Detection
Compare target's Stealth to your Perception: If Perception is at least 3 less than Stealth, detect the target only at the end of each turn. If Perception is only two less than Stealth, also detect the target after it or you finish a standard action. If Perception is only one less than Stealth, detect the target after it or you finish any action or attack. If Perception is equal to or greater than Stealth, detect the target at all times, preventing them from using legerdemain against you.
All sense ranges are also multiplied by the observer's size in meters.
Remote Viewing: It's difficult to keep track of several distinct locations at once, by using something like a corpse mirror or video feed. A creature's Perception for such a device is 0, unless they declare that they're ignoring the real world and all other feeds for the moment, treating their Perception for those things as 0.
You only detect a target if it is within detection range of one of your senses:
Detection Ranges
Visual: Blocked by opaque objects. If something is the brightest glowing object in an area, it is easy to pick out at a great distance.
- Range: Base range is normally 1000 times the target's size, or 1000 times the radius of the area it brightly illuminates that was not already brightly illuminated, whichever is greater.
- Concealment: Range is quartered for dim light or some concealment, and further divided by 25 for extreme concealment (like frosted glass) or minimal light. Without even minimal light, it is not possible to see.
- Camouflage:Range is doubled for those without camouflage, like drastically incorrect coloration, or not glowing while against the daytime sky.
Auditory: Blocked by vacuum. If there are obstructions in the way, auditory detection tells you only the first leg of the shortest path that passes through the minimum number of obstructions, and the total distance to the target. Unlike other senses, if a person is in range to hear a sound, they notice it eventually; high Stealth just prevents them from noticing before the action or turn is over.
- Range: Base range is the target's size, multiplied by a number that depends on what they're doing. If doing multiple things, each thing has its own range.
- Speaking: Anywhere from 0.1 to 300.
- Breathing: 0.1
- Moving at half speed or less: 2
- Moving: 10
- Running: 100
- Attacking: 100
- Attacking with a -1 penalty for trying to minimize sound: 5
- Teleportation Spot Hum: 50 for both arrival and departure spots
- Noise: Range is quartered for some noise (like wind, conversation, or a fire), quartered again for constant loud noises (like a jackhammer or hurricane)
- Soundproofing: Soundproofing in sealed rooms can count for up to 1000 meters per meter of wall in the thinnest part.
Thermosympathetic: Feel a primal connection with fire. This only lets you sense fires.
- Range: Base range is normally 100 times the target's size, or the approximate diameter of the region that's on fire. Creatures don't normally have a Thermosympathetic sense.
Scent: Scent doesn't travel out of or into sealed containers, and only lets you trace direction by moving at least a meter and triangulating.
- Range: Base range is normally 0.5 meters.
- Wind: For winds, the area in which the scent can be detected is shifted by 10 meters in the direction of a light wind or 30 meters in the direction of a strong wind.
- Pheromones: Wounded or afraid creatures can be detected at twice the distance.
- Overpowering Stench: If there's a very strong-smelling scent, it can be detected at four times the distance, but weaker scents within that area can only be detected at half the distance.
TEMPEST: TEMPEST is another sense, only present in Cybergems, that allows one to detect the locations of electronic devices and electrical signals. It can't be used to detect creatures or objects that contain no active electronics and use and generate no power. While within a tenth of the full range, they can identify what active augments and electronic devices the target possesses, as well as what hacking they are currently doing.
- Range: Base range is normally 50 meters. Creatures don't normally have a TEMPEST sense.
- Interference: If there are many other electronic or electrical devices running in the area, distance to identify the objects is quartered, but noticing that there are electrical devices in the general area is no harder.
- High Power: For every power spent during the previous round, distance increases by 1000 meters, and for every power generated, distance increases by 100 meters.
Disguise
Disguises may be Poor, Decent, or Good. Poor disguises can be foiled by any Search. Decent disguises can be foiled by a Tactile Search. Good disguises cannot be foiled without inflicting wounds. Disguises do not prevent you from acting or speaking in a way that reveals your true identity.
The time to create a disguise is equal to the listed time divided by your Items check.
Actually wearing the disguise and impersonating the creature involves bluff checks. For bluffs that aim to impersonate a specific individual or kind of official, the bluffer must have spent 5 hours studying such creature's mannerisms, or they get -3 to the bluff check.
Disguise | Quality | Creation Time |
---|---|---|
Stolen Uniform | Good | N/A |
Stolen Uniform (Damaged) | Decent | N/A |
Stolen Uniform (Repaired) | Good | 50 hours |
Fake Uniform | Good | 100 hours |
Conceal Identity as Stranger1 | Decent | 2 minutes |
Alter Facial Structure1 | Decent | 20 hours |
Alter Skin Color1 | Decent | 4 hours |
Increase Girth and/or Height1 (Clothed only) | Decent | 4 hours |
Conceal Body Parts1 (Clothed only) | Poor | 1 hour |
Fake Body Parts1 (Clothed only) | Poor | 1 hour |
Conceal item weighing 2% or less of creature's weight (Clothed only) | Decent | 1 minute |
Conceal item weighing 5% or less of creature's weight (Clothed only) | Poor | 1 minute |
1 Disguise must be crafted specifically for the creature wearing it, and may be crafted as a surgical disguise.
Surgical Disguises: Surgically implanting a disguise makes it one step more difficult to detect (Poor->Decent->Good), and removes the "Clothed only" restriction, if any. Crafting a surgical disguise inflicts one wound per fifteen minutes on the victim, starting with one wound immediately, so maintaining full crafting speed without killing the victim most likely requires constant healing by professionals. Removing a surgically implanted disguise takes the same procedure as creating it did.
Tracking
Creatures inevitably alter their surroundings in perceptible ways when they travel, leaving heat, visible signs, and scents to mark their passing, which can be noticed with sufficient effort and a good skill check. To get on the track of a character, you need to pass a skill check; failure means you don't manage to correctly identify which signs belong to the tracked target. If you fail to get on the trail, you can try again with half an hour of further searching.
If you roll 2 or higher on the skill check, you can locate obvious tracks. With 4 or higher, you can locate Poorly-Hidden tracks. With 6 or higher, you can locate Decently-Hidden tracks.
Visual Tracking Modifiers: Nature. Only creatures with a Visual sense can use it.
- Obvious: Footprints in snow or mud are so easy to track, you don't need to search for them at all.
- Poorly-Hidden: Broken branches or tracks that have been quickly swept over take a Search to find.
- Decently-Hidden: Identifying when someone has walked backwards over their old tracks, or finding traces of scratches in metallic flooring, takes a Tactile Search to find.
- Unfindable: Once tracks have been washed away or covered up, they cannot be seen.
Scent Tracking Modifiers: Nature. Only creatures with a scent base range of at least 20 meters can track Scents effectively.
- Obvious: If the air hasn't been stirred since the scent trail was made, it can be followed with ease.
- Poorly-Hidden: Scents outdoors in relatively still areas still have the scent drift, which makes it take a Search to find after 5 minutes but no more than 2 hours have passed.
- Decently-Hidden: Scents outdoors in the wind or in less windy areas after 2 hours require following scent trails on surfaces, which take a Tactile Search to find.
- Unfindable: Once all traces of something have been washed off surfaces and the air has been replaced, the smell is gone.
Thermosympathetic Tracking Modifiers: Nature. Only creatures with a Thermosympathetic sense can use it.
- Obvious: If the trail involves things being lit on fire, it's easy to follow.
- Poorly-Hidden: If the tracked target was on fire, its trail can be found with a Search for 1 hour after its passing.
- Decently-Hidden: Tactile Search doesn't help with Thermosympathetic tracking.
- Unfindable: Undead and objects can't be tracked at all.
Tracking Teleportation: Supernatural Philosophy. Teleportation leaves a very subtle telltale hum behind for a little while. Only creatures with an Auditory sense can use it.
- Obvious: Hear and locate teleportation spots that have occurred in the past round with ease.
- Poorly-Hidden: With a Search, identify the other ends of teleport spots within the area that occurred within the past round, just the distance to those other spots if one or two rounds have passed, and merely the existence of teleport spots that are up to 6 rounds old.
- Decently-Hidden: With a Tactile Search touching the region of a teleport spot, identify as per Poorly-Hidden, but up to 3 times the age.
- Unfindable: Teleportation spots that are more than 18 rounds old cannot be heard at all.