Temporary Camp or shelter using Powers

[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).

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Varyon

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.
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).

A burning attack wall is actually a very creative idea! I think I have a few new ideas I can use from this thread. Thank you everyone.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by Refplace

It seems pretty expensive to build a temporary shelter using powers.
Any ideas here?

The Accessory perk, treated as a magical, psionic, or otherwise Powered ability, could be used to generate a shelter that is equivalent to the sort of tents that are easily available for purchase in the setting (so, probably provides little or no DR, and takes about as long to 'put up' and 'take down,' though perhaps you can give the 'take down' command and then walk away).

[Varyon]

Some time ago, I made a thread to discuss some of the particulars of Walls - and thanks to this thread, I decided to revisit it. The relevant bits for here would be Roofs (and some of the related bits about Orientation and Bridges), and Visibility - for the latter, specifically that the GM might opt for a Wall that has linked Obscure (Infravision - or Vision, with Extended) to be treated as an insulator for heat.

[the_matrix_walker]

Originally Posted by Refplace

A burning attack wall is actually a very creative idea! I think I have a few new ideas I can use from this thread. Thank you everyone.

Just remember that a burning wall is permeable, so you might be able to use it for heat or cooling based on the special effect, but it won't keep things out that are not obliterated by the damage.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by the_matrix_walker

Just remember that a burning wall is permeable, so you might be able to use it for heat or cooling based on the special effect, but it won't keep things out that are not obliterated by the damage.

While I'm not sure it would be conducive to rest, a "house" made out of fire would be pretty epic. It would probably need to be more than 1 point of damage per hex to survive serious rainfall, however (EDIT: Although an area where making a house out of fire would be useful, you wouldn't see much rainfall, and snow would probably fall slowly enough to get by with 1 point of damage... unless it's a blizzard). My idea was more for a wall of fire inside a (non-flammable!) shelter created by other means, to help stay warm.

[the_matrix_walker]

I do kind of like the notion of Accessory:tent that somehow balloons out from a character and envelops them. it's an entertaining visual.

Or as vehicles can be allies, a summonable Winnebago is funny too.

[lugaid]

Originally Posted by the_matrix_walker

Just remember that a burning wall is permeable, so you might be able to use it for heat or cooling based on the special effect, but it won't keep things out that are not obliterated by the damage.

But a wall that does burning damage may not be permeable, for example a wall of red-hot iron.