Teleportation and Portals

[Kirillyos]

The rulebook seems to be pretty much silent about this, so let's toss our ideas into the hat here. I'll put mine under the stark gaze of the forum's judgement first (I kit-bashed this from the SuperNatural Movement dice rules).

Teleportation: Due to the sheer unpredictability of an effect powerful enough to falcon-punch the common understanding of physics (being able to bypass obstacles and such), teleportation is not bought as a regular movement, but rather as SuperNatural Movement dice.

The caveat is that the teleported unit is Disrupted for the rest of its turn (due to teleporter sickness, "phasing in" like Chrono units in Red Alert, or existential crisis at realizing it's just a copy and the original was killed on the other end of the teleporter), leaving the unit vulnerable if it was cocky enough to teleport into the middle of an enemy formation.

On a fumble, the lucky recipient of the dice has the option to randomly fuse the unfortunate teleported unit with the nearest object within the Teleportation dice radius like Jeff Goldblum in "The Fly", as per the Field Construction rules. If fused with an enemy unit, use the opposing Operators rules.



Stationary Portals:


Buy these as a Difficult Terrain Field Hazard, paying the cost for the distance between the point of entry and point of arrival. The lack of having any unit that passes that line be affected is offset by the security of the portal (pass from one bunker to another without going through the battlefield in between). For portal networks, it takes an operator (his name is Walter) an Action to dial in a new address.

[Kirillyos]

Portal Gun:

PortalGun: Cost:WSx3CP+2; Use:WSx2; Range:WSx6"; Effect: See below.
Bastard PortalGun (Two-Handed): 6CP; Use: 3; Range: 8"; Effect: See below.

A portal gun functions as a launcher that fires linked Portals (see above) as its Payload. A PortalGun's portal radius is equal to the WS of the PortalGun, and the flat surface that the portal opens on must be wide enough for the portal to fit on it. Units hoping to go through the portal must be able to fit within the portal radius.

The Payload in this case is not physically loaded into the PortalGun as with a regular launcher, but rather generated by a stable quantum-linked singularity inside the gun itself (hence the +2 CP), so you don't have to worry about ammo.

A PortalGun can only have two portals open at any given time, and they must be linked to each other. Since you can only fire a weapon once per turn, it takes 2 turns to set up a pair of linked portals - a fair trade for such an endlessly fun ability.

[Kirillyos]

So... anyone care to comment on this?

[stubby]

We were talking about this over in Piltogg's battle threads with the Akkadian teleoprter, but now that we have the Supernatural Dice they're basically the plan for Star Trek style teleportation (rather than portal style). Here's some of the past discussion:

From The quest of Piltogg, 2011:

If I was going to make teleporter rules for bw2005, at minimum they'd be a Ranged attack requiring the use of an Action, a Skill roll against the number of inches teleported, and the usual potential for Missed Shot inches. A fancy Specialty might give a warrior the ability to teleport and attack in the same turn, but more likely he'd have to let someone else operate the teleporter in order to preserve his Action for attacks.

From the 2001 rules:

Code: Select all

  +--------------------------------------------------------------------+
  |                   The Heisenberg Ker-Pow! Table                    |
  |--------------------------------------------------------------------|
  | Any time an object or unit is Teleported, a roll of 1 on 1d10      |
  | means there has been a Teleporter Malfunction, and the Teleporting |
  | player must make a Heisenberg Ker-Pow! Roll.                       |
  |--------------------------------------------------------------------|
  | Roll 1d10 | Teleporter Malfunction                                 |
  |-----------+--------------------------------------------------------|
  |     1     | Doppelganger Syndrome                                  |
  |           |                                                        |
  |           | Teleportation proceeds as normal except that two       |
  |           | copies of the teleported object arrive where one was   |
  |           | expected.  The two objects are identical in every way  |
  |           | (if you aren't able to scrap together an identical PBB |
  |           | model on the spot you'll have to substitute a couple   |
  |           | of Blox and everybody will just have to use their      |
  |           | imaginations.)  If the duplicate objects are minifigs  |
  |           | or other intelligent units they will seem to get along |
  |           | for the remainder of the battle, but in the days       |
  |           | afterwards they will inevitably become deadly rivals.  |
  |-----------+--------------------------------------------------------|
  |     2     | Temporal Misalignment                                  |
  |           |                                                        |
  |           | Objects experiencing Temporal Misalignment move at     |
  |           | double-speed.  This is hardly noticeable when the      |
  |           | object is something like a mineral sample or a coffee  |
  |           | mug, but for active units it can be quite exciting.    |
  |           | Every round, the affected unit takes its turn twice.   |
  |           | At the end of the double-turn, roll 1d6.  When the die |
  |           | comes up '1', the effect wears off.                    |
  |-----------+--------------------------------------------------------|
  |     3     | Phase Shift                                            |
  |           |                                                        |
  |           | The object arrives slightly out of phase, causing      |
  |           | functional impairment.  Living units are Stunned and   |
  |           | somewhat confused.  Mechanical units have all their    |
  |           | useful stats (Move", Range, Armor, Damage, etc.)       |
  |           | halved.  At the end of each turn, roll 1d6.  When the  |
  |           | die comes up '1', the phase realigns and the effect    |
  |           | wears off.                                             |
  |-----------+--------------------------------------------------------|
  |     4     | Unexpected Delay                                       |
  |           |                                                        |
  |           | Because of an unknown error, Teleportation takes even  |
  |           | longer than usual.  The object takes an additional     |
  |           | turn to materialize, at which point a new roll on the  |
  |           | Heisenberg Ker-Pow! Table must be made.                |
  |-----------+--------------------------------------------------------|
  |     5     | Minor Targeting Error                                  |
  |           |                                                        |
  |           | The object arrives 1d6" away from its intended         |
  |           | destination (Teleporting player's choice).  The        |
  |           | object's orientation is anything but right-side-up     |
  |           | (opposing player's choice).                            |
  |-----------+--------------------------------------------------------|
  |     6     | Subatomic Drift                                        |
  |           |                                                        |
  |           | The object materializes correctly on the macroscopic   |
  |           | level but on the subatomic level everything is all     |
  |           | mixed up.  Living brains, computer hard drives, and    |
  |           | any other electrical or quantum data storage is wiped  |
  |           | clean.  Minifigs become vegetables; computers become   |
  |           | doorstops.                                             |
  |-----------+--------------------------------------------------------|
  |     7     | Reversed Quantum Polarity                              |
  |           |                                                        |
  |           | The object seems to materialize correctly but is in    |
  |           | fact a similar but oppositely-natured object from an   |
  |           | evil parallel universe.  Good minifigs become evil and |
  |           | evil minifigs become good.  Loyal troops become dirty  |
  |           | traitors.  Peaceful healers become homicidal death     |
  |           | machines.  Players will have to brainstorm together    |
  |           | and use their imaginations to think of the best        |
  |           | "opposite nature" for a given object, especially for   |
  |           | something difficult like a paperweight or a bowling    |
  |           | ball.  Only in rare cases should the new "opposite     |
  |           | nature" be advantageous to the Teleporting player.     |
  |-----------+--------------------------------------------------------|
  |     8     | Catastrophic Targeting Error                           |
  |           |                                                        |
  |           | The object misses slightly and is partially (25%-50%)  |
  |           | embedded in some other object near the intended target |
  |           | location.  Active units may still continue to have     |
  |           | limited function, depending on which parts are         |
  |           | unembedded; living units may remain conscious and      |
  |           | complain loudly for a turn or two before dying a       |
  |           | horrible and agonizing death.                          |
  |-----------+--------------------------------------------------------|
  |     9     | Topology Mismatch                                      |
  |           |                                                        |
  |           | All the parts of the object materialize but in the     |
  |           | wrong orientation.  And not just a little bit wrong,   |
  |           | either.  Some parts are melted, some parts are         |
  |           | mangled, some parts are fine but just in the wrong     |
  |           | place; overall the object appears to have gone through |
  |           | a Teleportational blender.  There is no way to repair  |
  |           | the object.  If the object previously had dangerous    |
  |           | isotopes or chemicals in containment, then it's time   |
  |           | to clear the area because they are not in containment  |
  |           | anymore.                                               |
  |-----------+--------------------------------------------------------|
  |    10     | Subspace Packet Loss                                   |
  |           |                                                        |
  |           | A tiny part of the object materializes correctly.      |
  |           | Where is the rest?  It is a mystery.                   |
  +--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[Kirillyos]

Thanks, I'm gonna have some fun with these - especially when I build the Chronosphere from C&C Red Alert.

Do you think my portal rules at least function decently though? I don't see why teleportation can't be used with both methods (like in Stargate SG-1).