It’s A Better cost for ST… and HP too! Oh, and Striking ST and Lifting ST!
An article that’s received many kind remarks over the years (and has been put into use by GMs far and wide) now gets a v2.0 update. The first version put ST on a diet with a neatly-declining cost scale (designed by D. Weber), enabling easier and cheaper power for supers and giants. The update goes on to address ST’s component parts: Striking ST, Lifting ST, and HP. In the end, the rule provides a single scheme for pricing ST (and its components) in normal Joes, over-muscled barbarians, boulder-hurling giants, and planet-cracking supers, with no special size-based limitations, genre-based cost breaks, or other tricks needed. (Frankly, it’s almost scary the Basic Lift you can buy with this toy…)
A quick note on background: The update was spurred by a correspondent (who humbly requests anonymity). He suggested a proper meshing of HP cost with the old article’s ST cost progression, plus a look at an HP-related related topic: a revised cost for Injury Tolerance (Damage Divisor). I initially planned a new article, “A Better Cost for HP and Damage Divisor”. However, I decided to instead inject HP into the original ST article, and save Damage Divisor for a separate article. Reason: The new cost for ST and the new cost for HP really can’t be used separately from each other under 4e; they need to be used together or not at all. Meanwhile, Damage Divisor isn’t tied to the new ST/HP cost scheme; a new cost for the advantage has merit regardless of what scheme is used to price ST and HP. So that article will come along later.
Enough on that. What’s interesting about the new cost for ST (and now HP!) is that it was originally designed for use with GURPS 3e, but works even better with 4e. Give the costs a try in your next super-ST design. Power may corrupt… but hey, it’s cheap!
