One aspect of RPGs that I've never quite gotten the hang of is trying to adapt fictional source material into stats, particularly when the rule-system doesn't quite cover the case in question. GURPS's Vehicles/Robots/Mecha/etc system has been very good to me... but there are some edge cases where I start having trouble - mostly smallish robots.
For example, I'm adapting a near-future thriller novel which happens to contain a WWIII as a piece of centuries-old history for an alien species in a SF game I play regularly... and with holodecks, time-travel, and warehouses full of old junk, the stats I'm hoping to come up with do indeed have some relevant use. In 3e GURPS terms, no-superscience TL8. The specific case: the "Pigeon", a sort of smart bomb launched in flocks of thousands, that I can't quite seem to manage to build small-and-cheap enough using the standard V/R/M/etc rules. I'll paste the relevant text below, and simply ask if anyone has suggestions. > An entirely new class of smart bomb, the Pigeon, was developed. They were > called > Pigeons because they could be launched in flocks that could number a thousand > bombs > and had a tendency to wheel about in the air like a flock of pigeons. The > flock would > make its way to the target area using GPS technology and terrain following > algorithms. > The flock would seek out targets and, through a negotiation process, one and > only one > bomb would attack a target with the rest searching for the next target. The > bombs could > be programmed to seek out vehicles, buildings, and even specific humans as > targets. > > Ahead of the tanks and helicopters were tens of thousands of smart bombs > called > Pigeons that picked their own targets. Although the amount of explosives > carried by any > single Pigeon was small, the group behavior destroyed any form of resistance. > The > results were even more spectacular when one of them would explode in a weapons > storage area. If the Pigeons couldn't destroy a target, they sent back data > for a cruise > missile to be sent to the target. > > When one wave of Pigeons was consumed, another wave was launched. The [good > guys] weren't interested in advancing or holding territory. The soldiers were > too busy > setting up the next wave of Pigeons. It took almost two hours for ten > thousand men to > set up thirty thousand Pigeons for launch. > > When night fell, the attack didn't slow down. Three separate waves of Pigeons > with > infrared cameras were released. Anything with a heat signature that differed > from the > background was targeted. > > More waves of Pigeons were released to demolish the few structures that had > remained > standing. There was nothing to be seen by the time the tanks and helicopters > arrived to > occupy the territory. Thank you for your time, -- DataPacRat VA3BOS "You shall not accept any information, unless you verify it for yourself. I have given you the hearing, the eyesight, and the brain, and you are responsible for using them." -- Qur'an 17:36, Khalifa translation. _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
