[RPM] Post your rituals here

[Dwarf99]

Either that, or consider each spell a consituent part and go back to the base Thaumatology rule for that.

[Merrick]

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

Well, I'm not God (I guess that's PK), but yeah...this is how you do it. Basically, if you want Explosive 1, you use the normal rules for external damage (p. 17 of GURPS Thuamatology: Ritual Path Magic). If you want Explosive 2 you add +10 energy (for a +50% modifier), and +20 energy for Explosive 3. That's it. I guess if you're doing some sort of weird explosive curse, for internal damage...It's not listed, but I add +10 energy to get Explosive 1, +20 for Explosive 2, and +30 for Explosive 3. Does that make sense?

Thanks for clearing that up about how explosions work. Here's a question that I've been wondering about related to that. Rather than make the effect explosive, couldn't one just cast the spell with an Area of Effect modifier? Isn't that a cheaper way of causing a massive amount of damage? Consider the following example and compare it to the cost of the spell above:

Firestorm:
Spell Effect: Greater Create Energy + Lesser Control Magic.
Inherent Modifiers: Damage, External Burning
Greater Effects: 1 (x3).

This spell is cast as a charm. When broken it causes the area within 10 yards to go up in flames.
Typical Casting: Greater Create Energy (6) + Damage, External Burning 9d (8) + Area of Effect 10 yards (8) +Lesser Control Magic (5). 81 energy (27x3).

This spell does more than twice the amount of damage, to a larger area, and is about the same cost. Am I missing something? If so, I await enlightenment.
Thanks is advance for your thoughts!
p.s. The way that we have dealt with this issue in our games has been to avoid allowing AoE on damaging spells.

[Christopher R. Rice]

I'm pretty sure that this goes back to the actual Explosive modifier here. The collateral damage for that attack would be 9d / (3 x distance in yards). So the targets within 10 yards take 9d if they don't dodge. Then targets at 10 yards take 3d, at 11 yards they take 2d, at 12 yards they take 1d, and so on. I'm sick, so that may be incorrect, but I'm pretty sure it's not. That said, Explosive 2+ is really better for small contained blasts that do smaller damage because they divide the collateral by a smaller amount.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Merrick

Firestorm:
Spell Effect: Greater Create Energy + Lesser Control Magic.
Inherent Modifiers: Damage, External Burning
Greater Effects: 1 (x3).

This spell is cast as a charm. When broken it causes the area within 10 yards to go up in flames.
Typical Casting: Greater Create Energy (6) + Damage, External Burning 9d (8) + Area of Effect 10 yards (8) +Lesser Control Magic (5). 81 energy (27x3).

What exactly are you comparing this to? Replacing External Burning and Area of Effect with External Burning Explosive1 results in 10d damage for the same price. It's a bit stronger at the point of impact (and if you actually hit your target you automatically do maximum damage, as a contact explosion), but tapers off more rapidly. Seems like a fair trade to me.

[Tinman]

Originally Posted by Varyon

if you actually hit your target you automatically do maximum damage, as a contact explosion

I don't recall seeing anywhere that a contact explosion is max damage.
Do you have a page reference?

[Merrick]

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

I'm pretty sure that this goes back to the actual Explosive modifier here. The collateral damage for that attack would be 9d / (3 x distance in yards). So the targets within 10 yards take 9d if they don't dodge. Then targets at 10 yards take 3d, at 11 yards they take 2d, at 12 yards they take 1d, and so on. I'm sick, so that may be incorrect, but I'm pretty sure it's not. That said, Explosive 2+ is really better for small contained blasts that do smaller damage because they divide the collateral by a smaller amount.

No, No. Not what I meant. I think that you guys misunderstood. Area of Effect does a flat amount of damage to everyone in the area. Explosive damage tapers off from the point of impact.

Spell #1 uses 8 energy for damage (external and blatant) does 9d. If you add in 8 more energy for AoE, you can do 9d to everyone in a 10 yard radius.

Spell #2 uses 8 energy for explosive damage (external and blatant) does only 6d which tapers off to nothing after 3 yards.


Unless I am misreading something, combining a regular external and blatant attack with AoE, always results in more damage to more targets than using the RAW for explosive damage. I think that this one issue is a glitch in RPM.

[Dwarf99]

Originally Posted by Tinman

I don't recall seeing anywhere that a contact explosion is max damage.
Do you have a page reference?

B. 415, Sidebar.

[Tinman]

Originally Posted by Dwarf99

B. 415, Sidebar.

Thx.

Follow-up: The sidebar seems to indicate that's if a guy throws himself onto a granade. Does it apply if I hit him with a grenade from a grenade launcher?

[Dwarf99]

Originally Posted by Tinman

Thx.

Follow-up: The sidebar seems to indicate that's if a guy throws himself onto a granade. Does it apply if I hit him with a grenade from a grenade launcher?

Nope. That's contact, but it's not forced contact. The difference being that with the grenade on the ground, him on top of it, the force has nowhere to go. If I recall correctly some methods of using Det Cords and Shape Charges in High Tech are also Contact applications.

[Tinman]

So now I'm a bit confused...

Originally Posted by Dwarf99

Nope. That's contact, but it's not forced contact. The difference being that with the grenade on the ground, him on top of it, the force has nowhere to go. If I recall correctly some methods of using Det Cords and Shape Charges in High Tech are also Contact applications.

If the above is true then the below is false. The question is which one is correct? Any help greatly appreceated.

Originally Posted by Varyon

and if you actually hit your target you automatically do maximum damage, as a contact explosion