Star Trek Phasers for GURPS?

[LoneWolf23k]

Originally Posted by Qoltar

Forum member Gold & Appel posted a good suggestion in one of my STAR TREK-related threads. He said go with the Omni-blaster from Ultra Tech.

Since it was available when running the GCA - thats what I went with.

So far TWO game sessions, one in June and one in December using that shortcut....and so far no problems as far as the players are concerned.


- Ed Charlton

I agree with using the Omni-Blaster. It's the simplest option. Back in 3rd edition, there was also an option to adding a Plasma setting to the Omni-Blaster, to represent their ability to melt objects.

[LemmingLord]

I think the simplest option is to say "stun" makes you stunned and "kill" makes you dead.

[Gold & Appel Inc]

Originally Posted by Qoltar

Forum member Gold & Appel posted a good suggestion in one of my STAR TREK-related threads. He said go with the Omni-blaster from Ultra Tech.

Thanks for the credit, Q, but a slight correction: I rec the Omni Blaster for Abramsverse, but I'm with everybody who uses the Disintegrator plus a stun setting for TOS and anywhere else you actually want people one-shot disintegrated (and don't forget your TL 10^ Field-Jacketing for both). :)

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by Brett

Simple, and true to setting: ignore GURPS damage rules. A phaser hit stuns if the phaser is set on stun, it kills if it is set on kill, etc. You don't need damage rules to represent that. Rules would only be a complicated way to sometimes get simple things wrong.

Given canon presentation, even in the recent Abrams ST movie, Brett's exactly right. One hit, and you're either KO'ed, dead, or both dead and vaporized. No fuss, no muss, no stats required for dropping 'em. Only possible stats needed for the stun setting are how long you stay down; define it as either a HT roll at a penalty that reduces for duration (use, perhaps, the speed range table on the speed setting rather than range) or "you're out for 30-HT minutes" for simplicity.

[makke]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

Given canon presentation, even in the recent Abrams ST movie, Brett's exactly right. One hit, and you're either KO'ed, dead, or both dead and vaporized. No fuss, no muss, no stats required for dropping 'em. Only possible stats needed for the stun setting are how long you stay down; define it as either a HT roll at a penalty that reduces for duration (use, perhaps, the speed range table on the speed setting rather than range) or "you're out for 30-HT minutes" for simplicity.

In the last episode of series one of TNG the "infested" humans aren't dropped by one (or even several) shots of the phaser on stun setting iirc. I guess you could call that a special feature of the creature but to be honest I don't see the difference between saying "~190pts of damage" and "you die" in most cases... That's why I would stay with the Disintegrater and handwave most damage roles if there is no chance the hit is survived (e.g. you are hit and are a normal human and have no further protection)... So I guess I'm with Fred Brackin here.

Markus

[cmdicely]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

Given canon presentation, even in the recent Abrams ST movie, Brett's exactly right. One hit, and you're either KO'ed, dead, or both dead and vaporized.

That may be true of the Abrams movie (I haven't watched it with an eye to "how are phasers presented"), its not even remotely true of the rest of canon -- there are references to non-lethal "phaser burn" injuries where the actual shooting occurred off-camera, and there instances of non-lethal injuries (not stuns) on camera (though I'm not sure if there are any instances of that happening to normal humans; probably the best known example is the Horta in TOS), there are instances where the stun and kill settings don't do what is advertised in other ways, and there are instances where phasers are used to do things other than stun or kill (heat rocks, disintegrate objects, cut through objects without disintegration, etc.)

The best model for the way it seems to work in canon -- i.e., doing whatever the plot needs that can be justified by beam-weapon SFX -- is probably a a gadget with a Cosmic, Physical-only, focus-limited (things that can be justified by dumping energy into the target without any manipulation more than aiming the phaser, explicitly including Unconsciosness Affliction, which might be marginal by that description), Advantages-only Modular Ability, with the number of points in it depending on whether its a Phaser 1, Phaser 2, Phaser Rifle, etc.

[panton41]

There's be a handful of episodes where a major cast member is hit in an extremity and get away with burned clothes and and an injured limb. (For some reason an episode with Beverly Crusher comes to mind.) And I'd assume the beam was intended to be set on "kill" since the person firing had either just killed someone or had that intent. Also in the episode "The Conspiracy" Picard and Riker fire on a Star Fleet officer for a good 30 seconds before he explodes into an alien parasite mother and then finally explodes again. (That episode tends to get the award for "most gruesome episode of Star Trek" and freaked out my then-9yo mind...lol)

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by cmdicely

The best model for the way it seems to work in canon -- i.e., doing whatever the plot needs that can be justified by beam-weapon SFX -- is probably a a gadget with a Cosmic, Physical-only, focus-limited (things that can be justified by dumping energy into the target without any manipulation more than aiming the phaser, explicitly including Unconsciosness Affliction, which might be marginal by that description)

Causing a body to vanish without a very large cloud of vapour (and, if you do it rapidly, an explosion) cannot be justified by dumping energy into the target. But phasers can clearly do that.

[LemmingLord]

So the Abrams phasers have never disintegrated anyone, but clearly the original ones did just that with anything but those "protected by plot."

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Brett

Causing a body to vanish without a very large cloud of vapour (and, if you do it rapidly, an explosion) cannot be justified by dumping energy into the target. But phasers can clearly do that.

A better justification would be "Anything that can be explained by a limited SFX budget and squeamish 1960s TV censorship."