Enderlord's Random Banter #230 (Friendly warning: Might teleport. Don't get wet.)

[Rater202]

Is it odd that I really have a thing for stories about really powerful people who have no ability to function in normal society and have to be taught how to person properly due to their early life circumstances?

[LaZodiac]

Is it odd that I really have a thing for stories about really powerful people who have no ability to function in normal society and have to be taught how to person properly due to their early life circumstances?

Not really.

Also you should watch Mob Psycho 100.

[Anonymouswizard]

I've got an urge to ruin a psi-punk game. Like megacorporations, advanced tech, PCs are operating outside the law, just with telepaths and espers instead of cybernetics.

Because psychics are cool, okay. Who doesn't want ESP?

[Rawhide]

Who doesn't want ESP?

My car has ESP, and I'm totally not being controlled by it.

[Fyraltari]

I've got an urge to ruin a psi-punk game. Like megacorporations, advanced tech, PCs are operating outside the law, just with telepaths and espers instead of cybernetics.

So, Minority Report then?

[Rawhide]

Ok, silly D&D 5e question time.

What are all of the ability score generation methods for character creation in any official D&D 5e source (including playtesting), and where do you find the method (including page number if known)?

e.g. Player's Handbook presents three options:

• 6x 4d6 drop lowest, assign as desired (also in Basic Rules)
• Standard array (also in Basic Rules)
• 27 point buy

[LaZodiac]

the fact that I genuinely have no idea, beyond "I know not all of them are mentioned in the player creation chapter" says something about how DND is... quite bad at organizing their books.

[Rawhide]

the fact that I genuinely have no idea, beyond "I know not all of them are mentioned in the player creation chapter" says something about how DND is... quite bad at organizing their books.

In 3.x there were a couple in the Player's Handbook, then a whole bunch of others in the Dungeon Master's Guide. Each of them came with warnings about creating overpowered or underpowered characters. I haven't found any other than the ones I listed above in 5e yet. As I recall, 3.x Forgotten Realms suggested a higher number of points than the default 25 if you were using point buy.

[DataNinja]

I've got an urge to ruin a psi-punk game. Like megacorporations, advanced tech, PCs are operating outside the law, just with telepaths and espers instead of cybernetics.

Because psychics are cool, okay. Who doesn't want ESP?

The people who want tech and robots and stuff, of course.
(I am not biased, not in the slightest.)

[Tvtyrant]

The people who want tech and robots and stuff, of course.
(I am not biased, not in the slightest.)

What about cybernetic esp? The Internet is in your Head, and You have been Hacked!!

[Rater202]

I've got an urge to ruin a psi-punk game. Like megacorporations, advanced tech, PCs are operating outside the law, just with telepaths and espers instead of cybernetics.

Because psychics are cool, okay. Who doesn't want ESP?

Isn't telepathy a kind of ESP? At its basic level it's reading other people's minds in order to either learn their surface thoughts, peruse their memories, or both. That's a form of sensation that isn't possible with the six standard senses of sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell, or spatial orientation and is thus, by definition, and extra sense and thus extrasensory.

Sometimes telepathy is shown going both ways, with the telepath being able to put thoughts in other people's heads to control or communicate with them or even alter the person's existing thoughts and memories completely, but being able to do that without being able to read minds is usually not called telepathy and the only psychic I know of that can control minds without reading them is Zebediah "Purple Man" Killgrave and his psychic powers are, outside of an outside boost, limited to enhancing and controlling the effects of emotional altering pheromones.

[Anonymouswizard]

So, Minority Report then?

Yes, but with less precog.

The people who want tech and robots and stuff, of course.
(I am not biased, not in the slightest.)

People always talk about future tech as if it's either or.

(The setting is only not including cybernetic augmentation for reasons of focus.)

[QUOTE=Rater202;24869178]Isn't telepathy a kind of ESP?/QUOTE]

Yes, generally, but I was posting while devising in-setting terms. 'can only recieve' and 'can also broadcast' are useful distinctions.

Jury's still out on if I'll include psychokinesis or the like, I do like the idea of 'only mental powers'.

[Fyraltari]

What does ESP stand for?

[Rater202]

On the Path/Esper/Kinesis topic

So, Marvel Comics series Runaways has a character introduced at the end of volume 2 but leaving sometime after volume 3 is Klara Prast, a child bride from the year 1907 who agreed to come back to the future with the Runaways(on a time travel mission at the time) to escape from being married to an abusive drunken pedophile in her own time.

She is a "Wonder"(catch-all-term for superhumans in her time, eventually clarified that she's a Mutant) with the powers of Chlorokinisis(psionically manipulate plants, including making them move, altering their growth rate, and triggering mutations within them) and Botanopathy, the ability to psionically sense and communicate with plants.

(I suspect she might be Omega Level in one or both of those powers, becuase she has an absurd amount of power and adversity to the point that in-universe documents on the Runaways have her listed as someone the Avengers are afraid to piss off.)

And as far as I know, she's the only explicit "botanopath" in the setting, other people with the ability to sense plants are usually sensing life-energy or have some mystical connection to nature that transcends the physical nature of the plant.

Which makes me wonder... What would botanopathy be like... without plant control?

The "the flower recognized the murderer" thing is an exaggeration, but plants are known to be able to detect and react to stimuli in their environment and if you can get enough interconnected root systems and symbiotic fungi in an area a forest can become a superorganism with a rudimentary nervous system.

So, what would sensing and communicating with plants psionically be like?

[Anonymouswizard]

What does ESP stand for?

ExtraSensory Perception. Basically you can sense stuff that other people can't.

Generally with your mind.

Common types include reading thoughts, reading emotions, seeing auras, and locating objects/people without using your mundane senses. Things like clairvoyance and precognition might be included, depending on the definition. Oh, and psychometry, which is basically "you can tell something important any an object by touching it, whether that's it's last holder or something it was used to do'.

Psychometry is fun but can burst investigative scenarios wide open. Of course in settings where it is known to exist people will devise workarounds.

Edit: don't know in the car sense. Electronic Security Protocols would be my best guess.

[factotum]

Edit: don't know in the car sense. Electronic Security Protocols would be my best guess.

More likely Electronic Stability Program, which is kind of a souped-up version of traction control and anti-lock braking that tries to prevent the car skidding when you apply too much power.

[Rawhide]

Edit: don't know in the car sense. Electronic Security Protocols would be my best guess.

More likely Electronic Stability Program, which is kind of a souped-up version of traction control and anti-lock braking that tries to prevent the car skidding when you apply too much power.

This. And I think it deliberately matches up to the Extra Sensory Perception acronym, 'cause it gives the car extra senses.

[DataNinja]

People always talk about future tech as if it's either or.

(The setting is only not including cybernetic augmentation for reasons of focus.)

Ah, sorry. You explicitly just said no-cybernetics, so that's what I was latching onto. Because I think cybernetics are cool.

[Rater202]

Ah, sorry. You explicitly just said no-cybernetics, so that's what I was latching onto. Because I think cybernetics are cool.

Do you consider enhancement by nano-machines without any overt bionics to be a "cyborg?"

I mean, strictly speaking, it would count but when it comes to cyborgs in literature most people seem to think you need at least one fully functional mechanical prosthetic permanently wired to your nervous system to count.

[FinnLassie]

How many banters have I missed?

[Rawhide]

How many banters have I missed?

All of them.

[Bartmanhomer]

I feel very illogical for not googling the directions for looking at the new check-cashing place. It took me all day but I finally found it. I need to think more clearly instead of using instincts.

[Anonymouswizard]

Ah, sorry. You explicitly just said no-cybernetics, so that's what I was latching onto. Because I think cybernetics are cool.

Hey, as a RL cyborg I'm all for cybernetics, because cool. But this one time they're just something I don't want.

As a side note, the current state of modern cybernetics is cool, and I'm annoyed I'm nowhere near skilled enough to be working on developing them. They were the primary reason I decided to study electronic engineering and not mechanical engineering. They're nowhere near where we thought they'd be by now, nobody's going to cut off an arm just to get a robot one anytime soon, and there's a chance (small, but still there) that biotech might let us grow or print biological replacements before cybertech is all there.

But massive companies, cybernetic limbs with a sense of touch, virtual reality, this is all sounding familiar...

Also where are my darn robot eyes? It's the only real way I'll ever lose this squint*.(Yeah, I know, camera tech is nowhere near that miniaturised yet, although the vision restoration implants we currently have are still cool desire having incredibly low resolution in black and white.)

* Yes, I had surgery as a kid, didn't work, could in theory try again but urgh, I want it to actually be somewhat reliable.

[DataNinja]

Do you consider enhancement by nano-machines without any overt bionics to be a "cyborg?"

I mean, strictly speaking, it would count but when it comes to cyborgs in literature most people seem to think you need at least one fully functional mechanical prosthetic permanently wired to your nervous system to count.

If it's a one-and-done procedure to fix you up and "optimize" your insides, than, no, I don't really count it. But if you've permanently got nanites in your meatbag body, then, yes. I consider that a cyborg augmentation.

How many banters have I missed?

Ah, Finn! It's been a while. Was wondering how you were getting on, even if we... really didn't talk.

Hope you're doing well, regardless.

[Rater202]

If it's a one-and-done procedure to fix you up and "optimize" your insides, than, no, I don't really count it. But if you've permanently got nanites in your meatbag body, then, yes. I consider that a cyborg augmentation.

...Isn't the point of nanomachine enhancement that they stay in your system and keep fixing/optimizing indefinitely?

I'm not seeing...

Like, literally the only time I've ever heard of Nanomachines being temporary was when Tony Stark got turned evil during AXIS, moved to LA and spiked the Water with the "Techno-Organic Extremis Virus" that made everyone immortal with high-level hearing factors and the ability to shapeshift into your perfect body... Then charged people hundreds of dollars a day to keep from turning them off.

I'm not seeing someone who went to get nanomachine treatments paying good money for a modification that's going to wear off eventually, let alone a one and done deal. If I'm getting robots put in me to fix my bodily problems I'm expecting them to stick around, otherwise I'd spend the money on (medically prescribed therapeutic) drugs or surgical treatments.

[DataNinja]

...Isn't the point of nanomachine enhancement that they stay in your system and keep fixing/optimizing indefinitely?

I'm not seeing...

Like, literally the only time I've ever heard of Nanomachines being temporary was when Tony Stark got turned evil during AXIS, moved to LA and spiked the Water with the "Techno-Organic Extremis Virus" that made everyone immortal with high-level hearing factors and the ability to shapeshift into your perfect body... Then charged people hundreds of dollars a day to keep from turning them off.

I'm not seeing someone who went to get nanomachine treatments paying good money for a modification that's going to wear off eventually, let alone a one and done deal. If I'm getting robots put in me to fix my bodily problems I'm expecting them to stick around, otherwise I'd spend the money on (medically prescribed therapeutic) drugs or surgical treatments.

I've seen some times where it's basically the equivalent of advanced surgery, just to fix your body in tip-top shape at the moment. Rather than a perpetual (well, easily renewable) service. Hence my clarification.

[factotum]

How many banters have I missed?

According to your post history you last posted in #224, so I guess five?

[oxybe]

So the last few months i've been doing a bit of introspection and over the past couple of weeks i've come to a realization:

I don't like my local gaming scene.

Not that it's bad, terrible, toxic or anything like that, but over the years tastes have diverged and the local games just aren't for me me. I like the people, just not the games offered. we've tried different genres and both homebrew and established settings, and different enough array of systems. It's just not doing it for me.

I know a couple years back i got burnt out on pathfinder's adventure paths since that's all our GM ran. since others have taken up the chair and given him some respite, myself included, nothing has really managed to grab me, to hook me in and leave me wanting more.

So for new year's i'm probably going to drop my current group and just chillax at home on wednesdays instead. It sucks because I like them, but lately i'm just not feeling the sessions we were having.

[Rater202]

Random trivia:

Bart Simpson's full name is Bartholomew Jojo Simpson.

One of the Halloween specials gave him the power to stop time.

Please enjoy the unintended implications of these facts.

[Peelee]

Random trivia:

Bart Simpson's full name is Bartholomew Jojo Simpson.

One of the Halloween specials gave him the power to stop time.

Please enjoy the unintended implications of these facts.

Is the implication "two different people can have share a name without anything more being implied"?