Autotrance

Autotrance is a mental, mundane perk, described in Basic Set, p. 101. It's also described in Power-Ups 2: Perks p. 12 with the same description.
==3e==
It wasn't a perk back then, it was worth 5 points. It appeared in GURPS Voodoo and Hellboy Sourcebook and Roleplaying Game and also GURPS Spirits makes reference to it in the GURPS Compendium
*this was probably because it added to ritual magic rolls, sort of functioning like IQ+2 or Magery+2 in broader situations it's not clear if it can still do that in 4e, which could explain the reduced value
Differences:
*S73 also says this makes it easier to possess a character, +4 to the Will roll on S74. This is NOT present on HB29
**Compendium 20 makes no mentions of this, and CI21 mentions it also adds the +2 to Cyberdeck Operation for Netrunners (pg 130)
Voodoo 59 did not include the Susceptible to Possession idea (this conversely would be a penalty to a resistance roll, not a bonus to an activation roll) as part of it BUT as V85 explains the Initiation concept DOES include something similar:
*"a spirit attempting to possess an Initiate gets a +3 bonus — but the subject adds his Level of Initiation to his resistance rolls"
It notes that "Third Level Initiates have roughly the same chances of avoiding it". While this is approximately true (when calculating margins of victory) it is generally better to be -3 to resist than to be +3 to be targeted, at least in 4e
*The reason for this is how resisted quick contests work: to even need to bother with a resistance roll, the ability needs to WORK in the first place
**this means the first will roll must pass (at least MoS 0, can't "fail by less" with a MoF) and in that regard, a bonus is a BAD thing because that is more opportunities to need to roll to resist in the first place. This is also why being -1 to be targeted is better than +1 to resist: you don't have to worry about what you roll to resist if the ability fails in the first place
If used in concert, autotrance+initiate would actually give spirits a sum of +7 to possess "autotrancing initiates". The +1 to resist for Initiation 1 could be waived if the subject was willing to accept the possession.
If this were carried over to 4e, to avoid the +4 you would need to be able to switch off the susceptibility, such as with a Controllable Disadvantage on Magic Susceptibility.
*since you can get College Susceptibility you could get Not College Suceptible as Recriprocal Advantages. You could lower cost by Alternative Abilities if you could only turn off one susceptibility at a time. If you didn't make them alternative, you could turn all of them off, or only some of them, as needed. This could be worth the cost compared to "all or nothing" susceptibility
**another approach might be Selective Effect if the GM allowed that to just selectively turn of susceptibility by college, or perhaps even by spell. This could turn out to be cheaper than buying all of them as separate COUNTER/RECIPROCAL advantages.
Magic Susceptibility has a linear cost for the +1/-1 of cast/resist, just like Susceptible to Magic.
*Magic Resistance also is linear, but Resistance to Magic is not since it is 3/8/immune
==Edition changes==
IQ rolls to enter/exit were changed to Will rolls in 4e.
==4e==
Abilities which call it out include:
*B41 Channeling
*T113 for Brother Hans using Traumatic Enchantment
http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.php?p=2170548&postcount=3 2018 Curmudgeon suggested it might be implied for things like Spirit Empathy or Medium but the degree of interaction you can do post-contact pre-untrancing is pretty unclear.
== Character Templates ==
Autotrance appears in the following character templates:
* Monk in Martial Arts p. 36
* Worldsinger in Pyramid #2-49 - World Hopping p. 17
* Experiment in Psis p. 12
* Crusader in Monster Hunters p. 10
* Psi in Monster Hunters p. 14
* Witch in Monster Hunters p. 20
* Brother in Monster Hunters 4 - Sidekicks p. 5
* Caster in Monster Hunters 4 - Sidekicks p. 21
==Under the hood==
The "-1 per additional attempt per hour" is also found for Controllable Disadvantage perks. This is similar to the Increased Immunity limitation on PU8p14-15 except adapted to non-resisted abilities. Instead of "successfully resists" the condition would be "failed". Since the first level creates a cumulative -2 per hour for -10%, merely a cumulative -1 should probably by HALF the value as merely -5%.
The "once per 5 minutes" seems to apply to the Will roll to break the trance (can't attempt that every second) but not to the attempts to enter it.
*you could presumably use the Time Spent rules to take longer to try and enter a trance, but perhaps not to exit it
You can presumably do stuff while in a trance, otherwise the bonus to "contacting spirits" would not be be as useful if for example you could not even communicate while in the trance. There would be a possible delay between entering to establish contact and exiting to enjoy that contact, unless your allies used that established contact while you were entranced.
5 minutes of force downtime is a result of Maximum Duration on PU8p15 but it's not clear what underlying advantage would represent "exit my trance".
*this could probably be done using Either/Or Limitations a la restructurable magery. The most rewarding (-75% for less than 30) could be used to reduce the value of something like "Not Limitation"
**Minimum Duration is worth only -0% for "Less Than One Hour" on PU8p15 so that can't really be used to represent that part
***-30% for Greater than 1 month OTOH could represent the potential to last in an Autotrance FOREVER if you just can't manage to pass a will roll
****there would obviously be workarounds for this, like for example if it has while conscious being knocked unconscious would end the trance regardless of minimum duration
*****this would probably happen due to sleep debt for most people, but sleepless creatures could not rely on it. If they wanted to program a "termination by sleep" they would do something like take Switchable on their Doesn't Sleep trait.
*but PU8p11 Backlash might be a tool to represent min 5 attempts between exits. Succumbing 1 minute and making HT rolls to exit (Penalty/Irritant/Incapacitation) is the base cost of affliction, floating that from HT to Will is +20% normally but that might be ignored here for Will-mitigated Backlashes.
***the ability to end a backlash by a resistance roll is countered by it reinstating at each "use", ie each time you apply that +2 penalty
***The idea being if you take "or 0 second duration" (since that's otherwise useless if you had to specify it beforehand) you would get the option to instantly end your backlash by ending the ability but treating it as involuntary shutdown subjecting you to the 5 minute down period
****you would also need to take "requires will roll" on Not Backlash. Normally you rearrange enhancements as free action at start of turn,
, nor is "will roll to break trance", although the effects of not breaking out of a trance aren't exactly strange.
The "one minute of complete concentration" requirement is basically Immediate Preparation Required -30%, found on PU8p14
== Kromm Quotes ==
Sean Punch has commented on Autotrance in the following posts on the SJG GURPS Forums
* On what the etc. means in the description 
==See also==
*Shaman's Trance
Category:Perks