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The Dresden Files => DFRPG => Topic started by: ChewyGranola on March 09, 2014, 09:13:51 PM
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I'm interested in having psychic characters in a DFRGP game. Anyone have some good hacks to represent the traditional psi powers like telepathy, clairvoyance, TK, etc?
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I think there are a couple of powers written available on the Resource Wiki (http://dfrpg-resources.wikispaces.com/). I know there's a telekinesis power at least.
One thing to consider, setting wise - The Laws of Magic.
The Dresdenverse (the setting as opposed to the RPG mechanics) do not differentiate how a mortal does what he does - as long as a mortal does something supernatural (and it's not given to him from someone like the Fairy Queens), he is using magic. See for instance Agent Tilly in Changes - he knows when someone lies to him. RPGwise, he'd probably be statted with Supernatural Sense - he's still using "mortal magic", just unknowingly.
This means that a mortal (in the way that Wizards and people like the Alphas are mortals) having access to telepathy might very well be considered a violation of the Third Law. There are also moments in the books that this seem completely OK (The Merlin doing a speed-of-thought mindlink-communication with a bunch of people etc), so it's really up to exactly what the character can (and chooses) to do.
Clairvoyance (as in far-seeing, scrying etc), telekinesis etc is completely cool. Apparently looking into the very short-term future does not break the 6th law, but further looking might...
All of this of course depends on your groups take on the Laws, how important you want them to be in the story you tell, etc. etc.
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That is awesome. Thanks a million!
I'm actually putting together a mish-mash setting with elements of DFRPG, Conspiracy X and the WoD. The Laws of Magic are there, but the White Council isint as important as it thinks it is in this setting.
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Cool :D
I had a quick peek through the "Psychic Powers" category, there seems to be a pretty good selection there!
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I thought it was ok to look at the future but bad to interact with the past.
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Looking at the future is called 'thinking about possibilities'; don't look to far, or your brain might explode from trying to grasp all of the branching possibilities and what minute differences will/would bring them about
Travelling to (or changing) the future is called 'that thing that we all do without magic being involved'; using magic to speed this up is not meaningfully differentiated from simply putting yourself into stasis long enough for it to happen on its own
Looking at the past is called 'studying history'; alternatively, just create a powerful enough telescope (possibly with magic) and use it to look through a scrying portal some unfathomable distance away
Travelling to (or changing) the past, or pulling things to the present from either the past or the future, is called 'a really bad idea; stop that'
(pulling things from the future changes their relative past; pulling things from the past removes them from the past and thus changes it)
This is my take on the relevant Law
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I like the reasoning of Tedronais look on the 6th law, and might very well use that for guidelines on how to handle it myself.
Based on what Bob says in PG, looking into the future and acting upon that knowledge can have different complications than just head-explodes-from-all-the-possible-futures (nasty paradox effects, etc), but can be worked around if you're careful.
There's all in all not that much we have on temporal shenanigans yet, so we don't really have a lot of examples to help us interpret the rather poetic "Never Swim Against the Currents of Time".
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There's all in all not that much we have on temporal shenanigans yet, so we don't really have a lot of examples to help us interpret the rather poetic "Never Swim Against the Currents of Time".
The currents of time carry events forward. Swimming against those currents takes you backwards. Travelling to the past is bad.
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Yeah, but as I said: according to Bob, looking into the future and acting upon that can be very bad aswell.
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I've statted comic-book type psychics before, and they tend to look like
-Telekinesis (Various Upgrades, including Strength and Toughness Powers)
-Telepathy (Various Upgrades)
-Ritual:Psychomancy
-Supernatural Sense (Various Psychic Stuff, see Molly Carpenter)
-Precognition
They tend to be pretty badass, actually. Telekinesis gives you mucho blasty power along with fancy skill stuff like picking locks or ripping open bank vaults, telepathy can do some serious social heavy lifting along with a handy mental stress attack, Ritual:Psychomancy is useful for obvious reasons, and the Supernatural Sense lets you cover any missed sensory bases (Spider senses!). I'm probably going to play either a Jean Grey-type psyhic or an Emissary in the next game I join.