GADGETS & WEAPONS:

How I explain & use them in my games

By; Mr. David R. Dorrycott

Several times as a GM & Player I have found myself in the position of either explaining how something works, or defending its 'Reality to the Game' in order to use it. Over the last eight plus years I have evolved a style of defining a gadget that is based partially in reality, partially from science fiction I have read, or watched, over the last 40 plus years. To some effect it has been successful in keeping me from defending myself while backed into a corner.

Then there are always the 'Rules Lawyers' that call at 3am demanding to know why 'Fireball can have a 175 point weapon and I can't!' (Yes, this actually happened, and the player found herself on the GM's bad side for several months after that). As for the weapon, note the 'Suicide Grenade' listed later on.

Now, on to the weapons and possible explanations as to how, and why, they work. Please note that most of these explanations are several years old, pre-dating current popular bungling anime characters.

THE SUICIDE GRENADE:

Upon first examination this appears to be a rather large (grapefruit sized) bomb. It is normally found attached to some poor defenseless slob, or bound PC/NPC. An obvious timer is counting down rapidly to zero! When the counter hits a predetermined point the protagonists voice will be heard coming from beneath the 'bomb'. Usually saying something like "How do you like my mini-nuke? I hope you have fun trying to save your (DNPC's) life.... Hee hee heeee... there's going to be a big bang soon." Shortly thereafter there will be a bright flash and a loud bang...then quiet.

What happened was a flash grenade went off and the speaker emitted the sound of an explosion. Attempting to dislodge the grenade will always cause at least one body of damage, it is attached using super glue. Of course, if the person using it has a solvent or can cause things to go desolid it will detach with no problems. The 'explosion' will cause no injury to the person it is attached to but the casing will remain attached. It is barely damaged by the 'explosion' although the internal structure is a mess.

SNOWATERS POLYMER MULTI-RIFLE:

This is a rather bulky weapon firing a 20mm projectile. The actual 'attack' can be selected from a magazine that is split into three separate sections. It has the ability to fire single shots or auto-fire. The weapon is some three feet long (Snowaters is 5' tall) causing the user some difficulty in maneuvering it around. It is also rather thick in order to accommodate the size of the round and its magazine.

The weapon has three attacks. Entangle, Explosion, and an NND attack. Each round is colour coded as to the effect, green for entangle, red for explosion, and blue for NND. The rounds are somewhat heavy and each are formed of a different alloy.

Green rounds are formed of a single polymer chain that unravels when exposed to extreme heat, the heat normally experienced by firing the round. The heat also causes the polymer to become extremely sticky (to itself only). As the 'round' travels it expands slightly until it strikes something, whereupon it wraps itself around the object and cools rapidly (the cooling is caused by the rapid expansion effect). This creates a rather effective, slightly flexible entangle.

Red rounds are formed of a very thin ceramic coating around a slightly unstable polymer. At impact the ceramic coating shatters allowing the polymer to expand. As the polymer expands it becomes unstable, the larger it gets the more unstable it gets until it simply explodes. This gives a unique special effect of 'sparkles' outside the explosion area of minute particles that were cast out before they exploded. This special effect is not dangerous in any form. As the explosion is caused by polymer expansion rather than a gas expansion the explosion is not very hot, thus targets are not subjected to deteriorating heat effects.

Blue rounds are again a special polymer. This polymer is extremely di-electric in nature and upon impact release a tremendous surge of electrical current. They are coated with an ultra-thin heat sensitive polymer coating that rapidly 'unwraps' itself when exiting the muzzle of the weapon.

REDSTARS INFRA-RED TELESCOPIC GOGGLES:

Redstars goggles allow her to see in the infra-red as well as acting as telescopic vision (+6 perception). They appear to be simple swimming goggles at first sight. The circuits within the goggles are standard Earth technology available today, and the energy source can be considered as infinite in lifespan. The telescopic portion is simply a set of lenses that can be selected to allow increased vision abilities.

ELAINIEA's ARMOR:

Elainiea wears a simple aluminium ceramic Kevlar body suit. As it does not cover her arms, legs, or head it has an activation roll of nine or less. The standard weave Kevlar affords her protection from physical attacks while the aluminium/ceramic coating protects her from energy attacks. The whole of the armor is the majority of her outfit, allowing her relative comfort, protection, and ease of movement.

ELAINIEA's SWORD:

Elainiea carries a Spanish style straight sword. It is of a titanium/beryllium/improbabilium alloy that protects it from shattering when struck by high speed weapons. Although normally used as a killing attack (OAF: Sword) it is also used to reflect incoming attacks. Polished to a high degree it can reflect energy attacks while the pure strength of the alloy allows the weapon to reflect physical attacks.

ELAINIEA's CORONET:

Elainiea also wears a coronet as part of her costume. With it she is able to teleport herself up to sixty feet from her present position. The coronet works by 'folding' space between where she is, and where she wants to be. It is controlled by her thoughts and as such she must be touching it in order to use it.

RUDAN's LAZER SWORD:

Rudan carries a 'Lazer Sword' that he created after watching Straw Warps, the movie. It works by firing two laser pulses of different wave lengths so that they 'go out of phase' with each other at a predetermined distance. This causes the laser beam to be nullified at the focus point, about 28 to 32 inches from the emitter.

Although an energy based weapon the actual attack is physical. The two slightly out of phase beams create a strong phase field (figure that one out) that allows it to deflect any ranged attack, and act as a 'block' for non-ranged attacks (such as in sword fights). The last few inches of the beam are slightly unstable which allows them to affect desolid objects & characters.

What follows are the 'stats' for the above described objects. Please note that some of these may be 'old rules' material. I am not quite sure at the time of this writing. Actually, I loaned my rulebook out & have not yet recovered it so I cannot check.

SUICIDE GRENADE:

Flash 5D6, 1 charge, OAF: Large casing grenade, Independent, Time Delay. Flash 50 points. Minus 4 Limitation. +1/4 Advantage. 10 points.

SUICIDE GRENADE ENTANGLE:

(Super Glue Pod). 2D6 PD attack, penetrating. Linked to SG. 1 Charge. IAF: Super Glue, Independent. PD Attack 10 points. Minus 31/2 Limitation. +1/2 Advantage. 3 points.

NOTE: The Suicide Grenade was meant as a one shot weapon to allow the villain to escape. It is very rare that I 'play' with points (mini-max), but in this case the PC was really asking for it, so she got it. I do not recommend its use other than as a 'gag'.

SNOWATERS POLYMER MULTI-RIFLE:

36 (60 active) Multi-power, OAF Rifle, 30 Charges, Bulky, Breakable, Aytofire.

3u Entangle, Backlash, 4D6.

3u Energy Blast, Explosion, 4D6.

3u RKA-NND Plasma Bubble (Electrical Charge), 2D6. Defense is Armor (man made) or

an ED Force Field.

NOTE: This weapon is used by a side kick. Therefore it is not as powerful as a PC would need. Of course by simply doubling the total cost a very effective weapon can be had for a startup character. 90 points allowing an 8D6 Entangle, Backlash; 8D6 Energy Blast, Explosion; and 4D6 RKA-NND is more than most characters would ever need in the <350 point games I have played & GM'ed.

REDSTAR's INFRA-RED TELESCOPIC GOGGLES:

Infrared vision, +6 Perception, OAF: Goggles. Total cost 7 points.

NOTE: Ok, sometimes we make a character with normal sight. Embarrassing if you don't catch it. Then you find yourself flying blind (in her case a literal truth, what with 30" of flight). This is a GM approved addition to a completed character.

ELAINIEA's ARMOR:

12 (30 active) Armor, 12 PD/8 ED. Activates on a nine or less.

NOTE: Simple armor, just a new way of explaining the PD/ED points.

ELAINIEA's SWORD:

10 (20) Missile Deflection, all ranged. OAF: Sword.

10 (20) Killing Attack (Physical) 2D6, OAF: Sword.

or;

20 Multipower, OAF: Sword.

2u Missile Deflection, all ranged.

2u Killing Attack (PD) 2D6.

NOTE: The first is the 'real stats' as the Deflection was bought with experience points & the GM would not allow a second multipower.

ELAINIEA's CORONET:

13 (20 active) Teleportation, 10", IAF: Coronet.

A simple 'magical' item to explain an occasional life saving movement. Like the time she was going over a waterfall in a raft. Sixty feet brought her to shallows & saved her life (to bad about the Knight, but Paladins will be Paladins right?)

RUDAN's LAZER SWORD:

10 (20 active) Missile Deflection all ranged. OAF: Sword.

20 (45 active) HTH Killing Attack vs ED, 2D6, affects Desolid.

NOTE: Much like the pre-mentioned sword with the exception that placing it within the multipower framework is difficult, if not unwieldy.

IMPROBABILLIUM/PLOTDEVICEIUM/CARDBOARDIUM:

These elements are commonly used locally to explain the unexplainable. Such as;

"That door you bounced off of appears to be made of Improbabillium (meaning you ain't getting through troop)."

"It was created of Plotdeviceium (I need something so I winged it)".

"Yes, after through examination you discover that the box is made of pure cardboardium (come on chuckles, nothing is there so lets get on with the game)."

As you can see, none of the above are really earth shattering state of the art objects. I normally do not use many gadgets, armor, and never have used any Battlesuits. But I do like to explain things, it keeps my brain from turning into leftover mushmouse soup.