Ultra-Light Psychic Powers

[ManusDomine]

I'd say it doesn't work because...

1. The intent of the Merit is that you have a different method of carrying out the basic purpose of the skill. As an extension of that...
2. The raw materials are what you do Craft to, just like how I'd say that Drive needs a vehicle that you can do Drive to, and Animal Ken requires an animal that you can do Animal Ken to.
3. If you went all "I don't need tools to craft", you're still probably taking actions that an outside observer could look at and go "yep, they're crafting something", rather than "why is that crazy person waving tools around?" It's a more cromulent action, basically.
4. Oh sweet baby Yehoshoa, the edge cases. It'd be like defining your (original) Psychic Speciality as letting you ignore "things that would stop me from shooting any person I please". Nukes in the basement, poison gas in the middle of fights, the list goes on and on.
5. That being said, I'm fine with you doing it at your table. I just wouldn't allow it myself unless there's a good internal logic for it.

Allow it at my table? Oh dear god no, I think it's a silly idea, and I can see your reasons for disallowing it, it'd be like making an Occult speciality like: "Astral Projection" and then ignoring "Humans cannot use Astral Projection" or "Abjurations" with "Spirits".

So... the new list is going to be:

• Distant Speciality
• Hard Knack
• Psychic Speciality
• Rapid Speciality
• Unusual Speciality
• Violent Speciality

With Distant, Psychic, and Unusual Specialities being Willpower/Scene, and Rapid and Violent Specialities being Willpower/Action. Hard Knack is going to be passive (it lets you make Clash of Will rolls with your Speciality dice if your action opposes something Supernatural that would normally always succeed). I might toss in one for movement, but you can already get something like flight with Athletics (Balance) and Unusual Speciality. Of course there's a tightrope between the two sides of the canyon!

That sounds pretty cool.

[Hastur00]

This might be a little too hax, but how about eliminating the... need for lack of notice(?) for Stealth or Larceny? Hide in plain sight, steal openly from your marks, until the end of the turn/scene.

Part of me is wondering if I should toss together another merit that allows you to make attacks with rolls that fall within your specialty with skills that aren't normally used to hurt people. So stuff like causing internal bleeding with Intimidate, convincing their autonomic processes to slow down with Subterfuge, having a nearby animal attack them...

Wow, I missed this the first time, I lov-

...wait.

...I hope it doesn't sound too creepy, but this just fulfilled a need I never knew I had >


Violent Specialty: Occult- whisper the most destructive metaphysical truths of the CoD in at a calm, inexorable pace into the tender ear-cup of your target. Represent the loss of will to live with Bashing, and get as pulpy-Mythos head-splodey as you like with Lethal!


On the mechanical side of things, how would Violent Specialty interact with called shots and Tilts and so on? Beauty so terrible it blinds, insults so savagely bitchy and personal the victim gets hysterical (or regular) deafness, Arm Wrack and... uh, *Bleeding, for Intimidate or Expression mid-guitar-duel? He said hopefully?



*that's not quite the whole scene.

[Vent0]

Expression mid-guitar-duel?

+1 for slaying someone with the power of Rock.

[amechra]

Wow, I missed this the first time, I lov-

...wait.

...I hope it doesn't sound too creepy, but this just fulfilled a need I never knew I had >

As for the guitar duel... you inflict Tilts as a default "thing" with attacks. I'm trying to work out how to pull it off, though.

[amechra]

Speciality-Based Supernatural Abilities

The following merits allow your characters to develop "psychic" powers related to their skills, their chosen specialities, and their general character concept. I have chosen not to give a definite flavor or description of the merits' effects - that is up to you and your ST to decide.

Psychic Speciality (Supernatural; •)
Effect: Choose a speciality you possess. You may reflexively spend Willpower; for the remainder of the Scene, actions where that speciality apply do not require interaction between you and your target, as long as they would otherwise be in range.

Distant Speciality (Supernatural; •)
Prerequisites: Psychic Speciality
Effect: Choose a speciality that you have the Psychic Speciality merit for. You may reflexively spend Willpower to increase the range of any action where that speciality applies by one step for the remainder of the Scene. In general, an action that requires physical contact is Close range, while social interaction below the level of shouting is at Short range.

Hard Knack (Supernatural; •)
Prerequisites: Psychic Speciality
Effect: Choose a speciality you have the Psychic Speciality merit for. Whenever you take an action where that speciality would apply and it conflicts with a Supernatural ability that would normally cause it to automatically fail, it only does so if the user of the power rolls more Successes on a Clash of Wills roll than your speciality's bonus.

Rapid Speciality (Supernatural; • or •••)
Prerequisites: Psychic Speciality
Effect: Choose a speciality you have the Psychic Speciality merit for. Whenever you spend Willpower to improve a roll with that skill, you may forgo the normal bonus to split your action between multiple targets. Use the rules for Medium Burst Autofire at one dot, and Long Burst Autofire at three dots; however, you may treat an Extended Action as multiple targets for the purposes of this pseudo-autofire.
Special: At the ST's discretion, other systems where rolls are made over a span of time may be treated as Extended Actions for the purposes of this merit.

Unusual Speciality (Supernatural; •)
Prerequisites: Psychic Speciality
Effect: Choose a speciality you have the Psychic Speciality merit for. You may reflexively spend Willpower to ignore a specific piece of equipment or preparation normally required for actions that fall within that speciality for the remainder of the Scene. If a particular action calls for an especially complex tool or preparation, this merit only covers part of it; while it wouldn't let you drive without a car or shoot someone without a gun, it would let you drive a car with an empty tank or shoot someone without taking the safety off.

Violent Speciality (Supernatural; •)
Prerequisites: Psychic Speciality
Effect: Choose a speciality you have the Psychic Speciality merit for. You may reflexively spend Willpower to attack with a dice pool where that speciality applies; the attack is resisted by an appropriate Attribute. By default, the attack deals Bashing damage; however, you may choose to forgo the dice bonus from your speciality to use it as a Weapon Bonus instead.

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So... yeah. In general, Violent Speciality lets you use that skill as an "attack" skill. So you could go Down and Dirty with your singing or could break someone's arm by scowling at it.

One fun idea:

1. Find an old occult book. Let's call it Codex Hartford
2. Take Occult (Codex Hartford) as a speciality.
3. Take Psychic Speciality (Codex Hartford) and Violent Speciality(Codex Hartford).
4. ???
5. Profit.

More specifically, you now have a number of mystical rituals of detection (the Occult skill's main schtick combined with Psychic Speciality) and some attack spells (spend willpower on Violent Speciality; I'd let you inflict the Insane tilt with it, at the very least). If you later took Interdisciplinary Speciality, you could perhaps discover some spells of mental domination (Codex Hartford + Persuasion) or invisibility (Codex Hartford + Subterfuge + Unusual Speciality, since "hiding place" is a pretty simple bit of preparation) in its heavy pages.

EDIT: For style reasons, I want to bring this up to 10 merits - if you count Area of Expertise and Interdisciplinary Speciality, there are currently 8 merits that improve specialities.

Oh, and also you could totally make a Mystery Cult Initiation that consisted of just these merits in combination with the Speciality the first dot gives you. Might be cool.

[Vent0]

Very nice and elegant. But it's a little confusing as to the sheer scope of what this allows. Could you do another post of examples of explanations to make the many uses of this a bit more clear?

[amechra]

To use some that I've got lying around:

Athletics (Gymnastics): Lightfoot techniques! Balance on stuff you shouldn't be able to; cartwheel over pressure plates without triggering them, etc. With Unusual Speciality, you could pull off gymnastic routines in a room full of laser tripwires without setting them off - because you're obviating the need to plan out a route. Ever watch Kim Possible? Like that.

Athletics (Track and Field): Straight-up poltergeist-style telekinesis. Ranged Speciality lets you chuck chairs and stuff at people from across the room. Unusual Speciality would probably let you attack people, by smacking them with a (non-existent) discus.

Computer (Tumblr): Go over your queue from memory - set when it updates without an internet connection. Rapid Speciality would let you write so many posts at once.

Expression (Poetry): Poems just show up in people's heads when you're around - like a frickin' muse, you are. Unusual Speciality would let you rattle off whole sonnets or villanelles like it was no big thang. Violent Speciality would let you cause mental breakdowns with a rhyme (Presence + Expression(Poetry) - Composure).

Intimidation (Hard Eyed): People can feel your stare - even when you just glance their way. Ranged Speciality lets you give the people watching from their windows a right spooking by looking their way. Rapid Speciality lets you fill a bunch of people with the paranoia caused by you just... looking at them. Violent Speciality lets you blind people who can't take your stare (Presence + Intimidate - Resolve).

Science (Chemistry): Handle nasty stuff with your bare hands as if it were nothing. Unusual Speciality could let you start fires with a touch or cause other "spontaneous" chemical reactions; yeah, you could pull off full-on pyrokinesis with Unusual Speciality (Chemistry), Ranged Speciality (Chemistry), and Violent Speciality (Chemistry). I'd even give you a weapon bonus for the attack because fire.

Stealth (Stalking): Keep tabs on someone you're following around even if you can't see them. Unusual Speciality would let you hide in the bushes outside their window... metaphorically, of course, in the case of places that don't have bushes. Hard Knack gives you a little bit of extra coverage if anyone tries to find where you're hiding.

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And so on and so forth.

[ZealousChristian24]

Subterfuge (Upholding the Masquerade/The Herd Must Not Know) with Psychic, Distant, and Rapid Specialties, possibly alongside Hard Knack: Who needs a neuralizer? You're the only piece of equipment you need.

[amechra]

Heh.

OK, this one is more of a joke than anything else...

Coordinated Speciality (Supernatural; •)
Prerequisites: Psychic Speciality
Effects: When Psychic Speciality is active, you may reflexively spend one Willpower to extend the benefits of Psychic Speciality, as well as any other merit that modifies that speciality, to any other character who is in a Teamwork action with you.

Yes, this scene is within your reach (I couldn't find a clip, so you get the song instead).