Editing Skill Descriptions (section)

==SEARCH== 
INT
You can search an area for clues, hidden items, traps, and other details.
Notice allows you to immediately notice things, Search allows you to pick
up on details with some effort. Search works in conjunction with all accurate
senses (see page 102). Sight is the only accurate sense for normal
humans.
Check: You must be within 10 feet (one Notice range increment) of the
area. You can examine a 5-foot-by-5-foot area or a volume of goods 5 feet
on a side with a single check.
A Search check can turn up things like footprints, but does not allow
you to follow tracks (see Tracking, page 104).
TASK DC
Ransack an area to find a certain object. 10
Notice a secret compartment, a simple trap, or an obscure clue. 20
Find a well-hidden secret compartment or trap, or an extremely
obscure clue.
25+
• Finding Concealed Objects: The DC for a Search check to find a concealed
object is usually based on the Stealth or Slight of Hand check
of the character who hid it. The GM can assume characters with the
time take 20 on their check to conceal an object.
• Surveillance: You can use Search to set up surveillance of a particular
area, watching from a stationary location. The DC of the subject’s Stealth
check to evade your notice is equal to the result of your Search check.
• Extended Searches: Certain powers—notably ESP, Quickness, Super-
Senses, and Super-Speed—greatly extend the area you can search at
once. When searching for something over an extended area, use the
following guidelines.
Determine the area’s approximate diameter. For each step up the
Extended Range Table (starting at 10 feet for twice the normal
Search area), move the time required to search the area one step up
the Time and Value Progression Table (starting at one minute, the
interval above a full round). See pages 69 and 70 for those tables.
You can reduce the time required for an extended search by
increasing the DC of the Search check: each step down the Time and
Value Progression Table, to a minimum of a full round, is +5 DC.
The Quickness power (see page 96) can also reduce the time for an
extended search.
54 SKILLS
MUTANTS & MASTERMINDSTM ROLEPLAYING GAME CHAPTER THREE: SKILLS
You can take 10 and take 20 on extended searches. Taking 20
requires 20 times the base time to search the area, and you can’t
reduce the time by increasing the DC if you take 20.
Example: A hero wants to search an area a mile in diameter using
ESP. This is four steps up the Extended Range Table, so the GM
moves four steps up the Time and Value Progression Table and
gets a base time of one hour to make the search. If the hero wanted
to quickly search a mile radius to find a certain object (DC 10),
rather than taking an hour, he can increase the DC by +20 (to DC
30) and accomplish the search in one round (four steps down the
Time and Value Progression Table).
Johnny Rocket, who has Super-Speed 10, wants to search the
same 1-mile radius. This would normally take an hour, but Johnny’s
Super-Speed allows him to perform routine tasks 2,500 times faster
than normal. This allows him to perform the search in less than
3 seconds (one standard action). If Johnny decides to take 20 on
his Search check, it takes him about 30 seconds (one hour × 20 /
2,500 = 28.8 seconds) or 5 full rounds to search the whole radius.
Action: A Search check is a full-round action.