[BNW] Varient Power Packages

[Theo McGuckin <tsm@jlab.org>]

I was working on some variants of existing power packages and wanted
people's opinions. They're more complicated than standard PP, but that's
because they are like more specific versions:

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Rocket (Flyer variant based off Cannonball from Marvel):
A rocket is a flyer that uses an explosive reaction to propel himself
through the air. In contrast to the deft maneuvers and grace of a flyer, a
rocket is pure, straight-arrow speed. The downside of this is that rockets
have no where near the manevereability of flyers.

Powers:
Fly at pace of 100
Armor 10 when flying

Quirks:
Obvious(-3)- when flying rockets are painfully obvious. They sound like a
jet flying by, they leave a long trail of fire behind them and, if you
take the time, they smell of burnt fuel too.

Fast as a bullet - Rockets ALWAYS travel at a pace of 100 when flying,
they don't have the option to move slower (see tricks below), nor can they
hover. It is important to keep close tabs of the rockets movement over the
course of the round as unlike with other players the rocket can't control
his speed. How you do this is up to individual guides, one would be to
divide the rocket's movement into blocks based on the PC/NPC with the most
actions. Then have him move one block per. This may result in the rocket
not being able to stop from slamming into something, but that's part of
the PP.

Straight as an arrow - Rockets can't maneuver like flyers. To turn AT ALL
requires a challenging(10) flying roll. If this succeeds they can turn
upto 180 degrees in five seconds (one round). A rocket can perform no
other actions while turning, except charging into people/things. If a
rocket starts a turn at the start of a round then it takes the entire
round, if he starts it part way through the round then it takes the rest
of the round and however many actions he spent before turning, or the end
of the next round which ever comes first. (Ex. a rocket has four actions
in a round, he punches a guy, shoots another and then takes off into a
turn. He spend his last two actions turning. Next round he rolls and only
gets one action. Normally he would have to spend two more actions turning,
but as he only has one, he finishes his turn at the end of the round).
Incidently if he fails at the flying roll, he only turns 90 degrees (and
probably runs into something).

Combining "Straight as an arrow" with "Fast as a bullet" shows that a
rocket has to move through a 100 inch arc to turn 180 degrees. That's
200yds. Doing a little geometry reveals that if a rocket is heading north
and decides to turn south, he'll wind up hooking around 63yds. to side the 
of where he was:
        ____
      /	     \
     /        \
    /          \
   | <-63yds->  |
   |            |
   ^            V
 start        finish

We'll round down to 60yds. As your average city block is not 60 yds. wide
the rocket is in trouble, but see tricks below.

Charging- when charging and flying the rocket does a maximum of +10 to
damage, but this damage is considered armor peircing just like a
Blaster's. This means that other then getting the wind knocked out of
him, or slamming into something that doesn't give, a rocket never takes
damage from hitting things while flying. But he also doesn't do the full
20pts. of damage he normally would for charging with a pace of 100.
Note: the rockets armor does NOT extend to anyone he's carrying.

Tricks:

Sharp turn- with an extra success on the flying roll to make a turn the
rocket can cut a sharp angle, allowing him to change to any direction he
wants "on a dime". Basically the rocket shuts off his power for a split
second, rolls his body to face the right direction and starts up again.
Because of the uniqueness of the rocket's power momentum is not conserved
(it's converted into heat or something) and if he uses this trick to turn
90 degrees he does so at a sharp right angle without sliding to the side
afterward at all.

Tackle- with an extra success on a barehanded-attack while flying the
rocket can pick up a target and carry it/him/her with him. If the target
is carriable by the rocket (i.e. size < str.) then the rocket can hold on
to it and keep going. If the object is larger than the rockets str. then
he either has to let go of it by his next action or crash with it (of
course the rocket won't really care because of his armor...)

Speed control- for each success on an easy(5) flying roll the rocket can
reduce his flying pace by 10. As long as he remains flying he can keep
adjusting his speed up or down by that amount (to a minimum of 50 and max.
of 100). The rocket can use a simple action when first taking off to
activate this trick. If used in flight it takes one action.
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The only thing that worries me about this one is the pace of 100 when
flying. I think this is balanced by the severe restrictions on
maneuverability (a rocket is pretty SOL in an office building for
example). The armor is higher, but I think this is balanced by the fact
that the rocket can't "hover" and gain the benefit of the armor.

I'm going to use an NPC rocket in the game I'm running. So I'll let you
know how playtesting goes.

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Beamer (blaster variant, beams shoot from eyes instead of hands):
I never liked the idea of a blaster with beams coming from his eyes being
treated the same. How do you treat the beam from each eye? Does he have to
have two-visioned? So this is what I came up with:

Energy blast- Eye beams shoot from his eyes WHEN HE WANTS, the damage and
AP rules are the same as a blaster (5d6+10), but shooting beams from both
eyes or one eye doesn't change anything. You can't use anything like
two-fisted to get off more shots. The beam is a solid stream and treated
as having a ROF of 3.

Armor- Beamers have Armor of 5 everywhere

Great Eyes- Beamers always have excellent vision, they never need glasses
(good thing too). Additionally their eyes are completely immune from all
damage. Short of ripping the eyes out of his head you can't hurt them.
Aparently the eye beams kick in automatically if attacked as a type of
defense mechanism.

Many beamers have eagle-eyes, but they don't come with it for free.

Tricks:
Superblast - same as Blaster

Wide Beam - if the Beamer makes a challenging(10) roll on any shooting
roll then he can choose to activate this trick. The beamer's damage goes
down to 5d6+5, but the beam spreads in a 45 degree arc. Everything in the
arc is hit automatically, good-guy, bad-guy, lamp-post. The beam tappers
off after about 30 inches so bother figuring out for stuff hit after that.

Obviously the Beamer CANNOT take the Blast Punch trick.
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Waddya guys think?

 Theo McGuckin -
	"Powerful like a gorilla, yet soft and yielding like a nerf ball"