Author Topic: Mortal resistances to stuns  (Read 2474 times)

Offline chelatek

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Mortal resistances to stuns
« on: May 31, 2014, 08:39:07 PM »
Hey all,

First off apologies if I get something wrong with regards to how the game is played; please call me out on it if I'm doing something wrong.

Anyway, in my game we're facing an incredibly well-trained mortal who is extremely strong, fast, cannot be distracted at all (I used an Incite Mental to distracted him and it did nothing), everything that would make him a nightmare for us as Feet in the Water.

Is there any way, either Aspect, Stunts, or Skill levels that would make him able to shrug off a police-grade stun gun?  As in if it hits him directly and discharges, is there any way he wouldn't gain a Stunned Aspect or something that would put him down for even a short period of time? 


edit:  For reference, the only way we know he's mortal is that a Warden said "he's not using magic, can't help you," but it seems odd that I can +7 a hit with a Weapon: 3, on an unarmed arm joint, and he doesn't even take a stress.
« Last Edit: May 31, 2014, 08:43:50 PM by chelatek »

Offline Sanctaphrax

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Re: Mortal resistances to stuns
« Reply #1 on: May 31, 2014, 09:09:10 PM »
I'm not sure I quite understand either the question or your situation.

The effects of a stun gun are going to depend somewhat on how your group represents a stun gun mechanically. I'd treat it as a normal weapon (probably rating 2-3). If your group does the same, you can place Aspects and inflict stress on him with it just by rolling high enough. As a mortal he can't have Physical Immunity, so it should just be a matter of getting a higher number than he does.

This bit:

edit:  For reference, the only way we know he's mortal is that a Warden said "he's not using magic, can't help you," but it seems odd that I can +7 a hit with a Weapon: 3, on an unarmed arm joint, and he doesn't even take a stress.

seems odd. If you hit by a margin of 7, I can't imagine anything mortal-appropriate that would stop him from taking stress. Maybe if you had an attack roll of 7 he could get a defence roll of 8, though.

Did he successfully dodge? Did your GM just shut down the attack by fiat? What's the deal here?

And I'm not sure what the arm joint part is about. DFRPG doesn't really do hit locations.

Offline Haru

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Re: Mortal resistances to stuns
« Reply #2 on: May 31, 2014, 09:16:33 PM »
Well, the dice sort of decide if he is hit or not. You roll to throw the grenade, he rolls to defend against that and the result determines whether or not he was hit.
It sort of goes like this:
- state the intent of your action
- decide on an action type (attack, maneuver, etc.)
- roll the dice
- determine what happened from the dice roll

So your "hitting a joint" example would look a bit different.
If you state "I want to hit his arm joint", that's not so much an attack as it is a maneuver. An attack is simply a roll to put the hurt on someone, but that's very broad. A "called shot" like that would fit better as a maneuver.
Next, you roll. If you rolled a +7 total, and the guy rolled a +8 or higher, bad luck, you didn't hit him. You aimed for the joint, but he rolled to one side in the last moment, and the blow just went past him. It's not only your roll that determines a success, but the difference between the two rolls.

Though the same sort of goes for an attack. Only here, if he has armor, it might be that he rolled lower than +8, but he had enough armor to soak the access stress. Though that seems kind of overkill. Regardless, if the guy has high skills like that, it's going to be tough to beat him. The only way to do so is to gather up tags and use them all on one powerful attack.

I would suggest to talk to your GM. In my opinion, Fate plays better if you show your cards, so people can spend their actions on doing cool stuff instead of wasting them on things that won't work. If the guy really is flawless, it seems like a boring opponent, as well.
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Offline chelatek

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Re: Mortal resistances to stuns
« Reply #3 on: June 01, 2014, 12:39:51 AM »
Sorry, I'll try to clarify; this turned into two questions

1) In a general sense, in people's opinion, what would be needed for a normal, moral person not using any enchanted items, to avoid being stunned by say, a direct taser hit.  This is more "what do you think," not what does the game say about that specific circumstance

2) I'm a little skeptical about the description of that NPC as a mortal, so I'm trying to understand what the NPC would need to be mortal, but ignore that hit.

Offline Haru

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Re: Mortal resistances to stuns
« Reply #4 on: June 01, 2014, 12:50:14 AM »
If you mean the narrative side instead of the mechanical side, I'd say a regular bullet proof vest could do the trick. The taser has to close the circuit through your skin in order to work. If it doesn't reach your skin, it won't do that. If the vest itself is conductive, the circuit will close through the vest rather than your skin, which would have a similar effect.

A stun grenade... I don't know too much about those. Maybe he'd just need a metric ton of luck.
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Offline Taran

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Re: Mortal resistances to stuns
« Reply #5 on: June 01, 2014, 01:11:41 AM »
What about a taser?  Check this out.

Although, there have been cases where police using a taser caused death.

Offline Haru

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Re: Mortal resistances to stuns
« Reply #6 on: June 01, 2014, 01:14:42 AM »
What about a taser?  Check this out.
Those two probably have around 20 "Alcohol" type aspects they can invoke to ignore the pain. ;)
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Offline chelatek

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Re: Mortal resistances to stuns
« Reply #7 on: June 01, 2014, 04:41:00 AM »
Taser was what I had in mind, but it's a moot point because someone just shot that NPC in the head so now all we have to deal with is a Black Court vampire and an elite squad of hunters who are after shapeshifters and are armored enough that taser won't work on them.  Yay!

Offline Haru

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Re: Mortal resistances to stuns
« Reply #8 on: June 01, 2014, 04:45:47 AM »
Well, that's one way to deal with a problem. :D
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Offline g33k

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Re: Mortal resistances to stuns
« Reply #9 on: June 03, 2014, 05:25:21 PM »
Anyway, in my game we're facing an incredibly well-trained mortal who is extremely strong, fast, cannot be distracted at all (I used an Incite Mental to distracted him and it did nothing), everything that would make him a nightmare for us as Feet in the Water.

Is there any way, either Aspect, Stunts, or Skill levels that would make him able to shrug off a police-grade stun gun?  As in if it hits him directly and discharges, is there any way he wouldn't gain a Stunned Aspect or something that would put him down for even a short period of time? 

edit:  For reference, the only way we know he's mortal is that a Warden said "he's not using magic, can't help you," but it seems odd that I can +7 a hit with a Weapon: 3, on an unarmed arm joint, and he doesn't even take a stress.

Note that --afaik -- the Fate engine doesn't handle 1-hit KO's very well...  It's hard to model that as anything other than a "Taken Out" result... which has specific mechanical requirements equivalent to "beaten in combat."

Also, there are lots of options other than "using magic" by which the guy might NOT be a "pure mortal".  Ogres and other faerie-type beings, for example, are just naturally/inherently tougher, faster, etc, without "using magic" per se; ditto most Scion's.  Did any of you use The Sight on him?  That should have revealed anything non-Mortal ...

Depending on what sort of being, even a gunshot to the head might not actually put him down for the count... he might just get back onto his feet!


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Offline Belial666

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Re: Mortal resistances to stuns
« Reply #10 on: June 04, 2014, 10:13:35 PM »
Mortal:  +5 endurance and a stunt giving him some sort of resistance to electricity. Depending on how narrow the stunt is, he might get as much as a +4 to his defense for a total of +9. That however would represent a guy (or gal) with truly world-class endurance coupled with special conditioning against electric shock (such as a superspy being repeatedly subjected to anti-torture "training"). How much conditioning? Equivalent time of conditioning to learning several new languages fluently.


Non-mortal: Many monsters can hide behind a human guise or form. Even a zombie might look human at first sight.