Modular abilities

[Taran]

I have a player(s) with modular abiliites and I just need some clarifications:

1. It's a full action to shuffle abilities.  When do those abilities come into play?  Is it as soon as they are done their turn or is it at the beginning of their next turn?

It makes a difference if they get hit right after their turn if they're, let's say, shifting out speed for toughness.  Do they get the bonus to dodge or do they get the armour against the attack?

2. How do you adjudicate recovery.  Let's say it's just inhuman.  If they spend the whole combat without it, can they switch to recovery right at the end of the fight to clear out their mild consequence?  What if they take a moderate consequence?  How long do they need that power to take up the refresh?

[Haru]

1. I think it's ok if it is instant. It isn't "really" instant, since the duration of an exchange and an action are very variable, but from a mechanical stand, I would grant the new powers immediately after the characters power shuffle action.

2. Nope. I think you have to have the recovery power while taking the consequence. I would allow you to shift to another power, then back and then remove the consequence, but you have to have the recovery power when you are getting hit, otherwise I feel like it is sort of cheating, even if it is a RAW power.

Recovery powers are best made baseline. Even on Were-Forms, the recovery power is often not even covered by human form, probably for exactly this reason.

[Magicpockets]

1. Instant, afaik. As soon as they shuffle, their old powerset gets switched with the new one.

2. How I would rule:
-Clearing out mild consequences: Doable if you have Recovery active while taking the consequence.
-Faster Recovery: Having Recovery active for an entire scene shifts the recovery speed of consequences to the level of the power, which you need to keep active for the duration of the fast recovery. Let's say you take a moderate consequence while Recovery was inactive. In the next scene, you switch to Inhuman Recovery, which causes the Moderate Consequence to heal like a Mild one, which would expire at the end of the next scene. By keeping Inhuman Recovery active for two consecutive scenes, the consequence disappears.

[easl]

Re: recovery.  I am perfectly okay with a person shifting to recovery and getting the recovery effect.  With two caveats:
1. Their Catch is always in effect.  Always.  Doesn't matter what modular powers they have on at the time they take a wound; if some damage part of the catch, Recovery won't fix it.
2. I wouldn't allow modular to shift into the Mythic level of anything unless you are being very liberal with other pcs and npcs using it.  Even if you allow other pcs to get mythic level abilities, I might think twice about letting modular emulate it.  I think being the absolute best bad*ss should be reserved for the folks who pay 'full price' for it.  But that's just me.

[Sanctaphrax]

1. Instant, I think.

2. According to the in-character note on page 177, it's up to the GM. Probably. The writing isn't terribly clear.

[Mr. Death]

For #2, in the later books, we find out that Billy and the Alphas have learned to, basically, put on an accelerated recovery after they're done with combat, so that leads me to believe you can shift to a healing power for a while to recover rapidly. I'd recommend some compels occasionally, though (like how Billy is really hungry after healing his knife wound in Aftermath; alternatively, maybe there's a chance of it healing wrong when you brute force it like this).

[Taran]

For #2, in the later books, we find out that Billy and the Alphas have learned to, basically, put on an accelerated recovery after they're done with combat, so that leads me to believe you can shift to a healing power for a while to recover rapidly. I'd recommend some compels occasionally, though (like how Billy is really hungry after healing his knife wound in Aftermath; alternatively, maybe there's a chance of it healing wrong when you brute force it like this).

This actually makes me think that recovery should be a power outside of human form.  That it is with the character despite the form they take.  Obviously, in the books, it was a technique Billy was working on, so it's probably not true across the board - but an experienced shape-shifter would probably have learned to heal themselves; especially if they're in control of their powers.

Compels would be tricky.  It's a possibility, though.