Bob Schroeck Wrote:Since a GURPS character starts with fatigue points equal to their Health Score (normally between 10 and 20) and don't suffer any problems until they're below 1/3 total fatigue, requiring Doug to spend 2 fatigue to activate a power song isn't too unreasonable. If you assume that Doug has an HT of 16 to 20 (reasonable for someone in amazingly good physical shape), then he suffers no ill effects until dropping below 6 fatigue. That gives him 10 to 14 fatigue to use during battle.Quote:Since Doug has indicated that using power songs can be tiring, two levels of Costs Fatigue would probably be appropriate (two fatigue for the first minute of use, one fatigue for each additional minute. Even his longest songs can be played without causing him to drop from low fatigue).It is, but not on that scale. To use the V&V terms and units: Doug (currently) has 100 power points (compared to 40 for an average human); a basic energy blast costs 2 PP, his usual lightning attack costs 3 PP, things like flight and invisibility usually cost 1 PP per hour, and it's only really big effects that cost him more than 5 PP at a shot. One level of Costs Fatigue would be overstating the case for most effects, and two is overkill. If you must, one level is closer to the original than two would be.
When applied to advantages other than those of the point-and-shoot variety, the Costs Fatigue limitation requires you to spend the stated fatigue upon activation, and to spend half that amount at the beginning of each subsequent minute. Since combat is in one second increments, that means that you have 60 rounds before having to maintain the effect. If Doug plays a five minute song and has Costs Fatigue x 2, then he spends 6 fatigue (2+1+1+1+1) unless he ends the song early. If he only has Costs Fatigue x 1, then he spends 5 fatigue (1+1+1+1+1, the 1/2 points keep rounding up). The only difference in cost is for the first minute. By using the first limitation, Doug has a meaningful reason to stick with a single song rather than song-hop every minute; it is more tiring to change songs than to stick with one.
As for worries about conflics with other powers, there is not necessarily any need for Doug to spend fatigue on specific manifestations of his power templates unless he includes that limitation on the specific effect (ie. requiring fatigue to be spent to use a specific Innate Attack). Even then, he could just define some levels of the advantage as free of fatigue and require that it be spent to utilize higher levels (ie. he can throw 5d6 fireballs for as long as the song lasts, but throwing 10d6 fireballs is tiring). The Ultra Power advantage would similarly allow him to pump up the effects of a song in exchange for spending a lot of fatigue and making a successful Will roll.
Additionally, Doug may actually define the fatigue used to power his advantages as mana, and could then buy a mana reserve for 3 points per level. Thus he'd be spending a lot of points in combat, but would make up for that by having a lot of points to spend.
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"Anyone can be a winner if their definition of victory is flexible enough." - The DM of the Rings XXXV