[BNW] Sneak Notes

["Steve Crow" <crow_steve@hotmail.com>]

Okay, after getting home last night, I _did_ check the Sneak entry in 
Ravaged Planet.  A few things.

Light Sensitive:  This Quirk _only_ kicks in when the Sneak is using Night 
Vision.  So a Sneak shouldn't (theoretically) have to wear sunglasses in 
daylight.  Of course, he can do so, but I'd tend to rate this as a separate 
Negative Quirk if he was obsessed with doing so, suffered some minor penalty 
if he didn't, etc.

In Plain Sight:  Here is the text of this trick in its entirety:

As long as the hero gets an extra success on a stealth roll and stands still 
in any kind of darkness-even a shadow-he's virtually invisible.  Add +10 to 
his last stealth roll until he moves or takes an action.  This trick doesn't 
work against someone who CAN see the hero before he makes the stealth roll, 
but all the hero has to do is get the person he's avoiding to TURN AROUND, 
and then he can disappear. (my emphasis)

Now, I don't consider myself a harsh GM by any means, but it strikes me that 
some of the uses suggested for this yesterday were a bit...um, liberal, 
based on the actual rules (which is what we were discussing, rather than GM 
variants, right?).  Yeah, if you're in combat, and someone was shooting at 
you and switches over to someone else, then you're probably fine and you can 
"fade away."  Although if the new target is standing next to you, I'd tend 
to say not.

I just don't get much of a feel for this as a combat-type Trick.  It'd 
probably be something I'd want to check with Matt with personally - a GM has 
to make the final call and rule on variable circumstances, sure, but in this 
case the basic intent seems to be in dispute.

And to quote the last sentence of Radar:

This trick doesn't work in noisy environments.

Again, I'm pretty liberal, but with bullets flying, and smoke grenades 
detonating, and people screaming and yelling, depending on how close 
together all of this is occurring, I'd tend to rule that Radar probably 
wouldn't be too useful in many combat situations either.  It also doesn't 
give x-ray vision, so if you're in a "crowded" environment (like a forest, 
say), it would still let you see in a 360 degree range, but you probably 
won't gain a huge amount of benefit from the input you're receiving if folks 
are behind trees and stuff.

---

Steve Crow

"Worm Can Opener Extraordinare"

Check out my website at:  http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Stargate/4991/

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