Blaster
This page is under construction.
Blaster is one of the twelve power classifications created by the PRT still in modern day use.<ref>PRT Master Reference - Classifications</ref> Blasters are parahumans that have ranged offensive options. The majority of these powers are damaging, but this is not always the case.<ref name=":0">Blaster
Ranged, offensive attacks of some form. Can include blasts, thrown or moved objects, grenades. Not always damaging, but generally deleterious.
Response varies greatly depending on the nature of the blaster. At low levels, cover is highly recommended. At higher levels, movement is a higher priority, and cover should be assumed to be useless.
Threat level 2+: Team is notified as to blaster classification so they can take cover at next opportunity. Frequent reporting on blaster’s location and likely direction of fire are encouraged. Suppression of ranged fire is encouraged but not mandated.
Threat level 5+: Resources and/or personnel are devoted to pressuring the blaster threat, keeping them moving and focused on a target to protect other personnel. Truck-mounted emplacements may be necessary to apply sufficient pressure. Threat level 9+: Evacuation of likely firing zone is prioritized. Responding to high-caliber ranged threat is likely to necessitate matching response, if civilians or property are endangered. Inter-city missiles and other large-scale weapons are authorized. - PRT Master Reference - Classifications - Blaster</ref>
Methodology
Blasters use a variety of methods to attack their enemies from range. These include, but are not limited to:
- The generation of fire<ref>Lung#Abilities_and_Powers</ref>, lasers<ref>Legend#Abilities_and_Powers</ref>, acid<ref>Acidbath#Abilities_and_Powers</ref>, or other elements toward the opponent, varying by amount<ref name=":1">Barrage blasters manifest when the blaster trigger involves multiple threats - a group of men with guns, shooting, or a pack of feral coyotes, prowling at the treeline, building up the courage to attack. Barrage blasters produce a lot of bullets. They may be inaccurate or shots might not do much damage. Tend to be effective at suppressive fire. - BLASTERS, document by wildbow.</ref>, traveling speed<ref>Aforementioned shot that swiftly loses momentum and becomes localized storm. - BLASTERS, document by wildbow.</ref>, penetration<ref>Damage blasters arise from scenarios where the sense of physical danger is especially poignant - many from cases where the trigger sees multiple individuals dying around the cape. Damage blasters emphasize raw offensive power, with attacks that deliver multiple wounds per hit and/or penetrate armor. - BLASTERS, document by wildbow.</ref>, firing rate<ref name=":2">Conditional blasters experience an altered state as part of their trigger. Drugs, particularly high emotions, altered brain chemistry or mental issues will play into this. Such triggers will add requirements, or push traits of the blaster power to an extreme, at the cost of other traits. Power, cost, efficiency, range and rate of fire are example variables. - BLASTERS, document by wildbow.</ref> or other factors.
- The use of existing terrain to enhance their fire power.<ref>Ruin blasters arise from scenarios where there is a ‘shaker’ aspect complicating the external threat. The cape’s attempt to escape or avoid harm is complicated by the environment. Ruin blasters have a lot of destructive power, much of it turned toward using the environment or destroying it. Ruin blasters don’t give their enemies the luxury of cover. Given the environmental aspect, the Ruin blaster (like the Impact blaster, below) falls in the general range of a Blaster/Shaker nuker. - BLASTERS, document by wildbow.</ref>
- Powers with some area of effect, crossing the Blaster power with a Shaker ability.<ref>Effect blasters are one end of a sliding scale of situations where the threat isn’t explicitly or wholly physical, opposite Damage blasters, or where the threat suggests pain or something deleterious, in contrast to mortal risk. This doesn’t mean that a blaster can’t be effect/damage, but such a scenario requires an especially poignant and viscerally felt threat. Effect blasters emphasize the secondary characteristics of the shot - the flame from fireballs, the cold from ice blasts, the gravity-altering effects from hyperdense shots. They may do little or no damage, or sacrifice other aspects to ramp up these qualities. - BLASTERS, document by wildbow.</ref>
- The ability to snipe enemies over great distance.<ref name=":3">Range blasters tend to have triggers that put the threat further away. This makes it harder to trigger, if the threat is somehow less real, and tends to be marked by a sort of inevitability. These blasters are more dangerous and/or far more accurate when attacking from a great distance. - BLASTERS, document by wildbow.</ref>
- The power to imbues items: These items can then be used as either projectiles or ammunition. This often crosses over into the Striker classification.<ref>Enchantment blasters are something of a middle ground between blasters and strikers, arising from the shaky middle ground between a threat up in one’s face and a threat at a distance. Threats might be darting in and out (especially faster, more nimble, or inhuman threats), or a threat that was up front might escalate to a threat at range, driving things to a climax, a winning fistfight turning into panic and terror as the other participant draws a gun. The power imbues an item the blaster touches, applying an effect that makes it very effective as ammunition or, to varying degrees, as a melee weapon. Differentiated from enchantment strikers in that melee weapons imbued with effect might break or be unwieldy. In the inverse case, effect may make projectiles inaccurate or impossible to fire - there is a wide and flexible sliding scale between the two aspects. - BLASTERS, document by wildbow.</ref>
- Sometimes, the Blaster uses some medium to the shoot the blasts in their stead.<ref>Object blasters are rarer, and come about from situations where the threat is removed from the triggering individual by one step, including some mechanical, automated, or otherwise directed threats, visceral threat with a time delay, threats where the aggression of the attacker is nonexistent, or cases the attacker doesn’t even know the victim exists. The triggering individual might hear the gang member they were a witness against is getting paroled and know they are going to die, might hear the orders as the barking attack dogs are loosed by the police, or be prey to falling ice as unwitting amateur ice climbers bring chunks down from above. Object blaster powers operate with the blast originating from or being capitalized on by some power created minion, object, or field - cross-over with other classifications is possible and likely, and informs the nature of the object. - BLASTERS, document by wildbow.</ref>
Trigger events
Blasters emerge from trigger events involving some sort animated, ranged threat: hostile others, approaching or attacking from a distance.<ref>Blaster (Pewpew - You have ranged attacks built in.) - Man vs. a living/animated threat, ambulatory threat is approaching, attacking from range, or posing immediate harm but still further than arm’s reach. - Weaver Dice: Rulebook (Old Version)</ref><ref>Blaster - Powers that provide a ranged attack.
Blasters come about from hostile others, approaching or attacking from a distance. - WD Rulebook: Character Creation - Trigger Capes: Classifications</ref> The exact circumstances have a lot of influence on the type of Blaster: Multiple threats produce Blasters that fire multiple bullets<ref name=":1" />, while range increases for threats that are further away.<ref name=":3" /> Drugs and mental issues push traits of the Blaster power to an extreme, at the cost of other traits.<ref name=":2" />
Combinations with other ratings
[Coming soon]
Role in the Cycle
For the entities, Blaster powers are exceptionally easy to put together. They provide only minute amounts of data, but the creation of Blasters helps to ramp up overall conflict. The entities still collect this small amount of data, and refine the most effective weapons that they and their avatars can use to defend themselves.<ref>Blasters are primarily offensive capes with powers that work at range. For the entities, these powers are exceptionally easy to put together and do provide some minute amounts of data - the creation of blasters helps to ramp up overall conflict, collect this small amount of data, and refine the most effective weapons that the entities/their avatars can use to defend themselves. - BLASTERS, document by wildbow.</ref>
PRT countermeasures
The exact PRT-squad tactics vary greatly depending on the nature of the Blaster. At low ratings, cover is highly recommended. At higher levels, movement is a higher priority, and cover should be assumed to be useless.<ref name=":0" />
| Threat level | Additional measures |
|---|---|
| 2+ |
|
| 5+ |
|
| 9+ |
|
Known Blasters
Note: This list describes the Blaster ratings of different capes. For a full overview of their abilities, please check their individual pages.
| Name | Known ratings | Power description |
|---|---|---|
| Acidbath | Breaker/Changer (Blaster, Striker, Mover) | Could turn into, sling blasts of, & move as tidal wave of acid |
| Allfather | Blaster | Created mid-air portals from which to launch volleys of weapons |
| Arbiter | Thinker, Blaster (low), Shaker (low) | |
| Blasto| | Tinker 6 (Master 5, Blaster 2, Changer 2, Brute 2) | Botany/cloning tinker |
| Codex | Blaster/Thinker | "steals" intelligence |
| Felix Swoop | Master/Blaster | Controls birds, grants them fire powers |
| Flechette | Striker, Blaster | enhanced aim, imbues weapons so they penetrate anything |
| Jouster | Blaster/Striker, Mover | Lance lengthens, applies elemental power |
| Lady Photon | Blaster 4, Mover 3, Shaker 3 | Fires hard light blasts |
| Laserdream | Blaster ?, Mover 3, Shaker ? | Same as Lady Photon with more emphasis on offense |
| Legend | Blaster, Breaker | Shoots beams of light that he can bend and split, with variable effects of his choice, e.g. freezing |
| Lightstar | Blaster | Creates slow moving projectiles (around half the speed of a thrown basketball) that he could detonate concussively at will. |
| Lung | Brute 4-9, Blaster 2-6 | Pyrokinetic. Becomes progressively more powerful as the fight goes on |
| Purity | Blaster 8, Mover 4 | Fires beams of light |
| Scrub | Blaster 8+ | Uncontrolled "matter-annihilation" bursts in his immediate vicinity |
| Shielder | Blaster ?, Mover 3, and Shaker ? | Same as Lady Photon with weaker blasts, more focus on shields. |
| Starlet | Blaster/Shaker 4 | "Darts" of light which explode, then implode. |
References
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