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Old 10-24-2015, 11:28 AM   #1
Ailluminus
 
Join Date: Jan 2012
Default Environmental Forces as Energy Reserve

Help me, GURPS Community, you're my only hope...

I want to create a Power (specifically, a Pyromancy Control (Fire), Innate Attack (Burn) and Temperature Control Power) that both relies upon (as with Availability) and EXHAUSTS a local source, similar to how Powers can Cost FP.

Specifically, I want these abilities to require the presence of local fire. Control (Fire) works normally, but Innate Attack and Temperature Control take that present fire and expend it in a non-retractable manner; throwing it at enemies or dispersing it into the atmosphere, respectively.

My HOPE is to define a certain quantity of fire (such as the heat of a candle, for example) as 1 Energy Point, and have the Innate Attack and Temperature Control require expenditure of that environmental effect, as one would expend FP or ER.

So, in essence, the character could lift fire into an orb and carry it via Control (Fire), and could use that fire to do the typical Flame damage of 1d-1 per second, but could also use that fire to fuel her Innate Attacks and Temperature Control.

I just can't figure out HOW to make that happen?

Many thanks,
This Guy

(And now I go to sleep for 8 hours, so will not respond immediately.)
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Old 10-24-2015, 12:07 PM   #2
Anaraxes
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Default Re: Environmental Forces as Energy Reserve

Special Recharge on the ER, which consists of using Control (Fire) on some existing fire. You might disallow Costs FP on Control Fire, since it will always be self-fueling. Keep in mind that putting out fires is itself a useful effect.

I'd caution against trying to be too rigorous with your definition of heat as points of ER. You'll quickly find that real energy units won't balance in a gamist sense. For instance, energetically speaking it's far easier to kill someone than it is to make a cup of tea. (Raise 1 L of water by 5 C, said water happening to be that in the victim's brain, or raise that 1 liter of water in a pot from 20C to 100 C.) But you probably don't want Touch of Death to be cheap and common while Make Tea is a mighty superpower costing many CP. Just come up with a scale of points of ER for various sizes of fire.
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Old 10-24-2015, 02:22 PM   #3
Flyndaran
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Default Re: Environmental Forces as Energy Reserve

I agree with your point, but your example is a bit flawed.
You would have to raise the entire target's temperature, not just his brain. Even then naturally, they would sweat etc. to attempt to reduce the fever.
And any power that damages others must be bought as an attack. I can't buy Create apples with limitation: kills all armed people attacking me.
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Old 10-24-2015, 03:41 PM   #4
Anaraxes
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Default Re: Environmental Forces as Energy Reserve

Quote:
Originally Posted by Flyndaran View Post
You would have to raise the entire target's temperature, not just his brain.
Depends on the power (in the physics sense). I expect you'd go unconscious and the proteins at the heat source (the brain) will denature and coagulate faster than the heat will conduct away into the rest of the body, unless the input rate is really low. At that point, it doesn't matter if the body temperature equalizes over the next minute; you're already brain-dead.

Try an experiment: beat an egg as though you're going to scramble it, put it in a dish of room temperature water (even more favorable than body temperature for conduction), gently spin the water if necessary to get the egg in the middle as with poaching. And then point one of those paint-stripper heat guns at the egg. I'm guessing it will cook before the temperature of the water goes up much, and certainly before the water boils.

(With Mythbusters drawing to a close, we're going to have to make our own fun.)


Quote:
And any power that damages others must be bought as an attack.
A good instance of the gamist principle that I mentioned. Attacks are expensive in CP because they kill people, not because they require a lot more joules than other abilities.

Meanwhile, their cost in FP might be completely uncorrelated to their real-world-physics energy requirement or to each other. Even the Costs FP isn' going to equalize things. 1 DR (Costs 10 FP) is still far cheaper than Warp (no FP cost), but not because it uses only a little energy. So, you don't need to rate fires in terms of their power output and try to calculate that one hex of fire powers five laser beams which is equal to 1 minute of 100-kg flight or 35 points of DR versus a 2000 J rifle bullet.

(Incidentally, note that that rifle bullet is about 1/20th the energy of heating up the brain. A body could absorb all that energy, too, dissipating kinetic waves via friction into heat and radiating and sweating that away. Of course, the bullet transfers its energy to the brain very quickly indeed.)

You just need some schedule for the amount of ER that a fire is worth. And the criteria there is much more about how easy it is for the character to find a fire, recharge, and keep going, as opposed to "running down" and losing the fire abilities, than it is about how many ergs or joules or kilocalories or BTUs are involved for the different abilities. Energy units weren't the source of FP costs to start with, and they're not equal, so don't stress over trying to make it all come out even with this ability. Physical simulation won't get you far.
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Old 10-24-2015, 04:02 PM   #5
Mailanka
 
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Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Eindhoven, the Netherlands
Default Re: Environmental Forces as Energy Reserve

The traditional limitation for an ability that requires an existing environmental factor that you manipulate (You have an innate attack that requires rocks to fling at people, or trees to whack people, or flames to blast at people) is "Environmental" found either on Powers 110 or Power Ups 8: Limitations on page 13.

If I read what you describe correctly, that's all t he player would have and/or need. You'd represent everything in your own way. You might assign "Energy points" to a local environment, like, say the room has "6 points of fire energy" and decide what that means. But as far as the player is concerned, it's all folded into "Environmental."

Personally, I'd probably keep it loose and ad hoc. If you define it explicitly, that's more overhead for you, because each and every fight will need a definition of how much fire is currently available. Instead, there are situations where he has plenty of fire available (near a furnace), or there are situations (a romantically lit restaurant) where he doesn't have that much, and situations (inside a bank vault) where he has none at all.

I expect, in short order, his tactic of choice will be to spend a few turns using fire to make more fire. Create an inferno, and then attack people with it.
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Old 10-25-2015, 08:39 PM   #6
Ailluminus
 
Join Date: Jan 2012
Default Re: Environmental Forces as Energy Reserve

Thanks, guys,

This was super helpful. I've created the power, it works great, and my player loves it.
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