Waterproof surface: a perk?

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

Had a quick convo with the GM... best I can do with Essential Acid is 3d-3.

So no chlorine trifluoride for me.(

There is no actual definition of what "essential" acid is in chemical terms in the rules. It could be some highly active form of normal matter (for example, Essential Air might just be oxygen!). Or it could be some arcane form of matter that doesn't even exist in the real world; for example, a substance definable in terms of the alchemical elements. Or it might be magically created and not stable if taken into a mana-free area

All that the rules say is, "It has such and such properties."

For comparison, GURPS Powers: The Weird has several abilities based on "hyperacid." But there is no mandatory definition of what hyperacid is. It might be an acid, or an alkali, or an oxidizer, or a stabilized free radical, or just a highly efficient solvent. It's "weird science" and that's all you need to know. And it has the same properties as "alkahest," defined in the alchemy rules in GURPS Magic, which is effectively the same as essential acid.

As far as the flavor text is concerned, you can make stuff up. Though of course no one in medieval times would call it "chlorine trifluoride" anyway, because neither of those names had been coined that early; chlorine was named in 1810 and so was fluorine.