| From: | Gurth <gurth@******.NL> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Barrier Rating of smoke (was Re: Paralyze and Projection) |
| Date: | Tue, 22 Apr 1997 12:31:13 +0100 |
Before I reply to your questions, some points I'd like to bring to your
attention: 1) turn off the attachment, as several listmembers will
probably point out in less than friendly words; 2) hit Enter afetr every
70-75 characters, so your posts don't end up all on one line.
Alternarively, see if you can set a maximum line width in your mailer, so
it'll do it for you.
Now, on to the real stuff...
> In the same vein, in my last session a player attempted to use the
> X-Ray Vision spell (from Awakenings) to see through smoke what was
> filling the cabbin of an airplane. The spell description makes
> refrence to the spell successes determining the barier rating that the
> caster can see through.
> My problem: What's the barrier rating of smoke?
IMHO the problem with that spell is that it uses the Barrier Rating, which
would be fine if the spell were to make an actual hole in the wall, but I
feel it should really be limited by the thickness of the material rather
than the BR -- which are two totally different things.
Smoke would have a BR of 0, because it doesn't affect a bullet in the
least, but this is a completely unsatisfactory answer for X-Ray Vision. It
would mean the magician could look through an infinite amount of smoke
with just one success.
> This may be a little strange but it also has effect on targets such as
> trying to see through a curtain covering a door way, a tarp over an
> object, seeing through a coat to find if someone has concealed weapons,
> etc.
Same thing here, unless the coat were armored (in that case, I'd say it's
best to give it a BR equal to its highest armor rating, for the purposes
of the X-Ray Vision spell).
Maybe a solution is to modify the spell slightly, and multiply the
character's Magic Rating by the number of successes to find the thickness
of material that can be looked through, in centimeters (or if you feel
that t to be too little, in decimeters). This would make the spell of
little use in smoke, because but of much more use against walls, curtains,
and so on.
> Since there was nothing to be discovered by using the spell, I
> recomended the player not cast it and wait until some solution has been
> found to the question.
You're too kind as a GM :) You should have let him cast it and take the
drain, and only _then_ inform him that nothing could be seen on the other
side of the smoke. Which might have been interpreted as "there's something
there but my spell doesn't reach far enough," and then you'd really have
been in business :)
--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
I hate playing Solitaire by myself.
-> NERPS Project Leader & Unofficial Shadowrun Guru <-
-> The Plastic Warriors Page: http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/plastic.html <-
-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version 3.1:
GAT/! d-(dpu) s:- !a>? C+(++)@ U P L E? W(++) N o? K- w+ O V? PS+ PE
Y PGP- t(+) 5++ X++ R+++>$ tv+(++) b++@ DI? D+ G(++) e h! !r(---) y?
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------
