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I've been thinking about this little blog some and I find I have somewhat gotten away from what I had wanted to do originally. Recaps and discussion of plot points yes, but I wanted to do other stuff. I'm going to remedy that.
Specifically I'm going to start working up and/or discussing rules and/or builds for WoT related things. Builds will generally be done in my system of choice, Mutants and Masterminds 3rd Edition, but I will try to keep things in general term for clarity's sake as well as for people who may want to attempt this using another system.
Wolfbrothers
I figured I'd start with something relatively "easy" as it were. Via Perrin we have a good idea what the Wolfbrother is capable of, the limits and drawbacks of said condition, and, unlike some other WoT concepts (*cough*channeling*cough*) this one is pretty straight forward.
The pros and cons of having a psychic link with wolves. Most obvious are the boons that being a wolf brother grants. Increased sensory acuity and range, improved physical strength, endurance, and (possibly) speed, mental communication with wolves, and the ability to enter tel'ahran'riod. Downsides, range from the minor (yellow-gold eyes), to the major (berserker rage), to the potentially destructive (losing oneself to the wolf).
Senses are pretty easy to model in M&M so let's start there. Perrin has demonstrated a longer range of sight, ability to see accurately in low light, an increased sense of hearing, and a far more acute sense of smell, allowing him to identify people by scent and to sense their emotions based on the same.
Sight is easy enough, a rank of extended range will change the normal incremental penalty from -1 per 10 feet to -1 per 100 feet, ten times the vision of the average person. Low Light vision is similarly easy, costing a single rank of senses to remove any penalties from poor lighting up to but not including full darkness.
Hearing is likewise easy enough to deal with. A rank of extended range once again increases his auditory perception by a factor of 10, and a rank spent on Ultra Hearing allows for a broader range of hearing. The second may not actually be needed, but since Randland doesn't really have dog whistles and ultra low frequency stuff we simply don't know either way.
Smell is a little tricky. It's unclear if his sense of smell is better, or simply more refined. Hedging my bets I'll add a rank to extend it by 10x, as well as a rank to make smell Acute allowing him to distinguish people by smell and the like. The ability to smell emotions is the tricky part however. Since its based on his ability to smell pheromones, sweat, and the like the ability needs to be built as a sense and not from an effect like mind reading. I'm going to fudge things here. We know what the effect is meant to do, and how it should work, so rather than try to kludge an effect together I'm going to add it as a single rank Feature (smell emotions). In the alternate I could add Accurate and Analytical to his Olfactory senses to allow for the same thing, but that would be potentially up for abuse as well since both of those have a wider scope than just smelling emotion.
Perrin's senses would look like this:
Senses 7 (Extended Sight, Low Light Vision, Extended Hearing, Ultra Hearing, Extended Smell, Acute Smell, Feature (smell emotions)) - 7 power points
In a point buy game enhanced attributes are fairly easy enough to do, you just buy more of them. M&M does give you a second option however. One can buy Enhanced Abilities, which cost the same but have certain advantages, namely they can be subject to extra effort, and can be used to create an array/alternate effect if one desires. In this case the number start to get abstract but I will grant wolfbrothers the following:
Enhanced Abilities 2 (+1 Str, +1 Sta) - 4 power points
Since Perrin was a blacksmith's apprentice prior he was already very large, strong, and had good stamina, applying more than this as a bonus could be done but I'm assuming that most of Perrin's established abilities comes from his own self and prior life's training and not from being a Wolfbrother. There's anecdotal evidence that Wolfbrothers may be able to run faster than normal, but I'm going to assume instead that they merely run longer than most people can, and no apply any ranks of speed to the template I am building.
The Wolfbrother's ability to communicate with wolves is a twofold power, they can sense wolves at a distance, and communicate mentally with them. It's unclear what the range is, though it does seem to be local-ish. To detect wolves' minds we build a sense thusly.
Senses 7 (Detect Wolves 2 (mental), Extended 3, Acute, Radius) - 7 power points
This lets the Wolfbrother detect wolves mentally, with a perception increment of -1 per 10,000 feet (basically 2 miles) in a radius around him, and tell who they are via that sense. At extreme range that means around 20-40 miles radius with a good Perception skill modifier. Communication is relatively easy at that point. Comprehend to allow the Wolfbrother to understand and speak to wolves and Communication to use it over distance.
Comprehend 2 (Animal Speech; Flawed (wolves only)) - 2 power points
Communication 3 (mental, long range; flawed (wolves only)) - 9 power points
Lastly is the ability to enter tel'ahran'riod via the Wolf Dream. This one I'm going to need to cover on its own as part of discussion of the ability of Dreamers. So for the time being we'll have to wait.
Moving on to the flipside of things we have complications and flaws that come with being a Wolfbrother. There are two big ones, not counting those that go with being a dreamer, namely the golden-yellow eyes, and the risk of losing oneself to the Wolf. Eye color may not seem like much but in a setting where the normal eye colors prevail yellow-gold will stand out and make a person memorable in appearance. We could use the Noticable flaw (a flat -1 power point) to represent this, but I feel like this is better a complication instead. It doesn't provide a restriction on his abilities, but it can potentially cause the character problems when people recognize him. We'll call it a Quirk complication, and since its a complication he'll get a Hero Point (Fate Point, etc) whenever his eye color proves to be a problem, like when he is prejudiced because of it, or recognized, or even tracked down and located by an enemy.
The second complication is one entirely of role play and Game Master adjudication. Wolfbrothers seem to cede control to the Wolf side of their nature when under stress, especially while in combat. There's always the risk that they won't come back at the worst, but even at the best they lose control. Perrin killed a few men the first time that happened, and wasn't even aware of it. For lack of a better category we'll file that under Quirk as well.
Complications:
Quirk - Golden Eyes - The Wolf Brother's eyes are a unique color that stands out from the norm and may cause people to recognize him for what he is, and may make it harder for him to avoid notice. People following the Wolf Brother may find it easier to do so if other people remember the stranger with the yellow eyes.
Quirk - The Curse of the Wolf - In times of extreme stress, especially combat, the character may lose control and enter a berserker state. The GM may dictate the players actions and use of power attacks, all out attacks, and similar to represent the uncontrolled fury of the Wolf within. In rare cases the Wolf Brother may not find their way back and lose their identity to the Wolf entirely.
In summary Wolfbrothers end up with the following effects and costs. A total of 29 power points spent.
Specifically I'm going to start working up and/or discussing rules and/or builds for WoT related things. Builds will generally be done in my system of choice, Mutants and Masterminds 3rd Edition, but I will try to keep things in general term for clarity's sake as well as for people who may want to attempt this using another system.
Wolfbrothers
I figured I'd start with something relatively "easy" as it were. Via Perrin we have a good idea what the Wolfbrother is capable of, the limits and drawbacks of said condition, and, unlike some other WoT concepts (*cough*channeling*cough*) this one is pretty straight forward.
The pros and cons of having a psychic link with wolves. Most obvious are the boons that being a wolf brother grants. Increased sensory acuity and range, improved physical strength, endurance, and (possibly) speed, mental communication with wolves, and the ability to enter tel'ahran'riod. Downsides, range from the minor (yellow-gold eyes), to the major (berserker rage), to the potentially destructive (losing oneself to the wolf).
Senses are pretty easy to model in M&M so let's start there. Perrin has demonstrated a longer range of sight, ability to see accurately in low light, an increased sense of hearing, and a far more acute sense of smell, allowing him to identify people by scent and to sense their emotions based on the same.
Sight is easy enough, a rank of extended range will change the normal incremental penalty from -1 per 10 feet to -1 per 100 feet, ten times the vision of the average person. Low Light vision is similarly easy, costing a single rank of senses to remove any penalties from poor lighting up to but not including full darkness.
Hearing is likewise easy enough to deal with. A rank of extended range once again increases his auditory perception by a factor of 10, and a rank spent on Ultra Hearing allows for a broader range of hearing. The second may not actually be needed, but since Randland doesn't really have dog whistles and ultra low frequency stuff we simply don't know either way.
Smell is a little tricky. It's unclear if his sense of smell is better, or simply more refined. Hedging my bets I'll add a rank to extend it by 10x, as well as a rank to make smell Acute allowing him to distinguish people by smell and the like. The ability to smell emotions is the tricky part however. Since its based on his ability to smell pheromones, sweat, and the like the ability needs to be built as a sense and not from an effect like mind reading. I'm going to fudge things here. We know what the effect is meant to do, and how it should work, so rather than try to kludge an effect together I'm going to add it as a single rank Feature (smell emotions). In the alternate I could add Accurate and Analytical to his Olfactory senses to allow for the same thing, but that would be potentially up for abuse as well since both of those have a wider scope than just smelling emotion.
Perrin's senses would look like this:
Senses 7 (Extended Sight, Low Light Vision, Extended Hearing, Ultra Hearing, Extended Smell, Acute Smell, Feature (smell emotions)) - 7 power points
In a point buy game enhanced attributes are fairly easy enough to do, you just buy more of them. M&M does give you a second option however. One can buy Enhanced Abilities, which cost the same but have certain advantages, namely they can be subject to extra effort, and can be used to create an array/alternate effect if one desires. In this case the number start to get abstract but I will grant wolfbrothers the following:
Enhanced Abilities 2 (+1 Str, +1 Sta) - 4 power points
Since Perrin was a blacksmith's apprentice prior he was already very large, strong, and had good stamina, applying more than this as a bonus could be done but I'm assuming that most of Perrin's established abilities comes from his own self and prior life's training and not from being a Wolfbrother. There's anecdotal evidence that Wolfbrothers may be able to run faster than normal, but I'm going to assume instead that they merely run longer than most people can, and no apply any ranks of speed to the template I am building.
The Wolfbrother's ability to communicate with wolves is a twofold power, they can sense wolves at a distance, and communicate mentally with them. It's unclear what the range is, though it does seem to be local-ish. To detect wolves' minds we build a sense thusly.
Senses 7 (Detect Wolves 2 (mental), Extended 3, Acute, Radius) - 7 power points
This lets the Wolfbrother detect wolves mentally, with a perception increment of -1 per 10,000 feet (basically 2 miles) in a radius around him, and tell who they are via that sense. At extreme range that means around 20-40 miles radius with a good Perception skill modifier. Communication is relatively easy at that point. Comprehend to allow the Wolfbrother to understand and speak to wolves and Communication to use it over distance.
Comprehend 2 (Animal Speech; Flawed (wolves only)) - 2 power points
Communication 3 (mental, long range; flawed (wolves only)) - 9 power points
Lastly is the ability to enter tel'ahran'riod via the Wolf Dream. This one I'm going to need to cover on its own as part of discussion of the ability of Dreamers. So for the time being we'll have to wait.
Moving on to the flipside of things we have complications and flaws that come with being a Wolfbrother. There are two big ones, not counting those that go with being a dreamer, namely the golden-yellow eyes, and the risk of losing oneself to the Wolf. Eye color may not seem like much but in a setting where the normal eye colors prevail yellow-gold will stand out and make a person memorable in appearance. We could use the Noticable flaw (a flat -1 power point) to represent this, but I feel like this is better a complication instead. It doesn't provide a restriction on his abilities, but it can potentially cause the character problems when people recognize him. We'll call it a Quirk complication, and since its a complication he'll get a Hero Point (Fate Point, etc) whenever his eye color proves to be a problem, like when he is prejudiced because of it, or recognized, or even tracked down and located by an enemy.
The second complication is one entirely of role play and Game Master adjudication. Wolfbrothers seem to cede control to the Wolf side of their nature when under stress, especially while in combat. There's always the risk that they won't come back at the worst, but even at the best they lose control. Perrin killed a few men the first time that happened, and wasn't even aware of it. For lack of a better category we'll file that under Quirk as well.
Complications:
Quirk - Golden Eyes - The Wolf Brother's eyes are a unique color that stands out from the norm and may cause people to recognize him for what he is, and may make it harder for him to avoid notice. People following the Wolf Brother may find it easier to do so if other people remember the stranger with the yellow eyes.
Quirk - The Curse of the Wolf - In times of extreme stress, especially combat, the character may lose control and enter a berserker state. The GM may dictate the players actions and use of power attacks, all out attacks, and similar to represent the uncontrolled fury of the Wolf within. In rare cases the Wolf Brother may not find their way back and lose their identity to the Wolf entirely.
In summary Wolfbrothers end up with the following effects and costs. A total of 29 power points spent.
- Senses 7 (Extended Sight, Low Light Vision, Extended Hearing, Ultra Hearing, Extended Smell, Acute Smell, Feature (smell emotions)) - 7 power points
- Enhanced Abilities 2 (+1 Str, +1 Sta) - 4 power points
- Senses 7 (Detect Wolves 2 (mental), Extended 3, Acute, Radius) - 7 power points
- Comprehend 2 (Animal Speech; Flawed (wolves only)) - 2 power points
- Communication 3 (mental, long range; flawed (wolves only)) - 9 power points
- Complications:
- Quirk - Golden Eyes - The Wolf Brother's eyes are a unique color that stands out from the norm and may cause people to recognize him for what he is, and may make it harder for him to avoid notice. People following the Wolf Brother may find it easier to do so if other people remember the stranger with the yellow eyes.
- Quirk - The Curse of the Wolf - In times of extreme stress, especially combat, the character may lose control and enter a berserker state. The GM may dictate the players actions and use of power attacks, all out attacks, and similar to represent the uncontrolled fury of the Wolf within. In rare cases the Wolf Brother may not find their way back and lose their identity to the Wolf entirely.
- Quirk - Golden Eyes - The Wolf Brother's eyes are a unique color that stands out from the norm and may cause people to recognize him for what he is, and may make it harder for him to avoid notice. People following the Wolf Brother may find it easier to do so if other people remember the stranger with the yellow eyes.
That would be difficult to build, (ta'veren) as that is mostly deus ex machina as the 'ST' needs it. If you conquer channeling in MM3, then you are a greater man than I, for even thinking of such a thing gives me a headache.