Hot Topic (More than 10 Replies) Telepathy: A deep study (Read 3729 times)
John
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Telepathy: A deep study
May 19th, 2010 at 4:41pm
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  Telepathy is my favorite power in the game, and unfortunatly, no player character has had it yet.  I have always toyed with just giving it to the next player character so I am play test some of the things I would like to do with it.
   I figured I would toss out some of the ideas I have for this power here, and see what you guys thing.

   Telepathy is the ablity of sending and recieving thoughts.  And since, in my game, most super powers come from the super hero thinking they can do these amazing things, the ablity to send and recieve thoughts is more powerful than in most campaigns.

The first thing a telepath must do is establish Contact.  Think of contact as "mentally locating" another's mind.    The telepath must concentrate, spend their point of power and roll Id20.  If they make their save, they have made contact.  The number of successes ( how low they rolled vs their I score) lets them make more contacts up to their upper limit, which is their Intellegence score.

So Esper wants to  scan the next room.  She concentrates, spends a point of power and rolls a 6.  Her intellegence is 17 so she succeeded by  ( 17-6=11)  11.  So she can make contact with up to 11 minds.  This takes an action.   Making contact always takes an action.
     She is not sure if there are more than 11 minds in that room, but she is sure that there are at least 11.   She can make contact with only 6 more minds, as her brain can only handle contact with 17 minds at one time.
      Now that she has made contact, she can on her next action, start reading the surface thoughts of the those she is in contact with.  Surface thoughts are what the person is actively thinking about at that point.  Esper can also send her surface thoughts to the contact.   Nothing to deep, nothing to complicated, but it may be enought to distract the contact.    Esper may also act as a mental switchboard with willing contacts at this point.
   After this more concentration and skill with telepathy is needed.
    
  To make contact with a resisting target,  the telepath still rolls their I score.  The resisting target rolls wd100  ( I use a will stat in my game).  If the reistor make this save, you must count the success vs the Telepaths successess.  The one with the higher number of successes wins the challenge. 
  If the resistor is skilled in mental resistance, then they use a d20 instead of a d100.    The telepath will still know that there is a mind there, but they will beunable to read their thoughts, or to send them her thoughts.
   
    To make a deep scan, or a thought probe,  the telepath must be able to touch the target.  Contact must be maintained and unbroken.  Then the telepath rolls Id20. If successful then they can search for the thoughts they want.  The target must be awake for this.  If they are uncouncious then nothing can be found, if asleep, then only dreams can be read.
   If the target resists the probe, then the same process for resisting contact is used.

   

  

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John
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Re: Telepathy: A deep study
Reply #1 - May 19th, 2010 at 4:41pm
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See my house rules for more disiplines a skilled telepath can employ. Click on the "Welcome to the Hall Of Justice" banner and see the updated powers.
  

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THE ONI
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Re: Telepathy: A deep study
Reply #2 - May 19th, 2010 at 7:43pm
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So would a skilled Telepath be able to read surpressed memories??

« Last Edit: May 19th, 2010 at 8:02pm by John »  
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John
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Re: Telepathy: A deep study
Reply #3 - May 19th, 2010 at 8:02pm
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I would say yes.  Did you check out my updated powers section on Telepathy?
  

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Re: Telepathy: A deep study
Reply #4 - May 20th, 2010 at 10:48pm
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Telepathy: as rules but with bonuses from training or inventing.  A telepath can train in telepathy or use an inventing point to learn other telepathic disciplines.  Just as a spell caster can make spells, a telepath can create psionic abilities  based on the idea that they can read and send thoughts to other minds.   Some samples of disciplines are:  All these cost 5 power.

Memory Bank.  A person’s brain can be used as an information dump.  The telepath must touch the target.  The memories are stored in a secure place within the targets memory. The target will not know the information  nor be able to access it.  A telepath must make a successful Id20 roll to do this. Each number that he rolls lower than his intelligence on a d20 is how many months the memory bank will stay secure.

False Memories.   A telepathy may weave false memories into a target.   This is hard to do.  Usually an inventing point must be spent by the telepath to come up with a good story.  Then the target is touched.  An intelligence struggle is rolled. Both telepath and target must roll Id20.  If the target has a better roll, it doesn’t work.  If the telepath has a better roll, then each point lower than the  roll needed alters one event of memory.

Erase Memories.  As above but memories are erased. They can be restored by making a save Id100 per year or by psychic surgery.

Psychic Surgery:  the telepath rolls Id100.  If the roll is under the telepath’s intelligence, then the surgery is a success.  The telepath can undo false memories, erased memories, phobias, most mental disorders, etc. If the roll fails by up to 25 nothing happens. If it fails by up to 50, the target looses 2d6 intelligence  points.  If  it fails by 51  or more, the target is reduced to 0 intelligence.  Of course a target can resist the surgery. If they do so they roll Id20. The target must be either willing or not able to mentally resist.  A drugged target makes it 25% more difficult as the images are distorted.  Each use of surgery requires an inventing point.

Distraction. A telepath can distract a target or targets by sending them thoughts that either spook them or interfere with concentration.   They can affect as many targets as they have intelligence points.  Each target after the first reduces the telepath’s intelligence for purposes for the skill rolls.  The telepath can barrage the target with thoughts that interferer with the targets ability to aim and  concentrate.  The result is that the target can get minuses on their to hit rolls. The telepath and target both roll Id20.  They  add up how much they rolled UNDER their intelligence.  If the telepath rolled well then the target has a minus of the difference in the two numbers. Remember the telepath’s Intelligence is lowered by one for each person after the first. It takes one action to do this per turn. Example Mr. Brain tries to distract four ninjas.  He won initiative and he sends an onslaught of thoughts into their minds.  He rolls Id20. He rolls a nine.  His intelligence is 25 so he succeeded by 14!   The ninjas  are goons and all have the same stats. They rolled a 10 and have intelligences of 12. They all succeeded by 2.  So Mr. Minds beats them with a 14. How ever there are four guys so Mr. Mind gets a penalty of minus 3 because it’s hard to do this to more people than one.   So all the ninjas suffer a – 9 to hit!

Meta Whip   This is a really dangerous power. The telepath can close the warp that channels the wormhole that feeds the  metapowers to the target.  This requires physical contact. Both the telepath and the target save Id100.  The targets successes take away the telepath’s successes. If the telepath has any successes left after this, then the target looses his power for as many  days as the telepath has successes.

Telepathic Tutor:  The Telepath can tutor any willing target in any knowledge area they possess.  The target must be in contact with the telepath.   Roll I-5D20.  If the roll is a natural twenty then the target looses an inventing point with nothing learned.   If the roll us a success, then the target learns one knowledge area from the telepath.  Telepath’s choice.  The target can spend an inventing point of his own to keep this information permanent.  If the target does not spend the point, then the information is only short term and stays with them for one hour per point of intelligence the target has.   During this time, do to information overlord, all  I saves are -1 per knowledge area jammed into the short term memory.
  

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Re: Telepathy: A deep study
Reply #5 - May 21st, 2010 at 11:38am
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Can I kill people instantly with said power?
  

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Re: Telepathy: A deep study
Reply #6 - May 21st, 2010 at 2:48pm
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I am sure you would figure out a way to do that.
  

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Re: Telepathy: A deep study
Reply #7 - May 24th, 2010 at 12:08pm
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I have had a powerful Telepath in my campaign, and it complicates things immensely.  I never realized how much I use deception until you start dealing with someone who can instantly “know” what’s going on, even just surface thoughts are often telling. 

I took a similar stance to yours, allowing him to learn additional uses of his telepathy, but the base power is amazing.  I had to take the stance that none of the goons he ran into never really knew what was going on, big picture wise, and often resorted to using androids, robots, and even aliens to keep him from ruining the session as Telepathy was the main power he used, and he used it on everyone.  I was able to use some of your alternate rules to make it a little less cumbersome, and I also tried to impress on him that it was not “polite” to intrude on someone’s thoughts if there was not a reason, but for a 17 year old boy, he didn’t really acknowledge others “right” to their privacy…

His character had an intelligence of 34 making him a very powerful telepath, he also had a mutant power that he used to accommodate for the physical limitation of poor eyesight, he was basically blind, but read the surface thoughts of those around him to “see.”  I thought it was a cool idea, but it lead to him constantly reading surface thoughts. 

It all made sense, and worked OK, but I ended up wrapping up that campaign and starting a new one, and I’d have to say getting away from that character was one of my main motivations.
  
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Re: Telepathy: A deep study
Reply #8 - May 24th, 2010 at 7:28pm
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I remember reading a book by C.S. Friedman where a telepath trained as a Warrior type also and used her ablities to read the surface thoughts of her opponent. It gave her a distinct edge in combat by sensing the thoughts a split second before and being able to act upon it. Not much but enough to react better.
  
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Re: Telepathy: A deep study
Reply #9 - May 24th, 2010 at 7:57pm
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That would be a displine yet undiscovered!
  

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Re: Telepathy: A deep study
Reply #10 - May 24th, 2010 at 9:00pm
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THE ONI wrote on May 24th, 2010 at 7:28pm:
I remember reading a book by C.S. Friedman where a telepath trained as a Warrior type also and used her ablities to read the surface thoughts of her opponent. It gave her a distinct edge in combat by sensing the thoughts a split second before and being able to act upon it. Not much but enough to react better.


The original run of Birds of Prey has a villain with this power.  He was able to battle Lady Shiva to a stand still.  Very interesting take on the power and very powerful.
  

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Re: Telepathy: A deep study
Reply #11 - May 25th, 2010 at 2:54pm
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That's definitely a neat use of the power will have to try it next time I play a mentalist
  

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Re: Telepathy: A deep study
Reply #12 - May 25th, 2010 at 3:17pm
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That is a cool ability!  Would be fun to give some way for such a character to be able to interrupt the action of their opponent a little better.  Since anyone can interrupt (if they have a saved action), it would make sense for such a person with this power to be able to do even more (interrupt faster, do so without a saved action, perhaps a combat bonus when doing so, etc.)
« Last Edit: Mar 7th, 2017 at 2:44pm by Majestic »  
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Re: Telepathy: A deep study
Reply #13 - Mar 5th, 2017 at 2:32pm
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Just. Upping this up for Yoshi.
  

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