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Originally Posted by scc
OK, Low or No Signature is B109 and Visible is P112. Both of these Modifiers effect whether or not your attack, power or other effect can be seen. The problem is what is and isn't effected. Low or No Signature says: 'An attack normally has a “signature”: a flash of light, a sound, etc.', so Innate Attack and probably Affliction and Binding as well, seems simple enough.
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For attacks, a good general rule is that any advantage which uses the attack/defense roll mechanic is always obvious by default (even if you change this by adding Malediction), while an advantage which uses a Quick Contest is inobvious by default. I expound on this a bit in
GURPS Thaumatology: Sorcery.
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Unfortunately since buying MH1 I've been a bit confused on that front, PK used Low or No Signature several times on DR
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Yes, and while I stand by it, part of me wishes I'd taken a less contentious approach.
First, it's important to note that attacks are not the only thing that can be obvious. Passive abilities can
definitely be obvious; consider Extra Arms for one easy example. No Signature is not only used to remove an attack's report, but also to do things like making such passive advantages invisible or unnoticeable. To continue the example, Kromm has suggested "Extra Arm 1 (No Signature; Weapon Mount)" as a way to simulate a cinematic warrior's ability to hold a ready shield while still retaining full use of that arm.
So the question becomes, is Damage Resistance obvious? And I'd say that past a certain point, the
realistic answer is clearly "yes." Someone with unmodified DR 6 has the equivalent of a hard, chitinous shell; their skin can repel small-arms fire and any hand-to-hand attack is likely to injure the person attempting it. (The sole exception to this seems to be the supers genre, which is its own weird and wonky thing.)
Thus, since
Monster Hunters places such a high priority on stealth and fitting in, I felt that it was appropriate to take a realistically austere approach to DR and consider it to be visible. To my eye, in such a setting, humans can only have DR with Tough Skin without looking like freaks, and only a few levels at that:
DR 1 (Tough Skin): "She's got that leathered, biker skin. I guess she tans a lot."
DR 2 (Tough Skin): "Man, he looks like you could break a bottle over his head and he'd just glare at you."
DR 3+ (Tough Skin) or DR 1+ without it: "What the hell
are you?"
Hopefully this makes sense. Unfortunately, a
lot of people seem to associate DR exclusively with superheroes and complained that
GURPS Supers took a different approach. I don't see any issue there; we're talking about two unrelated genres with
radically different approaches to the whole "secret identity" thing. Yet this seems to really bother some people. So while I still stand by it, in retrospect I would have taken a different approach (by bundling a UB into the cost of DR) simply to avoid that outcry.
I hope this makes sense.