Innate Attack Gaze through Cameras

[Coinage]

Quick question.

Does "Innate Attack, Gaze" (Basic 201) work through cameras, cctv, or any other technological medium? If someone has the attack, and is looking through a monitor at a target, could that target be affected by the attack?

[weby]

The skill used for the innate attack has no effect on how the effect itself works.

You have to look at the actual attack that you use and read it's description, not the targeting skill.

But I cannot directly recall any example attack that would work that way. Though due to the way GURPS advantages work, there are obviously ways to build such abilities.

[Coinage]

Yeah, I was just wondering if it was possible, and how it could be done.

[Rupert]

I'm not sure how you'd do that for an innate attack for hit point damage. For other things I'd assume you start with an Affliction, add Malediction to get a suitable range, and work from there.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by Rupert

I'm not sure how you'd do that for an innate attack for hit point damage.

Enhance the IA with Increased Range (on the assumption that you're viewing things that are potentially a long way away -- you might need quite a lot), plus Overhead (because you're ignoring all the cover between you and the target). Ideally there'd be a way to ignore potential overhead cover as well, but Overhead often seems to stand in for "no cover allowed".

Targeting is still a problem. It's not obvious that a displayed video image is a targeting sense. Vision is, but then that's assuming direct vision, including turning your head, parallax, relative sizes to objects near the target, and parallax (all of which gets done in your head). With a monitor, you don't even know the direction the target is from you, or the exact distance. You could give the attacker a long-range clairvoyant sense of some sort, but then the video would become moot -- so the targeting sense needs a hefty Limitation for "only on targets viewed via remote video".

[weby]

Innate attack with malediction should allow it. The basic description of malediction says that you can target anyone you can perceive.

So a malediction with long range penalties should work pretty well(as lower maledictions would rack up the penalties for the range quite quickly).

But it would not be unreasonable for a GM to rule that there needs to be some sort of targeting sense in order to do such as a TV picture would not give enough information to target. In such situation you would need some detect(people seen though secondary means) with precise and long range.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Enhance the IA with Increased Range (on the assumption that you're viewing things that are potentially a long way away -- you might need quite a lot), plus Overhead (because you're ignoring all the cover between you and the target). Ideally there'd be a way to ignore potential overhead cover as well, but Overhead often seems to stand in for "no cover allowed".

Wouldn't that still allow top cover instead of front? I think you'd still need some path by which the attack could travel. Powers 104 "Surprise Attack" ("attacks that teleport or emerge from extradimensional portals behind the target") sounds more appropriate for things which can ignore normal pathways. Or using Malediction.

[naloth]

You could do Long Ranged 3 (no penalties), Sense Based: Vision, and Sense Based: Television*.

*Television effectively counting as a second way to "sense" the person.

That would give you the range and the ability to use it, but unless it affects everyone that sees/senses you, you would still need ways to locate/pick your targets.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by Plane

Wouldn't that still allow top cover instead of front?

Overhead does, yes (which is why I was wishing for a way to eliminate that was well).

[/quote] Powers 104 "Surprise Attack" ("attacks that teleport or emerge from extradimensional portals behind the target")[/quote]Much like that :) Thanks!

This variant's a lot more powerful than Overhead since it also obviates Active Defenses, but also probably more appropriate in this case, since presumably the victim isn't aware that they're going to be attacked. (Some well-prepared adventurers that know about this power, infiltrating the attacker's lair, might be treated as for the Danger Sense exception, getting a Per roll to notice the cameras and give them some warning.)

(And yes, Malediction is the easy way out, but it seemed to me that Rupert was interested in an alternative, at least for IAs.)

[whswhs]

* If you have built in cameras rather than eyes (because you're a robot or something), it's just Sense-Based.

* If you're a biological organism, but have cameras that you carry around and use to attack, you buy the power with gadget modifiers.

* If the cameras can be sent out on some sort of remote controlled vehicle, I'd buy the attack with Guided. And probably gadget modifiers again.