Creative use of Ablative?

[Blue]

So at lunch I'm reading The New Invaders comic book, issue 3. In the previous issue, Blazing Skull gets pretty well clobbered, enough so that his head (which is quite literally a blazing skull) breaks! In issue 3 when he reappears, after referring to himself as the "Blazing Jaw" () he jumps back into combat and complains about how it hurts for his tissue to reknit.

 

This got me to thinking applying the Ablative advantage to BODY vs. creating some kind of Physical Limitation (called "Ablative Being"). The idea being that as someone actually takes BODY damage, their limbs or somesuch hit location might become useless due to the harm caused. It would be repaired upon full healing. Character would still "bleed" the normal way, in that the longer he's at 0 BODY he's unable to "pull himself together" and will need help or he'll die.

 

So here's the possible constructs for such a thing, as I see it:

• 25pt Pysical Disad (In a way akin to leprosy); This makes it pretty much GM opinion on the affects of the BODY that actually pierces defenses.
  
• -1 Limitation applied to BODY (Essentially a rebate of 10pts on BODY); I think this would make it so that he would have increasing Activation Rolls in order to take physical actions that turn?

Any other suggestions for simulating this wild and entertaining effect?

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: Creative use of Ablative?

 

Here's one way to do it ... make the Phys Lim 'Uses the Impairing/Disabling rules' ... so when a body part gets impaired or disabled, it flies off ... with a possible exception for the head, since it apparently didn't slow Skully down.

[Blue]

Re: Creative use of Ablative?

 

Also a good thought! I imagine the value would slide based on what his defenses were; a character with huge PD/ED getting fewer points for it. Blazing Skull who probably has normal defenses for a supehereo getting maybe a Frequently and Greatly impairing (I'd give him more combat minuses for missing half his skull whereas they didn't in the comic; Heck they didn't even impair his ability to talk, but then skeletons dont' usually talk anyway I guess).

 

Maybe even a combo; the 10pt disad instead of 15pts plus the -1 limit on BODY? Or is that too generous?

[PhilFleischmann]

Re: Creative use of Ablative?

 

If I'm understanding you correctly, you might want to try Susceptibility. Instead of Susc doing regular damage, it can also be applied against powers/characteristics, etc. In this case the thing you're Susceptible to is BODY damage, and the effect is to lose some ability (which could be pre-defined or determined by the GM on a case-by-case basis based on common sense - hit location, SFX of the power used, etc.).

[Blue]

Re: Creative use of Ablative?

 

And yet another good idea. At least Phil I can give Rep to

[Dust Raven]

Re: Creative use of Ablative?

 

I like Phil's idea too. Probably the simplest to use in a campaign that doesn't already use the impair/disable rules for damage.

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: Creative use of Ablative?

 

Slight thread derail ... is this a new Blazing Skull (or a really old one)? The last one I saw looked kinda like he was wearing a skeleton Halloween costume ... you could see the black outline of his body, but also a glowing skeletal structure inside said silhouette. If I'm recalling his dialogue properly, he referred to having a Force Field, which I'm guessing was actually why he looked so odd.

[Blue]

Re: Creative use of Ablative?

 

Supposedly it's the same one. As to the differences, it may simply be a modernized version of the character.