Re: [HOE] A question about Junkers

[Sam & Max <samnmax1@earthlink.net>]

travis lide wrote:

Okay.. maybe it's the late hour, and maybe it's that NeverRest has fried my
mind and I can no longer think, but I do *not* understand The Junkman
Cometh. Help! I know that Junker stuff can be clunky, but did their "magic"
system really have to reflect it *this* much? Geez. I like Hopler's other
books, but this one reads like stereo instructions.
An index would have helped.

Anyway, let me ask the number one question that bothers me about it, and
things in general. How does Durability actually work? It seems to me to be a
little weak. Example:

I am a person of size 6. I can take 30 points worth of damage to a location
before it's non-functional. I build a device of size 6 out of metal; it
takes 9 damage and falls apart? And every *2* points prior to that makes it
work less efficiently? Basically I could drop it, and have it cease to
operate, then. Am I just reading something wrong? Doesn't that seem.. a
little.. odd?
"Okay, Dr. Amalgam's Clockwork Guarddog has you cornered. His laser-sighted
mini gun swivels your way"
"I kick the dog for... <roll>.. 15 damage"
"Okay.. urm.. well.. he falls apart."
"cool. I'll take that mini-gun."

Well for the most part this has been done to death but don't let that ever
stop you from asking questions. (hehe. It never stops me...)
    The Junker equipment uses Durability and takes damage
as vehicles. Now there has been some discussion on the logical of this
in all cases. Like a radio being that darn tough but it works in a rough
and tumble way.
    IE If a character where to kick the Clockwork guard
dog they would first face the fact that ALL junker items are treated as
Vehicles and as such have a base Armor of 1.  Therefor a character
that  shoots the Clockwork Puppy for 15 points of damage would only
do 1 point against it. As all light weapons damage is divided by 10. 
He couldn't kick the beast and do anything unless he had armor piercing
boots. (Say.. there's an idea) but dear lord lets not start that thread
again!
    Anyway. Devices are treated as AV:1 and take damage
as vehicles. They are very tough.

 

Please help me understand how this is supposed to work because I'm baffled
right now.
I don't remember being confused at all when I first read about Durability,
so I'm sure I must be missing something. Further, it seems to me that any
bullets one created for a gun would explode before they left the chamber if
junker's stuff is *this* unstable.You can get some pretty unstable stuff, but with a good junker the stabilities are not all that difficult to maintain at a high or at least acceptable level.  And hey, the buulets are cheap so's you pull thr trigger and takes your chances. :)

 

If someone could either post it here, or e-mail me and let me know what I'm
missing,  I'd appreciate it.

I also have a little trouble getting devices together. I've tried making the
devices in the book and my math seems to work differently than his. This
almost certainly is because I've been up for almost 24 hours, but it's still
bothersome.

Okay. The ones in the book I have _never_ been able to duplicate with the
same numbers. I have tried, my Junker has tried, we all tried .. you get
the idea.
    An exact break down of a device contstruction would
have been nice. And don't even mention the Marvelous Marv Motorcycle thing. 
It uses one Power, Locomotion, which is arguably the easiest and most straight
forward in the book and doesn't deal with any other powers being added
beyond possibly a gun later. The average device being built, at least in
my posse, usually uses two to three powers.
For a example breakdown of the math and powers needed to build a few
common things head over to Taylors
Cool Stuff., Remeber there is always a million different ways to build
the same device. :) I hope this will help.
    And finally. As I have said before every Junker
device is a house rule waiting to happen. Its always a matter of you looking
at them and balancing what you want.
> sinisterdexter@mindspring.com
> I'm probably just tired and shouldn't be reading right now...
>  
Ah sleep.. I remember sleep.......

--
David Heth
"Should you all really be standing that close together?"