Mitigator

Modifier: Varies

This is a limitation only for disadvantages.

Vulnerable, and easily stolen, broken, or misplaced (-60%)
Daily treatment (-60%)
Weekly treatment (-65%)
monthly treatment (-70%)

Meta-traits[]

Power-Ups 8: Limitations section on page 6 Limitations on Disadvantages proposes the idea of constructing a meta-trait for the purpose of designing mitigators for disadvantages, acknowledging that pricing discounts in limitations are designed for advantages.

Bob for example applying (only at night) accessibility -20% to an IQ penalty disadvantage, is discouraged, as saving 80% of the value of IQ when it doesn't apply at night is TOO BIG a discount.

Ada's -20% discount to an IQ bonus is presented as the correct approach. It allows for the following meta-trait construction of a mitigator:

IQ-1 (always-0%) [-20]
IQ+1 (day only -20%) [16]
Net value: [-4] instead of [-16]
Value relative to IQ-1: [+16]
percent of mitigator: -80% instead of -20%

Horde inversion[]

Horde Intelligence limitation/mitigator for IQ penalties (PU8p6) being -60% isn't given an under-the-hood which would've been beneficial due to it's complexity. The function is:

multiply the IQ penalty by [1 - (crowd density/2)] and round for the worse to find the current penalty

-60% on IQ-1 reduces the points saved from 20 to 12. Suggesting this underlying meta-trait:

IQ-1 [-20]
IQ+1 (Horde Intelligence -40%) [12].

This would be important to now if wanting to apply a "Horde" limitation to an advantage: it would not give a huge -60% discount to it, merely -40%.

Easy math[]

The "point cost" of having a mitigator (it causes a disadvantage to reward fewer points because the disadvantage is less limiting, does not apply in all circumstances) essentially should be, per PU8p6, the "point cost" of a Reciprocal Advantage to cancel out the limitation.

The simplified math to construct a mitigator for a disadvantage is basically:

subtract the % value of the accessibility from 100% to get % value as mitigator
- using the "smarter during day than at night" example for Ada and Bob, 100 minus 20 is 80.
  - this results in being +1 to IQ in day / -1 to IQ in night as saving 5 character points, whether it drops the cost of advantage by 1/5 (5 points) or reduces points gained by the disadvantage by 4/5 (to 5 points)

Conversion table[]

For simplicity:

-100% mitigators are -0% limitations to reciprocals
-95% mitigators are -5% limitations to reciprocals
-90% mitigators are -10% limitations to reciprocals
-80% mitigators are -20% limitations to reciprocals
-75% mitigators are -25% limitations to reciprocals
-50% mitigators are -50% limitations to reciprocals
-20% mitigators are -80% limitations to reciprocals
-10% mitigators are -90% limitations to reciprocals
-5% mitigators are -95% limitations to reciprocals

Zero percent limited Reciprocals[]

If you took "Maximum Duration: Up to 1 hour -10%" and "Switchable +10%" (net 0% modifier, they cancel out) on a reciprocal (eg DTR[-100] + NotDTR(MaxDur-0%) [100]) this is not worth any points. It's a zero-point feature if, once every 59 minutes, you must briefly spend a 1-second Ready maneuver to deactivate the reciprocal and then spend a 2-second Ready maneuver (due to DTR) to flip DTR off, using that 3-second downtime to avoid a 5-minute (300 second) downtime.

"shuts down without warning and you can’t reactivate it" is a condition which applies "after" the "operate only for a limited length of time" condition is fulfilled
- this may however not meant CONTINUOUS time (ie counter resets and you never suffer 5m down if you cut your use to 59up)
  - If it means CUMULATIVE time then GM would tally total time you've used ability (stopping the counter when ability is switched off) and still apply the shutdown + 5min down whenever that happens.
    - This is still pretty manageable (if slightly harder) since someone could opt to "reset" the counter by activating the ability at times they do not need it, and allowing the ability to "run out" by a time where there is a convenient safe 5 minute rest period where it would not be needed
the benefit to this 0-point feature which offsets the above considerations is that DTR has benefits in some circumstances: time passing more slowly for you (and your equipment) can give allies more time to respond to you.

Mitigated disadvantages as Advantageous meta-traits[]

In the above example, if one did not take Maximum Duration -10%, the +10% Switchable enhancement on "Not DTR" would actually cost a net 10 character points.

Controllable Disadvantage perks are an example of the approach of treating switchable disadvantages as advantages too.

Unlike a +10% switchable, the CDA perk has things to offset that cost:

using it requires a will (-5%) or HT (-10%) roll
- unlike R(A)R there is no fatigue cost for extra attempts, only a cumulative -1 per hour
  - Increased Immunity is -10% per level and the step above "no effect" is "Cumulative -2 lasting one hour"
    - so it seems reasonable for -5% to represent cumulative -1 lasting 1 hour
      - -5% is the value of Costs Fatigue to activate an ability for 1 minute: and 1 FP only activates "I can attempt to activate my ability" for 1 second, so this is more than fair

This is more balanced for Controllable Physical Disadvantage than Controllable Mental Disadvantage since HT rolls are a bigger discount than Will rolls: HT costs twice as much to buy up as Will so this makes sense

then again, HT costs half as much to buy up as IQ/DX yet they are worth the same
- HT w/o FP is only 7/level, and HT w/o 0.25 speed is only 6/level so the difference with Will is as big as it seems
  - similarly, IQ w/o Will and Per is only 10/level, and having Anti-Talent or Incompetent penalizing IQ skills could provide discounts to IQ effects to pay for more IQ
    - though one could similarly penalize HT or Will skills there are fewer of them

Fixing the Temporary Disadvantages exploit on perks[]

Another approach is having a switchable perk with a Temporary Disadvantage, which allows ANY switchable advantage for merely 1 point.

If this is considered unbalanced, one idea would be to always take full points for disadvantages, and then buy switchable Reciprocal Advantages to cancel them out as Alternative Abilities to any switchable advantages you want to activate that disadvantage while switched on
- this would prevent perks from being abused to cancel out heavy advantages on the cheap: to reduce the cost of a 2-point reciprocal would require it's alternative to be equal or higher in value: activating a dormant disadvantage would require the purchase of a costilier-than-perk advantage which you could not use when avoiding the disadvantage, and only use in a compromised capacity when embracing the disadvantage.

Temporary Quirks fix[]

This would also mean that Perks which have "Not Quirk" as alternative advantage would not save any points (you can't reduce cost below 1) unless using decimal CP (then it would cost 1.2 cp)

In standard-rounding campaigns one approach to that is to take SIX perks (eg 5 perks and a 'not quirk', or even 1 perk and 5 'not quirk') defined as Alternative Abilities: costing 2 points and allowing you to use one at a time.

This is legal if you read PU8p8:

"All the rest are at 1/5 cost."

This could be read as "the cumulative cost of the rest" (total them, divide by five, then round up) rather than "the individual costs" (divide by five, round up, then total)

Mitigators below 20 percent[]

An obvious problem with the -80% limitation cap on advantages (including reciprocal ones) is that this means a mitigator can't drop below 20%.

Mitigators discounts should be able to go as high as 100% because the effect of that is the character gains no character points. This prices it like a 0-point feature: there may be a disadvantage, but it's so easy to mitigate that it's not even worth a 0-point discount.

The way to do this is found in the next section.

Duplicate Reciprocals[]

If you have Decreased Time Rate [-100] you can take a "reciprocal advantage" Not Decreased Time Rate [100] to cancel that out for a net 0 points. If you apply a limitation to the reciprocal, you save points, and the resulting meta-trait is equivalent to a Mitigated Disadvantage

(a Limited Disadvantage, substituting the specific term which exists for Limitations priced for Disadvantages)

Either-Or mitigators[]

Also note how either/or limitations would function differently for disadvantages. You would not multiply the mitigator values, you would instead multiply the reciprocals' limitations and then derive the mitigator value from that as above.

For example, if using the two

Below the Minimum[]

B110 discussion of limitations has this rule:

"treat net modifiers below -80% as -80%"

This is clearly intended for advantages, not disadvantages:

no matter how many limitations you take, you cannot reduce the costof a trait by more than 80%.

Although "trait" is a term which applies to both advantages and disadvantages, the POSITIVE cost of advantage is the implied meaning by "cost" in isolation, as seen on B32:

Each advantage has a cost in character points

The book does not both with actually saying "positive cost" because of it being the inherent meaning. It is prefixed with an adjective only when changing it from that.

Disadvantages have a "negative cost" per B119:

Each disadvantage has a negative cost in character points.

Thus, disadvantages give you extra character points

disadvantages limit you in proportion to their cost.

The problem with applying B110 to disadvantages is how this alters the function deriving from math

you can apply two -50% limitations to a 100-point advantage if you want (making your character better, more useful, than a character with -80% to that advantage) but it won't decrease this beyond the minimum of 20
- allowing more than -80% to apply would REDUCE THE (positive) COST

The approach of designing all mitigated advantages as meta-traits (Disadvantage + Limited Reciprocal Advantage) is that the maximum -80% discount on LRAs limits th

References[]

Basic Set p 112