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Old 06-29-2019, 09:20 AM   #201
ericthered
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Default Re: A Challenger Appears! Green versus Red

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Originally Posted by Plane View Post
(Basic Move + Yards) x 2 + 3 feet.
That's a -3, not a +3. So I think you can get another 2 yards out of a flying attack, plus one for the kick, for a total of being able to evaluate at 5.

Though as I've said before, as a GM I allow people 20 yards away from each other charging at full tilt to make evaluates.

Quote:
Does that mean you are turning around to look behind you? :)
Depends on how far away the shoes are. Red has ears, and if the shoes are within 3 yards, he should know. If they aren't with 3 yards, he should know. I'd also argue that if all a character does is glance around him, he should be able cover at least 270 degrees of vision.
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Old 06-29-2019, 10:08 PM   #202
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Default Re: A Challenger Appears! Green versus Red

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That's a -3, not a +3.
Ah you're right, should be 8-3=5ft normally, meaning after halving that for broad jump in combat I can only do 2.5 feet with a flying attack, meaning that's not a full yard.

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Originally Posted by ericthered View Post
So I think you can get another 2 yards out of a flying attack, plus one for the kick, for a total of being able to evaluate at 5.
Eh? Now's my turn to correct, seems Flying Attack adds no distance at all right now so it's back to reach 3 for Evaluate, meaning I can't have done it...

The only way I might've added some is if I had worked up to a Sprint to get base Move of 6 again (like I had before fatigue) so that may halved Move would be 3, in which case I would be 12-3=9ft normally, 4.5ft halved which is enough to add a yard on a Flying Attack.

It really seems like trying to kick during a flying attack would mess up momentum compared to throwing a punch during one...

The only possible way I can think is perhaps I step 4>3, I would only be in range to 'Step and Evaluate" but not to "Evaluate and Step", but I'm not sure if that's legal since I'm basically using part of the maneuver (the step) before actually being in range to do the maneuver...

I think maybe I should just retcon my previous action as AOD:Double, but in that case I'm going to still step toward you I think.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ericthered View Post
Depends on how far away the shoes are. Red has ears, and if the shoes are within 3 yards, he should know. If they aren't with 3 yards, he should know. I'd also argue that if all a character does is glance around him, he should be able cover at least 270 degrees of vision.
Well, if they're not 31 yards behind you, I'm not sure how much less it should be :)

Facing seems like it ought to be the face, but it doesn't seem to be any part in particular (feet, torso).
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Old 07-01-2019, 07:35 AM   #203
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Default Re: A Challenger Appears! Green versus Red

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Eh? Now's my turn to correct, seems Flying Attack adds no distance at all right now so it's back to reach 3 for Evaluate, meaning I can't have done it...
oh, its feet, not yards!

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I think maybe I should just retcon my previous action as AOD:Double, but in that case I'm going to still step toward you I think.
That works. I still think the evaluate distance rules are silly, but that's not the rules.

Quote:
Well, if they're not 31 yards behind you, I'm not sure how much less it should be :)
I found a projectile calculator and plugged in numbers to get a rough idea of what would be going on. I set the angle the 45 degrees and the height to 5 and fiddled with velocity until I got 36 yards (17.5 m/s). Then I set the height to 0 (attacking my chest) and fiddled with angle until I got 5 yards (4 degrees). Then I set the height back to 5 feet. The shoe should have landed about 13 yards from where you threw it. About. I expect there is at least a 3 yard variance in where it landed. I also need to go back and find out how from there the second shoe is!

Quote:
Facing seems like it ought to be the face, but it doesn't seem to be any part in particular (feet, torso).
I will freely admit I don't know the tactical combat rules well, in particular facing. The face and body will naturally be in motion throughout combat, but saying that you only get 180 degrees of vision that you can track moving targets through is a decent call. Its identifying non-moving targets I'm not sure of.

If you agree that the shoe is more than 2 yards behind red, and that red can tell that via how hard it was thrown that its more than two yards behind him, he will spend 2 AP (8/10 remaining) to turn around (3 MP) and move 2 yards away from green, identifying the location of the shoe!

Green would then be 5 yards away.
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Old 07-02-2019, 09:35 PM   #204
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Default Re: A Challenger Appears! Green versus Red

failed my HT roll to get AP back.

It sounds like you used a Move maneuver?

It occurs to me that strangely, I know how to incorporate a leap into a Move and Attack, but am unsure if it could be incorporated into a basic Move as well. It would seem strange if you could only do flying leaps the end of a trot only while attacking and not while simply moving...

I guess if it flew 13 instead of 36, then instead of 31 yards behind you it should be 8 yards behind you. Moving 2 yards toward it, it is not 6 yards away, so to spot it I think you would probably make a Perception roll (your IQ 10, reduced to 9 because of fatigue) penalized by 6 yards on the speed/range table (-3 for 7 yards, rounded up) and also penalized by the size modifier of the shoe. Since shoes are the size of feet, I figure -4 would make sense?

So the total penalty of -7 on IQ 9 means your modified skill is 2. Since you need a 3 to attempt it, you can't manage to spot a shoe that is 18 feet away from you. You would've had a slim (skill 3) chance of doing so had there been no IQ penalty from fatigue.

There should probably be things someone could do to enhance their chances, like maybe giving a bonus to Perception if taking a Concentrate maneuver dedicated to searching for something? Not sure where to find rules on that. An even bigger bonus for an "All-Out Concentrate" (no defenses) of course.

It would also make sense to give "extra time" bonuses for someone trying to spend more time looking competently for something than trying to glance it in 1 second.

I'll give you a basic +1 if you want to switch your "One Foe" from me to the shoe. Without doing that, even with your back turned it will be assumed that you are still trying to focus on your enemy to some degree.

another AOD:double, free step towards you, narrowing to 4 yards

(thinking heavily about spending 2 AP to move 2 yards toward you but it just doesn't seem like a good deal)
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Old 07-03-2019, 09:10 AM   #205
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Default Re: A Challenger Appears! Green versus Red

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It sounds like you used a Move maneuver?
Yes, I used a move maneuver.

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to spot it I think you would probably make a Perception roll (your IQ 10, reduced to 9 because of fatigue) penalized by 6 yards on the speed/range table (-3 for 7 yards, rounded up) and also penalized by the size modifier of the shoe. Since shoes are the size of feet, I figure -4 would make sense?
Don't forget the +10 bonus for being in plain sight. Size modifier for 1 foot long is -5, not -4, but if we were in a format where time mattered, it would be good enough. Perception checks are one of the things I wish gurps did better in general. So that's an 11, and a 12 if I wasn't fatigued. That feels like a fair chance. An argument could be made that I get more bonuses or penalties for being in a rush or looking for literally the only features in an otherwise featureless space, but rolling vs. 11 feels fair.

I rolled a 14, where are those shoes again?

Red will spend 1 AP to move 2 yards in the general direction of the shoes (how far back was the other one?), and hope to make the search roll next turn.

7/10 AP, 4 yards from where red turned around (shoes are ~8 yards from there, and green is 2 yards from that, though red isn't sure about that.
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Old 07-05-2019, 09:43 PM   #206
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Default Re: A Challenger Appears! Green versus Red

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Don't forget the +10 bonus for being in plain sight.
Ah I was looking for rules on this, but forgot about B358. I don't know if "a car coming at you on the road" would be the right analogy... the shoe isn't coming at you ANYMORE, it isn't even moving by the time you turn around.

It probably would've made sense to have you make some kind of hearing roll to give a vague idea of where it landed to narrow down the search. Something like you'd get a +1 bonus to search if you had made the roll...

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Size modifier for 1 foot long is -5, not -4, but if we were in a format where time mattered, it would be good enough.
Besides, per "If a creature’s longest dimension falls between two entries on the table, base its SM on the higher value." 12 inches would fall between -5 (10") and -4 (18") so I think that's where the -4 comes from (although the "Size" column on the Size and Speed/Range Table B550 doesn't appear to match it. I'm not sure why B19/B550 aren't consistent.

If it's -4 to hit a shoe while someone's wearing it, I'm not going to make it harder to hit the shoe while it's on it's own. I'm keeping with the -4 though. So I should've had you roll against 2+10=12 not 11, but a 14 is a failure regardless.

Heck, an untied shoe (tongue flapping all about) might be more noticeable than a tied one, and shoes are bigger than feet to begin with (since they contain them) so a +1 for an open shoe might even be warranted. Elongated boxes get +1 after all. So maybe only a -3 to hit/see untied shoes?

- - -

Another thing is: since you begin your perception at the start of a turn, I'm going to count that INITIAL distance as your speed/range penalty, even if you end up closer by the end of the turn.

Also: the distance you move will be added to that initial range when calculating the speed/range penalty. There's a potential initial downside to moving-while-observing. Moving objects are easier to perceive... but moving observers are less observant.

Another thing, aside from relative motion, is what else someone is doing. Someone staying in the same hex but attacking/defending isn't going to be as good at spotting shoes as someone staying in the same hex focusing on looking around.

I would say anything besides movement should probably incur a -2 penalty for "doing two things at once". So if you were doing an attack, you would be -2, 2 attacks -4, and so on. This would help set apart the observation skills of someone doing Move+Attack instead of just Move.
Page 27 of Pyramid 3/57 (Cole's "Dodge This") actually does does -4 to perception if you attack or get attacked, twice as rough as my proposal!
Including active defenses as "things" would make sense too. Based on that, since you won't know how many active defenses you make until the turn ends, the perception roll shouldn't occur until the end of the turn (ie just before you declare your next turn) sort of like the way how magic spells work (B236 Distraction and Injury: "the shock penalty for your injury reduces your effective skill" Time Required: "Take the Concentrate maneuver for
one turn and attempt your skill roll at the end of your turn" .. "Make the skill roll at the end of the last turn of concentration.")

The only exception would be a Concentrate dedicated to perception (a Concentrate dedicated to other stuff like spells / powers would be penalized at -2 per usual) in which case I would say give a +1 bonus.

All-Out Concentrate (pg 11 of Psionic Powers) gives a +1 to a "particular mental task" sort of like All-Out Attack (Ranged) does. I would tweak that like Cole did : +2 for All-Out Concentrate and invent a +1 for a "Committed Concentrate".

Another way to look at it is instead of Concentrate giving a +1, that Concentrate is the baseline cost of using your senses, and is assumed. Anyone who doesn't do that (using some other maneuver) is like using an ability with Reduced Time (B108) to make it a free action.

Pg 6 of psionic powers mentions:
non-attack abilities may be able to use the rules for time spent (p. B346) to reduce their activation time by taking a penalty
It seems like that ought to work for perception too... so a -5 for doing something in 50% less (half) time if someone does perception as a free action instead of dedicating a Concentrate to it? This would really reward a character taking the time to slow down and focus on looking/smelling/hearing.

This would also open up to taking consecutive concentrates to get a bonus to the skill, probably working like you still roll once per second but get bonuses to those rolls after enough seconds go by.

Could even do something like a base time of 10 seconds (like B101 "Duration for Advantages" blue box lower left) and a 90% reduction in time (-9) for 1 second, -10 for the cinematic noticing stuff as a free action, which offsets the 'plain sight' stuff a bit. That's a bit harsh though so I think I'll stick to just -5 for a free action.

It would also make sense to allow Evaluate to sub as a Concentrate but only for perceiving stuff that person is doing, as opposed to stuff in general.

Facing might also matter. It wouldn't apply here since you are wakling towards the object, but if someone is -2 to active defenses against attacks from the side, they are basically -4 to skill, so -4 to perceive stuff from the side (and maybe -2 for the left/right front hexes?) could follow that thread. -2 per 60 degrees works out to -1 per 30 degrees if we have to measure stuff in smaller angles further off.
Cole's Dodge This actually penalizes -4 in the rest of your front hexes, -8 in side hexes. It's twice as intense as my proposal!
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Originally Posted by ericthered View Post
An argument could be made that I get more bonuses or penalties for being in a rush
-5 for doing it as a free action instead of a concentrate is what I'm thinking ;)

So an IQ 10 guy looking at something in plain sight (Vision 20) would be at Vision 15 if he didn't take a Concentrate maneuver...

Fatigue reduces that to 14 for you. -3 (going to be generous and make it easier than -4) makes it skill 11.

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Originally Posted by ericthered View Post
or looking for literally the only features in an otherwise featureless space, but rolling vs. 11 feels fair.
The "otherwise featureless space" is why I'm okay with giving you the entire +10 :) Some tall grass might've reduced that, or even counted as partial cover... I suppose the color of the shoe and how it contrasts to the terrain would also matter. It should be easier to see white shoes on black ashphalt or black shoes on white tiles, for example, than white-on-tiles and black-on-ashphalt, for example, though I'm not sure how to represent that.

I would say "plain sight" implies ultimate contrast (easiest to tell apart colors) and you would reduce that as each began to resemble the other more.

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Originally Posted by ericthered View Post
I rolled a 14, where are those shoes again?
Metagamewise I shouldn't tell you how far that shoe is :) But as I said they were 6 yards away, you could make a full move toward them next turn without overstepping...

Although I suppose your character wouldn't actually know that, they would be walking in the general direction the throw seemed to go (should probably roll to perceive trajectory of initial throw) influenced by where they heard it land.

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Originally Posted by ericthered View Post
Red will spend 1 AP to move 2 yards in the general direction of the shoes (how far back was the other one?), and hope to make the search roll next turn.
Having moved 2 yards closer to the shoes, they are now 4 yards away. This reduces the skill penalty from -3 to -2 (4 yards rounds up to the 5 yard tier)


I am thinking about how maneuver choice ought to influence this though. It occurs to me that "I am standing still, 5 yards away, looking for something" probably has a higher chance of success than "I was 10 yards away, ran 5 yards closer, and then looked".


Even if an object is not moving, if you are moving WHILE looking for it, it seems like it might be reasonable to add your speed to the object's final distance when calculating speed/range penalties. This would make someone standing still looking around more observant than someone looking while moving.

A simpler way to think of that would be to measure the distance penalties from the location of where the turn starts, rather than where it ends.

B346 gives +1 for spending 2x as long, so if you did a 2nd concentrate on the turn after that, you'd get another +1 on top of whatever your maneuver provided on the 2nd roll.

One thing I overlooked too: One Foe (TG22) "you have to make a Per-4 roll even to notice the actions of a friend or another foe". I'd apply that -4 to anything you're trying to perceive other than your opponent, but since you did a 180 I'm pretty much assuming you've let that lapse? Since there's no need to get a bonus to active defenses against the guy who isn't in range to attack you anymore?

If you want to apply One Foe to the hypothetical shoe ("One Foe: Ground"?) I'll give you a +1 to subsequent perception rolls, but know this would come with a -4 risk to perceive the injured guy staggering after you from behind (so if I say, started pulling out a sword, you probably would be less likely to hear it, or see the zombie I summoned that's in your peripheral vision running at you from your left) so I don't know if you want to do that or not.

If so, incorporate it into your next roll. I'll assume you haven't done that yet since there was initially too much risk with me only 3 yards away.
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Old 07-05-2019, 09:44 PM   #207
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Default Re: A Challenger Appears! Green versus Red

I just remembered... I threw TWO shoes, the first on June 20 and 2nd on June 24

July 1 you mentioned "I also need to go back and find out how from there the second shoe is!" but I think I totally forgot about that...

Stuff like this is probably easier to track in real-time using a map :)

I'm not really sure how to use the projectile calculator but going by your 36 max (45 angle optimal, probably with some kind of delay in landing due to longer travel time) being 13 yards.

So now I can track the locations of both shoes...
20thA) I was 4 yards from you, I threw 1st shoe 13 yards, it lands 9 yards behind you, I step 1 yard further away, making me 5 yards from you and 14 yards from 1st shoe.

20thB) you stepped 1 yard closer, putting you 4 yards from me again, and 10 yards away from 1st shoe

23rd) I readied the 2nd shoe, stepped back to get back my 5 yard gap, putting me 15 yards away from 1st shoe.

24thA) you evalated and stepped forward, getting within 4 yards of me but making you 11 yards from 1st shoe

24thB) 2nd shoe thrown 13 yards, putting it 9 yards behind you.

26th (you went ahead and specified next action before I specified if I would use my free step after my action) I used free step to regain the 5 yard gap, putting me 16 yards away from 1st shoe, 14 yards away from 2nd shoe

25th you evaluated again stepping toward me, putting you 12 yards from 1st shoe, 10 yards from 2nd shoe

26th my actual turn after this was an evaluate towards you until you pointed out I was too far to evaluate (weird "Flying Attack" reach speculation) so we decided to retcon it as AOD:D. Either way, I took another step backward (4 yard gap shrinks to 3 ) putting me 15 yards away from 1st shoe, 13 yards away from 2nd shoe (they consistently appear to have landed 2 yards apart, since I had stepped back 2 yards between the throws)

July 1 is when you corrected the distance and following that AOD, used a 2 AP (10/10 > 8/10) to buy a full move maneuver (5 MP) with 3 MP spent on a 180 spin and 2 MP spend on 2 steps forward. This reduced your distances to the 1st/2nd shoes from 12/10 to 10/8.

You had said "Green would then be 5 yards away." which correctly refers to the distance between us (3+2=5) but I believe I misread that as you being 5 yards away from the SHOE...

On your initial move maneuver that you began while 10 yards from nearest shoe (we're going to ignore the 2nd shoe 2 yards further back for now, I guess?) adding your 2yards/secnod speed to that made you effectively 12 yards away: a -5 penalty. You already failed it, so who cares? :)

The start of your next you would evaluate based on a starting distance of 8y/10y for s2/s1

July 2 I did another AOD following you, shrinking my distance to shoes from 15/13 to 14/12 and the distance to you to 4.

July 3 sounds like you're using another Move to move another 2 yards. You mentioned paying 1 AP to do this, but I'm not going to charge you: you were already moving 2 yards/second so per Variant Move: Acceleration you should still be at 8/10 AP. In this case maintaining your previous velocity is your "free step".

Adding your consistent 2y/s velocity to the 8yard distance to the nearest shoe makes you effectively 10 yards away from it for speed/range sum purposes: a -4 penalty.

These additional 2 steps reduced the distances to the shoes from 10/8 to 8/6 for the consideration of NEXT turn's perceptions. It also increases the distance between us from 4 yards to 6 yards.
Note however that for this 2nd roll I am still considering you at effectively 8 yards, since your own speed counteracts the gained closeness. You can avoid adding the velocity to the new distance if you decelerate.

my HT roll for my 2nd untriggered AOD is 7, which is 4 less than 11, so my MoS means I recover 1+1=2 AP, I now have 12/12 AP again.
I think 9/12 FP and you had 8/10 FP? hard to remember

So if I take your skill 11 (fatigued 19 -5 for free action -3 for size) and apply a -4 penalty for range, you should be able to roll against skill 7 to perceive the shoe.

On your next turn you can get an effective +5 (ignoring the -5 I applied into the above calculation) for a concentrate (+6 determined, +7 all-out).

If you commit your full move (5) to reduce the distance from 6 to 1, then during that Move you would be 6+5=11 speed/range sum (back up to a horrific -5) effectively from it, but by the following you would only be 1 yard for a -0 penalty, so long as you slowed down.

Going from 2yards > 5 yards would cost you 2 AP (since 3 AP is more than half of your move) though you could go from 2ys/ to 4y/s for only 1 AP if you wanted, since that's half or less.

Cole's suggested 1/2 AP for 50/100% move discount doesn't seem to have lessened decelleration costs AFAIK so I guess it still costs 1 AP per 33%... but that seems weird so I'll just make it free to decelerate by 1y/s, 1 AP to deccelerate by 2 y/s, 2 AP to decelerate 3-5.

In a perfect world the "free forward movement from your momentum" and the "free backward movement from the ground's friction" would probably just balance out, since friction would increase the faster you were going? With a basic cost for "I'm doing stuff with my legs" vs "I'm not" (the step+kicker vs the stand+kicker) Then AP would just spent either as an effort to accelerate or an effort to speed up besides that basic "status quo maintenance" cost.

since my AP is full, I'm going to try to catch up with you!

Move maneuver, using "Variant Move: Acceleration" rules, since I had already took 1 yard/second step toward you last turn, to reach Move 2 (Basic Speed 5 is halved and rounded down due to my leg injury) I can spent 1 AP to pay for 50% of my move.

2 steps narrows the gap between us from 6 yards to 4 yards again. I am now 13/11 from the shoes instead of 15/12, approaching your 10/8 distance from them.


Due to spending 1 AP, I am now at 11/12 AP and I think 9/12 FP while you are at 8/10 AP and 8/10 FP I think?

As reminder you are now 6 yards from nearest shoe, but have to roll as if 8 due to the 2y/s speed.

Since the end of my turn opening is right before your next turn (when your preceding turn ends) now is the appropriate time for you to roll vs skill 7 to find the result of your free action.
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Old 07-08-2019, 08:26 AM   #208
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Default Re: A Challenger Appears! Green versus Red

Ok, on the perception roll I found two places with more involved rules than basic. The first is situational awareness in tactical shooting (p 11), which explicitly covers trying to find things on the battlefield you weren't previously paying attention to on a case to case basis. The free action is a blanket -4, with no additional penalty for additional actions. The "In plain Sight" modifier is caveat-ed only by applying additional modifiers.

Adding movement to range and starting at the beginning of the

In spaceships page 44, bonuses are given beyond "In plain sight" for being in an easy to spot location. Being in front of a planet gives +2. Being in front of deep space gives a whopping +34. The effect of the surrounding area is huge. Sports fields are uniform for that exact reason. If you've ever walked into a room with only a single item in it, that item is extremely obvious. Looking for the only two features in a featureless plain should be at least +4

The alternate rules do cover speed changes:

Quote:
Deceleration from movement other than a step costs 1 AP if you were moving up to your full Move, and 2 AP to stop dead from a sprint. That should probably involve a DX and/or HT roll to see if you can do this without injury. You may decelerate at up to 20% of your Move per second for free; sort of an anti-step.
unless https://gamingballistic.com/2013/08/...ile-using-las/ isn't the rule set we are using.
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Old 07-09-2019, 03:05 PM   #209
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The free action is a blanket -4, with no additional penalty for additional actions.
Looks like I came pretty close at guessing -5 for free action :)

I only see no penalty if you take a concentrate maneuver.

That +1 for additional concentrate maneuvers doesn't seem to have any cap...

There probably should be one, getting +100 for 100 consecutive concentrates would eventually allow you to overcome incredibly range penalties for stuff someone might never spot...

I think maybe something like if you crit-fail your Vision check that you lose all accumulated bonuses. That would eventually curtail that buildup.

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The "In plain Sight" modifier is caveat-ed only by applying additional modifiers.
One of them is posture, which brings up a bit of a strange situation...

You are -4 to spot a person who is lying down... which is an equivalent penalty to spotting the foot of someone who is standing up. It's equally hard to shoot/spot the torso of someone lying down as it is to shoot/spot the foot of someone standing up.

That seems... OFF somehow.

Unless of course we also treat the foot as inherently "lying down" if it is severed or a shoe, in which case it would be -8 to see/shoot shoes and detached feet (or hands) which are lying at rest.

Perhaps the lack of a -4 (for lying down) on feet assumes someone is lifting their feet up to make them visible (via taking steps) so maybe someone standing in place should get the -4 for lying down for feet only?

That would only apply for ranged stuff (perception, shooting) though, the -4 to hit lying targets doesn't apply to melee attacks, so it wouldn't make stomps any harder.

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In spaceships page 44, bonuses are given beyond "In plain sight" for being in an easy to spot location.
One of which affirms my theory about using the "time spent" rules, which I thinks works a little better than an unlimited +1/second of Concentrate.

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Being in front of a planet gives +2. Being in front of deep space gives a whopping +34.
Being cumulative with plain sight means the total for planet is 12, I can see you got the 34 by 10+24

I guess deep space means with it being pitch black behind the thing. If it was something like a black object I would definitely apply some kind of penalty for being the same color though since it would be like camouflage.

The thing about the "passive sensors" section is it also mentions bonuses for IR signature, so I'm not sure if these bonuses are written entirely with normal Vision in mind. The reliance on InfraRed may mean this is part of why there's such a huge bonus for detecting stuff silhouettted against Deep Space: because space is super-cold so IR stands out more.

The left column mentions in addition to visual telescopes and IR telescopes they also use ultraviolet telescopes and radio telescopes...

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The effect of the surrounding area is huge. Sports fields are uniform for that exact reason. If you've ever walked into a room with only a single item in it, that item is extremely obvious. Looking for the only two features in a featureless plain should be at least +4
You mean on top of the +10 for plain or instead of?

I'm not really sure how to handle a perception check for multiple objects. Maybe 2 rolls both at -2 for doing 2 things at once?
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Old 07-10-2019, 08:30 AM   #210
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Default Re: A Challenger Appears! Green versus Red

I'd strait up cap the consecutive concentrate bonus at +5. That's were time spent bonuses are normally capped.

The posture number does feel a little off. There are contexts in which it makes sense, of course: The difference in profile between a prone soldier at 50 yards and his boot are fairly minimal. but at 5 yards or closer the numbers look weird. I don't think feet should receive the prone bonus, and I'd let a player aim at a prone figure's feet for the same number as aiming for the torso... if the feet were in front.

I don't think using a different spectrum changes the visual properties of finding objects against uniform backgrounds. I think the +4 should be in addition to the +10: If you doubt me stick a shoe in the middle of a road, turn around a few times, and see how hard it is to spot, even at distance. Failure is possible, but I don't think its likely.

I don't think that "Free Action" gives a penalty for taking multiple searches. You can rule how you think is FAIR, but I'd either roll twice for each shoe, or have a single roll and if it succeeds a random shoe is located. success by X (2? 4?) finds both shoes.
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