Help designing a power. :)

[Tedology]

Hello all,

 

I have a player with an interesting concept. He wants to have his character be able to "refill" anything (from a car's gasoline tank, to a foe's alcohol blood level, to a bank account).

 

He couldn't make something from nothing. In other words, he could fill a gun's chamber, because bullets are meant for it...but he could not cause a box of bullets to appear on the table.

 

I've no idea where even to begin. At first I thought of transform, but I was wondering if duplicate would be a better mechanic?

 

Any advice? I promised him I would ask you much  more experienced Champions.

 

Thanks!

Ted

[sinanju]

Transform seems like the obvious choice. Just add a power limitation that defines when it can work and when it can't. Duplicate isn't a good choice, since it's intended to duplicate a character, not inanimate objects. Transform really works better.

[Beast]

you need a VPP to start with

[Hyper-Man]

A very Limited VPP is probably the way to go.

 

However, this looks like a 'challenge' by the player to the promise that with HERO 'you can model Anything'.  I would ask the player how this ability is supposed to help the character to 'act heroicly'.  Focus on the overall character concept first and then start modeling powers that fit that concept.

[Tasha]

Hello all,

 

I have a player with an interesting concept. He wants to have his character be able to "refill" anything (from a car's gasoline tank, to a foe's alcohol blood level, to a bank account).

 

He couldn't make something from nothing. In other words, he could fill a gun's chamber, because bullets are meant for it...but he could not cause a box of bullets to appear on the table.

 

I've no idea where even to begin. At first I thought of transform, but I was wondering if duplicate would be a better mechanic?

 

Any advice? I promised him I would ask you much  more experienced Champions.

 

Thanks!

Ted

I would ask him how he would want to use that powerset as a Superheroic individual. A character in a normal Champions game has a full set of abilities that allow them to act as a superhero(ine). So having an Attack, Defense, and perhaps some kind of movement ability. Tends to be a fully rounded character.

 

A person who can fill stuff with liquids seems to be a third teir powerset. One of those many individuals in some Supers worlds that have a power, but it's not very useful for crimefighting.

 

Always ask the players that beyond the generalized "My Character is made of fire" or "My character can full empty containers with stuff". They need to give you plain english abilities that you can use to build Superheroic abilities with Hero System Powers, Advantages and Limitations. See my essay link in my signature for more info about doing just that.

[mallet]

A VPP and a very expensive one at that. 

It would have to be used to "grant" abilities and powers to the target. If you fill a gun with bullets you are giving it Charges. If you fill a stomach with food you are giving Life Support: Diminished Eating. A car with gasoline would be Charges or END Reserve. A bank account is giving Resources. Giving a bleeding person blood would be Healing only to counter the Bleeding rules. And so on. 

 

I would make it very specific that it can only fill something that the target would specifically have in normal, optimal, circumstances. For example, if you allow him to "fill a targets bloodstream with alcohol", the next thing he is going to do is fill their lungs with CO2 and suffocate them or put nuclear tipped bullets into a regular gun or mud in a gas tank, etc... 

 

Or if it is specifically only to "refill" something, that implies it already had to be filled once before and that can be your baseline. So if you do allow him to "refill" a target's bloodstream with alcohol then it could only refill it to the most it has ever been in the past. So if the target has never had a drink in their life then it wouldn't work at all. Or if they have only ever had one drink in the past, then that is the powers limit. If their bank account has only ever had a max of $1800 in it at one time, then "refilling it" would technically only take it back up to that amount, otherwise they are creating something out of nothing. 

[Lucius]

 

I believe Aid would be the Power for this.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary actually agrees with me for once

[Tedology]

Wow, thanks to each of you for taking time to help me out.

 

Yes, I did ask him how would he be contributing to the super team... he's just the type of guy who wants to do something differently and then do his best to roleplay it. I did explain that there's a good chance that since I award XP proportionate to contribution that he would not get as many XP as the rest of the players. He says he's fine with that... but something tells me when others are getting four or five XP to his ONE each session...he may start looking at his character differently.

 

Of course, I would then respond: "Why do you need XP anyway? You only have the one power, right?"  Muahahaha!

 

I'll take a look at VPP and see if we can go from there.

 

And mallet: thanks for bringing up a good point...to "refill" means to only bring something up to what its maximum level was originally... I'll mention that to him today to see what he says.

 

I guess I would like to somehow dissuade him from making this type of character... but he's a stubborn individual, so we'll have to wait and see.

 

Thanks again, all!

[Greywind]

4 to 5? That's a fast growth game.

[Tedology]

4 to 5? That's a fast growth game.

 

Well, each GM has different xp philosophies, yes? "Fast", "Slow"... both subjective words.

[Cassandra]

Cosmic VPP with a OAF (-1) for the control cost.  

 

With it you could have Transformation and use it to produce anything such as turn paper to money.

[Greywind]

Well, each GM has different xp philosophies, yes? "Fast", "Slow"... both subjective words.

 

Average is 3.

[Tasha]

4 to 5? That's a fast growth game.

I usually award 3-5 per game. In Champions it's not that high growth.

[Tedology]

Thank you all for your suggestions on how I could best handle this.

 

I think I'm going to make the decision that he'll have to just choose another concept; I feel that in the long run he'll thank me because I'll explain that I want him to contribute more to the adventure/story.

 

I especially like Tasha's idea that I need to mention that there should be some sort of offensive power, defensive power, movement power.

 

I just need to be firm as the GM and ask that my players have well-rounded characters.

[Tasha]

Thank you all for your suggestions on how I could best handle this.

 

I think I'm going to make the decision that he'll have to just choose another concept; I feel that in the long run he'll thank me because I'll explain that I want him to contribute more to the adventure/story.

 

I especially like Tasha's idea that I need to mention that there should be some sort of offensive power, defensive power, movement power.

 

I just need to be firm as the GM and ask that my players have well-rounded characters.

Thanks,

 

I require that the characters be fully functional outside of being a Superhero(ine). So having a full set of skills is part of the package.