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Old 10-09-2013, 12:52 AM   #1
Dexion
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Default Recharging Power Items

Hi all,

I didn't find thread about this, but I have a simple question :
How works recharging Power items (DF1 p.28) if my wizard has powerstone and manastone spells ?

He wants to recharge his power item during his travel by himself.

Ideas, tips ?

Thanks in advance.
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Old 10-09-2013, 12:59 AM   #2
sir_pudding
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Default Re: Recharging Power Items

He pays $5 per energy point in town. He can't have Powerstone or Manastone as those are Enchantment spells.
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Old 10-09-2013, 01:48 AM   #3
Dexion
 
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Default Re: Recharging Power Items

Yes I'm ok with this.
But if I want to recharge by myself my power item outside town ?
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Old 10-09-2013, 03:25 AM   #4
SCAR
 
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Default Re: Recharging Power Items

Under standard DF assumptions, you cannot recharge a Power Item yourself.
You would need to find an 'outpost' for a template, guild, or whatever - and pay them to recharge it.
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Old 10-09-2013, 08:48 AM   #5
Dexion
 
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Default Re: Recharging Power Items

Ok, I understand the rule in DF.

But if I want to allow personnal recharging outside a city of you're own personnal Power item?
Someone have a method to simulate the recharging fonction of the temple/guild etc?
Which spell, consumable....?
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Old 10-09-2013, 09:00 AM   #6
SCAR
 
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Default Re: Recharging Power Items

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dexion View Post
Ok, I understand the rule in DF.

But if I want to allow personnal recharging outside a city of you're own personnal Power item?
Someone have a method to simulate the recharging fonction of the temple/guild etc?
Which spell, consumable....?
At the very least, you would need consumables that cost a fairly large multiple of the cost to recharge the item in a city, and a 'ritual' which takes sufficient time to be at least moderately inconvenient - otherwise everyone would just recharge the items themselves.

For Example: A temple or guild, with whom you are in good standing, will sell you a 'recharge kit' for $500 (weight 0.5 lbs) which can be used with a 1 hour ritual to restore 10 points of energy to a power item. Multiple kits/rituals are required for larger power items.
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Old 10-09-2013, 09:05 AM   #7
Varyon
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Default Re: Recharging Power Items

I don't have DF, but you could possibly allow recharging outside of town with expensive components and some decent time requirements. 1 hour and $50 per point might work, although I'd probably limit Power Items to only use their normal amount of energy each day (so a 10 point Power Item can still only grant you 10 points each day).

Guilds can manage to charge less because they are established over minor places of power (or have mucked about with their buildings so they functionally are minor places of power), which eliminates the need for expensive components and cuts down the time drastically.

EDIT: Looks like SCAR and I had a similar idea, although mine is much harsher in terms of time requirements. Regardless which you choose, SCAR's idea for weight is probably about right (0.05 lb per energy).

Last edited by Varyon; 10-09-2013 at 09:19 AM.
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Old 10-09-2013, 12:56 PM   #8
Kromm
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Default Re: Recharging Power Items

The conceptual model behind power items is that they're similar to ultra-high-capacity energy cells (each FP represents a lot of energy); that recharging them calls for the magical equivalent of a nuclear reactor; and that anything you could do in the field would amount to trying to use a bicycle generator, portable solar panel, or campfire to do the work of such a reactor. This concentrates all the power (literally and figuratively) in the hands of temples and guilds, who use massive fixed installations to provide cheap recharges, much as established nuclear reactors can provide cheap electricity. The nature of those installations is left vague, but they involve some combination of zones of high or very high mana/sanctity, ley lines, sacred architecture, artifact-grade items, and spells that require ceremonial magic with 10+ mooks – i.e., the supernatural equivalent of big, high-tech installations with lots of staff.

The obvious way to handle recharges in the field would be to use the equivalent of a more-portable version of such assets; to abuse my technological analogy, a nuclear sub. This would be a major purchase, not very portable, and highly regulated. If PCs could have it, I'd make it costly and awkward. Consider: If it lets a few casters "refill" after every fight for several adventures, then it's saving them hundreds or thousands of $ even before we consider the fact that they'll try to earn money by selling their services. Something like a million-dollar, 100-pound artifact would be most balanced.

If it were a spell, I'd have it consume some rare thing worth no less than the $33.75/energy point of a paut potion. Indeed, since such a spell would improve FP capacity (paut merely restores FP), have no strict upper limit (paut stops at 4 FP), weigh nothing, and be immune to theft and breakage, I'd triple or quadruple resource cost, at least; $100-$150/energy point seems like a safe floor. The "rare thing" should be hard to get, too, not just "$100 in gold per energy point." The spell itself would challenge a monopoly, so I'd make it hard to learn, perhaps requiring Rank in a guild or a temple even if points spent on such Rank do nothing else at all in the setting.

Here's an example:
Charge Power Item (VH)
Regular

Recharges a power item in the field. Every energy point restored consumes $150 in suitable rare goods: magical valuables (enchanted items, the pelts of supernatural creatures, etc.) for wizards, fitting sacrifices (like the temple trappings of rival cults) for clerics, and so on. This "fuel" is destroyed whether the spell succeeds or fails. Critical failure not only wastes time and resources, but also causes the power item to crumble to dust – it's lost forever and cannot be repaired, and if it's Signature Gear, the owner loses the associated character points! High skill never reduces the costs or casting time for this spell.

Guilds and temples do not use this spell to recharge power items. They have far safer means for doing so, but these require vast permanent assets, years of training in spells of no use to adventurers, numerous assistants, and so on. On the other hand, they never accidentally destroy what they're trying to recharge.
Duration: The energy remains in the power item until needed.
Cost: 4 per point of energy recharged, plus resource cost.
Time to cast: 10 minutes per point of energy recharged.
Prerequisites: Magery or Power Investiture 6 and Guild or Religious Rank 4+.
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Old 10-09-2013, 02:03 PM   #9
gruundehn
 
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Default Re: Recharging Power Items

Magic pg. 69 gives the recharge rate for powerstones, and while the Power spell does not list a recharge rate, wouldn't the powered item recharge at the same rate? But then the spell does not talk of expending power but only reducing the cost to cast and / or maintain which suggests that a powered item never expends power and thus never needs recharging..
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Old 10-09-2013, 02:10 PM   #10
Turhan's Bey Company
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Default Re: Recharging Power Items

Quote:
Originally Posted by gruundehn View Post
Magic pg. 69 gives the recharge rate for powerstones, and while the Power spell does not list a recharge rate, wouldn't the powered item recharge at the same rate? But then the spell does not talk of expending power but only reducing the cost to cast and / or maintain which suggests that a powered item never expends power and thus never needs recharging..
The OP is talking about "power items," which are a specific class of items in DF and have substantial, unique rules attached to them. They're what DF uses instead of powerstones and other FP batteries. They are not related in any way to the Power enchantment.
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