| From: | Timothy Little <t_little@**********.UTAS.EDU.AU> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Barrier strength (was: elves vs dragons) |
| Date: | Sat, 28 Oct 1995 18:52:56 +1100 |
>> "The captain has turned off the no-smoking sign, and w- SPLAAT!"
>
>Reminescent of the Far Side animated special, with the airplane full of
>insects crashing into a windsheild. I hesitate to think about the Rating of
>the Barrier spell, though. Consider this: Force is going to be more or less
>determined by kinetic energy. This in turn is a function of velocity and
>mass. A 747 doing about 600mph is going to punch through a single-digit
>barrier like it wasn't even there.
>
>Eek. And you want to talk about the power level of Dragons...
Let's see - 600 mph = 805 m/turn, which is an 80D collision.
When testing for breaking through barriers, you double the effective Barrier
rating (except against damaging manipulations and demolition charges).
A Force 9 Barrier gets doubled to 18.
Exceeding 18 reduces the barrier by 1 point (and opens a half-meter hole),
exceeding 27 also removes 1 point (and another .5 meter hole),
exceeding 36 ditto, and so on for 45, 54, 63, and 72.
A total of 7 points gone - the barrier stands firm, and rebuilds itself in
the caster's next action.
The jet takes an 80D attack (reduced by vehicle armour), and all passengers
must make damage resistance tests of similar power.
Actually, under the rules as written, a Force 1 barrier could be *more*
effective.
p.109 "If the barrier breaks as a result of the impact (is reduced to 0),
Nick must make a Crash Test, per p. 107. If the barrier does not break,
Nick (or the passenger of any vehicle) suffers an attack of the same Power
as the bike, but at one Damage Code Level less.
Against a Force 9 barrier, the passengers take an 80S attack.
Against a Force 1 barrier, the passengers take an (80-armour)D attack.
Barriers have many other uses, such as in demolitons:
Say you want to blast open a Hardened Security barrier (rating 64).
You could use Demolitions with 20 kilos of C12 :
Say skill 6 gets 5 successes, (12+5)*sqrt(20) = 76D attack, which is enough
to blast a 0.5 meter hole in the door.
Or, you could use a concussion grenade with a Force 8 barrier shaped into
a 1m x 1m box around it. (The length of the wall is the magician's Magic
Rating, but it doesn't matter where the rest of the wall is).
The chunky salsa effect as the blast rebounds off the door, the 3 Barrier
walls, the roof and the floor will be ample to destroy the Barrier, but
since it needs Power 73 to do so, it also puts a hole in the door.
Better yet, the blast radius is only 10m, and even if you get caught in it
you'll only take M stun.
Cost for 1st option - 8000Y for the explosive, and you need to find 20kg
with an Availablity code of 10 / 48 hrs.
Cost for 2nd option - 60Y for grenade with availablilty 5 / 4 days, and you
only need 1 easily-carried grenade.
I have a program for working out what happens in SR when an explosion occurs
around a given arrangement of barriers. A concussion grenade going off in a
6x5x3m room gives up to 96 power!
--
Tim Little
