The rules as they stand are sorely lacking on zero-G rules, so you'll have to make a judgement call. Personally, I have no problem letting PCs rebound with just their feet, but if you want, you could require a basic acrobatics check to orient themselves the right way to push off again and not collide with the wall shoulder-first or something.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
-The player is off-kilter in a zero-G cavern with a 15 ft speed momentum, floating along the walls of a hallway. He uses a move action to kick at a ledge in the wall to push off along the same trajectory in the long cavern hallway. (in a continuous straight line) He then down grades his standard action to do it again, gaining a total of 45 ft movement that round. Is this OK?
Sounds right. He moved 45 feet in round 2 so he continues to move 45 feet until acted upon by an outside force.
-The players did not mind getting the off-kilter condition when colliding into a wall, they just used the push-off action to give move themselves forward to grab or kick off on something to continue moving in the direction they want like they where pin-balls! I cannot see that I am doing it wrong according the the rules, but it felt a bit odd.
It's really only supposed to be problematic if you're getting shot at at the time. Then believe me, its very annoying (unless you're a space rat, who don't care. )
Do you need hands to push off? If so, do you need at least 1 or 2? It is important to know, because the PCs might want to be able to hold their weapons, or might have to keep them sheathed - affecting action economy in combat roundsn
Seems like the sort of thing you could do with your feet, especially the mag/grav/sticky clamps that most armor come with.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I ran this recently for our group. Here’s how I played it:
I ruled the max speed they could travel was 50% of their normal movement (zero-G paragraph at the top of CRB pg.402). The corridors were oddly shaped, 5ft wide and 15ft tall, which meant they were always within reach of a wall to grab onto. (You could even turn that sideways, and call it a 15ft wide hall with a 5ft ceiling.)
I had the players do the acrobatics or athletics check, whichever is better, at DC 20 to gracefully stop when they get to their destination, typically the wall they were aiming for. I considered this first check to be part of the movement so it didn’t use up one of their actions. If they fail, which will happen a lot, they take on the off-kilter condition, (flat-footed and -2 to attacks, except for Ysoki can ignore these penalties, see Moxie on CRB pg.54). To end the off-kilter condition, I made them roll the DC 20 athletics/acrobatics check, which expends a move action. Going by Off-Kilter (CRB pg.276), a character can’t take a move action, so I required them to end the off-kilter condition before they could move by expending a move action to make another DC 20 athletics/acrobatics check.
Unless the surface is especially “bouncy,” like a trampoline, I ruled that their collisions were inelastic, so they stopped when they ran into something. This was more for playability than realism. If they failed their roll to land or grab-on gracefully at their desired destination, they were off-kilter, but were stopped within easy reach of the wall to try another check. If you are ysoki and don’t plan to move anytime soon, you don’t need to waste a move action to steady yourself, unless it bothers you that you are not instantly ready to move if needed.
We game with miniatures on a map. We found that additional flat markers, like coins, were handy to mark current and last position, so if characters are drifting over a long distance it was easy to figure out their next position by continuing the line they were on. You can use a permanent marker to write character initials on the coins to tell them apart if needed.
If you like making house rules, you could allow them to move while off-kilter, but I suggest having the player make an acrobatics/athletics roll at DC 25 (or higher, like 30, if pushing off from a slippery or hazardous surface, or if they are trying to push off without stopping first). If they fail this roll, they don’t to go in the direction they want. Failed checks could result in a random d8 direction roll, with any directions into the wall meaning they just stop where they are, still off-kilter. I believe the rules picked 50% of your normal movement to represent careful movement without risk of injury. At some point, building up too much speed should make it harder to control their movement, increasing DC to move, and could start to incur a risk of injury if they fail their roll and the random direction roll sends them into the wall (sort of like the damage you take when falling), perhaps a 1d6 damage for every 10 points by which they fail their roll.
...Going by Off-Kilter (CRB pg.276), a character can’t take a move action, so I required them to end the off-kilter condition before they could move by expending a move action to make another DC 20 athletics/acrobatics check.
...
Minor correction here: An athletics/acrobatics check is not needed to end the off-kilter condition, just taking a move action to steady yourself is all that's required provided there's something to grab onto.