Deceptive Attack solutions

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Vynticator

Do you guys tend to play in games where you know exactly your opponent's defence scores?

No, but you can guess. As a practical matter, reducing your effective skill to 12-14 is a fairly safe guess against all but the worst chaff or most unhittable bosses.

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Originally Posted by Vynticator

Do you guys tend to play in games where you know exactly your opponent's defence scores? Just curious-we've always played 'closed data' games where you don't know enemy stats (or even fellow PC stats unless you peek!).

I'm quite happy to tell my players the NPCs stats if they have an appropriate advantage or skill to acquire the information. I roll out in the open in any case, so its' not hard for them to make accurate guesses to begin with.

We have one player character in my current fantasy campaign (a tree elf warrior-monk) with Detect ("Capabilities and Competencies of Enemies and Opponents"; Common; Analyzing, +100%; No Die Roll Required, +100%; Reflexive, +40%; Analysis Only, -50%) [58]. She can essentially read their character sheets.

[Peter V. Dell'Orto]

Originally Posted by Sunrunners_Fire

We have one player character in my current fantasy campaign (a tree elf warrior-monk) with Detect ("Capabilities and Competencies of Enemies and Opponents"; Common; Analyzing, +100%; No Die Roll Required, +100%; Reflexive, +40%; Analysis Only, -50%) [58]. She can essentially read their character sheets.

Wow. I wouldn't allow that for any cost.


The only thing I roll in the open is damage, because it's more terrifying that way.

[roguebfl]

Originally Posted by Peter V. Dell'Orto

Wow. I wouldn't allow that for any cost.


The only thing I roll in the open is damage, because it's more terrifying that way.

Then you should check out Analyse character advantages

Originally Posted by Kromm

Well, this is based on the 30-point version of Detect. You can break it down from there:

• Detect (Gifts and foibles; Analyzing, +100%; Cosmic, +50%) [75] gives you the lot.

• Detect (Mental gifts and foibles; Analyzing, +100%; Cosmic, +50%) [50] gives you IQ, Will, Per, skills and techniques based on these, mental advantages and disadvantages, etc.
• Detect (Physical gifts and foibles; Analyzing, +100%; Cosmic, +50%) [50] gives you ST, DX, HT, HP, FP, Basic Speed, Basic Move, skills and techniques based on these, physical advantages and disadvantages, etc.
• Detect (Social gifts and foibles; Analyzing, +100%; Cosmic, +50%) [50] gives you Cultural Familiarities, Languages, social advantages and disadvantages, etc. Since there's less stuff here, I'd toss in any "mental" or "physical" trait that helps social functioning, like Appearance, Smooth Operator, or Streetwise skill.

• Detect (Mental gifts; Analyzing, +100%; Cosmic, +50%) [25]. As above, but only stuff with positive point values.
• Detect (Mental foibles; Analyzing, +100%; Cosmic, +50%) [25]. As above, but only stuff with negative point values.
• Detect (Physical gifts; Analyzing, +100%; Cosmic, +50%) [25]. As above, but only stuff with positive point values.
• Detect (Physical foibles; Analyzing, +100%; Cosmic, +50%) [25]. As above, but only stuff with negative point values.
• Detect (Social gifts; Analyzing, +100%; Cosmic, +50%) [25]. As above, but only stuff with positive point values.
• Detect (Social foibles; Analyzing, +100%; Cosmic, +50%) [25]. As above, but only stuff with negative point values.

• Detect (One very specific trait of any kind; Analyzing, +100%; Cosmic, +50%) [13]. Pretty specialized, and probably not worth the points in many cases, but would give you just IQ, or Will, or HT, or Status, or whatever else you want.

There's lots of room to quibble about category size and composition: Is a Language mental or social? How about Per? Can I shoehorn in "mental disadvantages" between "mental foibles" and "Bad Temper"? The important thing is the price spectrum: 75/50/25/13. Really, you could interpolate if you wanted . . . there's no magical reason not to allow 15- or 25-point levels of Detect, in which case you'd get 75/63/50/38/25/13.

[Peter V. Dell'Orto]

Originally Posted by roguebfl

Then you should check out Analyse character advantages

I still wouldn't allow any of that at any cost.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Peter V. Dell'Orto

I still wouldn't allow any of that at any cost.

I don't think I'm likely run a game where they'd make any sense but if I was running a game with a Deadpool clone or otherwise fourth wall breaking I probably would allow it. Of course that's the kind of game where you can have a version of Oracle or something that lets you read the GM's notes!

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

I don't think I'm likely run a game where they'd make any sense but if I was running a game with a Deadpool clone or otherwise fourth wall breaking I probably would allow it. Of course that's the kind of game where you can have a version of Oracle or something that lets you read the GM's notes!

Well before you get to there you have universes where all the villains are in the SHIELD database which can be accessed by the hero's combination ID card/smartphone.

"Oooh, better be careful. This one gets 5 bars in his Melee category."

[Peter V. Dell'Orto]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Of course that's the kind of game where you can have a version of Oracle or something that lets you read the GM's notes!

Obviously, I'd allow it in GURPS Order of the Stick.

Heck, I'd give the info out for free in that kind of game.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Well before you get to there you have universes where all the villains are in the SHIELD database which can be accessed by the hero's combination ID card/smartphone.

"Oooh, better be careful. This one gets 5 bars in his Melee category."

Of course that's based on the accuracy of SHIELD's data, and whatever metrics they measure it with. You still probably shouldn't just get to look at the character sheet.

It might be amusing to use a different system for the "character sheets" in-universe. In that case you could hand them a FASERIP or MSRP sheet. :)

[Anthony]

Unless someone is deliberately faking low skill, it should be possible very rapidly to tell whether someone you're facing is better or worse than you, and by roughly how much. The amount of information you can get by the GM making rolls publicly is probably realistic.