Well, we finished our 2nd play session and burned the midnight oil from 2pm to 3am. We have a couple more questions on the rule set.
1. This one concerns Clouding. I have designed a toon that is made for Clouding III, Ambushing, and attacking with a vibroblade. I need a few rule interpretations on the appropriate use of Clouding.
A. Clouding is a Concentration discipline. What examples from above would break my Concentration? I assume anything that would require me to make a Maneauver roll. So after Clouding, I could walk up to a guy and Ambush him. The Ambush is a MR and would break my concentration. At that point the guy could see me.
Making the actual ambush is going to break concentration. It is an Ambush maneuver followed by the actual attack. An ordinary Telepath won't have the spare brain capacity to do that and maintain concentration. Typically if it requires a maneuver roll and it can't be done slowly (i.e. at a penalty of -50 for brain trying to keep concentration), it should also end the concentration. SysOps should note the Mental Focus skill for maintaining concentration over time and in the face of distractions.
B. At Tier 3 Clouding, the description says "can completely disrupt one sense". At the end of all the descriptions, it says "Tier 3: The activator can affect three senses." I'd like to know how to interpret these seemingly conflicting statements.
Disruption is a separate Tiering parameter to Senses (number of). Thus a telepath could choose to scale for two senses (Tier 2, -10 penalty)
and have complete disruption to both senses (so Tier 3, -20 penalty) for blind and deaf, say, so total scaling penalty of -30. You have to scale both - and you don't get any parameter above Tier 1 for free.
C. Also, if I choose to "make the person blind" with Clouding III, does that also make the person blind to my team or just to me? What is accomplished at Tier 4/5?
The target is unable to see anything.
At Tier 4 and 5, the telepath is being much more subtle. At Tier 4, you could walk up to the sentry and let him see you but not see the blaster you are holding in your hand. At Tier 5, you could have him see you and a young naive farmer on your gravcar but not be able to see the two robots in the back (though if they make any noise there will be a problem!).
2. The last one concerns Pulse Grenades. A Mark II pulse grenade has a target CRR of 100. Is that an all or nothing roll? We think of CRR as having degrees of "harm" of which your RR tells you which degree you suffer.
Thanks.
These weapons are aimed at disrupting cyberware and robots etc., so you can choose to have these just cause a d100 roll on the Malfunction Table for electronic equipment if the target is failed or use the following table (to be found in HARP SF Xtreme) for standard equipment too
CRR(Target) No effect
CRR(Target - 25) 1d100–20 on the Malfunction Table
CRR(Target - 50) 1d100–10 on the Malfunction Table
CRR(Target - 75) 1d100 on the Malfunction Table
CRR(Target - 100) 1d100+10 on the Malfunction Table
Failure 1d100+20 on the Malfunction Table
Best wishes,
Nicholas