Skateboarding and the Physical Barrier Spell, can this work? Options

[Egon]

I was messing about and making a cat shaman that liked to skateboard, and started to wonder about the Physical Barrier spell.

It can be formed into a dome, how about flipped over into a dish?

It can be formed into a wall dose the wall have to be at 90 degrees or can it be at an angle to form a ramp?

What barrier rating dose it need? I was thinking 4 Average Material/Ballistic Glass. Plywood isn't that strong.

[mfb]

yes, yes, and 4 should be plenty.

[Phaeton]

...Mildly on-topic: Think Tony Hawk might be a physad? :D

[Sunday_Gamer]

Yup yup!! I don't do it much myself but you better believe it works. =)

I also use a lev spell for really big jumps =)

Kong has had a skateboard on his back since the day he was made and he's skated through some interesting landscape in his day. =)

I dig your inverted bowl though... gotta try that one.

Sunday.

[Egon]

[RangerJoe]

Once played a decker in a skater/decker gang. Turned out trying to make a deck that you could deck from, and then deck on, was a pretty bad idea (so many microtronics connections just begging to be upset by that ollie...). Skateboards make great getaway vehicles, can go almost anywhere, are legal (except in shopping malls) and can be used as impromptu weapons/armor (to GM: "That combat pool I just rolled was to flip the charging devil-rat up and over me." GM: "Okay." GM to player who was behind my character: "There is now a ball of fur and fangs flying at you through the air. Combat pool to dodge?")

There's just something comical about imagining a half-pipe with an invisible physical barrier placed across the top...

Finally, unless you're one with the dao of thrasher and want to use nothing but a plain pine plank, take a look at the RadTech catalogue from the plastic warriors folks. Good rules and goodies

This post has been edited by RangerJoe: Apr 11 2004, 08:34 PM

[broho_pcp]

[RedmondLarry]

Our team has decided that the barrier can be frictionless or have friction at the choice of the caster. A frictionless barrier wouldn't allow the skateboarder any control, but one with friction would.

[Cain]

The ramp used to be a classic move. I used a ramp variant to flip an oncoming Mobmaster. The barrier can also be used as a short bridge, to span a gap; if your timing is very good, you can also use it with a grenade to cause instant chunky salsa.

[Stumps]

oh no....images of altered RollerBlade floods my mind.

[KillaJ]

[BitBasher]

[Cain]

It depends on the force of the barrier. Generally, you can withstand one or two rebounds before the force inside blows out the barrier. Which is all you really need.

Think of it this way: a force 5 barrier is cast over a guy about to throw a standard offensive grenade. We'll assume that the barrier is about one meter away from the blast point.

The grenade goes off, and the barrier absorbs a 9S blast. Which it can take, since barrier ratings are doubled against blasts; the barrier rating is reduced by one. The shockwave rebounds, loses 2 Power for travel, but combines with the previous one for a cumulative 16. That is above the barrier rating, which not only reduces the barrier rating by one, but blows a half-meter hole in the barrier. Enough is left for one more potential rebound, but for the sake of sanity we'll stop here.

Now, the question is about the poor guy in the middle. He was standing at ground zero, so he's taking a base 10S. The shockwave went all directions, and rebounded once, losing 2 power in the process. We'll just count the cardinal directions, to make it easier. So, he's taking 10 + 8 + 8 + 8 + 8 = 42 S base damage. Ouch.

[blakkie]

But does Physical Barrier actually work that way? The spell states that it allows the passage of gaseous molecules. So while the frags from a frag grenade will bounce off it and back the hot expanding gases, and the air shockwave ahead of it won't. So should it actually give [full] chucky salsa effect?

[Cain]

Well, obviously Physical Barrier blocks blasts fully. Otherwise, it'd be useless against grenades. Reverse your logic-- if what you say is true, then when someone launches a concussion grenade against a physical barrer, it'd provide little to no protection. There's also the specific "Blast Barrier" which allows gas molecules to pass but stops shockwaves.

Just because it allows gas molecules to pass doesn't mean they can pass at full speed. Think of it like a filter-- just because some dirt particles can pass the filter doesn't mean that if I pour bushels of dirt on it, it'll all go through immediately.

[blakkie]

[Cain]

[Egon]

I think the gas thing is in there just so you can't hide under the barrier for 15 min. and wait for the green ring 8 to dissipate. also you can't trap someone in a barrier and suffocate them

[blakkie]