Monday, May 15, 2023

Ultra-Tech Ultra Quickie: Experimental Melee Rules Part II: Power Weapons

Ok, looks like my last post is getting some traction. I'm in inspired mode so let's keep this content train ah-chuggin!

Power Weapons (TL 10)
Power weapons use some form of force field to increase their impact force, be it gravitational, electromagnetic, or some other energy herein unknown to modern science.

Power weapons let off a glow that can provide some light but also give their users position away when activated. They will act as a light source that is bright enough to give a modifier of LOG15(damage adds) -3 or if you want more details they will be as bright as a light with a lux of 5 × LOG(damage adds). See GURPS Powers: Enhanced Senses p. 13 for more information on how light levels translates into light level modifiers. 


For weapons that do cutting, impaling, or piercing damage they increase the weapons Armor Divisor by one step (to a max of 10) and add TL -3 points of damage adds, crushing attacks only get the damage adds. +13CF.

They also worsen the odds breaking for  a non-force weapon on a parry by 1.

This can be increased to TL -2 for +1 CF, TL -1 for +4 CF,  TL for +9 CF, or TL +1 for +19 CF.  
 

Power weapons need a power source to function, usually power cells.

A standard C cell will power a power weapon for TLp/divide by weapons weight in seconds. TLp is 75 at TL 10, 150 at TL 11, 225 at TL 12.

A +1 power weapon halves this duration, a +2 one cuts it by a 1/3 , a +3 one cuts it by  1/5, and  +4 one cuts it by 1/8th.
 

Legal class worsens by 1 to a max of LC 2.

DR Steps

Find your weapons base Armor Divisor (AD) on the below table and for each step your modifiers adds, move down one step on the table. For example if you have a base AD of 2 and have one step worth of AD modifiers you will move down one step and your weapons now has a AD of 3.

 

Step AD

0 1

1 2

2 3

3 5

 

6 comments:

  1. As for melee weapons, if a sword will not shatter or break, and never lose its edge, would it qualify for Hyperdense blade?

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    1. Well, this is very much a campaign setting decision. By Ultra-Tech a Hyperdense blade isn't any harder to break then any other sword. It just adds +2 damage an a massive (5) AD. Ultra-Tech Too retcons it to count as already being Super Fine giving it +3 to resit breakage. My not yet finalized rules treat Hyperdense as a blade composition option only that can be upgraded to Super Fine but doesn't count as it automatically. There's nothing by RAW that needs a sword to be unbreakable or never lose it's edge to eligible for being Hyperdense.

      Now if you do want to make Hyperdense count as unbreakable GURPS Dungeon Fantasy has some guidelines in the form of the Orichalcum which has non Orichalcum weapons worsen their odds of breakage by +2 when they try to parry on and counts as totally unbreakable. It has a cost factor of +29 but this is in relation to Very Fine having a CF of +19. Very Fine drops to 4× cost at TL 8.

      Now for the blade dulling, the only thing that covers that is The Broken Blade from Pyramid 3/87 Low-Tech III but that is a total re-handling of GURPS weapon breakage rules.

      Given that I'd probably drop the CF for Orichalcum to +9 in an Ultra-Tech Setting so if we want to merge that with Hyperdense I'd recommend changing it's price to CF +19 to get the benefits for both Hyperdense and being unbreakable. And since it's unbreakable it's blade should never dull as well.

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    2. If you're interested, that would be Power-wrought swords from the Wheel of Time. They are described as 95% unbreakable, never dulling and cutting thru usual medieval armor just like that, but trick is that in the setting they all relics from ancient Age of Legends that was... era of great technological advancements and said swords once were standard-issue officers weapons (think shin-gunto or Pattern 1897 infantry officer's sword). And since the One Power, which is "magic" in the setting, is handled very much like dark energy and biotics in Mass Effect, including usage in manufacturing of exotic materials, it all led me to conclusion, that Ultra-Tech language would be better, even if the setting is nominally a fantasy.

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    3. If this is meant to go against medieval armor then hyperdense might be overkill. Maybe treat the base material as super fine for breakage purposes but can then still be up graded to Super Fine to get another +3 to resit breaking and a extra +2 damage and AD (2). A +6 against breaking would make the weapon effectively unbreakable in normal situations and a normal broad sword that does sw and thr +3 with a 2 armor divisor would cut through any medieval armor like a hot knife through butter. This blade should cost a pretty penny given that it's being used in a TL 3 ish setting. Given the cost progression for Fine weapons at earlier TL, Super Fine would just be a more realistic version of the Orichalcum modifier at +29 CF while the bonus for base metal getting just a +3 to resit damage and no bonus damage would net a +19 so maybe a total of +48 CF making that power wrought broadsword cost $24,500. Quite a sum at TL 3!

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    4. Probably, hardly any cheaper at TL4)
      Still, I think that there is something inherently... funny in the idea that "magical enchanted items" actually can be described as simply ultra-tech stuff in a low-tech era. Like, in the same the Wheel of Time among the others ancient items that still in active use is a straightforward Chameleon Cloaks, and at some point characters are trying to determine purpose of unknown relics. To quote:""She picked up an oddly shaped metal cap. Covered with strange, angular patterns of what seemed to be the most minute engraving, it was much too thin to be of use as a helmet, though it was twice as heavy as it appeared. The metal felt slick, too, not simply smooth, as if it were oiled. Aviendha put down the dagger
      reluctantly and turned the cap over once in her hands before setting
      it back on the table and taking up the again. I think that allows you to direct a ... a device of some sort. A machine". My man, if it wasnt' Neural Induction Helmet, then i don't know))
      OK, we're got sidetracked to much. )

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    5. Clarke's third law, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

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