The Simple Guide to Ultimate Power, Part 5: Mixing Power Qualities

[Shane Ivey]

Greg digs deep with the final installment of his primer on building custom powers in Wild Talents. Today he tackles powers with multiple qualities, blending Variable Effect and Augment and all kinds of flaws and extras in two incredibly flexible powers: weather control and world-class telepathy.

http://arcdream.com/home/?p=1129

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Shane Ivey, Arc Dream Publishing
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[Wade Lahoda]

So, reading this, one thing struck me:
"Let’s start with If/Then (-1), the classic all-purpose Flaw. Each
Quality can have the If/Then limit “Only for Weather Effects.” It’s
pretty much what we were planning anyhow. Her Attacks now can’t be
psychic or magical or anything twee like that, and she’s not turning
people to stone with Useful."

I understand putting an If/Then limitation on, for instance, Defends,
because a standard Defending power will defend against anything...
But I don't necessarily think putting an If/Then on Useful to say "It
only does the one effect the power says it does" seems so kosher...
Presumably, if I just take one Useful power and don't put If/Then on
it, it can't be used for any imaginable Useful effect. Otherwise, one
can justify putting an If/Then(Only Does What It Says It Does) on
pretty much any power except a cosmic type power...

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[Shane Ivey]

But I don't necessarily think putting an If/Then on Useful to say "It
only does the one effect the power says it does" seems so kosher...
Presumably, if I just take one Useful power and don't put If/Then on
it, it can't be used for any imaginable Useful effect. Otherwise, one
can justify putting an If/Then(Only Does What It Says It Does) on
pretty much any power except a cosmic type power...

Interesting point. With Useful and Attacks in this example power, the If/Then actually limits the use of Variable Effect, not the core power quality. I'll add a line to the article to clarify that.

[Wade Lahoda]

Mmm, okay, that does make sense then. Thanks for the clarification!

[Tim Keating]

I really enjoyed this series, but it did leave me hanging on one lingering question I have, and that concerns everyone's favorite power from the cafeteria: Multiple Actions!

It's basically the same question Princess Stacey asked way back here: http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?503044-Wild-Talents-augment-vs-multiple-actions. TL; DR -- MA + Endless seems like a cheap way to get Augments -- you only have to buy one power quality instead of three.

(And yes, I recognize that the intent behind the game design is not for every power to be balanced perfectly mathematically against the entire spectrum of powers, but this case seems so blatantly broken it bugs me.)

I think I'm to the point where I'm going to houserule that MA can *only* be used to offset penalty dice for taking multiple actions (well, that plus the non-combat benefit), but I'm curious to hear other peoples' thoughts on the matter.

TK

[Daniel Stack]

I can only speak to my own games but I found the Multiple Actions power as written to be problematic.  

In my experience, as many people have suspected, it gives away too much for too low a cost. With regards to rethinking it I've a few thoughts... The limitation you mentioned is reasonable. Another one that comes to mind is remembering the largest possible bonus from extra prep time is two dice - it would seem reasonable to make that the maximum bonus when performing just one action.

I do think the Augment power is probably a better way of realizing the typical ability of speedsters and ninjas to do multiple things at once.

-Dan

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