Sherlock Scan

[Sean Waters]

You have to ask yourself why you want this in the game.  If it is to be cool, well, it is a special effect of skills and levels and such, and the GM can describe the results of perception rolls or analyse rolls, or even persuasion rolls, to the character as is a cloud of possibility coalesces into words the character can read like labels on everything around.

 

If it is for something else...well, I'm not sure what it is.  Sherlock has trained his perceptions.  He does not have better eyesight or hearing than John Watson, but he has trained himself to notice details that others could perceive but either do not bother with or write off as insignificant.  In effect that enables him to build a chain of logic that allows him to reach conclusions that others can not reach simply because they have insufficient starting information.  Of course if you read the books and watch the TV series (and the films for that matter) then you will notice that Sherlock is an NPC, and John Watson is the PC.  Sherlock often knows the whole plot, or significant portions of it, right from the start, and doles the information out piecemeal.  he's like a GM.  You could design a solo game around a Sherlock character, I suppose, but having a PC with his abilities is probably not going to be that much fun for other players: you solve the plot then call us when you need some heavy lifting doing...

 

If you want to have this in the game anyway then how about clairsentience, with pre- and retro-cognition, as Hyperman mentioned in connection with the Flash?

[Merrick]

I have built a similar power two ways.

One using the Retrocognitive methods suggested and the other using the optional Extraordinary Skills rule in 6e which allowed for 18- skill rolls to function in incredible ways beyond the scope of what's considered "normal" by taking a -10 penalty on the roll.  

 

I had the character in question take extra levels of Forensics as a power with the Concentration limitation.

 

Hope this helps!

[phoenix240]

I have a PC with Discriminatory and Analytical on all her senses who I allow to perform similar feats.

[Steve]

The character in question isn't for a particular game. Sometimes I like just building character concepts in Hero merely to see how they work.

 

In this case, I'm using Hero to model the character's abilities for a story I am working on. Using Hero math helps me define parameters of what the character is capable of.