Re: Rolling the Dice (Was: Re: T'orites and armor)

[John Hogg <johnhogg@laf.cioe.com>]

On Wed, 8 Mar 2000, Andrew Luers wrote:

> 
> 
>    Looks like I step in it.  The last point I will
> bring up is to say is unlike Find Traps, Immobilze
> clearly states 2D6. I an sorry but I think the skill
> at a base of 400 proves information on where to hit or
> not. The prayer at rank X should be able to see
> missing kineys or bone plates under the skin.
> 
>   Andrew L.

Or you can have the player attempt the 2d6 roll, make it, and report that
normally they would feel like they did all the right things, but there was
no apparent effect on the target (because of unnoticed armor of some sort,
or another reason the target wouldn't fit the criteria of the skill
successfully working)

Another example would be a character attempting a bludgeon, the 
character succeeding in a skill check, but not having the results of a
successful skill use, because the target wasn't surprised or otherwise
didn't meet the criteria of the skill.

I'd then inform the player of the reasons behind the check not working,
(though I may wait until after the game).

In the bludgeon example above, I'd have the character make a 2-3 die
check, representing that from what the character has seen of the target,
the target appears to have not acknowledged the presence of the
bludgeoner, they're not wearing much in the way of protection about the
head and neck, etc.

The character is then free to act on the information I've presented to
them.

This isn't saying I'd misrepresent the difficulty of a valid skill check
... were the target unaware, success in a 2-3d check would indeed equal
success.  It's saying that because I don't want to tell the player "he
knows you're there," because he'd then change his character's action, even
though the information would have been passed out of character.

I don't know how much I buy into your comment about organs missing being
obvious to an observer.  Though I'd say with the present skill, as you
need to be unprotected (the degree of which is intepreted differently
amongst participants in this discussion) for immobilize to work at all,
success in your 2d check means you succeeded provided all other
conditions for the skill are met, and in spite of their missing
kidney or whatnot ... you just hit a different sensitive area.

Maybe if the target had been mutated for organs that were particularly
resistant to trauma, could resist pain, or something like that, I'd think
about saying the 2d6 check may have been ineffective ... depends on the
situation.

BTW, Thanks all, for the feedback on sliding difficulty on immobilize.