<div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote"><a href="https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=347850.msg16373003#msg16373003">Quote from: ElayneTrakand on 05-01-2023, 10:11:23</a></div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">Ok! Time to Actually get round to replying to this!<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>Yay.  I'm glad that you've not been scared off.  ;D<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">I am going to break this up and spoiler it to prevent it from being too long.<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>Thank you!<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">History</div><div class="spoiler_body"><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">This works! Claire was already in NPC's class as a GE, then after Michelle disapeared, Claire showed up in office hours and asked for help.<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>I'm thinking of the NPC being based at ECC (under contract to them for a year or two), while also doing some work at Arcadia when enough students at a time want access to what she can teach.  She probably has a permanent office on-site at ECC, and would certainly be up for helping someone out.  If the incident took place at ECU rather than ECC, she probably wouldn't have thought to immediately find out precisely who was involved and try to offer her assistance (she'd assume that she would never have encountered whoever could have been there)... meaning that Claire coming to her could be a rather big surprise.  ;)<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">I will note that I already had Michelle at ECU, people can date going to different schools!<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>Oops!  Sorry.  I thought they were both at ECC.   :-[  And yes - the para-science departments at ECU could quite feasibly have some rather interesting materials and pieces of equipment on-hand.  Independent research would normally be the preserve of older students... but gifted students trying to impress everyone by pursuing a radical line of research <em>definitely</em> fits the supers genre.  ;)<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">Ooh! Sure!<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>Could be worth adding as an explicit Complication, to remind us of this.  "Registered on many radars, after the laboratory accident" or something of the sort (though I'm sure that a better wording can be found).<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">My thought is that only a couple show up on screen in any significance, but, she can "know a guy" to call in favors and is my justification for connected and contacts, is her network of partners, metamours and people she has met in the kink community and swing dance community.<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>Ahhh.  As an explanation for Connections, it could certainly help.  "No, I don't know how to do that... but I know someone who knows someone."<br/></div></div><br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Skills and Stuff</div><div class="spoiler_body"><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">The thought that I had in mind was that her stamina was not so much a matter of her being good endurance in an athletic sense, but rather being very good at ignoring her fatigue and pushing <br/>through things due to her time dealing with her health problems, one of the symptoms being lack of physical strength. Thoughts on this? I'm also welcome to adjusting whatever or tossing the thought.<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/><strong>Strength and Fighting</strong>: Hrmmm.  Barring some supernatural stuff going on, I'd expect a top-end dancer with truly phenomenal coordination to have pretty good muscle tone, etc - without it, they wouldn't be able to <em>be</em> a top-end dancer.  I'm quite willing to accept that a slight young woman who has never studied the application of force to objects or other people would have a Strength of, say, -1: she can move <em>herself</em> exceptionally well, but she's no power-house and lacks the bulk that might compensate for her lack of know-how or muscle mass.<br/><br/>Fighting being so utterly terrible is harder to understand when paired with some other things.  She is <em>astonishingly</em> well-coordinated - comfortably out-doing Olympic gymnasts - yet somehow would struggle to hold her own against a pre-teen child.  In every other field of endeavour, if she wants a hand or a foot to go <em>there</em>, then <em>there</em> is where it winds up... so why is she on a par with an untrained 11 year-old when it comes to hitting someone (or avoiding being hit)?<br/><br/>A mental block would be an obvious explanation: I've seen people IRL whose response to even entirely-playful 'violence' (say, a nerf gun being fired or a toy sword being waved) is to shriek and cower!  But Claire has some high-end superpowered attack options open to her (though fewer in the rewrite).  So apparently she can dish out damage at range via her powers, but falls apart when threatened with hands-on violence?  That's possible: mundanes (never mind supers) can certainly have a 'disconnect' between some parts of their life and activities, coping in wildly different ways with things that might seem similar to an observer.<br/><br/>If there's a surge of panic whenever she's in melee, that could perhaps be the basis for another Complication if it expands beyond a simple explanation for why she has low scores in a couple of things.<br/><br/>On the <strong>Stamina</strong>... I get what you mean, and (as a chronic invalid) I know from experience that raw willpower can be employed as a stand-in for physical capability.  But I think that again her phenomenal capabilities in some physical endeavours are more credible if she has a good grounding of fitness.  That being partly a matter of coping mechanisms and strength of will is fine, as is there being some underlying fragility that she has fought to overcome.<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">My general idea with regards to stuff like this is she is mostly a normal girl to start with all of the weaknesses thereof, she will need training to actually be able to hold her own in combat. That said, if I get costs down elsewhere, I may keep a couple points reserved for boosting defense as she gets training.<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>That was part of the intent in offering cheaper alternatives where I could: free up some points to use as desired... whether that's restoring some of the things I stripped out, or boosting capabilities elsewhere.  The hope was that I could keep the core of what you wanted, while providing freedom to tinker and improve.  :)<br/><br/>Something worth bearing in mind could be the option to 'bank' a batch of points, to lie in wait for the RP equivalent of a training-montage scene.  You don't <em>have</em> to spend all your points at chargen... and if you want to have the RP of being on-course for some rapid improvement once you get suitable training, you could have a pool of points ready to go when opportunity arises.  1 point buys one point of a specific Defence... so boosting them via 'normal' acquisition of experience would take quite some time to build up (with you getting an average of just 1 point per 'adventure').<br/></div></div><br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Equipment and Advantages</div><div class="spoiler_body"><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">Yay! Loving all the praise! (And defintately good to help the tone with all the changes being sugested)<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>*grins*  Glad to help!  :D<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">Yep! She is very aware of her helplessness as a college girl walking alone at night.<br/>And as for the handcuffs... Well, she has those for kink reasons.<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>That use for the handcuffs was what I expected.  ;)  The pepper spray is interestingly at odds with her extreme uselessness in a fight: it perhaps suggests that she might have been consciously trying to take steps to acquire a 'ranged' response that would let her stop people laying hands on her?  She's markedly better than the average person at evading ranged attacks, and has that superb natural coordination to help her <em>make</em> ranged tests - so if she knows that she freaks out in melee but is still just about all right at a range of, say, three yards, perhaps the pepper spray is a way to try to <em>keep</em> things out of her 'panic zone'.<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">She learned it for her foreign language requirement, and then has met a couple people in the deaf community and has started dating them.<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>*nodnods*  Was just curious.  Sounds quite reasonable!<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">Also, I need to check again for myself, but are there any combat advantages that will let me use her strengths to make her defenses better? Such as letting her use dex for her parry?<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>Eurgh.  System-queries!  ;D  I'd hoped to be much more on top of the system as a whole by now, but it has <em>so many</em> elements and components and specific requirements....  I apologise if the following is not what you were asking, but it seemed sensible to cover the whole topic!<br/><br/>At its most basic, the system is simple: roll the relevant attack, against the relevant defence class - get equal to or above it, and you hit.  On a natural 20, you always hit (so long as it's actually possible to do so); similarly,on a natural 1 you always miss.<br/><br/>For things that don't require an attack roll to hit you (e.g. an area-effect assault, such as an explosion), you get an 'active' roll to try to do something to mitigate the impact (in the case of an explosion, making a Dodge roll against a difficulty appropriate to the grade of the attack).  As something under your control, such active defences are easier to bring into play when you want them, though there do still tend to be fixed relationships.<br/><br/>Defences are each based on a given Ability: the score in the base 'stat' gives you a matching score in the corresponding Defence - hence there being quite such a dramatic difference between Claire's capacity to protect herself from different types of attack.<br/><br/><em>Dodge</em> is based on your Agility: it provides you with protection against ranged attacks, and is (in the past few editions of D&amp;D terms) the equivalent of a 'Reflex saving throw' - what you use to try to actively throw yourself out of the way of an incoming threat.<br/><br/><em>Fortitude</em> is your innate physical resilience, and is what defends you against poison and disease.<br/><br/><em>Parry</em> is your close-quarters defence: ducking, twisting, and swaying out of the way as well as actual <em>parrying</em> of an opponent's melee attacks.  It's based on Fighting.<br/><br/><em>Toughness</em> is your ability to resist your body being broken apart by direct trauma.  It's also Stamina-based, unsurprisingly.<br/><br/><em>Will</em> comes off Awareness (which covers pretty much <em>everything</em> on the mental side).  It's your resistsance to every mental, spiritual, or social assault.<br/><br/>As things stand, there's no way to change what Ability a Defence depends upon.  There <em>are</em> a few things that might boost survivability a little.  E.g. <em>Evasion</em> gives you a +2 bonus (or +5, if you buy two ranks in it) bonus to Dodge attempts to hurl yourself out of the way of area-effect attacks - I could see a dancer's leap-and-roll training helping to justify this.  Uncanny Dodge (1 point) could be a slight extension of your danger sense, guaranteeing that even if something <em>does</em> surprise you, you're not Vulnerable.<br/><br/>On an aside - Danger Sense apparently needs to be keyed to some specific 'sense': anything that blinds that sense blinds your Danger Sense.  Though I'm not sure quite what something like a Spidey Sense would count as.  Mental, perhaps?  I suspect that might fit this being in some fashion Claire's connection to the cosmos warning her of people's intent: if they can themselves mask that intent from every mind save their own, or can shut Claire off from receiving messages, then Danger Sense might be unable to perceive a threat.<br/></div></div><br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Powers!</div><div class="spoiler_body"><strong>Concealment</strong><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">I like the idea of paint and stuff letting you track her! So we will stick with only affects her phrasing<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>It opens up an array of classic movie and cartoon scenes, with people throwing flour / paint / whatever comes to hand, in an attempt to highlight her... and also means that things like wet weather or muddy conditions could pose her <em>real</em> problems in remaining stealthy for any length of time.  Of course, amidst things like a rain storm, people's normal vision is going to be somewhat hindered anyway - it can be hard to make out details of wholly-visible people in heavy rain, let alone identify the location of ones solely visible by the water running over them. ;)<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">I just went with wisdom save as that is the example, I will happilly switch it to another save that makes more sense if you like. But yes, I still want it to work on machines, as being picked up on security photage is too big an issue for the spy/intel/recon role I want her to serve.<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>The default version of Concealment <em>does</em> affect machines operating in the relevant sensory fields... so we can leave that as-is.  This incidentally means that non-intelligent machines are wholly-blind to Claire when she's under the effects of her power, unless they a) depend upon touch / mass-detection, b) are secondary-effect sensors (e.g. checking a room's ambient temperature: her body-heat will slowly nudge the average level upwards even though she's invisible to thermal cameras), or c) are specifically tailored by a hyper-tech creator to (in game-mechanic terms) <em>have</em> a Will save in hope of countering such superpowers.<br/><br/>Will saves would most obviously be used against an <em>illusion</em>... but I think that Will fits as the defence against someone providing a filter to reality in front of you: using strength of will to refuse to accept someone else's 'edits' seems appropriate.<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">Yep! That's the idea! And I am totally down with that limitation, it makes it so that if people learn enough about her they can reasonably set up traps and make her/me think on our feet on how to solve the problem, such as using create to pass over the pressure plate without tripping it.<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>That's good!  :D<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote"><strong>Move Object</strong>The way I was invisioning things is that she can't deal damage to objects directly, and has to use collisions to deal damage, so throwing things at people, stab them with a sword etc. Subtle was so that she could do things like remotely work a computer without it glowing and giving her away.<br/><br/>So, drop damaging it is!<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>Phew.  I really wasn't sure if the Force-choking was a key part of the concept, or a totally-unintended side effect!  In combination with the subtlety, the perception range, and her vast array of senses... she would have been quite terrifyingly lethal!  ;)<br/><br/>For most powers, Subtle makes it hard to tell that <em>you</em> are using the power - so that when someone erupts into flame it's not linked back to you.  For powers that would not otherwise be tied to you there's a standard requirement of the 'visible effort' thing (dramatic hand gesture and constipated expression; beams of wavy light linking you to the subject of your power; etc): Subtle can make that hard or impossible to perceive (depending on whether you buy 1 or 2 ranks in it).<br/><br/>Move Object's version is more expensive (+1/rank rather than a flat 1 or 2 points), in part because some sort of 'tractor beam' is very much the default for the power.  With Subtle in place here, you can avoid visible glows and the like... though someone closely observing Claire might still figure out that she's connected (she <em>will</em> be concentrating quite intently, at the very least) - but that's merely going to get them the chance to make a Perception check, in contrast to the default of everyone present seeing something unmistakably linking her to the moved object.<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote"><strong>Create</strong>: The thought was that she is effecting the weave and that the power is limited when wearing clothes, but once she strips she unlocks the full power set and can pull energy into her skin to give her telekinesis physical form.<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>This potentially means that we can use the "<em>she glows when she's doing more serious editing of the world</em>" thing as a trait in future, for either new powers or temporary power-stunts.  :D<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">Yeah, she can now effect the fabric of reailty to form objects from nothing. She can decide whether they are invisible force fields, very much a more permanent application of the telekinesis and just forming a force barrier. Or she make visible objects of whatever materials she feels like, such as conjuring a glass of water in her hand.<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>It's worth noting that in my tweaked version, the items she creates are <em>not</em> permanent (they're Sustained - free action every round to keep it going)... so a glass of water would be refreshing to drink, but wouldn't actually meet her body's needs.<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">Ok! I actually really like this! With the note that I still want to be able to create visible or invisible objects.<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>I think that a choice as to whether things are visible or not is probably a Feature: a flat +1 point cost.  I'm also thinking that the more complex something is, the more likely it is to be fixed in shape - so if she, say, made a single-colour poncho for herself, it'd probably be conventionally flexible... but if she tries to make a fancy gown, it'll come out somewhat cartoonish (composed of the 'simple shapes' the power favours) and quite possibly rigid.<br/><br/>Alternatively, you could perhaps have two different versions of Create as alternate powers: one to make intangible, imperceptible force fields... the other to make material objects.  One of the oddities of the array system is that it quite often makes more sense to add a new power to your arsenal than to further tinker with an existing one. ;)<br/><br/>Part of the reason that I wrote about Subtle above is that the Subtle extra under Create is a little different to 'normal' Subtle: it's about the <em>effect</em> gaining in subtlety (permitting those invisible force fields).  So it is entirely possible for Claire to glow like a beacon while using a 'Subtle' power in <em>this</em> case.  ;)<br/><br/>Do you want Claire's glow to reach out to what she is creating, or just surround her?  Does its extent or intensity alter based on how much she is Creating (or the range at which she is doing so), or is it constant for every use of the power?<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote"><strong>Immunity</strong>: Generally! Although with the freed up points I will probably upgrade this to Life Support (cost 10, do 4 extra). And yeah, she still breathes, the primary intent of this is to be able to be naked in extreme environments.<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>I am now wondering how many supers of a suitable type have gone wholly-nude in space, just to prove that they can / to gain bragging rights.  ;)<br/><br/>The "Life Support" in the book excludes things like radiation and cold, but does cover starvation, thirst, poison, and disease....  I think it could feasibly be tweaked to "Life Support - Space", or something of the sort.  That'd leave Claire still vulnerable to weaponised energy attacks, needing to eat, etc, but able to cope with a suitless jaunt outside a space station, sleep comfortably at the bottom of a swimming pool, and other such things.<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote"><strong>Senses</strong>: Honestly, Im just going to get rid of radio all together.<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>Thank you. Radio promised to be a bit of a headache for me to figure out how to deal with. ;)<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">Yep! Her invisibility and sensory powers are supposed to aid her in investigation and recon as her primary role!<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>I shall have to see how hard I have to work to provide you with useful but not game-breaking information via that arsenal of sensory options.  I wanted this to be an educational experiment for me, so I'm quite willing to give it a go - but we'll have to see how things go.  Currently, it's made easier by Claire's very limited grasp on what it is that she senses when she has a superpowered <em>look</em> at things! ;D<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">Whoops! my excel sheet must have broke when I split up the power!<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>All too easy to make a simple mistake, especially given all the flipping-around from page to page and tallying of points this entails!  ;D<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">My thought was she has to shift herself partly out of phase, creating a warping in the air around her as she shifts to in between the realms of mortals, magic and thought<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>Mmmm.  So the 'glow' is visible to more than one form of sense.  That's logical, though not something I had considered!<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">Let's go with option 2! Except I am going to swap radio for another rank of microscopic vision.<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>I can imagine poor Claire <em>really struggling</em> for some time after discovering her powers.  She looks closely at a mug to determine if it's been washed or not... and passes rapidly through merely seeing microbes and individual specks of dust, to seeing double-helix strands and things far below the cellular level.  Then snaps back to the 'normal' world, before slipipng into her otherworldly perceptions, or looking through the wall - and the next ten walls beyond it.<br/><br/>Having got over that initial 'total overload' phase before the game starts would seem sensible.  But it could perhaps provide a good reason to have received some training from the NPC mentor I had in mind: she might be able to help with adjusting to fully-conscious control of the sensory powers (and the reality-shift).<br/></div></div><br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">Ok! Time to go make character sheet edits!<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>I look forward to seeing what you come up with!  :D