magnify senses, how do YOU handle it

[garhkal]

Brought out of a thread on one of my adnd sites, Dragonsfoot, in an area discussing 1e starwars, but can also apply to 2e..

[Darklighter79]

Normally I allow selection of one or more senses based on a player's choice.

Base difficulty is average 3 (Very easy) per sense. Later modified by proximity.
But this only improves the natural effectiveness senses. So rolling a 30 won't give you a chance to hear a mynock that is in vacuum environment as the sound does not propagate there.

Similarly, hearing what is happening on level 1313 on Courscant while standing near Umate's peak would be also impossible due to kilometers of a megastructure dampening all sounds.

It's like in the movies:
"That's no moon!" - looking at a small bright dot in space.
or
"Quickly. They're on the move." - hearing the steps on Sand People closing in.
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[pakman]

TLDR: I have it give a bonus to Perception based skills, but keep it up over time and accumulates fatigue.

Longer version;

As part of my force power overhaul, here is my revised Magnify Senses.

Base is DL3: Moderate Sense Skill Check to activate.
Duration is concentration, but can accumulate Stress/Fatigue over time.
The benefit is a bonus to all Perception based skills.

The bonus is +1 Pip per Die code of the Sense Skill - so if you had 3D+1 Sense, that would be +3 pips.

I also use a mechanic for each higher difficultly level the roll would hit - they get a +1 pip bonus. So, if the player rolled high enough for a DL4: Difficult result, they would get an additional +1pip bonus to the net effect.


Now, a few notes on my house rules that are relevant here.
Power Scaling
Almost all of the force powers in my game are easier to do - making them more accessible to beginning force users.
However - most of them are also scaled down in power - that is - instead of getting your full Sense or Control bonus on something - you just get +1 pip per Die.
This really helps with the power curve in the game. Beginning characters can actually do things more often, but are weaker - and more moderate characters are not silly over powered.

On Perception
My group is using the Attributes from later editions of d6 - as some of the ones in our beloved old game - just did not work for us over the years - either because they did not make sense to us, or too easily created dump stats.

Perception - which is basically charisma and the ability to pay attention - has been split into Presence (Charisma and emotional strength) and Perception (paying attention and quick thinking).

Without this split - just having a skill that increases Senses may not make sense when Perception = Charisma + Paying attention in the RAW game.

Overall keep it simple - don't mess with different senses or whatever - just a flat bonus. Obviously, the GM would exclude things that would be impossible (the hearing in a vacuum example above).
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[garhkal]

Pak. Does that allow someone say to see something normally they couldn't (IE giving them long range vision, IR vision or the like)?
Do they just pick one sense to enhance, or is it all?
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