Accessibility

Variable

Accessibility is a catchall limitation  you can use to cover any restriction not specifically defined elsewhere. Accessibility limitations fall into two broad categories: those that limit the targets your ability can affect and those that limit the situations in which it works.

If your ability can only affect certain targets, the limitation depends on how common the target group is. “Only on women,” “Only on men,” or anything else that covers about half of the population is worth -20%. “Only on Electrical” or “Only on machines” is worth -20% in a technological setting. “Only on sea creatures” is worth -30% – unless the campaign is set on a world mostly covered with water, in which case it isn’t worth more than -10%. “Only on aliens” is worth -30% or -40%, depending on the world. “Only on psis” is worth -50% in most settings. “Not on redheads” is identical to “On everyone but redheads,” and is worth -10%.

The same yardstick applies to limitations based on the situation. “Only at day” or “Only at night” is worth -20%. “Only in direct sunlight” is worth -30%. “Only in water” is worth -30% on Earth – but more on a desert planet and less on an ocean world. “Only during full moon” or “Only during new moon” is worth -40%. And “Useless under stress” is a whopping -60%, since it makes the ability worthless in most adventuring situations!

You can also link situational Accessibility to your actions. The more unusual, difficult, or obnoxious the required action is, the greater the limitation value. Some examples:

Only in altered body form (Invisible, Insubstantial, etc.): -10%.

Only while playing trumpet: -20%.

Only while flying, Only while swimming, Only in hypnotic trance: -30%.

Only by one side of split personality: -40%.

In all cases, if the ability is only weakened (half power) instead of becoming useless, halve the value of the limitation.

The GM shouldn’t allow meaningless Accessibility limitations. For instance, buying a helpful ability with the limitation “Only on friends” gives no cost break. Buying it with “Only on enemies” would be interesting, though! Likewise, the GM should reject any proposed limitation that is already implicit in the ability. For instance, “Only while flying” is not an acceptable limitation for Enhanced Move (Air).