Penetrating vision

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I'm interested in how people would rule this: If there is a character
with, say, penetrating vision that allows him to see through 6 inches
of solid matter, would you require this to be 6 contiguous inches?
Would you allow the character to see though a 3 inch wall, across a
room, and through another 3 inch wall on the other side of the room?

 

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"Scooter the Mighty" <Greyguy3@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1115234667.512138.120270@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
> I'm interested in how people would rule this: If there is a character
> with, say, penetrating vision that allows him to see through 6 inches
> of solid matter, would you require this to be 6 contiguous inches?
> Would you allow the character to see though a 3 inch wall, across a
> room, and through another 3 inch wall on the other side of the room?


Without anything else to go by, it's six inches, however broken up.
Requiring them to be contiguous for any reason would be an interesting
limitation though. There ARE things (like sound or heat) which will
penetrate six inches of a solid more easily than two three-inch solids with
dead space between.

 

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Shawn Wilson wrote:
> "Scooter the Mighty" <Greyguy3@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:1115234667.512138.120270@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
> > I'm interested in how people would rule this: If there is a
character
> > with, say, penetrating vision that allows him to see through 6
inches
> > of solid matter, would you require this to be 6 contiguous inches?
> > Would you allow the character to see though a 3 inch wall, across a
> > room, and through another 3 inch wall on the other side of the
room?
>
>
> Without anything else to go by, it's six inches, however broken up.
> Requiring them to be contiguous for any reason would be an
interesting
> limitation though. There ARE things (like sound or heat) which will
> penetrate six inches of a solid more easily than two three-inch
solids with
> dead space between.

And too, this power is essentially magic. You could in theory look
through 3 inches of wood and then see something made of the same type
of wood without looking through it, so logic is not entirely necessary.

I guess what I'm leaning towards is saying that you have to conciously
decide at what range your vision stops X-raying and starts seeing
normally. So if you look through a room you couldn't see what was in
that room as well as what was in the room beyond. At least not at the
same time.

So here's a closely related question which might actually come up in a
game I'm about to run: How would you rule a person with Penetrating
Vision trying to see through a super-dense fog? Would they get to see
through 6 inches of fog, or 6 inches of water droplets?

 

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David Johnston wrote:
> On 4 May 2005 12:24:27 -0700, "Scooter the Mighty"
> <Greyguy3@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> >I'm interested in how people would rule this: If there is a
character
> >with, say, penetrating vision that allows him to see through 6
inches
> >of solid matter, would you require this to be 6 contiguous inches?
> >Would you allow the character to see though a 3 inch wall, across a
> >room, and through another 3 inch wall on the other side of the room?
>
> Obviously Superman can look through more than one barrier. This
power
> is intended to cover Superman's X-Ray vision. Need I say more?
>
That's sort of true, but Superman didn't have a limit to how far his
vision could penetrate (as far as I remember). For him it didn't make
any difference if he was looking through a 12 foot room with 3 inch
walls or a 12.5 foot wall.

 

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Scooter the Mighty <Greyguy3@hotmail.com> wrote:
>I'm interested in how people would rule this: If there is a character
>with, say, penetrating vision that allows him to see through 6 inches
>of solid matter, would you require this to be 6 contiguous inches?
>Would you allow the character to see though a 3 inch wall, across a
>room, and through another 3 inch wall on the other side of the room?

Now that is an interesting question. The rules don't say anything
about it? I'm surprised, given the abundance of examples of
Superman looking through more than one wall at a time.

I think I would definitely allow a character to see through more
than one wall. Your idea of adding up the total inches is probably
the most balanced way to do that.

Pete

 

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On 4 May 2005 12:24:27 -0700, "Scooter the Mighty"
<Greyguy3@hotmail.com> wrote:

>I'm interested in how people would rule this: If there is a character
>with, say, penetrating vision that allows him to see through 6 inches
>of solid matter, would you require this to be 6 contiguous inches?
>Would you allow the character to see though a 3 inch wall, across a
>room, and through another 3 inch wall on the other side of the room?

Obviously Superman can look through more than one barrier. This power
is intended to cover Superman's X-Ray vision. Need I say more?

>

 

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In article <1115243148.462512.142050@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com>,
Scooter the Mighty <Greyguy3@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>Shawn Wilson wrote:
>> "Scooter the Mighty" <Greyguy3@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:1115234667.512138.120270@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
>> > I'm interested in how people would rule this: If there is a
>character
>> > with, say, penetrating vision that allows him to see through 6
>inches
>> > of solid matter, would you require this to be 6 contiguous inches?
>> > Would you allow the character to see though a 3 inch wall, across a
>> > room, and through another 3 inch wall on the other side of the
>room?
>>
>>
>> Without anything else to go by, it's six inches, however broken up.
>> Requiring them to be contiguous for any reason would be an
>interesting
>> limitation though. There ARE things (like sound or heat) which will
>> penetrate six inches of a solid more easily than two three-inch
>solids with
>> dead space between.
>
>And too, this power is essentially magic. You could in theory look
>through 3 inches of wood and then see something made of the same type
>of wood without looking through it, so logic is not entirely necessary.
>
>I guess what I'm leaning towards is saying that you have to conciously
>decide at what range your vision stops X-raying and starts seeing
>normally. So if you look through a room you couldn't see what was in
>that room as well as what was in the room beyond. At least not at the
>same time.
>
>So here's a closely related question which might actually come up in a
>game I'm about to run: How would you rule a person with Penetrating
>Vision trying to see through a super-dense fog? Would they get to see
>through 6 inches of fog, or 6 inches of water droplets?
>


Oh, let him see through six inches of water droplets. You don't need
Penetrating Vision to see through 6 inches of fog, and he'll feel cheated,
with some justification, if that's how you rule. He spent the points, let
him use them.

--
"Don't try to teach a pig how to sing. You'll waste your time and annoy
the pig."

 

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"Gregory L. Hansen" <glhansen@steel.ucs.indiana.edu> wrote in message
news:d5bpj6$2bv$1@rainier.uits.indiana.edu...
> In article <1115243148.462512.142050@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com>,
> Scooter the Mighty <Greyguy3@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>Shawn Wilson wrote:
>>> "Scooter the Mighty" <Greyguy3@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>>> news:1115234667.512138.120270@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
>>> > I'm interested in how people would rule this: If there is a
>>character
>>> > with, say, penetrating vision that allows him to see through 6
>>inches
>>> > of solid matter, would you require this to be 6 contiguous inches?
>>> > Would you allow the character to see though a 3 inch wall, across a
>>> > room, and through another 3 inch wall on the other side of the
>>room?
>>>
>>>
>>> Without anything else to go by, it's six inches, however broken up.
>>> Requiring them to be contiguous for any reason would be an
>>interesting
>>> limitation though. There ARE things (like sound or heat) which will
>>> penetrate six inches of a solid more easily than two three-inch
>>solids with
>>> dead space between.
>>
>>And too, this power is essentially magic. You could in theory look
>>through 3 inches of wood and then see something made of the same type
>>of wood without looking through it, so logic is not entirely necessary.
>>
>>I guess what I'm leaning towards is saying that you have to conciously
>>decide at what range your vision stops X-raying and starts seeing
>>normally. So if you look through a room you couldn't see what was in
>>that room as well as what was in the room beyond. At least not at the
>>same time.
>>
>>So here's a closely related question which might actually come up in a
>>game I'm about to run: How would you rule a person with Penetrating
>>Vision trying to see through a super-dense fog? Would they get to see
>>through 6 inches of fog, or 6 inches of water droplets?
>>
>
>
> Oh, let him see through six inches of water droplets. You don't need
> Penetrating Vision to see through 6 inches of fog, and he'll feel cheated,
> with some justification, if that's how you rule. He spent the points, let
> him use them.
>

Well, I might well rule that way. If I decide otherwise I'm not going to be
feeling too guilty though; penetrating vision is a hugely useful ability no
matter how I rule it. In this case the fog is going to be generated by a
super-powered villian, and regular people won't be able to see more than a
foot or so into it. In theory, the villian also paid points to obscure
vision, and might feel cheated if she wasn't an NPC.

 

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On 4 May 2005 14:45:48 -0700, "Scooter the Mighty"
<Greyguy3@hotmail.com> wrote:
[...]
>So here's a closely related question which might actually come up in a
>game I'm about to run: How would you rule a person with Penetrating
>Vision trying to see through a super-dense fog? Would they get to see
>through 6 inches of fog, or 6 inches of water droplets?

IMVHO, I'd rule that he sees through 6 inches of FOG, since the
droplets are too many particles, moving fast in air, and the super
isn't able to focus his/her power to skip them individually.
If it was a waterfall, the moving mass of water could be skipped (is
it spelled right?) at once, but gases and similar blurred effects IMHO
require much more fine-tune. Maybe I'd allow an IQ-based roll, with
STRONG penalties, if the blurring effect is so dense to be close to
liquid.

Korin Duval

--

"Truth requires a great amount of courage;
Fiction requires a great amount of maturity."