Hyperspace sickness

[Zeropoint]

I'm trying to come up with a way to model a character suffering from "hyperspace sickness", analagous to seasickness. I was thinking along the lines of a susceptibility, but that looks like it would either be something that the character could effectively ignore, or could be potentially fatal, depending on the character's REC. Now I'm thinking along the lines of a Physical Limitation, something like:

 

Hyperspace sickness (infrequently, greatly): When in hyperspace, the character will suffer from headaches, nausea, and disrupted equilibrium, resulting in a penalty of -3 on any skill roll and most characteristic rolls. The effects will fade within a few minutes after exiting hyperspace.

 

Does this sound reasonable? (in terms of dramatic sense--we obviously can't reality-check this)

 

Also, has anyone else ever written up a similar disadvantage? If so, I'd like to see your take on it.

 

Zeropoint

[DigitalGolem]

[edit] I looked at your post again, and realize you're just talking about one character who's affected this way; my suggestion is a bit different. Perhaps a vulnerability disad, "takes extra damage from side-effects" would make this more useful to you. [/edit]

 

I wrote up quite a few effects like this, for a campaign which (sadly) isn't finished yet. I designed it as a "side-effect" limitation on the ship's movement power. There were several types of drives, with different, sometimes unpredictable side effects;

 

--minor side effects which always occurred. Some were continuous, lasting throughout the trip until the drive was turned off. Others occurred each time the drive was turned off, at the end of the trip. I used this for effects similar to hyperspace travel in the Chanur novels.

 

--major or extreme side effects which occurred when the drive wasn't used properly. For instance, drives which only work in the "black zone", far from a system's primary, could be activated closer in, but the ship and crew would both suffer the consequences. This would be similar to the "misjump" effect in Traveller, which occurred if the drive was activated too close to a massive object.

 

This is a very flexible concept; the side-effects and circumstances in which they occur can be defined any way you like. (And you save lots of points on the movement power!) Let me know if you'd like to see some better examples. At the moment it's late, and I've put away all my notes on this.

 

L8r,

 

DGv3.0

[Aroooo]

Side Effects

 

If you do side effects on the engines, then do a DEX drain, S/F eadaches, nausea, and disrupted equilibrium.

 

Aroooo

[BobGreenwade]

From where I sit, Zeropoint, the Physical Limitation you propose for this is a perfect fit for the problem.

[Zeropoint]

I hadn't thought about the drives being a problem for everyone, even though (in retrospect) that's a reasonably common effect in science fiction books. I think I'll use the idea of poorly handled hyperspace insertions causing effects for all passengers. Of course, anyone who already has problems with hyperspace is going to have it even worse at this point.

 

Thanks for the input, everyone.

 

Zeropoint

 

"...It's unpleasantly like being drunk."

"What's unpleasant about being drunk?"

"Ask a glass of water."

[Victor]

The side effect of the engines also allows you to do things like Jump Sickness Resistance (if the effect has an opposed RSR), or Life Support: Immunity to Jump Sickness, as well as the more obvious Vulnerability and Susceptability.

 

A way to make the RSR more dramatic (rather than all-or-nothing) would be to postpone applying the side effects by one step up the time chart for each point a character makes the roll by... sort of the opposite of resisting mental powers.

 

Maybe some combination of Gradual Effect and AVLD (points of successful CON/PRE/EGO Roll). That would give more severe symptoms, and be tougher to resist, from more powerful jump drives. It would also give most ships a reason not to always jump at full power/speed, unless they had cryoberths that protect the crew against the sickness.

 

After someone hops out of their cryoberth (thus losing their immunity) during a jump to see why all the alarms are going off, they may have an hour to resolve the issue before the sickness hits them... or maybe just a few minutes.

[Farkling]

I think the Physical Limitation Model is a good idea, the penalties are on par with an inverted dependence effect that causes weakness.

 

Also check the model from this direction::

Susceptible to Hyperspace (-3 to all rolls {imposed PSL}, Constant Effect, Affects Skills)

What is that? About 30 AP ?? That's, um, a 3d6 Susceptible?

[Tamashii2000]

Hyperspace sickness...heh I like it.

 

All the various ways sound good to me, althrough if its one lone character that suffers, I would go with the Physical Limitation bit. Sounds just about right on the money