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IST in GURPS 4e—Tech Levels
02-10-2013, 08:47 AM
Well, I’ve been doing a lot of looking for the IST L2 game . . . and there’s a lot of little things that are now “broken.”
The biggest problem is that the old 3e TLs were very neatly delineated. The new ones . . . are much muddier. Given that they basically end at TL12 reduces a lot of the ground to cleanly define a TL. Our world is fully TL8 and TL9 is just around the corner. But, there are a still a lot of challenges to overcome.
If you don’t have a copy of Ultra Tech 4e, Bob, let me know and I’ll see about getting one for you (ditto a copy of Supers).
I’m going to number these so it’s a little easier to respond to.
1. So, calling IST TL8-9 seems logical.
2. Power Cells, in a positive change for GURPS but, potentially a plot changer for the RPC, are all, generically, rechargeable. I don’t see a real problem with that. But, if anyone disagrees, we should probably discuss.
3. Blasters went from TL9 to TL11^ . . . that’s a massive jump. But, it’s super-hero physics, so we can safely account for that. Electrolasters are TL9, but, they’re just not blasters.
4. Old U.N. Battlesuits were PD 6 DR 25, which, thanks to that PD 6 was pretty darned effective. Now, however, DR 25 is going to get plastered by a wayward super bolt . . . or a reasonably powerful squad-automatic weapon. Or any type of IED.
A, basic, TL9 Battlesuit (Powered Combat Armor) has DR 70/50 (that’s 70 on the torso and 50 everywhere else).
A TL9 Combat Hardsuit could only has DR 50/30 and could probably fill the niche nicely, but I think using the TL9 Powered Combat Armor would save a lot of work.
My pain meds are kicking in, so I should stop this before I turn sillier. If anything above doesn't make sense, I blame the pain meds.
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1 and 3: Any world with a noticeable population of gadgeteers (which includes most four-color supers worlds) is going to have the "superscience" modifier on its TL. Thus, IST's TL would be 8-9^, and blasters would be a two-TL early development - unlikely but not impossible.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
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Mark Skarr Wrote:If you don’t have a copy of Ultra Tech 4e, Bob, let me know and I’ll see about getting one for you (ditto a copy of Supers). I don't have either, although I do have Powers. And thanks!
-- Bob
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Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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And I should note that many ultratech items in IST are derived from studying biological equivalents -- i.e., powers -- so are not necessarily dependent upon prior development of theory and engineering for the idea and proof-of-concept behind them. It's more like, "person x can do this, and we've found out how..."
-- Bob
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Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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First off:
Wow. Apparently, Ultratech is oop and I can't buy from e23 and gift it to another person (yet, or still, either way, they've been working on that for a while).
PM me your paypal info Bob, and I'll see about transferring some funds when I have them so you can get copies from e23. Me, I loves my PDFs.
___________
Rob, as for 1 & 3, a population of gadgetters is only relevant if they can mass-produce objects that the general population can use. A population of gadgetters who can only produce individual, one-off gadgets isn't going to have much of an impact on the tech-level. If there's only one gravicar then the TL would still be 8, not 8 (with some 10^).
However, the IST World researches supers to develop technology. Unity Station (because it make the game easier) has artificial gravity (TL10^), developed by U.N. scientists, from studdying the incarcerated Void. The Meeranar were gaga for the technology, which is why they invested so much assistance in bulding Unity Station (at least, in my, little, IST world).
Also (in my little world), by studdying Red Velvet and Pink (two supers who have FTL capability), the U.N. was able to help the Meeranar to increase their FTL speed by two-thirds (it's still absymal, in the grand scheme of things, and they're still slower than both young ladies). Since we use Multiplicative Modifiers, I'm still trying to get FTL on Red Velvet for a non-MM game.
And Holly (Red Velvet) has been very interested in helping with relations with the Meeranar.
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Bob, would you rather get PDF copies or would you rather have hard copies?
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While hardcopies are cool and nice to touch, our new tablet makes PDF copies viable. (As opposed to my Kindle, which makes them unreadable.) In other words, whatever is cool.
-- Bob
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Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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Well, I found a copy of UltraTech on eBay for $20 with shipping, and that's about 1/3rd the going rate . . ., so I'm looking at snagging that, then ordering a copy of Supers for you. But, if I don't win that auction (what? No "Buy it now" option?!), I'll pay-pal you the fundage (since I can't gift them through e23).
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Ugh. I just read the 4e, IST "update" again. Man, that makes my head hurt. It's like they didn't even bother to familiarize themselves with the source material.
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Yeah - we've really got to finish the "crowdsourced" updates here, so that Bob has something to submit as a real update.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
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And I thank you all for being willing to let me scavenge your hard work when that time comes. You are too good to me sometimes.
-- Bob
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...and my shoes began to squeak.
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We just want it done right. And, well, we can't do it ourselves. So, we'll just trust the source.
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You realize that if you let me use your stuff, you are doing it yourselves?
-- Bob
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...and my shoes began to squeak.
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No, we're just helping. We don't have the one-way door into the world of IST that everyone else has. We're all myopic, only seeing our little bit of it.
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All righty. MonkeyFist tells me we won the auction for the copy of Ultra-Tech, and I just ordered a copy of Supers from Werehouse 23.
Soon as I get them both, I'll get them shipped off to you.
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You are far too kind. Thank you.
-- Bob
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Got the books. If you'd either PM or email me where you want me to send them, I'll try to get them in the mail on Monday or Tuesday.
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And just to let you know, both arrived yesterday. Thank you again.
-- Bob
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...and my shoes began to squeak.
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Thanks, I will.
-- Bob
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So, if we base the U.N. Powered Armor off of the Powered Combat Armor (pp 183, 186) in UltraTech . . . we could have:
U.N. Powered Armor (TL9^)Treat as Powered Combat Armor, but - Replace Super Jump 1 with Flight (Limited Use, 4/day, slow reload)
- Add Super Flight 1 (move 20)
- Decrease DR from 70/50 to 50/40.
- Built-in Sonic Stun Pistol (TL10; pg 125)
- Heavy Blaster Pistol (TL11, pg 123) mounted on each wrist
This gives the suit 4 minutes of flight at 40 mph, which can be recharged. And brings the DR down to where SAWs aren’t going to be a problem, but anti-materiel weapons will be. And it doesn’t step on the toes of Supers. I went with Heavy Blaster Pistols instead of rifles because they do slightly less damage than the 3rd edition Rifles (4d burn vs 4d+4 imp) and they have an armor divisor of (5). So, though they're not getting the injury doubling for penetrating damage, they're more likley to get some penetrating damage.
A lot of the technology has changed in GURPS, so we may have to totally look at revamping all of the Suit’s systems.
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On first glance that looks pretty good, but let me take a closer look offline.
-- Bob
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Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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