Aladdin’s Lamp in Hero System

[GargatheOro]

I am creating a wizard who summons genie’s to do the work for him. Basically, i want to summon a creature that follows my commands, but tries to find loopholes with my commands. He has to obey what I say without question, but can exploit loopholes. I was thinking of a summon power that summons a creature with a VPP, but I cannot figure out how to do the whole obeys my commands but finds loopholes thing. I also don’t want an ego role. I want Charges on that power, he comes out and does one job with the above specifications, then leaves. Rinse repeat until I run out of my three charges for the day. Something like that. How do I do such a thing?

[L. Marcus]

The creature itself is just a special effect, it can be argued. A large, Limited VPP does the job as well, with less hassle and without EGO Rolls.

 

Now, for the value of the Limitation Genie Tries To Twist Meaning Of Wish ... perhaps -½, perhaps -1.

[Toxxus]

You could build the genie stat block and then use Summon with charges to do this.

 

Add the "must obey lamp wielder" as a psychological complication.

[Christopher R Taylor]

The simplest way to do it is just have the lamp be a summoning item and the Genie a construct with the powers to do this stuff and a compulsion to obey the one who controls the lamp.

[Michael Hopcroft]

21 minutes ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

The simplest way to do it is just have the lamp be a summoning item and the Genie a construct with the powers to do this stuff and a compulsion to obey the one who controls the lamp.

The question is does he resent his summoner? In the Aladdin movie, for example, Genie liked Aladdin and was willing to fill his requests, but he recognized Jafar's ego and wickedness and despised him for it. He obeyed reluctantly and was more than willing to push Jafar into Aladdin's trap.

 

If the summoner is a villain and views the Genie as his slave, the Genie will seek ways to rid himself of his burdensome "master" -- you tell him to do something at your peril.

[Christopher R Taylor]

Well and the nature of Genii.  Are they variable?  Are the uniformly wicked?  Are they arrogant and contemptuous toward humanity?  Disney made the genie a nice guy who worked with Alladin (and the old stories kind of do as well).

[GargatheOro]

7 hours ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

Well and the nature of Genii.  Are they variable?  Are the uniformly wicked?  Are they arrogant and contemptuous toward humanity?  Disney made the genie a nice guy who worked with Alladin (and the old stories kind of do as well).

I want to make a Genii who is a powerful creature. He would have good attributes, fighting abilities, and a VPP for grand magics, but I want to make him wish to destroy me. The only way he could do this though is by twisting what I say and making it backfire in a manner that still complies with my wish I issued. So @Michael Hopcroft he does resent me because he does not want to work for a lesser being (myself) and will try to get out of it using my words. But he can ONLY do what I say is the challenge I am finding here. @Toxxus I like that idea, but how do I make him try to twist my words? I want points for it. @L. Marcus Is that a custom disadvantage? My DM is not comfortable with the system enough yet to have customs.

[Lucius]

Resentful Djinn:  Variable Power Pool (Djinn), 90 base + 90 control cost, Powers Can Be Changed As A Half-Phase Action (+1/2), No Skill Roll Required (+1) (202 Active Points); 3 Charges (-1 1/4); all slots Side Effects, Side Effect occurs automatically whenever Power is used (Side Effect affects both character and recipient of Power's benefits, Side Effect always occurs whenever the character does some specific act; Djinn will twist the wording maliciously whenever possible.; -2), Conditional Power Power does not work in Uncommon Circumstances (Limited to exact wording of wish; -1/4), Incantations ("I Wish...."; -1/4) 113 Real Points

 

The "some specific act" referenced in Side Effects is "Make a wish that can be misinterpreted or twisted."

 

So saying "I wish I were in Philadelphia" could put you right in the middle of the city's busiest intersection (or if there's one going on that moment, into a gun battle.) Saying "I wish my Uncle Al didn't have cancer" could give YOU the cancer instead. Saying "I wish my djinn would like and respect me" could get your djinn exchanged with a junior djinn who would be thrilled to help you, but doesn't have much power.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

I wish my palindromedary would like and respect me.

 

 

[GargatheOro]

13 hours ago, Lucius said:

Resentful Djinn:  Variable Power Pool (Djinn), 90 base + 90 control cost, Powers Can Be Changed As A Half-Phase Action (+1/2), No Skill Roll Required (+1) (202 Active Points); 3 Charges (-1 1/4); all slots Side Effects, Side Effect occurs automatically whenever Power is used (Side Effect affects both character and recipient of Power's benefits, Side Effect always occurs whenever the character does some specific act; Djinn will twist the wording maliciously whenever possible.; -2), Conditional Power Power does not work in Uncommon Circumstances (Limited to exact wording of wish; -1/4), Incantations ("I Wish...."; -1/4) 113 Real Points

 

The "some specific act" referenced in Side Effects is "Make a wish that can be misinterpreted or twisted."

 

So saying "I wish I were in Philadelphia" could put you right in the middle of the city's busiest intersection (or if there's one going on that moment, into a gun battle.) Saying "I wish my Uncle Al didn't have cancer" could give YOU the cancer instead. Saying "I wish my djinn would like and respect me" could get your djinn exchanged with a junior djinn who would be thrilled to help you, but doesn't have much power.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

I wish my palindromedary would like and respect me.

 

 

Thank you very much! Side effect is a great direction! I might stick with a summon since I want the genie to physically attack things but give him a VPP as well. That solves this thread.

[massey]

Look at Summon again.  Specifically look at the Advantage "Amicable".  By default, Summons aren't always friendly.

[LoneWolf]

The VPP is the best way to go.  If your wish is for the genie to fight something the VPP is used to summon the genie.  Special effect is everything in the hero system.  There was a college of demon summoning written up in one of the old Fantasy Hero companions that had very few actual summoning in it.  Most of the spells were written up pretty similar to the spells from the other colleges, but the special effect of all of them were you summoned up a demon to do your bidding.  There was an attack spells that was written up as a simply RKA that you summoned up a demon to attack your opponent.  After the demon made the attack it disappeared. 

[eepjr24]

10 hours ago, LoneWolf said:

The VPP is the best way to go.  If your wish is for the genie to fight something the VPP is used to summon the genie.  Special effect is everything in the hero system.  There was a college of demon summoning written up in one of the old Fantasy Hero companions that had very few actual summoning in it.  Most of the spells were written up pretty similar to the spells from the other colleges, but the special effect of all of them were you summoned up a demon to do your bidding.  There was an attack spells that was written up as a simply RKA that you summoned up a demon to attack your opponent.  After the demon made the attack it disappeared. 

I am with LoneWolf on this one. If you need a physical representation of the Genie, you can simply summon one that is up to 450 CP (using Lucius' VPP above). Keep in mind, you'll want to talk to the GM about how this works if the Genie is "killed" or injured. You could also just have powers created in the VPP with a "Physical Manifestation", which might be much easier for the GM to deal with.

 

Lastly, you are probably going to want to work up the powers you are commonly asking for ahead of time. Otherwise the GM will want to kill you in real life before too long for slowing down the game and making him work up custom powers 3 times a game.... =P

 

Or you could use the VPP and have the GM just assign an effect to it on the fly. Like 90 AP is an 18d6 attack of some kind. Autofire would be 12d6, etc. Might want to take into account what the Genie does when what you ask is beyond his powers: "Destroy Lloth".

 

- E

[Christopher R Taylor]

Another method is for it to be a follower in a focus: anyone who controls the focus controls the follower who is built with various limitations and complications that force him to stay in the lamp and obey the owner.

[Doc Democracy]

If you want the genie to be a”thing” in its own right then you get that with summon.  The genie would have the VPP being touted by others with a big NCC limitation “only to fulfil the wish of current master”, the genie itself would have psychological limitations to describe its relationship with the owner of the lamp.