Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

[NinjaMonkey]

Ok, this is a minor gripe. I get that power points are just an abstraction, and in the case of certain power trappings they can signify how often the power is narratively important. But still.

How can the Armor power with a trapping of Bullet Proof Vest have an activation cost, a maintenance cost, a duration, and an activation roll? You're wearing the armor and it's not like its just gonna poof out of existence once the power points wear out.

It seems like in Reloaded, Mad Scientist player characters are meant to work more like the hybrid Mad Scientist/Hucksters found in Hexarcana. If that's the case it would make sense. You'd summon the armor and then it'd go back when you're done with it.

[Templar]

My guess would be that on some level the mad scientist is working magic in creating their devices. In essence their power is needed to hold the bloody thing together. It even makes some sense in the classic game where the better your rolls were in making the thing the more reliable it was, IE the better your casting the easier it was for the thing to stay manifested.

[newForumNewName]

I'd wait for Cutter or Clint to comment...

[Lord Skudley]

It's like any other weird science doohickey. The Ghost Rock used to charge the infernal thing can only maintain it for so long before it poops out.
Yes, it is a "bullet proof vest" but in those days such a vest would have to be made of iron and weigh about a million pounds (that's a little exaggerated, but you get the point). This gadget only weighs a couple of pounds and looks kind of odd, but that’s because the Ghost Rock/Steel used to line it and channel the power is a bit like iron only not…
I hope that helps, the voices weren’t so clear and kept saying something about “make it look like a fish” or perhaps a “breastplate”.
_________________
Proud co-creator of the 1,000+ Random Encounter Generator found here!

[Cutter XXIII]

If a Trapping simply doesn't make sense by the rules, it's probably not a great Trapping for the character.

Plus, in your example the mad scientist "invented" something that exists and is commonly available from Smith & Robards. Mad science is hardly required for that project.

You could conceive of it, e.g., as a bullet proof vest that requires a static charge of some kind to actually repel bullets, so there's a small, ghost-rock-powered mechanism attached. Or as Lord Skudley suggested, a vest that's much lighter but functions like a heavier item. Or any other number of things that do make sense within the mad scientist rules.
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Matthew Cutter
Deadlands Big Bug (Brand Manager)
Pinnacle Entertainment Group, Inc.

[professor_q]

I've always thought a mad scientist would be fun.


I'd make a "protective placebo" - a vest that makes you INVINCIBLE with the power of SCIENCE without actually making you wear any material that would work as armor.

It'd give anyone trying to shoot you or hit you with projectiles a -2 to hit you, unless it malfunctions.

The ghost rock "Ironing" accidentally ironed in a disgruntled manitou that occasionally will pull bullets TOWARD you.

[Clint]

[Kirkland]

[NinjaMonkey]

[Snate56]

[Sitting Duck]