SleepyDrug Posted November 30, 2003 Report Share Posted November 30, 2003 I was just curious what sort of sense powers everyone is finding useful with Starships? sight powers? radio? energy detect? anything else? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kristopher Posted December 2, 2003 Report Share Posted December 2, 2003 Niven had "Deep Radar," which was actually a fairly small neutrino detector. Since normal matter barely interferes with the passage of neutrinos, the interior structure of whole planets was discernable, and strange objects that really blocked the passage of neutrinos, such as black holes and neutron stars, would show up very clearly. A mass sensor, which would probably be a gravitic sensor of some sort, would show both masses in space -- ships, asteroids, etc -- and also the effects of any drive systems that alter the shape of spacetime, such as warp drives, space folding, and so on. Unless there's some handwavey way of violating the 2nd law of thermodynamics, or they're using some kind of exotic radiating system, ships will always have some infrared glow that will be distinctly visible to the sensors of other ships, so IR Vision is always a good system to have onboard. I'll have more later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sociotard Posted December 3, 2003 Report Share Posted December 3, 2003 I found Mind Scan (mechanical Minds) to be useful I posted earlier on basing systems around the 4 fundamental forces. I don't feel like looking 'em up, so I'll paraphrase Gravitational: Good for detecting spacial anomalies and stars, and other good stuff as mentioned by Kristopher (I liked the nutrino scanner, btw). Technically, if it had analyze, it might be detailed enough to pick out any object with mass. Electromagnetic: Set up a detect Full Electromagnetic Spectrum (only ten points!). It gives you the infrared scan Kristopher mentioned (only 5 points by itself) but throws in UV, radio waves, gamma rays, x-rays . . . Bear in mind these would probably be passive scans, so I doubt theres enough background x-ray radiation to see through much. Set up another detect for fluctuations in EM field. Also good for spacial anomalies, but also to assist your Find Weakness (Force Field) You can also 'see' the way solar wind bends around objects, which should be good for something. Strong Nuclear/Weak nuclear: This will really bring stars into focus! Also helps target an unidentified ships energy systems (assuming you have a dilithium reactor, fusion core, or anything bearing any resemblance to nuclear reactions). With analyze you might be able to carbon date things, or percieve physical objects based on the radioactive decay present, be it ever so slightly, in all matter. Other than that, Detect life is always fun. If there's something unusually valuble in your campaign, a detect for it. I always thought a variation on mind scan for planets/star systems would be interesting. Buy the appropriate adders so it can't attack or anything, and it will enable you to find "nearest planet with a spaceport equiped to repair a MOET-5 Bootlegger" Let us know what you settle on. Oh! I almost forgot "Detect: plot device":p Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kristopher Posted December 3, 2003 Report Share Posted December 3, 2003 On most sensors, I'd add on Discriminatory and Analyze. Another (real-life) sensor type to look into would be Magnetic Anomaly Detectors. They're used to detect large metallic bodies, such as submarines. It might be that they're only useful within an existing magnetic field, in which case they'd only work near planets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kristopher Posted December 6, 2003 Report Share Posted December 6, 2003 You know, I was going to suggest Star Hero and Terran Empire, but when I looked up the sensor systems in both of those books, they're just VPPs with a -1 "only for sensors" limit. So much for that suggestion. It's too bad. Those aren't bad books, otherwise, but in this case they come up really short, and are a disappointment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sociotard Posted December 6, 2003 Report Share Posted December 6, 2003 Originally posted by Kristopher You know, I was going to suggest Star Hero and Terran Empire, but when I looked up the sensor systems in both of those books, they're just VPPs with a -1 "only for sensors" limit. So much for that suggestion. The thing of it is, I'm not entirely sure I would allow a vpp sensor system. With the flexibility of a power pool, the characters could have any cocktail of sensors they could think of! There'd be no way to build a 'cloaking vessel' Helmsman: The enemy ship is no longer visible within the visible spectrum, sir! Captain: Then switch to a different type of detect! Do I have to think of everything myself? A multipower with variable special effects sounds much more reasonable. And if one of the engineers has an aid-based talent, as I've heard done, she could employ it to whip up an additional slot in the pool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NuSoardGraphite Posted December 8, 2003 Report Share Posted December 8, 2003 Here are the categories (and sub-categories) I use: Visual (Sight, IR/UV) Audio (Hearing, Ultrasonic, Sonar) Radio (Radio listen/transmit, High Range Radio, Radar) Gravitic (Mass detection, Gravitic wave detection) Electromagnetic (Magnetic, Particle/Radiation) Seismic (Motion, Vibration) Laser (Ladar, Laser communication, Range detection) That covers most sensor systems as seen in most Sci/fi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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