Dodging Rain

[TGLS]

OK, silly question. What advantages would someone need to reliably dodge rain? As in, go from one end of a block to another in a heavy storm without getting wet. I'm not looking for, Accessory (Umbrella).

[awesomenessofme1]

Ultimately, it's just not possible to do purely using skill unless rainfall is very light. There isn't enough space between raindrops. You could do it using Shrinking with the Full Move enhancement, but that's not really "dodging".

[naloth]

Originally Posted by TGLS

OK, silly question. What advantages would someone need to reliably dodge rain? As in, go from one end of a block to another in a heavy storm without getting wet. I'm not looking for, Accessory (Umbrella).

As an area attack, you'd need a high enough dodge (via Step) to leave the area before it started.

Alternatively, there are a number of advantages that would work. I'd assess "Doesn't get soaked" as a perk if rain rolls off you.

[Say, it isn't that bad!]

Let's go full cinematic here, and also narrow the time-frame down to one second; that is, a standard GURPS round.

In which case, figuring the number is fairly simple:

https://math.stackexchange.com/quest...ops-in-a-storm

According to this Stack Overflow answer, there are at least 200,000 raindrops per hour per square metre, "but typically... several millions." We then set our upper bound (what we need to beat per second) at 10,000,000 raindrops per hour, which works out to 10,000,000 / 3,600 = 2,778 raindrops per second.

We want our dodge number as high as possible, for the largest chance of traversing a "block" without being hit by a raindrop. As such, raising our effective dodge to greater than -17 gives no further benefits, so we set our base dodge to -17.

For this purpose, I will define a block as 300 yards ("The standard block in Manhattan is about 264 by 900 feet (80 m × 274 m). In Chicago, a typical city block is 660 by 330 feet (200 m × 100 m) (w × h),"):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_block

Applying the dodge rules on B375, we find that we can dodge one additional hit/raindrop per margin of success. An acrobatic dodge lets us add +2 to our dodge. Using All-out Defence lets us apply another defence, such as a parry (blocks are disallowed, as per "I'm not looking for, Accessory (Umbrella).")

A parry of -27 should give us -17 to block one raindrop; if we then acrobatic dodge through the storm, we need a base dodge of:

17 + 2778 - 3 = -2,792

Edit: With a 0.462962962962962962962962962963% chance to be hit by a raindrop per second, we can make (1 / 0.00462962962962962962962962962963 = 215) moves before being definitively struck by a raindrop. With a Move of 20, we will have enough move to cover a city block at the step allowed by All-out Defense (double).

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by TGLS

OK, silly question. What advantages would someone need to reliably dodge rain? As in, go from one end of a block to another in a heavy storm without getting wet. I'm not looking for, Accessory (Umbrella).

You may end up there anyway, though. If you want the same result, you could call your version of the Perk "Able to dodge rain". You still don't get wet, but the visual will be different. You might be able to justify a Feature that accomplishes that but at a cost (probably a physical one).

[AlexanderHowl]

Insubstantiality (Limited, Rain, -80%) [20] would likely work. Add Can Carry Objects if you do not want your possessions to get wet.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by TGLS

OK, silly question. What advantages would someone need to reliably dodge rain? As in, go from one end of a block to another in a heavy storm without getting wet. I'm not looking for, Accessory (Umbrella).

Hmm.... doing some math.

For a fairly light rain (1mm/hour) raindrop size is probably 1mm^3 or less (raindrop size varies somewhat with rain speed), meaning you're looking at 10,000 drops per hour or 3 per second. Your top area is under 0.1 m^2, so if it takes you a minute to travel a block, you need to dodge maybe 20 raindrops.

Now, you're also possibly going to get hit from the front, as you're moving relative to the rain. Those raindrops fall at around 8m/s, for a total on the order of one drop per 30 cubic meters. Over a distance of 100 meters, with an assumed front area of 0.5 square meters, expect another 1-2 drops. Total is still under one drop per second, so dodging it isn't superhuman as long as you can detect the drops fast enough. Drops have a SM of -18 and should be detect at 10 yards but are in plain sight (total -12), and you want better than 95% detection, so figure perception 28. Also, you need an advantage that lets you watch above you while also moving forward normally, which I can't find (I would expect it to be available as part of 360 vision, but no) and you might need to make dodge rolls, that's a bit of a GM call, but if so you want a dodge of 16 to be odds-on to make it (this is likely a telegraphic attack and you're maybe all-out defending, so base dodge of 12 should do the job).

Of course, that's pretty light rain (the USGS defines moderate rain as up to 4mm/hr, heavy as up to 8mm, very heavy as more -- but that includes periods of limited rain, a moderate shower is 2-10mm/hr for its duration, heavy is 10-15). If we multiply the number of drops by five to have it be a moderate shower, we're now dodging about two drops per second. This is still possible, the average spacing between drops is still larger than you are, but you might want dodge related advantages and you might need to map a path between drops, so enhanced time sense would be a good idea.

Finally, in a heavy shower (10-50mm/hr) you probably can't dodge at all, once you're dealing with a few hundred thousand drops per hour there simply don't exist spaces that you can fit in -- unless you take shrinking (or insubstantial).

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Insubstantiality (Limited, Rain, -80%) [20] would likely work. Add Can Carry Objects if you do not want your possessions to get wet.

If we're just wanting to avoid getting wet/touched by rain, and don't care about actually dodging it, DR1 with Force Field works too, though if the rain is corrosive you might need to buy a significantly more DR than that.

[naloth]

Permeation (Rain) is probably cheaper than Insubstantial. You can move through rain as though it doesn't exist if you want. Buy extra encumbrance if it also works on what you carry.

I suppose in a world of Supers, someone got dealt that as a power instead of something better.

[awesomenessofme1]

Originally Posted by naloth

Permeation (Rain) is probably cheaper than Insubstantial. You can move through rain as though it doesn't exist if you want. Buy extra encumbrance if it also works on what you carry.

I suppose in a world of Supers, someone got dealt that as a power instead of something better.

By RAW, Permeation can only affect solid materials.