Trained Animals, Fragging with the social adept Options

[cbettles]

I just got SOTA 2064 and was reading the earlier thread on 2064 on this site with the raging debate on more options for countering magic.

Here is an option that might work for countering a social adept or a magician. Animals are supposed to be more intune to the supernatural, right? Why not have mundanes train normal mundane animals to bark or alert their owner in someway when they are in the presence of someone using an adept power or a spell.

You can even make it into a sub-plot where a dog trainer in the Humanis Policlub comes up with a way to train their dobermans to do this. So you could have a great scene where the social adept is trying to use some of the new nifty social powers on a humanis goon while a dog is barking up a storm.

Eventually the rest of the underworld catches on and gets some trained animals. That would put the crimp on social adepts using their powers to get super powerful weapons from their fixers or Johnsons. The dog starts barking, the fixers realizes he is being scammed and demands that the negotiations happened over the telephone or in the Matrix.

If the GM was really mean, he could have the dogs sense magical activity just like the magic sense power at essence x meters. Suddenly your average guard dog is a huge nuisance. Instead of flipping on the invisibility spell or traceless walk and cruising right to the front gate, the dogs have to be disabled first.

[U_Fester]

[mfb]

i don't think animals' supposed sensitivity to the supernatural is documented anywhere in the books.

[U_Fester]

[cbettles]

No, you're right. I don't remember any animals being aware of supernatural phenomenom in the SR literature. Of course, I don't read many of the novels.

It doesn't have to be to add it to your game. Especially if you feel that your average mundane NPC or mundane NPC dog needs a helping hand.

Also, it is a pretty common staple of the movies. :P

[Jrayjoker]

How common are dual natured creatures? Can anyone get ahold of a dual natured pet? There are Hell hounds and Cockatrices, but how available are they to the steet.

I am sure one you have one it can be trained as you are suggesting.

[U_Fester]

[Fortune]

Most places where meetings take places would probably not look kindly on people bringing their pets, especially those of a dangerous awakened variety.

[Jrayjoker]

OK, so is the purpose to have a stealthy detector, right? So have a mage go astral from the next room.

[U_Fester]

The purpose is to have a magic detector. This was for groups who hate magic anything, so they want to be able to detect it so they can defend (put in what youi want) against it.

[Herald of Verjig...]

Just have them buy a few breeding vats of FAB 3. Scoop out a cup of the stuff (each) before going out and disperse as paranoia mandates.

[Backgammon]

That's exactly what dual natured critters are for. Barghest = detect magic. Hell, if you wanna go cheap, train a Nimue's Salamander instead of a dog. It can't fight much but you can have it ring a bell or something if it sees magic. Giving mundane animals this ability is ridiculous and broken.

[Jrayjoker]

Yeah, Have 'em get a paracritter and let it go from there. If they don't want something that can rip your head off, then house rule a dual natured normal sized dog without all the nasty abilities.

[Kanada Ten]

Of course between SURGE and genetech, one might expect corporations to create, breed, or otherwise propagate paranormal animals that at least appear mundane but have such powers as Detect Magic or Magic Guard. I'm a fan of miniaturized Nimue's Salamanders, myself.

One can also use spirits such as those things from SoE that guard homes.

[Guest_Crimsondude 2.0_*]

Domovoi?

There's also the "agumented" (par)animal option. The one in Threats 2.

[Kanada Ten]

[Guest_Crimsondude 2.0_*]

No. It's just that I use the MLA (amongst other) standard to underline the title of a book when cited.

It immediately distinguished the book in the title, and is differentiated between when I refer to TV/movie reference (Italics or Underline. I've come to prefer Italics), italicize something for the sake of it, or bold something for the sake of emphasizing it.

However, I don't always do this, but it's become infrequent not to underline titles. When I specifically quote or cite a SB, I do make sure underline the title. Proper grammar is an occupational hazard in my field, so it's become second-nature to do it here.

Anyway, I can see trained ghouls. But the premise of the original post is something which I find at fault simply because there's no explanation as to how a mundane creature would be able to sense magic.