Star Trek Phasers for GURPS?
 

What do you think is the simplest, most fun, truest to the setting, way to handle Phasers in GURPS?

I had thought about using the stats for a rainbow laser but with a "stun" setting like an omni-blaster. A standard type II phaser would be a RLaser Pistol with a HT-3 stun when set to stun.

What do you think? Any other ideas?

Re: Star Trek Phasers for GURPS?
 

I don't remember an occasion on which anyone was ever shot with a phaser and merely wounded. Set to "stun" they stun. Set to "kill" they completely destroy the body. Affliction mechanics, with a "Stunned" option and a "Dead, disintegrated" option would seem more appropriate than injury rules. Either that or they need to do about <correction> 290 points of damage.

The hand phasers in the later series had terrible ergonomics and no sights. BEAM WEAPONS (Hand Phaser) should be a Hard skill, and the weapons' acc should be zero. Hand phasers in TOS weren't so bad.

You might find the following sites interesting and useful, but be aware that their author is no respecter of sacred cows. You might decide to reject his conclusions and even his criticisms out of hand, nevertheless you should find it useful to consider his collected observations of what phasers are shown as doing.

• http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/...d/Guns-ST.html
• http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/...eam/Beam1.html

Re: Star Trek Phasers for GURPS?
 

TOS phasers were hit and 5arget drops or disintegrates. In later shows they got nerfed to the point a character could be hit multiple times and while dying, still get a heroic last action.

IIRC The FASA Start Trek rules gave them Stun Kill and Disintegrate settings.

The hit/drop 'rule' also applies to Star Wars EXCEPT in RPG rules. In a one shot game using the FASA rules and a WotC Star Wars adventure, our GM was astounded at how quickly his NPC thugs went down. He's complaining pos aborted game how in Star Wars you 're supposed to take a hit, keep shooting until finally someone dropped.

We had to break the reality of the movies to hm gently.

It's a sad thing when someone's sense of fictional realities is warped bey9od recognition by inflating hit points. :)

Re: Star Trek Phasers for GURPS?
 

Fer cryin' out loud.

They put a TL 12 weapon called a Disnintegrator in the new UT and one shot from even the holdout model will indeed completely disintegrate a normal human and no one makes the connection from this to the phaser.

I feel sympathy with Kromm having to answer "How do I model a light saber in Gurps? Is it anything like a Force Sword?" so many times.

Let disintegrators fire at partial power for reduced use of energy/charges and you have half of the mods you need.

Then use the omniblaster rule to add a stun setting to a disintegrator and you have the other half. It will max out at -10 most of the time and this is close enough to the auto-stun you see on Trek for rpg purposes.

Or if that's not direct enough for you you can borrow the stunner rules from Vorkosigan. That's another cinematic universe where stunners work like plot devices. You get hit in the torso or the head and you're stunned. No roll or anything.

Re: Star Trek Phasers for GURPS?
 

You are SO right... come on everyone!

I do agree, setting 8 (16 settings in a canon phaser) is the standard kill setting, should do about 100-120 damage. With some granularity, 190 points is about setting 12..

I would also try to minimize wide variance in the damage range as well. Instead of 8d damage at whatever setting, maybe 2d+18, etc.

Re: Star Trek Phasers for GURPS?
 

That...depends. Phasers work differently from episode to episode within the same series, so its not like there is a good fixed reference point. If you want something that has all the features phasers have at one point or another, you want something that:
* might be FTL (or maybe that's just the mounted version)
* can stun, so something like the stun setting for omni-blasters is needed.
* can disintegrate all or part of a target
* can inflict injury without disintegrating (sometimes cauterizing, sometimes not.)
* can be used as a tight-beam, continuous cutting tool
* can be used to heat objects
* can be set for varying areas of effect -- on most settings
* can sometimes cause very substantial knockback

Re: Star Trek Phasers for GURPS?
 

A couple years ago I ran a ST:Next Gen-era campaign and I made up my own damage table for phasers. I might have based some of the numbers off of existing weapons, but mostly it was pulled out of my hat.

I gave the phasers four settings: Heat, Stun, Kill and Disintegrate, with a fifth setting, "overload", that I didn't bother defining because it was essentially a plot device. And I had four different types of phasers: Type I, the standard issue Federation phaser; Type II, a more powerful hand phaser, and the Phaser Rifle. (In retrospect, I see that I was basing this on how the phasers were depicted in TOS; I don't know if phasers had these distinctions in Next Gen). To these three standard classes I added a fourth: The "Bunny Phaser", a low-powered phaser with only the heat and stun settings, issued to non-Starfleet personnel; (my wife's character was a civilian on board a Galaxy-class ship so I figured they wouldn't let her have a standard phaser).

These are the damages I came up with. Once again, these were just numbers I pulled out of a hat with little to no play-testing or relation to existing weapon stats:

Bunny Phaser
Heat: 10 degrees per second
Stun: Target must roll vs. HT to avoid Stun; stunned for (Margin of failure) seconds.
Kill: None
Disintegrate: None

Phaser I:
Heat: 20 degrees per second
Stun: Target must roll vs. (DR+HT-4) to avoid stun; stunned for (10xMOF) minutes
Kill: 3d burning
Disintegrate: 10d

Phaser II:
Heat: 50 degrees per second
Stun: Target must roll vs. (HT-4) to avoid stun: stunned for (30xMOF) minutes
Kill: 4d burning; reduce DR by 1/2
Disintegrate: 15d

Phaser Rifle:
Heat: 100 degrees per second
Stun: Target must roll vs. (HT-10) to avoid stun; stunned for (MOF) hours
Kill: 8d burning; reduce DR by 12
Disintegrate: 20d

Re: Star Trek Phasers for GURPS?
 

Simple, and true to setting: ignore GURPS damage rules. A phaser hit stuns if the phaser is set on stun, it kills if it is set on kill, etc. You don't need damage rules to represent that. Rules would only be a complicated way to sometimes get simple things wrong.

Re: Star Trek Phasers for GURPS?
 

Forum member Gold & Appel posted a good suggestion in one of my STAR TREK-related threads. He said go with the Omni-blaster from Ultra Tech.

Since it was available when running the GCA - thats what I went with.

So far TWO game sessions, one in June and one in December using that shortcut....and so far no problems as far as the players are concerned.


- Ed Charlton

Re: Star Trek Phasers for GURPS?
 

Given canon presentation, even in the recent Abrams ST movie, Brett's exactly right. One hit, and you're either KO'ed, dead, or both dead and vaporized. No fuss, no muss, no stats required for dropping 'em. Only possible stats needed for the stun setting are how long you stay down; define it as either a HT roll at a penalty that reduces for duration (use, perhaps, the speed range table on the speed setting rather than range) or "you're out for 30-HT minutes" for simplicity.

Re: Star Trek Phasers for GURPS?
 

Well, that middle one is kinda incompatible with the others. A simple and accurate model would be a "dial-an-Affliction" weapon, but there's a reason RPGs use hit points, and it sure ain't realism.

For a model that's fun and true to the spirit, use Combination Gadgets(p16, Ultra-Tech) to combine IR, aqua, UV, and X-ray lasers, a stat gun, and a disintegrator. Use Exploding Power Cells(p19, Ultra-Tech) to convert energy consumption between TLs, and to model the overload setting. Add hotshots(p133, Ultra-Tech), and "coldshots" consuming half a shot and dealing -1 damage per die. Make it one Ready maneuver to change all these settings around. It's deliberately not simple, though; this is not a weapon for going out and making people miserable with, it's an energy swiss army knife which necessarily includes lethal settings.

Re: Star Trek Phasers for GURPS?
 

In the last episode of series one of TNG the "infested" humans aren't dropped by one (or even several) shots of the phaser on stun setting iirc. I guess you could call that a special feature of the creature but to be honest I don't see the difference between saying "~190pts of damage" and "you die" in most cases... That's why I would stay with the Disintegrater and handwave most damage roles if there is no chance the hit is survived (e.g. you are hit and are a normal human and have no further protection)... So I guess I'm with Fred Brackin here.

Markus

Re: Star Trek Phasers for GURPS?
 

Unless the rules changed in 4th edition , it takes 20 x H.P. damage to actually disintergrate a person , not 10 x .

Average person 10 H.P. , takes 240 H.P. cor damage to disintergrate .
Holdout Disintergrator {UT 4th.ed p.130} average damage 122.5 H.P. cor .
Even hotshotted it dinna hav tha poower Jim .


He would need to double damage and given Star Treks Plotonium power suppily technology use some sort of "cosmic" power cell that has Plot number of shots per cell .

Re: Star Trek Phasers for GURPS?
 

The rules changed in 4th edition.

It takes a total of 11 * HP to achieve "Total Bodily Destruction, if that makes sense given the source of the damage)". (GURPS Basic Set p. 419)

Re: Star Trek Phasers for GURPS?
 

Why 11 ?

Was 10 insufficient , but 12 excessive ?

Re: Star Trek Phasers for GURPS?
 

Well, I wasn't involved in the rules revision in any way, so I'm just guessing. But I expect that "-10 * HP" was a nice round number that seemed roughly right.

To go from +HP to -(10 * HP) involves losing 11 * HP hit points.

Re: Star Trek Phasers for GURPS?
 

I second the mention that "stun" won't necessarily work on nonhumans, or humans modified to be "ridiculously tough" by some form of physical or mental manipulation. "Stun setting doesn't work" is almost as much as a trope as "throws Worf around like a child" to indicate ST toughness.

I may be better to model this with resistances though.

Re: Star Trek Phasers for GURPS?
 

Yes , but therein they turned it from round into an ovoid .

The huge manatee !

Aspers , we likes round round numbers :)

Re: Star Trek Phasers for GURPS?
 

They probably didn't. I suspect Mr Frost's memory is corrupted by something, probably a House Rule.

-10x HT (when HT and HP were indistinguishable a la 1st edition) has always been "beyond even magical Ressurection". I think it was back in the the example fight in Man-to-Man (and reprinted many times since) when it talked about Frederick being dead regardless of HT at -5x and nothing but unressurectable Frederickburger at -10. For some reason that stuck in mind.

Some GM somewhere, some time may have ruled that "Well, -10x HP means you can't resurrect him but there's a body still there! You have to go to -_20_x HP to completely do away with the body!".

That hypothetical GM was within his rights but it was never in the RAW, not even in the 1st edition of Basic.

Re: Star Trek Phasers for GURPS?
 

That may be true of the Abrams movie (I haven't watched it with an eye to "how are phasers presented"), its not even remotely true of the rest of canon -- there are references to non-lethal "phaser burn" injuries where the actual shooting occurred off-camera, and there instances of non-lethal injuries (not stuns) on camera (though I'm not sure if there are any instances of that happening to normal humans; probably the best known example is the Horta in TOS), there are instances where the stun and kill settings don't do what is advertised in other ways, and there are instances where phasers are used to do things other than stun or kill (heat rocks, disintegrate objects, cut through objects without disintegration, etc.)

The best model for the way it seems to work in canon -- i.e., doing whatever the plot needs that can be justified by beam-weapon SFX -- is probably a a gadget with a Cosmic, Physical-only, focus-limited (things that can be justified by dumping energy into the target without any manipulation more than aiming the phaser, explicitly including Unconsciosness Affliction, which might be marginal by that description), Advantages-only Modular Ability, with the number of points in it depending on whether its a Phaser 1, Phaser 2, Phaser Rifle, etc.

Re: Star Trek Phasers for GURPS?
 

For what it's worth, here is what I use in my Star Trek campaign:

These weapon descriptions are based on the weapons from GURPS Prime Directive published by the Amarillo Design Bureau, but have been converted to align themselves more with GURPS Ultra Tech.
a. The visible beam itself provides a +1 to skill (and a +1 to dodge it) if the weapon was fired the previous turn. [p. B412]
b. The Rate of Fire is a measure of how long you engage the beam. E.g. If you choose a RoF of 1 on a RoF 3 rated weapon, it means you discharged the weapon for 1/3 of a second.
c. All except the Stun-1 setting use up more than 1 “Shot” of energy. E.g. Stun-2 and Kill-1 use 2 “Shot”’s.

Weapon Setting
It takes a ready maneuver to switch from setting to another.
Stun
If the victim fails his HT roll, he is unconscious (usually for 15 minutes). Note that DR offers no protection, unless the armor is sealed; in which case the stun setting will have no effect (unless the 1d-3 damage manages to burn through the armor). If they are beyond 1/2 Damage ranges, they get a +3 on their HT roll. They may also feel the 1d-3 points of burn damage, whether they make their HT roll or not; DR protects against this with its full value.
The Stun setting is a Neural Weapon superscience! improvement of Electrolaser technology (see GURPS Ultra-Tech p119-122)
Kill
This is a focused electromagentic (i.e. light) beam.
High-energy Laser (see GURPS Ultra-Tech p114-116)
Disintegrate
This setting fires wide, higher-energy beams in short duration pulses. This changes the damage type from burning to crush with explosive which may actually cause knockdown.
Pulse Laser (see GURPS Ultra-Tech p118-119)

Re: Star Trek Phasers for GURPS?
 

Yeah, this is one of my prime issues with Prime Directive.

The Stun setting frequently fails to to do more than annoy. The "Kill" setting usually doesn't kill and the Disntegrate setting doesn't disintegrate either.

Add in the armored uniforms (yes, they have Starfleet wearing armored uniforms) and it's no wonder people resort to fisticuffs so often.

Re: Star Trek Phasers for GURPS?
 

There's be a handful of episodes where a major cast member is hit in an extremity and get away with burned clothes and and an injured limb. (For some reason an episode with Beverly Crusher comes to mind.) And I'd assume the beam was intended to be set on "kill" since the person firing had either just killed someone or had that intent. Also in the episode "The Conspiracy" Picard and Riker fire on a Star Fleet officer for a good 30 seconds before he explodes into an alien parasite mother and then finally explodes again. (That episode tends to get the award for "most gruesome episode of Star Trek" and freaked out my then-9yo mind...lol)

Re: Star Trek Phasers for GURPS?
 

Causing a body to vanish without a very large cloud of vapour (and, if you do it rapidly, an explosion) cannot be justified by dumping energy into the target. But phasers can clearly do that.

Re: Star Trek Phasers for GURPS?
 

So the Abrams phasers have never disintegrated anyone, but clearly the original ones did just that with anything but those "protected by plot."

Re: Star Trek Phasers for GURPS?
 

A better justification would be "Anything that can be explained by a limited SFX budget and squeamish 1960s TV censorship."

Re: Star Trek Phasers for GURPS?
 

Quite.

Sometimes it's worth wondering whether there might be a more-fun alternative to slavish devotion to canon.

Re: Star Trek Phasers for GURPS?
 

This is one reason I almost never run anything in a straight adaptation of a setting but rather create an original setting with the elements of other settings that I wished to include. Thus my current campaign Desolation Road owes a lot to Meiveille's Bas Lag but isn't GURPS Bas Lag and my Xia of the Empire of Heaven was at least partially inspired by my exploration of how I would do Star Wars as a game setting.

Re: Star Trek Phasers for GURPS?
 

I agree with using the Omni-Blaster. It's the simplest option. Back in 3rd edition, there was also an option to adding a Plasma setting to the Omni-Blaster, to represent their ability to melt objects.

Re: Star Trek Phasers for GURPS?
 

I think the simplest option is to say "stun" makes you stunned and "kill" makes you dead.

Re: Star Trek Phasers for GURPS?
 

It's worse than that. In TOS, the ship's phaser banks were much more realistically powerful, compared to the movies and the other series.

By 'realistically', I mean given the known power of those ships, the kind of power you'd need to do star flight. It was said more than once in the days of TOS that Enterprise had sufficient fire power to wreck inhabited worlds.

When Enterprise fired on the unshielded Klingon ship in Day of the Dove, that ship was vaporied almost immediately. That is perfectly plausible given those energies (actually, it would have been more plausible for it to take a few moments, but the outcome would be the same). That's the kind of power you would expect such machines to have.

Compare that to the movies, where we start seeing phaser battles between ships at point-blank range that do nothing but chew holes in the armor.

Re: Star Trek Phasers for GURPS?
 

Thanks for the credit, Q, but a slight correction: I rec the Omni Blaster for Abramsverse, but I'm with everybody who uses the Disintegrator plus a stun setting for TOS and anywhere else you actually want people one-shot disintegrated (and don't forget your TL 10^ Field-Jacketing for both). :)

Re: Star Trek Phasers for GURPS?
 

This was initially frustrating for my players as well. It's very important to, up front, let them know how your Star Trek (or any other campaign based on a known fictional setting) differs from the TV (or movie or book, etc.) Star Trek.

In my case, I wanted the combats to have more give and take than merely being a contest of who landed the first hit. Also, in my Star Trek campaign, body armor does not protect against the stun setting (unless it's sealed). This makes the stun setting a nice thing to have against foes wearing body armor. I also enjoy playing the quartermaster who must be convinced, every time, why OUR HEROES need type-2 phasers when everybody else makes do with type-1. :)

Re: Star Trek Phasers for GURPS?
 

Thanks for all the great comments everyone.
For my group,

• kill setting kills, disintegrate setting disintegrates, stun setting stuns is tooo simple. I want a gun with proper weapon stats.
  
• Prime Directive style phasers just don't do it for me (or what they are supposed to do.)
  
• Disintegrators from UT feel a bit much but might be fun. It is just so vastly more powerful than anything else.
  
• A "realistic" treatment with more than a dozen settings is probably a distraction, my players wouldn't take the time to learn it all.
  
• My players will want a phaser that disintegrates a target, but it must have drawbacks (power consumption or whatever) or that is all they will use.

How about something like the following;

Each type of phaser has 4 damage settings
Type 1: 1d, 3d, 6d, and 6dx3.
Type 2: 3d, 6d, 6dx3, and 6dx6.
Type 3: 6d, 6dx3, 6dx6, and 6dx18.

Each can be set to one of: stun (Max -10), burn, or corrosive.

Each can set there ROF from 1 to 10.

Each die of damage consumes 1 "shot" with the following capacities:
Type 1:~50
Type 2:~100
Type 3:~200

Overload setting would be dice of damage remaining in the weapon in burn, explosive.

Re: Star Trek Phasers for GURPS?
 

First, I'm not sure what the "Max -10" in "stun (Max -10)" means.

Second, I'm not sure if body armor is going to be a factor in your games, but setting things up so that body armor is effective against Type 1 but not Type 3 can make things interesting. Your phasers are almost 10x as powerful as the ones I use in my Star Trek campaign--which pretty much makes use of TL11 personal defense weapons.

The reason I encourage you to make your phasers offensively as capable as Ultra Tech TL11 weapons is that you can then borrow from Ultra Tech for body armor and other weapons with confidence that things will be consistent and balanced.

Re: Star Trek Phasers for GURPS?
 

I think he means stun is an Affliction, with up to a -10 penalty to the HT roll.

Re: Star Trek Phasers for GURPS?
 

That is correct.