can Jumper (Tunnel) cause harm?

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by naloth

It's absolute only because it was described that way. Conversely if you described it as doing a few dice of damage while it pushed someone through, chopping them up if the damage was high enough, it's not that absolute any more.

I'm not aware of any representations of such portals where they can sever things that are in transit but that this effect isn't absolute. There may be instances where a particularly resilient target prevents the portal from closing completely, but not anything like how it would work in GURPS - harming the resilient character and pushing them through the portal. Of course, I did say you could do just that, if you're willing to do away with the "absolute" nature of the attack.

Originally Posted by naloth

There's nothing more absolute about a teleportation attack than invulnerability or the one touch kill.

Those are also things that GURPS struggles with. Invulnerability is impossible, the best you can do is have enough protection nothing in the setting can harm you (but something from another setting - or something similarly from outside the scope for which you designed the character, like taking a nuclear warhead to the face - could overwhelm your "invulnerability"). A 100% reliable One Touch Kill (like Aidan's "Seal of Death" from Mixed Myth) is similarly impossible - the best you can manage is either enough damage to kill anything or an Affliction with enough of an HT penalty that the most resilient foe can only survive on a Critical Success (and again, it may not work against something from outside your scope of design).

Originally Posted by naloth

Besides if it's better than any of the campaigns attack abilities it's likely worth whatever cost is being charged.

That depends on how the GM requires it to be designed, but in many campaigns, ruling the Tunnel Enhancement as having this ability would basically amount to said Enhancement being unavailable, as the required Innate Attack would be outside of most characters' budgets.

Originally Posted by naloth

Of course if the GM wants to provide it, I wouldn't worry about trying to build it as a power. The portal weapon just becomes equipment.

Indeed.

[naloth]

Originally Posted by Varyon

I'm not aware of any representations of such portals where they can sever things that are in transit but that this effect isn't absolute. There may be instances where a particularly resilient target prevents the portal from closing completely, but not anything like how it would work in GURPS - harming the resilient character and pushing them through the portal. Of course, I did say you could do just that, if you're willing to do away with the "absolute" nature of the attack.

Representations usually don't say they are absolute and there have been plenty of examples where portals were kept from closing even when they would otherwise chop things in half.

There's also nothing preventing a variant Gate enhancement that allows the gate to constrict whomever is halfway through.

Those are also things that GURPS struggles with. Invulnerability is impossible, the best you can do is have enough protection nothing in the setting can harm you (but something from another setting - or something similarly from outside the scope for which you

More correctly Invulnerability does not have a fixed cross genre cost. A few options were created in Powers and any GM can assign a cost for it like there was in Supers under 3rd.

[JulianLW]

I think you could buy an attack as an Alternative Ability to your Warp advantage, but I also think several other possibilities could apply, especially when the Warp tunnel in other cases might simply suck a passenger harmlessly through to the other side.

I'm thinking of a couple of somewhat obvious examples from fictional sources.

First, Rick Sanchez uses portals for all kinds of purposes, from power dodges to bisecting a Gromflomite. I think this (bisecting a mook) could be an example of

1. rolling a critical success (it seems a bit like an accident when he suddenly appears and conveniently kills a guard with a blaster pointed at Morty),

2. dooming a mook (Rick definitely has a lot of Wildcard Points to spend), or

3. a power stunt (which I suspect applies best to most of Rick's portal gun tricks, though maybe not this one) using either a Gadget power or a Metatronic Generator.

Second, when Wong chops off the hand of Black Dwarf in Avengers: Infinity War. This looks very much like a case of Using Abilities at Default - or simply a hardcore improvisation with Sorcery - to use a portal as a Warp-strength cutting attack. Wong even seems to take a second to prepare it, as per the rules in Powers.

[Alden Loveshade]

Originally Posted by Varyon

My inclination would be to shift in the direction that contains more of the creature/object's mass. If you stick your head through a portal and it closes, you get pushed back; if you're walking through and half your leg is still in the original location when it closes, you get pulled through. If it's undetermined which side has more mass, or if they're equal, roll for it.

I've been GMing/playing Jumper (World) and variations for a long time. That's how I do it.

Using it to cut someone in half could be a possible enhancement, but I think it would be difficult to come up with a workable price for that. This character/creature has 10 hit points and this other has 50--how much does it cost to cut them in half?

[Plane]

Originally Posted by Alden Loveshade

I've been GMing/playing Jumper (World) and variations for a long time. That's how I do it.

Using it to cut someone in half could be a possible enhancement, but I think it would be difficult to come up with a workable price for that. This character/creature has 10 hit points and this other has 50--how much does it cost to cut them in half?

Another perspective I just thought of is that while the portal is open, if you are able to simultaneously exist in two places at once, isn't that in a way sort of like Independent Body Parts except both ends are Sessile while that's in effect?

[Alden Loveshade]

Originally Posted by Plane

Another perspective I just thought of is that while the portal is open, if you are able to simultaneously exist in two places at once, isn't that in a way sort of like Independent Body Parts except both ends are Sessile while that's in effect?

I suppose one could view it that way. I tend to think of it as I would a physical portal/gate/doorway. I can stand with one foot on one side of a gate with my other foot on the other side of the gate. During that moment, I'm on both sides of the gate. If the gate closes, if I stepped through in time I'm on the other side of the gate. If I didn't, I'm on the one side of the gate where I started.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Alden Loveshade

I've been GMing/playing Jumper (World) and variations for a long time. That's how I do it.

Using it to cut someone in half could be a possible enhancement, but I think it would be difficult to come up with a workable price for that. This character/creature has 10 hit points and this other has 50--how much does it cost to cut them in half?

I would actually limit the damage to limbs or tails because I wouldn't want it to be an instakill.

[RyanW]

I would personally say that anything in transit either gets pushed through to the destination, back to the origin, toward whichever they are most in, or holds the portal open (and allowing Things Man Was Not Meant to Know push their way through). Pick when designing the power.

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by RyanW

I would personally say that anything in transit either gets pushed through to the destination, back to the origin, toward whichever they are most in, or holds the portal open (and allowing Things Man Was Not Meant to Know push their way through). Pick when designing the power.

Yeah, except I wouldn't let it hold it open, that looks like an invitation to gaming the built-in limit. My preferred default would be that the portal closes *behind* you, so you'd always make it through if you were touching it when it closed.

It should only harm you if you trip or something (like critically failing Body Sense).

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by Not another shrubbery

Yeah, except I wouldn't let it hold it open, that looks like an invitation to gaming the built-in limit.

My first thought was that it would be hard to game, because anything that blocks the tunnel from closing also blocks anything else from going through (the tunnel seals around it, but can't fully close until the block is removed). I don't see it as something like an iris that can be held open from the edge.

Assuming you can't open a new tunnel until the first one closes, there are many ways that this would be more a nuisance than a boon.