tiny variable pool?

[Rebar]

Trying to add a little flavour to my 75+75 character (high school subgenre). I want him to be able to do a little bit of voodoo. Nothing really spectacular, just the occasional ugly potion or something.

 

Huge lims like extra time (days/weeks, etc.) and gradual effect, will bring the cost down and make it almost useless - except for colour - and bring the cost down to < 5 RPs.

 

I'd like to only spend about 5XP.

 

Obviously a VPP: voodoo spells would be the ticket, but say I wanted a Com Drain, 1 week to prepare, etc. No matter how many lims I place on it, I have to have a VPP that covers the APs, not the RPs. Even as a 1/2D6, I will still need a whole pile of cumulative effects/charges or whatever. And then I have all these points left over for several *other* 1RP powers...

 

Alternately, I could buy the power as a new slot on its own - 10 or 15 APs, with huge limitations to bring down the RP. Except then I can't change that power.

 

Can anyone suggest a way I can get a varierty of minor effects, for just a few points?

[McCoy]

Only thing I can think of is each spell has a fettish or power object, like a doll. Add the OAF and Independent limitations to the others, should get each spell down to one or two points.

[prestidigitator]

I think this is best dealt with using House Rules. For example, I allow most magic in my fantasy campaign to far exceed the Active Point limit on a VPP, because otherwise a mage would have to be vastly powerful in order to cast a decent spell. I also require spells to be pretty heavily limited, and pre-approved by me before they can be "memorized," so the system really can't be abused.

 

I would chat with your GM about it. (S)he will more than likely be reasonable with your situation, or at least tell you how (s)he would like to see the effect created.

[Zed-F]

Transform, variable target, water into potions, works best for me. This gives you the option to create a number of different types of potions, and is only one power, so you can apply a bunch of lims to it.

 

If you want to simulate other kinds of voodoo spells, you could make it a anything to anything transform, with an appropriate limitation describing the kinds of things you can do.

[Rebar]

"...each spell has a fettish or power object, like a doll. Add the OAF and Independent limitations to the others, should get each spell down to one or two points...."

 

Right, but it means I always have the same spell, and the only way of changing it is to buy a new one, and even then, I accumulate spells.

 

"Transform, variable target, water into potions, works best for me."

 

That doesn't get me anything. Because I say it's a love potion doesn't mean it is one, until I pay the points for the transformation.

 

In other words, the potion (or curse or whatever) is an SFX, I want to have a tiny pool of powers.

 

I guess I'll just have to stick to 1/2D6 powers.

 

VPP Power #1: Curse of the prom night complexion:

1/2d6 Com Drain , Delayed Return Rate (5 Points per Day; +1 1/2) (12 Active Points); Extra Time (1 Day; -4), Gradual Effect (1 Hour; -1 1/4), IIF Fragile Expendable (Difficult to obtain new Focus; -3/4)

5AP, 2RP

 

VPP Power #1: Love potion:

1/2D6 Cumulative (Minor) Transform + charges is still about 10 points... But I guess that's not out of range of some XP.

[Supreme]

When it comes to magical traditions like Voodoo, I prefer to use MPs over VPPs. VPPs best represent things like psychic powers, or mysticism where the practitioner mentally manipulates forces into various effects on the fly. With Voodoo, or witchcraft, you generally have practitioners who have set effects that they acheive by satisfying certain conditions as specified by their patron deities (or Loa in the case of Voodoo). So, I'd do an MP with fetish foci and even some things like incantations, gestures, and even extra time.

[Fenixcrest]

I myself prefer to use a kind of weird variable pool for my magic system. The variable pool represents the upper limit of power that a character's spells can have at one time. The character can only use spells that he has a KS for (KS lightning bolt, for example). Then, within the pool, all spells must have at least incantations and gestures of various levels, and all must have a skill roll (Power Skill: Magic, with the KS for the spell as a complimentary roll). This way, a character can become highly proficient at certain spells, and make spells that other characters could learn. Using cramming, they could temporarily learn spells that are within the limit of the VPP. I dunno. That's my 2 cents.

[JMHammer]

It's the AP cap

 

Here's an important metarule: Don't let a rule as written stand in the way of representing your character the way you and your GM want it.

 

The Active Point cap is what prevents small VPPs from being useful in creating effects such as the one Rebar wants for his character. So, house-rule away the Active Point cap.

 

In my games, the VPP represents a pool of real points but the number of real points in the pool does not limit the active points in any one power built with the VPP. If a character is subject to the AP limit specified in the normal rules, that is a -1/4 Limitation on the control cost.

 

Other GMs I know allow a +1/4 Advantage on the control cost to eliminate the AP limit. Yet others allow the AP limit to be doubled for each +1/4 Advantage applied.

 

As another example of that metarule: 5E states that only Images can be used to create light. I can think of many examples of effects where it will be much more functional and sensicle to use Change Environment, and I'd certainly allow a character with a Flash or maybe even an Energy Blast with a reasonable special effect to generate a little light as a power stunt.

 

One more: 5E states that characters that are always tall, short, heavy, etc. must represent this without using Growth, Shrinking, Density Increase, etc. I'd certainly permit a character either way and in fact will generally encourage the use of the Body Manipulation powers to accomplish these effects. It's actually easier for less experienced players using those powers than using a large number of other powers with the special effect that the character is a different size or mass.

 

My Default Magic System

...which uses VPP to get the job done.

 

John H