On page 213 of the core book, Table 7-30 states that fog and smoke grant a +10 to movement rates. Huh???

It lubricates the air. Less friction and wind resistance.

No, really. What does it mean?

When on treacherous terrain, a character needs to pass an agility test to charge or run, to represent the difficulty of keeping one's footing on such terrain. In the case of fog or smoke, it is simply because, as one cannot see the ground, it is harder to be sure of one's footing. (But not too hard, hence the test at AG+10)

I go with Air Lubrication.

Yup. Fog requires you to test. Clear visibility does not.

-K

Has anyone ever moved in a fog that it was actually difficult to run in? Just wondering, I've never even seen so thick fog but in RPG it seems to be everywhere.

Worst I've seen I could still see fine for maybe 10 meters, and foggy for maybe 30 more. It should effect driving and spotting, but movement?

Well in real life i've seen it so foggy (or is that not seen) that I could see maybe 5 metres ahead but nothing beyond. Looked out the house window at our car that's parked about 10 metres away and couldn't see it at all!

Has anyone ever moved in a fog that it was actually difficult to run in?

Has anyone ever moved on a deathworld, in a very much non-OSHA-compliant chemical factory or in some Xenos starship?

I have driven through fog that seemed to have zero visibility. It was terrifying. I couldn't even pull over, since I couldn't see where the roadside was.

I'm near-sighted, with a comfortable unaided vision distance of just under arm's-length. I have been in a fog so thick that I couldn't see anything I'd normally put my glasses on to look at. It was really freaky- I'd look down, and literally could not see my feet- my legs just disappeared in the fog around mid-thigh...

Alasseo said:

I've seen fog like that. Sat outside that morning next to my pool, listenning to the sounds of the filter running and distant traffic. It was a rather pleasant change of pace for Arizona.

-=Brother Praetus=-

I've driven in fog where you couldn't see the road, it's terrifying. I've walked in fog where you can't see your hand in front of your face, it's pretty ool.

I live in a river valley. Believe you me, there are times where you are completely socked in for an hour or more-You may be able to see your feet, if you're lucky. A few large U.S. Cities and London used to have this problem in the 50's when they got inversion layers-the smog would be so thick you couldn't see your feet. Lots of Chinese cities are having these now-one of them was called a death fog because twenty people died.

Brother Praetus said:

Ooooh! Where in AZ?!

Also and still, why do you get a bonus to movement in fog? Shouldn't it be just a +0 at best? You shouldn't move better because of it.

TalkingMuffin said:

What the +10 means is that it's not uber challenging to move in fog, but it's difficult enough that you still have to test. There are quite a few characters out there that need all the help they can get when it comes to agility. One of my players has an arbiter with a 24. The bane of his existence is fog even with the bonus, he trips all the time. The worst experience of his gaming life was at my hands when he was trying to get away from some non cybermastiffs in a fog bank.

TalkingMuffin said:

Answer to the first question is within the greater Phoenix Metro Area; specificly, Tempe.

Answer to the second question is, you test Agility with a +10 to your overall score to determine results. Besides degrees of success, there are also levels of difficulties; and the +10 would be an Ordinary test difficulty (difficulty levels can be found on pg. 185 of DH). Fog slicks surfaces, and slick surfaces are generally harder to traverse stably. As an example, try watching this video; DISCLAIMER: Some Profane and Derogatory Language Ensues.

Here

-=Brother Praetus=-

I do need to move out of Yuma! Seriously, I love it here. As far as the "easy fog" goes, I just have a hard time wrapping my head around anything that's supposed to be hampering offering a bonus, that's all. After some stick-time with the system I'm sure that'll make more sense.

Just remember, you only call for a test when it's dramatically appropriate. Thus, if one were running their asses off across a wide open field in bright sunlight, no test would be needed -the character would automatically succeed (a +100 if you will). If that same field were covered in a thick fog bank obscuring the ground and most everything, then something interesting could happen, so an agility test is called for that could actually fail. Since it's just a bit of fog, it's an easy (+10) test.

As far as the "easy fog" goes, I just have a hard time wrapping my head around anything that's supposed to be hampering offering a bonus, that's all. After some stick-time with the system I'm sure that'll make more sense.

Fog is hampering because it demands a test in the first place. And because it's not hampering enough that your generic human would only have a 30% chance of success, it grants a +10 bonus to that test. DH is a system where you need to stuff your players with bonuses to their rolls if you want them to accomplish anything at all.

TalkingMuffin said:

If so you should really REALLY read the rules again. And again. The system in warhammer and Dark Heresy is based on very difficult rolls. Just think about it, a normal human may have 31 in a given characteristic /say agility), and lots of NPCs in the DH book has very low score, in the 10s even. If you use a challenging test (+0), that means such a human has a low chance of success and will succeed less than 1 out of 3 attempts. If this is about a slipperly floor for examble, it is really slick (that video seems like a typical challenging agility test). Giving a +10 bonus means the test is "ordinary", which still means most people usually fail, but this time less than 2 out of 3 times unless they're really stiff or inebriated.

Even at the "routine" difficulty (+30) said human still have only about 50% chance of success, which means alot of people will fail. Specialist characters with very high scores and a char. advance or two has a fairly low chance of failure though. Now this is a characteristic test, with a skills test these modifiers become even more important to take notice of, as the char. is halved before applying the modifier in cases where someone is unskilled in a task (suprisingly often).

Sorry if my tone offends you, but this is an important part of the game where many GMs fail, to the dismay of their players. Some material in, for example Inquisitors Handbook even reinforces the misconception that easy tests are actually easy, as they think someone with trade(cook) needs to make an "ordinary" (+10) roll just to cook a decent meal for his team. The core book on the other hand states that the GM should only call for a roll if he belives there is a significant risk of failure and if resolving it by chance is appropriate. So for example Scale Sheer surfaces skill check: Climing a ladder in normal conditions: no, unless the ladder is particulary slippery fragile. Climbing up a castle walls with a few handholds and indentations: yes. Climing the same ladder in the darkness while pursued by a Slaught: yes, but with a fairly easy skill test and/or the result of being delayed in case of failure (with dire consequenses if failure by many degrees). Sometimes being delayed by one round can mean death.

Oh btw guys thank for input on RL fog, where I come from heavy fog is just extremely rare, while light fog is common. I was just wondering why fog in game such as DH, D&D etc. had so hampering fog. Guess there IS some precedence from RL.

MDMann, I had to drive someone 25 miles to a hospital in fog that thick. She was pregnant, and started running a fever, and panicked...

I'm too much of a good Samaritan for my own good. Keep in mind that I got woken up out of a sound sleep at 2 a.m. and had to be at work by 7:30 a.m. It's a half-hour drive there, a half-hour back, probably half an hour in the waiting room... I was seriously sleep-deprived the next day.

Three things were in my favor: (1) No traffic on the road at that time of night, and (2) I used to be an Air Force fighter pilot, so my eyesight is better than normal. And (3) a critical piece of software that we were supposed to be working on (at the time I was a programmer for Texas A&M in Commerce, Texas) didn't arrive because the delivery truck broke down between Dallas and Commerce. So I got to spend all day playing computer games and surfing the Internet... instead of trying to write a coherent program when I was half-asleep.