How to build: becoming Inertialess in the Lensmen sense

[Brandy]

Originally Posted by Molokh

I'm not looking for rationalizing gadgets or anything. I want to inflict a physical property onto an object.

Do the following:
1) Determine the effects of being inertialess, in GURPS terms.
2) Buy these effects.

There is no standard GURPS mechanic for "being inertialess", therefore *you* have to determine the game effects of being inertialess and buy them from the existing advantages and disadvantages.

If "being inertialess" allows me to transport myself to far away locales, then I have to buy Warp, or FTL flight.

If making me inertialess will give me the effects of being insubstantial, then I have to buy insubstantiability.

If I can afflict others with inertialessness, what happens? If my affliction will cause them to be whisked away from my frame of reference and never return, then I buy and affliction with a +300% enhancement for a killing attack. If something else happens to them(?), then I have to afflict them with some other power, or attack them with damage via an innate attack.

So, what game effects are inflicted on someone on whom you use this power?

[Rasmus Wagner]

Basically, Insubstantial and, lacking extraordinary means of locomotion or experience with being inertialess, probably Lame (no legs) as well.

[elShoggotho]

Inertialess, as expressed in Lensman terms, actually means "removed from the frame of reference".

1. Any ordinary attack that retains normal inertia will simply whisk you away at incredible speeds, so you're invulnerable to any normal attack.

2. Special blades made from Dureum, a material that retains an uncanny degree of inertia even when in inertialess environment, CAN affect inertialess matter. Could be treated as a Vulnerability.

3. Inertialess matter can be accelerated at FTL speeds, even with modest acceleration. Don't know how exactly to model that.

4. Deactivating the device brings inertia back, including the original direction and speed. That's no problem with objects from this universe, but can get back at you when working with planets from another continuum, which regularly have an original speed of several times the speed of light.

[Puppetminion]

Originally Posted by elShoggotho

2. Special blades made from Dureum, a material that retains an uncanny degree of inertia even when in inertialess environment, CAN affect inertialess matter. Could be treated as a Vulnerability.

I don't think that's exactly right, but it's been awhile since my last read through of the series.
AFAICR no weapon had enough inertia to affect inertialess targets.
But if your target couldn't move out of the way then you could damage it, so you could attack hand to hand, you just had to hit down towards the floor or hit a guy already against the wall. The Space Axes were massively built from Durem so they could more easily penetrate armour.

Two almost exceptions:
In the even more weird situation of the space tube thingies, then the Durem weapons could hurt people where normal weapons would just pass through, but that was not due to inertialessness. That may have been what you were thinking of. Or I've gone mad of course.
Primary Beams were so powerful they could kill inertialess ships since the resistance of interstellar gasses was enough to give the beams time to "bite".


Now that I've thought about that, maybe Insubstantial is not the best way to go, it might be closer to an Injury Tolerance:Damage Reduction - that has the advantage that any mental abilities can be used just fine on an inertaless target, and from the primaries one can conclude that a big enough attack will still hurt (and such an attack might be relatively small for an unstreamlined person)

5 Bonus Points if anyone can work out which E E Doc Smith book my Avatar is from :)

[elShoggotho]

Originally Posted by Puppetminion

[...]In the even more weird situation of the space tube thingies, then the Durem weapons could hurt people where normal weapons would just pass through, but that was not due to inertialessness. That may have been what you were thinking of. Or I've gone mad of course.[...]

I really don't want to destroy your conviction of being mad, but you're right. Dureum was connected to the hyperspace tunnel effect.

Originally Posted by Puppetminion

[...]5 Bonus Points if anyone can work out which E E Doc Smith book my Avatar is from :)

I already collected geek points today, thank you very much.

[quarkstomper]

Originally Posted by Puppetminion

5 Bonus Points if anyone can work out which E E Doc Smith book my Avatar is from :)

Skylark DuQuense

I once ran Skylark of Space as a plotline in a spy game I was running with my wife. This proved to be a mistake for two reasons: one, it caused the campaign, which was supposed to be a spy game, to veer dramatically into Space Opera; and two, her character developed the hots for DuQuense.

It still turned out to be a good campaign; it just kept going in directions I wasn't expecting.

[Puppetminion]

Originally Posted by quarkstomper

Skylark DuQuense

Impressive.
It's such an early printing and so many different covers exist I thought I was safe. Must remember not to underestimate GURPSHeads. (there, that should be long enough to post now)

[quarkstomper]

My Dad had the complete Skylark series and it was among the first science fiction I read. I didn't read the Lensman series until years later because Dad had loaned those books out to someone and didn't get them back for ages.