Five Earths, All in a Row

[Prince Charon]

'Sanctity' in setting is the number and strength of spirits (including very minor ones) in an area. Any given area would have multiple Aspects. I used the term because it was closer than 'mana' to the concept I was going for, and because 'mana' was much more commonly used in GURPS, so saying 'psychic mana' wouldn't have worked very well, and I didn't consider calling it something like 'psychic resonance' until several years later, when 'Sanctity' was well established.

[maximara]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

'Sanctity' in setting is the number and strength of spirits (including very minor ones) in an area. Any given area would have multiple Aspects. I used the term because it was closer than 'mana' to the concept I was going for, and because 'mana' was much more commonly used in GURPS, so saying 'psychic mana' wouldn't have worked very well, and I didn't consider calling it something like 'psychic resonance' until several years later, when 'Sanctity' was well established.

This sounds very much like the mechanic in the totally canonical Roma Arcana setting. Hard to believe it has been around since 2004.

Roma Arcana doesn't use the standard 'mana is energy' model but rather a 'mana represents "free" spirits' model.

"The Latin word for the power of a god is numen. Much of that power is in the spirits who carry out the god’s orders, so numen also means a spirit, or the god himself in the form of a spirit. Since the aid of spirits produce magical effects, numen also means supernatural effects."

"In general, Roman sorcery derives power from mana (called numen in Latin), but mana consists of spirits."

"Magic in Roma Arcana is either ritual magic, based on an underlying skill, or clerical magic, granted by a god or powerful spirit"

Take Religion's "everything" answer to "What Deities Get From Their Followers?": "The divine being requires the worship and belief of followers in order to survive. It may be that the deity is simply a potential force, existing without power until fueled by the fervent belief of others. Or it might be that belief actually creates the divine force." and add in Power's Magical Psi idea and you will see why I have problems wrapping my head over exactly how magic works in the Five Earths setting.

On the surface it comes off as some of Roma Arcana with parts of Religion and Powers added in and the whole mixed well. It isn't but how it differs from this mixture is not clear.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by maximara

This sounds very much like the mechanic in the totally canonical Roma Arcana setting. Hard to believe it has been around since 2004.

I'm more than 90% certain that this is not a coincidence, as I know I read the book before I started working on Five Earths, and probably re-read it while working on the Magic section.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

Sorry this isn't an update. There's an entry that I'm planning on adding to the FAQ, I just want to be sure that it's reasonably clear before I add it:

* Why doesn't this thing from <insert story/setting here> work exactly the way it does in that setting?
Because this isn't that setting. Things in Five Earths that resemble things from other settings are most often imitations, with abilities modeled on those of the thing which they resemble. In Star Trek, a phaser is a piece of very advanced, but mundane, technology; on Infopunk Earth, a phaser is a psionic 'magic item' that might have some electronics in it. A local imitation of the Infinity Gauntlet complete with local-imitation Infinity Stones would have a hard time killing half the people in a small town, for example, and some of them would even be able to resist it. Likewise, even if you're a REALLY BIG Exalted fan, that doesn't mean you gain a real Solar Exaltation (or whichever), it means that you have a chance of the spirits noticing you and helping you gain psychic powers that superficially resemble those of a Solar Exalted. If you're very lucky or interesting, the Roman god Sol Invictus might have noticed you. No matter how powerful you become, though, you will still be a psychic, not a Solar Exalted, and certain abilities, like Perfect Defences, cannot even be particularly well-imitated by psychic powers.


Thoughts?

In case it matters to anyone, I've added that entry to the FAQ.

[Prince Charon]

A short Q&A on magic and thoughtforms

Originally Posted by Maximara

* How long do "spells" take to cast?

Highly variable, but if you don't have some form of Adept (Time), it takes between a few minutes and a few hours to perform a ritual (the normal time for that specific ritual, plus any extra time to get a skill bonus, or minus reduced time if you're in enough of a rush that you're willing to accept a greater risk of failure). If you do have Adept (Time), it could take only a few seconds to prepare a ritual, though Energy Accumulating rituals tend to take longer even then, as you need to draw in enough minor spirits to power the result that you want. Either way, if you set a ritual to trigger at a specific condition, activating it takes however long it takes to enact that condition (which might be a fraction of a second if you plan it right and have the right training, or could take a fair bit longer - conditions could be just about anything that fits your style and situation, though in-game, the GM can forbid ridiculous ones).

Originally Posted by Maximara

* What attracts these thought forms to take certain actions (like making everyone with the Spock surname look like the character)?

Too many things to list, but in general, you just need enough of them (which could be hundreds, or a single powerful one) to think 'this will be interesting and in our preferred genre.'

Originally Posted by Maximara

* Are they more inclined to answer direct requests or just give out power on a whim (which on the surface seems to have happened in Blue, Green, and Orange).

<Kosh>Yes.</Kosh>
(It varies by spirit or spirits, in other words.)

Originally Posted by Maximara

* If these thought forms are formed out of belief why do some of them seem out of character to how they are generally depicted on the Earth they appear?

In large part, this is due to spirits merging with or controlling/influencing other spirits, as well as people holding contradictory beliefs that affect how spirits think, and more than one spirit having a similar 'identity.'

Originally Posted by Maximara

* How common is the psi magic? Basically Infopunk Earth turning into 21st century Technomancer?

Not exactly like Technomancer, obviously (very different form of magic, for one thing, so a lot of stuff works differently), but in terms of commonality-of-magic alone, it's probably starting to get close.


Thoughts?

[Prince Charon]

One of the unfinished templates that I thought I'd be done making sooner:

Common Demonic Vampire, Work In Progress

Attributes

ST +10 (Without HP; Psychokinesis, -10%) [70]; IQ -1 [-20]

Secondary Characteristics

Per ?; Move +5 [25]

Subtotal:


Advantages

Doesn't Breathe [20]
Injury Tolerance (Unliving; <limitations>) []
Night Vision ? [?]
Unaging [5]

Perks

Subtotal:


Disadvantages

Bad Temper []
Infectious Attack [-5]
Laziness []
Lecherousness (15) []
Vulnerability (Fire; x4; Common) [-60]
Vulnerability (Sunlight; x4; Very common) [-80]
Weakness ('Holy' objects; 1d cor per minute; Common) [-40]
Weakness (Sunlight; 1d burn per minute; Very common) [-60]

Quirks

Subtotal: -


Skills

Subtotal:

Total:

Notes

One of the most common varieties of Vampire on Dieslpunk Earth/Earth Two, very similar to the vampires in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer setting. These vampires are common not because they are all that powerful, but because they pass as humans well, and have an easy reproductive strategy. The presence of 'tainted' or 'corrupted' psychic energy ('evil/demonic' Aspected Sanctity) can help with this, but even when away from such, this form of vampire tend to reproduce faster than most other varieties, on top of the fact that relatively few of the other vampire types are able to accelerate their reproduction in this manner.

Vampires of this type do not have souls (save in the unique case of Liam O'Connor, currently employed by the US Army(2)'s Demon Research Initiative). When applying the template, examine the host's mental disadvantages. 'Positive' mental disads like Code of Honor, Honesty, and Sense of Duty are often reduced in intensity or scope in the conversion, or lost entirely, or are twisted into something evil. Phobias may be lost or reduced in severity, or they may not be, depending on how appropriate they are (fear of fire is very fitting for a vampire, for example). 'Negative' mental disads other than phobias tend to either stay the same, or get worse. Remember that the person who used the body before death is a different character from the vampire that rises from the grave. The once-living character may also appear as a ghost or similar spirit.

Currently trying to decide whether I want to give these vampires disads and/or or quirks corresponding to each of the seven deadly sins. Some are easier to justify than others, but I'm not sure that it's consistent with the source material.

Not sure how good their Night Vision should be; 5, maybe? They cannot see in total darkness, and they don't see as well as the Slayer (who also cannot see in total darkness), but they see much better than humans do. Also, trying to decide whether a bonus to Per is justified by the show.

The IQ of a vampire is the average of the IQ of the human whose body it is using, and the IQ of the blood demon (which average around 8, though some may be better or worse). Vampires usually have fairly decent memories of their hosts' lives, and thus it is not unreasonable to boost the five-to-ten IQ skills that the host used the most often back to the level they were before the loss of intelligence. Also, the point-value of the template depends to some degree on the power of the 'parent' blood-demon, in that a more powerful 'parent' is more likely to have offspring that start out at a higher level than the average fledgling.

I need a way to express the fact that vampires are easily penetrated by piercing and impaling damage, especially from wood and such, but normally do not take much damage from it if the heart isn't penetrated by hard organic material, or the central nervous system isn't seriously damaged. Some sort of modifier on Injury Tolerance (Unliving)? A vampire can be staked by its own rib if hit correctly.

The combination of sunlight being both a Vulnerability and a Weakness that does burning damage (which tends to set the vampires on fire, activating that vulnerability) is a GM call that not everyone would allow, but works given the combustion speed that vampires have. The effective damage from direct sunlight is thus 8d per minute. Vampires that are under water are not damaged by sunlight, and this needs to be noted in the disad line. Might end up replacing this disad combination if something better is suggested, but BtVS vamps are very flammable (apart from old, tough ones that don't go up in smoke immediately, possibly indicating that they bought down the Vulnerability a little, or bought up HP), and do appear to catch fire in sunlight.


Thoughts? Suggestions?

[RedMattis]

So, if someone gets a Psionic Jammer (which based on the limitation value isn't terribly rare) of some sort near these guys they drop to human strength? That seems a bit unusual for what seems to essentially be a Buffy-vampire. I didn't look through the thread for a Slayer to check if they the same limitation, but otherwise decently informed vampire hunters would probably hunt with a briefcase-psi jammer and makeshift flamethrowers (even 1d6-1 of fire damage from a glorified spray-bottle flamethrower could be instantly lethal to a vampire).

Another note, holy symbols might harm them, but taking a mere average 3.5 damage after being in their presence for a full minute makes them almost completely useless as a weapon against vampires. More of a deterrent really since since a vampire likely doesn't want to go looking around for you in your home if their skin is quickly melting off due to symbols on the wall while they are in there.

As for the extreme vulnerability to heart-damage, you could reverse the scaling of the Achilles's Heel limitation and give them something like "Fragile, Unnatural (Wood+Vitals only, -70%) [-15]". (I assume the combo of wood+vitals is "Occasional" in part because it is a known weakness of vampires)

For Vulnerability I'd assume Wood+Vitals would be "Occasional" again, though I might stick the rules for Alternate Abilities on the Vulnerability (divide value by 5), and probably some of the other since they are already getting a lot of points back for their vulnerability to Fire. Adding wood to that isn't terribly much of a change.

Since I'm assuming these are mostly meant as NPCs the point values shouldn't matter terribly much, but anyway, I'd be cautious about giving too many points for weaknesses and vulnerabilities if used as player characters. Currently they are already getting more points back for not handling fire, sunlight, or holy symbols back than what a player with Cursed* [-75] would, and frankly while the weaknesses are really terrible they aren't [-240 points] worth of terrible. For that many points a player could buy high enough DR to ignore the vulnerability, and high-end enhanced "Warp" and just teleport around during the day and probably still be getting points back from the overall package.

* (The disadvantage where the GM will attempt to kill you every meeting and nothing good _ever_ happens to you, and everything bad happens to you first and worst)

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by RedMattis

So, if someone gets a Psionic Jammer (which based on the limitation value isn't terribly rare) of some sort near these guys they drop to human strength?

Might come back to this later, but this part I know I need to comment on: Undead in this setting are normally animated by psionic effects. If someone gets a fully functioning unspecialized psi jammer near an undead being in this setting, the most likely result is that the body keels over dead until the jammer is turned off/out of range. Whether the undead gets back up again depends on the type of undead, though the blood demons of this type are stubborn enough that unless the body started to noticeably decay, it would get back up once the psi jammer is gone.

Psi jammers that effective are less common, though. Most psi jammers are more limited, e.g. a type that only works on psi effects that are outside the user's body, in which case a vampire of this type would remain at full strength. If it had hypnotic powers, or some other such thing, those would be neutralized, though.

[warellis]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

Might come back to this later, but this part I know I need to comment on: Undead in this setting are normally animated by psionic effects. If someone gets a fully functioning unspecialized psi jammer near an undead being in this setting, the most likely result is that the body keels over dead until the jammer is turned off/out of range. Whether the undead gets back up again depends on the type of undead, though the blood demons of this type are stubborn enough that unless the body started to noticeably decay, it would get back up once the psi jammer is gone.

Psi jammers that effective are less common, though. Most psi jammers are more limited, e.g. a type that only works on psi effects that are outside the user's body, in which case a vampire of this type would remain at full strength. If it had hypnotic powers, or some other such thing, those would be neutralized, though.

I wonder if there are means to suck out and capture the thoughtform (demon in this case)?

Makes me imagine an evil thoughtform flitting about, switching between host bodies quickly to escape pursuit like in Fallen.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by warellis

I wonder if there are means to suck out and capture the thoughtform (demon in this case)?

Tricky, and honestly it would be far easier to just kill the vampire. Much less tricky for beings with souls who are also possessed.

Originally Posted by warellis

Makes me imagine an evil thoughtform flitting about, switching between host bodies quickly to escape pursuit like in Fallen.

Well, probably not a vampire's blood-demon (would require a vampire that was also a rather skilled magic-user), but certainly possible for other types.