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djinni
the player is not a problem, but the character he's created has every sensory enhancement in the book.
Radar, ultrasound, Select sound filters etc....
right now it seems he's not being able to be used fully due to the super senses being just too much.

the question is how would you handle a character that can see and hear everything?
Stahlseele
throw some magic at him for example . . else have him be in some environment where those things will help him nill, in house combat with short distances and hard walls he can't just shoot through . . have a wall between him and a buddy and make it sound as if it is a bad guy or something, because he can't make out those things using radar usually . .
aussie elf
I'd say put the character in situations that would play to thier strengths and the weaknesses of seeing and hearing everything. I would imagine that tracking a person through some wilderness area would play to the strengths while getting in a gun fight would show some weaknesses (maybe make them have to just turn things off to avoid sensory overload.
No need to be malicious about it but if they knew the limitations of thier abilities that would be nice.
DocTaotsu
Well he doesn't have totally bullet proof perception, all those have limited ranges or only provide a certain amount of modifiers. You hit him with a flashbang and a thermal smoke grenade and he's going to be down to radar and ultrasound. Ultrasound I believe is limited so 50 meters or so? A good long ways to be sure but well outside the range of an assault rifle.

If it's really an issue I'd remind the player that they aren't the first person to put those mods together and a such well entrenched foes will be ready for the Eye of Sauron. Won't a jammer mess up a radar? And do you really want to be broadcasting: I see with radar! Enemy drones! To me!
Rotbart van Dainig
QUOTE (djinni @ May 2 2008, 07:18 PM) *
the question is how would you handle a character that can see and hear everything?

Give him information that other characters will miss.
Stahlseele
but make him NOT TRUST the Info . .
have it shady, have it not very detailed, be VAGUE . . give him SOMETHING, but don't give him EVERYTHING . .
"your radar is picking up something . . seems to be humanoid . . size about 2 to 3m . . it's coming closer to you . . several long metal bits pointing in your general direction"
[ Spoiler ]

hell, with SR'S Tech and Magic, you can't even trust your very own eyes, so why should you trust magical/technological ones?
Rotbart van Dainig
QUOTE (Stahlseele @ May 2 2008, 07:41 PM) *
have it shady, have it not very detailed, be VAGUE . . give him SOMETHING, but don't give him EVERYTHING

No. That depends entirely on the hits generated on the Perception Test.
Stahlseele
yeah, because with the necessary hits he can tell if it's a human, an orc, or an elf on the other side of the wall, he can also tell if he/she/it is carrying weapons or something like that . . but cab he make out the face? the colour of their clothes? the actual kind of equipment?
who is to say it's not his buddy or the target of the run?
Rotbart van Dainig
Given enough hits:
QUOTE (Stahlseele @ May 2 2008, 07:46 PM) *
but cab he make out the face?

Perhaps - the bone structure most likely.

QUOTE (Stahlseele @ May 2 2008, 07:46 PM) *
the colour of their clothes?

No colors, but density.

QUOTE (Stahlseele @ May 2 2008, 07:46 PM) *
the actual kind of equipment?

Sure.

QUOTE (Stahlseele @ May 2 2008, 07:46 PM) *
who is to say it's not his buddy or the target of the run?

That depends on what he knows about the buddy/target.
Aaron
If I was GMing, I'd let him do it. I mean, that's his thing, that's the specialty that he wants his character to have. I've always thought that the whole point of role-playing games was to empower the player and his imagination.

This seems less like a problem to me and more like an opportunity.
WearzManySkins
Here is link to a recent thread here.
Link

Turn him into a asset for the Team.

If he has the all perception wares/geneware/nanoware etc, trying to fool his perception of the data supplied by his many sensors will be extremely hard or Lame.

If you have an issue(s) with his sensors/perception that should have been put on the table, before he joined the game, not afterwords. Live and Learn as a GM, it will not be the first nor last time things like this occur.

Flash Bangs only reduce the number of dice for a visual perception test, not take all visual sensors away. Flash Paks are better, they even have an effect on Flare Compensation.

Some of the physical Illusions will work well against most of his "visual" array of sensors but then you get into the hearing ones. grinbig.gif

WMS
SprainOgre
Well, unless he's actively "pinging" some of that is going to be turned off from time to time. Try to set something up so that you can tell when he's actively going or not. After that, more hit's he gets, the more he knows. Now, to have an adventure where one of the side things is that his super senses are wonky (not useless, just a little off), that's one thing. To smack him down for it? That's just mean. Besides, it's not too far fetched to think that someone in that line of work would have that much sensor superiority.
Stahlseele
Hackers would be pretty mean too . . or Illusions that only affect certain senses deliberately so he gets conflicting sensory input . .
"You're of the convinced that there's a big white cartoon rabbit, smoking a carrot and saying that it is too late for his Date with his LadyFriend"
Rotbart van Dainig
QUOTE (Stahlseele @ May 2 2008, 11:08 PM) *
Hackers would be pretty mean too . . or Illusions that only affect certain senses deliberately so he gets conflicting sensory input

Not more than for anyone else.
Stahlseele
yeah, but anybody else did not put half of himself into that . .
Fortune
One thing to keep in mind with Perception is that Observe In Detail is a Simple Action. This can be important in an action scene, because if the character really wants to know what is going on in more than just a peripheral sense, then he is going to have to use an Action.
Larme
These threads always weird me out. "One of my players kicks ass, how can I thwart him?" Don't. It's not your job to defeat the players. If your player made someone who effectively can't be snuck up on, don't bring out stealthy enemies as a way to challenge him. Bring out a phalanx of combat drones. No matter how good his senses are, he'll have to use all his abilities to survive that...

I don't think powerful characters should be a problem for the GM. When I GM, I put enemies out there, and when the players totally swat them down in cool ways, I'm like "man, your dude is totally kickass!" It doesn't make me sad. I'm just as happy to have the players rock all over my cookie cutter NPCs as they are. It's the best of both worlds: I get to be a storyteller, but I also don't have to control what the protagonists do. It's like writing a story that partly writes itself, and you never know what's going to happen next.

GMs who post on dumpshock seem to be obsessed with either defeating the characters or what they call "challenging" them. But the GM's real job is to make a fun time and stimulate the story unfolding. That doesn't have to involve beating your characters at their specialty, which you yourself allowed them to max out on. Instead try challenging them on their weakness. Every character has one, given SR4's more limited chargen...
Rotbart van Dainig
QUOTE (Fortune @ May 2 2008, 11:38 PM) *
One thing to keep in mind with Perception is that Observe In Detail is a Simple Action.

Otherwise a Perception Test is at a -2 penalty:
QUOTE
Unless a character specifically takes an Observe in Detail Simple Action to perceive, she is considered to be distracted by whatever task is at hand (suffering a –2 dice pool modifier).

So that doesn't really matter that much.

QUOTE ( @ May 2 2008, 11:38 PM) *
This can be important in an action scene, because if the character really wants to know what is going on in more than just a peripheral sense, then he is going to have to use an Action.

Of course, the peripheral awareness of such a character is usually way better than usual - and the game master is specifically told to honour the characters perception enhancements.
Stahlseele
a -2 to what? a pool of 20+?
in SR3 there was an additional edge that lowered the target number for perception checks by 1 and certain cyber-ware lowered that further for hearing . . we had one or two characters (not at the same time) that usually had 10+ Dice for listening and a general Target Number of 2 . . which was the ground Target-Number . . so they did not even really have to roll just ask what DO i hear?
toturi
Brute force, multisensory illusion spells (Trid Phantasm comes to mind almost immediately), opposed Stealth rolls.

There are a lot of situations and modifiers that take away Perception dice. Even if he got most of his stuff on the cheap by using glass/contacts and earbuds, he still has to have the necessary Perception dice pool. Although I did create a Perception adept that did have over 30+ dice once upon a time.
Perception Adept
djinni
QUOTE (Stahlseele @ May 2 2008, 01:25 PM) *
throw some magic at him for example . . else have him be in some environment where those things will help him nill

the original question was asking ways to help utilize his strengths since due to the high perception and ability to see anything within 100m I being only human the tends to forget to give all the details

QUOTE (Aaron @ May 2 2008, 01:55 PM) *
I've always thought that the whole point of role-playing games was to empower the player and his imagination.

yep yep...

QUOTE (Larme @ May 2 2008, 05:43 PM) *
These threads always weird me out. "One of my players kicks ass, how can I thwart him?"

not the point of this question. but thanks for the input everybody. not sure i really have anything to go on just yet. stealth won't really help against the radar (which is good since he's the "guys we're about to be ambushed." guy), and its not really a visual sense so trid phantasm would be seen through, (perception pool of 16-23 depending on sense) any more Ideas?

something I thought was neat about his character is that he sits with his back to doors and windows, everyone else in the group are all backs to the wall and when you walk into a bar you can tell who is and is not "the type" just on how they sit, he goes out of his way to take a perception pool hit, just to blend in."
JeffSz
Rule that he can only have a certain number of enhancements activated at a time. Maybe equal to his cyberes' rating? Or his Logic attribute, representing his ability to sort through all the sensory info?

Example: Logic 4 character

Player: "I'm running Low-Light, as well as Ultrasound and Select Sound Filter."
...... several game-minutes later

GM: "Suddenly you hear nothing but static and a high-pitched whine. Some kind of noise is jamming your Ultrasound, and your Select Sound Filter can't bypass it; your surroundings are illuminated only by the glow from your commlink's display. You're blind outside a distance of 6 meters."

Player: "Okay, I keep Low-Light, but I switch Ultrasound off and go to Radar, and swap Select Sound Filter for Infrared."

GM: "Your radar "lights" up the room again, but picks up no metahuman shapes. Infrared is picking up a heat signature behind that wall, though..."
Larme
QUOTE (djinni @ May 2 2008, 08:32 PM) *
not the point of this question. but thanks for the input everybody. not sure i really have anything to go on just yet. stealth won't really help against the radar (which is good since he's the "guys we're about to be ambushed." guy), and its not really a visual sense so trid phantasm would be seen through, (perception pool of 16-23 depending on sense) any more Ideas?


I don't think a multisense illusion can be penetrated by radar. The idea of a physical multisense illusion is that it fools ALL your senses, and even those of machines. It doesn't matter if you have extra senses, if you fail to resist the illusion it appears to be real. The only reason radar goes through something like invisibility is that the spell only fools one sense, vision, and has no effect against other ways of perceiving the target like radar.
Muspellsheimr
Agree'd - a physical multi-sense illusion would fool radar if the spell is not resisted.

As for forgetting details, just give him everything you think will be important, and a little bit extra to throw him off/add some flavor. If you do not give him something he would have noticed, that later becomes important, just assume he knew it all along and tell him, or call for a memory check.
Muspellsheimr
Agree'd - a physical multi-sense illusion would fool radar if the spell is not resisted.

As for forgetting details, just give him everything you think will be important, and a little bit extra to throw him off/add some flavor. If you do not give him something he would have noticed, that later becomes important, just assume he knew it all along and tell him, or call for a memory check.
KCKitsune
QUOTE (JeffSz @ May 2 2008, 10:04 PM) *
Rule that he can only have a certain number of enhancements activated at a time. Maybe equal to his cyberes' rating? Or his Logic attribute, representing his ability to sort through all the sensory info?

Example: Logic 4 character

Player: "I'm running Low-Light, as well as Ultrasound and Select Sound Filter."
...... several game-minutes later

GM: "Suddenly you hear nothing but static and a high-pitched whine. Some kind of noise is jamming your Ultrasound, and your Select Sound Filter can't bypass it; your surroundings are illuminated only by the glow from your commlink's display. You're blind outside a distance of 6 meters."

Player: "Okay, I keep Low-Light, but I switch Ultrasound off and go to Radar, and swap Select Sound Filter for Infrared."

GM: "Your radar "lights" up the room again, but picks up no metahuman shapes. Infrared is picking up a heat signature behind that wall, though..."


Except the computers in his head coordinate and build for him a virtual image based on all the sensory inputs. Commlinks can make virtual weather and virtual people. Why can't it take all the information and distill it into a AR version of his normal senses.

Example: The character has Radar, Ultrasound, and cybereyes with all the bells and whistles. The room he walks into has an invisible mage. The cybereyes are not going to see the slot... the Radar and Ultrasound will see the mage and puts into the characters field of view a human shaped textured grey blob. The character's commlink can use software to somewhat reconstruct the face due to the Radar/Ultrasound sensor returns. The character doesn't have to think "How do I use this data?" The commlink does all that work for him.
KCKitsune
QUOTE (JeffSz @ May 2 2008, 10:04 PM) *
Rule that he can only have a certain number of enhancements activated at a time. Maybe equal to his cyberes' rating? Or his Logic attribute, representing his ability to sort through all the sensory info?

Example: Logic 4 character

Player: "I'm running Low-Light, as well as Ultrasound and Select Sound Filter."
...... several game-minutes later

GM: "Suddenly you hear nothing but static and a high-pitched whine. Some kind of noise is jamming your Ultrasound, and your Select Sound Filter can't bypass it; your surroundings are illuminated only by the glow from your commlink's display. You're blind outside a distance of 6 meters."

Player: "Okay, I keep Low-Light, but I switch Ultrasound off and go to Radar, and swap Select Sound Filter for Infrared."

GM: "Your radar "lights" up the room again, but picks up no metahuman shapes. Infrared is picking up a heat signature behind that wall, though..."


Except the computers in his head coordinate and build for him a virtual image based on all the sensory inputs. Commlinks can make virtual weather and virtual people. Why can't it take all the information and distill it into a AR version of his normal senses.

Example: The character has Radar, Ultrasound, and cybereyes with all the bells and whistles. The room he walks into has an invisible mage. The cybereyes are not going to see the slot... the Radar and Ultrasound will see the mage and puts into the characters field of view a human shaped textured grey blob. The character's commlink can use software to somewhat reconstruct the face due to the Radar/Ultrasound sensor returns. The character doesn't have to think "How do I use this data?" The commlink does all that work for him.
KCKitsune
QUOTE (JeffSz @ May 2 2008, 10:04 PM) *
Rule that he can only have a certain number of enhancements activated at a time. Maybe equal to his cyberes' rating? Or his Logic attribute, representing his ability to sort through all the sensory info?

Example: Logic 4 character

Player: "I'm running Low-Light, as well as Ultrasound and Select Sound Filter."
...... several game-minutes later

GM: "Suddenly you hear nothing but static and a high-pitched whine. Some kind of noise is jamming your Ultrasound, and your Select Sound Filter can't bypass it; your surroundings are illuminated only by the glow from your commlink's display. You're blind outside a distance of 6 meters."

Player: "Okay, I keep Low-Light, but I switch Ultrasound off and go to Radar, and swap Select Sound Filter for Infrared."

GM: "Your radar "lights" up the room again, but picks up no metahuman shapes. Infrared is picking up a heat signature behind that wall, though..."


Except the computers in his head coordinate and build for him a virtual image based on all the sensory inputs. Commlinks can make virtual weather and virtual people. Why can't it take all the information and distill it into a AR version of his normal senses.

Example: The character has Radar, Ultrasound, and cybereyes with all the bells and whistles. The room he walks into has an invisible mage. The cybereyes are not going to see the slot... the Radar and Ultrasound will see the mage and puts into the characters field of view a human shaped textured grey blob. The character's commlink can use software to somewhat reconstruct the face due to the Radar/Ultrasound sensor returns. The character doesn't have to think "How do I use this data?" The commlink does all that work for him.
Rotbart van Dainig
QUOTE (JeffSz @ May 3 2008, 03:04 AM) *
Rule that he can only have a certain number of enhancements activated at a time.

..and do the same for adepts, sams, etc. Great fun... not.
DocTaotsu
I have to admit, I have yet to see someone with super perception break a game. Most of my enemies are smart enough to start popping smoke and taking cover (not concealment) rather than get lit up by "I have vision enhancement 3 and everything that can fit in a pair of goggles". Someone who is gargoyling out with every flavor perception enhancement should have a leg up on... you know. percieving things.
KCKitsune
I want to apologize for the multiple posts. I didn't think that any of my posts were going through. frown.gif
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