Power Cells

[Glupii]

I am putting together a PA game and want there to be a handful of standard powercell sizes for futuristic equipment to make the game a little more playable and fun for the characters.

 

What I want to do is for the powercells to provide so many generic "charges" per use when fully charged. Then items that use them will expend a certain number of charges per use. An example would be a Laser Pack cell having 50 charges. Then the equipment that used that particular cell would look soemthing like this:

 

Mark 1 Laser Pistol:

Normal Shot - 2d6 RKA (1 charge)

Overload (destroys gun and cell) EB Explosion (1d6 per charge left in the cell)

 

Mark 1 Laser Carbine:

Normal Shot - 2 1/2 d6 RKA (1 charge)

Wide Burst 2d6 RKA Cone AoE (2 charges)

Overload Weapon (Same as for pistol)

 

Miner's Maglight:

1 charge per hour of use. (For record keeping I am thinking of making this a minimum increment for using the light but that has not fully been thought out yet.)

 

Now the actual damage and such is off the top of my head here and only for the purposes of getting this discussion going. The real question is how would you folks write up the Energy Cells and the weapons/equipment that will use them?

[Guest C--]

Re: Power Cells

 

Endurance Reserve. Then buy your weapons as normal. For the explosion, buy +XD6 Explosion, at x10 End (or whatever).

[Ternaugh]

Re: Power Cells

 

Endurance Reserve. Then buy your weapons as normal. For the explosion' date=' buy +XD6 Explosion, at x10 End (or whatever).[/quote']

 

I'd second End Reserve.

If you'd like your players to think more in a charges mode, however, just keep the End Reserve math in the background and "black box" the equipment, by listing relevant stats and number of shots per cell. This works well for players from a non-Hero background, too, since the writeups tend to look like other games.

 

I've done this in a fantasy campaign, where I wanted a cleaner way of recharging wands by paying LTE, and it worked well. I just listed a LTE per charge cost.

 

JoeG

[JohnTaber]

Re: Power Cells

 

Hi Glupii,

 

To be honest I didn't worry about it for my Star Hero game. I did EXACTLY what you describe. Some guns/shots use 1 charge and others use 2. If they are overloaded they explode. I just explained the effect using the rules but forgot about how to actually buy them with points.

[Glupii]

Re: Power Cells

 

I thought about the endurance Reserve but had hoped to do something with charges instead. I could blackbox it. That certainly wold fulfill what I am trying to do.

 

And just winging it is exactly what I had been planning to do if I could not come up with a good game mechanic way of doing it. The reason for the game mechanics being preferable is the use of HD2. But if I can't come up with a comfortable way of doing it, I will likely take Mr. Taber's advice.

[Doc Democracy]

Re: Power Cells

 

The reason for using END Reserve is that END Reserves are a power in themselves while charges are a limtation/advantage.

 

The END reserve works like charges if you standardise the END costs of weapons in your campaign. So hand blasters use 1 END, rifles cost 2 END, carbiones cost 3 END.

 

Your END reserve with 20 END therefore has 20 charges and hand blaster use 1 charge, rifles cost 2 etc.

 

I would buy the END Reserve as an OIF with the independent limitation on the power as well. Obviously you have to decide how you will allow the power cell to recharge.

 

I'm not sure that the overload should be bought as part of the weapon as you would have to decide whether you limit the size of the explosion or buy it for every weapon as the maximum possible explosion for the biggest available power cell.

 

The alternative would be to buy the explosion as part of the power cell - thus you'd know how big an explosion any particular weapon would be able to cause by looking at the power cell it uses rather than the weapon wielded.

 

I am of the black box side of things - Even if I did work it out the equipment list would only be 'DeVille Power Cell 40' etc. That helps to create atmosphere and keep the players in the setting. END Reserve, 40 END, 5 REC (only when connected to recharging device) take them right back to Champs...

 

 

Doc

[shadowcat1313]

Re: Power Cells

 

there used to be a limitation on recharging endurance batteries where they needed to be plugged into a wall socket or other power source, if that still exists, whats the limitation on it?

[Captain Obvious]

Re: Power Cells

 

I am of the black box side of things - Even if I did work it out the equipment list would only be 'DeVille Power Cell 40' etc. That helps to create atmosphere and keep the players in the setting. END Reserve' date=' 40 END, 5 REC (only when connected to recharging device) take them right back to Champs...[/quote']

 

Yeah, for games where equipment is bought with money instead of points, the points only serve as a gauge for the GM. Of course, there will always be us tinkerers who LIKE the writeups....

[Doc Democracy]

Re: Power Cells

 

Yeah' date=' for games where equipment is bought with money instead of points, the points only serve as a gauge for the GM. Of course, there will always be us tinkerers who LIKE the writeups....[/quote']

 

 

Obviously....

[Glupii]

Re: Power Cells

 

Heh, good point. I guess I am letting my need for writeups get in the way of just making it a good game.