cial effect.
VIBRATION
Vibration affects Ice/Cold even more strongly than Sonics. This works just like the Ice/Cold-Phys- ical interaction described above, but applies to both PD and ED and is -2 points of each for every full 50 Active Points in the Vibration attack.
WATER
Ice/Cold has no special interaction with Water (ice is, after all, just frozen water); it neither gains nor loses against this special effect. (But see under “Physical” in the Water section regarding buoy- ancy.)
CONCLUSION: THE SPECIAL EFFECT: ICE/ COLD POWER MODIFIER
Ice/Cold has more drawbacks than it has ben- efits. Therefore, Special Effect: Ice/Cold constitutes a -1 Limitation.
EXAMPLE ICE/COLD
POWERS
Here are some example Ice/Cold powers:
Offensive Powers
BLIZZARD
Effect: Change Environment (-3 Temperature Levels, -3 Sight Group PER)
Target: 32” Radius Duration: Constant
Range: 250”
END Cost: 5
Description: The character can generate a small but intense blizzard that not only cools down the affected area, but makes it much harder to see.
Game Information: Change Environment 32”
radius, -3 Temperature Levels and -3 Sight Group PER Rolls, Multiple Combat Effects. Total cost: 50 points.
DEEP FREEZE
Effect: Energy Blast 4d6, NND Target: One character Duration: Instant
END Cost: 4
Description: The character can so quickly and thor- oughly chill another character to the bone that he causes intense pain and weakness which may daze the target or make him pass out.
Game Information: Energy Blast 4d6, NND
(defense is Life Support [Safe Environment: Intense Cold]; +1). Total cost: 40 points.
ICE BLAST
Effect: Energy Blast 8d6 Target: One character Duration: Instant
Range: 200”
END Cost: 4
Description: The character can injure his enemies with a blast of icy energy.
Game Information: Energy Blast 8d6 (40 Active
Points); Special Effect: Ice/Cold (-1). Total cost: 20 points.
ICE BLOCK
Effect: Entangle 4d6, 6 DEF Target: One character Duration: Instant
Range: 250”
END Cost: 5
Description: The character creates a solid block of ice around the target, trapping him.
Game Information: Entangle 4d6, 6 DEF (50
Active Points); Vulnerable (Fire/Heat; -1). Total cost: 25 points.
ICE DART
Effect: RKA 3d6
Target: One character Duration: Instant
Range: 225”
END Cost: 4
Description: The character can create and project a sharp dart of ice capable of piercing heavy defenses.
Game Information: RKA 3d6 (45 Active
Points); Special Effect: Ice/Cold (-1). Total cost: 22 points.
MOISTURE MANIPULATION
Effect: Transfer 3d6 (any one Water power to any one Ice/Cold power)
Target: One character Duration: Instant
Range: 12”
END Cost: 8
Description: The character’s Ice/Cold powers involve control over moisture, and he can use that control to reduce the effectiveness of an enemy’s Water power — he draws the water out of the Water power and uses it to make one of his own ice-based powers stronger.
Game Information: Transfer 3d6, from any
one Water power at a time (+¼), to any one Ice power at a time (+¼), Limited Range (12”; +¼). Total cost: 79 points.
Defensive Powers
ICE ARMOR
Effect: Armor (22 PD/18 ED) Target: Self
Duration: Constant
Range: Self
END Cost: 0
Description: The cryokinetic can surround his body with armor made of ice. The armor offers slightly more protection against physical attacks. If the character becomes Stunned or unconscious, the armor falls off or melts away; he’ll have to re-create it when he regains his senses. Other people can see the armor, and hear it cracking and re-forming as the character moves.
Game Information: Armor (22 PD/18 ED) (60
Active Points); Nonpersistent (-¼), Visible (-¼), Special Effect: Ice/Cold (-1). Total cost: 24 points.
ICE WALL
Effect: Force Wall (12 PD/8 ED) Target: One character Duration: Constant
Range: 250”
END Cost: 5
Description: The character can create a solid wall of ice that protects him (and sometimes other people) from attacks. The wall offers more protection against physical attacks, since energy attacks are more likely to melt through it. He can also use it to englobe a single human-sized enemy.
Game Information: Force Wall (12 PD/8 ED)
(50 Active Points); Special Effect: Ice/Cold (-1). Total cost: 25 points.
Movement Powers
ICE SLIDES
Effect: Running +9”, Usable As Gliding Target: Self
Duration: Constant
Range: Self
END Cost: 2
Description: The character can create narrow sheets of ice in front of himself on which he can “skate” at high speeds. Normally he just uses the slides to move along the ground, but if he starts above ground level, he can slide downward, provided he has a nearby solid surface (the ground itself, the side of a build- ing, a large tree, or the like) to which he can anchor the slide. As the character “skates” downward, he can occasionally create a small “mogul” to give himself a little bit more altitude. Unfortunately, this power leaves large chunks of ice lying around after the character passes through the area, which may pose various hazards until they melt.
Game Information: Running +9”, Usable As
Gliding (see text; +¼) (22 Active Points); Physi- cal Manifestation (-¼), Side Effects (leaves big chunks of ice around the environment; -0). Total cost: 18 points.
F
or purposes of this book, Kinetic Energy powers involve control of, and the ability to manipulate, kinetic energy and related phenomena like inertia, momentum, and friction. Although these terms have precise sci- entific meanings (see below), in many cases those meanings have little or no effect on how the powers are built and used in game terms. This section dis- cusses ways to model them more “realistically” if you choose, but for most games you can consider all these phenomena as part of the broad special effect of Kinetic Energy.Because manipulating such fundamental forces often requires absolute, or nearly absolute, effects, many Kinetic Energy powers have high Active Point and Real Point costs. If necessary, the GM can adjust them downward, and then address the “absoluteness” of effect as part of a dramatic sense interpretation of game events.
KINETIC AND POTENTIAL ENERGY
Broadly speaking, all energy consists of one of two types. Kinetic energy is the energy an object has because of its motion. By technical definition, it’s the amount of work (energy transferred by some force) required to accelerate the object to its cur- rent velocity from a state of motionlessness. Absent outside forces (such as friction), it keeps moving at that velocity. Negative work of the same amount brings the object back to a state of motionlessness.
Potential energy is the amount of “stored”
energy an object has based on work done to it to change its position. It varies by the type of force applied in the work. For example, there’s gravitational potential energy created by lifting an object off the ground (the most common type of potential energy likely to occur in a roleplay- ing game situation); and elastic potential energy created by deforming an elastic object with stress (such as a longbow), which when released returns the object to its original shape. Consider a book on a table. Work has been done — force has been applied, probably with someone’s mus- cles — to move that book from the floor to the table. The book now has potential energy. If it’s moved off the table the book crashes to the floor because its gravitational potential energy moves it down to the ground. A book on a shelf (higher off the ground than the table) has more poten- tial energy than the book on the table; so does a book on the same table that has greater mass.
In terms of powers exhibited by characters, kinetic and potential energy can both be manipu- lated. A character might have the power to change or enhance a moving object’s kinetic energy to
bring it to a dead stop, redirect it, or make it move faster. Or he could exploit an object’s potential energy for various purposes.
FRICTION
Friction is a force that opposes the motion (or
potential motion) of two physical objects in contact with one another. The friction (which consists of electromagnetic forces between the atoms of the two objects) transforms the kinetic energy of the two objects into heat (thermal energy). When it occurs between a solid object and a gas or liquid, friction is referred to as drag. Various methods and materials (such as lubricants) are used to reduce friction within the moving parts of machines and the like; the science of friction and lubrication is known as tribology.
In game terms, a character can manipulate friction to increase it (thus making it harder, or impossible, for a person or object to move) or decrease it (which could, among other things, let him run faster or escape from being Grabbed). Per- haps in the process he somehow taps the thermal energy friction creates and can use it for other pur- poses. To the extent a character who manipulates friction can also manipulate the thermal energy involved, you may want to consult the Fire/Heat section for potential special effects interactions and consequences.
INERTIA
Inertia is the property of physical objects to
either remain at rest (if already at rest) or to remain in motion at a constant velocity (if already in motion) unless and until acted upon by an outside force. In a gaming context, manipulating kinetic/ potential energy and manipulating inertia are essentially the same thing.
MOMENTUM
An object’s momentum is a property derived by multiplying its mass by its velocity to get a figure of kilograms per meter per second. Elec- tromagnetic fields can also have momentum when they move, even though their mass is minute or non-existent. You can also think of momentum as how difficult it is to stop a moving object, taking into account its inertia (resistance to being moved) and velocity. Thus, a slow- moving but very heavy object may have more momentum than a lightweight but fast object, since it takes more energy to get the heavy object to move. In other words, it’s harder to stop a car rolling down a hill at 10 miles per hour than it is to stop a baseball moving at 100 miles per hour.