Secret Codes

So often it comes up that the heroes need to communicate with each other on the battlefield to lay out strategy, or to discuss what's going on. But how to do so without alerting the enemy.

Well, there's telepathy, that's an easy one for superheroes, but what if you don't have it, or if someone's immune to mind-affecting (and thus can't receive telepathic communications)? Or what if someone can overhear your telepathic communication?

There's having your team carry radios, but those could be overheard with radio powers (or tricked into saying the wrong things), or even overheard with someone with really high notice ranks.

You can create a language called Codespeak that the team members all learn to communicate with each other, though comprehend might be able to identify spoken languages. Below are some thoughts on ways to communicate between team members (or enemies) to allow for unified tactics.


1) Telekinesis: You could telekinetically "tap" morse code or a team code onto someone's skin. Must have precise and not full power on your TK, and it only allows TK people to communicate. Very difficult to pick up, because even if the villain detects the TK, he may not know what it means.

2) Illusions: Especially if the illusion is selective, you can have an illusion of words or a speaking person that only certain party members can see/hear (though a villain with detection powers might be able to crack the code). The illusion might also communicate through a secret language.

3) Sounds: Whether music, or sounds humans can make, or animal sounds, the ability to create sounds to clue in your team is useful. Anyone could hear it, but not everyone would know what it means. (A dog sound means attack, while a cat sound means use diplomacy, etc). You could make the sounds above or below the audible spectrum if you're team is able to hear them.

4) Sign Language: Completely silent, though requires team members to see each other (can't be transmitted over a radio). Anyone could learn that language unless it's a "secret" language you spent a point on, and comprehend may or may not identify your "interpretive dance" as a language.

5) Lights: Flickering lights, especially of various colors, could translate into a language. Difficult to decipher even with comprehend, as they're flickering lights. You could also make them of the non-visible spectrum (ultraviolet/infrared) if you're team is able to see them.

6) Scents: Rounding out the basic senses is scent- perhaps a certain odor could indicate a certain action- flowers means attack the minions first, skunk means flee, cookies means stop fighting to save the civilians, or whatever. Of course, you'd need the ability to create the scents, which requires some powers.

7) HUDs: Like radio, your teams could have eye-pieces with text that pops up and advises them of what to do. Someone has to be controllign it- a sidekick back at base, or a technopath perhaps, and anything seen by the PCs might be seen by the villains also.

8) Emotion Code: With the ability to create emotions, each emotional feeling could indicate an action. Since all data can be broken down with as little as a 0 or 1 (morse code is an example), you could have some complex communications with sequences of emotions by spending a point for the language. Some D&D mages have taken this at low levels for detailed communication with familiars over distances.

Lots of ways to communicate with your team out there, though many require some prep work or powers, but when you're trying to give direction to a team and don't want the enemy to overhear, all the preparation is worth it. A good way to reward PCs with certain powers is to have the enemies use these techniques and have 1 PC who is able to "overhear" them.