VPP and Charges

[ACormello]

A player proposed a loophole in a character that I felt uneasy with, and I'd like some confirmation of my initial knee-jerk reaction of "Hell no!" 

 

A character's only power as a VPP with a 50 point control limit, but a 200+ pool. The pool is meant to represent memorized spells, and each one has the -2 limitation 1 Charge. Said character would, with a cursory study of their spell book, be able to replace all expended spells. I felt this is probably a violation of the intent of the rules, which is that by and large a 1 charge limitation would translate to 1 per Day, and being able to replenish those memorized spells would require that the limitation be 1 Renewable charge, without which the points in the VPP would be expended until the next day. 

 

He wanted to get confirmation on this and I'm curious to know your take on this. 

[Steve Long]

Charges are a tricky Limitation for a VPP, especially one that's relatively easy for a character to change. If a character creates Power X with 1 Charge, but can switch to Power Y which is virtually identical, Charges doesn't really restrict him at all, thus violating the first rule of Limitations.

 

Where Charges works well as a Limitation in this situation is when the character has a defined set of specific spells to choose from. I've created VPPs like that to simulate the magic used by Jack Vance characters like Mazirian the Magician or Turjan of Miir, for example.

 

In the situation you describe, assuming you allow Charges at all, using Recoverable Charges is probably the best bet. I'd be more inclined not to allow Charges or to rework the VPP somehow, personally.

 

If you haven't already, I suggest posting about this, perhaps with a few detailed examples, in the Discussion forum. I'm sure other GMs would have some useful input.