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Old 07-25-2016, 12:32 AM   #1
Spoe710
 
Join Date: Jul 2016
Default need veteran help to assign point value

I am in need of your expertise. I am attempting to create a simplified Power Ring for an alternate universe space/supers campaign. I have no idea how many points to assign this project. I listed point values where I could, but there are holes.

See the last entry (Primary Powers: Willpower constructs and Innate Attacks—) if you’re a TL;DR kind of person. That's the section really giving me a fit. I welcome any criticism or suggestions on better ways to accomplish something.

The first two sections (General Exceptions and General Limitations) do not have point values. They are included to help you make informed decisions.

Look for places with *** for specific items on which I would like point-based input.

General Exceptions—

***1) Technically, the ring's energy is infinite, but keep track of all Will roll failures. With each, the GM secretly rolls d6. Should his roll ever be less than the number of failures for that gaming session, the ring suffers a temporary power outage. When this happens, all ring abilities are rendered useless for d6 hours as the user's faltering will stuns the Ion fragment.

General Limitations---

***1) The ring can be removed with creativity, like severing the user’s hand, which involves a cutting attack made at -4 to hit (per the Hit Location rules, in addition to normal speed/range modifiers, of course).

2) The ring’s powers always manifest with glowing green energy, which negates any possible modifiers for any attack made at night with the hopes of not being seen. The light that emanates from a power use (or from the force field that surrounds its wearer) works as a continual light spell set to glow at firelight intensity, which can be seen for miles at night.

3) The ring only functions physically; it cannot be used to emulate a mental, occult-based, afflictive, or emotional attack.

***4) Targets who fail to defend actively against a construct or its attack can attempt a Contest of Will with the ring user. If the target wins, he is able to negate all damage (or other effects) that the ring user had in mind for that particular attack.

General Notes / Rules---

5) The power ring allows flight (40 points) in both air and space (+50%). Users may purchase levels of Enhanced Move (air) and Enhanced Move (space) equal to (Will/4). These levels are purchased separately – [60 points + Enhanced Move levels]

6) The ring provides 25 points of Damage Resistance (B46), which manifests as a glowing force field around the user (+20%). The force field is hardened at 5 levels, negating armor divisors up to 100 (+100%), and it provides the user with Pressure Support 3 (15 points, B78), Sealed (15 points, B82), Vacuum Support (5 points, B96), and a 50-divisor Radiation Tolerance (25 points, B79) – [335 points].


7) The user has a willpower point pool for building constructs and delivering effects (see Willpower Constructs and Innate Attack powers below) equal to (Will x5), and he must pay this amount in character points. For example, a character with Will 13 has a total willpower point pool for building constructs and delivering effects equal to 65; the character must pay 65 points for this. Any constructs and/or effects or advantages and enhancements they contain cannot have a total value more than this amount.

***8) By default, constructs designed to be mobile move at ½ the user’s Will (round down), and all constructs have ST and HT values equal to the user’s Will. DX rolls are the responsibility of the user. To increase Move for any given construct, the user must use points from his willpower pool to purchase Enhanced Move (B52). To increase the construct’s default ST or HT, the user must increase his Will (B16), but he may increase the default ST or HT values when designing a construct by paying points from the Willpower Pool at 10 points per lvl if the user needs a construct with more ST or HT than default allows. HP is increased passively as ST is increased (ST=HP).

***Primary Powers: Willpower constructs and Innate Attacks—

This is the one I need the most help with. I have no idea what kind of point value to assign this.

Essentially, I want to be able to say “yes” to a player who comes up with a construct idea that can plausibly mimic almost any physical-based advantage, spell, or piece of equipment in the book and give those advantages or spells or attacks almost any enhancement in the book in order to help the user create what he envisions.

The Willpower Construct power is really little more than a vehicle for the Innate Attack (B61) advantage (the mage’s staff, so to speak) or some other point-based effect. Any given construct can use an Innate Attack with either the Burning (5/lvl), Crushing (5/lvl), Cutting (7/lvl), Impaling (8/lvl), or Piercing (varies) manifestations---all in an effort to create whatever the user can think of, using whatever advantages and enhancements he can think of, and applying as many points to any given construct as the user has Willpower Pool Points.

Example One—

Our ring wielder, Will 15, wants to create a flamethrower that shoots jets of green will-fire. Structurally, the weapon will have 15 hit points and have an HT of 15 (not that those stats will matter much in this particular case). Move is irrelevant since it’s a held weapon. We have 75 points we can pump into its creation (Will x 5). This is a direct attack construct that should take the Burning Innate Attack advantage (5/lvl); since he wants to make it a wide flamethrower, he takes the Cone enhancement with a three-yard spread (+80%); finally, since our user is particularly sadistic, he adds a 2-second cyclic enhancement with a one-second damage interval (+200%). 5+ (+80%+200%) = 22/lvl. The flamethrower’s damage is (75/19), or 3.9, which comes to 4d burning damage per second for three total seconds!

Example Two—this *could* be built using the Crushing Innate Attack, but since it isn’t exactly a traditional “attack,” I constructed it differently. I suppose building it as a Crushing attack would work too. Using the Crushing Innate Attack (7/lvl), we would generate an 11d attack. Doing it the following way, however, is much more fun and way more destructive!

The same user (Will 15) wants to bash down a 2” thick wooden door (DR 2, HP 29) to get to the villain behind it. He uses Willpower Construct to create a big fist. No, too boring. An ogre wielding a baby like a battering ram! Structurally, the construct has ST 15, HT 15, and 15 hit points, and it can move at 7 yards per second. But our user wants to obliterate the door and possibly cause some intimidation after all that destruction, or maybe he wants to make a dramatic entrance. According to the rules, damage to hard, immovable objects (B431) is determined thusly: the moving object is (hp x hp x velocity)/100, which equates to 2d damage. This is clearly not enough for a really destructive entrance (though he might battle the door down over successive turns), so the user goes into the Willpower Pool to modify the numbers. He increases the constructs ST from 15 to 20 (50 points) and adds one level of Enhanced Move (20 points), doubling the constructs move from 7 to 14 (and making the construct subject to the High Speed Movement rules, B394, but that’s not really important in this particular case). With five remaining points, he adds a little helmet to the baby (DR 1). You know, for laughs.

Our damage now is calculated thusly: [(20x20x14)/100] = 56d. Now THAT will make a dramatic entrance—and it’ll be fun watching a big, glowing ogre run at almost 30 mph toward a door with the intent of bashing it open using a helmet-wearing baby.

Example 3 – a binding attack (B40)

Our same hero wants to secure a villain to pump him for information. He creates a glowing, green rope or a big hand or a cage or a cube of green steel or a giant Labrador who holds the villain in its mouth---whatever. Binding costs 2/lvl, but it increases if the user wants the bind to engulf the villain (+60%), which brings the total cost to 3/lvl. Our binding’s total ST (and hit points) becomes 25. If the villain wants to break out of the binding, he has to beat that with his ST contest. Not an easy feat. If the user didn’t want to deal with typical ranged stats—a binding normally has a max range of 100 yards, Acc 3—he would take the Malediction enhancement, but its cost (150%) would reduce the effective power level to 13, which is much, much easier to break than 25. Of course, a bound villain *might* be able to be moved, which would come in handy if he needs to go to jail. As long as the villain’s weight is within the ring user’s lifting allowance, he can fly him away! He could also fly him to the stratosphere and then drop him…



Anyway, that should give you an idea. If it’s a perfect world, I would like suggestions on a total point value for this gadget, but I’ll take whatever advice, suggestions, or criticisms you have. Thanks again for all you do. These forums have been a sacred place of clarification for years.

Sincerely,
D. S. Poe

Last edited by Spoe710; 07-25-2016 at 04:17 PM.
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Old 07-25-2016, 10:51 AM   #2
Gold & Appel Inc
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: One Mile Up
Default Re: need veteran help to assign point value

Quote:
Originally Posted by Spoe710 View Post
5) The power ring allows flight (40 points) in both air and space.
Space flight is a +50% Enhancement.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Spoe710 View Post
*** Is a fully hardened 20 DR enough for a TL 10 setting? The main weapons are blasters, which do 6d (5) damage with RoF 3. The median 6d roll is about 20, so 20 seems okay to me considering the armor divisor is negated .
Depends on what you mean by, "enough." This force field will barely make the user blaster-resistant on its own, but if they can also wear conventional armor under it they'll be pretty tough against small arms.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Spoe710 View Post
GURPS characters die a lot.
Depends on the setting, their tactics, and whether offense grossly outperforms defense.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Spoe710 View Post
This is a direct attack construct that should take the “burning” Innate Attack advantage, so we begin with a cost of 5/lvl, and since we want a much better range than a typical flamethrower, we take the Malediction enhancement (+150%)
Are you sure Malediction is what you want to use here? That changes more than the attack's range. Why not Increased Range?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Spoe710 View Post
finally, our user adds the cyclic enhancement with a one-second damage interval (+100%) because he wants the target to burn until someone puts the fire out. 5+ (150%+80%+100%) = 22/lvl. The flamethrower’s damage is (75/22), or 3.4, which makes it 3d burning damage per second until the flames are doused.
You can't just buy Cyclic with a 1/second interval and have it work indefinitely; each interval costs you. The way you've got it currently, it burns for two seconds.
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Old 07-25-2016, 03:54 PM   #3
Spoe710
 
Join Date: Jul 2016
Default Re: need veteran help to assign point value

Thank you! Corrections made :) Any thoughts on how many total points you think this gadget should be?
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Old 07-25-2016, 11:12 PM   #4
Bilanthri
 
Join Date: Jul 2016
Default Re: need veteran help to assign point value

I think I would build this up as follows:

Modular Abilities, Cosmic Power (Limited, green force fields, -5%; Can Be Stolen, must be cut off, -5%; Physical advantages only, +50%) [14 CP per point]

As a special effect, I would allow a single Social advantage, Allies, with the requirement that any ally construct made must be built as a Constant (x4) Ally and have Minion (+50%) and Summonable (+100%).

I would recommend creating a "Construct" racial template that must be applied to any Ally constructs which includes such things as Doesn't Breathe [20], Doesn't Sleep [20], Injury Tolerance (Homogeneous, No Eyes) [45], and Slave Mentality [-40]. There are a lot that I'm not listing, but looking at Golem or Undead templates should give you a good idea.

So, for your Will-15 character to be able to move around their max of 75 points, they would have to spend 1050 CP but would not need to spend that extra 75 for the "pool" as it is built into the ability.

This also allows you to bundle up Flight and DR within this same power which then makes their max flight and armor capabilities essentially tied to their Will.

Oh, and you can emulate the Will-based resistance by requiring that any attack ability, including those possessed by ally constructs, be modified with Resistable and Based on Will. The book says Resistable is only added to certain penetration modifiers, but I'd make an exception in this case.

Last edited by Bilanthri; 07-25-2016 at 11:30 PM.
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Old 07-26-2016, 05:30 PM   #5
Spoe710
 
Join Date: Jul 2016
Default Re: need veteran help to assign point value

Bilanthri, that's an excellent suggestion! Thank you!! I will take some time tonight to write it all up and see how it turns out. Your suggestion might be just what the doctor ordered.

To make sure I'm understanding your intent (please correct me if not)---

I first build a summonable, constant, non-sentient, minion ally (which could take any shape, really, so long as the construct makes sense for the modular ability it gets); purchase attributes for it normally (ST, HT, Move---all limited to the Will restriction noted in the OP) and assign the template advantages and disadvantages (like what you suggested). Total these points to see what % they are of the character and pay the character points for it (As an aside, I suppose I could just attach this "ally" to the ring itself since, really, the same ally can be used in all situations---the only thing that really changes is its shape and whatever modular ability it has, right?).

After that, I would attach the modular ability you mentioned, which could be, for a simple example, a 5d flame attack [14/level x 5 = 70 points].

Then, poof, construct made. This one might be a green, fire-breathing bunny or some such.

Is that pretty much what you had in mind?
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Old 07-26-2016, 09:09 PM   #6
Bilanthri
 
Join Date: Jul 2016
Default Re: need veteran help to assign point value

Actually, it's a little simpler than that even.

Modular Abilities (Cosmic Power) allows the user to shuffle their allotted points around how ever they want into as many abilities as they can afford.

So, let's say you have 75 points available. You could spend 1 second to assign these advantages:

Ally (Constant; 100% CP value) [20 points]

Burning Attack 5d (Based on Will, +20%; Resistable, Will-2, -20%) [25 points]

DR 6 (Force Field, +20%) [30 points]

Now the user can access all three abilities at any time. And when the need arises, they can spend a second and rearrange the points again. Maybe the fight ends and the user needs to fly somewhere, so they drop the burning attack and ally and pick up flight and another point of DR for the journey.

Because the Modular Abilities advantage has the Green Force Field limitation, any ability manifested will be made of green force.

As far as the ally template, that's where you as the GM determine what features any ally made of green force would have. So the player can build whatever sort of ally construct they need at the moment so long as it includes your GM approved Green Force Construct template.

So, really, the ring would only have one ability:

Modular Abilities, Cosmic Power (Limited, green force fields, -5%; Can Be Stolen, must be cut off, -5%; Physical advantages only, +50%) [14 CP per point]

Plus any other modifiers you would see fit, but this simple build gives the user a whole lot of flexibility.

Oh, there is one thing...unless the player uses some points to build a mental link between their ally and themselves, they have to verbally tell it what to do.

Last edited by Bilanthri; 07-26-2016 at 09:15 PM.
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Old 07-27-2016, 03:44 PM   #7
Spoe710
 
Join Date: Jul 2016
Default Re: need veteran help to assign point value

Wow. It's so simple!!

That's just perfect. Thank you so much for your time in this. I really appreciate it. I was making that so difficult.

:)

Sincerely,
Scott
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Old 07-27-2016, 04:23 PM   #8
Bilanthri
 
Join Date: Jul 2016
Default Re: need veteran help to assign point value

No problem at all. It took me forever to figure out how to properly use Modular Abilities...glad I could help. :)

Oh, and another neat thing about doing it this way is that the user doesn't -have- to buy all their available Willx5. Maybe they want to have that unassailable Will 15, but they can only afford to buy 25 points of Modular Abilities [350]. There's nothing wrong with that, and the ring will scale with campaign power level.

I'd recommend sitting down with your player and coming up with some stock power arrangements too. It will speed up scene changes as you move between investigation, travel, and combat scenarios.

Last edited by Bilanthri; 07-27-2016 at 04:34 PM.
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Old 07-27-2016, 09:42 PM   #9
Spoe710
 
Join Date: Jul 2016
Default Re: need veteran help to assign point value

Wow, more great tips! Thank you so much. You really helped me take the pain out of this, truly.

Scott
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