Sense8

[Yaarel]

I just watched the finale of the Sense8 tv show produced by Netflix.

Sense8 seems to me, the kind of work that culture will remember for centuries.

The story explores the possibility that consciousness is non-atomistic, and even fluid. Normally, we experience consciousness from the perspective of an individual ‘person’. But the ‘8’ heroes of the story experience consciousness in a way that shares each others experiences.

The story also touches on themes of gender and sexuality. One of the eight is gay, and an other of the eight is trans. Occasionally there is a safe-for-work scene of an orgy where all eight are sharing each others sexual experiences simultaneously.



Anyway for D&D, Sense8 is a psionic modern setting. Every member of the adventure party connects to each other by means of a mindlink. In this sense, it is impossible to ‘separate the party’. Wherever they are in the world, they are connected to each other and aware of what the other seven are doing.

What goes beyond traditional D&D, do you think this is possible in D&D? Each character can employ the abilities of the other. Where one person is skilled in martial arts, all other seven can link to her and become a martial arts combatant wherever they are. Likewise, one person is a gunfighter and the other is an actor, an other is a doctor, an other is a computer technician, and so on.

In terms of balance, I think this can work because one kind of shuts down physically to concentrate on assisting the other with the valuable capability. At the least, this sharing of information requires 5e concentration, and at most, it might be sorta like an elf trancing.

The main challenge is, can the DM handle it? It might happen that the DM ends up running two or more separate adventures simultaneously because the party split up physically but still connects to each other psychically.

 

[rgoodbb]

If you could get passed the difficulty for players being stuck doing nothing while one of their party has the limelight then I think it's an interesting idea.

Love the show btw.

It seems as if the Knowledge Cleric has a lot of overlap here being able to take a skill or tool proficiency as and when needed a bit like Neo downloading how to fly a chopper.

 

[Gardens & Goblins]

The spell, 'Telepathic Bond' gives a nice reference we can work with for communicating over any distance without requiring a shared language.

We could gamify the conscience/skill sharing by imposing a currency (x/day, charge HPs/some finite stat, etc) or condition (make a skill check to access a skill check) and the like.

And we could let characters give up their action so someone else can have it and/or charge actions for abilities, that can be used over any distance. For example, the fighter gives up their attack action so that the wizard can use it. The rogue gives up their movement action so that the cleric can benefit from their Evasion class ability versus an AOE that round.

Finally, I'd have a single initiative roll for the group, modified by something like the highest or average Dex or perhaps even the average/highest Wis score, to represent the quality of their link. Might even throw in the 'Alert' feat for everyone, should they be in the same locale.

 

[Nevvur]

So you want to turn one of the most egregious forms of metagaming into a plot device? Sounds good, go for it.

(I'm not being sarcastic.)

 

[Ymdar]

While I enjoyed the show I will go ahead, be blunt and say that statement that the show is "the kind of work that culture will remember for centuries" would be somewhat of an exaggeration.

Otherwise we have long been making jokes that the PCs have a "collective intelligence".

 

[Dave Goff]

You could give each player a certain number of characters, maybe 4 since 8 seems like a lot, and let them "manifest" one at a time.

 

[pming]

Hiya!

I watched both seasons back to back a couple years ago. It was...odd...the first episode or two because it sort of slowly slinks into the character interaction. Basically, I was a bit bored the first few episodes. But I stuck with it, and I'm glad I did! I though it was a really good series that focused on Character Development and Interaction, interspersed with action, sex and humor. Good combinations of all (ok, some of the sex scenes did go on for a while). I actually cared for all the characters more or less equally...which is a rarity for me; I'm usually fond of one or two and the others in a series are meh. If I had to choose faves...hmmm...probably Nomi (the trans) and Kala (the Indian). And Nomi's girlfriend, even though she wasn't a 'main' character she played an important role through the whole thing. I also liked Jela (the guy from...Kenya I think it was?). He had a very LG-Paladin sort of vibe going on.

As for D&D...I think this sort of "group character" thing would work better in a non-classed system like the HERO System or Masterbook. As it was all set in modern times it would feel odd trying to take the same ideas, stereotypes, lack of wealth, and whatnot into a fantasy setting where Teleport is a thing and a character gets 'powers' that are supposedly special (re: supernatural...a barbarians rage, wizards spells, druids shape change, etc).

That said, making a new race that shares a "hive mind" as a bad-guy or opposing force could be really cool! I can see an enemy sort of like a goblin, but they just keep swarming and doing 'suicidal' stuff like charging into a moat, killing themselves, because they know that their bodies will eventually make a 'bridge' that other goblins can cross to climb the walls. "We are all Neegan!" LOL!

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[Zardnaar]

I liked season 1, thought season 2 was a lot weaker. If they focused a bit more or the mindlink thing and a bit less on sex orgies without the sexposition GoT used (to tell a story), would have been better. Liked the original Van Damn actor and the Mexican actor.

 

[cmad1977]

I liked season 1, thought season 2 was a lot weaker. If they focused a bit more or the mindlink thing and a bit less on sex orgies without the sexposition GoT used (to tell a story), would have been better. Liked the original Van Damn actor and the Mexican actor.

Yeah. Season 2 got extra heavy handed with their message. Anyone watching season 2 is already on board with the message.. give me moar cool story and characters!
I loved how everyone’s story was shot differently.
The actors scenes were all Telenovela shots.
The Indian girl had Bollywood scenes.
The German guys scenes were filmed like a mob drama(also.. ‘what is best in life?’!!)

Etc.

 

[Gradine]

That said, making a new race that shares a "hive mind" as a bad-guy or opposing force could be really cool! I can see an enemy sort of like a goblin, but they just keep swarming and doing 'suicidal' stuff like charging into a moat, killing themselves, because they know that their bodies will eventually make a 'bridge' that other goblins can cross to climb the walls. "We are all Neegan!" LOL

I actually created an insectoid-esque race for a setting I was haphazardly designing once; they were originally lizardfolk but were altered by Mind Flayers to give them a hive mind. When their masters were killed and they were freed they regained some semblance of their original free will, which led to some serious cognitive dissonance for a while. For newborns, the hive mind is there from birth but free will begins to develop in adolescence, and squaring one's identity with the hive mind (or choosing to reject and ignore one or the other) is a major rite of passage for them. I always meant to return the idea some day.