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Old 04-21-2015, 09:21 PM   #1
dataweaver
 
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Default More Imbuements

So I recently picked up Pyramid #3/71 for the Vehicle Imbuements article. We now have weapon Imbuements, defense Imbuements, and transportation Imbuements (or, as I prefer to call them, mobility Imbuements). What else is there?
“You're all clear, kid! Now let's blow this thing and go home!”
— Han Solo, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Yes, an X-Wing Fighter's torpedoes are a weapon system; and Luke's destruction of the Death Star could be chalked up to using the Force to Imbue it with increased accuracy or a guidance system. But do we want it to be that easy? After all, what's to keep the Emperor from "bending the beam" of the Death Star's main cannon to fire over a planet's horizon to strike the moon on the other side?* Vehicle Imbuements includes an option for extending an Imbuement's Duration with the caveat that it costs a lot more FP — in particular, the cost is based on the vehicle's SM. Perhaps attack Imbuements for vehicular weapons should also have FP costs based on the vehicle's SM?

* Assuming, of course, that the beam is powerful enough to blow up a terrestrial planet, but not powerful to shoot through a gas giant.
“I'm giving her all she's got, Captain!"
— Montomery Scott, Star Trek
The Vehicle Imbuements article suggests that if you're not the pilot of a vehicle, you're going to have a harder time Imbuing it, if you can do so at all. I would make an exception for vehicles with engineering crews, and would allow the chief engineer a prime spot when it comes to applying Transportation Imbuements to his craft. That said, crafts that require some form of Crewman skill might require a chief crewman with an Imbuement skill to successfully direct the activities of the crew in order to get the desired benefit.
“Some people are naturally better at riding bicycles than others. You know how a lot of people begin playing sports when they're little? But sometimes, people who were ordinary bike riders until just yesterday will suddenly experience a blossoming of talent.”
— Kanzaki Miki, Yowamushi Pedal
What about applying the Transportation Imbuements to bicycles, skates, snowboards, or even unassisted athletics? For instance, combining gymnastics or parkour with the Aerial Operation Imbuement could give a rather interesting “skydancing” character concept; and Clinging Vehicle could lead to some rather spectacular stunts by a rollerblader.

══════════

…and that's just what you get when extending the notion of Imbuing vehicles. What other kinds of gear could be Imbued to achieve impossible results? Do sensors and communications deserve their own Imbuements, or can any boosts or tweaks a sensors or comm operator could bring be handled by repurposing attack Imbuements?
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Old 04-22-2015, 04:28 PM   #2
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Default Re: More Imbuements

Mecha Imbuements? You could do all of the Imbuements on those at once, I think. Unarmed and melee Imbuements for martial arts mecha stunts, plus vehicle and projectile imbues.

I know Power-Ups 1 suggests noncombat imbuement skills, it gave an example of a Video Transmission skill so you could record things using your eyes as cameras and use any electronic device to send video signals.

Expanding on that a bit, I imagine you could come up with Imbuement Skills to do implausible computer hacker feats, like treating anything with the slightest bit of electronics as being connected online regardless of whether it is.
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Old 04-22-2015, 04:38 PM   #3
Kalzazz
 
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Default Re: More Imbuements

This thread has a discussion of the reasonability of IQ based imbuements, by no less a luminary than Kuroshima, writer of the DF Mystic Knight

http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=80138&page=2

Edit - Oops! That was supposed to be for the other thread, sorry!

I suppose I'll leave the link here instead of just making a blank post, as is kinda relevant?

Last edited by Kalzazz; 04-22-2015 at 07:40 PM.
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Old 04-22-2015, 07:56 PM   #4
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Default Re: More Imbuements

I actually and sadly lack this issue currently so im refering to what the op has said and what ive heard about the article.

I would think that the person piloting/driving the vehicle would be the one required to make the roll, not the person giving commands. That said, Id think its totally in genre for the engineer to boost capabilities insofar as the motive system (or other powered/mechanical systems) go. I could see scotty tweaking shields or phasers as much as making the enterprise go faster. Frankly, i could see a cinematic engineering "martial arts style" based around such a thing. I might actually need to write this....

Thank you for the inspiration, dataweaver!

As for personal motive means, why not? If you can make your horse gallop through the air, how is that significantly different than being able to do the same yourself in a blatantly over the top bleech-style anime duel?
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Old 04-22-2015, 08:10 PM   #5
Peter Knutsen
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Default Re: More Imbuements

Quote:
Originally Posted by dataweaver View Post
Yes, an X-Wing Fighter's torpedoes are a weapon system; and Luke's destruction of the Death Star could be chalked up to using the Force to Imbue it with increased accuracy or a guidance system. But do we want it to be that easy? After all, what's to keep the Emperor from "bending the beam" of the Death Star's main cannon to fire over a planet's horizon to strike the moon on the other side?* Vehicle Imbuements includes an option for extending an Imbuement's Duration with the caveat that it costs a lot more FP — in particular, the cost is based on the vehicle's SM. Perhaps attack Imbuements for vehicular weapons should also have FP costs based on the vehicle's SM?
I think it'd be a lot more realistic if the FP cost is based on the size of the weapon, than on the size of the vehicle that the weapon happens to be mounted by.

Imagine some kind of .50 caliber machine gun mounted on a fighter aircraft carrier. The carrier itself is a gigantic vehicle, AFAIK SM+13 or 14, and so based on your idea the FP cost to Imbue this tiny weapon would be huge, which is wildly unrealistic.

No. Scale the FP cost for the size or general size category of the weapon. You can base it on the kind of target the weapon is meant to be used against. For instance, a .50 caliber side-mounted machine gun on an aircraft carrier is meant to be used against small boats, power boats, motor torperdo boats and so forth (according to international conventions, rapid-fire .50 caliber weapons aren't supposed to be used as anti-personnel), probably ranging from SM+2 to SM+4, so average SM+3.

Last edited by Peter Knutsen; 04-22-2015 at 08:13 PM. Reason: few changes to better get my idea across
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Old 04-22-2015, 08:58 PM   #6
Christopher R. Rice
 
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Default Re: More Imbuements

Quote:
Originally Posted by dataweaver View Post
Yes, an X-Wing Fighter's torpedoes are a weapon system; and Luke's destruction of the Death Star could be chalked up to using the Force to Imbue it with increased accuracy or a guidance system. But do we want it to be that easy? After all, what's to keep the Emperor from "bending the beam" of the Death Star's main cannon to fire over a planet's horizon to strike the moon on the other side?* Vehicle Imbuements includes an option for extending an Imbuement's Duration with the caveat that it costs a lot more FP — in particular, the cost is based on the vehicle's SM. Perhaps attack Imbuements for vehicular weapons should also have FP costs based on the vehicle's SM?
You could do that, but Power-Ups 1 doesn't go that far and it is probably not needed. The reason it costs as much as it does for a vehicle imbuement is because you are imbuing the entire vessel/mount and they are typical SM+1 or better. Very few man-portable weapons are that big. Extending the imbuement and having cost equal its SM is a purely metagame decision that both PK and I decided on during the revision process of the article. My original method was a bit broken and this was the final rule we settled on.

Quote:
Originally Posted by dataweaver View Post
The Vehicle Imbuements article suggests that if you're not the pilot of a vehicle, you're going to have a harder time Imbuing it, if you can do so at all. I would make an exception for vehicles with engineering crews, and would allow the chief engineer a prime spot when it comes to applying Transportation Imbuements to his craft. That said, crafts that require some form of Crewman skill might require a chief crewman with an Imbuement skill to successfully direct the activities of the crew in order to get the desired benefit.
I could see that for some skills, sure. Efficient Vehicle, Hardy Vehicle, and Hasten Vehicle might be a start. I'd assess at least a -2 penalty to do this though - maybe -5.


Quote:
Originally Posted by dataweaver View Post
What about applying the Transportation Imbuements to bicycles, skates, snowboards, or even unassisted athletics? For instance, combining gymnastics or parkour with the Aerial Operation Imbuement could give a rather interesting “skydancing” character concept; and Clinging Vehicle could lead to some rather spectacular stunts by a rollerblader.
Yes. This is implicit - if you can ride it...you can imbue it.

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Originally Posted by dataweaver View Post
…and that's just what you get when extending the notion of Imbuing vehicles. What other kinds of gear could be Imbued to achieve impossible results? Do sensors and communications deserve their own Imbuements, or can any boosts or tweaks a sensors or comm operator could bring be handled by repurposing attack Imbuements?
I've got some half-written drivel that's a follow-up to Vehicle Imbuments that focuses on sensors, computers, etc.
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Old 04-22-2015, 09:41 PM   #7
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I sooooo want to make an Imbueist Rollerblader now then!
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Old 04-22-2015, 09:56 PM   #8
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Are there stats for Roller skates/blades anywhere?

I see stats for Ice Skates, I suppose could make an Imbueist Ice Skater instead
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Old 04-22-2015, 10:04 PM   #9
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Originally Posted by Kalzazz View Post
Are there stats for Roller skates/blades anywhere?

I see stats for Ice Skates, I suppose could make an Imbueist Ice Skater instead
GURPS High-Tech (p. 230) has a skateboard and really, they are basically the same thing, except skateboards are more stable. I'd just use those stats if I were you.
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Old 04-22-2015, 11:01 PM   #10
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You could do that, but Power-Ups 1 doesn't go that far and it is probably not needed. The reason it costs as much as it does for a vehicle imbuement is because you are imbuing the entire vessel/mount and they are typical SM+1 or better. Very few man-portable weapons are that big. Extending the imbuement and having cost equal its SM is a purely metagame decision that both PK and I decided on during the revision process of the article. My original method was a bit broken and this was the final rule we settled on.
Note that I'm not talking about man-portable weapons here; I'm talking about vehicle-mounted weapons.

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I could see that for some skills, sure. Efficient Vehicle, Hardy Vehicle, and Hasten Vehicle might be a start. I'd assess at least a -2 penalty to do this though - maybe -5.
Why?

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Yes. This is implicit - if you can ride it...you can imbue it.
There's about half a step from “you can Imbue your rollerblades” to “you can Imbue yourself” — and it has a precedent in applying attack and defense Imbuements to unarmed combat. Between these three classes of Imbuements, I think it may now be possible to replace nearly all Cinematic Martial Arts skills with Imbuements if someone wishes to do so — the main exceptions being things like Invisibility Art, Hypnotic Hands, and Mental Strength.

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I've got some half-written drivel that's a follow-up to Vehicle Imbuements that focuses on sensors, computers, etc.
That is the most obvious next step. But what else could be Imbued?
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