Number Intuition

[mikeejimbo]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

I think Lightning Calculator, plus some levels of the Mathematical Ability Talent, plus a Perk to measure stuff (requires a PER roll). Maybe 3D Spatial Sense too.

That sounds along the lines I'd go with. A Perk with the ability to measure stuff is basically just an Accessory Perk for a range-finder. (With a few other abilities, I suppose. Scale, too?)

I'd allow it. For what that's worth.

[aesir23]

Yep, considering you can have every possible Accessory Perk for 5 points* it's a little hard to swallow paying 117 points just to know how tall something is and how much it weighs.


If you DID want to build it as Detect, be sure to use Analyzing Only -50% (from Psionic Powers) instead of the full Analyzing +100%. And you don't need Precise, because that only tells you the distance of what you're detecting, but the Distance IS what you're detecting.

So, even if Numeric Quantities are Very Common, you should be able to buy this ability for 15 points (Detect Numeric Quantities (Very Common) (Analyzing Only -50%) [15]

I'd allow it anyway.



*Cosmic Modular Abilities (One Trait Only -50%) [5]

[vicky_molokh]

Modular Ability (Mesurement Perks Only) seems like a good option.
There's Eye For Distance as perhaps the most well-known version of this perk, but I'm sure it's possible to come up with many more. Sorta like the Measurement spell.

A more eerie variant that will allow you to guess even stuff you couldn't measure (such as the mass of stuff hidden in a building on the other side of Terra, or the colorimetric data of Lois Lane's underwear). That would be Intuition with a lot of Reliable and preferably NDRR.

The fun bit about this build is that it makes you accuracy depend on just how good you can measure the data. If you know the box masses between 1 and 10 tonnes, and you can afford to reliably guess at 1/10 odds, your precision will be to within 1 tonne (is it 1-2, is it 2-3, is it 3-4 etc.?). If you have no idea how much it masses and you can still reliably guess at 1/10 odds, you can go like this: is it 0-1kg? is it 1-10kg? is it 10-100kg? is it 100-1000kg? is it 1-10 tonnes? is it ...? is it more than all of the above?

Be warned that you may only ask one such question once, ever. If you somehow failed to guess the precise value of п to the nth number (whichever is just-about-in-your-reach), you may never try it again. You also cannot bifurcate or otherwise subdivide the question. You can't ask whether something is 1-10 or 10-100 tonnes and then ask whether it is 1,2,3,...,9,10.

The limitation for 'numbers only' is likely a minor one. Maybe 10%, since you can do a lot with just numbers. E.g. guessing someone's Kinsey scale reveals a bit of info that normally falls under empathy/psychology/body language. Talk about flexibility.

[Phil Masters]

I don't see why the Detect needs Analysis (he doesn't analyse those numeric values, he just knows them) or Cosmic (nothing Cosmic going on, he's just detecting stuff).

But I can see some case for this needing to cost a fair number of points. Played right, it could be highly profitable - the guy can win a lot of trivial-to-medium bets, for a start. And there's all sorts of jobs and tasks he can do almost perfectly.

But you may need to assess how uncanny this ability really is. Cam he glance at a closed box on a table, and determine its weight? If so, he can tell whether it's got anything in it. Can he look into a room and measure how many people there are in there? If so, well, not much need for careful searching, is there? Can he look into the clear night sky and measure the precise distance and relative velocity of every star?