Some thoughts on the Invention Ability

[Father of Dragons]

I find myself wanting to have a hard-and-fast rule for just how many inventions a character with the Invention advantage could have at one time. There's a note in the rules book that says "Although characters can theoretically have as many inventions as they want, it is unlikely that they will be able to keep up with more than one or two. Excess inventions are probably stored away in garages or scrapped for parts. It is possible however that some characters might couple this ability with Hammerspace..."

Some questions this raises for me:

• First, what exactly is meant by keep up with? If it means maintain under constant use, thats a fairly hard limit (two). If it means keep track of, or carry around, it isn't.
• Can inventions be loaned to other characters?
• Is there any advantage to making less powerful inventions?

My first approach when a player took the Invention advantage was to limit them to their rank in the inventions ability in use at a time. The problem with this is that the ability goes up in power in a very non-linear way: having four inventions capable of duplicating a +4 ability is much more than twice as powerful as having two inventions that duplicate a +2 advantage. And what about the Invention, Focused ability? Does it give twice as many inventions?

Now, I'm considering a limitation to a total of 2 x ranks in Invention points of abilities granted at a time (4 x ranks in Invention, Focused); and the limitation to ranks in Invention (or Invention, Focused) inventions in use at a time, or possibly just two inventions in use at a time per Invention ability.

Thoughts?

[Clay]

The problem with Invention, as well as many other Abilities in OVA, is that you have to cover a wildly divergent spectrum of possibilities with a single paragraph of text. If you give too many details, you end up closing off certain possibilities. If you give too many options, you end up with an Ability with an overwhelming set of rules for an otherwise comparatively simple game.

So that's why a lot of the text is vague. If you want it to mean "Only two inventions on my person" it can. If you'd rather it mean "two inventions maintained at any time," it can mean that, too.

But, for the sake of it, I can try to explain how would apply the rules as written.

First, what exactly is meant by keep up with? If it means maintain under constant use, thats a fairly hard limit (two). If it means keep track of, or carry around, it isn't.

I intended it to be "readily available" yes.

Can inventions be loaned to other characters?

Theoretically, though I'd discourage it. Of all anime inventors I've seen, I saw very little invention hot potato. You can explain it away as most inventions are too complex for use by non-inventors, or that inventors are possessive of their tools.

But if a certain dramatic situation calls for it, by all means. It's not glued to their person, after all. (Or is it?)

Is there any advantage to making less powerful inventions? My first approach when a player took the Invention advantage was to limit them to their rank in the inventions ability in use at a time. The problem with this is that the ability goes up in power in a very non-linear way: having four inventions capable of duplicating a +4 ability is much more than twice as powerful as having two inventions that duplicate a +2 advantage. And what about the Invention, Focused ability? Does it give twice as many inventions?

There's no advantage, per se, but due to GM fiat, regularly pulling out whopper inventions can turn around and bite you you know where. They could need parts or constant repair, or be of cumbersome size. Not to mention that when they don't]/i] work, big inventions are prone to have big explosions. If you need a flashlight, you don't really need a +5 one, do you?

As for making a concrete number to work with, you could always go with something similar to the Flunkies route, where you can have one big bang or split it up into a series of little bangs. Just have a pool of points equal to your level in Invention (or maybe double that amount.) I would not allow Focused Invention to have more inventions though, no. I think you came up with something similar.

Good luck with it. In the end, OVA is what you make it!

[Kotetsutheo]

For a hard fast, I'd say 2 maintained inventions of their max level with lower being traded in for doubble..... which is a really bad way of saying that if I had Invent +4 I coul have 2 4pt. ers; 1 4pt er and 2 3 pt ers. 4 3 pters. or a whole lot of 1 pt. ers.

... If only I could Telepathicaly communicate, this would be much cleaner.

[Clay]

I think I got the gist, don't worry. *laughs* Having it give exponential amounts of inventions is probably a good idea. Any anime inventor worth his salt has countless +1s lying around anyway.

[Kotetsutheo]

It's the quick/dirty and lets your inventor "smash & grab" something he "needs" in a pinch while still having "Old Faithful Smiting Stick of Dooom! tm" around.