Power durations are supposed to be in a sequence, from worse to better.
- Concentration is the first one, it can last as much as you can pay the complications in each subsequent action you do. The more concentration powers you have on, the harder the complication.
- Maintained is the Second - You activate it, it lasts until you sleep, are knocked out, or die. There is no limit on how many maintained powers you can keep, as long as you can pay.
- Then come the Continuous (X) durations, starting with Rounds, then Minutes, Hours, Days. They last independently of the user, but they have to be renewed each time they get to the duration.
In my reading, Maintained is a much better duration than Continuous (Rounds), because:
- you activate a power once - one expenditure. This is huge - A Nova can spend himself out of quantum pretty easily renewing one Continous(rounds) for practical applications of a power, or several combat powers in a combat situation.
- you don't have to worry about accounting for the duration of several powers, as a player and storyteller. This makes games much simpler!
OTOH, the pros of continuous(rounds) are:
- it keeps for a few rounds after you die/sleep/is ko'd. I don't think that expecting to last a few more rounds after ko is a practical value proposition.
- it is one tag closer to getting to continuous (hours). Still, two tags away.
Yet, most of the powers have Continuous(Round) as duration, and you actually gain points to lower it to Maintained (with a -1 Tag for Duration). This 'cheese' doesn't look like intended!
It seems the Duration sequence should actually be something like:
Concentration - Continuous (Rounds) - Continuous (Minutes) - Maintained - Continuous (hours)...
And most powers should be Maintained.
I ask the Forum the question - in which way you see the Maintained duration is inferior?
- Concentration is the first one, it can last as much as you can pay the complications in each subsequent action you do. The more concentration powers you have on, the harder the complication.
- Maintained is the Second - You activate it, it lasts until you sleep, are knocked out, or die. There is no limit on how many maintained powers you can keep, as long as you can pay.
- Then come the Continuous (X) durations, starting with Rounds, then Minutes, Hours, Days. They last independently of the user, but they have to be renewed each time they get to the duration.
In my reading, Maintained is a much better duration than Continuous (Rounds), because:
- you activate a power once - one expenditure. This is huge - A Nova can spend himself out of quantum pretty easily renewing one Continous(rounds) for practical applications of a power, or several combat powers in a combat situation.
- you don't have to worry about accounting for the duration of several powers, as a player and storyteller. This makes games much simpler!
OTOH, the pros of continuous(rounds) are:
- it keeps for a few rounds after you die/sleep/is ko'd. I don't think that expecting to last a few more rounds after ko is a practical value proposition.
- it is one tag closer to getting to continuous (hours). Still, two tags away.
Yet, most of the powers have Continuous(Round) as duration, and you actually gain points to lower it to Maintained (with a -1 Tag for Duration). This 'cheese' doesn't look like intended!
It seems the Duration sequence should actually be something like:
Concentration - Continuous (Rounds) - Continuous (Minutes) - Maintained - Continuous (hours)...
And most powers should be Maintained.
I ask the Forum the question - in which way you see the Maintained duration is inferior?
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