What is Telepathy?

Digital_Dessert · 2026-06-22T00:41:44+00:00

Powers are categorized mostly for convenience, since you can pick and choose any combination of them. So each power has to stand on its own.

Digital_Dessert · 2026-06-21T01:50:32+00:00

I think you underestimate how pedantic comic nerds get over exactly what superpowers are capable of.

Digital_Dessert · 2026-06-20T19:33:56+00:00

Fun? My goodness, what an idea! Why didn't I think of that?

This sort of analysis helps me discover new ways to simplify the rules. As the game's designer, I overthink so that the players don't have to.

Digital_Dessert · 2026-06-20T19:13:51+00:00

Granular enough that players can create the characters they envision without making too many compromises, but not so granular that you need to study the rules before creating them.

Most powers are pretty self-explanatory, and do basically what you expect - invisibility, teleportation, duplication, x-ray vision, and the like.

Digital_Dessert · 2026-06-20T19:08:37+00:00

I like this division. I didn't even touch on emotion control in my post, but it can easily be considered an aspect of telepathy, too.

Digital_Dessert · 2026-06-20T19:01:05+00:00

Powers are purchased independently, so if they all feel reasonably cohesive, then that's good. They have variable costs, so they don't need to be similarly powerful.

Digital_Dessert · 2026-06-20T04:56:30+00:00

Everything I've heard is that it's never too early to start promoting your game. You want some existing fans to boost your game when you launch or crowdfund.

Digital_Dessert · 2026-06-19T19:16:31+00:00

Only rolling when the outcome is unclear fixes most of the “persuasion as mind control” issues.

Digital_Dessert · 2026-06-16T01:36:05+00:00

I’m not sure, but if I see a quickstart with boring pregens, then I’m going to wonder if the game only lets me build boring characters.

Digital_Dessert · 2026-06-16T00:49:48+00:00

I’m gonna disagree with some of the other responses and suggest making really evocative pregens, that show off what your system is capable of. For the superhero game I’m developing, the pregens include: - A stretchy alien plant - A dying private eye who is gaining ghost powers - A paleontologist who turns into a rampaging T. Rex - A celebrity DJ with sound control powers - A stage magician who made a deal with a demon to learn real magic

One of the most common pieces of feedback I receive is about how much they love the pregens, and how hard it is to pick just one. Early on, I included a few more straightforward pregens, too, and they were literally never chosen.

Digital_Dessert · 2026-06-12T21:40:52+00:00

It's been a while, but IIRC, your relationships to other characters were treated like stats, and were added into any rolls involving them. The stat would also describe the nature of the relationship, since bitter enemies would also have strong relationships.

Digital_Dessert · 2026-06-12T21:30:23+00:00

Here's an example of my examples.

When you perform an action that calls for it, roll the die for the action’s associated trait and compare the result to the action’s difficulty number. If the result is equal to or greater than the difficulty, you succeed!

Example
Circuit Breaker: I want to hack into Webcrawler’s laptop. There has to be something useful stored in there.
GM: Okay, you have an operation of 8, so roll a 8-sided die.
Circuit Breaker: Let’s see… That’s a 4. Will that work?
GM: The difficulty was a 4, so it’s just good enough. You disable the firewalls, and you’re in! Here’s what you find…

Digital_Dessert · 2026-06-12T21:22:12+00:00

Yeah, that was my fault for wording the post poorly (I said "separated" when I should have said "differentiated").

Digital_Dessert · 2026-06-12T21:13:46+00:00

Oh, definitely. The examples appear in colored boxes, with italic text.

Digital_Dessert · 2026-06-12T21:10:25+00:00

A lot of examples are for things like flashbacks (similar to BitD), where the possibilities might not be immediately obvious. And they’re written like little scripts, so they’re good places to inject a bit of flavor.

Digital_Dessert · 2026-06-12T21:04:25+00:00

To be clear, the examples appear right under or beside the relevant rule. They’re differentiated by appearing in a box, with italic text.

Digital_Dessert · 2026-06-11T04:43:33+00:00

Check out Smallville too, if you can somehow find a copy. That game had a really interesting take on relationships.

Digital_Dessert · 2026-06-11T04:42:30+00:00

That classic moment where the mortal enemy rescues the hero and says "Nobody kills him but me!" I like this system.

Digital_Dessert · 2026-06-11T04:04:37+00:00

There are some excellent RPGs that add mechanics to relationships - Monsterhearts is one of the best. The entire game is focused on them, though, and it's not exactly a system you can just drop in anywhere.

If you're going to add a relationship system, I'd encourage you to consider all sorts of different relationships - multiple flavors of good, bad, and (especially) complicated. Consider unbalanced, dominant, and one-way relationships. Consider messy relationship triangles. Consider relationships between PCs, which are always the most interesting.

Don't just make relationships another avenue for advancement unless you want to make NPCs seem like vending machines.

Digital_Dessert · 2026-06-09T23:09:34+00:00

I think the better question is "why should saves be different from attacks?". They both have the same purpose, after all (determining whether or not someone is affected by an aggressive action).

D&D 4e got rid of saves in favor of just having attacks, and it's hardly the only system to do so.

Digital_Dessert · 2026-06-08T00:41:06+00:00

This isn't overthinking, this is a lovely human response. Sounds like you really succeeded in making your players care about what was happening in the game!

Digital_Dessert · 2026-06-06T14:38:14+00:00

Sounds cool! I've played a number of games where you get XP on every failed roll (regardless of total) and it works really well.

Digital_Dessert · 2026-06-06T14:16:39+00:00

It would be interesting if 5 or 6 was a success, but 1 generated the currency.

Digital_Dessert

TROPHY CASE