Change Environment

[Rebar]

I must be doing this wrong.

 

I have an 80pt VPP: water powers. I fill the battlefield with water to reduce ground movement and force DEX rolls.

 

So: for a -2 to DEX roll AND -2" to running and to leap, that's

5 + 2*3 + 2*3 + 2*3 = 23 points for a 1" radius.

OK so far?

 

Now I've got 55 points left to increase its size, meaning I can affect an area that's ... 2048 hexes in radius.

 

Or I could make it -5 to DEX rolls and -5" to running & leaping but only 64" in radius.

 

What am I doing wrong??

[Ice9]

Re: Change Environment

 

You're doing it right - you just get a lot of Change Environment for 80 points, mainly because the size is independant from the effects.

[Tech]

Re: Change Environment

 

Rebar, just remember that 55 pts put toward increasing the area radius is alot of points. Also, 80 pts is also alot of points to go towards Change Environment. Nothing says you have to put all 80 pts into a particular power and if you use END rules, don't forget about the cost you'll be paying for Endurance.

[Sean Waters]

Re: Change Environment

 

I was running this Victorian Superheroes game a few years back, and we had this right rum bunch investigating the Jack the Ripper murders.

 

As it turned out, all those 'experts' had been wrong all the time: it was not Prince Whatchamacallit, or Doctor Thingummy, it was a Chinese Fog Demon, which was collecting body parts for some freaky ritual magic thing which would have caused all sorts of fuss.

 

The idea for the scenario actually arose when I realised that you could build a London-wide fog with Change Environment built as a few levels of -(sight) PER and an enormous radius of effect:

 

A Right Pea Souper: 84 Active, 17 Real

Change Environment 1,024" radius, -3 to Normal Sight PER Rolls, -1 to Normal Hearing PER Rolls, -1 Temperature Level Adjustment, Long-Lasting 6 Hours, Multiple Combat Effects (84 Active Points); Extra Time (20 Minutes, Only to Activate, -1 1/4), Gradual Effect (20 Minutes; -1), Gestures (Requires both hands; Complex; -3/4), Incantations (Complex; -1/2), Concentration (0 DCV; -1/2)

 

Takes the best part of 40 minutes to actually get the mists to rise to their full, glorious thickness, but then you've got hours to do your mischief in.

 

No real point to that anecdote, just saying

[pinecone]

Re: Change Environment

 

I must be doing this wrong.

 

I have an 80pt VPP: water powers. I fill the battlefield with water to reduce ground movement and force DEX rolls.

 

So: for a -2 to DEX roll AND -2" to running and to leap, that's

5 + 2*3 + 2*3 + 2*3 = 23 points for a 1" radius.

OK so far?

 

Now I've got 55 points left to increase its size, meaning I can affect an area that's ... 2048 hexes in radius.

 

Or I could make it -5 to DEX rolls and -5" to running & leaping but only 64" in radius.

 

What am I doing wrong??

 

What Sean said...you need an adder if you use Multiple combat effects...if you wish you can afford to use varible combat effects and customise your CE as needed (snow , ice, for, a whirlpool effect etc...)

[Rebar]

Re: Change Environment

 

What Sean said...you need an adder if you use Multiple combat effects...if you wish you can afford to use varible combat effects and customise your CE as needed (snow ' date=' ice, for, a whirlpool effect etc...)[/quote']

But I'm allowed to stack two powers together. Just like stacking EB and Flash.

 

Though I suppose if I were to go strictly by the rules I'd have to buy the area multiplier once for each power wouldn't I? So that'd be only 25 points each instead of 55, meaning my 2048" radius would only be 32" radius.

[Ice9]

Re: Change Environment

 

Definitely get Multiple Combat effects - it's only 5 points, which is a heck of a lot more effective than buying up the area for each aspect separately. Since it's a VPP anyway, no need to spend the full 80p on one power - unless you really do need an ice slick of massive proportions.

[braincraft]

Re: Change Environment

 

Because radius scales exponentially, while other effects scale linearly.

 

If a power has fifteen points in effect and fifteen points in radius, it's gonna be -3 CV in an 8" radius. If that same power is doubled to thirty points of effect and thirty points of radius, it's going to be -6 CV in a 64" radius. Twice the effect, almost sixty times the area.

[Blackberry]

Re: Change Environment

 

But I'm allowed to stack two powers together. Just like stacking EB and Flash.

 

Though I suppose if I were to go strictly by the rules I'd have to buy the area multiplier once for each power wouldn't I? So that'd be only 25 points each instead of 55, meaning my 2048" radius would only be 32" radius.

 

It depends on the nature of the effect.

 

If it's one effect that blankets the whole area and has multiple game system effects, then I would buy it as one power.

 

If it's a number of different effects that all cover a similar area and each one has its own game system effects, I would buy them as a compound power. But it would cost a whole lot more.

[Sean Waters]

Re: Change Environment

 

Funny old game, really, but I've always thought it was a bit odd that CE worked on a 'radius basis' to kick off with and increased with an adder, when practically everything else worked as a power modifier. I mean, lordy, you'd expect that we'd have a common basis of effect, wouldn't you?

 

When you look at a single low level CE effect, you can get a MASSIVE AoE with a power modifier, but, when you make the effect powerful, you can manage a MASSIVE AoE with an adder. I'd go with power modifier, personally, if I was involved in writing the system.

 

I'm not.

 

There are almost certainly an enormously large number of people profoundly grateful for that.