Powercells And The Draw Power Spell

[Flyndaran]

The reason why so many over the years have tried to alter the spell's meaning is, because otherwise it's pretty much useless in low tech settings. That is the kind most likely to have magic after all.

I do remember an old article involving the food college where one could drain the energy from things like jars of mayo. While silly, it felt more in keeping with low tech magic and the way many posters think with regards to this issue than RAW spells.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by whswhs

...explaining why it's not a sensible idea...

Don't see what sensible has to do with it. If someone wants 'cool', they're probably ignoring sensible.

[jeff_wilson]

Originally Posted by Bruno

A stone on top of a mountain is metastable, and contains a lot of potential energy that a stone in the valley does not. A stone in the valley is metastable, and contains a lot of potential energy that a stone in Death Valley does not.

Eh?

Originally Posted by evileeyore

I can't be the only one who remembers a Draw/Steal Power spell working on nature itself*... but having gone back to find them, nope.

* With waterfalls becoming calmer and quieter, storms diffusing, downgrading in intensity, earthquakes diminishing, etc.

That was the "More Power" article from Pyramid's print incarnation, now memorialized here.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by jeff_wilson

That was the "More Power" article from Pyramid's print incarnation, now memorialized here.

Thanks! I knew I'd read it somewhere.




I still have that issue...

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Sure. Improvise a short on that high TL impossible-energy-density power cell. I dare you.

Other than the high probability of electrocuting yourself, I'm sure it would be easy.

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Other than the high probability of electrocuting yourself, I'm sure it would be easy.

In my campaign they have anti-short protection systems, along with spike protection, and so on. PEriodically the PCs still manage to blow them up, sometimes on purpose, sometimes not so much.

"I thought you said these things were short-protected"

"It was, until your blaster bolt went through the protective circuitry an instant before it penetrated the containment system."

"Oh."

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Rupert

In my campaign they have anti-short protection systems, along with spike protection, and so on.

Unfortunately, if you want to power energy weapons, you need to be able to produce energy weapons levels of power, which is plenty to kill people.

[scc]

Originally Posted by Bruno

A stone on top of a mountain is metastable, and contains a lot of potential energy that a stone in the valley does not. A stone in the valley is metastable, and contains a lot of potential energy that a stone in Death Valley does not.

But when you draw power from an active circuit, you divert power from that circuit - the lightbulb turns off, the electric motor turns off. When you steal "power" from a battery, you discharge it. But that implies if you steal "power" from a wound spring... the spring unwinds? That actuates a machine (doing work), rather than preventing work.

What happens when you steal power from the rock balanced on top of the mountain?

I think a good way around this and some of the other problems like this is to say that the item must have a recognized way of transferring the power, so a power point, the terminals of a battery, belt holders on belt shafts, etc. This way things like balanced rocks and catapult springs can't be used

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by scc

I think a good way around this and some of the other problems like this is to say that the item must have a recognized way of transferring the power, so a power point, the terminals of a battery, belt holders on belt shafts, etc. This way things like balanced rocks and catapult springs can't be used

Does this mean that if a battery is sitting on a shelf, you can steal power from it, but if it's built into a laptop or other device, you can't?

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Does this mean that if a battery is sitting on a shelf, you can steal power from it, but if it's built into a laptop or other device, you can't?

The battery in the lap top could certainly be removed and used for Steal Power. Saying that it couldn't be stolen from before then would be overly picky.

I believe the important distinction would be that the battery is a multi-purpose item designed to store a standard form of power. The counterwieght from a trebuchet is just a rock if you remove it from the seige engine.

So if you had some machine that stored energy in a non-standard form in a sub-system of a device and that could not be successfully removed from the device it might not be a "battery" in the meaning of Steal Power.

Remember that for purposes of Conduct/Draw Power the important distinction is not the the energy be "real" but that it must be in a form that can be used by a machine.

So by analogy Steal Power would require a device designed to store energy in a form standard to the TL of the spell you're using. So if you learned Steal Power at TL8 trying to tap a Galavanic pile or a Leyden Jar would take the TL penalty but a lead-acid battery probably would not.