This specialised GURPS supplement deals with unusual sensory powers,
from the reasonable to the cinematic.
Disclaimer: I received playtest credit in this book and
therefore did not pay for it.
The book is split into three parts: the first, Sensory Powers, deals
with overall concepts, such as various means by which senses might be
boosted, the range of a sense, and just what information one can get
from it. (Hearing doesn't let you know where someone is well enough to
hit them with a sword, for example, while a vibration sense generally
does.) Some existing advantages such as Infravision are extended with
this new framework, and there's a comprehensive chart of which senses
can enhance which skills (e.g. being able to see ultra-violet light
gives +2 to Naturalist and Prospecting, among others).
The second part, Sensory Abilities, consists largely of a series of
worked examples: if you want a rattlesnake-style low-resolution
thermal sense, imaging touch like a star-nosed mole, or super balance,
they're all statted out here with point costs.
The final part, Sensory Applications, gives more specific examples,
such as Archer's Trance (track a target, determine its speed and
range, and hit it more accurately, at the cost of not seeing anything
else while you're doing it), Visual Profiling (memorise and recognise
patterns such as faces, maps, works of art, etc.), and Stop Motion
(you can perceive things with a very high time resolution, though you
can't act on them very fast).
This is a shopping list more than a book to use in play: it's good for
statting up monsters, and for players who have strange ideas for their
characters. Even without the superheroic stuff, which I'm unlikely
ever to use, there are plenty of good ideas here, many of them derived
from animals in the real world.
Powers: Enhanced Senses is available from Warehouse 23.
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