How to do a Hall of Mirrors?

[Sociotard]

Have any of you done the classic "heroes and villians walk into a mirrored maze, periodically shoot mirror images" scenario? how do you run it? I was thinking of making everybody do PER rolls at -2. Make it and you see the opponent. Fail by 4 and you have to act as if you think one of the images is real. (shoot it or something)

 

Any thoughts?

[pinecone]

Re: How to do a Hall of Mirrors?

 

Sounds good I'd bash it up as a Images with a Per roll penalty (Lots o' copys of everybody in the hall, and make it hard to keep a sense of direction...and it's all good...

[Rapier]

Re: How to do a Hall of Mirrors?

 

When I looked at the title, I was almost thinking a base -4 PER. Allow complimentary skill rolls with Hearing PER, possibly INT. My theory is that the person has created so many images of themselves that they are functionally invisible.

 

Of course, last time I tried something like this the heroes just started blasting away (and breaking) at all the mirrors until they hit someone.

[Cancer]

Re: How to do a Hall of Mirrors?

 

The cheap answer to the blast-away problem is to disperse heroes & villains around the maze, so randomly blazing away will cause friendly fire casualties, assuming bullets aren't reflected by the mirrors. Of course, you can jazz it up by putting in a few teleport stations (and bullets do get transmitted by those...).

[freakboy6117]

Re: How to do a Hall of Mirrors?

 

highly polished metal plates that cause ricochets will discourage gun play two way mirrors will distract and confuse especially if you use bullet proof glass on some

[jtelson]

Re: How to do a Hall of Mirrors?

 

The last time I ran a Hall of Mirrors bit (probably about a decade and a half ago). Everyone began with a base 10 phases to find a real target, -1 phase for each point you made your PER roll by, +1 phase for each point you failed by. As long as you kept in sight of another person you could exchange fire, as soon as either broke LOS the counter started again from 5 (+- PER roll).

[Prometheus]

Re: How to do a Hall of Mirrors?

 

Especially in a Pulp Hero setting, I like the simplicity of Darkness. At range, you're just as likely to hit a reflection as you are the real target, and stand a good chance of being blindsided (0 OCV, 1/2 DCV), and even up close you might be fooled (1/2 OCV). Characters using a nontargeting sense to lessen the penalties has a nice pulpy appeal, at least to me ("Don't trust your eyes, they'll only fool you!").

 

If you purchase the whole thing as a focus you can make it Fragile as well, though you may have to buy each hex individually to keep one attack from destroying it all at once. On top of that you can add a few other effects, like a -1 Hearing Group PER Roll Change Environment (the hard surfaces exaggerate echoes), 2d6 Suppress Running with Standard Effect (people will tend to blunder around and get lost), etc.

[BoloOfEarth]

Re: How to do a Hall of Mirrors?

 

Depending on how sci-fi your particular pulp game is, you could do stretched reflective mylar sheets instead of mirrors. That way, bullets pass striaght through without shattering the illusion (with a decent minus to sight PER, they can see the bullet holes and know whether something is real or a mirror image). Stops the "shatter them all, boys!" attitude, though they could then "bull rush" through. If so, the frame for the mylar sheets includes crossbars at knee, waist, and neck height.

 

I'd also include some innocents trapped in the maze, so the heroes don't just spray bullets hoping for a "shot in the dark" hit.

 

I'd make the floor and ceiling mirrored as well. And have a few pit traps hidden under thin mirrors / mylar sheets.

[yamamura]

Re: How to do a Hall of Mirrors?

 

Another Idea have some exotic incense burning. This will cause a haze in the hall of mirrors with minor hypnotic effects causing even a lower row for perception. The effects of this gas is easily cleared with a lungful of clear air.

[ayinde]

Re: How to do a Hall of Mirrors?

 

i used a idea like this in one game. but i made it that some mirror walls were doors leading to differnt room lacations some were projection screens feeding you images from far away rooms

 

just for fun

make the room dim and smokey

place hero villian hostages and henchmen in the same basic close

add speekers for sound effects (dont forget mics to project voices to differnt rooms)

and the room goes black every 5 mins fallowed by a pulse of light

also had manikins in the same clothing

 

i used it as the escape rought of one of my master villens

 

it was a lot of fun to run

between you and me it was more fun when the heros friends came in the maze to save him .... a lot of pcs were lost that day and the villian got out with not even a scratch!!

[Blue]

Re: How to do a Hall of Mirrors?

 

There's a Hall of Mirrors in Champions Battlegrounds in the scenario at the amusement park (I think it's scenario #3). I never got to run it; My players figured out where the villain was before we got that far.

 

I don't remember the details much. I do think there were peception rules in there (along with a whole bunch of rules about how the place was specificually rigged for dealign with superheroes)