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Old 01-24-2010, 09:41 AM   #11
Blackguard
 
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Default Re: Chain Effect Modifier

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Originally Posted by Ghostdancer View Post
You might want to check out GURPS Psionic Powers, it has a variant of Surge in their called 'Arcing Surge'; its +100% btw.

Ghostdancer
That modifier doesn't produce any arcs to additional targets, despite the name. It just makes all metal armor have a DR of only 1, to better represent electrical attacks.
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Old 01-24-2010, 09:44 AM   #12
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Default Re: Chain Effect Modifier

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Originally Posted by Refplace View Post
The only issue I have is the 1/2 damage range which may make it jump too far to each target.
Malediction 3 has the potential to be much worse. Of course, it also costs much more than just bumping up range a bit. I'm not yet decided myself if this is an issue or not.
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Old 01-24-2010, 09:53 AM   #13
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Default Re: Chain Effect Modifier

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Originally Posted by zorg View Post
Area Effect + Selective: All targets in the AoE are hit by chain lightning. Whether the lightning jumps from one victim to the next, or comes from the sky, is just cosmetics.
That does work in some cases, but it doesn't give the right feel. Traditionally chain spells affect a smaller maximum number of targets, but further apart than straight forward AoE spells. Also, a chain can wrap around an obstacle that would protect someone from Area Effect, such as a double bend in a corridor. Additional existing modifiers can simulate that under some circumstances, but not all.
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Old 01-24-2010, 09:57 AM   #14
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Default Re: Chain Effect Modifier

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Originally Posted by Blackguard View Post
Also, a chain can wrap around an obstacle that would protect someone from Area Effect, such as a double bend in a corridor.
Why would a double bend in a corridor protect from an unmodified AE?
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Old 01-24-2010, 11:26 AM   #15
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Default Re: Chain Effect Modifier

To properly build this "effect" i would just take multiple linked innate attacks:

Chain Lightning [96]
-------------------------
Innate Attack
8d burning damage: 56
+20%: Surge
+20%: Link
Innate Attack
4d burning damage: 28
+20%: Surge
+20%: Link
Innate Attack
2d burning damage: 14
+20%: Surge
+20%: Link
Innate Attack
1d burning damage: 7
+20%: Surge
+20%: Link
-------------------------
-10% (ad hoc) Linked effects can only be used with DIFFERENT targets.


Now you have a chain effect that has multiply linked effects, naturally you would use the strongest, then the second strongest, then the third, etc. all the way down the chain, but in theory, you could also use it in reverse and make it a chain that gathers in strength instead.

Keep in mind this is the skeleton, feel free to add whatever modifiers and what not to the innate attacks to give you the truly proper "feel". (guided, homing, cosmic, armor divisors(!), etc.)

On a side note, rolling in dkb would be really fun to make it simulate that "throw" effect of magical lightning ;)

Last edited by Desthro; 01-24-2010 at 11:32 AM.
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Old 01-24-2010, 11:36 AM   #16
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Default Re: Chain Effect Modifier

But if the first attack fails, all the subsequent do. Shouldn't that modify the cost?
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Old 01-24-2010, 12:48 PM   #17
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Default Re: Chain Effect Modifier

After giving it some though, here's what I've come with:

If the initial hit does full damage, and every subsequent jump halves the damage, then it's a geometric series with ratio 1/2, that converges to 2. This means that at best, the chain effect doubles the damage of the attack. Area effect, in a one target scenario, does the same damage, and in a multiple target scenario, will do more damage than the chain effect (In a two target scenario, assuming that the attack can chain between the two targets, chaining will converge to the same damage as area effect, but if each new target to chain must be a different target from the ones chained to before, then it will do 1.5x base damage instead of 2x base damage). To me, this suggests that Chain effect will have half the value of Area effect that has a radius equal to the chaining distance. If active defenses stop the attack, and each jump requires a new to hit roll, the value of the enhancement is even more reduced.

I thus propose (forgive my my god awful explanation, English isn't my native language, and I'm sort of dense today):

Chaining +20%/level
If the initial attack hits, and the target does not make a successful active defense, the effect may jumps to nearby targets. Pick a new target, not yet affected by this attack within two yards of the initial target, and make a new to hit roll, ignoring range modifiers. If this attack hits, and the victim doesn't successfully defend, he receives half the damage of the primary target, the effect continues to jump, halving damage each time, in this manner. Each additional level of effect doubles the jumping distance.
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Old 01-24-2010, 01:56 PM   #18
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Default Re: Chain Effect Modifier

I think this kind of attack chaining can easily be simulated with Rapid Fire and Spraying Fire (p. B409), with the path being from target to target rather than from you to each target just being a special effect. Spraying Fire requires that you make an attack roll against each target with your margin of success on each attack roll affecting only the number of shots that hit that specific target.

Spraying Fire requires that all the targets be in the same general direction from you and that you traverse them from one direction to another. I'd say it's okay to trade these requirements for "must target in order of proximity to each other".

Spraying Fire loses shots traversing distances greater than 1 yard. This can be used as is to simulate the reduction of attack power (if the targets are far apart you hit fewer of them or you do less damage to each). If you want to have your attack reduce its level with each successive target, just specify (either on the fly, or at ability creation) that the number of shots per target must be reduced for each successive target.

It wouldn't make sense for your attack to suddenly increase its damage if it looped back into 1/2D range, so 1/2D and Max range should be based on the attack's chain path, not the distance from you, another special effect.

For example, a chained attack that deals up to 3d damage to up to 10 targets (if each target is 1 yard or less from each previous target, otherwise it'll hit fewer targets):

Chain Lightning: Burning Attack 1d (Nuisance Effect, No more than 3 shots per target, -5%; Rapid Fire, RoF 30, Chained Attack*, +150%; Selective Effect, +20%; Surge, Arcing, +100%) [19]. Selective Effect isn't required but it ensures that "shots" wasted traversing distances between targets don't hit friends. Other possible nuisance effects might be "Shots at successive targets can't exceed half of previous target's shots" and/or "A failed attack roll wastes all further shots". We can argue about how much the nuisance effects are worth, but I think it all works.

* Chained Attack (a Rapid Fire option): When you use Spraying Fire (p. B409), your targets don't need to be in the same general direction, but you must target them in order of proximity to each other rather than from one direction to another. The path taken from you to each successive target is used for determining the effects of 1/2D and Max range. +0%.
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Old 01-24-2010, 02:26 PM   #19
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Default Re: Chain Effect Modifier

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Originally Posted by zorg View Post
Why would a double bend in a corridor protect from an unmodified AE?
Diving for Cover pg 377. The implication is pretty clear that depending on the nature of the attack, solid obstructions will protect you. It is a reasonable assumption for any physical effect in any case.
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Old 01-24-2010, 02:37 PM   #20
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Default Re: Chain Effect Modifier

There are several good suggestions for dealing with the specific case of the classic AD&D style chain lightening based on innate attack. But that isn't what I am after. There is no fundamental reason why a chain ability must do less damage with each hop. There is also no reason why chains should be limited to standard ranged attacks. Chain Leech would require the ability to be a Malediction. Chain Healing is also interesting, etc. It should be possible to define a modifier that applies with the same degree of genericness as the existing modifiers.

The suggestion of basing the cost of Chain Effect on the distance it can jump to the next target rather than the number of targets is an interesting one. That would neatly solve the problem of allowing another modifier to scale the effectiveness of Chain Effect indirectly. It has also been suggested that the shear number of attack or Quick Contest rolls necessary in my proposal can be a problem, and that is also a good point. I will work on an alternate definition that combines both these ideas.
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