Tracking sense v tracking skill?

[Alibear]

If we trying to create someone who is almost supernatural tracker would you allow them to buy it as a sense instead of, or, as well as a skill?

 

Detect Tracks, discriminatory sight, as sense & tracking for 17 points? Would you allow analyze too?

[Hyper-Man]

Sure. Seems like legit ranger ability.

[bigdamnhero]

I’d allow it if that’s what the player really wanted. And Analyze would definitely be appropriate; that’s how you seduce details of what happened beyond just where they went, ala Aragorn analyzing the dead Uruks and what happened to the Hobbits in Two Towers.

 

But it seems like a lot of points for what you get compared to just buying up Tracking Skill. Plus as a Detect wouldn’t it be tied to a PER Roll? That means you’d have to also buy up your PER to make it actually effective. Personally I think I’d be more inclined to instead slap some Advantages on Tracking Skill, like Takes No Time/Concentration, or whatever. But Detect seems like a legit approach too.

 

Edit: or hey, what about just adding the Sense Adder/Adv on Tracking Skill?

[Alibear]

Good idea.

[Christopher R Taylor]

Both are good, for different purposes.

 

Someone can leave no scent for a dog to follow, but be trackable by intelligence, observation, and experience.

 

The tracking skill allows you to find traces that someone passed and learn things about them through their traces.  Sometimes you can find out their approximate size, age, weight, and even things like hair color.  Its a matter of knowing patterns, what things are supposed to look like, what people tend to do when they go through an area, and how they affect it.

 

Tracking sense allows you to use a sense to basically follow the dotted line on the ground, its like someone left a glowing trail to follow.  It doesn't tell you anything about them but is much more reliable as to direction and movement.

[Alibear]

Stick analyse on to it and it would.

[Christopher R Taylor]

Right, with Analyze/Discriminatory you can get more information from the tracking; basically it gives you a playback of who was there and what they did.

[Brian Stanfield]

But it seems like a lot of points for what you get compared to just buying up Tracking Skill. Plus as a Detect wouldn’t it be tied to a PER Roll? That means you’d have to also buy up your PER to make it actually effective.

It seems like you could use the tracking skill as a complimentary skill roll for a perception roll. That way you wouldn't have to buy up your perception.

[massey]

Yeah, I'd say that the Tracking skill requires you to spend some time doing it.  You get down on the ground, look for broken twigs, taste the dirt (or something), put your ear to the ground and listen.  That sort of thing.  You look for footprints, signs of old campfires, the place where some guy took a poop behind a tree.  It's a time consuming process and it's affected by environmental conditions.  Even with a really good tracking roll, it's still something that takes time.

 

Tracking as a sense is much faster.  You can basically do it at a dead run.  "They went that way guys, c'mon!"  It's like they left glowing footprints, or a big arrow pointing the way.  It's more expensive, but it's also more useful.

[Crusher Bob]

I’d allow it if that’s what the player really wanted. And Analyze would definitely be appropriate; that’s how you seduce details of what happened beyond just where they went, ala Aragorn analyzing the dead Uruks and what happened to the Hobbits in Two Towers.

 

 

Baaard! stop doing things with the crime scene!

 

Bard: But it'll tell me everything we want to know after a nice dinner pancakes...  You're just sad you can't investigate.

 

[edit]

 

Which of course leads to the wonderful follow up:

 

<around one year later>

The rest of the party stood around awkwardly as the bard investigated the new crime scene.  They were sure they had solved the kingdom's werewolf problem a year ago, alas the blood splatter and destroyed furniture looked very much like the scenes they had looked at just a year ago...

 

Bard: Hmm, well that's certainly a thing. 

 

Party: What, are there werewolves we missed?

 

Bard:  Well, uh, no, not really. You see, uh, meet my daughter.  The bloodspatter and destroyed furniture somehow gave the impression of waving while simultaneously hiding behind the bard's legs.

 

Party: What? just... what?

 

Bard: Well, when I investigated the last crime scene...

 

The party had quickly learned to measure the bard's explanations in how many drinks it took them to get through them; this was looking like a five drink minimum.

 

Bard: ...and now that her mom's not around anymore, I figure we'll take her in and I'll train her to be a bard, just like me!

[LoneWolf]

If your power is based on sight don’t forget about the simulated sense group rule.  Enhanced Senses (Unusual or otherwise) automatically acquire some or all of the following Sense Modifiers for no additional cost when assigned to a Sense Group: Discriminatory (to whatever degree indicated in the descriptions below), Range, Sense, Targeting.  You did forget to take the tracking adder on the detect so if your power is based on sight it cost 10 pts.  Without the tracking adder you can locate, but not follow tracks.  You could also see about simply purchasing the tracking adder for your sight, but that would be a GM call.

 

The character will still want to purchase the skill tracking so that he can hide his tracks from other using tracking on him.