[Social Engineering] Resisting / Misleading / etc. enemy Empathy? (Hard to Read?)

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by cmdicely

Empathy only even gets the chance to short-circuit such a plot if the PC with empathy comes within touching distance of the deceiver. It's far from impossible to have a plot that involves such deception where that kind of proximity is unlikely until after the deception has progressed far enough that even with the PCs piercing it, interesting adventure is afoot.

That seems like an old ad hoc ruling, and here's why:

Originally Posted by GURPS Social Engineering, 44

Discriminatory Smell, with the Emotion Sense enhance-ment (p. B49), gives the same benefits as Empathy, but only
when within 2 yards of the subject.

Emphasis mine. That indicates that while DS(+ES) is limited to a 2-yard range (which seems slightly more than typical touch range for humans anyway), Empathy isn't.

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

That seems like an old ad hoc ruling, and here's why:

Emphasis mine. That indicates that while DS(+ES) is limited to a 2-yard range (which seems slightly more than typical touch range for humans anyway), Empathy isn't.

Note that that bit in Social Engineering is just a verbatim quote from Basic. The two yard limit on DS-based Empathy seems like it should be less of a factor than the implied Sense-Based limiter, but DS + Empathy would cost 30, while the enhanced DS is just 23, meaning that you're getting the benefits of Empathy with a -50% rider. Sense-Based would account for -20% of that, meaning that the range and the disadvantageous link to DS must make up the other -30%.