Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > GURPS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 01-12-2013, 12:30 PM   #1
Mailanka
 
Mailanka's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Eindhoven, the Netherlands
Default What's the point of parabolic hearing?

I've been studying up on the senses rolls for a tactical stealth system I've been putting together, and something has come up.

Hearing works thus: You roll perception to notice something. If you need to know the specifics of it (ie, listen in on a conversation) you might need to make an IQ roll in addition to that. Everything has a given distance you can hear it at not penalty. A quiet conversation is one yard away, for example. For every doubling of distance, you suffer a -1, and for every halving, you get a +1. So if you're 4 yards away from a quiet conversation, you have a -2. If you're 16 yards away, you have a -4, and so on.

Acute Hearing adds +1, of course. This means that someone with acute hearing 1 can detect a quiet conversation at 2 yards away as well as someone who has acute hearing 0 (and he can detect a quiet conversation at 1 yard away at +1 when compared to someone with acute hearing 0). Acute Hearing costs 2 points.

Every level of Parabolic Hearing allows you to double the distance you can hear something clearly. Thus, someone with parabolic hearing of 1 can hear a quiet conversation at 2 yards away at no penalty (and, I presume, at 1 yard away at no penalty). This costs 4 points per level.

It seems to me that Acute Hearing does pretty much everything Parabolic hearing does, and more, for half the cost. There's some suggestions that parabolic hearing also filters out background noise and might give a bonus to the IQ roll for actually listening in on the conversation, but given that Acute Hearing is also beneficial when distances aren't involved, what's the benefit of it? What am I missing?
__________________
My Blog: Mailanka's Musing. Currently Playing: Psi-Wars, a step-by-step exploration of building your own Space Opera setting, inspired by Star Wars.
Mailanka is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-12-2013, 12:39 PM   #2
Anthony
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
Default Re: What's the point of parabolic hearing?

Nothing. The hearing rules are broken. Parabolic hearing is supposed to be the equivalent of telescopic vision, but between hearing not using the range/speed chart and it not having the aiming bonus, it's grossly overpriced. I would drop it to 3p/level and give it the same rules as telescopic vision: +1 to hearing, +2 if you take an Aim maneuver. Or else drop it to 1p/level and it's +1 per level with an Aim maneuver. I'd also use the range/speed chart for hearing; something like:

Hearing: the hearing bonus to hear something at short range is (dB/5 - 5). Apply range/speed normally. In addition, subtract 1/10 of the background noise level (in dB) from all hearing rolls.

Last edited by Anthony; 01-12-2013 at 04:06 PM.
Anthony is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 01-12-2013, 01:22 PM   #3
Refplace
 
Refplace's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Yukon, OK
Default Re: What's the point of parabolic hearing?

I house rule it so that Parabolic filters out background noise away from where your focusing. Makes it more useful.
__________________
My GURPS publications GURPS Powers: Totem and Nature Spirits; GURPS Template Toolkit 4: Spirits; Pyramid articles. Buying them lets us know you want more!
My GURPS fan contribution and blog:
REFPLace GURPS Landing Page
My List of GURPS You Tube videos (plus a few other useful items)
My GURPS Wiki entries
Refplace is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-13-2013, 09:54 AM   #4
Bruno
 
Bruno's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
Default Re: What's the point of parabolic hearing?

You've forgotten the other factor in hearing checks - competing noise.

Parabolic hearing most definitely should let you also reduce background noise penalties - but even then if it also lets you ignore -1/level in background penalties, it's still the same price to buy two levels of Acute Hearing, and you potentially get more benefit.
__________________
All about Size Modifier; Unified Hit Location Table
A Wiki for my F2F Group
A neglected GURPS blog
Bruno is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-13-2013, 10:01 AM   #5
Walrus
 
Walrus's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Chelyabinsk, Russia
Default Re: What's the point of parabolic hearing?

I think it should be worth to write some Pyramid article about Senses (unless there is one already). Especially in regard of non-usual senses: Hearing, Smell, non-visible spectra, ESP, Detect as well as Obscure and other artificial or natural handicaps in sensing.
__________________
MH Setting. Welcome to help.
Walrus is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-13-2013, 10:25 AM   #6
Humabout
 
Humabout's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Default Re: What's the point of parabolic hearing?

From Basic Set:
Quote:
Originally Posted by B72
You can "zoom in" on a particular sound or area, and can filter out background noise from sounds of interest to you.
So Parabolic most certaily does let you ignore any penalties fo background noise.

According to the tables in Mysteries:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mysteries, p. 47
Sound is more complex. Use the range table, but add a further -1 per 100 yards over 300 yards (see Sense Roll Modifiers, below).
So at up to 300 yards if used to halve the distance to a target like Telescopic Vision, Parabolic Hearing would produce identical results to TV. At ranges beyond that, it would actually provide more benefit, since it would be negating that addictional -1 per 100 yards.

Alternatively you could double the bonus from Acoustic or Background Signature Values (Mysteries, p. 48). This would possibly have a much larger overall effect than halving the range for determining range penalties, though. It would help to negate many of the other penalties for baffling and interposing barriers, like walls and such.

I'm not sure which of these options best represents the intent of Parabolic Hearing, but using the more detailed hearing rules from Mysteries, it seems that Parabolic Hearing does become more useful than what Basic Set alone would suggest.
__________________
Buy My Stuff!

Free Stuff:
Dungeon Action!
Totem Spirits

My Blog: Above the Flatline.
Humabout is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-14-2013, 12:55 AM   #7
Mailanka
 
Mailanka's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Eindhoven, the Netherlands
Default Re: What's the point of parabolic hearing?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Humabout View Post
I'm not sure which of these options best represents the intent of Parabolic Hearing, but using the more detailed hearing rules from Mysteries, it seems that Parabolic Hearing does become more useful than what Basic Set alone would suggest.
This is a damn handy suggestion. I didn't know GURPS Mysteries had expanded hearing rules! Thanks.
__________________
My Blog: Mailanka's Musing. Currently Playing: Psi-Wars, a step-by-step exploration of building your own Space Opera setting, inspired by Star Wars.
Mailanka is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-14-2013, 01:28 AM   #8
Anthony
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
Default Re: What's the point of parabolic hearing?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Humabout View Post
So at up to 300 yards if used to halve the distance to a target like Telescopic Vision, Parabolic Hearing would produce identical results to TV. At ranges beyond that, it would actually provide more benefit, since it would be negating that addictional -1 per 100 yards.
Well, if you allow it to apply like that. Realistically, parabolic sound sensors don't work that way, because the -1 per 100 yards is actually an obscurement modifier, not a range modifier.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Humabout View Post
I'm not sure which of these options best represents the intent of Parabolic Hearing.
The intent of parabolic hearing is pretty clearly to replicate the effects of real-world parabolic microphones.
Anthony is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 01-14-2013, 04:07 AM   #9
vicky_molokh
GURPS FAQ Keeper
 
vicky_molokh's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Kyïv, Ukraine
Default Re: What's the point of parabolic hearing?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anthony View Post
Well, if you allow it to apply like that. Realistically, parabolic sound sensors don't work that way, because the -1 per 100 yards is actually an obscurement modifier, not a range modifier.
Well, Parabolic Hearing states that it includes the ability to filter out noise from sounds of interest. That -1 per 100 yards is an obscurement by background noise, right?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anthony View Post
The intent of parabolic hearing is pretty clearly to replicate the effects of real-world parabolic microphones.
Given the case with Ultravision, and the infamous precedents with the naming of Honesty and Selfish, I'm not sure whether this is the case.

--------------------------------------------------

In fact, Hearing in GURPS gets no love at all. There are at least three systems for resolving hearing, zig-zagging between various resolutions. Neither of them gives a clear answer when and how frequently to roll and at what modifiers when someone tries to quietly sneak upon a target using Stealth vs. Hearing.

There's the system in Basic Set, where each ×2 distance is a -1 to rolls. And a conversation is a Hearing+0 roll at 1 yard away. Decibels are not listed, and there's been some talk on the forum that use of decibels is not suitable for a roleplaying book.

There's Mysteries, where SRT is used, plus -1 per 100 yards. There, a conversation has a base loudness of +6, thus heard on Hearing +0 at 20 yards.

Then High-Tech came out, returned Conversation to +0 at 1 yard, and published Decibel values of various sounds.
__________________
Vicky 'Molokh', GURPS FAQ and uFAQ Keeper
vicky_molokh is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-14-2013, 07:43 AM   #10
Snaps
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Provo, UT
Default Re: What's the point of parabolic hearing?

That hearing chart is just silly I think. It makes hearing things way too easy. Someone with an 18 hearing has supernatural levels of hearing according to that chart.

What's missing is some idea of what penalties background noise should give. The only examples are listed under the Blind Fighting skill, which gives us -2 for rain; -3 for a crowded, noisy room; -4 for a full football stadium; and -5 for an artillery barrage. These numbers might be low for straight hearing though, because Blind Fighting relies on more than just hearing. (You're only at -7 if you can't hear at all).

Using these rules a guy with an 18 hearing could hear the coach talking to his team (loud conversation) from the other side of the field (4 steps on the chart, -4) at a crowded football stadium (-4 for background noise), on a 10 or less.

He could hear a whispered conversation from the other side of the field at an empty stadium on a 11 or less.

With an 18 Hearing you could hear a normal conversation over 500 yards away on a 9 or less.

Personally, I think in the future I'll just use the Size/Speed range chart when figuring out penalties for hearing rolls, modified by background noise and volume of the source.
Snaps is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 12:20 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.