Surveillance Gear

Keeping an eye on suspects or tracking the moves of potential enemies is a crucial part of the modern adventurer’s job.

## Binoculars

Binoculars are useful for watching opponents, wild game, and sporting events from a long distance. Standard binoculars reduce the range penalty for Spot checks to –1 for every 50 feet (instead of –1 for every 10 feet). Using binoculars for Spot checks takes five times as long as making the check unaided.

Standard binoculars reduce the range penalty for Spot checks to –1 for every 50 feet (instead of –1 for every 10 feet).

In addition to the benefit of standard binoculars, rangefinding binoculars include a digital readout that indicates the exact distance to the object on which they are focused.

Electro-optical binoculars function the same as standard binoculars in normal light. In darkness, however, users looking through them see as if they had the darkvision ability granted by Night Vision Goggles.

## Detectors

About the size of a large megaphone, this device sniffs out nitrogen compounds—the basis for all common explosives. It provides a +10 equipment bonus on all Search checks involving explosives.

This handheld wand like device provides a +10 equipment bonus on all Search checks involving metal objects.

Night vision goggles (NVG's) use passive light gathering to improve vision in near-dark conditions. They grant the user the ability to see in darkness, also called darkvision (range 120 ft.), but because of the restricted field of view and lack of depth perception these goggles provide, they impose a –4 penalty on all Spot and Search checks made by someone wearing them.

Night vision goggles must have at least a little light to operate. A cloudy night provides sufficient ambient light, but a pitch-black cave or a sealed room doesn’t. For situations of total darkness, the goggles come with an infrared illuminator that, when switched on, operates like a standard flashlight whose light is visible only to the wearer (or anyone else wearing night vision goggles).

This unique electro-optical device mounts easily on top of most cameras, portable video cameras, and standard scopes, directing its image into the device’s existing lens. It gives the device the darkvision capabilities of night vision goggles.

This device, about the size of a walkie-talkie, detects bugs and taps that contain radio transmitters, whether or not the transmitters are functioning at the time. It provides a +10 equipment bonus on all Search checks involving electronic transmitters. It does not work on wired microphones, cameras, or other devices that don’t contain transmitters.

Plug this into a telephone line between the phone and the outlet, and it helps detect if the line is tapped. To detect a tap, make a Computer Use check (the DC varies according to the type of telephone tap used; see below). With a success, the tap detector indicates that a tap is present. It does not indicate the type or location of the tap however. Also, it can’t be used to detect a lineman’s buttset.

 Receiver Tap | 15

## Still Cameras

Still cameras let a character capture a specific moment of what he or she has seen. Use Craft (Visual Art) to improve the quality of photographs.

The best choice for the professional photographer, this camera can accept different lenses and takes the highest-quality picture. A camera is needed to use the photography aspect of the Craft (visual art) skill. The film used in a camera must be developed.

A digital camera uses no film; instead, its pictures are simply downloaded to a computer as image files. No film developing is necessary.

A 35mm camera with film built in can be purchased from vending machines, tourist traps, drugstores, and hundreds of other places. Once the film is used, the entire camera is turned in to have the film developed.

The medium upon which photographs are stored, film comes in a variety of sizes and speeds. The purchase DC represents the cost of a roll of 24 exposures of high-speed (ASA 400) film.

This is a srevice. For developing film, characters will need a chemical kit. In most areas, drugstores and photo shops provide 1-hour service; in others, it takes 24 hours. In really remote areas, film may have to be sent away for developing, taking a week or longer. The purchase DC represents the cost of getting two prints of each shot on a roll of film, or one of each and any two also blown up to a larger size.

Special film for the concealable Camera. It comes in 24-exposure rolls.

This tiny camera is about the size of a matchbox. It has a fixed focus, meaning that it can only photograph objects from a specific distance (specified when the camera is purchased). It requires special film, which comes in 24-exposure rolls.

## Microphones

This tiny device is about the size of two stacked dimes. It picks up sounds up to 10 feet away and transmits them by radio with a range of 500 feet. A professional walkie-talkie programmed to its frequency can pick up the signal.

This device bounces an invisible light beam off a window, using the return signal to convert the window’s vibrations into the sounds within the room. Using this device, a person can make a Listen check as though he was standing just inside the window. It is only useful for eavesdropping on indoor conversations from without, and vacuum-sealed double-paned glass defeats it.

Looking like a hand-held transparent satellite dish 10 inches across, this device focuses in on sound sources. When directed at a particular source of sound (such as two people having a conversation), it reduces the Listen check penalty from –1 for every 10 feet to –1 for every 100 feet. It works only if it has an unobstructed line of sight to the source of the sound.

These tiny recorders (about the size of a deck of playing cards) can record up to eight hours of audio and can be connected to a computer to download the digital recording. Digital audio recorders don’t have extremely sensitive microphones; they only pick up sounds within 10 feet.

## Telephone Equipment

These devices allow a character to listen to conversations over a particular phone line.

This device, easily concealed in the palm of one hand, emits digital tones that convince the phone system to make a long-distance connection free of charge. They also let a user “bounce” a call through multiple switches, making the call harder to trace (the DC of any Computer Use check to trace the call is increased by 5).

About the size of a small briefcase, a cellular interceptor can detect and monitor a cell phone conversation within a 5-mile area by listening in on the cellular service’s own transmitters. Intercepting the calls of a particular cell phone requires a Computer Use check (DC 35); if the user knows the phone number of the phone in question, the DC drops by 10. Obviously, the phone must be in use for someone to intercept the call. A cellular interceptor cannot be used to intercept regular (ground line) phone connections.

When a phone line contains a caller ID defeater, phones attempting to connect with that line show up as “anonymous” or “unavailable” on a caller ID unit. Such a call can still be traced as normal, however.

This device resembles an oversized telephone handset with a numeric keypad on the back and wire leads hanging from the bottom. It functions as a portable, reusable telephone line tap. With a Repair check (DC 10), a user can connect to a phone wire and hear any conversation that crosses it. A lineman’s buttset is a common tool for telephone repair personnel.

This tap can be attached to a phone line at any point between a phone and the nearest junction box (usually on the street nearby). Installing it requires a Repair check (DC 15). It broadcasts all conversations on the line over a radio frequency that can be picked up by any professional walkie-talkie. Detecting a line tap by using a tap detector requires a Computer Use check (DC 25).

This item can be easily slipped into a telephone handset as a Repair check (DC 5). It broadcasts all conversations over a radio frequency that can be picked up by any professional walkie-talkie. Detecting a receiver tap by using a tap detector requires a Computer Use check (DC 15).

Essentially a highly specialized computer, a line tracer hooked to a phone line can trace phone calls made to that line, even if there’s a caller ID defeater hooked up at the other end. All it takes is time.

Operating a line tracer is a full-round action requiring a Computer Use check (DC 10). Success gains one digit of the target phone number, starting with the first number of the area code.

## Video Recorders

About 2 inches long and half that in diameter, this tiny camera can be used with or without a snake-eye lens . Unlike a portable video camera, this concealable unit does not have a viewfinder or any means of recording its images. Instead, it passes images on to whatever device it is connected to (a television monitor or recording unit). Connecting the concealable video camera to a recording or monitoring device requires a Craft (electronics) check (DC 10).

Portable video cameras use some format of videotape to record activity. The tape can be played back through a VCR or via the camera eyepiece.

This device has a tiny lens—about a quarter-inch across—on the end of a flexible 10-inch-long wand. The other end adapts to a 35mm camera, digital camera, or portable video camera. The lens can be poked around corners, under doors, or through holes, or it can be hidden in a vent, emergency sprinkler, or similar innocuous architectural feature.