Sharing Charges

[Dust Raven]

I remember this being brought up some time ago, and I don't remember what, if anything, was resolved over it. But...

 

Okay, if you have a Multipower, and every slot has charges, you can apply the Limitation to the reserve and slots and the number of charges is all there are for the entire Multipower. Or you can just apply the Limitation to each of the slots, in which case each slot has that many charges.

 

This makes some sense if you actually get a Limitation for Charges, as it would actually cost less by putting it on the reserve. But then there is +0 or 16 charges, or 2 clips of 12 charges or something else that equalls +0. There is no difference in cost either way, but one is clearly more limiting that the other.

 

Has anyone every used a "Shared Charges" modifier to reflect this limitation? If so, what did you do? Would you still apply it even if the Charges Limitation actually nets a bonus (such as only 8 charge)?

 

Thanks,

[Killer Shrike]

I have used the concept of "Charge Gestalts", or shared Charges for some constructs before, in or out of a MPP.

 

I usually treat it as a flat -1/2 modifier to the Charges itself, but of course, the more powers you have sharing charges the bigger the Limitation should be.

 

 

In HD v2 I use the "Recovers Under Limited Circumstances" option to represent it as it will let you apply a specified limitation value to the Charge itself which will interact correctly with other Charge options.

[Lord Liaden]

For a while I tried reducing the Limitation from Charges on slots in a Multipower by one level versus Charges on the whole Reserve. For example, 12 Charges for the entire Multipower would be a -1/4 Limitation, but 12 Charges on each slot would not count as a Limitation for calculating the cost of the slot. I extended it the other way, too, so that 16 Charges for each slot would count as a +1/4 Advantage on them.

 

It was more esthetically pleasing, but in the end I decided it required more changes to existing game elements than it was worth. Now I feel it's just one of the little quirks in the system that doesn't cause enough of a problem to worry over. But feel free to try my suggestion if you'd like.

[Dust Raven]

Originally posted by Killer Shrike

In HD v2 I use the "Recovers Under Limited Circumstances" option to represent it as it will let you apply a specified limitation value to the Charge itself which will interact correctly with other Charge options.

 

I'm still using Metacreator (why spend $50 bucks on new software when you can spend 2 years rewriting your own?) so it'll be easier for me to add in a flat (or even a variable) modifier.

 

A -1/2 is kinda in the ballpark of what I was thinking, but as LL said, it's more of a limitation the more slots the MP has. This would mean a higher value LImitation for greater slots. I'm not sure I really want to do into all that though, as the actuall number of charges would have to be considered, as well as how the charges recover.

 

Basically, all I'm trying to do is differentiate between the "trick ammo" guy and the "knife thrower." The trick ammo guy has the gun from Judge Dred. It contains various types of ammo, each with it's own number of rounds. The knife thrower just has a bunch of throwing knives, but he can throw them a number of different ways (RKA, EB, Autofire, etc...). For some reason, even though I can build them with the same slots, the trick ammo guy just seems to get free ammo (or the knife thrower gets jipped out of a coupla-dozen knives).

[Pegasus]

Originally posted by Lord Liaden

For a while I tried reducing the Limitation from Charges on slots in a Multipower by one level versus Charges on the whole Reserve. For example, 12 Charges for the entire Multipower would be a -1/4 Limitation, but 12 Charges on each slot would not count as a Limitation for calculating the cost of the slot. I extended it the other way, too, so that 16 Charges for each slot would count as a +1/4 Advantage on them.

 

Wasn’t there an official rule similar to this a couple editions ago? I seem to remember something like a slot with charges was worth half the limitation. Currently working on a trick ammo guy, and it seems just overwhelming to be able to put 16 shots per slot now for free. I’m still doing it, mind you, just saying…

[Lord Liaden]

Yes, that was the rule in (IIRC) Champions III. 4E HERO didn't officially follow it, but many GMs continued to use it informally. It's become a different dynamic, though, since 5E has ruled that Limited Charges placed on individual slots in a Multipower do not give a Lim cost reduction to the Reserve at all; whereas Limited Charges placed on the Reserve as a whole reduces the cost of both the Reserve and the slots. Hence there is a genuine cost difference between the two ways to buy Charges that reflects the relative superiority of Charges on each slot... as long as those Charges are few enough to count as a Limitation. For 16 Charges (+0), though, there's no cost-based incentive to buy them for the whole Multipower vs. each slot.

 

The method I suggested kind of splits the difference between the old rule and the new one.

[zornwil]

If it's a multipower, I make Charges for the MP base apply as the total charges for the MP shared among the powers, with any individual power charges further limiting if appropriate (in other words, if they're less than the total charges and it limits in so doing that).