Summons and Shadows

[ACormello]

Several questions. I'm guiding my players through the initial processes of creating characters, and I've hit some snags. 

"Jake" and "Rick" are making a tech based minion master and a shadowmancer, respectively. Jake wants to make little hover-drones that work as multi-function allies- he can summon up to 16 of them, and I've placed a (-0) limitation that they can only be summoned 1 at a time, given that each one is a modular vpp automaton, (OAF, only changeable between scenes specifically in his laboratory) and being able to dump 16 of them in one phase strikes me as ludicrously broken, even if they ARE only 100 point automatons. Since they only hover and have no limbs, (1) can he gain extra points for the hover drones by reducing their run, swim, and leap to 0? And (2) the computers that control them, are they paid for with Jake's cp or the drone's cp?

 

As to Rick, he's presented me with a quandary- he has a shadow based power(flailing shadows) that requires 2 handed gestures, but then wants to get the multiple limb advantage, at a cost of 1 END for every 2 extra limbs, to create "Shadow limbs" with which to control multiple instances of (separately paid for) flailing shadows. (3) Would you rule that the option for multiple limbs cancels out the limitation "2 handed gestures" or is this a valid use of the system?

[Steve Long]

1.  That's ultimately up to you as the GM, but there's nothing in the rules that forbid it. If I were designing those drones for publication I'd sell off their Running, Swimming, and Leaping to accurately represent what they can and can't do.

 

2.  Typically Jake has to pay for the Computers separately with his own Character Points (in this case probably by adding the full cost of the Computer, rather than the 1:5 cost, to the drones). If he bought the Computers through the drones, and then bought the drones via Summon, he'd end up getting the Computers at a 1:25 cost, which could cause problems. OTOH, as GM this is your call -- if you don't think it would unbalance the campaign you could let him lump the Computer's 1:5 cost in with the drone.

 

3.  I'm not entirely sure I follow what you're asking here, so I'm going to re-state the question generically. If I get it wrong, please post a follow-up question and I'll try again.

 

Q:  If a character has Extra Limbs defined as more than two arms, and he wants to take the “both hands required” additional -¼ option for Gestures, does he only have to use two of his hands for this, or must he use all of his hands?

 

A:  As a default rule, he has to use all of his hands — read “both hands required” more generically as “requires all manipulatory limbs.” However, the GM’s free to change this if desired; in some worlds where multi-armed creatures are common, the magic system may want to address this issue differently.