Trinity RPG - Psi Order: Jedi?

[BertJammin]

I took my seven year old son to see the new Clone Wars movie last night (well….I had promised), and it wasn’t half as bad as I’d feared (just like an extended episode of the cartoon in fact).

Anyway while watching my mind wandered onto things Trinity (as it is want to do) and I remembered that some years ago I’d created a character based on the concept of the Jedi’s powers.

Now I’m not talking about running a Star Wars game using the Trinity rules, rather how would you model a “tank dunked” single aptitude Psion based on a Force users powers? How close can you get in feel and style to what a Jedi or Sith can do?

Back in the day I think I went for a Clairsentient (lots of Telesthesia) with Auxiliary Nodes of Telekinesis and Adaptation. An old player of mine did something similar with a Clairsentient Al Alif hunter with the Phantasm Indigo Bioapp from Terra Verde.

The lightsabre is a bit more tricky though as I don’t think there’s a comparable weapon in the setting and I don’t think it really fits. Yet Jedi need their lightsabres so what to do? I was linking perhaps a larger version of the Sonic Knife might work.

The other reason for thinking on this subject is that I think one of the players in the game I’m starting next week may well want to create a character along these lines and I want to be prepared with some ideas.

Any other suggestions?

[SkyLion]

VARGs use a plasma sword close combat weapon. It says something about the power requirments being too high to make it man portable but I bet you could talk an ST into letting it be a bioapp that channeled a pyro plama effect similar to lightning guns etc.

[BertJammin]

VARGs use a plasma sword close combat weapon. It says something about the power requirments being too high to make it man portable but I bet you could talk an ST into letting it be a bioapp that channeled a pyro plama effect similar to lightning guns etc.

True - I'd thought of that weapon but dismissed it because of, as you mention, the power requirements issue.

I hadn't thought of a Psi enhancing bioapp though - I suppose it would be similar to a gauntlet, just emitting a short range, constant beam.

The next issue though would be whether you could still mimic a force users powers and have the right aptitudes to power the "sabre gauntlet". Would an Auxilary PK node like Telekinesis be enough or would you need to be a fully fledged Psychokinetic?

[metaphysician]

The latter, I think. 1 dot of psychokinesis won't really let you move anything.

[Finbar]

I would have gone with full PK (TK describes better what a Jedi can do, at least in terms of deflecting bullets, lifting things, and surviving extremes), with maybe a dot in Telepathy (for the empathy, if nothing else). You may actually want to go Psiad (Energetic emphasis) if you want the Jedi mind trick. Disruption (Electromanipulation 2) is the best you can do for the lightning effect, and Warping would help with speed and leaping.

It's worth noting that some of the stuff that the Jedi's do in the movies is open to psions in general (such as feeling planets die, friends/family in trouble, or even detecting other psions (such as Darth Vader did when Obi Wan entered the Death Star).

FR

[Sprocket]

Re: Lightsabers in Trinity-

Provided you can find it, the general tech level found in the abandoned Trinity: Fourth Millennium web project would likely be sufficient for hand-held plasma blades. With all the weird stuff happining in the Trinity Universe, the arrival of technology from a possible future isn't all that implausible.

OTOH, I can easily see a nova inventor being enough of a Star Wars fanboi or fangirl to have invented & perfected a working lightsaber back in the 2030's or so. ::laugh

[Forge]

My first Trinity character, (he was actually an Aeon character, that's how old he is) was based in a Star Wars type setting, and surprisingly I still have the char sheet. I was young at the time and we were new to the game so the char is horrible, but my starting powers were almost all TK with and an auxiliary in Sense Mastery.

The device background solves all problem of technology not existing yet in my opinion and my ST let me have a 'Plasma Saber' that did 7d L, I even had reinforced robes with 2L soak.

It ended up being a very campy game, the name of the series ended as Jake Danger: Aberrant Hunter.

Knowing the rules as they are now, and with all the other books that are out now, I must agree with Finbar that a Psaid would be the way to go, having access to both sides of the fence so to speak definitely makes it easier. Not to mention you don't have to worry about the 'dark side' seeing as taint doesn't apply. ::tongue

[Alistaire]

Personally I say forget the aptitudes altogether. Right now they are artificial limitations set by the Doyan. "Natural" psionics, aka psiads, have three general areas that seem to naturally develop because of their similarities. If you want something truly like the Jedi, make it a separate "order" that teaches powers its own way, as a specific discipline with its own "aptitudes". While you can do this any way you want, personally I like the WEG groupings of Control, Sense, and Alter. You just need to figure out how that works out in psi powers. Eg: Control by itself would be biokinesis, mostly Adaptation style powers like you said. Sense by itself would include powers from telepathy and clairsentience. Alter would be telekinesis. Then, by "grouping" the different areas, you can expand the powers available. Control and Alter gives you vitakinesis stuff. Sense and Alter can give you more psychokinesis and electrokinesis powers. You just have to catagorize the powers into which skill or combo is needed in order to learn them. Heck, if you want to get crazy and add in Sith stuff, say that the powers can include a variation of quantakinesis, and the jedi can then accumulate "taint" in a manner similar to the "dark side". You can go one step further even, rewriting history a bit so that there are only two "orders" around, the Jedi and the Sith (the other psions and the chibs kinda). How would that affect the history/timeline?

As for the lightsabre stuff, if you are rewriting history, you can do like they did in Star Wars and start the Jedi off with some kind of "force sticks", then move on to the honkin' huge, backpack-powered sabres, then progressively make them smaller as time goes on. Or, you could have the two new orders develop some time after the canon material (after 418 maybe?) and thereby get a little more tech advance there, maybe mixing in some advanced Coalition tech to make it quicker.

Really, it's about how much you want to change the established universe. The more you change, the closer you can get to making authentic Jedi. Or really move it forward in time (which also makes it a bit less Trinity-like).

[Finbar]

It's because of the way that WEG did the force that I suggested going psiad; it would give up to three dots in all modes (except QK), and up to 4 dots in Psyckokinesis and Electrokinesis (with a high enough Psi). It may seem limiting, but the only abilities above that that would really apply would be Astrolocation and Plasma Control (both five dot abilities that would be out of the question anyway).

However, by doing it this way, it allows for more survival options as well as explianing why Jedi seem to have such an affinity with technology. It also allows for a sneaky way of getting a lightsaber (you just need to develop a piece of equipment that focuses a continuous laser and then allows it to bleed off). If you can psionically manipulate the equipment, it just makes it easier.

If it helps...

FR

[Rorx]

Or wait until 2123+ when BC kicks in and get a psion with access to all basic Aptitudes and still able to get upto 5 dots in your 2 primary ones ::biggrin

At least thats the way I'll be running it: 2 Primary, 2 Secondary and the rest Tertiary. Teleportation only if/when you meet the Psi/Willpower criteria, and QK rarer than that.