Temporary Camp or shelter using Powers

[Refplace]

It seems pretty expensive to build a temporary shelter using powers.
Any ideas here?
DR with a flexible wall and forcefield enhancement could keep the rain out but heating or cooling it seems pricey and wonky to build.
Temperature Control needs a couple of levels to handle extreme weather, probably a level or two of Increased Area, and Increased Duration with Persistent to maintain temperature wjile asleep. Though maybe DR with Forcefield and especially Sealed would count as well insulated. Of course Sealed may create breathing problems.

[the_matrix_walker]

I feel like a broken record a bit with this one, but Supers has rules for Headquarters.

Start with Signature Gear 1 (Status -2 HQ) [1], and add +100% for Magical/Superscience traits for the astonishing ability to manifest it in different places and tap into the local power grid what have you. I would probably require Cosmic, +100% to then add Switchable, +20% and you can have a comfortable room with the expected amenities for your TL for 4 points.

Alternatively, you could use an Affliction to give the advantage, but you would need quite a bit of extended duration to make it last the night.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by the_matrix_walker

I feel like a broken record a bit with this one, but Supers has rules for Headquarters.

Yeah, that's god for creating a specific space, I'd say you need a power to access it though. Seems cheap alone if can access it anywhere.
Regardless though, what I had in mind was more like weather Dome but broader. Creating a magical shelter wherever you are, not going to one.
Also making an existing home look better and feel more comfortable.
I think Appearance with Universal as an Affliction is the best fir for that last part. Not too expensive and a bonus to reaction rolls is a decent way to represent you feeling more comfortable if it doesn't give any bonuses.

[Aldric]

You could also try to compare it to an ally, if you make an ally IQ 0, and give it the correct size, payload and add the correct advantages, it can function as a shelter as much as they can already function as vehicles.

Give it summonable, and you can have your shelter whenever and wherever you want with a simple concentrate action (if you can make the roll)

[Rolando]

A big tent (even the fancy ones with weather control) is just equipment, so some summonable signature gear may work too.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Rolando

A big tent (even the fancy ones with weather control) is just equipment, so some summonable signature gear may work too.

Yeah, I did think about signature gear and it might work for the campaign. Just was hoping to have a decent powers build that wasn't very expensive and that could be used at any TL.

[the_matrix_walker]

Originally Posted by Refplace

Yeah, that's god for creating a specific space, I'd say you need a power to access it though. Seems cheap alone if can access it anywhere.
Regardless though, what I had in mind was more like weather Dome but broader. Creating a magical shelter wherever you are, not going to one.
Also making an existing home look better and feel more comfortable.
I think Appearance with Universal as an Affliction is the best fir for that last part. Not too expensive and a bonus to reaction rolls is a decent way to represent you feeling more comfortable if it doesn't give any bonuses.

I like the notion of adding Summonable, but you are going to need extended duration as that puts a duration of a minute in place.

Signature Gear 1 (Status -2 HQ: Special Abilities, Magical/Superscience traits, +100%; Cosmic, Cheating, Portable Enhancements, +100%; Summonable, +100%; Extended Duration, Perminent, +150%; Cancellable, +10% [6]

I think 6 points is fine for a summonable shack.

Alternatively, You could buy a modular ability specifically for an on-demand point in headquarters, and the structure appears where and when the points are allocated in the pool.

[Varyon]

Consider a single point of Innate Attack (Crushing) with Area Effect (2 yards) +50%, Extended Duration (Permanent Until Destroyed) +150%, Persistent +40%, and Wall (Rigid) +60%, for a cost of [5].

This gives you 6 hexes worth of DR1* Walls per use, and there's no limit on how many times you can use it (although the GM would be justified in charging FP every so often if you use it continuously). So, use it however many times you need to build a perimeter around your camp (note each hex is 1 yard wide and 4 yards tall), then use it again to give that perimeter a roof, and you've got a temporary building (temporary because each Wall is a bit fragile - a single point of damage will destroy it). This doesn't raise the ambient temperature on its own, but then neither do most dwellings - being an enclosed space will prevent heat from various heat sources (including the characters themselves) from escaping readily, which will allow things to warm up.

Additionally, this ability can be useful for adventuring. While a DR 1 Wall probably can't serve as a bridge (at least not for anything with more than ~5.7 HP**), you can erect them to give temporary cover/concealment (particularly if given a bit of time, as you can layer the Walls), cause impact explosives to detonate prematurely, cause a charging horse (or other creature/character) to balk at the sudden appearance of a wall (and those who keep charging have to deal 1 damage in a collision, meaning they also take 1 damage, although armor will protect them fairly readily), etc.


*A Wall normally has DR 3 and HP 0.5 (round up) per full die of damage, meaning it provides Cover DR of 3.5 (round up) per die... which nicely corresponds to the average damage of each die. So, a 1 point Wall would grant Cover DR 1; treating this as DR 1 and HP 0 (so it is destroyed by any penetrating damage) should work fine, and avoids fractions (otherwise it's something like DR 0.857 and HP 0.143).

**Of course, RPK purposefully overestimated the amount of damage walking over something would do, making it equivalent to that same thing being dropped from 1 yard onto the Wall. If we assume someone running full-out would do that much damage, it might not be bad to say someone walking normally would do half that much, someone walking carefully perhaps 1/3rd as much, and someone crawling on hands and feet might do 1/4th as much. So, characters up to HP 11.4 could walk (but not run) on such a bridge, characters up to HP 17.1 could walk very carefully (probably at something like a foot per second), and characters up to HP 22.8 could crawl on all fours (at similar speed).

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Varyon

Consider a single point of Innate Attack (Crushing) with Area Effect (2 yards) +50%, Extended Duration (Permanent Until Destroyed) +150%, Persistent +40%, and Wall (Rigid) +60%, for a cost of [5].

Yeah, as I wrote above the Wall part is easy. I suppose a reasonable GM would allow such a wall to block the wind and rain out, but not everyone would. Hence I usually opt for adding other things and making it a Force Field and not worrying about duration, just buy enough area and Affects Others.
Than things like Sealed to make it fully waterproof.
Its the temperature that seems to really be accessible. But you do bring up a great point about body heat, humans generally put out 356 BTU/hour and with a really well insulated wall that would be enough. But I am pretty sure Sealed does not insulate against temperature.
But what about adding Perk: Fur (insulation) and maybe Temperature Tolerance? Still need to add modifiers but yeah, that is a lot cheaper than the Temperature Control route.
hmm I think a perk level of sealed: Waterproof is reasonable as an option instead of Sealed, lowers the cost considerably!

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Refplace

Yeah, as I wrote above the Wall part is easy. I suppose a reasonable GM would allow such a wall to block the wind and rain out, but not everyone would. Hence I usually opt for adding other things and making it a Force Field and not worrying about duration, just buy enough area and Affects Others.

Well, that sounds more like the bizarre Affects Others + Area Effect + Force Field construct from Powers, which I strongly feel is a mistake to apply to DR - Innate Attack with Wall makes much more sense (and I'd allow Wall +30% to be something other than a straight line - any shape at all should work, it's just that you have to set it when you build the ability and can't decide on the fly like with the +60% version); I mean, that's basically what a rigid Wall is.

Originally Posted by Refplace

Than things like Sealed to make it fully waterproof.

Sealed makes it airtight; whether it needs that to be watertight would ultimately be up to the GM, but I'd probably allow it to count as such without anything else. Of course, it doesn't need to be perfectly watertight - most improvised shelters aren't, but they do a "good enough" job of keeping water out to let the inhabitants rest in relative comfort. Basically, if a lean-to will do, certainly a shelter constructed using Wall will as well.

If you're trying to make the "shelter" as good as sleeping indoors in a residential building in good repair, of course, you may well need supporting abilities. Your later suggestion of reducing the base price of Sealed to [1] to create Waterproof is one I can get behind, certainly (honestly, I'd probably be fine with a Perk to make any room or small building you stay in count as Waterproof while you're there).

Originally Posted by Refplace

Its the temperature that seems to really be accessible.

Yeah, for some reason temperature is a serious sticking point with GURPS - Temperature Tolerance tends to be horrendously expensive to accomplish much with it, and Temperature Control is as well. I feel body temperature should be sufficiently retained to work for keeping things warm (plus if you're traveling through cold areas, you should have supplies - blankets, sleeping bags, even your winter coat in a pinch - that will help you stay warm); failing that, success on an Architecture or similar roll should let you design a building that essentially has something of a built-in chimney, allowing you to build a fire to keep warm without risking asphyxiation (related - a similar roll should let you design a not-waterproof building that keeps the living areas dry even with a torrential downpour; it would probably eventually start to grow mold or similar, thanks to the areas that do get wet, but the party would be long gone by then, and the temporary building likely destroyed). Another somewhat-humorous option would be to also have a similar Wall Innate Attack (possibly as an Alternate Ability, although that would be pushing it) that lets you create a permanent (until extinguished, by dumping water on it, covering it in dirt, or similar) fire. That's 6 hexes of fuel-less, smokeless flame that deal 1 point of burning damage to anything in contact with them, which should keep things toasty, even if the building isn't very good at retaining heat.

Cooling things down is harder. The GM might let you pull off something similar to the firewall above, using either non-incendiary burning damage (used for some magic/superscience cold attacks) or FP damage with the Freezing Hazard, but that's a bit of a stretch. There might be some tricks with airflow that would let a skilled builder make a building that stayed cool passively, but I kind of doubt it (the only cooling option mentioned in LTC3 is an expensive method of keeping a building water-cooled, which isn't something to rely on here).