Technomancer

[BNakagawa]

Re: Technomancer

 

There is a line in the power description of summon that explicitly states that characters may not use summon to substitute for another power.

[Ice9]

Re: Technomancer

 

Summon to control objects works well enough for "un-owned" objects - computers in a lab, for instance, but not other people's focuses. To nitpick, you could link it to UaA EDM to get rid of the originals while your copies existed. To take over other people's powers, you need a Transform or a Summon/Suppress combination.

 

What I meant by "Summon could do it", is that you could summon something like an "electronic animus", which could do the Suppress itself while duplicating the suppressed device's function under your control.

[Lairian]

Re: Technomancer

 

Perhaps an EC or the like with slots to represent different mechanical abilities in the concept? A TK (only to restrain Foci) legitimately can disable things others paid points for by leveraging their Limitations, for instance. As noted above, Summon may work (if hammered out ahead of time with your GM) to take control of non-owned technology. Turning off may be trickier, as it may have to be represented by a host of Suppresses.

[Utech]

Re: Technomancer

 

There is a line in the power description of summon that explicitly states that characters may not use summon to substitute for another power.

I'll grant you that Summon shouldn't be used to control machines that have INT or EGO. The notes for Classes of Minds under Mental Powers 5ER p 117 make it clear how to handle that with Mind Control.

 

Many machines, however, do not have INT or EGO. The GM could certainly assign a machine INT or EGO just for the purpose of working out how Mind Control (or Mental Illusions or Mind Scan or Telepathy or Ego Attack) works. But I think Summon handles this pretty darn well.

 

If you dislike Summon being used to gain control of uber-guns and power armor, just put an upper limit on the number of points someone can sink into Summon. Enough to control light switches and blenders and MP3 players but not enough for uber-guns and power armor.

[Tachyon]

Re: Technomancer

 

Then the question becomes can summon deny other characters things upon which they have spent points? If Corpus Delecti has spent points on his 'Show of Hands' power whose special effect is dozens of Corpses rise out of the ground and clap drowning out all other sound (Darkness Sound Sense Group) can someone else use summon to make it stop?

No, he would have to deactivate it first (with Suppress or Dispel, for example). The special effect would be that he is slowly taking control of the power/machine, denying the user (Corpus Delecti in this case) access and then controlling it himself.

[shadowmage87]

Re: Technomancer

 

Well, prior to any input, I had mind control (machine class minds), was debating between dispel and suppress for turning things off, telepathy for machine class minds, and the ability to perceive/transmit and extinguish (flash) radio waves.

 

The problem being that mind control works for minds, and a computer, with few exceptions, is not a mind...it's what happens when you buy lightning calculator with the "subject to EMP" limitation. The question is, how does what amounts to a group of powers have EGO? I can't really justify the approach if I can't justify the defense.

 

I'm the GM, and this is an NPC the PCs will encounter occasionally, so I need to know how he works...I'm thinking of just setting up EGO values that seem appropriate for a similarly powerful character...but that makes most computers a breeze to hack, which makes sense I guess. It's the nuclear test sites that should be hard to hack, not the home PCs.

[bigbywolfe]

Re: Technomancer

 

Do you have 5ER? It specifically talks about how to use Mental Powers versus Machine Class Mind on Computers/Robots/Et cetra, that don't have Ego but do have INT. So Computers really shouldn't be an issue, it's all there in the book. The big issue is things without even INT, such as a blender. That's when Mechanics get sketchy.

[director13]

Re: Technomancer

 

I've heard Telekinesis mentioned multiple times, and not a lot of discussion of why that wouldn't work (with appropriate limitations... Only electrically powered devices, state changes only / no movement other than what is actuated on the device, etc.)

 

I think it also addresses the "would this work on magic SFX" question that's come up as well. Yes?

 

That would be my primary solution. The second being appropriately limited Supress.

[jtelson]

Re: Technomancer

 

I've heard Telekinesis mentioned multiple times, and not a lot of discussion of why that wouldn't work (with appropriate limitations... Only electrically powered devices, state changes only / no movement other than what is actuated on the device, etc.)

 

I think it also addresses the "would this work on magic SFX" question that's come up as well. Yes?

 

That would be my primary solution. The second being appropriately limited Supress.

 

TK works fine for a blender or microwave, anything that's part of the "Environment", that could normally be interacted with and actuated normally rather than things that are part of another character.

 

But if I want the ability to 'Make Ed's Energy Blast Go Off' then we need to be able to build that mechanically divorced from special effect and it's complicated to do. I need to be able to mirror Ed's Blast, reduce Ed's Endurance or Charges and perhaps disallow Ed access to Ed's Energy Blast. Then I need to be able to do that with any power that Ed has.

 

Amusingly, Mind Control does a good job with this, but only if you're controlling Ed. You can use Mind Control with the Special Effect, not controlling Ed's Mind but Ed's Powers which still targets Ed's Ego as normal and costs Ed actions so it's an imperfect model.

 

Alternatively, as I've said earlier, you're looking at a pretty hefty Variable Pool that's similar to the idea behind a Mimic pool.