Rank 1 Bone Gnawers Gift
You’re good at sizing people up. With a few sniffs, you can smell how successful someone really is. Even on a bad day, you can sense whether he’s got money in his pocket, a steady job, or a place to stay. When passing by street folk begging for change, some people claim they don’t have anything to give. By repeatedly sizing up people on the street, Bone Gnawers learn to distinguish a real bad-luck case from a cheap bastard who doesn’t give a damn. After mastering this elemental talent, the Garou can then sniff out deeper secrets from passers-by.
This insight can also be used on people who beg for food, money, or assistance from the Garou; for instance, Hoods use this ability to distinguish someone who really needs help from a scam artist. Either way, this Gift is taught by a rat-spirit, usually while the student sits on a street corner asking for help over and over again; the rat gets a cut of any handouts during the time of training.
System: Spend one Gnosis and roll Perception + Streetwise (difficulty 6). Pick a person within about a city block you can see. One success reveals one of the following facts: whether the person has money in his pocket, whether he has a job, or whether he has a home (your choice). Three successes either answer all three questions or give more detailed information about one of them: how much money he’s got on him, what his occupation is, and what kind of place he lives in.
If you score five successes, some telltale clue also reveals more specific information. With spiritual insight, you can narrow down four or five choices of where his home may be, what company he works for, or the last item he just bought. Specific information may come as a vision of facts whispered by a helpful Gaffling. (“Guess what a little rat told me.”) Alternatively (at the Storyteller’s discretion), it can reveal the number of dots a character has in his Resources Background.
This Gift may be unreliable on creatures other than humans. Most supernatural creatures can resist this ability with Willpower (difficulty 6) or Perception + Subterfuge (difficulty 7). If a supernatural creature is impersonating someone else (say, with the Obfuscate Discipline or the Doppleganger Gift), you must beat the number of successes on the initial roll for that talent. Figuring out a vampire’s haven or where he draws his financial resources takes a bit of work, but it can be done.
Source: Tribebook: Bone Gnawers (Revised)
