Ingurpsus

[Darkhol]

Well there is game series Infamous. Powers of local supers are work on absorbing right type of element Neon for neon powers, smoke for fire/smoke powers, concrete/soil for earth powers and so on. And there is the question how can I simulate it here, in gurps. It would be easy for damaging sources like fire and lightning(You just buy ER with special recharge and DR only versus this element+absorbing, however It would be much more costly, then just buying powers without limitations, but it's not how our powers work, so maybe I change the cost for such things for players, because every power absorbs some type of energy/matter for using), but there is a problem with nonharmful energy sources like aformentioned neon(Or just light) or with powers that use matter like metal and so. What your oppinion on that case?

[The Benj]

The simple version is essentially putting Special Recharge on your Energy Reserve, then taking Fast or Very Fast Regeneration (ER-only) (Only while touching my element).

The problem is that is usually expensive compared to the amount of benefit you'd get compared to just having the ER without the limitation.

Like for a hundred points I could take
Fast Regeneration (ER-only) (Only while in bright light -10%; Super -10%) [40]
ER 100 (Light) (Special Recharge -70%, Super -10%) [60]

and that's a HUGE reserve, but it'll take me an hour and a half in the sunshine to refill.

Or I could take

Very Fast Regeneration (ER-only) (Only while in bright light -10%; Super -10%) [80]
ER 33 (Light) (Special Recharge -70%, Super -10%) [20]

And that's still a whole lot, but now I can recharge it in 30 seconds.

For only 50, I could take the Fast, but dial the Reserve down to a mere 16.

So I guess the real question is: how much are you going to save by putting Fatigue costs on your abilities?

[Darkhol]

Originally Posted by The Benj

The simple version is essentially putting Special Recharge on your Energy Reserve, then taking Fast or Very Fast Regeneration (ER-only) (Only while touching my element).

The problem is that is usually expensive compared to the amount of benefit you'd get compared to just having the ER without the limitation.

Like for a hundred points I could take
Fast Regeneration (ER-only) (Only while in bright light -10%; Super -10%) [40]
ER 100 (Light) (Special Recharge -70%, Super -10%) [60]

and that's a HUGE reserve, but it'll take me an hour and a half in the sunshine to refill.

Or I could take

Very Fast Regeneration (ER-only) (Only while in bright light -10%; Super -10%) [80]
ER 33 (Light) (Special Recharge -70%, Super -10%) [20]

And that's still a whole lot, but now I can recharge it in 30 seconds.

For only 50, I could take the Fast, but dial the Reserve down to a mere 16.

So I guess the real question is: how much are you going to save by putting Fatigue costs on your abilities?

Question isn't about saving points, all powers in the world work only on internal reserve of element, wich you can refill only by draining same element from external sources. To use your stone powers you must first drain some amount of stone from surroundings. It must work like leech. You drain light/electricity/specific matter, drained element refills your reserve, then you use your reserve to use your powers.

[The Benj]

My point (:D) is that if you can only use your abilities by charging them up with your element, that SHOULD cost fewer points than if you could just do it without accumulating and discharging a resource. And it will require a LOT of basic point costs on your abilities for the discount from Costs Energy Reserve to cover the investment of creating the ER in the first place, let alone to also pay for ER Regeneration.

[Varyon]

Limited Use (Fast Reload) should have you covered. The fact the character can reload from the environment rather than having to purchase and carry around ammunition makes it less limiting, but the fact that the character doesn't have the option of carrying around ammunition makes it more limiting, so those arguably balance out. The GM may want to adjust price based on how commonly-encountered the needed substance is in the setting. Of course, if you want to be able to use the abilities as often between reloads as you can in the games (or at least in the one I played, Infamous: Second Son), you'll probably be above the number of uses that GURPS considers a meaningful Limitation, making it +0% (although you could justify it as a -5% Nuisance Effect - "Must recharge Conduit powers from an environmental source from time to time").

[Darkhol]

Originally Posted by Varyon

Limited Use (Fast Reload) should have you covered. The fact the character can reload from the environment rather than having to purchase and carry around ammunition makes it less limiting, but the fact that the character doesn't have the option of carrying around ammunition makes it more limiting, so those arguably balance out. The GM may want to adjust price based on how commonly-encountered the needed substance is in the setting. Of course, if you want to be able to use the abilities as often between reloads as you can in the games (or at least in the one I played, Infamous: Second Son), you'll probably be above the number of uses that GURPS considers a meaningful Limitation, making it +0% (although you could justify it as a -5% Nuisance Effect - "Must recharge Conduit powers from an environmental source from time to time").

I am the GM. And I don't know how to emulate it and the fact, that recharging drains the source. When someone recharging his fire reserve he should "suck in" thath source or at least make it weaker. Same with others. He must consume some amount of metal for example, to use his metall powers.

[Darkhol]

Originally Posted by The Benj

My point (:D) is that if you can only use your abilities by charging them up with your element, that SHOULD cost fewer points than if you could just do it without accumulating and discharging a resource. And it will require a LOT of basic point costs on your abilities for the discount from Costs Energy Reserve to cover the investment of creating the ER in the first place, let alone to also pay for ER Regeneration.

As a GM i just make it free mandatory thing with fixed amount of starting ER, but players could increase it with points.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Darkhol

I am the GM. And I don't know how to emulate it and the fact, that recharging drains the source. When someone recharging his fire reserve he should "suck in" thath source or at least make it weaker. Same with others. He must consume some amount of metal for example, to use his metall powers.

That's a "Destroy Substance". It's attached to "Create" in the Powers book.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Darkhol

I am the GM. And I don't know how to emulate it and the fact, that recharging drains the source. When someone recharging his fire reserve he should "suck in" thath source or at least make it weaker. Same with others. He must consume some amount of metal for example, to use his metall powers.

Well, what you need to decide is what impact the character being able to consume the source will have on the campaign. A Fire Conduit could potentially save people from a burning building (or save the building itself) by consuming the fire, possibly shooting it harmlessly into the air if necessary. A Smoke Conduit could generate a safe "bubble" to allow others to breathe normally in a smoke-filled area. A Concrete Conduit could tunnel through roads and some buildings. And so forth. You can certainly give them separate abilities to represent this (the Destroy variant of Create, Tunneling, etc), then fiat that the only way to recharge their other abilities is to use one or more of the Consume abilities.

If you like the mechanics of the characters basically having an Energy Reserve, well, that's an Energy Reserve with a Special Recharge. Since you're giving it to the characters as a freebie with their powers, you can play around with how much free ER the characters get, the recharge rates, how much material/energy needs to be consumed for each ER restored, etc, without worrying about modifiers and the like, until you find something that works alright for you. For pricing it, I'd say set it somewhere around [30] to double your ER - so if everyone gets ER 20 for free to start out, each +1 to ER costs [1.5]. That's based on characters by default having 10 FP to work with, and +10 ER (doubling what they have available) being worth [30].

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Darkhol

Yes on one hand, but totally misses the point on the other. So hard...

What is the point, then? If it's about the fact the character will only have a limited amount of the material to draw from at a given location, that would be inherent in the Limited Use (Fast Reload) version, and can be part of the Special Recharge conditions for the Energy Reserve variant. If it's about the fact the character can leverage this ability to consume the material for other uses - weakening metal supports, disabling electrically-locked doors by draining their power, etc - then they need a separate Advantage to account for that, and Create (Destroy Only) covers you there.

EDIT: This comes across a bit more combative than I intended, my apologies. I'm honestly trying to find out what aspect of them consuming material to power their abilities you see as important, so I can give appropriate advice as to how you might be able to handle it.