Sketchpad

5e and prior, for me, and specifically _for minions_ as opposed to agents, troops, etc-  the pawns; the nobody's, the cannon fodder-  minions:
 
20 pts characteristics and skills plus the base level equipment for their mission.
 
 

Agreed. Is there a reason you don't simply use a limited power?
+4d6 Blast, Only usable after 12 segments of combat (-1) 4d6 RKA, No Range, AoE: Explosion, Personal Immunity, 1 Charge, Only usable at half health (-1½) Just set the limitation values to something reasonable for the character/campaign. (I.e., dependent on character SPD, average number of rounds of combat, etc.)
 
Or buy the powers normally and limit them with a Physical Complication:
Power X deals four dice less damage the first 12 segments of combat (Infrequent, Barely impairing) Can't use power Y if health is over 50% (Very frequent, Slightly impairing) Again, set values appropriately. This makes things a little harder to track -- it won't be obvious one can't use the full power unless you look at the whole sheet.
 
 
Doug
Keep the criteria simple. Tracking phases or hits is easy; tracking points of damage or END spent is fiddly.

That sounded like Extra time for me, but for attacks that means you activate it and it takes a full turn to be ready to throw.  Problem is that it forbids you using other attacks in the meantime.
 
I was sure I saw a limitation that meant you could only use it after a certain period had lapsed since its last use, thought it was called cooldown or something.  It is like phasers that overheat and need to cool down before firing again. Could not see it in main rulebook or in Star Hero.

Yeah, you are right. My response is edition based.  I am also agreed that using a complication is a bad precedent to set.
 
The recoverable charge does indeed sound like a good option.

END reserve started out as a limitation - 8x Reserve was a -0 limitation like 16 charges.  It became a Power in 4e.
 
When we're discussing, say, a 100 AP power with an END reserve, typically I see value - making that 0 END would cost another 50, which would buy a sizable END reserve.
 
Here, we're using it as a limiting factor. One use END reserve will only cost 5, but it needs some way to recover. It starts at zero, but that limitation on 5 points won't be worth a lot. We need a Heal that has low re-use time Triggered by whatever the Trigger is.  1d6 Heal would restore 1d6 END, so it has to go off 6 times to fill the bar. We have to override the rules to make its re-use more frequent than per turn, and it needs an auto-resetting trigger. Now, if we also slap on a limitation that the power costs normal END plus battery END, there's a savings, but it still seems like average usage 1/turn or less is more limiting than those points will suggest.
 
One option is a custom limitation.  Another might be a Dependence - that can be used to set conditions on powers, but this is only one power, so I don't like a Complication rather than a Limitation.
 
What about 1 Recoverable charge?  Normally, that would be a -1 1/4 limitation (two levels down the chart), and the charge would be recovered after combat.  This could recover during combat, but would not be usable until the character meets its recovery condition during the combat. That sounds like a reasonable trade-off, or at least a reasonable starting point for a limitation on the power. 
 

My problem with using Trigger or END Reserve for this is that you are actually paying points to limit the use of the power.
 
Trigger might be acceptable if it provided an additional attack that turn, a significant advantage in any combat, and if I was using the END reserve to track the bureaucracy, I would not be charging points for it.
 
Doc

Yes, that is how you would use the Trigger.
 
The END Reserve would be for just the Ultimate Power,  at least as I understand it.  If the character had more than one power that functioned like this, they might share an END Reserve or they might have independent ones.

See, that's why I was thinking Trigger (6E1 p. 349). It states:
 
 
So making the Trigger "Activates after X Phases" or "Activates after 100 points of damage rolled" might work in that case, yes?

So with the END Reserve, it would be specific to that one power?

There are a few ways you could do this, the problem is giving it a video game feel without making it a pain to track.  The simplest thing would be a custom limitation like "Power can only be used after X successful hits".  That might match what is in the video game, but now you have to track how many successful hits the character has achieved.  Also, the value of the limitation would change if the character decided to buy more levels or higher OCV so they could hit more often.  Video game powers don't always translate well into RPGs for that reason, because you don't have the computer doing the math for you.
 
If I were to build this, I think I would have the character take an END Reserve, with zero REC, and the limitation "END drops to zero if not used within 5 minutes of END Reserve charging" to make sure the Reserves always starts combat empty.  Then buy them an Aid to END, which goes into the END Reserve, and triggers every time they score a hit.  Once they have enough END in the Reserve, they can power their Ultimate Attack, but then they will have to build it back up before they can use it again.
 
 

Hero System Martial Arts has some examples.

Endurance Reserve or charges is the first thing that springs to mind.  END Reserve that only recovers when you carry out some act, for example, or maybe a heal to the END reserve that is triggered by an action.

Could be an END Pool, or END Pools with the powers powered from the pool.  Maybe with limits on the REC for the pool.

That just shows that a good GM can take a whatever villain and make him/her something interesting.

If the players are buying it, LS for the stasis and Mind Link for the ability of the operator to enter the sleeper's dreams, with the appropriate limitations.
 
If it's a thing installed on a vehicle that the GM didn't have the players pay for, simply handwave the build and narritively describe how it works. It's good to keep in mind that not everything that you can build with points has to be built out. The points balancing is more to keep the player characters relatively in line with each other. I typically just give the players their bases and vehicles for free, so they don't have to carve out the points from their character sheets.
 
It sounds like the second case is true, since it's a SF game and most genres outside of supers suggest that players don't pay points for equipment. So, handwave is the best build option, IMO.
 
You may now burn me at the stake for my heresy. 🔥

Thanks, Folks;
 
I appreciate the help.  I have the information need: there is no rule saying the grabbed target is required to take damage.
 
 
That is all I needed; thank you.
 
 

I checked through a few editions, and the qualifier that Universal Translator only enables one to speak or write a language "crudely" seems to appear in 5th edition. 4th edition version just says that, yeah, you can speak, read and write any language you encounter. (With a few qualifiers such as physical ability to "speak" in the mode presented). So one solution is just to use 4th edition. (I'm not checking previous editions.)
 
OK, so you're stuck with a particular edition and you don't want to say the Rules As Written for that edition are pointlessly limiting. Steve Long gave another way out in 5e by deriving Talents from standard Powers and Skills. Officially, Universal Translator consists of two Detects: Detect Meaning of Speech [10 points] + Detect Meaning of Text [10 points]. Except thi9s is wrong. BY RAW, a basic Detect only registers the presence and intensity of some object or quality. Detect Meaning of Speech will only tell you that yup, that's speech and it has more or less meaning. You need Discriminatory, at the very least. And you would also need Transmit in order to speak back.
 
So let's "correct" the derivation, while conserving the final cost, by treating it this way: Detect Meaning of Speech (3 points -- pretty specialized), Discriminatory (+5 points), Transmit (+2 points); + Detect Meaning of Text (3 points), Descriminatory (+5 points), Transmit (+2 points). Though by RAW you could reduce the cost to 15, because you can add a second class of entity to a Detect for a flat +5 points without needing to re-purchase all the added modifiers.
 
To Detect and Transmit the finer shades of meaning implied by true mastery of a language, add Analyze. For the verion of UT that conserves existing point values that pushes the final cost to 30 points. Using the two-categories hack, the final cost drops back to 20 points.
 
You'll still have to make a PER Roll to comprehend or communicate in the language, but getting a better roll for this single Enhanced Sense costs only 1 point per +1. Buy +3 and I think it's fair to say you'now effectively have 4 points of fluency in any language you enounter.
 
If you're *really* persnickety, add +2 points for "Sense", so you can use it without needing a half-Phase action. But I think you can bring the whole thing in at 25 points.
 
Dean Shomshak

See, this is where the Power Skill comes in for me. When making power stunts, I tend to have "stunt powers" cost extra END and RSR to perform. If they get too abusive (like using several times in a row), I require them to take the stunt as a new power. It's worked well over the years, and allows the players to test their heroes' powers in new directions. 
 
 
For me, I'd allow something like "grabbing X and removing them from the field" as a new maneuver that doesn't need a power structure. IMHO, it's no different from performing other combat maneuvers like a Move By or Multi-Attack. Yes, it should have mods, but I don't believe that it should cost points. It's too much of a staple in the supers genre, which should mean that anyone can use it freely. Mind you, your campaign may vary, I just respectfully disagree with it costing points.

I would say it's situational and a clear discussion of options to be had with the GM. In my case, I would probably allow a "I'm going to grab the guy at 30m speed and let him go into a building" as a damaging effect. Or I may rule that flying by and grabbing a target's arm may give you ONLY the target's arm (depending on how much Move By damage occurred). Could you do a fly by and just scoop someone up with no damage? Sure, so long as that's the style of the game. For example, playing in a four-color comic style game, you fly by and snag the crook to whisk off to jail. In a gritty, deconstructive game, you fly through the crook, splattering him around the area like  a Pollock painting. Ultimately, as you know, it comes down to how you and the GM want to portray the character, and how the GM uses the rules around the concept.

I intend to present all of the additional information Aaron had in his notes, as well as full-updated character sheets.
 

Right now, I am just working on The Blood, The Circle, and METE.

In 2016, I was lead writer for Aaron Allston’s Strike Force. It is one of the highlights of my game writer career. I had hoped to be able to continue work in Aaron's world by developing something I wanted to call "Strike Force Organizations." And now, I can. Note: This product will be dedicated to Aaron (of course), but also Darren Watts, as when I first discussed this, he wanted to develop the section on the Circle.

In 2016, I was lead writer for Aaron Allston’s Strike Force. It is one of the highlights of my game writer career. I had hoped to be able to continue work in Aaron's world by developing something I wanted to call "Strike Force Organizations." And now, I can.
 
Note: This product will be dedicated to Aaron (of course), but also Darren Watts, as when I first discussed this, he wanted to develop the section on the Circle.

I'm a pretty lucky guy as well. I met my wife while working as a chat cop for WotC back in the very late '90s. She was my first trainee, and things just hit off from there. 20 years later, we're still together and gaming regularly (both in groups and solo). That said, that luck was earned through some rough relationships. In high school, I was steadily dating someone that despised gaming. She tried it once, hated it, and tried everything she could to pull me away from it. The ex-wife, to her credit, tried to game and understand what the hobby was, but she had other "hobbies" that were more fitting to her. Honestly, it was after her that I started looking for someone that was already into gaming to spend my life with, as it was important to me and something I wanted to share (along with comics, movies, art, and world domination). 
 
With all that in context, I agree with everyone that said "Communicate." Talk about what you enjoy, and why it's important to you. Relationships are odd in so many ways, as we tend to form them on a context of common interests, but find the commonality fleeting at times, especially with the little things in life.

I was told something similar, N-B. "You can tell folks who you think you are, but your actions will prove you're either a liar or telling the truth. Unless you're a REALLY good liar."

I do want to add that over the the entry years, it hasn’t always been rainbows and unicorns. One thing that helped though is Faith and Psy lim: Marriage Vows 20 pts Total.  She would tell you Psy Lim: Stubborn (and that politely putting it) 35 points. There are times and places where being stubborn is good.
 
Note on Communication. My father always said “ You can tell people who you are but your actions tell them what you are.”