Sunday, September 25, 2016

Sorcery: (Inspired By) Squirtle

Look out, it's Reptar.
As something of a sister post to the charmander post, let's see if I can continue statting out more Sorcery spells inspired by Pokemon, this time, Squirtle.

Tackle

Ok, this isn't a move, this is a slam basically. Squirtle would likely have high natural DR in GURPS, so probably ignores a great deal of recoil damage.

Tail Whip

Again, this isn't really a "sorcery," but more a feature of tails in general. Assuming a character has a tail, this is a Side Effect enhancement for the tail. Writing this in a Dungeon Fantasy style power-up form, and assuming the side effect is -10 points worth of DR (nominally, -2 DR.) This is a +60%  Side-Effect enhancement if this is allowed (the Basic Set notes that nominally this is only allowed for innate attacks) this might look like:
  • 3 points for a crushing or piercing tail
  • 4 points for a large piercing tail
  • 5 points for a cutting or impaling tail
Fort this to be cumulative, add +400% to the enhancement, which would instead be:
  • 23 points for a crushing or piercing tail
  • 28 for a large piercing tail
  • 33 for a cutting tail
  • 37 for an impaling tail.


Bubble

This one is actually an attack, hooray! This does low damage and has a chance of slowing an opponent down, which I'll take to mean a lowering of speed. This is most likely:

Bubble

Keywords: Obvious, missile

Full Cost: 56 points/level
Casting Roll: none, use innate attack.
Range: 10/100 yards
Duration: HT-20 Minutes
The "caster" spits bubbles at the opponent, doing a small amount of damage and having a chance of cumulatively lowering Basic Speed by 1. the attack does 2d damage per level. Lowering of basic speed is cumulative, but each exposure lasts for 3 minutes.
Statistics: Crushing Attack 2 (Sorcery, -15%; Side Effect, Disadvantage, Basic Speed -1.00, Cumulative, +470%) [56]

Water Gun

As strong as Bubble, but *much* cheaper.

Water Gun

Keywords: Obvious, missile

Full Cost: 10.5 points/level, rounded up.
Casting Roll: none, use innate attack.
Range: 10/100 yards
Duration: Instantaneous
The "caster" spits water hard enough to hurt the opponent. This does 2d crushing damage per level. This does knockback as if the damage was doubled.
Statistics: Crushing Attack 2 (Sorcery, -15%, Double Knockback, +20%) [11]

Bite

This is, at it's simplest, cutting teeth. For a more accurate version, this also includes a follow-up effect of stun. This is simply:
Affliction (Follow-up, Teeth, +0%; Stun, +0%)[10]

Skull Bash

This is again a striker, but the striker is assumed to be the head, it takes two turns, and does a lot of damage, while preparing defense is higher than normal. This headbutt striker might be statted as:
Crushing Striker(Cannot Parry, -40%; Limited Arc, Straight Ahead, -40%, Takes Extra Time, 1 ready, -10%)[1] Plus
Damage Resistance 1 (Accessibility, Only when preparing headbutt, -60%)[2] Plus
Striking ST 8 (Only For Headbutt,  -60%)[16]

If you wanted to make the attack as a meta-trait, this would be 19 points altogether.

Hydro Pump

This is an intensely powerful water attack, but it has a really bad accuracy.

Hydro Pump

Keywords: Obvious, missile

Full Cost: 27 points/level.
Casting Roll: none, use innate attack.
Range: 10/100 yards
Duration: Instantaneous
The "caster" shoots water at tremendous speed and volume at the target. It is not very controllable, but it does a large amount of damage. This does 6d crushing damage per level, and 12d knockback per level.
Statistics: Crushing Attack 6 (Sorcery, -15%, Double Knockback, +20%; Innacurate, 0 Accuracy, -15%) [27]

Other Thoughts

In Pokemon, attacks can't be leveled, so if someone were interested in the authentic GURPS: Pokemon experience, they'd be prevented from levelling water gun to the point that Hyrdro Pump would be useless. Converting mechanics from one game to another is never a straight easy process, and GURPS cares about a lot more than just how good someone is at fighting in a controlled environment. I'd guess most pokemon almost have unkillable 2 or 3, but Some kinda "Easy To Faint" disadvantage because no one ever dies really (except in the movies) even when bringing enough power to bury entire cities. A GURPS: Pokemon game might run the risk of real death though depending on how it is played.

4 comments:

  1. Gah, stop it!

    I'd probably rate Tackle and a few other normal-type moves as buying up various unarmed attack skills. This differentiates them from low-level Magikarp and Hoppip and the like, who don't even have that much offense.

    As for damage/death, I think you'd need to use some Supers-like setting switches that make unconsciousness more likely than death.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have two reasons for doing "pokemon inspired" posts right now.
      1) Pokemon is popular, and it makes people read about GURPS
      2) Many of these abilities are pretty elementary, so they illustrate how easy it is to adapt foreign game mechanics to GURPS. I don't know how hard it is to create "Water Gun" in D&D though, and decide what it's appropriate metric for damage and power level, but in GURPS, just knowing it does x damage, I have a number of character points after one small calculation, which balanced or not, tells me that it is pretty easy to learn.
      3) I got a bad case of writer's block. I haven't run a game in months, but if all goes well, tomorrow might be session 1.

      Delete
  2. Hmm. You got me wondering about Side Effect vs Follow Up; it seems like both are possible for Afflictions. Comparative cost will vary depending on what options the main attack has that flow into the Follow Up, and the main difference is that Side Effect will generally last a fixed amount of time, and Follow Up doesn't get the benefit of damage making the secondary more likely.

    In fact... you don't need Fixed Duration the way you wrote up Bubble. The Speed reduction will always last 20 - HT minutes to begin with.

    ReplyDelete

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