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Old 07-07-2016, 12:33 PM   #271
lvalero
 
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Default Re: Mailanka's Musings -- GURPS Content Post

Two annotations.

1) The more I think about Psi-Wars, the more I believe you have developed a real multi-genre framework. Not only for a space-opera "world" but I think that it is easily portable to different worlds. For example I can easily think in a Psi-Wars in Modern Urban Fantasy as in "Monster Hunters", or an "Action!" world with spies and terrorists or a "Weird World War II" campaign, or a pure "Fantasy" or "Dungeon Fantasy".

2) I think Psi-Wars is a good name, but maybe a little mundane. Yes, the history revolves around the "Psi" and, yes, there are wars... But, how about "Galactic Yihad", "Communion Crusades" or even "Communion & Crusaders" ! :)
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Old 07-07-2016, 01:23 PM   #272
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lvalero View Post
1) The more I think about Psi-Wars, the more I believe you have developed a real multi-genre framework. Not only for a space-opera "world" but I think that it is easily portable to different worlds. For example I can easily think in a Psi-Wars in Modern Urban Fantasy as in "Monster Hunters", or an "Action!" world with spies and terrorists or a "Weird World War II" campaign, or a pure "Fantasy" or "Dungeon Fantasy".
I hope so! I'm a big believer of never doing one thing when I can do two, and the core intent of Psi-Wars isn't just to create Psi-Wars, but to help people create their own material. My approach, and the broader thrust of my material, should ideally be applicable to more than one genre.

I've also found that work in general tends to be pretty portable. This campaign design has been informed by previous work (Cherry Blossom Rain informed a lot of this campaign design, for example), and Psi-Wars will definitely inform my future campaigns.
Quote:
2) I think Psi-Wars is a good name, but maybe a little mundane. Yes, the history revolves around the "Psi" and, yes, there are wars... But, how about "Galactic Yihad", "Communion Crusades" or even "Communion & Crusaders" ! :)
This is sort of inevitable. When I started, Psi-Wars was generic: a bad Star Wars rip-off with "Psi" in place of the Force. But as it evolves and becomes more of a setting, it inevitably gains its own persona, its own approach (this is what happens when we allow ourselves to create, rather than convert). I find it evolving into something more baroque, more mysterious, and a bit grittier than works inspired by prequels. As we delve deeper into the various iterations, I expect we'll see more and more personality. This iteration, because power frameworks tend to define settings, is defining the setting a bit more, but around in Iteration 6, I definitely think I'll need to change the name of the setting.

It's grown past Psi-Wars.
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Old 07-07-2016, 01:52 PM   #273
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I have readen the Path of Communion and I don't understand well the concept of Avatar. To be precise I don't see how the "Lesser avatar" has a cost of 0 points.

I miss some examples of Miracles of Communion. I know that his post is about avatars and paths. But, to complete the "Communion" work I think some examples of "minor and major" miracles would be good.

For example if I pray "Protect my comrades from the rage of the mob", how would the Communion respond with a Neutral, Good, Very good and Excelent reaction roll?

This is easy, as the Communion miracles are the most simmilar to Divine Favor standard miracles. But it will be more interesting to see how Dark and Broken Communion respond to the same praying!
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Old 07-07-2016, 04:43 PM   #274
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Originally Posted by lvalero View Post
I have readen the Path of Communion and I don't understand well the concept of Avatar. To be precise I don't see how the "Lesser avatar" has a cost of 0 points.

I miss some examples of Miracles of Communion. I know that his post is about avatars and paths. But, to complete the "Communion" work I think some examples of "minor and major" miracles would be good.

For example if I pray "Protect my comrades from the rage of the mob", how would the Communion respond with a Neutral, Good, Very good and Excelent reaction roll?

This is easy, as the Communion miracles are the most simmilar to Divine Favor standard miracles. But it will be more interesting to see how Dark and Broken Communion respond to the same praying!

Here are the examples of Communion Miracles. They're not exhaustive, of course (your example, for me, would immediately bring to mind Communion connecting you to every person in the mob, so that your next Suggestion or Emotional Control would affect all of them equally).

Avatars are a little complicated. They're based on the idea of the Alternate Form advantage, and they assume that the new form is the same as your current form, minus Divine Favor. So, say you have 100 points worth of stats and skills and such, and you also have Divine Favor 12 (the minimum necessary for the Lesser Avatar). Divine Favor 12 costs 110 points, so you're a 210 point character.

You purchase the Learned Prayer of the Lesser Avatar, which costs you 18 points (or 17, there seems to be a discrepancy). The lesser avatar gives you:

Advantages: Wild Talent 3 (Aspect, only skills associated with path talents -20%, Divine -0%) [48], unique path template [varies].

Disadvantages: Dependency (Return to natural form, hourly, fatigue only -50%) [-10], Hidebound [-5], Obsession (Specified Goal) [-5], Unnatural fear (Marks of possession) 2 [-2], Vow (To precisely follow the symbolism of the archetype) [-10]

That comes to a total of 16 points.

And you have to take a specific Avatar, the one of the Path you are following. Let's say it's the Path of the Righteous Crusader. That gives you:

+3 Truth-Seeker (Divine -0%) [15] and Optional Rule: Talent may exceed +4 [1], +3 Born Warleader (Divine -0%) [15] and Optional Rule: Talent may exceed +4 [1], Fearless +3 [6], Guide My Hand [39].

That comes to 77 points.

So all together, you have Wild Talent 3, +3 Truth Seeker, +3 Born Warleader, Fearless +3, and Weapon Master With Everything, plus some disadvantages, and the total cost of it all together is 93 points.

When you are in this form, you do not have access to Communion. That is, you cannot call upon Communion for more miracles, as the miracle IS that you're in a (lesser) avatar state. Therefore, the cost of this form is your 100 points worth of normal traits, + 93. Your total cost is 193. 193 is LESS THAN 210. The rules for Alternate Forms is that if your new alternate form is less than your old one, it costs 15 points (plus modifiers) and that's it. That's already covered in the base Lesser Avatar form. The additional points from the Path-specific version do not raise your cost beyond +110 points, therefore it costs you nothing (more precisely, it costs you nothing extra. You paid the cost when you bought Divine Favor 12 and the learned prayer).

Greater Avatars have an additional cost because they're at Communion 16, which costs 200 points, but as alternate forms, they cost something like ~250 points, so the basic 15 points for an alternate form is not enough to cover the difference. Therefore, you have to pay even more points to gain them as a learned prayer.

Of course, the GM can always grant them to you as a general prayer, and you can ask for them as a specific prayer. That's free. In theory, you could manifest a greater avatar with basic Communion 4, if your GM was so inclined and/or you were sufficiently lucky.
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Old 07-10-2016, 11:22 PM   #275
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Good Morning! Today, I have Dark Communion for you.
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Old 07-12-2016, 12:03 AM   #276
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Today, the Paths of Dark Communion.
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Old 07-12-2016, 09:03 AM   #277
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Just wanted to let you know the idea of the three Communions and the different Paths for specialists inside of their chosen Communions is a super awesome idea.
I am a big fan of all the work you have put into this.

Will you be combining everything into a PDF at the end? This could make an awesome source book for the long looked for GURPS: Space Opera.
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Old 07-12-2016, 09:43 AM   #278
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I've been putting it onto my website, but it's tedious and nearly everything is scattered across several openoffice documents anyway, so I was thinking of just organizing everything into a PDF and posting it online, one for each iteration as I have been doing so far.

So yes, that's the plan.

I warn you, though, it'll be quite a large document. It might be better to break it up.
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Old 07-12-2016, 11:49 PM   #279
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Today, you may explore the shattered pieces of Broken Communion, if you dare!
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Old 07-13-2016, 05:04 AM   #280
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First let me say I'm really enjoying reading your Psi Wars blog posts, and I find a lot of interest and potential use for your 'Communion' using Divine Favor, Psi (Powers), Paths and the Avatars.

With regards the Avatar, I can't get my head around whether your mixing of Alternate Form and Alternate Abilities (which is what Divine Favor is) is rules legal.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mailanka View Post
Avatars are a little complicated. They're based on the idea of the Alternate Form advantage, and they assume that the new form is the same as your current form, minus Divine Favor. So, say you have 100 points worth of stats and skills and such, and you also have Divine Favor 12 (the minimum necessary for the Lesser Avatar). Divine Favor 12 costs 110 points, so you're a 210 point character.

You purchase the Learned Prayer of the Lesser Avatar, which costs you 18 points (or 17, there seems to be a discrepancy). The lesser avatar gives you:

Advantages: Wild Talent 3 (Aspect, only skills associated with path talents -20%, Divine -0%) [48], unique path template [varies].

Disadvantages: Dependency (Return to natural form, hourly, fatigue only -50%) [-10], Hidebound [-5], Obsession (Specified Goal) [-5], Unnatural fear (Marks of possession) 2 [-2], Vow (To precisely follow the symbolism of the archetype) [-10]

That comes to a total of 16 points.

And you have to take a specific Avatar, the one of the Path you are following. Let's say it's the Path of the Righteous Crusader. That gives you:

+3 Truth-Seeker (Divine -0%) [15] and Optional Rule: Talent may exceed +4 [1], +3 Born Warleader (Divine -0%) [15] and Optional Rule: Talent may exceed +4 [1], Fearless +3 [6], Guide My Hand [39].

That comes to 77 points.

So all together, you have Wild Talent 3, +3 Truth Seeker, +3 Born Warleader, Fearless +3, and Weapon Master With Everything, plus some disadvantages, and the total cost of it all together is 93 points.

When you are in this form, you do not have access to Communion. That is, you cannot call upon Communion for more miracles, as the miracle IS that you're in a (lesser) avatar state. Therefore, the cost of this form is your 100 points worth of normal traits, + 93. Your total cost is 193. 193 is LESS THAN 210. The rules for Alternate Forms is that if your new alternate form is less than your old one, it costs 15 points (plus modifiers) and that's it. That's already covered in the base Lesser Avatar form. The additional points from the Path-specific version do not raise your cost beyond +110 points, therefore it costs you nothing (more precisely, it costs you nothing extra. You paid the cost when you bought Divine Favor 12 and the learned prayer).
The problem I see is whether you can count the cost of Divine Favor 12 [110 points] in your 'base form' against the cost of the Alternate Form Template.
While you are correct that you don't have access to Communion (i.e. the Divine Favor), you don't have access because you are using an Alternate Ability of the Divine Favour - being the Learned Prayer 'Lesser Avatar' (which happens to be an Alternate Form).
If your Alternate Form does not have Divine Favor, it doesn't have access to any of the Learned Prayers (Alternate Abilities), so you can't use the 'Lesser Avatar' ability to invoke the Alternate Form.

I really hope it does work the way you've written it up, and there are too many 'Alternates' for me to properly wrap my head around how this works.
Any clarification would be great.
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