/ore/ One Roll Engine General

I'm playing in a Wild Talents game where we made our characters as normal people and are getting the opportunity to get powers later on, mainly in the form of gadgets. I got thrashed pretty bad last game and my GM is going to let me use this as an excuse to go cyborg. What are some cheap ideas for powers, considering I already have seven to nine dice in my pools for my main skills? I'll have to slowly buy them up as I get experience.

If you want a good way to cut costs on powers have a core power with all the others attached to it (like a special mechanical heart or something). Be warned, any GM worth their salt will find a way to jeopardize that core power at some point.

A dude who's power manifests a very, *very* possesive and protective ghost friend.

Ghost friend is terrible at assessing what is and is not a threat.

Ghost friend is capable of tearing through a foot of steel like tissue paper.

It's a good time for everyone

Invisibility and unconventional move with stealth+ endless extra has never failed me in the past.

That being said, hardened light armor and regeneration is a damn good combo as well

Go to /tg

Pleasantly surprised to see new /ore thread

See OP image

So beautiful. Should have sent a poet

That's pretty good, user.

I'm thinking of getting into Kerberos Club
All I know is that it is supposed to be Wild Talents in Victorian England
Is there anything else you kind anons can tell me about the setting

Big emphasis on social mores and class. This is abrogated a little by Kerberos Club membership (members are expected to freely interact across class-lines in pursuit of their objectives), but outside of the organization's confines it'll be a bigger deal when interacting with the normal folks.

Wide array of archetypes available to a central, nebulous power source (Otherworldly), representing the Strangeness creeping into Victorian society. You could just as easily be a Celtic god who came striding out of a gleann as a clockwork automaton (the Mechanical Turk is a statted character IIRC).

London as a setting is pretty well detailed, but there's not much on the world outside of that.

What are people's thoughts on the lesser talked about Wild Talents settings?

I'd need to know more about them desu

What is Grim War about?

What weirds me out is why the Wild Talents settings - Progenitor and The Kerebos Club - are so big on social justice. I mean, you'd think that superpowers would make people MORE oppressive and imperialistic, not less.

Grim War is about a world in which there are two types of supers, Mutants (which are generally regarded as good, ordinary people who just happened to develop superpowers, becoming one is pretty much random chance) and Sorcerers (skeevy weirdos who sought out the ability to summon demons to obtain power and are thus inherently suspect, anyone can become one). They've always been around, if uncommon, but really came into the public perception around the mid 20th century and the views on them are still heavily colored by the propaganda they got wrapped up in at the time.

It also tacked on the company rules from Reign as a way of adjudicating the outcome of organizational conflicts, which the setting is rife with.

I can see that in Kerberos Club, not so much in Progenitor. The closest thing I can think of in that setting is one particular stand-out (Jason Weeks) whose abilities give him an out-sized global impact or the fact that the accidental dumping of superpowers on disenfranchised individuals tips the scales in their favor, but there's still plenty of them for whom power corrupts or is otherwise as much a burden as anything (Tina Shaw for example).

Here: arcdream.com/home/2011/04/introduction-to-grim-war/

Isn't Vietnam talent ruled?

It's especially weird in the Kerebos club. Like, two characters are explicitly feminist Batman (Night Hag) and the girl with the sword in the quick-play. You'd think that there would basically be not room for women to move up.

Technically, they're not Talents. But their philosophy is a form of Communism, and the founder is a hyper-intelligent woman. I mean, it would make more sense if someone just set himself up as God-King.

Thought that was what they were going for. I mean, I'm not famailiar with Kerberos at all, but the vibe I got from progenitor was "people just doing what they want" more than anything, though it's been a while since I looked at it

I figure that boils down to indiscriminate distribution of superpowers in Kerberos Club, no one's holding the purse strings in that regard. That's the stated reason for letting people consort across class-lines within the club (which is more than likely a game conceit to keep the playing field open as far as character concepts go).

I think that's just Stolze's thumb on the scales. Reign also is very much built on ideas of redefining gender roles in some interesting ways (only women serve in cavalries; magic is the ultimate equalizer). To say nothing of the gender politics of Unknown Armies.

Monsters and Other Childish Things, or One Roll Engine in general?

There's a Wild Talents sourcebook called "E-Collapse" that touches on some cyberpunk concepts. From Drivethrurpg:

>A world of PASSION!

>POWER!

>And POORLY-CONSIDERED PHILOSOPHIES!

>Welcome to the future. The economy’s in a coma, civil order runs on inertia, and biotech ‘superpowers’ are so cheap that bus station schizophrenics are getting ’em. Huge storms ravage the coasts and the US is under martial law. Even the Internet is unreliable.

>What do you do?

>How do you change the world? How do you fight for your beliefs? Riot? Sacrifice? March on Washington? Maybe put on a mask and cape?

>eCollapse is a complete setting for theWild Talents roleplaying game and the One Roll Engine, tweaked to emphasize the role destiny plays in heroism and villainy, It also contains a dedicated rules set, the Smear of Destiny, that uses cards and memory to emphasize player engagement.

>Either way, it’s all about superpowers for rent, the changing faces of evil and good, and seeing how far heroes and villains will go to get what they want.

Amusingly enough, when my DM ran a game of the Kerebos Club, he actually amped up the politically-incorrectedness as high as possible. For example, one Stranger had superhuman powers similar to Superman's. Why?

> "Good British breeding."

Also, one guy had a sword that detected "The enemies of Britain: Savages, Russians and Saracens."

> "You mean, Muslims? Your sword detects Muslims?"
> "Aye."

My wife and I were talking last night about a character based on Squirrel Girl who has a horde of tiny robots that do her bidding. If and when we put her together I'll post her abilities.

Oh, I think I remember similar power from Progenitor. Actually that was a girl that horribly died due to mind-rape maniac that teleported into people, sift trough their memory, collect ones he like and then make people explode. So he invaded aforementioned girl wedding, killed her husband, and mind-raped her.
And she become sort of obsessive ghost person, that could only live mentally connected to the host she chooses. Host gains some Hyperdices due to ghost-girlfrined, but she slowly drains their life force or smth similar. And she also can fly from the host to fry minds of anyone, that can OR could harm her husband.

There's a few writeups for cyberpunk things in the Cult of ORE google group. Search for The Grid, for a Dennou Coil style thing. Very good

Anyone have a link for the PersOREna discord?

discord.gg/aWZMuZP

Persona updates: Here are the Persona write ups for The Chariot and Strength:

Personas of the Chariot are warriors and heroes of extraordinary strength and skill. Their martial prowess dominates the battlefield swiftly and completely, and are the things of legend. Gods and goddesses of war are included within this Arcana.
>Examples: Ares, Athena, Hercules, Lu Bu, Miyamoto Musashi, Thor, Tomoe Gozen

Strength Personas are warriors famed for their unshakable bravery and resolve. Their legends have them stand against seemingly insurmountable dangers, driven inexorably by faith, willpower or unbending devotion to a cause.
>Examples: Beowulf, Natty Bumppo, Siegfried, Theseus, William Wallace

I'd love a female example for the Strength persona to make it clear that it's more than just burly dudes.

There's no reason that wouldn't be the case. If anything being a Stranger just means that whatever viewpoints are espoused get more attention by dint of their power. It's just likely to be a little more chaotic because anyone can get them.

Also posting this for reference. It's the outline for the Persona Mod. *** means first draft is complete, WIP is first draft is still being worked on.

1. Introduction

2. Character Creation
...a. Updated Stats ***
...b. Updated Skills ***
...c. Arcana and Relationships (WIP)

3. Personas
...a. How Personas are the same as Monsters ***
...b. How Personas are different from Monsters ***
...c. Building a Persona ***
...d. Extras ***
...c. Elements ***
...e. Arcana (WIP)

4. Combat
...a. Elemental Attacks
...b. One-More, Hold-Up and All Out Attacks
...c. Invoking Arcana

5. The Velvet Room (Running the Game)
...a. Themes of Persona
...b. Creating a Persona setting
...c. Shadows and other Threats

6. Other Rules
...a. Sub-Personas
...b. Wild Cards

I've never played Kerberos Club, but I've heard it does something quite different with Skills. Can someone break it down for me?

Valkyries and Kali are also from the Strenght Arcana. Also Dragons and Snakes it seems

Jeanne d'Arc, Boudicca, Sif, Hua Mulan

Snap, Boudicca son. You're the man.

I put Hua Mulan under the High Priestess since she fits very nicely in there (warrior woman, keeps secrets, etc...), whereas Boudicca's sctick of "killed Romans like it's her job" slots into Strength quite nicely.

Some ideas:

>Extra senses, like being able to see in X-rays or infrared (Sense with a Focus is 1 pt per die)
>Being able to climb sheer walls with your robot strength (Unconventional Move with a Focus, 1 pt per die)
>Fletchette launcher implanted in your finger (As a baseline, Harm with a Focus, 1 pt per die but you can go up from there with stuff like Spray, Attacks+ or Penetration)

So here's a question: What got us first into Wild Talents or the One Roll Engine in general

Myself I was looking for a superhero game because I was super dissatisfied with my current gaming situation and was recommended to listen to the Heroes of New Arcadia on Roleplay Public Radio. I liked what I heard and happened to find the Essentials Edition, and I was hooked like instantly.

The first two characters I made were a school teacher who could fly by controlling jets of ionized air, which she steered using prosthetic legs which she got after a car accident; a welder named Dwight who could create suits of powered armor for himself by absorbing crap from his environment, allowing him to jump through brick walls and come out the other side looking like Thing.

I can see the similarity, but theyre exact opposites in effect.

Ghost friend is basically just his power trying to "fix" the dudes suicidal tendencies. It's entirely controlled by his subconscious, and does everything in its power to keep him from even possibly harming himself.

Thing is his power isn't very smart/understanding of humanity in general, and the subconscious doesn't have a ton of capacity for higher thought, so as a result it's grossly incompetent/dangerous most of the time.

Thanks for the advice. On a related note would it be a good idea to take the locational flaw on some of these powers, since I couldn't say use my flamethrower arm if my arm gets destroyed.

Locational specifically means that if you are HIT AT ALL your miracle fails, though not that it's broken. So if you use a flamethrower in your arm and get hit before it goes off, the attack fails because your attack went wide or your fuel stream got interrupted.

And if that location gets wrecked, your miracle goes with it.

That sounds like a very good idea. Maybe also take that focus extra that makes it very difficult to take your focus?

So Arcananon and I have been hammering at this all day. We've got Persona write-ups for 2/3rds of the Arcana complete. The rest should be done tomorrow.

Nice

Which one is that? Does't ring a bell (other than, uh, Bulky?)

>And I helped!

Can't wait for the official first draft
I have a couple of friends I know would love to test the mod out.

Now I see.
Anyway, I decided to share powers of obsessive ghost from my post. So here it goes: pastebin.com/DwHwbTQY
And another guy:
pastebin.com/81zUSUiB
Both are (playable) NPC from Progenitor.

...I may have meant secret.

I was really tired when I made that post, so I'm not sure what I was thinking

Neat thank you

So I have a question for the ORE crew, specifically Wild Talents.

Some of the powers with Variable Effect in the book have the If/Then (Variable Effect is only for *power name*) flaw. What exactly does this mean? Since I'm trying to get a power's cost down and I'm wondering if I could use this flaw to cheapen it a bit.

That's actually something I've wondered as well; having played Wild Talents for years I've still largely avoided powers like that because I don't fully understand the pieces that are being used.

As far as I can tell, the purpose of that Flaw is to constrain the properties of Variable Effect, which otherwise can have extremely broad applications.

never played with it, but the ORE does appeal to me.
Was recommended it when working on a purgatory/dark souls based game and it looked cool.
I'll try to get back to it when the work madness is passed.

Question what would ideally want to have drafted to be comfortable running the game? Because right now with the Character and Persona rules basically complete the game can more or less be run in an Alpha state.

Could you provide that particular example from the book?

Otherwise, as far as Variable Effect restrictions go, you can give yourself a theme such as Variable Effect(Fire), which only allows you to create fire based powers from the miracle tagged with Variable Effect. In turn, the extra only costs +2 as opposed to +4, which cheapens the deal.

I think Alternate Forms has it.

How is Cthulhu-like?

It's not the case in the Essential Edition, which should be the most recent edition that irons out a lot of weird discrepancies.

I just checked and it uses it. Each quality has if/then(Variable Effect is for shapechanging) and ift/then(Only for Variable Effect) and it's not terribly clear why.

Perhaps you have a different edition? The Essential Edition says otherwise.

No I have the Essential Edition. Looks totally different. Is yours the 2nd Ed essentials or the first? We must have different versions.

Yeah, I've got the second printing.

And to clarify, post-2nd edition.

I'm not really sure, I've never really playtested anything before.

Once the alpha's dumped and I'm more familiar with running baseline MaOCT, I'll see

Odd. My Essential Edition looks like this.

They actually are the same, it's just they cut the fluff in the essentials edition

If you see if/then (only for variable effect)-1, that means that variable effect can't manifest new extras, just changes what the quality does

If/then (only for x) -1, limits what types of powers you can get. If x is fire, you won't be able to freeze people.

Source: I'm the neo-orleans guy. The guy who plays alpha has had questions about variable effect since day one

if you have anymore questions about variable effect (or anything really), I would love to help. I use that extra quite a bit, and it's honestly quite useful

There's an addition to the updated Essential Edition under the Variable Effects ruling that basically un-clunkifies the bloated If/Then clauses by proposing an alternate Variable Effect cost should you choose to restrict Variable Effect.

"The power effects that you emulate with Variable Effect must tie in somehow with a broad theme. If you have a power with Variable Effect (fire), you could use Variable Effect to change its Useful quality so it manipulates fire, or to modify the extras of its fiery Attacks quality, but you couldn’t change it to something non-fire-related. If in doubt, talk to the GM."

And then, for comparison:

"However, you can get a variant of Variable Effect called “Variable Effect (anything)” for double the usual cost, a hefty +4 pts per die."

So basically, instead of adding on the If/Thens, you just relegate yourself to a theme and knock down the cost of Variable Effect to +2.

Some unsolicited info as well, regarding Variable Effects:

To make it less confusing, here are the steps to using a Variable Effect power:

1. Roll to activate, just make a match.
2. Commit some or all of your dice to the power you're about to create.
3. You're going to create a power from scratch, so disregard extras and flaws attached to the quality that has Variable Effect attached(i.e. the quality you're using to make this power).
4. Without any extras or additional quality levels, you're paying 0 willpower to spoof. Any extras or any additional quality levels you decide to have on this newly created power will cost the point cost associated to the upgrades but in willpower as opposed to xp. You can bring the willpower cost back down to 0 by balancing the extras with flaws. You cannot go negative.
5. Pay the willpower cost(it's on a per die basis, so if the power costs 3 wp per die and you committed 10d to it, you're shelling 30 wp out).
6. Use the power; it's good for a single action, unless you stick duration or something to the power WITH the variable effect extra.

Oh, and regarding the WP cost, you don't pay it per use of the created power, if you extended the amount of times you could use it via Duration or similar extras. You only pay when you create a power using Variable Effect. If you didn't have Duration stuck onto the creation power, you're only getting one use per creation and you're basically paying WP per use at that point.

If you have an exta on the quality with variable effect, could you maintain it with the new power?

Like say I have area and variable effect on an attack quality, would I still have to pay for area when I use variable effect?

No, you won't be able to maintain it; you have to pay for everything as you're creating the new power from the ground up.

Also I should note, there's no WP cost for the quality itself, since you're merely converting the Variable Attack Quality into an Attack Quality you can use. You'll still have to pay in WP for any quality levels you add onto the new power, though.

*rolls once*

Wow yeah that's super helpful. Would have saved me a lot of time and headache l had I seen this. Are there any other differences between the versions?

Bump because I'd really love to Know the answer to that question.

Ok, so in godlike how would you stat out a self harm power. I'm basically thinking of a human voodoo doll, any damage dealt (before as much armor as I can give him) to himself is also applied to an enemy.

So the idea that the highest damaging attack always goes first kinda bugs me. I was thinking maybe instead of damage being W+X, it could become 2+X+LD, where LD is a loose die that matches the number directly before the attack's match.

So say you roll 3x7, 5, 2x4, 3, 1. You'd have to choose to either hit fast, or accept the lower pair in order to use the 3 to boost your damage.

That sound alright?

Not sure I get what you're saying here; so you can only add Loose Dice damage if the die is exactly 1 height lower than your Set?

Width for Speed and Damage usually makes sense because in most cases, an attack that hits you very fast will also hit you very hard, due to how kinetic energy works and how your inability to react or brace yourself means it'll hurt more.

Question: is it purely self inflicted damage, or ANY damage that he takes?

Could be either, though i have the distinct feeling that any damage would be much more expensive or harder to pull off.

Self-Inflicted is easy.

Voodoo Attack (1 pt per die)
>Attacks Extras and Flaws: [Backfires-3 (Inflicts attack set on self too)] Capacities: Range

Normally Backfires inflicts a point of Killing to your Torso when you use your power, but here we're twisting it around. We increase the flaw value from -2 to -3 since you can be potentially inflicting MORE than just 1 Killing, and the damage could be to anywhere. We also reverse the logic of the attack: you aren't taking damage because you launched the attack, you're launching the attack because you took damage.

So if you roll a 2x2, you inflict 2 Shock and Killing to your leg, and the person you're aiming at also takes that much damage. Question: do you want this to be like a magic projectile type thing that can be deflected with armor, or is it like the wound you inflicted on yourself suddenly appears in their body?

For the "Damage you take is inflicted on others" power, there's one in the Flea Market that covers that nicely.

Hit me? Hit you! 10WD (A; 1pt per die; 40pts)
Attacks Extras & Flaws: Endless +3, If/Then (when hit) -1, If/Then (limited to equal damage) -1, Touch Only -2. Capacity: Touch.
Effect: When attacked in melee this power automatically deals up to equal damage to the attacker (capped at 10SK).

As far as Wild Talents goes working within the existing parameters can still produce the results you're looking for: Combat Maneuvers, Extras like Go First and Attack levels for faster and slower attacks than normal and Flaws like Go Last on the other side of that coin.

Yes that would be the idea (keeps the probabilities fairly similar), and the whole idea you have on kinetic energy has no impact when we're talking about the reflexes of 2 individuals using the same projectile weapon. Drawing and firing a gun a second before another person has 0 impact on the kinetic energy of the bullet if anything you'd have less time to aim the shot and would as a result be less likely to hit a more vital area.

The inability to react bit is also kind of an implication of failing your dodge/cover roll, you're now doubling down on that by also having it be inherent to the attack itself which seems both redundant and to some extent invalidates the ideas behind trying to actively not get hit.

All of this also applies to punches. Fast doesn't always mean harder. Imagine getting a quick jab in vs a full on swing, in this case the distance the arm is traveling is playing a much more major role in the punch's impact.

The idea behind a loose die of 1 value below a set allows for some additional strategy. By default if you win you win the hardest you could possibly win, both going first and dealing more damage. Now that may very well become a choice for the player to make, though it can also occur in the exact same way if you're lucky.

So does that mean if you roll a 3x10 and you also have a loose 9 then you're inflicting 9 damage to the target's head?

Can someone help me understand Hard/Wiggle dice on Spray and Area? I just can't make a clear picture out of that.

Don't worry about the Area ones. Area dice are their own thing where you roll and then apply damage depending on where each comes up (so if you roll Area 4 Killing and roll 1,5,7,10 you're taking a point of killing to your 1, 5, 7 and 10 locations). Hard Dice and Wiggle Dice don't affect them.

Not sure what you'r confused about with Spray; Hard and Wiggle Dice don't really have much of an impact on them either.

No. Though now that I think about it, loose die isn't the right term, sorry been describing that wrong (it's just that a single loose die is the most likely outcome).

The idea would be to add the number of die which are 1 below the set in their entirety. So in that case you'd deal 2 (because normally a set of 2 is the lowest hit you can roll, so it might as well be the minimum damage of a thing)+ weapon damage bonuses + 1 (for the 9).

Loose die was definitely not proper communication on my part. So say you magically roll 2x7 and 2x6, if you used the 2x7 to attack you'd add 2 additional damage for the 6's, the attack being the equivalent of a 4x7 normally or at least it should be.

Not quite true, if area dice are hard dice, they'll always come up ten, wiggle is set by you

Spray adds whatever dice are included in the spray rating, and removes the need to do multiple actions, in exchange for your ability to do maneuvers.

The dice still work the same though

Spray is the #1 reason why combat in Wild Talents can get out of hand. A scrub with 2d in Coordination and 2d in Weapon (Machine Gun) will be rolling 9d to attack with said machine gun (4d for their pool, plus Spray 5). Not because they're particularly good with it but because the rate of fire is so ridiculous that they're definitely going to hit *something*.

Also Hard Area Dice kind of defeat the point since they remove the randomness from their function.

Honestly, i would never reccomend getting more than one die in spray.

It doesn't boost your capacities, and once you start getting to higher die pools, all they basically do is make the power more expensive for very little payoff, exception being just grabbing one for the multiple action negation.

Also what weapon has 5 spray dice, and at 5 points, why not throw on something far more dangerous, like duration or burn? Or penetration+area to destroy the players armor?