We have a force sensitive character in our group.

We recently played "Under a Black Sun."

I was just wondering if the Emperor, Vader or another dark side rival / nemesis (emperor's hand, inquisitor) present on Coruscant would be able to detect the player?

I guess I'm asking for more details on how the Force Power Sense works?

By most materials, unless the Force User in question is particularly familiar with the other, the person has to be actively using the force to be sensed. There were Jedi who hid out on Coruscant for years into the Empire. Proximity also seems to be part of it - The instances of can think of of Vader detecting a F.S. individual are always at fairly close ranges. (>1 mile)

The Force Power Sense is mainly a player tool. Giving it to NPCs is both unnecessary and results in too much bookkeeping, IMO.

Detecting other Force users falls into the "disturbances in the Force" category, which is largely narrative in nature. You can use pips on dice rolled to signify this, or flip a Destiny Point to signify it, or just hand wave it. "You feel a disturbance in the Force." Or not, if the character in question has a talent like Shroud.

In other words, "Vader don't need no Sense power."

Mechanically, there's not really any existing rules for detecting if another person is Force-sensitive or not. In terms of the existing rules, it's pretty much up to the plot. If your adventure's plot doesn't require Vader or Palps to sense the PC, then they don't, simple as that.

A number of GMs, myself included, allow players with the Sense power to have the option of activating the Sense power to see if a person within range (I tend to use short range as the base, but other GMs might use engaged instead) is Force-sensitive. If you generate a Force point, then you get a "Yes/No" answer. The Force and Destiny Beta introduced the idea of opposed checks for Force powers, usually the acting character's Discipline vs. either the target's Discipline or some other skill as decided upon the GM and/or player, so a Force user that's trying to keep a "low profile" could use Discipline or possibly even Cool or Stealth to avoid showing up on another Force user's radar.

There's a sidebar in the AoR core rulebook about detecting disturbances in the Force next to the Foresee power, but as that power is largely about seeing the future, it seems an odd fit for sensing those disturbances.

I kinda hope that the Force and Destiny core rulebook goes into a bit more detail on handling this matter, given that as PCs from that book grow in power and strength, they're more and more likely to come to the attention of the Sith.

Agree with Away- and Donovan, for NPCs this should be mostly plot-based. But it depends how it's used.

If you're mainly interested in "auto-detect", a player will invariably ask "how can my character do that?", in which case you'd have to roll your own rules. I don't like the Foresee power for this myself. I'd say at minimum a PC would need basic Sense, plus the Control upgrade to sense thoughts...presumably this would reveal enough about a Force Sensitive's thought patterns that makes them stand out.

I'd probably also want the character to have at least the first Control upgrade to Commit against incoming attacks...presumably for a character to detect other Force users automatically they'd need to have some aspect of their awareness committed to doing so.

Another option/aspect is to use the Seek power. Seek is normally used to find beings or object previously encountered, but the Control upgrade to Commit to improve Perception and Vigilance seems applicable.

I'm just brainstorming here, so you'll have to playtest, but if you find the above options too easy then you can just combine them as minimum requirements, and require a Force user to be committing 2 Force dice in order to automatically sense another Force user.

As a GM I'd be worried about the bigger issue of what happens once the auto-detect occurs. If Vader "detects" the party, what then? A chase would use the normal chase rules, enhanced by Seek and Misdirect, but few parties are going to be able to misdirect Vader for long...

There will probably be a side-bar in the FaD Core Rules mentioning this with a few ideas on how to play it.

That said, based on the actual title of the topic...

If your players start moving the chips just out of reach to their hands...

if you find yourself agreeing to a bunch of odd player requests...

you might have a force sensitive player.

Thanks for the insight people. I was just using Uncle Palppy & Vader as examples.

I was more thinking along the lines of deception.

For example if an emperor's hand (who's force sensitive) is pretending to be the PC's friends and a PC force user has Sense what exactly gets revealed to the PC?

That the emperor's hand is force sensitive? That their evil? Or do I just say they detect nothing due to the narrative of the story?

If the PC has sense, it's like they will eventually pick up that the Hand is Force Sensitive, particularly once she gets in a stressful situation. It's no Detect-Evil however.

My understanding is there isn't a Force Power to detect other force users beyond what fits a narrative, its safe to say demonstrating Force powers or using items in such a way as only a Force sensitive character could would be a pretty good giveaway though. All that hand waving and jumping about.

Trick is telling the difference between the normals who tap into the Force via a Destiny Pool(though Han and Obi-wan would likely argue the source) and the specials.

Detecting other Force users falls into the "disturbances in the Force" category, which is largely narrative in nature. You can use pips on dice rolled to signify this, or flip a Destiny Point to signify it, or just hand wave it. "You feel a disturbance in the Force." Or not, if the character in question has a talent like Shroud.

I tend to agree. I kind of play it like the sense of other immortals in the "Highlander" series. There's a disturbance in the Force but it's not immediately obvious what the origin is. With investigation and use of certain skills you can certainly narrow it down. Other than that I like to keep it vague so the heroes aren't constantly on the run from Darth Vader.

Thanks, people I appreciate the advice and I like what your saying about keeping it vague.

Also keep in mind that there are lots of untrained slightly or mildly Force sensitive beings everywhere in the SW universe so there is going to be a lot of background noise making it nearly impossible to detect and individual without some other condition changing. From what I've read to be detected you need to be very close, or they are using a powerful Force ability, you have a close connection with the individual, they want to be detected, or they are just insanely powerful. So if your PCs are keeping a low profile and only using their abilities at say Engaged or Close range and with minimal Force Dice, they're probably going to be okay.

The nice thing about it being ambiguous is that you can have it used on both sides as best fits the narrative.

Thanks for the insight people. I was just using Uncle Palppy & Vader as examples.

I was more thinking along the lines of deception.

For example if an emperor's hand (who's force sensitive) is pretending to be the PC's friends and a PC force user has Sense what exactly gets revealed to the PC?

That the emperor's hand is force sensitive? That their evil? Or do I just say they detect nothing due to the narrative of the story?

Detecting force senstivity is well within reason, but I would only allow detection of the darkside if they are either strongly seeped in it (vader and palp, inquistor ) or excersing it's power. Hand of the emperor in particular are trained to be like shadows, thus would be highly skilled in concealing their own alignment. The same applies to their thoughts, they are aware their quarries can read minds, so even if they did lose, it would be an opposed disapline check to see beyond mundane thoughts.

I have a house rule concerning Force power use, PC on PC.
The initiator of the power rolls Force dice according to normal rules. The defender rolls his force rating. If the defender scored more light side points, he resists the power, in a manner for the GM consideration.