Anecdotes of possible interest to the HT: Electricity & Electronics playtesters.

Sam Baughn · 05-08-2019, 05:33 AM

I'm not going to apply for the playtest group, since my knowledge of electricity and electronics beyond what I'm going to post here is very limited, but I have some specific insights which I think might be of interest.

I'm sure Mr. Stoddard is familiar with the various forms of quack medicine using electricity. You can still buy a bunch of weird electrical devices which make dubious claims of health benefits. There is even a subculture dedicated to collecting and restoring antique ones.

What you may not be aware of is that there is another community of people who use electrical shocks not for their supposed health benefits but entirely for fun. I'm one of those people.

I seem to have an abnormal reaction to electrical shocks, where they seem more like a pleasurable tickling sensation than a painful one. Very high powered ones or in sensitive places still hurt a bit, but I can easily function (albeit a bit distracted) while someone is shocking me with an (old-fashioned, not EMD) stun gun directly applied to bare skin. This doesn't seem to be linked to High Pain Threshold, since I know some people who seem to have HPT who can't function while being shocked and I don't have HPT to other forms of pain, but can. However, I've met enough other people who also seem able to shrug off such things that I think Resistant (electric stun effects) might be a reasonably common trait for normal humans.

The rules in High-Tech for cattle prods seem cinematic. I've been shocked by cattle prods on bare skin several times and never had much in the way of lasting injury. At most, 10-15 seconds of continuous shock would cause a small burn which might be painful if it was in a sensitive area and would itch for a while after. It certainly wouldn't risk a normal person collapsing entirely from damage and needing several weeks to recover which is what 1d-3 burn damage would do (15-20 points of injury). I'd suggest a realistic cattle prod should maybe do 1 point of burn damage on a failed HT roll at best. It mostly just causes pain for a few seconds.

I'd also say that a lot of the effects of electric shock seem to be psychological. Most animals are confused and frightened by them and a great many humans find them scary as well, often with an irrational fear that they can cause heart attacks, etc. which causes them to panic when shocked. Fright checks for unexpected shocks or from anyone who doesn't know what they are should be common and I think a lot of people effectively have a Phobia of some kind regarding them.

05-08-2019, 05:33 AM	#1
Sam Baughn Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and some other bits.	Anecdotes of possible interest to the HT: Electricity & Electronics playtesters. I'm not going to apply for the playtest group, since my knowledge of electricity and electronics beyond what I'm going to post here is very limited, but I have some specific insights which I think might be of interest. I'm sure Mr. Stoddard is familiar with the various forms of quack medicine using electricity. You can still buy a bunch of weird electrical devices which make dubious claims of health benefits. There is even a subculture dedicated to collecting and restoring antique ones. What you may not be aware of is that there is another community of people who use electrical shocks not for their supposed health benefits but entirely for fun. I'm one of those people. I seem to have an abnormal reaction to electrical shocks, where they seem more like a pleasurable tickling sensation than a painful one. Very high powered ones or in sensitive places still hurt a bit, but I can easily function (albeit a bit distracted) while someone is shocking me with an (old-fashioned, not EMD) stun gun directly applied to bare skin. This doesn't seem to be linked to High Pain Threshold, since I know some people who seem to have HPT who can't function while being shocked and I don't have HPT to other forms of pain, but can. However, I've met enough other people who also seem able to shrug off such things that I think Resistant (electric stun effects) might be a reasonably common trait for normal humans. The rules in High-Tech for cattle prods seem cinematic. I've been shocked by cattle prods on bare skin several times and never had much in the way of lasting injury. At most, 10-15 seconds of continuous shock would cause a small burn which might be painful if it was in a sensitive area and would itch for a while after. It certainly wouldn't risk a normal person collapsing entirely from damage and needing several weeks to recover which is what 1d-3 burn damage would do (15-20 points of injury). I'd suggest a realistic cattle prod should maybe do 1 point of burn damage on a failed HT roll at best. It mostly just causes pain for a few seconds. I'd also say that a lot of the effects of electric shock seem to be psychological. Most animals are confused and frightened by them and a great many humans find them scary as well, often with an irrational fear that they can cause heart attacks, etc. which causes them to panic when shocked. Fright checks for unexpected shocks or from anyone who doesn't know what they are should be common and I think a lot of people effectively have a Phobia of some kind regarding them. __________________ My blog.