Mind Over Body

[eruditus]

I am about to develop a few concepts for my BW campaign - Dark Virtues. And I wanted some input from folks with experience with the game...

I have a player who would like to be able to scry, who is able to attain some mental clarity through meditation and possibly even the ability to speak into the minds of her friends. She has done this through discipline and attaining access of her meditative centers as compared to spells or books. Any suggestions on how to approach this sort of thing?

Secondly I will be developing some necromantic mojo... should be fun :)

[eruditus]

BTW my answer to this was going to be Gray Shade Traits (ie traits attained only by having heroic stats and attributes). From there would be Supernatural traits, etc.

[Kublai]

I have a player who would like to be able to scry, who is able to attain some mental clarity through meditation and possibly even the ability to speak into the minds of her friends. She has done this through discipline and attaining access of her meditative centers as compared to spells or books. Any suggestions on how to approach this sort of thing?


I, too, have a character that has telepathic ambitions. He is a martial arts master and desires the ability to communicate with his disciples who are spread out among the lands. From intimations from the GM, the key seems to be a Grey Meditation skill. This makes perfect sense to me, as only one with heroic mind control can seperate his mind from his body in the manner necessary.

Also, perhaps a Grey Perception might let you read others' minds? Obstacle might equal target's Will? This sounds kind of unbalanced though.

[luke]

and while your at it, why don't you give the guy with a Gray Speed FTL capability. Sheesh!

Faith. This is all about Faith. Or an attribute like it. The character should have a separate open-ended attribute that deals specifically with her abilities. The GM and player should agree as to what the obstacles/limits are of each ability.

For example, Empathy might be Ob=Target's Will.
Or you could use the ability as a "sightless" aura reading skill. The description of sample obstacles under Aura Reading is very informative.

Communicating via Mind should be a base Ob plus 10 minus Target's Will. It should be easier to communicate with those who are more centered and of stronger Will.

Ursula LeGuin gives great and subtle example of this in Left Hand of Darkness.

Meditation could be used as a preliminary test/gateway skill used to enter trance. The obstacle of this test should be fairly high. Once in trance, the character can then use their mind-speech or what have you.

Just a suggestion. More than any thing though, the GM and player should set agreed upon limits before entering play.

I have been working on rules for using the Meditation skill. Let me compile my notes and I'll post them shortly.

-abzu

[Kublai]

Faith. This is all about Faith. Or an attribute like it. The character should have a separate open-ended attribute that deals specifically with her abilities. The GM and player should agree as to what the obstacles/limits are of each ability.


Hmmm... of course. You could replace the Gifted/Faithful Trait with the Psychic Trait. Cost it at 5pts and lay down some base Obstacles before you begin playing.

[eruditus]

I am hesitant to call it "Psychic" but that is what it will amount to, a trait like Faithful combined with an appropriately named Attribute based both on Will and Perception.

This works much better than my original plan because it DAMN hard to get a gray meditation and not be religious.