Help! Phaser Disintegration Redux

[ImperialOne]

Premise: Reasoning from effect that Star Trek phasers, whether handheld personal or starship-based weapons, can essentially disintegrate matter (with Disintegration modeled in the recent Champion Powers as an RKA with NND of ED Resistant Protection defined as a force-field or the like).... how can I reconcile the Star Trek canon of damage leaking through the force field shielding as it is NOT the all-or-nothing effect that NND defines?

 

Specifically, how would I be able to get a NND-like effect with ED protection that allows for 10% (BODY) damage breakthrough in "legal terms" per HERO 6E?

 

Thanks in advance.

[Daltwisney]

Re: Help! Phaser Disintegration Redux

 

AVAD (ED Resistant Protection defined as a force-field or the like), Penetrating.

 

I'd just drop the 'All or Nothing' from the Champ's Powers write-up and add Penetrating. While that isn't exactly 10%, it represents the simplest Hero construct for allowing Partial Damage to get through. The fact that it isn't NND (All or Nothing) is implied by the leaking anyways.

[ImperialOne]

Re: Help! Phaser Disintegration Redux

 

Good thought.... Hey, is NND ( ED Resistant Protection defined as a force-field or the like) with Penetrating a legal combo?

[Daltwisney]

Re: Help! Phaser Disintegration Redux

 

Just applying common sense to the definition, I would say no. ('All or Nothing' vs 'a Minimum of').

 

I'm sure others may have differing opinions, and of course, like all things HERO, the GM has final say.

[ImperialOne]

Re: Help! Phaser Disintegration Redux

 

Just applying common sense to the definition, I would say no. ('All or Nothing' vs 'a Minimum of').

 

I'm sure others may have differing opinions, and of course, like all things HERO, the GM has final say.

 

 

True enough. It may well be what I seek for effect, so be it.

 

***************************************************************************************************

Uh-oh..... In the description for Penetrating, it explicitly states Penetrating cannot be used with AVAD. I would assume the same prohibition with NND.

 

 

So, back to square one. Other ideas? I guess as a GM, I could state NND (ED Resistant Protection defined as a force field or the like) with the additional Penetration quality. While It flies against the definition of NND (all or nothing), as well as the. written intent of Penetration,it's what I'm aiming for regarding reasoning from intent and HERO 6E is fond to reiterate to do what is right even if it reverses the word/spirit of a rule.

 

 

Then again, Any other ideas?

[Tasha]

Re: Help! Phaser Disintegration Redux

 

True enough. It may well be what I seek for effect, so be it.

 

***************************************************************************************************

Uh-oh..... In the description for Penetrating, it explicitly states Penetrating cannot be used with AVAD. I would assume the same prohibition with NND.

 

 

So, back to square one. Other ideas? I guess as a GM, I could state NND (ED Resistant Protection defined as a force field or the like) with the additional Penetration quality. While It flies against the definition of NND (all or nothing), as well as the. written intent of Penetration,it's what I'm aiming for regarding reasoning from intent and HERO 6E is fond to reiterate to do what is right even if it reverses the word/spirit of a rule.

 

 

Then again, Any other ideas?

 

How about just saying that at a bit more than double your target's body that the body disappears. Not like you can Resurrect dead folk in Star Trek.

 

Cost Powers

75 Phaser: Multipower, 75-point reserve

7f 1) Stun Setting: Blast 9d6, Constant (+1/2) (67 Active Points) - END=7

7f 2) Heavy Stun Setting: Blast 10d6, Constant (+1/2) (75 Active Points) - END=7

7f 3) Kill Setting: Killing Attack - Ranged 3d6, Constant (+1/2) (67 Active Points) - END=7

 

Of course it doesn't include the Focus limitation or the 0 End on the slots (Because I have never seen a phaser run out of power). I wouldn't recommend the Beam Limitation because phasers can be dialed down in power a great deal. They DO work on Force Fields (or the ones on the ships would be pretty useless against ships with shields). Phasers may have a bonus to OCV because they are easy to fire. To make a Phaser Rifle increase the DC by 2 or 3 on all attacks and give another +1 ocv and +2 Range mods or more if you think it's worth it.

 

I wouldn't fool with NNDs or Penetration or any of that other crud. On the shows people weren't instantly disintegrated unless fired on by multiple people or if the phaser beam is held on target for a few seconds. That always felt to me like you hold the phaser beam on target till you do more than double the targets body (Killing them as per Hero Rules), then you do a few more body to clean up the meat on the ground.

 

Really you don't want to give PCs instant disintegration beams. Making stuff to easy in combat and disintegrating PC's is not really fun. This write up can do anything you see in the shows and not be totally overpowered.

 

BTW as I pointed out in that other phaser thread, the Marines portrayed in Undiscovered Country wore what looked like body armor which seems to imply that armor mitigates Phaser damage. Also Klingon Warriors wear body armor though it can be argued that it's for the knives, swords etc. I think that it is for both Disruptor/Phaser fire as well as physical damage. BTW you can use this to explain why Star Fleet officers don't seem to bother to wear body armor. It's possible that it's part of their uniform. On top of this I will point out that in TV shows one has only a short time to show the action, the writers just choose who is stunned and how fast it seems. RPGs are a different beast and IMHO sometimes you have to take our medium of expression into account when converting things you see in other mediums (ie TV and Movies). That means that its' a good thing that it takes a couple of phases to knock someone out and that it takes a few phases longer to totally disintegrate a body.

[ImperialOne]

Re: Help! Phaser Disintegration Redux

 

How about just saying that at a bit more than double your target's body that the body disappears. Not like you can Resurrect dead folk in Star Trek.

 

Cost Powers

75 Phaser: Multipower, 75-point reserve

7f 1) Stun Setting: Blast 9d6, Constant (+1/2) (67 Active Points) - END=7

7f 2) Heavy Stun Setting: Blast 10d6, Constant (+1/2) (75 Active Points) - END=7

7f 3) Kill Setting: Killing Attack - Ranged 3d6, Constant (+1/2) (67 Active Points) - END=7

 

Of course it doesn't include the Focus limitation or the 0 End on the slots (Because I have never seen a phaser run out of power). I wouldn't recommend the Beam Limitation because phasers can be dialed down in power a great deal. They DO work on Force Fields (or the ones on the ships would be pretty useless against ships with shields). Phasers may have a bonus to OCV because they are easy to fire. To make a Phaser Rifle increase the DC by 2 or 3 on all attacks and give another +1 ocv and +2 Range mods or more if you think it's worth it.

 

I wouldn't fool with NNDs or Penetration or any of that other crud. On the shows people weren't instantly disintegrated unless fired on by multiple people or if the phaser beam is held on target for a few seconds. That always felt to me like you hold the phaser beam on target til you do more than double the targets body (Killing them as per Hero Rules), then you do a few more body to clean up the meat on the ground.

 

Really you don't want to give PCs instant disintegration beams. Making stuff to easy in combat and disintegrating PC's is not really fun. This write up can do anything you see in the shows and not be totally overpowered.

 

BTW as I pointed out in that other phaser thread, the Marines portrayed in Undiscovered Country wore what looked like body armor which seems to imply that armor mitigates Phaser damage. Also Klingon Warriors wear body armor though it can be argued that it's for the knives, swords etc. I think that it is for both Disruptor/Phaser fire as well as physical damage. BTW you can use this to explain why Star Fleet officers don't seem to bother to wear body armor. It's possible that it's part of their uniform. On top of this I will point out that in TV shows one has only a short time to show the action, the writers just choose who is stunned and how fast it seems. RPGs are a different beast and IMHO sometimes you have to take our medium of expression into account when converting things you see in other mediums (ie TV and Movies). That means that its' a good thing that it takes a couple of phases to knock someone out and that it takes a few phases longer to totally disintegrate a body.

 

I thank you for the thoughtfulness of your reply. I have considered your points, and it has helped me settle the matter for my purposes, though not necessariy in agreement with you. As such:

 

I do make the interpretation that any single strike from an energy weapon that inflicts 3x BODY of a character/NPC/creature will result in vaporization by disintegration. This is fairly hefty, essentially -2xBODY. While incredibly powerful for an RPG, playing in the Trek universe requires some responsible behavior by players to avoid the abuses of such powerful devices... very much in the same manner players must act responsibly in using the toolkit rules that HERO 6E (and all previous incarnations) provides.

 

My campaign tries to strictly adhere to whatever sense of canon (TV and movies) exists in Star Trek. The former RPG for Star Trek made by Decipher Games (which Steve Long himself had a major role since he authored the immediate forefather of those books back in the days of Last Unicorn Games) is an excellent source for canon IMHO since it all had to be vetted and approved by Paramount before a single thing was allowed to be printed. So, phasers are fairly powerful at the handheld level; they pretty much go through everything including armors, but are defended by force fields (AVAD with ED Resistant Protection defined as a force field or the like). There will be 8 to 16 settings available; setting 8 (max for the smallest hand phaser, the Phaser-I) would center around RKA 9d6 with some Standard Effect (say 21 + 2d6), OAF etc. No Penetration or other esoteric powers.

 

In Trek, we have not seen any armor, short of a force field do anything to protect from the effects of phaser/disruptor fire. Certainly as far as starship combat is concerned, we see shields as being the only defense vs phaser/disruptor fire and even then, some damage leaks through those shields (hence my issue wih use of NND). In DS9, such as the episode Siege of AR-558, we see ground combat troops for both the Jem'hadar and the Federation.... no armor or personal force shields there. We don't see disintegration settings for ground combat, but it would be plausible that stopping the enemy doesn't necessarily require disintegrating them (more energy required too). Off the top of my head, I can recall several episodes throughout canon with disintegrations:

 

1- Friday's Child (TOS): Kras (Klingon agent) disintegrates the usurper-Teer, Maab, who sacrificed himself so that a lieutenant could impale Kras with a kligaat (fancy throwing dagger).

 

2- Wrath of Khan: Who could forget Captain Kruge disintegrating his vessel's gunner who claimed destroying the USS Grissom was "an accident."

 

3- Aquiel (TNG): La Forge fires at a shapeshifting alien that was morphing from Lieutenant Uhnari's dog to ?it's true form. Poor Geordi had to ramp up the levels on his and phaser as his previous hits were not slowing it down in any visible way as it continued to transform and enlarge. He did finally disintegrate it. Reality check here, after the first hit didn't faze this unknown, shapeshifting and expanding alien life form that was in one's living quarters (after masquerading as a puppy for days), wouldn't you think you'd crank-up the setting on that phaser a little faster?

 

4- A Private Little War (TOS): Kirk disintegrates an attacking creature called a Mugato. Ambitious seductress tribeswoman knocks out William Shatner to steal his phaser and bring it to the Village people (a faction that is in conflict with the Hill People... not the band) promising victory.

 

5- Vengeance Factor (TNG): Riker discovers the serving girl, Yuta, is a genetically engineered weapon of vengeance capale of killing members of a feuding family by touch alone (via a "microvirus"... not one of Trek's best technobabble moments). Her target is the leader of a faction attempting to reconcile with the Acamarian government in talks mediated by that do-gooder, Captain Picard. Riker beams into the talks; stuns an Acamarian guard, and tries to reason with Yuta as she closes in on her target. His stun setting does nothing; he increased the setting to some presumably lethal level that briefly slowed and visibly pained her, but she kept advancing on her target. Riker increased the setting, gives one last warning, and as Yuta leaps at her target to touch him, Riker fires and disintegrates her. She vaporized pretty quickly here. I think speed of disintegration is merely for dramatic effect, sometimes it seems to take 1-2 seconds, other times gone wihin a tick of the clock.

 

I can think of another 1 or 2 episodes off the top of my head, but it is not my point to draw out a Star Trek convention here on the boards. I appreciate the input and the alternative ways. I'll post my phaser when I neaten it up, if interested. Its going to be worth quite a few points, but that is not all that surprising.

[Tasha]

Re: Help! Phaser Disintegration Redux

 

In Enterprise the NX-01 originally had polarized hull plating basically armor. IIRC Romulan Warbirds didn't have shields either only armor.

 

I am not in any way arguing that Phasers and Disruptors don't disintegrate their targets. I am just pointing out that in most cases of canon disintegration that the phaser was held on target for a few seconds (ie a couple of phases or more in hero terms).

 

I will point out that Star Trek Online which ALSO has to be vetted by the same Paramont folk. IN STO there is armor that mitigates Phaser/Disruptor fire. There are portable shield generators that do not give 100% complete Phaser resistance.

 

With my writeup I tried to hit the levels when the damage changed to a different type (ie from Stun only, to Normal (inc body) and finally to Killing attack levels). The way that it's setup the player can dial down the power of the attack to whatever they like. (which is why I didn't include the Beam limitation). All attacks have the Consistent Advantage because one can hold a phaser beam on target. IMHO allowing ED to work for the attacks allows the PCs the ability to be "winged" by a shot and not be knocked out instantly. It allows someone who is really tough to perhaps take a few shots (or a phase or two longer) to be KOed or killed by the phaser blast. Some of the writeups you site above seem like the creature had some toughness (ie resistant defenses). Like example 5 where Riker hit her with the Low killing setting only to have the creature shrug it off. If you make a phaser an AVLD vs Forcefield, you will have a harder time with stuff like that. Also IMHO most of the Bridge Crew (on all Trek shows) have Combat luck.

 

I am just blinking here boggled that you think that a phaser I would do DC 27 at a minimum (ie 32 body and 94 stun on average) Which will disintegrate players in a single phase on average.

 

It's your game and if you want something that negates your player's stats in such a big way it's up to you as a GM. IMO as a player I would have more fun in a combat where my ED did something besides waste points. I like to have games that simulate the action one sees in episodes. Those same episodes that are written in a way that favors the protagonists. So it's not about the Players being responsible, it's about having a game where one hit doesn't instantly bury a PC. Dramatic tension is about some danger, but no one wants to write a new character up every other session.

 

My Hero System philosophy is to write up things in as simple as fashion as possible.

 

I am sure that I wouldn't be the only one that would like to see what you come up with as a phaser write up.

 

Tasha

[bigbywolfe]

Re: Help! Phaser Disintegration Redux

 

Exactly. Well said and repped. While I wouldn't build a phaser the exact way you suggest, I agree with your above points 100%

[Ragitsu]

Re: Help! Phaser Disintegration Redux

 

I am just blinking here boggled that you think that a phaser I would do DC 27 at a minimum (ie 32 body and 94 stun on average) Which will disintegrate players in a single phase on average.

 

.

[bigbywolfe]

Re: Help! Phaser Disintegration Redux

 

Here's an idea. Since phasers do effect shields and targets with force shields, they should not be NND/All or Nothing attacks. So why not build a small base attack (2d6K, 3d6k, whatever) and then add +Xd6k with the Limitation Not versus force/energy fields?

 

There are obviously other defenses than shields against phasers. There are several cases of individuals getting "winged" by phaser fire. There's also a TOS episode where human beings infected with another lifeform are not only not vaporized, but not seriously hurt by phaser fire set on kill. If you are truly trying to stay true to the source material NND is simply wrong because it's not how it is shown to work in the series.

[prestidigitator]

Re: Help! Phaser Disintegration Redux

 

Ever seen a phaser on stun hit someone and not stun/KO them? Ever seen a phaser on kill hit someone (a normal person, not some hyped up energy being or something) and not kill them (disintegration is pretty hit-and-miss, but the end result for the character usually isn't, even if they're given a moment or two worth of death scene)? Okay, maybe on very rare occasions for very major characters or important plot. I think it's fair to say they are very powerful weapons, and either full KAs or Stun Only. It's all about CV and cover in Star Trek....

 

Effective defenses are pretty hefty too. Personal defenses have to be so strong and impractical that only characters like the Borg use them effectively on more than a one-shot basis. In-ship forcefields are completely effective against all hand-held weapons. Only ship defenses are Ablative and/or weak enough to not prevent all damage (against ship-based weapons, of course).

[Tasha]

Re: Help! Phaser Disintegration Redux

 

Ever seen a phaser on stun hit someone and not stun/KO them? Ever seen a phaser on kill hit someone (a normal person' date=' not some hyped up energy being or something) and [i']not[/i] kill them (disintegration is pretty hit-and-miss, but the end result for the character usually isn't, even if they're given a moment or two worth of death scene)? Okay, maybe on very rare occasions for very major characters or important plot. I think it's fair to say they are very powerful weapons, and either full KAs or Stun Only. It's all about CV and cover in Star Trek....

 

Effective defenses are pretty hefty too. Personal defenses have to be so strong and impractical that only characters like the Borg use them effectively on more than a one-shot basis. In-ship forcefields are completely effective against all hand-held weapons. Only ship defenses are Ablative and/or weak enough to not prevent all damage (against ship-based weapons, of course).

 

I think some of this is the nature of the medium that we see it in. In an military or action/adventure movie, do you ever see a gun that doesn't kill someone instantly? Also in trek when you see a phaser kill someone how LONG was the beam directed at the target to kill? I think you might find that in most episodes you will see that the phaser is held on target for 3-6 seconds which is half a turn in Hero I put it in bold to point this out. Also redshirts and mooks tend to be one shot/ 2 shot folk in just about any Hero system heroic level game. So one shot may not be enough to stun/KO someone, but holding a the phaser on someone will eventually do just that.

 

CV, Cover and pure writer's pet Luck is what most bridge crew members have in Trek. You don't tend to see Borg level defenses where the bullets just bounce. Heck you don't see that kind of defenses in any action genre.

 

My argument is that Players ARE "major characters" for the game. They are the stars of their own personal Trek show. The universe needs to be challenging, but not so deadly that you have dead PC of the week syndrome. PCs in a game don't get the advantage of being a writer's Protagonist. They don't get to have the writer save them from imminent death. That's why we have dice, but dice kill PCs more often than a Writer will kill a protagonist. That's why I advocate making things like Phasers, Zat Guns (Stargate SG1 etc), and Light Sabers a bit less than you think you saw in the movie/tv show you saw them in. You need to provide a challenge for the player characters and writing up those weapons as the god weapons you see in those sources cause too many problems in a RPG.

 

Now my writeups are clearly flawed since I really only spent like 5 minutes working on them. I was honestly thinking about adding a "heavy Kill" setting that added a few DC's and AP to the equation but perhaps adding some charges to keep players from using it a bunch.

 

I think that what we should be shooting for (no pun intended) is a weapon that resembles what is seen on the Shows/Movies, but isn't overpowered to the point where it makes the game hard to both Run for the GM or too deadly for the PC's. It needs to be close enough to the original that you can explain away the differences as just a different interpretation of what is seen on screen.

 

So to explain my design: First I asked myself what properties does a phaser have? a. Continual beam weapon b. Changable beam intensity from Stun only to a Deadly attack that disintegrates targets when held over time. c. Never runs out of energy d. Gun or TV remote in shape. e. needs to be better than Real world Guns

 

So what comes to mind is a multipower that has various beam types. All are Continuous, none take the Beam limit (because you can lower the damage the weapon does). So my beams are Stun only for the first (never seen McCoy treat for Stun phaser burns), Normal Damage for the next slot (Just to have a slot that causes light burns and bruises and slightly more damage), Killing attack to maximize body for the third slot (Phasers on kill definitely cause nasty burns) and Then the 4th slot of AP Killing damage for targets that just don't want to die.

 

BTW If you really look at critters that Kirk fought in TOS you will find that some defiantly have armor (ie the Horta) or seem to have resistant defenses (ie the Salt Vampire)

 

Though this is like arguing about what is and what isn't in the Christian Bible. I see things and interpret them one way and others see the same things and interpret them differently. I do try my best to filter what I am seeing on screen to a hero system writeup. Some of you might see things differently.

[ImperialOne]

Re: Help! Phaser Disintegration Redux

 

Though this is like arguing about what is and what isn't in the Christian Bible. I see things and interpret them one way and others see the same things and interpret them differently. I do try my best to filter what I am seeing on screen to a hero system writeup. Some of you might see things differently.

 

Blasphemy! Infidel!

Seriously, your points are quite valid and like all things HERO, there are many ways to achieve a goal. It's a matter of interpretation. My final phasers will be significantly powerful devices with 8 to 16 level settings (first three are stun, next three are EB with thermal effects like heating rocks, and the next ten are increasing levels of molecular disruption). Little hand phasers have settings 1-8 while pistols and rifles are 9-16. My earlier example would fall somewhere into that setting range of 7 to 16.

 

Yes, Star Trek Online uses force shields. The medium of an MMORPG very much argues for this, though as a RPG purist, STO is hardly the same experience as sitting down or online (try Google Wave, works well)with friends playing HERO. Not to diss STO, since I'm like 6 steps away from Rear Admiral there . As an FYI, while STO is all vetted by CBS (which manages Star Trek intellectual property after reorganization of it's subsidiary, Paramount Films), it is still not technically considered as canon ("soft" canon eligible for inclusion if needed per CBS) as only TV and movies are "hard/strict" canon per CBS.

 

I've been watching the digitally remastered TOS series and the original DVD releases of TOS (yes, pretty sad and hardcore... fortunately, my late wife was a converted fan of all things Trek, except TOS... though she found Shatner hilarious). Even the phaser effects and speed gave been redone (generally spiffier and faster). But, that's revisionism for you and like all things HERO, subject to only the validity of your interpretation (as a GM).

 

Cheers

[azrad]

Re: Help! Phaser Disintegration Redux

 

I would just make it RKA - AVAD (forcefields), PENETRATING, DOES BODY. It says in the 6th edition you shouldn´t use penetrating on AVAD attacks without the GM´s permission. Just get the GM´s permission (if you are not the GM). I really don´t think penetrating here is unbalancing. It will make the active cost soar and not add much to the effect.

 

Also while I´m not a big Trek fan, I never got the impression that phasers did damage through shields (so long as the shields held up!) seems to me that forcefield - ablative for shields and RKA - AVAD (forcefields), DOES BODY for phasers should suffice. But I will defer to those who know the genre better than myself.

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: Help! Phaser Disintegration Redux

 

Seems to me that the ships often had some damage (and were definitely shaken) even when shields were down 20%. Funny how phasers did no Knockback targetting a 100kg biped, but shook those ships so much.

[megaplayboy]

Re: Help! Phaser Disintegration Redux

 

Seems to me that the ships often had some damage (and were definitely shaken) even when shields were down 20%. Funny how phasers did no Knockback targetting a 100kg biped' date=' but shook those ships so much.[/quote']

 

A suitably handwavium explanation: in order to accelerate at levels beyond structural tolerance, there is a structural force field which reinforces every starship. When phasers deplete primary shields, they also secondarily have a partially disruptive effect on the "structural integrity field", which causes the structure to shake from the accelerative stresses.

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: Help! Phaser Disintegration Redux

 

A suitably handwavium explanation: in order to accelerate at levels beyond structural tolerance' date=' there is a structural force field which reinforces every starship. When phasers deplete primary shields, they also secondarily have a partially disruptive effect on the "structural integrity field", which causes the structure to shake from the accelerative stresses.[/quote']

 

This has as much or more scientific basis as anything else in the source material, I suppose.

[Tasha]

Re: Help! Phaser Disintegration Redux

 

BTW with a Multipower writeup similiar to what I have above you only need to have enough slots to show the different types of damage the Beam does (ie Normal vs Killing etc). To make a bunch of settings just make a list of what you think that each setting should do and make sure your basic slots are set to the maximum of those powerlevels. ie 1 5d6stun only, 2 7d6 stun only 3 8d6 Normal 4 3d6 kill ... 18 5d6 AP RKA) and your Multipower slots would look like my phaser multipower, you just have notes for the weapon settings and use the simple writeup. It's just a cheat sheet to help players set their phasers quickly.

 

The reason to do this is to make the weapon cheaper which will help if you are using equipment pools for the character.

[prestidigitator]

Re: Help! Phaser Disintegration Redux

 

Yeah, good point. You don't have to use the slot at full power. It's a lot more tunable than just the number of slots would seem to indicate.

[ImperialOne]

Re: Help! Phaser Disintegration Redux

 

This is all good info and ideas!

[Tom Carman]

Re: Help! Phaser Disintegration Redux

 

Yeah' date=' good point. You don't have to use the slot at full power. It's a lot more tunable than just the number of slots would seem to indicate.[/quote']

 

Hmmm, yes. I doubt that "needle-beam cutting torch" is a standard combat setting, but I remember Scotty using a phaser II that way.

[megaplayboy]

Re: Help! Phaser Disintegration Redux

 

Well, 50 active points in KA, bought using Standard Effect Damage rules, will give you a "phaser" consistently doing 10 BODY and 20 or 30 STUN(depending on which ruleset you employ). That's enough for an "instant kill" of cannon fodder/extras/etc., but a PC, particularly one with combat luck, could survive it. 100 active points would get you to 20 body, enough to kill normals instantly (and possibly vape them, depending on how you want to interpret it). 150 active gets you to "instant disintegration" effect.

 

Quick question--what would be the vaporization energy of 100kg of organic tissue?

 

Turning 100kg of water into steam would take about 200 Megajoules, and vaporizing 100kg of tungsten about double that. That's a pretty potent sidearm.

[Kraven Kor]

Re: Help! Phaser Disintegration Redux

 

Most discussions of Phasers do eventually devolve into the scientific and logical impossibility of them. The phaser is either as brutally effective, or as worthless, as the writer makes it.

 

To really model it in HERO you have to pick which writer's version you want to make. In some episodes, the shields (or polarized hull) hold up under insane amounts of punishment, in others a few quick blasts disable key systems. Much like the sudden comebacks in Rocky - rounds 1 through 11 he is a human punching bag, then gets the inspirational speech, and in round 12 knocks the opponent out in one punch.

 

Another thing to remember is that armor, or personal shields, are atypical in Trek. The Borg have their personal shields, Klingons and Cardassians and Dominion wear somewhat useless Armor, etc. The Federation guys tend towards suicidal bravery and go into battle wearing nothing but a Polyester jumpsuit.

 

So really, a 5d6 RKA could quite easily vaporize a non-armored Human. No need for NND or AVLD or whatever the 6E version is.

 

I would write them up as a 75 to 100 active point VPP and put Trek purely in the Heroic category, with equipment not costing points, then hand equally deadly weapons to the bad guys and recommend my players keep their DCV very, very high

 

Another logical conundrum is how does the phaser vaporize a person but not continue into the floor they are standing on? I point you, sir, to the script!

[megaplayboy]

Re: Help! Phaser Disintegration Redux

 

Most discussions of Phasers do eventually devolve into the scientific and logical impossibility of them. The phaser is either as brutally effective, or as worthless, as the writer makes it.

 

To really model it in HERO you have to pick which writer's version you want to make. In some episodes, the shields (or polarized hull) hold up under insane amounts of punishment, in others a few quick blasts disable key systems. Much like the sudden comebacks in Rocky - rounds 1 through 11 he is a human punching bag, then gets the inspirational speech, and in round 12 knocks the opponent out in one punch.

 

Another thing to remember is that armor, or personal shields, are atypical in Trek. The Borg have their personal shields, Klingons and Cardassians and Dominion wear somewhat useless Armor, etc. The Federation guys tend towards suicidal bravery and go into battle wearing nothing but a Polyester jumpsuit.

 

So really, a 5d6 RKA could quite easily vaporize a non-armored Human. No need for NND or AVLD or whatever the 6E version is.

 

I would write them up as a 75 to 100 active point VPP and put Trek purely in the Heroic category, with equipment not costing points, then hand equally deadly weapons to the bad guys and recommend my players keep their DCV very, very high

 

Another logical conundrum is how does the phaser vaporize a person but not continue into the floor they are standing on? I point you, sir, to the script!

 

The same way they can target opponents by just pointing their weapon at them, I guess. There's a tiny little computer that assumes that's what they were aiming at, and then aligns the destructive parameters of the beam accordingly.