Powers that increase at night.

[Nightmask]

The character is pretty basic blast projector, but the more time he is exposed to the night, the more powerful his powers become. The problem is that amount of night exposure varies from night to night and more so from winter to summer. Any thoughts?

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: Powers that increase at night.

 

When you say 'exposed to the night', do you mean that literally? As in, he must be outside or near a window?

[Hyper-Man]

Re: Powers that increase at night.

 

There are a few different ways to tackle this one.

 

One thing to consider though is that darkness isn't something to be 'exposed' to. Rather, Darkness is just an a bsence of Light (just like Cold is just an absence of Heat). I would probably build the powers in 2 stages. 1st stage with no Limitation and 2nd stage with a custom Limitation that gradually decreases their effectiveness in Light (and gradually return in Darkness). Hope that helps.

[Greywind]

Re: Powers that increase at night.

 

Cold is not the absence of heat.

 

Cold is the presence of cold.

 

You need to come north for the winter.

[psyber624]

Re: Powers that increase at night.

 

There are a number of different ways to reflect this sort of power.

 

Partially Limited Power (such as Hyperman suggested): You have a base power such as 8d6 Blast, then you have +2d6 Blast (Only at night, -1) then another +2d6 Blast (Only after 8 hours of "Nighttime)

 

Limited Aid: You have a base Blast power (we will say 8d6 for discussion sake). Then you build an Aid to that power:

Aid Blast 1d6, Increased Maximum Effect (x4, +1/2), Delayed Return Rate (1 Day, + 2 1/4) [AP 22], LP: Delayed Use (2 hours, -1 1/2), LP:Only useable at Night (-1), LP:Points Fade instantly when not in night (-1/2), Aid Self Only (-1) RC 4 points

 

This creates a power that slowly grows at night. Every 2 hours of night allows you to add 1d6 of Aid. With this it would take about 8 applications (16 hours) to get max effect (24 AP of Blast) so generally the character will never get that far, although in long winter nights (or in places like the Arctic) he will be able to gain more power. You may want to add trigger to it if it is something that happens without any input from him. (As it stands he has to take an action every 2 hours to use the Aid, it doesn't work automatically).

 

A couple of notes:

1. The Delayed Use version of Limited Power is from [APG 144].

2. This power uses a 1d6 version of Aid with IME. This may not be very balanced and could be quite abusive (I would need to playtest it to be sure. It looks fine to me but that is just one man's opinion.) So your GM may not let you get away with it.

 

The Proportional Advantage: [APG 139] Probably the easiest writeup as this advantage was tailored specifically to do exactly what you want it to do, however the fact that it is in The Advanced Players Guide may put it out of your reach (at least for now, I HIGHLY recommend this book however). Unfortunately this is an entirely new advantage so it would be difficult to fully explain in a brief forum post (and a cut and paste would probably violate even DOJ's lenient tendencies toward such things) so I will have to leave it at that.

 

Hope this helps

[GoldenAge]

Re: Powers that increase at night.

 

PROPORTIONAL

This optional Power Modifier — sometimes an Advantage, sometimes a Limitation — makes a power more or less effective in certain defined circumstances. For example, a power might be twice as effective at nighttime. The value of Proportional depends on two factors: first, the commonality or frequency of the circumstance which triggers the proportionality; second, the extent to which the ability gains (or loses) power.

THE PROPORTIONAL ADVANTAGE

The accompanying table lists the suggested values for Proportional as an Advantage. You start by determining the value for how many more Character Points’ worth of effect the character has, then apply a value modifier based on how often he has access to that extra power. For example, suppose a werewolf has 20 STR (cost: 10 Character Points). He wants to have twice as much effect — 20 Character Points’ worth of STR, or STR 30 — at night. That’s a two times increase in power (+1 base Advantage) which applies about half the time (1/2 less Advantage). That’s a total of a +1/2 Advantage on his STR, so his STR with Proportional increase costs (10 x (1 + 1/2)=) 15 points.

 

1.5 times Character Points worth of effect = +1/2 advantage

2 times Character Points worth of effect = +1 advantage

3 times Character Points worth of effect = +2 advantage

4 times Character Points worth of effect = +3 advantage

5 times Character Points worth of effect = +4 advantage

etc.

 

Value Commonality/Frequency Of Increase

2 less Advantage Very Uncommon (character rarely, if ever, gets the increase in power)

11/2 less Advantage Uncommon (character gets the increase in power about a fourth of the time)

1 less Advantage Common (character gets the increase in power about a third of the time)

1/2 less Advantage Very Common (character gets the increase in power about half the time)

The minimum value of the Proportional Advantage is +1/4, regardless of the subtraction applied for commonality/ frequency.

Purchase the 6ED Advabced Players Guide PDF (SKU: DOJHERO1004) for much more on Proportional and other additional rules.