SFX suggestion for a one-shot power

[allenshock]

I am going on record here; I think this is a bad idea, but one of my players has a railgun built into an armored suit and he wants it at d12 and as a "one-shot" weapon; use it once, it shuts down (for which he receives no PP) and then it has th be reinstalled at a lab or workshop to be recovered. How should this be written up?

Allen

[Wayfarer]

Pending on how powerful everyone else is, including villains and Watcher characters, I'd be iffy on giving anyone a d12 in a power. You see a few d12's in the datafiles but these heroes and villains have been doing this for years so it's kinda justified, you know?

However a Rail Gun is a large Uranium tipped bullet fired out of a magnetically charged barrel which speeds the bullet up exponetially so I see the problem.

The Unleashed SFX could help. If you're uncomfortable with the d12, put the base power at a d10. Unleashed can either double that or step it up by 1 to the desired d12. It also has the downside of if the attack misses, the power rating die (d10) goes to the Doom pool. This would definitely cover some property damage caused by said Uranium shell lol

The single shot idea kinda works but if the armor's like Iron Man's or War Machine's, you've got room for a few more shells. Maybe 5? Remember, it's a GUN, not a repulsor ray or plasma cannon; this isn't being drawn from a source it's being fired like a normal gun. the only thing that's powered is the barrel of the gun itself which wouldn't take up a significant amount of energy to magnetize.

But that's just my idea.

[EldritchFire]

I am going on record here; I think this is a bad idea, but one of my players has a railgun built into an armored suit and he wants it at d12 and as a "one-shot" weapon; use it once, it shuts down (for which he receives no PP) and then it has th be reinstalled at a lab or workshop to be recovered. How should this be written up?

Allen

I would just go off of Unibeam. Double or step up, then shut down. If in the fiction it can only be fired once before needing repairing/reloading/recharging/etc, then it's up to the player to not use the SFX again until after a transition scene.

If they absolutely must have it in the rules, then add to the end: "…this SFX can be used once before needing recovery during a transition scene." Or something to that effect. So they can use their 'normal' weapons all they want, but the Railgun SFX is a one-shot.

-EF

[Supplanter]

"One shot only" sounds like the power-set Limit to me. "Recover during transition." And it's perfectly okay to give it a D12 if that's what the player wants.

For SFX, think about Dangerous, Burst or Versatile. For fun, consider the following nonce SFX:

"SFX: Armor-Piercing. If your opponent has the Durability trait, spend a Plot Point to add a die of that same size to your pool."

Almost any way the player builds this is self-limiting since it gets used at most once per action scene. So go crazy!


Jim

[Cam]

It sounds like a Resource based on Tech Mastery, although no Resource can start out as a d12. You might have an SFX that lets you step up a Tech Resource if it's defined as a one-use item, which would get it to d10, or d12 if activated with an opportunity.

Cheers,
Cam

[Duncan]

As long as you feel the D12 is not over powering for your game, I see no reason not to let the player make a limited power. I think it might be better as a weapon with a limit.
Rail Gun d10
Limit: step up the Rail Gun dice 1 step, then remove the rail gun power.

This makes it more in line with some of the other powers, where you can ramp it up for 1 attack and then it shuts off.