In my last world, I was using psionics to annoy a police officer who had arrested me. I was "Repeatedly TK pulsing the back of his head, saying not a word." I botched on the 3rd or 4th TK pulse, and knocked out the cop. The cop was driving the car I was a passenger in. I got hurt. Anyway, at the time, I did not know that you could botch on a TK pulse, (I didn't think it was powerful enough to botch) Secondly, I didn't think the referee would roll for the repeated pulsing. (I'm not exactly sure why) Both of those were incorrect assumptions on my part, so those are fine.
Here's the thing though. If I had been able to actually see the cop's reaction to having his head pulsed, it's entirely possible, and in fact probable that I would have stopped pulsing his head. I mean, I don't want him to crash the car. It's possible, and probable that I would have stopped pulsing his head BEFORE I botched. As I said, the botch occurred on the 3rd or 4th pulse. If I had actually seen his reaction to the first one, I probably would have stopped, so he DIDN'T crash the car. By the time the botch was rolled, it was too late. How should I have told Adam to stop that after the first one or two pulses? I mean I can't actually see the reaction to it. If I could see the reaction to it, I might have stopped. If I say that I'm stopping after the first pulse, but after I'm told that I crashed, then someone will say that I'm stopping based on the knowledge that I will crash the car, when I would really be stopping because I saw the reaction to the pulses. I'm not sure what I'm asking here, but it just seems like a catch 22 all the way around. Any thoughts? As the subject says, it doesn't really matter now, but I am wondering. Thanks.
I thought your Music Wars world idea was really neat, and I might like to write it up. Do you have any more ideas on that?
BTW, I think I agree with Wodium, there are rumors of nukes among the death metal folks.
Jazz....if badly played it can open a gate to Lovecraft....
Eric
Yeah, I liked that idea of rumors of nukes too, but I thought that them actually having nukes would be a bad idea, which is why I suggested chemical weapons instead. Maybe rumors of nukes, but they actually have chemical weapons. I just wouldn't want to give one side a huge advantage like that, especially since I can't stand Death Metal. Eric, my email is A1nut@insight.rr.com, email me if you want to talk about it some more.
Any thoughts on the TK pulsing botch?
The other thought that I had on the Music Wars was the One Hit Wonders. Since One Hit Wonders are not of any specific genre, that group has a little bit of everything. They all got together, put their differences aside, and all work together for their common good. Since One Hit Wonders encompass every genre of music, you have a little bit of this, a little bit of that. No one of them can do it all, but if you're facing a One Hit Wonder in combat, you cannot predict what powers and abilities he will have. Email me.
You've been emailed.
Eric
You have been replied to.
Yeah, if Death Metal actually had nukes, no one would know because everyone would already be crispy critters. The rumors are enough to protect them, though - and they are working on it.
I dunno about chemical weapons. Somehow they don't seem flashy enough to me. Chemical and biological weapons kill everyone in a sweeping, silent horror; nukes = BIG BOOM everyone dies!
A bomber fleet of old B-52's that plays very loud Death Metal while dropping JDAM's, MOAB's, and Fuel-Air explosives?
Eric, I'm brainstorming some things right now. I think Scott's idea of the chemical weapons is correct, and Eric, that bomber fleet does seem appropriate too. Good ideas from both of you. Scott, my email address is in here somewhere, why don't you send me an email? We could all three brainstorm this together.
This has really gotten away from where the thread started, which was a question regarding a psionic botch. MJ, perhaps you would be good enough to address it?
I post to another forum where someone has a collection of some of the wildest "smiley" icons I've ever seen. It comes to mind because there's one of a smiley beating a dead horse....
It fact, I thought it brilliantly tactful of Eric to change the subject in the second post.
I'm not at all sure what to tell you. If we were at the table, you'd have had to roll for it yourself, so you'd have known you were rolling. There's no such thing as a skill that can't botch in principle--you can trip and kill yourself walking, it's just extremely unlikely unless there are adverse conditions (such as gravity isn't normal, or you're drunk). My mother-in-law botched and broke her hip trying to get something off a grocery store shelf. If the effect matters, you have to roll; if you have to roll, you might botch.
I hear what you're saying, but I don't have much sympathy. It was obvious to me that you were trying to use the skill in a way that would be annoying to the driver of the vehicle while at the same time pretending you weren't really "using the skill" so you would eliminate the chance to botch. If you said you were going to use it to bat small objects around on the floor in the back seat for practice, I'd have assumed it was practice. You really should have recognized that you wanted your "practice" to have a real effect of some sort, and you'd been told repeatedly that the difference between practice and skill use is whether success matters--which it does if you want it to have an effect, which you did if you were targeting the driver with the intent of annoying him. You succeeded in annoying the driver and the referee, and you should be glad that Vin Diesel didn't arrive, beat you up, and smash all your stuff. (That's a local joke for a really bad GE roll.)
--M. J. Young
I used to be into Sadomasochism, Bestiality, and Necrophilia, but I was just beating a dead horse. I see your point MJ.