Summoning Items

[MrAgdesh]

How would you best build somebody with the power to summon into their hands any item which they have previously held?

 

I am thinking Transform of course, but the healing aspect isn't sitting well.

 

[L. Marcus]

A Cosmic VPP comes to mind.

[DasBroot]

A Cosmic VPP comes to mind.

 

Exactly right.  "Any item ever held' could be an incredible array of powers, potentially - well outside the scope of what the Summon power should do.

 

It's a cosmic VPP with a summon special effect and a focus of some flavor on any slot you build for it.

 

I have done this exact build with a character who had a magic cloak of many pockets that could do the same thing.

 

If VPP are too messy you could build a multipool instead and buy slots as you add 'items' to your list - but in the very long run it will be cheaper to have bough the VPP in the first place (especially if you don't build it as a true cosmic vpp - leave requiring a roll, etc).

 

The book says you can summon inanimate things but in my opinion the rule support is terrible for it.  Even bought slavishly devoted a gun you summon will stop working in Ego number of phases (just because), etc.

[Christopher]

How would you best build somebody with the power to summon into their hands any item which they have previously held?

 

I am thinking Transform of course, but the healing aspect isn't sitting well.

In hero you build the game effect. And only consider the special effect cursory.

 

The game effect is not clear at all and we need more data:

What is the game setting (heroic, or superheroic)?

Wich items will be avalible with this power (normal guns, super guns)?

Can he lend the item to others on his side?

Can he instantly disarm an enemy that uses a weapon he held previously? Where do the items come from?

 

About all we can say with some certainty is that neither Summon nor Transform seems the right power. It is a power with a potentially tremendous game effect, hence we need to nail down the limits first.

[Lucius]

 

What if the object in question no longer exists? If you are trying to conjure your grandfather's journal that you once held as a child and forget that grandpa's house burned down years ago, do you get a handful of ash? The journal as it existed when you held it? The journal as it existed just before it burned up? Nothing at all?

 

What about living things? If you conjure an apple you held long ago, and one of the seeds grew into an apple tree, are you now pinned beneath an uprooted tree? If you had the apple just yesterday and ate it, do you get the whole apple again, or a core? If you used to be SuperDuperMan's babysitter when he was a baby and held him and fed him, can you produce the adult SuperDuperMan here and now? What happens to the people SuperDuperMan was in the process of saving when you decided to conjure him? If he's still there saving them AND also here looking confused, have you in effect cloned him or is SuperDuperMan still a single consciousness and identity now struggling to reconcile two different bodies in two different points in space?

 

If you conjure a sparkplug you once held that has since been installed in a car, do you get the car, or the sparkplug? Is someone now driving around with a spark plug missing?

 

If someone swipes your wallet and you conjure it back, do you get it as it is now, empty where it lies discarded by the thief, or is everything back where it belongs? If she ripped it to pieces in anger because you only had two bucks in it, does it come back whole or torn?

 

If you held a gold coin yesterday, can you conjure it several times today until you have a bag of gold? Or is it the same coin every time?

 

We're not trying to give you a hard time. But unless we know exactly what it is the ability you envision can and can't do, it's hard to build a power for it.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary says I probably will try anyway.

[steriaca]

It should be a VVP. Most of the time, it will be a power with the special effect of creating an object out of thin air. If you create an anvil out of thin air and drop it upon a pore villain's head, that would be a Blast or Killing Attack - Ranged with an Indirect advantage. If you just want to create an anvil to ise like any other anvil, that would be Transform (air into object), or if using the Advance Players Guide books, Object Creation.

 

All three powers cone from that same pool of point, to be used as needed.

[bigdamnhero]

You could probably make Summon work with enough modifiers and liberal handwaving. Ditto Transform tho that always feels more clunky IMO. But if you think the character s going to be routinely summoning items with significant game effect - particularly weapons - then yeah VPP is probably the best way to go.

[Lucius]

If I had it once, I can have it now:  (Total: 105 Active Cost, 28 Real Cost) Teleportation 1m, No Relative Velocity, Alternate Combat Value (uses OMCV against DCV; +0), Ranged (+1/2), Line Of Sight (+1/2), Usable As Attack (+1), Grantor pays the END whenever the power is used, MegaScale (1m = 10,000 km; +2) (55 Active Points); Conditional Power Only for inanimate objects the character has held in the hand. (-1 1/2), Can Only Teleport To  Fixed Locations (-1), Extra Time (Extra Phase, -3/4), Concentration (1/2 DCV; -1/4), Gestures (-1/4), Unified Power (-1/4) (Real Cost: 11) <b>plus</b> Teleportation: Fixed Location (own hands) (1 Locations) (Real Cost: 1) <b>plus</b> Detect Previously handled object 11-/17- (Mental Group), Increased Arc Of Perception (360 Degrees), Targeting, MegaScale (1m = 1,000 km; +1 3/4) (49 Active Points); Limited Power Only to target an item for Teleportation (-1), Instant (-1/2), Nonpersistent (-1/4), Concentration (1/2 DCV; -1/4) (Real Cost: 16)

 

 

Once word gets out, expect that any time the character asks "may I hold that?" the answer will be "No!"

 

Lucius Alexander

 

Teleporting a palindromedary to a Broken Location

[MrAgdesh]

What if the object in question no longer exists? If you are trying to conjure your grandfather's journal that you once held as a child and forget that grandpa's house burned down years ago, do you get a handful of ash? The journal as it existed when you held it? The journal as it existed just before it burned up? Nothing at all?

 

What about living things? If you conjure an apple you held long ago, and one of the seeds grew into an apple tree, are you now pinned beneath an uprooted tree? If you had the apple just yesterday and ate it, do you get the whole apple again, or a core? If you used to be SuperDuperMan's babysitter when he was a baby and held him and fed him, can you produce the adult SuperDuperMan here and now? What happens to the people SuperDuperMan was in the process of saving when you decided to conjure him? If he's still there saving them AND also here looking confused, have you in effect cloned him or is SuperDuperMan still a single consciousness and identity now struggling to reconcile two different bodies in two different points in space?

 

If you conjure a sparkplug you once held that has since been installed in a car, do you get the car, or the sparkplug? Is someone now driving around with a spark plug missing?

 

If someone swipes your wallet and you conjure it back, do you get it as it is now, empty where it lies discarded by the thief, or is everything back where it belongs? If she ripped it to pieces in anger because you only had two bucks in it, does it come back whole or torn?

 

If you held a gold coin yesterday, can you conjure it several times today until you have a bag of gold? Or is it the same coin every time?

 

We're not trying to give you a hard time. But unless we know exactly what it is the ability you envision can and can't do, it's hard to build a power for it.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary says I probably will try anyway.

 

Good Questions.

 

To give you a little more info, the character has the mutant ability to summon items back into her hands that she has previously held. Generally she does this simply to return her extremely limited precious metal bullets that fire from her twin mystical pistols. If she was disarmed, then she could of course, return the pistols to her hands. I know that you just buy this attack without a focus, but in regard to how else she could use the power, and to answer your questions;

 

Assume that there is a weight limit on what you can comfortably handle in two hands, at most lets say 10kg.

 

If the object no longer exists (or has changed its form significantly as in an apple pip becoming a tree or a child growing up) then you get nothing.

If the object has been damaged in some way (a ripped-up wallet) then you would get a damaged item returning.

 

If a gold coin was returned, its the same gold coin every time.

[MrAgdesh]

In hero you build the game effect. And only consider the special effect cursory.

 

The game effect is not clear at all and we need more data:

What is the game setting (heroic, or superheroic)?

Wich items will be avalible with this power (normal guns, super guns)?

Can he lend the item to others on his side?

Can he instantly disarm an enemy that uses a weapon he held previously? Where do the items come from?

 

About all we can say with some certainty is that neither Summon nor Transform seems the right power. It is a power with a potentially tremendous game effect, hence we need to nail down the limits first.

 

Game Setting: Supers

Item available: Generally the character's own signature pistols. *Could* summon any weapon she has held though, although these would generally be normal weapons. She could also summon *any* item (tech scanners, driving licences, money, soiled diapers etc, etc)

Yes, she could in theory lend them to other characters, and she could disarm enemies whose weapons she has held previously. So, if she has held every item in an armoury, and then a good squad shows up bearing those weapons, she could (albeit it slowly) disarm each one and pass their guns to colleagues.

[MrAgdesh]

If she has handled a character's focus, she could return that too, assuming that it fits in with the above restrictions (so if she had touched Iron Man's armor she might first get the repulsor gloves or helmet for example, given time she might be able to strip down the entire suit piece by piece) She might not be able to use it of course, depending upon it being Personal or Universal.

 

Oh and she's an NPC so I don't have to worry about abuse. Other than mine.

[Lucius]

Good Questions.

 

To give you a little more info, the character has the mutant ability to summon items back into her hands that she has previously held. Generally she does this simply to return her extremely limited precious metal bullets that fire from her twin mystical pistols. If she was disarmed, then she could of course, return the pistols to her hands. I know that you just buy this attack without a focus,

 

And possibly without charges, if she can so easily reload.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

Summoning a palindromedary

[MrAgdesh]

Yes, the signature weapons are built without the game mechanic of charges, just the SFX of them. That's easy enough I think, its just that the ability per se was perplexing me.

[Lucius]

I built the ability as an attack, so it does require a targetting roll.

 

If someone is actually holding the item, the penalties for Grab should apply,

 

Lucius Alexander

 

What if a palindromedary ate it? I'm not sure....

[Christopher R Taylor]

You can define the "healing" of transform as "being taken away or broken" but an indirect, very long-range teleport could work (with a detect) or a summon on inanimate objects (although again, they go away after a while on their own).

[Cassandra]

Telekinesis

 

EB VSFX [Any]

[bigdamnhero]

Oh and she's an NPC so I don't have to worry about abuse. Other than mine.

If she were an NPC (or a PC whose player I really trusted) I'd probably just call it Summon and handwave the rest. For most PCs, I'd make them build it out as a VPP to limit the potential for abuse.

[MrAgdesh]

I built the ability as an attack, so it does require a targetting roll.

 

If someone is actually holding the item, the penalties for Grab should apply,

 

Lucius Alexander

 

What if a palindromedary ate it? I'm not sure....

 

I'm leaning toward your design. Force field could stop this power as is because the Teleport isn't armour-piercing, which works just dandy.

[bigdamnhero]

Force field could stop this power as is because the Teleport isn't armour-piercing, which works just dandy.

That does make sense, tho you cold probably just add "Blocked By Forcefields" as a Limitation whichever way you build it.