RPGnet Columns
01-14-2004, 02:56 AM
Post originally by Rob Carriere at 2004-01-14 01:56:47
Converted from Phorums BB System
Like the article. Thanks.
One possible addition: instead of having retrocognition etc be either dvd-like or abstract, you could also have them be visions of a different type than plain sight. Think of distortions like the wraith world in Jackson's LotR movies, or like that of an infra-red camera and you get the picture. Such a vision will miss crucial details for the investigation (face recognition, for example) yet also provide clues that ordinary sight would not have. Maybe you can `see' emotions, or spiritual connections or magical power, whatever is appropriate to your setting.
You take away something that you need to preserve the mystery and you give something in return that the characters would otherwise have been unable to determine. That way it will feel more like a distinct sense, as useful as sight but different, than like an arbitrary limitation.
It can also give you wonderful scenes where the visionary tries to match up present-day plain sight with the retrocogited vision. `Oh, that thingy must have been this ashtray!' A criminal who knows the differences between vision and sight can even try to plant false clues this way...
SR
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Converted from Phorums BB System
Like the article. Thanks.
One possible addition: instead of having retrocognition etc be either dvd-like or abstract, you could also have them be visions of a different type than plain sight. Think of distortions like the wraith world in Jackson's LotR movies, or like that of an infra-red camera and you get the picture. Such a vision will miss crucial details for the investigation (face recognition, for example) yet also provide clues that ordinary sight would not have. Maybe you can `see' emotions, or spiritual connections or magical power, whatever is appropriate to your setting.
You take away something that you need to preserve the mystery and you give something in return that the characters would otherwise have been unable to determine. That way it will feel more like a distinct sense, as useful as sight but different, than like an arbitrary limitation.
It can also give you wonderful scenes where the visionary tries to match up present-day plain sight with the retrocogited vision. `Oh, that thingy must have been this ashtray!' A criminal who knows the differences between vision and sight can even try to plant false clues this way...
SR
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