Questions about "See Aura"

[darthauthor]

Can See Aura tell other things about a person, even if they back is to the viewer?

Examples:

1. If they are authentically asleep?

2. What mood they are in?

3. If they are genuinely drunk?

4. If they are a drug addict?

5. If they are dead or alive?

6. Since all things have an Aura. Can it tell real gems and gold from fakes?

7. IF a personal possession is their and not a forgery (replacement)?

8. Does using it allow one to see what someone is feeling? Like Synesthesia using "See Aura" with seeing the feelings of someone while seeing their Aura?

9. Could you tell if a playing card was "marked" or replaced by seeing its Aura?

10. Will "Seeing the Aura" of food and drink let the viewer see if it is drugged or poisoned? (Maybe with the Brewing skill?).

[ShadowLogan]

1. Asleep? No, though it likely will indicate if they are in a coma ("unusual human aberration IMHO)

2. Mood? No, atleast as its worded and assuming it isn't the result of magic/psychic/possessing influence. There is the power of Empathy, which is cheaper and delivers more bang for the ISP, that is designed for this.

3. Drunk? Possibly, would "unusual human aberration" count as drunk?

4. Drug Addict? Yes, it can detect "insanity" (addiction is an option on the Random Insanity Tables so...)

5. Dead or Alive? Yes, there are a lot of known factors you can "look for" that would allow a psychic to tell if someone is dead or alive (aberrations, illness, level, PPE, etc)

6. Real from Fake Gold/Gem?. If its enchanted, yes (presence of magic can be seen), if non-enchanted I'm going to say generally no, but there are factors that it would be yes (like you are familiar with Auras for known authentic materials, especially if you are familiar with the item in question: ex. if you know what the Hope Diamond's aura looks like, you'd likely notice a fake Hope Diamond, but if you've never seen the Hope Diamond's Aura the best you might be able to do is confirm if its a diamond or not and that still assumes you know what the aura of a diamond looks like).

7. See #7, basically a different scenario

8. See #2, this is just rephrased IMHO.

9. Its complicated. It likely won't show a card as "marked", unless it involves magic/psychic "marking" the card. If the "card" has been swapped out, that's going to be like #6 IMHO

10. Food/Drink drugged? Possibly, while the aura description primarily considers using on living subjects while ignoring non-living in its wording, it will depend if the GM thinks the drugged nature qualifies as an unusual human aberration and even then factoring in #6 about familiarity might not be a bad idea.

[Soldier of Od]

Can See Aura tell other things about a person, even if they back is to the viewer? Yes - I don't see anything about see aura that says the view has to be from the front.

1. If they are authentically asleep? No - the description does not say anything about detecting sleep or wakefulness.

2. What mood they are in? No - there is no mention of mood or emotions in the description.

3. If they are genuinely drunk? Yes/no - it would show that they were not "healthy", based on the toxic effects of the alcohol, but the power does not define what it is that is causing the health problems or sickness.

4. If they are a drug addict? Yes/no - again, it would likely show health issues/sickness, and, depending on the seriousness of the effect on the body the person's addiction has caused, perhaps even an unusual aberration that could be a serious illness, but would not define what the issue is.

5. If they are dead or alive? Well, it shows health, so it would at the very least indicate the most extremely poor health possibly imaginable, which, if it can't specify exactly dead or alive would at least indicate that they are either dead or at the very edge of death (and therefore not faking it, if that was the intent of your question). Having zero P.P.E. is also a good (though not foolproof) indication.

6. Since all things have an Aura. Can it tell real gems and gold from fakes? No - the aura only shows what the description lists that it shows. There is almost nothing the ability can detect from most inorganic, inanimate objects - a piece of gold doesn't have an experience level, health, psionics, etc., but it could detect if an item is magic, has P.P.E., or is possessed by a syphon entity or similar creature.

7. IF a personal possession is their and not a forgery (replacement)? No.

8. Does using it allow one to see what someone is feeling? Like Synesthesia using "See Aura" with seeing the feelings of someone while seeing their Aura? No - there is no mention of mood or emotions in the description.

9. Could you tell if a playing card was "marked" or replaced by seeing its Aura? No.

10. Will "Seeing the Aura" of food and drink let the viewer see if it is drugged or poisoned? (Maybe with the Brewing skill?). No.

The animal psionic ability of See Aura allows one to recognise an aura they have seen before (15% chance per level), so I guess in that case, they may have a chance to recognise some of those things you have mentioned - e.g., recognising their personal possession is or is not a forgery, if they had taken the time to see that possession's aura ahead of time just in case, or recognising a particular card that was marked if they had previously seen that card's aura. But the description of the animal psionic power does only mention seeing the aura of a "character", with no mention of inorganic things, so maybe that power doesn't work on inanimate objects?

Hope that helps.

[darthauthor]

Thank you Soldier of Od

My compliments to your answer for number 6. I like your reasoning and wording.

Follow up.

Would an A.i. robot with levels of experience, like one of Archies from sales reps from Titan Robotics have an Aura that reflected that experience level?

[Soldier of Od]

Interesting question. I didn't think about how artificial intelligences might work. To be honest, I hadn't realised inorganic objects had auras at all until you pointed it out in your original post.
If they have experience levels, then, yes, I assume the aura shows experience levels. If a "robot" doesn't have experience levels, then it doesn't.

[ShadowLogan]

Thank you Soldier of Od

My compliments to your answer for number 6. I like your reasoning and wording.

Follow up.

Would an A.i. robot with levels of experience, like one of Archies from sales reps from Titan Robotics have an Aura that reflected that experience level?

No they would not have an Aura, there are cannon mentions of this fact specifically with regard to other Archie creations:
-Robot Rino-Buffulo (SB1o pg63) mentions "The creature has no aura nor radiates a living presence."
-Shemmarians
--(Shemmarian Nation pg18) one of the rumors mentions "That's also why psychics cannot sense their living presence or see their aura."
--(SB1o pg90) "Any sort of sensing for life signs, see aura, telepathy, and empathy will produce negative results. A zero reading would indicate that these creatures are either so alien that they do not register in the same way as most other organic life forms (a rarity, although there have been means developed to block psionic probes), or they are not alive as understand life (supernatural undead), or they are robots. Other telling signs the rider and her mount are not living creatures are the absence of magic and P.P.E emanation."
-(SB1 pg95) Robot RCC mentions under the Neural Intelligence "Robots do not register as a living presence, they have no emotions, nor an aura, nor P.P.E, or any other aspect attributed to organic life."
-Not Archie related, but Triax EIR-15 manned Gargyle Bot (pb93 WB5) mentions "Psionic probes will register a living presence, although the aura may look strangely non-gargoyle and a telepathic probe may pick-up on dangerous human thoughts. Psionic, electro-magnetic dampers have been installed to distort psychic probes just enough to fog the readings". The EIC-100 Gurgoyle Cyborg (pg98) has similar mention on aura and dampers. Pg203 mentions psionics as (one of many methods) a means Gargyoles use to recognize EIRs

This is a bit contradictory to the power description that even inorganic materials should have an aura of some kind.

Now I suppose it is possible that Archie has found a away to addresses this with the TR SR 'bots, then again it might be put down to other reasons.

[Ice Dragon]

Just my 2 cents:

1. If they are authentically asleep? No

2. What mood they are in? No

3. If they are genuinely drunk? Yes

4. If they are a drug addict? Yes

5. If they are dead or alive? Yes

6. Since all things have an Aura. Can it tell real gems and gold from fakes? "Dead" things like stone, gold: No; magic/psionic items: yes

7. IF a personal possession is their and not a forgery (replacement)? No, only if magic

8. Does using it allow one to see what someone is feeling? Like Synesthesia using "See Aura" with seeing the feelings of someone while seeing their Aura? No

9. Could you tell if a playing card was "marked" or replaced by seeing its Aura? No

10. Will "Seeing the Aura" of food and drink let the viewer see if it is drugged or poisoned? (Maybe with the Brewing skill?). No