Undetectable Lie

[g3taso]

In another thread I ran across a Power to detect spoken falsehoods which I thought was ten flavors of awesome, a subtle and situational power with all sorts of uses. It made me think immediately of how to create a power to make you a faultless liar. Consider a Power like Detect Spoken Falsehood 18- (Hearing Group) (9 Active Points).

 

How might you build a Power for the ability to tell undetectable lies?  For flavor, limitations like Omissions Only are also heartily welcomed.  5e or 6e hopefully!

[JmOz]

Invisibility baaed advantage/limit to taste

[Amorkca]

Mental Defense (50) only while lying.

[unclevlad]

Yeah, there might be different ways depending on the special effect of how you're detecting the lie...mental power, or via hearing nuances/stressors that change, as the OP does it.

 

For the aural form, perhaps a major bonus to Acting and/or a penalty to Interrogation skill, as this is the skill intended to elucidate information.

 

EDIT:  there's no great match for this, which is something of an oversight IMO.  In D&D it'd be Bluff and Sense Motive;  in GURPS there's Fast-Talk and Detect Lie.  I think Acting and Interrogation are as close as we've got, and neither is that great a fit.

[eepjr24]

56 minutes ago, unclevlad said:

EDIT:  there's no great match for this, which is something of an oversight IMO.  In D&D it'd be Bluff and Sense Motive;  in GURPS there's Fast-Talk and Detect Lie.  I think Acting and Interrogation are as close as we've got, and neither is that great a fit.

orly?

 

Quote

PERSUASION
Interaction: 9 + (PRE/5)
Cost: 3 Character Points; +1 to roll per +2 points
Characters with this Interaction Skill can convince, persuade, or influence individuals, or tell believable lies.

 

[unclevlad]

my bad.  ok, then make it a bonus to Persuasion rather than Acting.  Still not a great fit, as Persuasion is rather more broad, but skills granularity is an issue.

[eepjr24]

31 minutes ago, unclevlad said:

my bad.  ok, then make it a bonus to Persuasion rather than Acting.  Still not a great fit, as Persuasion is rather more broad, but skills granularity is an issue.

<shrug> I think maybe you are missing the whole point of Hero. It is a broad system by nature, so you can do almost anything. If you need narrow, you just add a limitation.

 

Superskill:

Prevarication - Persuasion, 21-, AP: 19, only for telling believable lies (-2) , RP: 6

 

For someone with the Detect listed above, it is a simple skill versus perception, like with Concealment.

 

Specifics are better left to a genre or setting book or tailored by the GM to the campaign. 

 

- E

[unclevlad]

Some are narrow, some are broad.

[dsatow]

I'd probably do it as 

 

3 Acting 9+(PRE)

and 

30 +10 to Lying (usable on Acting, Ego Rolls, Bureaucratics)

 

I've added Ego Rolls in case someone does something like Telepathy or Mind Control "Tell me the truth about who shot JR?!" and bureaucratics because, well, you know, politicians.