Wiki Showcase: True Communion

When I created Communion, I divided it into three "types."  True Communion (originally just called "Communion," but one of my readers took to calling it "True Communion" in his game, and I've borrowed the name) represents the Communion of Super-Ego, the drive and impulse towards community, self-denial and judgment; it's that voice in your head that tells you "No" when you want something that you know you shouldn't have.

True Communion works the most like vanilla Divine Favor, though obviously it has shifted to a more psychic flavor to fit the psychic origins of powers in Psi-Wars.  Its self-denial means it requires a Pact limitation that pushes one towards rather traditional conceptions of holiness.  It also helps one connect to others, such as sharing the same language, or psychically contacting someone no matter how far away they are. It also denies others the use of psychic powers or even communion miracles (True Communion "says no.") to those it deems unworthy. It has a conception of worthiness, and helps the user judge that in others, to differentiate the outsider from the insider.

All forms of Communion grant a basic bonus to anyone who has unlocked them, and True Communion grants Meditative Psionics. That is, you can meditate for 8 hours to earn one energy reserve point for psychic powers.  There's no upper limit to how much you can have.  This might not seem like much, but there's no upper limit to how much you can have.  There's some True Communion saint on a swampy planet somewhere with several thousand psychic ER points built up ready to lay the smack down on some mouthy punk who complains that ships are too heavy to lift with your mind.  I did put a limit on how much you can spend, though.  You can waive that if you want a truly epic, one-time feat, of course.

The main updates to True Communion are Auras, Ghost-fighting powers, and some versions of Blessed that boost your IQ.

You can check out the updated form of True Communion here.

Wiki Showcase: the Swift Form of Force Swordsmanship

Maradonian Duelist
Art by Kriz Villacis
Owned by Daniel Dover

If you've been following my blog for awhile, you might remember my discussion of Martial Arts as power-ups. That was, in fact, born out of my desire to better explore the force swordsmanship styles of Psi-Wars, which I've been building since Iteration 4.  So, you're likely familiar with the styles I'll lay out over the next few days, but I wanted to explore them as power-up structures. I wanted a player to be able to say "I'm an Adept at the Swift Form" and have it mean something.  These power-ups have also been built into the structure of the Space Knight, but as you upgrade your character, it's nice to have an upgrade path, and I've provided that, for the Swift Form, here.

(One thing to understand before exploring it too much is that I've instituted a house rule in Psi-Wars where all Technique prices are halved. One point buys you +1 to the first level of a Hard technique, and +2 to all subsequent levels of a Hard technique, or all levels of an Average technique, to the listed maximum.  This is to allow for characters to have a greater variety of techniques).

I ran a snap poll months and months ago where I asked my Patrons what Force Sword style they would choose as players.  Of the Maradonian styles, the Swift Form came dead last with zero votes.  I don't believe this is a condemnation of the Swift Form, so much as a preference for players to explroe something else.  The Swift Form is, in many ways, symptomatic of the malaise afflicting Maradonian Space Knights, who have come to focus on courtly dueling over more practical battlefield applications.  Thus, I imagine players might expect to face a duelist using the Swift Form, and expect to dismantle him with their other, more unique styles.

That said, the Swift Form is probably the "best" force sword style, if your focus is actually on fighting with a force sword against a single opponent.  It's ruthlessly focused, great at hitting first (though the Serene style is competitive for the "first hit") and stacks up multiple advantages against a single opponent.  It tends to do well against any style where it can dictate terms.  It struggles a bit to get around the force buckler of Knightly Force Swordsmanship, and can be outmaneuvered by the Graceful form.  The Destructive Form usually just lops the Swift Swordsman's arm off or punches him in the face, but modern Duelists wear an extra heavy gauntlet and a face-mask to prevent these tactics.

If you're a Star Wars fan looking to crib my stuff for your game, the Swift Form is closest to Makashi, or Form II.

Transcendent Principles: The Truths of the Cult of the Mystical Tyrant

The Path of the Mystic Tyrant is a path of transcendence. Those who walk that path violate the norms of the world and show that new things, never thought possible before, can be made to be true through the will of the Tyrant. This allows those who follow the path of the Mystic Tyrant to achieve unparalleled power, but at a cost.

Transcendent Powers are a new power-set available only to followers of the Cult of the Mystic Tyrant. Characters with Transcendent Master or Illuminated may freely learn or create them; other characters may use a Communion Oath to learn a transcendent power, provided a master is willing to teach it to him.

Transcendent Powers consist of the principle and the powers. The principle represents the world-view that the Tyrannical Master has imposed upon the world and represents a “category” or “container” of individual abilities, similar to how a psionic power contains numerous abilities associated with it. To gain access to a principle, a character needs an appropriate Transcendent Principle perk, after which he may gain any associated Transcendent Powers. Characters may only gain the Transcendent Principle perk if they have the Transcendent Master or Illuminated trait, or learn it from someone who does.

Transcendent Powers represent the effects of internalizing the Transcendent Principle. The character so completely believes the vision and so thoroughly changes the world with it that he is fundamentally changed. Thus, characters do not use Transcendent Powers, they have Transcendent Powers. Transcendent Principles can also grant access to new miracles, typically the miracles of Broken Communion paths, or entirely new miracles that the character may invoke.

While beyond the scope of most Psi-Wars games, the GM can allow characters with Transcendent Master or Illuminated to invent new principles and powers, using the Philosophy skill. A new principle is an Amazing invention, while a new power associated with a principle the character already knows is an Average invention.

Patron Post: Power-Up Previews

A lot of my work lately has been on organizational power, and I think some players will really want to embrace that beyond what the Officer and the Diplomat can do.  They'll want to be more than action heroes, and become the movers and shakers of the setting who happen to also be action heroes.  In that line, I've worked on a few new power-ups, one associated with the Spy and the Diplomat, which you may have already seen, and an entirely new power-up anyone can take for 50 points: the Conspirator and the Magnate.

If you want to look at the design notes and get a deeper look at the logic of them, become a $1+ patron!

Heroism and Experience as Power-Sets

Heroism as Power-Set

So far, we have psionic powers, martial arts and cybernetics as power-sets. Each invests the character more deeply into a particular aspect of the setting, and expresses what makes him cool.

• Psionic Powers invest the character more deeply into Communion and Psi-Wars as a mystical setting. It lets your character be cool in a “spooky” way.
• Martial Arts invest the character more deeply into a particular culture and Psi-Wars as a warrior setting. It lets the character be cool in a “lethal” way.
• Cybernetics invest a character more deeply into technology and the robots of Psi-Wars. It lets your character be cool in a profoundly physical way.

I've decided on a Heroic power-set as a fourth option. It represents a more generic power-set, someone who is cool for the sake of being cool. A heroic character embraces the fact that he's an action character as his prime element and turns that particular aspect up to 11. It also has no specific focus. Whereas the other powersets require huge catalogs of options for the player to navigate, the heroic power set will not. The hero isn't required to worry about the specific nature of his heroism. He's free to work those details out later.

This doesn't tie a character into anything specifically, but it seems very probable that such characters would have a great deal of destiny. These characters matter. Wherever they show up, the world shifts and changes. They're “the chosen one.”

Attributes: Choose one of DX +1 [20], IQ +1 [20] or both HT +1 [10] and Will +2 [10]

Advantages: Destiny (Varies) 3 [15]; Choose 15 points of Appearance (Varies), Combat Reflexes [15], Danger Sense [15], Daredevil [15], Destiny +2 or +3 [5/level], Fearlessness or Unfazeable [2/level or 15], Hard to Kill [2/level], Rapier Wit [5], Serendipity [15], or improve Luck to Extreme Luck [30] for 15 points.

Experience as Power-Set

The rest of the power-sets involve moving the character in a new direction. But what about characters who want to be more of what they already are? Should a spy take psionic powers, she becomes able to read minds or see the future, while a martial artist spy becomes a lethal ninja, and cyborg spy becomes a master of technology, but what about a spy who wants to be more of a spy?

After the End also has power-sets, though less dramatic than those of Psi-Wars (it’s a lower-key game), and it also features an Experienced power-set. It represents an additional investment into your characters capabilities, and it’s specific to each template, which is very suitable to Psi-Wars. It would also address a concern I have, namely that players who enjoy the more high-octane gameplay typical of the super-hero-style antics of the prequels might want to start at higher point totals (400, perhaps). Can non-Psi-Knight characters keep up without resorting to psionic powers and martial arts?

Dungeon Fantasy doesn’t use these sorts of power-sets. Instead, they offer power-ups, smaller packages that characters can grab as they increase in experience. This actually fits the rest of the power-sets pretty well: A psionic character doesn’t buy psionic powers 50 points at a time, nor do martial artists. Instead, they improve a few skills and buy a few powers 5-10 points at a time. Power-ups work the same way.

So, I propose mixing the two: Every template has associated power-ups, and characters who choose Experience as their power-set get a 50-points worth of power-ups.  I'd like to make the individual power-ups worth no more than 25 points, so players can buy them in place of something in their advantage set, if they wished.

To make this work, I need to define power-ups for each individual template, which is a lot of work, work that I’m willing to do, but we should start one template at a time.

I’d like to start with the Spy, as the Spy is the most non-combat focused of the character templates thus far. If I can’t come up with ~100 points worth of power-ups for the Spy, then this idea won’t work.

Advantages: Choose 50 points from your template Advantages, or from your template Power-Ups.

Spy Power-Ups

Conspirator 25 points

Advantages: Spend 20 points on Forgettable Face [1], Honest Face [1], Illuminated [15], Security Clearance [5 to 15], Serendipity (Conspiratorial -20%) [12], Truth Seeker +1 to +4 [5/level], Zeroed [10]

Skills: Expert Skill (Conspiracy Theory) (H) IQ [4]; Spend one additional point on Current Affairs (Headline News or Politics) (E) IQ [1], Propaganda (A) IQ-1 [1], or Intelligence Analysis (H) IQ-2 [1] or Detect Lies (H) Per-2 [1].

Illuminated allows the character to roll IQ in place of Hidden Lore (Communion) to recognize any Communion symbolism, and the character may roll IQ to recognize someone’s Destiny, provided it’s involved in any conspiracy. Finally, it grants a +3 to Pulling Rank rolls.

Master of Disguises 25 points

Advantages: Spend between 0 and 20 points on Impersonator, raising it to a minimum of +4 [20]. Spend remaining points on Accent (Any) [1], Convincing Nod [1], Cultural Familiarity (Any) [1] or Cultural Adaptability [10], Disposable Identity [1], Equipment Bond (Disguise Kit) [1], Gizmo 1 (Disguise Kit Only -80%, Cosmic: Retcon +50%, Requires Disguise Roll -10%) [3], Passing Appearance (Androgynous or Passing Complexion) [1], Voice [10]

Skills: Mimicry (Speech) (H) IQ+2* [1]; Spend an additional 4 points improving Acting, Disguise or Mimicry.

Note that Voice adds +2 to Mimicry.

Cosmic: Retcon means that the character can claim he was already using said gizmo. For the Disguise gizmo, this means that the character can claim to have been diguised “the whole time” as some other character (that the GM approves).

Ghost 25 points

Advantages: Spend between 0 and 20 points on Craftiness, raising it to a minimum of +4 [20]. Spend remaining points on Skills (below) or on Catfall [10], Flexibility [5] or Double-Jointed [15], Forgettable Face [1], Nightvision +1 to +5 [1/level], Perfect Balance [15], Serendipity (Stealth Opportunities Only -80%) [3], Silence +1 to +2 [5/level], Trained by a Master (Evastion -50%) [15].

Skills: Improve Stealth by 1 level for 4 points; Spend one point on Jumping (E) DX [1], Climbing (A) DX-1 [1], Acrobatics or Escape (H) DX-2 [1].

Hacker 25 points

Advantages: Cyberneticist 4 [20]

Skills: Computer Hacking (H) IQ+4 [4]; Spend one point on Computer Operation (E) IQ+4* [1], Computer Programming (AI) (H) IQ+2* [1], Electronic Repairs (Computer) (A) IQ+3* [1], or one of the following perks: Beep Fluency [1], Cross-Trained (Computers) [1], Equipment Bond (Computer) [1],

Psionic Powersets

So, now that we've defined Psionics and Communion and how they'll work with Psi-Wars, we should offer players the chance to explore them.

A power set is 50 points we set aside for purchasing powers of a specific set.  So what's the Psionic Powerset?  Well, spend 50 points on psionic traits!  There you go, have fun!  We can do the same for Communion, provided you have some kind of psionic power already.

That's not enough?  You need something more specific?  Well, alright.