Earthquake and Move Earth

[Paragon]

I'm in the process of putting together a spell book for my upcoming FH campaign, and its mostly conversions from a version of the magic that was written up for another system (RQ). I've hit a couple of spells I'm having trouble with, one of which I'm not satisfied with my solution for, the other of which I can't quite figure how to do at all.

 

Earthquake: This localized spell in its original system had varying chances of knocking people in the area down (it came in progressively stronger versions) and of collapsing structural features; in Hero I suspect the best I can do with the latter is have it do some damage to structures.

 

Move Earth: This is the odder of the two; it would allow you to "walk" a small terrain feature; for example you could move a small copse of trees by having the ground they were set in flow along in a direction at a low rate of speed until the duration of the spells wore off.

 

Suggestions? Currently I'm doing the first as a linked Instant Change Environment (for the fall) and Body Doing NND (only against rigid structures) but that seems overly baroque and fussy. And I can't figure how to do the latter at all, since TK would simply pull up whatever it was that was being moved (which is not what the spell does).

[Wyrm Ouroboros]

Re: Earthquake and Move Earth

 

Earthquake: This localized spell in its original system had varying chances of knocking people in the area down (it came in progressively stronger versions) and of collapsing structural features; in Hero I suspect the best I can do with the latter is have it do some damage to structures.

 

Move Earth: This is the odder of the two; it would allow you to "walk" a small terrain feature; for example you could move a small copse of trees by having the ground they were set in flow along in a direction at a low rate of speed until the duration of the spells wore off.

 

Suggestions? Currently I'm doing the first as a linked Instant Change Environment (for the fall) and Body Doing NND (only against rigid structures) but that seems overly baroque and fussy. And I can't figure how to do the latter at all, since TK would simply pull up whatever it was that was being moved (which is not what the spell does).

 

Earthquakes are nasty long-term things; I'd put it on a Continuous Charge or Uncontrolled, with a short (1-2 Turn) duration if the character makes it 0 END. However, the Change Environment rules are all you could wish for in that regards, reducing movement or forcing DEX rolls, doing damage ('only to structures'), and the like.

 

'Move Earth' might be trickier, but you could probably do it with a Change Environment as well. Failing this, a Transform might be necessary.

[Paragon]

Re: Earthquake and Move Earth

 

Earthquakes are nasty long-term things; I'd put it on a Continuous Charge or Uncontrolled, with a short (1-2 Turn) duration if the character makes it 0 END. However, the Change Environment rules are all you could wish for in that regards, reducing movement or forcing DEX rolls, doing damage ('only to structures'), and the like.

 

 

The Earthquake involved is of a really short duration; "Earthshake" might be a more appropriate name.

 

 

'Move Earth' might be trickier, but you could probably do it with a Change Environment as well. Failing this, a Transform might be necessary.

 

I wouldn't think you could, for example, relocate a small hill with Change Environment. I thought about Transform, but wasn't sure what to base the necessary success number on.

[Wyrm Ouroboros]

Re: Earthquake and Move Earth

 

The volume of earth you're moving, of course. What is it, 5 Body for each cubic hex of earth? Going by damage stats, you need +1 Body for each additional inch radius? So if it's a 10" wide, 20" long, and 3" tall chunk, you're looking at 600 cubic inches worth of earth; volume of a sphere is 4/3 (pi) r^3. Reversing it and plugging 600 in, you'll need to affect ... 3.63" worth of earth, rounding to 4" -- or 8 BODY worth of earth. (That, by the way, is a hill roughly 60' wide, 120' long, and 18' high.)

 

That might really be considered ridiculously easy; I might alter it so that the radius is be 'radius outwards', and then increase it by the base amount for every doubling of inches 'deep'...

 

For your future information, the inches is equal to the cube root of (Volume * 3/4) / PI. Or, if you use Excel, '=((A1*3/4)/PI())^(1/3)'

 

Just don't forget that many 'hills' are only a few feet of soil, with rock underneath. Moving rock increases your difficulty ...

[Beast]

Re: Earthquake and Move Earth

 

for just knocking people down

area tk pick everyone up and drop them

str or dex suppress area most characters won't have over a 20

area effect on a legsweep

 

for devestating the landscape

lots of tunneling

3-6d6 rka area effect 1d6 of which can hurt anybody

2d6 can hurt those in or near slight structures

3d6 can hurt those in or near medium structures

4d6 etc

the higher damages should only happen if the body exceeds the wall def

 

I'm in the process of putting together a spell book for my upcoming FH campaign, and its mostly conversions from a version of the magic that was written up for another system (RQ). I've hit a couple of spells I'm having trouble with, one of which I'm not satisfied with my solution for, the other of which I can't quite figure how to do at all.

 

Earthquake: This localized spell in its original system had varying chances of knocking people in the area down (it came in progressively stronger versions) and of collapsing structural features; in Hero I suspect the best I can do with the latter is have it do some damage to structures.

 

Move Earth: This is the odder of the two; it would allow you to "walk" a small terrain feature; for example you could move a small copse of trees by having the ground they were set in flow along in a direction at a low rate of speed until the duration of the spells wore off.

 

Suggestions? Currently I'm doing the first as a linked Instant Change Environment (for the fall) and Body Doing NND (only against rigid structures) but that seems overly baroque and fussy. And I can't figure how to do the latter at all, since TK would simply pull up whatever it was that was being moved (which is not what the spell does).

[Paragon]

Re: Earthquake and Move Earth

 

The volume of earth you're moving, of course. What is it, 5 Body for each cubic hex of earth? Going by damage stats, you need +1 Body for each additional inch radius? So if it's a 10" wide, 20" long, and 3" tall chunk, you're looking at 600 cubic inches worth of earth; volume of a sphere is 4/3 (pi) r^3. Reversing it and plugging 600 in, you'll need to affect ... 3.63" worth of earth, rounding to 4" -- or 8 BODY worth of earth. (That, by the way, is a hill roughly 60' wide, 120' long, and 18' high.)

 

That might really be considered ridiculously easy; I might alter it so that the radius is be 'radius outwards', and then increase it by the base amount for every doubling of inches 'deep'...

 

For your future information, the inches is equal to the cube root of (Volume * 3/4) / PI. Or, if you use Excel, '=((A1*3/4)/PI())^(1/3)'

 

Just don't forget that many 'hills' are only a few feet of soil, with rock underneath. Moving rock increases your difficulty ...

 

And rock and more "permanent" features are really what this is all about.

 

My understanding always was that the Body increased per each doubling of volume, so it'd be considerably more than that. Of course with cumulative transforms, all that really effects is how long it takes, which is fine.

[Paragon]

Re: Earthquake and Move Earth

 

for just knocking people down

area tk pick everyone up and drop them

 

 

It seemed a bit overkill for the job, and has the problem its based on mass and strength.

 

 

str or dex suppress area most characters won't have over a 20

 

 

If DEX suppress would actually cause them to fall, that'd almost work, but its way too expensive.

 

 

area effect on a legsweep

 

 

I actually did think of something like that, but I wasn't sure how to buy it, and I couldn't remember off the top of my head if there was a resistance roll of some kind (which there should be).

 

 

for devestating the landscape

lots of tunneling

3-6d6 rka area effect 1d6 of which can hurt anybody

2d6 can hurt those in or near slight structures

3d6 can hurt those in or near medium structures

4d6 etc

the higher damages should only happen if the body exceeds the wall def

 

Well, I figured damage from walls falling on people could be handled just by the walls themselves at need (though KA seems excessive, honestly).

[Hyper-Man]

Re: Earthquake and Move Earth

 

This is very similar to the subject of this old Fantasy Hero thread:

 

Explosion Array!!

[Paragon]

Re: Earthquake and Move Earth

 

This is very similar to the subject of this old Fantasy Hero thread:

 

Explosion Array!!

 

Thanks for the pointer, but the big issue is that this isn't normally supposed to do damage to people (it might do a little if they fall, but that's no more severe than any other fall) directly, and since its in a game that uses Knockdown, its not easy to move it upwards. In the end, the instant Change Enviroment was probably as close as I was going to get for that part (and that was the cheap part--the damage to structures was far more expensive, since the way Earthquakes damage structure is more or less NND).