Playing Normal Mortals and not Talents

[Eldagusto]

So how viable is it to play normal humans rather then Talents and still being a cool guy. I know the others will have an edge in a mixed game but I bring this up because I am gushing the options for say having people Start normal and get a Solar in game without them just being Rick Jones/Jimmy Olsen, and if they are a Talent then they can’t become something else.

I mean you can still say be a Cyborg or have cool things without a Splat yeah?!

How limited/discourages are you?

[glamourweaver]

The Trinity Core gives a full chapter to baseline character creation (except a few Talent-only Edges), with all the Talent mechanics as a later chapter. So it’s completely viable. You obviously don’t have Dramatic Editing or Gifts, but you can still be highly skilled and learn Skill Tricks.

I wouldn’t advise mixing baselines with other character types as PCs (badass “normals” so cool thry’re on even footing with superpowers is what Talents are for). But baseline play on their own, especially as pre-Eruption/Inspiration/Dunking sessions is 100% viable.

[glamourweaver]

If you want to up baseline character potency since they don’t have Inspiration to spend on Facet enhancements, you can always just give starting Experience so they can have more Skill Tricks and/or Enhanced Edges.

And yes, in Aeon you can take hardtech implants as a baseline or Talent (Psions in theory though it would take some story finageling to justify), though by the 2120s that’s almost exclusive to Nihonjin Agents. Ian’s mentioned the Anima era will explore hardtech in more detail as it’s far more widespread in that pre-Psions, pre-biotech era.

[Mateus Luz]

I think the system is quite good for baselines, lots of options of edges and skill tricks. It’s much more flexibilitythan the usual human get in WoD (never tried to play humans on CoD but must be a little better).
The problem with humans among psions and talents is the same you have in any game focused on supernatural, they are weaker than the others, but if you give him enought experience to be on the same level of play, it is going to be a lot of fun.

Point by point a Talent or a Psion gets more or less 55 extra XP form baselines (the advantages of being talent or psion translated to XP using the table), what would give a nice improve on skills (including skill tricks and specialities) and maybe a dot in an attribute or 2.

[Eldagusto]

Good advice.

Makes me also think about special individuals not of the 3 Solars. Like what about an immortal in the style of one of the Hammersmith survivors, but not tapping into Flux like Mercer. So maybe someone who just got immortality from an accident or maybe from an alien who gifted some radical medicine to a lucky Earther.

[NullApostle]

Good advice.

Makes me also think about special individuals not of the 3 Solars. Like what about an immortal in the style of one of the Hammersmith survivors, but not tapping into Flux like Mercer. So maybe someone who just got immortality from an accident or maybe from an alien who gifted some radical medicine to a lucky Earther.

You can probably create that by giving a baseline a single Psion/Nova ability. Shouldn't be too hard once Aberrant comes out.

[Mateus Luz]

You can probably create that by giving a baseline a single Psion/Nova ability. Shouldn't be too hard once Aberrant comes out.

You can use the Qualities for Aberrants described on Aeon, just ignore the concept of Corruption. If you create a character as standard and give him 1 or 2 Qualities it may work fine. At least while we wait for Aberrant new rules.

[Eldagusto]

What about those Organizations in the basic modern trinity book but for the Future in Aeon. I imagine we have secret organizations of Thieves and Criminals still, as well as James Bond like masterminds who secretly cultivate severely illegal enhancements.

How many colonies does Earth even have in Aeon times? Get your own colony or O’Neil Cylinder and you can probably start getting up to some really illegal stuff on the downlow. Cyborgs, mutants ect.

[Mateus Luz]

There are 2 great groups of space colonies in aeon, Nova era and Psions Era. Nova era were from before or during Aberrant war, and they can be much much much more advanced than the psions era colonies just because they may have mega smart novas developing tech on ultra high speed, but it’s more probable they are dead just because aberrants go crazy often...
The laws for advanced cybertech are generally very restrictive (except in Nihon), and the speed of travel is quite fast (except for Nihon), so there are lots of colonies that don’t use cybernetics and none that use (officially) that were created after Aberrant War.
You can also have regular humans that are transhumans, genetically adapted to live in Mars, deep in the oceans or even have additional hands, a grappling tail, claws, horns, etc. And they can be permanent or temporary.
Anyway, it’s your game, you can have a lot of cybernetics available for neutrals, as they are limited in the number of biotech they may use. Or eliminate the psions completely, what makes regular humans more playable as characters.

[glamourweaver]

What about those Organizations in the basic modern trinity book but for the Future in Aeon. I imagine we have secret organizations of Thieves and Criminals still, as well as James Bond like masterminds who secretly cultivate severely illegal enhancements.

I'm working on a few non-Psion-centric Allegiances for the Aeon Era. A future version of Les Fantomes (think "shadowrunners") definitely seems doable - haven't decided if they'll overlap with black-market tech focused allegiance or not. I'm also thinking of either an Australian or African news agency (one of those because their media is among the freest on the planet)... maybe some sort of wild-west lawman style loose allegiance for the people trying to uphold justice in the ruins of Europe. An India based research group trying to crack Prometheus-tech so they can become a new Order. Etc.

[Eldagusto]

Nah I like Psions.

I thought they mostly just restricted Cybernetics that effected the Brain after that Nova wipes out so much of the world and the super internet after the Anima era.

And I’m talking about people covertly making very illegal colonies and the likely hood of people not destroying miraculous supertech that can give them huge advantages just because it’s sanctioned by several governments.

Are all colonies owned/funded by nations? We don’t have Elon Musks and Lex Luthors colonizing space?

And I’m wondering how many colonies we have by Aeon Era. Like Sol is pretty colonized by that point right with nations on Mars and the moon slowly trying to terraform whole bodies. How many space stations and O’Neil Cylinders? And are the Colonies outside of the Solar system in the single digits still? I mean Psion Era Colonies.

[glamourweaver]

Nah I like Psions.

I thought they mostly just restricted Cybernetics that effected the Brain after that Nova wipes out so much of the world and the super internet after the Anima era.

I think it's just that hardtech cyberware is seen as inferior to biotech (and vitakinetic healing) outside of Nihon. Non-weaponized cybertech that doesn't alter the mind may be legal, but it's largely inferior to the alternative, and the weaponized stuff is as highly regulated as any equivalent weaponry.

[Eldagusto]

Okay so it’s just style/Aesthetics combined with Biotech having their own Psionic supermen able to make leaps and bounds in the field.

[Eldagusto]

See like one having this idea, especially for the history of my Trinity Multiverse Idea, Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty are Talents yeah that works. But for Mycroft I Go the route taken by Neil Gaiman’s The Case of Death and Honey, were Mycroft is to Sherlock what Sherlock is to a normal educated gentleman. As in Mycroft absorbs insane amounts of Data, on the Daily, remembers it all and has essentially a Memory Palace. And he essentially predicted the major events of the World to the decade, such as Wars and the independence of India. Events half a decade, a Century even in the Future. So maybe I’ll have him be the First Nova (super Intellect and Analytics and Probabilty style)but the issue is Sherlock and Mycroft seemed to be Geniuses since Birth, so maybe I’d have them become Talents as Children. And a lot of my issues would be eased if Talents could become Psi beings or Novas, probably giving up being a Talent. But Mycroft is about 7 years Sherlock’s Senior and was born what about 1850’s. That’s a bit early for a Nova even if going with the reverse 30 years of the Backwards Causality Wave of the Hammersmith event. So I guess he could have some other trigger making him a one off Nova but he seemed destined for Brilliance, so it seems off he is a Megamond due to a one off accident. It’s a bit better I’d say he was a Talent early on and became a Nova when the reverse wake of the Hammersmith wave his him extra early, as a one off outlier, like how some rare Daredevils and Mesmerists came about even 30 years after the Hammersmith event when most faded.

But some of this would be resolved if Mycroft is a tier two Talent. Just an amputed up Genius, able to predict world events far in excess of a normal Talent. Maybe other Tier Two Talents could be like Yujiro Hanma being a physical version of Tier two Talent compared to Mycrofts mental Tier two.

[glamourweaver]

See like one having this idea, especially for the history of my Trinity Multiverse Idea, Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty are Talents yeah that works. But for Mycroft I Go the route taken by Neil Gaiman’s The Case of Death and Honey, were Mycroft is to Sherlock what Sherlock is to a normal educated gentleman. As in Mycroft absorbs insane amounts of Data, on the Daily, remembers it all and has essentially a Memory Palace. And he essentially predicted the major events of the World to the decade, such as Wars and the independence of India. Events half a decade, a Century even in the Future. So maybe I’ll have him be the First Nova (super Intellect and Analytics and Probabilty style)but the issue is Sherlock and Mycroft seemed to be Geniuses since Birth, so maybe I’d have them become Talents as Children. And a lot of my issues would be eased if Talents could become Psi beings or Novas, probably giving up being a Talent. But Mycroft is about 7 years Sherlock’s Senior and was born what about 1850’s. That’s a bit early for a Nova even if going with the reverse 30 years of the Backwards Causality Wave of the Hammersmith event. So I guess he could have some other trigger making him a one off Nova but he seemed destined for Brilliance, so it seems off he is a Megamond due to a one off accident. It’s a bit better I’d say he was a Talent early on and became a Nova when the reverse wake of the Hammersmith wave his him extra early, as a one off outlier, like how some rare Daredevils and Mesmerists came about even 30 years after the Hammersmith event when most faded.

But some of this would be resolved if Mycroft is a tier two Talent. Just an amputed up Genius, able to predict world events far in excess of a normal Talent. Maybe other Tier Two Talents could be like Yujiro Hanma being a physical version of Tier two Talent compared to Mycrofts mental Tier two.

I think you’re confusing Tier and Scale. Ignore the chart on page 74, it’s almost definitely getting cut. In terms of TIER (not Scale)

Tier 1: Baselines
Tier 2: Talents, Psions, Superiors (Divergents)
Tier 3: Maxwell Mercer, Proxies, Novas (Nemeses)
Tier 4: ???, Doyen?, Terats