Supernatural senses question.

[Taran]

One of my players wants to play a Monster Hunter and have a supernatural sense that he can use to track other supernaturals.  How do you adjudicate something like that?

Part of the fun is that many Supers are hidden or disguised, will it  ruin the fun if he can just detect them?

I was thinking of doing an awareness to notice.  The more supernatural powers = easier to detect.  Maybe powers specifically designed to trick the senses would add to the Difficulty.

So someone with 8 refresh worth of powers would require a fairly easy role, but if they had 3 refresh worth of power, like flesh mask etc.. the difficulty would increases by 3?

But that seems fairly straight forward.  What about Tracking them?  What is he tracking?  Their Aura? Do you have to designate a sense like smell or sight? I figured it'd be Investigation, Survival or Lore to track.  Veils and wards designed to hide such things would increase the difficulty.

[MijRai]

Let him use Alertness or Lore, and remember they still have to roll. To detect a ghoul, make it a 2. To detect a veiled Red Court trying to hide, make it 4 or 5. As far as tracking, it'd probably be their 'scent'. It is suggested that a Supernatural Sense is tied to a sense, like smelling gold or hearing ley lines or somesuch. Being able to smell the supernatural would be good flavor. Lets him say stuff stinks too.

[evileeyore]

If you want to be mean, make it by taste.   

[Taran]

Let him use Alertness or Lore, and remember they still have to roll. To detect a ghoul, make it a 2. To detect a veiled Red Court trying to hide, make it 4 or 5. As far as tracking, it'd probably be their 'scent'. It is suggested that a Supernatural Sense is tied to a sense, like smelling gold or hearing ley lines or somesuch. Being able to smell the supernatural would be good flavor. Lets him say stuff stinks too.

How did you come up with those numbers, in particular?  Do they just "feel" right or do you have a system?  I'm just curious because I'll have to come up with this stuff on the fly.

How would you adjudicate a "minor talent" or a Wizard, for example?

[devonapple]

Lore already *is* a character's supernatural Alertness (from monsters to magical effects) according to the RAW. This hunter should probably buy up Lore in any case.

In addition, a Stunt to reflect a bonus of +1 or +2 to Lore checks to detect supernatural creatures would be a good option (rather than a Supernatural Sense, which would eliminate any chance that he is a Pure Mortal).

Or, he could take a Stunt to allow his Alertness to be used in place of his Lore when trying to detect supernatural creatures.

[ways and means]

Didn't the stunt finely tuned third eye do that and also give a +1 to the rolls.

[devonapple]

Didn't the stunt finely tuned third eye do that and also give a +1 to the rolls.

Sounds like a good option to me.

[Taran]

Lore already *is* a character's supernatural Alertness (from monsters to magical effects) according to the RAW. This hunter should probably buy up Lore in any case.

In addition, a Stunt to reflect a bonus of +1 or +2 to Lore checks to detect supernatural creatures would be a good option (rather than a Supernatural Sense, which would eliminate any chance that he is a Pure Mortal).

Or, he could take a Stunt to allow his Alertness to be used in place of his Lore when trying to detect supernatural creatures.

- Well, he's not pure mortal, so that's not a problem.  

- I knew you could use Lore to detect IoP and stuff, but it's more the tracking part that I'm having a hiccup over.

[WillH]

Didn't the stunt finely tuned third eye do that and also give a +1 to the rolls.

Actually, it's a standard trapping of the Lore skill. Finely tuned third eye gives you a +2. If you want to be able to see the supernatural clearer than that, you should take The Sight.

[devonapple]

I believe there is a Tracking stunt that gives bonuses to Survival for this purpose. One could make a followup stunt which further increases that for supernatural creatures. I'm not very experienced handling Tracking in general, but I should brush up on it, as I now have a Werebear in the party.

[Taran]

The "Mystical Perception" trapping gives only a very vague impression of something weird.  So maybe the Hunter uses this to ferret out baddies.

From there I'd say "The Sight" if he wants to know more details.

For Tracking, he could use that Lore check as the base for aquiring the "scent".

From here it would be a Tracking(Survival) check to follow the creature using mundane means - or use a stunt to make it Lore.

But to follow "mystical footprints", or auras I'd figure that would be a supernatural sense.  Which would be a Lore check.  Assuming he took no stunts, would he still need to use Survival to track?  Or would you allow the supernatural sense to track?

[Todjaeger]

Arcane Senses (a Trapping of the Sight) allows use of Lore for arcane Investigation or Alertness rolls, at +1 no less per YS173.

From YS135, the Lore skill Trapping: Mystic Perception should only give an

extremely vague, limited to statements such as “You’re getting a bad feeling about this” or “Something about this place is just…wrong.

sort of feeling.  So if the monster hunter is looking for really know when the supernatural is about or where they had been, it would seem sensible that the Sight would be required, or a Supernatural Sense which provides a similar sort of non-visual clue (smell, sound or taste...) with smell likely being one of the better choices, particularly for tracking purposes.  However, I would likely give the player a choice of using a new Trapping for Lore to track, or use the Trapping from Survival.

-Cheers

[Taran]

Arcane Senses (a Trapping of the Sight) allows use of Lore for arcane Investigation or Alertness rolls, at +1 no less per YS173.

From YS135, the Lore skill Trapping: Mystic Perception should only give an

sort of feeling.  So if the monster hunter is looking for really know when the supernatural is about or where they had been, it would seem sensible that the Sight would be required, or a Supernatural Sense which provides a similar sort of non-visual clue (smell, sound or taste...) with smell likely being one of the better choices, particularly for tracking purposes.  However, I would likely give the player a choice of using a new Trapping for Lore to track, or use the Trapping from Survival.

-Cheers

Yeah, your basically saying what I meant to say (regarding the Mystical Perception Trapping). 

I was curious whether or not to make him take a stunt (to use a new trapping for Lore) on top of the supernatural sense and then he'd be able to use both Lore and/or survival to track and, it seems, that's what you're suggesting.

[tymire]

Part of the fun is that many Supers are hidden or disguised, will it  ruin the fun if he can just detect them?

Well it's a power so why not?  It's not like he will be able to know what everything is, just that's supernatural.   And if you have a power like that and are able to see ALL of them you better know which ones you can piss off and which ones will get you an early ticket to the grave.  Past that just take a stunt that lets you track them based on lore and call it a day as that's -2 refresh and you can get a lot of other things for 2 refresh.....

[Todjaeger]

Yeah, your basically saying what I meant to say (regarding the Mystical Perception Trapping). 

I was curious whether or not to make him take a stunt (to use a new trapping for Lore) on top of the supernatural sense and then he'd be able to use both Lore and/or survival to track and, it seems, that's what you're suggesting.

Actually in hindSight (pardon the pun) the Sight would only really let someone visually see the supernatural, if they were dumb enough to open the Sight, otherwise is could give indications only give indications when something was present, or perhaps a sense of an event if something of supernatural significance occurred at a location.  It wouldn't give information about where something supernatural went after leaving a particular location.

Now, if the Supernatural Sense is something along the lines of 'Smell the Supernatural' I would likely have descriptions for different types of smells, for different supernatural beings/creatures, with it up to the players to figure out what smell goes with what creature.  I can see a GM/storyteller having all kinds of fun with that.

"It's 11pm as you walk past the entry to the alley behind a Pizza 'Spress having just picked up a large pepperoni, and you can't help but smell fresh cut grass and early morning dew".  Suddenly, the top of the pizza box goes flying off and the pizza seems to disintegrate from within the box..."

-Cheers