50-point Abilities

[Atreyu_Hibiki]

Originally Posted by Rhino

This thread is awesome. You guys are great. I am going to run a Gamma World 4e game and this thread is full of mutations for me. Now I need to contribute. When will the pdf be ready?

It's been out about two weeks now...

http://www.geocities.com/atreyu_hibi...Advantages.pdf

I announced it in another thread. I'll add a link in the first post now, though.

[Almafeta]

By the way... We have a 3-point leeway for the 50 point abilities. What are the leeways for the 25 and 75-point abilities?

[Gurps Fan]

Originally Posted by Not another shrubbery

If a character has Infiltration, what's the rationale for not having any of the IT properties of Diffuse?

It's just the same as Permeation: even though those with Permeation can move freely through specific materials, they still do suffer full damage from weapons made of the same materials. An ability like "I'm permeable to metal. I can walk through metal and any metal attack harmlessly passes through me" is represented by, according to Basic Set, buying two totally different traits: Permeation and DR.

What rationale? Unfortunately, there's no logical, convincing justification but purely game-mechanical one. Permeation is a movement ability and separate from a defense ability; I think it suffices.

Back to IT -- when I shopped for IT (Diffuse; Infiltration) [140], I considered it as buying two separate traits, paying 100 points for "special defense ability that reduces almost any attacks to minuscule injuries" and 40 points for "exotic movement that lets me flow into narrow cracks". They are in concept identical to DR and Permeation, although in standard GURPS they happen to be bundled up in a single advantage "IT (Diffuse; Infiltration)". And my original ability concept demanded only movement ability, not defense. This is justification for not having injury-tolerant properties.

Originally Posted by Not another shrubbery

You don't think the legality of a -100% limitation is questionable?

I believe it isn't questionable. I think IT (Diffuse) charges 100 points for its special defensive properties and I need to pay no point if I have no such defense.

By way of example: if I enjoy the damage-reducing effects of Diffuse only on Monday, only after 8-hour unimpeded meditation, only when I drink off a gallon of virgin blood and only when my fickle deity happens to be in a good mood, it will be a net (probably capped) -80% limitation. Since I get certain benefit from Diffuse -- even if rarely -- I still need to pay 20%.

However, if I never enjoy Diffuse's defensive effects, I pay just zero point. "-100% limitation" is just an alternative way of putting it.

Originally Posted by Not another shrubbery

Maybe a limited form of Permeation would be better.

A more rules-friendly version:

Liquefy Bodies (-35%): Permeation (Everything; Accessibility, Must perform specific incantations and gestures, -10%; Accessibility, Only obstacles with narrow chinks, -20%; Affects Others, +50%; Costs Fatigue, 2 FP, -10%; Magical, -10%; Requires IQ Roll, -10%; Requires Concentration, -15%; Takes Extra Time 2, -20%) [52]. 52 points.

Or maybe I should have built it from Alternate Form (Body of Water), though it'd be far costlier . . .

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by Gurps Fan

Liquefy Bodies (-35%): Permeation (Everything; Accessibility, Must perform specific incantations and gestures, -10%; Accessibility, Only obstacles with narrow chinks, -20%; Affects Others, +50%; Costs Fatigue, 2 FP, -10%; Magical, -10%; Requires IQ Roll, -10%; Requires Concentration, -15%; Takes Extra Time 2, -20%) [52]. 52 points.

Better, IMO... esp. if staying completely rules legal is an important issue. Another alternative to consider might be the Finite Thickness version of Shadow Form (though you may not want to deal with its vulnerabilities).

[Gurps Fan]

Oh, I've just come up with a better explanation.

Originally Posted by Not another shrubbery

If a character has Infiltration, what's the rationale for not having any of the IT properties of Diffuse?

Liquefy Bodies only "softens" the caster's physical structure. It doesn't remove blood, brain or vital organs from him. Think of it as turning him into a sort of extremely flexible leather bag filled with blood and molten flesh; it's not gas, not mist, not swarm, and not T-1000. Any sword slashing into the liquefied body spurts the blood from the caster and hurts him normally. The only purpose of this spell is to make the caster's body amorphous and to let him squeeze himself into narrow cracks, not to grant exotic tolerance to physical attacks.

How about this? ;)

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by Gurps Fan

...
How about this? ;)

*thumbsup* That description also makes my last suggestion (Shadow Form) seem more worthy as an alternative.

[Gurps Fan]

Originally Posted by Der Wanderer

Designer Notes:
- +4 was priced as 1d+1 and +3 as 1d of damage

Once I tried email to Kromm to ask how to convert from constant damage into dice for calculating IA, and his answer was like this: "Use '1pt = 0.25d' for flat 1-pt damage, and in any other case '1pt = 0.3d'." In fact, Powers has an example (p.118) that equates 60 points of damage to exact 18d, i.e., 60*0.3. Accordingly, +4 would be equal to 1.2d and +3 to 0.9d.

[Fnordianslip]

Ancestral Memory 26 points

Reawakened 10 points
Modular abilities 16 points
super memorization 2 slots, 4 points to play with
Only skills and languages from your past lives -30%

With a few seconds of concentration, you can channel your past lives to use their skills and languages. Needles to say, you can only get skills from the past and only from your past lives. Figure out what cultures they were from with your GM ahead of time!

[Fnordianslip]

And while I'm on a modular abilities kick...

Mind Bank 75 Points

Mind Probe (+160%) 52 Points
Memory Bank (+100%; -1 Will and self control rolls
per snapshot over 10, -20%), +80%
Telepathic, -10%
Reduced Time, +120% (just under a minute instead of an hour)
Can't Delete Snapshots, -30%

Modular Abilities, super memorization (-40%) 38 Points
Trait Limited: Only Mental Skills of Stored Minds, -40%
14 points of abilities

Phantom Voices (mild) -5
Insomniac -10


You can take mental snapshots of people's minds and store their entire personality. You can even utilize their mental skills. Unfortuanately, their minds aren't dormant. So, you get to experience the fun of hearing them tell you what to do. As a side bonus, they don't shut up at night and you can't erase them. I'm using this one for my version of Brain Trust in Gurps Wild Cards.

[Atreyu_Hibiki]

Originally Posted by Almafeta

By the way... We have a 3-point leeway for the 50 point abilities. What are the leeways for the 25 and 75-point abilities?

Ehhh.... make it a 2-point leeway on 25 (Shouldn't be too hard to reach, the percentages give more wiggle-room at smaller numbers, don'cha'know) and leave it at a 3-point leeway for 75 pointers, I guess. Sound good for everyone?