Magical Grenades, "Shells"

[Wilfred_Death]

I am trying to build these like 'magical grenades', they are 'expensive' in monetary terms, hard to get 'parts' for, and only 'governments' are likely to have any of them.

 

They are to be fired out of Trebuchets and such like, and when they hit something they break, and go boom!. In my setting they do the Campaign maximum damage and are the biggest 'hurty thing' you can get.

 

I'd also like that when they hit, PCs may do the "I jump on the Grenade" thing ( and probably die ) to smother some of the effect.

 

They are dangerous to use, as if someone shoots a 'Fire' spell at the launcher, the ammunition goes off - bang -, A Wagon accident whilst moving them around - bang -

 

 

The trouble is, not only do they work out as expensive, they work out as too expensive, and the average government is not going to be able to afford many.

I'm also having problems designing a launcher for them.

 

I'm having trouble getting the Real Cost down past 5 Character Points.

These are One use only , hard to replace items

 

What I Have is:

3D6-1 RKA ( 40 pts ) , Trigger ( +1/4 ) Explosion ( +1/4 ) ( 60 AP )

Independent ( -2 ) One CHarge ( -2 ) Charge Never Recovers ( -2 )

Fragile OAF Hard to Get Focus ( -1 1/4) , Side Effect ( - 1 )

etc...

Real Cost about 5 -6 Pts

 

3 Character Points would probably be about right for the Government ( King ) to use them.....

 

Am I going about this the wrong way ?

I Have a Cost system based on Real Points and Active Points for magic items,

They tend to be expensive. But A magical Wand that would do the same thing and not be so dangerous to use, would cost a similar ammount but be useable over and over...

 

Do I have the right Advantage "Trigger" for something that blows up if you drop it? Or should that just be "Side Effect"

[Old Man]

Re: Magical Grenades, "Shells"

 

Side Effect should be sufficient. 'Trigger' in this case is not really being used as an advantage--that's what you would use if you hooked one of the shells up to a tripwire, for example. So I would build the Trigger as a naked advantage, with its own real and therefore monetary cost, that you could add to the shells.

 

As for the launcher, I would build the shells as having No Range (-1/2) and then build the launcher as a naked Ranged advantage for the shell. This will probably give you a fantastically cheap launcher, but oh well. This method also lets the launcher fire other types of ammunition limited by their active points.

 

The other way to go about all this is to define the launcher as a multipower with specific slots and charges that regenerate only after spending money. That simplifies things a little but you lose the versatility of being able to use the shots for other things.

 

But most of all I would caution you against overreliance on the numbers. Unless a PC is going to buy a trebuchet and some of these one-use bombs, there is really no pressing need to work out the math exactly. You are the GM and you know, basically, what should happen when the loader loads, the launcher launches and the shell hits. The same goes for the Cost system--use that as a guideline but don't be afraid to alter the result if you get a very counterintuitive result.

[Curufea]

Re: Magical Grenades, "Shells"

 

As dropping it can happen voluntarily and accidentally - I wouldn't make it a power advantage. ie it helps as often as it hinders - just make it a special effect.