Bugging for the gadgeteer

[unclevlad]

So, had a notion for a character.  Powers include desolid for slipping in and out discreetly, which makes Bugging and Concealment a natural option.  

 

Per 6E1, when you buy bugging, you get a small supply of average-quality bugs.  You can pay points for better stuff (it's supers).  Well,

1.  What's average quality?  (There's various bugs in the Equipment Guide, but 8x range is arguably Not Average, at least to me.)

2.  Why have to re-invent the wheel?  Perfectly happy to buy Electronics and Inventor.  Given that, I'd rather translate the "average quality" into a free power, and just work from there for "good" bugs.

 

So...

 

18    Standard Bug (sight and sound): Clairsentience (Hearing Group And Normal Sight) (44 Active Points); IAF (-1/2), No Range (Must be placed at PP; -1/2), One Sense Only (Normal Hearing; -1/4), Sense Affected As More Than One Sense [any other Sense] (Radio Sense Group; -1/4), 1 Continuing Fuel Charge lasting 1 Week (+3/4)

 

This is adjusted from the EG's.  No extended range, it's dropped down to normal hearing and sight.  Range would be 250 meters.  

 

From here,  I built what would be 'naked adders' for various things.  As such:  they must automatically inherit the standard bug's advantages and limitations.  I shorthanded them.  The basis is a Custom Power in HD.  

3    Well Concealed : -4 Modifier to searcher's Concealment roll (-4 Sight PER), Base Bug advantages (+3/4) (7 Active Points); Base Bug Limitations (-1 1/2) 
4    Discreet Transmitter: -6 Modifier to PER with Detect Bugs, Base Bug advantages (+3/4) (10 Active Points); Base Bug Limitations (-1 1/2) 
4    Increased Range: 2x Range, Base Bug advantages (+3/4) (9 Active Points); Base Bug Limitations (-1 1/2)

 

And you can go on from there.  These fit into a gadget pool nicely, and I feel I'm getting value for points spent, which I don't feel is the case if I have to pay for the base bug in my gadget pool...that's a lot of active points.  Plus, I can establish I've get X standard bugs, and can tune each one to task separately, if I want.

[dmjalund]

or just buy hearing etc in a focus and buy radio transmit to send the info to you (who would have radio Hearing or whatever

[unclevlad]

That's going to be far more convoluted...and by the time you're done?  Probably MORE expensive.  You'd have to buy a whole separate "normal hearing, IAF, ......" and the rules don't *like* that.  It's what Clairvoyance is for.  Then the radio side.  The Standard Visual Bug (HS6 EG, p. 304) hand-waves the radio aspect (affected as radio group) and assumes someone has the receiver.  No need to make it explicit, it's SFX.  It's a limitation because it can be jammed and detected.