I think they look pretty cool on an athasian character.
Did you ever used it?
What rule you use with it? For me, its no vision penalty for direct light in the eye and you cant barely get blinded.
One of my player had a pair, always put on, except at night. Some Npc in my game also had goggles.
Goggles rule!
They would have to be inuit style sunglasses. I don´t picture transparent obsidian glasses on my mul. :P
On a planet covered with a whole lotta sand you've got to figure there's glass available as well.
Definitely not cheap, but anyone who can afford any sort of ground-lens goggles has some cash to spend anyway.I think that in A Little Knowledge, the short story in the original boxed set, glass is almost treated as somehting magical. So I guess it is not that common in Athas.
Dune Trader lists glass as 1 sp/lb., with low supplies in Balic and Gulg, easily available in Tyr, and supply-vs-demand balanced elsewhere. At that price, rare or not, acquiring the material wouldn't be that difficult (even for a poor commoner); the cost of paying the lens-crafter, however, probably would be.
As for your original post, Pringles, since my current campaign is based in Balic and I'm all for goggles as a fairly common (albeit pricey) commodity, they turn up quite frequently in the game. I consider them, as well as a tight-fitting cloth covering for one's lower face (nose, mouth and ears, if necessary) to be standard "wilderness garb" for silt-ship crews and anyone else who works on or near the silt. The purchase of "silt goggles" (that's how I refer to them - they work for sandstorms as well, but that's never been their primary market in my game) is considered to be a part of "acquiring tools of the trade" for any job that takes place near the silt...in fact, that's part of the reason why demand (and prices) are high for glass in Balic (as noted above) - a large enough segment of the population requires them for their daily lives (and livelyhood) that there's never enough glass to meet the demands of the people. There's been at least one occasion in my game where (IIRC) I "pointed out" an NPC to the characters because he was down at the docks and *not* wearing goggles - the individual's clothing was pricey enough that there was no reason he couldn't afford goggles, so the PC's first assumption was that he had magical and/or psionic protection of some sort from the blowing silt.
As for rules, goggles modify the penalties caused by the Gray Death; goggles prevent vision penalties (...and possible permanent loss of eyesight), while the face mask prevents/reduces the chance of suffocation.
Dune Trader lists glass as 1 sp/lb., with low supplies in Balic and Gulg, easily available in Tyr, and supply-vs-demand balanced elsewhere. At that price, rare or not, acquiring the material wouldn't be that difficult (even for a poor commoner); the cost of paying the lens-crafter, however, probably would be.
As for your original post, Pringles, since my current campaign is based in Balic and I'm all for goggles as a fairly common (albeit pricey) commodity, they turn up quite frequently in the game. I consider them, as well as a tight-fitting cloth covering for one's lower face (nose, mouth and ears, if necessary) to be standard "wilderness garb" for silt-ship crews and anyone else who works on or near the silt. The purchase of "silt goggles" (that's how I refer to them - they work for sandstorms as well, but that's never been their primary market in my game) is considered to be a part of "acquiring tools of the trade" for any job that takes place near the silt...in fact, that's part of the reason why demand (and prices) are high for glass in Balic (as noted above) - a large enough segment of the population requires them for their daily lives (and livelyhood) that there's never enough glass to meet the demands of the people. There's been at least one occasion in my game where (IIRC) I "pointed out" an NPC to the characters because he was down at the docks and *not* wearing goggles - the individual's clothing was pricey enough that there was no reason he couldn't afford goggles, so the PC's first assumption was that he had magical and/or psionic protection of some sort from the blowing silt.
As for rules, goggles modify the penalties caused by the Gray Death; goggles prevent vision penalties (...and possible permanent loss of eyesight), while the face mask prevents/reduces the chance of suffocation.
Nice, Concealment penalty should still apply though...
Nice, Concealment penalty should still apply though...
Correct - all of that is dependant on the situation, and I pretty much ad-hoc rule on it as it comes up.
Here's the rules I use for silt in my game - I honestly can't tell you exactly where I got the initial version from, I think it was from an athas.org document (couldn't find it in the main rules...) or perhaps is a compilation of various rules from SRD material, 2e Dark Sun rules and my own house rules. I really don't know anymore. :P
Silt:
Silt is heavier than air, but far lighter than water. As such it is unable to support any weight, and anyone unlucky (or foolish) enough to end up in it will quickly sink to the bottom.
If completely submerged in silt, a character must hold their breath or else face suffocation. Any character can hold her breath for a number of rounds equal to twice her Constitution score. After this period of time, the character must make a DC 10 Constitution check every round in order to continue holding her breath. Each round, the DC increases by 1. When the character finally fails her Constitution check, she begins to drown. In the first round, she falls unconscious (0 hp). In the following round, she drops to –1 hit points and is dying. In the third round, she drowns.
Should a character find themselves in the silt, either completely submerged or wading through shallow silt, they move at 1/3 speed and suffer a -4 penalty to all physical actions such as skill checks, attack rolls and damage, as well as to Spot checks. If completely submerged, however, a character must be directed in a specific direction somehow (psionic power, guided by a rope, etc.) or else they will randomly move about the silt, unable to determine what direction they are moving.
The Gray Death:
Silt is light enough that even a slight wind can stir it up into an impenetrable cloud of dust, obscuring vision in all directions and potentially even suffocating people who do not cover their mouths with a wet, damp cloth.
This effect, known as the Gray Death, affects any character in, on, or near a body of silt. Characters suffering from the Gray Death suffer a -2 penalty to initiative, attack, damage, and Spot checks. If the wind is blowing stronger than a gentle breeze the penalty increases to -4 and the character will suffocate as per the normal rules (above), except with rounds being measured in turns. In either case, wearing a damp piece of cloth over one's mouth reduces the penalties by half and prevents suffocation.
Note that my rules don't even mention the goggles, and sorta circumvent them by stating that only the mouth-covering matters. In play, however, I normally apply the Spot penalties at full value to anyone not wearing goggles, as well as whatever other random effects I want.
And, as you pointed out, there's no mention of concealment or anything within those rules, although I do apply those as well.
On a related note, during one adventure the group got into a large, unexpected fight during a silt storm, and since I ended up with a week or so between finding this out (i.e. game session ended) and the battle, I came up with the following "supplemental" rules:
(Note: These rules were written based on high winds, ~30mph I think, as well as taking place during the night, although I don't see anything wrong with using them for a daylight "silt storm" situation as well)
* -4 Penalty to Spot, Search, and Listen Checks (from wind and, more importantly, silt).
* -2 penalty to hit with ranged weapons if the target is in a “brightly lit” area (or attacker has darkvision), -4 if they are in “shadowy” areas.
* Unprotected flames have a 50% chance of being extinguished. All flame sources relying on some sort of fuel burn out in ½ the usual time (the silt eventually works it’s way into even the smallest cracks).
* 20% miss chance against targets in a “shadowy” area, or those more than 50’ away (regardless of lighting).
* Maximum visual distance is 100’, regardless of lighting or other factors unless the presence of silt can somehow be completely negated.
* (Anyone gaining concealment can make a Hide roll even if they are being watched by someone)
* All other visual distances are ½ their normal