[Deviant] Ask a Simple Question, Renegade-Style

[Stupid Loserman]

It seems a bit weird that the only way to improve a character's power is through a "damage mechanic" that everything else in the game pushes you to heal.
I guess it's meant to avoid having a power fantasy game instead of an rpg with themes of body horror etc.

Power and debility go hand-in-hand for the Remade; their transformation is unstable and wild, and every Variation is counterbalanced by a Scar. The most powerful Remade are also the ones with the most glaring weaknesses, and the ones most vulnerable to breaking down if they don't get ahead of their instability.

It's also not like you're going to find yourself hurting for opportunities to develop enough instability to produce a Scar. You suffer instability just by existing at the beginning of every story, and more for just spending time (sessions) without pursuing Touchstones. Any instability at all, even just one minor point, is enough to develop a new permanent Scar dot.

[moonwhisper]

As a kind of follow-up question to my previous one:
what's the rationale of gaining new Scars by healing Instability?

The book describes Instability as a measure of "how profoundly the Deviant’s Scars affect her quality of life", and is strictly tied to her sense of self and how much she clings to humanity.
By neglecting their Touchstones, Deviants neglect their ties with humanity, hence growing Instability which in turn worsen their Scars or creates new ones.
This concept is quite clear.

But I don't understand the "other way around", i.e. why by developing a new Scar the Deviant can heal Instability?
It doesn't make much sense to me that new Scars can be developed both by gaining Instability and healing it.

[Satchel]

But I don't understand the "other way around", i.e. why by developing a new Scar the Deviant can heal Instability?
It doesn't make much sense to me that new Scars can be developed both by gaining Instability and healing it.

Because it's gaining the Scar that's healing the Instability, not the other way around.

It's a limited means of venting temporary Instability by normalizing it into a permanent Scar, which nevertheless will cause subsequent applications of that workaround to have more severe results until/unless the Scar is entangled with a Variation. It's like making peace with the fact that your house has a leaky roof that refuses to stay fixed instead of continuing to lose money trying to patch it; the permanent Scar is worse for the transformed than Instability, but it is more stable.

[Stupid Loserman]

edit: I had a thing here, but on second thought I think the reasoning was wrong.

[moonwhisper]

Because it's gaining the Scar that's healing the Instability, not the other way around.

It's a limited means of venting temporary Instability by normalizing it into a permanent Scar, which nevertheless will cause subsequent applications of that workaround to have more severe results until/unless the Scar is entangled with a Variation. It's like making peace with the fact that your house has a leaky roof that refuses to stay fixed instead of continuing to lose money trying to patch it; the permanent Scar is worse for the transformed than Instability, but it is more stable.

That was a nice way of putting it, thanks

[moonwhisper]

Persistent Scars, page 158: "A player may only combine them with Persistent Variations, except when a Deviation says otherwise."

But Variations don't have a Persistent keyword. They have the Perpetual keyword.

The activation method of a Variation can be Persistent, but the activation method is determined by the entangled Scar.
So the quoted sentence wouldn't make sense: "Persistent Scars can only be combined with Variations entangled with a Persistent Scar."

Unless it's a typo and by Persistent Variations the authors meant Perpetual Variations?

[Satchel]

Persistent Scars, page 158: "A player may only combine them with Persistent Variations, except when a Deviation says otherwise."

But Variations don't have a Persistent keyword. They have the Perpetual keyword.

The activation method of a Variation can be Persistent, but the activation method is determined by the entangled Scar.
So the quoted sentence wouldn't make sense: "Persistent Scars can only be combined with Variations entangled with a Persistent Scar."

Unless it's a typo and by Persistent Variations the authors meant Perpetual Variations?

I think it's just reiterating the basics there because there are Deviations/Scars in both other activation methods that entangle a non-Persistent Varation with a Persistent Scar indirectly.

[moonwhisper]

I think it's just reiterating the basics there because there are Deviations/Scars in both other activation methods that entangle a non-Persistent Varation with a Persistent Scar indirectly.

So that means, for example, I can entangle Telekinesis with a Persistent Scar and use it at will, with no activation roll required, right?

[Satchel]

So that means, for example, I can entangle Telekinesis with a Persistent Scar and use it at will, with no activation roll required, right?

As a Persistent Variation it is constantly available to you without having to activate it for the scene, yes. Telekinesis as a semi-specific example will still require rolls to use, because it's a Directed Variation, but that's a separate category of keyword from activation method.

[Stupid Loserman]

Notably Telekinesis is also Toggled, which means that even entangled with a Persistent Scar, it still requires an unrolled instant action to activate for the scene.

[Ipergigio]

In that case, why not just go with the Symbiote Form? You really don't need to stat out the spirit to have it hang around in Twilight. A Bound's Geist only has a projection in Twilight and can't act independently at all, unless it's Unleashed.

So, how I may try to adapt a "Unleash" to Deviant?

[cybirddude]

So, how I may try to adapt a "Unleash" to Deviant?

Maybe you could use Involuntary Stimulus or Alternate Persona?

[Satchel]

So, how I may try to adapt a "Unleash" to Deviant?

Honestly, high-Magnitude Telekinesis hits a lot of the relevant points and there's plenty of Standard Deviations to model most of that Magnitude being balanced by lack of control.

[espritdecalmar]

What are some good roleplaying cues for a Deviant who has Superhuman Intelligence entangled with Bestial Mind?

[Primordial newcomer]

What are some good roleplaying cues for a Deviant who has Superhuman Intelligence entangled with Bestial Mind?

Possibly as having the intellect result in a feedback loop where simple concepts begin to become inconceivable. Or that for the mind to work on a superhuman level, it must have an intense focus on what it thinks about, and anything that disturbs it leads to an overload