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Old 01-20-2014, 11:10 AM   #24
Fred Brackin
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Default Re: Thaumaturgic Automata and Draw Power

Quote:
Originally Posted by whswhs View Post
I know what you mean, but "kilowatts per second" would not be a constant flow. It would be an increasing flow: 360 kW at the end of second 1, 720 at the end of second 2, 1080 at the end of second 3, and so on. A constant flow would be a steady flow of 360 kW (or 360 kJ/second—the "per second" is already implicit in the unit "kW").
Measurements across multiple seconds are irrelevant to Draw Power. You can only use Draw Power on a single Turn timescale. There's no accumulating stuff over multiple seconds.

I know Minor Draw Power doesn't follow this rule but it's an entirely different spell. I also know it exists partly because you can't do anything with low tech sources of power without it.

Having double-checked Gurps Magic the term it uses is "power" for Draw Power and "stored power" for Steal Power. You might think it should be using "energy" for that use.

The book does speak of "energy" once but when it does so it's referring to the mage's FP. At least that use doesn't conform to your electrical engineering definitions.

I am not at all sure that Gurps Magic was written to use your technically correct engineering terminology. I suspect that it might be written in Common English, a notably imprecise language.

Nevertheless I do understand how the spells work and your diversions about terminology have not changed how they work..
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