Sean Waters
Feb 6th, '09, 10:52 AM
Can I just apologise for my excessive verbosity, in advance? I’ve just had a bath (you’ll be relieved to hear) and I thought I’d read the ‘Spacer’s Toolkit’ while I ablute. It’s my life.
Anyway, the very first item got me thinking, and you all know by now that is never a good thing. I know, I KNOW, that a number of you are going to be sub-vocalising ‘sfx, for pity’s sakes, haven’t you GOT it yet?’ in an almost prescient manner even now, but bear with me.
The first item is an electric whip. It is built as a limited range EB, real weapon. So, here’s me thinking:
“What about rubber armour?” I was in the bath, OK? I was probably thinking about diving suits. Probably.
You see, it makes a difference. Well, I assume it does. If you are wearing metal armour with an ED of 5, or plastic armour with an ED of 5, is it going to have the same effect? To be honest I don’t actually know BUT I’d assume that the armour that conducts electricity is not going to be overly useful as protection.
That’s the ‘problem’ with a generic system – the build for an electric whip is going to look a bit complicated and there will always be argument over the various power modifier values, or even whether we should apply them to the attack or the defence. Without some sort of structure, we are all doing our own thing here.
Now you can argue that that sfx make the difference here, or that the ‘real weapon’ limitation makes all the difference, or that it should have been built as a NND or AVLD or something. Who knows?
It particularly becomes a problem (well, in my strange little world) when, for instance you DO build a NND that doesn’t work against insulators, how do you know if the person you hit is wearing an insulator? How do you know if one superhero’s costume insulates and another superhero’s doesn’t? Do you rely on description? That’s just asking for it tough, isn’t it?
There you have it though: we have no consensus reality. Maybe consensus reality is a tall order for a single thread, but here’s a thought: a mechanism exists in Hero – pretty much – to allow us to take into consideration stuff like insulators; it’s just that we do not use it.
I’m talking Life Support.
It is time we explored the envelope.
LS: Electricity
1 point: you do not take direct damage from electrical sources
2 points: you do not take any effect from electrical sources
OK?
If that was all I was on about then I should probably have stopped long ago, but there is a bit more general applicability. Running the same basic idea, we could apply it to anything: vibration, negative energy, orgones. Whatever.
Then, right, THEN, you’ve got two interesting mechanisms: an easily defined NND defence OR an interesting limitation for attacks: 8d6 EB, half damage against insulators (1pt LS), 0 damage against perfect insulators (2 pt LS): -1/4, maybe -1/2. Who knows? Not I. I’m just, you know, suggesting a starting point.
Anyway, the very first item got me thinking, and you all know by now that is never a good thing. I know, I KNOW, that a number of you are going to be sub-vocalising ‘sfx, for pity’s sakes, haven’t you GOT it yet?’ in an almost prescient manner even now, but bear with me.
The first item is an electric whip. It is built as a limited range EB, real weapon. So, here’s me thinking:
“What about rubber armour?” I was in the bath, OK? I was probably thinking about diving suits. Probably.
You see, it makes a difference. Well, I assume it does. If you are wearing metal armour with an ED of 5, or plastic armour with an ED of 5, is it going to have the same effect? To be honest I don’t actually know BUT I’d assume that the armour that conducts electricity is not going to be overly useful as protection.
That’s the ‘problem’ with a generic system – the build for an electric whip is going to look a bit complicated and there will always be argument over the various power modifier values, or even whether we should apply them to the attack or the defence. Without some sort of structure, we are all doing our own thing here.
Now you can argue that that sfx make the difference here, or that the ‘real weapon’ limitation makes all the difference, or that it should have been built as a NND or AVLD or something. Who knows?
It particularly becomes a problem (well, in my strange little world) when, for instance you DO build a NND that doesn’t work against insulators, how do you know if the person you hit is wearing an insulator? How do you know if one superhero’s costume insulates and another superhero’s doesn’t? Do you rely on description? That’s just asking for it tough, isn’t it?
There you have it though: we have no consensus reality. Maybe consensus reality is a tall order for a single thread, but here’s a thought: a mechanism exists in Hero – pretty much – to allow us to take into consideration stuff like insulators; it’s just that we do not use it.
I’m talking Life Support.
It is time we explored the envelope.
LS: Electricity
1 point: you do not take direct damage from electrical sources
2 points: you do not take any effect from electrical sources
OK?
If that was all I was on about then I should probably have stopped long ago, but there is a bit more general applicability. Running the same basic idea, we could apply it to anything: vibration, negative energy, orgones. Whatever.
Then, right, THEN, you’ve got two interesting mechanisms: an easily defined NND defence OR an interesting limitation for attacks: 8d6 EB, half damage against insulators (1pt LS), 0 damage against perfect insulators (2 pt LS): -1/4, maybe -1/2. Who knows? Not I. I’m just, you know, suggesting a starting point.