Brain collector question

[Yqatuba]

I read somewhere that the brains they have hostage are still conscious but can't perceive or do anything. Is this true? If so, where does it say this?

[Pizza Lord]

I wasn't able to find any specific mentions on brains' activities (though occasionally some wording that the brain collectors feed on the thoughts of the captive brains, so presumably the brains are still conscious or at least alive. Probably better to have them kept in a low-level comatose-like state, otherwise after a short time they're gonna be mad, as in insane or psychotic).

Having said that, since the brain has no sensory organs, like eyes, ears, nose or tongue, and can't even tell it's being touched in most cases since those kinds of nerves aren't present (at least in human brains), it is highly likely that they can't perceive anything and, lacking any exterior stimulus (other than possibly telepathic or anything that the brain collector itself might impart through its own physiology), it likely can't really perceive anything.

Now, as for being able to do anything... I guess since it's technically conscious, maybe purely mental actions might work, so a psionicist or telepath might be able to send out words somehow, or possibly a caster with a familiar could get some outside stimulus from a nearby familiar if of high enough level... none of that seems to be mentioned in the descriptions that I have read... so GM's call. I would probably just assume that the bizarre, alien physiology basically keeps the brain in an effectively helpless state... but that part is my thoughts on the matter. If it serves your purposes to have a telepathic captive brain calling out, go ahead... but if such a brain actually did have those abilities, the brain collector likely would pick up on them, or at least thoughts pertaining to that and would flush and replace that brain at the earliest opportunity.

[MrCharisma]

I'm currently playing through VALLEY OF THE BRAIN COLLECTORS so to avoid spoilers I'm not going to look anything up, but I can tell you that in our game the brains can communicate. They can't always, there is a switch to turn on/off thwir ability to percieve/communicate with us, so after rescuing a couple of brains we were able to communicate with the ones we liked and turn the others off so they couldn't hear our conversations. I don't know how much was in the books and how much was ad-libbed, but knowing this GM it was probably all in the book.

Where have you looked for this information? If it's just online you might not find it, as those details might be on the AP rather than in the rules for creatures/equipment. If you have a copy of Iron Gods it might tell you more.

(Again I haven't looked anything up so my advice may not be useful)

[Yqatuba]

I think it was TVTropes actually.