[High-Tech] How far can a shout be heard?

[makke]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Sure there is. The loudness of the noise. Anything louder than conversational tones should have a positive modifier.

As I understand the rule in HT (the one in Mystery does work differently) you look at the loudness of the source of the sound at its origin. Then you look at the distance and compare it to the table. For each step the source is nearer (farther) you get a bonus (malus) => at 8yards shouting at 90dB gives no modifier.

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The problem isn't with the situations I can handwave but with situations I have no intuitive feel for. For example I'm simply not able to say whether it is as simple to hear the shot of an artillery at 4km as it is to hear a shout at 8m - which the rules suggest.

Another problem is that if I you follow your intuition and give B a +10 in this example it directly follows that a Person C which is at 8km(!!) has no modifier at all to hear the shout and this again feels entirely wrong. (Where my reasoning is that a situational modifier shouldn't be affected by range. Therefore the rangemodifier is the only thing changing. In this case from +-0 at 8yd to -10 at ~8km.)

All of that said... I guess I will settle with the +4 for routine task for people who are doing nothing but sitting somewhere which Celjabba and Asta Kask suggested. This gives 91% at 8yd, 75% at 32yd ("across the street") and 50% at 128yd. I guess that is a result I can live with... then again this way you could hear an artillery at 32.000yd with no modifier... which is again hard to believe, isn't it? (honest question)

[Flyndaran]

I believe the record for shout hearing distance is a few miles over calm water without any background noise. So it really is all those pesky modifiers that make it practically impossible to do it.

[Celjabba]

Originally Posted by makke

All of that said... I guess I will settle with the +4 for routine task for people who are doing nothing but sitting somewhere which Celjabba and Asta Kask suggested. This gives 91% at 8yd, 75% at 32yd ("across the street") and 50% at 128yd. I guess that is a result I can live with... then again this way you could hear an artillery at 32.000yd with no modifier... which is again hard to believe, isn't it? (honest question)

Artillery is around 140-170 db at source

At 30km, it would still be 40-70 db, just above light conversation, according to some fast googling for a formula.

(Assuming, of course, flat ground and no obstacle, wind, or any other factors.)

So, it seem ok.

I remember reading that, at some time in the past (WWI ?), artillery on the continent was heard in England during a foggy night.

Celjabba

[seasong]

Originally Posted by makke

The situation:

As far as I can say there is not a single modifier applicable in this situation. Therefore, according to High-Tech p. 158, B has to roll an unmodified perception roll to hear this shout - giving a normal person a rather remarkable 50% chance to entirely miss someone standing in a distance of eight yards shouting at the top of his lung!

p. B658, "The GM may make this roll easier or harder, depending on the loudness of the sound, surrounding noises, etc."

From my own messing around with the table, it appears that an unmodified Hearing roll in combat means ambient+6dB; out of combat, ambient-18dB; and each +/-6dB is a +/-1 to the Hearing roll.

Of course, that's based on a guess: that the implied setting for a combat is 54dB (roughly equivalent to a quiet-ish urban setting, with minimal traffic in the background); actual combats could be quieter (ninjas in a library, maybe 36dB) or louder (gunfight in the inner city, maybe 72dB). But as a default assumption, 54dB seems reasonable.

A quiet rural landscape is around 42dB. A 78dB shout drops to 60dB at eight yards, which gives Hearing+2 in combat, or Hearing+6 out of combat.

In a whisper-quiet library (30dB), that same shout at eight yards gives Hearing+4 in combat, and Hearing+8 out of combat.

Standing 16 yards from a jet take-off (72dB), that same shout would be at Hearing+0 in combat, Hearing+4 out of combat. Standing 4 yards from the jet (84dB) would cut that down to Hearing-2 in combat, Hearing+2 out of combat.