Postcognition

Another problem for the investigative missions is precog and postcog.

Precog is hard enough to deal with just because you can't predict the behavior of the PCs- but most players will grant you that. Sometimes it can just be a bit of a pain.

Postcog can be worse. According to the rules you can make a DC 30 perception check and see events as if actually present. So let's look at what that means.

As if you were present- This doesn't mean you have a DVD of the past- where you can slow down time, rewind, and such. So you'd need precise or accurate or something to target a given event, though you could search or something to find something specific like a murder. Still- you may need to make skill checks. Using postcognition means you still have to beat opposed stealth / sleight of hand/disguise checks, etc with your perception. It doesn't help you understand foreign languages or code if people speak in it. So if a man was murdered from hiding, you might just see him die with no explanation. Especially if powers were used: invisibility, TK, etc. Likewise the scene you see might be misleading.

Tracking: Some GMs might say that postcogntion only reveals significant events. A man walking down the street is not significant, so while you might see a man committing a crime, you can't postcog to follow him back to his house.

Illusion/Obscurement: This is my favorite: The illusion power with the limited: only affects temporal vision. You look into the past and you see a birthday party instead of a murder? Why, because they were using the illusion power at the time they committed the crime. Obscure also works, and one could even use Obscure: limited to temporal vision, to hide their crimes from being forseen with precog or discovered with postcog. Of course, the illusion would have to have been done in the past, so people would have to have been preparing for postcogs- but the obscurement could be in effect "now" or "then" and have the same effect.

Precog: What if you looked into the future, and you saw a man looking into the past? Could you talk? What if using postcog alerted the man in the past that you were watching him- and he could look at you and say something to you. Might make you less likely to use that power on him! (Ultimately it wouldn't matter, if he had precog he might be able to look forward and see you anyway- but it's still unnerving)

Postcog Traps- You are extending your senses into the past- so you might be vulnerable to passive sensory dependent abilities. If you can hear the past you might be entranced by a siren's song, or if you can see the past you might be turned to stone if you see medusa's visage. Horrific scenes may cause fear effects, or seeing a naked nymph (using D&D rules) might even kill you! Not something you'd want to abuse- but something to keep in mind for the PC who is using postcognition to solve EVERYTHING!