Aberrant RPG - Post your Quantum Powers and Enh. here

[Alex Green]

I'm more worried about it's use in combo with Mastered powers... it's like a "mastery for everything". On the other hand nodespark is like "powermax for everything".

[Centimane]

Here's a little something new for your collective consideration:

Name: Power Puppetry

Level: 3

Quantum Minimum: 4

Dice Pool: Manipulation + Power Puppetry

Range: (Quantum + power rating) x 5 meters

Duration: variable

Area: N/A

Effect: Allows the remote activation and temporary control of other novas’ powers.

Multiple action: yes

Description: Similar to Quantum Imprint, Power Puppetry allows a nova to use the powers of other novas around them. However, Power Puppetry does not allow the nova to copy the powers of other novas as Quantum Imprint does. Instead, the nova can remotely activate and (to a limited degree) control any power possessed by the target of this power. It is important to note, however, that while a nova using Power Puppetry does have control of her victim’s powers, the powers themselves are still in the possession of the victims. This means that once the nova has used Power Puppetry to activate and control a target power, she can never have more dice or auto-successes in that power than the victim does, no matter how many successes achieved on the Puppetry roll. Also, note that while this power can be used against any power or mega-attribute Enhancement (but not against Mega-Attributes themselves), the nova using this power must first be aware that her target actually possesses the power or enhancement in the first place. Power Puppetry in no way grants any abilities to perceive or detect the powers or abilities of other novas (or anything else for that matter).

To use Power Puppetry the nova rolls Manipulation + Power Puppetry vs. the victims Willpower + Quantum and declares which single power possessed by the victim she wishes to commandeer. The net successes from this roll determine the degree of control the nova has over her victim’s powers, and for how long. 1-2 successes allows the nova to use only the victim’s rating in the target power on the power roll. 3-4 successes allows the nova to include the victim’s appropriate base Attribute in the power roll, but not any appropriate mega-attribute or automatic successes gained from Quantum.

5 successes grants the nova full access to any and all appropriate dice/auto-successes for the power roll.

By default, and assuming the nova has succeeded on her power roll, she may then activate and use the power for one turn or action (whichever is less). Even powers with a duration of Maintenance or Concentration may only be used for one turn or action. However, the nova is free to use the target power in any way she desires, subject to the power’s normal limitations and weaknesses. Any successes achieved over the first 5 may be used to extend the nova’s control of the target power by one turn or action per success if the power in question has a natural duration of more than one turn. Instant powers may not be activated multiple times with a single use of Power Puppetry no matter how many successes are rolled. The first 5 successes achieved on a Power Puppetry roll must always be put towards control of the target power, only after full control has been established may the nova apply extra successes towards extending the duration.

If the nova attempts to use Power Puppetry on the same target multiple times in a single scene, the victim gains one automatic success on her Willpower + Quantum roll to resist its effects for each attempt after the first.

Some final notes: forcing a target to activate one of her powers also causes her to expend the necessary quantum points for each use. However, unless the nova achieves more than 4 successes on her Puppetry roll, the victim is treated as though she is using her power at half strength (thus saving 1 quantum point). Because of this, if the victim does not have enough quantum points in her pool to activate the targeted power, then Power Puppetry will have no effect. Also, while Power Puppetry does allow control of other novas' powers, those powers are still coming from those other novas. Thus a Quantum Bolt defined as "Laser Eyes" may not be used to fire upon someone standing directly behind the victim, nor would the nova be able to use her victim's Telepathy to learn her enemies' darkest secrets. Finally, because Power Puppetry incorporates a certain degree of mental control over its victims, powers like Psychic Shield may be added to the resistance roll. As always, the ST has final say on what is or is not possible for any use of Power Puppetry.

Extras: Enhanced effect (if the nova possesses the appropriate attributes at a higher level than her victim, she may substitute her own ratings in these attributes in place of the victim's), Multiple Targets (the nova may target multiple victims or powers, dividing up her successes between between different victims and powers as she desires).

[metaphysician]

That should be limited to powers only, not mega-attributes. None of the mega-atts could be so controlled without amounting to full Domination.

[Sprocket]

Re: Mega-Willpower-

Ironically, this concept is something I've been incessantly tinkering with over the last 5 years or so. I'd been holding onto this material in hopes of getting it into an EON fanbook, but I might as well let you folks look it over. ::smile I'm not too sure how well it'd mesh with Psilord's take on the concept, but I don't think it'd clash badly.

AFA which novas can develop this Mega-Attribute & to what rating, I'd suggest that one's level of permanent Taint act as a limiter. There's no reason why the Taint-monkey aberrants should have Mega-WP when their base WP is already so greatly impaired by the Taint. That way, Mega-WP can act as a possible way to counterbalance the Taint-monkeys' excessively rapid growth in their quantum capabilities. Whether or not novas who reduce their Taint via Chrysalis could develop Mega-WP is an open question, though I'd be dubious about it.

Re: Mega-Willpower document update-

I'd been meaning to update the "Solitaire" enhancement in my version of Mega-WP, but had lost the updated version until just a few minutes ago. I've replaced the prior version of the document with the current one. Apologies for the mixup.

EDIT: See Post #461 for latest version of this document. ::wink

[Anon]

Just downloaded it, but I have to head out to class shortly, so I only gave it a quick once over, but from what I saw, nice work. You might want to check your attachment Sprocket. When I downloaded it, it came down with a .rtx rather than .rtf, but other than that, very nice work.

My friends and I once downloaded from a webpage a set of rules for Mega-Willpower and -Abilities, and I can easily say that yours are a lot better, in terms of both quantity and quality.

[Centimane]

That should be limited to powers only, not mega-attributes. None of the mega-atts could be so controlled without amounting to full Domination.

Sorry, I thought I made it clear in the power description, but I can see that I didn't. Regarding Mega-Attributes: Power Puppetry cannot "force" a victim to punch someone or dodge an attack, but it can activate the victim's Crush or Quickness enhancements for example. Obviously, this is of somewhat limited use since the victim is still in full control of her limbs, but assuming that the victim was about to strike an opponent that they only wanted to bruise, having Crush mysteriously activate on them could cause problems (this would only work if the Puppeteer activated Crush in the previous round, of course).

I'll edit the post to make things clearer.

[Sprocket]

Re: Attachement file format-

::confused Everything looks fine on my end, friend. AFAICT, my attachment shows as a .rtf file. If there's a problem, it's likely with whatever machine and/or software that you're using. ::smile

Re: Previous atempts at Mega-WP-

I know the webpage you're referring to, Anon. Yeah, the low quality of that material was the main reason I went ahead cooked up my own version of Mega-WP. Of course, quality concerns were also the reason I'd been tinkering with my version of it for so long, too.

Re: Another forgotten update-

Here's the v2.0 of the "Affirmative Activity" Mega-WP enhancement, which has had some serious loopholes closed. It's been nearly a year since I made this updated version, so t took me a while to dig it up. ::wink

Affirmative Activity v2 (Mega-Willpower)

Similar to novas with the Restorative Activity enhancement (from Aberrant: The New Flesh), novas with Affirmative Activity have also learned how to make engaging in a favored activity into an reinvigorating experience. The difference is that where novas with Restorative Activity refresh themselves physically, novas with Affirmative Activity can refresh themselves emotionally and spiritually. This enhancement not only restores confidence and soothes mental stress, but also grants the nova a powerful sense of purpose.

System: In its basic form (one level), this enhancement allows the nova to regain [Mega-Willpower] points of temporary Willpower for each period (60 minutes/ Mega-Willpower, rounded up) spent engaging in his favored activity (chosen by the player, with Storyteller approval). With two levels of this enhancement, the nova can regain 1 point of permanent Willpower per period of engaging in his chosen activity. He is also incapable of becoming numbed in any way (physically, psychologically, or emotionally) to the experience of his favored activity. The chosen activity of the nova can be any sort of sport, hobby, or other recreational pastime, even ones that most people would consider strenuous in the extreme. However, the chosen activity cannot be one for which the nova would have to spend quantum points to engage in. Actual combat is also prohibited from being a chosen activity for use with this enhancement. Engaging in the chosen activity will never be tiring for the nova; if he's interrupted before he can gain the benefits of this enhancement, it still refreshes him the way a brief catnap would a normal human (no real game effect). It's possible for the nova to have more than one special pastime, but he will have to purchase this enhancement separately for additional pastimes. This enhancement is always on and costs no quantum to use.

[Centimane]

All I have to say Sprocket is: "why didn't I think of that?!" ::brick ::blush ::biggrin

I really like your write-up! Very comprehensive. Very flexible.

Of course the fact that your Mega-Willpower pretty much buries my own Iron Will in a shallow grave means I'll probably never be able to show my face on this thread again from sheer embarrasment! ::blush ::glare ::happy

Just kiddin'!

Glutton for punishment that I am, I'll probably be back for more eventually....

[Alex Green]

The "spending willpower without spending willpower" part is seriously broken. It's like one autosucc on anything once per turn. ::blink

If you really feel the need for something like this then just spend "temp mega-willpower" for 2 autosucc, but recovery of mega-willpower only happens if your willpower pool is full.

[Centimane]

The "spending willpower without spending willpower" part is seriously broken. It's like one autosucc on anything once per turn. ::blink

If you really feel the need for something like this then just spend "temp mega-willpower" for 2 autosucc, but recovery of mega-willpower only happens if your willpower pool is full.

I got the impression that this only worked for enhancements that required a Willpower roll. All other types still required temp willpower. Maybe I misread, tho? ::confused

[Sprocket]

I'm assuming that you're talking about the "Self-Confidence" facet of my version of Mega-WP, yes?

If so, Alex is right in that it's (currently) geared to augment all Willpower rolls that require spending temp WP, not just those made with one of the Mega-WP enhacements (as Cottus suggested).

My original thoughts on this were that since a Mega-WP nova still has only the amount of temp WP granted by his base WP rating, he would therefore become more efficient in using that limited resource. The only other option was to grant Mega-WP novas a larger-than-human pool of temp WP points, but I decided that would've been too complicated.

Remember, a lot of novas won't be in the 8-10 WP range. 6 temp WP points can be used up pretty quickly, & there's no quick way to regain them, barring certain Mega-WP enhancements.

This might be "fixed" if it's truly broken - but in light of how the other Mega-Attributes stack up against their base Attributes, I don't really see it as being any more "broken" than Mega-Strength or Mega-Stamina. ::smile

[Alex Green]

>Self-Confidence: Whenever the Mega-Willful nova spends a Willpower point to gain an automatic success, her self-confidence can allow her to gain the benefit of that expenditure without actually losing the Willpower point. The Mega-Willful nova will only lose the Willpower point she spends if she does not gain any natural successes on the Willpower roll.

Thus, if my willpower is 10 and I have a dot of Mega-Willpower, I get a free automatic succ on all actions unless I don't get a 7+ on 10 dice. That happens 0.6% of the time, or if I do this 166 times a day I'll spend on average 1.0 willpower.

Basically it's the equiv of 1.1 Mega-Dice in every Attribute as far as rolling skills, including combat skills, except it doesn't have the quirkiness of rolling dice.

[metaphysician]

>Self-Confidence: Whenever the Mega-Willful nova spends a Willpower point to gain an automatic success, her self-confidence can allow her to gain the benefit of that expenditure without actually losing the Willpower point. The Mega-Willful nova will only lose the Willpower point she spends if she does not gain any natural successes on the Willpower roll.

Thus, if my willpower is 10 and I have a dot of Mega-Willpower, I get a free automatic succ on all actions unless I don't get a 7+ on 10 dice. That happens 0.6% of the time, or if I do this 166 times a day I'll spend on average 1.0 willpower.

Basically it's the equiv of 1.1 Mega-Dice in every Attribute as far as rolling skills, including combat skills, except it doesn't have the quirkiness of rolling dice.

This could be adjusted, to make it more fair, by making that 'one net success.'

IOW, if you spend WP on an action that, overall, fails, you lose the point.

[Sprocket]

So in accordance with metaphysician's idea, the Self-Confidence facet would look like this:

">Self-Confidence: Whenever the Mega-Willful nova spends a temporary Willpower point to gain an automatic success, her self-confidence can allow her to gain the benefit of that expenditure without actually losing the point. The Mega-Willful nova will only lose the Willpower point she spends if she does not gain at least one net success on the roll in question."

Hmm. That looks good in print, but howsabout the mechanics? Is this more reasonable from your viewpoint, Alex? ::smile

[Alex Green]

Not really. If we assume any skill level at all then we are presumably talking about a min of 6 dice (although we could be dealing with megas as well). With 6 dice we are talking about a failure rate of 4.7% or less than one time out of 20. So his normal willpower level is 21 times as good as a normals.

Worst case for Willpower Lad is he has to spend a point of willpower to avoid a Botch (which is *still* a really good thing). Best case is he actually has skill in the abilities he is trying to use, for example in combat he's probably rolling 10 dice (which puts us back were we started).

Mathematically Mega-Dice are twice as good as normal dice. Just let him spend a temp mega-willpower point for 2 succ.

[Sprocket]

Hmm. The "2 successes for 1 temp WP point" solution does give a Mega-WP nova more "bang for his buck", so it will likely make it into the upcoming revised version of my document. Consider that change made, Alex. ::thumbup1

However, it still doesn't address the fact that at most, a Mega-WP nova will still only have a temp WP pool of 10 points. For some reason, that limitation just doesn't mesh very well (in my mind, at least) with the concept of a being with a superhuman/inhuman amount of Willpower. The WP-restoring enhancements I've cooked up are all very well, but it's still only replenishing a baseline-comparable innate faculty.

So how about this: Should Mega-WP novas have an increased pool of temp WP points? I'm thinking they should get either 1 or 2 additional temp WP points per dot of Mega-WP. It may sound excessive at first, but if the limitation against Taint-monkey novas having Mega-WP is used, it really will equalize things for the non-Taint monkeys by way of comparison. ::smile

[Alex Green]

If they can spend Mega-Willpower then their pool is already Will + Mega-Will.

As for increasing their pool, I suggest you either increase their pool, OR let them spend mega-will, OR give them other ways to recover willpower.

[Sprocket]

Well, there's not any such thing as "Mega-WP points" in my version of Mega-WP, so "spending Mega-WP points" isn't an option. As things currently stand, the WP points they get from their base WP are all they get. In comparison to the extra Soak granted by Mega-Stamina, it looked sort of weak to me. ::smile As for alternate ways to regain WP points, I think I'll leave that strictly for the enhancements. So it looks like I'll be increasing the WP point pool a bit.

I will also formalize the details on how excessive permanent Taint (and possibly Chrysalis as well) can impair a nova's capacity for Mega-WP.

Expect the next revision soon. ::cool

[Psilord]

As for alternate ways to regain WP points,

You could just go with one aspect of what I suggested earlier:

Each dot of Mega-WP allows one additional automatic point of temporary willpower recovery each morning.

Spend 'em up each day, have 'em back in the morning!!!

It allows the nova to more freely spend temp WP for successes of whatever (you don't have to worry so much about recovery), but it doesn't give a bunch of extra WP points; so it wouldn't be too unbalancing.

[Sprocket]

Well, that angle's pretty well covered already, AFAICT. ::cool But thanks for the input. ::smile

[Sprocket]

Re: Latest revision of Mega-Willpower-

Okay folks, the changes have been made & polished. As you'll see, Mega-Willpower and serious levels of Taint do not mix well at all, as I'd suggested earlier. So I think the case for Mega-WP acting as a counterbalance to the easy power provided by Taint has been made. As for the question of the extra WP points provided by Mega-WP, I've worked out an equitable amount derived from the nova point costs of Mega-Attribute & Willpower dots. So the major bugs should be corrected now. ::smile

EDIT: The Mega-WP v1.6 document can be found on p. 36 of this thread.

[SkyLion]

Damn Sprocket! You put a lot of effort and thought into that. Kickass. Thanks.

[Sprocket]

Eh. Five years of tinkering in my spare time when I wasn't busy with other projects, plus a few days' worth of figuring out the best way to polish off a few bugs... It's not like it's been a rush project or anything. ::laugh ::smile

[Alex Green]

Some real gems in this Sproket, but also some overkill, broken, or off theme.

Review and add to Brute Force? Something else?

[Sprocket]

Re: "some real gems, some broken/off-kilter/off-theme"-

You're referring to the enhancements, I take it? I admit a few of them might be a bit overpowered, but I reject completely the idea that any of them are "off theme".

Re: My plans for this material-

::confused Brute Force?!? That book doesn't exist & never will. The book we've been working on is called "Aberrant: The New Flesh", remember? ::wink

As for this material, I wasn't planning on having it put into AB:TNF. We're including an appendix for the upper ranges (ratings 6+) of the Mental & Social Mega-Attributes, but that's really as far as we ought to stray from the book's focus on the Mega-Physicals & related topics.

If this material was incorporated into any EON fanbook for Aberrant, I'd prefer it to be one that incorporated the best unused stuff from this thread right here. But that's just my opinion. ::cool

As for reviewing this material, here & now's as good a place & time as any. Unless you've gotten news from Jess that the work on our current project is no longer experiencing RL interference & we can get back finishing it?

[Alex Green]

RE: TNF

Yes, yes, yes. ::blush

I admit a few of them might be a bit overpowered...

A bit.

As for reviewing this material, here & now's as good a place & time as any.

OK, let’s start with the generic “Mega-Willpower” base stuff.

I don’t think the default Mega-Willpower should be as buff as it is. We are already adding Mega-Dice to willpower rolls, that’s close to an extra succ right there. A single mega-die is 0.9 succ or +2.25 normal dice. That's already a lot.

Adding an addition [1] autosucc on top of that against mental powers and social stuff is double dipping. (It's an additional 2.5 normal dice, on top of the existing 2.25) That sort of thing should be a separate enhancement. Same comment for resisting torture and brainwashing. Same comment for resistance to pain.

Similarly, adding an addition 3X willpower to their pool seems over kill. Letting people have a separate, additional, pool of willpower (or Mega-willpower) is already pretty strong without tripling it.

RE: Quantum/Willpower conversion

Which enhancements are you talking about?

RE: Safety margin for maxing quantum powers.

The “Taint resistance” merit costs 6 bonus points. If we assume a 3exp for 1bp conversion, that’s 18 experience. This is much stronger and costs much less. *If* it exists at all (and eliminating botches for quantum events is a very game altering thing) then it shouldn’t be part of the basic package.

RE: Self-Confidence

Probably this should be limited to “Mega-Willpower” and not apply to normal willpower.

[Centimane]

A couple of things regarding Mega-Willpower:

Just for clarification's sake, when you want to use WP to add an extra success for a normal roll you still have to spend Willpower right? It's just for the enhancements for Mega-WP itself that you can spend a QP in place of WP. Is that correct?

Also, looking over the newest version, I was still struck by the Solitaire enhancement. I really like the idea for it a lot, but as it stands all I have to do is spend 3 NP on one dot of Mega-WP and choose Solitaire as my default enhancement and I'm (mostly) immune or indifferent to half the nastiest effects in the game. That seems too easy by far. I was wondering what you thought of of requiring levels for it, like the with the Rugged enhancement in the Compendium (this is yours too I believe)? If it took five or more levels to reach the full results of Solitaire listed in the post I'd have no real problem with it (especially if it had some kind of prerequisite Q level or something), but I think being able to forget about my Taint problems for all of 3 NP is a little much.

On a different note; I really like the Restraint enhancement! It's just really cool to me. Good job on that, for real. ::cool

[Alex Green]

RE: Solitaire

I was coming to that (doing these alphabetically ::happy ). It is extremely game altering, so much so that it probably needs to be Q-min 6, need 6 levels of Mega-stat.

The other thing I'd change about the default settings is the Min willpower needed to (5 + Number of dots) in Willpower (so to have a single dot in MW would require a willpower of 6). This would parallel the "Need a strength of 3 to have Mega-Strength 3" thing that we have.

And having a willpower of 1 with a Mega-Willpower of 1 just seems absurd.

[Sprocket]

Re: Solitaire-

Hmm. I'd intended this to be the Telluric equivalent of Adaptability & Autonomy (from Aberrant: Forceful Personalities). As such, It wasn't supposed to be of the same caliber as Rugged (which I do claim responsibility for - I'm not a total space nut. ::laugh ).

EDIT: Will have responses to your feedback tomorrow.

Re: Toning down the basics-

Will be evaluating your suggestions tonight, will have feedback on them for you later. ::smile

[Sprocket]

Re: Mega-Willpower basics-

>Resistance to mental powers, social stuff, brainwashing, torture & pain

I'm handling all these comments as a lump sum, since they all boil down to "1 autosuccess per dot of Mega-WP is too much".

The enhanced resistance to the above threats is (to me) a hallmark of what superhuman willpower is supposed to be all about, so it seems that toning down the resistance would be the answer.

So how about this:

Each dot of Mega-WP grants 1 extra die to resist mental powers, social (and Mega-Social) effects, brainwashing & torture, and reduces dice pool penalties derived from pain by 1 per dot.

>Additional WP points

Funny, that's what I thought the Mega-Attributes were supposed to be: an amplification of a natural human capability to levels beyond the capacity of normal humans. For the game mechanics translation of the "superhuman reserves of willpower" idea, an additional 3 WP points per dot of Mega-WP isn't that much, really. Look at the descriptions of the other Mega-Attributes - especially how they stack up against baseline Attribute scores - and tell me again why Mega-Willpower shouldn't dwarf normal Willpower in the same way?

Besides, AFAICT Willpower is the one trait where unaided normal humans can come within close range (at WP 10) of a Mega-Attribute at 1 dot.

>Quantum/Willpower conversion

The enhancements in question are: Excellence, Galvanize, the second level of Intractible, Lucidity, Sobriety (only to avoid falling prey to one's Compulsion), and Stoicism.

>Safety margin for maxing quantum powers

1- The cost of the "Taint Resistant" Merit (Aberrant Players Guide, p. 76) is 5 bonus points, not 6. That's pretty cheap compared to the 3 nova points it takes to get 1 dot of Mega-WP.

2- The "Taint Resistant" Merit only partially protects the nova from gaining Taint by botching attempts at power maxing and rapid recovery of quantum points. (If the nova gets 2 or more 1s on that power maxinf roll, he gets some temporary Taint. Failing a roll for Rapid Recovery means no Taint for the nova, while botching the roll only means he'll get 1 point of temporary Taint.) The "Safety Margin" facet of Mega-WP only prevents a certain number of 1s on a Power Maxing roll from being counted as botches. Not only is that a narrower effect, it does nothing to prevent the nova from gaining Taint from any botches he can't reduce. Apples & oranges.

3- As to whether the capacity to reduce one's botches on power maxing is sufficiently game-altering for it to be relegated to the enhancements? Color me dubious about that. If the Taint-monkeys are getting faster/easier power that they don't have full control of by accumulating Taint, then it only makes sense that Mega-WP novas would have superior control over what power they do have.

>Self-Confidence

Where do you keep getting this "Mega-WP points" concept from, friend? Mega-Willful novas have dots of Mega-Willpower, their base Willpower scores, and a varying number of Willpower points. There's no mention of any such thing as "Mega-Willpower points" in my material.

>Minimum WP required for Mega-WP

Alex said: "The other thing I'd change about the default settings is the Min willpower needed to (5 + Number of dots) in Willpower (so to have a single dot in MW would require a willpower of 6). This would parallel the "Need a strength of 3 to have Mega-Strength 3" thing that we have. And having a willpower of 1 with a Mega-Willpower of 1 just seems absurd."

Excerpted from Mega-WP v1.5: "A nova is limited to a maximum Mega-Willpower rating equal to either his base Willpower or his Quantum Trait -1, whichever is LOWER." (Emphasis & typo correction are mine.)

I see absolutely no reason why the change you're suggesting is required. Remember, for a nova with a Mega-Attribute, their base Attribute scores gauge the nova's capability within that level of the Mega-Attribute. As for a WP 1/Mega-WP 1 nova seeming absurd? It's no different from the Strength 1/Mega-Strength 1 nova they mentioned on p. 155 of the Aberrant core book. I think it's pathetic more than anything else, but it's still legal game-wise.

Re: Cottus' feedback-

Yes, you still have to spend a WP point to get that extra success for a normal roll. However, only a few enhancements allow you to spend QP to make WP rolls; see "Quantum/Willpower conversion", above. Also, I'm glad you liked the "Restraint" enhancement.

[Alex Green]

I don’t have my notes here (or the time to do this in detail so this isn’t complete).

Check me on this, if I have Mega-Willpower 2, Willpower 8, I’m rolling 10 dice (8d+2Md) on willpower rolls, right?

>Additional WP points

Re: Mega-Willpower basics-

>Resistance to mental powers, social stuff, brainwashing, torture & pain

I'm handling all these comments as a lump sum, since they all boil down to "1 autosuccess per dot of Mega-WP is too much".

The enhanced resistance to the above threats is (to me) a hallmark of what superhuman willpower is supposed to be all about, so it seems that toning down the resistance would be the answer.

So how about this:

Each dot of Mega-WP grants 1 extra die to resist mental powers, social (and Mega-Social) effects, brainwashing & torture, and reduces dice pool penalties derived from pain by 1 per dot.

Funny, that's what I thought the Mega-Attributes were supposed to be: an amplification of a natural human capability to levels beyond the capacity of normal humans. For the game mechanics translation of the "superhuman reserves of willpower" idea, an additional 3 WP points per dot of Mega-WP isn't that much, really. Look at the descriptions of the other Mega-Attributes - especially how they stack up against baseline Attribute scores - and tell me again why Mega-Willpower shouldn't dwarf normal Willpower in the same way?

Let’s look at the other Attributes, not the descriptions but the mechanics. Does normal Mega-Dex give +3 dice per dot for with everything related to Dex? Ignoring Mega-Strength, every Mega-Att gives a normal Mega-Die, and then has enhancements which pump it in odd ways. IMHO, Mega-Willpower should match the 8 Mega’s which give little but one mega die and then rely on enhancements to do the rest.

Look at the per dot adds for the other 8 normal Mega-Atts:

Mega-Dex gives a (very) little movement and (very) little pump to Init per dot.

Mega-Stamina gives –1 to difficulties from pain, +1 Bashing soak, and either +1 lethal soak or +1 health level.

Mega-Per gives nothing.

Mega-Int gives nothing.

Mega-Wits gives +1 Init per dot.

Mega-App gives +1 die for style.

Mega-Manip gives +1 die vs. Manipulation or Trickry

Mega-Chr gives nothing.

That is our base for comparison. 3 do nothing. 4 give +1 to something so limited it’s pretty close to nothing. Mega-Stamina isn’t bad but it has to compete with Mega-Strength.

Mega-Stamina is more or less limited to combat, Willpower is going to be omnipresent. Putting that a different way, +1 Mega-Die vs. Social Stuff, Torture, Taint, & Mental Aberrations is already extremely strong, and very comparable to Mega-Stamina.

And that's where we start.

>Minimum WP required for Mega-WP

Alex said: "The other thing I'd change about the default settings is the Min willpower needed to (5 + Number of dots) in Willpower (so to have a single dot in MW would require a willpower of 6). This would parallel the "Need a strength of 3 to have Mega-Strength 3" thing that we have. And having a willpower of 1 with a Mega-Willpower of 1 just seems absurd."

Excerpted from Mega-WP v1.5: "A nova is limited to a maximum Mega-Willpower rating equal to either his base Willpower or his Quantum Trait -1, whichever is LOWER." (Emphasis & typo correction are mine.)

I see absolutely no reason why the change you're suggesting is required. Remember, for a nova with a Mega-Attribute, their base Attribute scores gauge the nova's capability within that level of the Mega-Attribute. As for a WP 1/Mega-WP 1 nova seeming absurd? It's no different from the Strength 1/Mega-Strength 1 nova they mentioned on p. 155 of the Aberrant core book. I think it's pathetic more than anything else, but it's still legal game-wise.

The difference is that starting baseline Strength is 1, but starting Willpower is 3. I shouldn't be able to have a 3 willpower (out of 10, not 5) and then still have 3 dots in Mega-Willpower. Furhter, to have a Mega-Strength of 5, I need to have a Strength of 5 (normal baseline Max). But a willpower of 5 isn't even close to baseline max.

If we are going to allow a willpower 3 have Mega-Willpower, then the most they should be able to have is one dot. Hmm.. how about...

Min Willpower => Max Mega-Willpower

3 => 1

5 => 2

7 => 3

9 => 4

10 => 5

[Anon]

Question 'bout the Aberrant Powers Compendium by Sprocket.

On the powers page of the main site and on the Aberrant Powers Compendium link page there's a power called burn for life, but there isn't a power by that name in the compedium pdf. Was it something that was forgotten to be added to the pdf or was it something that was taken out of the pdf and someone forgot to take the link off the powers list?

Just wondering as I'm curious as to what the power does.

And if I might jump back to the power I posted in my initial post, Empower, I think the dice pool should just be Empower, instead of Empower + (other attribute)

The reason being is that with it just being based on Empower, you have a maximum DP of ten dice, so the potental results lie between no successes/1+ botches up to ten 10's. If it's based upon Empower + (other attribute) you have the possibility of having the effect doubled seventy times. That's pretty extreme, even if I made it a level six power.

So this way it would deal with the problem that Cottus Centimane pointed out, while keeping the effect from getting to extreme for the game to be able to handle.

What do you think? Is that good or does the power disrupt game balance to much. I can't play test the power since I haven't been able to find a new gaming group since I moved.

[Alex Green]

>Quantum/Willpower conversion

The enhancements in question are: Excellence, Galvanize, the second level of Intractible, Lucidity, Sobriety (only to avoid falling prey to one's Compulsion), and Stoicism.

Ah… I found the Quantum Conversion power to be very confusing in this reference.

>Safety margin for maxing quantum powers

1- The cost of the "Taint Resistant" Merit (Aberrant Players Guide, p. 76) is 5 bonus points, not 6.

Point.

That's pretty cheap compared to the 3 nova points it takes to get 1 dot of Mega-WP.

Actually no, it isn’t. For starters if it were cheap everyone would have it. Bonus points are rarer than Nova points and if you feel the need to convert them, then 7 for 5 is a better ratio.

But we still come back to how much exp it should take to buy that ability and 2 or 3 exp per bonus point is more accurate, so call it a level 3 power.

2- The "Taint Resistant" Merit only partially protects the nova…. Apples & oranges.

Fair enough.

Let me rephrase that then. Why should Mega-Willpower protect against Taint? Not mental aberrations mind you, but actually acquiring taint?

If the Taint-monkeys are getting faster/easier power that they don't have full control of by accumulating Taint, then it only makes sense that Mega-WP novas would have superior control over what power they do have.

Huh? Taint can cause insanity (game mechanism, mental aberrations and reduced willpower). Willpower helps counter the effects of insanity (as opposed to insanity itself).

As far as I can tell there is no other overlap between Willpower and Taint. For example the Taint Resist merit doesn’t involve willpower.

Taint leads to less Willpower. But that doesn’t imply that having high willpower actually prevents taint.

[Alex Green]

And if I might jump back to the power I posted in my initial post, Empower, I think the dice pool should just be Empower, instead of Empower + (other attribute)

As I understand it (and it may have been revised), Basically 1 succ in Empower gives "MASTERY" for any power you have.

So good, so far, it's Q8, Q8 powers are supposed to be extreme. Q-Authority and Q-Supreme do pretty much something similar.

Where it get's broken is with 4 succ you can basically give Mastery X3 on any power... including powers that already have Mastery. With 2 succ you give Mastery X2.

So I pay a point of willpower, slap down 3 succ, and my Q-Bolt + MASTERY becomes Q-Bolt + MASTERY x3 (more, really). There are reasons why Mastery x3 is limited to Q10.

Potential Solutions (use any or all):

1) Get rid of the doubling. Make it (Succ + 1) or (Succ/2 +1) X Original Effect.

2) Increase the costs, make using it cost a Perm Willpower dot.

3) Limit the number of Succ that can be applied to a power to the number of dots that the power already has.

4) Limit the effects to Mastery & it's Q-min. I.e. you can't pump a Q-Bolt to Mastery x3 unless you already have Q10.

5) Powers that already have Mastery on them have a +1 Diff per level of Mastery.

#4 is the most grim on this.

[Sprocket]

Re: "Burn for Life"-

That thing was put on the list for the Aberrant Compendium purely by mistake, Anon. AFAICT, the person responsible for that erroneous listing was CHILL.

Re: Alex's Mega-WP comments-

It'll take me a while to prepare my replies to all that.

Re: Solitaire-

The main objections to the current version of Solitaire seem to be:

1- the ability to purge the nova's own temporary Taint (and permanent Taint at Quantum & Mega-WP 6+),

2- the immunity to induced Taint,

3- the immunity to induced aberrations, and

4- the immunity to drugs/substances/devices that would hinder/negate/disrupt the nova's powers.

Looks like it's time to dig up the old outline I used to create "Autonomy", & adapt it for Solitaire's effects.

[Anon]

Thanks for the Suggestions Alex, I really liked 1. and 2. so incorperated them into Empower with some slight modification.

Now the revised Empower

Empower

Level: 5

Quantum Minimum: 8

Dice Pool: Willpower + Empower

Range: Self

Area: N/A

Duration: Special

Effect: Empowers the effect of the next power the Nova uses

Multiple Actions: Yes

Description: Empower lets a Nova temporarily achieve greater feats of power through their force of will.

System: The nova spends the required quantum and a temporary willpower point, roles their dice pool, and multiplies the effects of the next power used by the number of successes rolled from Empower

Examples:

Queball has Q-Bolt [lethal] 2, Quantum 8 and Willpower 5, giving him [Quantum (8) x 2] + [power rating (2) x 4} levels of damage, or 24 lethal. But before he shot off a bolt at his target, he rolled his Willpower (5) and Empower (3) and got three successes. His bolt now is 24 x 3 = 72 Lethal

Freeon has Force Field 4, Quantum 8, Stamina 3, Mega-Stamina 2, Empower 3 and Willpower 4. This gives him anywhere between 8 and 56 levels of soak. He rolls his willpower + Empower and gets four successes for Empower. He then rolls for his forcefield and gets five successes, so its soak is Quantum (8) + [2/success(5)] (10) = 18. Empowered it’s 18 x 4 = 72 soak.

Extras: Augmented Attributes (Allows the Nova to Empower Mega-Attributes and Enhancements), Prolonged (The Nova spends three temporary willpower points and rolls once for the entire scene, and uses the successes on every power used during the scene)

[Centimane]

Re: "Burn for Life"-

That thing was put on the list for the Aberrant Compendium purely by mistake, Anon. AFAICT, the person responsible for that erroneous listing was CHILL.

Re: Alex's Mega-WP comments-

It'll take me a while to prepare my replies to all that.

Re: Solitaire-

The main objections to the current version of Solitaire seem to be:

1- the ability to purge the nova's own temporary Taint (and permanent Taint at Quantum & Mega-WP 6+),

2- the immunity to induced Taint,

3- the immunity to induced aberrations, and

4- the immunity to drugs/substances/devices that would hinder/negate/disrupt the nova's powers.

Looks like it's time to dig up the old outline I used to create "Autonomy", & adapt it for Solitaire's effects.

I was thinking that all of that might be entirely appropriate if it came in "portioned amounts", meaning you had to buy multiple levels before it did everything listed in the original description. Also, some sort of Q-min for the higher levels would probably be best as well.

So maybe something like (and this is off the top of my head, so don't take this as hard and fast or anything):

Solitaire (x1)-you can survive without constant contact with humanity and use ambient quantum to generate "free" noetic energy, etc. etc. The character can add there rating in MWP to resistance rolls against drugs/substances/devices as listed in effect #4 above.

Solitaire (x2)-all of (x1) and character can add rating in MWP to resist the effects of strong "tainted" areas or strong noetic areas, and the affects of powers like aberration transfer.

Solitaire (x3)-all of (x1 and x2) and the character can add MWP to resist induced taint (maybe this should be where the "safety margin" thing should be.

Solitaire (x4)-all of above and the character can convert taint as listed in the description (though I still think this should be limited or restricted in some way by a character's Q level).

Anyway, those are just some quick thoughts, take 'em or leave 'em.

[Alex Green]

RE: Empower

Much, much better. Now it's only broken to the same extent that all L5 powers are broken.

RE: Empower + Extended

Don't we already use the word "Extended" for something?

On a side note, it'd really suck to have that, pay the 3 willpower, and then roll no succ. For the scene, all your powers would be times zero.

Also on a side note, I think you need to mention in there whether it lets you empower Mega-Stats & enhancements.

[Sprocket]

Re: Mega-Willpower basics-

>Comparing Mega-Attribute benefits-

The problem with your argument is that Mega-Willpower really can't be considered "normal", as it's based on Willpower. Even with the extra WP point reserves from Mega-WP, it's still a finite resource. This is due to Willpower being derived from the human noetic template, which I'll explain later on in this post.

Anyway, once the Mega-WP nova's WP point pool hits zero, he won't be any better at controlling himself (barring certain Mega-WP enhancements) than any other nova in that situation until he can recover some WP points. That isn't the case with the other Attributes you mentioned. A Mega-Intelligent nova is always Mega-Intelligent, regardless of how many quantum points he's got left in his quantum pool. Same thing for all the other Mega-Attributes.

Think of it as comparing a rocket (Mega-WP) to an ion propulsion drive (the "normal" Mega-Attributes). (I'm talking RL space propulsion drives, BTW.) The rocket goes like a bat out of hell until its fuel runs out. Once it's refueled it can thrust again, but until then it's S.O.L. OTOH, an ion propulsion drive doesn't provide nearly as much quick acceleration, but it can provide a small amount of thrust for FAR longer periods of time than the rocket.

>Minimum WP required for Mega-WP-

Hmm. Point taken on the 3 dot minimum for Willpower, I found the reference.

As for your proposed min/max rating setup, you've made a strong case for it. Barring Taint, I assume that a Mega-WP nova's Quantum will be the only limiter for developing Mega-WP ratings of 6+?

>Quantum/Willpower conversion-

I'll remove that reference, then. It was pretty tangental to begin with.

>Safety margin for maxing quantum powers

1- So you think this would be better suited as a quantum "metapower" like Quantum Regeneration, then? Possible, I suppose.

2- "Why should Mega-WP protect against Taint?"

*WARNING! GAME METAPHYSICS AHEAD!*

I'm glad you asked that. AFAICT from going over material from both Aberrant & Trinity, Willpower appears to be mainly a quality of the human being's noetic template. A nova still has a noetic template, it's just that it's more or less permanently bonded to the nova's quantum matrix. Novas can also affect noetic energy indirectly through their quantum abilities, which is how Willpower can be amplified by Mega-WP in the same way that Mega-Attributes amplify the Attributes. So for all practical purposes, Mega-WP novas are using their quantum power to tap into noetic energy in an indirect way.

Now Taint (within a nova) is a deficiency of noetic energy. It interferes with a nova's normal use of Willpower (APG, p. 93) in attempts to control his mental aberrations. Permanent Taint is more or less irreparable damage to a nova's noetic template. Novas without Mega-WP can lose temporary Taint (Aberrant core book, p. 150) by reducing their use of quantum energy AND using their Willpower. What they're doing in terms of Trinity metaphysics is repairing/replenishing their noetic templates. This is also why I stated that developing permanent Taint of 6+ can greatly impair or even permanently destroy a nova's capacity for Mega-WP: the noetic templates of novas with that much Taint are simply too damaged for Mega-WP's amplification to function well or at all.

On p. 59 of the APG, we see that thanks to their direct acces to noetic energy, psiads don't suffer from Taint. They're immune to aberrations, taint-related illnesses, and ambient taint radiation. They can also use their Psi scores to help soak injuries from focused quantum effects.

So with Willpower and Taint, we have a conflict between opposing noetic & quantum energies. What Mega-WP does is stack the deck somewhat in that conflict to favor Willpower.

Re: Solitaire-

Actually, I'm working on establishing what the rough equivalent of Adaptability/Autonomy would be (which will be called "Solitaire", and excising the "game wreckers" into a new 6+ enhancement.

[Anon]

RE: Empower + Extended

Don't we already use the word "Extended" for something?

If Extended is already used, I must have missed it. Sorry 'bout that. Edited it so that it's now Prolonged instead of Extended

On a side note, it'd really suck to have that, pay the 3 willpower, and then roll no succ. For the scene, all your powers would be times zero.

That would suck but I made it that way so that you would roll once, and if you only got two successes, your stuck with it and can't reroll trying to get a better result. If you got no successes, I'd leave the decision of allowing a reroll in that situation up to the GM.

Also on a side note, I think you need to mention in there whether it lets you empower Mega-Stats & enhancements.

I didn't take that into consideration, but I don't see why not, but maybe as an extra rather than something right off the bat. Some thing like...

Extra: Augmented Attributes (Allows the Nova to Empower Mega-Attributes and Enhancements)

edited above Empower to include new extra