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Dumpshock Forums _ Shadowrun _ Woah, wait, dampening?

Posted by: AK404 Aug 23 2003, 03:32 AM

Y'know, just about every character I've had chooses to take flare comp and sound dampening for obvious reasons, but I've failed to find any in-game modifiers for not using a sound dampener in things like gunfights. Did I miss something or is this up to the GM's discretion?

Posted by: Ancient History Aug 23 2003, 04:10 AM

You can use it to protect you from loud noises...like if somebody cranks up the stereo and you have super-hearing of some sort, it keeps your ears from bleeding.

Yeah, most people ignore that.

Posted by: mrgoat Aug 23 2003, 07:04 AM

That's "damping", not "dampening". A damper reduces the effectiveness of something. A dampener makes something damp, as in slightly wet. Sorry, peeve of mine. A "sound dampener" would be a device which attempts to make compression waves that are commonly percieved as sound slightly wet.

Posted by: AK404 Aug 23 2003, 08:44 AM

Bleh, whatever.

However cool a damper might be, I'd be willing to bet that more than a few GMs have missed its importance.

Posted by: Cedric Aug 23 2003, 09:51 AM

Main Entry: damp·en
Pronunciation: 'dam-p&n
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): damp·ened; damp·en·ing /'damp-ni[ng], 'dam-p&-/
Date: 1547
transitive senses
1 : to check or diminish the activity or vigor of :

Dampener works fine...

Posted by: The White Dwarf Aug 23 2003, 11:30 AM

Its main use is to protect you from the damage potential of the other advanced hearing modifications. We all know how annoying nails on a chalkboard are; now if you had high freqnecy hearing, youd have a similar sound on 24/7 only louder. And if someone had a *really* high pitched sound, like maybe ultrasound, it could serioulsy hurt your ears (theyre not made to handle that kinda vibration). So, this piece of cyberware keeps you from exploding into so much goo form hearing stuff.

If you wanna add applications outside of that, such as hearing fine after leaving a troll trash concert because it keeps the sound to a reasonable level, go ahead. Id say its well within the function of that piece of cyber. But be sure that you dont overlap into the area of the Select Sound Filter, which would actually let you here people talking in said troll thrash concert, not just avoid the numbing hearing when you leave it.

Posted by: booklord Aug 23 2003, 03:02 PM

Am I the only GM who pulled out the experimental Knight Errant sonic rifles during a riot? There safe! 99% of the people hit by a sonic rifle get their hearing back within 1 hour.

Posted by: Buzzed Aug 23 2003, 05:06 PM

QUOTE (The White Dwarf @ Aug 23 2003, 07:30 AM)

Now if you had high freqnecy hearing, youd have a similar sound on 24/7 only louder.

That is why you turn it off. That is if you have cyberears ofcourse. The cool thing about cyberears is you can chose to be deaf as a free action.

If you roleplay it correctly, you can react to an unexploded grenade by turning your ears off, if you see it bouncing around.

Posted by: motorfirebox Aug 24 2003, 12:35 AM

...i assume you're talking about a concussion grenade.

Posted by: Fortune Aug 24 2003, 12:37 AM

QUOTE (Buzzed)

If you roleplay it correctly, you can react to an unexploded grenade by turning your ears off, if you see it bouncing around.

If you notice it, which is why you should always get Dampers when getting hearing augmentations.

Posted by: The White Dwarf Aug 24 2003, 06:32 AM

Well, just my 2 cents here, but:
-Damper protects against sound spikes. It "dampens" the effect. If you envision a sin-wave, a damper would level out all the peaks. Hence no game effect (like tn mod or bonus dice), just a saftery feature that says it proctects you from "damaging sound levels"
-Select Sound Filter can actually filter out sounds completey. It could eliminate the other voices in a room, one specific sound at a time, until you hear the one you want clearly. Thats why this gives you bonus hearing perception dice.
-Neither of these, nor the cyberear itself, say they can be turned off. I understand that with cybereyes you can toggle the non-standard vision modes on and off, but you cant toggle off normal. Id imagin the same goes for ears. While you can dampen or filter the sound, it makes little sense for the sense you had ears installed to replace to be turned off. Eyes dont come with an off switch, why would ears.

Posted by: Velocity Aug 24 2003, 06:43 AM

QUOTE

The White Dwarf said:
Select Sound Filter can actually filter out sounds completey. It could eliminate the other voices in a room, one specific sound at a time, until you hear the one you want clearly

In my campaign, an enterprising young samurai argued (successfully) that Select Sound Filter 5 should have another application: diminishing the effect of a barghest's howl.

Seeing as how the magical Fear effect is rooted in the creature's sonic emissions, I thought it was fair and reasonable for a character equipped with a rating 5 Sound Filter to--after some dangerous trial and error--discover the frequency of the howl and block it.

Posted by: The White Dwarf Aug 24 2003, 11:22 AM

Yep, as much as I have to dislike it as the GM (evil GM grin), thats exactly the kinda thing its meant to do. Id prolly just give them the bonus perception dice to the resistance test, as they try to filter it out, rather than immunity. I mean, differetn people talk on different frequencies, I would imagine barghasts are within a range too. But still, at level 5 thats pretty much gonna double most peoples resist dice .. good stuff!

Posted by: Ed_209a Aug 24 2003, 09:18 PM

QUOTE (motorfirebox)

...i assume you're talking about a concussion grenade.

Nearly _all_ grenades are concussion grenades. Some just also have the high-speed metal bits tossed in that make you quickly forget about the concussion.

Posted by: Ed_209a Aug 24 2003, 09:22 PM

You might consider a TN mod for gunfire in confined spaces because of the noise. +1 maybe. Hearing damping would negate this.

Posted by: TheScamp Aug 25 2003, 12:38 AM

QUOTE

I understand that with cybereyes you can toggle the non-standard vision modes on and off, but you cant toggle off normal.

Actually, if you want to be real picky about language, you can only turn one vision mode off at a time.

Posted by: Buzzed Aug 25 2003, 12:47 AM

Cybereyes, like natural eyes, can be turned off. Just close your eyes.

Also, anywhere where you have a device in your head that has sound, like a headware radio, you can turn it off. Even cyberears, it's just a microphone afterall.

Posted by: Talia Invierno Aug 25 2003, 03:41 PM

QUOTE

That's "damping", not "dampening".
- mrgoat

Mea culpa. I mentioned "sound dampening" in the discussion about how to design a physmage, as usual I got two English words mixed up, and the mistake seems to have stuck. Apologies.

Posted by: Fortune Aug 25 2003, 05:19 PM

QUOTE (Buzzed)

Also, anywhere where you have a device in your head that has sound, like a headware radio, you can turn it off. Even cyberears, it's just a microphone afterall.

And this is listed in canon where?

Posted by: AK404 Aug 25 2003, 10:06 PM

So wait, what about unsilenced gunfire? That's why my characters use it: gunfire is LOUD.

Posted by: Dog Aug 26 2003, 04:04 AM

WHAT?! ....WHAT!!?....SPEAK UP!

Posted by: The White Dwarf Aug 26 2003, 11:44 AM

Agree w/ fortune. Turning ears off makes no sense at all unless you found it printed that doing so is possible. Eyes turning off by shutting them, well fine but some things are bright enough to at least show through eyelids as light or no light. The ears thing though ... cant take that without a reference, its too counter-intuitive.

Posted by: Cedric Aug 26 2003, 11:51 AM

QUOTE

That's "damping", not "dampening".
- mrgoat

The use of the word "dampening" or "damping" either one is fine. Both are grammatically correct.

Cedric

Posted by: Person 404 Aug 26 2003, 01:12 PM

QUOTE

The ears thing though ... cant take that without a reference, its too counter-intuitive.

Personally, I find the idea fairly intuitive. With pure DNI, the feature would presumably be trivial to add, and it comes in handy often enough that I don't see how manufacturers would get away with omitting it. Crying baby on that 6-hour plane flight? Turn off your ears. Unfortunate software malfunction making everything you hear dissolve into unintelligible (and annoying) static? Turn off your ears until you can get to a licensed cyberware specialist.

Being able to become deaf (or blind) at will doesn't really seem imbalancing, it's a trivially easy feature to add, and it makes sense, at least in my opinion.

Posted by: Fortune Aug 27 2003, 05:07 PM

QUOTE (Person 404)

That's what the Select Sound Filter is for.

QUOTE

Unfortunate software malfunction making everything you hear dissolve into unintelligible (and annoying) static? Turn off your ears until you can get to a licensed cyberware specialist

I don't see any other Cyberware having this feature as standard. Why should ears be any different?

QUOTE

Being able to become deaf (or blind) at will doesn't really seem imbalancing, it's a trivially easy feature to add, and it makes sense, at least in my opinion.

It may not be unbalancing (at least in game terms

), but I don't see this a being a standard feature built into each and every set of Cyberears (or eyes).

Posted by: Austere Emancipator Aug 27 2003, 06:01 PM

It seems it's completely up to GM discretion. In my games: Negligible hearing loss from Flashbangs, lower Stun from Flashbangs (6M vs 3M). Also protects you from other similar threats, e.g. no hearing modifiers after coming out of a gunfight (normally up to +4 or more), no hearing modifiers for having been close to a grenade going off (normally anywhere between +1 and +6), etc. To actually hear things during a gunfight, you'd need the Select Sound Filter.

Posted by: Clipwing Aug 27 2003, 06:15 PM

QUOTE (Fortune)

It may not be unbalancing (at least in game terms

), but I don't see this a being a standard feature built into each and every set of Cyberears (or eyes).

While I think turning it off MENTALLY would require a DNI connection, I think each would be able to be turned off manually. There are access ports in cybereyes and ears IIRC for things like maintenance and calibration... I'm sure you could use one of them to cut power, though it would probably take a complex action or two.

Posted by: Corywn Aug 28 2003, 04:30 PM

Regarding turning off Cyber-senses, I have to throw in just a quick opinion/observation:

Cyber-eyes are not explicitly stated to be normal-eye-replacements...many of the examples of Cyber-eyes in the books are more like high-tech eye-patches that cover the whole socket from the outside. You can't close your eyelid over that unless you're some sort of uber-freak, and so a "shutoff" command would only be reasonable, to allow you to sleep comfortably. The same should apply to ears simply for the matter of sleep, if nothing else.

Otherwise, maybe every Sam should have a Sensory Deprivation Chamber like in Daredevil..

Posted by: Fortune Aug 28 2003, 07:47 PM

QUOTE (Corywn @ Aug 28 2003, 12:30 PM)

Cyber-eyes are not explicitly stated to be normal-eye-replacements...many of the examples of Cyber-eyes in the books are more like high-tech eye-patches that cover the whole socket from the outside.

I don't buy this, seeing as most (in my opinion) Cybereyes are considered to look somewhat natural (discounting things like targets or skulls for irises, etc). I think only the truly exotic eye augmentations appear as you describe.