RE: [HOE] Strain not straining?

["Jeffery Yates" <jyates@qlinktech.com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-hoe@gamerz.net [mailto:owner-hoe@gamerz.net]On Behalf Of
> Bryce Undy
> Sent: Thursday, February 08, 2001 2:26 PM
> To: hoe@gamerz.net
> Subject: Re: [HOE] Strain not straining?
>
>
> > One thing that I don't like about the strain system is that it doesn't
> > seem to really represent what it is supposed to.
> > Pg. 119: "Channeling supernatural enegy through one's body is
> stressful."
> > Pg. 29: Strain: "This is powerful stuff, and it burns going down."
> > etc.
> >
> > But there really isn't any drawback to losing strain, so in the
> end it is
> > just a number to keep doomies and sykers in check rather than a
> > representation of how taxing using these powers are.
>
> While I haven't yet had any doomies or sykers as such, you have
> touched upon
> something I've considered.  As a Marshal with a party consisting of mostly
> norms (two Lawdogs, a Road Warrior, Templar and a Junker), I haven't had
> much experience with Strain, but it doesn't really seem to do
> what its meant
> to do.  I've always though that Doomies and such should be
> physically tired
> by the use of their powers.  Instead Strain acts like a battery completely
> removed from the physical.  On the other hand, the story in Leftovers had
> the Doomie act like a battery.  When he lost his powers he wasn't tired,
> just kind of useless.
>
> Anyway, I like both of your suggestions equally, and will
> implement the 1st
> one if I ever have a doomie or psyker.  However, this may make
> the doomies a
> tiny bit more powerful (Wind is regained easier the Strain), so these
> suggestions really need to be playtested.
>

The take I've had on this is that Strain is mental Wind.  No character
suffers from having been reduced to 1 wind (other than being just one point
away from being "winded"), so in my mind no character should suffer from
being reduced to 1 strain (other than being just one point away from being
"strained").

That said, I do think that being "strained" (reduced to zero strain) should
incur something.  So in my game, if being winded means taking no active
physical activity, then being strained means taking no active mental
activity.  The character can't think for itself.  The character has the
strength to run down hallways or across streets or what-have-you, but won't
without another character prompting the action.  No solving puzzles, or
interacting with NPCs, or making any mental-based apptitude rolls.

I also have a house rule that lets players push their characters after
getting winded -- suffering the further loss of 1d4 wind (which might start
causing wounds to the guts).  Strained characters can also spend 1d4 wind to
make a non-corporeal action (surprise checks, cognition checks, etc, but not
spending any more strain).  If the character is both strained and winded,
then yes, 2d4 wind spent.  Sounds kinda harsh, but the alternative is to
just lie there and do nothing... which is what the official rules give you
(ok, you can crawl slowly away for free, but how heroic is that?)  I made
this up while watching Die Hard -- John McClane coming out of it bloodied,
beaten, and tired beyond belief was a guy who spent some wind to keep going
after he was already tired of fighting.

Just the way I do things ;-)

Jeff Y.
Marshal for the Dynamite Gang