Doug's Musical Ability, in GURPS

[Mark Skarr]

Looks interesting. You're right that Mass Conservation and Retains Shape may not necessarily be proper for inclusion, as some of Doug's forms may break those limitations (the one that turns him into a giant living balloon definitely does).

I admit I’m not 100% sure of all his song powers, but yes.  That’s why I commented that it may not be necessary.

I'm also not certain of the appropriateness of the Cannot Memorize Forms limitation. A character with Morph can normally retain a number of forms equal to their IQ. Cannot Memorize Forms limits them to a single form at a time. Changing into a new form requires them to forget how to assume their previously known form. Doug's list of power songs is well above his IQ, so I'd say that he has an advantage there rather than a disadvantage (perhaps another Cosmic enhancement?).

Yes, but it’s not memorizing the forms that Doug’s doing, he’s keeping the triggers handy.  Each song triggers a specific change, not Doug pulling out a memorized form. 
ETA: Memorizing Forms is only relevant if you're capable of changing automatically.  Doug can't.  He has to have his trigger, so he doesn't memorize any forms.  He can't, willingly, change forms without his songs, so he doesn't need to be able to memorize any forms.

On the other hand . . . he may also get by with a -30% accessibility for “Only while trigger song is playing.”  But, that may be as low as -10%, as it’s within his control.

Other modifications that I'd suggest:
Tweak Trigger into a new limitation called Involuntary Trigger -25% to indicate that exposure to a power song automatically changes Doug. As written, I believe that being exposed to a Trigger merely allows you to activate an ability rather than forcing you to use it.

I’m okay with that.  That removes the need for “Always On” with a mitigator, though we still need something (probably a Nuisance Effect) to prevent the change when other music is playing.

You're also forgetting that each individual 'racial' template can only be used once per day. I'd probably peg that at -10%.

I’d only peg it at -5% (a nuisance effect), since he’s got so many to choose from.  But, I’m not going to be a stickler over 5%.

Since Doug has indicated that using power songs can be tiring, two levels of Costs Fatigue would probably be appropriate (two fatigue for the first minute of use, one fatigue for each additional minute. Even his longest songs can be played without causing him to drop from low fatigue).

No argument here.  Plus Doug’s probably got a fair bit of Energy Reserve.

The fact that learning new templates likely requires Doug to succeed on an Ultra Power check would also probably count as a limitation (given how often the experimentation process seems to misfire, I'd consider it to be a moderate limitation).

This, I disagree with.  Doug doesn’t need to make an Ultra Power check.  Using Morph totally negates the need for it.  And DW shows that he really doesn’t have to do anything special other than listen to music . . . and not be stupid about it.

After that, you simply have to determine the cost of Doug's most expensive 'template' and add it to the base cost of Morph for the final cost. This is still likely to be lower than the cost of buying his power as Modular Abilities, as even a -80% price reduction means paying twice the cost of the most expensive power template.

The points for the “template” do not get reduced.  They’re paid for fully.  It’s the Morph Advantage that gets the reduction.  But yes, I think we’ve found a way to do Doug on a reasonable* point cost.

Good work, team.

 

*For certain values of reasonable, anyway.