GURPS Prime Directive

[Jean_Sexton]

I'm going to try to get new PDFs out by the end of Thursday. Again, I am so sorry I made the error on the page references.

[rkbrown419]

Disnt-3 does 8d (3) burn damage.

While that's mediocre damage, especially against armor, it's not going to disintegrate very much. That's 28 points of average damage, and would disintegrate something with 2 HP, but not 3. Max damage--48--would let you disintegrate something with 4 HP.

That's 8d(3) per shot. When someone is disintegrated in the show they usually have the beam on them for a few seconds. So consider how many shots that takes into consideration. Holding on target for a full second means all 4 shots hit and the target being disintegrated takes 112 damage on average. That is enough damage to vaporize an unarmored 10 HP human. Getting hit with all 8 shots over two seconds would be 224 damage which could vaporize 20 HP human or an armored HP 10 human.

There are difficulties with the stun effects heating up an inanimate object as much as was said but having to roll HT-1 four times after being hit for a full second gives a pretty decent chance the target will go down. What is needed is something to account for differential effects on living and non living targets.

[Mark Skarr]

Originally Posted by Jean_Sexton

In some ways, phasers in TOS are magic. They know to disintegrate the human, but not the bulkhead behind him. To make them do what the TV show had is going to take a lot of hand-wavium. Feel free to house rule phasers.

It's not like playing an RPG means you're not going to have to address it somewhat. No one is saying "what's the real-world solution for phasers" we're saying "Phasers don't do enough damage."

Originally Posted by rkbrown419

That's 8d(3) per shot. When someone is disintegrated in the show they usually have the beam on them for a few seconds. So consider how many shots that takes into consideration. Holding on target for a full second means all 4 shots hit and the target being disintegrated takes 112 damage on average. That is enough damage to vaporize an unarmored 10 HP human. Getting hit with all 8 shots over two seconds would be 224 damage which could vaporize 20 HP human or an armored HP 10 human.

Nope. That's not a reasonable answer. First off, that's not how Rapid Fire works in GURPS. A Phaser-I only has a RoF of 1, and a Phaser-II has a RoF of 3. I'm not sure where you're getting RoF 4 from.

Secondly, being as nothing else is moving during the time the phaser is firing, it's easier to accept that is a hiccup of the show and an artifact of special effects than a mechanic. Otherwise they should be defending themselves during that time.

Still calling that phasers don't do nearly enough damage for what we see in TOS.

[maximara]

Originally Posted by Mark Skarr

It's not like playing an RPG means you're not going to have to address it somewhat. No one is saying "what's the real-world solution for phasers" we're saying "Phasers don't do enough damage."Still calling that phasers don't do nearly enough damage for what we see in TOS.

To be fair hand phasers have multiple settings seen in TOS: stun, heat, kill, and disintegrate. If that wasn't enough you have two types of one handed phasers, type 1 and 2, with the type 2 are supposed to be more powerful.

Also there are things that can take a full strength disintegrate: the what ever it is in "That Which Survives". Trying to stat for an RPG such a weapon is a pain in the butt.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Mark Skarr

Still calling that phasers don't do nearly enough damage for what we see in TOS.

I'm not sure duplicating what we saw on TOS is a particularly good goal. It was after all the product of the 1960s censorship regimen which is why all the later shows toned it down..

[David Johansen]

/Daffy Duck "This is my disintegrator pistol and when it disintegrates, boy it disintegrates! Whaddya know, it disintegrated."

I'd probably look at the disintegrators in Ultra Tech for the disintegrate setting: cosmic corrosive damage.

But I always thought part of the problem was that PD4 came out before Ultra Tech so there wasn't as much of a baseline and it wasn't really clear that laser autofire was no longer cumulative against armour. If a phaser I had rof 3 cumulative autofire at least it would be better than a 9mm Glock.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by David Johansen

If a phaser I had rof 3 cumulative autofire at least it would be better than a 9mm Glock.

Even in 3e it would have to have been ROF 4 for that benefit.

[Jean_Sexton]

Okay folks, I have had time to think about this instead of just reacting.

Star Trek phasers are to Star Fleet Universe phasers as the guns used in 1960s Westerns are to real guns.

In the Westerns, the guns used by the hero killed bad guys instantly (unless they had a quick dying confession to make) with no fuss and no mess. They never seemed to miss when the hero had to make a shot, even when firing over his shoulder while riding a galloping horse. The bad guy fell off his horse dead.

We know this isn't the way it works in Real Life.

If you want cinematic phasers, you'll need to house rule them. Our phasers are consistent with how they work all the way back to the original Prime Directive published in 1993.

[Stormcrow]

I certainly wouldn't argue with precedent here.

However, there's a simpler way to reproduce Star Trek phaser effects.

A phaser set to disintegrate does a flat 160 points of burn damage. That'll guarantee a disintegration for anyone of 14 HP or less. Anyone with "Amazing" attributes deserves the slightest of chances to save versus death. (For 15 HP that's, what, eight HT rolls to survive?)

A phaser set to kill needs to do at least -5×HP damage, so say it does a flat 80 points of burn damage. That'll guarantee a kill for most humans.

If there are multiple levels of disintegrate or kill, just add more flat damage.

Stun should trigger a HT roll, of course. Stronger stun settings increase the HT penalty and duration of unconsciousness.

Phasers on Star Trek don't generally produce variable effects, so there's no point in randomizing the damage they do. This approach wouldn't work with later shows in the franchise, since people often survive phaser and disruptor blasts in them.

[GM Joe]

Will these volumes be available in softcover at some point?