Requires a Skill Roll

[Scott Destroyer]

Hello,

The "Dim Mak" power on page 123 of The Ultimate Martial Artist says,

"(6) Characters must buy Dim Mak powers with the following Limitation: Requires a Chinese Healing Roll (no active point penalty, but 16+ automatically misses; -1/4)."

This is a very interesting construct, to me. The Requires a Skill Roll Limitation is normally worth -1/2, eliminating the Active Point penalty to the roll makes it worth -1/2 less (reducing it to -0), and choosing a Background Skill (like KS: Chinese Healing) as the skill is worth a further -1/4 less. So without the auto-miss caveat, the Limitation would save no points at all.

My question is, just how is the Limitation value for this interesting new option for Requires a Skill Roll calculated?

I notice that the Limitation as presented above has the same value as the Activation Roll 15- Limitation, which also always fails on 16+. Could it be that the Limitation value of the equivalent Activation Roll is considered the minimum value of an "always fails on X or higher" RSR Limitation?

Thanks in advance for the answer! :)

[Steve Long]

Generally speaking, I don't answer game design/philosophy questions. However, I think I can address this one as a rules issue. First, it uses the RSR option for "use a Background Skill instead of a Characteristic-Based Skill," changing the normal value from -1/2 to -1/4. The "automatically fails on a 16+" is just tacked on to help properly define the power.