Photographic Reflexes 2.0

[takewithfood]

Hey gang,

So, I've been fiddling with Photographic Reflexes in the back of my brain for a long time now, and I finally took a moment to scrawl the results on paper. I'm thinking I might be able to cram in Prodigy's powers as well (David Alleyne's, that is.. there are lots of dudes named Prodigy in Marvel).

Anyway, this is what I have in mind. Costs are certainly not final, and the body is still in point-form anyway:

Copy Action AN+5 CL

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- can mimic certain mundane Actions of others within Area 5 (25' radius), up to the limit of their AN or your AN, whichever is lowest.
- if the Action you copy comes with an Ability or Weapon bonus, you may use the same bonus.
- can only mimic one Action per Page.
- mudane Actions are grouped into two categories, Physical and Knowledge:
- physical actions include: Acrobatics, Close or Ranged Combat, Dance, some Personalized Actions, or Swimming.
- knowledge actions include: Animal Training, Gambling, General Knowledge, Leadership, some Personalized Actions, Psychiatry, Social Skills, Special Training, Statecraft, Technology, or Vehicle Operation
- can also borrow specialties; may only "spend" one specialty per AN per issue (spending specialties is a new rule I'm working on.. disregard this for now)

Options
-2 CL = Physical Actions Only. You are unable to copy Knowledge Actions (see above).
-1 CL = Knowledge Actions Only. You are unable to copy Physical Actions (see above).
+2 CL = Retention. You can copy any Action that you've been exposed to, even after the subject is out of range. (Essentially copies almost any Action on your list.)
+3 CL = Photographic Reflexes Not only do you retain everything you've learned (as Retention, above), but you can copy anything you've seen with your own eyes, or studied carefully via some other medium, such as a video recording.[/quote]

So, as a quick example, Prodigy has Copy Action 6 (no options). When the Xavier Institute is attacked by the Marauders, he makes sure to stay close to Colossus. Colossus has Close Combat 5 with a Strength bonus, which Prodigy is able to copy as long as he remains within 25' of his teacher. Even though his AN is higher than Colossus' Close Combat AN, he is limited to a maximum of 5 stones. He must also use his Strength bonus of 2, which is significantly less lower than his teacher's 9. Still, he is now able to hold his own in the fight. If he and Colossus get separated, he'll have to rely on his own Close Combat AN or find someone else to copy.

Sample characters:
Prodigy - would have a decent AN (5 or 6 maybe) and no options. Eventually he'd upgrade to the Retention option.
Taskmaster - would have a big AN (probably 6 or 7? he's copied Cap before, ya?) with the Photographic Reflexes option; however, for -2 CL he can only copy physical actions.

I'm also considering adding a free 1 or 2 stones of defense when someone you're copying uses that Action against you. Possibly as an advantage, but even a +1 CL would probably cost most characters 3 or 5 white.

It's possible that the base cost should come down by 1 and Retention should go up by 1 (and Photographic Reflexes along with it).

~TWF

[Neros]

Dosn't sound bad.. However, it sounds rather expensive to make a Taskmaster character compared to what you get.. Which I am unsure about.. Its still vauge about how it works when you are able to copy things you have seen.. If you have the Retention or Photographic Relfexes option, will the Action then effectively function as Close-Range Combat/Acrobatics/Swimming, ect?

Question: What price would you give Copy Abilities/Actions/Modifiers?
I know the power hasn't been brought up yet (or I think so), but they work more or less the same way but have different levels of "power"..
They work more or less the same, however, you don't need to see the person and you arent limited to the mentioned actions..

[takewithfood]

Yeah, with some tweaking we might be able to use the same mechanic to copy "powers" (as per Copy Abilities/Actions/Modifiers), or even Steal Superpower. The trouble with those is that Mimic and Rogue tend to take all of your powers, which this Action is ill equipped to reproduce (If Rogue touches Nightcrawler she'd have better agility, could walk on walls, and teleport all at once, in theory.)

As per your question about Retention and Photographic Reflexes, yes, the Action basically functions as anything on your list (but one at a time). I haven't specified yet (since I haven't really worked on my Specialty section in the Rulebook) but I intend for you to be able to record a massive list of any specialties that you've stolen. That remains an important advantage over regular Actions.

Taskmaster would be expensive, for sure. He might look like:

Copy Action 6
- physical actions only -2 CL
- photographic memory +3 CL

Which would cost 25 white. However, toss in "can't improve by lines" and it's only 15. It is a bit high, I'll have to agree. Having infinite specialties is a nice touch but not being able to use any of those Actions in combination is also a lot to give up. Maybe the drop to physical should be -3 CL. It certainly still needs balancing.

But the reason I'm interested in trying it is that it's a very, very simple mechanic.

~TWF

[Neros]

Well, the Basic version of the power dosn't have to be just like the one the character has.. Like Steal super power could be where you had to place stones and you would then steal a number a power with a AN/MN equal to the number of stones spend..
Rouge however, would have a heavy option which allows her to do it with no effort at all (turned into a modifier?) Steals all the targets powers and knocks them out.. So if you want a character with powers exactly like Rouge, it will cost.. If you want powers that are like hers, then there might be hope
The same goes more or less for all the other powers in MURPG.. There could be a base version and then options which can make it work like the ones in the comic, however it will be costly..

One at a time helps allot.. Then its not completly like Ninja
Hmm.. Would the character instintivly know what "experience level" the target has or will he have to guess? Like if I wanted to copy some nasty, sword wielding ninja's Close Combat Action (AN 6), would I "know" that i can only place 6 stones into it? (Not counting Ability bonus here..)

Hmm.. "Can't be improved by adding lines" dosent fit his Taskmasters character.. As far as i know, he has been improving his skills since he was wee lad.. Hasn't he?

[takewithfood]

Yeah, if you wanted Copy Action as written to affect super powers, I'd charge maybe +3 CL. If it only worked by touch, I'd maybe give a discount of -2 CL or something like that. But that still isn't getting us very close to Rogue, who blocks you from using your powers, knocks you out when she touches you (which is a separate Modifier imho) and can use any mutation you have (including modifiers). Or Mimic. (Mimic is stupid, though, so I'm happy to be unable to reproduce him.)

Retention is the weak part of the mechanic, I think. Honestly, if I built Taskmaster, I'd just buy him high ANs. Claiming that he has them because he copies people is just part of his background - it's the flavour of his super power. It's no different than saying he's a super soldier with advanced military training or something.

Hmm.. Would the character instintivly know what "experience level" the target has or will he have to guess? Like if I wanted to copy some nasty, sword wielding ninja's Close Combat Action (AN 6), would I "know" that i can only place 6 stones into it? (Not counting Ability bonus here..)

Well, in Prodigy's case, he doesn't know who he's copying abilities from (he once realized that someone was approaching out of sight because he suddenly realized that he could speak French) nor how powerful they are, necessarily (another anecdote: Prodigy was once attacked by some anti-mutant thugs, and one of them declared that he has a black belt in Karate, to which Prodigy replied along the lines of "Thanks, now I do too.").

However, as a mechanic, you'd just ask your GM what the highest Close Combat AN is within range, and if he says 6 with a Strength bonus, you use that. Hmm, I just realized that this requires a decent amount of communication between player and GM, though, which is troublesome for an online game. It's the main reason why I wanted to ditch Prescience.

~TWF

[malice]

I like the initial sentiment of grouping "copy" modifiers into a more manageable bundle, but I'm afraid that particular grouping really hurts the mundane-powers crowd as Neros pointed out.

I think if you're only copying mundane actions you shouldn't have a number limit. I think having that AN cap on Copy Action/Ability/Modifier and Copy Superpower 2.0 is a great muzzle to put on those powers, but only because they copy superpowers.

If you're copying mundane actions, it should be a cap-less modifier like it was in 1.0. That was the whole point of the modifier and it really isn't worth a damn if you're restricted to you MN/AN. You don't copy someone because they're just so much cooler than you, you copy them because they give you something you didn't have which is most often represented in MURPG by the power to throw more stones around.

Most cases just get you a higher AN or an action you didn't have (i.e. more stones). It's less common to see people copying for the sake of specialties although the Photographic Reflexes "I saw it now I can do it" tends to expand to a lot of cool places.

I do however like that you differentiated between copying within a certain range and the copying forever. I just think a numberless modifier or action represents this power much better, and it also gives it the freedom to be useful (Which as you have it priced and described, it's only useful to someone with 20+ stones to waste).