Dependence: A useless Catagory of Disads?

[Springald Jack]

Re: Dependence: A useless Catagory of Disads?

 

Superman needs a yellow sun or he loses his powers gradually. I wouldn't call that a dependency; it's not life threatening. Green Lantern must recharge his focus. That's not a dependency. Some of these are plot devices more than actual dependencies. And considering that there are literally hundreds of supers in comics and fiction, it's clearly not a common Disad.

 

You're describing food and water. Should a PC get extra points because he likes breakfast, lunch and dinner every day like most people?

 

Actually green Lantern's (0-point) dependancy is essentially one of the examples in the fifth edition corebook. Just Sayin'

 

--

Patrick Ley

"And I don't care how they spell things on the Internet/When you email me spell the whole word out"--Strong Bad

[dugfromthearth]

Re: Dependence: A useless Catagory of Disads?

 

first of all there is a point value to needing to eat/drink, sleep, and breathe. if you want to avoid having to do those you need to buy life support. The dependence on those things is built into the base value of your character.

 

Fixing dependence

 

The time between dependence isn't the problem, the problem is the difficulty of getting/doing the dependent thing

 

a consideration of the disadvantage should be how long it requires to do it. Bathing for an hour in salt water is a much bigger disadvantage then needing to drink a glass of salt water. Likewise sleep is a bigger disadvantage then breathing in the sense that sleep takes 8 hours of your day and breathing takes no time. The bonus should not be based on the raw how long it takes - it should be based on how long it takes vs. the time of the dependence. Requiring 1 hour every year is basically trivial - requiring 1 hour every 6 hours is a much bigger issue. I would go with: takes 1 time period less then dependence to fullfil dependence -10; takes 2 time periods less then dependence to fulfill dependence -5.

 

Availability is a big factor as well. A dependence that you cannot bring with you (a vat of salt water, the sun, etc) should be worth -5 points more.

[Trebuchet]

Re: Dependence: A useless Catagory of Disads?

 

Actually green Lantern's (0-point) dependancy is essentially one of the examples in the fifth edition corebook. Just Sayin'

Green Lantern's recharging of the ring does not (and never has in any sense) qualified as a Dependency by Hero terms. Green Lantern does not die or suffer harm if his ring runs out of juice (Although if that takes place in combat that can obviously be bad). It is merely recharging a Focus' or a focused END Reserve.

[Captain Obvious]

Re: Dependence: A useless Catagory of Disads?

 

Speaking of history' date=' for Hero this time, anyone remenber The Dash and his END Pills?[/quote']

 

Ahh, yes, the Great Supervillain Contest. Some days, those NPCs from that adventure seem really cheesy and dumb, and some days I think back fondly. I think the Dash may have been one of the better ones.

[tesuji]

Re: Dependence: A useless Catagory of Disads?

 

FWIW, i really think the most meaningful criteria for dependence is actually those defined in physical limitations.

 

How frequently does it cause you a problem?

How serious a problem does it present when it hits?

 

Basically, there is so much play in the "how long between doses?" and "how hard is it to find?" that flat point costs based on those tend to be unreliable, as many here have poked at their individual pet examples?

 

But if you agree with your Gm on the SFX/flavor of your dependence and agree with him on how often "in thr script" it should come up and how serious it should play a role "in the script" when it happens, you ought to have a good enough handle on it to get the points about right.

 

Then again, IMO, too much paper and ink is wasted on attemtping to set hard point cost benchmarks for most disads when in fact their overall metrics should most all be "frequency and severity" and all the little details handles as SFX/flavor.

[PhilFleischmann]

Re: Dependence: A useless Catagory of Disads?

 

a consideration of the disadvantage should be how long it requires to do it. Bathing for an hour in salt water is a much bigger disadvantage then needing to drink a glass of salt water. Likewise sleep is a bigger disadvantage then breathing in the sense that sleep takes 8 hours of your day and breathing takes no time. The bonus should not be based on the raw how long it takes - it should be based on how long it takes vs. the time of the dependence. Requiring 1 hour every year is basically trivial - requiring 1 hour every 6 hours is a much bigger issue. I would go with: takes 1 time period less then dependence to fullfil dependence -10; takes 2 time periods less then dependence to fulfill dependence -5.

 

Availability is a big factor as well. A dependence that you cannot bring with you (a vat of salt water, the sun, etc) should be worth -5 points more.

This is an interesting idea. I'm not sure it works yet at extreme levels, but it is worth thinking about. Bearman needs to hybernate for one season (guess which?) out of every year. Is this really worth -10? It's no different than a long winter vacation. If the adventure takes place during the winter, Bearman simply isn't available. The only way it's a disadvantage is if there is some likelyhood that winter will come around and he'll somehow be prevented from hybernating. But there's definitely a kernal of a good idea there.

 

Then again' date=' IMO, too much paper and ink is wasted on attemtping to set hard point cost benchmarks for most disads when in fact their overall metrics should most all be "frequency and severity" and all the little details handles as SFX/flavor.[/quote']

Also a good idea.