I would be down, but I've been having some trouble keeping up with the PbPs I'm already in.
Shoe, what are the Bio-E costs for the awesome cat-stuff? Also psychic mind control. That seems important.
Don't cats have psychic mind control innately? *grin*
Let me post that for you:
ANIMAL CONTROL
This allows a character to command creatures of his own kind. Cost: 10 BIO-E
ANIMAL SPEECH
This allows for complete two-way communication with animals of the same kind as the character. Cost: 5 BIO-E
BIO-MANIPULATION
Each of the seven kinds of bio-manipulation must be purchased separately. Each affects only one person per attack and the victim must be within line of vision or each EXACT location must be known to the psionic. A creature using bio-manipulation can do no other psionics while the effect lasts because of the concentration required. If the psionic is knocked unconscious or uses psionics while the effect lasts because of the concentration required. If the psionic is knocked unconscious or used psionics in any other way, the bio-manipulation immediately stops affecting the victim.
Kinds: Blind, Deafness, Mute, Pain, Paralysis, Stun, Tissue Manipulation
Cost: 20 BIO-E
* Note: Each of them costs 20 BIO-E, but Paralysis is basically the only one worth getting. If they cost different amounts of BIO-E, it might be different, but Paralysis completely shuts down your opponent's ability to fight or do anything. All of the other things give varying penalties in combat, but they require the same amount of concentration. Tissue Manipulation is especially dumb, as it only makes the target feel itchy and uncomfortable.
DETECT PSIONICS
This mental probe will detect psionics in others. Cost: 10 BIO-E.
HYPNOTIC SUGGESTION
The psionic may induce his will upon another through the power of suggestion. This is a mental attack that requires eye contact and either verbal or telepathic reinforcement. The suggestion must be a reasonable one; victims will not do things that are completely out of character.
For example, the hypnotic suggestion "kill yourself would work only if the victim were already suicidal. On the other hand, a suggestion that "you don't see anything unusual" would be very useful for a strange looking animal character. This works only on intelligent creatures, NOT on ordinary animals. A victim who saves against Hypnotic Suggestion will be totally unaware of the attacks. Cost: 15 BIO-E
MIND TRAP
A psionic who successfully traps another mind can inflict whatever experience he likes onto that mind. For example, the psionic can make the victim believe that he is trapped in a small cell. On the other hand, the victim could experience an episode out of the psionic's own life or imagination. One strange effect of mind trap is that the victim will experience one hour of subjective time for every minute in the trap.Victims of Mind Traps can make another psionic saving throw after they've been Mind Trapped. If successful, they will realize that the experience is an imaginary one. It won't help them get out of it, but at least they will know it's not real. The psionic could also run the victim through a memory of the past. If a victim realized the experience is imaginary then no insanity is possible. Keeping the victim in the mind trap is simple if he is put into a simple environment (cage, desert, ocean). The attacker loses one attack per melee when maintaining a simple environment. But if the psionic wants to inflict a complex fantasy then the attacking psionic loses all other attacks or movements. Cost: 25 BIO-E
MIND BLOCK
This mental wall prevents the penetration of Telepathy, Empathy, Empathic Transfer, Detect Psionics and all other psionic attacks. Cost: 15 BIO-E
SEE AURA
Allows the psionic to see the alignment, estimated level of power, type of creature (human, mutant, alien, meat eating animal, grazing animal, etc.) and the physical condition of the creature in their aura. There is a 15% chance per level that the psionic can recognize an aura that has been seen before. Mind Blocked characters are NOT protected from See Aura. Cost: 15 BIO-E
* Note: Deceptively powerful, especially in a TMNT game.
SIXTH SENSE
This is a psionic intuition that can protect from the character. There will be a premonition of danger when something is immediately threatening to the character. This includes hidden ambush, traps, or dangerous situations. Sixth sense does not indicate WHAT or WHERE the danger is coming from. Likewise, it does not work to protect anyone traveling with the character (Hey Bob, I'd feel better about walking on the right Gee! you walked right into that trap). Note: The character must specify that the power is being used. It does not work automatically.
Cost: 10 BIO-E
* Note: I hate that note in the description. Let's dump more burdens on the players, shall we? It's like the GMs that assume your rogue character ISN'T looking for traps, and you have to specifically say "I use Detect Traps" every single room you walk into. Ugh.
TELEPATHIC TRANSMISSION (Mental Speech)
This acts as a simple and mind to mind speech substitute. Animals without vocal cords will find this highly useful. Range is roughly that of human speech, except that it is not affected by background noise. One problem with Telepathic Transmission is that it doesn't work with telephones or other communication devices. There is no saving throw because it is not an attack. At worst all the psionic can do is "shout" unpleasantly and the receiver can choose to ignore the message. The psionic can focus the Telepathic Transmission so that only a specific person will receive it or the Transmission can "speak" to several people at the same time so long as everyone is within the range limit of 150feet. Non-psionics will assume that the Telepathic Transmission is normal speech. Note: You can't use this to READ anything. It's only good for speaking.
Cost: 5 BIO-E
* Note: If you have 12 ME, get this ability! It makes you psionic (raising your saves versus other psionics), and has all sorts of applications.
So what are the game implications of only being partially bipedal? It says you can't do stuff while standing on two limbs... but can you do it on four? I'm amused by the idea of a size 10 husky jump kicking.
so glad you asked!
at "None" you will be all on fours. doggy-style. it costs you nothing to get doggy-style'd, just like in real life. wait.
ahem ANYWAY, "Partial" is sort of like if you were a bear, or a gorilla. You can get up on your hind legs and fight like crazy. However, you can only move 1/3 your normal speed on your hind legs, and you can't do things that require much in the way of quickness or dexterity, like jumping or kicking. to jump, kick, run, tumble, etc while on two legs you need to be fully bipedal.
"Full", is of course, just like Hu-Mans. No limitations to your movement!
though it does slow down something like putting together a character
i try to avoid flat out copy-pasting large sections of the book in a Let's Read thread
all your asterisk notes are awesome though
those are the sort of thing that are really fun in a Let's Read thread
If you'll notice, I cut out a lot of the descriptions, including the range, most of the fluff text, etc. Some of the psionic powers are a little too weird NOT to use the original descriptions in my mind, and I just knew that unless the power was immediately obvious, someone's going to come in here and ask "BUT WAT DUZ THIS DOOOO?" and I'd have to repost the description anyway (not really here, but I'm used to doing this for other games/forums). Admittedly, at one point, I did say "fuck it" and just give up, leaving the unedited text of the things because I just didn't want to deal with it. I'm mostly thinking about it from a legal standpoint... I try to cut just enough content to justify fair use, and all that. I also hate walls of text.
The Size Level table wasn't a copy-paste, but pain-stakingly HAND TYPED (TM) looking from a book in my lap. In the original book, the Size Level tables are stupidly split up on two pages.
Since we are are in various stages of hashing out characters, here's a bit more detail on Animal Powers, and some of the common animal powers you will find in this book.
Animal Powers represent the sorts of things your special little mutant freak can do based upon what sorts of things their animals can do to begin with. Many of them involve ways to harm others. Some enhance movement or allow other perks. In general, the more deadly or awesome it is, the more Bio-E it costs to have access to an Animal Power.
Antlers/Horns! If you are something like a deer or a bovine, you can use these to do damage, presumably by goring the ever-loving crap out of your opponent. The book incorrectly states that Bulls have horns and Cows cannot. Arcanis and myself do not endorse this kind of sexual discrimination in role-playing games.
Bite! One of the most basic forms of self-defense, many animals have a Bite... and those who purchase it with their Bio-E will have some nasty looking teeth to go along with it. Tusks are also big nasty teeth, but they are used more like horns since you don't actually have to chomp down on a dude to hit 'em with your tusks.
Claws! Plenty of animals have them, on their hands and their feet. Some animals, notably cats, have retractable claws, which is pretty freakin' sweet. Sure, your hands will look all wierd, but when you snikt claws out your fingertips people ain't going to give you a hard time about that. Also, some animals will be able to use their claws to enhance their ability to climb... which makes claws extra nice.
Digging! Some animals like to dig... for example we have a Mole and a Badger this thread! Digging has its own little set of boring rules about how much and how fast, but the important thing is, if you have Digging as an animal power you are pretty awesome at moving through the ground. This gives you a special mode of movement based off your Physical Strength. Less intuitive is the fact that in addition to Digging, there is also Tunneling and Excavating... like if you wanted to make things that your friends can pass through, or that you could build structures in. Generally speaking, animals that dig often can get Tunneling and sometimes Excavation by spending more Bio-E points.
Enhanced Senses! Some animals have the ability to see in the dark, track things by smell, or hear faint sounds. Bats can get Sonar, and Chickens can get Ultraviolet Vision! Otters can get vibration-detecting whiskers!
Extra Limbs! Not really an animal power... this one is here so that bats and birds can get an extra pair of forelimbs to use as arms, like our very own Cardinal Richelieu has.
Flight! Birds and bats can get this one too. Like digging, it is a power that gives you a new kind of movement... but unlike digging it is often useful. Gliding is another movement mode that usually costs less than flight and requires jumping off a high place and gliding around.
Natural Armor! We know about this one from the Turtles themselves. Other animals that are known for armor or thick hides can spend points of Bio-E to increase their SDC, and sometimes their Armor Rating as well.
Swimming! Aquatic animals tend to have this one. Usually, purchasing the power with your Bio-E gives you the equivalent of having the swim skill to some degree. Aquatic animals also often have Hold Breath, which is a nice complement for underwater swimming and stealthiness.
This isn't an exhaustive list by any means. These are the most common Animal Powers that we will find in this book. There are less common ones, too. Beavers, for example, have the ability to chop wood like crazy with their teeth. Cheetahs can purchase a "super-speed" animal power. Skunks have, as you might guess, can purchase a very unpleasant attack.
Porcupines get my vote for sweetest animal power: Quill Defense. If they get attacked and the attacker rolls low, that attacker takes damage. The porcupine can attack with using their quills by bodyslamming or swinging their arms... but friggin craziest of all, a porcupine mutant with quill defense can use their quills as daggers, even able to pull out a quill and throw it at their enemy.
Call the SPCA! You were the result of Deliberate Experimentation by humans! In some laboratory somewhere, your doggy self was changed forever by altering you with surgery, or gene therapy, or just plain "what happens if we do this?"... but for why would someone do that?
But the worst wasn't even over after that! Direct quote from the book follows.
You were brought up as an experiment. Trained and educated with cruel punishments. The character will distrust humans. Education consists of 6 Physical skills and 12 Secondary skills.
Escaped, now hunted by the organization. Has 2D6 times $500 to spend on equipment purchased before the escape.
Cruel punishments? Yikes. Somehow, I don't think they mean you got hit on the nose with a newspaper when you did your business indoors.
And who was responsible for this travesty? A Secret Espionage Organization. Of course!
Alignment: Mutated by deliberate experimentation by a Secret Espionage Organization? Brought up as an experiment, trained and educated with cruel punishments? Distrusts humans? I'm think Aberrant (Evil).
optionally, jdark, you could use the villain alignment table (optional) on page 176 to determine your dog's alignment if you prefer to leave it up to the d100
but as it stands, that is a cool dog.
and yes!
Alignments!
alignments are a... they're like... uh...
alignments are definitely a part of this book that exists and is written with words and takes up a few pages without pictures.
they are pretty detailed
and i think they deserve a special post to describe... soon!
Alignments are fascinating because they're a lot less black and white than D&D makes them out to be. There's a list of about 20 things that describe what a particular alignment is like. They also make a distinction between villain and anti-hero.
Aberrant is "evil" because it rejects societal means of problem solving, and is morally flexible about achieving goals. But those characters are still true to their word and can co-operate with others.
Well, some of the alignments are more nuanced. Some are just cartoonishly stupid (like 'Diabolic Evil' for example, and whatever the equivalent good alignment is. The name of that one slips my mind because nobody ever voluntarily picks it up. :P )
Our next step in character creation has to do with "rounding out" our characters. Skill and Equipment are... eugh. Let's do something fun.
Alignments? In my Mutant Animals? It's more etc etc
The word "alignment" has kind of a funky definition in role-playing games. The basic idea comes from authors like Michael Moorcock and Poul Anderson. Gary Gygax used it in his Dungeons and Dragons game as well. The concept seems to belong in fantasy-type settings, where there are great divine/cosmic powers and characters find themselves playing a role in a massive universal struggle.
In some games, this is definitely not a part of the setting. It should be to nobody's surprise that TMNT is such a game. But like in many other games, the world "alignment" mostly gets used because people are so accustomed to seeing it in role playing games. It's useful when reading to book to make sure what is meant when your character has a space on their sheet that indicates alignment.
In TMNT&OS, alignment is the term used for a character's moral outlook and attitudes. It's kind of a shorthand for what they tend to believe in, how they make decisions, how they judge the actions of themselves and others, that sort of thing. Your character's alignment is supposed to reflect something about them that is not statistical, but should probably be consistent.
There are three main categories of alignments:
Good. Most of your heroic types are precisely this. The Good Guys highly value life, justice and freedom. They may not always be the good guys in the eyes of the law, and they may not necessarily be nice guys, but they can be counted on to stick to their principles, fight the good fight, and be better than the guys they fight. If your character values the lives of others (even the bad guys) and will be devoting their lives to seeing that justice is served, probably they are good. The two good alignments are Scrupulous and Principled.
Selfish. This might be where you find the vigilante and outside-the-law crimefighters... as well as your average criminals. Not necessarily "bad" guys, and defnitely not evil. Their priority is upon themselves. If they've got a code of honor, it is theirs... and is quite possibly be flexible. If your character is fighting the good fight but uses more extreme methods than the good guys... or if their fight is a little more of their own thing and they may take it a bit far at times... they might likely be in one of the selfish alignments. The selfish alignments are Unprincipled and Anarchist.
Evil. This would be most villains, and a very few anti-heroes. These guys are more than selfish... they are ruthless. What matters is getting what they want. They don't value the life or freedom of others intrinsically. People and laws are no good to them if they get in the way, and conversely, violence and mayhem can be quite useful. In fact, violence and mayhem can be fun. If your character is one of the Bad Guys, or messed up in a way that makes them nearly indistinguishable from the Bad Guys, this is where they'll be. The three evil alignments are Miscreant, Aberrant, and Diabolical
You may note that unlike D&D, there is no "Neutral" alignment. The game has very strong It makes sense that there isn't a neutral alignment, because there is no greater struggle in which the characters in a TMNT-type setting would find themselves "netural". The decisions your character makes will be for good, evil, or selfish. The book considers this to be one of its "very few definitive, unbending rules".
Principled characters are the goodest of the good. Morally strong, Truthful, and Honor-Bound. In TMNT, you are unlikely to find this sort of person fighting crime. April O'Neil's stats indicated that she is Principled.
Scrupulous characters aren't as squeaky-clean as their principled counterparts. They might be more of a "loose cannon" good guy who is "forced" to go outside the law. Leonardo,Michaelangelo, and Donatello of the Ninja Turtles are Scrupulous. So is Master Splinter!
Unprincipled characters aren't especially good. They don't like being told what to do, and are insistent about looking out for number one. Mostly good, but may not think of themselves as such. Sometimes the unprincipled character might wish he was more of a bad guy than he is.
Anarchist characters are much more self-indulgent. The anarchist likes the thrill of doing dangerous, illegal, or even somewhat immoral things, and are likely to be walking the line between Good and Evil with their actions. They might be as likely to end up a criminal as a vigilante. The hot-headed ninja turtle Raphael is an Anarchist.
Miscreants are after power, fame, wealth... anything that makes life better for themselves. It doesn't matter much to them what they've got to do to get it, so long as they do. They will lie to, cheat, steal from, or hurt whoever they have to to attain their goals. The Shredder is most definitely a Miscreant.
Aberrant characters are different from the Miscreants in that they have a "code" of honor or ethics about doing things. Though Aberrant's codified world-view demands a certain degree of ethical behavior, the need for strict obedience means that other people (good, bad or otherwise) who don't fall in line with it are going to find themselves in serious trouble. Casey Jones is an example of an Aberrant Hero.
Diabolic characters are the baddest of the bad. They go beyond simple badness by going out of their way to get what they want through bloodshed and mayhem. They have no sense of honor, decency, or mercy. These are the sort of people you should hope to never, ever meet. Baxter Stockman is listed as Diabolic.
...Except most people consider the 'Selfish' alignments to be analogous to neutral alignments, and the way Palladium lays out it's alignments in a tiered chart reinforces the outlook (with selfish being sandwiched between the 'good' and 'evil' sides).
Alignment systems are stupid.
EDIT:
Aberrant characters are different from the Miscreants in that they have a "code" of honor or ethics about doing things. Though Aberrant's codified world-view demands a certain degree of ethical behavior, the need for strict obedience means that other people (good, bad or otherwise) who don't fall in line with it are going to find themselves in serious trouble. Casey Jones is an example of an Aberrant Hero.
For anyone who didn't read the Turtles comics, Frank Castle is a good example of Aberrant evil. Someone with an extremely simplistic, often violent, way of assessing & dealing with people. ("Is he/she a criminal, Y/N? If Y, shoot until deceased. If N, proceed to find someone who is a criminal.")
I'd say that Alignment (or its equivalent) is worth noting for a character when it's a part of the setting (and thus relevant to the game). If not, probably better to let the player describe the character in his/her own words.
The tone of TMNT doesn't seem suited to "alignment" to me. Wujick et al wanted to put something in that box where alignment would normally be (and call it the same thing, i guess) but perhaps it would have been better left blank.
Simply designating a character as "Hero", "Anti-Hero" and "Villain" might have been very sufficient for a TMNT game!
We've always considered Unprincipled to be "the average person on the street" in our games. It takes a special kind of person to be Scrupulous, and even more so to be Principled. But it's pretty easy to be Unprincipled. Criminals can be Unprincipled, but so can bank tellers, bus drivers, taxi drivers, policemen, etc.
There's also an example of a Scrupulous character in the book that is a Villain. I'll wait for you to get to that section before we discuss that, though.
EDIT: The NPC Villain is Scrupulous, not Principled. Whoops.
KayWhat we need...Is a little bit of PANIC.Registered Userregular
I still fondly remember the first two characters I made in this game.
One was a motorcycle-riding armadillo with shotgun and a fondness for cigars, the other was one of those 'roll for species once, all characters are that species, but you get some perks for skills you all take' affairs, that were based on the TMNT mechanic, like The Sparrowhawks in the example group-charactergen.
I rolled Weasel. Five ninja weasel thieves that had to hit meatpacking plants almost daily to supply their insane metabolisms. That game did not last long, as the team were just unstoppable whirlwinds of bitey destruction, and the GM just got sick of us totalling things before they even got any actions.
weasels can purchase a boost to their metabolism with Bio-E, which does some friggin awesome things to their stats
but kinda makes them a twitchy mess and requires them to consume more than their weight in meat every day
that is pretty amazing that you had that as a team
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KayWhat we need...Is a little bit of PANIC.Registered Userregular
edited January 2012
I think it worked out that we'd usually have about 30 attacks per round before ANYTHING else got to act, and we all had level 5 Ninjitsu at level one. And one of us got extreme PP and rolled a six, so everyone had +6 PP. Plus a bonus for being a weasel. Plus a bonus for the metabolism. And then we all took Boxing and Athletics and Running and Bodybuilding and junk.
It was insane. Weasels are insane.
Roleplaying that group trying to meditate with their NINJITSU MASTER was so, so awesome. It never worked out.
It was WORSE than the 'Tequila' scene in the TMNT movie.
I was really hoping that someone would bring up Weasels. A bit more specific on what we're talking about:
For an investment of Bio-E, a weasel mutant can purchase an Increased Metabolic Rate.
+5 to strike
+4 to parry/dodge
+2 damage
+2 attacks/melee
jump or leap twice as far as normal
the "drawback" is that the character has to eat at least their weight in high protein food (specifically meat) every day, and will be extremely hyperactive
i don't consider that a drawback
having increased metabolism is a license to be a nuisance in all aspects of the game
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KayWhat we need...Is a little bit of PANIC.Registered Userregular
I found a way to lose P.B. (scars), but no way to gain it.
...tentatively asking, if I put together a one-shot PbP as a way of saying thank you to Arcanis and Horseshoe for putting together this Let's Read, would there be any interest? I'm not committing. I'm just asking.
I'd be down for this as well.
In terms of alignments, Richlieu definitely comes across as Unprincipled to me.
"Go down, kick ass, and set yourselves up as gods, that's our Prime Directive!"
But having been involved in the Rifts one-shot that sprung up from that [Lets Read] thread...try not to let the party size get too big. We had like 8 or 9 players. I don't know how different the TMNT combat is from Rifts (likely not that different at all) but we didn't even make it through one combat before the GM pulled the plug.
But having been involved in the Rifts one-shot that sprung up from that [Lets Read] thread...try not to let the party size get too big. We had like 8 or 9 players. I don't know how different the TMNT combat is from Rifts (likely not that different at all) but we didn't even make it through one combat before the GM pulled the plug.
Yah, keeping it to a normal party size should keep things relatively sane...
"Go down, kick ass, and set yourselves up as gods, that's our Prime Directive!"
It's been a few days... if the skills section seems too complicated, I can try a stab at it. At the very least, I can point out how horribly unbalanced the Physical program is compared to everything.
I have a lot of fond memories of playing this game and the new TMNT comic has had me on a bit of a Ninja Turtles kick again lately. I wonder if anyone would ever tackle a new version of the RPG. I'd love to see some sort of hybrid with Mutants & Masterminds that retained the random generation elements from the original.
Posts
Shoe, what are the Bio-E costs for the awesome cat-stuff? Also psychic mind control. That seems important.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
Let me post that for you:
ANIMAL CONTROL
This allows a character to command creatures of his own kind. Cost: 10 BIO-E
ANIMAL SPEECH
This allows for complete two-way communication with animals of the same kind as the character. Cost: 5 BIO-E
BIO-MANIPULATION
Each of the seven kinds of bio-manipulation must be purchased separately. Each affects only one person per attack and the victim must be within line of vision or each EXACT location must be known to the psionic. A creature using bio-manipulation can do no other psionics while the effect lasts because of the concentration required. If the psionic is knocked unconscious or uses psionics while the effect lasts because of the concentration required. If the psionic is knocked unconscious or used psionics in any other way, the bio-manipulation immediately stops affecting the victim.
Kinds: Blind, Deafness, Mute, Pain, Paralysis, Stun, Tissue Manipulation
Cost: 20 BIO-E
* Note: Each of them costs 20 BIO-E, but Paralysis is basically the only one worth getting. If they cost different amounts of BIO-E, it might be different, but Paralysis completely shuts down your opponent's ability to fight or do anything. All of the other things give varying penalties in combat, but they require the same amount of concentration. Tissue Manipulation is especially dumb, as it only makes the target feel itchy and uncomfortable.
DETECT PSIONICS
This mental probe will detect psionics in others. Cost: 10 BIO-E.
HYPNOTIC SUGGESTION
The psionic may induce his will upon another through the power of suggestion. This is a mental attack that requires eye contact and either verbal or telepathic reinforcement. The suggestion must be a reasonable one; victims will not do things that are completely out of character.
For example, the hypnotic suggestion "kill yourself would work only if the victim were already suicidal. On the other hand, a suggestion that "you don't see anything unusual" would be very useful for a strange looking animal character. This works only on intelligent creatures, NOT on ordinary animals. A victim who saves against Hypnotic Suggestion will be totally unaware of the attacks. Cost: 15 BIO-E
MIND TRAP
A psionic who successfully traps another mind can inflict whatever experience he likes onto that mind. For example, the psionic can make the victim believe that he is trapped in a small cell. On the other hand, the victim could experience an episode out of the psionic's own life or imagination. One strange effect of mind trap is that the victim will experience one hour of subjective time for every minute in the trap.Victims of Mind Traps can make another psionic saving throw after they've been Mind Trapped. If successful, they will realize that the experience is an imaginary one. It won't help them get out of it, but at least they will know it's not real. The psionic could also run the victim through a memory of the past. If a victim realized the experience is imaginary then no insanity is possible. Keeping the victim in the mind trap is simple if he is put into a simple environment (cage, desert, ocean). The attacker loses one attack per melee when maintaining a simple environment. But if the psionic wants to inflict a complex fantasy then the attacking psionic loses all other attacks or movements. Cost: 25 BIO-E
MIND BLOCK
This mental wall prevents the penetration of Telepathy, Empathy, Empathic Transfer, Detect Psionics and all other psionic attacks. Cost: 15 BIO-E
SEE AURA
Allows the psionic to see the alignment, estimated level of power, type of creature (human, mutant, alien, meat eating animal, grazing animal, etc.) and the physical condition of the creature in their aura. There is a 15% chance per level that the psionic can recognize an aura that has been seen before. Mind Blocked characters are NOT protected from See Aura. Cost: 15 BIO-E
* Note: Deceptively powerful, especially in a TMNT game.
SIXTH SENSE
This is a psionic intuition that can protect from the character. There will be a premonition of danger when something is immediately threatening to the character. This includes hidden ambush, traps, or dangerous situations. Sixth sense does not indicate WHAT or WHERE the danger is coming from. Likewise, it does not work to protect anyone traveling with the character (Hey Bob, I'd feel better about walking on the right Gee! you walked right into that trap). Note: The character must specify that the power is being used. It does not work automatically.
Cost: 10 BIO-E
* Note: I hate that note in the description. Let's dump more burdens on the players, shall we? It's like the GMs that assume your rogue character ISN'T looking for traps, and you have to specifically say "I use Detect Traps" every single room you walk into. Ugh.
TELEPATHIC TRANSMISSION (Mental Speech)
This acts as a simple and mind to mind speech substitute. Animals without vocal cords will find this highly useful. Range is roughly that of human speech, except that it is not affected by background noise. One problem with Telepathic Transmission is that it doesn't work with telephones or other communication devices. There is no saving throw because it is not an attack. At worst all the psionic can do is "shout" unpleasantly and the receiver can choose to ignore the message. The psionic can focus the Telepathic Transmission so that only a specific person will receive it or the Transmission can "speak" to several people at the same time so long as everyone is within the range limit of 150feet. Non-psionics will assume that the Telepathic Transmission is normal speech. Note: You can't use this to READ anything. It's only good for speaking.
Cost: 5 BIO-E
* Note: If you have 12 ME, get this ability! It makes you psionic (raising your saves versus other psionics), and has all sorts of applications.
skills
oh god there's just
tons
though it does slow down something like putting together a character
i try to avoid flat out copy-pasting large sections of the book in a Let's Read thread
all your asterisk notes are awesome though
those are the sort of thing that are really fun in a Let's Read thread
It hurts a lot.
so glad you asked!
at "None" you will be all on fours. doggy-style. it costs you nothing to get doggy-style'd, just like in real life. wait.
ahem ANYWAY, "Partial" is sort of like if you were a bear, or a gorilla. You can get up on your hind legs and fight like crazy. However, you can only move 1/3 your normal speed on your hind legs, and you can't do things that require much in the way of quickness or dexterity, like jumping or kicking. to jump, kick, run, tumble, etc while on two legs you need to be fully bipedal.
"Full", is of course, just like Hu-Mans. No limitations to your movement!
20 Size 7
10 Full Hands
10 Full Biped
5 Telepathic Transmission
15 Hypnotic Suggestion
10 Sixth Sense
Hypnotic Suggestion seems pretty much required for this guy.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
The Size Level table wasn't a copy-paste, but pain-stakingly HAND TYPED (TM) looking from a book in my lap. In the original book, the Size Level tables are stupidly split up on two pages.
Animal Powers represent the sorts of things your special little mutant freak can do based upon what sorts of things their animals can do to begin with. Many of them involve ways to harm others. Some enhance movement or allow other perks. In general, the more deadly or awesome it is, the more Bio-E it costs to have access to an Animal Power.
Bite! One of the most basic forms of self-defense, many animals have a Bite... and those who purchase it with their Bio-E will have some nasty looking teeth to go along with it. Tusks are also big nasty teeth, but they are used more like horns since you don't actually have to chomp down on a dude to hit 'em with your tusks.
Claws! Plenty of animals have them, on their hands and their feet. Some animals, notably cats, have retractable claws, which is pretty freakin' sweet. Sure, your hands will look all wierd, but when you snikt claws out your fingertips people ain't going to give you a hard time about that. Also, some animals will be able to use their claws to enhance their ability to climb... which makes claws extra nice.
Digging! Some animals like to dig... for example we have a Mole and a Badger this thread! Digging has its own little set of boring rules about how much and how fast, but the important thing is, if you have Digging as an animal power you are pretty awesome at moving through the ground. This gives you a special mode of movement based off your Physical Strength. Less intuitive is the fact that in addition to Digging, there is also Tunneling and Excavating... like if you wanted to make things that your friends can pass through, or that you could build structures in. Generally speaking, animals that dig often can get Tunneling and sometimes Excavation by spending more Bio-E points.
Enhanced Senses! Some animals have the ability to see in the dark, track things by smell, or hear faint sounds. Bats can get Sonar, and Chickens can get Ultraviolet Vision! Otters can get vibration-detecting whiskers!
Extra Limbs! Not really an animal power... this one is here so that bats and birds can get an extra pair of forelimbs to use as arms, like our very own Cardinal Richelieu has.
Flight! Birds and bats can get this one too. Like digging, it is a power that gives you a new kind of movement... but unlike digging it is often useful. Gliding is another movement mode that usually costs less than flight and requires jumping off a high place and gliding around.
Natural Armor! We know about this one from the Turtles themselves. Other animals that are known for armor or thick hides can spend points of Bio-E to increase their SDC, and sometimes their Armor Rating as well.
Swimming! Aquatic animals tend to have this one. Usually, purchasing the power with your Bio-E gives you the equivalent of having the swim skill to some degree. Aquatic animals also often have Hold Breath, which is a nice complement for underwater swimming and stealthiness.
This isn't an exhaustive list by any means. These are the most common Animal Powers that we will find in this book. There are less common ones, too. Beavers, for example, have the ability to chop wood like crazy with their teeth. Cheetahs can purchase a "super-speed" animal power. Skunks have, as you might guess, can purchase a very unpleasant attack.
Porcupines get my vote for sweetest animal power: Quill Defense. If they get attacked and the attacker rolls low, that attacker takes damage. The porcupine can attack with using their quills by bodyslamming or swinging their arms... but friggin craziest of all, a porcupine mutant with quill defense can use their quills as daggers, even able to pull out a quill and throw it at their enemy.
optionally, jdark, you could use the villain alignment table (optional) on page 176 to determine your dog's alignment if you prefer to leave it up to the d100
but as it stands, that is a cool dog.
and yes!
Alignments!
alignments are a... they're like... uh...
alignments are definitely a part of this book that exists and is written with words and takes up a few pages without pictures.
they are pretty detailed
and i think they deserve a special post to describe... soon!
it is the "casey jones" of alignments
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
Well, some of the alignments are more nuanced. Some are just cartoonishly stupid (like 'Diabolic Evil' for example, and whatever the equivalent good alignment is. The name of that one slips my mind because nobody ever voluntarily picks it up. :P )
Alignments? In my Mutant Animals? It's more etc etc
The word "alignment" has kind of a funky definition in role-playing games. The basic idea comes from authors like Michael Moorcock and Poul Anderson. Gary Gygax used it in his Dungeons and Dragons game as well. The concept seems to belong in fantasy-type settings, where there are great divine/cosmic powers and characters find themselves playing a role in a massive universal struggle.
In some games, this is definitely not a part of the setting. It should be to nobody's surprise that TMNT is such a game. But like in many other games, the world "alignment" mostly gets used because people are so accustomed to seeing it in role playing games. It's useful when reading to book to make sure what is meant when your character has a space on their sheet that indicates alignment.
In TMNT&OS, alignment is the term used for a character's moral outlook and attitudes. It's kind of a shorthand for what they tend to believe in, how they make decisions, how they judge the actions of themselves and others, that sort of thing. Your character's alignment is supposed to reflect something about them that is not statistical, but should probably be consistent.
There are three main categories of alignments:
Selfish. This might be where you find the vigilante and outside-the-law crimefighters... as well as your average criminals. Not necessarily "bad" guys, and defnitely not evil. Their priority is upon themselves. If they've got a code of honor, it is theirs... and is quite possibly be flexible. If your character is fighting the good fight but uses more extreme methods than the good guys... or if their fight is a little more of their own thing and they may take it a bit far at times... they might likely be in one of the selfish alignments. The selfish alignments are Unprincipled and Anarchist.
Evil. This would be most villains, and a very few anti-heroes. These guys are more than selfish... they are ruthless. What matters is getting what they want. They don't value the life or freedom of others intrinsically. People and laws are no good to them if they get in the way, and conversely, violence and mayhem can be quite useful. In fact, violence and mayhem can be fun. If your character is one of the Bad Guys, or messed up in a way that makes them nearly indistinguishable from the Bad Guys, this is where they'll be. The three evil alignments are Miscreant, Aberrant, and Diabolical
You may note that unlike D&D, there is no "Neutral" alignment. The game has very strong It makes sense that there isn't a neutral alignment, because there is no greater struggle in which the characters in a TMNT-type setting would find themselves "netural". The decisions your character makes will be for good, evil, or selfish. The book considers this to be one of its "very few definitive, unbending rules".
Principled characters are the goodest of the good. Morally strong, Truthful, and Honor-Bound. In TMNT, you are unlikely to find this sort of person fighting crime. April O'Neil's stats indicated that she is Principled.
Scrupulous characters aren't as squeaky-clean as their principled counterparts. They might be more of a "loose cannon" good guy who is "forced" to go outside the law. Leonardo, Michaelangelo, and Donatello of the Ninja Turtles are Scrupulous. So is Master Splinter!
Unprincipled characters aren't especially good. They don't like being told what to do, and are insistent about looking out for number one. Mostly good, but may not think of themselves as such. Sometimes the unprincipled character might wish he was more of a bad guy than he is.
Anarchist characters are much more self-indulgent. The anarchist likes the thrill of doing dangerous, illegal, or even somewhat immoral things, and are likely to be walking the line between Good and Evil with their actions. They might be as likely to end up a criminal as a vigilante. The hot-headed ninja turtle Raphael is an Anarchist.
Miscreants are after power, fame, wealth... anything that makes life better for themselves. It doesn't matter much to them what they've got to do to get it, so long as they do. They will lie to, cheat, steal from, or hurt whoever they have to to attain their goals. The Shredder is most definitely a Miscreant.
Aberrant characters are different from the Miscreants in that they have a "code" of honor or ethics about doing things. Though Aberrant's codified world-view demands a certain degree of ethical behavior, the need for strict obedience means that other people (good, bad or otherwise) who don't fall in line with it are going to find themselves in serious trouble. Casey Jones is an example of an Aberrant Hero.
Diabolic characters are the baddest of the bad. They go beyond simple badness by going out of their way to get what they want through bloodshed and mayhem. They have no sense of honor, decency, or mercy. These are the sort of people you should hope to never, ever meet. Baxter Stockman is listed as Diabolic.
Alignment systems are stupid.
EDIT:
For anyone who didn't read the Turtles comics, Frank Castle is a good example of Aberrant evil. Someone with an extremely simplistic, often violent, way of assessing & dealing with people. ("Is he/she a criminal, Y/N? If Y, shoot until deceased. If N, proceed to find someone who is a criminal.")
I'd say that Alignment (or its equivalent) is worth noting for a character when it's a part of the setting (and thus relevant to the game). If not, probably better to let the player describe the character in his/her own words.
The tone of TMNT doesn't seem suited to "alignment" to me. Wujick et al wanted to put something in that box where alignment would normally be (and call it the same thing, i guess) but perhaps it would have been better left blank.
Simply designating a character as "Hero", "Anti-Hero" and "Villain" might have been very sufficient for a TMNT game!
There's also an example of a Scrupulous character in the book that is a Villain. I'll wait for you to get to that section before we discuss that, though.
EDIT: The NPC Villain is Scrupulous, not Principled. Whoops.
"They're less rules, more like guidelines"
One was a motorcycle-riding armadillo with shotgun and a fondness for cigars, the other was one of those 'roll for species once, all characters are that species, but you get some perks for skills you all take' affairs, that were based on the TMNT mechanic, like The Sparrowhawks in the example group-charactergen.
I rolled Weasel. Five ninja weasel thieves that had to hit meatpacking plants almost daily to supply their insane metabolisms. That game did not last long, as the team were just unstoppable whirlwinds of bitey destruction, and the GM just got sick of us totalling things before they even got any actions.
3DS FCode: 1993-7512-8991
weasels can purchase a boost to their metabolism with Bio-E, which does some friggin awesome things to their stats
but kinda makes them a twitchy mess and requires them to consume more than their weight in meat every day
that is pretty amazing that you had that as a team
It was insane. Weasels are insane.
Roleplaying that group trying to meditate with their NINJITSU MASTER was so, so awesome. It never worked out.
It was WORSE than the 'Tequila' scene in the TMNT movie.
3DS FCode: 1993-7512-8991
For an investment of Bio-E, a weasel mutant can purchase an Increased Metabolic Rate.
+5 to strike
+4 to parry/dodge
+2 damage
+2 attacks/melee
jump or leap twice as far as normal
the "drawback" is that the character has to eat at least their weight in high protein food (specifically meat) every day, and will be extremely hyperactive
i don't consider that a drawback
having increased metabolism is a license to be a nuisance in all aspects of the game
Now imagine that one of those wants to have 'Weapon Proficiency: Power Tools'
(None of asked for power tools. I wish one of us had asked for power tools.)
3DS FCode: 1993-7512-8991
I'd be down for this as well.
In terms of alignments, Richlieu definitely comes across as Unprincipled to me.
also sorry for the delay on the next section, skills are brutal
But having been involved in the Rifts one-shot that sprung up from that [Lets Read] thread...try not to let the party size get too big. We had like 8 or 9 players. I don't know how different the TMNT combat is from Rifts (likely not that different at all) but we didn't even make it through one combat before the GM pulled the plug.
As they always are in the Palladium line of things.... o.o;;;
Yah, keeping it to a normal party size should keep things relatively sane...
i shall sit down and read today and try to continue our adventures into Other Strangeness but there are no promises!
Stats
3d6 → [2,6,2] = (10)
3d6 → [1,6,6] = (13)
3d6 → [2,4,1] = (7)
3d6 → [4,4,6] = (14)
3d6 → [1,4,5] = (10)
3d6 → [5,2,2] = (9)
3d6 → [5,2,1] = (8)
3d6 → [1,3,1] = (5)