Powercells And The Draw Power Spell

[scc]

OK, can anyone offer any advice for how many FP a Mage should get when he casts Draw Power on a power cell? I realize that this should very by size and TL.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by scc

OK, can anyone offer any advice for how many FP a Mage should get when he casts Draw Power on a power cell? I realize that this should very by size and TL.

The first thing is that you don't cast Draw Power on a power cell. Draw Power requires an active power source. Steal Power is for stored power.

The second thing is that the hard numbers on how much power a power cell contains are not avaiiable in Gurps 4e. If you use 3e numbers (there was a handy chart in Grimoire 3e) there are some conversion issues since power cells are no longer available at TL8.

If you bump everything up oe TL then there are potentially 10 FP in a TL9 C cell with 50% more per TL above that and 10x as much for each larger size of power cell i.e 100 in a D and 1000 in a E. However, you then have to note the description in Stela Power where only a percentage equal to the caster's Skill in the Spell is available so Skill 15 gets you 15%. That would round down to 1 FP from a TL9 C cell at Skill-15.

If you don't want to use Gurps 3e numbers things get much harder.

[scc]

Actually Steal Power needs a battery, nothing in either Conduct Power or Draw Power says anything about needing to come from a generator.

And the reason I'm asking because I'm kicking around idea for a template/rules for Dungeon Fantasy for people who somehow from a higher TL and can't get back. The potential for magic using characters to be extremely broken under these circumstances. Even at 15% your still looking at 15 energy from a single D cell and that's bad enough for a starting character to have a power item with that much juice, but if he's got multiple? And some way of recharging them? (The concept isn't all that useful/interesting/worth it if it doesn't have an impact beyond the first few adventures/dungeons)

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by scc

Actually Steal Power needs a battery, nothing in either Conduct Power or Draw Power says anything about needing to come from a generator.

It only works on active power sources; a power cell just sitting there is producing 0 power and therefore you can't get any energy from it. Though you could probably hook a power cell up to a simple motor to solve that.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Anthony

It only works on active power sources; a power cell just sitting there is producing 0 power and therefore you can't get any energy from it. Though you could probably hook a power cell up to a simple motor to solve that.

Yes, but you'd go to a lower TL Draw spell.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by scc

A Even at 15% your still looking at 15 energy from a single D cell and that's bad enough for a starting character to have a power item with that much juice, but if he's got multiple? And some way of recharging them? (The concept isn't all that useful/interesting/worth it if it doesn't have an impact beyond the first few adventures/dungeons)

Note that the 3e numbers were produced for non-rechargeable Power Cells. If he has rechargeable Power Cells you only get half as much.

[scc]

Originally Posted by Anthony

It only works on active power sources; a power cell just sitting there is producing 0 power and therefore you can't get any energy from it. Though you could probably hook a power cell up to a simple motor to solve that.

I'm going to need some kind of source on this.

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Yes, but you'd go to a lower TL Draw spell.

No, I'm pretty sure that higher TL spells/skills include all the ability of lower TL ones.

[weby]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

The second thing is that the hard numbers on how much power a power cell contains are not avaiiable in Gurps 4e.

Indeed, the core books do not have such conversion. The only values given are the actual ones in Infinite Worlds. Though PSI-Tech says that rechargeable cells have four times the power of high tech batteries.

If you use 3e numbers (there was a handy chart in Grimoire 3e) there are some conversion issues since power cells are no longer available at TL8.

If you bump everything up oe TL then there are potentially 10 FP in a TL9 C cell with 50% more per TL above that and 10x as much for each larger size of power cell i.e 100 in a D and 1000 in a E. However, you then have to note the description in Stela Power where only a percentage equal to the caster's Skill in the Spell is available so Skill 15 gets you 15%. That would round down to 1 FP from a TL9 C cell at Skill-15.

If you don't want to use Gurps 3e numbers things get much harder.

4e power cells apparently go up faster than the 50% in capacity you say above as the REF for exploding power cells is doubled each TL.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by scc

I'm going to need some kind of source on this.

Draw power: identical to conduct power except...
Conduct power: a link between an active power source and...

[scc]

Apart from being somewhat vague, that means that a large variety of seemingly legitimate sources are unavailable depending upon forces beyond the casters control? For instance a car with a running engine's cigarette lighter or phone charger can be used but once the engine stops it can't be used? Or any other vehicle or installation that has to switch to battery backups?