Dust Raven Posted November 25, 2003 Report Share Posted November 25, 2003 I'm sure this has come up before but... Unbreakable (the movie). He had this ability to touch someone and sense/see "bad" things they had done. How would you write this up? I'm think Telepathy or Clairsentience (retrocog), but I can't figure out how to make it always, involentarily, activate upon physical contact without some over complicated combination of Modifiers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farkling Posted November 25, 2003 Report Share Posted November 25, 2003 Telepathy is for people Retrocognition is for places If you see it through THEIR eyes, it would definitely be Telepathy. Retrocognition is designed to act on a place or location as I read it... I'd probably model it with Telepathy. Always On, Lack of Control come to mind for limitations, as does "only to percieve actions I find morally reprehensible" EGO+20 should give both the past actions and actions being planned. Willis also has a damn good PER roll, or a damn good complimentary Concealment roll for finding weapons...of course, that could be done with a "Detect Concealed Weapons" modelled on the unusual sense group also...giving it a super power edge... apply an "intuitive" limitation to it so he just knows they are "dangerous" ... or even model it as a low level Danger Sense for an area... There's my .02 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheFool1972 Posted November 28, 2003 Report Share Posted November 28, 2003 Actually, I have to vote for clairsentience. He is seeing the situation of the EVENT, not their thoughts. He is also seeing it from the OUTSIDE. The Fool Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monolith Posted November 28, 2003 Report Share Posted November 28, 2003 I would go with the Clairsentience (retro) as a Damage Shield and give it No Conscious Control -1. I might even give it the Offensive Damage Shield Advantage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farkling Posted November 29, 2003 Report Share Posted November 29, 2003 Mechanically speaking you'd need to buy up the range on the Clairsentience...it to only activates within a certain distance of the actual event. I really think it is some sort of wide area Danger Sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheFool1972 Posted November 29, 2003 Report Share Posted November 29, 2003 Actually, danger sense advises you to threats to yourself. He could only sense the bad things others had done, no what they planned to do. The Fool Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dugfromthearth Posted November 29, 2003 Report Share Posted November 29, 2003 retroc doesn't really work for this. It is a sense. It doesn't automatically zero in on the precise moment of interest to you. He would be able to touch people and view their entire past, not just instantly know if they were bad or planned something bad. Telepathy makes more sense with this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kristopher Posted November 29, 2003 Report Share Posted November 29, 2003 I say give him Retrocognition only, No Conscious Control, and leave the rest to GM fiat. Go beyond that, and you're trying so hard for the letter, and forgetting the spirit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badger3k Posted November 29, 2003 Report Share Posted November 29, 2003 Ditto. Telepathy would give you events colored by their perception. So they may see a murder as self-defense. The no conscious control lets the GM run with it. Add always on and limit it to "really bad crimes" (or whatever phrase works) to prevent every little sin/crime they've done would show up. For sfx, you can have the scene show up as being outside (like watching it happen on tv), or it can be seen through their eyes (but not include their thoughts). I added this in not having seen Unbreakable yet (have the DVD, but just haven't sat down and watched it). The dead zone also comes to mind, although IIRC it worked into the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dust Raven Posted November 29, 2003 Author Report Share Posted November 29, 2003 Hey Badger3K! TMBG Rules!!!! Definately see the movie! Anyways, in the film, the events he "percieved" were shown from an outside perspective. I'm leaning toward Telepathy at this point, but it's looking expensive. I've got to make sure it can still effect characters with high EGO and possible Mental Defense (although it could simply not work against such people). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farkling Posted November 29, 2003 Report Share Posted November 29, 2003 It didn't work on Mr. Glass...who definitely had a high EGO... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farkling Posted November 29, 2003 Report Share Posted November 29, 2003 Actually, danger sense advises you to threats to yourself. He could only sense the bad things others had done, no what they planned to do. I had to look this up... Page 63, "The character can also make his Danger Sense cover a broader area and more people by paying more points::" See text in book It's an interesting way to model StarHawk from the old Guardians of the Galaxy... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheFool1972 Posted November 29, 2003 Report Share Posted November 29, 2003 Originally posted by Farkling It didn't work on Mr. Glass...who definitely had a high EGO... He wore gloves until the end. Don't know why this seemed to stop him from reading, though. He never had skin contact with the others either... The Fool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheFool1972 Posted November 29, 2003 Report Share Posted November 29, 2003 Originally posted by Farkling I had to look this up... Page 63, "The character can also make his Danger Sense cover a broader area and more people by paying more points::" See text in book It's an interesting way to model StarHawk from the old Guardians of the Galaxy... Umn... Danger sense still only reads danger, not the bad things that have already happened... He couldn't see what was going to happen, only what happened. The Fool Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dust Raven Posted November 30, 2003 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2003 Originally posted by TheFool1972 Umn... Danger sense still only reads danger, not the bad things that have already happened... He couldn't see what was going to happen, only what happened. The Fool The guy in line at the ball game. He hadn't done anything bad yet. And he might not have caused any trouble, but he was trying to sneak a weapon into the stadium, which is bad. If he was going to cause trouble, it might have been Danger Sense that detected it and pinpointed it. I believe he just senses the present or past wrongdoings of others, particularly those which they have not been held accounted for. I don't think he'll pick anything up off of a guy who'd just got out of prison unless he was already commiting other crimes. Originally posted by Farkling It didn't work on Mr. Glass...who definitely had a high EGO... If I recall correctly, David Dunn & Mr. Glass never physically touched, even through gloves and clothing, until that final scene. It's been a while though, but I'm pretty sure they did touch until then. In any case, at the end it did work on him, which a high EGO has to be accounted for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zornwil Posted December 1, 2003 Report Share Posted December 1, 2003 First, it appeared to be at this point either an undeveloped power with an Activation roll, or, more likely, "No Conscious Control" in that while he might get something, he might not, and it's up to the GM (so to speak). Second, as has been mentioned, I think it's hard to determine whether this is really a Danger Sense or a "simple" retrocognition. His vision at the baseball stadium may well have been a Danger Sense instance, and his action on it therefore preventing the danger. However, it may also have been that the guy just had a gun and wasn't planning anything specific or even would have presented a real danger at this time. So I think that's going to be a call for how you WANT to model it versus any dictate. Personally I'd go with an NCC clairsentience, based on the touch of the person. The clairsentience is always at a vantage point "near" the person. Personally I've always hand-waved that use compared to the way it's written in 5th edition; the typical in-genre uses of sensing something's history have often been from a point near but not on or in the object being sensed, and float with the object. I'm not even sure this is against the book, I just don't have 5th with me. In any event, I'm not sure it has to be written any more complicated than a Clairsentience, sight-based (did he hear stuff? add that if so, I can't recall), with either an 8- Activation or NCC. I'd probably go with NCC but at a lower value than it normally grants to allow it to be a bit more useful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zornwil Posted December 1, 2003 Report Share Posted December 1, 2003 PS - I meant to add, I didn't get the impression it was EGO-based, rather that it was purely touch-based. However, one could easily rationalize that it is given we can only make guesses on that point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dust Raven Posted December 2, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 2, 2003 It including hearing. The thing for me, is that a film isn't a good representaton of some "psychic" powers, such as psychometry or telepathy. In a case such as this, you really can't tell the difference. I'm starting to lean back toward Clairsentience just because it's vastly cheaper, and I really don't think this ability is worth of over 120 active points of trouble. It's just flashes and insight. If I can do that, accurately, with Clairsentience, I'll do that. I'll have to rule that the "distance" isn't related to a place, but to the person David is seeing the past of. In this case, it would be "No Range" which would happily represent the need to touch the person to see their wrongdoings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farkling Posted December 3, 2003 Report Share Posted December 3, 2003 And I lean towards the area Danger Sense still. Even Glass's description sounds like Danger Sense. The rest is all special effects. "If a character makes his danger sense roll by half, he is aware of the source of the danger and may launch an attack against the source" Sounds like what Brucie did in the movie...just needs a little leeway in GM interpretation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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