Aberrant RPG - Mega-Dexterity 6+ Feats

[Alex Green]

M-Dex 9: Punches and kicks made by the Shift land before they start (this is already reflected in the Swifts enhanced init).

[Psilord]

The "short range sonic boom punch" sounds like a variant of the Thunderclap enhancement using Mega-Dex as its base instead of Mega-Strength. The APG talks about that sort of thing on p. 101.

I understand what you're saying, but I was thinking less effect. No bashing damage or destruction of mateials with this; just the possibility of breaking concentration, short-term deafening and possible knockback/unbalancing (perhaps an initiative penalty).

AFA the Cerenkov flash, this sounds like a cheap way to use the Strobe quantum power.

You are absolutely correct, but I don't really see a problem with a a swift that spends enough xp in mega-dex to achieve faster than light movement duplicating an aspect of a quantum 1 power. I wouldn't call that cheap. ::wink

--------

Question: Are we ignoring for gameplay sake the disticnt possibility that without mega-perception any swift moving faster than light would be effectively blind while so moving? That is to say that if hes moving faster than the reflected light that hits the rods and cones in our eyes it would give his brain no signals to process into vision, without a sufficient mega-per score or an enhancement? ::confused

[Sprocket]

Question: Are we ignoring for gameplay sake the distinct possibility that without mega-perception any swift moving faster than light would be effectively blind while so moving? That is to say that if hes moving faster than the reflected light that hits the rods and cones in our eyes it would give his brain no signals to process into vision, without a sufficient mega-per score or an enhancement?

That'd be valid except for two things.

1: Most relativistic/FTL movement by swifts will be very short-range & extremely brief. Given that nearly everything & everyone around the swift will be near-inanimate in comparison AFA movement, constant visual reception may not be as needed.

2: Not are we only talking about reality-warping novas here, we're talking about novas at the higher end of the Quantum range. Certain aspects of RL physics are as limp as overboiled pasta before them. ::sly

M-Dex 8 lets you go at the speed of light. Ergo M-Dex 9 lets you go past it. ::devil

Objects moving faster than the speed of light presumably move backwards in time.

I have to agree with metaphysician on that one, Alex. While what you're describing could happen due to mistakes and/or aberrations, it seems best kept unintentional for swifts lacking Temporal Manipulation.

[metaphysician]

I agree. Whatever effects Mega Dex 8+ has one vision and senses should be cosmetic at most ( barring aberrations ). After all, the Flash can see just fine at speed, as can essentially all other speedsters in comics. I'm also disinclined to give a power an aspect that renders it mostly useless on its own.

[Alex Green]

I was thinking more in line of giving anyone who has this the theme of temporal manip. Although granted, if you have Q9 then theme probably isn't a concern.

[metaphysician]

Oh, well, yeah. Anybody with Q8+ levels of Mega Dex ( and Hypermovement? ) really should have Time as an available theme. Lord knows its the case in comics. Off my head, I can't think of a single super luminal speedster who *hasn't* done time tricks.

[Alex Green]

...I can't think of a single super luminal speedster who *hasn't* done time tricks.

Exactly.

Maybe what we to do is just state....

Mega-Dex 9+ : You can move faster than the speed of light without harming yourself or your surroundings.

[Sprocket]

Mega-Dex 9+ : You can move faster than the speed of light without harming yourself or your surroundings.

Looks fine to me, I'll add it to the listings ASAP.

Re: Destructive vibrating hands trick-

Was this intended to be a M-Dex 9-rated feat?

Re: "Do energy damage (not physical) because you're beating the speed of light"-

I'm assuming that this covers close combat damage, correct? Also, was this supposed to be rated at M-Dex 9 or what?

[metaphysician]

Hand vibration: I'd actually peg it Mega Dex 6, myself.

Superluminal Fists: I figured close combat, yes. OTOH, I pegged Mega Dex 8 as being enough, as thats lightspeed or thereabouts. At least for me, I go with "6 = hundreds of times Mach", "7 = relativistic", "8 = lightspeed and above", "9 = way, way above lightspeed", and "10 = you approach infinite speed as an asymptote".

[Sprocket]

Re: Hand vibration-

I'll review the current feats for M-Dex 6 to see if it should be added. If it doesn't make the cut there, I'm sure that Reighnhell would like to use it as a special maneuver for one of his "nova-only" martial arts styles.

Re: FTL Fists-

Right, I'll see what I can hammer out for this. BTW, the speed scale you posted does make sense AFAICT.

[Sprocket]

Re: M-Dex 8+ feats, revised-

OK, here's what we've got for the upper 3 dot ratings, taking the latest suggestions into account.

Mega-Dexterity 8

• Inflict energy damage instead of physical with close combat attacks by moving at superluminal speeds.

• Perform the most delicate of surgeries quick enough to be unaffected by environmental factors.

• Repair the engine of a bullet train while it's running at full speed.

• Use a blade to completely flay a victim (removal of the victim's entire intact skin) in combat so quickly that it's bloodless and painless until the victim notices what he's missing.

• Walk or run along a stream of automatic gunfire or similar projectiles.

Mega-Dexterity 9

• Move faster than any camera can see.

• Move faster than the speed of light without harming yourself or your surroundings.

• Novas with Mega-Perception of 3 or less have a difficulty keeping track of the swift as she moves.

• Use even the most fragile of surfaces (such as soap bubbles in midair) for climbing or pivot points.

• x.

Mega-Dexterity 10

• Safely defuse a nuclear bomb after the trigger explosives have been set off.

• x.

• x.

• x.

[Alex Green]

At what level would you need to be to try to trick people into firing at each other? I.e. I stand between two guys.

[metaphysician]

Depends on the shooters. Anything down to Mega Dex 1 could work on normal humans.

[Sprocket]

Re: Tricking baseline foes into shooting each other-

IIRC Daredevil has pulled that off a few times, so it would have to be on the very low end of the scale. Doing that against nova foes would likely involve a contested roll between Mega-Dexterity & Mega-Perception.

It's another good idea for Reighnhell's nova maneuvers, at least. ::smile

[Sprocket]

OK, here's a few ideas that might be able to fill up most of the remaining empty slots in the M-Dex 9 & 10 listings. Are any of these up to par, and if so at what dot ranking?

>Muffle the sound of his own heartbeats with a Stealth roll.

>Pilot totally unfamiliar alien vehicles that were not designed with humans in mind.

>Escape from inside a locked airtight bank vault.

>Sneak up on a foe in a region of empty vacuum.

[metaphysician]

I'm not sure what the first would even *be*, exactly, and the second is really really dependent on the details of the vehicle. I really don't see any vehicle requiring that much Mega Dex, unless it was designed for fast-time four dimensional tetraoctopi or such.

The latter two are fine, though. Literally impossible escapes are bread and butter for Mr Miracle, and it could easily be said he has insane Mega Dex.

[Alex Green]

I like!!

[Sprocket]

Re: Muffle the sound of own heartbeats-

I'm not sure what the first would even *be*, exactly,

Perhaps I worded it wrong? My bad. ::tongue

The idea behind moving in a stealthy manner is to minimize the total amount of sounds produced by the body's voluntary movements. The idea behind that feat would extend the concept to minimizing the sounds produced by the body involuntary movements - heartbeat, breathing & the like.

Re: Pilot totally unfamiliar alien vehicles-

and the second is really really dependent on the details of the vehicle. I really don't see any vehicle requiring that much Mega Dex, unless it was designed for fast-time four dimensional tetraoctopi or such.

It's saying that at this point, the swift is flexible & coordinated to the point where he can use vehicles that have control areas designed for beings whose bodies diverge radically from the basic humanoid arrangement - like a Zep from Trinity, for instance.

But if you don't think it merits a M-Dex 10 rating, what dot rating would you put it as? I could probably beef up one of the lower-ranked feats to M-Dex 10 caliber without too much trouble.

Re: Escape from inside a locked airtight bank vault-

If no one has any objections, I'll be using this in the last empty slot for M-Dex 9.

Re: Sneak up on a foe in a region of empty vacuum-

And I'll be using this as the second M-Dex 10 feat.

[Snackula]

I have to admit I'm a bit confused about what's meant by that last one. Since sound doesn't travel in a vacuum, it seems like anyone could sneak around pretty easily. Is it referring more to having perfect control of your movements in a microgravity environment? If not, I think that'd be a cool addition somewhere... The nova could, for example, take a casual stroll around the hull of a spacecraft as though it were normal Earth gravity.

[Sprocket]

Re: Sneak up on a foe in a region of empty vacuum-

It means literally sneaking up on a foe in an environment where there is absolutely *nothing* around the swift & her foe for many kilometers around them. Sound & scent aren't issues, as most spaceworthy foes will rely on their eyesight. The swift will have to use the foe's visual blind spots to conceal her approach. The area covered by said blind spots can & will change very quickly, even if the foe is just drifting in space & can't really move on his own.

[Sprocket]

Re: Current M-Dex 9 & 10 feat listings-

Peer review on these are pending. If the "muffle own heartbeat" also makes it into an M-Dex 10 slot, we're just 1 high-caliber feat away from finishing this list. ::cool

Mega-Dexterity 9

• Escape from inside a locked airtight bank vault.

• Move faster than any camera can see.

• Move faster than the speed of light without harming yourself or your surroundings.

• Novas with Mega-Perception of 3 or less have a difficulty keeping track of the swift as she moves.

• Use even the most fragile of surfaces (such as soap bubbles in midair) for climbing or pivot points.

Mega-Dexterity 10

• Safely defuse a nuclear bomb after the trigger explosives have been set off.

• Sneak up on a foe in a region of empty vacuum.

• x.

• x.

[Alex Green]

I'm good with that all, including hb.

Good grief this is hard though.

[Sprocket]

I'm good with that all, including hb.

Then I'll add the "hb feat" to the others in latest post on the project forum that are up for peer review. If they all pass, we can brainstorm here for that last M-Dex 10 feat & hopefully come up with something good to top this off. After that I'll post the entire M-Dex feat listings here before getting back to work on the "speedster tricks" section. ::smile

Good grief this is hard though.

Isn't that the truth! I guess no one's really thought out what extreme degrees of Mega-Dexterity could plausibly do, beyond the standard speedster tricks. It's not quite breaking new ground, but it's close enough.

With the help of the other posters, it's been like panning for gold, 1800's California-style. That's still better than when we were trying to do it alone, which was like trying to extract the dissolved gold in seawater. ::brick

[Sprocket]

Re: the M-Dex 10 feats-

Both of the new ones have passed peer review AFAICT. The listings are now as follows:

Mega-Dexterity 10

• Muffle the sounds produced by the swift's body involuntary movements - heartbeat, breathing etc. - with a Stealth roll.

• Safely defuse a nuclear bomb after the trigger explosives have been set off.

• Sneak up on a foe in a region of empty vacuum.

• x.

Re: The last M-Dex 10 feat-

Here's an idea straight from the Mega-Physical project forum for the last empty slot:

>Escape from having your entire body encased in concrete.

This extrapolates from the practice that 1920's crooks had of encasing the feet of inconvenient people (and corpses) in concrete before dumping them into deep water.

[Alex Green]

Well I like it but I'm probably biased. ::thumbup1

[Sprocket]

Re: The last M-Dex 10 feat-

OK, judging from the lack of response, no one really objects to the proposed idea. So after polishing it up a bit, it's been added to the (hopefully) final version of the M-Dex 10 feat listings, which follow.

Mega-Dexterity 10

• Escape from having most of the swift's body encased in hardened concrete.

• Muffle the sounds produced by the swift's body involuntary movements - heartbeat, breathing etc. - with a Stealth roll.

• Safely defuse a nuclear bomb after the trigger explosives have been set off.

• Sneak up on a foe in a region of empty vacuum.

Assuming this passes peer review, my thanks to everyone here at EON who helped us out with this. You guys are just terrific. ::cool

[Alex Green]

Escape from having most of the swift's body encased in hardened concrete.

What happened to "entire"? Basic Flexibility would let you get out of having your foot encased in cement.

[Sprocket]

What happened to "entire"? Basic Flexibility would let you get out of having your foot encased in cement.

"Entire body" would be just that - having the swift completely encased in concrete. Once it sets/hardens, there is no wriggle room for the swift to work with. I won't even mention the obvious risk of suffocation if the swift still needs to breathe. "Most of the swift's body" would be around 90% of the bodymass - say, everything but the swift's head encased in concrete. That's very little wriggle room to work with but it'd be enough AFAICT. Just think of it as the ultimate nova-level example of Harry Houdini's kind of escapology.

I'd also like to restate that these feats are supposed to show what Mega-Dexterity is capable of without using enhancements - or quantum powers, for that matter. ::smile

[metaphysician]

Honestly, I'd say Mega Dex 10 *should* be able to escape from 100% encasement. Your just that good.

[Alex Green]

Honestly, I'd say Mega Dex 10 *should* be able to escape from 100% encasement. Your just that good.

If you can parry a meteor with a sword then i have to agree.

[Sprocket]

Well, never let it be said that I couldn't be accommodating, especially when it means finally getting this finished!

Mega-Dexterity 10

• Escape from having the swift's entire body encased in hardened concrete.

• Muffle the sounds produced by the swift's body involuntary movements - heartbeat, breathing etc. - with a Stealth roll.

• Safely defuse a nuclear bomb after the trigger explosives have been set off.

• Sneak up on a foe in a region of empty vacuum.

[Sprocket]

Re: The finalized M-Dex feat listings-

With that "entire body" quibble being the only thing left to be corrected, I'm happy to declare this micro-project over & done with. ::biggrin Now I can get back to hammering out the rest of the Storytelling chapter!

As promised, here's the complete listings of the Mega-Dexterity feats which will be appearing in Chapter 3 of Aberrant: The New Flesh.

Feats of Mega-Dexterity

The listings for Mega-Dexterity (in Chapter 4 and on p. 158 of the Aberrant core book) are somewhat more detailed in "real life" terms than those of Mega-Strength, but not by much. Below are some examples of what can be accomplished with only the various ratings of Mega-Dexterity, barring enhancements.

Mega-Dexterity 1

• Dodge machine gun fire at close range.

• Perfect 10 gymnastics routine.

• Run on the narrowest of supports as if it was a wide footpath.

• Shoot the wings off of a fly.

• Use a kitchen knife to julienne vegetables in midair without a cutting board.

Mega-Dexterity 2

• Climb on any surface that offers even the slightest of handholds.

• Disarm multiple opponents before they can react.

• Juggle angry badgers and not get bitten.

• May perform flips and dodges while in midair.

• Perform two different tasks, both delicate manipulations and/or violent movements simultaneously at full capacity.

Mega-Dexterity 3

• Ascend or descend buildings that are close together by bouncing between their walls.

• Ignore movement penalties caused by obstacles while moving at high speed, provided that there's enough of a gap in the obstacle for the swift to slip through.

• Perfect 10 gymnastics routine blindfolded with one hand tied behind your back.

• Remain in poses that baseline acrobats or contortionists would consider painful indefinitely.

• Use any surface - horizontal, vertical, stationary or mobile - capable of supporting the swift's weight as a perch or pivot point.

Mega-Dexterity 4

• Catch a bullet.

• Engage in combat on a nightingale floor without making it squeak.

• Juggle old dynamite without setting it off.

• Leap onto speeding vehicles with the ease of a baseline stepping onto a moving escalator.

• Move on unstable solid surfaces as if it they were an Olympic-grade running track.

Mega-Dexterity 5

• Dive through the spinning rotor blades of a helicopter in flight without getting hit.

• Juggle mercury fulminate without setting it off.

• Move on a violently-shaking surface - like the ground during earthquakes of up to 7.0 on the Richter scale - as if it was stable and still.

• Pluck flying shrapnel out of the air within a small area - such as the interior of an average-sized restaurant - before it can damage anything nearby.

• Assemble or disassemble complex machinery without using purely mechanical tools.

Mega-Dexterity 6

• Dislocate and relocate any joint in the swift's body without damaging it, the swift is effectively triple-jointed.

• Juggle liquid nitroglycerin without setting it off.

• Move on an extremely violently-shaking surface - like the ground during earthquakes of 7.0 on the Richter scale and higher - as if it was stable and still.

• Pluck flying shrapnel out of the air within a large area - like a small public park - before it can damage anything nearby.

• Use a blade to cut a foe's heart out in combat and show it to him for a complete surprise before he can go into shock. It's done so quickly that it's bloodless and painless until the victim notices the throbbing hunk of meat the swift has in her hand.

Mega-Dexterity 7

• Dodge laser beams that have already targeted and fired at the swift.

• Escape from any physical restraint, even those that penetrate the body without causing himself any further damage.

• Juggle nitrogen tri-iodide without setting it off.

• Move fast enough to cross a laser "tripwire" without triggering it.

• Move too fast to be seen with unaided baseline human vision.

Mega-Dexterity 8

• Inflict energy damage instead of physical with close combat attacks by moving at superluminal speeds.

• Perform the most delicate of surgeries quick enough to be unaffected by environmental factors.

• Repair the engine of a bullet train while it's running at full speed.

• Use a blade to completely flay a victim (removal of the victim's entire intact skin) in combat so quickly that it's bloodless and painless until the victim notices what he's missing.

• Walk or run along a stream of automatic gunfire or similar projectiles.

Mega-Dexterity 9

• Escape from inside a locked airtight bank vault.

• Move faster than any camera can see.

• Move faster than the speed of light without harming yourself or your surroundings.

• Novas with Mega-Perception of 3 or less have a difficulty keeping track of the swift as she moves.

• Use even the most fragile of surfaces (such as soap bubbles in midair) for climbing or pivot points.

Mega-Dexterity 10

• Escape from having the swift's entire body encased in hardened concrete.

• Muffle the sounds produced by the swift's body involuntary movements - heartbeat, breathing etc. - with a Stealth roll.

• Safely defuse a nuclear bomb after the trigger explosives have been set off.

• Sneak up on a foe in a region of empty vacuum.

[Alex Green]

Perform two different tasks, both delicate manipulations and/or violent movements simultaneously at full capacity.

Isn't this Mega-Wits?

Engage in combat on a nightingale floor without making it squeak.

What is a nightingale floor?

[metaphysician]

Its a type of wood flooring that pretty much creaks at the slightest touch. IIRC, it was specifically designed to do such.

[Sprocket]

Perform two different tasks, both delicate manipulations and/or violent movements simultaneously at full capacity. Isn't this Mega-Wits?

I admit there's a lot of overlap between M-Dex & M-Wits, and this feat is an example of such. Imagine having to reload a pistol revolver while running for cover - M-Dex makes it easy, otherwise the nova would be dropping bullets all over the ground.

What is a nightingale floor?

It's a type of wood flooring that pretty much creaks at the slightest touch. IIRC, it was specifically designed to do such.

Metaphysician is spot on here - Japanese feudal-era nobles had them built in certain building rooms as low-tech security alarms. Normal wooden flooring can be squeaky enough as it is, these were even more so.

Re: Cottus' suggestion-

Cottus had some trouble with the last M-Dex 10 feat, so I've reworded it to get rid of the ambiguity. The (once again) revised M-Dex 10 feats are as follows:

Mega-Dexterity 10

• Escape from having the swift's entire body encased in hardened concrete.

• Muffle the sounds produced by the swift's body involuntary movements - heartbeat, breathing etc. - with a Stealth roll.

• Safely defuse a nuclear bomb after the trigger explosives have been set off.

• Sneak up on a foe without needing any cover by using nothing more than the foe's blind spots, even in a region of empty space.

[Alex Green]

Imagine having to reload a pistol revolver while running for cover - M-Dex makes it easy, otherwise the nova would be dropping bullets all over the ground.

Rules say this is a split action unless you have "Quick".

M-Dex 2 means you have enough dice to pretty much not worry about it, but still. Didn't we have just gobs of M-Dex 2 level feats?

Metaphysician is spot on here - Japanese feudal-era nobles had them built in certain building rooms as low-tech security alarms. Normal wooden flooring can be squeaky enough as it is, these were even more so.

How about...

Engage in silent combat on a wooden floor designed to creak at the slightest touch.

[Sprocket]

M-Dex 2 means you have enough dice to pretty much not worry about it, but still. Didn't we have just gobs of M-Dex 2 level feats?

No we didn't, sad to say. I'm looking at my archived copy of the relevant thread page (Ch 3, p. 28) right now, & they were pretty scarce. Most of what you suggested were probability-altering stunts of the kind one expects daredevils to perform. Also note that this feat was approved by you at the time.

I'll review this thread for any M-Dex 2 feats that could serve as a replacement.

How about... Engage in silent combat on a wooden floor designed to creak at the slightest touch.

::confused Why not just keep the reference? It's not like we're writing for Joe Sixpack here.

[Alex Green]

RE: Nightingale

I had no clue what this meant. My vague impression was that it was a dance floor of some sort. On the other hand maybe that's just me, I have no problem being culturely ignorant occasionally.

RE: MDex2

Yeah, I did. So this is a 2nd or maybe a 3rd look. And now I'm concerned about balance since this is something easily available to the PCs and it does have combat implications and uses that step pretty far into M-Wits space.

[Sprocket]

Re: Nightingale-

It's nothing to be ashamed of - there's way too much cultural data of that sort for anyone to have an encyclopedic pan-cultural knowledge of such in RL. That's what hardcopy reference libraries & Internet search engines are for. ::laugh ::wink

Re: M-Dex 2 replacement feat-

We're in luck! This feat only required a moment's tinkering to get it into postworthy shape. The revised M-Dex 2 feat listings are now as follows, with the replacement feat in the fifth slot:

Mega-Dexterity 2

• Climb on any surface that offers even the slightest of handholds.

• Disarm multiple opponents before they can react.

• Juggle angry badgers and not get bitten.

• May perform flips and dodges while in midair.

• Remove the swimwear or light clothing a person is wearing before he or she can notice, much less react.

[Alex Green]

I like it. It's a fun feat.