11-12-2016, 04:29 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Nov 2016
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Blindness and Dark Vision- please help me clear it up
The blindness disadvantage (Basic p. 124) says the user can't see at all. But it only mentions other visual spectra, e.g. infra(p. 60)- and ultra(p. 94)-vision. It mentions how Scanning(p. 81)- and Vibration(p. 96)- Sense are allowed but nowhere is it stated about Dark Vision (p.47).
So the real question is, how does one define the Dark Vision advantage? As sight or as something a little different. |
11-12-2016, 04:36 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Austin, TX
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Re: Blindness and Dark Vision- please help me clear it up
What would be the mechanical effects of someone with Dark Vision and Blindness? You're blind, but you can see in the dark? That doesn't really make sense.
If you can only see in darkness, and you can't see at all in light, I'd treat that as 0 point feature (much like 0 point Infravision or Ultravision). If you also can't see colors, you also have Color Blindness.
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11-12-2016, 04:44 PM | #3 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: Blindness and Dark Vision- please help me clear it up
It's sight -- it's affected by visual countermeasures other than darkness. If you want dark vision that isn't sight, you buy it as scanning sense.
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11-12-2016, 05:14 PM | #4 | |
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Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: 100 hurricane swamp
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Re: Blindness and Dark Vision- please help me clear it up
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However I'd never allow that combined with Blindness. |
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11-12-2016, 05:26 PM | #5 | |
Join Date: May 2015
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Re: Blindness and Dark Vision- please help me clear it up
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It's like having great hand weapon skills but your arms are missing... in some settings, it's just a flesh wound. |
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11-12-2016, 09:43 PM | #6 | |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
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Re: Blindness and Dark Vision- please help me clear it up
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If you want a character with Dark Vision with e.g. Mana Sensitive who becomes blind when they lose Dark Vision, that looks like this: Dark Vision (Mana Sensitive, -10%) [23] No Blindness (Mana Sensitive, -10%) [45] Blindness [-50] Net cost 18 points. If you go with the "I'm always Colour Blind, not just in the dark" version I think it breaks down like this Dark Vision (Mana Sensitive, -10%) [23] No Blindness (Mana Sensitive, -10%) [36] Colourblindness [-10] Upgrade Colourblindness to Blindness [-40] Net cost 9 points. This is game-mechanically different from Blindness and a Scanning Sense because Scanning Senses have a hard range limit and even Para-Radar is kinda detectable. They also come with other side-effect mechanics that make them different from "Vision but with Dark Vision". If your character never risks the penalties of Blindness, then what they have is Dark Vision and Injury Tolerance: No Eyes. But if the idea is a character who can "see" the surfaces of things but has no real interaction with optical properties (can't see through glass, can't read computer screens), like I've seen some interpretations of D&D Dark Vision, that's not GURPS Dark Vision. I haven't found a satisfactory way to map that - the closest is a Scanning Sense but I don't like the game mechanical differences from Vision. I think it's really a new kind of Bad Sight, probably in the -15 to -20 points range (and can't be corrected). Combine with Dark Vision et voilla.
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11-12-2016, 10:17 PM | #7 |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: On the road again...
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Re: Blindness and Dark Vision- please help me clear it up
For the more "hard science" character whose vision is shifted so that he can only see in the dark (say, using the far ultraviolet, edging on using gamma/X/cosmic rays) and is blinded outside it, unless he has special eyewear that blocks out all of the ambient IR/visual/UV spectrum, I'd go with the following:
Dark Vision (No Normal Vision) [0] Blindness (Mitigator: Glasses, -60%) [-20] Edit: Okay, it's kinda rubber-sciencey, rather than true hard science, but it's more scientifically plausible, even if not really probable or even possible, as far as we know.
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11-13-2016, 12:18 AM | #8 | |
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
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Re: Blindness and Dark Vision- please help me clear it up
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11-13-2016, 03:43 AM | #9 |
Join Date: Nov 2004
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Re: Blindness and Dark Vision- please help me clear it up
Another option would be reversing the vision penalties, so the character sees normally in full darkness, and -10 in full light, with intermediate penalties swapped the same way. Which I would call a feature probably.
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11-13-2016, 05:43 AM | #10 |
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Re: Blindness and Dark Vision- please help me clear it up
The points you get for Blindness are for you can't easily navigate unfamiliar areas, recognize things at range, and always have a serious combat penalty. If those are not true, you do not have Blindness, regardless of whether you can see anything in visible light or not (though maybe you could argue it should be worth -20 points rather than the -10 for Color Blind). If you do have them, then you can be Blind despite the fact you can still tell when the sun is up.
I suppose I'd let you take both Blindness and Dark Vision if you also take Not Blind (only in the dark -20%) as an advantage. I'd actually say much the same for Scanning Sense, though it has different limitations on the Not Blind advantage. That would suggest the visual light only part, not negating the penalties, would be worth about the difference between Blindness and Blindness plus Not Blind (only in light), i.e. about that 10 points I think Color Blind is not covering.
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Tags |
blindness, dark vision, gurps 4th edition |
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