Recent content by J. L. Brown

I have been looking at the 'Augment Range' Power, and I am not satisfied with it. The original intention was for the Meta-Psion to have a way of assisting other psions with their powers -- so 'Augment Range' implies that there ought to be Powers to augment duration, and area, and speed of use...

The existing 'Healer' Talent has a Power called 'Triage' (I am re-naming it to 'Aid') which works something like this with Medic skill. I have had trouble finding a completely satisfactory way of handling it, so maybe browsing through the Pioneer preview might be useful. I think the intention...

My read is that 'Universal' powers are things which are easy to teach or which come naturally; Jack of All Trades is neither, and Mental Versatility should be equally hard to gain and raise. I chose Meta-Psionics because it is a Talent specifically focused on interacting with Powers from every...

I am considering adding a 'Mental Versatility' Power to the 'Meta-Psionics' Talent. Usually in the 'Talents as Cascade' schema, Powers in Talents which are 'Untrained' cannot be used; and Powers which are untrained, but within a Talent which has been 'Trained' are used at a -3 for being...

That is a pretty radical re-write. Are you familiar with Ars Magica? The magic system is built on 'Verb + Noun'; there are five verbs and ten nouns. Mages build up skills in each of the fifteen words (think 'Talents'), and use that knowledge to improvise (or develop repeatable formulas for)...

For human Psions, 'Telepathy' is sort of a default Talent -- starting Characters (originally, and still sort of by default, just humans) who are rolling to acquire initial Talents may choose to take 'Telepathy' Talent as their first pick, and get it automatically if they do. Through that lens...

I think we are almost on the same page here -- the 'Plant' Talent has a power that can harm 'Plants', the 'Machine' Talent has a power that can harm 'Machines', the 'Beast' Talent has a power which can harm 'Beasts', etc. I think this is great, until we get to the 'Kinesis' talents; but we'll...

Thanks! I guess I should make it clear that I am just an opinionated grouchy grognard on the interwebz; and you are perfectly free to ignore everything I say. These are just suggestions, and reflect how I would run a game -- your table may be different. I understand that impulse; but (despite...

The idea is that the meta-psion is helping another psion; for example, the psion wants to use 'Suggestion' against a target at 'Medium' range. The meta-psion uses 'Augment Range' (with enough effect to reach 'Medium' range), and now that psion can treat that particular target as being at...

'Changeling' Talent looks okay to me; mostly I think we need a clarification that it is accomplished by physical changes to the psion. We might consider adding a power (or powers) to allow the use of these on targets (willing or incapacitated targets at +4 psi point cost, unwilling targets at...

Starting at the top; Botanical Symbiosis seems a little weak and overspecialized. I suggest adding a few plant-focused powers; some ideas might include: Analyze Plant -- provides the psion with information about a plant or substantially plant-like organism; including whether it is safely...

With 'Awareness of Others' in the Awareness talent, Healer is almost pointless. There is a bunch of overlap; made worse by Healer apparently losing 'Rejuvenation'. Also, it is strange to break out 'Psion may teleport themselves' from 'Psion may teleport themselves plus clothes'. while leaving...

The 'Zhodani Talent' is a mish-mash for a reason: these are powers that it is useful for opponent Zho NPCs to have. Putting them in one 'Talent' means having the package with only one roll. The rules for the 'Dedicated Psion Agency' career (1e Book 04: Psion, pg 13) details how to end up with...

Under 'Telepathy' you list Mind Wipe as from '(SA1 p49)'. What does SA stand for? I would like to locate / read up on this power. Also, from 1e there are a few: 'Healer'; Learning DM -1; Compendium 1, p 117; Triage Physical Healing Mental Healing Characterisitic Boost Rejuvenation 'Aura...

I love that video. She does a great job of summarizing the material, the current understanding, and the proposed changes. She is very positive and upbeat about the paper & the work that was done, but quite frank about her opinions and criticisms of the conclusions being drawn -- this is...