The Art and Science of St. Nicholas

[SSgt Baloo]

It's that time of year again, and there's a new Hero System ready to flex its muscles on the neverending question: "How would you model Santa Claus' abilities in the Hero system?"

The first thing we have to do is determine just what the effects are we're looking for, how many "stops" he's gotta make and how many Santa-hours it takes to get the job done.


Rules:
You can't invoke "GM Fiat" on this build. No "He does whatecver the GM says he can".
You have to describe Santa's power in Hero Terms or define an ability Santa possesses (as established in a multitude of books, poems, carols, movies and Christmas specials).
Examples:

"Fact": He can fluently speak any language on Earth at need.
Ability: Cosmic VPP; switchable at any time, only to know language used by person you want to communicate with. Or: Universal translator bought to ridiculously high levels (now I wish I'd bought the Ultimate Skill ;)).

OR

"Fact": He knows your name and whether you've been naughty or nice.

Optional: you can stat the power/ability out in detail if you are so inclined. I'm at the library and my books are at home, so I can't go into detail as I don't have the rules memorized.

[Sean Waters]

:) I'll do this properly later, but it sounds like fun.

One thing that occurs to me though is how you model a present: I'm assuming that it is a simple item that does not normally get paid for with character points - although, of course that does not cover ALL presents.

Can I also ask that we limit any 'EDM to a world where everyone who has been good got a present' builds: it really isn't helpful taking the time out to flame people :) EDM as a travel method is fine through :thumbup:

The 'obvious' way is probably some sort of cunning triggered transform - but that uses transform - which is also a red flag power - it is probably best if we try and do this without Transform, or only use it in inventive ways.

FACT He can understand any language: I'm thinking some sort of conversational telepathy as Telepathy does not require that either party know the language of the other.

[Jagged]

Someone should also do the Futurama Santa Bot :)

[SSgt Baloo]

RE: Santabot: Oh, definitely yes!

I'll go look for some sites that list canta's capabilities....

The Science of Santa Claus (http://www.chainreactionbicycles.com/santaclaus.htm)

Santa Claus: An Engineering Analysis REBUTTAL (http://www.inflection-point.com/jokes/122.htm)

The Physics of Santa Claus (http://www.physorg.com/news2487.html)

College Lecture: The Science of Santa Claus (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ3VWRzk_r4)

[Ice9]

For delivering the goods to every house at once, what about Duplication with a massive number of Duplicates, with the special effect that he freezes/loops time and essentially makes all the deliveries simultaneously (at least within a given time zone)?

Transform would work for making the gifts, but you could also do it with a large Wealth perk and lots of followers (the elves), who can craft at high speed.

[SSgt Baloo]

For delivering the goods to every house at once, what about Duplication with a massive number of Duplicates, with the special effect that he freezes/loops time and essentially makes all the deliveries simultaneously (at least within a given time zone)?

Transform would work for making the gifts, but you could also do it with a large Wealth perk and lots of followers (the elves), who can craft at high speed.

My thoughts exactly, but you'd also need teleportation (SFX: He flies his reindeer really, really fast) and a huge number of memorized locations (or perhaps just a few different ones for each duplicate).

Still, has anyone yet calculated the number of man-hours Santa-hours required to actually complete the task of appearing nearby, entering the house, distributing the presents and exiting the house? With teleportation as described above, travel time is negligible unless the teleport only sends St. Nick to a region (perhaps it's megascale) and then he has to cover the region more slowly using flight, etc?

I think once the above question is answered it will be child's play to calculate how many "quantum Santas" are necessary to provide worldwide coverage in a single night.

[SSgt Baloo]

As I touched on, above, I am a proponent of the Quantum Santa Theory. In essence, Santa can be in multiple locations simultaneously. This allows him to multitask with mutiple orders of magnitude of improved efficiency.

[Peregrine]

People, people, people... translate into 6e from 5eR - the Speed Zone.

Q.E.D.

[BobGreenwade]

Speed Zone, nothing.

I've said this before, and I stand by it.

Santa Claus is a Time Lord.

[SSgt Baloo]

Santa Claus is a Time Lord.

That would explain the incredible cargo capacity of the sleigh (amongst other things) but you still have to stat him out. :eg:

[Nevelon]

That would explain the incredible cargo capacity of the sleigh (amongst other things) but you still have to stat him out. :eg:

A few thoughts for target numbers;

How many people does he need to hit? Every house in the world? Only those of certain faiths? Only those who have a child in a certain age range?

Do we have an estimate of the naughty/nice ratio

I don't have 6th ed, but it seems that clairsentience with a detect:naughty/niceness in the megascale range would work. Probably with a lot of rapid. He'd also need detect:sleep. He just needs to scan for states, so no need for discrimitory, etc.

He know's when you are sleeping
He know when you're awake
He know's if you've been bad or good,
So be good, for goodness sake.

Santa: Jolly old elf or CIA spook, you make the call.

[Peregrine]

Santa: Jolly old elf or CIA spook, you make the call.

Yes.

[Sean Waters]

OK. Here's a power that gives almost everyone on the planet the feeling of well being and happiness (which I've done with MI, but you could do with Mind Control or even Transform) by setting off a series of cumulative mental attacks that have a physical manifestation (a present) and affect people well into January (because it will take a good while to make the breakout rolls) or possibly even longer.
Christmas Present: Mental Illusions 1d6, Area Of Effect (4m Radius; +1/4), Constant (+1/2), Invisible Power Effects, Hide effects of Power (Fully Invisible; +1), Cumulative (192 points; +1 3/4), MegaScale (1m = 10,000 km; +2), Damage Over Time, Target's defenses only apply once (17-32 damage increments, damage occurs every 5 Minutes, +4) (52 Active Points); Limited Power Power loses almost all of its effectiveness (Only works on Christmas Eve Night; -2), Physical Manifestation (-1/4)
52 Active 16 Real

[BobGreenwade]

Santa: Jolly old elf or CIA spook, you make the call.
Yes.Santa's the jolly old elf. The spooks are a different story.

"Santa's Workshop, Division Six. We'll take it from here."

[Jagged]

So how does he get into your home? Teleportation or some kind of desolidification/squeezing/stretching deal? Most movies seem to go for the latter.

On the subject of detects can his also tell your religious convictions? Based upon purely circumstantial evidence he seems to deliver to Christians, lapsed Christians and people who were never Christian but have Christian relatives. Maybe he can just detect stockings hung on beds and mantles? What a weird power! :D

Hes a disturbing thought: maybe he has to be invited in. Santa's a vampire :(

[Nevelon]

Hes a disturbing thought: maybe he has to be invited in. Santa's a vampire :(

Only comes out at night? Christmas eve only.
Command over animals? On Dasher!, on Dancer!...
Mind control/domination? Does anyone think he's a bad guy? He's mind-whammied us all!
Feeds on the blood of the living? Here we may have a problem. It may be we don't hear of the victims. Some vampire myths involve strange compulsions, like having to count ever grain of rice if you toss some at them. There may be a modern corollary in milk and cookies being left for santa.

Red fur would hide the bloodstains well...

Anyone have any good garlic cookie recipes?

[SSgt Baloo]

According to Billy and Mandy Save Christmas (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Grim_Adventures_of_Billy_&_Mandy#Billy_and_Mandy_save_Christmas), Santa isn't always a vampire. Mrs. Claus? Don't ask!