Structuring Powerstones

[hal]

What follows below is an attempt to add some structure while examining the structure surrounding powerstones.

One thing that occurs to me is the idea that if you can have critical failures where it comes to spell casting, why can't you have critical failures while enchanting? This permits some "Bad" things to occur with any enchanted item such as possessed magic items, or items that are essentially cursed in some way against the user - but that's a topic for another day. ;)

What is germane however, is that although the concept of quirked powerstones has been enshrined since the inception of GURPS MAGIC when it first came out as GURPS FANTASY, there aren't really any guidelines as to how to set in motion the creation of "Quirks". It is a "up to the GM's whimsy" approach, and after seeing some suggestions, I got to thinking "exploding gemstones that happen when the gemstone approaches more than 50% charging levels is probably a bit excessive, as it destroys the powerstone rather spectacularly. That seems to go against the idea that only a critical failure on an enchantment destroys it. That being said, if one COULD have enchantment critical failures, the exploding powerstone gag would be just what the doctor ordered!

So, let's set the tone for structuring a magic item. GURPS BASIC SET CHARACTERS page 117 tells us we can create powers as gadgets. In GURPS 4e, the concept of Energy Reserves (Mana) was introduced and now we can describe a powerstone as a gadget that is stealable, of a given size, and is breakable based on its DR of 2 or less. OVerall, the net results is:

Breakable DR 2 or less: -20%
Can be stolen: -30%
SM: -5%

Slow Recharge: Your ER recharges slowly. -60% for one point/day.

Since it costs 3 character points for Energy Reserve, a powerstone would be priced at 2 character points per level of power reserve (always rounding any fraction up).

None of this really matters where it comes to describing the powerstone of GURPS MAGIC, but it does help illustrate how it might look using GURPS POWERS and/or the powers rules in GURPS BASIC SET CHARACTERS.

For example, were you to decide that the use of a powerstone requires a preparation time of 1 minute to use (ie, some ritual), the discount to the item's cost is 20%. If it took an hour long ritual, that discount would become a 30% discount. Point is, you could as GM state that the powerstone requires a ceremony to unlock its energy as a quirk.

If one were to restrict the use of the powerstone for time during daylight or time during night time, the discount would be 20%.

This represents restrictions based upon time of day.

But what happens when you restrict the recharge functionality? Now it appears, we need to make a determination on what the recharge aspect of Energy Reserve is worth, and take it from there. Recharge rate of 1 day is -60 percent. Anything that is worse than that is going to make it such that you reach the -80% cap REAL quick. But to give an appropriate example, recharges only while in bat blood would seemingly imply the limitation of "only in water" as an example of a limitation from GURPS POWERS.

In the end, all one can really do is take this approach of "structure" to a level of proportionality. Below is a list of possible limitations as given in POWERS as a way to provide inspiration. It isn't exhaustive, but things like "incurs a -1 reaction roll" would seem to be a disadvantage that is conferred upon the user of the "gadget" sort of like an affliction or a malediction than anything else. Problem is - GURPS usually grants the target of an "attack" some sort of saving roll.

On the flip side, if something smells of rotted fish and the character keeps the thing emanating the rotting fish smell on his person, that's all on him.