I’ve got a question for you all and it relates to the Pusher (in part), but could apply to anyone: how do you adjudicate use of internal assassination implants or other methods of doing harm that may not be opposed by the targets? I can easily conjure up a scene where a honey pot assassin lures their mark into a much more deadly game of tonsil hockey. You moment you are making out with a smoking red head, the next you have a poisoned cybersnake slither out to strike.
Of course, cybersnakes aren’t the only way to ambush people with unexpected weapons. Palmed syringes or disguised stilleto’s could just as easily take their place. On the one hand I could see a roll for acting under pressure as you try to keep your weapon concealed. On the other I think that if they don’t see it coming there should probably be no defense. Some of this would depend on the angle and method of attack, of course.
It would be easy to just say that the whole thing was situational, but that seems like a cheap cop out to me. How do you handle these sorts of occurrences in your games?
There might be a moves to get into position but once the trap is sprung, the target is toast (especially if you are in melee range). And yes it’s situational but everything SHOULD be situational or at least be adhering to the established fiction.
It is your call. If a player is especially cautious and tactical, reward that effort, assume a level of competence and professionalism from the characters.
Why is making a situational call a cop out? Because it’s ingratiated into the hobby to make unnecessary checks for sneak attacks? 😉
If the target is an NPC, they die. If the target is a PC, there would probably be some sort of roll (that another PC might Interfere with).
I’m confused. are you asking about PCs attacking NPCs or NPCs attacking PCs? I guess it doesn’t matter.
IMO, you always let the player roll. If the PC is being attacked you should have them roll Act Under Pressure, if the PC is doing the attack they need to roll Mix It Up. You are supposed to be a fan of the players so not giving them an escape is shitty and allowing them to succeed without any effort is boring. Whether the attempt is an orbital laser, a hidden cyber implant or a bomb, allow the player to roll. The assassin may accidentally show their hand, the device may malfunction, the police discover the device or someone else or the target them self may have been tipped off. There are tons of possibilities.
You said:
“On the other [hand] I think that if they don’t see it coming there should probably be no defense. Some of this would depend on the angle and method of attack, of course.”
The thing is if they succeed in their Act Under Pressure roll or fail in their Mix It Up move the target can now see it coming. Depending on the fiction.
Rolls are for when there’s uncertainty. There’s uncertainty in getting the target into a position where they have no chance of resisting a cybersnake in their head. Once they’re in that position, however, there’s nothing to adjudicate – they’re done.
In addition to what J Stein says (which I’d support with my usual example of sniper taking perfect position to shoot someone does not have a risk of not hitting the target as per AW), I’d say
a) if you as GM decide that roll is not needed at all, you need to understand whether your player likes to narrate ‘as we french kiss my cybersnake burrows into his brain killing him’ – which for part of player base is an awesome finisher akin to Mortal Kombat. If however they want more story than this, or moment is anticlimactic, you may want to frame this as a precursor to more story – e.g. finding out secret stuff in victim’s pocket or them desperately spilling secrets while having seconds to die of poison.
b) If you decide to roll it, you may use abovementioned sniper example with issue being not related to player’s ability to kill, but rather situation stopping being one-sided, OR you can give them problems post-kill (e.g. maid sees you as you’re trying to get body into a right position, or medical bracelet detects death and starts pinging local doctor).
With PC as target one of the tactics is to threaten, not kill. Same as above, poison may be simply the way they force you to spill the secret or (in case of long-living poison or binary poison) to turn on your friends.