appearing in places that are unsafe for other reasons, although if you have Danger Sense, the GM should roll it before you make a jump to somewhere dangerous, and if it works, warn you.

You can carry your Basic Lift, plus any Payload, with you. If you want to carry more, that’s +10% to +50% by encumbrance level. It’s far more cost-effective to take the Tunnel enhancement (+40%) which means you create and walk through a tunnel, which lasts 3d seconds. With that, others can follow you, both friend and foe. If you’re short on points, you can opt to arrive naked (‑30%) and/or stunned (‑10%).

Time-jumpers seem to be able to name their desired date and time, but world-jumpers need to “know” their target worlds. Neither kind can move in space during a jump, unless they also have Warp and the right +10% enhancement on both Jumper and Warp to use them together. Show-offs who are both time- and world-jumpers can take a different +10% enhancement on both to use them together.

If two Jumpers of the same kind are in physical contact, and one jumps, the other can “hitch a ride” and go where the first went automatically, without rolling. There are limitations that mean that other Jumpers can’t hitch a ride with you (‑10%), or that you can’t hitch with another jumper (‑20%). This is one way that world-jumpers can learn new worlds; another is a +50% enhancement that lets you try to reach other worlds that you’ve imagined or been told about, at ‑3 to your roll, and double FP cost. Once you’ve reached a new world, you can spend an hour getting the “feel” of it, and buy it as an IQ/Easy skill, which allows you to improve your roll to target it. If you don’t do this, your roll to get back there is IQ‑3. Another way to reach new worlds is the Tracking (+20%) enhancement, which lets you Jump to the world, or time, where an artifact originated. This is an IQ‑2 roll, and you only get one try.

There are more special limitations. Drift (-15%) means that you don’t arrive exactly where you aimed, but may be up to ten miles away, depending on how well you made your roll. You can also have a limited range through time or parallel worlds for each jump, and/or a maximum range you can reach from some origin point. These limitations’ values depend on the setting, and must be set by the GM, and might plausibly imply a range-based FP cost.

Powers adds a good deal to this advantage. It has Jumper (Spirit) which lets you bodily travel to the spirit world, becoming a spirit, and acquiring the default abilities of a spirit in the setting. If you fail the roll to switch worlds, you stay where you are, and are at ‑5 to try again within 10 minutes. Critical failures might attract hostile spirits, or send you to other spirit planes, such as Hell. You can also buy the ability to reach higher planes with (Spirit) or (World), which is +100% as an addition, or +0% if you can only go to higher planes. You can limit yourself to jumping between two worlds, to projecting your mind rather than moving your body, to needing to move to jump, and to needing some kind of environment or portal, all at variable costs.

Other modifiers that are useful with Jumper include Limited Use and Gadget limitations to drag the cost down, and Reliable to improve the odds. A Talent is valuable, if you can justify it.

Clearly, Jumper isn’t something that should be bought unless the campaign is going to be about it. Campaigns has guidance on world-hopping campaigns, and DF9 on Jumper (Spirit). Fantasy: Portal Realms doesn’t usually use this advantage as such, but references it for portal details, and Horror has much of Powers’ material. Infinite Worlds, naturally, makes a lot of use of Jumper, with a variety of horrible Nazi ways of gaining it, new modifiers including Mass Jump (+100%), No Concentration (+15%), No Fatigue (+20%), Uncertain Encumbrance (+25%, and not worth it), Attunement Required (‑20%), Jumps that take time (variable), Quantum-limited jumping for Infinite Worlds, and several special limitations for time-Jumpers (Only to the Past, ‑20%, limited by the Recency Effect, ‑10%, and only to times you know enough about, ‑25%). Power-Ups 5 Impulse Buys has rules for one-off Jumps, and making tunnels permanent. Powers: The Weird has a strange way of skipping forwards in time, and Psionic Powers provides Faster Concentration (+5% for each two seconds less concentration), and Improved (+10%), where you don’t auto-fail on a 14+, but use standard success rules.

Having all of the forms of Jumper, (World), (Time) and (Spirit) in the same campaign might make things too complicated. The only one that I’ve used is (World), which was extensively used in my Infinite Cabal campaign. That started off with one PC who had a sword, with mysterious origins, that could cut between worlds. It only worked four times a day, which required some pre-planning, but had Tunnel, so that the party could move together. Another PC joined later who had a Jumper gadget he’d built himself that also had Tunnel, and a third PC developed Jumper as a psionic power, built up over a long period until he, too, had Tunnel. New worlds were mostly found by travelling to them on the Astral Plane, and “cutting” down to enter the world, which could then be learned. While another PC learned Gate spells, Jumper with Tunnel was far more useful. I seem to have largely neglected the fail-on-14+ rule, but at least I did that for everyone.

How has Jumper played in your games?

[Crystalline_Entity]

I love playing with this advantage, world-hopping campaigns are my favourite :) To celebrate Advantage of the Week getting to it, I’ll share my “go-to” build for Jumper (World):

Jumper (World; Cannot Escort, -10%; Cannot Follow, -20%; Improved, +10%; Interplanar Only, +0%; New Worlds (+50%; Limited Use, 2/day, -30%; Preparation Required, 1 hour, -50%) +10%; Reliable 3, +15%; Selectivity, +10%) [115]

Then add limitations to suit, e.g. “Takes Recharge, 1 hour, -30%”, “Granted by Familiar, -40%”, “Immediate Preparation Required, 1 minute, -30%”, a power modifier such as Dimension Travel, gadget limitations, etc.

Some notes on this build:

• Selectivity is used to “turn off” enhancements, in this case “Interplanar Only” (an enhancement according to P57). If you’re using multiplicative modifiers (P102), replacing this with “Interplanar, +100%” is likely to be affordable, but without, this is a cheaper way of jumping both between alternate timelines and between planes – though note I’d rule you couldn’t do both in the same jump – a jump from Homeline to Mount Olympus (IW140) would require a stop on Orichalcum (IW139) first, for example.
  
• New Worlds uses the “limited enhancements” optional rule on B111. Note the preparation required isn’t immediate and thus could be done during downtime (and discuss with your GM whether “could” here is really “should” or “must” to give them time to prepare).
  
• Reliable 3 is used to buy off the -3 penalty for not memorising a world, or the minimum -3 penalty for discovering a New World (B64). This avoids the need to spend CP and an hour’s concentration memorising a world, but is likely only cost effective if you visit more than fifteen worlds.
  
• Cannot Escort and Cannot Follow seem to be generally a bargain. Unless you have another world-jumper in your party, following or being followed by other world-jumpers is unlikely to come up often, and in some cases “Cannot Escort” is a benefit because unfriendly world-jumpers can’t follow you.

To me that seems to combine quite a bit of utility in a reasonably inexpensive package.

The main omission with this build is carrying the rest of your party with you. For a solo player, that’s not a problem. Otherwise, adding “Tunnel, +40%” would increase the cost to [155] (and is more cost effective than “Affects Others” from P107 at +50% per person).
Also, if your GM allows, remember the rules for “Temporary Enhancements” under Stunts on P172, Tunnel is -4 to the IQ roll, which could be offset by additional FP expenditure or Taking Extra Time. I assume Tunnel is a two-way portal, so you could also use this to visit a world for a few seconds and return quickly.

The cost/benefit of range limitations (e.g. “limited jump” B64, “maximum range” B65) depends very much on how far away worlds you want to visit are, and there’s no way of calculating this I can see or deduce from RAW, it’s setting and GM-dependent.
For the Infinite Worlds setting, Limited Quanta (IW174) is the limitation for this; the shortest range means you can never leave a given quantum under your own power, and ranges over two quanta are likely cost prohibitive in FP anyway (according to IW174 a three-quantum jump is 15 FP), so one- or two-quantum jumps are probably the best balance (though if you can afford the FP a three-quantum jump ability might have the element of surprise against opponents such as Infinity who are used to only being able to jump two-at-a-time).

One thing I’d note about Jumper (World) is the requirement to spend CP to memorise worlds (B64). I don’t remember ever seeing a character in a supplement who had actually spent points on this, even for their home worldline, which is pretty essential (unless you’re doing a Sliders-style campaign)! Has anyone else? And how do you deal with this rule?

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Crystalline_Entity

One thing I’d note about Jumper (World) is the requirement to spend CP to memorise worlds (B64). I don’t remember ever seeing a character in a supplement who had actually spent points on this, even for their home worldline, which is pretty essential (unless you’re doing a Sliders-style campaign)! Has anyone else? And how do you deal with this rule?

I've never seen it on a character in a supplement, but I have on characters in play. Janos Babalan. the Infinite Cabal character with the sword that could cut between worlds, had 31 worlds memorised at the end of the campaign, at [1] each. It's not a huge chunk of points on a 918 point character, and they were all at skill 21, owing to IQ 20 and the sword having Reliable +1.

[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.

[ericthered]

Oh Jumper.

Jumper is incredibly expensive. It costs 100 points, making it tied for one of the most expensive advantages in the game. Despite this cost, it has a built-in FP cost and time delay. Jumper is a fairly complex advantage, and I've rarely used it unmodified.

My first Ever Gurps character was in an IW-inspired game where world-hopping abilities were free, courtesy of the GM. "Michael the Brainwasher" had a psionic world jumping ability that required an object from the world he was traveling to in order to jump. It allowed him to circumvent the CP cost.

My longest running PbP Game (or rather, series of related campaigns), Lost in Dreams, was defined by the Jumper advantage. Each PC had, among other traits:
Jumper (world, New worlds +50%, Naked -30%, Uncontrollable -10%, Unconscious only -20%, skill roll is dreaming, only when sleeping -20%, requires Immediate Preparation 1 hour -75%, cosmic +50%, Drift -15%) [40]
They then traveled to many different worlds encountering many different problems. They did so only when they were sleeping.

I've got a few different weird jumper traits in infinite worlds,

• one guy draws a symbol on the ground with his own blood (he is typically reluctantly in the employ of Reich-5).
• I've got a clan of Maori world jumpers who can carry a lot, but use a TON of FP and drift quite substantially.
• Dragons in my multiverses frequently link jumper with constructed dupe and alternate form to be able to build puppets on whatever world they want. They tend towards the fantasy end of my IW spectrum.

A few of my favorite ways to cheapen world-jumping include the portal limitation, and the preparation required limitation.

I've never used Jumper(Time). It'd be a hard advantage to GM.

The cost of jumper frustrates me, but I suspect its like a spaceship: its worth a lot, but most of the time its just a way to get where the real adventure is.

I often wish for a limitation for jumper that reflects that you can't use it to circumvent walls and move around the world undetected, especially for jumper in a fantasy setting.

[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)")

[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.

[dcarson]

The wealth you can get from a empty Earth or trading between a different Earth is substantial.