Sleepwalking

[Steve]

I’ve been reading recently about sleepwalking and related syndromes and wondering how it might be presented in Hero System.

 

A Physical Complication? A Psychological Complication? Something else?

 

For one thing, it might make it difficult to maintain a secret ID if one goes sleep-flying without their mask and costume. A fantasy world thief could fall off a building while sleep climbing.

 

Since you can be mind controlled while asleep and made to do things easier than when you’re awake, there’s also that to consider as a source of sleepwalking issues.

[unclevlad]

Well, if I remember the definitions, it's a Physical Complication.  It's not a Psych Complication;  it doesn't fit any of the basic modes to me;  a compulsion when you're asleep? 😀  Doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

 

Just for reference, the book says "A Physical Complication 'affects' a character when it has a measurable impact on his ability to function during the game."  OK, here, the character is compromising his personal security when he sleepwalks.

 

The obvious points of discussion are choosing the factors.  Frequency...not only is it "how often does the sleepwalking occur" but how often does it lead to risk?  Which includes simple risk of exposure, even as a super.  That can be bad enough;  it might not compromise a secret ID, but it would make maintaining it a lot harder.  Just knowing someone's a super makes him a focus for any ID hunting, and tends to raise attention onto his actions.  If his sleepwalking never takes him outside his residence or base, the risk of exposure is very slight.

 

The other issue is, as you point out, how blatant is it?  Yeah, sleepflying outside would be...kinda hard to miss.  Barely impairing might be, no obvious powers at all...but walking across hot, rough pavement barefoot (because he's got some permanent rPD) without even noticing...that would be a hint.  Greatly might be, not only outing him as a super, but giving clear clues to his hero ID. or even exposing him to an attack.

[archer]

You could buy it as

 

Running - Usable while asleep (+1/2) Uncontrolled (+1/2)

 

 

[LoneWolf]

A Psychological Complication does not fit; those can be overcome with an ego roll.  Accidental Change at first looks like a possibility, but that also does not work.  With an Accidental Change you cannot change back until the circumstances triggering the change have altered.  That would mean the sleepwalker could not be wakened until the circumstance that triggered it is no longer present.  None of the other complications other than a Physical Complication are any better.  So by process of elimination that means it would be a Physical Complication.

 

 While sleepwalking can occur at any age it is pretty rare in adults.  It mostly occurs in children instead of adults so is unlikely to affect most characters.  Unless the campaign focus on playing kids it is not likely to come up.  In Adults it is probably the result of medication they are taking.  Most player characters have good CON scores so are usually in pretty good shape and have very few health issues.  Those that do have issues requiring medication usually already have a complication for it so that could be considered part of the underlying complication.

 

Unless the sleepwalking is something that character picks up during the game any conflicts with other complications should have already played out.  This means if the character is likely to go sleepflying without their mask they do not have a secret ID.  Even if the character gains his power at the beginning of the game they should still avoid picking conflicting complications.

 

The last thing to consider is that the player actually has control over how a complication affects his character.   So if the player wants to have sleepwalking as a complication he can define control how much it affects the character.  If the character defines sleepwalking as infrequently, barely then all that would likely happen is that the character is tired once in a while because he got up and wandered around his house.  If the character defines it as frequently, greatly he might go wandering around the city looking for trouble while asleep.    As a GM I don’t have a problem with the first example, but would probably veto the second one.  
 

[assault]

Sleepwalking can, of course, be a special effect of a character's powers. Perhaps they can't be used when the character is awake.

[foolishvictor]

4 hours ago, assault said:

Sleepwalking can, of course, be a special effect of a character's powers. Perhaps they can't be used when the character is awake.

 

Alternatively sleepwalking could be a side effect of using certain abilities.

 

Power limitation: Side Effect, xD6 Mind Control + Cumulative (give it a high maximum result ensuring the character succumbs to the effect) + Trigger (after falling asleep and before waking up normally)

 

 

5 hours ago, LoneWolf said:

With an Accidental Change you cannot change back until the circumstances triggering the change have altered.  That would mean the sleepwalker could not be wakened until the circumstance that triggered it is no longer present.  None of the other complications other than a Physical Complication are any better.  So by process of elimination that means it would be a Physical Complication.

 

I agree generally with LoneWolf's thinking and I am not knowledgeable about sleepwalking.  That said, if it is set up as a physical complication then there should be some sort of condition (maybe just a roll of the dice) to set it off.  In a sense I see this as combination of Accidental Change and a Physical Complication that is not handled very well by the existing rules.  (It's a game.  It is not a simulation of everything in the universe.)  As a complication, something like sleepwalking will probably require the player and GM coming to an agreement.

[Ockham's Spoon]

Depending on what the player is looking for, I could see handling this in a couple different ways.  First, use it for adventure hooks.  The GM just tells the player something like "You wake up and find yourself on top of the Chrysler Building in your pajamas.  You are holding a small child in your arms who appears to be fast asleep.  What do you do?"  Now the player has to figure out who the kid is and where they came from and so on.  They might also see news reports on TV and recognize their sleeping self doing something they don't remember which could be anything from stopping a bus from running over an old lady to robbing a bank (but thankfully the lighting is too bad at night to be able to identify them, or their sleepwalking self had the good sense to put on a mask).

 

The second approach would be to start a scenario with the character, playing normally, but then suddenly they wake up and find out that the person they are battling is not their arch-nemesis but in fact another hero, or instead of breaking into the villain's hideout they find themselves in a secure government building, or any number of similar scenarios.  This could cause all sorts of complications obviously, but the fun part here is for the GM to drop subtle hints as to whether the character is sleeping or not and the player having to figure out whether what they are seeing is real or a dream ("Wait a minute, when did ArchNemesis acquire a heat ray?").  It would definitely make the hero more cautious about using excessive force.

 

Personally I would go with the former, because I am not a huge fan of the unreliable narrator, but with the right GM and player it could be fun.

[Asperion]

I got wondering how someone would constant this character.  He never was that powerful,  but essentially was the reverse of this discussion. 

[Ninja-Bear]

7 hours ago, Asperion said:

I got wondering how someone would constant this character.  He never was that powerful,  but essentially was the reverse of this discussion. 

I could see this as a solo type game character as is. The GM takes the role of the human and the Player the Sleepwalker.