Invisibility to Detect.

[pawsplay]

On 6/6/2024 at 1:11 AM, Gauntlet said:

 

If your character walks into a darkness field, can't he realize he/she can't see. If you walk into an area where there is absolutely no sound, you can hear it. If you have a sense and it all of the sudden is turned off you can tell. If your metal detector stops working, you will know as there is always at least a little bit of metal on absolutely every beach. Even if motion detectors stop working, they tell you as there is always an ambient amount of movement in every area unless you are in a vacuum. Any type of technology like this will tell you when it is no longer functioning.

 

But there are plenty of areas where there are no mutants. You are talking about senses that constantly scan for things that are omnipresent. If you suppress vision, your target is immediately aware they can't see. If you suppress mutant detection, your target is aware they cannot detect mutants, which is also true if there are no mutants to detect.

 

Exotic senses don't even work like normal senses, anyway. Detect Mutants doesn't give you a constant awareness of anything but what you pay for.

 

Looking at my 6e book, making the Target Effect of an Obvious Power invisible to the target is a +1/2 Advantage, while making the power otherwise invisible is +1, for a total Advantage of +1 1/2.

[Gauntlet]

6 hours ago, pawsplay said:

 

But there are plenty of areas where there are no mutants. You are talking about senses that constantly scan for things that are omnipresent. If you suppress vision, your target is immediately aware they can't see. If you suppress mutant detection, your target is aware they cannot detect mutants, which is also true if there are no mutants to detect.

 

Exotic senses don't even work like normal senses, anyway. Detect Mutants doesn't give you a constant awareness of anything but what you pay for.

 

Looking at my 6e book, making the Target Effect of an Obvious Power invisible to the target is a +1/2 Advantage, while making the power otherwise invisible is +1, for a total Advantage of +1 1/2.

 

This just might be one of those types where we just agree to disagree. I see where you are coming from, but in the world I am running the detectors look for an ambient energy based on mutation, something that is always there as there is always some type of mutation going on, even if just for single celled life. In the case of a human mutant, the energy level is off the charts making them very easy to detect. Because of this if you block out all mutant detection, it will have a detector state that there is absolutely nothing there, something that in my world is impossible. The reason invisibility would work in my world is because it would only block out the detection of the individual mutant, not everything, so the detector would still give a standard reading and not a completely blank one.

[LoneWolf]

@pawsplay you are making some assumptions on how the mutant detector works.  There is no reason this could not be built as a constant power.  All that would require would be adding as a sense to the detect.  

 

From a game mechanics point of view Darkness is an obvious power.  That means that unless you purchase invisible power effects people know when you use it.  By default, it is visible to two sense groups.  That is probably going to make the darkness option more expensive than the invisibility option.

 

Also, even if it has the invisible power effects there is still a good chance of it being detected.  If the character using the detect mutants has already detected a mutant, but the mutant he detects suddenly stops registering that will likely reveal something is wrong.  The same thing will happen if the mutant detector fails to register a known mutant.  You have to look beyond simple game mechanics and cover all your bases.  

 

Darkness to a sense can be something like static.  This is what darkness to the radio group would be.  It prevents you from using the sense, but you still know something is going on.