Friday, January 2, 2015

[Hulks & Horrors] Energy Packs

Here's an idea that will work equally well for Fantasy as for Sci-Fi, albeit for arrows or charges or whatever...

In my Hulks and Horrors game, the spacefarers need energy packs and/or clips of ammo for their blasters, lasers, phasers, etc.

I decided that in the H&H universe, much like our own, there are different types of batteries --

Red - weapons
Blue - heavy tools like laser cutters, sonic welders, etc.
Green - science equipment like tricorders, portable medi-bots, etc.
Yellow - toys like audio track players, GameDudes, etc.

Further, the types are all the same size, so they can be exchanged, but there are tradeoffs.  They all have 20 charges of their "color" and they cannot be recharged normally.  When they are used up, they must be replaced.

Cell Color usedin Red devicein Blue devicein Green devicein Yellow device
Red
Uses 1 charge
Uses 1/2 charge. May damage the device†
Burns device out; smoke, flames, nasty smells!  Depends upon number of charges in cell
Device explodes violently after brief delay! Depends upon number of charges in cell
Blue
Uses 2 charges
Uses 1 charge
Uses 1/2 charge. May damage the device†
Device whines with awful sounds, 
growing more and more painful with every round until the device self-destructs! Depends upon number of charges in cell
Depends upon number of charges in cellGreen
Uses 10 charges
Uses 5 charges
Uses 1 charge
Uses 1/2 charge. May damage the device†
Yellow
Uses 20 charges
Uses 10 charges
Uses 5 charges
Uses 1 charge
Created with the HTML Table Generator

† If, when using the device, a critical failure is rolled, the device will be damaged in some way.

I hand out cards to the players when energy packs are found.  To facilitate the production of these cards, one of my players DB, made me a stamp.  It's great, but it isn't working well with the gel stamp pad I bought.  It doesn't seem to pick up the ink well.  I'm going to buy a more standard "inky" stamp pad -- that may work better.

In the interim, I had some small bits of cork lying around, so I made a quick 9x9 stamp of my own.  The idea is that once all 9 boxes are filled in, you cross off the whole "Hollywood Squares" thing for the 10th charge.  :)

Here's a pic.  DB's stamp is the larger one.  The blue cards are "blue" energy clips, the pink are "red."  I have other colors too...