Detecting use of the force

[Savar]

Is there any rules for detecting the use of the force?

If not, has anyone made a set of house rules?

[The Brain]

Well a non force using force sensitive might feel a tingle or something (think Highlander when one immortal senses another) but whether or not they know what it means <shrug>

Otherwise it seems to be just noticing things that aren't right. Someone getting too lucky at a game of chance, people suddenly agreeing with some person their talking to. Stuff floating through the air. Some guy wearing a bathrobe out in public (which has NEVER looked cool in the history of ever)

[garhkal]

IN a way yes. the Sparks group has 'ripples' in the force that happen when someone uses the force, and how BIG they roll on their force skill (or regular skill enhanced BY the force such as with enhance attribute or concentration) depends on how big those ripples are, and other force users can sense them far away..

Check out this thread
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[Naaman]

I think Garhkal's explanation is generally a good starting point, however, I can conceive of situations where the lower the roll is, the biger the ripple.

For example, using alter to manipilate a chance cube is one thing, but doing it AND making it look natural takes a sort of subtlty that, in my opinion, should take a high level of mastery. Likewise, the manipulation is a very small one, but the skill check result is very high. In cases similar to this, I think the higher roll should make sensing the Force-use more difficult.

Now, lifting an X-Wing out of a swamp might require a moderate sense roll to detect from; or dragging a Star Destroyer out of orbit (ala Force Unleashed) might be very easy to detect, even from the the neighboring planet.

[Naaman]

I guess what Im saying is that the magnitude of the TASK should proba ly be what determines the difficulty of detection, rather than the magnitude of the success.

[Savar]

How many dice you roll, the difficulty, what skill.

If you can roll 10D but choose to roll 4D because the target is vary easy, would cause less ripples i would say.

Alter would always cause more ripples then control.

And so on.

[Naaman]

Voluntarily reducing your skill total is one way to create the trade off between stealth and effectiveness. I rather like it in general, because it simulates the greater difficulty of maintaining subtlty while trying to accomplish "big" things.

In any case, I feel that the actual result rolled should only work against the character if they are being "sensed" by someone else, but dont know it or dont care.

So, a player can say: Im being extra careful not to disturb the Force. And the GM can assess a +10 (or whatever) to the difficulty. Or maybe the difficulty can increase in proportion to the opposing character's sense skill, etc.

Then, the effect generated by the Force use may atill be successful, even if their stealthiness failed (high roll, but not high enough to avoid detection).

Consider Mara Jade, for example, who could USE the Force to escape detection, even from Vader, who "can sense everything going on in that room."

I would think she would need to roll very high, or else the power would need to be so easy to use that its success against a powerful Sith Lord was insignificant. I tend to think the former is more likely and more appropriate.

[CRMcNeill]

[Savar]

[CRMcNeill]

I would think the only effect of actively searching for a disturbance in the Force would be to cause a disturbance itself. This wouldn't be like active and passive sensors; a sensitive character would simply receive the ripples sent out by the disturbances caused by others
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[Savar]

Now is this a function of having the sense skill, sense force, or some other power?

[Naaman]

My interpretation is that being Force sensitive allows you to have rudimentary access (no in-game effect) to all three: control, sense, alter. In the case of sensing Force use, I might say that the Force sensitive person MAY get a vague impression ("something isn't right," "I have a bad feeling about this," etc).

While having the sense skill might reveal a little some degree of detail about what is going on ("as if millions of voices all screamed out...")

And the higher the skill goes, the more specific things that can be sensed ("I can sense everything going on in that room" or "I sense Lord Vader is in danger...")

The ripples are more easily detected by someone with a higher sense skill (by virtue of being more likely to roll higher) than by someone without it or with less of it.

[Savar]

[garhkal]

That's how i have had it sometimes for force visions.
Some are: Only force users.
Some are all force sensitives (no roll needed)
Some are force sensitives but a roll is needed (perception or sense).
Occasionally the latter has a lower diff for sense than it does for perception
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[CRMcNeill]