OK, this is something I've been thinking about for the past few days, and I figured I'd toss it out there for you guys to look at. In comics it's not unusual to see telepaths use their abilities for far more than what the standard V&V rules allow. What I'm thinking about doing is allowing characters with Telepathy to train in performing some additional "feats" with their powers (you'd say for my next level, I want to train to do "x"). Two of the ideas I've come up with are:

1) Confuse
2) Memory Alteration

Confuse is pretty straight forward, It'd be based on a Mind Control attack vs. INT. (Things like Willpower would also come into play). If the character failed his save, he'd be confused for that turn, and unsure as to what he's supposed to be doing, losing that turn.

Memory Alteration is a little more complicated. The Character would be able to implant memories, alter them, or completely erase them.

The more power the character spent, the more drastic the changes. I'm still tinkering with the specific PR costs for each as well, but I'm thinking something like planting a memory that you've meet a person before would run around 3, while mind wiping someone (erasing all of their memories), would cost you 20 points of power.

What I'd like to know is does this sound like I'm at least on the right track, or am I talking out the side of my neck?

I think they sound great, Dom.  I'd like to see somebody with Telepathy use these as Power Stunts in our game.

Would the memory implant/wipe be permanent or temporary?  If permanent, that's quite a power at a very low price.

You know ... I was just reading some stuff on Despero and the Martian Manhunter today, and I was thinking ... there's no way I'd let a player have all these powers.

But I like the idea of power stunts. As well as they're well thought out and you don't allow them to interfere with the ability for good story-telling. March forth Garfield, and lead the way 

my pleasure. telepathic invisibility (making viewers instantly "forget" they see you), "scanning" (potentially lethal psiblasting), phobia detection

telepathic gestalt

John wrote on Jun 17^th, 2012 at 11:25am:


Damn, I'd forgotten out those. But no worries, like any good GM, if I see something I like, I'll steal it, and make it mine. 

Bill Kropp wrote on Jun 17^th, 2012 at 11:13am:


Already in my house rules, under a thread titled "Gestalt".

Bill Kropp wrote on Jun 20^th, 2012 at 3:20pm:


I've got two versions. One is "Sensory Block" where a character can "block" sensory input from their victim's senses (sight, hearing, smell, touch, taste), from reaching the victim's brain. The second version is sort a of a mental invisibility, where the character can psionically cause people to ignore her presence. She's not really invisible, but as far as anyone's concerned, she's not there, so for all intents, she's invisible. 

Bill Kropp wrote on Jun 20^th, 2012 at 3:20pm:


Hmmm...I'll have to give that one some thought.

he could also make a specific action cause pain to a targets nervous system for a brief period after use, like movement, speech, or using ones powers

creating "Psi-Scaffolding"- using telepathy to compensate for another's mental scars, allowing them to overcome Phobias, Psychoses, etc for short periods of time? like when Jonn made Joker temporarily sane, or X bringing Wolverine out of rage?

yep. he had two of em actually: Ego Attack, continuous, damage shield. thats causes damage if people target him w any power Based on Ecv. the 2nd is 6d6 eb, continuous, ds, avld (mental def). that causes mental dmg if u physically touch him.

Bill Kropp wrote on Jun 20^th, 2012 at 3:20pm:


A lot of these are great, but (in my view) should be stuff that falls under the "Psionics" power (which is the default "wild card" for psionic abilities).

One of my players has the "Blind Spot" ability, so is able to hide in plain sight (when it works).

Ranger wrote on Jun 21^st, 2012 at 5:18pm:


We're on the same sheet of music.

Blocking one's own pain centers when entering combat? that is probably more Willpower oriented... but if you could give ANOTHER person limited invulnerability to pain, thats telepathy. or possibly Emotion or Mind Control, if you stretch it.

Bump, bump, bump.