Stochastic Posted March 21, 2009 Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 Hello all, so it's going to be my turn to GM a story arc soon in our champions game. I have a character idea for our villainess, and how her powers will fit in to the 'mystery' but am still trying to think how I'll build her powers; Her name is Alexia and her 'hero name' is Teleos, her powers are based (loosely) on Aristotlean thoughts regarding function and purpose; her primary ability is to switch the function of two things, while the physical form or 'expression' of their purpose, remain the same. So, for instance, if she has a toaster in one hand and a gun in the other, she can switch their functions, so she has a toaster that shoots bullets and a gun that toasts bread. Her second ability is exclusive from the first; she can refine something to it's 'perfect nature'. So, she can make a gun a 'perfect gun' which is far superior in it's function to a normal gun, but she can't make a toaster a perfect toaster gun, by swapping it's function with that of a perfected gun. So, I think the second power is a transform - but the first power I'm having a lot of trouble with. How would you guys model this? A VPP with certain items premade (unexpected things, and such)? I was thinking about this, but I wanted her to be able to do it in combat, when the PCs inevitably uncover her nefarious scheme. (I wanted her to have some henchmen whose 'abilities' she switched around to suit her current needs). It's not images, I thought of that (just making one thing look like another, because, from an objective observer it might just appear that she made the gun look like a toaster and a toaster look like a gun, instead of actually switching the functions, she just altered their forms - but that's not what she does. If she switches a PCs function with that of a pumpkin, I wanted the PC to be temporarily pumpkinized (to coin a phrase) - so in that way it's like a transform?) Your suggestions are greatly appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Patriot Posted March 21, 2009 Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 Re: Form/Function Switch. For the first one, I'd use a Variable Special Effect on the gun to make it into the toaster gun. Toaster's would be little tedious to write up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hyper-Man Posted March 21, 2009 Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 Re: Form/Function Switch. I think the second effect would be easiest to model using Aid with the Variable Effect Advantage and maybe a Limitation reflecting that the increases cannot exceed the target's 'original' maximum effect (so if used on a gun that originally did 2d6k it can still never do more than 12 Body of base damage but it will approach that maximum more often). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stochastic Posted March 21, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 Re: Form/Function Switch. For the first one' date=' I'd use a Variable Special Effect on the gun to make it into the toaster gun. Toaster's would be little tedious to write up.[/quote'] Hm okay... So instead of treating the thing she switches as the SFX, it would be a VPP with an SFX of "switched objects"? She would be limited though, in game terms, by the VPP in terms of how many things she could have "switched" at once - that is, she wouldn't be able to 'switch and forget' and have the properties actually fundamentally, permanently change. Okay, so, for example: one of the actual powers that I do want her minions to have is: her main bodyguard (a brick with super strength) has a trenchcoat that Teleos has switched with a steel reinforced concrete wall - it provides only minimal protection from the elements, but is incredibly heavy and hard to damage - he can hurt people by swinging the coat tails around. Instead of having this be her power (OIF, universal) which she just lets the brick use, it would just be the minions power, with the SFX of her switching? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stochastic Posted March 21, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 Re: Form/Function Switch. I think the second effect would be easiest to model using Aid with the Variable Effect Advantage and maybe a Limitation reflecting that the increases cannot exceed the target's 'original' maximum effect (so if used on a gun that originally did 2d6k it can still never do more than 12 Body of base damage but it will approach that maximum more often). I like that, thanks. Okay, how much would you say that would be worth? (Because I'll be GM'ing that game, so it's not something I can actually ask the GM for a value on). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Patriot Posted March 21, 2009 Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 Re: Form/Function Switch. Hm okay... So instead of treating the thing she switches as the SFX, it would be a VPP with an SFX of "switched objects"? She would be limited though, in game terms, by the VPP in terms of how many things she could have "switched" at once - that is, she wouldn't be able to 'switch and forget' and have the properties actually fundamentally, permanently change. Okay, so, for example: one of the actual powers that I do want her minions to have is: her main bodyguard (a brick with super strength) has a trenchcoat that Teleos has switched with a steel reinforced concrete wall - it provides only minimal protection from the elements, but is incredibly heavy and hard to damage - he can hurt people by swinging the coat tails around. Instead of having this be her power (OIF, universal) which she just lets the brick use, it would just be the minions power, with the SFX of her switching? Something along those lines, but for her minion's powers you could do her power to change things as a Major Transforms. You would only need three Transforms that one would cover Variable SFX, Variable Advantages, and Variable Limitations to do any type of transform for her minions. For this you can build it as a Tranformation MPP and would cost 57 points for a 45 base pool with 3 Major Transforms at 3d6. You don't need a lot of points since objects won't have a lot of body in order to complete the transformation. This way you don't need a VPP to use it for her powers. You could easily use a MPP with Variable SFX for the powers she uses personally and it would be cheaper then the VPP. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fbdaury Posted March 21, 2009 Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 Re: Form/Function Switch. Major transform- to same item with features of other item (anything advantage) plus side effect that secondary item gets features of primary item- similar to how bodyswapping was handled in the USPD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hyper-Man Posted March 21, 2009 Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 Re: Form/Function Switch. I like that' date=' thanks. Okay, how much would you say that would be worth? (Because I'll be GM'ing that game, so it's not something I can actually ask the GM for a value on).[/quote'] Somewhere between (1/4) and (1/2). It really depends on how often the amount Aided would otherwise exceed the MAX base effect if this limitation wasn't in place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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