Transfer Electricity?

[bigdamnhero]

A player in my Champions group has an interesting idea for his power armor hero, but I'm finding it tricky to model. The suit is an alien artifact which he hasn’t completely figured out yet, and it’s partly damaged to boot. It needs to be recharged roughly once a day, and requires a tremendous amount of juice to recharge – you can’t just plug it into a wall outlet, it requires tapping into a main power line. (He can draw electricity from nearby power lines without actually touching them.) Also because the suit is power hungry, it will sometimes decide on its own to tap into a nearby power grid without the character’s approval.

 

I see this as a combination of a Disad and a Power:

 

Needs Recharging: Dependence, main power line, Drain 3d6 END Reserve (Difficult To Obtain, 1 Day), 10 pts.

and

Power Hungry: Transfer 3d6 (END Reserve to END reserve) (45 Active Points); Limited Power (Can't always control; -1/2), OIF (-1/2); 22 points.

 

What do you think of this build? Does it do the job? Do the point costs seem fair?

 

Extra credit question: any thoughts on how many actual volts 10 points of END reserve should equal?

 

Thanks,

 

[Edited to correct point costs - thanks.]

[Chris Goodwin]

Re: Transfer Electricity?

 

I would just limit the END Reserve's REC with Requires Access To Power Mains. Maybe with a small dice, wide area Suppress or wide area Change Environment to represent lights dimming, some electronic devices overloading or powering off, etc.

[Tornado]

Re: Transfer Electricity?

 

Power Hungry: Transfer 3d6 (END Reserve to END reserve) (45 Active Points); Limited Power (Can't always control; -1/2)' date=' OIF (-1/2); 30 points.[/quote']

 

45/2=30?

 

I guess I need to do my math course again.

Do the point costs seem fair?

No, for the above reason.

[Greywind]

Re: Transfer Electricity?

 

 

45/2=30?

 

I guess I need to do my math course again.

No, for the above reason.

A "-1/2" Limitation isn't dividing by 2. You are dividing by 1.5. You add 1 plus all Advantage modifiers and multiply the real cost. Then you add 1 and all Limitation modifiers and then divide.

 

Of course, he needs to work on adding those fractions, don't he...

[Chris Goodwin]

Re: Transfer Electricity?

 

A "-1/2" Limitation isn't dividing by 2. You are dividing by 1.5. You add 1 plus all Advantage modifiers and multiply the real cost. Then you add 1 and all Limitation modifiers and then divide.

 

Of course, he needs to work on adding those fractions, don't he...

 

There are two -1/2 Limitations on the Power.

 

That said: he has an END Reserve, and he wants to be able to add END to it in a way that's not always under his control; this sounds like REC to me. The way it adds END is by tapping power lines; easy to apply a Limitation to the Reserve's REC.

[bigdamnhero]

Re: Transfer Electricity?

 

45/2=30?

 

I guess I need to do my math course again.

Umm...I guess one of us does... Somehow the -1/2 for OIF fell out. Thanks. Edited appropriately.

 

I would just limit the END Reserve's REC with Requires Access To Power Mains. Maybe with a small dice' date=' wide area Suppress or wide area Change Environment to represent lights dimming, some electronic devices overloading or powering off, etc.[/quote']

Yeah, that was actually my first thought. The problem is I want it to be a more long-term thing. I don't want him to have to recharge every turn, or even every minute, just once a day or therebouts. Hence the Drain against the END Reserve, so that his batteries get weaker if he doesn't recharge regularly. That's the part I'm having trouble with.

 

I do like the CE for dimming lights effect, tho.

[Chris Goodwin]

Re: Transfer Electricity?

 

Yeah, that was actually my first thought. The problem is I want it to be a more long-term thing. I don't want him to have to recharge every turn, or even every minute, just once a day or therebouts. Hence the Drain against the END Reserve, so that his batteries get weaker if he doesn't recharge regularly. That's the part I'm having trouble with.

 

Here's the thing. As long as the suit has access to power, it recovers once per Turn. Once the power is cut off, it doesn't recover. Presumably, if the suit is going after power, it's going to be there for more than one Phase or Turn, right?

[bigdamnhero]

Re: Transfer Electricity?

 

Here's the thing. As long as the suit has access to power' date=' it recovers once per Turn. Once the power is cut off, it doesn't recover. Presumably, if the suit is going after power, it's going to be there for more than one Phase or Turn, right?[/quote']

That’s a perfectly valid way to do it, but it’s not quite the effect I’m dialing for. (No wonder I’m having trouble with the build – I can’t even explain what I’m trying to do!)

 

What I don’t want is for the player to have a full day’s worth of END in his Reserve, so he can fight all day and then at the end of the day he just plugs in to recharge. Or alternately he runs out of power in the middle of the battle and is completely hosed.

 

What I’m trying to do (at the player's suggestion) is something a little more complicated. His END Reserve and REC are fairly “typicalâ€, which means that he must pay attention to how much END he’s using, will have to take the odd Recovery now and then, and may have to reduce his SPD if a fight drags on too long. But on top of the existing END & REC mechanic, if he doesn’t recharge once a day (out of combat, generally) his suit starts out with a smaller reserve and/or less REC. He can still fight and use END, but he’s going to be have to watch his expenditures much more closely. That’s why I built it as a Drain END.

 

Make sense? It’s possible this is the dumbest idea I’ve ever had in 15+ years of Hero gaming, but if so I’d like to figure that out before we start playing. (For a change.)

 

Actually, now that I think about it - what I'm looking for might be something along the lines of Long Term Endurance. Hmm...

[Erkenfresh]

Re: Transfer Electricity?

 

I think it's a really cool idea. The Dependence disadvantage and a regular endurance reserve is really all you need to model this.

 

As for "how many volts in 1 END", this question doesn't truly make sense. The question is really "how much power in 1 END". Well, it takes 10 STR (1 END) to lift 100 kg for a few seconds. Can anyone take it from there?

[gojira]

Re: Transfer Electricity?

 

Yes, I was going to mention Dependence also. Basically, this suit is like a vampire. it needs to drink blood (or electricity) once per day or it goes kerput.

 

For the power hungry thing, I'm thinking of some sort of limited Enraged. It goes Enraged if too close to a big power line, for example, but rather than "attacking" it just uses it's power transfer. This gives you control over when the suit goes off on it's own, and when the player gets control again, since both of these chances can be adjusted independently.

[bigdamnhero]

Re: Transfer Electricity?

 

For the power hungry thing' date=' I'm thinking of some sort of limited Enraged. It goes Enraged if too close to a big power line, for example, but rather than "attacking" it just uses it's power transfer. This gives you control over when the suit goes off on it's own, and when the player gets control again, since both of these chances can be adjusted independently.[/quote']

I hadn't even thought about handling it that way - that's not half bad.

 

As for "how many volts in 1 END"' date=' this question doesn't truly make sense. The question is really "how much power in 1 END". Well, it takes 10 STR (1 END) to lift 100 kg for a few seconds. Can anyone take it from there?[/quote']

I'm not necesarily looking for a literal equation; this is a 4-color comic book campaign. Just trying to get an idea how much END the PC can suck out of various power sources.

[Silbeg]

Re: Transfer Electricity?

 

What I’m trying to do (at the player's suggestion) is something a little more complicated. His END Reserve and REC are fairly “typicalâ€, which means that he must pay attention to how much END he’s using, will have to take the odd Recovery now and then, and may have to reduce his SPD if a fight drags on too long.

Remember that END Reserves don't recover when the character takes a Recovery... only on the post-segment-12 recovery. This is one of the costs of using END Reserve.

 

But on top of the existing END & REC mechanic' date=' if he doesn’t recharge once a day (out of combat, generally) his suit starts out with a smaller reserve and/or less REC. He can still fight and use END, but he’s going to be have to watch his expenditures much more closely. That’s why I built it as a Drain END.[/quote']

Definately sounds like a Dependency to me.

 

Actually, my current character, Soundwave, works very similarly to this.

 

He absorbs sound, and then re-projects it.

To model this, his powers work off of an END Reserve, he has a Dependency that drains his powers in quiet environments (<20 dB, or so), and he has a triggered Aid which boosts his powers in very loud situations (>80dB, I believe).

 

You could model your powersuit character something like that. In addition, you could add a side-effect to the triggered Aid to add an Enrage, if you do desired, or a Psych Lim (such as Overconfidence, or whatever).

[bigdamnhero]

Re: Transfer Electricity?

 

Remember that END Reserves don't recover when the character takes a Recovery... only on the post-segment-12 recovery. This is one of the costs of using END Reserve.

Good catch. I meant to say "now and then he may have to recharge his END Reserve (using the Transfer power)" not Recover per-se.

 

Thanks all for the suggestions!

[Threnody]

Re: Transfer Electricity?

 

But on top of the existing END & REC mechanic, if he doesn’t recharge once a day (out of combat, generally) his suit starts out with a smaller reserve and/or less REC. He can still fight and use END, but he’s going to be have to watch his expenditures much more closely. That’s why I built it as a Drain END.

Howdy.

 

I'm not tracking all of this so this may be a dumb idea. The part of your post I've kept sounds like two (more?) END Reserves with different recovery conditions.

Could you do it that way?

[ghost-angel]

Re: Transfer Electricity?

 

Actually, it sounds like a Side Effect on the REC: REC loses effect if not given a large enough Charge once a day. How much REC is lost per day is up to the GM.

[Armitage]

Re: Transfer Electricity?

 

I'm not necesarily looking for a literal equation; this is a 4-color comic book campaign. Just trying to get an idea how much END the PC can suck out of various power sources.

 

Using the table on page 445 of H5R and using the levels for Well Grounded.

Household Current: 1d6 KA, 1 END

Heavy Household Current: 2d6 KA, 3 END

Light Industrial Current: 3d6 KA, 4 END

Heavy Industrial Current: 4d6 KA, 6 END

High Tension Line: 5d6 KA, 7 END

 

Bear in mind that this is per Segment, so a SPD 4 character could draw 12 END per Phase from Light Industrial Current, for example.

[bigdamnhero]

Re: Transfer Electricity?

 

Using the table on page 445 of H5R and using the levels for Well Grounded.

Um...I've had this book how long, and have read it how many times, and didn't even know that section was in here?! Thanks Armitage! [repped]