Clarification on the Power Skill

[Chris-M]

After not running (or playing, for that matter) any Hero for longer than I'd care to admit, I'm looking at running something, and in preparation for that endeavor I'm re-reading the rules (always helpful). Something that is not completely jibing with my memory is the use of the Power Skill to allow for creative and infrequent improvisational use of a power if one has the appropriate Power Skill.

 

In the Appendix to the revised UNTIL Superpowers Database, it says:

 

A character can use his Power Skill to create an effect with up to approximately thirty percent of the Active Points of any of those powers.

(Note: "Those powers" in this case refers to powers in the USPDB of the appropriate type -- i.e. fire powers for a fire character, and so forth.)

 

The text continues:

 

If this isn't enough to get at least 1-2d6 of power or some similar quantifiable level of effect, the GM can allow the character to access more Active Points. However, he may impose a penalty on the roll (such as -1 per additional 1-10%)...

Now, this all seems perfectly reasonable and straightforward to me. Thirty percent on a successful roll, and if one wanted, say, to stretch for an improvised power using 40% of the Active Points of such a power, he'd be at a -1 to his Power Skill roll to get the extra 10%.

 

But the two examples that follow (Firelord's improvised "rings of fire" and Hydro's Water Walkway) use 10% of the power's active points as the starting point for what you can utilize in using your Power Skill to improvise a power in this way, and then you get a -1 for every 10% above the original 10%.

 

The Firelord example confuses matters even more by saying that Firelord asks for permission from the GM go to 40% and then takes a -4 penalty to his Power Skill for doing so.

 

In effect, at this point, we appear to have three distinct interpretations within the same block of text:

 

40% of the active points of the power being emulated is possible with a -1 to the Power Skill roll (based on the idea that you can use your skill to create an effect of up to approximately 30% of the active points and then taking a minus one to push it to 40%).

 

40% of the active points of the power being emulated is possible with a -3 to the Power Skill roll (based on the idea that you can use your skill to create an effect of up to approximately 10% of the active points and then taking a minus three to push it to 40%). [Note: This is based on some text in the two Examples I have not quoted here.]

 

40% of the active points of the power being emulated is possible with a -4 to the Power Skill roll (based on...well, based on the later text of the Firelord example referred to above).

 

Now, I could have sworn (sworn! sworn!) that somewhere in the 5ER book itself it said that Power Skill could, with GM permission, enable a character to spontaneously (albeit extremely infrequently) allow a character to attempt to produce an effect up to 30% of the active points for his power for which he has the Power Skill (and not a percentage of the power he is seeking to emulate, as suggested in the above-quoted text). That said, I cannot, for the life of me, find any reference to the Power Skill and a percentage of active points.

 

Am I misremembering (always a possibility), remembering text from another book, like the Sidekick perhaps, or simply hallucinating? What is the "official" ruling on how to use the Power Skill for this sort of thing?

[Trebuchet]

Re: Clarification on the Power Skill

 

IIRC The Ultimate Skill has a pretty good exposition of the Power Skill. That's probably a good place to start.

[ghost-angel]

Re: Clarification on the Power Skill

 

The two expanded (and nearly identical) looks at the Power Skill occur in UNTIL Superpowers Database 1 and The Ultimate Skill.

 

Both of them also briefly go into other ways to utilize this Skill.

 

And personally - I like to play this skill fast and loose, if you're going to be the Hero, I like to see amazing things.

[Chris-M]

Re: Clarification on the Power Skill

 

IIRC The Ultimate Skill has a pretty good exposition of the Power Skill. That's probably a good place to start.

 

As it happens, it appears to contain the same text from the Big Black Book and USPDB as pertains to my question(s), so no joy there. :-(

[Trebuchet]

Re: Clarification on the Power Skill

 

And personally - I like to play this skill fast and loose' date=' if you're going to be the Hero, I like to see amazing things.[/quote']That would be my own inclination too - but then, I have the only PC in our group with Power Skill (even though she's never actually used it).

[ghost-angel]

Re: Clarification on the Power Skill

 

Those are the only texts - so you're likely misremembering, or mixing up the no more than 30 Active Points with the suggested 10% of the power you're trying to modify.

 

And it is talking about two different things in those cases:

The first is trying to create a Power you don't have with SFX you do have. Create a Fire Cage without having Entangle - this one shouldn't exceed 30 Active Points.

The second is trying to modify a Power you do have to do more than it already does. add Usuable By Others to a Flight Power - This one shouldn't exceed 10% of the current Flight's APs without a penalty to the roll.

[Chris-M]

Re: Clarification on the Power Skill

 

Those are the only texts - so you're likely misremembering, or mixing up the no more than 30 Active Points with the suggested 10% of the power you're trying to modify.

 

And it is talking about two different things in those cases:

The first is trying to create a Power you don't have with SFX you do have. Create a Fire Cage without having Entangle - this one shouldn't exceed 30 Active Points.

The second is trying to modify a Power you do have to do more than it already does. add Usuable By Others to a Flight Power - This one shouldn't exceed 10% of the current Flight's APs without a penalty to the roll.

 

Ahhh, okay. That makes a ton of sense. Confusion cleared.

 

Like you guys, as long as the players don't use it to be deliberately exploitive, I like to play fast and loose with this sort of thing because I enjoy sessions where the players are trying to be creative while thinking on their feet.