Building a Better Flashlight

[Killer Shrike]

Re: Building a Better Flashlight

 

This is ridiculous. Any power can be defined with the SFX of a beam of light, for free. So I propose:

 

5 pts of some random power, OAF (-1), No Effect (-2), Fuel Charge (-whatever). Real Cost: 1 pt.

 

The Special Effect of the random power is a flashlight beam.

SFX Beam of Light does not confer the benefit of offsetting PER penalties, just like SFX Heat Emmission does not confer the benefit of LS: Intense Cold.

[Guest daeudi_454]

Re: Building a Better Flashlight

 

That would be ideal' date=' but for some odd reason Change Environment can not grant bonuses. There was a long running thread on this not too long ago.[/quote']

This is a case where the GM would have to rewrite the rule.

It makes no sense for CE to alter temperature both directions, but visibility only one.

Plus, I have known more than 1 GM to allow CE to remove an enviromental penalty... like a heatwave to turn mud to dirt, so you don't slide everywhere.

[Killer Shrike]

Re: Building a Better Flashlight

 

This is a case where the GM would have to rewrite the rule.

It makes no sense for CE to alter temperature both directions, but visibility only one.

The logic there being that altering the heat up or down both generate penalties / deleterious effects.

[Kelcyron]

Re: Building a Better Flashlight

 

Doesn't the Wealth/Poverty perk/disad already cover this?

My thought is that if it costs less than 5x(value of your wealth) in Real points, than it shouldn't ever be an issue. (as long as it can be legally and easily obtained by the general public) Anything not easy to obtain would be points or need the equipment perks from Dark Champions.

The 5x is based on the vehicle/base perk cost.

 

The problem with this is that the default wealth level is 0 points, which is making (I believe) 50k-100K per year. Using (real cost)/5 as the wealth level needed to have an item by default, you'd need wealth 4 to cover the 17 real-cost flashlight. You don't need to make $400K per year to buy a $20 flashlight.

 

I think it just comes down to a case-by-case decision on what can be considered "normal" equipment, or just go with common sense.

 

Kelcyron

[Guest daeudi_454]

Re: Building a Better Flashlight

 

The problem with this is that the default wealth level is 0 points, which is making (I believe) 50k-100K per year. Using (real cost)/5 as the wealth level needed to have an item by default, you'd need wealth 4 to cover the 17 real-cost flashlight. You don't need to make $400K per year to buy a $20 flashlight.

 

I think it just comes down to a case-by-case decision on what can be considered "normal" equipment, or just go with common sense.

 

Kelcyron

Touche'

[Killer Shrike]

Re: Building a Better Flashlight

 

The problem with this is that the default wealth level is 0 points, which is making (I believe) 50k-100K per year. Using (real cost)/5 as the wealth level needed to have an item by default, you'd need wealth 4 to cover the 17 real-cost flashlight. You don't need to make $400K per year to buy a $20 flashlight.

 

I think it just comes down to a case-by-case decision on what can be considered "normal" equipment, or just go with common sense.

 

Kelcyron

Real Cost / 5 is obviously not a workable figure when simple tests show that it is illogical -- and that aside a $20 flashlight costs $20 -- why on earth would someone feel the need to revert to a RC / 5 comparison to determine if someone has enough Wealth to afford $20?

 

 

This is where that whole "Common Sense" idea comes into play.

[Guest daeudi_454]

Re: Building a Better Flashlight

 

hey! I surrendered! lol

I admit, I hadn't completely thhought that one through.

But still- that is what money is for, not character points.

[rehen]

Re: Building a Better Flashlight

 

This may be tantamount to suicide, but I am the GM in question (ducking quickly!). My only reason for using the "free equipment pool" convention is I don't want my players loading up a truckload of gear and saying, yeah I always carry this! I want them to only have to pay points for really special gear. The rest is the switchable common gear that as my player stated, can be chosen for each mission. Maybe flashlights and camera's are too nitpicky (Is that a word?) though. My problem is Wealth is cheap, where do I draw the line on common gear? The characters can easily afford it, or I assume they will we haven't started yet. Suggestions are helpful.

[Killer Shrike]

Re: Building a Better Flashlight

 

Check out the Resource Points in Dark Champions; it is pretty much exactly what you want.

[austenandrews]

Re: Building a Better Flashlight

 

My problem is Wealth is cheap' date=' where do I draw the line on common gear? The characters can easily afford it, or I assume they will we haven't started yet. Suggestions are helpful.[/quote']

For a "high-end heroic game," is there a problem with the PCs being pack horses? As long as they list what they've got and have some reasonable way to transport it, of course.

[APE]

Re: Building a Better Flashlight

 

So that my GM doesn't develop a conplex, let me explain the campaign a little. Its going to be a high-end heroic level game, meant for a series of rotating solo adventures for several pcs. Having the right gear for the right job could be critical to mission success or failure. He is also giving us a free (!) 50pt gadget pool, that can only have "real" stuff in it(real level guns, armor, flashlights, cameras, etc.) and can only be changed out at a base. So, the need to cost out a flashlight. Even he agrees that the flashlight per the book and Mr. Long, is too expensive, so we are trying to come up with a better way. Suggestions welcome. Personally, I may skip it, and just buy some nightvision genetic engineering for my supersoldier, but the other characters may not want to go that route, and the bad guys may need flashlights...

 

Thank you all for your input.

 

Why not just say that for the pool all mundane items are just whatever points the GM feels they should be and not bother trying to cost them out.

ie. flash light 2 pts., match 1pt., lighter 2 pts., spoon 1pt. Whatever the GM feels is fair.

[Guest daeudi_454]

Re: Building a Better Flashlight

 

Or let them carry around a ton of stuff, and use encumberance rules.

Not to mention- every try sneaking up on someone wituh a backpack and crap hhanging off your belt and bulging out of your pockets?

[Dr. Anomaly]

Re: Building a Better Flashlight

 

My problem is Wealth is cheap' date=' where do I draw the line on common gear? The characters can easily afford it, or I assume they will we haven't started yet. Suggestions are helpful.[/quote']

The other thing to keep in mind about "common" (real-world) gear is that...under the sort of conditions that people following the heroic lifestyle encounter, gear bought at Wal-Mart will break, be rendered inoperative by getting gunked up, etc. -- and often that will happen before the point in the story in which they need it.

 

When a character pays points for a piece of gear, they aren't just paying points for the powers in that piece of gear; they're also paying for the "genre convention" that, even though they just fell off the roof of a 3-story building and hit pretty hard, the bulb in their flashlight hasn't broken, or the contacts in the switch haven't been jarred loose from the wires.

 

If you need "fluff" for that, just rationalize that points paid for an item means it's absolute top quality, engineered to take a real pounding, and may even have been custom-built by the character or one of his contacts; the points spent represent the investment of time, resources, the cultivating of contacts who have access to those sorts of materials, etc. that went into the character getting that piece of equipment.

 

Though they often sell some pretty durable consumer goods today (yes, even at Wal-Mart), you'd be perfectly within your rights as a GM to rule that some of the equipment doesn't make it to the scene of the real action intact, if there was a reason beforehand that could have rendered it inoperative. For example, if the character engages in a fight with an opponent on a rooftop, gets knocked around by various blows, engages in a running/jumping pursuit from rooftop to rooftop (possibly having a fall at some point), has to follow the fleeing person through a river, sewer, or other water channel, slides down a slope of gravel, squeezes through some narrow rough spots in a junkyard or construction site and then, after they lose sight of the person they're pursuing, want to check the area for clues or signs that will indicate which direction they should take to continue the pursuit...there is a reasonable chance that an ordinary, off-the-rack flashlight won't be in a functional condition any more.

 

Just don't overdo it.