Recon Stunts (Action)

Heroic Action Role-Play

Main article: Action

Many Recon stunts are reactive; you notice danger in time to react or analyze a situation as it comes up.

Alertness

Trigger Action (Defense)

You get a +3 bonus to your Recon when it is used as the difficulty of an action. This includes both staying alert and keeping your head down. Outside of action scenes you cannot initiate actions or stunts of your own while staying alert.

Frisk

Charm Varies

Make a quick examination of someone, looking for hidden weapons, contraband, and so on. This is an opposed roll compared to the target's Charm, Create, or Impress skill. Depending on what you are looking for and how you do it, there are several modifiers. In order to even try to hide an item like this, the character must be carrying enough clothes.

Circumstance	Modifier
You are using a detection device of the same or higher sophistication that the item sought.	+3
You know exactly what you are looking for.	+3
Person carries the object inside his body (swallowed, surgically implanted).	-5
Type of search	Modifier
No Action Passive search; you are not actively searching, but the concealed object would attract your notice if you did search (not an action)	-5
Trigger Action Visual observation only.	-3
Basic Action Pat-down	+0
Limit Break Body cavity search	+5

In general, you only get one chance at frisking. But if you can change your modifiers so you get better odds, you can try again.

Sometimes, the GM will give you hints even on a failed roll, especially if the plot demands it; you generally get a bad feeling about a the situation even if you failed to find exactly what you looked for as long as you did not fail by a margin greater than your Mind. This realization might not come at once, and you might not be certain who your suspect is, but it gives you incentive to look more closely. By the same token, the GM might delay the result of a successful roll to heighten tension and move the plot along.

When a player tries to smuggle something past a guard, the GM should generally let the player roll their Charm, Create, or Impress skill against the guard's modified Recon; it is much more interesting to have the players be the active party.

Various stunts can be used to distract a guard or fool someone into revealing what they carry, these generally modify the Recon check further. A Setback on such a stunt makes either avoidance or discovery automatic.

Now and then the GM will have to fudge these rolls; generally to allow either a hero or villain to pass inspection but still cause suspicion - this is often the best setup for an exiting action scene.

Scan

Basic Action

You look around, trying to spot hidden enemies and dangers. Make an opposed Recon check against an enemy trying to Sneak. Scan cannot find someone using Surveillance unless you are actively out scouting for them.

Search

Know Limit Break

You search an area (crime scene, fight scene, hall, apartment), looking for hidden dangers and clues. You automatically find all things a normal spot roll can find - anyone simply using Sneak, normal concealed objects and doors, and other things that could be found with a quick scan are obvious to a Search. You can also find hidden clues, deduce what happened in the area recently, and find carefully hidden devices such as advanced traps and secret doors with a successful Recon check.

Thing to notice	Difficulty
Carefully hidden device or door.	Create skill of the builder.
Find physical clues, hidden notes and such.	5
Reconstruct events at a fight or crime scene by physical evidence.	10
Recognize people you know of by physical evidence.	15
Identify people you do not know anything of by physical evidence.	20

Sneak

Basic Action

Make a Recon roll and compare it against the highest Recon rating among the opposition. If you fail and it is important to know who spotted you, observers can make opposed Recon rolls to see who noticed you first, but generally this is a moot point as long as the enemy is able to communicate. You must be in some plausible place of concealment to sneak, but the GM is expected to be lenient on this. Basically you need to give a suitably cinematic description of your stunt.

Your Sneak roll gets a bonus or penalty based on circumstances, as normal - generally being more than their Mind meters away or on the other side of a solid barrier is good for a +3 bonus.

If successful you are under cover and hiding, effectively invisible. You cannot be selected as the target of an attack and gain a +3 bonus to Dodge against area attacks. Any attacks you make in the shot where you exploit your cover gets a +3 attack bonus and your attacks do not cause Trigger Actions.

You need not make additional Recon rolls to stay hidden and can perform other actions as long as you remain still and under cover, but opponents can actively use Scan or schticks to find you. You become visible if you call attention to yourself, move, or take an action that directly affects someone other than yourself. If you start hidden, move (thus revealing yourself), and then successfully sneak again, enemies have only a vague idea you are in the area.

Stay Low

Trigger Action (Defense)

When you are Sneaking and an opponent tries to Scan and find you, you can stay low and gain a +3 bonus of your Recon for defense.

Surveillance

Hours

You stay hidden at a distance (from 50 meters to several kilometers away, depending on cover), trying to keep a place or person under surveillance while concentrating on staying hidden. You are far away and under cover, enough that foes will only find you if you fumble or if they start an active search, but you have a limited perception of what goes on. If opponent's security measures are strong, you have to focus more on hiding and will notice less. Range as such is not a factor, but tighter security keeps you at a distance while also making the task harder.

Surveillance of a person is harder than of a place. Depending on what surveillance methods you use, it might be pretty easy for the enemy to prevent or disrupt your surveillance, such as by unpredictably changing methods of transportation or using a secret passage. Paranoid enemies might use such methods even if they don't know they are under surveillance.

To gain information this way you make an opposed check against the targets' Recon. You gain valuable information based on the outcome of this roll; if the outcome matches the target's Mind you gain clear and important insights into the target's activities. On a failed roll, you learn obvious details and trivia; if the negative Outcome matches your Mind you learn misleading information or the target notices your spying. Depending on the security present your opponent might use other skills to defend, such as Create for an electronic counter-surveillance system.