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Old 05-13-2021, 02:56 PM   #1
johndallman
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Default [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Microscopic and Telescopic Vision

Microscopic Vision [5/level] is an exotic physical advantage. You can see, at ranges of a foot or less, details far too small for normal vision, with 10× magnification for each level of this trait. Page B68 describes the capabilities of various levels.

Telescopic Vision [5/level] is likewise an exotic physical advantage. You reduce range penalties for vision by ‑1 for each level of this trait, or twice as much if you take an Aim to look at a specific target. Both of these advantages first appeared in GURPS Aliens for 3e.

Telescopic Vision as a personal advantage is not cumulative with equipment – use one or the other – and I’d apply the same rule to Microscopic Vision. Telescopic Vision can be used as a telescopic sight, with the normal rules for scope-aided Aiming, unless you have the special No Targeting (‑60%) limitation.

These advantages are used to provide the game effects of binoculars, microscopes, telescopes and so on and hence are often provided by equipment. Page B471 allows you to convert between magnification and levels of Telescopic Vision. Other kinds of vision equipment, such as image intensifiers, thermal imaging sensors, and hyperspectral imaging sensors often provide some Telescopic Vision.

It is not completely clear if these advantages allow you to use less than your maximum level of magnification. Microscopic Vision doesn’t mention the idea, and Telescopic Vision uses “zoom” but isn’t clear if it’s using the term in the optical or the popular sense. I would probably allow variable use for personal advantages.

Telescopic Vision shows up in GURPS supplements much more than Microscopic. Action has modern binoculars, cameras, goggles and scopes, while AtE has personal mutations, which come with generous helpings of Freakishness. Banestorm has sapient Eagles with Telescopic, and Bio-Tech can engineer it. DF scouts get Telescopic, and can take Hawk familiars for more. High-Tech gives spy satellites Telescopic 10-15, and Horror’s Disease power allows for Microscopic. Magic has spells that grant both advantages, and Powers has an enhancement to give Microscopic more range. Enhanced Senses has more details and builds for both traits, and Social Engineering gives them both bonuses to Detect Lies. Spaceships uses Telescopic in describing ship sensors, while Steampunk 2 goes into useful details about optical instruments. Ultra-Tech (and Reign of Steel: Will to Live) give many robots these traits.

I’ve made plenty of use of binoculars, rifle scopes and spaceship sensors as a player, and thought up the spinal-mount telescope for one space game. I can’t recall making use of microscopes in a game: have you?
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Old 05-14-2021, 06:50 AM   #2
RogerBW
 
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Microscopic and Telescopic Vision

I don't believe I've ever used either of these as a character ability, rather than as a quality of a piece of equipment (though I'm classing NPC robots in Reign of Steel as the latter). It might be worth noting for a realistic game that "the best optical microscopes" that level 3 Microscopic is equivalent to isn't a TL-based limitation… more magnification than that and you're using something other than visible light.

(I have personally used macro tubes and lenses, nothing hugely expensive or hard to find, to photograph an image with 857 pixels per mm. Which is about 2-3 light-wavelengths per pixel.)
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Old 05-14-2021, 07:27 AM   #3
Tyneras
 
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Microscopic and Telescopic Vision

I've never used microscopic vision in a game, but it did appear on an unused character. They were a botanist, and had microscopic vision, detect (plants) and plant empathy to represent thousands of tiny cybernetic sensors in her body.
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Old 05-14-2021, 07:30 AM   #4
ericthered
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Microscopic and Telescopic Vision

These rules always seem to come up in relation to equipment, not characters. I think I've seen it on a couple of birds of prey, but those are niche NPC's.
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