Disguise question

[Root]

If someone is disguised, how can you tell or not tell if your character can see through it?

From all I've seen it's a big mask sign floating over their head, but I don't know if this mask means I've seen through them or if I'm fooled.

Any help?

[Quoth The Raven]

It just means the guy's disguised.

[Cornuto]

Highlight them and roll spot.

[Fezzik]

Make sure you have a reason to suspect someone too... just to be nice, otherwise all the druids in the world will be roaming around peering at everyone to see what they're really like underneath.

[Root]

Going forward on that, when's it acceptable to roll Spot?

Say that being in a conversation with someone is enough reason to roll spot, or, for example, them popping up and starting a conversation by the fire you're sat at. I mostly ignore them if they're just passing, since it makes sense for them to be moving through crowds.

Furthermore, I've had a Disguised character in a group with us. I rolled spot twice over the time I was with them, and they mentioned something about it not being right to do that. Since we'd travelled from the Gate of the Sunderer to the Second Wind, I assumed that at least two hours would have passed, and logically, I'd be more likely to notice flaws or smaller details in more time having been stood next to someone.

In my interpretation, Disguise is mainly for passing through a place without being noticed, for example, a wanted criminal being able to walk through a place. I'd imagine it would be very hard indeed to constantly fool people, and more so to make them think you were someone else. Since it's impossible to add situational modifiers to the system, I've been just re-rolling more or less based on how much they 'risk' it.

[krampsburglar]

Disguise proposal (old school):

Trikes the evocationist wants his magic sword upgraded with fire damage.
Waggs the enchanter does incantations on arms and armor.
Scaukie the rogue wants to steel a magic sword.

Scaukie knows that Waggs does a lot of incantations for the local militia so her gang hangs out near the temple of Oghma to watch the comings and goings.
Trikes uses ooc tell to ask Waggs to meet at the Oghma to perform the task. Clearly this is not the way this should be done and the DM notices.
The DM informs Waggs that he is a disguised unknown character and that he is to play along. Scaukie is informed of the situation and is place appropriately.
When Trikes meets up with Waggs at Oghma, Scaukie makes a disguise roll. <continues from there>

Purpose: This would force everyone involved to Think about their RPing and heighten the possibilities and imagination.

The current mask system:
- is unknown to most new players,
- because the mask is an ooc trigger it most likely has a large ooc effect on what others do.
- there is no way to tell if todays mask is the same as yesterdays mask
- the target player can just ///the kids are hungry and i have to go

I feel the old school method is far and away more effective and fun.
What do you think?

[DM_Equinox]

Technically. spotting something is something that happens automatically, so if you have reason to look their way, ~technically~ you can roll spot with them as target.

However, this makes no sense if you do not know the person - all a successful check would do is tell you, maybe, that the person is wearing a false mustache.

If you know the disguised person well, you might be able to tell who they are - best in these cases is to discuss options in tells, I've always found. There's no hard and fast rule, really, in an RP situation. Many factors decide whether a person is recognized or not - a successful spot might not tell you much at all.

This all applies to non-magical disguises (which to my mind includes disguise kits) - the spell Alter self, or the Druid ability a Thousand Faces, is another matter, as it changes the features of the person and nothing false can be detected about it (except with True Sight and in the case of Alter Self, Detect Magic, which there had better be a bloody good IC reason to cast upon seeing the OOC disguise mask - otherwise it is metagaming.)

[Cornuto]

Make sure you have a reason to suspect someone too... just to be nice, otherwise all the druids in the world will be roaming around peering at everyone to see what they're really like underneath.

It's more than being polite, it's in the text of the rule

DISGUISE (CHA)

Check: Your Disguise check result determines how good the disguise is, and it is opposed by others’ Spot check results. If you don’t draw any attention to yourself, others do not get to make Spot checks. If you come to the attention of people who are suspicious (such as a guard who is watching commoners walking through a city gate), it can be assumed that such observers are taking 10 on their Spot checks.