Toggle for full body damage?

[Donny Brook]

GURPS Powers page 140 includes this content:

Sonic Scream (+75%): Burning
Attack 6d-1 (Environmental,
Air/Water, -5%; No Incendiary Effect,
-10%; Side Effect, Deafness, +70%;
Underwater, +20%) [51]. Notes: A
beam of “coherent sound” that cooks
the living without the risk of fire. Being
very broad-beam (not tight-beam), it
inflicts full-body damage and can’t target
hit locations. 51 points.

Regarding the last sentence there, I don't see what makes the build into broad beam vs narrow beam. Can anyone explain?

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Donny Brook

GURPS Powers page 140 includes this content:



Regarding the last sentence there, I don't see what makes the build into broad beam vs narrow beam. Can anyone explain?

There doesn't look to be anything that does this. My guess would be that the intent is that you can dictate burning attacks (at least) as "broad beam" and cover the entire body. I had thought that non-broad-beam burning could still target hit locations, it just wasn't able to target the Eyes or Vitals (but had a better incendiary effect); I'm not certain if this should be interpreted to mean such always just hits the entire body, or if this power is a special case (in which case it should probably have something like Large Area Injury +0%). Normally you need Explosive, Area Effect, or Cone for Large Area Injury to come into play.

[Donny Brook]

A "Cone" one-yard wide for it's whole range would provide Large Area injury but costs +50%.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Donny Brook

A "Cone" one-yard wide for it's whole range would provide Large Area injury but costs +50%.

Yes, I don't think you can get Large Area Injury for free. That has significant armor effects.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Donny Brook

GURPS Powers page 140 includes this content:



Regarding the last sentence there, I don't see what makes the build into broad beam vs narrow beam. Can anyone explain?

Huh, it's actually quite odd. The definition of Tight-Beam Burning on Campaigns 399 indicates that you have to buy a modifier to get an innate attack to not be tight-beam burning.

This seems like a grave mistake. Throwing blobs of fire that are very non-penetrating but don't have blast effects are a staple. but it is what the text says. I believed a burning innate attack could pick tight beam or not at creation, but that I can't find rules to that effect.

And even ignoring that I agree with you that the description would better fit by a one-yard cone, which would avoid the aforementioned problem.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Donny Brook

A "Cone" one-yard wide for it's whole range would provide Large Area injury but costs +50%.

It would also mean the only way to avoid a hit would be to move to a hex that isn't in the path of the cone, and would also be able to affect everything in a line within the attack's range rather than a single target. I see no reason the quoted ability couldn't simply be Dodged while staying within the same hex, and it's clearly a single-target effect. That said, Large Area Injury doesn't seem like it should just be +0% - sure, you can't target unarmored/lightly armored hit locations, or the Skull for extra damage, but the fact it means someone has to be completely covered by armor or have their Torso DR halved seems like it more than makes up for that.
(Also, a 1-yard-wide Cone would be +60% - Cone is +50% and +10% per yard of width. But that's a minor quibble.)

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Varyon

It would also mean the only way to avoid a hit would be to move to a hex that isn't in the path of the cone, and would also be able to affect everything in a line within the attack's range rather than a single target. I see no reason the quoted ability couldn't simply be Dodged while staying within the same hex, and it's clearly a single-target effect. That said, Large Area Injury doesn't seem like it should just be +0% - sure, you can't target unarmored/lightly armored hit locations, or the Skull for extra damage, but the fact it means someone has to be completely covered by armor or have their Torso DR halved seems like it more than makes up for that.
(Also, a 1-yard-wide Cone would be +60% - Cone is +50% and +10% per yard of width. But that's a minor quibble.)

I'd argue that a beam wide enough to be a full-body effect can't be narrow enough to be something you can easily weave around. Unless it's narrow but tall, maybe, and that (inappropriately) assuming human-shaped targets.

A truly single-target large area attack could exist, but I think it'd have to be more of an engulfing thing that actually shapes itself to the target.

[mburr0003]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

Huh, it's actually quite odd. The definition of Tight-Beam Burning on Campaigns 399 indicates that you have to buy a modifier to get an innate attack to not be tight-beam burning.

Considering the sidebox explicitly mentions torches and flamethrowers aren't tight-beam, I strongly doubt this interpretation.

I suspect that this was just to clarify that a "jet†, cone, area-effect, explosion, or follow-up" cannot be tight-beam.

At best tight-beam should be considered a 0% Enhancement and simply is not compatible with the disallowed Enhancements.


† Though I disagree with Jet not being allowed.



On topic: The Sonic Scream ability should be cone 1yd wide to act as it should. I'd call this one for the FAQ, but that will never be updated.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by mburr0003

Considering the sidebox explicitly mentions torches and flamethrowers aren't tight-beam, I strongly doubt this interpretation.

Torches are melee attacks, and flamethrowers are jets. They're both examples of following the rule as it is stated, not exceptions to it.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

I'd argue that a beam wide enough to be a full-body effect can't be narrow enough to be something you can easily weave around. Unless it's narrow but tall, maybe, and that (inappropriately) assuming human-shaped targets.

Well, in that case it would either need to be a 1-yard-wide Cone or a 1-yard Area Effect (which I think is an option in a book somewhere, for +25%).

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

A truly single-target large area attack could exist, but I think it'd have to be more of an engulfing thing that actually shapes itself to the target.

I'm fine with treating the hexes as abstract enough that you can dodge an attack that's wide enough to do Large Area Injury without exiting the hex. But I can certainly understand someone ruling that such a thing is impossible (outside of the sort of expanding attack you mention, which could also be an option), in which case, as noted above, it will need an appropriate modifier. I think the referenced ability is a sort of expanding attack, however - it's a relatively-narrow wave of intense sound, and when it strikes a target, results in resonance effects throughout the target that cause significant injury to soft tissues and the like. At least, that's what I'm getting from the name and description.