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Old 02-23-2018, 06:14 AM   #1
WaterAndWindSpirit
 
Join Date: Oct 2014
Default Reverse sense-based empathy and super senses in general

Hello all!

So basically, I've been thinking of a characters with senses so keen that if you're sitting at the same table as her, she can literally ear your heartbeat and her eyesight is so keen that she can see which ones of your muscle tense if you're nervous and literally could read the newspaper if you and her were in a typical interrogation room at a police station and held out the newspaper for her while you and her were standing in the opposite corners of the room, allowing her to detect lies and using the Empathy advantage. She needs to be close to you for that to work, and it can be countered with appropriate countermeasures (she couldn't read you if you had a pacemaker, or if you covered yourself in heavy winter clothing, or a noisy environment would at least give her a penalty, same for bright lights) and has a bunch of enhanced perception advantages that are in fluff the source of her empathy advantage (as well as discomfort penalties in noisy or bright environments unless she wears equipment that have both Protected Hearing/Protected Vision and fulfill one of the following two conditions: give sight/hearing disadvantages while worn or are electronic devices specifically attuned to her specifically enhanced senses so that they reduce what she considers loud noises while not filtering out small noises, and extremely specific eye pieces that start filtering lights she considers bright while leaving alone dark environments. Else, Protected Vision/Hearing will save her from damaging her vision/hearing but won't protect her from discomfort.).

What disadvantage gives penalties for normal visual/auditive/olfactive stimulation unless filtered by appropriate equipment (the latter probably a mitigator on the disadvantage), and how much would a limitation on Empathy requiring close proximity and sensory information in the part of the one having it be worth? The Sense-Based limitation/enhancement is written as the target must perceive it, I want it the other way around.
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Old 02-23-2018, 06:40 AM   #2
Icelander
 
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Default Re: Reverse sense-based empathy and super senses in general

You want GURPS Powers: Enhanced Senses.

It has all the limitations to the advantages you are thinking about, worked out as powers.

I can't remember at the moment whether it has the Disadvantages you are thinking about, but it might.
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Old 02-23-2018, 07:03 AM   #3
Anaraxes
 
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Default Re: Reverse sense-based empathy and super senses in general

Quote:
Originally Posted by WaterAndWindSpirit View Post
how much would a limitation on Empathy requiring close proximity and sensory information in the part of the one having it be worth?
The base Advantage, as written, seems to imply reasonable proximity and sensory information. The Advantage gives you an impression "when you first meet someone", and the main mechanical advantage is a skill bonus to some social skills -- which implies that you're using those skills, talking to people and observing them (as is usual for Detect Lies). Empathy is not inherently some ranged psi ability, a la Counselor Troi. It's marked as "mental", not "supernatural" or "exotic".

I'd think a typical interrogation room would fall within the normal sensory range for Empathy, no super-senses required. Reading a newspaper from across a room would be a few levels of Telescopic Vision.

GURPS Fantasy suggests modelling sensitivity to light by moving a creature's default light level around, using Night Vision as a Feature rather than an Advantage. That's much the same as with Temperature Tolerance -- the Advantage extends the range, but moving the center point is free. Just reverse that Advantage to create a Disad for net sensitivity to light.

GURPS Powers: Enhanced Senses does sound like something you'd be interested in for this character. It has a lot more detail on how senses work, various ranges, light levels, and so on.

Quote:
The Sense-Based limitation/enhancement is written as the target must perceive it, I want it the other way around.
That would be "Sense-Based, Reversed" (as in your title), found on Powers p105 or PU8 p 17. But as I mentioned, I think that's already implicit in the base Empathy Advantage. You might be looking for something a little more powerful, as with Mind Probe or Psychometry.

Last edited by Anaraxes; 02-23-2018 at 07:19 AM.
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Old 02-23-2018, 08:16 AM   #4
WaterAndWindSpirit
 
Join Date: Oct 2014
Default Re: Reverse sense-based empathy and super senses in general

Okay, so I'm already glad I've gotten the GURPS Powers: Enhanced Senses since I can calculate the discount on Empathy she gets if her senses are blocked and the bonus her superhuman hearing and eyesight give her to social skills (or as she would say, "[her] hearing and eyesight are to other elves what elven hearing and eyesight are to humans."), and I have barely started to read the book.
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Old 02-23-2018, 08:39 AM   #5
Icelander
 
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Default Re: Reverse sense-based empathy and super senses in general

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Originally Posted by WaterAndWindSpirit View Post
Okay, so I'm already glad I've gotten the GURPS Powers: Enhanced Senses since I can calculate the discount on Empathy she gets if her senses are blocked and the bonus her superhuman hearing and eyesight give her to social skills (or as she would say, "[her] hearing and eyesight are to other elves what elven hearing and eyesight are to humans."), and I have barely started to read the book.
As it happens, I'm playing a character with all the powers described above in a modern Technothriller/Supers campaign (Jade Serenity). Per 20, Discriminatory Senses, Sensitive Touch, Parabolic Hearing, Long-Range Smell, Empathy with Hypersensory, etc.

Has more conscious control over his senses, though, so overwhelming them is very hard (no vulnerability that way, actually Perk-level Robust Hearing and Robust Vision from being able to filter out undesired flash or noise). But the mental effort needed to keep up with chaotic situations means that he experiences Post-Combat Shakes after being in dense environments full of confusing noise or other input, using the Confusion table rather than the Fright Check table.
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