Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 11:37 am Post subject: Using Sense Trouble rolls for effect
I've always felt Sense Trouble to be a two-level skill. On one hand, it's there for effect, the equivalent of eerie music. On the other, it's an immediate physical warning that something's going to attack.
I like using rolls for effect. As the Keeper, you ask someone to roll. If they fail, the character notices nothing out of place, except of course the player knows something's wrong and they also know their character hasn't noticed it. It's a weird dissonance and rather scary.
With that in mind, I'm always tempted to use Sense Trouble, not just for immediate physical danger, but for generally noticing weirdness. This is how it's used at the start of Shanghai Tales, for noticing whether someone is watching you.
So you enter the cave. Roll Sense Trouble. (As Keeper, I know there are some warding glyphs at the entrance to the cave and, although there's no immediate danger, the cave contains Stuff that will Freak You Out). No, everything's fine. Are you going deeper?
I tend to think of Sense Trouble as the action perception skill, as opposed to all the investigative perception skills.
So I'd roll it any time you might like to spot something that could be a threat or a difficulty in an action sense.
For example, talking to someone, you might use Assess Honesty to see if they are lying, or Streetwise to see which gang they belong to but Sense Trouble would tell you if they have a gun or if they're going to shoot you.
But it's always a cause and effect thing, for me. There has to be something you can actually see, otherwise it's some kind of psychic ability. Are you suggesting a looser use of the ability, such as hairs prickling on the back of your neck? _________________ Bring Back the Kult of Keepers!
"Gibber, gibber, meep", as the Ramones would have said had they read Lovecraft.
I don't like using Sense Trouble unless there is some consequence. That said, sometimes I will use Sense Trouble when the consequence comes from false instinct.
Taking GBSteve's example: as Keeper, I know the NPC doesn't have a gun, but I want to illustrate how tense the situation is. I want everyone on a hair trigger. So I call for Sense Trouble. When the Investigator fails, that's when I say the man has a gun. If they had passed I might have said something like "You twitch instinctively when you see a shiny bit of metal hidden beneath his coat, but you quickly realize it's a belt buckle, not a gun." _________________ Am I my brother's keeper?
No. He doesn't play Call of Cthulhu.
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Ha ha! jabonko is the Mi-Go agent! -DrGikur
But it's always a cause and effect thing, for me. There has to be something you can actually see, otherwise it's some kind of psychic ability. Are you suggesting a looser use of the ability, such as hairs prickling on the back of your neck?
Perhaps not a psychic ability, exactly, but a sixth sense awareness of danger.
The best example, for me, was the mist coming into your room in The Dying Of St Margaret's. It is clearly bad, although there is no immediate harm. If you make your Sense Trouble roll, you wake surrounded by the mist. There are no immediate consequences, but it is clearly bad. If you don't, you sleep soundly through the night, but you know something's wrong, because you made a Sense Trouble roll.
The best example, for me, was the mist coming into your room in The Dying Of St Margaret's. It is clearly bad, although there is no immediate harm. If you make your Sense Trouble roll, you wake surrounded by the mist. There are no immediate consequences, but it is clearly bad. If you don't, you sleep soundly through the night, but you know something's wrong, because you made a Sense Trouble roll.
This strikes me as precisely how the skill is intended to be used.
Quote:
So you enter the cave. Roll Sense Trouble. (As Keeper, I know there are some warding glyphs at the entrance to the cave and, although there's no immediate danger, the cave contains Stuff that will Freak You Out). No, everything's fine. Are you going deeper?
I have used Sense Trouble in exactly this way. I like it because it acts as a warning that, if you proceed, your Stability is at risk. Check it out:
Quote:
Outdoorsman (1 pt spend). The investigator finds a little used road in the mountains and is moved to follow it, either as a lark or because it might be a shortcut to the place he or she really wants to go. The road leads to a ghost town from the Silver Boom of the last century, much of it destroyed by fire. At the end of the trail is an abandoned mine entrance, all boarded up. If the investigator enters the mine, test Sense Trouble to perceive an unwholesome tang to the still and musty air. He notices crystals of galena, a lead-bearing ore (Geology). If he goes further, the shadows seem to play in unnatural ways, and he has the unpleasant sensation of being watched. Test Stability for -1. If he goes further, he comes upon a chamber with a large stone block at its far end, just behind a deep, deep shaft. If he examines the block, he will notice letters carved in it reading Vizala Zakuni Bahuputra. It is fitted with lead manacles at its top (a little shiver: Test Stability -1/2+). If he examines the shaft, he feels a distinct and unnatural urge to throw himself in (an eerie and frightening impulse: Test Stability at Difficulty -3/3+). If he succumbs to the urge (this has to be a player decision), test Stability again, -4/4+.
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