Friday Fun: Design the Portal Gun

[Jamaraq]

So it's Friday and work is dull. To keep that brain working while the weekend approaches, here is a challenge:

Design the Portal Gun with the GURPS rules. I have been going over this in my mind for the last our or so (ever since lunch), but I don't get very far. The heat might have something to do with it, it's 36 degrees Celcius outside (like 99 Fahrenheir or so?) and airco is rare here.

The logical starting point would be Warp, but the portals created are accessible by anyone and anything. And that's where I get stuck...

So, any ideas?

[PseudoFenton]

Powers added a few thing for warp that will help here. The "Tunnel" enhancement seems to fit the bill to have an active "portal" entrance, add in Anchored (other portal) to prevent it from going just anywhere. It also adds a "Special Portal" limitation which you'd use to specify a flat non-moving surface that's big enough to fit the portal in, to maintain the mechanics of the game.

The ability itself is clearly going to use the gadget rules, it's indestructible seemingly (or all but considering the temperatures it can survive at) so I'd probably just have it Can Be Stolen and perhaps Unique depending.

The ability to "shoot" the portals is an easy case of Ranged, although it might need a cosmic hand-wave for the distance between the two portals. It would need Extra Carrying Capacity of the highest value too considering anything can pass through the portal.

Getting it two-way and perm until replaced will be a little more tricky however, probably a use of cosmic rule-bend and Permanent with a Terminal Condition?

[panton41]

Meh, declare it piece of TL12 equipment, it does what it does, and call it a day.

[Jeminai]

Originally Posted by ciaran_skye

Meh, declare it piece of TL12 equipment, it does what it does, and call it a day.

Best answer!

We could get bogged down in it for a thought exercise but if you want to use the idea in a game this is how I would do it.

[PseudoFenton]

Originally Posted by ciaran_skye

Meh, declare it piece of TL12 equipment, it does what it does, and call it a day.

Obviously you could just say its a high-tech/artifact grade item that just does what it does. But that prevents signature gear, the uniqueness of the item, and the option of making a character emulate the function innately.

Come the squeal there will be robots with the portal-gun inbuilt, its no longer a separate piece of equipment, thus it should be designed as an ability rather than an item. Should I want to play one of these guys I would want to know how many CP I'd need to invest in the ability. This is GURPS after-all and not free-form RPing, so lets not just hand-wave this as that sort of defeats the purpose of the thread.

[Jamaraq]

Originally Posted by PseudoFenton

This is GURPS after-all and not free-form RPing, so lets not just hand-wave this as that sort of defeats the purpose of the thread.

Thank you.

These kinda power design challenges are actually a lot of fun to me, and I know I'm not the only one. If you're someone who rather handwaves abilities that aren't as easy to put into stats, good for you! This thread is not for you then.

PseudoFanton, looks like you managed a large part already by yourself. Nice. Anyone else got an idea how to put the 2-way portal into effect? Or is this implied already with the Tunnel enhancement (IDHMBWM :( ).

[PseudoFenton]

Originally Posted by Jamaraq

Anyone else got an idea how to put the 2-way portal into effect? Or is this implied already with the Tunnel enhancement (IDHMBWM :( ).

Tunnel just allows a portal to linger before/after you warp that lets others use follow to the same destination, it is one way. I suppose you could use Link to bind two copies of Warp together, this would explain each portal's location (and that one portal "side" can persist even if the other one is lost) and automatically allow two-way travel.

Although doing Orange Warp with Anchored (Blue Portal) and Blue Warp with Anchored (Orange Portal), would still allow travel from one to the other location. Each would then be "fired" separately and can exist independently of one another, so I think two Alternative-abilities is the way to go here instead of Link.

Still need to factor the costs of movement between the two portal sites, I figure it'll probably need to just exclude FP usage and ignore the success roll... those are some hefty Cosmic rule bending usages, the ability will probably end up very costly even with all of the other limitations.

[vitruvian]

Originally Posted by PseudoFenton

Tunnel just allows a portal to linger before/after you warp that lets others use follow to the same destination, it is one way. I suppose you could use Link to bind two copies of Warp together, this would explain each portal's location (and that one portal "side" can persist even if the other one is lost) and automatically allow two-way travel.

Since two-way portals are such a staple of fiction that people might want to simulate using a generic, universal system, I'd think this should be its own enhancement rather than be cobbled together from existing ones. +100% even, on top of Tunnel, seem fair to everyone? Or is that too much for something that could be as much of a detriment as a benefit, if not selectable?

[simulatoralive]

I'd actually say that +40% is fine for a bi-directional Tunnel, because the trade off that something else could come through from the other side is balanced by the fact that the user doesn't have to walk through.

Modding that into needing to fire it off twice to make it work is just a Limitation. You'll probably want to remove the range penalties with the Long-Range Enhancement.

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by vitruvian

Since two-way portals are such a staple of fiction that people might want to simulate using a generic, universal system, I'd think this should be its own enhancement rather than be cobbled together from existing ones. +100% even, on top of Tunnel, seem fair to everyone? Or is that too much for something that could be as much of a detriment as a benefit, if not selectable?

It seems to me that an enhancement ought not be necessary. The benefits and drawbacks look like they cancel out.