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Old 11-21-2016, 10:47 AM   #8
Varyon
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Default Re: Action 1 Errata (Good / Fine gear)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anaraxes View Post
Similarly for the first aid kit (though that's the same argument as for a disguise kit that I already acknowledged). Perhaps instead of simply more primitive stuff like iodine, you could also have more effective, modern professional gear. Having morphine instead of aspirin doesn't call for a 20x weight increase. (Not even "in addition to" would.) But it ought to give you a bonus to your stop-the-pain roll.
It doesn't quite follow the 1-5-20 rule (it's actually 1-2-10 in that case, although with TL increases in mind 1-5-20 might make sense), but take a look at the First Aid kits and Crash Kit on HT221. The TL6 small kit (basic equipment) has bandages, morphine (+autoinjector), and some sulfa drugs. The TL7 large kit adds in foot powder, insect repellant, salt tablets, ammonia inhalants, antibiotic ointment, antimalarial pills, and water purification tablets. The TL8 crash kit adds in splinting material, a bag mask, an IV kit and supplies (blood, plasma, etc), a clinical thermometer, a stethoscope, a sphygmomanometer, a suturing kit, and a micro-flashlight. All of these are useful for first aid, even if Action movies would typically glance over them, and are the justification for the weight increase (also, each progressive kit contains more of the previous kits supplies than it did).

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anaraxes View Post
The Mission: Impossible (TV) disguise kit fit in a briefcase and was essentially foolproof. 200-lb packages were limited to all the times Willy smuggled Barney into the target site in a box, not Cinnamon's makeup and dresses. Or if you prefer the movies, Tom Cruise didn't take 520 pounds of climbing gear up the Burj Khalifa rather than 26 (good thing, as the encumbrance penalties would more than wipe out the benefit from being "fine"). But there's no reason to think he was poorly equipped rather than having "fine" gear. All the extra money for Q Division can't get you better stuff than what you get in the sporting goods section at Target, but only more of that same mundane stuff?
In GURPS, the best way to explain these (aside from the superscience/higher TL bits, which you could justify purchasing at a premium) isn't that, say, the briefcase disguise kit was amazingly complete - rather, the character using it had such an awesome Disguise skill she was able to make due with a Basic Disguise Kit. Another option would be that the character had a Fine-quality Disguise kit, but successfully planned out what disguises she would need in advance and only brought those (which still gives the bonus, provided you pick the right disguises). Advantages like Gadget (which lets you pull out any given item - up to a certain weight limit - that you own and declare you brought it with you; an outfit from the Fine-quality Disguise Kit in your hotel room should certainly qualify) and similar would allow the player to not need to plan in advance.
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