Stealth and Chameleon systems, Perception and Teleoperation

[sir_pudding]

Personally I use what Bill says above. "Plain sight" means "in the open without concealment". So in this case Alice does get the bonus.

OTOH, there's no reason for Bob to be flying NOE here (unless he is worried about Radar or something). Even TL8 reconnaissance cameras can get the needed resolution from much farther away.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Personally I use what Bill says above. "Plain sight" means "in the open without concealment". So in this case Alice does get the bonus.

If she looks up. Most of the time people look around them but they don't look up.

[Boomerang]

I believe there is a penalty in the basic rules for spotting things that are above you.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

If she looks up. Most of the time people look around them but they don't look up.

So what rules mechanical system would you propose for this? If you ask the player, "Do you look up," of course they're going to say yes; you've given them a big hint. If you ask them what they do, they'll say, "I look at the room to see if anyone is in it," and when you say, "Well, you didn't see X because X was on the ceiling, you're going to have an argument over "Well, I said I looked in the room" and "my character's trained in search methods, of course they look up." I suppose you could assign a modifier, but I'm not sure that an effective -10 is reasonable.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

If she looks up. Most of the time people look around them but they don't look up.

She hears the rotors, so I think looking towards the sound is reasonable.

[Anthony]

Part of the problem is that range only matters if you're looking in a way that would otherwise allow detection. Someone who's out of your line of sight is out of your line of sight whether it's 2 yards or 2,000.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Part of the problem is that range only matters if you're looking in a way that would otherwise allow detection. Someone who's out of your line of sight is out of your line of sight whether it's 2 yards or 2,000.

There is an excluded middle here between completely out of line of sight and exposed in the open.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

There is an excluded middle here between completely out of line of sight and exposed in the open.

True, but the example of looking up is not part of the excluded middle; if you look in the right direction you'll see the person hiding on the ceiling, otherwise you won't.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Anthony

True, but the example of looking up is not part of the excluded middle; if you look in the right direction you'll see the person hiding on the ceiling, otherwise you won't.

In this case it has camouflage.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

In this case it has camouflage.

Eh, I'd give the +10 bonus if the person looks in the right direction, but maybe use your raw observation skill or something to decide whether you look in the right direction in the first place.