Usually I'd have jumped on this, but I was on vacation on the Black Sea.
Very uz-like place, that!
There have been a couple of discussions on "darksense tricks" on the
Digest in the past, so a quick look in the archives might be useful
for things I've forgotten, but some of the things that have come up or
been suggested that might be the kinds of tricks you're looking for --
Normal Darksense:
* Sensing hollowness. I think there's something about this in the bit on
uz art on my website (uz art offers many MGF opportunites, definitely);
also useful, though, if you want to make a "hiding place" that any uz who
passes by can find, but humans won't notice. Can be useful for finding
secret passages, those "hollow book" safes, etc.;
- Hiding messages or markings. In the dark with torches, humans won't
pick up on textures well, so uz can make clear signs ("Exit this way,
bottomless pit the other way") that hoomans can't read. (Hoomans can use
color to the same effect on uz, but they're too stoopid to figure it
out). Similarly, a clever uz can cheat like a dickens at cards (if
there's cards IYG) -- just "rough" the back of the cards in readable patterns!;
- Spotting camoflague -- I think it's mentioned in UTTOG, but you can
focus on texture and hopefully "see through" the crappy job of
camoflague most hoomans do ('coz who cares about *color*?). Of course,
uz need a while to figure out that using the pile of orange leaves to
hide in a field of green leaves isn't a great idea...;
- Finding out pretty precise distances (uz are better at this than
humans -- BoU suggests, after all, that they time their sonar returns by
their heartbeats, so an uz with good darksense or a specific skill could
use this for such);
- Sensing through disguises. Might be a special skill, or only available
if you have *good* Acute Darksense (e.g., a heavy penalty), but uz don't
just see skin, they pick up a reading on the bone of the skull as well,
so surface changes won't help. There's a good Larry Niven "Gil the Arm"
story that describes this -- "feeling" all the old scars, bone breaks,
nicks, etc. that you can't see beneath the skin.
- Sensing through masks. Silly duck bandits, masks don't work to hide
from uz! Similarly, uz are better IMO at spotting through "light
clutter" like tree leaves, water, rain, snow, dust, etc., since they can
(to some degree) just "tune it out";
- Sensing through clothing in general. A careful uz can see what pocket
a hooman has her coins in, if she's wearing mail under her cloak, if
she's got concealed weapons, etc. -- the "normal" human tricks to
disguise this won't always work. Also useful to unnerve and offend
prudish Yelmalians. "Hey, sunboy, is *that* all yer got? I knew hoomans
were on der small side, but dat's da shortest spear I've ever seen!"
'Course, with all of this, there's tricks to fool uz which some humans
will know, so it's not like (alas) uz get a major advantage. But all can
be rude surprises for unprepared hoomans.
Heroic Darksense:
Like Mark suggested, some Uzuz powers can be obtained through heroquest and
such. Although there's no published mystic group for the uz, I think
Darksense tricks might be especially appropriate for such. I think a lot
of these might be treated as seperate abilities or feats, but YGMV. Such
rare but possible things might include:
- Learning to "tune" your darksense, like Mark pointed out, to another frequency
to block another uz's darksense (and blind them) or to send a false image;
- Like Andrew suggested, "wide-banding" so other uz can "sense" what
you're "sensing" (there might be magical devices taht allow you to do
this, too!);
- Learning to "tune" your reception to pick up other uz' Darksense (one
way some uzuz seem to always know if there's someone around them...);
- Killing or stunning with it (I don't think normal uz can do this at
all, alas, even with tiny prey);
- Learning to "tune" out more precise densities of materials -- so, say,
you can sense (to some degree) through materials. If you get good
enough, you can do things like see that iron dagger someone's holding
behind their back. Or you can see through dirt to find the treasure
chest, etc.;
- Reading books. A normal uzko can't read a hooman book, but an uzuz or
uzko hero can, since the ink is a different texture (slightly) than the
paper!;
- Being able to sense "density" to some degree, and then being able to determine
the composition of objects from this (so, is that a bronze or iron
sword, at a
glance -- or is this a pure gold object, or is it gilded?). Similarly,
any uz can tell that a (closed) pitcher is only-half full, but a hero
might be able to tell if it's full of water, beer, or kool-aid.;
- Not just bouncing it off corners like Andrew suggested, but bouncing
it to see behind you. Show up those Zong hunters!;
- Sensing spirits, and other non-material things -- some uzuz might even
simply innately possess second sight (er, second darksense?) because
their darksense is so powerful;
Obscenely powerful and heroic darksense can let uz do all kinds of
unnerving things. Any uzko can tell if a human's had dinner or not,
according to TP -- what's *unnerving* are the uz who can tell you
exactly what you had for dinner a half-hour ago, based on your stomach
contents... Useful to create a sense of "freaky and bizarre" to scare
silly hoomans with.
IMO, there's lots of uz heroquests that involve various powers that uzuz
have innately (like radiating cold and darkness, for example), that uz
can approach through their ancestors. Uzuz characters, scarily, probably
are born with some of them and develop more through their lives. And
imagine what the ones still alive who were born in Wonderhome are
like...
Cheers,
James