Light Effects

[Hugh Neilson]

1 minute ago, Gnome BODY (important!) said:

No, not really.  Spider-Man for example went twenty years of publication before Venom showed up and gave him a recurring foe immune to his spider-sense.

 

Well, he DID make it to Spider-Man #39 before the Green Goblin hit him with a gas that dulled his Spidey-Sense.  It's failed more than once over the years.

 

1 minute ago, Gnome BODY (important!) said:

Again, should every character be forced to force their disads into the story or lose points?

 

That's not the player's job, although better players play their characters' weaknesses, not just their strengths. 

 

I have rarely seen a disadvantage which would not naturally come up in play - if it would not come up, it would not belong on the sheet.  The GM gets to do a bit more work to involve Hunteds or DNPCs (but that is as simple as designing the story arcs, and watching for places where that DNPC could logically be during the various scenarios).  A GM would have to include Chartreuse Copywritonite Meteors - if you take a Susceptibility to those, expect them to exist in the game world.

 

If you take a Vulnerability to Solar-Powered Cold Beams fired by Green and Purple Froglike Martians at "Very Common", expect the campaign to have a title like "Invasion of the Green and Purple Froglike Martians wielding Solar-Powered Cold Weapons".

 

If,, as a GM, I expect something is never going to come up, then it is not worth points.  That goes for complications and disadvantages, but also for skills - KS:  Jane Austen may well be free if I can't see it having any game relevance, just like you don't have to pay for being a redhead or having green eyes.

[Ninja-Bear]

2 minutes ago, Gnome BODY (important!) said:

Why does Man-Bat have to deal with every issue personally?  Why can't he yell "Egads, somebody [verb] that machine before [horrible thing]" and trade places with his nearest teammate? 

What sidekick?  Where the heck are you getting these things from?  I feel like I'm wading through a field of strawmen. 

Well you seem to assume that man-bat’s teammates are doing everything for man-bat. Why are they always around? I didn’t say man-bat would face ALL those situations. I said was that there are several situations that could arise in a factory setting. Straw man? No. You claimed that clever  PCs could avoid Man-bats disadvantage. I just point out ways which a GM could have his disadvantage come into play. Heck in a factory everyone would be at a disadvantage of some sort.

[Hugh Neilson]

9 minutes ago, Gnome BODY (important!) said:

Why does Man-Bat have to deal with every issue personally?  Why can't he yell "Egads, somebody [verb] that machine before [horrible thing]" and trade places with his nearest teammate?

 

Because he is the only one close enough - or because his teammates can't hear him yell over the noise of the machinery.

9 minutes ago, Gnome BODY (important!) said:

What sidekick?  Where the heck are you getting these things from?  I feel like I'm wading through a field of strawmen. 

 

The one whose main purpose in life is to kick the kryptonite out of the way provide ongoing descriptions so Man-Bat is never disadvantaged due to his blindness.

 

[Lee]

15 hours ago, Gnome BODY (important!) said:

Quote

Oh and since I work at a chocolate factory ...

 

I feel like I'm wading through a field of strawmen. 

Actually, since it was a chocolate factory they are less likely to be strawmen than oompa-loompas. 

[Ninja-Bear]

1 minute ago, Lee said:

Actually, since it was a chocolate factory they are less likely to be strawmen than oompa-loompas. 

Hey I resemble that remark! 😁

[Shane Harsch]

THREAD NECROMANCY...Success!

 

My thoughts. CE vs Images from a cost perspective is one thing, but it is never going to be 0. A reasonable CE build for a flashlight might cost 4 when an Images build costs 7. I've done enough point shaving that I can see the appeal, but it's not that great a diff. Expanding to larger AOE certainly will exacerbate this. 

 

I did read through all the previous pages, skipping the personal exchanges, but I may have missed the discussion on my next point (apologies).

 

Since Images does not negate Darkness (that's the role of Dispel), I'm more inclined to go with light as a CE effect, specifically to offset darkness penalties and essentially penalty skill levels. This reduces the cost of CE (1 pt per -1 offset for a single sense, 3pts per -2 offset for a sense group). 

One of these I built with a -5 Custom Adder so that Images was for Normal Sight only from the baseline. It makes a difference. 

 

Inverting Darkness to become a Light power (with the same cost structure) is way more expensive than just an Images build. 

 

If Images could offset Darkness it might be a different story. Since it can't, I think CE as to offset a PER penalty is the way to go (and is in a gray area of provides a bonus). That's how I'm doing it for Atomic Sky, and it's easy enough to modify CE in HD to make it happen (as you can see above). 7 RP to light a battlefield seems pretty reasonable to me. 

[Legendsmiths]

That Shane guy, I tell ya (heh, heh: that's me).

 

We do have examples too of CE providing "positive" effects:

• Raising the temp when cold
• lowering the temp when hot
• Reducing or Increasing the Wind as needed (sailing, fires, etc.)

Seems that justifies offsetting natural darkness. Even if you priced it the same as a PER penalty, it's still cheaper:

Stadium Light:  Change Environment (+4 to Normal Sight PER Rolls), Area Of Effect (64m Radius; +1 1/4) (20 Active Points); OAF (-1), 1 Continuing Charge lasting 1 Week/Excursion (Commodity: Powercells; +1/4)
Real Cost: 10