Quick Question: How to build Radiant Wave Technology in GURPS?

[Raekai]

I'm talking about this. A player wants to have two Bionic Arms on his character that can replicate this kind of thing in at least a lesser form. Obviously, it's an Innate Attack, but I don't know how to go about it. I think it's pretty self-explanatory, and I think it would be really cool/useful. It seems to be a radiation kind of deal, and it destroys the crap out of things. It causes mechas to bubble over and eventually explode like so. It starts at the point of contact. However, it can also be used as a defense, but I would just have that be a Power Parry.

One thing that's interesting is that, as far as I can remember, I don't think it was ever used on humans. Although... I imagine that the effects would be devastating...

[Captain Joy]

Originally Posted by Raekai

It causes mechas to bubble over and eventually explode like so. It starts at the point of contact.

Off the top of my head, without consulting any books, I'm thinking a good place to start might be a corrosive attack with an explosive follow-up.

[vierasmarius]

Originally Posted by Captain Joy

Off the top of my head, without consulting any books, I'm thinking a good place to start might be a corrosive attack with an explosive follow-up.

I'd actually handle it slightly differently. The fluff makes it clear that the attack isn't "placing" an explosive, but making the matter of the target itself explode. Sounds to me like a Corrosive attack with Fragile (Explosive) as a Symptom - ie, take enough damage and the target will turn itself into a bomb. The main difference between that and a Follow-Up is that the damage of the explosion depends on the target's HP, rather than being pre-set.

I think the bigger issue is how to represent the "chain reaction". It's basically a Cyclic attack with unlimited cycles, that can only be stopped by removing the affected limbs. Is there a Cosmic modifier to make a Cyclic attack go on indefinitely? If not, you'll just have to give it enough damage*cycles to turn the largest expected target to scrap.

[Raekai]

Originally Posted by vierasmarius

I'd actually handle it slightly differently. The fluff makes it clear that the attack isn't "placing" an explosive, but making the matter of the target itself explode. Sounds to me like a Corrosive attack with Fragile (Explosive) as a Symptom - ie, take enough damage and the target will turn itself into a bomb. The main difference between that and a Follow-Up is that the damage of the explosion depends on the target's HP, rather than being pre-set.

I think the bigger issue is how to represent the "chain reaction". It's basically a Cyclic attack with unlimited cycles, that can only be stopped by removing the affected limbs. Is there a Cosmic modifier to make a Cyclic attack go on indefinitely? If not, you'll just have to give it enough damage*cycles to turn the largest expected target to scrap.

Not as far as I know... Damn. The perfect enhancement would be cyclic that only ends when contact ends! I'm sure that someone has a rule like that somewhere...

As for your idea... It's actually perfect! I'll have to test that out and see if it works gameplay-wise. It looks like what I was looking for!

[vierasmarius]

Hmm... I suppose an alternative would be to Afflict the target with a terminal condition, priced as Heart Attack (renamed to "catastrophic systems failure" or something) alongside Fragile (Explosive). A failed HT roll dooms the victim to a messy death in a few seconds. Heart Attack can normally be reversed if CPR is administered quickly enough; this condition could be halted if the limb is removed.

Actually, looking over Heart Attack, resuscitation is possible within HT/3 minutes. You'd want to throw an enhancement (Reduced Time?) on there to speed up the process. Seconds instead of minutes seems like the right range.

[Raekai]

Originally Posted by vierasmarius

Hmm... I suppose an alternative would be to Afflict the target with a terminal condition, priced as Heart Attack (renamed to "catastrophic systems failure" or something) alongside Fragile (Explosive). A failed HT roll dooms the victim to a messy death in a few seconds. Heart Attack can normally be reversed if CPR is administered quickly enough; this condition could be halted if the limb is removed.

Actually, looking over Heart Attack, resuscitation is possible within HT/3 minutes. You'd want to throw an enhancement (Reduced Time?) on there to speed up the process. Seconds instead of minutes seems like the right range.

I'm not sure that I like that as much.

The other build is perfect with one exception... Fragile (Explosive) is way too weak. The chance of it causing an explosion is so low. It requires either a critical failure from a major wound or for the target to majorly miss a HT roll when dying. I either need a way to force them to critically fail or a new Fragile (Dangerously Explosive).

[vierasmarius]

Originally Posted by Raekai

I'm not sure that I like that as much.

The other build is perfect with one exception... Fragile (Explosive) is way too weak. The chance of it causing an explosion is so low. It requires either a critical failure from a major wound or for the target to majorly miss a HT roll when dying. I either need a way to force them to critically fail or a new Fragile (Dangerously Explosive).

The "missed death check by 3+" just means that a Mortal Wound (B423) doesn't instantly kill the victim. I'd treat death by Heart Attack as a "failure by 3+", ie a "real" death rather than a lingering Mortal Wound. I suppose if you're going the Corrosive damage route you could throw in Fragile (Unnatural), which makes the victim automatically fail any death check, which I'd interpret as also fulfilling the "failure by 3+" needed to trigger an explosion. That feels kinda munchkiny though; it's basically moving the "instant death" threshold from HPx5 to HPx2.

EDIT: So, I guess what's needed is a Fragile disadvantage that makes a character die instantly on any failed Death Check. It's not likely worth much; somewhere between [-5] and a Quirk.

[Raekai]

Originally Posted by vierasmarius

The "missed death check by 3+" just means that a Mortal Wound (B423) doesn't instantly kill the victim. I'd treat death by Heart Attack as a "failure by 3+", ie a "real" death rather than a lingering Mortal Wound. I suppose if you're going the Corrosive damage route you could throw in Fragile (Unnatural), which makes the victim automatically fail any death check, which I'd interpret as also fulfilling the "failure by 3+" needed to trigger an explosion. That feels kinda munchkiny though; it's basically moving the "instant death" threshold from HPx5 to HPx2.

EDIT: So, I guess what's needed is a Fragile disadvantage that makes a character die instantly on any failed Death Check. It's not likely worth much; somewhere between [-5] and a Quirk.

Yeah, I think that's gonna be the best way to go about this. Making them Fragile (Unnatural) does seem way too munchkin-y. Thank you so much for your help. I think I'll add this new disadvantage to Fragile (Explosive) and call this one Fragile (Volatile) [-20].