Suggestions for Social Powers (Sherlock Holmes-type)

[Manic Typist]

So I have a PC who is interested in having as a part of their schtick being extremely observant. Being able to identify by glancing across a room and identifying who is a "romantic soul" so that she could win them over with an over the top story about how her beau was forced to take a post on an airship by her overbearing father and she's needs access to records from the portmaster's office so that... you can see where this is going.

 

Or being able to tell the subtext of a conversation, a person's emotional state, whether their attire is right for their posture, etc.

 

So, basically stuff that are often displayed as Sherlock Holme's type powers, but they don't have to be an exact copy.

 

I'm looking for ideas on types of powers/builds that are inspired by/tied to the SFX of incredible perception.

 

I'm thinking very basic, surface level Mind Reading, perhaps some highly limited Pre/Retro-Cognition (she can make strong conclusions about what a person is about to do or just did based on what they are currently doing or their possessions in their bags, etc.).

 

Thoughts, suggestions? Ideally ones that don't break the points bank?

 

 

[Surrealone]

'Glancing' across a room may be just that to someone who has normal perception, but to someone with incredible perception, one might perceive in a normal person's 'glance' things at the granularity of each distinctive flap of a hummingbird's wings.  i.e. A 'glance' to someone with incredible perception is likely akin to a long look at a slow-mo video of a hummingbird ... in terms of what is perceived.

 

Simulating this is as simple as adding 'rapid' levels to a particular sense or sense group ... most likely sight for a human ... and possibly hearing.  Increased arc of perception for sight may also make sense to widen the breadth of what is perceived in a 'glance' (in addition to adding to its depth by use of 'rapid')

Once you increase the amount of info taken in during brief moments of perception, all I think you need to do is augment that info with appropriate skills for dissecting/parsing it properly.  Communication is supposedly 7% what is said, 38% how it is said (i.e. speed, inflection, and/or tone of voice), and 55% body language.   With that in mind, a hyper observant person could likely dissect what's going on in a room with some INT-based skills as follows:

• Lipreading (to identify, at range, what is being said -- to get that 7%)
• Languages relevant to the area/genre -- to make sure Lipreading as well as what's heard at a cocktail party ... is all consumable/dissectable
• Science (or Professional Skill): Body Language (to read body language like a champ)
• Science (or Professional Skill): Sociology (the study of society -- including the patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and culture -- it should be obvious why)
• Science (or Professional Skill): Psychology (the study of behavior and the mind -- it should be obvious why)
• Deduction (to be able to make intuitive leaps between what is observed with heightened perception ... and the inherent knowledge associated with the aformentioned science/professional skills)
• More science/professional skills as appropriate to what you want to parse/dissect for.  I think you get the idea...

Scientist or Jack of All Trades may make sense if you have a pile of skills you can use to slice/dice the info you take in.  You could also add Discriminatory and/or Analyze to sight and/or hearing ... with the Requires a Roll limitation that's tied to one or more of the science/professional skills ... depending on how far you want to take it.

[mrinku]

Once your skill rolls get into World's Greatest Detective territory this pretty much just happens

 

You'd probably be just fine with INT 25-30 and appropriate skill rolls of 15- or better. Also... you think Holmes didn't just make stuff up or stack the deck anyway? Stage Mentalists do the same schtick and get away with blunders through chutzpah and lucky guesses.

 

The trouble with mental powers is that high EGO or Mental Defence will block it, which doesn't gel with "Super Observant". Professor X can't prevent Sherlock Holmes from doing his thing.

 

Back in the day (pre-4th edition) you just bought up INT and Detective Work. 'Course back in them days, skills were skills. None of yer fiddly three or two point nancy fancy mico skills, no siree! You wanted to deduce facts, dust for fingerprints or autopsy a body then you had to pay ten points, son! And let me tell you - points back then meant something! Why these days with your 400 point sooper-heroes that don't even have to take a proper slate of Disadvantages... why it fair makes a man cry.

 

Get offa ma lawn!

 

[Amorkca]

Once your skill rolls get into World's Greatest Detective territory this pretty much just happens

 

You'd probably be just fine with INT 25-30 and appropriate skill rolls of 15- or better. Also... you think Holmes didn't just make stuff up or stack the deck anyway? Stage Mentalists do the same schtick and get away with blunders through chutzpah and lucky guesses.

 

The trouble with mental powers is that high EGO or Mental Defence will block it, which doesn't gel with "Super Observant". Professor X can't prevent Sherlock Holmes from doing his thing.

 

Back in the day (pre-4th edition) you just bought up INT and Detective Work. 'Course back in them days, skills were skills. None of yer fiddly three or two point nancy fancy mico skills, no siree! You wanted to deduce facts, dust for fingerprints or autopsy a body then you had to pay ten points, son! And let me tell you - points back then meant something! Why these days with your 400 point sooper-heroes that don't even have to take a proper slate of Disadvantages... why it fair makes a man cry.

 

Get offa ma lawn!

 

 

We had to walk uphill to school through 3 feet of snow both ways!!!

[tombrown803]

We had to walk uphill to school through 3 feet of snow both ways!!!

 

Barefoot too.

[mrinku]

Back to serious discussion - I support everything Surrealone said, and once we are dealing with actual superhuman senses you can crank up the Rapid and Analyze and 360 and whatever you like, but before going overboard it's worth remembering:

 

1) Sight is already Discriminatory enough to cover anything Holmes ever did. He may have involved smell a couple of times, but the same applies.

 

2) Holmes makes his pronouncements when he's ready. Typically after he's been introduced to the mark and has had plenty of time to size things up. In some cases, enough time to get a time bonus. Most of his observations could be reasonably made in a phase, so taking a turn would be common.

 

3) Probably starting with at least 16- perception roll, aided by any amount of complementary skills.

 

4) A lot of the clues are pretty easy to spot.

[g3taso]

Once your skill rolls get into World's Greatest Detective territory this pretty much just happens

 

You'd probably be just fine with INT 25-30 and appropriate skill rolls of 15- or better. Also... you think Holmes didn't just make stuff up or stack the deck anyway? Stage Mentalists do the same schtick and get away with blunders through chutzpah and lucky guesses.

 

The trouble with mental powers is that high EGO or Mental Defence will block it, which doesn't gel with "Super Observant". Professor X can't prevent Sherlock Holmes from doing his thing.

 

Back in the day (pre-4th edition) you just bought up INT and Detective Work. 'Course back in them days, skills were skills. None of yer fiddly three or two point nancy fancy mico skills, no siree! You wanted to deduce facts, dust for fingerprints or autopsy a body then you had to pay ten points, son! And let me tell you - points back then meant something! Why these days with your 400 point sooper-heroes that don't even have to take a proper slate of Disadvantages... why it fair makes a man cry.

 

Get offa ma lawn!

 

Warms my heart, being the tender age of 47 and all. I also feel too many people are walking on my lawn...

[Sean Waters]

You could just hand over your GM notes.

 

I mean, that is what this player wants, a look at the script, and a bunch of clues they have not earned, all on the roll of a die, well, three dice.

 

Cynical much?  Nah, but the problem with this type of character is that it looks a lot better in Elementary or Sherlock than it does in an actual game.  Being observant is the SFX of whatever skills or powers they have.  I would be really careful about letting anyone have precognition or telepathy in (what I assume) is a non-super game.

 

Mind you, true story, I played a game of Golden Heroes with my brother running it once and my character was a proper telepath and he sold me a right dummy: I read this dying guys mind and saw this nasty looking chap with claws running at him before he died.  Turns out this was a vigilante superhero who was trying to save him from an unseen attacker.  What a chump I felt, after I found him, beat him unconscious and read his mind too.

 

Example: 

 

Anyway, if all the player wants is to identify a likely mark, how about Analyse: likely soft touch (bearing in mind, but not necessarily mentioning to the player, that a gullible idiot might be fine to cadge a few quid off, but is unlikely to know what actually happened.  

 

This allows them to find a soft point but not necessarily succeed.

 

There is this book by David Gemmell where this city is under siege and the enemy are telepaths, so the leaders pick some twit and send him out on a vitally important secret mission with duff information that he wholeheartedly believes to be true, expecting he will be captured and the (false) information detected and believed by the enemy.

 

Maybe Detect: social incongruity (No conscious control).  I like 'NCC' as it leaves the power in the hands of the GM rather that the player/the dice.

 

"You get a sense that something is not right...the Admiral is wearing the Medusa Medal, but he can not be more than 45 and the Battle of Medusa took place 40 years ago..."

 

You see you are giving them a clue, but not telling them everything, you are doing it when it suits you and you are still leaving them with a puzzle to solve whilst nudging them in the right direction.

 

Another amusing build for this sort of thing is (Side Effects), the side effect specifically being wrong information, a misread: it turns out you charmed him too well - he was lying about knowing who was behind it all to try and impress you...or whatever. 

[Manic Typist]

Yeah... so the player doesn't want any of the cynical BS described above, but more some of the legit stuff is relevant.

 

She wanted to play a very social focus PC, but another PC/player is somewhat infringing on this schtick. I've talked with her about how I can do better to mitigate that, and how she can help on that front. One of our ideas was to play up the part of her background of being highly observant.

 

When I referred to Telepathy, I was using the shorthand for a common build used to tell people's intentions/attitudes with a high degree of reliability, rather than using a plethora of social skill rolls that can fail or take time to adjudicate. Using a mental power can make it more of a sure thing but still low level.

 

Plus, I WANT to give PCs this info - this game involves a lot of intrigue, but it doesn't make sense of me to tell you about the emotional states or potential motives of other NPCs unless you have the skills to justify it. Most of the PCs really don't - even though one is a con man. Since they are struggling somewhat, I want them to succeed, and I want to give this PC more chances to shine/feel special, I'm trying to find ways of powering her up by leveraging the idea/SFX of being extremely observant. Not superhuman senses, just... really observant, and a wide reader. Paying more attention than most people. I'm happy to have it, because I want excuses to give them clues yet make it not seem like I'm just...handing them clues. You have this special ability, look at all the clues you found with it! Well done you!

 

The Detect: Social Incongruity is a perfect example of what I'd suggested to her as a possibility (perfect for giving them warnings that there's someone who doesn't belong...). I hadn't considered building it as a Detect.

 

I also really like the example of a failed roll being explained by someone trying to earnest impress the PC...

 

Oh, and it's a fantasy/steampunk mashup set in a major city. Sorcerers and airships abound.

[megaplayboy]

There's probably some basic principles when addressing a player saying "I want to be able to do X".

1. Is X something that can be covered by a skill or set of skills? If so, suggest the proper skills for doing this, and figure out what the appropriate circumstantial modifiers might be.

2. Is X something that can be covered by a power?  If so, help the player figure out how to write up the power.

3. Is X something that, interpreted too broadly or empowered too much, conveys an ability to the character that may unbalance the game?  If so, figure out what limits should be imposed, and in some circumstances, how to limit the usefulness of the ability.  If it's more or less to keep the ability from unbalancing the game, don't allow it.