[RPM] Potential Energy

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Targeting the ground is a whole of a lot easier, especially if laws of sympathy and the like allow a symbolic link to a landmark or reference point. Points in free space aren't so easily defined.

Oh, I see what you mean then. Yeah, depending on the metaphysics of the setting, I could easily see summoning something in the air rather than on the ground being markedly more difficult. Of course, I'm going to mangle your interpretation (sorry) and instead use that in place of potential energy to justify the surcharge for making the boulder appear in the sky rather than on the ground. In fact, I won't even have the character's elevation matter - what matters is how far from a proper reference point the boulder is appearing, and the heavier the boulder the more difficult it is to manage. This frees me up to use Anthony's progression instead (avoiding a calculation in the process, as you need to work out falling damage anyway), and keeps the Ritual using a single Path, although making matter form in the air might be appropriate as a Greater Control Matter effect. Once I've done that, it makes sense to do the same for explosives, but those I probably would still require Greater Create Energy (Lesser Create Energy can make small batches, however). As batteries/power cells don't do damage*, just use the 100 kJ = 1 lb (or more appropriately for RPM, 1 MJ = 10 lb) equivalence. Obviously, that's also Create Energy (or Restore Energy to recharge an existing battery), although I'm a bit hazier on where the Greater/Lesser divide would be - as much energy as what UT calls a D cell might be a good breakpoint.

While I'm at it, might as well define how to handle a Rain of Stones ritual, or a Summon C4 ritual that makes multiple smaller blocks instead of one giant one. For the former, that's arguably just Rapid Fire added on. Making multiple blocks of C4 instead of one big one is comparable, but you have the option of combining the blocks back together for a larger explosion. That said, considering the way RPM handles Explosive, it might not be a terrible idea to revamp RoF in a similar manner. Currently, +1 energy is +3 SSR to mass (which is +1 SSR to damage if using Cube Root of Destruction, which from what I understand scales explosives more properly than the normal square-root rule). If we instead have +1 energy be +2 SSR to the number of explosives made, you're giving up raw damage (~+2/3 SSR if you combine the two blocks of C4 together) for the convenience of having multiple explosives. Applying this back to making multiple smaller boulders might be similarly appropriate - instead of +4 energy turning your ~7,000 lb boulder (50d) into a ~70,0000 ton one (200d), it gives you 20 of the smaller ones, which either attempt to attack the same target or get spread out thanks to adding Area of Effect (as an Advantage, a 50d, RoF 20 attack costs as much as a 125d attack, so it's still arguably a net loss).

*Unless they're the type that explode, in which case use the greater energy cost between nominal energy content and explosive damage caused.