Help me name a power – Named!

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EDIT: YOU FOLKS ARE AWESOME!

There were lots of good suggestions, some very literate, some very computer-y, some flowery, some nice and simple. In the end, we went with “Last Place You Look,” because it’s a nice description of what the power does and it fits the naming convention we’ve established. So, thanks very much to darkfool, who gave us that suggestion.

 

So, check it out. Here’s an Embed:

Detect Concealment

The act of hiding something changes it. The gun is no longer just a gun. Once someone has concealed it, for whatever reason, it is a hidden gun, deliberately placed somewhere that someone hopes it will not be found. Finding a hidden object by looking for the object is difficult, depending on how well the concealer did his job. Finding a hidden object by looking for the “hidden” part is much more effective, but it’s not an option for most people. Demons, of course, are not most people.

Dice Pool: Wits + Larceny

Action: Instant

Roll Results

Dramatic Failure: The object (if any) becomes so hidden that it cannot be found by mundane means. Another demon can use this Embed to ferret it out, and other supernatural beings have access to make that allows them to find hidden objects, but any such attempt suffers a negative modifier equal to the demon’s Primum.

Failure: No effect. The demon can attempt to use this Embed again on the same area. Apply a cumulative -1 penalty for each successive attempt to search the same area.

Success: If any object has been hidden in the general area (roughly 250 square feet; about the size of a living room, but the Storyteller is encouraged to be generous, especially for a demon with a higher Primum rating), the demon knows where the hidden object is. She doesn’t know what the hidden object is or how it is hidden, but she knows when she is standing over or near it, and knows where to dig or look to begin her search. The player can add her Primum to any rolls made during the scene to find the object. If this would require an extended action, she instead adds her Primum as successes to the action.

Exceptional Success: The demon knows where the hidden object and how it was hidden. If the “object” is a message etched into a wall and then painted, the demon knows to remove the paint. If the object is a gun hidden in a wall safe, the demon knows she needs to open the safe. The rule about adding Primum to dice pools or extended action success totals still applies.

Now, the power works just fine, but I don’t like the name. It reads like a D&D spell (perfunctory and kinda flavorless, I mean). Most of the Embeds have names that are short but somewhat descriptive: Alibi, Knockout Punch, Tools Into Toys, etc. Best I could come up with here was “If It Was a Snake,” but that’s too long and relies on an idiom.
Ideas?

78 thoughts on “Help me name a power – Named!”

  12. Dismantling the Secret

    Decryption of Reality

    Hidden Logic

    Unveil Objects Intent

    Echo of Intent

    Decoding the Hidden Protocol

    Reply

  14. Off the top of my head:
    Morningstar’s Lantern
    Devil in the Details
    Nothing May Hide
    Once was Lost
    Now is Found
    Uncover Lies

    Reply

  19. The morning star secret
    blessed by The Forgotten angel
    Secret of the soulless
    damned from sight
    Oblivious location
    arcane secret
    the devil secret

    Reply

  41. I’m kind of ‘borrowing’ these from TV Tropes, but they do express what I want:

    Sherlock Scan
    Pixel Search

    Demons are going to be amazing as investigators. Of course, if Angels have exactly the same powers, it means they are going to have a harder time hiding than I would have thought, so far.

    Reply

    • Well, this is one power. Not all of them are perception/investigation based, and in terms of sheer information-gathering, mages are still better.

      Demons, however, can lie like motherfuckers. Even to mages.

      Reply

      • Demons are spies. Mages are detectives. Their abilities overlap in places, but the powersets have different goals.

        Reply

  42. If the goal is short and descriptive, I would vote for Daniel’s ‘Revelation’

    But to contribute something of my own brainstorming:
    Uncover secrets
    Lost is Found (plays on ‘Lost and Found’)
    Cryptic search (crypto means hidden)
    Harry the hidden (This might seem like a nickname, perhaps ‘harass’ instead)
    Seeing with unseen eyes.

    Reply

  43. Late to the starting line and some people have posted some I already really like:

    -Last Place You Look
    -Ctrl+F
    -I Spy

    For my own idea, hmm… That feels like something that should have some of that espionage feel to it:

    Clean Sweep

    … And can’t think of anymore off the top of my head.

    Reply

  44. I like Search Function. Ctrl+F is more clever, but Search Function is clearer and to the point, which is, iirc, what you said Embed power names should be like.

    Reply

  47. Transitive Tracking

    Based upon the transitive theorum

    In mathematics, a binary relation R over a set X is transitive if whenever an element a is related to an element b, and b is in turn related to an element c, then a is also related to c.

    Transitivity is a key property of both partial order relations and equivalence relations.

    Object=Hidden, Hidden=Found, ergo Object=Found

    Or, to put it simply, I touch my balls, then I touch your forehead. By definition of Transitive Theory my balls have now touched your forehead.

    Reply

  49. It does rather remind me of things about quantum physics that we know now, that observing an object changes it. It also reminds of me of film or novels where the protagonists always manage to find all of the hidden, plot relevant things in the bad guy’s hide-y hole.

    Stumble Upon
    Sherlock

    I also liked I Spy

    Reply

  50. Concealed’s Cry

    As a cry for help or attention. I imagine hidden objects radiating some sort of an attention plea, that only demons can pick out from wherever their owners hidden them.
    Makes sense for me.

    Reply

  51. To follow on to Conor’s comment, the quantum physics nature is the power is why I like “Existential Detection” (granted it was my earlier suggestion).

    This power seems to be skipping the question of “Is the object here?” and going right to “Where is the object?”, as if its existence is taken as a given.

    Reply

    • I think the general assumption is that, if you’re using this power, then you probably have reason to believe that something is hidden here.

      That said, I agree that it could use a note somewhere as to what happens if there isn’t anything hidden there. I’d assume that you’d be aware of that on a success or better.

      Reply

  59. – Hide and Seek

    – Whispers of the Forbidden / Whispers of the Forgotten / Secret Whispers

    – Secret’s Betrayal

    Reply

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