Area Effect and Wall height

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Where I was going, and I fault myself here for subjecting everyone to a little slice of stream-of-consciousness, is that in a game where it hardly ever matters, I wouldn't make the guy who reduces the cylinder radius to increase the height pay based on the combination of factors - I'd charge him based on the reduced radius and ignore the height. Possibly charge a perk for the "occasionally can make this useful" factor.

I think that many games make the volume of an AE more consequential than its simple area, the idea generally being that the effect needs to extend upward enough to have the potential for Large Area Injury (for attacks) or provide overhead cover (for defenses). If a player wants to manipulate the area affected by an ability (during character creation) in a way that leaves the volume constant, I would assume that they either are building to concept or have a clever use in mind that probably will not get exploited often.

Otherwise, in games where there are flying PCs and NPCs engaged in 3-dimensional tactical maneuvering (superhero games, games featuring a lot of aquatic species and under-water combat, and some kinds of fantasy games) are the kinds of games where I think someone has to pay somehow for that extra dimension. Keeping the volume constant certainly works, but I think most people would be happier to be charged by R and H rather than by V and have to back-calculate. You also get shapes easier to fit into game-friendly units - circles and hexagons are a little annoying to math out.

I would just keep it simple and allow the height to be quadrupled while halving the radius.