Sonic Sudo-Science

[Cerlis]

I might be making a character soon for what seems to be a Hunter the Reckoning game. I was planning on my character being an Acoustic engineer involved in sonic research and in college he was in an acapella group (this is actually where the character started, while listening to Lindsey Stirling's Skyrim video, or more the awesome guy providing vocals who's name escapes me at the moment)

I wanted to subvert the notion of the big dorky fat nerd by having him be a bit professional when it comes to his work. I'm basically thinking of a more serious, non-butt monkey version of Craven from Godzilla the Series.

Now we are just getting out of a marvel game, and so i'm careful to avoid the marvel mindset of "Do anything that SOUNDS like its possible, and add it to the game" because its ( I assume) going to be a more realistic setting. So i basically envision him as the thinker and planner, or rather observer of the group. Imagine the role that the "seer" plays in a party but how they would do so in a Super Low magic-at most pseudo-science setting.
It will probably involve alot of observation and using of resources.

Immediately i went to wikipedia (LAWLs) to get some -basic- notion of how sound actually works and what it can alter and be used for (as well as weaponization)

I already plan to utilize silent sound technology, and i think the story about a guy who found out his house wasnt haunted because there was a fan that gave 7 Hz of sound which caused hallucinations(actually makes vision hazy) and feelings of uneasyness

now sadly there isnt going to be any wild things since like i said this game has Rules, but i was thinking of all the things that people do that are more...rules light. And ways for this character to be useful mundanely, or using pseudo science

Like one thing i was thinking is that sound is basically the nature of vibrations and it passes through mass, albeit at different speeds. One thing i was thinking was that even if its very very little of an effect that any incorporeal creatures would have SOME effect on sound. With sensitive enough equipment one might be able to figure out where they are, of course you'd need to know how much other potential effects might effect the sound (such as an air conditioner blowing air). Also a corpse probably affects sound differently than a human, what with all their electrical signals and non dehydrated body fluids.

Also apparently sounds travels, like...15 times faster in steel than in Air...there has got to be a use for that.....

[Brother Oni]

Wikipedia's article on Sonic Weapon is the top hit on a google search for sonic weaponry.

Other potential uses for an acoustic engineer would be intelligence gathering (listening devices, laser microphones, etc) or interpretation of data (speaker's intonation/timbre, background noise of a recording, etc).

Finally, take a look at Melpominee, a Discipline unique to the Daughters of Cacophany bloodline from VtM, who specialise in the power of the voice. This will give you an in-universe way to do 'wild things'.

[Slipperychicken]

Low-pitched and loud music (like one would find in a club) can upset people's stomachs and potentially induce vomiting, which would definitely cost actions if successful. Perhaps puking up blood could mess with a vampire's blood potency?

You could try throwing your voice to confuse or distract opponents, much like a dnd Ventriloquism spell.

Would a vampire's heightened senses leave it vulnerable to sonic attack? Like if you produce an irritating frequency which normal folks couldn't hear, but drowns out the vampire's hearing?

[Brother Oni]

Low-pitched and loud music (like one would find in a club) can upset people's stomachs and potentially induce vomiting, which would definitely cost actions if successful. Perhaps puking up blood could mess with a vampire's blood potency?

VtM Kindred are mystical in nature and are actually dead bodies animated by the curse of Caine, so don't expect science to work too well on them. About the only SCIENCE! stuff that does work, is Strike Force Zero's and that's powered by magic.

Would a vampire's heightened senses leave it vulnerable to sonic attack? Like if you produce an irritating frequency which normal folks couldn't hear, but drowns out the vampire's hearing?

That's more likely to affect werewolves than vampires, so in theory it could work. The downside is, you now have an annoyed werewolf with a splitting headache.

[Grinner]

Sonic pseudoscience, hmmm...Perhaps some kind of sonic tool? Being sonic in nature, it would be highly adaptable, capable of being shifted into many frequencies and even directions. Plus, it would affect pretty much anything made of matter. You could even carry it around at the expense of looking like a wand-wielding fairy.

What would you call something like that?

A sonic hammer? ...No.
A sonic mattock? ...Nope.
A sonic shovel? ...Close.

Well, the name's not important. It's not exactly what you're looking for, but if you don't come up with anything else, it, I feel, is a strong second.

[TuggyNE]

What would you call something like that?

A sonic hammer? ...No.
A sonic mattock? ...Nope.
A sonic shovel? ...Close.

Well, the name's not important. It's not exactly what you're looking for, but if you don't come up with anything else, it, I feel, is a strong second.

I see what you did there.

[Brother Oni]

You could even carry it around at the expense of looking like a wand-wielding fairy.

Being mistaken for a faerie is probably not the best thing in a Hunter game.

That said, following Megamind's philosophy, if presentation is what separates a villain from a super-villain, then I see no reason for it not working for heroes as well.

[Kami2awa]

I like the sonic socket wrench idea, but not exactly hard science...

One thing that could be taken into account is that vamps and werewolves (and probably other supernatural guys) have more sensitive hearing that humans and can probably hear outside the 20-20,000Hz range that limits humans (and which shrinks as we age). That means you can make a "mosquito" device that will cause discomfort to them but not to humans, or at least a supernatural-guy detector (set off your 25kHz tone and see if anyone in the room reacts to it - you could also achieve this with a mundane dog whistle).

You might also be able to use destructive interference to block sound based powers. I'm not 100% up on WoD but I remember there are the Daughters of Cacophony vampires who have sonic-based abilities.

[Bulhakov]

As an acoustic engineer myself, I'll throw out some ideas, starting with some realistic ones:

- all sorts of sound amplification + noise removal devices (directional microphones, picking up sounds from glass panes, bugs, etc.)
- Acoustic Hailing Devices - strong directional audio sources can be used as nonlethal weapons, but can also easily puncture eardrums if illegally modified http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_Hailing_Device
- exposure to infrasound or ultrasound can be unnoticeable, but cause a lot of unwanted physiological and psychological symptoms (headaches, nausea, anxiety)
- binaural beats in stereo headphones (one ear hears one frequency, the other a slightly different one, the brain compares the two and picks up a strong resonance equal to the difference between the frequencies, if that frequency is close to a brain-wave frequency (10-40Hz) it can amp it up - this can be used for relaxation, meditation or stimulation)
- a properly modified sonar can be used in air to map out buildings, see in fog, etc.

Now to some paranormal ones:
- filtering out ghost noises and sound patterns from recorded static
- using those sound patterns to communicate with ghosts
- an air-modified handheld diving sonar can pick up ghosts
- lots of legends and lore about supernatural creatures responding to music (e.g. pied piper, siren's song, music soothing the savage beast)

[Brother Oni]

- an air-modified handheld diving sonar can pick up ghosts

Could you explain this one a little more please? Is it making the assumption that the ghost has some sort of physical form or is otherwise interfering with the sonar pulses?

[Bulhakov]

If I had to go for a pseudo-scientific explanation I'd say that sound passes through ghosts at a slightly different speed than through empty air and/or dampens the sound slightly compared to what's reflected from the background.

[Kami2awa]

"IRL" ghosts are associated with cold spots, areas in a haunted site where the temperature is inexplicably lower than the surroundings (also known as draughts :) ). Sound goes at a different speed depending on air temperature so in theory you can pick that up via sonar... would realistically require very complex equipment though.

[Flickerdart]

Sudo make me a science.

[Lord Torath]

I presume you meant "Pseudo-Science?"

I was going to suggest ultra high frequency high volume sounds, above the sensitivity of human hearing. But that's already been suggested. Also, sounds with frequencies below the threshold of human hearing (like elephant calls you can feel in your chest, but not in your ears).

If you can get your sonic tool to hit the natural frequency of any object, you can cause it to resonate until it bursts. This is equivalent to pushing on a swing harder each time it comes back to you. Most things have a natural (or resonant) frequency, but big things like bridges and buildings tend to have dampeners built in to prevent this sort of thing. So there are limits to what you can do with this. (Plus, in Silence in the Library, we find out that "It doesn't do wood!?!?")

A problem with this is that things built of several parts have a different resonant frequency for each part, and what excites one part will be damped by another, preventing you from getting a good resonance. (The stem of a wine glass has a different frequency than the bowl, which is why it is still intact after you've shattered the bowl with the right frequency of sound).

[Reynard]

Sadly, trying to debilitate only vampires with sound isn't likely to be easy, unless you're just trying to temporally deafen any who have Auspex (well, the Heightened Senses part of it) turned on at the time, since most vampires are stuck with the senses they had as a mortal.

Unless the ST says otherwise, you're not going to be able to flush a vampire out with some specific pitch/tone.


As an audio engineer, though, you will likely have access to all kinds of microphones, which can be really useful in a game setting like World of Darkness, if the group is smart enough to use them.