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08-19-2021, 05:13 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: New York City
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[Powers / Psionics] Help with Uncontrollable
I'm GMing a new psionics campaign. I'm trying to figure out how Uncontrollable (B.116) works with a character.
If a character has the incontrollable limitation on it's power & is not in control of it at the time, are they restricted to concentrate maneuvers or can they act as they wish & the power essentially acts as a compartmentalized mind? Example: The character is trying to run away from 3 attackers (a full move) but the power (the GM) decides it's going to attack one of them (a concentrate). Can the character run or is it restricted to only a step? If one is not in control of the power, then it's not like they are concentrating to use & target the power. Right? Also, does anyone's opinion of the above change if the power is Uncontrollable & Unconscious (B.115)? Thanks for any help. |
08-19-2021, 06:05 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Re: [Powers / Psionics] Help with Uncontrollable
Well, the text in Basic doesn't seem to directly help but the idea that your conscious mind is no longer controlling an ability sure implies that the "intelligence" that commandeers it (as elaborated on in Powers) is fully in control of it. It would seem a bit strange that an Uncontrollable Advantage that was Off but suddenly manifests due to stress would require a maneuver on the owner's part.
Last edited by Not another shrubbery; 08-20-2021 at 06:30 AM. Reason: Ugh syntax |
08-19-2021, 06:24 PM | #3 | |
Join Date: Aug 2018
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Re: [Powers / Psionics] Help with Uncontrollable
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That said, if we did force someone to buy Compartmentalized Mind to pay for those concentrates, in addition to the usual discounts you get when CM can only be used for a single power/ability, if you couldn't voluntarily use the CM for controlled uses of your ability then it also seems fair to allow them to take Unconscious Only as a discount on Comparmentalized Mind. Basically meaning that it's not you who uses the CM but your uncontrollable unconscious. The +10% to make CM switchable and -10% for uncontrollable (prereq for unconscious only) would cancel out. I guess if it's a Power then it could be a small nuisance to turn on since then that's extra "simultaneous uses" penalties. Conceptually you could as a house rule say that the will roll you make to shut off your Uncontrollable power and the will roll you make to shut off your Compartmentalized Mind are one and the same. You would still need to lose a Ready as the Compartmentalized Mind flips itself on, of course (unless you took reduced time) but then once you do that, it will cover the maneuver demands of whatever ability you designed it to complement. If someone does take CM then I like the idea of Uncontrollable forcing them to take certain maneuvers as their unconscious mind dominates their conscious one. It helps represent the whole "my powers take over and I go into a trance" type thing. Last edited by Plane; 08-19-2021 at 06:27 PM. |
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08-19-2021, 07:07 PM | #4 |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Portsmouth, VA, USA
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Re: [Powers / Psionics] Help with Uncontrollable
I've always treated it going haywire as its own thing.
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08-20-2021, 06:25 AM | #5 | |
Join Date: Dec 2012
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Re: [Powers / Psionics] Help with Uncontrollable
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So, in the scenario presented by the OP, the character keeps running, and the power attacks on its own (with a penalty for range if that applies), as if it didn't require a concentrate manoeuver.
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08-20-2021, 07:12 AM | #6 | ||
Join Date: Sep 2007
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Re: [Powers / Psionics] Help with Uncontrollable
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This is the sort of ability where the GM and player need to confer during Session Zero to establish the expectations of how the ability misbehaves given the character concept. Don't wait to argue it out at the table, or try to throw rules back and forth to mechanically determine what happens. (GURPS rules are written for cooperative consenting adults, not to serve as the battleground for hostile competitors.) If you don't want your own ability causing you as much trouble as it's worth once every three times it comes up in the game at all, don't take this Limitation. |
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08-20-2021, 09:21 AM | #7 | |
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: New York City
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Re: [Powers / Psionics] Help with Uncontrollable
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However, do you have an opinion on if it should prevent free action or does it limit the player's maneuvers? I am the GM & I'm trying to figure out my position on it & reading why yes or no is valuable to me. |
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08-20-2021, 10:19 AM | #8 |
Join Date: Dec 2012
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Re: [Powers / Psionics] Help with Uncontrollable
No, but the GM does. I was expressing my understanding of how the power would work in the scenario presented, which specifically mentioned an attack.
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Warning, I have the Distractible and Imaginative quirks in real life. "The more corrupt a government, the more it legislates." -- Tacitus Five Earths, All in a Row. Updated 12/17/2022: Apocrypha: Bridges out of Time, Part I has been posted. |
08-20-2021, 04:18 PM | #9 | |
Join Date: Aug 2018
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Re: [Powers / Psionics] Help with Uncontrollable
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Imagine also something like Uncontrollable on Flight : does it give you free Move maneuvers and fly you around in random directions, or is it only uncontrollable hovering? This also isn't paralysis we're talking about: being forced to take certain maneuvers is basically just "I'm slowed to a step" and you can still do active defenses. Uncontrollable utility really shines in cases where the abilities are attacking obvious enemies of a person while they're stunned: being forced to Do Nothing means you couldn't even take maneuvers to use your ability if you wanted to. |
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08-20-2021, 05:46 PM | #10 |
Join Date: Dec 2012
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Re: [Powers / Psionics] Help with Uncontrollable
It's not a free manoeuver, though. The GM is controlling it, and the write-up in the book indicates that it should be treated as a separate being; 'playing it as though it were an entity of a prankish or hostile nature,' to quote the page.
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Warning, I have the Distractible and Imaginative quirks in real life. "The more corrupt a government, the more it legislates." -- Tacitus Five Earths, All in a Row. Updated 12/17/2022: Apocrypha: Bridges out of Time, Part I has been posted. |
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