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Old 06-03-2007, 07:34 PM   #11
Bruno
 
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Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
Default Re: Player Paranoia and Character Surprise: How to GM

Quote:
Originally Posted by AstralRunner
Commuting by car may be a "routine" task for someone who knows how to drive, but for someone who has no training or experience operating a vehicle beyond seeing other people drive, and is therefore operating on default, having to do so much as pull out of a non-straight driveway backwards is certainly not "routine," and actually commuting is not an unstressful situation by any stretch of the imagination! I am therefore disinclined to believe that someone operating on default is entitled to that +4 routine bonus, but I would give it to a commuter with as little as 1 point in that skill.
Actually, in my experience with commuting the two least stressful ways to drive are a) on a freeway or b) in really heavy traffic. Combine the two and you're not driving, you're sitting in a car listening to the radio or talking to your co-commutors.

It's stressful for reasons largely unrelated to the Drive (Automobile) skill for many people, I cheerfully admit. But the difficulty of driving a car at 5-20 KM/H when there are no pedestrians, signs, bikes, cats, dogs, squirrels, or people in tractors to distract you and/or leap out into traffic is pretty negligible.

I'll give you the reversing out of a crooked driveway, however.

I think I'm somewhere between my Default in Drive (Automobile) and the 1 pt level. It takes a good minute or two of reversing, adjusting, pulling forward, adjusting, reversing, adjusting, etc. for me to park in a stall, usually. That's me failing my Drive (My mothers enormous boat of a minivan) check and trying again and again and again until I can get the stupid thing into the stall AND still be able to open my door enough to escape the van. But I swear that behemoth gives me a -4 equipment penalty on parking just from having blind spots you can hid small cars in.

But even if I can't get the van in straight with enough space to avoid whacking the car next to me, I don't hit anyone or anything, I don't do something horrible to the gearbox, I don't accidentally set off the airbags, and I don't knock the wheels off alignment by driving over a curb. Most driving roll failures just mean "back it up and try again".

It's only when you're doing something interesting that your failures are going to do anything other than cost you some time, and even then, I think most failed rolls should be far less spectacular than "You hit a tree and die, the end." If I fail a Broadsword roll when attacking, I don't cut my own head off, so I don't see why Vehicle skills should be THAT much worse.

GM: The off ramp has a speed limit of 40k/h, you know when you slow down the Don's goons are going to catch up, right?
Driver: When? Bah! I'm going to take the ramp at speed, 80k/h. I'd like to see the Don's men catch me now!
GM: *shakes head* whatever. Roll it.
Driver: *rolls dice* Crap.
GM: Ok, you tear around the curve on the ramp, but it looks like you've missjudged the maneuverability of your 1984 Corola. You mount the curb and drive with two wheels on the sidewalk for about 50 meters before you manage to pull yourself back onto the road. Make a Perception based Driving roll.
Driver: *drops dice* Woo, made it by 3!
GM: The car's handling funny, it keeps listing to the right. You think you may have knocked one of the front wheels slightly crooked in that stunt. You'll be at -2 to handling rolls until you can get that fixed.
Driver: Well, at least we're alive and still doing 80! I check the rear view mirror briefly to if I lost the Don's men.
GM: Oh right. *rolls some dice* Looks like Tony and Frank aren't so lucky...
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