Ssssshh!

By Michael Nutt

**Flaming
Feather**

People have been talking for some time about the problem of celestials being cavalier about the amount of disturbance they generate. Here's an idea that I thought I'd throw out to see what people think of it. It'll make celestials a lot more careful about generating disturbance, and not just for the "Someone might hear you!" factor, either. Munchkins will hate it... but that just might be a selling point. I haven't playtested these rules, not even to the point of trying them out as one-shot "house rules". If they warp your game, don't come crying to me.

Keep the current rules about what causes points of disturbance... including the one on p. 55 that says when multiple disturbance-producing effects happen close together, they add the disturbances together. Then, have the Symphony lash back on the offending celestial. For every 10 points of disturbance, the noisy celestial gets a -1 to any and all rolls for the next hour... and it's cumulative, dissipating at 1 level per hour.

Here's an example: Calabite X proceeds to tear up a room and its occupants, producing a grand total of 50 points of disturbance. For the next hour, any roll he makes, be it a Will roll, Dodge roll, resonance roll, or whatever, is at -5... and for the next hour after that, he's at -4, and for the hour after *that* he's at -3.

If you feel like being really nasty, rule that any disturbance generated during the lashback period resets the clock, and counts as extra disturbance on top of what was already generated. Returning to the earlier example, if Calabite X manages to generate 13 points of disturbance by killing a human 4 hours after his earlier rampage... he just set himself back to -6 on any rolls.

The GM can portray this however he likes; you might say that the throbbing of the wounded Symphony in your mind is distracting you, or that God's Plan is striking back. Ineffability seems to fit well with this.

Better hope nobody hears you that wants to hurt you...

**Flaming
Feather**

Back to the INC Mainpage.
Back to the Tips page.

Send mail to the Curator