In Cyphers and Masks, we have Hidden Storage (Improved) which allows, "The character can use hidden storage to hide an item within his own suitably modified body (such as through cybernetics, surgery, or prosthetic replacements)."

While I can see uses of the methods they mention, why can't this talent be used with the unmodified body? Between the various natural orifices (cheeking objects in the mouth, oral ingestion, insertion into the rectum or elsewhere), there seem to be plenty of RL options that should make this talent work just fine without modifications to the body.

Hidden Storage (rectum) opens up for all kinds of scatological innuendo and opportunities for embarrasing situations.

3 minutes ago, Alisair Longreach said:

Hidden Storage (rectum) opens up for all kinds of scatological innuendo and opportunities for embarrasing situations.

win/win?

Imagine a situation where you need that hidden item RIGHT NOW.

1 hour ago, Alisair Longreach said:

Imagine a situation where you need that hidden item RIGHT NOW.

That's more of a problem for characters that return after 30 years of being off-screen.

8 hours ago, HappyDaze said:

In Cyphers and Masks, we have Hidden Storage (Improved) which allows, "The character can use hidden storage to hide an item within his own suitably modified body (such as through cybernetics, surgery, or prosthetic replacements)."

While I can see uses of the methods they mention, why can't this talent be used with the unmodified body? Between the various natural orifices (cheeking objects in the mouth, oral ingestion, insertion into the rectum or elsewhere), there seem to be plenty of RL options that should make this talent work just fine without modifications to the body.

I think it's assumed the options not requiring modified cybernetics also don't require... Talent...

I want to know where this thread is going..... Because I don't think I want to go there....

1 hour ago, Ghostofman said:

I think it's assumed the options not requiring modified cybernetics also don't require... Talent...

I want to know where this thread is going..... Because I don't think I want to go there....

Having worked in both corrections and nursing, I can tell you there is a real difference in the way first-timers move (when keistering) or speak (when cheeking) compared to those that have practiced the activity. I knew one lady that could have a full conversation with you while holding a razor blade in her mouth and you'd never know the blade was there. If I tried that, I'd probably cut my tongue off. Besides, in this system, there are now talents that cover almost everything.

7 minutes ago, HappyDaze said:

Having worked in both corrections and nursing, I can tell you there is a real difference in the way first-timers move (when keistering) or speak (when cheeking) compared to those that have practiced the activity. I knew one lady that could have a full conversation with you while holding a razor blade in her mouth and you'd never know the blade was there. If I tried that, I'd probably cut my tongue off. Besides, in this system, there are now talents that cover almost everything.

Well then you could use utility belt for that....

Deja Vu....

8 hours ago, Alisair Longreach said:

Imagine a situation where you need that hidden item RIGHT NOW.

Im remembering a certain scene about some guys visit North Korea....

I think the intent behind the talent was that the courier has the data packet wired into a cybernetic hand or far enough under the skin that without extensive medical scans (possibly with highly trained medical personnel), the intel they are transporting will not be found.

The heroine of the heinlein novel Friday had a navel pouch she used as a hidden compartment for small stuff.

On 8/17/2018 at 1:27 PM, Alisair Longreach said:

Hidden Storage (rectum) opens up for all kinds of scatological innuendo and opportunities for embarrasing situations.

Ack. Flashbacks to a game where I ran a prison sequence. {Shudders}

Most prisons and such would know to search your standard biological hidey holes. Unless you're a particularly exotic alien, that's only going to get you so far. I'd also guess Star Wars scanners would have no problem finding, er...foreign objects inside a biological organism. I would think a "suitably modified" body would be more reliable.

I can't believe I'm spending time pondering this. If I hadn't just watched the extended cut of Deadpool 2, which makes several references to the "prisoners wallet" I'm not sure I would have dared venture into this thread.

2 minutes ago, Split Light said:

Most prisons and such would know to search your standard biological hidey holes. Unless you're a particularly exotic alien, that's only going to get you so far. I'd also guess Star Wars scanners would have no problem finding, er...foreign objects inside a biological organism. I would think a "suitably modified" body would be more reliable.

I can't believe I'm spending time pondering this. If I hadn't just watched the extended cut of Deadpool 2, which makes several references to the "prisoners wallet" I'm not sure I would have dared venture into this thread.

The point is that such searches are the ones that likewise discover things stashed with Hidden Storage.

4 minutes ago, HappyDaze said:

The point is that such searches are the ones that likewise discover things stashed with Hidden Storage.

The hidden storage talent makes it a Formidible, 5 purple, difficulty to find an object. Finding somebodies standard "biological storage" by a knowledgeable searcher I would put at much less. They almost always find their target.

All that said, this is hardly a major issue. If you want to have it work that way in your game, I'd say go for it. It's all supposed to be cinematic after all. In a movie, the prisoners are much more likely to successfully hide their shiv then in real life.

9 hours ago, Split Light said:

Most prisons and such would know to search your standard biological hidey holes. Unless you're a particularly exotic alien, that's only going to get you so far. I'd also guess Star Wars scanners would have no problem finding, er...foreign objects inside a biological organism. I would think a "suitably modified" body would be more reliable.

I can't believe I'm spending time pondering this. If I hadn't just watched the extended cut of Deadpool 2, which makes several references to the "prisoners wallet" I'm not sure I would have dared venture into this thread.

Having put over 11 years in adult male corrections and many....many....MANY....searches, (in short) there are pat frisk, to feel for anomalies which can move to a visual unclothed search if something seems amiss. Only a medical professional can get more....invasive in the search, which I have never seen them NOT find what they are looking for. Then again, I have only ever seen one with any surgical modifications for..transport. Most others trying to conceal go a more...unnatural route.

As for this Talent, I'd go with the cybernetic possibly having some sensor baffling quality, but mostly, in reference to what Happy mentioned, just being able to put the level of distraction out of your mind and act normal.

I was there when we had a transfer come in with almost 2 lbs of "gear" keistered in a condom and have seen X-rays of someone at a local county jail that had a .38 special hidden away...just hope he didn't get gas.... ?

Improved Hidden Storage hinges on the fact that it refers back to Hidden Storage. Hidden storage alllows you to hide items into a vehicle or other equipment, the Improved version allows one to use his or her own body. Within the Courier talent tree there are two Hidden Storage entries, so the Courier can use Hidden Storage to hide items up to 2 encumbrance.

A Nightstalker Suit from the same Cyphers and Masks book is encumbrance 2.

So, unless the character is like a Hutt, for example, and it has a couple of spare fat lobes to hide stuff under, how could an unmodified (human) body hold those same encumbance 2 without some modifications?

12 minutes ago, Xcapobl said:

So, unless the character is like a Hutt, for example, and it has a couple of spare fat lobes to hide stuff under, how could an unmodified (human) body hold those same encumbance 2 without some modifications?

The answer, of course, is "because it fits the narrative." Unless you're suggesting that this talent has to be realistic even when so many others are not?

Realism is in the eyes of the beholder. And we talk about a game where some dudes fire lightning from their fingertips at other dudes wielding glowing plasma blades that cut through almost everything...

Or in the mood of the players and the GM, as they determine the type of game they wish to play. My unmodified body certainly doesn't have the space available to hide a full body suit of armor to the extent of making it hard to find. Of course, I gave the example of an encumbrance 2 suit of armour just to show why an unmodified body shouldn't be able to hide certain objects. Certainly not to the extent of having the Hidden Storage talent applied and making it formidable to find.

While we do not consider Star Wars to be the most realistic Science Fiction work, far from it with all its "space opera science fantasy" elements, we do see, in the movies and cartoon series and books, and games, that some laws of nature are still upheld. Not many (TIE-Fighters screaming as they zoom through space and the likes) but enough. Varactyls and their riders still fall down as a result of gravity, being eaten by giant beasts and monsters still kills people and creatures, and regular humans don't get to hide encumbrance 2 suits of armor on/in their unmodified bodies and still claim those suits are formidable to find. Narrative or not.

20 minutes ago, Xcapobl said:

regular humans don't get to hide encumbrance 2 suits of armor on/in their unmodified bodies and still claim those suits are formidable to find. Narrative or not.

Or maybe they all do hide such things and you just haven't successfully noticed them yet. ?

On 8/25/2018 at 7:09 AM, HappyDaze said:

Or maybe they all do hide such things and you just haven't successfully noticed them yet. ?

I don't know. After the last 16 years of being a prison guard, used to frisking and visual cavity inspections I still tend to miss stuff like full body armor every now and then...

?

2 minutes ago, Xcapobl said:

I don't know. After the last 16 years of being a prison guard, used to frisking and visual cavity inspections I still tend to miss stuff like full body armor every now and then...

?

Everybody rolls bad once in a while. Some people do it all the time.

So true.