Regarding UFOs and abductions

[ultimated]

Right! I'm new here so I do hope I'm not posting this in the wrong place or anything. I've recently picked up GURPS and have been building all kinds of things with it to see what I can do with the system. It's a lot of fun! However, there's something I'm stuck on - moving a lot of things at once, as a power. For instance, a UFO with a mass abduction beam. I'd thought about using telekinesis for this purpose, but it seemed rather expensive to try to move even one person at a time, let alone abducting masses of people all at once.

What I'd like to do:

- Move lots of people (probably cone-shaped?)
- Move them all at the same time
- Move them only in one direction
- Stat that up as an advantage
- Minimise cost

Could you help me out with this?

[Varyon]

The closest thing that comes to mind would be Binding with Cone and Retractable*. Now, it can be argued that you'd have to use your ST to pull on all of the targets at once (adding together their BL values to determine their effective ST), but I don't feel that's necessary here.

*MyGURPS is a website run by PK, the Assistant Line Editor of the GURPS line. Nothing there is official (except for those rules that have become official), but it's nearly as close as you can get without being in print.

[David Johnston2]

Area effect abilities are always expensive. But first you start by counting up all the negative modifiers. This is a large gadget that can be damaged. Probably pretty easily. It's an Attraction field (-60%) and an Emanation (-20%), it's Visible (-20%), It Only Works on Sapient Beings (-20%). It is Technological (-10%)

[ultimated]

Ah, thank you both!

Varyon,
this is a rather interesting bonus you've posted. However, for a UFO, there's the rather clear bonus on top of regular retractable which is simply that there's no cord to grab, so enemies can't pull back in the opposite direction! On the other hand, if I'm reading Retractable correctly, it would take this UFO a single second to beam a crowd of people into itself from the height decided by the cone effect. That seems a little fast! I wonder if I can speak with my GM to find a good way of slowing it down for a greater penalty...

David Johnston2,
these are all very useful, thank you! Especially how you split each component bonus or drawback down separately so they can be added or removed at will.

I do have a few general questions, mind.
Firstly, I'm not sure I understand the wordings of certain modifiers. For instance, Emanation claims it can only apply to Area Effect, which is not quite what I had in mind here?
On the other hand, Cone doesn't seem to explain how to design the maximum range. It simply says to add 10% per yard of max. width. So, how does one calculate the cost for a certain range of a cone attack, and does Emanation work with it or is it not useful in this case?
Further, I can't find an explanation for what an Attraction Field is in my rulebook or via a brief search on the internet.

However, adding all the costs and such together, assuming I take all I can take without reducing the cost to 20% or lower, I'd have +150% for retractable and cone, and -130% for all the modifiers in David's post, meaning that each Binding level would cost 20% extra, which I BELIEVE rounds up in this case to being 3 points per level? Or is it simply 2.4 points per level, meaning that ten levels cost 24 points instead of 30?

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by ultimated

Ah, thank you both!

Varyon,
this is a rather interesting bonus you've posted. However, for a UFO, there's the rather clear bonus on top of regular retractable which is simply that there's no cord to grab, so enemies can't pull back in the opposite direction! On the other hand, if I'm reading Retractable correctly, it would take this UFO a single second to beam a crowd of people into itself from the height decided by the cone effect. That seems a little fast! I wonder if I can speak with my GM to find a good way of slowing it down for a greater penalty...

David Johnston2,
these are all very useful, thank you! Especially how you split each component bonus or drawback down separately so they can be added or removed at will.

I do have a few general questions, mind.
Firstly, I'm not sure I understand the wordings of certain modifiers. For instance, Emanation claims it can only apply to Area Effect, which is not quite what I had in mind here?
On the other hand, Cone doesn't seem to explain how to design the maximum range. It simply says to add 10% per yard of max. width. So, how does one calculate the cost for a certain range of a cone attack, and does Emanation work with it or is it not useful in this case?
Further, I can't find an explanation for what an Attraction Field is in my rulebook or via a brief search on the internet.

However, adding all the costs and such together, assuming I take all I can take without reducing the cost to 20% or lower, I'd have +150% for retractable and cone, and -130% for all the modifiers in David's post, meaning that each Binding level would cost 20% extra, which I BELIEVE rounds up in this case to being 3 points per level? Or is it simply 2.4 points per level, meaning that ten levels cost 24 points instead of 30?

Sorry an Attraction Field is Telekinesis. It's in Powers.

[Flyndaran]

If I may ask, why are you statting up the power of a vehicle not meant to be a character?
"Just for gits and shiggles" as my GF would say?
I can certainly understand that.

Technology, even of the mysterious impossible superscience variety, can just be said to do what it does without having to obey specific rules from the books.

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by Hellboy

Do we have rules for anti-probing combat maneuvers?

I think Gladiators has a focused defense option. Should get a handy bonus for something as narrow as Lower Torso, Rear Only.

[Mithlas]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

If I may ask, why are you statting up the power of a vehicle not meant to be a character?

Technology, even of the mysterious impossible superscience variety, can just be said to do what it does without having to obey specific rules from the books

That sounds suspiciously like "A wizard did it, it doesn't have to follow any logic, even internal consistency!" I've seen quite a few indications of building vehicles as characters due to 4E not exactly having a vehicle-building book.

What about a teleportation effect, something more like the Wraith abductors of Stargate: Atlantis? Similar purpose and result, they just didn't shine a cone of "pull people". However, I do want to point out that sometimes an alien ship is portrayed as influenced by the target it's trying to draw in. The funniest example I can think of is an early Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror where a flying saucer struggles to pick up Homer Simpson.