Unconsciousness Tests

[zeeblee]

I know this was a topic of discussion way back, but I figured it's worth bringing up again now that more and more people have experience with the system:

 

What is your preferred method for dealing with consciousness tests for nonplayer characters?

 

Rules as written an NPC will either always pass or always fail.  Always passing makes for a grueling boss fight (which I actually like), but it also means you need the right stats and/or rank for the NPC to not just conk out at 0.  As is recommended in the book I've just been having minor/non-characters die or whatever at 0 wounds.

 

What about the rest of you?

[quindraco]

Should be noted that *anyone* with Toughness 5 and Tenacity 4 (which requires a destiny step normally, so presumably rare) virtually autopasses that test, only failing on a Black Joker - so the game is clearly intended to allow for entities who autopass. That said, my group ordinarily has the NPC in question flip normally.

[Wakshaani]

Flipping's important when a Fated's involved, one way or the other, but for NPC-vs-NPC interaction, teh default pas//fail's fine. Flip when a PC is involved on either end.

 

(Chloroform kidnapping NPCs is a Ressurectionist MO!)

[Ad1]

Had a pm discussion with Aaron about it back when the original conversation occurred. We've been playtesting using a form of the Horror check mechanic and it has been working a treat. copied and paste the fix below. However I have also heard that this situation will be dealt with in a future book.

 

We have considered the idea of using some kind of system similar to 'Fated causing Horror Duels' (Fated Almanac p. 219) where the TN would be the NPC's Toughness+Tenacity+Rank and the Fated AV is (10 (TN for unconciousness check) + crit damage) divided by 2. So if a NPC was on -4 wounds the AV for the Fated would be (10+4)/2 = 7. We've not play-tested this variant yet but it did seem like a simple workable solution using rules already in play. It lets stunning effects have an impact but not an overly powerful one but will also make unconciousness grow more likely the deeper into crits an NPC goes. Of course we will always defer to the FM's call on an NPC escaping/dying or not suffering unconsciousness for whatever reason.

 

 

It has meant that some of our combats vs Enforcer lvl FM characters and higher don't drag on until we get a critical kill. Also has been used in a few other situations around alchemical sleep potions/gases and other such events.

 

We have also added that this only works on living genus. Our FM has ruled nephilim (and perhaps other magical creatures/elementals) will receive a bonus (+/- 1 to 5) to their test depending on what they are.

 

EDIT:

 

The issue on unconciousness first arose for us due to the Stunning effect on Bludgeoning and martial arts. Pugilism/Whips are easy to work out dropping an action point. But the comparable effect for Stunning didn't work. Making those effects either too powerful, always resulting in unconsciousness or always failing. it made some combat too easy. So in-house we wanted to find a fix for that effect. We also lost characters to significant crit effects after over 10 rounds of combat vs an Enforcer lvl NPC who was suffering neg wounds but was simply was 'immune' to unconsciousness duels so we wanted a reasonable way to manage that. Didn't seem right our protagonsits could be effected but comparable enemies couldn't be. We also have eight players with limited time in a night so that was also a concern for us. Wanting to move onto the next part of our story without relying on FM fiat.

 

Fated Causing Horror duel mechanic seemed like the best way of using applicable stats and an existing mechanic to get the duel we were after.

 

Just wanted to add our FM allows us to make a call on whether or not our intention is to kill. We have some characters who would rather not kill humans they are fighting. So if we are using bludgeoning weapons/pugilism/martial arts of some kind we can make a call not to kill a low rank FM character when they hit 0 wounds. We don't get the chance to grill them for information whether they don't talk or they don't know anything. Just allows us to play up the morality of some Fated as a juxtaposition to the horrors that surrounds them. But yes we have some characters who are the 'life is cheap type' makes for some interesting 0 action statements in combat

 

Kind regards,

 

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