[Basic] Skill of the week: Disguise, Disguise (Animals) and Makeup

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Race-race, or species-race?
I can imagine adjusting my appearance to look sub-Saharan, but not a freakish fantasy dwarf.

I do not think it is easy to answer your question. If a biological group can interbreed with humans*, but can only procreate by hybridogenesis with humans, is chimeric tissue-wise, does that count as race-race or species-race?

* == and some others quite close to humans.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

I do not think it is easy to answer your question. If a biological group can interbreed with humans*, but can only procreate by hybridogenesis with humans, is chimeric tissue-wise, does that count as race-race or species-race?

* == and some others quite close to humans.

True, all of us may be human, but I sure as heck can't disguise myself as a normal Masai or Efe pygmy or they as me.
While most depictions of elves are local humans with trivial differences.

[trooper6]

Considering the genre I have most GM'ed in GURPS has been espionage, Disguise and Make-Up have often been used in my campaigns. So often, in fact that it is really too numerous to mention. I mean, in nearly every single session of many of these spy campaigns Disguise, at the very least, comes up.

Two uses of Disguise and Make-Up that I remember from over the years.

1) Two spies in my Operation Midnight campaign were in Russia trying to do their surveillance...they ended up using Disguise to pass themselves off as homeless people and were able to get the sort of invisibility/being ignored that homeless people often get that allowed them to stake out a critical place for hours without raising eyebrows.
2) In an ISW campaign with spy elements, an entertainer was able to use the Make-Up skill to make it look like another character had been beaten up as part of a plot to turn the crowd against a local politician at a rally and also to cause a disturbance.

It is funny...so many of the Skills of the Week that are listed as not at all central or relevant in most campaigns end up being the ones that have been really central in many of my campaigns.

[Apollonian]

Bit of a necro, but this video was pretty interesting. Former Chief of Disguise at the CIA talks about disguise for Wired.

[dcarson]

Won't pass close up but to keep people from saying yes I saw a group with a centaur passing on the road. https://www.deviantart.com/manweri/a...uise-179507382

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

True, all of us may be human, but I sure as heck can't disguise myself as a normal Masai or Efe pygmy or they as me.
While most depictions of elves are local humans with trivial differences.

Considering that many Masai are effectively Size 1 and pygmies are Size -1 or -2, that makes sense, assuming that you have more or less typical human height and mass.

Realistically, penalties might apply to Disguise per ~2 inches/5 cm, ~20 lbs/10 kg of difference between the disguised person and the person they're imitating.

[Apollonian]

One thing that isn't obvious from the rulebook entry is that you can use Disguise on another character. Whether that's used as a complementary skill to that character's own Acting or Disguise roll or simply rolled normally is probably situational.

Watching the video linked above, I might also allow Disguise as a complementary skill to defeat Shadowing - witness the quick change bit. This would obviously require preparation of some sort on the part of the character. (You could also use it as a complementary roll to Shadowing, having the shadower do a series of minor quick changes to make it harder to spot him.)

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by Apollonian

One thing that isn't obvious from the rulebook entry is that you can use Disguise on another character. Whether that's used as a complementary skill to that character's own Acting or Disguise roll or simply rolled normally is probably situational.

Such use could be handled in the same way that Fashion Sense is used to aid another person.

Originally Posted by Apollonian

Watching the video linked above, I might also allow Disguise as a complementary skill to defeat Shadowing - witness the quick change bit. This would obviously require preparation of some sort on the part of the character. (You could also use it as a complementary roll to Shadowing, having the shadower do a series of minor quick changes to make it harder to spot him.)

Possibly Vision or Observation rolls could substitute for Shadowing, since a number of those progressive costume alterations are very obvious during the change.

[Apollonian]

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

Such use could be handled in the same way that Fashion Sense is used to aid another person.



Possibly Vision or Observation rolls could substitute for Shadowing, since a number of those progressive costume alterations are very obvious during the change.

Yes, they are. Pretty sure the changer needs a bit of time out of view of his shadow to make it work - in the video, she gives 37 seconds as an example.

[Flyndaran]

That's an insanely short time to make important changes in appearance, but a horribly long time to be out of sight of one's target.