Aberrant RPG - TKiller

[FlyingIrony]

I'm new here...been reading the posts for a few days, finally found something worthwhile to post about. In my last session (I'm new to the game too), my ST mentioned something about the incredible damage that Telekinesis can cause, that it's better than at first glance. Well, my new (and first) character has tactile telekinses, so my head shot up, but when I asked him to elaborate all I got was an evil grin...

I was hopin anyone could give me an answer on this or at least an educated guess...if not, thanks though, I appreciate it

[malkboy]

  Well, my new (and first) character has tactile telekinses, so my head shot up, but when I asked him to elaborate all I got was an evil grin...

Well let's do a quick look into the dictionary for the definitions of tactile.

Tactile: (adj) 1. Of touch 2. tangible 3. habitually touching people 4. apparantly of three-dimensional 5. pleasant to touch

Right off I'll toss out definitions of 3 and 5. Unless your ST made you addicted to your power or other people addicted to your power I don't see how they could relate.

Now for the first definition, TK of touch, that seemingly defeats the purpose. That might seem to defeat the purpose, but it could be like your character imitates Mega-Strength with his Telekinesis. So he's got to touch whatever he tosses around with the power. It seems a bit of a waste however.

Next for a tangible TK that seems like a fairly good idea. A form of telekinesis that other people can feel. It doesn't necessarily have to have substance but provide resistance to give tactile response to fit the tangible definition.

And finally we've got Apparently Three Dimensional... That provides some intresting ideas. Perhaps your Telekinesis takes some sort of anima banner that appears and does the work for you. Like say a gorilla or small dragon. They don't really exist of course (meaning no using them for cover or a shield.. unless you refocus your TK task to do so), because it's just an anima banner but they appear to be three dimensional and perform the duty your using TK for.

I hope that this helps give you some ideas..

Oh and welcome to Eon! ::smiley5

--malk ::soapbox

[Alex Green]

"tactile telekinses" in Abby is normally called Mega-Strength.

If you instead got TK with no range, then I'm not sure I see the point.

The big advantage TK normally has over Strength is range.

[FlyingIrony]

yeah, tactile TK was just my variation on mega strength, just a little different. It's not quite as strong, but it's cheaper and I don't have to actually have a grip on things to lift them, they just have to be touching me, plus I can manipulate them in other ways, which is different from mega strength.

My real question was about the really high damage potential of TK that my ST mentioned, any ideas on how that can be acheived?

[Ayre el KaBeer]

A dirrect TK attack's maximum and, vertually impossible, damage is 5 (5 successes from 5 dex)+15 (5 tens rolled from 5 megadex)+5 (5 sucesses from 5 telekinesis) total of 25 levels of bashing damage. You don't get the usual to hit bonus with it because your to hit successes are you damage.

TK is about versitillity not raw damage, however it can be used to accellerate a projectile (thrown, shot, etc.) and those successes get added to damage. Great if you have a stack of mega strength, or if a freind is prone to throwing things at enemies then you can help by adding to the speed and damage of the attack. And even better if your character is the snipper/gunslinger type.

Also TK weight allowance on a good roll means you can drop tanks on enemies, unless they're the DMD or another super soak character they're gonna feel it in the morning.

Depending on your interpretation of the rules, some gms allow TK to be used on multiple objects at once leading up to the weight allowance of the roll, if your gm allows this then I can understand his "tk is deadlier than mega strength" remark, so ask him.

[phoenix]

And finally we've got Apparently Three Dimensional... That provides some intresting ideas. Perhaps your Telekinesis takes some sort of anima banner that appears and does the work for you. Like say a gorilla or small dragon. They don't really exist of course (meaning no using them for cover or a shield.. unless you refocus your TK task to do so), because it's just an anima banner but they appear to be three dimensional and perform the duty your using TK for.

That's a great idea! I liked it so much that I wrote it up as a power, went back in time, and inserted it into the Abby material for the rulebook as a 3rd level power. I call it Quantum Construct. ::tongue

Alternately, if you don't want the "construct" to do anything other than what you're using telekinesis for, you still don't need a new power - just take an anima banner.

::fencers

[Alex Green]

Of course, TK can have Powermaxes and also extras.

TK + Agg (or TK + Area) seem to be the most logical.

What is your Q?

[FlyingIrony]

I guess I don't know my question exactly, I was just wondering if anyone could help me out with what my ST said about TK's really high damage potential. But who knows, I could have misinterpreted what he said in the first place. Anyway thanks for your help guys

[Ayre el KaBeer]

Actually you were quite clear, TK isn't a high damaging power, it's as simple as that. The ways for it do deal high amounts of damage hav been mentioned by myself and others (correct me if I'm wrong anyone). Standalone it's quite weak, coupled with Mega-Dex it becomes far more useful and capable of dealing decent amounts of damage, but it will never compare with a Quantum Bolt or Mega-Str for raw damage.

[madcat82]

Hmm, lifting people of the ground and tossig them away.

Pushing objects over them.

Ripping the ground open beneath them. (wet concret is allways fun... ::biggrin )

Pushing a liquid down there throath and drown them.

Grabing peoples guns and weapons and make them fight there own weapons.

Jaming firearms.

Use the enviroment, drag down trees, walls, cars, whatever to form barriers and cages.

Crash down objects on them (destroy walls if they are in a house, make trees fall down on them if they are in a forest)

Using there clothes and armor against them (if you are having problems coming up with ideas, look at a Jackie Chan movie).

Using melee weapons against there opponents (If they have say a sword in there hand, and you apply a telekenetic push downwords, he is going to get known as fingerless from now on...)

Well, thats my suggestions anyway. Have fun.

[Ayre el KaBeer]

Yep this is just the tip of the iceburg for TK against baselines and a good number of Novas, unfortunately most of those effects are useless againts someone with Mega-Str 2 (and that's assuming you roll well on TK) or higher, since they require a resisted might roll. The being thrown one is survivable for nova's, since you'd be using terminal velocity rules (10dice Lethal damage, with half soak applied), way to do it is to get them high enough to use your next action (for the next round obviously) to accelerate their dedcent to add to damage successes, then you could kill some of the tougher nova's out there.

[ProfPotts]

The thing to remember with the Telekinesis power is that it's not the same as, for example, the Telekinesis Mode from Trinity, or other various TK powers in other games. There's nothing in the power text to suggest that TK is an inherantly 'mental' power (in fact, the dice pool is based off Dexterity & Strength is used to resist it) - Telekinesis means moving things at a distance, not moving things with your mind (that'd be 'psychokinesis') - that also means that 'tactile telekinesis' (i.e. TK with a range of touch) is technically a self-defeating thing, but I guess if DC let Superboy have it... ::rolleyes It's also no more 'invisible' than any other power (although, for the twinks out there, pretty much any power in Aberrant can be 'invisible' if you can convince the ST that you just have 'subtle special effects' for your powers... ::sly ), only affects 'objects' (i.e. not liquids, gasses, or energy), is in no way 'indirect', & can only affect a single target at a time. Extras & the like can modify all that (MIRV is a must for serious TKers, IMHO) as usual, naturally.

In combat (aganist Novas) you want to throw stuff, not try to grab them (as people have already pointed out the Strength to resist thing really makes grabbing Mega-Strong opponents an exercise in futility) - if you want to be Joker / Bullseye / Gambit, then TK means you can throw playing cards at people & actually have them do damage too!

Telekinesis with MIRV is great, because each & every target gets the power's levels of success automatically, & only the rolled successes are split. With 5 Quantum & Telekinesis with MIRV you can throw an entire car park full of cars at your opponent as a single action. Nice, right? ::wink

[Ayre el KaBeer]

Telekinesis with MIRV is great, because each & every target gets the power's levels of success automatically, & only the rolled successes are split. With 5 Quantum & Telekinesis with MIRV you can throw an entire car park full of cars at your opponent as a single action. Nice, right? 

*Drools*

[phoenix]

Every time he says something like that, I get more and more frightened of Michael, who's only demonstrated less than 10 NP worth of powers.. ::blink ::crazy

[Ayre el KaBeer]

Every time he says something like that, I get more and more frightened of Michael, who's only demonstrated less than 10 NP worth of powers..

Fair bit more by my count (though he is clearly tainted)

Mega Str: Quantum Leap 3NP

Clone 5NP

Telepathy 3NP

Mental Link(I think) 1NP

Wings 3NP

Also I suspect he has at least 2 other mega stats, Tenril or TK, and Mind Shield.

[Nullifier]

Don't forget his Quantum score of 5 which means at the very least 6NP spent on that.

[Alex Green]

Including Taint (I assumed 4), you have about 25 nova points there. Generally you should also assume some stats.

[FlyingIrony]

wow thanks for all your assistance guys...now I have another question!

who is Michael, why are we scared of him, and how did he get Quantum 5 for only 6 nova points. Even with freebie points, I can't see how you could spend 6 nova points on 5 quantum...

[phoenix]

::blink Sheesh! How did I.. oh well. Yes, his Clone and telepathy completely escaped my notice - that's what happens when I post after doing Calculus. I didn't even forget about them, it's like I just took them in stride. ::wacko

FlyingIrony, Michael is ProfPotts' character in Malkboy's online Aberrant game Cognizant. We're scared of him (or I am) because, well.. look over the game, then look over a few of ProffPotts' games, and you'll get the idea.

[FlyingIrony]

haha, sweet, I'll take a look-see, thanks

[Nullifier]

I got Quantum 5 for 6 NPs for him by assuming he got the initial free one, then spent 14 freebie points on two more, then bought the last two with NPs, but took them both as Tainted. That gives him a minimum of 6NP spent on Quantum. He could spent a lot more on it, up to 20NP. However, he must have Q5, 'cause that's the q-min for Clone.

[FlyingIrony]

well, consider me learnt. if I had thought about maybe I coulda gotten that...thank ya much, it was so much easier to ask, haha.

[Turk]

back to the idea of wrecking ppl with TK, why not lift a none flyer into the air to your max range then let them fall? i think its a good hieght and if that doesnt kill em maybe u could do it again? and yes, i have heard that mega strength novas can just break your TK with a shrug... in one of my games a player picked a baseline up like 70 odd meters and it was all splatter matter. i remember y i love this game! lol

[phoenix]

You know, it occurs to me that realistically, Joe Telekinetic should have no more trouble lifting any ludicrously megastrong nova than a sack of potatoes of the same weight, unless that nova has something to hold onto or brace himself against.

[Alex Green]

You know, it occurs to me that realistically, Joe Telekinetic should have no more trouble lifting any ludicrously megastrong nova than a sack of potatoes of the same weight, unless that nova has something to hold onto or brace himself against.

That same line of logic says all nova bricks shouldn't be able to lift up a tank, much less juggle them, because they could never get the right leverage.

In abby, all novas with Mega-Strength can manipulate the q-field of whatever they can touch, basically they all have touch ranged TK (or something darn close). Mega-Strength is more than just muscles.

[Finbar]

Just to throw some other stuff into the mix...

If you're debating using tactile TK (as opposed to Mega-Str), keep in mind that you're going to use the fine manipulation aspect of the power a lot more (disassembling/re-assembling objects, tying shoe laces, even typing ::crazy ).

However, you'll need to discuss area of effect aspects with your ST (read: Just how far down that hi-tech hallway can you open doors?). Also, you may want to take some form of clairvoyance (touch only, no sight) so you can affect the entire object, including those things just out of reach; also, this can lead to some interesting sexual harassment cases ::blush ...

FR

[Sphere]

One final point on this thread (which is pretty much wrapped up anyway, but I'm in the lab and bored so...).

Tactile Telekinesis refers to the extra you can get with TK that allows you to do fiddly stuff like picking locks, defusing bombs, and moving boxes full of fragile crystalware. Regular TK is more of a "pick stuff up put stuff down" kind of thang, stuff that requires touch gets increased difficulty.