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Old 08-12-2011, 07:50 PM   #1
Praxian
 
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Default Starter Super-Suit

I'm getting ready to start a supers campaign. While the setting is 1995 (TL 8) I have 1 player wanting to play a TL 10 gadgeteer. Also, the character wants to help the "Supers" by him owning a super-suit that (obviously) gives him better stuff than some of the others (aka he wants to be like Iron Man).

I'm trying to help him make his suit individual for him because while the UT book has some suits in there, it doesn't have too much in common with what he wants.

Long (and now that I look at it slightly unneeded so - lol) story short, and up to the question, is the 3rd edition Mecha book still the best reference to make a 4th ed powersuit?

We've figured out how we're handling the suit (in this case with using the Signature Gear advantage where every 1 pt = $10,000 for the price of whatever the gear is). We just need a good source for 4th ed for making the suit.

Thanks for reading all!
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Old 08-12-2011, 07:59 PM   #2
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Default Re: Starter Super-Suit

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Originally Posted by Praxian View Post
I'm getting ready to start a supers campaign. While the setting is 1995 (TL 8) I have 1 player wanting to play a TL 10 gadgeteer. Also, the character wants to help the "Supers" by him owning a super-suit that (obviously) gives him better stuff than some of the others (aka he wants to be like Iron Man).

I'm trying to help him make his suit individual for him because while the UT book has some suits in there, it doesn't have too much in common with what he wants.

Long (and now that I look at it slightly unneeded so - lol) story short, and up to the question, is the 3rd edition Mecha book still the best reference to make a 4th ed powersuit?

We've figured out how we're handling the suit (in this case with using the Signature Gear advantage where every 1 pt = $10,000 for the price of whatever the gear is). We just need a good source for 4th ed for making the suit.

Thanks for reading all!
In Supers, you can start with Signature Gear based on 'real' gear with a $ value, then add additional abilities as Advantages bought with appropriate Gadget limitations, mixing the two systems for handling gadgets. For an Iron Man style character, I'd suggest starting with the best TL 10 battlesuit as Sig Gear, since even though it only boosts ST to 20 or so, it provides some pretty nice DR and other features, then purchase additional boosts to ST, Flight, etc., as Gadget-limited Abilities.
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Old 08-12-2011, 08:55 PM   #3
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Default Re: Starter Super-Suit

Having run a supers game with a TL10 gadgeteer in it, I can offer a few bits of advice.

First - Make sure whatever he has is within the same scale as what other supers have. My player's first battlesuit was a very very toned down version of TL 10 power armor, and it made it very hard to GM. Anything that could hurt the battlesuit could kill any other PC in one hit, anything that could resist a shot from the battlesuit's gauss gun was basically immune to damage from the other PCs. So, make sure the scale fits before anything else. Check out GURPS Supers for advice on this.

Second - Go for variety with a gadgeteer. Most of them have ridiculous levels of IQ based tech skills, so let them use em! Give them any little gadget they could reasonably invent. If you let the player have access to lots of little bits of gear, they likely won't be too upset when you nerf down the power armor and guns in order to keep it from becoming a one man show.
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Old 08-13-2011, 01:12 AM   #4
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Default Re: Starter Super-Suit

Remember that the prices of items increase when their TL is above the campaign TL (doubling for each +1 TL increase IIRC). You need to make sure that you use that adjusted price, instead of the normal price, unless the gadgeteer comes from a suitable TL culture
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Old 08-13-2011, 01:22 AM   #5
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Default Re: Starter Super-Suit

might want to consider statting it as a meta-trait of gadget-based advantages.
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Old 08-13-2011, 04:26 AM   #6
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Default Re: Starter Super-Suit

Honestly I put UT away and just use gadget limited advantages for something like iron man if balance is at all a concern.
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Old 08-13-2011, 08:27 AM   #7
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Default Re: Starter Super-Suit

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Originally Posted by Praxian View Post
We've figured out how we're handling the suit (in this case with using the Signature Gear advantage where every 1 pt = $10,000 for the price of whatever the gear is). We just need a good source for 4th ed for making the suit.
I think that on the whole I am with Joel on this gadget limited advantages are probably the way to go.

UT and in fact HT are still going to be useful as guide lines for working out what fits. I don't know the points budget that you are dealing with, and tend to favour both grit and scitzo-tech, but if I wanted a way to balance the character I would tie the suit into specific TL 10 inventions probably the basic frame and the power source (say based upon a UT exoskeleton) with armor, sensors, communications and weapons based upon TL 8 items. Then upgrade with new inventions in the course of play.
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Old 08-13-2011, 09:13 AM   #8
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, is the 3rd edition Mecha book still the best reference to make a 4th ed powersuit?

!
I wouldn't have called the 3e Mecha book the best resource for making battlesuits in 3e. I always found it easier to go straight to Ve2.

If your PC wants something like Iron Man rather than the suits in UT your only specifric reource is Supers 4e. The gneral Gadget sustem in Basic will do in a pinch. The Iron Man suit isn't technology of any vaguely realsitic kind.
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Old 08-13-2011, 10:52 AM   #9
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Default Re: Starter Super-Suit

One of the other things I was thinking about, would it be better to potentially create the armor as a "Character" so to speak and then create it with the "Ally" (like part of it says under Sig Gear)?

Then I could just make a char sheet for the armor, and if it needs upgraded, then as needed as the campaign goes he can pay the extra CP's for working on the "Armor" as needed, take out and replace other things, etc. basically adjusting the cost and making the armor "Better" as the character gets better.

And I really do appreciate all the advice. This is all great stuff guys. Thanks!

Edit:
And the players have 1,000 points for their characters. Basically they're "New" to the hero scene out in Southern California (seems to be where everything is going more and more)
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Old 08-13-2011, 11:41 AM   #10
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Default Re: Starter Super-Suit

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Originally Posted by Praxian View Post
One of the other things I was thinking about, would it be better to potentially create the armor as a "Character" so to speak and then create it with the "Ally" (like part of it says under Sig Gear)?

Then I could just make a char sheet for the armor, and if it needs upgraded, then as needed as the campaign goes he can pay the extra CP's for working on the "Armor" as needed, take out and replace other things, etc. basically adjusting the cost and making the armor "Better" as the character gets better.
I would really not recommend that for armor in general. That option works, sort of, for vehicles; you're likely to get out of them to do stuff, so it makes sense to say that they might not be available, and that you're going to roll for availability. But a powered armor super whose armor is unavailable is really nonfunctional. And the 4x point cost for "always available" will make it a lot more expensive—or even the 3x for 15 or less.

It might make more sense if the armor had an artificial intelligence and could move and fight on its own, as a partner rather than gear. But classic Iron Man armor doesn't have its own IQ or Will.

The combination Signature Gear/Ally treatment that I wrote up for GURPS Supers is problematic in a different way. It's really designed for taking standard, commercially available vehicles as a baseline (the example is a pre-WWII biplane) and using its Ally points to buy up its vehicular stats and advantages: +1 Acceleration, +4 Hnd, +2 DR, +2 HT. But the kind of TL10 armor you're talking about isn't commercially available! There is no market in your setting where the hero can walk in and buy a suit of it. Even if you used the gadgeteering rules to estimate a cash cost, it would be incredibly high at two TLs up from the current TL—and that stretches the rules. SG/Ally is meant for the character whose vehicle is just a bit better than what anyone could buy for cash.

I really would recommend that you buy the armor as a gadget, buying its traits with gadget limitations. That's how the Dreadnought template in GURPS Supers does it, and there's a reason for that. The External ST rules in GURPS Supers are specifically designed to fit this type of character. And, in fact, the Dreadnought template is built on 1,000 points, which I think is right in the range you were looking for, so you might like to look it over for ideas.

Bill Stoddard

Last edited by whswhs; 08-13-2011 at 11:46 AM.
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