Opinion on this Sense

[Gemphyre]

This is a variant on the Telepathic Hearing power from UMen, page 166.

Detect Surface Thoughts A Class Of Things 12-/11- (Mental Group), Discriminatory, Increased Arc Of Perception (360 Degrees), Sense, Limited Power: Perception based on EGO, not INT (+0), Difficult To Dispel (x2 Active Points; +1/4) (21 Active Points); Always On (-1/2), Limited Power: Roll at -1 per full 10 EGO and -1 per full 3 pts Mental Defense (-1/4), Limited Power: Limited Range: Can only "Hear" about 3" - 5" for "normal" volume thoughts. (-1/4)

The idea is that the character is essentially a "radio receiver" for the thoughts of the people around her.

The Always On and Difficult to Dispel is at the player's insistence. (She would prefer Inherent) The character does have Telepathy, and this power is as much a background item as anything else. The character is a martial artist with Mid Level telepathy.

For the character, being in a crowd is like being in the middle of a loud party with everyone yelling over the "music". Appropriate situations, like supervillain shows up in a public location and panic insues, result her needing to make EGO rolls to concentrate on her actions until the crowd dissipates. (And yes, she does have 1D6 Unluck )

The Limited Range is because, as a Mental Group sense, the range is usually LOS, which is not appropriate for the character or the character conception. Basically, thoughts do not have much "broadcast power" in most situations, and thus not much range.

The Limited Power: negatives to the perception roll is also due to the character conception as I understand it. "Quiet minds" and trained minds are not hear as clearly.

My questions include opinions about the power in general, and opinions about the level of the limitations on the power, specifically the Limited Range and the negatives to hear specific items.

Gemphyre

[Hyper-Man]

You've created an interesting custom mechanic for the sfx described.

By making it an EGO based PER roll you seem to be combining ECV and effect.

Is it an Active or Passive Sense?
Would someone with Mental Awareness notice its use?

The sfx itself is what you need to elaborate more on.

The description implies that thoughts 'leak' from everyone's mind to a degree and this somehow bypasses any ECV targeting requirements.

This implies that a device could be constructed that just records thoughts with higher resolution.

Instead of attempting to rewrite the sensory rules I would list the positive and negative aspects of this ability. Most of the description seems to focus on the negative which seems more appropriate as a disadvantage. The rest really depends on whether it's in or out of combat. If it's in I'd suggest a limited Danger Sense. If more often out then possibly a highly limited Telepathy built with Uncontrolled and Always On. The latter is going to be somewhat more expensive than your method.

[gmurie]

The ability to detect surface thoughts is telepathy. Technically, you're not allowed to use a power to replicate another power. If she just doesn't want her character getting snuck up on that's Danger Sense.

This could just as easily (more easily) be replicated with a very low level of telepathy, but why bother? What I mean is, what's the point of this power that you can't do with regular telepathy? After all, once a mentalist gets a lock on someone they can maintain the link.

If she's bound and determined that she wants an AOE telepathy that only reads surface thoughts then build that as a slot in a MPP and put the full on Telepathy in the other slot. Something like 4d6 telepathy, only vs. surface thoughts, nonselective AOE with some multiples, and errrr 0 END and Persistent I guess. Oh, and No Range.

[Gemphyre]

You've created an interesting custom mechanic for the sfx described.

By making it an EGO based PER roll you seem to be combining ECV and effect.

Is it an Active or Passive Sense?
Would someone with Mental Awareness notice its use?

The sfx itself is what you need to elaborate more on.

The description implies that thoughts 'leak' from everyone's mind to a degree and this somehow bypasses any ECV targeting requirements.

This implies that a device could be constructed that just records thoughts with higher resolution.

Instead of attempting to rewrite the sensory rules I would list the positive and negative aspects of this ability. Most of the description seems to focus on the negative which seems more appropriate as a disadvantage. The rest really depends on whether it's in or out of combat. If it's in I'd suggest a limited Danger Sense. If more often out then possibly a highly limited Telepathy built with Uncontrolled and Always On. The latter is going to be somewhat more expensive than your method.

The sense is passive. Mental Awareness would not notice its use. I was explaining the disadvantages and why they were there. I figured that since most people here are familiar with the Hero System, many of the advantages would be obvious.

Danger Sense is not an option. Her perception of the ability does not match Danger Sense. She has the uncontrolled and constant ability to read the thoughts of the people that are physically close to her, and she cannot shut it off.

Gemphyre

[Hyper-Man]

The sense is passive. Mental Awareness would not notice its use. I was explaining the disadvantages and why they were there. I figured that since most people here are familiar with the Hero System, many of the advantages would be obvious.

Danger Sense is not an option. Her perception of the ability does not match Danger Sense. She has the uncontrolled and constant ability to read the thoughts of the people that are physically close to her, and she cannot shut it off.

Gemphyre

What do you consider to be the possible POSITIVE effects of having this ability?

[gmurie]

The sense is passive. Mental Awareness would not notice its use. I was explaining the disadvantages and why they were there. I figured that since most people here are familiar with the Hero System, many of the advantages would be obvious.

Danger Sense is not an option. Her perception of the ability does not match Danger Sense. She has the uncontrolled and constant ability to read the thoughts of the people that are physically close to her, and she cannot shut it off.

Gemphyre

Then you buy invisible for the AOE always on telepathy that only reads surface thoughts. Again, what's the point? There's little advantage over just plain vanilla full on Telepathy. If she's trying to replicate a specific character in fiction or comics then give us the character.

If she just wants her character to have a sense that lets her get a lock on people nearby for her other powers that's Mind Scan. Again, a GM generally won't allow Detect Minds because that's a replication (sort of) of Mind Scan, and frankly Mind Scan is better.

What kind of character is this player wanting? WHY is it is so important that she be able to snoop on all people's surface thoughts at all times. Also, as a GM I'd be discouraging this, because I'd have to build every NPC with Mental Defense just to keep the player from being a pain in my ass.