AlHazred Posted April 21, 2003 Report Share Posted April 21, 2003 For those who are unfamiliar with the Talislanta setting , it is a Fantasy Post-Holocaust setting, where a magical disaster has left the land reft with wild magic. Strange and alien races abound; the tagline reads, "Extensive World Setting. Updated Rules System. Still No Elves." I think there was some material for this on the old message boards. Anyone done anything with this? I think some of the races would make excellent additions to any fantasy campaign - I'm thinkin', Thralls and Neurians and Sarista, oh my! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vondy Posted April 21, 2003 Report Share Posted April 21, 2003 Talislantia... No Elves!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tiger Posted April 21, 2003 Report Share Posted April 21, 2003 I'm slightly familiar with it. They had some awesome creature to battle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlHazred Posted April 21, 2003 Author Report Share Posted April 21, 2003 I'm currently trying to figure out how to reflect Sindaran Dual-Encephaly in Hero 5th terms. Briefly, Dual-Encephaly means that the Sindaran's have two brains; they are capable of thinking about two separate things at exactly the same time, they have two sets of skills, they get two chances to resist any attempts at Mental Influence, etc. I'm still trying to get my mind around the "two chances to resist Influence" bit... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Obvious Posted April 21, 2003 Report Share Posted April 21, 2003 Sounds like some form of limited Duplication to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killer Shrike Posted April 21, 2003 Report Share Posted April 21, 2003 Inherent Duplication with the Physical Limitation '1 Body, 2 Minds' or some strange Limitation on the Duplication itself; Mind Only (-1 to 1 1/2 or so) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delthrien Posted April 22, 2003 Report Share Posted April 22, 2003 Mentally Ambidextrous? Why not adapt the ambidextrous talent to mental tasks? seems a bit easier than going through the motions of duplication... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlHazred Posted April 22, 2003 Author Report Share Posted April 22, 2003 The problem is there are multiple effects for the power. Reading from the book, Dual Encephalon (I got the name wrong, from memory *sigh*) has the following description: "... dual-encephalons ... have the ability to use both sides of their brains independently and can concentrate on two different subjects at the same time. They are ambidextrous, and can avert the need for sleep by resting one brain at a time. When one brain is resting, [reduce the character's Int bonus by half]. Dual-encephalons are allowed two chances to resist any spell or substance that affects thought, brain functions, or emotions." This is a suite of abilities. The simplest is the Ambidexterity Talent, bought to the 9 point level. Next is the ability to resist sleep; this is just Life Support (Diminished Sleep: Character does not have to sleep at all), a 3 point power. We can apply a limitation to the Intelligence characteristic bought for the character to reflect the special effects of this. Similarly, concentrating on two different thoughts at the same time is a trivial ability in game mechanics terms; we could just buy Int Skill Levels only to counteract the penalties of trying to use several Intellect Skills at once. The difficult one is the influence resistance. I think Duplication is a little complicated for this. I shall continue to ponder with one brain, while resting the other... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithcurtis Posted April 22, 2003 Report Share Posted April 22, 2003 Buy two characters. The second could be a follower or just buy him as Linked to the first in all powers and abilities. Add in Mind Link and maybe a few Physical Lims like "must share one body" and poof! you're done. Keith "Only mostly tongue in cheek" Curtis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted April 22, 2003 Report Share Posted April 22, 2003 I'm quite familiar with the Talislanta setting, and it remains one of my favorites. I've pondered how to duplicate the Sindaran's abilities in HERO terms myself, and the suite you describe would certainly cover most of it. But you're right, the resistance to mental influence is the trickiest part. In its most basic form, this ability simply means that the character is more resistant to mind-influencing Powers. There are a couple of ways to look at this. One is that it is simply the special effect of one of the standard ways to resist Mental Powers in HERO: Mental Defence, Mental Damage Reduction, or enhanced Ego. The other way is to try to duplicate the "double chance to resist" capacity as it's described in the Talislanta rules. To my mind, the purest way to do this would be to buy the character a "second" Ego score equal to his normal Ego, with the Limitation, "Only for Breakout rolls to resist Mental Powers," which I would set at at least -1. So, if the Sindaran is attacked with a Mental Power, he gets his usual Breakout roll as soon as his Phase comes up, but if he fails that his "second Ego" would also get to try a Breakout roll before the Power would affect him. if he only gets one roll for each subsequent Breakout attempt, I'd put the Limitation even lower, maybe at -1 1/2. Hope that made sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mavnn Posted April 22, 2003 Report Share Posted April 22, 2003 I'd be tempted by Mental Damage Reduction 50% - reduces the effects of mental attacks by half... ...well almost. Closely enough for these purposes though, I would have thought. Michael Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlHazred Posted April 23, 2003 Author Report Share Posted April 23, 2003 What Mavnn suggested is actually pretty good. One thing I'd considered is defining a new Power, a defense which requires the target to be struck twice by any attack roll. It occurred to me that you could apply this as a physical power as well, to reflect Cloaks of Displacement or similar effects. However, as much as I think this would be an interesting mechanic for the Hero System, I think that defining a fixed cost for it would be difficult. One of my friends said it best, "If the character has a low DCV, a high cost would be too much, but if he's a superhero with a high DCV a low cost would be too cheap." Probably the most elegant solution is the 50% Mental Damage Reduction, which would reduce all Mental Power effects by half... I like that too... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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