Euphoria -- How?

[Black Rose]

There's an effect that I've wanted to hardwire into a supers campaign I've worked off-and-on for the last few years. Thing is, I know how it should work in narrative terms, but not statted out. And it's not the sort of thing that ought to be purely narrative; there are some real effects. Here goes....

Metas (people with "powers") experience a feeling of euphoria when they use their powers. For those with low-level powers* -- less than 20 Active Points worth -- it is a feeling much like a "runner's high" or adrenalin rush; they "feel" full of energy and more locked on when they're doing, less broad awareness. For those with stronger powers, it can be almost as strong as an orgasm, only somewhat longer in duration. What would be the at-the-time-of-use effect, in game terms, as well as the been-using-powers-for-several-minutes effect. I don't see the euphoria making the meta completely insensate, rather jazzed up and eager to use their powers again. And again. And... well, you get the idea.

Also, does the Addiction form of Dependency work right to simulate the gradually growing desire to use one's powers? Or would a simple PhysLim work better?


* In this world, roughly 80+% of people have some kind of "metability". Most are nothing more than a slightly boosted characteristic, or minor changes that enhance certain skills (eustacian tubes and nervous system altered to improve balance and co-ordination: Perfect Balance and +2 to Dex rolls involving co-ordination; mild pheromones, changes to hearing center of the brain and alterations to vocal cords: Perfect Pitch and +2 to Pre rolls, only within smelling range); these abilities rarely exceed 10 Real Points. Obviously, the PCs have more than this.

[Sean Waters]

I have a dirty mind and must be punished...

Zap!

Anyway, I'm not sure dependencey is much use for anything. I'd use a combination of physical, psychological and social limitations.

As for the 'on the ground' effect, well, buy all your powers with a side effect (penalties to DEX, INT and EGO following the use of a power)

Sean

[zornwil]

I'd probably go more Sean's way, a Psych Lim with Social Lim possibly. You could go so far as requiring an EGO roll not to use the power again, basing the penalty on AP/5 or AP/10, depending how strong you want it to be, which could be a Side Effect.

PS - with some sort of large bonus for "end of combat"

[prestidigitator]

"Oh God! I'm Desolidifying!"

Can I play in your game? ;)

[Duke Bushido]

well if the character's get a good feeling from it, you might consider some kind of 'good' bennie from it as well.

Possibly institute Long-Term Endurance tracking, and a particularly lengthy or high-level use of the powers might be considered to recover some LTE (I suggest LTE so as to not make zapping someone a way to recharge your Zap, of course. That, and it works for powers with Red END as well.)

[Dust Raven]

Mmm... jazzed up and wanted to do it again. Sounds like an Aid EGO. A sudden burst of confidence as a result of elation in using them, along with a resistance to being convinced to stop.

For a negative effect, combine it with an Drain INT. Sure they are willing to use their powers again and again to the point of being difficult to stop, but unfortunately the more they use them, the more unfocused and careless they become.

These should be in addition to addiction, which could be modled with either Dependance or a Psych Lim.

[Black Rose]

Mmm... jazzed up and wanted to do it again. Sounds like an Aid EGO. A sudden burst of confidence as a result of elation in using them, along with a resistance to being convinced to stop.

For a negative effect, combine it with an Drain INT. Sure they are willing to use their powers again and again to the point of being difficult to stop, but unfortunately the more they use them, the more unfocused and careless they become.

These should be in addition to addiction, which could be modled with either Dependance or a Psych Lim.
I think, in conjunction with the PsychLim idea (I've no idea how to make an appropriate SocLim out of this), I'm going to come up with some kind of +EGO/-INT. You get more elated and "I can't focus... I can't breathe... but I can fly!!!" as you get less swift, headwise.


"Oh God! I'm Desolidifying!"

Can I play in your game?
I think I'd have to come up with some sort of AP/RP level of Exaltation (yeah, that's what I called the effect; it made sense to me) to keep people with a number of powers running from simply falling over with a grin on their face. Have to work on that....

If I ever got off my butt and quantified more of the world, yeah. I'd love to actually run the setting, even though it was never really all that high-powered, and I tend to prefer that level of play. High points, maybe, but not high level.

[Blue Jogger]

I had one power that I wrote up that was simular. It called Delusion of Grandeur, it would boost your PRE based on the fact that you had more self-esteem and had a more commanding presense (it was an illusion). The side-effect was a combination of Overconfidence and Self-Righteousness (as well, people actually started to listen to you and what you had to say).

If your effective PRE overcame your INT or EGO (whichever was higher), you had to start making EGO rolls (modified by your INT) not to be either Overconfident or Self-Righteousness.

In your case, instead of "effective PRE" you might have a calculated stat which reflects the general state of Exaltation. When that gets too high for a hero, they have to start making EGO rolls to do things that are not reflective of high Exaltation (but they get bonuses for things that are). This can be modified by the hero's INT and whether it is encouraged or discouraged. Although the best way is to properly channel it. "Mighty Man, they're getting away!!!"

But, in general, just make sure the players are rewarded for being in a high state of Exaltation. "Ah, sure, Mighty Man beat the snot out of all the bad guys, but... he did heroically save the day and no one was hurt too badly."

[Mister E]

For something like this, you could get more mileage out of the Psychological Limitation by graduating it more. Check this out...

Exaltation Dependance: Psychological Limitation

Situation ~ Common (or Very Common, I guess)

Intensity ~ Variable (Dependant on the Active Point useage of the potential Powers in question. )

Less than 10 Active points = -5 to EGO Roll
10-19 = -4
20-29 = -3
30-39 = -2
40-49= -1
50-59 = 0
60-69 = +1
70-79 = +2
80-89 = +3
90-99 = +4
100-109 = +5
... and so on, or something like that.

I would 'cost' the Limitation based on the Character's largest Active Point Power. You will most likely end up with a Limitation who's worth is not evenly divided by 5... but who cares. The value of Limitations are pretty much hooy anyway. :p

I'd define the Limitation as, "Whenever a situation comes up where the Character doesn't want to use its Powers; would rather not use the full Active Point potential of its Powers; would like to turn off a Constant Power; or would like to discontinue repeated uses of an instant Power: the Character must make an EGO Roll whose modifier is dependant on the Active Point cost of the Power in question in order to maintain control. Failure indicates that the Character uses the full Active Point potential of the Power without discretion."

I'd probably stack the Active Points of multiple Powers that can be used at the same time, making things even more difficult.

I could see situations where powerful Characters with no self control would end up constantly using their Powers all the time, never turning them off. Eventually, they'd probably even figure out how to keep the Powers active while they were asleep. Power useage being a kind of muscle that gets stronger the more you use it, it makes sense that the most Powerful Characters would be the ones that are the most out of control. The phrase "God Complex" comes to mind for the worst/most dangerous ones.

Just brainstorming.


~ Mister E

[Black Rose]

For something like this, you could get more mileage out of the Psychological Limitation by graduating it more. Check this out...

Exaltation Dependance: Psychological Limitation

Situation ~ Common (or Very Common, I guess)

Intensity ~ Variable (Dependant on the Active Point useage of the potential Powers in question. )

Less than 10 Active points = -5 to EGO Roll
10-19 = -4
20-29 = -3
30-39 = -2
40-49= -1
50-59 = 0
60-69 = +1
70-79 = +2
80-89 = +3
90-99 = +4
100-109 = +5
... and so on, or something like that.

I would 'cost' the Limitation based on the Character's largest Active Point Power. You will most likely end up with a Limitation who's worth is not evenly divided by 5... but who cares. The value of Limitations are pretty much hooy anyway. :p

I'd define the Limitation as, "Whenever a situation comes up where the Character doesn't want to use its Powers; would rather not use the full Active Point potential of its Powers; would like to turn off a Constant Power; or would like to discontinue repeated uses of an instant Power: the Character must make an EGO Roll whose modifier is dependant on the Active Point cost of the Power in question in order to maintain control. Failure indicates that the Character uses the full Active Point potential of the Power without discretion."

I'd probably stack the Active Points of multiple Powers that can be used at the same time, making things even more difficult.
I think I'd fiddle with the Active Point to EGO penalty chart you have, though it looks good. And I'd absolutely let the Active Points from all active powers stack; that's when things get good. :eg:


I could see situations where powerful Characters with no self control would end up constantly using their Powers all the time, never turning them off. Eventually, they'd probably even figure out how to keep the Powers active while they were asleep. Power useage being a kind of muscle that gets stronger the more you use it, it makes sense that the most Powerful Characters would be the ones that are the most out of control. The phrase "God Complex" comes to mind for the worst/most dangerous ones.
:eg: :eg: I see you understand, Mister E. :eg: :eg: That is exactly the effect I was shooting for. I liked the idea of Taint from Aberrant, but thought the effect got to icky after a while; though I have toyed with the idea that powers slowly alter the user after a while, making them more "right".

[Mister E]

:eg: :eg: I see you understand, Mister E. :eg: :eg: That is exactly the effect I was shooting for. I've been talking with my Players about making a game very similar to this. I love the term, "Exaltation," btw. :D

And also, of course, this is how my own real-life superpowers work, so I'm fairly familiar with the general concept. Every time I open a tough jar of pickles, waves of God-like full-body orgasms crash through my soul, and make me want to open more jars of pickles.

[Sean Waters]

Thinking about this again, how about Side Effects: cumulative mind control/mental illusions/metal transform?

The power works, and the effect is you become Euphoric or (with MI) start hallucinating (everything is brighter and a bit hazy and reall pretty and not at all threatening)

Whilst it is the kludgiest in some ways the mental transform might be best: it can be used to give you the physical/psychological/social disadvantages we talked about above - or whatever effect you think is appropriate AND it allows the possibility that you set the 'recovery' condition as 'when someone or something snaps them out of it' - so they use their powers a bit, get distracted and all floaty, then see some poor citizen get their legs broken by the villain and snap to the job again. Of course, that involves using their powers, so.....

[Mister E]

Thinking about this again, how about Side Effects: cumulative mind control/mental illusions/metal transform?

The power works, and the effect is you become Euphoric or (with MI) start hallucinating (everything is brighter and a bit hazy and reall pretty and not at all threatening)

Whilst it is the kludgiest in some ways the mental transform might be best: it can be used to give you the physical/psychological/social disadvantages we talked about above - or whatever effect you think is appropriate AND it allows the possibility that you set the 'recovery' condition as 'when someone or something snaps them out of it' - so they use their powers a bit, get distracted and all floaty, then see some poor citizen get their legs broken by the villain and snap to the job again. Of course, that involves using their powers, so.....It's kludgy, but it works.

[Steve]

So, you're basically talking a Side Effect built into the Powers? The effect reminds me a little of the cyberpsychosis rules from the old 4th Edition Cyber Hero. By setting a Side Effect Limitation on each Power (perhaps the Side Effect being a Mental or Spiritual Transform of some kind), there's a built-in addiction factor to be considered.

Imagine a mentalist who becomes addicted to using Telepathy on others, coming to need intimate mental contact like a sort of fix. :eg:

[Sean Waters]

So, you're basically talking a Side Effect built into the Powers? The effect reminds me a little of the cyberpsychosis rules from the old 4th Edition Cyber Hero. By setting a Side Effect Limitation on each Power (perhaps the Side Effect being a Mental or Spiritual Transform of some kind), there's a built-in addiction factor to be considered.

Imagine a mentalist who becomes addicted to using Telepathy on others, coming to need intimate mental contact like a sort of fix. :eg:

You've met my wife then? Actually that might be Ego Attack....:ugly:

[prestidigitator]

Imagine a mentalist who becomes addicted to using Telepathy on others, coming to need intimate mental contact like a sort of fix. :eg:
Actually I had an organization of mentalists in a Sci-Fi game setting who were like that. They didn't actually need to directly use their Powers on other humans, but they needed to be near them (they were empathic enough to be able to sense the connections to other nearby minds, even though this by itself provided them no real game effect). Other mentalists were too well guarded to let down their mental defenses enough for any significant stretch, so being around a group of mentalists alone wan't sufficient for very long. The catch was that they didn't fit in well with, "normals," socially; they tended to stick out and were generally feared once people realized what they were.

It was a fun dynamic. I think I handled it with one Psychological Limitation (or maybe a very small Distinctive Features as well). I can't remember exactly.

[Ganesh]

KillerShrike listed a Threshold mechanic in, um, <a href="http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37258">this thread</a> which might be a cool mechanic for that. The threshold condition would be something like "uses superpowers" and there would be interesting things like naked modifiers with serious side effects when the Threshold gets high enough. "My powers don't cost END any more! They just cost INT..." "My attack power just became continuous...but I'm going Berzerk."

The set of "addiction effects" might even be the same for everyone, especially at really high levels...and people using their superpowers a lot (maxing thier current threshold?), or fulfilling certain "tainting" conditions, results in you giving them a few extra points for their threshold...and discovering what interesting advantages live up in the 300 threshold range.

I expect that you won't even need to force the players to use their superpowers more...they'll look at high-threshold advantages and just push themselves. And that will give a much better feel of addiction than mind control.


And it would playtest his construct, which should be done :']

[Killer Shrike]

Did this get resolved?

[Black Rose]

I'm going with a combination of two PsychLims to cover the Euphoria Effect and the Overconfidence (though the Overconfidence can be changed to another effect with GM Permission) and a +0 Side Effect that makes the EGO Roll for the Psych Lims harder by -.2 for every 30 Active Points (or fraction thereof) in play in the last minute and for each power in use during the last minute, whichever is worse (each power has a rating to make this easier to keep track of)*. This'll work out, I think, but if y'all have any good ideas to streamline it, I'm all ears.

I'd really like to play around with the Threshold idea, specifically the "you get free Advantages at higher levels"; I think it plays into the "powers not always acting under your control" at the high ends thing I want to examine.


* I know that sounds cludgy, but I was originally going with -1 to EGO score for each, and that seemed cludgy, too. Help.