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Post by talismanhex on May 11, 2007 1:26:43 GMT -5
Here is a new Action I am making for one of my Players. Please help me perfect it.
Advanced Knowledge Cost Level Action Number+5 Levels
Description This indicates an advanced, cosmic knowledge. Like General Knowledge the player can ask the GM relevant questions, but gets the definitions or explanations instantly( No Stones required), fed to them directly by their cosmic connection. For example: a player may need to know about radiation and the Gm simply sends them a link to the best out source on the subject. Includes an Intelligence Bonus and Cosmic Awareness. This is an advanced Action. For each Action Number you may add one non-Super Power Action that you use at the Action number of your Advanced Knowledge. This is accomplished through your connection with the cosmos, where your mind is filled with knowledge of how to accomplish the use of the Action. It takes one Panel to download an Action and if your alloted "spaces" are filled, you can still perform a download at the cost of a "saved" Action.
Comments This power is even more useful than General Knowledge. You know everything for free and are one with the cosmos. So if knowledge is power, then Advanced Knowledge is absolute power.
Rules for Action Box -Intelligence Bonus -Instant and free knowledge of everything -Ask relevant questions of GM for free -Cosmic Awareness -Insert non-Super Powered Actions -Takes 1 Panel to download a non-Super Powered Action -Can have any non-Super powered Actions, but if the player is "maxed out" they must forget a "saved" Action to get the new one.
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Post by thedragonmaster on May 11, 2007 11:51:06 GMT -5
I'd probably bump that cost level up a bit. +5 doesn't even account for the Intelligence bonus being added to General Knowledge, much less the addition of Cosmic Awareness, or Copy Action. I'll take a look at the costs on that and post a suggested price when I get a chance, unless someone else does so first.
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Post by Brainstem on May 11, 2007 11:52:37 GMT -5
Seems a bit powerful for +5. The way it looks is it's just Power Cosmic limited to non-super powers, but with some souped up General Knowledge tossed in. Maybe closer to +7 or +9. At low levels, it seems fine, but a player buying this at, say, AN 6 can have any non-super actions without having to actually purchase them, along with advanced knowledge gathering, for a cost of 20w instead of (at a minimum) 24w, with the 24w not even giving the flexibility that this action does.
But don't get me wrong; I like the action, it just seems a bit powerful for +5.
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Post by malice on May 11, 2007 12:10:47 GMT -5
I'd probably bump that cost level up a bit. +5 doesn't even account for the Intelligence bonus being added to General Knowledge, much less the addition of Cosmic Awareness, or Copy Action. I'll take a look at the costs on that and post a suggested price when I get a chance, unless someone else does so first. General Knowledge already has an intelligence bonus, this action didn't add it. @talismanhex: I don't think you need to adjust the price, I think you need to adjust the action. I'm not sure what you're thinking of here, it seems kind of complicated and random personally. Here are some suggested edits: -Remove "includes Cosmic Awareness" and change it so it reads more like "similar to Cosmic Awareness". Cosmic Awarenes is a 15 stone power (too expensive imo, but then I'm having trouble seeing the point of it, it seems like advanced prescience without any defensive value) and should not be given away for an action that can be bought for a minimum of 4 stones and then improved with lines. -I don't know about having other actions at AN, I would instead allow people to take other non-powered action names as specializations, and then maybe get a -1 to cost level on those actions taken as specializations. Possible restrictions would be that if you wanted to have a -1 to cost level on Inventing and made it a specialization of Advanced knowledge then you also have to take the discount and the specialization slot on Technology, which is required for Inventing. -Remove the "doesn't require stones" part, because it makes this more like a modifier than an action. Actions require stones spent during play (unless they're steal superpower, or Energy Absorption) to be effective, they just do. It's what makes them actions. Make it play exactly like General Knowledge only with a larger scope. -You may consider changing the name, Advanced Knowledge doesn't really prepare a reader for the cosmic aspect -I think this is more like a tech action than a cosmic action, it seems very close to the Matrix characters' quick downloads of information into their heads. If you want it to work like a cosmic action you're going to want to change your wording and maybe some of the aspects in order to reflect that Finally, I know I wrote a lot of criticism, but it's only because I like the idea (If I thought it sucked I'd say so or just ignore the thread, confident in its failure). Actually my favorite thing about it is the instant download concept, it immediately reminded me of the Matrix. The idea is sound, and I'd like to see it work. That's all I can think of right now, so here's an example of what I thought of:
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Post by talismanhex on May 11, 2007 20:26:49 GMT -5
I could easily raise the +5 to +7, but i didn't because I thought of an upgrade where the PC can have any Action, 1 at a time that I was going to have cost +7, but could be +9 instead. As for Cosmic Awareness, it is a necessity with the description of the power, but after reading Cosmic Awareness, I almost think the Modifier's hindrances out weigh the benefits and i plan to exploit that.
The closest example I could think of for this Action was from Matrix too, but the description is different. The character has a Cosmic Awareness that is so extensive, they can get non-Super Power Actions directly downloaded into their mind and have a complete knowledge how to do the Action. They get these Actions for a limited time, for example: Let's say Mr. Mind has this power at AN 3. Yesterday he had to break into a warehouse, so he downloaded Thievery and once inside he had to hack into the warehouses computers and downloaded Computers. Once finished he heard trouble coming so he downloaded Close Combat and kicked some major bad guy butt. Today he wakes up and realizes he needs to get to a meeting fast and downloads Cecile Operation, but forgets Thievery to do so. One of the things with all of this activity with the cosmos will be hard on the mind and I will make sure the player felt it, but it would situational and used to move the story along. I believe( as in Cosmic Awareness), when you take stuff like this, you basically hand your character's sanity over to the whim of the GM and I like messing with PC's heads.
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Post by wearelegion on May 12, 2007 21:57:59 GMT -5
I feel that I should add something to this, please excuse me if this is out of place. However, since I am the player that caused this discussion, I thought that should help with the train of thought.
When I suggested this concept, since I don't know these new rules for Marvel, I only know the older version, I had the following thoughts. I wanted a smart character that was able to connect with the cosmic consciousness to learn information ie. John hits the street and stumbles into a fight, learns how to street brawl before he even begins the fight.
I also thought that the character would be able to pull specific data like how to speak another language but not Spiderman's secret ID. The more people that would share the knowledge, the easier he would be able to "find" the information. He could learn aerodynamics but about a specific plane at a time. He can use the knowledge but doesn't know it so he can not build on it, expand it. It would be like an instinct to him.
Worst case he would be the best trival pursuit player.
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Post by Brainstem on May 13, 2007 0:44:56 GMT -5
Hm, looking at it from that perspective, I would just go ahead and either get Metamorphosis with the disadvantage that it can only give you non-super powers, Copy Ability/Action/Modifier with a dumbed down price to give it what you had described, or go with Photogenic Reflexes (I think I got that name right...). The second would be its own ability, probably just a very high score in General Knowledge to the degree that it's basically a super power.
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Post by talismanhex on May 15, 2007 19:39:31 GMT -5
So we went with a regular General Knowledg and Photographic Memory and Reflexes. How do these work together? The Photographic Memory and Reflexes, that is.
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Post by WildKnight on May 15, 2007 20:20:50 GMT -5
Photographic Memory allows you to write down every Action you ever see, and use it at that AN (if you've got Photographic Reflexes that is). Its a power with a HUGE potential for abuse, limited only by the characters energy reserve... and given that the character only had to buy one 12 stone Modifier and didnt need ANY Actions, he's got plenty of stones to buy Durability with. GMs beware.
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Post by talismanhex on May 15, 2007 20:43:48 GMT -5
Photographic Memory allows you to write down every Action you ever see, and use it at that AN (if you've got Photographic Reflexes that is). Its a power with a HUGE potential for abuse, limited only by the characters energy reserve... and given that the character only had to buy one 12 stone Modifier and didnt need ANY Actions, he's got plenty of stones to buy Durability with. GMs beware. The Energy and the Ability. They can watch Captain America do a 7 Stone Attack with Close Combat and add his 4 Strength, but if the watching character has 1 Strength he won't be doing an 11 Stone attack even if he has the Energy.
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