Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > GURPS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 09-12-2017, 08:24 PM   #1
chandley
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Default [AtE] Unnatural Laser

TL;DR: A plan for a viable starter beam weapon, plus an upgrade path to an "ALL THE LASERS" laser. Summary here:

Code:
Mode               Dam        Acc   Range     ROF  Shots   Bulk  RCL
HEL              2d(2) burn   3     100/300   10   220(3)   -2   1
  Blind mode     HT-10 aff    3     100/300   10   10 per 
EL               1d-3 burn    2     10/20     1     1 per
                 HT-2(2) aff
  Kill Mode                                         2 per 
Torch            2d(2) burn         C, 1            4 per sec
Dazzle          HT-5 aff(1yd) 6     330/1000  1     82 per
Flashlight     negate darkness      50/3750   -     32.7min per
Baton            sw cr/thr cr       C,1
Shots "per" is per shot of HEL. 4 per sec means 4 shots of HEL per second of torch.

Cost: $15,440, Weight: 3.775

I have my eye on a Quick Gadgeteer (Armaments) guy for AtE, to explore a concept that has gotten stuck in my head ever since AtE came out: Lasers make great post-apoc weapons. But how to get one (they are expensive!)

Obviously, Quick Gadgeteer helps with that, since it basically lets you acquire something for 10% down and 90% sweat equity... if you can make some potentially difficult skill rolls in play. Gadgeteering is fine for this as well, it just takes longer and your sweat is worth less.

So, the only laser you could reasonably start with is a TL 9 Laser Flashlight. I love these things. They can be tuned between infrared, UV, and visible light, and out of the box are a useful weapon (they are a Dazzle laser). At $640 for a pristine Heavy Flashlight, they are a great target for a few points in cash and then getting tagged with sig gear.

As a dazzler, the target need only be looking at the laser and in the cone to be blinded. So, you have Acc 6 to lay a 1 yard cone on someone. That's pretty sweet as a starter gun. Once they are blinded, use the flashlight as a baton to beat them to death if that is your impulse. The power cell in AtE is a C cell, so need to upgrade those 2 B cells to that, and that increases shots to 18,000, weight to 1.4lbs, and flashlight run time to 120 hours.

But hitting people over the head with a very expensive club is gauche. Lets get something weapony: a Laser Torch! The normal (not heavy) laser torch uses a C cell and is 3 lbs, right in the range of what we want. And only $3,200! ($100x32). This is a combo gadget, where we can only use one function (flashlight, dazzle flashlight, or laser torch) at a time, so we save 50% of the cost of the cheaper item (here, $10 x32 for the $20x32 flashlight) and 50% of the weight of the lighter item (.45lbs for the flashlight). Need to dig up $2,880 x .1 = $28.8 in junk (easy, could START with that, and probably should), and upgrade roll will be at +0 (+3 for cost, -3 for TL 9). Take a day if you have it, get a nice skill bonus and really smash any bugs.

Now, instead of beating them to death with the club, you can carve chunks off of em at 2d(2) burn at C, 1, and both use Beam weapons (Projector) to hit! Granted, you are probably defaulting off of Beam Weapon (Rifle) at -4 for that, but still. Each second of torching someone costs 480 minutes of flashlight time, or 1,200 dazzle shots. New weight is 3.45lbs. New value is $3,520.

Now, what to add. The next upgrade is probably an Electrolaser. Also TL 9, a holdout EL is in fairly easy reach at ($250 x 32) = ($8,000 - ($3,520 * .5)) x .1 = $624 in parts. A day spent scrounging a city site should get that. . Shots is 220 with the C cell, weight is 3.6lbs, an EL "kill" shot uses 2 shots, the flashlight is 32.7 min/shot and 82 dazzle shots per shot, the torch is 4 shots per second. New value is $9,760.

Final "still looks like a flashlight" addition is a full up high-energy laser. It's only a little more expensive than the holdout EL, at $300x64 (TL10!) (+10% to upgrade the blinding mode substantially!), so you need ($19,200 - ($9,760*.5)) x .1 = $1624 in junk. A -1 roll. Now your 2d(2) burn damage extends to 100/300, as does your blinding mode, which is now HT-10, though if you miss your old cone based and more accurate flashlight blinder, you can switch to it still! The HEL and EL each use same power, 220 shots, and the rest of the modes are as for EL above. New weight is 3.775, new value is $15,440.

After a few days of work, you can straightforwardly have:

HEL for 2d(2) burn out to 100/300
EL for 1d-3 and HT-2(2) aff out to 10/20
Torch for 2d(2) burn at C,1 as a Jet
HEL Blinding for HT-10 aff out to 100/300
Flashlight Dazzle for HT-5 aff (1 yd) out to 330/1000
Flashlight to 50 yards, signaling to 3,750 yards, swing as a baton (sw cr or thr cr)

Buy in is $640 + sig gear + $2276.8 worth of junk...
or better, a pair of broken flashlights (broken is .25% cost, $160, but provides $1,280 in value!)

So, shill out 2 xp to get +$1000 in gear, spend $640 on a working flashlight, $320 on two broken flashlights, and $300 on a internal Power Pack (a C cell), and have $240 left for other goodies and a pretty sweet starter beam weapon after a few days work (to get the best time use bonus and reduce number of bugs). The truly bold will start with 3 broken flashlights, first repairing one, and then upgrading using the parts value of the other two... The two broken flashlights are worth $2,560 as laser parts, and the upgrades need $2,276.8, leaving a buffer of 283.2 for repairs of the first flashlight... which on a bad roll might need as much as $384 in parts to repair (basically, on the 1d6*10% roll, a 5 or 6 means you are going to need a bit of junk to finish the whole project.).

After the starter laser, a longer term goal of upgrading the HEL to a survival laser, and the EL to a carbine will improve range, Acc (to 12! very valuable), and damage, while requiring a second power cell (or cobbling together a D cell and wearing it on your belt!)

And to make it truly unnatural, plan to add a Laser Microphone ($200x32x.5), a Laser Comm +(50% * $2000 x32 for TL9), Laser-Retinal Imaging +(.5*$1000*32 for TL 9), Tactical LADAR mode +(50% * $10,000 x32 for TL9), and Laser Chemscanner mode (+2000 x 32 for TL 9).

Any other laser things I missed?
__________________
My GURPS stuff
chandley is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-13-2017, 05:34 AM   #2
John_A_Tallon
 
Join Date: Aug 2011
Default Re: [AtE] Unnatural Laser

It all seems rather dependent on the pre-apocalypse TL if you ask me. Even if your gadgeteer can find the parts and succeed at the invention rolls, you'll be at the mercy of having enough power cells of the correct TL available. In particular making the jump from the TL 9 flashlight lasers to the TL 10 high energy lasers will mean dealing with power cells of one TL or the other and facing the jury rigging rolls for that. You might not fail a roll at first, but you will eventually and then you're stuck making repairs to your weapon at best. Replacing it and dealing with an injury at worst.

It's probably better to treat everything in the gadget as being all of the same TL, which will either mean you can't get the TL 10 options or that you'll be paying a little more for the TL 9 ones.

Keeping enough power to keep your laser running is probably going to be a problem too. It's not like there's a power grid to plug into in most places, and I imagine most GMs will be fairly merciless about the prices NPCs demand for either intact cells or enough fuel to recharge one on the local generator (or time on their solar cell array).
John_A_Tallon is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-13-2017, 08:25 AM   #3
tshiggins
 
tshiggins's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Denver, Colorado
Default Re: [AtE] Unnatural Laser

High-tech weapons in a post-apocalyptic setting is definitely "cinematic." It works in Reign of Steel, because the apocalypse was for humans. The robots have an industrial infrastructure that works very well, thanks.

In a post-apocalyptic setting, there usually is no longer any industrial infrastructure -- that's a big part of why it's "post-apocalyptic." In such a setting, things as useful as energy-dense power cells are incredibly useful and, therefore, in increasingly short supply.

The characters will have to compete with, literally, everyone for access to items that useful, and I'd think the local powers-that-be would want a lock on the dwindling supply of such incredibly valuable commodities that nobody can make, any longer.

That doesn't mean power cells won't be available, but those that are will be ungawdly expensive, of dubious quality, and completely black-market, with everything that implies.

Me? I'd go for a flintlock muzzle-loader. Much less hassle, and dead is dead.
__________________
--
MXLP:9 [JD=1, DK=1, DM-M=1, M(FAW)=1, SS=2, Nym=1 (nose coffee), sj=1 (nose cocoa), Maz=1]
"Some days, I just don't know what to think." -Daryl Dixon.
tshiggins is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-13-2017, 08:44 AM   #4
chandley
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Default Re: [AtE] Unnatural Laser

Err, guys... AtE stands for "After the End". TL and Power cell assumptions are baked into that system. I _do_ assume that the end occurred after TL 10, one of the campaign dependent assumptions of that system. But this isnt about a generic post apocalypse, this is about playing an After the End campaign and starting with a laser. Nor am I wildly concerned about whether a laser is the BEST possible post-apoc weapon.

So, you are both quite correct in the generic case, but are missing some of the details of After the End, the DF like simplified setting series.
__________________
My GURPS stuff
chandley is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-13-2017, 10:44 AM   #5
tshiggins
 
tshiggins's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Denver, Colorado
Default Re: [AtE] Unnatural Laser

Okay, cool. You have a post TL 10 apocalypse. The question still remains, how available will the power cells be?

If they're so available that you can play a table-top version of Fallout, then your idea is just fine. Very clever, in fact, and you should have fun.

The Gadgeteering rules, which are incredibly cinematic, should let you do what you want, since they have nothing to do with reality, anyway.
__________________
--
MXLP:9 [JD=1, DK=1, DM-M=1, M(FAW)=1, SS=2, Nym=1 (nose coffee), sj=1 (nose cocoa), Maz=1]
"Some days, I just don't know what to think." -Daryl Dixon.
tshiggins is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-13-2017, 11:40 AM   #6
Mark Skarr
Forum Pervert
(If you have to ask . . .)
 
Mark Skarr's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Somewhere high up.
Default Re: [AtE] Unnatural Laser

Quote:
Originally Posted by tshiggins View Post
Me? I'd go for a flintlock muzzle-loader. Much less hassle, and dead is dead.
Just . . . don't tell Dave that it shoots magic rocks.
Mark Skarr is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-14-2017, 11:54 AM   #7
chandley
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Default Re: [AtE] Unnatural Laser

Oh, right, forgot to add a Pulse laser option. At 2d cr ex, it isn't that exciting but when damage goes up to 4d or 5d, you are talking a range 200 grenade with Acc 12 on the "throwing" roll... that has a lot of uses! Does open the age old question of when to use "contact explosion" and "internal explosion" rules for weapons that do ex damage. I've tentatively considered "doesnt penetrate DR but does hit" as a contact explosion (max normal damage) and "penetrates DR" as an internal explosion (triple rolled damage).

Lwcamp's nifty beam weapon page adds Prod, Tentanize, and EMP options to the EL mode, and an EMP mode could prove very useful against robots (though I guess in UT RAW, ELs aff still affects machines too, at the same HT-2).

I actually love just about everything on Lwcamps page, though he doesn't allow for any kind of explosive damage for a laser. Damn reality for being boring.

And I didn't mention it, but this does have the usual Laser Sight, HUD, etc that comes standard on TL 9+ guns, since that is wrapped into the price of the HEL/EL.

The only accessory to add is a Telescopic sight (Lwcamp suggests an SLR sight! neat!), but that can probably wait till you put a stock on it. Though if you DO have hud glasses, even the flashlight version could benefit. Thats +2 bonus to aimed shots, infravision, and 4x magnification. But ($1,000x32) = $32,000, so not easy to scrounge up.

HUD glasses aren't too bad. ($50x32) = $1,600. That's quite doable.
__________________
My GURPS stuff
chandley is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 11:20 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.