In discussions about the most recent page of Grrl Power, where the protagonist, Sydney, has her nearly impenetrable shield down for some reason, and thus gets jabbed and drugged by a villain, it struck me that the "not conforming to my body" kind of force field is pretty common in the comics, with people having something like a bubble. Clearly, this creates some issues with having it up all the time, from taking up too much space (you're a proverbial assumed spherical cow from mathematical explanations of crowd spacing) to not being able to easily touch things outside of your shield, requiring you to drop it at times.
Since it's as expensive to have the shield only up when you choose to (Sustained) as to have it up at all times (Permanent), what's the best way to handle this? SImply a Complication when it comes up?
Non skin-tight force field?
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Re: Non skin-tight force field?
Id say complication mostly unless theres some very specific disadvantages to having the field up complications were tailor made for this sort of thin.
Dr. Silverback has wryly observed that this is like trying to teach lolcats about Shakespeare
Showdown at the Litterbox
Catsi stories
Showdown at the Litterbox
Catsi stories
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Re: Non skin-tight force field?
{nods} As much as anything, I think it kind of speaks to how the average Permanent Protection character has very little disadvantage compared to someone who goes for Sustained.
Re: Non skin-tight force field?
Yep and even sustained technically is a +0 modifier
Dr. Silverback has wryly observed that this is like trying to teach lolcats about Shakespeare
Showdown at the Litterbox
Catsi stories
Showdown at the Litterbox
Catsi stories
Re: Non skin-tight force field?
The big problem is also that any kind of area force field in M&M is obscenely expensive requiring both Area and Affect Others (which is nonsense to me, but that's how it was done in the book). In theory, the baseline Protection comes with the in-built problem of making some situations extremely awkward or flat out impossible. For example, any surgical operation on a character like Luke Cage or Ben Grimm would be pretty damn hard. Unfortunately, this is a complication at best and could often being worked around with other superpowers (like phasing).
- Hellstormer1
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Re: Non skin-tight force field?
LOL, saw the topic title, and it got me thinking of this...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkQFhPJuxgk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkQFhPJuxgk
"NOPE!"