VPP Active Points

[Ndreare]

So lets say you have a 50 active point limit in your game and Joe needs to buy a VPP for his character, you play RAW and Joe designs for his character a Reality Alteration VPP with +1 No skill roll and +1 0-phase change. Is he allowed to have a 50 point pool for 125 total cost or a 20 point pool for a 50 point total cost?

 

I have always assumed it was the latter, however based on conversations on the board it sounds like most people understand it to be the former.

[Hyper-Man]

Re: VPP Active Points

 

So lets say you have a 50 active point limit in your game and Joe needs to buy a VPP for his character, you play RAW and Joe designs for his character a Reality Alteration VPP with +1 No skill roll and +1 0-phase change. Is he allowed to have a 50 point pool for 125 total cost or a 20 point pool for a 50 point total cost?

 

I have always assumed it was the latter, however based on conversations on the board it sounds like most people understand it to be the former.

 

How about an answer with another question.

 

Say the example is instead a Reality Alteration Multipower with a 50 point Reserve. Number of slots and their cost will automatically push the combined total costs above 50.

 

Is the character now allowed in a 50 active point game?

 

If so, why not the VPP? The powers inside either framework still have to fit within a 50 active budget.

 

The real issue is not with VPP but with 'hard' caps.

[esampson]

Re: VPP Active Points

 

So lets say you have a 50 active point limit in your game and Joe needs to buy a VPP for his character, you play RAW and Joe designs for his character a Reality Alteration VPP with +1 No skill roll and +1 0-phase change. Is he allowed to have a 50 point pool for 125 total cost or a 20 point pool for a 50 point total cost?

 

I have always assumed it was the latter, however based on conversations on the board it sounds like most people understand it to be the former.

Version of the rules the question is for might be good.

 

As I think about it though, RAW he can probably have whatever he pleases. Typically an active point limit applies to a power or characteristic. A VPP is a framework. Now none of the effects of his VPP can exceed 50AP (which means there's no point in him buying base control cost higher than 25 points) but he could have a 275 point VPP that lets him run 4 powers at 50 AP all at the same time.

 

Of course that's RAW. The real answer is that the GM needs to make a call about what he's going to allow.

[Derek Hiemforth]

Re: VPP Active Points

 

The RAW don't have active point limits hard-coded, so they have no effect on what constitutes conforming to the limits, and there is no "right" answer to the question. It's up to the GM how/whether to apply any active point caps or other such limits.

[griffinman01]

Re: VPP Active Points

 

Typically an active point limit applies to a power or characteristic. A VPP is a framework. Now none of the effects of his VPP can exceed 50AP (which means there's no point in him buying base control cost higher than 25 points) but he could have a 275 point VPP that lets him run 4 powers at 50 AP all at the same time.

 

I'm inclined to agree with this since the framework is just another way to buy powers. Each individual power needs to be less than 50 active points but the framework would generally have to be as much as that or more in order to get it to work.

[psyber624]

Re: VPP Active Points

 

I would agree that he should be allowed to build the VPP in such a way that he can create 50 AP powers. If you are going to restrict MP's or VPP's in some fashion I don't think trying to force the total build into an active points cap is the way to go. That can easily defeat the purpose of taking those powers in the first place.

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: VPP Active Points

 

I can certainly see limiting AP of the VPP/MP user to lower than single power users' max AP, assuming you are using AP as your yardstick. I can also see a similar approach to DC or other limits. This allows greater flexibility at the cost of reduced raw power.

 

But I'm a Zen Balancer - I try to look at the overall character, not hard limits on specific items like AP, DC, etc.

[esampson]

Re: VPP Active Points

 

I can certainly see limiting AP of the VPP/MP user to lower than single power users' max AP, assuming you are using AP as your yardstick. I can also see a similar approach to DC or other limits. This allows greater flexibility at the cost of reduced raw power.

 

But I'm a Zen Balancer - I try to look at the overall character, not hard limits on specific items like AP, DC, etc.

Well, really that's a whole other issue and one of the big reasons I'm not in favor of an AP hard cap.

 

As an example, two characters with exactly the same levels, OCV, and DCV I would let the guy with lower defenses probably throw a few more dice of damage. If he's willing to make his character a little weaker in one area I have no problem with him being a little stronger in another.

[ghost-angel]

Re: VPP Active Points

 

The RAW don't have active point limits hard-coded' date=' so they have no effect on what constitutes conforming to the limits, and there is no "right" answer to the question. It's up to the GM how/whether to apply any active point caps or other such limits. [/quote']

 

But RAW does state, for the purposes of calculating the Active Points of a VPP you count the cost of Pool+Control for purposes of Active Point Campaign Limits.

 

Which I think is bad form.