Psychic Ships

[LordQulex]

There is an old game out there called Escape Velocity - originally only on Mac. Then later there came Escape Velocity Nova, which brough us the vell-os. A sub-race of humans who have psychic powers. One in particular I'm trying to design in the HERO system, and am having troubles.

 

Basically, they can wrap themselves in a force-field and create a 'psychic hull' of a ship that they can fly around and move cargo/passengers. They can also psychically tear a hole in space to enter sub-space for FTL travel (that is the easy power to define).

 

I can't quite figure out how to do the ship though. I looked into barrier, non-anchored and moveable, but the book says barriers can't move other things like characters. On top of that, life support (low pressure, extreme cold, self-contained breathing) usable on others is a nightmare.

 

So then I thought, "**** this, I'll build a vehicle and ignore all these weird rules!" But that has its own problems: how do I represent the fact that it is a psychic ship and I can summon it and dismiss it at my whim? Summon doesn't quite work that way, and I don't want to use desolidify/shrink to represent it...

 

Any ideas friends??

 

Thanks in advance!

[Xavier Onassiss]

Re: Psychic Ships

 

Okay, since you've ruled out most of the usual methods, I'll just take the plunge and suggest something weird.

 

But it as a vehicle, but take the costs endurance limitation on the cost of the entire vehicle.

 

The "psychic ship" only manifests when the character is paying endurance for it, and disappears when he stops using endurance.

 

This can be a real downer for his passengers if he gets stunned in deep space....

[Lucius]

Re: Psychic Ships

 

Buy a Vehicle with Costs END only to Activate.

 

Buy a Multiform, Character to Character with Vehicle.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

Multiform to Character with Palindromedary

[Escafarc]

Re: Psychic Ships

 

Buy Telekinesis,Barrier,and Flight with the Unified Power Limitation.

[Christopher]

Re: Psychic Ships

 

Summon doesn't quite work that way' date=' and I don't want to use desolidify/shrink to represent it...[/quote']

I can use summon to craete a single Spaceship/Car/Deathstar* and Dismiss it at whim, so I don't see how this could not work Summon with summon. The only requirement is that the "Slavishly Loyal" advantage is nessesary, since the ship does not objects to it's use in any way.

I doubt you need or should take "Speific Being" Advantage. Every "instanciation" of the ship starts anew. You can even save a lot with "Extra Time to Activate", and "Concetration Trouhgout" Limitations.

 

*Sufficcient Real Points Required.

 

Failing that, I would go with the Multiform or Vehicle with Limitations. But that has the problem that damage done during one instantiation should carry over to the next activation.

[Ravor]

Re: Psychic Ships

 

Wouldn't a fast enough regen on the ship work as a rules work-around? Perhaps with a limitation that it is only usable if the ship isn't moving or taking damage.

[Christopher]

Re: Psychic Ships

 

Wouldn't a fast enough regen on the ship work as a rules work-around? Perhaps with a limitation that it is only usable if the ship isn't moving or taking damage.

I think it would still only regenerate while in existence, so propably not.

 

Asuming a Ship with a total cost of 400 points, this is how it could be build (just guessing. No idea if it works that way in the Source Material):

Summon 400-pt Psychic ship (80 Base Points), Slavishly Loyal (+1), 160 Active Points, Cost Endurance to Maintain (-1/2), Extra Time to Activate (1 Turn; Can't activate other powers while activating this; -1 1/2), Concentration to Activate (1/2 DCV, -1/4), Feedback (-1), 30 Real Cost.

 

Every time you activate it, it gives you a fresh ship, with no Damage, Drain or other effects Lasting from the last summoning. Depending on how much the ship is worth, the Enduracne Cost could be very high. Note that you could drop your SPD to make maintainign it easier, but that also goes against how well you can pilot it (you only have that many actions per phase). Or you use "Nonpersistent" (-1/4) instead of "Cost Endruance" (Summon is "Instant with lasting effect" like Barier/Entangle, so I think this is a valid limitation for it).