New Powers Help; "Gun Control" and others

[Bathawk]

hey all, been trying to work out a couple of abilities for a "lord of guns" character. At low levels of power he can jam, interfere, or simply turn the safeties on any gun (or more with area effect), at higher level/NPC/diety levels he can create "gun free zones" in neighborhoods or cities. I'm also considering the mechanics of giving "disciples" a boost to their guns damage in an area(or other things like making them more or less accurate and so on)

First I like the idea of a character who can make guns jam rendering them useless. I first thought "Control" would work, but it's more for molding or shaping an object. Then maybe telekinesis with the animation/non levitating limitation, but I don't want guns to bend or twist, triggers to pull, cartridges eject, or safeties to go on...yes, but not to bend "unnaturally"

the best I could come up with was "Neutralize" if "mechanical" (from GURPS Powers) is an acceptable modifier, with "one ability: innate attack" can be applied to guns even if they aren't "powers" built on points.

(other enhancements like homing and extended duration: permanent help create the effect)

But more than that, what if i wanted something more encompassing? i keep looking at the "Fireproof" spell in GURPS: magic...suppressing combustion in a modern setting is amazing...not only stopping fires, but explosives and fossil fuels...how would this translate into Powers?

next what if I wanted a power that simply "works" an item? A classic example is a "knock" spell, causing doors to lock/unlock, or starts a car, or the aforementioned turning gun safeties off/on?

Lastly i was considering a form of "cosmic"...using Obscure as an example, if my character could create "fog" that fills a small neighborhood, in most cases the people inside of dwellings would be safe from this effect if they hide indoors. But what of a "curse of darkness" which causes all light to disappear indoors and out? i keep leaning torwards a form of cosmic which costs +300% similar to "ignores DR" and calling it "ignores barriers" but the "Surprise Attack" modifer from "Powers" also effectively ignores barriers for +150%

[Kelly Pedersen]

Originally Posted by Bathawk

First I like the idea of a character who can make guns jam rendering them useless. I first thought "Control" would work, but it's more for molding or shaping an object. Then maybe telekinesis with the animation/non levitating limitation, but I don't want guns to bend or twist, triggers to pull, cartridges eject, or safeties to go on...yes, but not to bend "unnaturally"

I'm somewhat confused here. Are you saying that you do want " triggers to pull, cartridges eject, or safeties to go on", or that you don't? And when you say you don't want guns to bend, are you saying that you don't want the physical gun to deform, or that you don't want the ability to be able to change where someone's pointing the gun?

If you do want the ability to allow someone to manipulate the gun, just not deform it, I think Telekinesis will do just fine. You need considerable ST to be able to physically bend a gun, whereas the other stuff you've mentioned are pretty easy to justify with just a few levels of TK. Just forbid really high levels of TK, and put an Accessibility, Only to manipulate guns limitation on it (which I'd price at -50%), and you're good.

If you don't want the ability to shift where someone is aiming or pointing the gun, TK still works, just increase the value of the Accessiblity, to something like "only to manipulate safeties and triggers on guns", which I'd peg at -60%.

Originally Posted by Bathawk

the best I could come up with was "Neutralize" if "mechanical" (from GURPS Powers) is an acceptable modifier, with "one ability: innate attack" can be applied to guns even if they aren't "powers" built on points.

Neutralize is generally available only for abilities that fall into powers, specifically powers that include the "supernatural anti-powers limitation". You can take a Cosmic enhancement to make it apply to all powers. If it works on "wild" advantages instead, I'd allow that as a different Cosmic enhancement, with the size of the enhancement based on how much it affects. Call "firearms" a +50% enhancement. Then, apply a -100% limitation for "doesn't actually affect any powers". So, you'd net out to a -50% limitation on Neutralize. I think that's not a bad price to be able to, with a successful touch and a Will roll, neutralize the ability of a gun to fire for a few minutes.

Originally Posted by Bathawk

But more than that, what if i wanted something more encompassing? i keep looking at the "Fireproof" spell in GURPS: magic...suppressing combustion in a modern setting is amazing...not only stopping fires, but explosives and fossil fuels...how would this translate into Powers?

I'd probably do it with the above-mentioned Neutralize build, but the Cosmic enhancement would be larger, and you'd put Area Effect and Ranged on it to cover an area.

Originally Posted by Bathawk

next what if I wanted a power that simply "works" an item? A classic example is a "knock" spell, causing doors to lock/unlock, or starts a car, or the aforementioned turning gun safeties off/on?

I'd use Telekinesis for this again. If you want to create an ability where it just takes over and drives your car/opens a safe/whatever for you, put the Independent enhancement, allowing it to work on its own without you concentrating. You will have to put Increased Range on it too, though, if you want to be able to walk away and leave it running.

Originally Posted by Bathawk

Lastly i was considering a form of "cosmic"...using Obscure as an example, if my character could create "fog" that fills a small neighborhood, in most cases the people inside of dwellings would be safe from this effect if they hide indoors. But what of a "curse of darkness" which causes all light to disappear indoors and out?

I think Obscure does this by default, actually, or at least fills all un-sealed areas within its range. It would be a limitation for something like fog to not fill areas within range, you don't need an enhancement. If it can fill even sealed areas, that would be Cosmic, but I'd only price that at +50%.

[Bathawk]

i guess to break my question down in the simplest terms is; How would I translate the GURPS Magic fires pell "Fireproof" into powers terms? (if I can answer that, I can adapt everything else from there)

[AlexanderHowl]

I think that Fireproof is a form of Affliction with Advantage, Area Effect, Extended Duration, and Malediction. Since you need DR 10 for the base level of Fireproof, it ends up costing 80+ CP for the first option. The second level is quite expensive, as you would need limited DR 100, which would cost 440+ CP.

[Bathawk]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

I think that Fireproof is a form of Affliction with Advantage, Area Effect, Extended Duration, and Malediction. Since you need DR 10 for the base level of Fireproof, it ends up costing 80+ CP for the first option. The second level is quite expensive, as you would need limited DR 100, which would cost 440+ CP.

I'm a little confused, can you write that up as an example? And I understand the underlying concensus on afflictions affecting "non living" targets....but isn't malediction only applicable to those that can make a resistance roll?

[scc]

Isn't there a Gremlins (Dis)Advantage to do with machines not working?