In the D20 Future book, only passing through unstable gates can have negative impacts on people. In my campaign, all gates are unstable (some less than others).
Here are some consequences for going through a gate I have come up with in order of severity, along with the consequences the books has. Mine are in italics:
Shaken: -2 on all rolls for 1d4 rounds.
Severely shaken: only one move or one attack per round, all rolls at -2.
Stunned 1d4 rounds, per the Modern book.
Nauseated 1d4 hours, per the Modern book.
Unconcious 1d4 rounds, nauseated 1d4 hours.
Lose 2d12 Con, nauseated 1d4 hours.
Disabled: Lose 2d12 Con, go to -1 HP.
What do you all think? Any other consequences? What do you all think the DC should be, given every gate will be unstable? Right now I'm giving each gate a variable DC from 5 to 20.
In addition, I've been toying with 'mental' impacts as well, such as being confused, frightened, or seeing into both dimensions at once, and not even being sure where one is. Players might think they are hallucinating, in a VR world, not sure which dimension they are in, etc.
The mechanics, however, are eluding me. Any ideas? Here is what I've come up with:
Dimensional afterimages: characters sees ghostly shadows and translucent beings that are actually folks from the dimension they just left.
Dimensional Overlay: character sees both dimensions at once, can't really tell where they are.
I'm still in Kansas: character's brain refuses to accept they've gone somewhere else. Character sees dimension they left, but gets ghostly images of new dimension. Or, some senses perceive new dimension, others perceive old one. Or character thinks they are dreaming.
Should mental effects be a separate will save, or should I build mental effects into my chart above?
Part of the reason I want to do this is players don't know they are in a Dimension X campaign. All they know is they might have just escaped from a mental institution. :D
Finally, I have a feat that allows characters to avoid some of these consequences. All characters have it, they just don't know it yet.
What I did last session was simply take their fort save, look at my chart (see above), and put them one category up. Thus someone whose roll made stunned was only 'severely shaken' instead. Any ideas on that?
Any input would be greatly appreciated.
This gave him -2 on all rolls, but also helped advance the storyline a little as he could see what the folks in the dimension he'd just left were doing. As he'd just escaped from an insane asylum via and unwitting journey through a dimensional gate, it made for an interesting session. Where was he? Which 'world was real? Was he crazy.