TW Bullets

[Incriptus]

I'm considering making a techno-wizard who makes himself TW bullets.

Form: Bullet
Function: (Spell of choice --- Damaging or Disabling in nature). Single Use
# of Spell chains: 0
Required Gems: Device Level in half carats / 4 (single use modifier)
Base PPE Creation Cost: (Spell cost * Device Level * 10) / 10 (single use modifier)
Activation Cost: 0 (single use)
Construction Time: (PPE Creation Cost / 10 * Device Level) / 2 (single use modifier)
Construction Cost: (PPE Creation Cost * 10 * Device Level) /2 (single use) + Cost of Gems

Since single use TW devices are capped at the level of the creator, and that means a new character is level 1, my bullets will be weak and girl like so this would be my first example

Blinding Bullet & Tracer Round
Form: Bullet
Function: Blinding Flash
Required Gems: 1/8 carat of clear quartz
PPE Creation Cost: 1
Construction Time: 3 minutes or 1/20th an hour
Construction Cost: 12.5 Credits



I guess that works. Although my biggest problem right now is that the spell level is capped at the characters level. My original thought was bullets with spells like Constrain Being or Expel Demons. I understand the game balance issues, but I guess it means i'll never actually make the character for personal play. Maybe as an NPC who doesn't have to worry about leveling up through the 'cripple' levels.

[taalismn]

I've seen some nasty TW bullets online over the years...Yeah, it's a great way to deliver a spell, especially if the range of the round is better than the spell's normal casting distance....

[Mack]

I like where you're going with this, but have one comment.

Base PPE Creation Cost: (Spell cost * Device Level * 10) / 10 (single use modifier)

This formula should be:
[(Spell Cost * Device Level *10) / Carats] / 10

For what it's worth, I hate the way the formulas are laid out in the book.

[Lt Gargoyle]

I like this so far myself. I am curious though will these bullets work in convetional guns or will they only work in a TW gun.

[Incriptus]

I like this so far myself. I am curious though will these bullets work in convetional guns or will they only work in a TW gun.

I kinda planned on them working in a normal gun, it iss up to the GM's discresion of course, But, the way I'd run it is that A) the user would have to recognize it as a TW bullet, and B) would have to manually handle it before it would be active, and C) must fire the bullet with in 1 minute of activating it or it would go off in his hand (or gun).

I wasn't going to try and convince a GM that I could have 100 rounds of decimate the supernatural in my machine gun just waiting for me to empty the whole thing into a passing by Splugorth . . . it would just **** him off anyways.

I was imagining using it in a bolt action rifle, dinosaur swamp style . . . maybe work over the GM with little gifts till he decided that Technowizards really could take the sharp shooting skill.


--- of course it wouldn't be too long till my character invented the clip of sustaning that would allow him to store active bullets

[Incriptus]

I think TW arrows are both less munchy, and more in line with canon. Kind of a "Green Arrow"/"Hawkeye" approach to special arrows.

but it hardly screams technowizard. I'd rather have something that combines modern technology with magic . . . Arrows aren't exactly modern technology

Another option for delivery would be a large revolver, that way the user can have more than one TW bullet option to use in a fight. Just spin the cylinder to the round you want, and BAM!

The option did cross my mind. My design would work well in any weapon that needed to be hand loaded since the TW bullets need to be handled.

[taalismn]

I think TW arrows are both less munchy, and more in line with canon. Kind of a "Green Arrow"/"Hawkeye" approach to special arrows.

I've seen some nasty TW bullets online over the years...Yeah, it's a great way to deliver a spell, especially if the range of the round is better than the spell's normal casting distance....

By canon, TWs have a hard time figuring out how to build any kind of "spell delivery warhead" smaller than a hand grenade.

As a GM, I wouldn't allow this.

How about a 40mm grenade launcher then, or rifle-launched grenade?

[Sun Phoenix]

How about a 40mm grenade launcher then, or rifle-launched grenade?

A TW M-79 would be sweeeet lookin.

[Ziggurat the Eternal]

I've seen some nasty TW bullets online over the years...Yeah, it's a great way to deliver a spell, especially if the range of the round is better than the spell's normal casting distance....

TW Resurrection Bullet was my Favorite so far.

[taalismn]

oooh...use the nightbane rules to mod that spell to area-effect, TW it into a grenade, load into M-79.

Suicide charge by frontliners, enemy advances past their corpses, lob a few of these over the hill, BAM! Surrounded! Now, only 45% or so of the dead troops get to live again, but hey, if we're going to do a suicide charge anywho, why not?

That is...insane...
But you're right...if the chips are down, and retirement doesn't look like a possible option...yeah, make it as costly to them as possible(as long as you didn't just resurrect some of the ENEMY troops as well, in which case, depending on how many of the greandes you got and how often you use them, it becomes one slow grind protracted firefight....)

[Shark_Force]

make a netgun that wraps people in cloth, kills them, then uses the create mummy ritual on them...

[taalismn]

make a netgun that wraps people in cloth, kills them, then uses the create mummy ritual on them...

ouch...

[Shark_Force]

make a netgun that wraps people in cloth, kills them, then uses the create mummy ritual on them...

ouch...

....

does this mean we can expect to see that netgun from aliens unlimited TW enhanced to have a word of death and a create mummy spell sometime in the near future? =P

[taalismn]

Can you use ritual magic in TW devices?

-I- wouldn't allow it...Ritual magic applied in TW is like using 'Nuclear Reactor Construction: the Short, Abridged, Builder's Guide'....you might go through the motions, but the ritual depends on too many things that HAVE to go right, for it to be safely distillated down and condensed into a device....IT either wouldn't do anything at all, or it would explode in your face with dire consequences...

[Shark_Force]

Can you use ritual magic in TW devices?

i would probably allow it, but the machine would have to be something you might expect to have the same limitations as a ritual... reducing casting time from 3 actions to 1 is quite impressive. taking it from 30 minutes down to about 3-5 seconds is a bit much...

but otherwise, yes. they would tend to be more bulky imo; i would be far more favorably inclined to have a TW altar with all the candles etc to make a zombie (with the same limitations on time as the ritual) that still has to be done in a graveyard on the night of a full moon and requiring a recently-dead corpse than i would be to allow a machine that does it in 1 action with an attack that looks like a laser...

(might consider allowing the mummifier, at considerable expense, and it definitely wouldn't be instant... it would take the full time as if performing the ritual)

it would definitely be something to be cautious about though...

[taalismn]

I have this image of the Mummifier looking like a field hay bailer...dump the person in the hopper, and out comes zombie, wrapped and ready...

[Shark_Force]

I have this image of the Mummifier looking like a field hay bailer...dump the person in the hopper, and out comes zombie, wrapped and ready...

see? the image is just so evocative =P

[Shark_Force]

Munchkins. I'm surrounded by munchkins.

actually, if you're in such need of industrialising the process of creating mummies, or you've got more corpses than you can turn into mummies conveniently, then i rather suspect your game has much bigger problems than the hay-baler modified into a TW machine that pumps out mummies...

really, at the point where the mummy machine is anything more than a plot device that explains why some enemy always has plenty of minions to send at you, i'm inclined to feel that the power level is probably high enough that mass producing a remarkably unimpressive minion is not going to change things substantially.

i'd be much more worried about the amulet engraver (it's not even a ritual)... with an infinite megaverse, that's an infinite market, and potentially arbitrarily large amounts of money, which means you can just buy combat robots. which are going to be many orders of magnitude more dangerous than a mere army of mummies, because they can actually hit things that satisfy one or more of the following criteria:

more than 3 feet away
can move faster than a stumbling shuffle
aren't wearing any sort of MDC armor
have no weapons capable of instantly vaporising a mummy
possess any sort of ability to fly
don't have access to fire

really, about the only thing you can do with an army of mummies is terrorize retirement homes (and nonmilitary hospitals located out in the wilderness for no apparent reason maybe). as diabolical as that may be, i rather suspect it just isn't worth the effort, even if you *do* have a TW mummifier =P

[Captain Shiva]

Kitsune has a spell on his site called Spell Crystal, I believe, that could be used to create TW shotgun shell, pump rifle rounds, grenades, missiles, etc.

[Ziggurat the Eternal]

Kitsune has a spell on his site called Spell Crystal, I believe, that could be used to create TW shotgun shell, pump rifle rounds, grenades, missiles, etc.

That's cuz Kitsune is a certified badass.

[taalismn]

Munchkins. I'm surrounded by munchkins.

"....Follow the Yellow-Brick Road!..."

[taalismn]

actually, if you're in such need of industrialising the process of creating mummies, or you've got more corpses than you can turn into mummies conveniently, then i rather suspect your game has much bigger problems than the hay-baler modified into a TW machine that pumps out mummies...

Well there is that...

really, about the only thing you can do with an army of mummies is terrorize retirement homes (and nonmilitary hospitals located out in the wilderness for no apparent reason maybe).

That only works if you have Elvis and JFK living there.

Now, if the person were still LIVING, and it was the wrappings that effectively zombified them...
Okay, first reaction to seeing an army of advancing mummies? Flamethrower, right? Problem resolved, right?
OOps...those were innocent people?

[ZINO]

how about
ice bullets (what would be the damage ?)

fire bullets (what would be the damage ?)

huh ........

day of light bullets for vampires (what would be the damage ?)

liquid silver bullets for werewolf (what would be the damage ?)

healing spell bullets .... minor

hum... let see

invisible bullets no flash on muzzle

holy bullets ? maybe (what would be the damage ?)

curse bullets (what would be the damage ?)

[taalismn]

setting off a Globe of Daylight INSIDE a vampire....ewwww...me likes...
UNtil they turn to mist and the bullet falls out of them...

The trick is making a bullet that doesn't go right THROUGH them, but slows down inside their undead carcasses and then lets off the nastiness of your choice...a water spell, hyperaccelerated tree growth(seed in the bullet suddenly springs into a small tree impaling the vampire), daylight spell, etc....

[dark brandon]

thank you for the inspiration of my next rifts character

[taalismn]

thank you for the inspiration of my next rifts character

A pistol-packing vampire-hunting technowizard Vanguard gun-nut?

[dark brandon]

thank you for the inspiration of my next rifts character

A pistol-packing vampire-hunting technowizard Vanguard gun-nut?

No. I couldn't come up with a character concept I liked. A tw who pretty much sticks to guns and bullet TW devices.

Too bad they can't get Sharpshooting, but I'll make due.

[Incriptus]

Now I am considering the idea of "TW Clips". They would require a costum made gun, most likely it would be considered a technowizard device itself. Instead of being a single use device it would be a more conventional TW item.

The appeal to this (along with TW bullets really) was that I wouldn't need to lug around 14 guns if I wanted to have 14 attack options. Fighting animated undead, pop out the clip, put in the turn undead clip. Enemy is weak to fire, lock and load the fire ball clip.

This version would likely be cheaper in the long run, would have the advantage that a level one character wouldn't be limited by level 1 spells. On the other hand he would be using his PPE during combat to use his weapon instead of making bullets "off screen" during down time.

The spells to make it should be a pretty simple chain, the spell of choice and then something to give it range if it doesn't have it already.

[Ziggurat the Eternal]

Now I am considering the idea of "TW Clips". They would require a costum made gun, most likely it would be considered a technowizard device itself. Instead of being a single use device it would be a more conventional TW item.

The appeal to this (along with TW bullets really) was that I wouldn't need to lug around 14 guns if I wanted to have 14 attack options. Fighting animated undead, pop out the clip, put in the turn undead clip. Enemy is weak to fire, lock and load the fire ball clip.

This version would likely be cheaper in the long run, would have the advantage that a level one character wouldn't be limited by level 1 spells. On the other hand he would be using his PPE during combat to use his weapon instead of making bullets "off screen" during down time.

The spells to make it should be a pretty simple chain, the spell of choice and then something to give it range if it doesn't have it already.

Pretty good idea, I might cook one up myself.
Im thinking the ranged spell will be built into the gun, and the "clip" will be fairly complex, I'm thinking the clip will"enchant"(for lack of a better word) the projectile with whatever effect is in the clip. i.e. fireball/mystic net/globe of daylight/etc.
A Techno-Wizard gun, using regular ammo, in a "TW-Clip". You pay 2x the PPE to enchant the whole clip, and maybe 5 PPE to prime the gun, that way you only have to pay the PPE when loading the bullets, and any time you put in a new clip.
Low PPE cost, but really high costs to make. Once you make it though, it will pay for itself.

Maybe the PPE cost of the spell will be needed for every 5 rounds. I'll mess around till I get some costs that aren't too munchy. I know what I'll be doing at work tomorrow!

I decided to have the clip and gun be enchanted, so as to avoid massive waste of time and money on each bullet. Plus, if I put part of the spellchain in the gun, it will make the clip less complex, thus cutting down on the size and cost of each clip, allowing me to make more, without the worry of how far it will go, because they will all go the distance the gun fires.

maybe build in a cheap MDC option too, like throwing stones.

[taalismn]

thank you for the inspiration of my next rifts character

A pistol-packing vampire-hunting technowizard Vanguard gun-nut?

No. I couldn't come up with a character concept I liked. A tw who pretty much sticks to guns and bullet TW devices.

Too bad they can't get Sharpshooting, but I'll make due.

Isn't there a TW sub-class from the Rifters who's a gunfighter?

The TW Gun-Bunny...can't remember which Rifter, and I can't recall if they get Sharpshooter...I doubt it, though...

Of course, you can try picking up Sharpshooting later on as a skill with experience, but it would have to be justified(you're hanging out with other gun nuts who can tutor you, you spend hours each day practicing your quickdraw, etc...)

[Incriptus]

I guess I could make a new thread but here's another idea

The techno-wizard version of the potion, magical injections . . . perhaps a hypospray

[Captain Shiva]

thank you for the inspiration of my next rifts character

A pistol-packing vampire-hunting technowizard Vanguard gun-nut?

No. I couldn't come up with a character concept I liked. A tw who pretty much sticks to guns and bullet TW devices.

Too bad they can't get Sharpshooting, but I'll make due.

Isn't there a TW sub-class from the Rifters who's a gunfighter?

The TW Gun-Bunny...can't remember which Rifter, and I can't recall if they get Sharpshooter...I doubt it, though...

Of course, you can try picking up Sharpshooting later on as a skill with experience, but it would have to be justified(you're hanging out with other gun nuts who can tutor you, you spend hours each day practicing your quickdraw, etc...)

No,the OCC is actually called the TW Texas Slinger.They do not get the Sharpshooting skill, but the special equipment they get might make up for it.