lewis DeleteThis @lwb.org wrote:
> All,
>
> In the Hero System (5th Revised) How would you make a weapon invisible
> to sight and instruments that detect weapons or metals? I dont want the
> weapon to be invisible in any circumstance other than when its in the
> holster or scabbard. Basically, if you wanted to have a magic character
> who had enchanted his sword or gun to be invisible and undetectable
> while walking through a security scanner, but the focus would become
> immediately apparent when used or drawn or dropped, and the focus could
> still be felt in a pat-down and taken away whether invisible or not,
> how would you do that?
What genre are you doing it in? Superheroic, fantasy, superspy?
If it's superheroic and you're not buying the weapon as a Focus that
can be taken away from you, this could just be a special effect. The
"Other Notes" section in the Focus rules on page 191 says you can
define a super-weapon as something that just teleports to your hand
whenever you want it, even if someone disarms you. From there
it's an easy leap to "It's there, but it's invisible until I draw it."
That doesn't fit many character concepts, though. To build a more
or less normal piece of equipment that does what you want, here's
what I come up with after looking over the rules.
First, you need to define exactly what powers are being used.
Luckily, that's the easy part. Invisibility does everything you want.
Invisibility to the sight group is 20 points. Then you can throw in
invisibility to "detect metal" or something similar for another
5 points, if I'm reading the rules right. It'd be a Nontargeting
Sense Group for sure. Looking at the Enhanced Senses rules
shows that this could get really complicated if we want to let
it, but if I were the GM I'd have no problem at all letting you do
this with invisibility to just sight and a generic "detect metal,"
so call that 25 points. Maybe 30 points if you want to make
it vs. "detect metal" and "detect whatever other materials
the weapon or scabbard are made of."
As an aside, I would rule that this wouldn't make the
weapon completely and absolutely indetectable. Someone
with a really good sense of smell might detect the oil or
something else distinctive, for example. A mage with a
"detect weapon" spell might be able to sense it, if your
special effect isn't magical. If it is I'd say it works against
other magic spells. If you want to make it completely,
100% invisible to absolutely everything, that'd cost
you. But this would make it about 99% effective,
at least, and I wouldn't even bother to roll for
detection except under very unusual circumstances,
like if Daredevil's working airport security that day or
you're trying to sneak the weapon past a master mage
or someone else with superhuman senses.
Okay, back to the rules. You'd have to make the power
0 Endurance and Persistent, that's a +1 Advantage. You
can also make it Always On, though, for -1/2. Normally
Always On wouldn't work since it becomes visible when
used to attack, but there are a couple of points in our
favor for that.
1) It's a disadvantage for the character if the weapon
is visible during attacks, so you're not trying to crock
the rules.
2) Weapons and attacks are always visible unless
you specifically buy invisible power effects for them,
and that trumps the Always On.
So, so far we've got a 25 or 30 point power with a +1
advantage. Call it 60 active points. We've got a -1/2
disad so far, but we can add to that.
First, it'll be a Focus of some sort. Probably Obvious and
Accessible since it's a weapon, but possibly Inobvious
and Accessible if the weapon is disguised in some way.
Inobvious means that people wouldn't know it was the
weapon even while it's being used, though, and that
doesn't really fit the invisibility idea - if people can't
identify it as a weapon even when it's being used, what
the hell are we going through all this trouble for? So
for argument's sake, call it Obvious and Accessible.
That's a -1 disad.
If you want the weapon to have to be in a specific
holster or scabbard to be invisible, we might be
able to con the GM into granting us an additional
-1/4 disadvantage, using the "Multiple Foci" section
on page 190. I'd allow it for this particular power,
anyway, since it's really so limited.
Speaking of limited, here's where we save some
serious points. Normally buying Invisbility in
a Focus would allow the character himself to
be invisible. Since the power only works on
the Focus itself, that definitely calls for the
Limited Power disad. Going by the guidelines
chart on page 194, I'd say this at the very
least cuts 2/3 of the effectiveness of the
power. That's a -1 1/2 disadvantage. I'd
have no problem giving it the full -2 myself,
but I'm a lenient GM.
So let's break it down. 25 or 30 point
power with a +1 advantage. That's
pretty solid, I think. The limitations
are where it gets weird.
- 1/2 for Always On
-1 for Obvious Accessible Focus
- 1 1/2 for Limited Power - Only Works On Focus
I'd say those are pretty solid, too. I think
most GMs would agree. The extra -1/4
for the Focus and the extra -1/2 for the
Limited Power are a bit more iffy, but I
honestly don't think they're out of line.
I think most GMs would allow them,
especially considering how limited in
scope this power is.
So if we use the 60 active points number
and only the rock solid disads, the total
cost comes out to 15 points. Right? Dear
God, let me have not messed up the math.
Thanks. Anyway. Not a bad price if the
power will be useful in the campaign. A
little high but not unreasonable, at least
if you have a decent number of points to
start with. Adding in the extra -3/4 only
brings the cost down to 13 points, so
I think most GMs would be okay with
it.
And that's how I'd do that. Thank you
for giving me an excuse to geek out.
It's been too long.
Pete
>> Stay informed about: Hero 5th: Weapon Invisible When Not In Use? 
FAQ
Search
Profile
Private Messages
Log in/Register/Password
