dataweaver Posted September 1, 2009 Report Share Posted September 1, 2009 Presence counts as a Mental Power. By default, it uses the character's own Class of Mind: so a human's Presence deals with other humans; a computer's Presence deals with other machines; an animal's Presence deals with other animals; etc. This has no effect on Presence Attacks, only on skill use: it determines which Mental Class your interaction skills affect. If you're using Hero System to play Watership Down, bunnies won't use Animal Handling to interact with other bunnies; they'll use Oratory, Charm, and so on. There are three exceptions to this: Animal Handling always deals with Animals; Computer Programming always deals with Machines (and is an Interaction skill when said machines are sentient); and Xenology always deals with Aliens. One application of this would be to apply the Multiple Classes Adder to Presence in order to represent someone with an intuitive grasp of how a different kind of mind works, thus letting him use his normal interaction skills with both classes of mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost-angel Posted September 1, 2009 Report Share Posted September 1, 2009 Re: Presence and Classes of Mind Where does the book say Presence is a Mental Power? It's a Characteristic. Are you looking for input on a House Rule then? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prestidigitator Posted September 1, 2009 Report Share Posted September 1, 2009 Re: Presence and Classes of Mind Are you looking for input on a House Rule then? That's what the title would seem to suggest. I think it's a clever twist. I'm not sure how many games would benefit by the distinction, but if it helps.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dataweaver Posted September 1, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 1, 2009 Re: Presence and Classes of Mind I think it's a clever twist. I'm not sure how many games would benefit by the distinction' date=' but if it helps....[/quote'] I was thinking of it for Tarzan-type characters, or perhaps something along the lines of "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh", "Watership Down", or "the Lion King". I could also see a cyberpunk setting where some netrunners have an edge because they converse with machines, rather than programming them like everyone else does. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
torchwolf Posted September 1, 2009 Report Share Posted September 1, 2009 Re: Presence and Classes of Mind Cool. In Dark Star (the 1976 movie), they actually use both Persuasion and Oratory on a sentient nuclear bomb. Would that fall under vs Machine Class of Mind? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ockham's Spoon Posted September 2, 2009 Report Share Posted September 2, 2009 Re: Presence and Classes of Mind Classifying PRE as a Mental power does make some intuitive sense, but when you hit Classes of Mind you run into problems it seems to me. If you are trying to scare your opponents into submission with a PRE attack and are acting threatening, your opponent is going to recognize that as a danger and react accordingly, regardless of Class of Mind. Since the GM is likely to assign penalties to PRE-based skill rolls when dealing with very different cultures (or Minds) anyway, I don't see any benefit to trying to lump PRE into Mental powers. So my question would be, what is the benefit? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dataweaver Posted September 2, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 2, 2009 Re: Presence and Classes of Mind The assumption is that if you attempt to use an interaction skill on a class of mind other than your own, you'll either suffer a penalty (at best) or fail outright (at worst). If you take the Multiple Classes Adder for PRE, you won't suffer these problems against the additional class. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naanomi Posted September 2, 2009 Report Share Posted September 2, 2009 Re: Presence and Classes of Mind So a snarling wolf doesn't scare people? Terminator doesn't scare people? Or animals? Cthuluh only scares other Cthuluhs? PRE as Intimidation should have 'affects all classes of mind' to some degree... although Machine class minds generally don't have and are not affected by PRE under current rules. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SSgt Baloo Posted September 2, 2009 Report Share Posted September 2, 2009 Re: Presence and Classes of Mind Cool. In Dark Star (the 1976 movie), they actually use both Persuasion and Oratory on a sentient nuclear bomb. Would that fall under vs Machine Class of Mind? I love that movie! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
torchwolf Posted September 3, 2009 Report Share Posted September 3, 2009 Re: Presence and Classes of Mind I love that movie! Thank you so much for posting that - made my day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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