Freezing a river

[Kzinbane]

I'm trying to figure out how one would freeze a river. SItuation - Portland OR, Willamette river runs through town. It is about 70 hexes wide x about 15 hexes deep in the middle. If one wanted to be able to freeze a big chunk of that what is the consensus on how it would be done, and how much power is needed? You'd likely need a wall of ice at least a hex thick to hold back the water behind it if making an ice dam. Otherwise you are creating an area of ice in the water large enough to reach from bank to bank and block the river.

 

Any suggestions on the best way to do the above and what levels (how many dice) would be needed are appreciated!

Sorry if this is dealt with in FAQ. I skimmed through them and did not see this issue.

[Monolith]

I would just do this with Change Enviroment, with several - Temperature Levels (the more levels depending on how warm the water temperature.

[levi]

Without gettig too realistic about this....What would the consequences be? Would there be flooding at the point liquid water met solid ice? Are there people who make their living on that river and would be stranded in the ice or possibly even captured in it? Would there be drought in the places beyond Portland that get water from this river's tributaries?

 

I agree CE is the way to go. Make it Megascale to cover the kind of area you are talking about.

[Guest Champsguy]

Well, this is where sfx are important.

 

In my game, we'd allow you to do it with Energy Blast, if the sfx were right. In some of the old 4th Ed books, they had environmental consequences on powers. If you shoot an electrical attack under water, it becomes No Range Explosion. If you shoot an "ice beam", we played that it became an Entangle of equivalent active points when it hit the water. This would form a barrier if done in large enough quantities.

 

I'd say that a hex of water would have the same amount of Body as a hex of dirt (12). So if you do enough Body from your EB, you freeze the entire hex of water. Then use the rules for doubling the size of a hole when shooting walls (I believe the size doubles for every additional one or two body [can't remember which--think it's 2]). So if you did 14 Body, you'd freeze one hex, plus all the connecting hexes. If you did 20 Body, you'd freeze a 16 hex diameter chunk of river. That should be enough to reach the bottom. I you shoot that at the river a few times, the whole thing would freeze over.

 

--

 

Change Environment would work, but it'd be too slow.

[lemming]

Previous Discussion

[Monolith]

Originally posted by Champsguy

Change Environment would work, but it'd be too slow.

Why would you say that? CE with 5 levels of temp decrease will take water from outdoor temp to about -10 degrees in one second.

 

Freezing Water: CE 1" radius, -5 levels temperature, megascale: +1/4. Total Cost: 21 points

 

Something like this could even be a power-stunt on an Ice/Cold Energy Blast. A 12d6 Ice Blast would allow for an 18 point power-stunt, and could easily be a 21 point or more stunt if the roll is made by -1 or more.

 

Your version would certainly work, but since few characters in a normal game have more than a 12d6 attack, it would take them forever to freeze even the 1 hex of area.

[levi]

Originally posted by Monolith

Something like this could even be a power-stunt on an Ice/Cold Energy Blast. A 12d6 Ice Blast would allow for an 18 point power-stunt, and could easily be a 21 point or more stunt if the roll is made by -1 or more.

 

Absolutely! A Power Skill Roll on an Ice SFX Power would be a perfectly accurate solution.

[Kzinbane]

Clarification

 

Whoa! No, I'm not talking about freezing the entire river from top to bottom. The situation is that there is a water based villain that is attacking armored cars and the like on the bridges over the river (there are several). One thought is to freeze the river below and above the villain so he cannot get into the water and get away. All that would be needed is to freeze a dam or block covering the river from bank to bank and you'd have an ice barrier. Of course upstream you'd fairly quickly get water flowing over the ice as the river continued, but given it's a slow stream I'd say you'd have at least a minute or two (many phases).

 

I like the energy blast idea - body = hexes of ice. It would take a couple turns for a character to freeze the river all the way across and deep that way - as it should be.

Transform seems the other alternative - water to ice. Either way you are talking a LOT of water.

Anyhow I suspect one of characters on the team I am GMing will want to try this trick with his magic VPP. Yeah, he is likely to read this too (heh heh) but at least now knows how I'm likely to judge the attempt! I don't see that he has enough power to freeze a chunk of river from top to bottom in one turn. he may be able to freeze the top of the river over a wide area. I think I will use the body idea suggested above. Thanks!