"Can normally reach" Limitation

[Sean Waters]

Re: "Can normally reach" Limitation

 

I agree that it does seem a bit odd that an additional Limitation is the first place we see any mention of the concept of opening doors (regardless of whether a skill roll is involved). It sure seems like an example of a Limitation providing a net Advantage.

 

Also, the example Dark Champions build implies that the Must Pass.. Limitation needs to be in place first before taking Can Only Teleport To Places Character Could Normally Go.

(This & possibly That vs. This OR That).

 

You're quite right: I think there is some confusion here (certainly, and, as usual, in my mind!). One way that we could look at this class of powers is to look at what the base power is losing if you add the modifiers.

 

Normally Teleport is indirect. I'm not quite sure HOW to build the type of indirect that Teleport has: I am assuming that it is just the +1/2 version that means you can change the source point - that is the one that allows you to get through solid objects (the path alteration bits allow you to get around things but not through things*).

 

Therefore having to travel to the target point in a straight line, and not being able to ignore intervening barriers should (if I'm thinking about this right) be no more than -1/2: it takes away 'Indirect'.

 

Now, unfortunately, taking an indirect path to the target point, but not passing through intervening objects costs the same as taking a direct path passing through intervening objects (they are both +1/2 indirect, assuming you can change the parameters each time). Hmm. That is not going to work: there is an advantage for Blast being able to come in at any angle - you control KB direction - but there really isn't one for teleport, unless you allow it to change the directional component of momentum: even then the advantage seems largely pointless as you can not mix running and teleport to do a teleport move through (although you COULD potentially use the velocity from uncontrolled movement to do a teleport move through, although that would have to be at penalties because your movement is uncontrolled....complicated).

 

So, all I've got so far is that 'teleport in a straight line and NOT through intervening barriers' is -1/2, at best. It seems to me that is the equivalent of being able to teleport to somewhere you can see that is not blocked by barriers that would prevent a blast hitting the target.

 

How does this help us with 'have to be able to get there': well, it is an odd one. You could not teleport out of a steel cage if the door was welded shut, but you could if it was just on the latch, because, normally, you could get out of a steel cage by opening an unlocked door. Then, of course, you have to ask what if the door is locked? Could you get out if you had lockpicking skill (and, presumably, some lockpicks)? What if you are strong enough to tear out of the cage - does that mean you can normally get out, so you could teleport out (even though that does not involve tearing the cage open, just as you don't actually have to open the door, if you COULD have opened the door)

 

Certainly being able to teleport to a location you COULD have reached normally is more limiting that being able to teleport there anyway, but you need to think about a couple of things:

 

1. Do you have to take the route you would 'normally' take i.e. do you have to be able to get to the point as if you are walking it which could mean a severe range restriction in the 'teleporting from one skyscraper to another' example, and

2. What does 'normally get there' mean? (i.e. would it involve the use of skills and/or attacks)

 

I suppose it comes down to this: we have a modifier in search of a SFX, rather than the other way around. We need to know what the concept of the power is, to know how limiting it is. There are various examples:

 

1. I simply become invisible to all senses as I move and so seem to disappear here and re-appear there.

2. I'm theoretically capable of teleporting into sealed rooms but have a psychological barrier to doing so.

3. I turn into a beam of light and flash straight to the target.

4. I turn into a cloud of invisible gas and waft to the target.

5. I travel to another dimension which appears identical to this one, but everything but me is inanimate, and I just walk to my target point and return.

6. I travel to another dimension which appears identical to this one, but everything but me is inanimate, and I just walk to my target point, bashing through any obstacles in the way and return. When I return any damage I did in the alternate dimension is not mirrored here.

 

All of those will have very different practical effects (light can pass through glass, gas can waft round corners, dimensional travelers are going to want to go to their pocket dimension, half move then half move back - it makes a very effective scouting tactic and so on).

 

Can we codify all of this? Probably not: if the best we have to work with is -1/2, we only have very limited options.

 

Of course we could look at this very differently: the problem here seems to be that we are using Teleport to simulate other powers in many cases, or I am in my examples: the 'invisible movement' is being used instead of invisibility+movement, the cloud of gas is being used instead of a limited form of Desolidification, the dimensional movement is being used instead of, well, teleport plus possibly clairsentience.

 

The 'beam of light' and 'psychological barrier' seem like decent teleport limitations, and easy to define mechanically (the first means you can get there if you have line of sight on it, and is probably -1/4 (maybe -1/2: you can pass through barriers, but only light transparent ones), the second means that you can get there if you do not have to pass through a solid object to do so: you can teleport through an open door, but not through a closed one, even if you could open it easily - again I'd pitch that at -1/4, but I might up that to -1/2 if it was more limiting in practice).

 

I think what we've all learned from this is that I can talk a lot and not say much

 

 

 

 

 

*Of course I might be completely wrong on this because, surely, YOU have to be the source of the power, and, well, you are where you are. Mind you I usually use the Path Alteration bit for missiles and unusual knockback, so I don;t think that applies: teleport preserves momentum.