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WS Character Creation and House Rules


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Character Creation

Step One: Concept

All player characters share the same concept all of you are High School Students in the 11th or 12th grade.

Ages range from 16-17 for 11th grade students and 17-18 for 12th grade students

All characters attend Shelly High School in the town of Shelly, Montana

Characters should not be new students, most should have been residents of Shelly for most of their lives but in the case of some such as Military Brat it is more likely that they have not lived in this location for more than a few years. In any case all characters must have been living in Shelly at least for one year prior to the beginning of the game.

We can work out backgrounds in detail.

You may elaborate on your concept if you desire but it is not necessary. For instance you could say your concept is High School Student and Athlete training for the Olympics, or High School Student and Photographer for the school paper, and so on.

Next, each player chooses Aspirations: Up to 5 short-term and 2 long-term. Aspirations are a player’s goals for his character, not necessarily the character’s own goals. Aspirations are story moments a player wants to see happen to or for his character.  Fulfilling a short term Aspiration grants 1 XP.  Fulfilling a long term Aspiration grants 2 XP.

 

Step Two: Paths

Choose your Origin and Role Paths from the list below. Social Paths are not done the same as in the core book since the characters will not begin belong to any organizations as such. For this reason for your Social path you may choose a second Role Path and designate it a social path. This choice must be compatible with your chosen role through justification and you can choose the same path that you already chose if you desire.

All of these Paths are example and are not an exhaustive list. You may create your own Paths using the rules found on page 40 of the Core book, but please remember this is high school.

Note: If you start a new character after Episode 3 has taken place, it is assumed that you are somehow 'active', powers-wise.  If a Psion, you gain Rank 0 in the Psion Path (below).


 

Origin Paths appropriate for WS (descriptions start on page 41)

Thrill Seeker (Adventurer in the book)

Life of Privilege

Military Brat ( this is one a lot of you want and I am going to disappoint you. I am listing it here because there are two former characters who fit this bill. Only Lilly and Jeane will be allowed to have this Path if they wish to bring their characters over. Everyone else has to be a towny. If one or both former characters do not return I will entertain requests.)

Suburbia

Outdoorsman (Survivalist in the book)

Psion (see above - all Psion characters are assumed to have this at 0 in addition to their standard Origin path)

Your character is one of only a handful of humans to develop psionic powers. She probably doesn’t know that her condition has a name — psion — but she knows that she is different, and that people or worse would like to study or control her. Psion are adept at concealing their presence among other humans and tend to blend in wherever they find themselves.

Example Connections: Helpful Cop, Loyal Family Member, School or College Friends, Social Connection, Street Gang

Skills: Athletics, Culture, Empathy, Persuasion

Edges: Always Prepared, Covert, Danger Sense, Enhanced Attunement, Favored Aptitude, Skilled Liar, Strong Mode
 

Role Paths: the following paths replace those found in the book and are as you can see appropriate for high school. (thanks go to Dave and Sean for their help with this part)


Athletes – Live for athletics and tend to be popular with many of their peers. Athletes tend to play and support the school's athletic agenda and by making the school look better in the eyes of the community, and in so doing improve their social standing among their peers and leaders within their institutions.
Common Students – Jocks (Basketball, Football, Volleyball), Cheerleaders, Track and Field (Male and Female), Extracurricular Clubs or Activities (Gymnastics, Zumba, Crossfit)

 Skills: Aim, Athletics, Integrity, Medicine

Edges: Always Prepared, Small Unit Tactics, Adrenalin Spike, Ambidextrous, Breath Control, Hair Trigger Reflexes, Hardy, Swift, Tough Cookie, Free Running

 

Geeks – A group of students described as being intellectual, obsessive or socially impaired. They usually don't have the modern fashion sense of other groups, and they usually prefer chess to hoops. Geeks are smart, but they sometimes have a hard time socially, as many teens view them as being more boring to be around than others.
Common Students – Fantasy Movie/Comic Nerds, Gamers, Intellectuals, Role-Players, Nerd Trivia Buffs, Technical Guys/Gals

Skills: Enigmas , Humanities, Science ,Technology

 Edges: Always Prepared, Library, Lightning Calculator, Photographic Memory, Speed Reading, Wealth

 

Performance Art Crowd – the teens who are obsessed with, and more than likely to perform professionally. They typically have a very busy and complicated schedule, spending most of their time in rehearsal for the school show or working on their craft. They generally do well academically and have a good sense of responsibility. Their hobbies include learning all the songs and dances to all their favorite musicals, singing randomly at any given time, and obsessing over a new performance every week. They are usually very kind and sweet to those outside of their own clique, except for the occasional diva. They are also creative and very funny, but have a unique sense of humor which is only funny to those who understand musical theater references; their preferred subjects are in the performing arts—drama, singing, dance, acting, and musical theater. They may also be involved in other performing arts activities, such as choir or dancing.
Common Students – Band Kids, Drama Club Members, Dancers, Singers, Thespians

Skills: Empathy , Humanities , Integrity , Persuasion

Edges: Artistic Talent, Big Hearted, Skilled Liar, Striking, Patron, Fame, Direction Sense

 

Rebels – May be socially challenged and unable to fit in, or they may be independent and feel no need to join any one group exclusively. They tend to have an "I don't care about anything" attitude, and will oftentimes get in trouble for it.
Common Students – Burnouts, Goths, Skaters, Emo Kids, Rockers

Skills: Close Combat, Integrity , Larceny ,Survival

Edges: Danger Sense,Iron Will, Adrenaline Spike, Swift, Tough Cookie, Covert, Skilled Liar, Striking

 

Hipsters – make a big effort to assemble a wardrobe that seems effortless. They challenge traditional norms and modern trends. All genders wear tight jeans, flannel shirts, Buddy Holly glasses and vintage clothing. They follow the latest trends in fashion and like to be independent from the other cliques and often do what is "uncool" before it becomes "cool".
Common Students – Hipsters. (But seriously... at this point you're so douchey, just kill yourself.)

Skills: Culture , Empathy , Integrity , Persuasion

Edges: Striking, Wealth, Skilled Liar, Patron, Fame

 

Preps – Preps tend to be good at being social and having fun and usually come from an upper middle class or upper-class family. Sometimes they overlap with jocks, especially when it comes to sports. In most high schools, preps are those most commonly chosen to have important positions for school events.
Common Students - Class President, Ideal Home Coming King/Queen, Prom Court, Mean Girl, Scenester, That Guy/Gal with Rich Parents, The School Prude

Skills: Command , Empathy, Integrity, Persuasion

Edges: Wealth, Fame, Patron, Striking, Iron Will


 

You gain three dots to distribute among the four Skills for each Path. A player may choose to put all three dots in one Skill or divide the dots among two or three Skills. A player may not use dots from one Path for Skills associated with a different Path.

Community, contact, and access connections (p. 40). Players choose a single community connec­tion within the Path to belong to and gains one dot towards a contact connection.

Edges associated with the Path. Players gain two dots to distribute among the Edges associated with each Path. A player can devote both dots to a single Edge or divide them between two. If an Edge belongs to a character’s Path, she gets a discount for purchasing that Edge with Experience later.

A note on Edges; This is a game set in High School so keep this in mind when thinking about the edges, scale them in your mind to that i.e. Fame of 1 means your class, 2 would be the whole school, 3 would be most people in the town. Small Unit Tactics is how to plan an assault on a terrorist camp its how to decide which play to make in the big game.


STEP THREE: SKILLS, SKILL TRICKS, AND SPECIALTIES

The Trinity Continuum has a total of 16 Skills (pp. 44-53), with each Skill being rated from 0-5. These Skills represent what a character can do; they represent the abilities she has learned and knowledge she has acquired over the course of her life. Most of a character’s Skills come from her Paths, but each player also gets six addition­al dots to distribute among any of the Skills. The total number of Skill points a character receives at character creation for Skills, through Paths or not, is 15.

A character may buy a Skill Trick when she has three dots in a Skill and an additional Trick for each additional dot she has over three. Characters may start with one Skill Trick at creation.

For any Skills at or above three dots, gain a Specialty.

Note on Skill Specialization -  Being specialized in a  skill under the standard Trinity rules does not benefit the use of the skill in question, instead adding bonuses to tasks requiring that knowledge. In Weirder Stuff this is different: when using a skill specialization with the parent skill a +1 enhancement is granted by the specialization  if it applies. The normal rule is also still in effect.


STEP FOUR: ATTRIBUTES

Attributes represent different ways of acting and how adept a character is at each. Trinity Continuum has nine Attributes divided among three Arenas: Physical, Mental, and Social. Attributes are rated 1-6, though only Talents and special characters may gain the ability to purchase a sixth dot in an Attribute, through purchasing an Edge.

Players do not need to the three Arenas in any specific order.

Characters begin with a single Attribute dot in each of their nine Attributes. Players distribute fifteen dots among the nine attributes in any order.

No Attribute may have more than five dots at char­acter creation.

Attributes in Trinity Continuum also have an Approach. The Approach is how the character applies the Arena. The three Approaches are Force, Finesse, and Resilience. Every character has a Favored Approach or preferred way of approaching a problem, regardless of which Arena he’s acting within. If he likes to be direct, his Favored Approach is probably Force. If he likes a delicate touch, his Favored Approach is likely Finesse. If he likes to let people tire themselves out against him, his Favored Approach is probably Resilience.

Favored Approach is a role playing tool and while it does give an additional benefit later for right now simply choose your approach.


STEP FIVE: POWER TEMPLATE

Talents can be found in the Core book and Psions in the Aeon book.

Talents aside from associations are pretty much as written.

Psions are not as written in the book and are covered down below a few posts.  Currently there is a restriction on the taking of Teleportation as an Aptitude, but all others are available.


STEP SIX: FINAL TOUCHES

The final touches of character creation involve distributing additional Experience and calculating a character’s Health and Defense rating.

Gain bonus traits:

Each character receives one extra Attribute dot to put in any Attribute, as long as it does not raise it above the normal maximum. They also gain four points of Edges, which can come from outside their Path but must follow any normal prerequisites. The Story-guide may award additional Experience at her discretion to further improve characters: The costs for each of these is in the Experience costs table lo­cated in “Character Advancement” below.

Health

Every character has an Injury Condition tracker. Every character has three levels of Injury at char­acter creation, Maimed, Injured, and Bruised. At Stamina 3, the character gains an additional Injured level and at Stamina 5 the character gains an addi­tional Bruised level.

Defense

A character’s standard Defense is 1. Characters can attempt to make a defensive action when being attacked by rolling whichever Resilience Attribute makes the most sense, with no Skill added (see p. 105).


 

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Weirder Stuff

Talents Sheet

Name:
Player:
Concept:
Origin Path:
Role Path:
Society Path:
Additional Path:
Path Contacts:
Moment of Inspiration:

Skills: Aim , Athletics , Close Combat , Command , Culture , Empathy , Enigmas , Humanities , Integrity , Larceny , Medicine , Persuasion , Pilot , Science , Survival , Technology
Specialties:
Skill Tricks:

-Attributes-
Force – Intellect , Might , Presence
Finesse – Cunning , Dexterity , Manipulation
Resilience – Resolve , Stamina , Composure

Edges:
Gifts:
Path Contacts:
Aspirations:

Facets: Destructive , Intuitive , Reflective

-Armor-
Armor / Base / Hard / Soft

-Weapons-
Weapon / EN / Range / Damage / Type / Tags

-Vehicles-
Vehicle / Size / Handling / Speed / Tags / Weapons

-Injury Conditions-
Bruised (+1), Bruised (+1), X, X, Injured (+2), Injured (+2), Maimed (+4), Taken Out

Inspiration:

Defense = Appropriate Resilience Att
Experience:

 

Weirder Stuff

Psions Sheet

Name:
Player:
Concept:
Origin Path:
Role Path:
Society Path:
Path Contacts:
 

Skills: Aim , Athletics , Close Combat , Command , Culture , Empathy , Enigmas , Humanities , Integrity , Larceny , Medicine , Persuasion , Pilot , Science , Survival , Technology
Specialties:
Skill Tricks:

-Attributes-
Force – Intellect , Might , Presence
Finesse – Cunning , Dexterity , Manipulation
Resilience – Resolve , Stamina , Composure

Edges:
Gifts:
Aspirations:

-Psi Powers-
Aptitude:
Discipline:
Basic:
Proxy:

-Armor-
Armor / Base / Hard / Soft

-Weapons-
Weapon / EN / Range / Damage / Type / Tags

-Vehicles-
Vehicle / Size / Handling / Speed / Tags / Weapons

-Injury Conditions-
Bruised (+1), Bruised (+1), X, X, Injured (+2), Injured (+2), Maimed (+4), Taken Out

-Psi & Tolerance-
Psi:
Tolerance:

Defense = Appropriate Resilience Att
Experience:

Spoiler

Thanks to Dave who wrote these up for our use

 

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ADDITIONAL PATHS - I will add any new Paths created by us here

ORIGIN

Broken Home – Divorce is a plague for many especially the children. You are from a broken home, your parents divorced, whether it was amicable or not it means your mom and dad live seperatly. You live with one and visit the other. There always seems to be a push and pull not only from the parents but also from you. There may be boyfriends and girlfriends even step parents and siblings. It leaves a mark regardless.

Skills: Empathy, Integrity, Persuasion, Technology

Connections: Close Friend, Pitying Neighbor, Aunt or Uncle

Edges: Ms. Fixit, Big Hearted, Patron, Safe House, Skilled Liar, Iron Will, Artistic Talent

 

ROLE

SOCIAL/SOCIETY

AT THE YMCA

Character hangs out and participates in sports, working out, swimming, or other similar activities at a local YMCA/YWCA or equivalent. These locations are often the only place where low income and disenfranchised youth can go to participate in social and non-scholastic sports activities. The organizations are usually nonprofit and are run by religious organizations or local governments.  This can also be used to represent belonging to a professional Gymnasium or other similar private organization.

Skills: Athletics, Close Combat, Culture, Empathy

Connections: Physical Trainer, Homeless Persons, Social Worker

Edges: Big Hearted*, Patron ***, Safe House*, Ms. Fixit**, Tough Cookie**,  Always Prepared*, Breath Control*, Swift*, Ambidextrous*,  Danger Sense*

 

ROTC/Para-Military Recruit:

Skills: Aim, Close Combat, Culture (Military), Survival

Edges: Always Prepared, Danger Sense, Small Unit Tactics 2, Adrenaline Spike 2, Fast Draw (Pistol), Hair Trigger Reflexes, Tough Cookie 2, Forceful Martial Arts or Precise Martial Arts 3, Cool Under Fire 2

 

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EDGES

New and player created Edges will go here

MENTAL


ARTISTIC TALENT (• TO •••) (NOTE:  This replaces the Edge as listed in the Trinity Core Rules.)
Your character has a creative spark that allows him to make impressive art. When choosing this Edge, you must decide how your character expresses themselves as an artist, making or writing art, like paintings, sculptures, novels, or symphonies, or if he is a performer, like a musician, a Storyguide, actor, or a performance artist. You must purchase this Edge separately for each form of artistry your character excels at, such as Artistic Talent (Composing Music), or Artistic Talent (Painting).  Regardless of what sort of art your character creates, he gains an Enhancement equal to the value of this Edge for any actions he is attempting to use this art for. Options include creating a painting or writing a play to convince the audience of some point, using music to attempt to stir up or quell a riot, or simply creating or performing something that audiences enjoy and find deeply moving. Art is most often used in Persuade rolls, but other options are possible, like Command or Culture, where a musician or a Storyguide might attempt to quiet or stir up a crowd, or Larceny, where the character uses the performance as misdirection.
You possess a professional understanding or amazing natural aptitude for your chosen art (professional performer, accomplished street performer, professional graphics artist or designer)
•• You've dedicated innumerable hours to your craft, or possess an almost supernatural affinity for you chosen form of expression. (career musicians and performers, veteran artists)
••• Your capability is either mastered through life long accomplishment and toil, or your abilities are borderline prodigal.  At this stage your chosen talent is practically muscle memory or you're an official authority on the topic.  (master composers, master painters, lifelong performers who moved on to be instructors of their chosen art after retirement)

PHYSICAL

SOCIAL

Popularity (• to •••)  by Dave ST  (replace Fame for our game, Nina)

Essentially this is Fame for characters who've yet to reach adulthood and are still traveling in rather small, but well known cultures within their own community. Your character is well known among a particular clique of people. He could be popular for his money, personal accomplishments, a stroke of blind luck, or perhaps for being the friend or lover of someone with more Popularity (often know as popularity bleed, or popular by proxy).

• The character is well known within a small subculture in their neighborhood (like their school) or among select members of their home town's adult leadership (like community leaders, or faculty from their school). Whether well earned or not, the characters reputation grants them certain perks, like avoiding getting trouble or being allowed to stay later someplace after hours and 'lock up when you're done'.

•• The character is either instantly recognizable to all members of his local community, like the small town quarterback who threw the winning pass last season, or the entire county in which he/she dwells. The county sheriff whose been around for years would be a prime example of two dots of county-wide popularity

••• Your character's popularity is now at a statewide level, perhaps a governor or an athlete who has brought quite a bit of accolades in the states name either recently or in the past few years.

When choosing the Edge, define what your character is known for (star athlete, down home girl next door, scholastic ace, local rich guy). Each dot provides 1 Enhancement to any social actions among those who are impressed by their status.

Drawback: Any attempts to find or identify your character gain 1 Enhancement per dot of the Edge. Also, he may have several 'hangers on' or be followed by people who just want to mooch of their popularity. Characters with Popularity, like the Fame Edge, cannot possess the Covert Edge or the Anonymous Enhanced Edge. Also, if you or someone else is part of 'popularity bleed' they can not possess more Popularity dots than the person who made them popular.

PSIONIC

These  new Edges are available to Psions.

STRONG MODE (•••)

Prerequisites: Psion only and at least one dot in that Mode Your character has great potential in one Mode of her powers. She can increase the number of dots she can have in this Mode by one and gains 2 Enhancement when using this Mode. This Enhancement can be spent to overcome difficulty or purchase elements of a power as normal or can be spent to increase one aspect of the power governed by Psi or Mode dots at one step per enhancement.

This Edge can only be taken once.

FAVORED APTITUDE (•••)

Prerequisite: Psions only, must have at least one dot in the Aptitude Your character excels at using a particular Aptitude. She gains 1 Enhancement when using any Modes from this Aptitude. This Enhancement can be spent to activate a power, overcome difficulty, or purchase elements of a power as normal.

This Edge can only be taken once.

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LANGUAGES

Characters can learn one extra language per dot in Intellect after 2, plus 1 language per dot in Humanities.  Photographic Memory adds it's dots to the number of languages learnable, and Photographic Memory 3 additionally doubles the overall figure.  Custom Edges and certain Talent or Superior abilities can further extend this number.

This does not mean your character starts with a full complement of languages.  You are a teen who grew up in small town Montana.  Consider carefully your character and what languages they may possess.

Learning a Language

This is a Complex task, requiring a roll of Intellect & Humanities and taking a week for each milestone.  The number of successes required is decided upon by the GM, taking into account factors such as: available tutor vs using books and recordings, links to existing languages known (Learning Spanish is easier if you know French), and so on.  Enhancements to the roll come from Photographic memory (+ Rating), speed reading (+1), and any other applicable source.

Make a number of rolls until the requisite number of successes have been attained, and then that many weeks from the current point in the story, so long as the learning process is continued and referred to in the writing, your character can add the language to their sheet.

 If you don't have any free language slots, then you also have to pay 3XP at the end of the learning period in order to 'lock in' the language.

Practice

The GM reserves the right to make a character roll Intellect + Humanities to speak a language they 'know' if they haven't practiced it recently, or spoken the language with a native speaker before.  All relevant enhancements apply, but just because you know a language does not mean you're always going to be word-perfect.  YMMV.

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  • 1 month later...

How dice rolls work In Trinity

Your Dice pool generally consists of one Attribute + one Skill. This is normally several dice that fall within a range between 2 to 11 dice. Spending Momentum can add additional dice to your dice pool on occasion.

The GM sets a difficulty (the default is 1) which is the number of success needed for the FULL success of the task. No successes generated is generally a failure, but not always. No success can also create complications while prolonging the task. Failure also creates consolation which is usually a point or two of momentum or some other unexpected result. Failing a Dice roll will always generate 1 momentum at minimum up to the maximum Momentum allowed.

Botches occur if zero success are rolled and one of your dice comes up with a 1. A botch is a complete failure usually with unforeseen consequences. A Botch always generates 2 Momentum

 

Enhancements and Complications

An Enhancement is some factor of the circum­stances or equipment that makes a challenge or con­flict easier. Some Edges also provide Enhancements. If a player rolls at least one success, they can take ad­vantage of any Enhancements relevant to the task at hand. Each point of Enhancement adds one success to the total number of successes. If doing two things at once, the player divides their Enhancements and uses the successes toward accomplishing the tasks relevant to them. If an Enhancement does not spe­cifically apply to what the character is doing, the player can’t use it.

Depending on how powerful or useful the Enhancement is, it may add more than one success.

ENHANCEMENT

VALUE

CIRCUMSTANCE EXAMPLE

EQUIPMENT EXAMPLE

1

Minor

The programming language is familiar

Damn fine coffee

2

Notable

You’ve been recommended for the job

Step-by-step instructions

3

Significant

A security guard tells you all about how they protect the place you want to infiltrate

A video perfect for blackmail

4

Major

You get secret access to the se­curity feeds

Zero-day exploit for a computer hacker

5+

Extreme

You act guided by prescience

A space shuttle

 

COMPLICATIONS

Few tasks are straightforward; unforeseen circum­stances and additional challenges arise. These are Complications, or special hindrances that require successes to overcome. A Complication is separate from the overall Difficulty of the task and does not af­fect whether or not the character completes the task. They are a great way for the Storyguide to make a task trickier to complete, without increasing the Difficulty or making it impossible to do. Complications inflict disadvantages, such as an Injury, a new problem, or increased Difficulty down the road, if a player doesn’t deal with them. For example, if a character is climbing over a fence, the barbed wire across the top would be a Complication. The character can get over the fence; the question is whether or not to spend a moment — and a success — tossing his jacket over the wire at the top to keep from slicing his hands open. Or, while escaping an underground prison, a fellow prisoner spots the character and starts yelling at her to help him, too. The character can ignore him even though his shouts will alert the guards, or she can take a moment and spend successes to either silence or break him out as well.

Each Complication has its own level of sever­ity. A trivial Complication requires one success to overcome it. A major Complication requires five or more. The barbed wire in the above example is a +1 Complication. The fellow prisoner is a +3.

 

STUNTS

Stunts allow players to spend extra successes to better their character’s position or further their goal. A Stunt must link back to the character’s ac­tion and can take one of three basic forms: compli­cate, enhance, or defend.

A complicate Stunt creates a Complication for the opposition. The level of this Complication is equal to the number of successes devoted to it. An enhanced Stunt creates an Enhancement that you can use for another action, whether that’s your character’s next action (using a different Skill) or to aid another character. Again, the number of suc­cesses you spend on the Stunt indicates how many successes the Enhancement gives you. It’s like giving yourself or someone else some successes for later.

Finally, a defend Stunt puts the character in a de­fensive posture. This provides Difficulty to attack or hit your character equal to the number of success­es devoted to it. Defensive actions may have other Stunts you can purchase instead of basic defense.

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Weirder Stuff Psionics

In Weirder Stuff we do not have Prometheus chambers or paranoid aliens curbing the human races potential for psionic development, therefore we do not have the normal Psiads or Psions of the core Trinity universe. Instead what we have are persons capable of achieving the true psionic potential of the human race.

Psionic powers have been with us virtually for the entire history of the species, cropping up as mutations in individuals but never becoming a dominant trait. It is without doubt the origins of witches and wizards and any number of fantastic and often horrific myths, even the legends of the ancient gods could have been created by the possibility of psionic ability in some prehistoric person whose deeds became legend.

In the last century science and the human mind started to catch up. Psionics while not proven became at least an academic reality and in some very dark secret corners an unreliable weapon of a cold war. Today in at least one holdover experiment of that long-ago cold war, things are about to occur which will change the world forever.

Changes from the Aeon Rules

Aptitudes and Modes

Psionic abilities are divided into eight themes, called Aptitudes. Each Aptitude expresses one aspect of the noetic totality — a term to describe the full range of possi­ble noetic powers. Every Aptitude contains three aspects called Modes, giving psions different path­ways to explore in developing their command of Psi. Aptitudes overlap at points, expressing similar effects in different ways. For example, electrokinet­ics and vitakinetics can both temporarily enhance mental acuity, but each uses a different method. Electrokinetics boost the electrical signals in their brains while vitakinetics directly enhance their nerve cells.

Unlike the Trinity Aeon Psions the WS psions can learn all of the aspects of Noetic Totality, at least to a degree.

 Each Psion choses a primary Aptitude and two Favored Auxiliary Aptitudes, her Noetic template is built around these.

The Primary Aptitude has no level restriction and can eventually allow the Psion to achieve Master (proxy) level as dictated by their Psi score.  Favored Auxiliary Aptitudes are limited to level 4 in their Modes.  All other Modes are Auxiliary and are limited to level 3 in their modes

If a Psion progresses all the way to Mastery of his Primary Aptitude, then his auxiliary aptitudes, both favored and standard, may then be raised with xp expenditure an additional level (4 to 5 and 3 to 4) but that is the limit any Psion can reach without artificial means.

 Because of the broader access a Psion has to a wider variety of abilities and to reflect the fact that in essence your characters are learning and discovering your powers as you go, there are no road maps, no teachers, no real text books, only your own ability and imagination to show you and teach you what to do. Your characters are the pioneers.  Because of this, learning and growing is harder.

Each Psion starts with a psi score of 3. If you do not start with Quantakinetics or Teleport you may, if you wish, lower your Psi Rating to 2 and raise a single attribute by 1 dot. You may not lower your Psi rating to a 1.

WS Psions do not receive the added attribute dot for Prometheus enhancement.

Each Psion receives 1 dot in a Primary Aptitude mode of her choice and 4 additional dots which she may place in any Primary or Favored Auxiliary Aptitude Mode. Each character already has his 3 Aptitudes chosen; however, you may change your primary (the power you have been sort of using) for either of the others of your chosen three. All the other aptitudes are standard aptitudes for these characters. You may not put any of these dots in a Standard Auxiliary Mode at this time. Keep in mind your mode balance to stave off psionic dysfunction.

Psion characters may access any relevant edges found in the core book or the Aeon book.

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  • Nina pinned this topic

MOMENTUM

Using momentum in PbP is problematic at best if you follow the standard rules thus I am implementing the following changes.

1) Each Session the Momentum pool will start with Momentum equal to twice the number of PC, for us, at the moment that means 24 Momentum per Session. The maximum pool size is 3 X the starting pool size.

2) A player may use up 6 momentum without consulting the group.

3) when it is necessary to consult the group  for the use of more than 6 momentum, make your request to whomever is currently in Discord. If they agree you may use up half of the amount of momentum currently in the pool. If the current pool is 6 or less you may use  all of it.

4) Outside of combat, any successful roll will always generate 1 point of momentum to add to the pool. Even if momentum was used to make the roll. Excess successes not used for a roll may be added to the pool up to the maximum 

5) I may reward Momentum outside of combat for things that would not normally reward Momentum, such as good rp.

Remember, Momentum can be spent to increase dice pools , to power Skill Tricks, to reduce the target number she needs to achieve successes,  to increase her Scale of action, or allow her to purchase a Stunt.

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Talents

Inspiration costs for such a small resource is very high and in a mixed campaign where Psions and Novas may also be present severely limit the usefulness of a talent character. In an attempt balance this I am considering a change in the way gifts work to make things a little more balanced. Currently gifts cost inspiration based on what their duration is, with a basic always on/passive gift which gives a minor situational benefit being Constant and costing no inspiration where as a momentary duration gift which last for at most a turn and gives an active bonus costs inspiration to activate.

Under this new rule which for which we will give a trial basis to see how it works.

Any gift that would normal cost one or more inspiration points now only requires that a talent have that many points in her Inspiration pool. as long as the points are available it only takes an Inspiration test with the Inspiration points available acting as the dice pool. As long as one success is gained the gift activates. Momentum may be spent on this roll. excess successes may in some cases generate enhancements but this will be determined by the ST on a case by case basis.

Under this rule Inspiration points are only spent to make Dramatic Editing, Extraordinary Effort, Intuitive Action, Reflective Action, or Talented Defense (more information on these can be found on Pg 153 of the Core book), reducing the available Inspiration Dice pool accordingly.

note we will implement this on a trial basis during the next chapter session coming up.

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Everyone seems to have a grasp on Long term Aspirations, but we are still having problems with short term and that is no one fault.

Aspirations are a player’s goals for his character, not necessarily the character’s own goals. A player wants his charac­ter to get into a fist fight, even though his charac­ter might be the kind of person to abhor physical confrontations. Aspirations are story moments a player wants to see happen.

Aspirations should always push action, not re­strict it. This means that players should phrase their Aspirations as something to do rather than some­thing to not do. “Don’t get into a fight” removes a character from action. In contrast, “Use your words for once” keeps the character in a potential conflict, but nudges them toward using a different resolution tactic than usual.

A short-term Aspiration is something a charac­ter can achieve in a single session. The Aspiration may be a Scene a player wants to see happen, an ability he wants to use, or a character moment he thinks would be interesting or cool.

Examples: Use your words for once, Solve it with science!, Have a heart to heart with a teammate, Snag a big scoop, Coax a secret from a mark. This kind of aspiration can begin with “I want a scene…”

A long-term Aspiration is something that takes multiple sessions to achieve and is related to one of the character’s Paths. A long-term Aspiration may be how a player would like to see his character grow or change.

Examples: Betray the Transcendent Alliance, Build a working freeze ray, Bring Jackal’s kill­er to justice, Find my twin sister

I have fallen down on aspirations a lot of that is simply because There is so many of you and so much to keep trak of this is why I want everyone to make a second Spoiler in their signature with only the current aspirations. This way I and everyone else can easily locate the aspirations of everyone without having to wade through sheets.

 

You can have up to 5 active short term aspirations and 2 long term at one time. Once and aspiration is fulfilled it needs to be removed and another may be added. You should always have at least 2 short and 1 long active.

 

I will try to do better at keeping track and creating scenes and situations that can involve your aspirations going forward.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Psionic Investment

No, not bugging Cassie to give you hot stock tips.  Investing the Psi points you spend in a power makes it's Duration effectively Permanent - provided it possesses a Duration.  Investing the points means they do not regenerate, effectively lowering your Psi Points pool until you switch off the ability and allow yourself to recover the points.

If relevant, any successes you roll when activating the power apply whenever it is used during this time.  The Investment does not end when a character sleeps (you don't need to reactivate the power every time you sleep), however if they are forcibly rendered unconscious by any means (or killed, naturally) the Investment is terminated.

IMPORTANT:  Book-keeping wise, you are expected to mark off the Investment on your sheet from your total Psi Points, with a note next to that indicating which power(s) you have Invested points in and (if relevant) how many succs you rolled for it.  If it's not on your sheet, it hasn't happened.  Bear in mind that even powers with 0 Psi Point cost still take 1 Psi to Invest.

Example:  Sean uses Electromanipulation 3: Enhancement, to raise each of his Mental attributes to 7 with a decent roll.  He Invests the 1 Psi it costs, and now has Mental atts of 7 until such time as he allows the active power to drop, has it interrupted, or is forcibly rendered unconscious.  He makes the note on his sheet, including noting the temporary changes to his attributes and maximum Psi pool.

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  • 3 months later...

Guidelines for Skill Levels & What They Mean in Real Terms.

1- You know the basics. You've read some shit, studied it a little, practiced a bit, got your orange belt in Tae Kwon Do.

2- Competent. High-school level in an academic subject. Can hold down a job using the skill, if you're not picky. Amateur league athlete.

3- Graduate. Highly trained / knowledgeable. Specialist in a field (fits because you get Specs at 3+). A professional athlete or boxer.

4- Doctorate. Leader in the field. Possibly multiple specialties. Champion athlete / Olympic class.

5- One of the best in the world. You write the books that Professors use. You innovate years ahead of others. You're the GOAT, Muhammed Ali style.

 

"But GDB, you sex-god amongst men," I hear you say.  "how does this amazing roundup translate to my character?"  Take a seat on my knee, oh voices in my head, and I shall provide an example:

Devin has an Athletics of 3.  He could, with that general level of training and skill, compete in track and field or play football at the college level, maybe even the National.  He'd need to work on his Attributes a little, maybe raising Stamina to 4 to represent the conditioning needed, but Skill-wise he's competitive in that field.  In Gymnastics, his Specialisation adding a dot in that narrow field, he's National level and could try out for the Olympics.  Again, extra physical conditioning would be a good idea - those guys and girls are in perfect human shape.  But he's extremely skilled.

Charlie has an Empathy of 4 and Persuasion of 4.  On paper, there is little about human nature that is a mystery to him.  He can, in the course of a conversation, become someone's best buddy, by reading them and then portraying himself to match what they like.  He can help people with mental trauma by understanding their pain and then talking them through it, helping them break down the pain and overcome it.  He could pick up chicks in a nunnery.  At least, on paper he can.

Autumn has Survival 4.  She's Davina Crockett.  She can calm a spooked animal, track a deer across rocky ground, move with great stealth, find water and forage for edible roots.  You could drop this girl in the middle of the northern Canadian wilderness and she'd walk out a few weeks later and then have her grizzly bear friend kick your ass for it.

Kat - "SQUIRREL!"  

...Okay, okay.  Kat has an Integrity of 3.  She's strong-willed, hard to push around when her mind is made up, not given to easily quit on her friends or her values.  Her specialty of Stubborn takes that to another level - if she can find sufficient focus, this girl won't quit at all.  You could kill her, but you couldn't beat her.

Hopefully this gives an baseline idea of how I see skills, levels, and how they function, independently of attributes.  Feel free to discuss in Discord or the OOC thread - this is a WIP after all.

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  • 1 year later...

Attunement, Corruption, & Radiance (Shine)

Under the standard rules in Aeon, those with Psi can use Attunement (Psi + Highest Mode) to detect Psi, bioware and Psi powers being used within their radius.  The presence of Corruption also causes those with Psi to experience discomfort, described as pressure behind the eyes or an oily, slick sensation in their heads.  Attunement cannot detect Talents or Superiors.

For Weirder Stuff, the cosmology changes a little and thus so does the way Attunement works.  Corruption and the powers of the Corrupted come from the Dark, and the powers of the PCs and those like them come from Radiance (colloquially known as Shine).  As a result the following house rules apply:

All those empowered by Radiance can feel the presence of Corruption when it is close at hand, even Talents and Superiors, though they will experience it as a feeling of vague unease or wrongness, perhaps easily missed or dismissed as something else, rather than a defined physical sensation as the Psions do.

Psions can detect Superiors (who feel like strong unfocused sources of Radiance) and Talents (who feel like more diffuse versions of Superiors) with the same roll they'd use to detect Psi or bioware.  Superiors and Talents can detect Psions if they are very close or touching them - it feels like pleasant electricity, warmth or coolness, a prickle on the skin.  Superiors and Talents can feel each other’s presence if touching and they know what to focus on - something that comes from practice rather than random discovery.

How Talents and Superiors affect Attunement Links:

Talents give an enhancement to all Psi uses that reflect their primary Facet, at a rate of +1 enhancement per dot.  Each such use of this ability drains 1 Inspiration.

Superiors are raw power reserves of Radiance.  They affect Psi rolls much as Quantakinetics do when in a link, but can only do this Stamina+ Health Levels times in a given scene before becoming Taken Out and falling unconscious.

Superiors and Talents cannot receive buffs through Attunement - the ability to draw on such a link is Psion-only.

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