Need help to build a few powers

[Derago]

Hello all! My group want to do a cinematice world/wierd war II setting, and I want to build a couple powers to show them as ideas. The players all love tanks and have said that they want to be a tank crew (perhaps a couple tanks with some crewman being NPCs).

Power 1. I would like a power that increases the DR of any vehicle the PC gets into by 10%. I don't want it limited at all by the amount of DR the vehicle already has - it needs to be always 10%. Also, I want it to require that the PC did at least some maintenance or care on the vehicle before this power kicks in (they can't just jump in a tank and have it activate). Another limitation should be that a vehicle can only be affected by one such character at a time.

Power 2. Any vehicle-mounted weapon fired by this character gets a 10% increase on 1/2D range.

Power 3. Any enemy targeting a vehicle this character is in has a -1 to any skill to attack. There will be no noticeable reason for the reduced effectiveness - they enemy will be little bit off on his estimate of the targets' position or speed.

Each of these abilities have a small enough effect that the players, but not the PCs will realize them. This should result in these guys as being labeled as 'lucky'.

As far as active abilities go, I'm thinking of going with imbuements to allow the characters to burn FP for better penetration or even a corrosive shot to reduce the armor of a tough target.

Any other power recommendations will be welcomed!

[thulben]

As a rhetorical question, is this ability one that only some of your PCs will have and others won't? If they all have it, don't bother statting it up with points.

[vierasmarius]

For Power #3, I'd base it on Obscure. By default, this gives a penalty to Vision and Attack rolls to see into or out of the Area. Adding Defensive makes it so you are unaffected by your own Obscure, and Stealthy makes the area itself not obvious (otherwise it's a cloud of thick smoke or similar noticeable sensory block). You'd want an "Anti-Targeting Only" limitation (not sure of the value) if it doesn't make the Tank harder to spot, and enough extra Area to cover the entire tank (the SM +4 Panzer IV had a hull ~6 yards long, requiring one additional Area Effect level if the character is sitting in the center). Overall, you're looking at +100% to +150% in enhancements, or [4] to [5] cp per level, which seems fair for -1 to hit.

For the other two powers, there isn't really any easy way to build them with existing advantages. As thulben said, if all the PCs have them they can be treated as a campaign feature rather than an advantage. Otherwise, it could be as cheap as a Perk (basically an "Extra Option"). 10% extra range shouldn't be unbalancing; there's the Far Shot Imbuement, which doubles range on an unmodified roll, and can achieve much greater effect (up to x100 range for a -10 modifier). Likewise, a 10% boost in DR is helpful, but not ubalancingly so.

Another option for improving the performance of the PCs' tanks without delving into funky advantage builds is to stretch some of the cinematic rules options to cover vehicles. For example, most enemy tanks may be Cannon Fodder, disabled or destroyed if any damage penetrates their DR, while the heroes could use Flesh Wounds to reduce a penetrating hit to 1 HP damage, at the cost of a character point (or Destiny Point, or Wildcard Point, if using those options; see Power-Ups 5, pg 5).

[SCAR]

Power #2 sounds like a candidates for an Imbuement Skill of some kind.

Power #1 would then be some kind of Imbuement Power (weren't there some Defensive Imbuements in a Pyramid, anything Armour DR related?)

[Derago]

Originally Posted by thulben

As a rhetorical question, is this ability one that only some of your PCs will have and others won't? If they all have it, don't bother statting it up with points.

No, it'll be just the PCs or otherwise rare. I wanted to stat it so that the players could decide to invest more into it if they so decided.

[Derago]

Originally Posted by vierasmarius

For Power #3, I'd base it on Obscure. By default, this gives a penalty to Vision and Attack rolls to see into or out of the Area. Adding Defensive makes it so you are unaffected by your own Obscure, and Stealthy makes the area itself not obvious (otherwise it's a cloud of thick smoke or similar noticeable sensory block). You'd want an "Anti-Targeting Only" limitation (not sure of the value) if it doesn't make the Tank harder to spot, and enough extra Area to cover the entire tank (the SM +4 Panzer IV had a hull ~6 yards long, requiring one additional Area Effect level if the character is sitting in the center). Overall, you're looking at +100% to +150% in enhancements, or [4] to [5] cp per level, which seems fair for -1 to hit.

Obscure seems to just affect the ability to detect the character using a certain sense. I'm aiming for something that strictly affects the skill of the enemy. Almost an automatic affliction resulting in 'reduce skill by 1 when targeting the PC'.

Originally Posted by vierasmarius

For the other two powers, there isn't really any easy way to build them with existing advantages. As thulben said, if all the PCs have them they can be treated as a campaign feature rather than an advantage. Otherwise, it could be as cheap as a Perk (basically an "Extra Option"). 10% extra range shouldn't be unbalancing; there's the Far Shot Imbuement, which doubles range on an unmodified roll, and can achieve much greater effect (up to x100 range for a -10 modifier). Likewise, a 10% boost in DR is helpful, but not ubalancingly so.

Yeah, I guess just a 10% difference by itself won't change things much. It really comes into effect with a houserule I lifted from someone else here on the forums (I wish I could remember who, Copeab maybe). The houserule is to increase damage by +1 per die at 10% 1/2D and another +1 per die at 1%. The increase in 1/2D range would ultimately pay off in the application of these houserules. By the way, I only use these rules for large cannons (tank guns and the like).

Originally Posted by vierasmarius

Another option for improving the performance of the PCs' tanks without delving into funky advantage builds is to stretch some of the cinematic rules options to cover vehicles. For example, most enemy tanks may be Cannon Fodder, disabled or destroyed if any damage penetrates their DR, while the heroes could use Flesh Wounds to reduce a penetrating hit to 1 HP damage, at the cost of a character point (or Destiny Point, or Wildcard Point, if using those options; see Power-Ups 5, pg 5).

I plan on using most enemy vehicles as mooks (with full on cannon fodder rules), I had somehow forgot about the flesh wounds rule and will probably give extra points to the players using the rules from Monster Hunter for them to spend like that. I also plan on using some of the rules from alternate GURPS (Pyramid 3-34) specifically 'Keeping Large Vehicles Alive ' (will definately affect a planned super-tank boss), HP and Weight: an Alternate Approach (I like those rules much better than the standard), and I am considering having 2/3 of the DR fixed (1/3 variable) and the same with damage. This should ultimately result in lots of action and quick dice rolls (especially if I go full decade scale when possible).

[vierasmarius]

Originally Posted by Derago

Obscure seems to just affect the ability to detect the character using a certain sense. I'm aiming for something that strictly affects the skill of the enemy. Almost an automatic affliction resulting in 'reduce skill by 1 when targeting the PC'.

I'm not finding it now, but I thought the Perception penalty for Obscure applied equally to attacks based on that sense, without needing any additional enhancement. Considering that general Vision penalties (such as for fog, smoke or darkness) apply to melee and ranged attack rolls, I think this is the correct ruling. Does anyone know if this is stated explicitly in a book, or in an FAQ post?

[Derago]

Originally Posted by vierasmarius

I'm not finding it now, but I thought the Perception penalty for Obscure applied equally to attacks based on that sense, without needing any additional enhancement. Considering that general Vision penalties (such as for fog, smoke or darkness) apply to melee and ranged attack rolls, I think this is the correct ruling. Does anyone know if this is stated explicitly in a book, or in an FAQ post?

In the description (p.72) it says that it inflicts -1 per level to the affected sense to detect anything within the obscured radius. If this was reality, I would think it would affect aiming efforts made with said sense into the obscured area, however for only 2 points per level it seems too cheap to have that effect.

[vierasmarius]

Originally Posted by Derago

In the description (p.72) it says that it inflicts -1 per level to the affected sense to detect anything within the obscured radius. If this was reality, I would think it would affect aiming efforts made with said sense into the obscured area, however for only 2 points per level it seems too cheap to have that effect.

Remember that by default it applies an equal penalty to the user himself, and the entire area of effect is obvious to others. Removing those two increases the cost to [5] per level. You could argue that without Stealthy, the max to-hit penalty that Obscure can provide is -4, since you will know his location to within 1 yard (ie, aim for the center of the Obscured area).

[lexington]

Originally Posted by Derago

In the description (p.72) it says that it inflicts -1 per level to the affected sense to detect anything within the obscured radius. If this was reality, I would think it would affect aiming efforts made with said sense into the obscured area, however for only 2 points per level it seems too cheap to have that effect.

Firing at a target one cannot detect properly always gives a penalty.

If he wants to be able to see through the power himself he needs Defensive. If he wants it to affect every possible sense (all of sight, vibration sense, pararadar, sonar etc) that could be used to locate him he needs Cosmic +300%.