Non-safety Hold LCO Call

jwconvery

jwconvery

Mentor
I am planing to run a mod that has a few points that make PC/NPC positioning matter greatly. As the Marshall for the mod, I was going to introduce a call of "Freeze" to get the PC's and NPCs alike to stop motionless as if in a prison. "Freeze" would be an out of game call, stopping time per a regular hold the only diferences being it is not a safety issue, and I need the PC's to not 'auto-kneel' or go collect packets as they could in a proper hold.

As a player would you have any objection to this new call? Or would you prefer to just call a real hold and ask that no-one move. I don't want 'Cry wolf' during the mod but I need to have eyes on everyone at the same instant. That can't be reasonable achieved during normal play. The actuall stoppage would be maybe 10 secs. Call Freeze, check a few things. 3-2-1 lay on

Thanks for the feedback.
 
I just ran the HQ opener this past weekend (which was a musical) where we used a "timestop" ability to allow my performaing characters to sing and dance among the PCs as if they were affected by like a "hold person" spell in D&D. they could shift to be comfortable, look at us, but could not move or speak until the effect was lifted. The longest of these lasted about 5 minutes, and the PCs had no problems with it (and we had 50 PCs).

I believe timestop was either a dragon ability in the monster database or an LCO effect... beats me, i just write the stuff, it's up to the Head of Plot and Rules to make it work.
 
If it is intended as an environmental game effect, then a new call like "Freeze" and all it rules, including what category, etc. needs to be clearly defined prior to using it. If the intention to actually have a Hold, just call a Hold. I've run a mod that had players Hold and close their eyes. The NPCs were then allowed to move to a new location (three steps from where they were) so long as they didn't place themselves in an unsafe location, then when Lay On was called, the PCs could open their eyes and respond to the fact that the creatures weren't where they were a moment ago.

It's the kind of thing that can work well in a mod, but would be terrible in regular play.
 
jwconvery said:
I am planing to run a mod that has a few points that make PC/NPC positioning matter greatly. As the Marshall for the mod, I was going to introduce a call of "Freeze" to get the PC's and NPCs alike to stop motionless as if in a prison. "Freeze" would be an out of game call, stopping time per a regular hold the only diferences being it is not a safety issue, and I need the PC's to not 'auto-kneel' or go collect packets as they could in a proper hold.

As a player would you have any objection to this new call? Or would you prefer to just call a real hold and ask that no-one move. I don't want 'Cry wolf' during the mod but I need to have eyes on everyone at the same instant. That can't be reasonable achieved during normal play. The actuall stoppage would be maybe 10 secs. Call Freeze, check a few things. 3-2-1 lay on

Thanks for the feedback.
Click to expand...

If you are asking the PC's to not move during a hold to set something up, you should remind them of that right before they enter the mod. That way they know a head of time. While I understand that you want them to stay still so that they not ruin the surprise, maybe you should gather packets for them during that hold, because if I am out of packets and there is a hold called, I would like to gather them back.
 
Personally, I'd prefer a "Freeze" call over a hold, because a hold signals the "emergency!" part of my brain. Also, holds usually have people kneel.
 
I was just going to make a post saying I didn't have a particular problem with a 'Freeze' sort of call for something like this.

However then I thought about the fact that it sounds like you want to be pausing the game during this 'Freeze' call. If you really are just pausing the game to check on some positions or whatever the Hold rule really does seem to fit that description. Like JP said if you don't want players to kneel or run around collecting packets and its just a mod I think you can easily explain that for the players before the mod starts.
 
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