Re: [HoE] Doombringers, emp and the combine

[Darrin Bright <darrin@neobright.net>]

Fuzyn9feet wrote:

> There was a whole big thing of "will EMP work on the Black Hat Chip?" when
> the list first started. Shane answered (rather slowly and it seemed
> reluctantly [hey...this was a new thing]) that the chips where resistant to
> EMP and so it wouldn't work.

I exchanged e-mails with John Hopler about this when the Radiation Screen came
out, but I don't recall Shane coming down either way on this one.

My recollection of Hopler's official response is sketchy, but I seem to recall
that EMP does work on Black Hat chips.  The chips are usually shielded, however,
so the TN for a brain chip or a gun/rifle was around 11, and vehicles would be
around 13+.

From what I recollect from Hopler's answer, the EMP writeup, and from my own
general inclinations, EMP just knocks out the electronics. It does not cause the
chips to trigger an explosion. The device just stops working for the duration of
EMP. This only causes an "instant kill" for airborne vehicles, as far as I can
tell, or maybe a vehicle going into a curve at 100+ mph. This isn't entirely
instant, though... I'd probably give the poor bastards some drivin' rolls to
stop somewhat safely.

This also allows Black Hats to be successfully interrogated, but doesn't mean an
interrogation attempt will automatically succeed. The Black Hats are still
conditioned to resist, and generally don't want to cooperate with PCs. Zapping
them with EMP will prevent their heads from exploding, but a stubborn Black Hat
could still resist or die by other means.

If you want to bring in a house rule and make a malfunction roll for the chips
(using the malfunction table from DL), then I'd go with:

Minor = Devices refuses to function for duration of EMP
Major = Device misfires (roll for innocent bystanders, etc.) then refuses to
function for duration of EMP
Catastrophe = Kaboom!

When I have more time I'll have to dig up what Hopler sent me. But that's how
I'd handle it. It doesn't make Doomsayers into Black Hat Killing Machines
because the TN is going to be around 11 or higher, and even if guns don't work
Black Hats still have knives and other hand-to-hand weapons. Besides, if it
occurrs to the bad guys that the Doomsayer is going to zap all their neat toys,
won't they shoot him first?