07-20-2017, 07:18 AM | #31 |
Join Date: Jan 2010
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#35): Detect
Could you build a Detect version on "experienced people" to detect high CP characters? If so, would this be a version to evaluate the CP levels of different NPC?
It seems to me that the GURPS system lacks a power, spell or skill to find out how powerful an NPC is - many other systems have a way to "read levels". Now one could argue that in real life such an ability doesn't exist. But on the other hand, there are no such big differences between life experience and skills in real world. You won't see a 300 CP juvenile (unless it is by status and money, which you could easily detect by just looking at clothes, trappings...), and -50 CP grown-ups are also quite rare (with possibly the exception of people with obvious bodily or mental disadvantages). |
07-20-2017, 07:52 AM | #32 |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#35): Detect
I don't actually know any games with a "detect level" ability or spell. I think the concept borders on incoherent unless it's explicitly a 4th-wall breaking character.
Regardless, Detect doesn't seem the right structure to analyze a random $thing for point total. You might detect "things with points", but that's kinda incoherent again; that's "things", really. You could detect "High point value characters" or "negative point value characters" or "characters with 30+ points in skills", or something like that.
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07-20-2017, 08:54 AM | #33 |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Denmark
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#35): Detect
>>This should probably be a new thread.<<
Some D&D classes have abilities to detect if people are higher level or "have more Hit-die than themselves. Most recently the fighter class - battlemaster in D&D 5e. It's probably most widely known from Dragonball fame "It's over 9000!!!" But it's also a common trope in any setting with psionics of magics, that people with such powers can feel someones powerlevel: "He is strong in the force". But I agree with Bruno, that it's not about CP total. I would base it on detect but then detect the "Power talent" level of the person. So for a mage, it would be their magery level. I would NOT base it on "total points spend on spells" for instance. As an old an experienced wizard who has a ton of spells and some at high levels, traditionally wouldn't be scanned as being "powerfull" unless they also had a really high level of magery. While a youngster with magery 4 and next to no points in spells would stil lbe detected as "powerful". |
07-20-2017, 09:31 AM | #34 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#35): Detect
MMO characters routinely have the ability to "con" threats, and I could see a DF campaign based on an MMO having that power.
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07-20-2017, 01:23 PM | #35 | ||||
Dog of Lysdexics
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Melbourne FL, Formerly Wellington NZ
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#35): Detect
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07-20-2017, 01:38 PM | #36 | |
Untagged
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#35): Detect
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07-20-2017, 05:13 PM | #37 |
Join Date: Dec 2007
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#35): Detect
In certain manga one of the powers "chi power" or "spiritual power" gives you is the ability to detect other people's power and roughly estimate whether you are out of their class or vice versa. Although that's probably be handled as a feature of the power modifier.
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07-20-2017, 06:24 PM | #38 | |
formerly known as 'Kenneth Latrans'
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Wyoming, Michigan
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#35): Detect
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07-21-2017, 01:07 AM | #39 |
Join Date: Jan 2010
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#35): Detect
Well, "CP total" is the only way to put it in a system that doesn't know "experience point based character levels". Most systems that I know had some way to detect the character level.
Well, in fact, now that I think about it, some of those system never made it to the American market as (in one case) nobody cared about translations or (in some other cases) market introduction failed because it's hard to establish a new product in an already existing market. But the core "problem" still persists: You see a villain. It's a human. You can judge his ST, maybe also DX (smooth movements) and HT (pale skin). Now your question is: Fight or Flight & call the cavalry. Inf fact you make your decision on your judgement of the GM: Does he like direct confrontation? Then it's probable that the power of the villain is not too high. Or does the GM prefer subtle approaches? Then maybe many villains are too strong for direct attacks, and if you attack directly, then this probably will end in a heroic defeat... In real world there wouldn't be a clear destinction between weapon skill and (general) DX, so "smooth movements" could give you some insight. And in real world, there's not the danger of somebody having 52 CP in a weapon skill. Of course, there are some special forces with high skill, but at least you should know whether your own skill is "fair", "great" or "close to best possible". In GURPS, there is no limit to skill. You could even invest hundreds of CP or more - which maybe might even be appropriate for a Jedi fighting in battles ("The Clone Wars"), who potentially have to parry dozens of blaster shots per second, each parry at a cumulative -2. The Aura-spell gives you a chance to see hidden traits, but the list of possible readable traits is quite short. |
07-21-2017, 01:22 AM | #40 | |
Join Date: Jan 2010
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#35): Detect
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By the way: I don't have the book with me, but isn't there even a necromantic spell in GURPS about banishing Deamons or Ghosts or something, and the costs directly depend on the CP value of the being-to-be-banished, and if you don't have enough FP, you might fall unconcious or something? If I remember right, the spell is even called "Banish". |
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Tags |
acute senses, advantage, advantage of the week, detect, week, [basic] |
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