Incapacitating Afflictions and 'PvP Trinkets' in GURPS

[vicky_molokh]

Greetings, all!

The Incapacitating Affliction thread got me wondering: Warcraft has PvP Trinkets, while SWTOR characters actually have an innate ability to 'shrug off' stunning or incapacitating effects. So, between the thread and the trinket, here's an idea:
For games where fight-ending incapacitation is against the genre, we could build a trait that allows one to shrug off an incapacitating/stunning/etc. condition after the fact.

Two most obvious methods I see are limited Luck or limited MH Destiny. Limitations would be Only Against Temporary Conditions that Cause You To Lose Control Of Your Character (so stun, choke, mind control, but not Pain or not even Agony if you have HPT, not slow, -DX/-ST/-IQ/-HT, not partial paralysis etc.). And then there should be a -0% Special Effect that prohibits changing the result of the roll the moment it is rolled, but allow use after-the-fact. So if you get hit with a 10-second stun, you can't just automatically resist the stun using this trait, but you can use the ability to break the stun on subsequent turns. IMO the utility of delayed use is counteracted by the fact that you can not reduce the duration below one second (a single second is precious in GURPS, after all).

IMO MH Destiny seems more appropriate, as it provides 1 virtual point (enough to turn a failed roll into a success), is reliable, but only works once per session. OTOH, Luck has a lower cooldown, but is less reliable and more expensive.

Thoughts?
Thanks in advance!

[vierasmarius]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

And then there should be a -0% Special Effect that prohibits changing the result of the roll the moment it is rolled, but allow use after-the-fact. So if you get hit with a 10-second stun, you can't just automatically resist the stun using this trait, but you can use the ability to break the stun on subsequent turns. IMO the utility of delayed use is counteracted by the fact that you can not reduce the duration below one second (a single second is precious in GURPS, after all)

What do you mean by "the utility of delayed use"? It seems to me that a character would in all ways be better off if the trait could block an Incapacitating condition outright rather than after a delay. If it can only break the condition after a delay, it should be a limitation.

I would add that the way D&D 4e handles "conditions" is to allow a Saving Throw each turn. This is equivalent to the way Stun is handled in GURPS, giving a roll to recover every turn. I could see a limitation like that being required on all Incapacitating afflictions in a campaign. Luck (recovery rolls only, -X%) would give the character a good chance of breaking free of the condition quickly, while still not negating it outright.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by vierasmarius

What do you mean by "the utility of delayed use"? It seems to me that a character would in all ways be better off if the trait could block an Incapacitating condition outright rather than after a delay. If it can only break the condition after a delay, it should be a limitation.

Example #1:
Sneaky Thief crawls up to you from the back, punches you in the kidneys, you get stunned. If you trink out now, thief will keep attacking you. If you get stunned, thief turns to another target (seeing that he has time), letting you trink out and shoot him in the back/flank with your hand crossbow.

Example #2:
Party is ambushed by MIBs with tranquilizer guns with a superscience sedative (Affliction: Sleep). Party gets sedated. If someone resist a tranq hit, they just shoot more. Party is put into the back of a truck and taken somewhere. PC trinks out halfway to the destination (perhaps an hour or more earlier than the MIBs expect).

[Kuroshima]

Personally if you were to make it work with Destiny points, you should make it available with CPs. I have no issue with adding more uses for points.

Mind you, if you were to build it with standard traits, I would build it around Modular abilities (with takes recharge) and perk level immunity (Immunity to the specific incapacitation condition with Maximum duration, probably 1 second).

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Kuroshima

Personally if you were to make it work with Destiny points, you should make it available with CPs. I have no issue with adding more uses for points.

Mind you, if you were to build it with standard traits, I would build it around Modular abilities (with takes recharge) and perk level immunity (Immunity to the specific incapacitation condition with Maximum duration, probably 1 second).

How do you switch the MA while incapacitated, and how do you know to what you need to switch? Those both are meta-game issues. But yes, paying CPs for a single use seems reasonable.

[Kuroshima]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

How do you switch the MA while incapacitated, and how do you know to what you need to switch? Those both are meta-game issues. But yes, paying CPs for a single use seems reasonable.

Reflexive, will make it acivate just in time. Then it's a matter of simply adding limitations to it. Or you could add Cosmic to allow it being reconfigured while incapacitated.

[Bruno]

I'd suggest having a look at the Recovery advantage, as this seems strongly related to it's primary purpose.

To a lesser extent, the +6 to IQ to snap out of mental stun from Combat Reflexes is similar, although it's not an "On-off" switch but (effectively) a duration shortener.

[Figleaf23]

There's this idea:

http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.p...&postcount=151

[cmdicely]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Greetings, all!

The Incapacitating Affliction thread got me wondering: Warcraft has PvP Trinkets, while SWTOR characters actually have an innate ability to 'shrug off' stunning or incapacitating effects. So, between the thread and the trinket, here's an idea:
For games where fight-ending incapacitation is against the genre, we could build a trait that allows one to shrug off an incapacitating/stunning/etc. condition after the fact.

Since its expressly a genre setting for games where fight-ending incapacitation is against the genre, I'd just write it up like a cinematic combat rule rather than a trait. Since you are basically negating the whole attack but must take at least some minimal effect (though the minimal effect is by time before using the option rather than by a minimum remaining effect after using the option), it looks a lot like a variant form of TV Action Violence, so I'd charge one CP per invocation.

[Bruno]

I would say that it seems sensible to make it a campaign rule that those incapacitating afflictions must be bought with Reduced Duration (from GURPS Psionic Powers) taking them down to a genre-appropriate duration to begin with, and combine it with fixed margin of success where appropriate to prevent high levels of Affliction or high will Maledictions from creating long-duration stun-lock anyways.

GURPS doesn't have "10 second stuns" that I know of - you begin rolling to recover on your turn; I thought you had to get up to Daze before it was a fixed duration effect rather than save-every-turn.

Well, other than the Fright Check Table, which I would just replace with genre appropriate effects instead. We replaced the entire table with a new mechanic in our DF games, as an example.

There's obviously still a place for the "flush my current action-denying status effect" advantage or trait or whatever for making those short duration effects even shorter.