Story Secrets for a Modern Psychic?

[shadowlight]

Here's something I just came up with and thought was very good, until I saw ledded's post.

You could do a variation of a classic parapsychology theory and make the source of her powers a ghost that has possessed her. The ghost would remain out of sight allowing the "psychic" use it's powers until the group is assigned to case tied to it's past giving incentive to reveal it's self.

This is interesting as well. I think the "case" part of that could easily be applied to ledded's idea as well....

These are great guys! Keep `em coming!

One more brainstorming question:
What are some good Psychic-related conspiracies or conspiratorial organizations I could use in association with this character?

Thanks!!

 

[ledded]

Wow. Wow.

Totally Cool!!! I really like this one and it could easily be combined with some of the other suggestions as well... I'll have to think about this one for a bit...

I really like the idea of having other people recognize her when she doesn't know it herself yet...

Thanks!

Thanks.

The idea is similar to what my Modern character has happening to him, except he knew a little bit about it when he got into it.

You can read about it some in the Medallions Story hour in my sig, some of the fun stuff should be coming up in the story soon.

I think it would be a big boat-load of RBDM fun to do this to a player; they think they are doing magic or psionics but it's really some old god or demon that is working through them that has another completely seperate agenda of it's own.

As far as organizations, here is some that would work with this idea:

1) a secret order of priests from the catholic church (or any other), who feel it is their holy duty to search out and destroy the 'avatars' of these roaming gods/demons/whatever. The PC would know nothing except that occasionally these italian guys start screaming at her in latin and try to kill her with exotic looking weapons. Maybe fragments of old scriptures or texts could leave a trail of clues to this order, and as the PC gets closer to them she starts to realize what she truly is.

2) a government shadow organization wants to "recruit" people with this "condition" to work for them. They are subtle and not overtly active or visible, but can be, ahem, very persuasive (think Enemy of the State persuasive).

3) a consortium of businessmen who use their psychic powers to influence global markets, economies, and politics for their own secret agenda (Zaibastu, etc). They may notice this person and occasionally help/hinder her for reasons of their own, or the PC may become an unwitting pawn in one of their games. None of the members are truly known or seen, as the whole thing is wrapped up in mind control, innuendo, deceit, and conspiracy, all centered around controlling the flow of money.

 

[shadowlight]

Thanks.

The idea is similar to what my Modern character has happening to him, except he knew a little bit about it when he got into it.

You can read about it some in the Medallions Story hour in my sig, some of the fun stuff should be coming up in the story soon.

I think it would be a big boat-load of RBDM fun to do this to a player; they think they are doing magic or psionics but it's really some old god or demon that is working through them that has another completely seperate agenda of it's own.

As far as organizations, here is some that would work with this idea:

1) a secret order of priests from the catholic church (or any other), who feel it is their holy duty to search out and destroy the 'avatars' of these roaming gods/demons/whatever. The PC would know nothing except that occasionally these italian guys start screaming at her in latin and try to kill her with exotic looking weapons. Maybe fragments of old scriptures or texts could leave a trail of clues to this order, and as the PC gets closer to them she starts to realize what she truly is.

2) a government shadow organization wants to "recruit" people with this "condition" to work for them. They are subtle and not overtly active or visible, but can be, ahem, very persuasive (think Enemy of the State persuasive).

3) a consortium of businessmen who use their psychic powers to influence global markets, economies, and politics for their own secret agenda (Zaibastu, etc). They may notice this person and occasionally help/hinder her for reasons of their own, or the PC may become an unwitting pawn in one of their games. None of the members are truly known or seen, as the whole thing is wrapped up in mind control, innuendo, deceit, and conspiracy, all centered around controlling the flow of money.

Excellent ideas!

I particularly like #1 because once the true power is dealt with, that organization could actually become allies of the party (if they survive ). My wife (whose character this is) and I just read The Davinci Code and Anger of Angels (D*M book by Monte Cook - I highly recommend it) so I have been dying to use the Priory of Zion in a game... I think they'd be perfect for something like this.

I've been thinking about doing an evil corporation as well. Since this character is a hacker (computer science teacher... her psychic powers have to do with electrokinesis and interfacing telepathically with computers) I'm thinking about having a large software corporation fill this role... maybe Micro-something

 

[Desdichado]

Now you just need to borrow my copy of Angels & Demons, also by the DaVinci Code author and concering the same character. More ideas for the gristmill. Just don't let Amanda read it until you've used the ideas...

 

[BluSpecs]

Good point. There's a mechanice for altered memories already there... hmmm... I'll have to re-read that part of the book.

I'm a big fan of having powers emerge in the players. The only problem I find with this is that it takes away their choice when levelling up... How are you handling introducing the new powers/mutations (from a rules/character sheet perspective)?

I haven't decided how I'm going to work that yet. we've only played once session so far and I don't plan on having powers emerge for at least 3 more sessions.

My current plan is to keep a watch on the characters and see how they play out. I figure I'll give them the powers that best suit their style. AS they go up in levels they gain more powers, I'll probably do it on the fly and start dishing them out at 3rd level and above.

my initial thoughts are:

The "Maxx type" homless guy - Full on Bear Moreu

The "Aeon Flux" Chick - Still up in the air, not seeing the series, i'm thinking a mix of mild Catlike Moreu and mild psi powers

The Smart character will more that likely get psi powers

The best part is at this point, the players don't even know they'll be getting these powers!

 

[Davelozzi]

My wife (whose character this is) and I just read The Davinci Code and Anger of Angels (D*M book by Monte Cook - I highly recommend it).

I think you mean Of Aged Angels. Anger of Angels is the Malhavoc Press d20 sourcebook by Sean Reynolds.

 

[shadowlight]

I think you mean Of Aged Angels. Anger of Angels is the Malhavoc Press d20 sourcebook by Sean Reynolds.

D'oh! You're right! I should have remembered that all the Dark Matter novel titles were prepositional phrases!

 

[shadowlight]

The way I plan on doing it is to basically give them a secret story-based level in the class, race, etc. that gives them their powers. Then they can still use their XP to go up in a different class if they want to, or they can go with the story and persue their secret powers...

 

[Von Ether]

The characters are actually re-pressed Psychic's and Moreus that don't know it yet. As the game unfolds the Moreus will begin to mutate and the psychics will start to unlock their powers. There all abandoned corporate/goverment experiments....

Cool idea, I have to agree since I've been working on this one for a while. If you are a EN memeber use search to find "Dad, why are we running?" Or go to wizards.com and search d20 Modern message board for "Daddy why are we a fugative?"

In my version, they weren't abandoned, though. They are 2nd gen. Moreus and their parents are escapees (or their parents are animal rights activists who stole them as babies and adopted them.)

Good point. There's a mechanice for altered memories already there... hmmm... I'll have to re-read that part of the book.

I'm a big fan of having powers emerge in the players. The only problem I find with this is that it takes away their choice when levelling up... How are you handling introducing the new powers/mutations (from a rules/character sheet perspective)?....

Well the way I was going to handle it was to think outside of the box and less "PC focused" and more genre rules for the entire group, such as:

The entire group are kids and mutants, so just going up in level inherently showed that they were growing in skills and abilities compared to normals. I was also planning on capping regular NPCs at like 8th level or so. (Later villians in my "series" were almost all inhuman and fierce to the point I was going to introduce power armor in my SF "series".)

On the Phenotypes:
The designer of d20 Modern has said that he pretty much balanced Moreus with each other, so when you give everyone thier phenotype, that all balances out (in mixed groups of humans and Moreus he suggeted Overts get a +1 level ECL). Either way, if you just treat the whole group at one level stronger, you err on the side of caution. If you get everyone onboard in two sessions or so, things should go smoothly, and no one is forced to give up anything.

On the Psychic Powers:
You have to love GR book, yes? They give you several alternate ways to tweak the power level of their Psychic Class (btw, the HD for the d20 AdC is d6 and Defence is half of the class level.) There is also the wild talent for just one feat slot.

So if you want to make a lower level game, you can just have them spend for the Wild Talent feat and you are good to go. Anymore than that and I'd say they have to simply mutliclass to represent their Psychic Abilities are more from innate talent than focused study and just like a good fighter, they have to practice alot.

No plan is perfect:
With this concept, my biggest fear was that I always have someone who has to be different, just for the sake of being different (and if he can glean an advantage out of it, even better.) This the guy who's be a Moreu in a normal game, but if I said the whole group was Moreus he'd want to be an insider, teenage spy watching the group for the governement.

YMMV, but in my SF game world the solution was that you could opt to look completely normal, but you'd have no Moreau gifts and the Psychic class was banned for you. Walking in broad daylight, unnoticed, on the street would be a pretty useful ability in my game. I just wouldn't advise getting any bloodwork, or genetic testing done ... I said you LOOKED completely normal, but the PC would still be a "Carrier" for his Phenotype, possibly with a strong chance of having Moreau children in the future.

 

[avendeen]

Consider the movie Total Recall or the game SW:KOTOR . The Psychic could have altered his/her own memories as part of a devious or benevolent plot. The Psychic would be acting upon pre-planned subconscious psychic commands.