Very Short Time Jumping

[Dusqune]

Questions with how to handle some short-time jumping... or hopping rather.

In reality, the desired ability is described to be simply 'not existing' for a short period of time. The primary use of this ability would be for combat (e.g., Grenade! *winks out of existence*explosion*winks back* I'm fine!). I figured that time jumper would be the closest ability to model this, but I have a few questions as to how to handle it.

Firstly, the desired power should only be able to move only forwards in time. A quick Google suggested about -20% (which makes sense because it's about half the time... Get it? Like, assuming time is infinite in both directions, any point halves... never mind). Is this a good pricing?

Secondly, if I decided to restrict the amount of forwards time travel to only very short hops, what should that limitation be priced as? I saw a one-year limitation priced at -50%, but I was thinking about limiting it down to a number of seconds (under normal circumstances).

At this point, I am thinking there must be a more granular way to handle the time limitation, as it looks like 4 and 5 second hops would both be -80%. I feel like I should just toss it out and put FP costs per second or something. Maybe... pretend like costs 'per second' on Costs Fatigue is cost per second traveled and go from there? It feels like a very small price reduction at that point...

If nothing else, I can toss out the time limitation and allow any amount of forwards traveling desired... with the disclaimer that it is completely your fault if you skip over the entire campaign. I also like the idea of overhopping being a thing in this universe--where the further you try to hop the less controllable your hop time becomes--but I don't know how to handle that without simply... excluding characters from the campaign for one bad dice roll, so I'm probably going without it. Idk, suggestions?

Third, how should I handle "safe" locations? The book implies that in a worst-case scenario (no point to return within 100 yards), your jump can fail. Now, as unlikely as it may be with short hops, players tend to get into situations if you don't prepare for them. So, normally I would run combat with the idea that if you hop you are willingly suspending yourself from the combat (and existence) for x many turns (seconds). Some player is somehow going to get themselves returning into an unsafe circumstance, and I don't want to rewind x turns of combat just to say 'no wait, the jump failed, never mind.' Would it be horrible to handwave the 100 yard restriction away? Alternately, would there be a way to have (or more accurately, to price) some sort of fatigue/health cost for being shunted upon return?

Lastly, the rules are slightly unclear to me--if you take the -10 to jump without preparation, is the jump instantaneous? No concentrate at all? Can this be used like a dodge in combat?


Thanks!

[ericthered]

I'd go with insubstantial, personally. It's closer to the desired effect. Add a limit on how long they can stay insubstantial (jump) and some temporary disads to reflect they can't move or see what's going on.

[WingedKagouti]

An alternative could be some combination of Insubstantial + Invisible + No Voice + No Legs (Sessile) along with a duration limitation. It would have a similar gameplay effect (character unable to interact or be affected for the duration), even though it's not exactly the same as a time jump.

If you find the price for that package, you can always just write it down as "Short Forward Time Jump". If anyone asks how you got it, you can present the calculation afterwards.

[ericthered]

Temporary Disadvantages: -140%
Blind -50%
Deaf -20%
Sessile -50%
Mute -20%

Reflexive +40%

Can carry objects (Medium) +50%

Linked +10%

requires DX roll -10%

All of these modifiers are applied to both invisible and insubstantial.

In addition invisible needs switchable +10% on it.

so Insubstantial has -50% for 40 points, and invisible has -40% for 16. This can go down dramatically if you require a defense roll instead of a DX roll, or if you reduce the amount you can carry

[Captain Joy]

If you haven't already, I would check out the Warp advantage [B97], wherein teleporting is used as a Dodge. You are basically wanting to do the same thing, only moving through time instead of space. I would think that however you arrive at the cost, the two abilities should be priced the same.

EDIT: on second thought, jumping through time should be cheaper. You can dodge-jump through space and still attack every turn; when you dodge-jump through time, you're giving up your attack. Unless, you allow for <1s winks out of time—you're gone just long enough for the weapon to pass through—you're always back in time for your attack.