what power do i use to stop scrying/bugs

[Tin Man]

Is there a basic power i can modify for a cyberpath that will stop electronic bugging and magical scrying?

suppress maybe? any ideas?

[David Johnston]

Re: what power do i use to stop scrying/bugs

 

First you have to figure out what powers or senses are being used for the magical and electronic eavesdropping. Then get Darkness versus it.

Darkness versus Clairsentience, N-Ray Perception, Radio, and Telephone wires should probably cover it. Although I have difficulty imagining how a "cyberpath" could get a power that stops magical scrying.

[Robyn]

Re: what power do i use to stop scrying/bugs

 

Although I have difficulty imagining how a "cyberpath" could get a power that stops magical scrying.

 

I think he's imagining that magical and scientific energies interfere with each other. I would leave that up to the GM; possibly the universe itself doesn't work that way, and it's just that all the magical characters he's seen so far have taken the limitation "science interferes with this" on their powers.

[ghost-angel]

Re: what power do i use to stop scrying/bugs

 

Ivisibility works as well.. I'd start with Invisibility: Radio Group (Bugging Devices Only) and branch out with a series of specific Detects.

[Dust Raven]

Re: what power do i use to stop scrying/bugs

 

Most "bugging" type Powers are bought with Clairsentience. I'd recomend buying Darkness vs. Clairsentience (I think this blocks any sense used through Clairsentience, but not any senses used in person; Clairsentience should be considered a Targeting Sense Group). If this works (SFX wise) the way I think it does, the Limitation could limit the Power to affect only versions of Clairsentience with the SFX of an electrical device being at the location being perceived. It shouldn't affect telescopic sattillites, telescopes, bionic ears and the like.

[McCoy]

Re: what power do i use to stop scrying/bugs

 

Although I have difficulty imagining how a "cyberpath" could get a power that stops magical scrying.

*shrug* While not a cyberpath, my character Iron Will is a technomage.

[dstarfire]

Re: what power do i use to stop scrying/bugs

 

Since you can't (and shouldn't expect to) build defenses against every way given effect could be built, find one that seems to describe what you want, then talk it over with your GM.

 

On the other hand, if you're the GM, you can commit to building all 'bugs' a certain way, or simply ignore the mechanics and narrate the desired effects.

[Silbeg]

Re: what power do i use to stop scrying/bugs

 

Ivisibility works as well.. I'd start with Invisibility: Radio Group (Bugging Devices Only) and branch out with a series of specific Detects.

 

Close to what I was thinking, but I would probably go with Darkness vs. Radio Group... as a jammer.

 

That, of course, assumes that bugs are typically radio transmitters.

[Lucius]

Re: what power do i use to stop scrying/bugs

 

The answer is not always a power.

 

If I don't want people to see me in the bath, I just make sure my house has opaque walls - i.e. I don't move into a glass house. That's not a power on my "base" (home) it's just SFX of the construction.

 

If I don't want the rest of the household to hear me and wake up when I sneak home after playing Champions until dawn, I try to move quietly. That's not a power either, that's use of Stealth skill - which everyone has at 8 or less.

 

It's possible to buy Invisibility for a base, but it's also possible to make it hard to find with Concealment and Disquise skills bought for the base.

 

Normal bugs can usually be found with a Bugging skill roll, can't they? If a character has magickal perceptions (like Detect Magick as a Sense) or powers, or even just Magick skill, perhaps they could use Bugging (or a similar custom skill) to detect magickal "bugs" or the scry-points of Clairsentience.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary asks "what's a cyberpath?" and muses on the fact that "cyber" is from the Greek for "pilot" who was the steersman on a ship who chose a "path" that would avoid rocks and sandbars and so forth...so you'd think "cyber path" would mean a safe way to take among dangerous obstacles...

[Dust Raven]

Re: what power do i use to stop scrying/bugs

 

The palindromedary asks "what's a cyberpath?" and muses on the fact that "cyber" is from the Greek for "pilot" who was the steersman on a ship who chose a "path" that would avoid rocks and sandbars and so forth...so you'd think "cyber path" would mean a safe way to take among dangerous obstacles...

 

Cyberpath: also, technopath, telemechanic, psi-mechanic, cyberkinetic. A person with the ability to control/manipulate electricity and electrical devices through mental control and/or who has an innate understanding of how electrical/mechanical devices work and how to design/build them.

 

There are lots of examples of such characters in fiction, but unfortunately the only one that's currently coming to mind is Major Pain from Sky High.

[Fenixcrest]

Re: what power do i use to stop scrying/bugs

 

Supress Clairsentience, perhaps?

[McCoy]

Re: what power do i use to stop scrying/bugs

 

Cyberpath: also, technopath, telemechanic, psi-mechanic, cyberkinetic. A person with the ability to control/manipulate electricity and electrical devices through mental control and/or who has an innate understanding of how electrical/mechanical devices work and how to design/build them.

 

There are lots of examples of such characters in fiction, but unfortunately the only one that's currently coming to mind is Major Pain from Sky High.

Magneto. Can access computer memory with no I/O device.

[Dust Raven]

Re: what power do i use to stop scrying/bugs

 

Magneto. Can access computer memory with no I/O device.

 

Yeah, I guess he could be considered something like a cyberpath, but really limited in that regard. He's basically just a really powerful magnetokinetic. Most cyberpaths can't do what Magneto does, and can do a lot of what he can't, but there is some significent overlap.

[NuSoardGraphite]

Re: what power do i use to stop scrying/bugs

 

Is there a basic power i can modify for a cyberpath that will stop electronic bugging and magical scrying?

suppress maybe? any ideas?

 

Depends on the exact SFX you want.

 

If you have a character that can sense that he's being spied upon and then can interrupt the scrying, that would be Dispel or Suppress.

 

If you have a character that can create a field that prevents scrying, that would most likely take the form of a Darkness field.

 

If you have a character that is simply impossible for scrying devices to find, that could be simulated via Invisibility.

 

If you have a character that can send a sensory "surge" back to the scryer to overload their scrying senses, that could be simulated via a Flash.

[transmetahuman]

Re: what power do i use to stop scrying/bugs

 

Cyberpath: also, technopath, telemechanic, psi-mechanic, cyberkinetic. A person with the ability to control/manipulate electricity and electrical devices through mental control and/or who has an innate understanding of how electrical/mechanical devices work and how to design/build them.

 

There are lots of examples of such characters in fiction, but unfortunately the only one that's currently coming to mind is Major Pain from Sky High.

The latter version: Forge from the X-Men; maybe Gizmo from that Teen Titans enemy group. For the former version: Madison Jeffries (sp?) from Alpha Flight; there's some kid (Edit: Wiz Kid) in one of the X-Books I think; arguably Upgrade from Ben 10 on Cartoon Network.

[Cancer]

Re: what power do i use to stop scrying/bugs

 

Supress Clairsentience' date=' perhaps?[/quote']

That's how I did it while trying to build an indetectable base ... extended AOE, IPE Suppress Clairsentience. The effect being that you do not detect the place for what it is, AND (because of the IPE) you don't realize your Clairsentience is being messed with. The base was (modestly) underground already, under and adjoining a civilian heavy industrial park, so the SFX are simply that the base looks like part of the industrial activity.

[Lxndr]

Re: what power do i use to stop scrying/bugs

 

Doesn't Suppress need to work on the user, not the effect? Darkness feels more "appropriate" to me.

 

I'm also now imagining 'hardening' Darkness, and buying 'Armor Piercing' for Clairsentience, to get through Darkness...

 

Lots of interesting possibilities there.

[prestidigitator]

Re: what power do i use to stop scrying/bugs

 

The Cryptography Skill.

[Erkenfresh]

Re: what power do i use to stop scrying/bugs

 

You should also consider the difference between Invisibility and Darkness. With Darkness, the scryer would know there's a hole in what he's seeing. With Invisibility, he wouldn't even know you were there at all.

[Fenixcrest]

Re: what power do i use to stop scrying/bugs

 

Also, don't forget Mind Scan as a form of scrying, combined with Telepathy to determine, by your surface thoughts, where you are and what you are doing. Perhaps Mental Defense is in order?

[Dust Raven]

Re: what power do i use to stop scrying/bugs

 

Also' date=' don't forget Mind Scan as a form of scrying, combined with Telepathy to determine, by your surface thoughts, where you are and what you are doing. Perhaps Mental Defense is in order?[/quote']

 

Mental Defense would prevent the Mind Scan from "locking on" (and prevent Telepathy from even being attempted), but the scanner would still know where the character generally is and can keep scanning to verify this from time to time, possibly narrowing down your exact location by scanning progressively smaller areas to see which ones still enable the "ping" of hitting the character's ECV.

 

Since Mind Scan is a sense in the Mental Sense Group, Invisibility to that group offers an absolute defense against it, but not other forms of scrying, such as Clairsentience, though I suppose since that's a "sense" of sorts, you could by Invisility to that as well.

[prestidigitator]

Re: what power do i use to stop scrying/bugs

 

It takes a little creative rules interpretation, but how about Mental Illusions with Damage Shield and Works Through Electronic Signals (-0) (I say -0 because the benefits of the Damage Shield applying to anyone observing with a line of electronic signals somewhere in the path between sensor and observer probably outweigh the drawbacks of not being able to use it on people who scry using completely non-technological means).

[Fenixcrest]

Re: what power do i use to stop scrying/bugs

 

Mental Defense would prevent the Mind Scan from "locking on" (and prevent Telepathy from even being attempted), but the scanner would still know where the character generally is and can keep scanning to verify this from time to time, possibly narrowing down your exact location by scanning progressively smaller areas to see which ones still enable the "ping" of hitting the character's ECV.

 

Since Mind Scan is a sense in the Mental Sense Group, Invisibility to that group offers an absolute defense against it, but not other forms of scrying, such as Clairsentience, though I suppose since that's a "sense" of sorts, you could by Invisility to that as well.

 

The scanner would only know the character's direction/general distance if the target's EGO +10 is exceeded by the Mind Scan Dice - target's Mental Defence (or, just direction if EGO +0 is exceeded, though large enough Mental Defence can prevent that). Although, now that I have the table in front of me, sufficiently huge dice would negate the need for telepathy unless the scanner wanted to know what was going on around the target.

Also, as a GM, I would shoot down Mental Invisibility, since it's basically a cheaper way of buying Mental Defence.

 

EDIT: I found the "general location" clause that you mentioned. I think that mainly applies to a largely blind "mental location" - i.e., among these 5,000 minds that I scanned in that town over yonder, I got a ping from the guy I was looking for. If you're scrying blind, though, meaning you don't know which town to scan, then we're looking at "Oh, I got a ping from my target! That means he's someplace... on... the planet. Dang."

[Dust Raven]

Re: what power do i use to stop scrying/bugs

 

The scanner would only know the character's direction/general distance if the target's EGO +10 is exceeded by the Mind Scan Dice - target's Mental Defence (or, just direction if EGO +0 is exceeded, though large enough Mental Defence can prevent that). Although, now that I have the table in front of me, sufficiently huge dice would negate the need for telepathy unless the scanner wanted to know what was going on around the target.

Also, as a GM, I would shoot down Mental Invisibility, since it's basically a cheaper way of buying Mental Defence.

I encourage it, because it fills the players with a sense of false hope. Congratulations! You cannot be contacted with Mind Scan! But since this guy already has LOS he's just gonna Mind Control you to walk off that cliff... Invisiblity to Mental Sense Group only protects the character from Mind Scan, and that's it, and only because Mind Scan is specfically labled a Sense. No other Mental Powers is (as far as game mechanics go; Telepathy might be viewed as a "sense", but it's not a Sense).

 

EDIT: I found the "general location" clause that you mentioned. I think that mainly applies to a largely blind "mental location" - i.e., among these 5,000 minds that I scanned in that town over yonder, I got a ping from the guy I was looking for. If you're scrying blind, though, meaning you don't know which town to scan, then we're looking at "Oh, I got a ping from my target! That means he's someplace... on... the planet. Dang."

Which is why I don't think Mind Scan is the appropriate method to use for scrying in the first place. It might help you find a living target, but not always, and almost only when you have a good idea where the target is. If you've got that, might as well use Clairsentience, which doesn't even alert the target of what you're doing.

[prestidigitator]

Re: what power do i use to stop scrying/bugs

 

Which is why I don't think Mind Scan is the appropriate method to use for scrying in the first place. It might help you find a living target' date=' but not always, and almost only when you have a good idea where the target is.[/quote']

...and especially who the target is.