[Basic] Advantage of the Week: Peripheral Vision

[RGTraynor]

My GURPS campaign has been going on for 37 years now.

There have been, according to my records, 182 PCs in that time.

Even having promptly reduced Peripheral Vision to 10 pts, no one has ever taken it. Not one.

[Pursuivant]

It's generally not worth it unless you're using tactical melee combat. Even then, it mostly just protects you from bad tactics or surprise attacks.

Its pricing very much reflects its GURPS 1E origins.

I can see why it retains its 15-point cost, however.

Effectively, you get:

DX +2 (Limitation: Accessibility (Only to boost Active Defenses vs. attacks from side hexes), -80%) [8]
Acute Vision 3 (Limitation: Accessibility (Only to detect shadowing and sneak attacks from behind), -80%) [2]
Can make attacks to weapon-side side hex [~3 points].
Perk: Can make wild swings to off-hand side hex. [1]
Perk: Can make wild swings to rear hex. [1]
Cost: ~15 points.

Drop the price by 5 points to make it comparable in price to High Pain Threshold and it would be a bit more attractive for melee and unarmed fighters. Drop the price by 10 points to make it a "subsidized advantage" like Combat Reflexes, and it would be very attractive.

A purely "defensive" version, which doesn't allow weapon attacks, but does boost defenses and vision, might carry a -35% limitation reducing the cost to 10 points. That would make the trait more appealing for non-melee weapon fighters.

As a Racial trait, it and 360 Degree Vision need an official "partial monocular vision" limitation. This covers creatures that only have binocular vision in their front hex (or front and side) hexes and otherwise have the effects of No Depth Perception/One Eye. I'd call it -10% (based on Temporary Disadvantage, but only for side and/or rear hexes) for Peripheral Vision, -15% for 360-Degree Vision.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

Its pricing very much reflects its GURPS 1E origins.

I played in a GURPS game that started pre-3e (the border between 1e and 2e is kinda indistinct), and the only person that ever took it was the lizardman who got it as a racial ability.

[corwyn]

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

DX +2 (Limitation: Accessibility (Only to boost Active Defenses vs. attacks from side hexes), -80%) [8]
Acute Vision 3 (Limitation: Accessibility (Only to detect shadowing and sneak attacks from behind), -80%) [2]
Can make attacks to weapon-side side hex [~3 points].
Perk: Can make wild swings to off-hand side hex. [1]
Perk: Can make wild swings to rear hex. [1]
Cost: ~15 points.

Drop the price by 5 points to make it comparable in price to High Pain Threshold and it would be a bit more attractive for melee and unarmed fighters. Drop the price by 10 points to make it a "subsidized advantage" like Combat Reflexes, and it would be very attractive.

DX +2 doesn't do what you want it to do. You need +2 Enhanced Dodge/Block/Parry (all melee) for 60/12.

It may cost out that way (~19 pts) but there is no way it's worth as much as HPT, let alone more. I think 5 pts would just get it to "attractive". Most characters still wouldn't take it. But at least some probably would.

[RGTraynor]

Originally Posted by corwyn

It may cost out that way (~19 pts) but there is no way it's worth as much as HPT, let alone more. I think 5 pts would just get it to "attractive". Most characters still wouldn't take it. But at least some probably would.

Yeah. There's a large difference between "This is what the under-the-hood point breakdown under the statutory rules system would cost" and "This is what the vast majority of GURPS players genuinely feel it is worth."

After a certain point, and given a certain volume of players, it's hard to justify the premise that tens of thousands of players are mistaken in their assessment.

[corwyn]

Originally Posted by RGTraynor

Yeah. There's a large difference between "This is what the under-the-hood point breakdown under the statutory rules system would cost" and "This is what the vast majority of GURPS players genuinely feel it is worth."

After a certain point, and given a certain volume of players, it's hard to justify the premise that tens of thousands of players are mistaken in their assessment.

On a related note, I wonder what it would cost to build unaging in Powers?

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by corwyn

On a related note, I wonder what it would cost to build unaging in Powers?

It's Resistant (Immune) to aging rolls, so just define how common they're going to be in your campaign and that gives you a price.

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

It's generally not worth it unless you're using tactical melee combat. Even then, it mostly just protects you from bad tactics or surprise attacks.

It also grants a wider field of view for Vision checks in general. This isn't defined firmly in a mechanical sense, outside of always getting Vision checks vs people trying to sneak up on you (and how many GMs actually refuse perception checks when someone is being snuck up upon?).

I think one reason Peripheral Vision is over-priced is that players in the sort of games where it would be useful are tactically skilled enough that they manage to avoid getting flanked in a way that would make it useful. Also, as GURPS tends to be hard on warriors that get mobbed, it's still a situation to be avoided even when you don't get the extra penalties to your defences.

Interestingly, neither this nor 360-Degree Vision remove the penalty to spot something that's above you.

I've never seen it in a game, but then most of my play time at this point has been SF games where it's not that useful because melee isn't common, and if you're putting 15 points into anti-ambush measures, Danger Sense is a generally more useful buy than Peripheral Senses (unless your GM hates on Danger Sense, of course).

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Rupert

I think one reason Peripheral Vision is over-priced is that players in the sort of games where it would be useful are tactically skilled enough that they manage to avoid getting flanked in a way that would make it useful.

A single combatant who's outnumbered is gonna get surrounded unless either (a) he's faster than his enemies and kites a lot, or (b) he kills them before they can do it. This makes peripheral vision fairly useful to monsters that might well be alone, but against a typical PC group of 3-5 it's very hard to surround someone, particularly since doing so requires someone dive into the middle of the party and be surrounded themselves.

[RedMattis]

It seems I may have been using the rules for turning at high speed for all situations without realizing they were only meant for when you're sprinting.

...actually has played remarkably well. I might just keep it as a house-rule.

Needing 3 units of movement to turn 180 degrees works fairly well, I feel. And it means you actually end up attacking into your side/side-back hexes a fair bit more often.