Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 shinobicow Nov 08, 2010 22:55:53	I'm working on a 4e based campaign setting using a variety of elements.  The Setting is a blend of Asian/European flavor and is primarily a Steampunk style world. Right now, I am working on some new mechanics for 4e, primarily as it concerns Steam Weapons and Armor. I have put up one post on my blog acknowledging the "re-flavoring" idea, which I will use to some extent where I can, but I also want to develop some new steam style elements. The one idea I had, which is inspired by a lot of artwork, is the idea of the Personal Steam Power Generator, which is used to fuel a variety of Steam based Weapon attachments. This is how the mechanics work: The Personal Steam Power Generator or P.S.P.G. works to generate Steam Points (which you could compare to Power Points that are wielded by Psionic Characters).  Each of these Steam Points can be used to fuel a power of one of the weapon or armor attachments which the character is using. Here is an example of what a basic P.S.P.G. would look like: ***** P.S.P.G.    Level 4+ The Engine lets out a steady hum of gears turning, excess steam and smoke pours from its smokestacks. Lvl 4 +1 840 gp           Lvl 19 +4 105,000 gp Lvl 9 +2 4,200 gp        Lvl 24 +5 525,000 gp Lvl 14 +3 21,000 gp     Lvl 29 +6 2,625,000 gp Property: At the beginning of an encounter, the P.S.P.G. generates 1 Steam Point +1 Steam Point for each point of its enhancement bonus.  These points can be used to augment attacks of attachments equipped to the character's weapons or armor. ***** An example Weapon Attachment ***** Heavy Metal       Level 1     360gp You feel the additional weight of the blade in your hands, its increased weight is ready to bring death down on your enemies. Weapon: Heavy Blade, Axe, Hammer Supported Engines: P.S.P.G., Heavy P.S.P.G. Power: Immediate Action * At-Will Trigger: You make an Attack with the Equiped Weapon. You may spend 1 Steam Point to increase the damage die of the attached weapon by 1 damage die. ***** Essentially, these Steam Weapon Attachments, like Heavy Metal above, would act in addition to any enchantments that are on the weapon.  They would not scale based on level and would essentially all be very basic and accessible from the early levels.  The Steam Generator increases its output as level increases allowing for more attachment powers to be used at higher levels.  Some higher level attachments is also an option. What do you think?  Any tips, ideas, or concepts for other attachments would be appreciated.  Thanks
#2 rampant Nov 09, 2010 0:21:09	I'm a tad confused on heavy metal. Say I use a basic attack with a longsword, a 1d8 weapon. I use this power at it becomes 2d8 or 1d10? Also when you said increase the weapon dice of the weapon do you mean of the base weapon or of the attack? If you use a 3[w] power with this ability does the hit deal 4d8? 6d8? or 3d10?
#3 gonfuthuhthemighty Nov 09, 2010 11:34:43	I think this is a really good idea! But I'm having trouble imagining where the PSPG itself goes. Is it a backpack attached to your armor? another device on your weapon? something you have to lug around? also, do you have to have several PSPG's to power different pieces of equipment?
#4 shinobicow Nov 09, 2010 17:38:26	@rampant - sorry.  The wording should be more clear.  It should read increase the size of the damage die by one step.  In other words, the weapon becomes large for one attack. I think this is a really good idea! But I'm having trouble imagining where the PSPG itself goes. Is it a backpack attached to your armor? another device on your weapon? something you have to lug around? also, do you have to have several PSPG's to power different pieces of equipment? The PSPG itself is like a backpack.  Im debating whether or not to make it take up a particular slot, or simply call it a wondrous item.  You could envision this by saying that the Heavy Metal Attachment was some kind of device attached to a weapon with tubes and chords running from it to the backpack which provides it power. You can only have one PSPG equipped, it is heavy and it is impossible to wield more than 1.  There will be different kinds of PSPG's for different kinds of weapons.  THe one above is kind of meant as a fighter/ranger/barbarian striker version.  It doesn't pump out a ton of Steam Points, but it gives some. There will be at least a light one, and a heavy one, each of which provide one less and one more Steam Point than the standard version, but they will also have a list of supported weapons as well. I had thought about making class specific versions, but I really don't want to.  It may make more sense to have it attached to the class system from a mechanics perspective, from a flavor and world perspective, it makes more sense for it to be a steam engine backpack.
#5 rampant Nov 09, 2010 19:38:53	so a basic attack becomes 1d10, and the 3w becomes 3d10?
#6 shinobicow Nov 09, 2010 20:17:27	so a basic attack becomes 1d10, and the 3w becomes 3d10? yes.  If you had a 1w damage attack that was 1d8 when using the power it would become 1d10, a 3w damage attack becomes 3d10 - a very useful mechanic for daily powers and the like.  Gets you that large weapon for one attack per encounter, essentially, maybe more at higher levels.
#7 shinobicow Nov 09, 2010 20:18:25	it may seem like a big damage boost, but the monster's in my setting are getting a bit of a buff as well.  It should help balance things a bit I think.
#8 Damon_Tor Nov 10, 2010 9:26:48	Does steam totally replace magic in this world, or do the two coexist?  I could see reflavoring the artificer to be a Steam Technician and whatnot.
#9 shinobicow Nov 10, 2010 17:27:07	It is kind of like magic is going out of style in this world.  People are in the process of replacing magic with steam, but at this point in time, the two exist together.  Some times they are used in conjunction, but most of the time not.  Yea.  I want to do a reskinning of the artificier for the setting and turn him into something like a Steam Technician.
#10 shinobicow Nov 15, 2010 23:29:43	here are 3 sample engines, a light, medium, and heavy version, as well as the revised version of heavy metal and another new attachment: Personal Steam Power Generators   ***** P.S.P.G.    Level 4+ The Engine lets out a steady hum of gears turning, excess steam and smoke pours from its smokestacks. Lvl 4 +1 840 gp           Lvl 19 +4 105,000 gp Lvl 9 +2 4,200 gp        Lvl 24 +5 525,000 gp Lvl 14 +3 21,000 gp     Lvl 29 +6 2,625,000 gp Weight: 50 lbs. Property: At the beginning of an encounter, the P.S.P.G. generates 1 Steam Point +1 Steam Point for each point of its enhancement bonus.  These points can be used to augment attacks of attachments equipped to the character's weapons or armor. ***** P.S.P.G. Light    Level 3+ The Engine lets out a steady hum of gears turning, excess steam and smoke pours from its smokestacks. Lvl 3 +1 680 gp           Lvl 18 +4 85,000 gp Lvl 8 +2 3,400 gp        Lvl 23 +5 425,000 gp Lvl 13 +3 17,000 gp     Lvl 28 +6 2,125,000 gp   Weight: 25 lbs Property: At the beginning of an encounter, the P.S.P.G. generates 1 Steam Point for each point of its enhancement bonus.  These points can be used to augment attacks of attachments equipped to the character's weapons or armor. ***** P.S.P.G. Heavy   Level 5+ The Engine lets out a steady hum of gears turning, excess steam and smoke pours from its smokestacks. Lvl 5 +1 1000 gp           Lvl 20 +4 125,000 gp Lvl 10 +2 5,000 gp        Lvl 25 +5 625,000 gp Lvl 15 +3 25,000 gp     Lvl 30 +6 3,125,000 gp Weight: 100 lbs. Property: At the beginning of an encounter, the P.S.P.G. generates 2 Steam Point +1 Steam Point for each point of its enhancement bonus.  These points can be used to augment attacks of attachments equipped to the character's weapons or armor.       Steam Power Attachments   ***** Heavy Metal       Level 1     360gp You feel the additional weight of the blade in your hands, its increased weight is ready to bring death down on your enemies. Weapon: Heavy Blade, Axe, Hammer Supported Engines: P.S.P.G., Heavy P.S.P.G. Power: Free Action * At-Will Trigger: You make an Attack with the Equipped Weapon. You may spend 1 Steam Point to increase the size of the damage die of the attached weapon to the next size. ***** Friction Dampeners       Level 1     360gp You feel your armor move more smoothly as if all the joints had been simultaneously greased. Armor: Plate, Scale, or Chainmail Supported Engines: P.S.P.G., Heavy P.S.P.G. Power: Free Action * At-Will Trigger: You may spend 1 Steam Point to decrease either the armor check penalty or the speed reduction caused by your armor to 0 until the end of your turn.   *****
#11 rampant Nov 16, 2010 0:13:43	Question: Does the steam generator have any benefit for the enhancement mod beyond just determining the number of steam points?
#12 shinobicow Nov 16, 2010 17:34:46	Maybe...  At this point, I had not thought about that.  However, there may be some powers that scale off of it.  Not sure yet.  What do you sugest?
#13 rampant Nov 16, 2010 20:35:31	I was just asking because usually items with an enhancement bonus have some common stat they apply to. Armor gets AC, Neck gets the NADs, and Weapons get attack and damage.  There really doesn't seem to be enough mechanical difference to justify the existence of a light/medium/heavy version. Furthermore if these are gonna replace magic items for some characters you'll need to institute either the inherent enhancement bonus rules, or whip up some way for the steamies to comp for the lack of traditional enhancement items.
#14 shinobicow Nov 16, 2010 22:24:55	This is meant to supplement already magical weapons and armor.  You could apply this generator and weapon attachment to a number of different already magical (or steam magical) weapons that still grant the traditional enhancement bonuses, so no need for inherent bonus rules. Also, the reason for having multiple different generators is that the different attachments will only be accessible to certain generators.  I dont want every attachment being available to every character.  Some should only work with the light version, while some should only work with the heavy one.  The weight is the defining difference and essentially breaks these items down into availability to only a certain few classes.
#15 rampant Nov 17, 2010 0:44:34	See now some of that could be fixed by simply having more stuff so that the categories start to mean something. However that's not what I'm getting at. My point is that if the only mechanical difference between the generator types is the number of steam charges per turn then it's a bit of a stretch to insist upon categories at all, instead of making more charges a function of a higher level generator. I'm suggesting that if you want to have different weighted generators then there should be more differences between the weight categories, like how there's a mechanical difference between heavy and light armor.
#16 shinobicow Nov 17, 2010 1:58:50	I see what you are saying.  However, what I am trying to get across is that, there may not be a mechanical difference between the generators other than the weight and the ammount of power they put out, but, the mechanical difference of these generators is reflected in the type of attachments they support.  I know I have only posted one up here now, but I have made about 20 different ones.  Each generator essentially has a list of supported attachments.  In other words, You could get a bonus to speed from the light generator or you could get a bonus to defense from the heavy one.  The generators themselves aren't really meant to be anything more than a generator for steam power.  The attachments are where it will al come out.  i will post some more of them soonish, so hang in there, I think once they are all up, it will come out very clear.