John "A1Nut" Cross is rather upset about the fact that when he sparred with Lauren Hastings in the dark so that he could practice his Blind Fighting skill, she used her psionic Intensify Senses skill, and so could see better than she could. The matter has appeared several times since he, as player, knew that it happened that way, but he only found a legitimate means of raising the issue in play when his character was being taught the Intensify Senses skill and so guessed that she had used it in the previous combat.
I am copying posts here from two threads, Behind the Screens 2008 page 14, and John Cross in TerraTerraTerraNova page 13.
From the first, John, quoting me:
How is what you do different from what Daredevil does, but that he is so much better at it?
Because if you're quiet, Daredevil can't see you at all. MJ, I know you know what I'm talking about. There is no way on God's green earth that you can tell me that being able to see is not an advantage over being able to hear location.
Answered by Harry:
Actually, Daredevil can hear you even if you're perfectly quiet, by hearing sound bouncing off of you, unless you are sound-deadening yourself. You can tell that in the fact that he can see terrain features, things like subway pillars and such. /Perfect/ echolocation like that isn't much of a step down, except that you can't read in echolocation.
To which John responded:
Yeah, but the fact remains that my character went into it believing that Lauren was also blind like he was. She wasn't. She lied by omission.
In response to some excellent observations that echolocation is superior to vision in some ways, he wrote:
Yeah, but a sighted person can also hear every direction.
Then, from the other thread, he produced an angry tirade, from which:
How many times do I have to say the same thing before it sinks through that THICK skull of yours? My character went into it under the impression that Lauren was BLIND. BLIND, unable to see. Without vision. She could SEE. She was not BLIND.
THAT'S ALL THAT MATTERS!!!!!!
Whatever other skills were used by anyone are BESIDE THE POINT!!!!!!!!
LAUREN WAS NOT BLIND!!!!!!!!!! She could SEE!!!!!!!
WHATEVER OTHER SKILLS USED ARE COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT!!!!!!!!
He had the impression that she was unable to see. She could see. Therefore, that's lying by omission. I CLEARLY STATED to her right up front that I was practicing a sightless skill. Point me to the part where she makes a similar declaration to him.
Found it yet? No? Oh maybe that's because IT ISN'T THERE!!!!!!!!!!!
She NEVER STATED that she could SEE!!!!!!!!
She NEVER STATED what skill she was using in the dark PERIOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THEREFORE SHE LIED BY OMISSION!!!!!!!!!!
HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO SAY THIS BEFORE IT SINKS IN?????????????????????????????????????
I think he is justified in his anger over it, and your PATHETIC ATTEMPTS to justify her behavior only serve to show that you haven't paid a lick of attention to ANYTHING I'VE SAID!!!!!!!!!!
The fight in question begins in his game thread on Sunday, June 28, page 8 and continues for some time interspersed with out-of-combat actions. The corresponding Behind-the-Screens post begin on page 10 of that thread.
If we're discussing what she omitted mentioning, I think we can include several skills which she used but did not mention that she would be using, including:
- Handspring, which she used to follow him when he attempted to surprise her by using the Great Jump he never mentioned, either.
- Force Shield, a psionic defense against his violent charge.
- Evasive Tumbling, to move away from his attack.
I have noticed several skills he used that he did not mention to her, as well, including the fact that he developed at least one (maybe two) during that combat. So I have no problem with the fact that she did not mention her ability to see in the dark.
Then again, I find that she did mention it, because right at the beginning of the fight he asked her:
Lauren, how well can you see? I'm blind as a bat, so seriously, take it easy on me.
...and she answered him telepathically:
John, I've spent centuries fighting vampires. If I couldn't see in the dark, I would not have fared near so well as I have.
Further, you indicated that you were dimming the lights, but complete darkness is not attainable in the rooms where you practice, so it comes to the level of night vision someone has.
It is evident that we both forgot that she said that, because thereafter he was attempting to get her to say that she could see in the dark when she had already said it, and I was avoiding having her say it because it annoyed me that he was fishing for a way to bring out-of-character knowledge (something he got from behind the screens) into game play (as his character appeared to be unaware of it and trying to get her to tell him).
Nowhere in the thread, however, does John state that the point of the fight is for Lauren to be unable to see him, or tell her that it would be unfair for her to be able to see better than he can.
I would also note that if Lauren had the blind fighting skill he has, she would have gained it long enough ago (at least a couple centuries) and used it so extensively that it would have been among her 2@10 SAL skills; that means she still would have had the advantage of knowing exactly where he was better than he was able to tell where she was.
At the root of the matter, it always seemed to me that John hoped that turning off the lights would give him a combat advantage, such that he would finally be able to beat Lauren in what he could call a "fair" fight because his blind fighting gave him an advantage. Whether that advantage is "fair" or "unfair" is debatable; but it becomes "unfair" if he refuses to allow that she would use whatever skill she would normally use to fight under the same circumstances. Lauren has never developed a Fighting Blind skill precisely because she has ways to overcome the blindness created by darkness, and has never had to deal with any other type of blindness.
Besides, the real benefit of the fighting blind skill arises when you are blinded and your opponent is not--when someone throws dirt in your eyes, or uses a blinding attack that temporarily negates your vision, or, as in this case, is quite able to see under conditions under which you cannot.
John, you got your new use for the skill, which was your player objective. What you did not get was the satisfaction of defeating a clearly superior unarmed combatant by using a trick she did not know, and that because she used a trick you did not know she knew.
The thread is open for discussion, but I think I've made my position clear enough.
--M. J. Young
