======================================================================= BLACK RAY GUN (PISTOL) ======================================================================= A Black Ray Gun, or pistol, is one of the rarest and deadliest weapons. The dreaded black ray instantly kills any living target that is not protected by a force field out to a maximum range of 50m, with an optimal range of 25m. It does no damage to non-living objects or non-organic lifeforms. It is powered by a Chemical Energy Cell good for 4 shots. POWER: 20d6 (or 60 pip) Major Transform - Living to Dead (doesn't affect non-living or non-organic life). 'all-or-nothing' - it either succeeds entirely or has no effect. Life may be restored within 24 hours of being hit by the Black Ray with a white "Life Ray" or a "Life Chamber" (GW 1981, p.36; 1983 p.61). BASE POINTS: 300 ADVANTAGES (+0): none. ACTIVE POINTS: 300 LIMITATIONS (-5 1/4): Charges - 4 - Chemical Energy Cell (-1), Expendable Charges which are extremely hard to recover (-1/2), Charges deplete over time if not used (-1/4), Focus - OAF breakable universal - Ray Gun (-1), Independent (-2), Not vs living targets protected by a force field (-1/4), Reduced Range - 25" or 50m (-1/4). REAL POINTS: 48 ---------------- CONVERSION NOTES ---------------- ----------------------- ASSUMPTIONS & RATIONALE ----------------------- Here I assume that a black ray is capable of *instantly slaying* the perfect normal human (i.e., with 30 BODY) unless they are protected by a force field. If one wants the gun to be able to slay ultra large mutant monstrosities that have *way more body*, then the damage required will haveto be scaled up accordingly -- personally, I think that it is plenty deadly capturing the original feel -- YMMV. ---------------------------------------------------------- AMOUNT OF DAMAGE REQUIRED TO RELIABLY AND 'INSTANTLY KILL' ---------------------------------------------------------- KILLING: 60 BODY is what is needed to be inflicted upon the target to *insantly kill* the 'perfect' human hero (30 BODY) because "Death occurs when the character has lost twice his original BODY" (HSR, 1990, p.161). RELIABILITY: What do we use to consistently deliver this much damage upon a target? The non-random output option (of doing 'average' damage) suggested by many is an appealing one. However, I would have it only do 3 points per die instead of 3.5, since the extra certainty is, to my mind, worth losing the .5 points per die (at least if you roll like I do!). Therefore, to do the 60 points of damage required for an instant kill, we would need a 20d6 attack at 3/die (300 points). In fact, this 3/die reasoning actually fits better with the established 5-points for "1 pip" of RKA. And as RKA and Major Transforms cost the same I think that the concept works well for the Black Ray Gun. If you don't like this then use a 17d6 attack at 3.5 per die. ----------------------------- DEFENCES & THE TYPE OF ATTACK ----------------------------- We have to deal with the issue of defences. If we allow the damage inflicted to be reduced by defences, then we must increase the damage in order to have the same net effect. I would rather just bypass the defences altogether and not have to deal with this at all -- thus the Major Transform. Instead of using the Major Transform, one could use a 20d6 RKA, or even a 60d6 EB, with NND (+1) that Does BODY (+1), Beam Attack (-1/4), No Knockback (-1/4), Not vs non-Organic or non-living targets (-1/2), All-or-Nothing Effect (-1/4). In this case, you'd have a 900 Active Point attack and a 120 Real Point weapon (+2 advantage & -6.5 Limitation)! If you would rather not bypass the defences, then you'll have to figure out what the absolute most defence a living creature could have against this attack (besides a force field) and make the attack do enough dice to overcome the defence completely and still reduce the target to a negative BODY equal to their original BODY. Since the absolute best powered armor provides 20rDEF, you'd need to add another 100 or so base points to the attack! Personally, I didn't want to deal with this and thus choose to find a way (Major Transform) to ignore armour completely. ----------------------- ALTERNATIVE LIMITATIONS ----------------------- The Tech-levels varies widely between one Gamma World campaign and another. Expendable Charges may vary, from hard (-1/4) to Dangerous (-1) to recover, depending upon how much effort is required by the GM. The more commonly available technology is to the PCs the lower the limitation. Charges Deplete may not be worth any limitation (-0) if "Energy Cell Rechargers" are commonly available to the PCs, it may be worth -1/2 if they are completely unavailable. The more commonly available technology is to the PCs the lower the limitation. Not vs Force Field may vary from -1/4 to -1/2 depending upon how commonly living beings are protected by forcefields in the campaign. The more commonly available technology is to the living PCs/NPCs the higher the limitation. --------------------------------------------------------------- DEFECTIVE OPTIONS DEPENDING UPON THE CONDITION OF THE ARTIFACT: --------------------------------------------------------------- - Activation (normal, burnout, or jammed) - Side Effect (backfires on shooter) - Reduced by Range (poorly focused ray) - Reduced OCV (aim is off) - Less Charges (bad battery power converter) - Randomly Rolled Result (unreliable output) ARTIFACT CONDITION (a basic outline) Perfect: Fully Functional with no defects. Excellent: Activation: 15- or 14- burnout (-1/4). Good: Activation: 14- or 12- burnout (-1/2). Fair: Activation: 11- or 10- burnout (-1). Poor: Activation: 8- or 6- burnout (-2). Obviously Broken: Not Functional at all, completely defective. Each technological artifact should be unique except those in perfect condition. This is just a rough outline, the GM is encouraged to create other nasty surprises! =======================================================================