The Day of Dread

[Super Squirrel]

Next Saturday I begin what is going to be a two-parter episode. In that episode, the team will decide which of two events to start with (the second game will be the other part). In one of the scenarios, I forsee a potential rules issue that I want to get straightened out now.

 

One of my players can put up a Sight/Hearing/Mental/Touch Darkness field. Three of the enemy units are going to be in a fixed location why they use a sort of doomsday device. They know that this hero has a chance of showing up. As a result they are wearing special helmets. Should the darkness field show up, a visor will drop down and a VR replica of their location will show up so that they can maneuver using the VR version.

 

Now assuming that the three agents have their hands already on the controls at the time the darkness field goes up, what sort of penalties should they recieve on their actions because they have no counter to the touch effect of the darkness field?

[JmOz]

Re: The Day of Dread

 

Next Saturday I begin what is going to be a two-parter episode. In that episode, the team will decide which of two events to start with (the second game will be the other part). In one of the scenarios, I forsee a potential rules issue that I want to get straightened out now.

 

One of my players can put up a Sight/Hearing/Mental/Touch Darkness field. Three of the enemy units are going to be in a fixed location why they use a sort of doomsday device. They know that this hero has a chance of showing up. As a result they are wearing special helmets. Should the darkness field show up, a visor will drop down and a VR replica of their location will show up so that they can maneuver using the VR version.

 

Now assuming that the three agents have their hands already on the controls at the time the darkness field goes up, what sort of penalties should they recieve on their actions because they have no counter to the touch effect of the darkness field?

 

no more than -3

[sbarron]

Re: The Day of Dread

 

As a result they are wearing special helmets. Should the darkness field show up, a visor will drop down and a VR replica of their location will show up so that they can maneuver using the VR version.

 

Now assuming that the three agents have their hands already on the controls at the time the darkness field goes up, what sort of penalties should they recieve on their actions because they have no counter to the touch effect of the darkness field?

Is the VR interactive with the real devise? Specifically, will the guys working on it be able to tell from the VR version whether they actually pushed the button they wanted, or turned the right dial? Without being able to feel or see what they had done, it seems like they would have a lot of trouble doing very much at all.

[keithcurtis]

Re: The Day of Dread

 

You have my condolences. I had a player with this power and it caused so many rules complications, I asked him to retire it. Also, the power doesn't work well for team players.

 

My personal take? If they have practiced the maneuver, have their hands on the controls and know durn well what is likely to happen, no penalty. None whatsoever. When my mouth is numberd by the dentist, I still avoid biting my tongue. Lack of touch doesn't imply loss of motor skills.

 

Keith "hardliner" Curtis

[OddHat]

Re: The Day of Dread

 

Add tactile feedback to the gloves, wired into the helmets, and a shielded cable linking the whole thing to the Doomsday Device. No penalties.

 

Or just ask him to stop using the character, and arange a heroic death.

[Sean Waters]

Re: The Day of Dread

 

Hmm. Never really thought about a darkness to touch field, but now that I have, I don't think it would work except against ranged touch. Darkness does not stop the sense from working, like flash does, what it does, to my way of thinking, at least, is prevents perceptions passing through it, so if you are in actual contact with something then there is nothing for the darkness to get between , so it wouldn't work. If you had spacial awareness linked to the touch group (somehow...) it would block that because there is a range element. Similarly if you were stupid enough to stick a piece of white hot tungsten wire against your eyeball, you'd see light, even in a darkness field. For about a half a second....

 

I have to say I think you agree...otherwise the headsets wouldn't be able to display anything inside the visor, or at least, no one would be able to see it!

 

Alternative ways around it would be a neural net helmet that operates a shortwave radar rig, and the neural net directly induces perceptions in the brain without all that tedious mucking about with nerves, or buy them a KS with the equipment and let them roll to see if they can operate it, even in the dark without special equipment. Soldiers are taught to strip and re-assemple a rifle blindfold, how hard can pushing a button be? Presumably the character has some way of 'seeing' through his own darkness - you could just use that method, or something similar.

 

Actually, thinking aloud here, this must be right otherwise someone in a darkness to touch field wouldn't know when they had taken damage if their sense of touch was shut down. They'd fall over because there was no feedback from the inner ear canals. Chaos.

 

I'd explain your new way of thinking about the power and then ask the player if (s)he wants the character to have a little 'radiation accident'....

 

Finally, wouldn't it be funny if the players get hold of the helmets ahead of time and reprogramme the VR environment. Hehehehehe.

[Super Squirrel]

Re: The Day of Dread

 

You have my condolences. I had a player with this power and it caused so many rules complications, I asked him to retire it. Also, the power doesn't work well for team players.

 

My personal take? If they have practiced the maneuver, have their hands on the controls and know durn well what is likely to happen, no penalty. None whatsoever. When my mouth is numberd by the dentist, I still avoid biting my tongue. Lack of touch doesn't imply loss of motor skills.

 

Keith "hardliner" Curtis

I think I'll go with this approach. Though good points have been raised regarding Touch Darkness.

 

Oh, and regarding the player, I'm allowing it to continue for a couple of reasons. First, it is a small range. Second, I'm a wuss and can't tell people "no" sometimes. Third, in my games, you get what you give. I'm better at cheese than any of my players (and that includes Mr. Life Support, Always On) and I make it clear, they set the rules and the limits.

 

I've gotten better at telling players no. Voltage is never allowed to up his Defenses, for example. I have firmly expressed my Active Point cap. But sometimes, I just don't notice the finer details.

 

Oh, and in case you are wondering how I'm dealing with the Total Life Support, Always On is simple. I create beneficial powers that require you be able to breath or eat and if you cannot physically eat... well you just don't get it.

[Kristopher]

Re: The Day of Dread

 

I've always read the Does Not Eat power as "does not need to eat".

[KA.]

Re: The Day of Dread

 

I've always read the Does Not Eat power as "does not need to eat".

 

True, but since "Always On" is a Limitation, not an Advantage, I can see enforcing it this way.

 

You never, ever, have to eat, even if you go into a multi-year coma, but the flip side is, you can't eat when you want to.

 

KA.

 

Oh, as far as the Darkness field, if you described the PC's Darkness completely, why not just have the "VR" be the SFX for helmets that give them Radar Sense.

It falls into the Radio Group, not any of the ones listed. That would allow them to find their way around.

You could even have the things they needed to find, the Big Red Button for example, contain a built in "ping" device, so that they could easily locate it.

That just sounds more reasonable that doing it via "real" VR.

Even with the best of setups, that sounds incredibly risky.

Imagine trying to type using VR. Not on a virtual keyboard that was part of the simulation, but on a real keyboard, using the VR as a guide to your exact position. You could easily be one row off and never know it.

Now when we consider this being not a keyboard, but the controls for a doomsday device, it becomes a bit, unsettling.

 

However, with a Radar Sense Helmet, and controls that ping to help you find them, I think you could manage the job.

 

KA.

[Sean Waters]

Re: The Day of Dread

 

...but if darkness works the way you think it does - and indeed the way that it is described in FRED is:

 

"sensory effects generated within a darkness fields, such as lights or noises, cannot be perceived inside or outside a Darkness field which works against the appropriate senses."

 

So any light generated in by the visor/helmet inside the darkness field would not be perceivable.

 

This will depend on sfx: if the darkness is smoke and you have an airtight helmet on, fine, but given that this one effects mental and touch I don't think that is the case. If you were just using a drop down visor that didn't keep the smoke out, even the smokle sfx might stop you using it.

 

What are the sfx of this power and how does the character see through his own darkness (if at all).