How to see the invisible and camouflaged?

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darthauthor
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How to see the invisible and camouflaged?

Unread post by darthauthor »

When dealing with beings who can become invisible how do the experienced NPCs deal with detecting them?

The way I see it, the CS has, for decades, had to combat supernatural being with the powers of invisibility as well as mages and adventures armed with ways of using it.
Invisibility: Simple, as I read it, is detectable with cybernetic eyes with infrared vision, infrared optic systems and certain senory equipment.
Also, Dog Boys, whom I assume are their first line of detection.
Although not necessarily able to "See the Invisible" they would be able to sense beings using magic are present and prehaps the North, South, East, West direction they are in relative to the Dog Boy.
I think skelbots can also see in the infrared.

What is their standard operating procedure?
The problem, if I were CS, is battery life of the infrared googles and the man power to use them.
Do they constantly have a look out for the invisible?
If I understand the challenge and am a CS security guy, I would assign Dog Boys with a far enough range to detect magic to all the teams. Then they give them signal that magic is happening. The team would have one or more of their guys turn on the psionic power of "See the invisible" or puts on infrared googles or has cybernetic eyes with infrared sight.

Makes me wonder about a few questions like
"Do people using Invisibility: Simple look different in Infrared then everyone else who is not using invisibility?"
Because, if they don't, how do you tell them apart, in infrared, from everyone else?
Shoot them just in case?
Shout a warning?

On camouflage:

What does the opposition roll against to see through someones camouflage attempt?
Perception?
Detect Concealment?
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taalismn
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Re: How to see the invisible and camouflaged?

Unread post by taalismn »

darthauthor wrote: Fri Dec 08, 2023 10:09 pm
Makes me wonder about a few questions like
"Do people using Invisibility: Simple look different in Infrared then everyone else who is not using invisibility?"
Because, if they don't, how do you tell them apart, in infrared, from everyone else?
Shoot them just in case?
Shout a warning?
Just off the top of my head, if you see an extra person in infrared than you do in normal light, it's like 'don't look, we're being followed'. It depends on where they are in relation to the rest of your party and what are they doing? If your IR anomaly looks big and is closing with your party fast, it's a good idea to shoot first, because they're moving with hostile intent. Or did they just emerge from a hole in the ground? Do they look to be in a good ambush situation, readying a weapon? Again, these could be seen as provocations....

On the other hand, if they're making an effort to avoid contact with the group and retreat, or are maintaining a safe trailing distance, can you covertly alert the rest of your party the rest of the party and decide on a counter, like splitting up suddenly and overwhelming the invisible stalker for questioning? Or maybe just calling the invisible out to see how they react? It also depends on what you objective is...travel undetected or unmolested? Because eliminating possible witnesses might be a good idea in the first case, if your invisible is a scout or might blab seeing you to somebody else. Of course, you can't rule out that the invisible might be another traveler who doesn't want to be seen and stopped by the well-armed party(you) they just encountered.
Decisions, decisions....
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"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"

--------Rudyard Kipling
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