"doesn't need to blink" perk?

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Toptomcat

Even Unnatural Feature seems like an enormous stretch to me- it is *not* going to put people off enough to justify a -1 to reaction rolls, it will be a highly unusual person who even notices.

It's quite *hard* to notice, even when you are looking for it, which you generally are not. For much the same reason it has no effect on vision. Because of stuff like persistence of vision and the recovery time of photoreceptive chemicals and neurons in the optic nerve it mostly happens too fast for anybody to easily perceive it. An entity able to do something useful during a blink could probably do the same thing when you were not blinking and you couldn't see it as much more than a blur.

[WingedKagouti]

Originally Posted by Plane

Aside from the RP aspect of winning all staring contests, I'm wondering what kind of mechanical advantages might result from having eyes that moisturize without needing to close eyelids and briefly obstruct vision.

In the vast majority of campaigns not having to blink confers absolutelty no gameplay advantage.

You need something that can move a useful distance and take useful actions in the 1/8th of a second timespan the eyes of a normal person are closed. It's basically useless outside Supers and very specific Horror scenarios.

[ericthered]

If the specific horror scenarios are in the game, its probably an immunity of some sort. likely of the 5 point variety if the threat is major, and a 1 point perk if it conveys an advantage against minor foes.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Sentence 2 of the description of Nictitating Membrane in Basic.

ah, "see normally", missed that, but I guess I can't remember where to find the -2 to vision underwater, if that was in basic also?

protects eyes from sand/irritants sounds like probably defends you against eyelashes (while UP at least... probably doesn't help if you switch it on AFTER an eyelash gets in?) but I don't know where to find the sand/irritants rules either.

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

'Staring contests' aside, this mostly seems relevant if your game involves Weeping Angels or similar horror entities that somehow exploit blinking.

The "only while unobserved" limitation on Warp in Horror for Ghostly Movement comes to mind as one thing. During the millisecond your eyelids are closed during a blink, you're not observing.

This makes Ghostly Movement a lot more dangerous against a single person, because with 2+ people you're not likely to blink in complete unison so during the millisecond of 1 person's closed eyes, another is still observing the Ghostly Mover.

Originally Posted by Toptomcat

This is a perk-level-to-five-point Unusual Background for a rather cheap Immunity in a Dr. Who or SCP game and a zero-point feature with no game-mechanical effect elsewhere.

Even in situations where it's not quite as absolute as "being can only move when nobody is looking at them" the effect of a blink would matter for flash-tier speedsters.

...FORCED TO STARE WITH EYES THAT TAKE A HUNDRED YEARS TO BLINK
I COULD HIT HIM A THOUSAND TIMES BEFORE HE HAD A CHANCE TO BLINK
WITHIN THE BLINK OF AN EYE, THAWNE...

Originally Posted by Toptomcat

Even Unnatural Feature seems like an enormous stretch to me- it is *not* going to put people off enough to justify a -1 to reaction rolls, it will be a highly unusual person who even notices. Maybe you could justify a five-point Odious Personal Habit (Deliberately draws attention to the fact that he doesn't need to blink).

It'd be more obvious if you're the center of attention than in a crowd, but the same could be said of No Pulse / No Reflection too. The also -5 Long Tongue is easy to keep secret if you simply avoid eating/kissing.

I imagine someone could make vision rolls at a -9 penalty (plus speed/range) to actually watch someone else's eyes, to understand where they're looking, and maybe track how often they do certain things like dart up and down (isn't that part of lie detect?) or blink or twitch.

Originally Posted by Jariel

According to Horror pg.26 Cannot Close Eyes is a -5 point Supernatural Feature.

Features are supposed to be reaction rolls but not other crunch AFAIK, feels like there should be something else for an inability to lubricate one's eyes or a lack of a requirement to do so.

The way H26 says to purchase problems like dry eyes separately, I guess that means normal characters would too?

If CCE doesn't have "increased vulnerability to blinding attacks" would that include Sight-Based ones? Normally closing eyes is a defense against that...

Originally Posted by WingedKagouti

You need something that can move a useful distance and take useful actions in the 1/8th of a second timespan the eyes of a normal person are closed. It's basically useless outside Supers and very specific Horror scenarios.

Unless we can code something like "ability terminates if you lose sight of target" but I'm not sure how to. Vision-Based is normally just needing to see them briefly to initiate an ability, not maintain it.

It's also conceivable someone super-observant might actually predict your blinking rhythms and try to time attacks in accordance to them for some super small benefit.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Plane

Even in situations where it's not quite as absolute as "being can only move when nobody is looking at them" the effect of a blink would matter for flash-tier speedsters.

...FORCED TO STARE WITH EYES THAT TAKE A HUNDRED YEARS TO BLINK
I COULD HIT HIM A THOUSAND TIMES BEFORE HE HAD A CHANCE TO BLINK
WITHIN THE BLINK OF AN EYE, THAWNE...

Does it matter though? Somebody who can move that fast is the next thing to functionally invisible - whether you're blinking or not you can't usefully react in an eyeblink.

It might matter if they've also got audio stealth somehow and are trying to sneak past...

[Plane]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

Does it matter though? Somebody who can move that fast is the next thing to functionally invisible - whether you're blinking or not you can't usefully react in an eyeblink.

It might matter if they've also got audio stealth somehow and are trying to sneak past...

It could matter SLIGHTLY, you're right not necessarily in reacting (unless you're very distant) but in raising alarm assuming they don't neutralize you.