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Old 10-02-2009, 06:30 AM   #11
Maz
 
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Default Re: Allies - Am I doing something wrong?

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Originally Posted by Onkl View Post
Hi everybody
He bought himself an ally worth 20 CP (Appearance: Constantly/100% CP of the character which started out with 150 CP), this gives him quite a formidable Ally indeed! Am I missing something? Did I miss something? Shouldn't this 150 CP robot not be much more expensive?
Yes allie kan be extremely powerfull. For 150 pts. you could build him a robot wit an innate attack (lasergun) that does 10d dam, Acc:6, never runs out of ammo and a skill of 14, and still have points left to give the robot DR and typical robot stuff... You could also build a psionic virus that lives i nthe charcter body and has the ability, through afflictions, to grant the player abilities such as precognition and telekinesis.


But, this is why it is the GM that creates the Ally, not the players. This is also why, unless they have the minion modifier on Ally, the ally has a will of it's own, it's loyal, but the player can't just take control over it. He has to ask, be nice and so on, and it is that players ally, the ally might not even like the other characters.
Without this, allies can quickly become overpowerful.
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Old 10-02-2009, 11:27 AM   #12
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Default Re: Allies - Am I doing something wrong?

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Originally Posted by The Benj View Post
Indeed, as-written, he's not a Minion so the PC will have to be nice to him or potentially lose him as an Ally.
Since he has Reprogrammable, I'd require a PC to buy him with the Minion enhancement.
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Old 10-02-2009, 02:48 PM   #13
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Default Re: Allies - Am I doing something wrong?

In fact the ally could be secretly and actively working against the player. Maybe the ally is reporting back to another master, while helping out the character. Allies have goals, and thoughts of there own, consider that while you are playing them.
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Old 10-02-2009, 03:33 PM   #14
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Default Re: Allies - Am I doing something wrong?

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Originally Posted by aesir23 View Post
Since he has Reprogrammable, I'd require a PC to buy him with the Minion enhancement.
I'd only require this if the PC actually did program him to be submissive. Having an intelligent Ally that you could program to be fanatically obedient to you but then choosing not to is an interesting moral statement on the PC's side and I'd give him the credit (and the grief) for it.
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Old 10-02-2009, 03:38 PM   #15
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Default Re: Allies - Am I doing something wrong?

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Originally Posted by Ego Archive View Post
In fact the ally could be secretly and actively working against the player. Maybe the ally is reporting back to another master, while helping out the character. Allies have goals, and thoughts of there own, consider that while you are playing them.
When you buy an Ally you are paying points to make him exactly that: your ally. While he may have motivations that conflict with your own from time to time, for the GM to make him a mole whose actual and overall aim is to undermine you is just not on the table as far as I am concerned.
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Old 10-02-2009, 03:43 PM   #16
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Default Re: Allies - Am I doing something wrong?

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Originally Posted by bcd View Post
When you buy an Ally you are paying points to make him exactly that: your ally. While he may have motivations that conflict with your own from time to time, for the GM to make him a mole whose actual and overall aim is to undermine you is just not on the table as far as I am concerned.
Second that.

It has been said tons of times on the forums, even by Kromm once; Allies are advantages, you pay points for the privilege of having them. Vanilla Allies are never secretly antagonists.
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Old 10-02-2009, 03:45 PM   #17
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Default Re: Allies - Am I doing something wrong?

Unless you also have the Enemy (Secret) disadvantage!
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Old 10-02-2009, 03:47 PM   #18
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Default Re: Allies - Am I doing something wrong?

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Unless you also have the Enemy (Secret) disadvantage!
Not really. That just means one of your other friends might be an enemy. Not everyone you, or the entire group hangs along with frequently is a patron or an ally.
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Old 10-02-2009, 04:01 PM   #19
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Default Re: Allies - Am I doing something wrong?

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Originally Posted by Onkl View Post
. . .He bought himself an ally worth 20 CP (Appearance: Constantly/100% CP of the character which started out with 150 CP), this gives him quite a formidable Ally indeed! Am I missing something? Did I miss something? Shouldn't this 150 CP robot not be much more expensive?

To see what one could buy with 20 CP I made a sample robot character, costing 147 points:

Name: Bot
Race: Robot

Attributes [0]
ST 10
DX 10
IQ 10
HT 10

HP 10
Will 10
Per 10
FP 0

Basic Lift 20
Damage 1d-2/1d

Basic Speed 5
Basic Move 5

Air Move 8
Water Move 1

Social Background
TL: 9 [0]
Cultural Familiarities:
Languages:

Advantages [207]
Absolute Timing [2*]
Affliction (1) (Melee Attack: Reach 1; Stunning) [9]
Damage Resistance (3) [15]
Digital Mind [5*]
Doesn't Breathe [20]
Doesn't Eat or Drink [10]
Doesn't Sleep [20*]
Flight [40]
Immunity to Metabolic Hazards [30*]
Implant Radio (Secure, +20%; Electrical -20%) [7]
Injury Tolerance (No Blood; Unliving) [25*]
Intuitive Mathematician [5*]
Patrons (3) (9 or less) [20]
Photographic Memory [10*]
Pressure Support (2) [10]
Sealed [15]
Welding Torch (1) (Melee Attack: Reach 1) [4]
* = item is owned by another, point value is included in the other item.

Disadvantages [-64]
Electrical [-20]
No Legs (Aerial) [0]
Numb [-20]
Reduced Air Move (-2) (Affects displayed score) [-4]
Reprogrammable [-10*]
Social Stigma (Robot) (property machine) [-10]
Social Stigma (Valuable Property) [-10]
Unhealing (Total) [-30*]
* = item is owned by another, point value is included in the other item.

Packages [0]
AI (AD:Absolute Timing, AD:Digital Mind, AD:Doesn't Sleep, AD:Intuitive Mathematician, AD:Photographic Memory, DI:Reprogrammable) [32]
Machine (AD:Immunity to Metabolic Hazards, AD:Injury Tolerance, DI:Unhealing=2) [25]

Skills [4]
Electronics Operation/TL9 (Communications) IQ/A - IQ+1 11 [4]

Stats [0] Ads [207] Disads [-64] Quirks [0] Skills [4] = Total [147]

Hand Weapons

Ranged Weapons

Armor & Possessions
1 RobOs (C) Shamus Mac Awesome (TL 9) $100000 Wgt:0 Location:

What am I doing wrong? Am I doing something wrong? (I put in the patron adv. to "steal" points from the bot character and it still seems to powerful to me...)

Cheers

Onkl
The robot seems pretty good per RAW an Ally costing 20 points for the 150-point PC. The PC is spending a lot of those points on having a readily available Ally due it its constant Frequency of Appearance. However, the robot is a pretty lousy Ally for 20 points.

If you took away the things it resists by being a robot which needs no fuel (since for machines Doesn't Eat or Drink means no fuel is needed), then all you have over a base human is flight, two very weak attacks, a fairly standard but expensive radio for the Tech Level and a very small amount of Damage Resistance for the Tech Level. A drone robot with IQ 0 can get you all that for cash for fairly cheap, especially for a Gadgeteer. Basically, you've got a robot that's little more than mutant fodder.

The points for Patron should be removed unless there's someone other than the PC and the party helping the robot. Otherwise, it's double-charging the player for having an Ally. The double-dip Social Stigmas should be rolled together: a robot is valuable property and also a machine. making those changes, you'd have 10 more points for skills. Adding these to stealth and some other scouting skills would make a poor scout, mainly due to a low Perception score. However, the PC Gadgeteer could always add tech to upgrade his robot's native capabilities. For combat effectiveness, much of the robot's template would need revision, as even if you aren't going to charge points for weapons mounts the robot's not able to mount much of anything.

Robots are a lot of points in GURPS these days. If I were the player, I'd probably want a different ally than a robot but the robot in question really isn't a gamebreaker because it does what any fairly cheap off-the-shelf scout robot could do. Of course, you're playing a game based on Fallout, which is post-apocalypse, so a cheap off-the-shelf robot may not be available.
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Old 10-02-2009, 05:58 PM   #20
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Default Re: Allies - Am I doing something wrong?

I figured it out, though on second thought, this may actually be worse because it is quite useful and powerful.

Mr Handy

Strength (ST): 12
Dexterity (DX): 11
Intelligence (IQ): 10
Health (HT): 10

Will: 10
Fright Check: 10
Basic Speed: 5.25
Basic Move: 5
Perception: 10
Vision: 10
Hearing: 10
Taste & Smell: 10
Touch: 10

thr: 1d-1, sw: 1d+2

Advantages
360° Vision
Easy to hit (Others can target your eyes at -6), -20%. 20 B34
Built-In Flamethrower 2
Innate Attack (burn) Limited Use (3 Times Daily), -20%. 8 B61
Damage Resistance 2
Can't wear armor, -40%. 6 B47
Doesn't Eat or Drink 10 B50
Extra Arm 1 10 B53
Flight
Low Ceiling (10'), -20%; Requires Surface, -20%. 24 B56
Built-In Buzsaw 1
Innate Attack 1 (Cut. Armor Divisor (2), +50%; Melee Attack (Reach C,1) (Destructive Parry), -10%.Damages What it Parries 10 B61
Language: King's English
Native, -6; Spoken (Native), +3; Written (Native), +3. 0 B24
Meta-Trait: Artificial Intelligence 32 B263
Absolute Timing 2 B35
Digital Mind 5 B49
Doesn't Sleep 20 B50
Eidetic Memory (Photographic) 10 B51
Lightning Calculator (Intuitive Mathematician) 5 B66
Reprogrammable -10 B150
Meta-Trait: Machine 25 B263
Injury Tolerance (No Blood) 5 B61
Injury Tolerance (Unliving) 20 B61
No fatigue points, Don't spend fatigue points 0 B263
Resistant (Immunity to Metabolic Hazards) 30 B81
Unhealing (Total) -30 B160
Wears out instead of aging 0 B263

Disadvantages
Electrical -20 B134
No Legs (Aerial) 0 B145
Numb -20 B146
Social Stigma (Valuable Property) -10 B156

Perks
Accessory (Radio) 1 B100
Accessory (Armoury Kit) 1 B100
Accessory (Welding Torch) 1 B100

Quirks

Skills

Combat
Brawling 12 DX+1 2 B182
Innate Attack (Beam) 13 DX+2 4 B201
Everyman
Housekeeping 11 IQ+1 2 B200
Armoury/TL9 (Body Armor) 9 IQ-1 1 B178
Armoury/TL9 (Missile Weapons) 9 IQ-1 1 B178
Performance (Joke Telling)

Notes: King's English is just english, with an accent, which is the only way I thought of representing that. For those that don't know, this is supposed to be a Mr. Handy II from Fall Out 3. This is not a military model, which is a Mr. Gutsy and would have more DR and better weapons

That is my first time using this conversion, so if something is left out, or just messed up, please inform me.
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