Sphere Posted September 25, 2003 Share Posted September 25, 2003 They don't seem to come up in conversation on the boards that much, so I thought I'd kick off a little thread about those pesky Nova wannabes.Does anyone use them much in their games? I have a couple of NPC psiads running around in the one I'm currently running. Was initially using the Player's Guide, but found it a little limiting. Things changed once I got A!dventure (which rules). Now I've quickly and efficiently rebuilt them using the Mesmerist knacks.I understand from what I've read on the boards that the big-up Trinity psions have a neutralising effect on quantum usage. Anyone use that with their psiads?Enquiring minds want to know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jager Posted September 25, 2003 Share Posted September 25, 2003 Someone played one once, but it didnt' go off to well. Why are you interested, may I inquire? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sphere Posted September 26, 2003 Author Share Posted September 26, 2003 Mere curiosity. Was at the lab, and didn't have much to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Williams Posted September 26, 2003 Share Posted September 26, 2003 Researcher, or researched? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sphere Posted September 26, 2003 Author Share Posted September 26, 2003 Ahaa! Tis true! The person you know as Sphere is in fact Monktharo! The most intelligent lab monkey in the world!Soon I shall be free and monkeys will rule the world!ahem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jager Posted September 26, 2003 Share Posted September 26, 2003 No more test meds for you, my son. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zed Posted September 26, 2003 Share Posted September 26, 2003 Quote:Originally posted by Sphere: Ahaa! Tis true! The person you know as Sphere is in fact Monktharo! The most intelligent lab monkey in the world!Soon I shall be free and monkeys will rule the world!ahem. So it's you who is leading the monkeys. Your last attack almost got to me, but I escaped. Now that I know who you are, I will be much more prepared in the future. You have been warned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gryffen Posted September 26, 2003 Share Posted September 26, 2003 You cannot stand against the might of the Sango, or the multitude of Thugmonkos at his beck and call. There is only one 'being' (loosely used) that the Sango bows down to - monktharo, the miniture medical master in his (not-so) secret observatory.Reggie is closing in though...soon there will be a mobile avon parked at his gates!.(enough random rememberence...and - oooh....a psiad huh? You'll have to mail me the posts to avoid in future (not that I ever play beyond character knowledge *8-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sphere Posted September 27, 2003 Author Share Posted September 27, 2003 Not to worry mate, you'll know them when you see them (being as you're the only guy with any dots in Node in the group). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirby1024 Posted September 30, 2003 Share Posted September 30, 2003 I should point out, me being the Psiad player, I eventually left Alex McKenzie for the reason that, well, I honestly couldn't think of much to keep him tied to the boards at all. Also, I'll admit, I had three characters, and Alex was getting very close to being the boring one. It was less him being a Psiad, and more of the fact that the character Alex was turning into wasn't really a character I was interested in playing.He may turn up again one day, maybe. I've already noted he'll probably survive to just before Trinity canon time. He's got plenty of chances to do something interesting before then.Psiads tend to be fun. Pity they're as rare as hen's teeth... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stheno Posted November 13, 2003 Share Posted November 13, 2003 Ranger once ran a game with Psiads...they drove the paranoid Temporal Manipulator (Bagman, for those who remember) round the bend...For some reason, he could never see them coming... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirby1024 Posted November 14, 2003 Share Posted November 14, 2003 Wow, are all the UK posters coming back?Welcome back Stheno. Haven't seen you for a while... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David 'Dr. Troll' Smith Posted November 14, 2003 Share Posted November 14, 2003 The killing thing about Psiads is the low soak. (No eufiber, no mega-stamina). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirby1024 Posted November 15, 2003 Share Posted November 15, 2003 Of course, the good thing is the fact they look just like ordinary humans, both to the eye and to the node. That sort of anonymity is useful, and the advantage of surprise is not to be underestimated... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David 'Dr. Troll' Smith Posted November 15, 2003 Share Posted November 15, 2003 Surprise works wonderfully. Once. But it would be really nice to be able to take a bullet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirby1024 Posted November 16, 2003 Share Posted November 16, 2003 True. That said, I've seen more than a few combat wombats that relied on high dodge pools rather than high soak pools, quite effectively in fact. And Psiads can get decent Dodge pools. In the APG rules for Aberrant Rules Psiads they can also, If I recall, get Force Field as well, which helps for soak. They can also purchase Armour and Deflect/Redirect, so if you really wanted to build one that way, sure, a Psiad can soak a bullet. Not reliably, of course, but a Psiad can hold their own in a shoot-out, for longer than one might expect... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jager Posted November 16, 2003 Share Posted November 16, 2003 Let's not forget the lower point totals, folks. Psiads should be weaker than Novas. That was my biggest problem with the one we had here on the boards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David 'Dr. Troll' Smith Posted November 17, 2003 Share Posted November 17, 2003 Relying on dodge works until it doesn't work. After that the "no mega-stamina" rule hurts. In addition, it would be nice to not have to dodge small children with rocks.Mind you, I'm not saying it can't be done. With enough skill, care, luck, and (most importantly) designing the character correctly, it can be done.The problem is you need all those things to work correctly, that in itself is limiting. I can make mistakes designing and running most nova characters. Worse those kind of mistakes are inevitable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sphere Posted November 17, 2003 Author Share Posted November 17, 2003 Players using Psiad or baseline characters are likely going to run into one of the big problems with the White Wolf system. It's great for running characters with advanced healing capabilities (lupines, vamps, Novas with Regen, etc) but can get very lethal very quickly for people without any protection. It was a problem I had with Mage, these guys were reality-warping badasses yet had very limited healing abilities.Plus there's the rule in Aeon that baselines, and presumably Psiads, can't soak Lethal damage. Go up against a Nova unprepared and you're dogmeat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brucifer Posted November 21, 2003 Share Posted November 21, 2003 I agree with sphere - we're in a mummy game at the mo and they are sposed to be vampires' worst nightmares.Yeah right. Howver i think that the advent of psiads in the game history should be used more for setting out the long term back story of the rise of the psions. Ergo only ST's should probably use them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Kincaid Posted November 21, 2003 Share Posted November 21, 2003 How is the mummy game working out? The book was interesting & I've wondered what a game would be like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Craft Posted November 21, 2003 Share Posted November 21, 2003 I find that mummy's can be nastier than they seem at first. Vampires (and werewolves, mages, etc.) can all die. Mummy's die, but they come back. The kind of persistent kamikaze activity this allows can be pretty dangerous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agnelli Celeste Posted November 21, 2003 Share Posted November 21, 2003 the real trick is that mummies wile having a lower celling of power.They all can get to that level.So, even if the most powerful mommy can't match a third gen.It doesn't mater, as there aren't many 3 gens around,and for the most part there are less of them now than there used to be.Mumies just grow in power,so there could arugueably be 50 mumies around the world that could give your elder forth gen vampires a run for their money.Vampires by their nature, are not trusting and even less trust worthly.Remeber they have to feed off life to live.Then again in the WOD, mages just rule!They have more power than you, so hah!In a game with psaid and novas I would do something like this.Psaids can get X dots in any power equal to psi rating- the power level, or the psi needed requirement of the power.Withc ever is higher.So, a psaid could get two dots in a level five power with a psi requirement of 8..But he would have to get a psi of 10.I think the stealthy part of psiads, more than make up for this weakness..brought you by your friend, local power gamer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David 'Dr. Troll' Smith Posted November 22, 2003 Share Posted November 22, 2003 Quote:I think the stealthy part of psiads, more than make up for this weakness..brought you by your friend, local power gamer."Stealthy"? Some Novas have dorm, everyone knows this.Some Novas can pass for baseline, everyone knows this.If you assume that your psaid hangs out with a group of novas (like in the standard PC group), then you have a problem. How exactly does the typical baseline (or the Directive, or any nova not in the psiads physical presense, or the Mikealits) tell the difference between a baseline looking nova and a psiad? Especially if she has super powers or skills?More importantly, why should they bother? If the Directive tries to mox the psiad, and it doesn't work, then they won't assume she isn't a nova. They will assume she is a nova who is immune to mox. If someone shoots her and she goes down, they will assume she is a weak nova. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Baby Posted November 22, 2003 Share Posted November 22, 2003 Doc, you forget, that dorming doesn't make it impossable for novas to tell if your a nova or not.Just harder.Also, psaids get their psi scores as "soak:..This could be added as a way to screw over menal nova powers as well. I am not saying they are qual on all levels, but they are more playable this way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David 'Dr. Troll' Smith Posted November 22, 2003 Share Posted November 22, 2003 This could be added as a way to screw over menal nova powers as well.No. The mental powers aren't soaked, they are resisted....dorming doesn't make it impossable for novas to tell if your a nova or not...The point isn't that it is hard. The point is that "Dorm" exists, and is common knowlege. Thus I'm going to assume a nova-type person I can't detect is just a cloaked nova I'm not detecting. This in turn implies that I'm going to be on the lookout for "stealth" novas, and that I'll treat them as novas if I find them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agnelli Celeste Posted November 22, 2003 Share Posted November 22, 2003 ANd the no taint thing... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David 'Dr. Troll' Smith Posted November 22, 2003 Share Posted November 22, 2003 Taint isn't a problem unless we choose to make it a problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Craft Posted November 22, 2003 Share Posted November 22, 2003 No matter how you look at it, psiads are inferior to novas because they have less than half the nova points. They have a couple of minor edges, but it's not enough to balance. Therefore, if you had a group of novas with a psiad in, the psiad would simply be outclassed. If the player was very good, he/she could work with it and come out on top, but that isn't because of the character.You could have a group of psiads, though, for a different kind of game.I really like the Trinity rules version of psiad character creation. Could be fun to run a Trinity game in which latents who aren't triggered into psions can 'erupt' as psiads. The mix of psion specialists and psiad generalists could be interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirby1024 Posted November 23, 2003 Share Posted November 23, 2003 Quote:Originally posted by David 'Dr. Troll' Smith: The point isn't that it is hard. The point is that "Dorm" exists, and is common knowlege. Thus I'm going to assume a nova-type person I can't detect is just a cloaked nova I'm not detecting.There is the alternate point that While it is true that there are Novas who can dorm down, I have never heard of a Nova that could use their abilities while dormed. Dormed Novas require a turn to power up, and a turn to dorm down, during which a scan can be initiated. Psiads can, effectively just thwack and run, giving the nova no clues as to exactly which baseline out of the myriads hit me with a Brainjack.Yeah, you're right, it looks like a Dormed Nova, but in actual practical terms, say, a Telepathic Pandorra Operative could work with a few novas to take down another Nova by staying in the crowd and every now and then Brainjacking them and feeding them false information. When the nova breaks out, the Psiad can try again, but the Nova cannot determine where the hell that came from.This, of course does not help the nova gets pissed and fries everything in the area to stop the Brainjacker, but it does show a certain use as a distractionary force. You can apply this to most Psiad abilities, actually - A telekinetic hiding in a crowd can throw a considerable amount of stuff at a Nova, without having to spend two turns out of every three in the process of dorming down and powering up.Again, only slight advantage, but advantage it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hammerhead Posted November 23, 2003 Share Posted November 23, 2003 Trinity psions can work together, pooling their power. The reason given for this is that every single manifestation of a psionic power works the same way as all other manifestations of the same power. This should be true for psiads too, if someone figures out how to do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David 'Dr. Troll' Smith Posted November 24, 2003 Share Posted November 24, 2003 Quote:Originally posted by Hammerhead: Trinity psions can work together, pooling their power. The reason given for this is that every single manifestation of a psionic power works the same way as all other manifestations of the same power. This should be true for psiads too, if someone figures out how to do it. For Trinity, true. They all came out of the tank, and have the same imprint.For psiads, No. They all use psionics. Novas all use quantum.I see no reason why psiads shouldn't suffer from the same "its a personal expression of power" that novas suffer from. This is especially true since psiads can manifest pretty much anything they want at character creation time.Thus is the price of power.RE: Fire from the crowd.It is true that you can do this. But as long as we are doing this, a nova could do pretty much the same (via Invis, Copycat, Shapechange, low taint, a trench coat with a hood, etc).The "can't be affected by node scan" is one of the few advantages they have. Now all you need is someone who tries that tactic. All baselines and most novas won't be using that tactic. Lots and lots of novas have mega-perception which might bypass the entire idea, "That Creepy Feeling" being the most obvious example. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brucifer Posted November 24, 2003 Share Posted November 24, 2003 Well Mr Kincaid - the Mummy game is set in probably my fave time period - 39 - 45!Were doing loads of cool stuff to the Nazis at the mo (altho i think i know what the uberbaddude is goanna be!!)but my main prob is the mummie themselves, but that is a whole other issue. Needless to say if the story wasnt up to much I'd probably quit the game til it was done. And its MY rule book being run by a friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cody Posted November 24, 2003 Share Posted November 24, 2003 Kirby: I have never heard of a Nova that could use their abilities while dormed.Seems to me that what all of this really boils down to is quantum attunment and the ping reflex (a benefit of node) doesn't mean anything where psi's are concerned.I can't say its not an advantage but its a pretty small one as Kirby admits. If you depend on these two enhancements/benefits/abilities to identify your opponent then yes a psi has an advantage. If you don't, or have alternate means, then the psi is pretty much screwed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.