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In the world of superheroes where powers can be used at will, why are magic and psionics limited by a point system?
Has anyone tried not using the points in their game?

Nemo235 wrote:In the world of superheroes where powers can be used at will, why are magic and psionics limited by a point system?
Has anyone tried not using the points in their game?

Hmmm, hadn't really thought about it in those terms before. It does seem unfair to the mage and psionic having limited reserves compared to everyone else, but the spells at least for the mage can give some options well beyond what the superhero has available. Psionics on the other hand has always seemed more limited than it should be.

There are powers that emulate a good many of the Psionic powers, I am not sure if ISP works in the system really, as most Psionic characters in comics seem to have powers no more limited than their otherwise powered compatriots.

To make the HU setting more compatible with the other PB settings.

If it's your game and don't want to use PPE and ISP, then don't.

Well as for psionic their ISP system do not exactly work well in any other setting, except perhaps the fantasy low powered setting they were thought for.
And if you think psionic ar eunderpowered just imaigne the poor chaps in Rifts where everything is more powerfull than them.(expecially Martial Artist(Muay Thai Kick Boxing) Combat Cyborg with ME of 21 and psionic dampening implant)

It CAN work but for me I've increased the regeneration rate to deal with the limit of the power pool. With both Magic and Psionics you get the advantage of a variety of powers and abilities to choose from and unlike most powersets you also know you'll be getting more as you level up.


Daniel Stoker

in HU2 just ignore PPE & ISP i say to get the comic book feel.

or

Give Super-Abilities a SAP (Super-Ability-Points) to spend on using powers.
You would need to give sup-abilities Durations on par with magic/psionics too.
I did this once (inspired by WW's Aberrant) and it worked pretty good.

because without ISP limits, there's nothing preventing the psychic from adjusting the size of their Telekenetic force feilds to incremental increases of half an inch and layering 50 seperate force feilds around them, before proceeding to simply spam Bio-manipulate: paralasis until whoever it is fails their saving throw.

Unless their immune to that, in which case, whatever attack does work.

but on the same level of thought Nekira. Create Force Fields multiplies your PE attribute by a lot. (dont have my books with me atm, but i believe its like x100 or something like that, Please correct) but if you for instance had 1000 points of FF to use, whos saying you cant do 1000, 1 point shields, Force Manipulation has a weight limit that is astronomically high that TK super is Inferior to it, and The Paralysis can be done multiple times at no cost for Venomous attack characters, or even Disruptive touch.

So it just seems that wipe off the ISP and set similar limits to the Super Power counterpart to Psionics and it could feel like a more epic Power Class.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't there still limits in Create Force Field as to how much total SDC you can create based on your PE and with a limited regeneration from that pool? So you can't do with it what she was saying with the Psionic Powers if you don't have ISP.


Daniel Stoker

drewkitty ~..~ wrote:To make the HU setting more compatible with the other PB settings.

If it's your game and don't want to use PPE and ISP, then don't.

This. WD Drewkitty.

To really equal things up, you have to make everything cost points, or have a limited number of uses. The problem with eliminating PPE and ISP altogether is then you get characters that are way more powerful that the ones created using the other categories.

This is something I've considered and I think if I run another HU game I will remove isp and ppe from the game.

If you remove it, make sure you adjust the limits on the psionic character. For example, psychic force fields can not be layered, only one at a time may be produced...and it has to be taken down before a new one can be put up.