Conjoined Concepts: Charges

[Sean Waters]

OK, idea about charges. The Charges modifier determines how many times you can use the powerthey apply to in a given period. Currently this is a compoundmodifier: it limits the number of uses but it also provides somefreebies, for example, it makes a power Zero END. Well it makes somepowers Zero END. Some are already Zero END. There does not seem to be any logical basis for the costing.


At present you can usea power a number of times a turn equal to your SPD each turn. If wetherefore set the 'base value' for charges at +0 for SPD uses/Turn wehave a starting point which makes sense.


Now I am going toassume that you can use your charges as you see fit i.e. you can usethem all up at the start of your allotted time period if you want to(limiting the FREQUENCY of use would be another related but separatemodifier).


I am also going toassume, at the moment, that you get your charges back simply bywaiting the allotted time and that no other action is needed.


Finally I am going toassume that charges return en masse at a specific point.


Now we start withSPD/Turn. Let us deal first with changing the time that chargesreturn in.


For each step up thetime chart, you get a -1/4 modifier.


So SPD/Day uses is -21/2.


The other thing we cando is change the number of uses. We start with SPD. You can halvethat number of uses for -1/4. Halvings round up and the minimumnumber of charges is one (so, for example, if you are SPD 6 then youcan halve to 3, then to 2 then to 1, which is where you have to stop,and you get -3/4 for that.


You can change both thenumber of uses and the Return Frequency (so a SPD 6 character who isable to use a power once a day gets a total of -3 ¼.


You can also INCREASEthe number of uses of the power. Each doubling of the number of uses(or part thereof) adds +1/4.


This CAN lead to somesilly results as the Time Chart goes up in leaps of 3x to 6x. Charges will never be more than a +0 modifier.


If you want charges tocost no END, then have them cost no END i.e. buy that modifierseparately.


If a charge for aconstant or persistent power is used then it lasts a full phase andif charges are used on consecutive phases the power does not 'stopand re-start'.

OK, that is the basic idea. We can tweak it.

Thoughts?

[Lucius]

At present you can usea power a number of times a turn equal to your SPD each turn. If wetherefore set the 'base value' for charges at +0 for SPD uses/Turn wehave a starting point which makes sense.

Not SPD/Turn. It's 1/Phase.

Let us deal first with changing the time that chargesreturn in.


For each step up thetime chart, you get a -1/4 modifier.


So SPD/Day uses is -21/2.

I assume you mean 2 1/2.

1/Turn would be -1/4, 1/Day would be - 2 3/4

The other thing we cando is change the number of uses. We start with SPD.

No, we don't.

We don't because it's unneccessarily complicated.

And because if I give you a gun with a loaded clip, and you open it up and count the bullets, you will get the same number that I would, or Rambo would, or the Flash would. Having a higher SPD wouldn't get you more ammo, it just means you go through it faster.

So we start with 1/Phase. Technically it could be more than 1/phase what with Multiple Attacks and so forth allowing more than one use of a Power per Phase but 1/ Phase will do for this discussion I think, for now.

You can also INCREASEthe number of uses of the power. Each doubling of the number of uses(or part thereof) adds +1/4.

Current structure seems designed around -1/2 per doubling.

If you want charges tocost no END, then have them cost no END i.e. buy that modifierseparately.

This makes sense. Maybe we don't need to lynch you for constantly making things complicated after all.


Lucius Alexander

the palindromedary notes that Lucius still has the rope ready

[Mister E]

If you want charges to cost no END, then have them cost no END i.e. buy that modifier separately.

Now you can push boostable powers.