CB's Grim Frequencies AP OOC -- COMPLETE

[gribble]

Please post T-dawg's reaction to this series of events.

Done.

 

[Forged Fury]

Can I get more details on how this swarm thing works? Running out the front door totally makes the most sense for Cyril, since he definitely wants to get away from Buzz Cut and his gun. With that said, 2d6 per round can easily kill Cyril in 2 rounds if he gets trampled, which I would prefer to not have happen.

Is this an auto-hit sort of thing? Would raising my AC be beneficial?
Is it a STR test to avoid being trampled?
I presume I can't Intimidate a group of people, right?

 

[CanadienneBacon]

It's an auto-hit that occurs at the very end of a round. If, at the end of a combat round, the character is in the swarm, then it's 2d6 damage. Raising one's AC wouldn't matter. But I think a Dexterity or a Strength check might be appropriate to try to side-step the panicked crowd, or to push back against the crowd to avoid becoming prone. Intimidate is a full-round action, so it's probably not your friend in this particular situation. Same with Diplomacy.

Unless Cyril could get up on higher ground? And then maybe he could use Diplomacy to try to talk the crowd down from its panic. That would take two rounds, I think. With Buzz Cut coming down Aisle 4 and headed for Cyril, Cyril may not want to spend two rounds hanging around.

 

[Rubberneck]

Should definitely have double thought about yelling and screaming and causing a riot. Lol

 

[Forged Fury]

I think everyone was OK until they heard someone shout something about a gun.

OK, so trying to get through the crowd is basically not an option (shame about all those poor NPCs that will probably not survive 2d6 damage).

If I am reading the map correctly, it looks like the entrance (1) and exit (5) are separated? Is anyone trying to get to the IN door to get out? Looks like they are both automatic sliding doors. If no one is trying the IN door, Cyril might head for that and give it a shot, he'll try to keep low as well. I would think there would be plenty of opportunities to hide. A double move looks like it would get him the 60' required to get to the IN Automatic Doors.

 

[CanadienneBacon]

It's a frustrating situation, I agree. Panicked crowds are not fun, and they're dangerous.

You ask a good question about the "in" versus the "out" doors. A good way to envision things is that, yes, a character could certainly exit through the "in" door. The problem Cyril faces is that the customers in the store have split themselves into two groups, half at the "out" door (by the cash registers), and half at the "in" door (by the customer service desk). The crowd and the limited egress combine to form a trap, if you will. Of course, another way to think of a trap is to decide it's a puzzle and to come up with a make-shift solution to the puzzle. Your idea of hiding until the crowd is past is a good one. So is climbing to higher ground. So is retreating away from the crowd. I'm sure there are others that I haven't thought of.

 

[Forged Fury]

I think I'm just having a problem understanding the nature of this swarm. Typically a swarm doesn't stop movement, but it seems to be it does in this case, so I'm not sure how one would even get inside the swarm and get damaged/trampled.

OK, with both doors covered, Cyril is just going to try to move along the swarm and try to pretend to be part of it, but actually break left and hide behind the last checkout counter. He's going to search for any of those mirror casings for cameras to try to get a view about what's going on.

 

[CanadienneBacon]

I think I'm just having a problem understanding the nature of this swarm. Typically a swarm doesn't stop movement, but it seems to be it does in this case, so I'm not sure how one would even get inside the swarm and get damaged/trampled.

In this case, a character wouldn't enter the swarm herself; rather, the swarm would come to the character and would either stand still in or pass over the square occupied by the character, dealing damage as it went.

You have a good idea about moving along (the outer edge?) of the swarm--like this scene in The Mummy--to avoid being trampled.

 

[Forged Fury]

FYI, in case anyone wanted the WOTC adjudication on disarming firearms, I found this super-old Bullet Points article that touches on it in the last four bullet points:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=d20modern/bp/20030930a

Although I should note that the answer given contradicts an earlier bullet point that stated it depended on how the firearm had been used most recently (i.e. as a melee or ranged weapon). Leave it to Wizards and their stellar consistency.

 

[CanadienneBacon]

Thanks for this. It helped. We're rolling with the melee attack mechanics for the disarm attempt.