Headphone wearing madman


Advice


Have a charecter in my campaign who always wears headphones that are on all the time on mission, in battle, even when exploring unknowns alien battleships. Trying to figure out minuses for him so its fair to the rest of the party. He should not be able to hear assassins sneaking up on him as well as the rest of the party. Any advice?


Consider him Deafened at all times while wearing them.

Deafened
You can’t hear. You take a –4 penalty to initiative checks
and opposed Perception checks, and you automatically fail
Perception checks based on sound.


Um I think you might be missing the point that any sane party will be using some sort of coms system 100% of the time.

Everyone (99.99%)is going to be miked up and have earphones /earpieces in even when they haven't buttoned up their armour.


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Yeah... How worse is it than everyone else's helmet + radio chatter ?
Is it just a fashion statement or is he getting something out of those headphones ?

Balancing some sort of benefit is fine, punishment for entirely cosmetic choices seems harsh.


That's true mechanically, but there is also simply pulling the narrative into some unbelievable and ridiculous direction.

If, by headphones, the original poster is referring to some Starlord wannabe who is always playing loud music in his hears, then I would agree with Lethallin and make them Deafened.

If the player is so attached to goofy comedy, let's see how comedic it will be when he's stabbed in the back without warning because he was idiotically listening to music in a dangerous situation. Then he'll get the comedy he's looking for - that will be a hoot :)

Open mics on comms for party coordination should be fine. In fact, that's why they commonly say, 'cut the chatter' when attention is needed.


Reading up the Perception skill rules, the DCs for Perception checks to search may be adjusted by the GM based on the circumstances and to reflect other conditions.

The DC to hear details of conversation is 0. The DC to hear Small or Medium creature walking is 10. To hear the details of a whispered conversation is 15. To hear a automatic door opening or a pistol drawn is 20.

If he is using the headphones to listen to his personal comm unit, I would allow him to hear radio chatter from his buddies if they're all on personal comm units, but force him to make a Perception check against a DC set by the GM.


Why exactly would you want to discourage players from maintaining comms with each other?

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