Role-playing reviews

Reviews related to role-playing games, with a focus on Gods & Monsters, and a bit of superhero gaming.

Gods & Monsters Fantasy Role-Playing

Beyond here lie dragons

Psychosis of the Tenth Saint

Jerry Stratton, May 8, 2011

This is a cool character. I’m going to switch it around; instead of dropping strength, I’ll drop weakness detection. So, he’s got:

  • Non-corporealness (non-permanent)
  • Darkness control
  • Heightened Strength B (+15)
  • Force Field

The heightened strength comes from the force field: it’s an always-on, low-level force field that gives him the enhancements normally attributed to heightened strength: ability to take more damage, ability to cause more damage, and ability to lift, push, and bend heavy things.

And the reason I can’t think of anything phobia-like is that phobias are difficult for player characters. Phobias don’t make sense, and player characters are rational. Phobias make more sense for non-player characters.

The name of the weakness, however, is phobia/psychosis. A psychosis works pretty well for this character. I’m guessing from the random name that he received his powers in some heightened state; perhaps in a divine underground that can only be reached from the right frame of mind. He has communed with the greater powers of the Universe, and this is where he received his abilities. His psychosis is that sometimes he enters that state of mind when he should be doing something else. A psychosis involves hallucinations, delusional beliefs, or some other loss of contact with reality.

That’s part of his non-corporealness. He’s literally detaching himself, partially, from reality. But he’s also running the risk of detaching himself fully from reality, and interacting with his teammates in an illogical manner. Hey, that’s me anyway, why not put it into my V&V me?

It’s not so much that his psychosis makes him see things that aren’t there. But that he sees things that are there that nobody else sees because he’s looking at a “there” that they have no access to. And he misses things that everybody else sees, because in the altered states they are inconsequential. Normally he can keep track of the real vs. the surreal. But sometimes—perhaps under stress, perhaps just after waking, perhaps when alone—the cues that help him differentiate the real and the surreal are lost.

Of course, given that description, it might make more sense to drop darkness control and keep weakness detection.

In response to Villains and Vigilantes at Monkey House Games: The best superhero game of the old-school, and possibly still, V&V is an easy game to read and play.

  1. Mighty Protectors ->