VPP's and Extra Time

[Caped Crusader]

I'm curious...

 

Most powers that take extra time to activate have a graduated set of limitation levels from an extra phase up to days, months, and years - ranging to -4 for a day and up.

 

Why is is that VPP's jump from a full phase with a skill roll in combat and between a turn and a minute out of combat, to between adventures (takes days) for only -1/2? I see in the FAQ where it's said that the GM can allow a lesser limitation (-1/4) for "takes hours". It just seems like a heck of a jump to me.

[Steve Long]

This isn't a rules question, but a sort of design/philosophy question, so I've moved it.

[Bengal]

One answer is that it's a matter of game balance. A VPP can conceivably be any power you want it to be, with GM permission and a decent rationale. Taking lots of limitations on it can make it potentially much cheaper than a similar Multipower with a dozen or so powers.

 

I'm sure there are other reasons, but really this one should stand up on its own.

[Hugh Neilson]

The "cost" argument doesn't hold up in my books.

 

Compare a VPP with -2 in limitations to a multipower with -2 in limitations. Assume each has a 60 point pool. The VPP will cost 60 points for the pool. No limitations will apply. To make it change automatically as a zero phase action (like a Multipower does), we must take +2 advantages on the control cost, so that costs us 30. Total cost: 90 points.

 

The Multi pool will cost 60/3 = 20. Each slot will cost 4 points if it is a 60 point multi slot, so we can afford 17 of them. We could afford 35 ultra slots - pretty versatile in my books

 

That's not the whole story, however - the VPP can have 3 60 AP powers going at a time if those limitations apply to the powers in the pool, and aren't just restrictions on the control cost. If the limits al impact the control cost only, however, the multi has a pretty comparable cost.

 

A 60 point cosmic VPP with no limits, however, would have cost 150 points. A 60 point multi with no limitations could still have the dozen or so slots suggested (some ultras, some not) for a comparable cost. 12 Ultras would cost 18 points less, and 12 multi slots 54 more.

 

And if it is just a way of reducing the point efficiency on limitations, why is Extra Time the only limitation affected?

 

I'm inclined to say it's because the powers themselves do not have extra time to activate. It may take you (say) a day to change the powers in your VPP, but having done so, each one can be used freely, without extra time. An Energy Blast with a one day activation time normally takes a day to activate, fires once, and now you need another day to activate it again. The limitation is, I believe, halved if you can fire repeatedly once you spend the time to activate the power once. Even then, I would expect that ther are restrictions to how long the power can stay "active", or we'd all have "takes 20 years to activate, then can be used at will", and define our characters as mutants whose powers took 20 years to manifest.