5 replies to this topic

[iamthedave]

I have a character with mega perception 6 and Hyper-Enhanced Hearing. I'm thinking about just what that equates to. The 'feat' attached to 6 in The New Flesh is being able to find a restaurant on the other side of a medium sized city by scent alone, and I think that seems to fit nicely given the main book has 'you can hear wool growing on the backs of sheep' at 5.

But I'm thinking of how that applies to hearing in particular (one of those secret-based games where information is important). The characters are on a space station, which will be running about 500 crew at current estimates (we're trying to figure out how many people they'd need/want).

Would this Mega-Perceptive character be able to hear every conversation on the space station at once, save those in sound proofed areas? Or maybe even more by perceiving vibrations in the metal and superstructure?

And obviously Hyper-Enhanced Hearing just expands that into all new areas.

Any thoughts? Obviously its a grey area but I'd like a few opinions since you all seem very knowledgeable.

[Damon]

IMO, it would depend on the size of the space station, how far away the conversation you were trying to hear and tune in on, the amount of intervening noise etc.  

If I was the ST, I would probably have you make a roll with a difficulty based on the above questions/conditions to allow you to pick out a particular conversation you wanted to listen in on.  

Then, based on your (Mega)Wits, I would allow you to follow and process more than one conversation at a time, or if even your (Mega)Int was high enough, you could try to remember all the white noise of multiple conversations and try to go back and pick out each conversation later from your own memory.

[iamthedave]

But you'd certainly consider it reasonable to overhear anything at Mega Per 6. Think I'll knock up a little quick reference table for myself. This character will likely be making many perception rolls...

Also, she has a handy aberration (no way was I letting a mega attribute get to 6 without serious taint) where she can get overwhelmed; bit like the Teragen Mist-ed Callisto from X-Men. Doubt it'll get out of control.

[Damon]

Yes I would find it reasonable to be able to hear anything, especially with the enhancement, perhaps even sound proof rooms, as I have been told by engineers that sound proof rooms are rarely built with the care needed to make them completely soundproof.

I like the idea of the aberration, but be careful not to make her own power a liability to the character (that can be distinctly not fun) as novas are assumed to be immune and by that power level, have complete, if not reflexive, control of what they do and that aberration walks the line of being template busting....at least depending on how severe it is and how strongly you enforce it.  But if you are playing a game with 6 dot megas...you are probably more than experienced enough and ill just shut up now.

[iamthedave]

Well you see, we had the clever idea of giving her Sensory Shield as well; effectively representing her adapting to the overwhelming sensations, but above a certain level she still gets knocked flat.

[Damon]

She could just wear a pair of Bose sound-proof headphones all the time.