Base Transporter

[mrotton]

I'm trying to build basically a Star Trek style transporter pad for a base. I want something that ports the heroes from their base to a spot, and has the ability to bring them back. I'm having trouble figuring the best way.

I figure the characters have to have a small device on them, as well as the transporter pad functioning back at the base. It can port them to a number of fixed bind points, but also to anyplace that can be seen with the bases clairsentience (a spy satellite with a view from above of their home city. The satellite can't see inside buildings however.

The biggest problem I can see is how to have the characters get ported back to the base. I don't need it to be able to port them from one spot in the city to another. I'm fine if they have to port back to base and out again, but I can't even figure the best way to do that.

Any help would be appreciated. Many thanks.

[Killer Shrike]

The Teleporter in this flying base might be close for you:

http://www.killershrike.com/MillennialMen/CharacterFiles/Goodspeed/Mr%20Goodspeed%20Flying%20Base.HTML

[Split Decision]

Oh, Killer Shrike, is there anything you can't do?

[Wyrm Ouroboros]

... give birth?

[Killer Shrike]

I can't sing either.

[prestidigitator]

Still not sure that covers the part about teleporting back though. Maybe by upping the number of people who can use it simultaneously and using the MegaScale as a justification for changing the UBO Line of Sight rules, if it is okay with the GM....

If not, I'm wondering if some kind of Floating Location with Focus might help. Let's think of it this way. It would make sense that if you had some kind of Automaton or friend at the base with a Triggered Teleport power and increased mass that'd activate immediately, they could be teleported to the retrieval target and brought back instantly, right? What would be the cost of an Automaton with this second Triggered Teleport power? Maybe just build it that way. Or maybe use it as a logical justification for being able to use MegaScaled UBO with Floating Locations (and maybe one additional Fixed Location at the Base) without worrying about LOS. Hmm.

[Sean Waters]

Still not sure that covers the part about teleporting back though. Maybe by upping the number of people who can use it simultaneously and using the MegaScale as a justification for changing the UBO Line of Sight rules, if it is okay with the GM....

If not, I'm wondering if some kind of Floating Location with Focus might help. Let's think of it this way. It would make sense that if you had some kind of Automaton or friend at the base with a Triggered Teleport power and increased mass that'd activate immediately, they could be teleported to the retrieval target and brought back instantly, right? What would be the cost of an Automaton with this second Triggered Teleport power? Maybe just build it that way. Or maybe use it as a logical justification for being able to use MegaScaled UBO with Floating Locations (and maybe one additional Fixed Location at the Base) without worrying about LOS. Hmm.

The megascale if for teleport distance. You could buy the UBO with range and also megascale that tot the same extent as the TP distance, then, so long as you can 'target' the character with base senses (and a floating point location works well BUT means you potentially have to buy a lot if you might want to TP and retreive many people, like the Star Trek transporters can).

SO: Add range, add a second megascale advantage to boost range and base 'life sensors' good enough sense a particular individual from half a world away and you are good to go :)

[Tom Carman]

My base teleporter has UBO x8, plus Increased Mass to deal with the heavier characters. It has Safe Blind Teleport to eliminate those nasty coincident-location accidents. For remote activation, I used the Ranged advantage and a multi-setting Trigger: you can voluntarily go to the base, or it can retrieve you automatically should you get knocked out. (This last tends to sometimes annoy the GM... and disconcert enemies. "But I didn't hit 'em hard enough to disintegrate them!"). The Base AI is programmed to use Stun or Body heals, as indicated by a Paramedic roll, on the latter retrievals. It also has a program for calculating global teleport destinations, generally outdoor locations. Players are welcome to buy any personal 'port locations they want.

[Sean Waters]

You do not need increased mass to deal with heavier characters, just heavier objects (bit odd, but there you have it). Also the GM might like to note that there are many materials you can not teleport through :D

[Tom Carman]

Well yes; but increased mass capacity comes in handy at times. I once had a character who only made portals, and handled a fire by linking a nearby lake to a point above the middle of the blaze. Portals may be a hex across, but the flow-rate is determined by the mass it can pass.

[Sean Waters]

Thinking about it it is possibly easier to build the power as a simple 'attack', rather than 'giving' the power to another with basic UBO, and then add in some sort of sensor so that you can 'see' the target and teleport them when they are not nearby:

117 Teleportation 4", No Relative Velocity, Ranged (+½), Line Of Sight (+½), Indirect (Any origin, always fired away from attacker; +½), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +½), Usable As Attack (+1), MegaScale (1" = 1,000 km; +1), Can Be Scaled Down 1" = 1km (+¼), Area Of Effect (9" Radius; +1), Selective (+¼) (117 Active Points)
60 Teleport Sensors: Detect A Class Of Things 11- (Unusual Group), Discriminatory, Range, Rapid: x1,000,000, Sense, Targeting, Telescopic: +29


There are plenty of limitations you can add in to bring the cost down. You might consider building the teleport as a gate. This version can move up targets at a range of about 4000km, and includes 'no relative velocity' in case you are in orbit :) It also has 'indirect' so it can grab you from inside structures that are not hardened against TP.

I've built it with AoE rather than extra mass, because the extra mass is crazy expensive. That means that you can teleport any number of 100kg objects, or characters, who can fit is a circle with an 18 metre radius, which is a lot, and it is selective, so you only take the ones you want. That is probably more use than being able to teleport a single large object.

The sensors that allow you to see the target to bring them back include 'rapid sense' so that you can scan large populations for the right people and enough telescopic to negate any range penalties...and as the TP works on line of sight, anything the sensors can 'see' the TP can lock onto.

[Diamond Spear]

Well, if you, as the GM, are in complete control of the device, just decide what it can do, what the range is, what any limitations are and write them down. That’s all you really need to do. In other words, there’s no reason to stress getting the build mechanicly perfect (or even done at all) since you already know what the device can do. Does that make sense?

[Sean Waters]

Well, if you, as the GM, are in complete control of the device, just decide what it can do, what the range is, what any limitations are and write them down. That’s all you really need to do. In other words, there’s no reason to stress getting the build mechanicly perfect (or even done at all) since you already know what the device can do. Does that make sense?


It makes perfect sense unless you have to pay for the base in which case you need to know how much it costs to build. By and large we do not sweat this sort of meta-effect, costwise, if it is something the GM has provided to make the game run more smoothly, but if it is a player built base item, you have to.