TL11^ Smart Shuriken - Awesome but Not?

[Tomsdad]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Wasn't that the shtick of one of the characters from Mystery Men the movie? Her father's spirit or something was in a bowling bowl and she could throw with extreme effect. It's been years since I watched it.

Yep "The Bowler" (or "Baby Bowler" as Tony P calls her)

[Antumbra]

Originally Posted by weby

Also at TL 11^ you should likely have better than base cutting as damage type, perhaps adding a monowire rim for nice 1d+2(10). though by UT rules that is silly expensive...

If monowire was in play I'd just replace the blades with multiple spools and have it spin up when making an attack run.

[(E)]

I just had this mental image of smart monowire bolas.

[Nereidalbel]

Originally Posted by Antumbra

If monowire was in play I'd just replace the blades with multiple spools and have it spin up when making an attack run.

Why not Nanothorn? Multiple passes can destroy armor!

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Antumbra

If monowire was in play I'd just replace the blades with multiple spools and have it spin up when making an attack run.

Alas, spinning something would act like a gyroscope and interfere with steerability.

I went to look at this thing again. I had thought it already included monowire but it doesn't. It does mention not necessarily being shaped like a shurijken and suggested some options. I thought what if it were shaped like a bullet?

0.1lbs is 700 grains so at leas t it would be a big bullet. Maybe something like a .50 BMG. Alas again it is slow by bullet standards and scaling down from a .50 BMG with 12D P+ at 2800 fps to 300 fps leaves you with only c. 1D+1 though still probably P+.

I think reality may hate this weapon. :)

0.1 lbs also happens to be the weight of a standard Gurps arrow and 300 fps is about the high end of arrow speed. So it ought to do at least the 1D Impaling that an arrow fired from a ST 10 bow does.

You could build it into an arrow and get maybe +2 Impaling with some target-seeking ability on the first pass. If it has to maneuver to make a second attack that would put it back at 1D because it would basically lose the initial velocity it got from the bow.

It's still a crappy weapon compared to a Homing Gyroc but building it into an arrow makes it look kewl.

[sir_pudding]

I think the thing that's does the least change to the existing rules is just assume a negligible weight power source, recalculate the slam damage based on 2HP, give it Sumo Wrestling at DX+2 instead of Brawling (or a Skill Adaptation Perk or otherwise a way to get a Trained ST bonus), and have it All-Out Attack: Strong (preferably from ambush). This means it is doing 2d+4 (or 1d+4 if you insist on halving base damage which isn't what Martial Arts p. 107 says; it might be worth asking Kromm about that actually; although the half damage rule is specifically for collisions, not armed slams, and again this isn't an accidental fall or vehicular incident).

Note that it can probably also Telegraphic attack, for a net +8 to hit an SM 0 target, so it can easily go for any unarmored locations (or if there aren't any at least target chinks).

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

I think the thing that's does the least change to the existing rules is just assume a negligible weight power source, recalculate the slam damage based on 2HP, ).

Note that It has 1 HP from its' write-up as a Character(Robot) rather than any weight calculations.

I am puzzled as to what you think Martial Arts p.121 has to say about this subject. I just looked and that's the end of the commentary on Ranged Combat options and the beginning of Active Defenses.

I also looked in the index about Slams and found nothing about Slams with sharp weapons.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Note that It has 1 HP from its' write-up as a Character(Robot) rather than any weight calculations.

Which appears to be incorrect. I am suggesting that you treat that as errata and give them one more HP based on weight.

I also looked in the index about Slams and found nothing about Slams with sharp weapons.

Oops, I meant p. 107 under Move and Attack, first paragraph. The example does not halve damage, notably (and if it did this rule would be very rarely relevant). I think half damage assumes that the spiky bits are more-or-less randomly applied (as with a fall into a spiked pit or a ram by a spiked truck grill) and not specifically weaponized.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Which appears to be incorrect. I am suggesting that you treat that as errata and give them one more HP based on weight.

Oops, I meant p. 107 under Move and Attack, first paragraph.

I don't think you can get by with just an edit of the Smart Shuriken's write-up here and there. For example, that Move 96 comes from Enhanced Move(Air) and is a top speed. Acceleration is only 12 by RAW. It'd have to travel in a smooth, straight line for 8 seconds to get up to that speed. With its' PER 10 it might not be able to see the target at that distance.

There are enhancements in Powers and Supers for Enhanced Move that would let you treat the 96 as regular Air Move or you could just buy the Air Move that high directly.

If we are re-writing from scratch I say give the thing a 1d Cutting (or Impaling) Innate Attack with Melee range. Then the Martial Arts p.107 rule would more clearly apply. I'm not sure that the device has the Thrusting damage attack (without using Slam) that the rule wants to substitute Slam damage for.

It wouldn't matter then that the device has No Manipulators. At least I've never seen a Shuriken that had arms and legs. :)

We could even up the Cutting Innate Attack to whatever we wanted and never have to mess with the Slam rules in the first place.

So there's my vote for "If you want this thing, write it up to be what you want from the start and don't mess with fiddly rules that probably don't work right at this scale anyway!". :)