Nightvision goggles

[Tupper]

"Just like Buffalo Bill", you murmur as you pull on some light amplification goggles and take a look around.

You try to see a person 200m away (twice your goggles' range of 100m), so a Difficult task to begin with. It's dark (+2 diff mods), but the LA goggles take care of that. The person is sub-micro (+2 diff mods). Net effect (Difficult +2 diff mods), an Impossible task.

Meanwhile, your friend has no LA goggles, and also has a look. With unaided eyes, she has a base range of 1000m. She can quarter that to 250m, and offset 2 diff mods, while still keeping the base difficulty Average. Her difficulty for the task is Formidable (Average + 4 diff mods - 2 diff mods).

Put more generally, unaided eyes can offset 2 diff mods of darkness by quartering their range to 250m. That's a better base range than the 100m of LA goggles.

So ... what's the point of Light Amplification goggles? It seems you'd be better eating a few carrots and relying on your own eyes ... or am I missing something?

 

[jcrocker]

On p.29 of the Reformation Coalition Equipment Guide - under Goggles, Light Amplifier it states "Mode: Disregard 2 night Diff Mods, fully affected by weather Diff Mods, no effect in woods or smoke."

So, yes, there is a point to dropping that thousand credits on the gear. As long as it's not in the woods, smoke, smokey woods, or storms.

 

[Tupper]

That pretty much accords with the core book.

The issue is that you can disregard 2 diff mods by quartering your range using eyeballs, and 1000m/4 is 250m. Alternatively you can ignore 2 night time diff mods with LA goggles, but then you have a range of 100m, which is *worse* (and you’re Cr1000 poorer...).

 

[jcrocker]

Ok, yes, I think I mis-read that original post, sorry.

If unassisted vision has base range of 1000m, is that at night, or at high noon?

If it's dark enough that your players are thinking of using light amplification goggles, is there enough light for anyone to see anything without them? Is seeing dim shapes moving at 250 m enough for the situation? Or do you need to be able to see who is who, or what they're doing?

If you just need to see that the only night watchman is out on the grounds and away from the boat house, unassisted vision might be enough. If the team sniper has to pick a specific target out of a group at that range at night, the goggles could come into play. (Or a brutal disregard for collateral damage, but that's a different topic.)