mind powers

S

stephen aka xylex

Newbie
so i think in the last book biatas/stone elves were unfairly nerfed with the requirement that they have a certain amount of racials. I dont mind that so much as that my powers are only as good as the sportsmanship of the players and if i have to spend build for me to be able to use it i think it should be forced on to whom ever i am using it on and they should have the ability to refuse.
 
Tell me about it kiddo. I argued that point so hard. Take comfort in knowing we're not the only ones that feel that way.
 
From what I hear, it's because Seattle players opposed it that got it through to print.

I'm not saying.

I'm just saying.
 
Seattle players opposing it had nothing to do with it actually getting passed. There was already enough support for it amongst the owners and Mike was pushing hard for it before I ever voiced an opinion. I tried to get it tied to level only, but the build costing racials were a "must have" for those supporting it.
 
I won't comment on the balance aspect (whether it was 'unfairly nerfed' or not), but I do agree that it doesn't make sense for RP-only effects to have this complex set of rules around them that one can just ignore at will.
 
Dave said:
Seattle players opposing it had nothing to do with it actually getting passed. There was already enough support for it amongst the owners and Mike was pushing hard for it before I ever voiced an opinion. I tried to get it tied to level only, but the build costing racials were a "must have" for those supporting it.
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I'm pretty sure Brad was just trying to goad me into a frothing warrgarbl. ;)

Maybe enough players will voice an opinion over time that they'll realize what a horrible idea it was and change something about it.

Mike certainly didn't get a lot of positive feedback about it when he proposed the idea of adding racial roleplaying skills to other races in the same manner as Biata and Stone Elves. :lol:
 
Sarah said:
I'm pretty sure Brad was just trying to goad me into a frothing warrgarbl. ;)
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I deny everything.






PS: Did it work?
 
Throw mind powers out with the rest of the garbage and I think the game would be better for it.
 
Avaran said:
Throw mind powers out with the rest of the garbage and I think the game would be better for it.
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To be fair, some of the coolest RP scenes I did with Diera were mind powers. They were with people who trusted me not to screw them over and were interested in something different. And it worked out just fine.

The rules weren't really any different than they are now; what they added were level requirements (which were fine, fit their goal,) an indirect build requirement (which is bad,) and a way to logically determine the winner in mind to mind conflict scenarios (which was probably actually a good idea.)

If they'd put in the racial power levels along with the levels, I think they'd have seen people *willingly* purchasing more racials for mind power heavy concepts, and not doing so for more physical concepts.

It was making it an indirect build requirement to play an aspect of the race that anybody can just say "No" to at any time that stuck in most people's throats. And, honestly, as far as game design goes, was just plain a bad idea.

*shrug* Don't blame me... Brad threw the club next to it.
 
Correct me if I am wrong, but can't you just ignore the rules all together and just play the mind abilities as they have been before the rules were put into it? I believe that the new rules just grants stronger powers than were originally allowed (I don't remember any "Traps" or "Wipes" allowed in the past). So just ignore them and play it the way it always has been and you don't have to worry about levels or racial ability counts.
 
Each ability below lists the minimum level the character must reach (to represent one's "life experiences") and the minimum number of racial abilities needed.
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Page 72, last paragraph before "Racial Skill Level"

I believe it is not the intention that chapters be allowed to ignore the rules for mind powers listed in the rulebook, either in part or total*.

To be clear, aside from the adding of racial skill levels and character levels, the abilities in the rulebook for both stone elves and biata come straight from their respective packets. They have existed for a very long time, including wipes and traps.


*Edit: By total I mean ignoring and/or changing things to suit what you want. I'm sure if a chapter opted to have mind powers not work at all in their chapter, that would be acceptable according to precedent.
 
Nigel said:
Correct me if I am wrong, but can't you just ignore the rules all together and just play the mind abilities as they have been before the rules were put into it? I believe that the new rules just grants stronger powers than were originally allowed (I don't remember any "Traps" or "Wipes" allowed in the past). So just ignore them and play it the way it always has been and you don't have to worry about levels or racial ability counts.
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Not true, if you are using rules from the book they have to be excatly as written in the book.
 
Guess I just wasn't exposed to them in Cali. Never encountered anything near what is listed in the books. Guess I'm happy that I can refuse them whenever.
 
well its like this if im going out of my way to get the racials and the person im using it on wants to well not have the best sportsmanship there is nothing i can do i think the refusal should be in effect but not if your unconscious there should be no choice and also if i am inside already there should be no refusal. mind powers is the only reason i picked biata but i just kinda grew attached and even with the ability to change race i didn't because of my family that i picked which are too proud to change race. but needless to say the powers were unnecessarily nerfed.
 
Well said Stephen, even if it could use some punctuation. ;)
 
Nigel said:
Guess I just wasn't exposed to them in Cali. Never encountered anything near what is listed in the books.
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The specific abilities (Mind wipe, etc) were listed in the race packet for Biata/Stone Elves for a number of years. It finally got added to the rulebook due to the general argument that if you're going to make rules, you should put them in the book. The tie to racial skills got added in as of the most recent edition.
 
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