Variant Quintessence, requesting feedback

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by RedMattis

Hey, I'm tinkering with a Quintessence attribute for a possible Modern Thriller-themed Hidden-Fantasy campaign.

Could we have a few examples of how this is used, please?

[RedMattis]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Could we have a few examples of how this is used, please?

I haven't actually made any templates yet since I'm still figuring out some basics, but I'll throw some pseudo-templates together.


Joe Averageson
Attributes
ST:10, DX:10, IQ:10, HT:10, QN: 8*
Will: 10, PER:10
HP:10, FP:10, QP: 9**
Traits:
Mundane Human [-57]

* Note effective QN is 4 due to permanently low QP.
** Note recovers to 3, drains if above 3.


Vampire Punk
Attributes
ST:20, DX:12, IQ:10, HT:10, QN: 11
HP:10, FP:10, QP: 11
Will: 10, PER:10

Traits:
Some Vampire Template [+?]


Carrie
Attributes
ST:12, DX:10, IQ:10, HT:10, QN: 20
HP:10, FP:10, QP: 20
Will: 12, PER:10

Traits:
Forbidden Quintessence [-10]
Bunch of Psionic Powers [+?]

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Okay, so let's say the Vampire Punk punches Carrie. Carrie has higher QN (Quintessence), but it doesn't really matter when the defender has higher QN. The Vampire Punk deals 3d6-1 punch damage, and probably nearly knocks Carrie out with an average of 9 damage.

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Retry!

Carrie dodges and decides to try to kick the Vampire Punk. Her kick does 1d6 of damage based on her ST (KYOS rules). Let's say she rolls 4. She has 9 more QN than the vampire, so her damage is increased by 50%, for a final damage of 4*1.5 = 6!

Not amazing. Would have dealt 8 if she just had one more QN and got +100% damage (for a final damage of 8) instead. Oh well...

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Carrie decides to take out her frustration on Joe Averageson by kicking him in the chest. Let's say she rolls a 4 again.

Joe has a QN of 8, but since his QP is at ×1/3 (always) due to his "Sealed Quintessence" disadvantage his effective QN is actually a mere 4! This means that Carrie has 16 QN more than Joe. Every 5 QN above the target's QN gives +50% damage, so Carrie gets a total bonus of 150%. That's 4 * 2.5 = 10 damage.

Looks like Joe will be sleeping off this one in the hospital.

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The Vampire Punk is feeling left out and decides to kick the unfortunate Joe. Average damage of 10.

Joe still just have 4 QN, and the vampire has 11. That is twice Joe's QN, which means the lowest possible bonus is +100%. That's 10*2.0= 20 damage. When Joe recovers from his coma he is going to look for a marginally safer place to live.

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That's all. Honestly I mostly eyeballed the QN values and stuff. I realize looking at the result that high QN without ST results in a bit of a glass cannon. Perhaps that works? I dunno yet really.