Aberrant RPG - Psychic Link and Vulnerabilities

[BlueNinja]

Ok. In the description of Psychic Link, it says that if a power like Domination is used on one member of a Link, it affects all other people Linked. (I'm reading this to mean every power Psychic Shield protects against, except Mental Blast.)

So, let's take two people sharing a Psychic Link. Nova A also has Psychic Shield 2, Nova B has Psychic Shield 1. Nova A get Dominated, and loses by 3 successes. My interpretation of Psychic Link tells me that Nova A is under a three-success Dominate, and Nova B is also under a three-success Dominate, thanks to the Psychic Link.

I know Alex disagrees with me on this. Anyone else want to chime in?

[Alex Green]

Alex's thoughts on this:

1) Psychic LInk is a weaker form of Telepathy. Normal Telepathy doesn't allow mental combat (i.e. Channelling).

2) Psychic Link doesn't appear to allow combat (i.e. Channelling)... although I do have to admit there is some support for this considering all attacks slam against everyone in the link.

3) Even if we assume for a minute that Channelling is possible, Telepathy+Channelling doesn't side step mental defenses. I.e. you have to make a mental link (over coming their defenses), then you can use another combat power, which also has to overcome their mental defenses. If you can't side step mental defenses with T+C, then I don't see how it's possible with a P-Link, which is presumably weaker.

4) Psychic Link isn't a group mind. Everyone rolls their own willpower, psi-shield, etc. We don't make one roll for the entire team. Why should Totentanz's shields be breached because the baseline didn't have defenses?

5) Given that it isn't a group mind, I don't see why everyone in the link has to be effected by an attack to the same degree. If I'm linked to a baseline, or even an animal, killing my partner doesn't kill me.

Conclusion: The link allows communication, that's it. It's Q-min 1, level 1. Attacks are shared because in some kooky way because you're present, but defenses, much less results, are not.

[Anon]

Let me see if I'm getting this straight

BlueNinja is saying that if two characters have Psychic Link, and Nova A has Psychic Shield at 5 and Nova B doesn't, and Nova B gets dominated that Nova A also gets dominated regardless of his Psychic Shield.

Alex is saying that in the same situation that Nova B would get dominated but Nova A still gets to apply Psychic Shield to his own defence.

If this is what the argument is about, why not make a house rule to split the difference: when someone in a Psychic Link is being targeted for by a mental power they get to use the highest defensive value of everyone in the link, but if they still fail, everyone in the link is affected.

[Alex Green]

If this is what the argument is about, why not make a house rule to split the difference: when someone in a Psychic Link is being targeted for by a mental power they get to use the highest defensive value of everyone in the link, but if they still fail, everyone in the link is affected.

Not just Psychic Shield, Willpower as well.

If only one person in the link is rolling willpower and applying Psychic Shield, then what we have is a group mind. Abby already has a group mind power, it's Q8. As I read it, Psychic Link is a telephone, not some ubber "I get to extend my mental defenses to you" group mind power.

Worse, even for that solution we have a counter example: Paul buys Domination and links to Esteban.

If Paul wanted to Dominate Esteban, presumably the link could supply communication, but I don't see anything in there that would allow Paul to ignore Esteban's Psychic Shield, much less his Willpower.

So why could some third party do what Paul can not? I.e. Paul gets Dominated, and Esteban doesn't get a willpower roll? It gets ever more absurd if we add baselines and/or animals into the mix. An Animal gets controlled with Animal Mastery, so Paul's mental defenses are ignored?

Another solution to this, just to make it consistant, is to say that any member of the link gets to launch mental attacks at any other member of the link which ignore both Psychic Shield and Willpower. But if we do this, then I don't see people actually being willing to use the power... and I also don't see anything in the text that supports this. Again, it's a telephone.

[Finbar]

Or, we could go to the power's description....It looks like Alex has the right translation; Psychic Link allows the person to attack anyone in the chain, at +1 diff per person in the chain. So, if you have four people in the chain (the presumably 3rd Level version), not only would they each get their own defenses (not those of anyone else in the chain), but a Dominate attack would be at +4 diff.

If it helps...

FR

[BlueNinja]

Here's my final ruling for my Trans-D game.

When one member of a Psychic Link is targetted with a mental power (such as Dominate, Telepathy, or Mental Blast) they roll their normal resistance to the power, with the difficulty against the attacker from the Psychic Link. Should they fail, then everyone in the Psychic Link with them is immediately subject to the same attack, against the original number of successes, but without the vulnerable person counting towards the penalty. If they choose to keep the Psychic Link open, the attacker may make a free roll once per turn against anyone who has not failed their defense roll, as long as the maintenance/concentration power is kept up. Breaking a Psychic Link does not end the power being used, unless the other person in the Link was the one using it.

Example 1 - Nova A has a Psychic Link to Nova B (thus granting each of them a +1 difficulty to anyone attempting to use mental powers against them). Nova A has two dots of Psychic Shield and 5 Willpower, Nova B has no Psychic Shield and 5 Willpower. Nova X makes a Mirage roll against Nova B, and scores 4 successes (lowered to 3 because of the difficulty). Nova B rolls his Willpower and gets a single success, meaning that he is now suffering from Mirage at 2 successes. Nova A must now roll his Willpower (with Psychic Shield auto-successes) to resist the original 4 Mirage successes, but the +1 difficulty does not apply (since Nova B has been compromised). If Nova A does not choose to break the Link, then Nova X may make one roll against him each turn without spending quantum (but it still counts against normal multiple-action penalties).

Example 2 - Nova A has a Psychic Link to Nova B (thus granting both of them a +1 difficulty). Nova X makes a Mental Blast roll against Nova B, scoring 7 successes (reduced by 1 from the difficulty) and then lowered by Willpower to 4. Nova B takes 4 points of Bashing damage. Nova A then makes a defense roll (also reduced by difficulty, and Psychic Shield, and Willpower) and takes 1 point of Bashing damage.

Example 3 - Nova A has a Psychic Link (with Extra Mind x2) to Nova B, Nova C, and Nova D (granting them all a +3 difficulty bonus). Nova X attacks Nova B with Dominate, scoring 7 successes, reduced to 4 from the difficulty, and then reduced to 2 from Willpower. Nova D, with only one point of Psychic Shield and 5 Willpower, must then resist the 7 successes, reduced to 5 from the difficulty (since Nova B has been compromised), reduced to 3 from his Shield, then reduced to 1 from Willpower. With two novas compromised, the difficulty drops to only +1 for both novas C and A.

Example 4 - Nova A has a Psychic Link to Nova B, Nova C, and Nova D. Nova D has a Psychic Link to Nova E. Nova E has a Psychic Link to Nova F. All novas have a +5 difficulty bonus against all mental attacks against them. If Nova X attacks Nova A, then Novas B, C, and D suffer the same attack. Nova E can roll Initiative to try and break the link with Nova D before facing the attack. Similarly, if Nova D were targetted, Nova F could attempt to break the link by rolling Initiative, while all the other novas would have to resist the power first before attempting to break free.