Stats for a taser?

[R00kie]

Personally, I'd call it weapon:0, MAAAAYBE weapon:1, but you can't take consequences beyond Mild. If you'd need to and cannot, you're taken out instead.

This might seem severe, but anyone packing a taser isn't intending to kill, and they've only got one shot ready for most models.

Doesn't that make Tasers the ultimate weapon though? To get an guaranteed one-shot take-down on the average person with a Taser you'd need to do do 5 stress (enough so even after taking a mild (-2) consequence the damage fell off the end of their two point stress track). By contrasts with any other weapons you'd have to do 2 (stress track) +20 (mild, moderate, severe and extreme consequences combined) +1 = 23 stress damage to be sure of one shotting them. That's a pretty extreme difference.

[void]

... how many average people -- not well built, buff, or having gone through conditioning -- do you know that don't drop to the ground in a heap when tazed?

[Deadmanwalking]

And if someone's using a Taser, this implies (at least for NPCs) that they don't intend to kill. Allowing for the whole "captured PC has to escape" scene. While most NPCs go down after a Minor Consequence at most anyway.

Add to that the fact that Tasers mostly only get the one shot (5 Stress in one shot? Not that easy.), or only work in hand to hand, and I think they work out well enough.

[R00kie]

... how many average people -- not well built, buff, or having gone through conditioning -- do you know that don't drop to the ground in a heap when tazed?

Yes, but most of them drop into a heap when shot with a shotgun or assault rifle just as easily.

[void]

There's a few other things at work here. First of all, a shotgun or assault rifle is going to be at least weapon:2, so if we're still assuming 5 shifts against an unarmored target with only a stress track of 2, they're going to be taking a 7 stress hit, needing a Moderate and Mild consequence in order to bring down to something that fits in their stress track. Most civilians are going to want a concession at this point; this gets you the same effects, but it's a VASTLY more brutal way to go about business.

Against someone actually wearing armor, or having supernatural defenses, a taser is going to have trouble getting through. Against an actual spellcaster, it might not even work in the first place.

[Deadmanwalking]

Excellent point. Armor should probably be doubled against Tasers using this system just like the others proposed. That'll keep Inhuman Toughness characters and Wizards from just getting tased out. Other people should just get tased out.

[void]

Personally, I think the armor doubling thing is just an overcomplication, but everyone's game is their game. :)

[iago]

I gotta say I have a problem with any weapon that asserts you don't get access to your full range of consequence slots. Saying you get taken out if you'd have to take more than a mild consequence is severely game-breaking.

[void]

To me, the only viable alternative would be to give a Taser something like a weapon:XX rating (with that XX meaning double digits) with a huge stacks of caveats and adjustments by situation, armor, etc, for it to have anything near the threat level it should be for an unarmored target.

To me, that just seems complicated, unnecessary, and it doesn't feel right, whereas my solution did for me and my play group. Didn't you say that was an important criteria?

[iago]

Let's review:

- A taser makes it difficult to take action.
- A taser wears off quickly.
- A taser has trouble making it through armor.

How about treating its as a *block* (prevents action, wears off quickly)?  You zap someone with it, guns vs. athletics. If you hit, the shifts that result can be reduced by armor. The shifts that remain indicate how many exchanges the block will last for (though if the block is overcome, it breaks, like any block).  The weapon itself gets rated with a block strength effect that it simply creates: call it Good or Great depending on the quality of the weapon.

[void]

I think there might be some confusion between two applications of a Taser. In 'Drive Stun' mode, it's a pain-oriented deterrent/disruption. In standard distance use, the electrodes disrupt the nervous system directly, without a corresponding (but still some) degree of pain. If you're within the mass tolerance of the charge and the electrodes land securely, it isn't 'difficult' to act. It's simply impossible.

I think a block is just... insufficient, unless you set its difficulty so high it's effectively impossible to break.

[iago]

Honestly this is just a conversational exercise for me. Tasers wouldn't last 5 seconds around the kind of hexing effects I'd expect in most games.

[void]

I already said that they wouldn't be much use against or near spellcasters. :D

[Mal_Luck]

Let's review:

- A taser makes it difficult to take action.
- A taser wears off quickly.
- A taser has trouble making it through armor.

How about treating its as a *block* (prevents action, wears off quickly)?  You zap someone with it, guns vs. athletics. If you hit, the shifts that result can be reduced by armor. The shifts that remain indicate how many exchanges the block will last for (though if the block is overcome, it breaks, like any block).  The weapon itself gets rated with a block strength effect that it simply creates: call it Good or Great depending on the quality of the weapon.

I like this 

When I first thought about it I was think it'd be a cool weapon for my cop character, gun in one hand taser in the other. Zap some baddie (ghoul, vamp, etc) with it then cap them with the gun.

And if you caught the spellcaster off guard, they might not be able to hex it 

[iago]

And if you caught the spellcaster off guard, they might not be able to hex it 

Sometimes hexing just happens due to proximity. Don't forget.