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Blue Thunder

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Here's an entire new disciple for you then (just ignore any reference to Greks; it was something else I had set up; also, note that there are alternatives):

General Notes

Chronokinesis is an extremely important ability to the Greks, as time itself is extremely important to them. Each Grek is fully aware of the importance of time, and how little time they have. As such, a mental ability that deals with time would be of at least a passing interest.

All Greks with chronokinetic abilities must belong to the Council of Delphi. This applies even if the person only has one dot. All human psions are exempt, but may attempt joining anyway; if no attempt is made, the psion will be ostracized.

1) Minimun Latency: Willpower 7,

Psi 7. Yes, this is more than the teleporters. This is also required if a character is just taking ck as an auxillary mode.

2) Manipulating time requires a bit of mental flexing. Unless noted, all abilities granted by chronokinesis require a "warm-up" period of one turn per dot. During this time, the character may only concentrate.

3) Environmental Effects: All ck abilities involve distorting time to some degree. This has two upshots.

a) It is nearly impossible to tell if someone has been affected by ck. This is because the time around an object and that object's interactions with time have been changed, but not the object itself. A clear using psychometry could, if he saw the manipulation, or some method of comparing the ages of objects or organics is used. However, direct observation by using ck is impossible.

B) Secondary effects simply don't happen. In other words, if a ck increased the speed of rusting metal (the oxidization of iron), then increased heat would be expected. However, because time has been compressed (not the reaction speeded up), that heat won't happen. This also explains the "wind effect", as air molecules hit the area of time compression, are sped up, and leave the area.

4) Chronokinesis cannot effect specific systems, either electronic or biological. It simply works on too big a scale.

5) Note on format: Two powers are listed for each dot. The first is the basic (required) power; the second is the optional power. You may take the optional on reaching a new dot in the power; however, you may not advance in the power until you take the required power.

Nicknames

Delphans, chrononauts, cks, stopwatches, chronokinetics

Modes

Chronokinesis is the ability to affect time. Although not as latant as some of the other abilities, it is nonetheless very powerful. It should also be noted that the aptitude has obviously been changed to reflect the difference in Grek versus human beliefs. Whereas the human version focuses more on the application of chronokinesis, the Grek system tries to fit it better into the culture. Thus, each mode is named after one of the Three Fates:

Clothos: The youngest fate, known for her physical beauty, Clothos spun the wool. This mode deals with the more blatant physical effects of time.

Lachesis: The middle fate, and the more matronly of the trio, Lachesis decided the length of the life line. This mode deals with the psion's ability to affect others.

The Crone: The oldest and sometimes most sinister of the fates, The Crone decided fate by how she wove the thread into the fabric of life.This mode deals with the more cerebral effects of time, such as determining which path to take.

Basic Techniques

Seer's Eye: The ck can determine a person's or object's age.

System: Roll Psi and spend 1 Psi. The difficulty is equal to the number of digits in the target’s age in years, i.e., 348 years equals +3 difficulty.

Mental Stopwatch: The reason for the "stopwatch" nickname. The chronokinetic can keep very accurate internal time, and can time anything to .01 seconds.

System: Character acts as a very accurate timepiece. Roll Psi to get in synch with local time, or to act as a stopwatch.

Clothos

The effects of time can ravage the body, as well as cure it. This mode allows the psion to modify the effects of time on the body, as well as on other people.

• Reaction Scaling: The beginning ck learns that reaction rates are related to the time that two compounds have to react together. With this ability, the psion speeds up the reaction time needed for the reactiun to occur.

System: Spend one Psi and roll. Each success speeds the reaction time by 10%. This works on inorganic chemicals/substances only.

,,

• Fast Forward: As a limited version of Times's Squeeze, the psion can increase his, or an ally's, ability to respond.

System: Spend one Psi and roll Psi. If on an ally, roll Firearms (to a range of Psix5m). The target gains one full action, for one turn per two successes. Also, the target takes one unsoakable bashing level.

•• Bush of Life: The character can decrease healing times, but at a cost, as the body heals at a faster rate than it should.

System: Spend two Psi and roll. Heal one bashing level per success. However, the target takes one lethal level.

•• Patina Remover: The ck is able to effect gross restorations.

System: Spend 1 Psi and roll. For each success, the ck restores (removes stain or patina, brightens, etc.) 1 sq. m. The ck can chose to cover the area with a film instead. Either way, only normal aging reactions are affected, ie, dents will not be fixed.

••• Ashes to Ashes: This ability allows the chronokinetic to rapidly age an item.

System: Spend 1 Psi and roll. The chronokinetic can rust, rot or corrode 1 cubic meter of inorganic material per success. It should be noted that some materials will be immune or resistant to this power.

••• Extended Duration: At this point, the chronokinetic has learned control of time to the point that he can control his own longevity.

System: The psion's life expectancy is doubled. At Clothos •••••, the psion's life expectancy is quadrupled.

•••• Time's Squeeze: Time around the chronokinetic slows down.

System: Spend 3 Psi and roll. The psion or a target gains one of three advantages, each of which requires successes. These advantages last for a number of successes equal to Psixsuccesses.

Note: A target up to Psix5m may be chosen, but only one target per usage.

Extra Actions: Gain one free action for turns equal to successes spent.

Change of Speed: Speed is either increased by 20% per success spent, or decreased by 10% per success spent.

Enhanced Initiative: Gains or loses 1 Initiatiue per success spent.

•••• Time Gets It All: At this point, the delphan can cause any physical suhstance to decay.

System: Same as Ashes to Ashes, except that it costs 2 Psi and effects any non-organic substance.

••••• Dust to Dust: This ability allows the chronokinetic to rapidly age organic material..

System: Spend 2 Psi and roll. The chronokinetic can rot 1 cubic meter of dead organic material per success. To living creatures (including bioware), this power inflicts 1 aggravated level per 2 successes.

••••• Rewind: With this ability, the ck can create some interesting diversions or take someone out of the loop.

System: Spend three Psi and roll. Up to one target per success may be affected. Roll either Boxing or Martial Arts (for touchable targets) or Firearms (for targets up to Psi x 5 m away).

The target must repeat whatever action he was doing the last turn for one repetition per success. During these repetitions, the target(s) do not effect anyone else. The first action may, of course, effect others.

Lachesis

Named after the middle fate, this mode allows a tad bit more control over time.

• Blunt Impact: By slowing time down, the psion can dodge more easily.

System: Spend one Psi and roll. For one non-energy attack the psion gains +1/success to dodge it. At ••• the ck can use this technique to dodge energy attacks.

• Tight Clock: The chronokinetic is able to hinder chronokinetic abilities.

System: Roll Psi. For one hour, add a difficulty modifier equal to successess rolled.

•• Time Out: The chronokinetic learns how to step outside of time. However, at this stage, it's just a breather.

System: Spend one Psi and roll. The psion gets one turn in which no one else can act. However, only simple actions (turning, reloading, etc.) and no movement are allowed. The ck is only allowed to interact with those items that he is touching or on his person. Interacting with others is not possible.

•• Slow Fall: Velocity is a function of distance and time. By controlling one you control the other. As part of their training, chronokinetics are trained to fall safely. However, there is the problem of angular velocity. So, the psi learns to slow his time down while speeding local time.

System: Spend one Psi and roll. Subtract one die per success from falling damage. The fall takes just as much time.

••• Stepping Outside:

Chronakinetics develop the ability to look outside of time and affect some objects. By looking at time as a series of slices, the chronokinetic finds a way to look at time, one slice at a time.

System: Spend two Psi and roll. The ck is outside of time. In order to interact with something, the ck must spend one Psi to move or affect an object or person, or two Psi to bring someone out of time.

Only mechanical objects may be dealt with; electronic and energy objects may not interacted with. In fact, interacting with energy objects cause damage equal to what it would have normally caused.

Note on atmospheres: Clouds, air, and water are, for our purposes here, atmospheres. Atmospheres may not interact with the psion, but they can impede him. For one Psi, the impeding effect may be neutralized. It should be noted that the first atmosphere is free.

••• Hidey Hole: To some chronokinetics, time is a river. Why not put something on shore?

System: Spend two psi and roll. The psi can put an object of up to 5 kg for up to one day per success into a stasis of sorts. The item keeps its relative location, but can otherwise not be affected by any outside force, nor can it be detected by any means. Even psionically, all that can be detected is some source. Also, the item does not age or react while it is in stasis.

•••• Chronal Shielding: By "stiffening" time around himself, the chronokinetic can create a very tough barrier.

System: Spend 1 Psi and roll. For every success the psion gains 1[2] armor. By spending an extra point, the ck can use this ability on another person.

•••• Time Touch: The ck may affect a small item when he goes forward or back in time. You'd be surprised what effect a flipped switch or a misplaced paper can have.

System: Spend three Psi and roll. Also, the psion must be using a chronokinetic ability to view past or present and be able to touch the object in question. Successes may be spent to either affect distance movable (1 cm/success) or weight movable (1 kg/success).

••••• Crosstime Travel: The chronokinetic is able to switch timelines.

System: The psion is able to use crosstine travel like an aberrant, with the following changes:

a) Use Psi instead of Quantum.

B) It costs 3 Psi.

c) The chronokinetic is limited to one week per point of Permanent Psi.

••••• Pull From The River: Looking at time as river, the chronokinetic can fish someone or something out of it, but he has to throw it back…

System: Spend two Psi and roll. The chronokinetic is able to pull someone or something up to successesx100 kg to her current coordinates that is up to one week per Permanent Psi away. The ck will take one aggravated Health Level per hour the subject is in the current timeline; the target returns when the ck wills it or dies.

While in the current timeline, the target may be inspected, conversed with, and otherwise affected like any other object from the current timeline, and will carry all changes (including information) back with it when sent back (and it will be right from where it was taken).

The Crone

This mode deals with some of the more interesting effects of the ability to manipulate time.

• Coin Toss: You want to cross time streams, you got to start somewhere.

System: Roll Psi. The ST must show you the next rolls equal to successes rolled.

• Door Opener: The chronokinetic can tell what is behind a door.

System: Spend one Psi and roll. The psion knows what will happen if he does what he does. This ability is good for a three-second flash.

•• Detect the Path: Sometimes you need that extra edge. By taking a second to look at the situation, by looking at a few alternative timelines, sometimes a psion can see something that may help him.

System: Spend 1 Psi and roll. The ck has one of two options. He can gain +1 die to all combat rolls. Alternatively, the psi can look at the entire picture, in order to determine if there is something important that he is missing.

•• Chronal Sense: As part of the exploration of time, some chronokinetics have found ways to send other senses out.

System: Spend one Psi. The psion may send another sense along with his sight when he looks ahead or back at time.

••• Looking Into Chances: With this ability, a seer can look at what could happen if different paths were taken.

System: Spend two Psi and roll. Each success allows the chronokinetic to change one variable in a situation and analyzing the change. Time effectively stops as the psion looks at the variables. No other actions may be taken.

••• What Was That?: By this point, the ck can tell if someone is checking out or messing with his location chronokinetically.

System: This effect is constant. When some sort of chronokinetic effect happens within Psi meters, roll psi to determine what the effect was and how it was used.

•••• Hazing: Being able to see chronal happenings is great, but sometimes its just as good to be able to hide.

System: Spend three Psi and roll. Hazing protects a person, an object, a building, or an area of Psi x 10 m for one day, one week, 12 hours, or one hour, respectively. All rolls to detect anyone/thing in a protected area is at +1 difficulty per success.

•••• Holographic Memory: Imagine the ability to go back into time and to see what was going on then. By using meditative techniques, a chronolinetic can create a mindscape with as much she can remember about the situation and look at it as much as she wants to…

System: Spend two Psi and roll Intelligence+Meditation. The chronokinetic can look at any situation that she personally experienced, and is able to explore it up to the limit of her senses, based on where she was standing at the time.

What she can do is based on the number of successes rolled. Time may be changed by up to +/-1 minute per success, and the ck may go up to 25m per successes squared away from the focal point. The sole limit is that the ck perceives everything as she did at that time (muffled conversations are still muffled, for example).

Note that as time goes forward or backward the point of focus also changes depending on where the chronokinetic was at that time. Also, time spent in the mindscape is 1/6 normal, so 10 minutes of real time is 1 hour in the mindscape.

An interesting side effect of this ability is that telepaths who go into a ck’s mind, who is using this ability, are forced into this mindscape and may not change it, but must take advantage of what is there. In essence, they may change something’s context, but not the form of anything there. The memory will “reset” once the conflict is over.

••••• Reset: The ultimate wish of any diviner is the ability to effect that which he observes. This is also a great escape option.

System: Spend four Psi and roll. The psion goes back one turn per success. All effects are reset, including, but not limited to, health levels, ammo, and Psi points (but not those spent to activate this power).

Note: Chronokinetic players may need to develop their bookkeeping skills…

••••• Track the Worm: Some aberrants have developed the ability to disappear into time itself. Well, someone had to track them.

System: Spend two Psi and roll. With 1 success, the ck can determine if time-travel happened. Past the first success, spend one success per twenty years, with each dot in this mode counting as an automatic success.

Dysfunctions

Clothos: The psion is obsessed with physical appearance. Half of all XP accumulated since gaining this dysfunction must be spent on Appearance and Style, until those are at five dots; when they have reached five dots, the character will continue to spend experience on abilities associated with Social attributes, in the order of Appearance, Charisma, and Manipulation. Also, Resources is at one dot less as the character tries to keep up with the latest styles.

Chrone: The psion withdraws from society. The psion withdraws to a private place and prefers to deal with one person at a time. Also, technology is limited to a bare minimum.

Lachesis: The psion feels a desperate need to monitor time. She watches any clock fanatically, and feels lost without a visible timepiece. In game terms, all of the character's difficulties are +1 if there is visible timepiece (no using the basic technique to get around this), and +2 otherwise.

(Thanks to Jackson Creed and Davin Whyte for the original write-up)

FR

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Here are some alternative Teleportation Modes:

Teleportation Alternate Modes

Basic Technique

Gauge Distance

Because of the need to know just how far things are, blinks have developed the uncanny ability to judge distance.

System: Roll Int+Firearms; if successful the blink can accurately judge the distance between two points that he can see, to within (5-Successes)%. Telescopes are allowed, and any bonuses for Mathematics rolls apply.

Also, if using a weapon (such as grenade launchers and artillery, not rifles) that are dependent on knowing the distance to a target, then this ability gives +1 accuracy.

Note: Some of the items below are from the Player’s Guide. However, due to some Storytellers’ and Players’ hesitance in using that system, some of the more, interesting abilities have been translated over to the “Alternative Powers” system. This may have resulted in some changes.

Translocation

•Anchorhead: Sometimes, you know you’re going to keep coming back to a certain spot, but you just don’t have the time to set up a proper familiarity with it. Some teleporters have learned how to set up an anchorhead, a place that is temporarily familiar to them to ease transport. Emergency team members usually have this ability.

System: Roll Psi; the teleporter can do one of two effects. By spending a point of temporary Psi, the location (everything within line of sight at that point) is now considered “Very Familiar” for one hour per point of Permanent Psi.

Or, alternatively, one XP may be spent, making the location

“Very Familiar” permanently. This second option is only available at Translocation 3 or greater.

••Empty Mind: Inspired by the records of Karoo Station, some teleporters attempted to figure out how to work it so that their minds were effectively invisible. What they hit on was shifting just enough of their noetic aura was shunted elsewhere to make it look like the teleporter was missing his mind.

System: Roll Psi and spend one Psi point. Each success adds to the teleporter’s Willpower when resisting any psi-based mental effect. This does not include an aberrant’s mind powers or a doc’s Algesis effects, but would be effective against a telepath’s various abilities.

•••Local Gravity: As a teleporter gains more control over his location, he is able to better control his relational location to objects. This manifests as the ability to control the effects gravity has on him.

System: Roll Psi and spend one Psi point. The teleporter now has control on what surface he is attracted to, as long as that surface is within (Psi) meters. This ability allows him to run up walls, across ceilings, and along ropes without fear of injury.

Also, gravitational effects do (number of dots in Translocation) fewer dice in effects and damage.

••••Telegraphed Punch: Through training, the teleporter has learned to ignore location to a degree, and to overcome the “zero relative inertia” factor, and is able to throw an actual punch.

System: Roll Psi and spend two Psi points. The teleporter may use any melee attack using one hand at range for one turn per point of Psi. It should be noted that the hand and/or weapon are considered as part of the character, and thus the character may suffer damage through the hand. Injected drugs will only take effect once the hand has been “re-attached”.

•••••Super Moving Force!: By an intense control of his personal location, the teleporter may summon a small number of copies to do menial task.

System: Roll Psi and spend Psi two points. The teleporter copies himself up to (Psi) times. Each copy has the same Strengt6h, Stamina, and Appearance, and half normal Dexterity, but only one dot in all other abilities. Also, all skills are reduced to one dot. Psi and Willpower are unaffected. Each copy shares the same health level track. The copies must stay within Psix10 meters of the original or be (non-fatally) eliminated.

Obviously, this is used only for menial or emergency situations, but can be a great help in the right situation.

Transmassion

•Pet Rock: One of the far more annoying abilities, this allows the psion to force an object to maintain a distance from a given person or location. This can be used either as a gag or part of a security set-up.

System: Roll Psi and spend two Psi points, then target one object you can carry and see, and either a person or a location with (Psix5) meters of the object.

The object will stay at that distance for up to (Psi+12) hours. Any attempts to move the object must succeed at a resisted Might roll (against the psion’s Psi)l; if successful, then the object will be released from this ability’s hold on it.

••Ultimate Pantsing: More of a fun power developed by Team Indygothatway, but it has found some use in emergency situations, such as when a person needs to be taken out of his clothes immediately (for surgery) or disarming a robber.

System: Roll Psi and spend one Psi point. In essence, all equipment (including clothing) is stripped from the target and ported to a line of sight location. Given that the one-dot power only allows one item to be ported, this power represents a significant power increase.

•••Shell: Developed by frontline porters, this ability allows a person to be separated from his VARG or BES. Some pilots who have been targeted by this ability have been asking for an SI co-pilot to take over in case of “pilot abandonment”.

System: Roll Psi and spend one Psi point. Either the suit or the person may be targeted and ported up to line of sight. Spatial awareness does not need to be used, and this ability is useless if there isn’t a live being inside the equipment.

This ability is also useful against parasitically possessing aberrants (at +2 difficulty) and Qin bioforms.

••••Rook and King: Essentially a combination of translocation and transmission, this ability allows a porter to exchange positions with a known target. Very useful for getting into and out of scrapes, or doing some interesting tag-team maneuvers, such as where the porter can get in and changing places with a thief to get the jewels, or to give pursuers a nasty surprise.

System: Roll Psi and spend two Psi points. You and a known target (ie, you have used either Anchorhead on the person or it is a familiar person, but the target must be living) switch places.

The sole limitation is that you and the target must be of approximately the same mass, including equipment. Anything held counts towards this limit.

•••••Widest Possible Dispersal: Arguably the nastiest yet cleanest attack a teleporter is capable of, this ability shunts a target to the subquantum. Although the target will reform, it can get somewhat nasty. Atwan is rumored to have used a much more powerful version of this attack on Hector Pokodny.

System: Roll Psi and spend three Psi points. The target takes (Psi)d10 aggravated damage, and is shunted for ((teleporter’s Psi+Willpower) – (target’s Willpower)) hours. When the target reforms, he is faded (with no lethal damage for going through objects) for (20-target’s Willpower) minutes before becoming solid.

Warping

•Sewing Reality: The Patriarchs thought it would be nice to have a secondary defense against the aberrant warping ability. Working with the morituri, they developed this ability.

System: Roll Psi, spend one Psi point, and target an incoming warp nexus. Each success cancels out one success from the Warping ability. If enough successes are rolled that the distance is not enough, the warp is disrupted.

••Scramble: By controlling local space, a warper can disorient a target well enough to escape, or at least minimize the danger from being shot at, by warping the space directly in front of a target’s sensory equipment, causing him to momentarily be distracted.

System: Roll Psi and spend one Psi point. The target is temporarily deafened and blinded for 1 turn per success. Targets whose eyes are not in the normal place and appropriately targeted are not blinded; the same applies to the deafen effect.

•••Paper Warrior: Some warpers have learned to apply Extrusive Crumpling to themselves, allowing them to flatten themselves and still be able to attack.

System: Roll Psi and spend two Psi points. The character’s third dimension is effectively removed for up to one minute per success.

If they stay perfectly still against, Stealth is +4, but only if the targets are unaware of the use of this ability; the use of Photokinesis to remove or change colors will ensure this bonus.

In combat, Dodges are +2, and melee damage is +2 damage and lethal.

••••Poke: By condensing themselves down to a one-dimensional object, and then extending themselves, the warper is able to spear a number of potential targets.

System: Roll Psi and spend two Psi points. All targets along a straight path equal to Psi meters will take Staminax2 lethal damage.

•••••Tesseract: Some people truly value their privacy. Using this ability, a warper can create a series of extra-dimensional spaces.

System: Roll Psi and spend three Psi points. You may use a space that is a regular polyhedron up to Psi meters in diameter. Eight spaces are created that link via any doors that are naturally there. Any given space can link up to six other spaces; there just needs to a door between them, and these linkages (and the direction of gravity) must be defined when the rooms are created. All but psi-based signals will not be able to go outside of the room, and psi-users must roll at difficulty+3 to get out (via teleport or telepathy).

The normal usage will last one turn per success. A permanent tesseract may be set up by spending one point of permanent Psi.

From the forum's Teleport Master!

FR

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And another complete discipline, complete with alternative modes:

Meta-Psi

Some psions have explored the limits of their powers. As part of this exploration, these “meta-psis” have become far more efficient at using psi, and have thus become capable of feats that are beyond those of the normal psion. Also, they have become more noetically “grounded”, and are much more visible on the subquantum sea. If you see psions as islands on the subquantum sea, then meta-psis are lighthouses.

In essence, this extra training allows them to push their abilities further, while at the same time helping or hindering other psions in the immediate area. This also makes them a bit more susceptible to the backlash and more visible to anyone looking for them.

System: A person may only have Meta-Psi equal to or less than Meditate. To gain another ability in this mode, the character must meditiate for one hour per experience point that is going to be spent. Otherwise, this ability is treated as another mode in the character’s aptitude (10 XP for the first dot, currentx5 XP for the next). Another person attempting to find the meta-psi using psionic means is at -1 Difficulty. Also, they take one more die of Backlash.

Basic Abilities

Mastery

To understand psi better, the psion used his own specialization to push open doors. Due to that intense concentration on his mode, he now uses his main mode with far more efficiency than normal.

System: With one mode, the psi gains +1 Psi when rolling for the mode, and all costs are -1, to a 0 minimum. This is cumulative with Psi Natural, if the character has it.

Interference

The psion, due to an intense understanding of psi, is able to flex his mental muscles, and increase or decrease the effects of psi as it regards specific effects.

System: The psion may affect himself or a target with (Psi+Meta-Psi)x10 m. Affecting your own abilities does not count as another action as regards dice-splitting; however, affecting another’s does.

Affecting another’s abilities are the same basic system, except that they cost one extra psi, and that the effect is halved. However, if using Ranged, Targets, Duration or Effect are used, the psion may apply the modifier negatively (for example, +20% per success becomes +/-10% Range per success). Psi may be spent to garner additional successes on a one-for-one basis.

Note: This is not so much a basic ability as a form of shorthand. Basically, would you prefer to read it ten times, or just once?

(The first power listed below is the mandatory; the second is the alternate. In order to progress to the next dot, the character must have the mandatory ability.)

● Targets

By using this ability the character is able to effect more targets than he should normally.

System: Roll Psi and spend one Psi. Add one target per success. At three dots, the character gains the ability to use this on abilities that are “self-only”.

Attunement (alternate)

System: Add dots in Meta-Psi to a character’s Psi to determine maximum attunement range. This may shut off or activated when the character wishes, and is cumulative with other factors.

●● Range

The character is able to increase the range at which powers work.

System: Roll Psi and spend one Psi. Add 20% per success to the maximum range of the power in question. Note: Touch and self-only ranges are not effected.

Finesse (alternate)

Some power require a bit more control than others. Thus, this ability was developed.

System: Roll Psi and spend one Psi. Successes may be split to either increase handling (1 success=+1 die) or scale (1/10^Successes). Scale is useful for powers, such as telekinesis, that require a gross scale or would benefit from shrinking the area effected.

●●● Duration

Sometimes you just need to extend an effect, or cut someone else’s short.

System: Roll Psi and spend one Psi. Add 20% to duration per success. For instantaneous abilities (like most Teleportation abilities), this power will not work.

Hang (alternate)

Wouldn’t it be useful to define what a power did, then let it go off when you’re unconscious? A “Hit Me and I Hit You” ability? Then this is for you!

System: Roll Psi and spend two Psi. Then, activate the power and set a condition. When the condition is met, the power goes off, regardless of whether or not the character wants it to. This effect lasts up 1 hour per point of permanent Psi, and may be canceled at any point. If it goes off, however, you have no control over it, but you may effect like someone else’s ability.

The set condition is limited to the ability’s normal range, and may only be set given variables the user can normally see or control. In other words, you could set it for a generic danger, but not for a specific mindset (unless you were telepathic).

●●●● Effect

The character may effect what a power does.

System: Roll Psi and spend two psi. The user may spend successes to add to any attributes of the power (such as familiarity or damage). Obviously better for Freeform Psi rules, but very useful for telepaths, teleporters, and clears, and try to avoid biokinetics with this (as they could effect their own Tolerance for added devices).

Wild Card (alternate)

System: Roll Psi and spend three psi. For each success on the Psi roll (and limited to a number of successes equal to Noetics (actual value, not the dice pool)), the psion may adjust what power is actually used by the character by one dot per success, or even go to a different mode at the same dot for two successes.

So, for example, a target with Translocation 4 and Transmassion 2 would need at least five successes (three to decrease the number of dots, then two to shift mode) to make a teleporter use Relay Object instead of Long Jump.

●●●●● Shut Down

A psi at this level is able to affect the very connection of a psion with the subquantum. With this ability, a meta-psi tears a gaping hole in the local subquantum, hopefully as a defensive action…

System: Roll Psi and spend three psi. For each success rolled, all psionic abilities are at +1 Difficulty per success, Attunements are decreased by one dot per success, and Tolerances are at -1 per three successes rolled (minimum of 1), to any targets with (Psi+Meta-Psi)x10 m. This lasts until the end of the scene.

Remove Power (alternate)

A trully nasty attack, the meta-psi is able to attack a psion’s connection to the subquantum, effectively destroying any psi-ability for the short term. Some psions have found some very interesting ways to stop this, usually by moving the meta-psi away or by giving the meta-psi a good life-or-death reason to stop…

System: Requires an extended Psi roll, at two psi per roll and one turn per roll. Each roll decreases the Psi of the target by one per success. Once Psi is 0 or less, the psion loses all abilites (including Attunement and basic abilities, and Tolerance equals 1) until Psi is fully regained, at one day per Psi lost. However, if Psi isn’t completely drained, it returns at a rate of 1 point per hour.

FR

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Re: New alien races

Sure I would like to see them, but I don't think they're anything that I would add to this e-book simply because they would be out of place, heh.

Re:Chronokinesis and Teleportation

Whoa, you really went above and beyond. Those alternate teleportation powers are great! I especially love Paper Warrior...why didn't I think of that? I'm not really sure if the Chronokinesis powers would fit in well with what I have in mind for the book, but some of the CK powers could actually be tweaked a little into Teleportation powers. Teleporters can affect space...but space and time exist as one. I wouldn't want to give teleporters time-based powers willy-nilly, but maybe one power that gives some kind of minor time-affecting ability would be great. A level 4 or 5 power of course.

Re: Meta-Psi

The Meta-Psi looks cool, but I'm confused as to its application. Does it take up space as one of the three Modes a character has, does it overlap a single Mode to boost it, or does it exist completely seperate from the three Modes? Also, does it affect all of the psion's Modes or just one?

~~~~~~~~~~

Idea: Feats

I loved how the Free-form system could allow customization of powers. A player could extend the range of a power, increase the damage, have it affect more targets, etc. Even better yet, he could combine two of his Modes to create unique and powerful effects. This customization is lost with the original system. I was thinking of ways to break through this, and all I could think of were Merits and Flaws. But then you can only take those at character creation (with a few dramatically appropriate exceptions, like losing an eye in battle and taking One Eye in the middle of a campaign).

So I'm thinking of ways to help make a player's character more unique in the sea of psions. Using a system similar to Merits and Flaws comes to mind. Think of D&D third edition. Spellcasters can take Metamagic Feats to boost their spellcasting abilities. One Feat could extend the range of their spells, another Feat could maxamize the blast radius, another Feat could allow spellcasting without any spoken words, etc. And they can take these Feats as they gain levels. Psions have to start with Merits under the Player's Guide rules.

I think Trinity could use a system similar to this. Built like Merits and Flaws, but called something else to differentiate them. For now, I'll call them Feats. This system would allow players to spend XP to buy these Feats (as well as going through plenty of training time) to boost their psionic abilities.

Thinking on it, I can see three ways for these Feats to be applied.

1 - One way is the simplest: all of a psion's powers would be affected by a Feat. So if a psion has (and I'm just making this up) a Feat that increases range, then all of his powers have increased range. This would be easy to track, but also could lead to a character becoming very powerful, maybe too powerful. A psion could easily get a few of these Feats and be able to defeat every other psion around him that lacked any. Feats under this idea would need to have high XP costs since they all all-encompassing.

2 - The second idea seems more logical than the first idea to me. In this way, only one Mode is affected by a Feat. So if a psion had a feat that increased damage with psionic powers, then it would only apply to one Mode...unless the psion spent enough XP to get it three times, once for each Mode. This makes more sense than the first idea too, from a storytelling and roleplaying point-of-view; psions usually aren't equally gifted and trained in every Mode, so having a Feat affect every Mode wouldn't make sense for many characters. Feats under this idea would be of moderate XP cost.

3 - The third way would be the most complex, allowing for the greatest degree of customization...but possibly with the most headaches to keep track of. With this idea, a Feat is bought seperately for every psionic power. Player's could truly customize their psion's powers in any way they felt. I prefer this idea myself. XP costs would need to be cheaper since they are only upgrading a single power. This makes the most sense to me. If a psion uses a certain power very often it would make sense for his version of that power to be more powerful or different in certain ways than another version of it.

For example, let's assume three psions have the same power. The first psion has not applied any Feats to the power, and when he uses the power it works as listed in the book. The second psion has trained well with the power, and when he uses the power it has an increased range. The third psion has trained so extensively with the power that he may be considered an expert with the technique. The power costs 1 point less, it recieves one automatic success, it's range is increased, it can affect more targets, and the damage is upgraded from Bashing to Lethal.

These customizations would reflect a player's character better. They would be better at the techniques they use (or want to use) the most. I prefer the third method...but it would still be possible to have Feats available that affect every power in a Mode like with the second idea. They would just cost more XP and probably be less powerful, to better reflect the wider-range of application.

I'm hoping a system like this could help make up for the lack of customization the original system has. The free-form system looks nice to me but I still prefer the original. One of the flaws I've picked up from the Free-form system is that a psion needs only one dot in all three Modes, and a high Psi score. The high Psi will allow him to use higher level techniques beyond his training.

So...any opinions? Or do I think too much?

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1) Meta-Psi: The Mastery BT only effets one mode (for example, only Transmassion, if I had the most dots in that), but the techniques as a whole can affect any mode. Also, it's essentially a fourth mode; that is, it would follow all the rules of your normal discipline. It's not an auxillary mode, in any case.

2) Freeform: Keep in mind that although a high Psi allows you to get higher effects, but they cost another difficulty per level. Also, you are limited to your highest mode. So, if I had Psi 10, Translocation 3, and no Warp, I'm not going to be able to create a full Warp (ie, the Warp 5 effect); the best I could do is Fading, which is going to cost another three successes (which it would take Psi 7 just to generate enough successes (on average) to overcome (any die has a 40% chance of success; 7x.4=2.8 successes)). So buying up all of your modes up is still a good idea...

FR

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  • 2 weeks later...
For QK, I was wondering if the people that made India Underground had any powers leftover that they couldn't fit into the book that they wouldn't mind me using. But I don't know where or who to ask.

Funny you should ask... but I created a freeform version of the Quantakinetics rules waya back when InUn was a mere twinkle in the eye of Slagheap! It was posted somewhere on this site but may have been lost during all the upheavals. I'm in the process of incorporating it InUn powers into it.

Incidentally, I also created a Time Control Aptitude (which was also posted somewhere on EON but probably also lost) which I called Temporakinesis. I'll see if I can dig it up for you to peruse.

JC

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I don't think the Temporakinesis powers would fit in with the book (since I'm still trying to stick as close to canon as possible) but they do bring about some ideas. The Freeform Quantakinesis looks good too. Hmm...I'll have to look more closely over it when I get to QK powers, which will probably be last.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Update!

I've been doing a little work here and there, but I don't think any real progress will be made until July when I move. After I move I'll have more personal free time to spend on this project.

Also, I'm doing some rough drafts on stuff for Bright Continent, which will also keep me a tad bit occupied.

Edit - Oh, I almost forgot! I came up with a name for the e-book.

The Implicate Order

What do you guys think?

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I came up with this Background at 3AM last night (or...this morning?) so don't be surprised if it is littered with typos and grammar mistakes. It could also be terribly unbalancing to a game...I want everyone's opinion on whether this Background would be useful or not.

~~~~~~~~~~

Personnel

This is the ability to call upon back-up or extra assistance when you need it. This differs from Followers, Allies, and Contacts in that these extra characters you summon are not going to stick with you very long, and you might not even know their names.

This Background will require some kind of explanation in regards to story. Having a high Status can explain the character's clearance to request Personnel. A high Influence can also be used as an excuse, and Contacts and Resources may help explain why your character can garner help if he is not affiliated directly with the organization. Whatever the case, you must specify the source of the Personnel you can summon. Having Personnel (Triton Division) is different than having Personnel (First Legion) or Personnel (Wazukana). You may take this Background multiple times, much like Status and Device, and you must specify which branch of an organization that Personnel can summon characters from.

Under certain cirumstances, the Storyteller may allow this Background to summon Personnel from a similar, yet different, part of an organization. As a general rule, this Background is one or two dots lower for such an occasion, depending on how secretive or far seperated the divisions of the organization are. For example, if you have Personnel (Office of Semiotics) at 4 it could count as Personnel 3 if requesting help from The Psi Institues and Personnel 2 for the Office of Psionic Security since they are all part of the Ministry, at the Storyteller's descretion of course. The Storyteller may choose to not allow you to summon characters from another branch at his descretion, if he feel it suits the story or that you're abusing this option.

The Personnel summoned are Extras, with the Attribute and Ability scores that the Storyteller feels are appropriate for the character's type. These characters also have Health levels like Extras. When summoning Personnel, you will probably need to request specific types of characters. It is up to the Storyteller (and the organization) whether these specialists are available. Examples of a Personnel character could include a bodyguard, pilot, hacker, demolitions expert, noetic researcher, marksman, investigator, thief, medic, or undercover agent. Remember that not every organization will have every type of Personnel you want; asking the Fifth Legion for a hacker won't get you very far. These characters are largely considered expendible (they are Extras, remember) but it is possible that one or two could becoming recurring characters and transfer into Allies or Followers. Note that Personnel will return to their parent organization whenever their mission is over, and that they likely have no overwhelming loyalty to you. In addition, you might be held responsible if one dies or goes missing. Be careful to not abuse this Background; your parent organization may end up restricting this Background for a while if you use it too often.

As an added option, you may request that a Personnel character be a psion. When summoning a psion, he or she counts as two characters for purposes of determining how many you can summon (see below). So at Personnel of two dots, you may summon one psion. This psion will still count as an Extra, but will have 3 dots in psionic Modes and an improved Willpower and Psi. You can summon your maximum amount of Personnel (remember, a psion counts as two Personnel) only once per episode or story, at Storyteller's descretion.

x You do not have the clout to call upon any help from an organization.

* You may call upon one Extra. This level of clout may require a Status, Influence, Contacts, or Resources of 2 dots, at Storyteller's descretion.

** You may call upon two Extras. This level of clout may require a Status, Contacts, Influence, or Resources of 3 dots, at Storyteller's descretion.

*** You may call upon four Extras. This level of clout may require a Status, Contacts, Influence, or Resources of 3 dots, at Storyteller's descretion.

**** You may call upon six Extras. This level of clout may require a Status, Contacts, Influence, or Resources of 4 dots, at Storyteller's descretion.

***** You may call upon eight Extras. This level of clout may require a Status, Contacts, Influence, or Resources of 5 dots, at Storyteller's descretion.

~~~~~~~~~~

So what do you guys think? Does it need more work? Should I reduce or raise the amount of Personnel that can be summoned? Any other suggestions?

I've also been working on a crapload of new Merits and Flaws. I'll post some once I polish them up a bit. Most of them are "stream of consciousness" entries into Wordpad at 3AM so they'll need to be prettied up, to say the least.

Edit - I was thinking of maybe taking away the restriction on summoning psions. Maybe to balance things out, a neutral character has more Ability dots? Or maybe I should just consider them the same for this Background and be done with it?

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I like it. The only thing I'd change about the Psion option is to make it so that one low-level psion counts as 2 neuts, a medium-level counts as 4, and a high-level one counts as 8. You know, calling in "The Specialist"; that dark, dangerous person who has better things to do than your dry cleaning (what she calls stuff you consider "important"). ::tongue But really, someone with something like 5 dots in a mode kinda thing.

Otherwise, cool. ::thumbup1

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Hmm, nice thought. The only problem I can see is that a 5-dot Mode would be hard for any psion to get, so that may be a bit much for someone to summon. 5-dot psions are likely too valuable to lease out. In that case, I'd think heavy roleplaying (and begging) would be needed, the kind which a Background cannot help with (unless you had Status 5 and a high Influence perhaps).

I'm also working on adapting the Reputation Background from Adventure! into Trinity. Influence already includes it for Trinity, but sometimes someone can be famous without having any actual Influence. Celebrities may be known the world over, but they can't use that celebrity status to have political power (well, they could, but only if they took the Influence Background ^^). Likewise, Reputation could allow a character to be famous (or infamous) because of good public deeds (or bad public deeds). An infamous killer could have Reputation without having Influence, which makes sense.

I was also thinking of adapting a different version of the Sanctum Background, called Hideout, which would be a location that had it's own Cipher rating and could let your character hide (obviously). It's only an idea right now...I haven't done much brainstorming on the idea.

Any other cool Background ideas out there?

Also, how do you like this Merit I made? I also made it the same night I created the above Personnel Background. I haven't given it a cost yet, and I may add a Status requirement. Plus, it's likely full of grammar errors and needs to cleaned up. Remember though...it was like, 3AM. For some reason, thats when all my cool ideas come to me.

Advanced Facility Access (Social Merit)

You have access to a medical/scientific/engineering facility that is usually restricted and probably highly advanced.  This could be a high-security medical facility located deep within the Blight Zone where Orgotek scientists study live Aberrants.  This could be a Chinese starship engineering facility located on Mars working on powerful starship weaponry.  This could be a secret bioengineering facility on Qinshui where the Qin and Norca develop bioapps.  While at the facility, you recieve a +1 bonus on an appropriate roll (Medicine, Science, Engineering, Computer, Noetics, etc.) thanks to advanced equipment, and it allows you to experiment with advancements in a field.  In addition, other scientists, doctors, and engineers use this facility and may assist in experimentation and technological advancement.  The facility will need an "owner" organization of some kind (Aeon, Orgotek, the Norca, the Aesculapians, and the Ministry have many such facilities throughout Earth and settled space) and the character will likely need Status within that organization.  Keeping access to this facility restricted or secret is of great importance; the other player characters may be denied access.  This also provides you with an opportunity to gain Allies, Followers, or a Mentor.

Any big holes or flaws? Suggestions?

Then how about this one? I haven't worked on it since I typed it, so I'm sure it'll need some work. It seems similar to Dark Secret, but in terms of Storytelling and gameplay mechanics, they're actually different.

Criminal Past (1, 3, or 5 point Social Flaw)

You have a permanent criminal record in a country (or several countries!) that you cannot get rid of.  This could be the result of a reckless childhood or of a truly illicit past.  Whatever the case, your criminal history is on record for all law enforcement and organizations to see.  You were caught and served your time for these transgressions and there is no warrant out for your arrest (at least, not for these crimes), but an employer or superior is likely to be suspicious of anyone with a serious criminal record.  For 1 point, it acts as a minor inconvenience, the equivalent of a series of bad childhood decisions that you deeply regret.  For 3 points, your character cannot gain higher than a Cipher of 4 and most public organizations and groups would not allow him above a Status of 3, and would likely restrict his Devices Background to 2 with them.  For 5 points, your character's criminal past is so severe that he may never have a Cipher above 3 and may not have Backgrounds with most organizations beyond a Status of 1.  In addition, his legal rights are likely restricted in the nations that have charged him (or may even be restricted in his rights all across settled space for that matter).  He may not even be allowed back into a country, depending on his crimes.  A player should be careful when purchasing this Flaw...the Storyteller has every right to deny him things that the other players have access to, depending on the specifics of his criminal past.  The player knew exactly what he was getting into when he purchased this Flaw.

I was thinking of increasing the cost by one point for all three versions, since it restricts available Backgrounds. Or maybe I should just reduce the Backgrounds restriction. Yeah, that might be best. They're a tad extreme, especially for the 5-point version.

And there we go.

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  • 1 month later...

Has it really been a month since I updated this thing? Well, here's an excerpt from the Meirits and Flaws section. This is the rough of course, it may turn out differently in the end.

The Merits and Flaws presented in the Trinity Player's Guide present a myriad of extra options for character customization. Below are more Merits and Flaws to expand your character with, along with optional rules your Storyteller may be willing to introduce into your campaign. Remember to discuss these options with your Storyteller ahead of time.

Going Beyond Seven Points

The Trinity Player's Guide states that only seven points worth of Flaws are allowed per character. This is a good general rule to use, but it tends to fall apart in application. Since some Flaws cost seven points, they leave no room for any other Flaws. And if a Flaw costs five or six points, it leaves little room for other Flaws. So if a player wanted to make a Blind (six point Flaw) clairsentient that had become a Fugitive (five point Flaw) he encountered some problems.

The Storyteller should not feel forced to use the seven point limitation. The limitation exists for two reasons which are explained in the Player's Guide.

The first is to prevent players from becoming munchkins. A munchkin is a player that only cares about making his or her character the absolute best at fighting, or using psionics, or piloting, or whatever else the player wants his character to excel at. These players care little for actual roleplay and concentrate almost entirely on the dots on their character sheet. Adding up multiple Flaws means more bonus points for a munchkin to power up their character with. Of course, a normal player should never feel discouraged at playing a combat veteran, powerful psionic user, or ace pilot (and his Merits and Flaws should reflect his character). The Storyteller just has to be careful that a player doesn't tread the awful path of the munchkin.

The second reason is for sanity. Having a dozen Flaws on each character can overwhelm even the most experienced Storyteller. And any player proposing a character with a dozen Flaws certainly has a lot of explaining to do, and remembering to roleplay all of them during a session can make for a confusing mess.

These two reasons are quite valid for wanting to restrict the amount of points gained from Flaws. But there are other options that may better accomodate your roleplaying group. Discuss these options with your Storyteller to see if he or she wants to use them.

Seven Point Limitation - This is the base system presented in the Player's Guide. It's good for keeping munchkins at bay, but may be too restrictive to veteran gamers that like their characters flawed.

Five Flaw Maximum - This option doesn't restrict the total point value of your Flaws, but instead the amount of Flaws themselves. This is a good general option if you dislike the seven point limitation, but it can also be a bit too restrictive.

Two Per Category - This option limits you to taking no more than two Flaws per category (Physical, Mental, Social, and Noetic). It is in some ways less restrictive than the first two options, yet more restrictive in other ways. The Storyteller may even wish to combine this option with another, meaning that whatever else your Storyteller decides, you cannot take more than two Flaws in any one category.

No Limits - If your Storyteller trusts you and the other players well enough to not become munchkins and abuse the benefit of extra bonus points, he may decide to do away with any restrictions. As long as the roleplaying experience itself isn't hampered, there isn't any harm, right?

An Original System - The Storyteller may decide to use his own house rules. This is fine. Remember, it can't be too restrictive and probably shouldn't be too free (unless the Storyteller trusts his players to not be munchkins). It should not only fit the Storyteller's style of storytelling, but also the roleplaying style of the players and the theme of the campaign.

Buying Merits with Experience Points

The Trinity Player's Guide (sidebar Flaws and Psi Powers, page 128) presents the option to "buy off" certain Flaws at the Storyteller's approval. After all, there may come a time in the campaign when a character manages to kick his Addiction or make peace with an Enemy. Perhaps he sees a Mentatist-trained doc or a telepath and gets rid of his Nightmares or Flashbacks. His specialized psionic training could help him overcome his Poor Attunement and make it so his powers are no longer Imprecise.

Yet this option still leaves a bit more to be desired for some. With your Storyteller's approval, you may not only use experience points to get rid of Flaws, but also to buy Merits. This would incur the same general cost of 10 experience points per bonus point of the Merit's value.

Like with buying off a Flaw, the Storyteller should expect the player to roleplay such a change. A character should not magically gain Ambidextrous, Crack Pilot, or Enhanced Attunement at the end of a session because he has enough experience points. The player should tell the Storyteller ahead of time what his intentions are, and then he should roleplay them into the campaign. This could even take several sessions. The player may not even have enough experience points when he announces his intentions, but declares that when he has enough he'll purchase the Merit in question. The Storyteller should assume that the player's character is training during this time, and may expect him to roleplay as much. So a character going for Ambidextrous may get into the habit of using his off-hand as much as possible in every-day situations as a form of training. A character gunning for Crack Pilot may need to spend more time than normal in the seat of a cockpit. And a character training for Enhanced Attunement might make Attunement rolls more often than is necessary as a way of flexing his noetic muscles.

Also, a player may upgrade certain Merits using the same system. He simply pays the difference in experience points. So upgrading Law Enforcement from a 2 point Merit to a 3 point Merit costs 10 experience points. And upgrading Enhanced Attunement from a 2 point Merit to a 4 point Merit costs 20 experience points.

The Storyteller is free to deny the player a Merit of course. If the Storyteller feels that giving Catlike Balance to a klutz would be out of character, he is free to deny it to the player. Merits like Combat Veteran and Law Enforcement also require more than just experience points or bonus points; they require roleplaying time.

********************

Storyteller's Option: Gaining Flaws and Removing Merits

The ability to buy Merits and remove Flaws with experience points doesn't have to be the end of it. There may come a time when you decide something really bad happens to your character and they gain a Flaw through roleplay. In these cases, the Storyteller may allow the player to gain a Flaw and also gain the bonus point cost of the Flaw as compensation.

This should be intentional on both the part of the Storyteller and the player, and they should discuss and agree on it beforehand. A player may not appreciate if his character is suddenly forced to have Visions of Death; likewise, a Storyteller may not approve of a player's character taking Amnesia. If a player loses a leg in battle unintentionally (as is usually the case when losing one's leg) then the player gains Lame without the bonus points. Such events are at the control of fate. But if the player and Storeyteller decide that the player's character starts having nightmares as a result of some traumatic experience, the Storyteller could allow the player to take Nightmares as a Flaw and also gain 1 bonus point, the value of the Flaw.

The same option goes for removing Merits. If the player and Storyteller agree ahead of time to have the player's character lose a Debt through events in a campaign (events that are ultimately up to the Storyteller to plan), then bonus points could be awarded when the Merit is lost. Again, if the event is unintentional, then no points are awarded. If a player's character manages to lose a Debt through a series of bad decisions and roleplaying choices, then no bonus points are given. And again, roleplaying is key.

So what are the bonus points used for? They can be used to purchase Merits and remove Flaws, but nothing else. They do not transfer into experience points and they do not allow the player to spend them using the chart on page 168 of the main sourcebook. These bonus point will likely sit on a character sheet until the player decides to use them later. They can be used in conjunction with experience points as well. A three point Flaw may be purchased using two of these gained bonus points and 10 experience points.

Just like with buying Merits and removing Flaws, this should all be roleplayed. While your character may literally gain Nightmares overnight from a traumatic experience, it should still be roleplayed as an emotional experience. Merits like Common Sense and Flaws like Shy usually don't come overnight.

It must be stressed how infrequently this rule should be allowed. A Storyteller is well within his rights (and sanity) to restrict the amount of times a player may use this option. Limiting each player to 1-3 uses of this rule is more than fair, and a Storyteller shouldn't even feel compelled to include this option if he doesn't wish to. A player should never feel like he can transfer his Merits and Flaws around until he has the combination that he feels will make his character the most effective.

Trinity is about roleplaying...not optimizing a character sheet.

********************

********************

Storyteller's Option: Fighting Styles as Merits

The Expanded Personal Combat Systems introduced in the Trinity Player's Guide gives an option to players wanting a character specializing in fighting styles. The system means that a player must use up a specialty slot of Brawl, Martial Arts, or Melee in order to gain the bonuses of a fighting style. As another option, the Storyteller may allow these fighting styles to be taken as Physical Merits instead of Ability Specialities.

The first fighting style taken costs 1 bonus point. Each additional fighting style will cost an extra cumulative bonus point. So a second fighting style costs 2 bonus points, and a third three bonus points, and so on. A reasonable limit on the amount of fighting styles taken would be five, since most fighters in the Trinity universe would be hard-pressed to have more styles mastered, and anyone that does is usually a teacher by that point. The advantage here is that a player can take more than three styles, and can use his Brawl, Martial Arts, and Melee Specialties for non-fighting styles like Multiple Opponents and Dirty Maneuvers.

It should go without saying that if the Storyteller uses this option, fighting styles cannot be taken as as Ability Specialties.

********************

There're more, but I'm not done with it (by far). I was going to show more of the Merits and Flaws themselves, but I'm still working on most of them and I may get rid of or combine others.

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  • 10 months later...

Just letting you know that I'm going to be using your Personnel background in my game soon, except with my "specialist" add-on. About that:

Hmm, nice thought. The only problem I can see is that a 5-dot Mode would be hard for any psion to get, so that may be a bit much for someone to summon. 5-dot psions are likely too valuable to lease out. In that case, I'd think heavy roleplaying (and begging) would be needed, the kind which a Background cannot help with (unless you had Status 5 and a high Influence perhaps).

Sure they are hard to get, but so are 5th level backgrounds. ::wink Level 5 backgrounds in this game are already pretty powerful, so this seems to fit. And if you still want to moderate it, you have all sorts of options, such as the fact that you already say in the levels "This level of clout may require a Status, Contacts, Influence, or Resources of 5 dots, at Storyteller's discretion." Keeping it on a per-mission basis helps keep down the help, plus the person may have any sort of personality defects, such as difficult to give orders too, "lone wolf" (as in "I only work alone."), etc. As usual, it's up to the ST to see that things stay balanced. I'm going to be giving a couple of levels to a VK in my game that's just moved to Port-au-Prince, where she is quite popular. They are already assigning security for her, including a Black Company member. This may seem like much, but so is she.

Anyway, thanks!

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Re: Personnel w/5-dot mode

Keep in mind that there are those times when you Warp 5 on the job; it's useful for the ability to transport a lot of cargo quickly. Also, having a clear with 5 dots can also be useful. Of course, I'm hard-pressed to find other examples, but if it helps...

FR

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Actually that's a good point about the Warp 5 thing. Then again, anyone with Warp 5 should not be an Extra, and my idea for Personnel was just to get Extras. What seperates it from Allies or Followers though is that you aren't restricted to the same handful of characters, you can request different specialists every time.

Hmmm...so how about this then?

If a psion is summoned via Personnel, they have three Mode dots, as per my original suggestion (they use up two personnel slots). However, they can also gain an additional two Mode dots by using another Personnel slot (only a single slot this time).

So if you have Personnel 3, which allows for 4 Extras slots, you could summon a Teleporter psion. This uses two slots, since he's a psion, and he has three Mode dots automatically. You put all three in Warping. Then, by 'spending' another slot he gets Warping 5. This means he costs 3 Extras slots, and you have one slot left over. If you wanted, you could use that last slot to give him two more dots so he doesn't have psionic dysfunction or anything.

There should maybe be a limit though. Otherwise someone with Personnel 5 could summon a psion with just exactly five dots in every Mode...not exactly an Extra. I'll leave that bit up to the Storyteller for now, until I come back to revise it.

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Hmm, About time-changing powers, I did something similar a couple of years ago, called Chronokinesis.

Basicly three power-tree's based around making an object move faster in the "timestream", making it go slower, and mucking about with speed (relative contra the speed of light)...

If someone is interested I can try to dig it up...

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Actually, I was thinking a little less mechanistically, more based on ST's call. Mainly because there is more to a psion that her powers. Suppose you want a computer specialist, but who happens to have psychokinesis in case of an emergency? I'd judge what the character is looking for, make someone basically realistic (not too much detail, these are extra's after all), and balance it all out. Often I don't give the character's exactly what they want, especially if it is exactly the highest level they can get, or if it is too short notice, etc. If they abuse it, the quality of the personnel would begin to degrade, probably because their order is getting annoyed with them. Another factor could be simple availability; ISRA doesn't have too many psyches working for them. The background roll could work for this. I'll see what I feel like. I doubt it will be used a lot in game right now anyway.

So I'd just play it by ear mostly. But as with everything else WW, do what you want, yeh? ::wink

Oh, and I'll likely be using the Meta-psi rules too in the future, perhaps a tad modified, I'm not sure yet. One thing is that it seems to fit better with QK (since Chibs feature more prominently in my game than I'm sure is average) than other apts. QK already messes with psi, so it seems a natural extension. They have a lot on their plate already right now though, so they won't be even hearing about it for a while. I'm thinking post 418-ish, and perhaps from an escaped Norca Chib.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I have a subforum for this project now, called The Implicate Order. Jackson Creed was nice enough to make it for me.

Right now I'm alone in the subforum, getting some stuff posted and some ideas down, though I guess the admins technically have access as well (and are free to post if they want). I was wondering if one or two other people would want to contribute. The project is slow going (considering I'm also doing other stuff, not just here, but elsewhere as well) and I can be a bit of a control freak when it comes to creating material, but it would also be nice to have one or two additional voices to criticize my work and add in things of their own, things I wouldn't think of. Unlike most books, RPG books rarely benefit from having only one writer.

I don't want to be mean, but I only want to allow one or two people for now. You have to be familiar with all (or almost all) of the Trinity material, and you have to be able to at least stop by and comment every now and then. The focus at the moment is on new psi techniques, expanded psi systems, and merits/flaws, but other material will be worked on as well, whenever I/we feel like getting to it.

I have no set date to finish the book (and looking back, it's been a year since I first started it on a whim) so it'll get done whenever it gets done, and there's no pressure from anyone to work on it if they have no time. I imagine it'll actually end up going kinda slow, but I love Trinity the most out of the Aeon line, and I add little pieces to the material regularly.

Anyone interested in becoming a part of The Implicate Order?

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If you like I could give it a shot. I too like Trinity best out of the line, and hang around here as much as anyone. I also like many of the ideas you've presented so far, so it could be cool. I think I have enough familiarity with the rules (although not perfect ::wink ), and have done my share of house rules and new power making & fixing (I've done scores of stuff with QK, some of which I've posted here).

Incidentally I have already been using your idea (although before I read it here) for buying merits. For example, the BK in my group wanted Enchanting Voice, so I made him roleplay it (several game sessions of learning/research), and BK makes a pretty good explanation. Then 10 points later, he now has it.

So let me know and I'll be there. ::smile

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  • 1 month later...

Blue Thunder, are you still looking for help on the IC project? I was posting to Alistaire's QK ideas in the IU thread, and it got me to looking around for similar stuff. I've never done this sort of thing, so I don't know what you're in the market for, what it should look like, etc. Heck, I'm new to this whole forum thing!

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  • 10 months later...

Blue Thunder, I'd like to add my request for access to your IC project and Bright Continent as well if possible.

Although I haven't been a member of the forum for long I have had and played/run Trinity since it first came out and as you suggest I believe I have every supplement available for the system. Personally I have to agree with it being my favourite of the three eras - but then I started roleplaying back when Runequest 2nd Ed and Traveller were about the only things out on this side of the pond (I never particularly liked D&D and it's derivatives).

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Blue Thunder, I'd like to add my request for access to your IC project and Bright Continent as well if possible.

Although I haven't been a member of the forum for long I have had and played/run Trinity since it first came out and as you suggest I believe I have every supplement available for the system. Personally I have to agree with it being my favourite of the three eras - but then I started roleplaying back when Runequest 2nd Ed and Traveller were about the only things out on this side of the pond (I never particularly liked D&D and it's derivatives).

,,
,,

Man if Blue Thunder is around I REALLY want to know. After completely and unceremoniously dropping his (epic and awesome) Teragne NOLK chronicle he has responded to absolutely ZERO of any of my PMs or emails for the better part of a year now.

,,

Now I know as well as most how RL can just up and thrash ones gaming activities, but a simple, "sorry I was in the hospital" or "Im just not into STing anymore" would have been courteous.

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Welcome back Rorx!!!!

I haven't been anywhere!

If you mean to roleplaying, then I've been keeping on gaming the whole time with as small a gap between games (either playing or running or both) as possible for the whole 27 years now (gulp).

I'm just sorry I never got round to registering and joining in before, I've been lurking off and on for a couple of years to this site, and before it vanished the CtheC site.

If Blue Thunder has vanished can anyone else grant me access to the Bright Continent and Implicate Order protected forai (sp?)?

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