I love the Inventing system in MP, but I was looking at ways to allow players to alter an Ability on the fly. Enter the Ability Stunt. This would allow a player to attempt an Inventing Task to give one of their Abilities a Modifier for 1 Turn/Use. For instance, Spectrum has a personal force field, but he decides he needs to shield a small group of innocent bystanders from an impending explosion. He rushes over to them preparing to create a bubble large enough to protect them all. He has 7 inventing points (IN/2 rounded up), and he needs the bubble to be 7" in Diameter centered on himself. A 7" Area Effect costs 10 CPs, but that's cut in half thanks to the Perimeter Modifier. He spends 5 IPs and makes an IN save.
Now, should a move like this suffer the -9 to reduce an Inventing Check from 1 hour to 1 Round/Instant, or because of the one-shot nature of it, should it be unmodified? Should Pushing be allowed? I'm looking for a way to add some spice to combat and I love the idea of improvisation via Inventing Points. Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.
I think this is a really cool idea that seems a natural fit for Inventing Checks.
OTOH, I'd hate to see somebody take a lot of time (killing any momentum in a battle) by creating something from scratch in the middle of a fight (figuring out modifiers and looking at charts). Not at all suggesting that was what you were proposing, Hireling, btw.
I suppose somebody could take the time to carefully work up a bunch of these for their character ahead of time, though it might seem strange, having all of these 'stunts' just waiting there which have never been used before.
I'm leaning towards them not costing the -9, because of the temporary/one-shot nature of them.
Overall it's a really cool idea, and very much fits how many characters do things in comics. I'd worked up an elaborate 'Power Stunts' idea for 2.0/2.1 which is very similar, and I really liked how it worked.
V&V GM and player since 1982, my current campaign is 29 years old
I also think it really fits the genre well and would provide a really nice storytelling device.
Should players start misusing it I would consider some kind of additional cost - maybe the invention points spent that way have to be bought back with some CP as they were 'burnt out' or something ...
