Concealment Modifiers for Other Senses

[CRMcNeill]

Per the Rulebook, Darkness and/or Smoke/Dust generates penalties to Perception. Considering the context, the fact that no other sense methods are mentioned makes sense, but I'm considering applying similar penalties to other "ranged" sense, specifically hearing and smell.

Any thoughts as to what sound/smell levels would be good descriptors for the penalty levels? For reference, here are the Concealment modifiers for Sight:

Light Smoke = +1D
Thick Smoke = +2D
Very Thick Smoke = +4D
Poor Light = +1D
Moonlit Night = +2D
Complete Darkness = +4D

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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

[shootingwomprats]

[garhkal]

[MrNexx]

[Savar]

Smell is interesting.

One time I walked into an essential oils mixing lab. It was a wall of odor but so confusing I couldn't sort them out.

Then there is skunk one smell so strong it overwhelms everything else.

Once thing with smell is time passage.

[garhkal]

Good point. Smell is the easiest sense, imo to get overwhelmed.
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[CRMcNeill]

Giving this a bump because I came across something relevant that I worked up as part of a re-write for the Magnify Senses Force Power:

Sound:
Very Easy - A normal conversation
Easy - Normal movement, such as a person walking, but not speaking.
Moderate - Quiet movement (a blaster or knife being drawn, a door lock being picked)
Difficult - A person breathing normally
Heroic - A human heartbeat

Scent:
Very Easy - Strong or well-known odor
Easy - Noticeable or familiar odor
Difficult - Faint or non-specific odor
Heroic - Odor is almost nonexistent or personally unknown to the character.

Note: In an open environment, scent fades over time. The base difficulty of a scent increases by +D6 for every hour that has passed since the scent was left. Scents in a sealed environment, such as a closed room, degrade more slowly (+1 for every hour passed). On a successful roll, the character can estimate the age of the scent.

Tracking by scent is beyond the capacity of normal human senses. Other species with scent-specific senses may have the ability to track someone by scent, but that will have to be decided on a case by case basis with your GM.

Modifiers:
Distance:
+0 - Close range (in the same room or immediate area)
+10 - Moderately far away (Down the block or across the parking lot, within 100 meters)
+20 - Very far away (Can barely be seen with normal human senses, several hundred meters away, up to a full kilometer
+30 - Extreme distances (several kilometers)
Interference:
+0 - Minimal (Open field / quiet room / unused area with few scents)
+5 - Noticeable (Walking in a light crowd / coffee shop, cafe or other moderately populated place)
+10 - Dominant (Large crowd or a dimly lit room / crowded club, etc.)
+20 - Overpowering (Rock concert mosh pit, in the middle of a blaster fight, trying to pick out a specific scent in a garbage dump, etc.)

This is intended as expansion of the Difficulty chart for the Search skill, which is primarily geared toward sight-based detection.
_________________
"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