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Lea Plath
2012-03-13, 04:46 PM
Couple of things for the Dresden Files RPG I came up with. Suggests/comments/critiques are welcomed and loved! Thanks! More to come!

New Supernatural Powers:

[-1] Starborn
Note: This power was designed to try and simulate Harry Dresden's resistance to Outsiders. The idea was that they would find it a little harder to affect you, and you would find it a lot easier to affect them, levelling the playing field a little.
When you were born, the stars were right. You are Starborn, Outsider Bane.

Bane of the Old Ones: All of your attacks count as fulfilling the catch for damaging Outsiders and Old Ones.
Protected: You are also slightly protected against Outsiders, which gives them a -1 to all actions against you, be it stealth, senses or strength.


[-3] Ghost
Note: This is meant to try and immitate the Ghosts in the book Ghost Story. I left out the teleporting, sanctuary and some other bits because I didn't think of anything fun and not so limiting as to make a ghost player useless. Also to keep the rules down to a reasonable level.
You are dead. Yep. Dead. Corked it. Pushing up daisies. Pining for the fords. But death isn’t the end, and this is what comes next.

No physical form: Ghosts only have a mental stress track and a social stress track. They are also immune to all physical attacks, unless they are backed up with Magic, will or certain supernatural abilities or stunts. Any physical damage that would be dealt to you by sources backed up with Magic, will or certain supernatural abilities or stunts is dealt to your mental stress instead. You may also pass through objects, such as walls. However you are still affected by wards and some thresholds, and can take physical damage from this, depending on the strength of the ward or threshold.
Invisible and Unheard: Most people can’t see you. To them, you are completely invisible and soundless. You can only be seen and heard by cats, creatures of the Nevernever and people with abilities related to ghosts.
Poltergeist: You cannot use might to move objects, instead you must use your conviction.
Ghostly Healing: You may clear all your consequences and mental stress at the cost of 1 refresh, as you use up your memories to heal yourself. This, however, has the consequence of slowly eroding who you were. If this healing ever takes your refresh to 0, you become a mindless ghost, and no longer a PC. Mark the refresh lost in brackets next to your normal refresh. You may regain Refresh through the Memories abilities.
Memories: Memories, for a Ghost, are their very being. When you attack another ghost or spirit using fists, you may choose to scoop out a chunk of their memories, which you can then devour. When you do this, you may gain 1 refresh back up to your maximum or heal a consequence (except extreme consequences).
[-2] Mad as a Ghost: Only mad ghosts can manifest in the real world. Thankfully, you are and can form a body of ectoplasm to manifest. When you manifest, you gain a physical stress track equal to your mental stress track. You cannot use consequences to negate damage on this stress track, and if you are “killed” by taking damage from this stress track, you return to ghostly form and take a point of stress to your mental track. You may also use any abilities you had (supernatural or other) and use physical skills in place of mental skills for interacting with the world (i.e, might instead of conviction).

Xefas
2012-03-13, 11:38 PM
Changes to existing powers
Lawbreaker: A possible change to Lawbreaker.

Taking Lawbreaker also grants you an aspect, only usable by the GM, that corresponds to the Law broken. The GM may compel this aspect (usual rules for compelling apply) for any activity where there is a chance to break said Law, relating to the aspect. The player may choose not to accept the compel.


I'm a little confused. Why do you feel this is necessary on top of the clause in the Slippery Slope portion of Lawbreaker where it already changes your pre-existing Aspects to reflect your crime the more that you commit it? It seems somewhat redundant.

Lea Plath
2012-03-14, 04:01 AM
I'm a little confused. Why do you feel this is necessary on top of the clause in the Slippery Slope portion of Lawbreaker where it already changes your pre-existing Aspects to reflect your crime the more that you commit it? It seems somewhat redundant.

It is meant to add onto that, as even before your aspect changes, the GM can still use this compel on you to encourage you to give into the dark side.

I kinda nicked this from a house rule of another GM I played, but changed it slightly. Orginally it let the player use the aspect as well, giving them 6 aspects they could invoke from the get go, so I made it GM only to bring the power down a bit and try and make it more thematic.

Or have I just gone tottally wrong?

Xefas
2012-03-14, 07:41 PM
It is meant to add onto that, as even before your aspect changes, the GM can still use this compel on you to encourage you to give into the dark side.

I kinda nicked this from a house rule of another GM I played, but changed it slightly. Orginally it let the player use the aspect as well, giving them 6 aspects they could invoke from the get go, so I made it GM only to bring the power down a bit and try and make it more thematic.

Or have I just gone tottally wrong?

Well, obviously, it's your call for the game you're in. But, if you want my two cents, I think the fact that it doesn't start mucking with Aspects until later is meant to represent that spiral into madness.

At first, the only thing that has changed about you is that you've lost some refresh - you made a mistake, and you're going to have to live with that for a long, long time. But that doesn't make you a monster. You aren't a warlock. You don't hear voices in your head. You made a mistake.

But there is temptation, in the form of that +1 to [thing]. A flat, always-on +1 in Fate is kind of a big deal. "I could try to take this guy out non-lethally, but if I try to kill him, I get a +1, which could likely be the difference between winning the fight or seeing all my friend riddled with bullets next round..."

It's not an insurmountable temptation, but neither should it be. With a little willpower, you can resist.

The trouble is when you give in, just a few times, for startling noble reasons. And now you have an "I'm a Horrible Monster" Aspect. Now you're not just getting one bonus, but a second bonus in the form of Fate Points, and negative reinforcement in the form of Fate Point hemorrhaging from resisting compels. In a very real way, it's costing your character something deep and vital every time they choose not to be a monster.

It is my suspicion that diving straight into Aspect territory will shorten this transition, and I'm not sure if that would be right for me. But that's just my 2 cents; YMMV, I could be wrong, and so on.