Afflicting Multiple Targets

[Crystalline_Entity]

I'm trying to develop a power like a Star Trek transporter which allows someone to use Warp on multiple targets.

My best guess is:

Affliction (Warp +1000%; Area Effect 1 (2 yards), +50%; Selective Area, +20%) [135]

Can you add Area Effect to an Affliction and have it affect certain people in the radius like this? Do they roll their HT to resist individually?

This way seems significantly cheaper (adding "Affects Others" from GURPS Power-Ups 4: Enhancements to Warp would make it at least [150] for the Warper and just one passenger) and more versatile (you don't have to Warp yourself).

[Refplace]

You would need to add Selective Effect as well.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Refplace

You would need to add Selective Effect as well.

Selective Area and Selective Effect are mostly either-or Enhancements - you wouldn't really need both. Selective Area lets you include or exclude certain hexes (or, optionally, smaller areas), while Selective Effect lets you include or exclude certain targets. I think Selective Effect is probably best here - that normally lets you restrict things to certain body parts with Affliction, and while that wouldn't be appropriate for Warp (teleporting body parts away would be a serious attack), I could certainly see it allowing you to include/exclude an target's gear (so you can disarm a foe when bringing him onboard).

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Varyon

Selective Area and Selective Effect are mostly either-or Enhancements - you wouldn't really need both.

I tend to get Selective Area and Selective Effect mixed up name wise and did see his write up that included Selective Area.

[naloth]

Originally Posted by Crystalline_Entity

Affliction (Warp +1000%; Area Effect 1 (2 yards), +50%; Selective Area, +20%) [135]

Can you add Area Effect to an Affliction and have it affect certain people in the radius like this? Do they roll their HT to resist individually?

That seems ok, and allows you to exclude hexes in the area. It also has the drawback of getting unintended visitors if they "hop on" at the last second.

Transporters seem to take a while (4 seconds? 8 seconds?). The light and sound produced could either be a normal effect or even up to a small nuisance effect if it draws attention.

With extra time, I'd call this a beneficial affliction (beside unwilling targets can jump out of the target area when it starts humming) to allow them to roll HT+lvl to succeed. Critical failure produces transport malfunction shows. Normal failure just means you have to repeat (extra time).

You'll also need sensors or communicators to target locations.

This way seems significantly cheaper (adding "Affects Others" from GURPS Power-Ups 4: Enhancements to Warp would make it at least [150] for the Warper and just one passenger) and more versatile (you don't have to Warp yourself).

Generally yes.

[Plane]

Speaking of PU4, page 16 expands on options of Selective Effect beyond P105.

I think it's notable that the line "Abilities without Area Effect or Cone" was removed. In fact, there is later text which now allows it for AE:

Area-effect abilities should generally take Selective Area (p. B108) instead of Selective Effect, but either one may fit.

If either may fit, perhaps BOTH may also fit.

"Abilities that only affect a single subject may take this enhancement if it would make sense to restrict the effect to a single part of the subject." is something written for one target, but I don't see why you couldn't also make it for multiple targets...

For example:

combining Advantage, Invisibility and Selective Effect to make a victim’s legs “disappear”!

Would there really be any problem with combining this with Area Effect or Cone? The intent being "instead of turning a room full of people invisible, I will turn just the legs of a roomful of people invisible".

THEN: why not Selective Area too? Then you could do "I want to turn the legs of the attackers surrounding my ally's hex invisible" while opting to exclude your ally's hex so his legs don't also go invisible.

In fact it seems like you could buy Selective Effect twice here: one for body parts intended, and another for targets intended.

So in a case where Selective Area doesn't help (because your allies and enemies are mixed together in the same hex) you could say "only turn goblin legs invisible" but how well that works would depend on how well you could personally discern who was a goblin and who wasn't.

If for example, there was a human who looks like a goblin due to a disguise and you thought he was a goblin wrongly, he would still have his legs turned invisible...

Conversely, a goblin disguised as one of your human allies would not be affected, since you don't actually know to exclude him from the effect of your intent.

It has to be based on sensory input or a guess. In either case, a sense roll might be appropriate to tell whether to include (if "none til opted in") or exclude (if "all til opted out") a particular subject.

[Crystalline_Entity]

I'm not sure I understand the difference between Selective Area and Selective Effect; is it that Selective Area allows you to exclude hexes, and Selective Effect then narrows that down further to individual characters (or parts of characters)?

[naloth]

Originally Posted by Crystalline_Entity

I'm not sure I understand the difference between Selective Area and Selective Effect; is it that Selective Area allows you to exclude hexes, and Selective Effect then narrows that down further to individual characters (or parts of characters)?

No.... though I sometimes use it this way. In Powers Selective Effect is a subset of Selective Area optionally available for powers that don't have a Cone or Area effect. It has several defined possibilities but most of the boils down to not affecting allies just affects enemies.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by naloth

No.... though I sometimes use it this way. In Powers Selective Effect is a subset of Selective Area optionally available for powers that don't have a Cone or Area effect. It has several defined possibilities but most of the boils down to not affecting allies just affects enemies.

PU4 removed the Cone/Area taboo and describes its use in an area for designating types of opponents as opposed to specific hexes.

[naloth]

Originally Posted by Plane

PU4 removed the Cone/Area taboo and describes its use in an area for designating types of opponents as opposed to specific hexes.

Eh?

Selective Area wasn't repeated or clarified in PU4.

Selective Effect is exactly the same as it appears under Selective Area in Powers with additional uses for doing "parts of things." Some of those uses are better suited to be a limitation rather than an enhancement anyway. After all, there are mighty few times you're better off aiming for and only paralyzing a hand than the whole person, and if you can only paralyze the body parts you randomly roll on the hit table, that's worse than the normal effect.