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WildWalker wrote:Had me a fun "duh" moment today when I was trying to figure out how a "regular joe" or "regular jane" could survive an attack from a supernatural menace. I sort of combined the idea of an unrealized Latent Psychic and the abilites of either an Exceptional Physical Prowess Genius or an Exceptional Physical Strength Genius with some ideas from a Psi-Slinger.

The idea still needs some work but I think it works...so...I present to you:

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Stress Born

Before the coming of the Rifts there were often tabloid stories of people who, in times of stress, managed to perform seemingly impossible feats of strength or endurance.

Few realized that many of these individuals were Latent Psychics who had simply never manifested any powers and had drawn upon those reserves to perform those feats.

After the Coming of the Rifts a few of these individuals found themselves in such dire circumstances that under the stress they essentially became almost supernatural creatures themselves.

Stress Born are born from a stress event. The event that triggered them burned up most of their PPE but gave them the following:

• Low PPE. Whatever event triggered them burned up most of their PPE. Stress Born only have 1d3+1 PPE.
• Unbelieveable Toughness. Due to an almost inhuman ability to avoid the worst of any attack all SDC attacks do only half damage. Any MDC attacks do SDC damage. Players can typify it as durability, agility, superior senses or any combination of them based on the character concept.
• Hysterical Strength. In a stressful situation the Stress Born gains +10 Physical Strength and it is is treated as being Supernatural. In addition, hand to hand damage is MDC versus MDC opponents.
• Not quite right anymore. Whatever the event was it left the character scarred. All Stress Born have one Insanity. It can be either chosen by the Player (with the help of the GM) to match the trauma that triggered them or rolled randomly (which might give the Player an idea of what triggered them).

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So...what do y'all think?

WildWalker

WildWalker wrote:

Jay05 wrote:...as a concept could work in any megaversal setting actually.

I did the first pass late last night for CE but I think you might be right!

This could be a straight trade for minor psychic powers in any Rifts game. Be a neat base to build a first edition Vagabond, Wilderness Scout or City Rat on top of. In an SDC setting ( including BTS) I could see it used by ditching the MDC damage notes in Unbelievable Toughness and Hysterical Strength. I think it might be fun to play one in Nightbane too. I have not seen the actual rules for Dead Reign but I could see this as the base for a character that could actually not be a "Victim"...would be a very different take, but since I'm not into role-playing victims that works for me!

I'm excited about the possibilities! I really want to play a game now and try it out...

Thanks for the input Jay05!

WildWalker

WildWalker wrote:Hi Ziggurat the Eternal! I was actually thinking about a "trained" version without the "Insanity". Essentially a three skill version of Martial Arts but I'm not sure how ballanced that is...I guess it being Rifts/Chaos Earth, ballance isn't THAT big a deal...

Seriously, though, from a metagame point of veiw, MDC in the 12-50 range and hand to hand damage in the 1d6-3d6 range doesn't seem like much of a deal breaker to me. The real question is how it plays. I have always hated needing armor just to survive so, I am really liking this as an almost universal adder...

Actually, that makes a TON of sense if you think about it...

How about a new Insanity:

Obsession: Heroic Adventurer. A person with this obsession has an irrational need to help people. He/she is willing to go to far away places, put themselves in immensely dangerous situations and do things that normal people would consider crazy to satisfy thier obsession.

WildWalker

WildWalker wrote:

Ziggurat the Eternal wrote:This is pretty good stuff, and I have a player using it in a Nightbane campaign, it's working out pretty well. He isn't too powerful compared to Nightbane, but he puts on a good show next to regular humans. Best part is, he is a Minister.

You just made my night! What is the Minister's insanity? Would it be possible for you to post the Character sheet and background?

WildWalker

WildWalker wrote:That has just SO much "win"! It sounds like the PCC works exactly as designed...against a dedicated "bad mother" it's a bit weak but the character can now "dance the dance" if he's lucky or careful...

Awesome!

WildWalker