Thoughts for a campaign

[tkdguy]

I have long been considering a campaign based on the Spanish Inquisition and Machiavelli's The Prince. Lots of political intrigue, backstabbing, religious persecutions, and all that general goodness.

 

I had originally excluded the use of powers in the campaign, but then I thought about the damage psychics could wreak. Then I can add Orwell's 1984 into the mix. Can you say "thought crime"?

 

BTW, I also posted this in the WOTC board (with a few changes) to see what that group thought of it.

[RadeFox]

First off, I can say that in the setting you described, psychics would prevent any and all intrigue from taking place. Even a low level telepath using surface thought reading alone, with minimal skills in interrogations, conversation,or persuasion would unravel the deepest mysteries of the realms in days.

 

If you want to keep the intrigue, lose the powers. Thats my take.

[dugfromthearth]

given enough limitations on the powers they might work.

 

touch only for example

 

I would force all the powers to be fully invisible (even to other psychics) which would raise the cost a great deal and help balance them out.

 

Then freely allow anyone to buy mental defense, which is cheap.

[MoonHunter]

There are ways

 

If you want powers, you can have them.

 

One Just make sure that those involved in the "conspiracies" all have mental/ magical defense. Thus you don't know what they are thinking, all you know is that they are part of the conspiracy (but you never know...player "Since they have 11 pts of mind defense they must be part of the conspiracy"... no. they just have 11 pts of mind defense.)

 

Limit the powers. Set a maximum mental dice limit at 4 or 6. This prevents the powers from getting out of hand. 4 dice is good because it is "uncertain" and you can't read deeply enough to effect the conspiracy without the use of good roleplaying or skills.

 

Remember the powers can be used on them too. They might want to invest in mental defense, otherwise the mystical might of the conspiracy will find out their plans, control/ manipulate them, then set them up.

[Just Joe]

My two cents

 

I think you could run a very interesting game without powers, and powers would run the risk of messing up the game. IF I were to insert powers into a game like this, I would make them subtle and/or require fairly elaborate rituals that take time and materials. I would make powers based on divine or diabolical/demonic influences. If you take this route, do not fall into the trap of thinking that devout priests must have powers. Even if, for example, Roman Catholicism is entirely correct, even the Pope has few if any supernatural powers that living mortals can verify (e.g., we can't tell whether or not absolution and excommunication really work). If powers are rare and not directly linked to religious position, then it can be difficult to tell whether someone's visions are sent by God or by the/a devil.

 

Just my two cents.

[tkdguy]

Right now, the characters in the game are in such a place. This is a fantasy game without magic, so there are no powers. The players decided to have their characters go to this part of the world, so I can implement this idea ASAP.