The Mentalist

[tooley1chris]

Heya true believers!

I'm working on a campaign right now that will be introducing my version of psionics into MW. I wrote this book called the Mentalists

And I was wondering if anyone had time to look through it? Advice on changes? Horrible game breaking mistakes?

Thanks for any advice!

[Sunwolfe]

As ever, Chris I applaud your efforts on behalf of MW particularly in the area of converting players to the light of BRP   . I'm always amazed at your output and envious of the time you have!

 

I looked over your manuscript this morning and didn't necessarily see any problems with playing it as you've presented it. I will be interested in hearing how it goes and what you discover concerning ease of play and the inevitable rough spots that come up. I am curious about a few things however.

 

In terms of specific mental powers, you chose to deviate from MW's magic conventions. For example, I noted that many of the Powers do not take MW's combat round to cast/project but rather have differing "Activation Time" such as "...# DEX ranks..."; you do not exclusively use MW's self/touch/sight ranges but included some "unlimited" ranges and many with specific (##') ranges; your durations do not last a number rounds equal to the Mentalist's POW but have "special" or "1 round per 10% of discipline" durations. Was this to give Mentalism a different feel?

 

I also noted that mental powers cost very little, i.e. no magic points. What was your reasoning behind this?

 

In the section on Fatigue, you added Fatigue Points to the equation. I'm curious as to why rather than stating that the Powers from each tier causes the mentalist Fatigue equal in combat rounds to that tier's numerical value, e.g. tier one - 1 round; tier two - 2 rounds, etc., you decided Fatigue Points was the route to take?

 

Considered that Fatigue seems to be the only ongoing concern of the Mentalist, have you considered instituting recovery times, that is how long it takes to bounce back from using their abilities past the CON x 3, 4, 10 in rounds limits (I modified things a bit in my own game concerning Fatigue)?

 

I have a few questions concerning Mental Attacks. Let me make sure I understand how it goes first.

1. The Mentalist uses their skill to determine if they successfully contacted the target's mind. "First the mentalist must make contact with a targets mind. This requires a skill use with at least a success and takes 1 DEX ranks to complete" (3).

The target is allowed a POW:POW resistance roll; if they fail, the Mentalist has contacted the targets mind. "Second step requires a POW:POW resistance roll. If the target fails this, the mentalist has made contact with the targets mind..." (3). The target must pit their INT & POW as a score against the INT & POW of the Mentalist and roll below the percentage indicated on the attack chart. If they fail to make the roll, the target is effected in the ways indicated: CN, FM, SL, etc. "Next the target rolls under the appropriate % in the following charts or suffer the effect as described by that number" (3).

If my understanding is correct, my questions and queries are as follows:

• Steps 1 and 2 seem to have a redundancy in making "...contact with a target's mind...". Did you intend this and if so, why?

You mention "skill" used to contact a target's mind. Which skill is it...or is it a new one? I'm also curious as to your reasoning behind an additional mechanical Mental Attack chart layer. Why did you choose not to use the existing MW/BRP Resistance Table with the addition of effect results? If the target makes their Resistance, what happens next? If the target makes the percentage roll on the Mental Attack chart, what happens next? Is there any cost to the Mentalist? I'm also curious as to your use of POW in addition to INT seeing how Mentalists are by definition defined by the later rather than the former characteristic.

Please don't think I'm nit-picking or demeaning your efforts. Far from it. I salute you  . These were just the things that came to me as I read your monograph/conversion.

 

Cheers,

[tooley1chris]

I noted that many of the Powers do not take MW's combat round to cast/project but rather have differing "Activation Time" such as "...# DEX ranks...";

I wanted to use DEX ranks instead of rounds to represent the fact that mental powers ARE NOT the same as sorcery and they are much quicker to activate due to the lack of Verbal or Somatic components. Activated by a thought.

 

 

 

Huh, also not spelled out. But the target takes no further effect and KNOWS that someone or something attempted to manipulate their mind. Think?

Can't believe I didn't add a fatigue cost for this. Free Mind Blast anyone?

I think a good rule for this might be a minimum of 1 fatigue, BUT if the target succeeds in the POW:POW then the cost goes up by ....? to represent the conflict of wills. Perhaps a number of fatigue based on how much the target succeeded to POW:POW roll by? That could get dangerous.

Maybe the fatigue cost would be 1 point per 10% the target resisted by.

 

 

Again, this was based on the old AD&D Psionic chart that used the players INT + WISdom to determine power of the mind. The main reason I used this was that there are many very intelligent creatures in Magic World that have little POW, or visa-versa. By combining these there was a greater possibility that the Mental Attack would be a bit more difficult to use against opponents.

Honestly, I'm once again wondering if I should even include it or remove it.

 

I really appreciate you taking the time to review this work, Sunwolfe! It's given me some things to think about. I welcome any more comments you have concerning this or other works of mine.

[Chaot]

As ever, Chris I applaud your efforts on behalf of MW particularly in the area of converting players to the light of BRP   . I'm always amazed at your output and envious of the time you have!

 

I too stand impressed at the shear amount of material you produce tooley1chris!  Downloaded but haven't had a chance to read yet.

[tooley1chris]

Anyone else had a chance to read through this or want to comment on above posts?

I'm really curious what veterans think.

[tooley1chris]

Thinking about getting rid of the mental attack chart and replacing it with a chart similar to the Attack/Dodge chart in MW, Only substituting Dodge with a mental Dodge= INTx5. At least that would cut some of the clunky out. Think?

[NickMiddleton]

I've downloaded it, but have yet to read it closely.

A general comment I will make however is that I subscribe to the principle that if converting a feature from one RPG to another produces a system that closely resembles the source system, you should probably just play the source game.

SO, as a general principle, the idea of a "Mental Attack" vs "Mental Defense", and perhaps specific Mental Attack skills analogous to weapon skills, and Mental Defenses analogous to Dodge, Shield Parry etc I really like - it would capture some of the essence of the source but implement it in a BRP / Magic world fashion.

Will try to take a proper look at the current version and post something more relevant!

Cheers,

Nick

[tooley1chris]

Agreed.

I've already started work on the new Attack/Defense Matrix.
I really appreciate your input as I don't want to veer far from MW mechanics.
Look forward to your analysis and suggested changes.

[tooley1chris]

Okay, check this out and see if it seems right: (edited to include a fumbled attack and coma duration)