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12-07-2011, 12:49 AM | #21 | ||
Join Date: Feb 2007
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Re: Orichalcum Universe: New Psionic/Psychic/Supernatural Phenomena and Skills...
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Last edited by Johnny1A.2; 12-07-2011 at 12:54 AM. |
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12-07-2011, 01:02 AM | #22 |
Join Date: May 2009
Location: In Rio de Janeiro, where it was cyberpunk before it was cool.
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Re: Orichalcum Universe: New Psionic/Psychic/Supernatural Phenomena and Skills...
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12-07-2011, 10:20 AM | #23 |
Join Date: Feb 2007
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Re: Orichalcum Universe: New Psionic/Psychic/Supernatural Phenomena and Skills...
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12-08-2011, 01:07 PM | #24 |
Join Date: Aug 2008
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Re: Orichalcum Universe: New Psionic/Psychic/Supernatural Phenomena and Skills...
Your 'power' systems as you have written them would do fairly well for other systems and settings too. Specifically the perennial attempts to convert Warhammer 40,000 to GURPS.
I was recently re-reading some of the Commissar Cain series from that universe and it struck me how absolutely perfect your Psychonull is in describing the Commissar's aide Jurgen. Antipsi just doesn't cut it but Psychonull is so close to what is described in the books it's amazing. |
12-08-2011, 02:13 PM | #25 | |
Join Date: May 2009
Location: In Rio de Janeiro, where it was cyberpunk before it was cool.
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Re: Orichalcum Universe: New Psionic/Psychic/Supernatural Phenomena and Skills...
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several humanoid races, a god like being excusing all sorts of rapid evolution power wise, and what you got is a low tech fantasy world with fluxons and psions and whatnots, being very fun so far. |
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12-12-2011, 11:58 PM | #26 | |
Join Date: Feb 2007
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Re: Orichalcum Universe: New Psionic/Psychic/Supernatural Phenomena and Skills...
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EXAMPLE 1: Sarah has ESP at Power 10 and Psychokinesis with Power 10. She has the necessary prerequisite skills and has learned PK Blast skill to a skill of 12. She does not have the Pyrokinesis skill, however. Facing off against the evil Dr. Nasty, who is clad in heavy armor, she decides to attempt to use her PK Blast skill against him. So, she takes her turn of concentration, spends the 3 Fatigue points necessary, and throws her attack at Dr. Nasty. She has to roll a 12 or below, she gets a 9, a good success. She's using her full power, so to determine the damage the GM rolls 1d and gets a 4. Now, since she has Power 10, that 4 is multiplied by 2^5 or a factor of 32. (Doubling every 2 levels starting at Power 2, five doublings is 32.) Pretty good. Immediately, in the same hex occupied by Dr. Nasty, a sudden explosion manifests, doing (32 * 4) or 128 points of concussive damage to everything in that hex...except for one problem. Dr. Nasty is wearing super-duper body armor with DR 130. The blast manifests somewhere in that hex, but where in the hex is pretty much random except that it can not happen inside Dr. Nasty's living body. So unless that random point happens to be between his body and his armor (GM's call, but it's pretty improbable!), his armor protects normally. The blast fails to penetrate Dr. Nasty's armor, leaving him shaken up but unhurt. (Though anything unprotected in that same hex did take full damage! Had Dr. Nasty, a normal human, been unprotected by armor, he'd almost sure be quite dead.) So, what could Sarah have done to deal with that armor problem? Well, she could use Extra Effort to boost the power of the explosion, but that costs a lot of Fatigue and chops the skill roll. OR... EXAMPLE 2: She could try to more precisely 'aim' the effect, more precisely than to the hex. She could try to manifest the explosion in the space between his body armor and his body, so he takes the full damage. But this means she gets a penalty on her skill roll. The GM decides that trying to hit such a tiny gap means a hefty -6 on the skill roll. Since she starts out with a skill of 12, that means she would have to get a 6 or less on her roll to succeed. Not good odds. She can try it, and if she succeeds she'll take down Dr. Nasty, but odds are she'll fail. But she decides to cut the power of her explosion down, so that intead of multiplying the blast by 32 times, she uses only the equivalent of Power 4, less half her full strength. This means that if she succeeds, her explosion will only have a power of 1d6 * 4 (2 * 2). Not nearly as powerful, but on the other hand, she gets a +2 on her skill roll, so she only has to roll an 8 or less to succeed. So, she tries it. Again, it costs 2 turns and 3 Fatigue, but her player rolls a 6, she did it! The GM rolls 1d to determine damage, just as before, and again rolls a '4'. This time, it's just 4 * 4 or 16 points of damage, instead of 128. However, the explosion occurs [I]inside the armor[I] and so the DR of the armor doesn't protect Dr. Nasty at all! Dr. Nasty takes 16 points of concussive damage, and is either dead or very badly injured. (Note that since the blast occured inside his body armor, it paradoxically protected anyone and anything else in that hex from the damage!) TO BE CONTINUED... Last edited by Johnny1A.2; 12-13-2011 at 12:02 AM. |
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12-13-2011, 11:14 AM | #27 |
Join Date: May 2009
Location: In Rio de Janeiro, where it was cyberpunk before it was cool.
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Re: Orichalcum Universe: New Psionic/Psychic/Supernatural Phenomena and Skills...
I take it the best way to dodge the PK Blast is to "punch the psi in the face" since it doesnt seem to be dodgeable, blockable etc...
Normal distance and speed penalties apply ? |
12-14-2011, 12:14 AM | #28 | |||
Join Date: Feb 2007
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Re: Orichalcum Universe: New Psionic/Psychic/Supernatural Phenomena and Skills...
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Blockable? Well, that depends, I'll be getting to that soon. There are defenses against PK Blast. Quote:
Note that most psions have a relatively short PK range, though, so not many can project a PK Blast all that far away. See here for details of psychokinesis range (it's a house rule): http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=70111 Last edited by Johnny1A.2; 12-14-2011 at 12:19 AM. |
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01-08-2012, 11:06 PM | #29 |
Join Date: Feb 2007
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Re: Orichalcum Universe: New Psionic/Psychic/Supernatural Phenomena and Skills...
Basic Defenses and Tactics Against Psionics...
In response to a message, I thought I should discuss this subject a bit. This will necessarily be a somewhat haphazard discussion, of course, but I want to touch on some of the ways of how a psion can be fought in the Orichalcum Universe. With access to sufficiently advanced technology and resources, it is possible to build machines that can jam or screen out psionic attacks and block or even deceive telepathic and ESP-based surveillance. This requires both significant resources and considerable knowledge, however. Fortunately, there are a few more basic techniques that can be of some use absent such high technology. TELEPATHY and ESP (basic defenses): 1. Crowds. Any large crowd of Homosapients can provide a certain amount of protection against mind-reading and other telepathic assaults (and espersense observation as well). The telepathic protection comes from two sources, the constant ‘din’ of so many minds thinking in a small space, it interferes with a psion just as constant loud noise makes it difficult to hear individual sounds. Crowds can also provide protection from both telepathy and ESP via the natural Antipsi field most Homosapients generate. This will not protect unless the psion is also within the range of the Antipsi field, but if s/he is it can be a substantial penalty to the power of the psion. Thus large crowds can be a ver useful form of protection against psions of low Power and low skill. (Yes, this means that large cities make psionics in general harder to use.) In gaming terms, as a thumb rule, one might apply the following penalties to Telepathy and ESP from crowd-interference: For every 50 typical people (people being defined as Homosapients of any of the known species of the genus Homo) within 100 yards of the psion, apply a -1 to ALL psionic Powers in use, and a -1 to any skill roll for use of any Telepathic skill or ESP based skill. (This assumes normal-Homosapient psions, too. Avatars and other special cases sometimes require special treatment.) Larger, denser groups can reinforce the effect. For every 200 people within 100 yards of the psion, apply a -2 to ALL psionic Power rolls and a -2 to all skill rolls for any Telepathy or ESP based skill. Really huge concentrations of people can be very powerfully debilitating, when a psion is in a large, major urban center or the equivalent, one might apply a -3 to all Powers and a -3 or even -4 to skill rolls for Telepathic and ESP skills. So as we can see, ‘losing oneself in a crowd’ can be a very viable tactic against psions of modest Power and/or limited skill. 2. Gold and copper. Gold and copper metal has various protective uses against Telepathy and ESP. (Yes, this time we mean true mundane copper, not orichalcum (though that can be used protectively in other ways)). The traditional kook-conspiracy theorist ‘tinfoil hat’ has a germ of truth in it, as a psionic defense. Tinfoil will not work, nor will most metals, because the protective effect is not primarily electromagnetic, but gold and copper metal do interfere with the use of Telepathy and ESP. A ‘hat’ made of gold or copper foil, that covered most of the head, would likely be good for a -1 to all skill rolls in attempts to use Telepathy against that individual. The metals do even better when together, two layers of foil, one of gold and one of copper, would be good for a -2 to skill rolls, unless the psion was very close (same hex). (Note that the protective quality of these metals is remotely related to the same electronic characteristics that give them their distinctive colors, so most metals, including highly conductive ones like silver, will not work for this.) Likewise, any volume completely enclosed in a layer of metallic gold or copper is more difficult to remote view with any ESP skill. Alternating layers of the two metals together are more effective, but even just one can be helpful, and the effects are cumulative, to a point. Completely enclosing a volume in a layer of either gold or copper foil will put a -1 on all ESP based skills directed at that volume, and all attempts to use Telepathy across the barrier from either side. A layer of gold and copper foil (it does not matter which goes first) together with the other metal will supply a -2 on skill rolls to use Telepathy or ESP across the barrier, and a third layer, making up a ‘sandwich’ of one metal between layers of the other, would add a -1 to the Power rolls as well for either Telepathy or ESP. A solid, enclosing wall of metallic gold or copper around a volume is good for a -5 to skill rolls for either Telepathy or ESP across the barrier, and a -3 to Power. Adding a layer of the other metal (we’re talking at least a centimeter here) takes that up to -8 on the skill rolls and -5 on the Power rolls, and a sandwich of both metals in such substantial amounts hits Telepathy and ESP with a whopping -10 on the skill rolls and -7 on the Power rolls! Note, however, that the enclosed volume must be enclosed each case, no more than hairline cracks and no holes. (As a thumb rule, if air can get in, then all the protection goes down by at least one number, and any opening big enough to let in or out more than air erases all the protection. Thus, an enclosed volume that is not airtight still penalizes the rolls, but the penalty is one less than would be the case if the enclosure was air-tight, and any larger hole or opening wipes out the protection entirely.) Note also that we are talking about metallic gold and copper. Most forms of chemical compounds of these elements will not work. Alloys that do not involve the metals forming molecular compounds can sometimes work, but the metal content of the two key metals must be quite high. Alloying gold and copper directly together also does not work...at all. Multiple layered enclosures do not directly accumulate penalties, but they do so indirectly. The psion must roll again to penetrate each successive nested set of protections, which the penalties each time, providing multiple chances to blow the attempt entirely. Note that the interference is for attempts across the barrier. A psion who is inside the enclosure can use his or her powers as normal on anyone also inside the same enclosure. Even with these caveats, we see that gold and copper metal can provide excellent passive protection...though not necessarily cheap protection...from either Telepathy and ESP. Some practical examples to follow. To Be Continued... |
01-09-2012, 06:55 AM | #30 |
Banned
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Bristol
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Re: Orichalcum Universe: New Psionic/Psychic/Supernatural Phenomena and Skills...
I'm not familiar with the universe. I was not to keen on the Psionics book.
I came up with these: Telesend as per the standard rules with (from off the top of my head) a few bonuses... Video viewing and long range rules. Telereceive eg: Mind Reading and Mind Probe. Needs Telesend to work, anything that stops Telesend will stop this too. Afflications: for my character she could dish out a -4DX and -3IQ 'Brain drains' one would cause Happyness and on a 5+ Success Euphoria, the other did Pain with a 5+ Success Agony. IIRC there was another one would Stun and could cause secondary Hallcinations. Also to the repitoire were Mind Control and Suggest, plus Illusion. All of this had to be be done via Telesend (I liked this idea from the 3rd Ed) Mind Shield was also noted. I felt Maldiction was more appropiate for 'Telepathy Powers'. TK powers I thought were fine with normal range penalties and max ranges. I also favoured a non striking TK but something that was more close to the 'force' of things being thrown in the way or at people. Flight was ditched to levitate yourself with the power of your own PK (depending on weight it needs quite a bit). IIRC previous discusion there was the Reflexive mod which allowed quick time lvl one, plus 3 more quick times means the PK could throw around everything within the PK ST accept max encumberance where a bit of posing and staring had to occur. |
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