Exciting New Uses for "Absorb/Dissipate Energy"

[ambrose82]

According to 2nd edition rules (blue book pg 148) Absorb/ Dissipate energy can be used "to absorb or dissipate energy, including light, heat, radiation and blaster bolts." Also according to the rules, absorbing a sunburn level of light is very easy. So now the wheels start turning...

So, if a Jedi can absorb OR dissipate energy than the choice is up to the user. Since the power can be used to absorb light, the Jedi could absorb the visible spectrum of light making him visible as nothing more than the blackest black mass of blackness anybody has ever seen. He would become completely indistinct and would have no visible features. This could be very useful for sneaking around at night.

Additionally, since the Jedi can also absorb heat, he could, presumably, re-absorb his own body heat making him undetectable using heat detecting devices such as thermographic sensors.

Furthermore, he could absorb infrared and ultraviolet light striking him in order to render himself undetectable by these types of sensors as well.

Based on the levels indicated in the rules, these feats would range somewhere between very easy and easy. I say this because sunlight enough to cause sunburn is a moderate level of ultraviolet light. Sensors using ultraviolet produce less of this kind of radiation than the sun making it even easier to absorb. The same logic applies to infrared. As for visible light, especially in darker conditions, well, this might be a bit more problematic, but not much. The human body produces a lot of heat, but obviously nothing close to an open flame...Intense sunlight is an Easy roll, so absorbing one's own heat may be along this order. Of course, absorbing your own body heat can also help keep you warmer in cold weather... yet another useful aspect of this power.

We all like to think of the glorious side of the power. The coolness of being able to deflect blaster bolts and such, but it also implies some backdoor possibilities for the ingenious Jedi...

[Tahlorn]

*huge grin* Me likes.....

Only thing is, the absorbing Jedi would appear as a complete cold spot in his appropriate shape, and could be detected as contrasting against his surroundings. Of course, usually the background is 'cold' (dark for IR, UV and the like), so wouldn't come up much unless next to something warm or glowing. It also may require some sort of roll for the Jedi to determine the right amount of absorbing / dissipating to properly blend in though.

But I still like the possibilities.

[Phalanks Balas]

I think it could be a new Force power wich need absorbate / dissipate energy.

Be aware that absorbing energy or light can make you "to flare up" in the eyes of someone using special binocular :

if you absorb the heat you look like cold I think a jedi would succeed in a heroic roll to be at the same temperature than everything around him/her.

if you absorb light you look like dark... Of course if the Jedi can fade in the shadow for human eyes...
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Phalanks

A day you will be facing the guns of the Black Pearl. You will know what means damned pirates !

[ambrose82]

Both make good points. managing a kind of "energy camoflauge" by blending with the background would be nearly impossible. I was looking at this from a more theoretical view of actually being able to do it. Automated sensors searching for heat patterns to activate an alarm or something would not be activated as the Jedi would not meet their parameters. Visual inspection in dark conditions would likewise be extremely difficult. Even if they did spot the Jedi they could not immediately determine what it was. Not to mention actually discovering some kind of wierd shadow being. that would be a terrifying experience.

[Boomer]

I would say, simply absorbing energy and being the blackest blackness anybody has seen is still a blackness they can see

Just like the Defel cloaking ability. "I'll become a shadow, they wont see me!" "Uh... yes they do see the wolfen hominid block of shade walking down the hall under the lights."

In my game, I would allow this use, with increased difficulty for every energy form they choose to absorb, and make them follow it to the letter that this is only as long as the source is constant. No UV to absorb, you don;t get to absorb UV until it shows up. Just as the rule says. And if it shows up in bursts you make a new roll for each burst.

And again, as mentioned before, the Defel problem with the same ability. People still see shadows, and the color black. Simply being black does not render you invisible outside of the color black.

As for turning this into some form of camoflauge, matching the surroundings... probably an advanced power that uses absorb dissipate and a few others as required powers. I would let a Jedi Character work towards crafting it in game.
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My backpack has jets!
I'm Boba the Fett!
And I bounty hunt for Jabba Hutt,
to finance my 'vette!

[K_Feldspar]

I don't believe that the jedi has the quantum-level control it would take to absorb energy in this manner especially when it comes to high energy cosmic ray as he is sure to encounter. Furthermore, there are problems with absorbing all energy he comes into contact with and rediates on his own. Assuming that conservation of energy holds for the Star Wars universe then the jedi would heat up quite quickly. I interpret this power as the jedi absorbs it, and then dissipates it right away.

[Allst Beamem]

[Endwyn]

If you want to see the crazy level of control a jedi does have, and is expected to have; look at the cadances from GG:9 fragments from the rim. One of the Jedi exercises is to start with an empty bottle and a stopper. By the end of the day the Jedi should have a bottle of pure oxygen, that the jedi has filled and filtered to prevent any other molocule from being inside the bottle.
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Luke, I am your father.
That's impossible!
And Leia is your sister!
That's improbable?
And the Empire will be destroyed by..EWOKS!
That's...highly unlikely.
The Force? Bacteria called midichlorians.
If you don’t take this seriously I'm out.

[ambrose82]

if a Jedi can detoxify poison by essentially changing it's molecular structure or in some other way rendering it harmless I don't think they would have a problem absorbing a range of visual light. I would oppose using this power as a kind of camoflauge by blending with the background, I think this would require far too much information about the background to be feasible. I certainly would not oppose it for the uses I've described in the original post.

[Boomer]

[K_Feldspar]

Wow. Y'all are harsh. Especially Boomer. I accept Allst Beamem 's interpretation and examples and I stand corrected. You're proclamation that I'm using psuedo science however is insulting. My background is physics, adn I at least mildly know what I'm talking about.

Furthermore don't bring that other star-thing into this.

[Boomer]

[K_Feldspar]

It's kewl. I'm a Leo, so I'll get up on the table and dance for attention now.

Seriously though. I hadn't read the cadences in GG9. So I guess I claim ignorance. I had no idea a jedi is supposed to be able to sort through molecules and be able to bottle just the O2. I honestly don't know if I like it, but I think the difficulty numbers are sufficient that I as a GM shouldn't have to deal with it too often.

[Endwyn]

Well, if you don't have the book, there is more info that makes it less useful for anything other than Jedi practice. First, it literly takes a day to complete the exercise. (I guess you could quible over if by day they mean 24 hrs or the avg time a person is awake in a day.) Either way the base difficulty is like a heroic TK (alter) roll modified with a +10 modifier for each hour you intend to save by speeding up the process.

So that specific example demonstates the fine level of control that can be maintained, but also the hight level of difficulty and time taken to complete such an exact task.

If you don't have the book, check out the PDF thread in tools. It's a very useful book, and it is full of other exercises and practices. (It's the only book I know of with any such Jedi training tools.)
_________________
Luke, I am your father.
That's impossible!
And Leia is your sister!
That's improbable?
And the Empire will be destroyed by..EWOKS!
That's...highly unlikely.
The Force? Bacteria called midichlorians.
If you don’t take this seriously I'm out.

[Allst Beamem]

WOOT!! some one agreed with me