Creating a "wake" side effect

[Slowloader]

I was toying with making a cannon that fired gravity bursts (to put it simply), and wanted each blast to have a wake of other effects. What I came up with was the following, but was wondering if there was a more elegant way of doing this.

 

Assuming the main power is a powerful RKA, possibly AVAD. The only way I could think of to do this was to make it AoE: Line. Then have a secondary, linked power:

 

15 STR TK, Only to toss things about (-1?), also AoE: Line, but 8m wider and Explosion. This would mean being close to the blast would knock things down, toss them about, and in general create havoc every time this was fired.

 

The other idea I has was to include Double Knockback, and apply AoE: Line to the advantage alone.

[Roy_The_Ruthles]

Re: Creating a "wake" side effect

 

By things, do you mean people? or just unattended objects?

 

Other than that, this looks fine mechancially but might lag your game when you use it.

[Slowloader]

Re: Creating a "wake" side effect

 

People, things, etc. Not enough to throw cars around, but enough to make it clear that being near this thing when it goes off is a bad thing.

 

Was also thinking of buying additional PRE, just to make it even more clear

[Roy_The_Ruthles]

Re: Creating a "wake" side effect

 

So 15 STR TK will not move very strong people because they will just casual out of the grab. Just wanted to point that out. Another way to build it woud be damage with increased KB and only to cause KB

[Arkham]

Re: Creating a "wake" side effect

 

Sounds like nothing more than the Side Effects limitation.

[Matt Holck]

Re: Creating a "wake" side effect

 

lightning has a wake of flash both visual and sound

further has an electron magnetic pulse that will short unprotected electronic

 

can I get all that on the side?

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: Creating a "wake" side effect

 

lightning has a wake of flash both visual and sound

further has an electron magnetic pulse that will short unprotected electronic

 

can I get all that on the side?

 

Sure. But, by making that a Side Effect limitation, rather than a Linked power, you are saying "GM - these extra effects should be problematic, rather than helpful, most of the time, and their results are not under my/the character's control". Making it a linked power says ""GM - these extra effects should be beneficial, rather than troublesome, most of the time, and their results are generally under my/the character's control". Take neither the side effect nor the linked power and the message is "GM - these effects either don't arise or generally have no impact, but maybe you want to have them come up, for good or ill, once in a while - that's out of my/the character's control."

[Slowloader]

Re: Creating a "wake" side effect

 

Side Effect seems too weak to me, considering you have to limit the affect it has on other characters. This is more of a sometimes helpful, sometimes unwanted addition. Against an army: very beneficial. Against Mechanon alone, in a downtown area: not so much.

 

How about this: If I have AoE: Line 64m, normally a +3/4 Advantage. Adding 6m Height and 6m Width to the AoE increases it to +1 3/4.

So I have Double Knockback (+½), and apply the difference to it alone, raising the value of Double Knockback to (+1), so the increased area only applies to the knockback. Does this seem workable? Or more importantly, is this legal?

[Susano]

Re: Creating a "wake" side effect

 

Based on what you're describing, you need to buy this with Powers, not Side Effects, since you want to have beneficial (to you) effects. Side Effects is good for unwanted and dangerous effects of your power. Having your attack create a "wake" of secondary effects in its path that would be of a big help against massed targets is a power.

[Matt Holck]

Re: Creating a "wake" side effect

 

a problem arises in the active point limit.

 

In a game with a 60 active point cap,

no player is going throw a 6d6 flash + 6d6 energy bolt

when they have the option of throw just one or the other at 12d6

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: Creating a "wake" side effect

 

a problem arises in the active point limit.

 

In a game with a 60 active point cap,

no player is going throw a 6d6 flash + 6d6 energy bolt

when they have the option of throw just one or the other at 12d6

 

Likely true. On the other hand, I have played characters who combine exotic attacks with total AP equal to the game standard, such as, say, a 3d6 AVAD (Sight Flash Defense) and a 6d6 Sight Flash. The target lacking flash defense takes about 11 STUN on average (versus the 22 likely to slip past his 20 defenses if I used a standard 12d6 Blast) and is blind for 6 segments on average (not the 12 segments of a 12d6 Flash, but more than enough time for my teammates to take advantage of).

[Ice9]

Re: Creating a "wake" side effect

 

If the wake is not really an intentional effect (and you can't control which way the TK throws people), then you could throw in the No Conscious Control limitation (at the -1 level). With that and Linked, the price shouldn't be too severe.

As far as AP caps go, these are two separate powers - while they do go off simultaneously, they don't really "stack" in any aspect. Therefore, they should count separately - aka a 60 AP RKA and a 30 AP TK is fine in a 60 AP cap game.