Detect this!

[Boll Weevil]

Hi, Heroes.

Time for another discussion of things we've all used but rarely talk about. Today's discussion is Detect. Many powers work just as they are written in the book, others vary by special effect. The power we call Detect is really Detect XXXXX.

 

First, I am curious to hear the most unusual Detects you've ever used. Detect Evil, Detect Souls etc. Second, how have you tweaked the power for your characters? For instance, one of our old players played an Ironman homage that had a variable power pool that fed Detects. His onboard computer could Detect distance, scan for wall thickness, find energy trails etc.

 

The game mechanics are better written for such things now than they were back then. Tell me about your Detects.

[Christopher]

Re: Detect this!

 

My "wierdest" detect so far was a simply Radio Perception.

 

However, I had one planned for Grey Angel, supertech/power armor heroine in 5E, a supertech-interpretation of 5E Spartial Awareness.

X-17-SA Omnisensor:

22 Character Points (Detect Physical Objects[10], Targetting, Sense; Active)

Note: Uses a combination of advanced Sonar, Micrometer Radar and some passive optical sensors (IR and UV amongst others) for almost unavoidable detection; Detected as Active Sonar and Radar; Blocked only if active Radar, Active Sonar and Passive Sight not availible

 

I once thought about using detect as Basis for a Flashlight:

In it's extreme form, a Flashlight is nothing but making your sight an Active sense - it does not needs anohter source of light, but also becomes detectable.

 

Another idea was for a weapon who specialised in Killing everthign living. It had very powerfull detect, but also hated all living so much that it announced it's presence. A little bit like the "I see you" of Sauron (but rather a "I hate you, want to kill you").

While it would allow my hero to fight in total darkness when all other senses where down (Spartial Detect), it also gave the enemy a precise Impression of his Location.

So a spartial Awareness with Side Effect (targets recieve equal sense towards user).

[Enforcer84]

Re: Detect this!

 

I've used it as a power analyzer: Detect Superhuman Powers, Discriminatory, Analyze, Ranged

Low-grade Empathy: Detect Emotional State (Discriminatory, Analyze, Ranged)

Demon Hunter: Detect Demonic Being (I think the original Definition for that campaign was "Soulless") Disc, Ranged, Targeting.

[Escafarc]

Re: Detect this!

 

I had a character with Detect Dr. Destroyer [the Dr. had Detect:Agent Sable(my PC)]it worked a lot like the Highlander's detect other immortals.

[Hyper-Man]

Re: Detect this!

 

Hi, Heroes.

Time for another discussion of things we've all used but rarely talk about. Today's discussion is Detect. Many powers work just as they are written in the book, others vary by special effect. The power we call Detect is really Detect XXXXX.

 

First, I am curious to hear the most unusual Detects you've ever used. Detect Evil, Detect Souls etc. Second, how have you tweaked the power for your characters? For instance, one of our old players played an Ironman homage that had a variable power pool that fed Detects. His onboard computer could Detect distance, scan for wall thickness, find energy trails etc.

 

The game mechanics are better written for such things now than they were back then. Tell me about your Detects.

 

I think Detect and all the other sense rules are usually the last section of HERO mechanics that most players and GM's alike really learn well.

 

Because Detect is considered a Special Power (like all Enhanced Senses) it requires GM permission to be included within any Framework. Starting with Clairsentience (a Standard Power) is a rules legal way around this restriction (Detect can be part of the Clairsentience build). This is why I used both approaches with my version of Superman. The VPP based Clairsentience build could be applied to any sfx character type (Radiation, Magnetism, Plant Controller, etc..).

 

I've also noticed more than one thread started about how to build "detect invisible characters". (The answer is that you either base the Detect on a Sense that is unaffected by the Invisibility or start with a Drain or Dispel approach instead).

[MisterVimes]

Re: Detect this!

 

I've used it as a power analyzer: Detect Superhuman Powers' date=' Discriminatory, Analyze, Ranged[/quote']

 

I like this one. I used something similar for a Super Bounty Hunter. He was part Kraven the Hunter (Spider-Man villain) and part Ulysses Bloodstone (weird immortal Marvel Comics monster hunter). The players hated seeing him coming.

[Ockham's Spoon]

Re: Detect this!

 

The strangest Detect that has ever appeared in one of my games was for a character that had been cursed so they they could not harm the righteous without taking damage. "Righteous" was defined as a character who truly believed themselves to be doing the right thing, and it was a GM call in any given instance (some characters could be righteous in one circumstance but amoral in another, so the Detect was situational).

 

Anyway the build was bought as Detect Righteous, must attack target to for Detect to trigger. Then the character had a Susceptibility to attacking the righteous. This allowed the character to figure out whose motives were noble and whose motives weren't, but it hurt a lot to do so, which prevented the character from doing so willy-nilly.

[Hyper-Man]

Re: Detect this!

 

So what sense group was the Detect based on?

 

Detect itself is not a sense group, it has to be based on something (sight, hearing, special etc..) and if it's the last one then all the 'extras' that come for free with the first two need to be purchased if the ability is assumed to work that way (works as a sense, range, etc..).

[phoenix240]

Re: Detect this!

 

Detect: Vulnerabilities Analyze, Ranged.

 

And the character has an Attack variable SFX: Any

[Lucius]

Re: Detect this!

 

I once thought about using detect as Basis for a Flashlight:

In it's extreme form, a Flashlight is nothing but making your sight an Active sense - it does not needs anohter source of light, but also becomes detectable.

 

What a bright idea!

 

Flashlight: Can switch to Active Sense (+1/4) for up to 35 Active Points of Sight, 4 clips of 1 Continuing Fuel Charge lasting 6 Hours (Increased Reloading Time: 2 Full Phases; +1/4), Constant (+1/2) (16 Active Points); OAF (-1), Side Effects (Flash Attack if someone is exposed to light after darkness; -1/4) Real Cost 10

 

Have I told you lately I'm glad you hang around here?

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary wants to lighten the load

[Lucius]

Re: Detect this!

 

Piercing Gaze of the Third Eye: Detect Things Invisible to Sight Group (Mental Group), Discriminatory, Penetrative (otherwise the spellcaster would only have the stunning revelation "My head is surrounded by invisible air!"), Targeting (28 Active Points); Concentration, Must Concentrate throughout use of Constant Power (1/2 DCV; -1/2), Gestures, Requires Gestures throughout (-1/2), Requires A Magic Roll (Skill roll; -1/2), Costs Endurance (-1/2), Incantations (-1/4), IIF (Large needle held to center of brow; -1/4) Real Cost 8

 

Lucius Alexander

 

Detect Palindromedary

[Enforcer84]

Re: Detect this!

 

So what sense group was the Detect based on?

 

Detect itself is not a sense group, it has to be based on something (sight, hearing, special etc..) and if it's the last one then all the 'extras' that come for free with the first two need to be purchased if the ability is assumed to work that way (works as a sense, range, etc..).

 

True, for my three examples it was based on sight, no sense group, and smell respectively

[Christopher]

Re: Detect this!

 

Anyway the build was bought as Detect Righteous' date=' must attack target to for Detect to trigger. Then the character had a Susceptibility to attacking the righteous. This allowed the character to figure out whose motives were noble and whose motives weren't, but it hurt a lot to do so, which prevented the character from doing so willy-nilly.[/quote']

Unless he has other Succeptibilities, why did he even needed the Detect?

He has to attack to use it, wich mean he suffers the Succpetibility. So suffering the Succpetibility, means he attacked someone with righteous intentions. Or do I miss anything?

[Ockham's Spoon]

Re: Detect this!

 

Unless he has other Succeptibilities, why did he even needed the Detect?

He has to attack to use it, wich mean he suffers the Succpetibility. So suffering the Succpetibility, means he attacked someone with righteous intentions. Or do I miss anything?

 

Because at the time of the build we decided that he would be getting a free power (Detect Righteous) by taking a Complication unless he bought the Detect as well. Being able to determine the intent of someones actions is a potentially powerful ability, and could easily mess up any number of situations where characters are engaged in subterfuge, so it seemed reasonable he should have to pay for it. The Susceptibility just made sure the Detect didn't get used indicriminately. It would be like taking a Complication for being really heavy, but you still have to pay for Knockback Resistance.

 

The Detect Righteous was based on Touch of course, you can make of that what you will.

[Christopher]

Re: Detect this!

 

My "wierdest" detect so far was a simply Radio Perception.

 

However, I had one planned for Grey Angel, supertech/power armor heroine in 5E, a supertech-interpretation of 5E Spartial Awareness.

X-17-SA Omnisensor:

22 Character Points (Detect Physical Objects[10], Targetting, Sense; Active)

Note: Uses a combination of advanced Sonar, Micrometer Radar and some passive optical sensors (IR and UV amongst others) for almost unavoidable detection; Detected as Active Sonar and Radar; Blocked only if active Radar, Active Sonar and Passive Sight not availible

Another (planned but never used) idea for Grey Angel. She had the above sensor tech + powerfull cloaking devices (visual/radar) + some decent antigrav drone tech. While she wouldn't use A.I.'s in the drones, she could still use them as an early warning system. I the worst scenario, she woudl jsut filter the sensor imput through her brain. At first I thought of building them with summon and give them their cloaking + Sensors but then I found a much simpler approach:

Dange Sense, Sense, Out of Combat, Any Danger, Immediaty vicinity (32 base points), IIF* (-1/4), Affected as radio Group (-1/4)

 

*those are up to four drones, cloaked. They are still somwhat detectable, thanks to the sound of their engines and that they use active senses.

 

An obvious extension of this would be to put this in the same Multipower as a Clairsentience.

[Matt the Bruins]

Re: Detect this!

 

I considered buying a Detect Souls (Sight Group) with Discriminatory and Analyze for my Young Scratch character so he could tell the state of a person's soul at a glance. But ultimately I decided I didn't want him to have that much information about people. One of his example VPP powers is Extra-Dimensional Movement UAA that can be defended against by being a righteous person, so he can only send the truly deserving to Hell, but he's limited to guessing whether or not it will work beforehand.

[Christopher]

Re: Detect this!

 

I considered buying a Detect Souls (Sight Group) with Discriminatory and Analyze for my Young Scratch character so he could tell the state of a person's soul at a glance. But ultimately I decided I didn't want him to have that much information about people. One of his example VPP powers is Extra-Dimensional Movement UAA that can be defended against by being a righteous person' date=' so he can only send the truly deserving to Hell, but he's limited to guessing whether or not it will work beforehand.[/quote']

I know this is of topic, put I wold buy involuntary EDM as Severe Transform. Turning someone into Stone or a Frog makes them equally unable to act on the normal world. And healed by "EDM to any other dimension" sounds fairly okay for me as a defense/healing method (at least in a supers setting).

[Cancer]

Re: Detect this!

 

To overcome invisible infiltrators, I had an Evil Overlord make the entry to his stronghold necessarily pass through a room where the air included a component was mildly radioactive (tritium in the water vapor, carbon-14 in the CO2, nitrogen-13 in the nitrogen). The concentrations were so low as to be negligible in damage-making potential, but breathing it in got some into your system. The room with the "hot" air was a long passage, not threatening in and of itself, but there were air locks (that were not obviously air locks, apparently just intermediate chambers with doors that were airtight) on either end.

 

Getting the radioactive gas into you meant you would light up low-level radiation counters for some time after being in there (and I played that "some time" as a couple of hours). Certain places "downstream" of the chambers would create holograms in the space where invisible characters were, as a targeting aid for visually-oriented mook guards.

 

This made undetected intrusion by the inevitable ninja-esque sneaks and the outright invisible guys rather more problematic, without tipping how that detection was being accomplished. There were hints recoverable after escaping from the stronghold) for how it worked, but it took a while to work that out. Use of a simple bottled air supply while intruding was adequate to defeat the detection.

 

Sticky mats on the floor that leave a radioactive residue on one's shoes were also part of the mix.

[Ockham's Spoon]

Re: Detect this!

 

To overcome invisible infiltrators, I had an Evil Overlord make the entry to his stronghold necessarily pass through a room where the air included a component was mildly radioactive (tritium in the water vapor, carbon-14 in the CO2, nitrogen-13 in the nitrogen). The concentrations were so low as to be negligible in damage-making potential, but breathing it in got some into your system. The room with the "hot" air was a long passage, not threatening in and of itself, but there were air locks (that were not obviously air locks, apparently just intermediate chambers with doors that were airtight) on either end.

 

Getting the radioactive gas into you meant you would light up low-level radiation counters for some time after being in there (and I played that "some time" as a couple of hours). Certain places "downstream" of the chambers would create holograms in the space where invisible characters were, as a targeting aid for visually-oriented mook guards.

 

This made undetected intrusion by the inevitable ninja-esque sneaks and the outright invisible guys rather more problematic, without tipping how that detection was being accomplished. There were hints recoverable after escaping from the stronghold) for how it worked, but it took a while to work that out. Use of a simple bottled air supply while intruding was adequate to defeat the detection.

 

Sticky mats on the floor that leave a radioactive residue on one's shoes were also part of the mix.

 

Very nice. I will have to borrow that idea

[Matt Holck]

Re: Detect this!

 

the blood sucking fairy tasted honey mead cherry but my business query carried no leads.

[randian]

Re: Detect this!

 

To overcome invisible infiltrators' date=' I had an Evil Overlord make the entry to his stronghold necessarily pass through a room where the air included a component was mildly radioactive (tritium in the water vapor, carbon-14 in the CO2, nitrogen-13 in the nitrogen).[/quote']

Area Effect, Invisible, Continuous, cosmetic Transform?

[Cancer]

Re: Detect this!

 

That sounds right, but it's been several years so I've forgotten the details.

[Christopher]

Re: Detect this!

 

Area Effect' date=' Invisible, Continuous, cosmetic Transform?[/quote']

It think in Chapions 6E the car-tracking-bug is built as Images to Radio Group, +4 perception.