Finding Hidden Objects Modifier
Amount/quality of hiding places
Exceptional capacity for hiding things -4
Good capacity for hiding things -2 to -3
Average capacity for hiding things -0 to -1
Poor capacity for hiding things +1 to +2
SPECIFIC SITUATIONS
Concealment generally only applies to Sight (and often just to Normal Sight — Infrared Per- ception can often easily finding hidden objects, concealed compartments, and the like). The GM and players must apply some common sense to resolve difficult situations. For example, ordinar- ily it wouldn’t be difficult for an animal to find a Concealed person via Smell — but if the person’s hidden inside an airtight area or compartment of some sort, obviously that’s not going to be so easy. Similarly, an object might not have any scent to speak of, making it difficult to detect with Smell.
Whether “just being out of sight” conceals someone or something from a Detect depends on how the Detect is built and defined. If it’s part of the Sight Group, then blocking sight would block the Detect. If it’s part of some other Sense Group, or no Sense Group, maybe not — for example, people can sometimes smell or hear things they can’t see. Apply common and dramatic sense when problems arise, and you should be able to resolve most dif- ficulties to everyone’s satisfaction.
Concealment is an Everycreature Skill for ani- mals. As such, it represents only their ability to hide themselves, not to hide other objects (a -½ Limita- tion). Animals skilled at caching food for later con- sumption, or at hiding other objects, buy this Skill normally. Animals with camouflage buy bonuses to Concealment, but usually apply a Limitation rep- resenting the nature of their protective coloration (see the Camouflage template on page 22 of The
HERO System Bestiary for some examples).
Some Vehicles are designed to blend in well with the terrain they operate in — they’re cam- ouflaged, in other words. Vehicles can buy this as Concealment with the Limitations Self Only (-½) and Only In Specific Environments/Situations (-1; possibly less if terrain occurs frequently). If the Vehicle can change coloration (or the like) to adapt to a wide variety of environments or set- tings, the latter Limitation doesn’t apply, though
Costs Endurance might.
In some cases the GM can even allow char- acters to use Concealment to represent acute powers of observation — a sensitivity to small cues and clues that tells the character some- thing’s amiss. For instance, a successful Conceal- ment roll might let a mystic notice the runes hidden in the design of a mosaic floor, or spot the vampire in a group of people.
EQUIPMENT
Most uses of Concealment don’t involve equipment — first and foremost the Skill repre- sents a character’s personal ability to hide things or find hidden objects. But when personal ability isn’t enough, characters can use all sorts of sensory devices to make the job of finding hidden things easier. Infrared scanners, x-ray scanners, radars, and any number of high-tech sensors from Science Fiction campaigns can all make searching much easier. On the other hand, camouflage garb may make it easier for a person to hide himself or large objects in some situations.
POWERS AND CONCEALMENT
Enhanced Senses can take the place of the sen- sors described above, making Concealment unnec- essary in many instances. Invisibility and Images make it easier for a character to hide himself (or sometimes objects), though maintaining them for long periods of time may pose a problem. Darkness and other Sense-Affecting Powers can prevent a character from using Enhanced Senses, forcing him to fall back on old-fashioned searching.
CONSEQUENCES OF FAILURE
Failing a Concealment roll to hide something (or someone) usually means one of two things: 1. The object isn’t really hidden properly — it’s out in the open where anyone can easily perceive or find it.
2. The object is nominally hidden, but it’s in a location a searcher can (and almost certainly will) check easily.
But a failed Concealment roll doesn’t necessar- ily mean someone will find the object. Just because an object’s in an open, obvious place doesn’t mean someone will find it — remember Poe’s story The
Purloined Letter? It’s just as possible a searcher will
miss his PER Roll or Concealment roll and over- look something, even if it seems glaringly obvious to someone else. (This is an exception to the normal Skill Versus Skill Contest rules.)
Failing a Concealment roll to find something just means the character didn’t find it. A badly- failed roll (by 4 or more) means the character’s con- vinced the object isn’t hidden where he searched (and possibly that it couldn’t be hidden there).
BASE TIMES
Hiding an object can take as little as 1 Phase, but 1 Turn is probably a more average time. If the character wants to go to great lengths to hide something (for example, to take apart a piece of furniture to hide something in a hollow leg), it can take 20 Minutes or more, depending on just how elaborate and thorough the character is.
The Base Times for searching a person are listed above: one Phase for a Fast Patdown; 1 Turn for a Thorough Patdown; 1 Minute or more for a
Strip Search. The time required to search a location depends on (a) the size of the location, and (b) how thorough the searchers want to be. The accompany- ing Search Times table lists some suggested Base Time parameters.
SUBDIVIDING CONCEALMENT
If appropriate, the GM can divide Conceal- ment into two Intellect Skills: Find and Hide. The former’s used to find hidden objects and people, the latter to hide them (and to build concealed com- partments and the like). Splitting Concealment this way isn’t necessarily logical, but it makes it easier for a character to be highly skilled at one aspect of Concealment but not at the other.
CONCEALMENT BY GENRE
Concealment works the same in all genres. In genres where characters have access to high-tech searching devices or divinatory magic, it’s possible that finding things may become much easier, but hiding them usually remains basically the same.