Rethinking Telekinesis

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Rethinking Telekinesis

Unread post by barna10 »

Thinking of retooling Telekinesis. There's just always too much math surrounding it's use.

Basic Telekinesis
Range: Up to 60 feet (18.3m) feet away
Duration 1 minute per level
I.S.P.: 8
<description goes here>
The psychic can move objects with their mind. This has an equivalent (Normal) P.S. equal to the Psychic's M.E.
If strong enough, the Psychic can use this to levitate or fly.
For every additional 8 I.S.P. spent the Psychic can get a +10 boost to the effective P.S.. However, doing so reduces the duration to 1 melee round per level.

Super Telekinesis
Range: 100 feet (30.5m) per level
Duration 1 minute per level
I.S.P.: 15
<description goes here>
The psychic can move objects with their mind. This has an equivalent (Supernatural) P.S. equal to the Psychic's M.E.
If strong enough, the Psychic can use this to levitate or fly.
For every additional 15 I.S.P. spent the Psychic can get a +10 boost to the effective P.S.. However, doing so reduces the duration to 1 melee round per level.

SPELLS

Manipulate Objects
Range: 50 feet (15.2m) + 10 feet (3m) per level
Duration 2 minutes per level
P.P.E.: 2 + 2 per additional effective P.S. of the spell
<description goes here>
Weight limit is determined by the effective (Normal) P.S. of the spell. The base P.S. is 6. Maximum additional P.S. is the caster level X2 (so a 3rd level caster could have up to a 12 P.S.).

Telekinesis
Range: 100 feet (30.5m) + 10 feet (3m) per level
Duration 1 minute per level
P.P.E.: 8 + 4 per effective P.S. of the spell
<description goes here>
Weight limit is determined by the effective (Supernatural) P.S. of the spell. The base P.S. is 10. Maximum additional P.S. is the caster level X2 (so a 3rd level caster could have up to a 16 P.S.).


Thoughts?
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Re: Rethinking Telekinesis

Unread post by Library Ogre »

Did you know I had an old Rifter article talking about this, as well?
-overproduced by Martin Hannett

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Re: Rethinking Telekinesis

Unread post by barna10 »

Nope...checking it out
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Re: Rethinking Telekinesis

Unread post by barna10 »

Been years since I read that, I remembered it now....I had added some of your new abilities in my master list of powers.

I like the aura mechanics, but I'd still prefer to use M.E. as a base strength for the psychic versions.
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Re: Rethinking Telekinesis

Unread post by Crimson Dynamo »

You need to include something for speed, agility, and skill usage.
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Re: Rethinking Telekinesis

Unread post by barna10 »

Crimson Dynamo wrote:You need to include something for speed, agility, and skill usage.


Ideas? My main issue was with the weight capacity and having to do math to determine ISP usage. I was going to leave the rest of the spell/power untouched
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Re: Rethinking Telekinesis

Unread post by Mack »

One thing to consider is how fast can the object be moved. If a Mind Melter 'lifts' a 30-pound rock to bash people, there's a big difference between it moving at 50mph and 150mph. With the current descriptions, there's no good way to calculate the speed of the object.

Tying it to ME seems to be a logical choice, but the cumulative effect of using ME for both weight and speed may have excessive results. For simplicity, considering just setting a flat rate for each power.
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Re: Rethinking Telekinesis

Unread post by barna10 »

Well...how fast does something move when your character throws it with their hand? My suggestion is giving TK a PS equal to ME. Normal rules for PS apply for damage.
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Re: Rethinking Telekinesis

Unread post by ShadowLogan »

Mack wrote:One thing to consider is how fast can the object be moved. If a Mind Melter 'lifts' a 30-pound rock to bash people, there's a big difference between it moving at 50mph and 150mph. With the current descriptions, there's no good way to calculate the speed of the object.

Tying it to ME seems to be a logical choice, but the cumulative effect of using ME for both weight and speed may have excessive results. For simplicity, considering just setting a flat rate for each power.

I agree in principle that having a clearly stated TK-SPD rating is needed, but there are a pretty easy ways to approach the issue I think using just what is presented:

You can move an object up to the listed TK ability range in 1 action. So 60ft/18.3m for TK, 100ft per level for TK: S, and whatever it is for the spell version. This means that a character with 5APM is going to move slower than one with 7APM in a head to head, and that TK: Super is going to be faster than regular TK.

That means a regular TK has a Speed Attribute of between 8-60 (which is in ft/s) depending how long an action is (more actions mean faster speed). TK: S would start at 13. Both starting values assume 2APM for living and no HTH, so one action is 7.5seconds (=15sec/2APM)

I considered briefly using Range/Duration, but that means regular TK would be like 0.008ft/s, and TK:S would be ~0.014ft/s.
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Re: Rethinking Telekinesis

Unread post by Killer Cyborg »

I remember when RPGs were mostly a college-level hobby, where calculating the area of a fireball had to take into account overflow down hallways when the room was too small, and so forth.

Math is part of the fun, or was.
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Re: Rethinking Telekinesis

Unread post by Mack »

Killer Cyborg wrote:I remember when RPGs were mostly a college-level hobby, where calculating the area of a fireball had to take into account overflow down hallways when the room was too small, and so forth.

Math is part of the fun, or was.

For some, yes. But as writers/creators we need to think of those who despise math.
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Re: Rethinking Telekinesis

Unread post by barna10 »

Mack wrote:
Killer Cyborg wrote:I remember when RPGs were mostly a college-level hobby, where calculating the area of a fireball had to take into account overflow down hallways when the room was too small, and so forth.

Math is part of the fun, or was.

For some, yes. But as writers/creators we need to think of those who despise math.


Count me in that camp. If I have to do math to play a game, I don't play that game.
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Re: Rethinking Telekinesis

Unread post by Killer Cyborg »

Mack wrote:
Killer Cyborg wrote:I remember when RPGs were mostly a college-level hobby, where calculating the area of a fireball had to take into account overflow down hallways when the room was too small, and so forth.

Math is part of the fun, or was.

For some, yes. But as writers/creators we need to think of those who despise math.


That depends on what you want your audience to be.
Sometimes catering to niches works better than trying to please everybody.
Sometimes not.
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