Homebrew Exalt - Paranoia Agent

[berserkx33]

This is the homebrew exalt I've recently remade from memories of some lost files I had with some homebrew stuff for DtD.

The general concept for this Exalt is that it is a sort of a reverse take on the Paragon, where instead of inspiring and badass, they are cowardly and comedic. But specifically, not in a Fool way, but more in a StarScream style "no side but my side" kind of way.

V.0.1 - Original release

V.0.2 - Based on the feedback given by "GuardianTempest", there is still a ton of stuff to do, but mainly I want to see if I move it into a more interesting direction.
V.0.2.5 - More corrections based on the feeback given by "GuardianTempest".
V.0.9 - Almost final version, waiting for feedback on the final additions.
V.0.10 - Final round of revisions before review
V.1 - Complete Release

Paranoia Agent:

Survival is a matter of preparation and observation. And you observed that as long as everyone is shooting at each other, they are going to be too occupied to shoot you.

Paranoia Agents are the embodiment of the wild card. They don’t have a long game or an objective other than survival. They don’t have allies, enemies or even neutral parties, everyone and everything is a source of danger, and they realized that they have to be at the top of the food chain to avoid being taken down.

Differently from Paragons, who are the embodiment of the excellence and prowess of each race, the Paranoia Agents are what exists of most dangerous and scary in them.

Either from fear, guilt, greed or just unfiltered malice, Paranoia Agents are generally the first person you should blame, but the last person you would expect. They will bride, sabotage, extort, falsify and lie their way in and out of groups, and they will do anything in their reach to make sure that no one finds out that they know what they are doing.

Betray them first before you are betrayed, because as everyone knows, if there are no other hands in the senate, you can’t be stabbed in the back.

Powers:

Multiple Choice Past: Paranoia Agent’s true backgrounds are unknown to other characters. They can fake backgrounds by using Leverage and any means they can. If they succeed on convincing other characters on a stunt based roll on any Mental or Social Skill applicable, the targets will believe that this is true unless proven otherwise. Do note that this doesn't give you the Background or it's effects, just convinces people you have that for interaction purposes. (Like claiming you are rich to convince someone to lend you money or that an item you have is an artifact).

Hollow Saint: A Paranoia Agent’s true alignment can’t be discerned by anyone other than themselves. They can fake Devotion rolls for other alignments at a -2 penalty.

Poisoned Chalice: Paranoia Agents gain a +1k2 bonus to saves and defense against Damage they are involved in creating (Like drinking a beverage they themselves spiked with poison, surviving an explosion from a bomb they themselves plant, etc).

Restless Sleeper: Paranoia Agents know that their crimes are just one step away from being found. Start play with the Paranoia Feat and whenever you fail a test you spend Leverage on, take a Trauma Test. If you fail that test, gain a Minor Derangement.

Tell:

You generally can only tell a Paranoia Agent is around you when they let the mask slip to put their plans into motion, be it a grim smile when they spend Leverage, or the strange looming sensation that someone has the intent to stab you in the back that you can’t exactly pinpoint.

POWER STAT: Mendacity

You don’t have enemies, you have targets, you don’t have friends, you have assets, you don’t have infamy, you have a clientele. Paranoia Agents will refine their craft into an art, and then sell that art to anyone foolish enough to pay for it, maybe multiple times, maybe even without any return. You see, the Mendacity is how refined the Paranoia Agent is at the craft of their act. The Mendacity is a good measure of how much people will trust you, but it is also a big reason as to why they shouldn’t.

Resource Stat: Leverage: A Paranoia Agent has a maximum pool of Leverage equal to their Charisma and Intelligence plus double their Mendacity. Leverage can be gained by doing false favors, stealing classified information without anyone noticing, sabotage, etc. The main idea is that you have to create situations that you can pull from later to be able to affect the flow of events. Be warned though, Leverage from scene specific events will be lost after the scene ends, and Leverage that depends on a certain location or the presence of a certain individual can only be used when they are around.

Mendacity Power Gained

1 – Someone Else – If you meet someone that you betrayed before, you can spend Leverage to gain a +2k2 bonus on a Deceit or Stealth test to avoid being recognized or detected by them.

2 – Not So Fast – When an Opposing Roll has one or more exploding die, you may spend Leverage to explode one of your own.

3 – A Thousand Faces – You can spend 2 Leverage to roll any skill as if you had a specialization.

4 – Trojan Horse – When giving any object to someone else, even if you only had it for a few moments, you can spend Leverage to create a negative effect related to it. The more leverage you spend, the bigger the effect.

For example: A minor effect would be that you emptied a gun’s magazine or oiled a sword’s handle, giving a small penalty like wasting an action or lowering a roll. A major effect could be that you rigged a gun to explode or planted a poisoned needle on the handle of a sword, causing damage or forcing a save.

5 – Nothing Personal – Whenever you would make a Stunt, you may spend 2 Leverage to explode one of your rolled dice. If succeeding would cause you harm, you can put allies into harm’s way to lower the Leverage cost to 1.

---

Paranoia Agents: Mayhem and Betrayal

Paranoia Agents Physical Features

Paranoia Agents are very diverse, as they really don’t want to be found out, so being visibly themselves is a big no no if they want to keep on living. But there are certain stereotypes that they can fall into. They will take opposite identities to their real ones, becoming pious Priests to hide their heresy, becoming innocent looking Merchants, to hide their schemes, or become defenseless Civilians to hide their wetwork.

Becoming a Paranoia Agent

Paranoia Agents are born from a state of mind. A sudden realization that you are alone in the vastness of the universe and you can’t trust anyone. Once the reality hits that you are just a spec of dust on the uncaring greatness of the universe, and that everyone else that realized the same thing will try to hide it their hardest, you understand the unmistakable truth behind the phrase of “Those that gaze the abyss for too long, see the abyss gaze back”. You felt the soul crushing despair, and decided that from this point forward, you would be that same Paranoia in other people’s lives.

Playing as Paranoia Agents

Paranoia Agents want to blend in as most as possible. For such ends, they generally have one or more secret identities to help them navigate multiple social situations without being spotted. Obvious choices are having at least once picked classes like Trouble Shooter, Apostate, Insurgent or Survivalist and then picking classes that would fit your secret identity at the time (Since you have to know how to fake it). Just don’t forget that you are faking it, so you have to keep sure that you only pick what is necessary for each identity and then fill the rest.

Paranoia Agents in Game

Paranoia Agents are supposed to be embodiment of Chaotic Fun. Adding one to the game is both supposed to be a fun exercise and way to challenge your players to have more engagement in between them and NPCs, as the big key to Paranoia Agent’s success in a game is having them bouncing in between every possible character in the game to get the most advantages possible. Talk to your PA players and try to come up with past schemes, possible enemies and assets they planted in the past, and with that you will have a huge pool of story hooks to move the plot forward in interesting ways.

Paranoia Agent Culture

Paranoia Agents lack a cohesive culture by design. They can’t really be clockeable by others, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t share somethings. Almost every Paranoia Agent will have strange behaviors when dealing with others. They generally have to keep a balance in between their identities and their plans, so they normally are very secretive about their own stuff, don’t like to share unnecessary information and will appear out of the blue when something important is happening, since being informed is key to keeping an advantage.

If they allow their mask to slip, then they are easily identifiable as the emotional wreck bargaining with reality to get another day alive, and they are hardly going to be happy that you saw that side of them, meaning that you probably got an enemy for life.

Adapting Paranoia Agents
Paranoia Agents are mainly focused on their own survival, and as such can be turned into conspiracy theorists, secret agents or other kinds of “regular people” prepared for the worst. Detective Super Heroes in the mold of a certain caped crusader and moon warrior with multiple personalities would be perfect fits for a another take on Paranoia Agents. The main key is just to get the flavor right.

---

Paranoia Agent Grift Assets

Faking the obituary: In extreme cases, a Paranoia Agent can fake their own death through an elaborate ruse by giving up all of their current Leverage points and it's activated when burning a hero point to survive a death, killing that identity (including suicide and sacrifice). They can pick who will know the truth, and everyone else that knew that identity will be convinced they died unless proven otherwise by the PA themselves or some evidence they created later. This will instantly remove them from any plot threads that involved that identity and can even be used to remove certain plot related Hindrances, at half of the XP cost, as long as your SM approves. You can also burn a hero point to survive other ways of being removed from play like insanity, getting lost to the warp, being trapped forever, etc.

Apocryphal Texts: Your character starts with Heterodoxy and can ignore an extra commandment for each level of Mendacity they have.

Motivational Coaching: You may spend Leverage to temporarily obtain a feat from a class you qualify for but haven't entered yet. This feat lasts until the end of the scene. Do note, it can't be used to skip feat requirements and feats that give you other feats or resources (like Sound Constitution, Upgraded or Blasphemous Oath) can't be gained through this effect.

Masterful Bait: You can become the bait of enemies in exchange for a constant stream of Leverage. Gain 1 Leverage every time they try to harm, manipulate or capture you while you're aware of the attempt. Add your Mendacity as a static bonus to Deception rolls as long as they think you're an easy target.

---

Also, on the matter as to why Paranoia Agents can't be Paranoia Agents and another Exaltation, since they are just regular people with a designated survivor streak.

Paranoia Agents are defined by their own paranoia and singleminded obsession with comming out on top whatever the cost. And that is, they just aren't compatible with the general powers and mentalities that fit other kinds of Exaltations.

A Paranoia Agent will lose the constant drive to survive that moves them forward if they get turned into a Vampire, as a cursed eternity will sooner or later mellow their spirit, quenching the lust that allowed them to surpass their limits by removing their main drives. The same goes, for example, a Paranoia Agent that finds themselves to be an Atlantean, just the revelation of the scope of their past life will completely destroy their worldview and show how insignificant the survival of their current self is to the larger universe.

That goes double with stuff like a Paragon and a Mastermind. A Paragon is based around their excelence expanding their legend far and wide. It requires a level of commitment to something other than your own survival that just doesn't fit with a Paranoia Agent's own modus operandi. A Mastermind requires the belief that not only you are the one that deserves to see tomorrow, you are the one that will mold it, a Paranoia Agent is kinly aware that it isn't the case, and that the best they can aspire to is just another day, because they know that at any second, their world is going to crumble and all of the weight of their sins will swallow them.

Most (if not all) forms of Exaltation remove the key element of what makes a Paranoia Agent a Paranoia Agent, and that is, the knowledge that you aren't special in an universe where gods walk among regular people. They are walking impostor syndromes that decided that the only way to survive is to keep the farce that they are allowed to walk alongside said gods. Or so is what they believe is the case.

Attachments:

DtD Homebrew Exaltation - Paranoia Agent.pdf (358.92 KB)

[GuardianTempest]

Okay so I finally have some stable wifi here in the provinces (which I'm currently staying in for a while). I'm going to rapidfire this since I don't know how much time I have before I'll be stuck playing GBA games on my smartphone emulator. I apologize if I offended you, this post was haphazardly rushed.

Let's get the knee-jerk responses out of the way:

- There's already a troubleshooter class
- The Mastermind already covers the scheming bastard archetype, a Paranoia Agent could just be a Mastermind Troubleshooter
- Too many gained powers. You could trim out some of the extra ones and pick one of them as a sidebar.
- Reminds me of someone's Vampire overhaul which had five base powers.
- Is there ever an Exalt that is two separate words without a hyphen? Story Agent.
- Personal nitpick: This reminds me of the early version of Unreal, which focuses too much on emulating the source material (down to the minutiae) rather than working with DtD's framework.
- This could work as an add-on system for an "alternate gamemode" called Secret Exalt or something, existing alongsider the character's existing Exaltation. Maybe Leverage could replace Hero Points.

Now for the actual feedback

- Permanently losing XP, feats and other player resources stings too much especially compared to Exaltations like the Wraith and Harrowed.
- Test Dummy: What do you mean Negative Property? Hindrance? Degeneration? I think I'm interpreting this wrong.
- ORANGE: Just what kind of failed rolls does this cover? The fluff says it works by shifting the blame on someone, but if I fail to resist a Tranq Shot or a Fear Test...
- Credibility of the target doesn't...seem right when I can see this ability be used to redirect effects onto enemies regularly.
- SUSFU: I don't think that's how opposed rolls work, you can't add more rolled dice as the test is being made.
- The "up to your color rank" might not be needed since resource points are already limited Power Stat by default, unless you have an ability that specifically says otherwise.
- FUBU: I can roll with this, this is pretty neat.
- FUBAR: Can this one-hit kill stuff at max health? Like Modrons? I also think the wording is too vague with "situation".
- TARFU: This could use a rewording. Also, "put others into harm" sounds like a beneficial effect to lower Leverage costs. Most of the time such collateral abilities would be used against enemy NPCs.

Suggestions:

- RED can be an exaltation-exclusive Hindrance
- SUSFU could remove the stunt requirement, and reword it to "When an Opposing Roll has one or more exploding die, you may spend a Leverage to explode one of your own"
- FUBAR: Instead of transferring the effect, you transfer the cause (attack, spell, fatigue gain, etc) so that the recipient could still tank it with their HP/immunities. It could be reworded to "If you would be subject to an attack/effect that would..."
- TARFU: The Saving Throw TN could be used only if the effect doesn't already have a saving throw (like a group-affecting spell), otherwise it uses that instead. (Basically if you subject everyone to a Shocking weapon, they all roll TN 20 instead of your Rank)
- Assets based around common secret society archetypes?

- Wait I think I have something neat: Instead of using Power Stat to track Rank and its fluctuations, use Devotion instead. The Devotion mechanics already has a mechanical framework for emulating the whole "cooperating/disobeying a greator power" thing your paragraphs for Rank imply.
- Instead of tying it to Divine Intervention, the effects of Devotion can be attributed to Friend Computer's satisfaction at how good you are at following protocol/the role it has assigned to you (and retroactively adjusting your privileges on the fly).
- Maybe something along the lines of "You start at Devotion 3 and instead of the normal effects, you die at Devotion 2", I'm just kitbashing this since I need to sleep.

[Divergent Reality]

I appreciate the effort you went through to make the PDF of your work. I would also like to see a full version on the forum so anyone can open the thread and see the most up to date version without the need to check revision numbers on a previously downloaded file.

[berserkx33]

May 27, 2022 7:48:33 GMT -6 GuardianTempest said:

Okay so I finally have some stable wifi here in the provinces (which I'm currently staying in for a while). I'm going to rapidfire this since I don't know how much time I have before I'll be stuck playing GBA games on my smartphone emulator. I apologize if I offended you, this post was haphazardly rushed.

Let's get the knee-jerk responses out of the way:

- There's already a troubleshooter class
- The Mastermind already covers the scheming bastard archetype, a Paranoia Agent could just be a Mastermind Troubleshooter
- Too many gained powers. You could trim out some of the extra ones and pick one of them as a sidebar.
- Reminds me of someone's Vampire overhaul which had five base powers.
- Is there ever an Exalt that is two separate words without a hyphen? Story Agent.
- Personal nitpick: This reminds me of the early version of Unreal, which focuses too much on emulating the source material (down to the minutiae) rather than working with DtD's framework.
- This could work as an add-on system for an "alternate gamemode" called Secret Exalt or something, existing alongsider the character's existing Exaltation. Maybe Leverage could replace Hero Points.

Now for the actual feedback

- Permanently losing XP, feats and other player resources stings too much especially compared to Exaltations like the Wraith and Harrowed.
- Test Dummy: What do you mean Negative Property? Hindrance? Degeneration? I think I'm interpreting this wrong.
- ORANGE: Just what kind of failed rolls does this cover? The fluff says it works by shifting the blame on someone, but if I fail to resist a Tranq Shot or a Fear Test...
- Credibility of the target doesn't...seem right when I can see this ability be used to redirect effects onto enemies regularly.
- SUSFU: I don't think that's how opposed rolls work, you can't add more rolled dice as the test is being made.
- The "up to your color rank" might not be needed since resource points are already limited Power Stat by default, unless you have an ability that specifically says otherwise.
- FUBU: I can roll with this, this is pretty neat.
- FUBAR: Can this one-hit kill stuff at max health? Like Modrons? I also think the wording is too vague with "situation".
- TARFU: This could use a rewording. Also, "put others into harm" sounds like a beneficial effect to lower Leverage costs. Most of the time such collateral abilities would be used against enemy NPCs.

Suggestions:

- RED can be an exaltation-exclusive Hindrance
- SUSFU could remove the stunt requirement, and reword it to "When an Opposing Roll has one or more exploding die, you may spend a Leverage to explode one of your own"
- FUBAR: Instead of transferring the effect, you transfer the cause (attack, spell, fatigue gain, etc) so that the recipient could still tank it with their HP/immunities. It could be reworded to "If you would be subject to an attack/effect that would..."
- TARFU: The Saving Throw TN could be used only if the effect doesn't already have a saving throw (like a group-affecting spell), otherwise it uses that instead. (Basically if you subject everyone to a Shocking weapon, they all roll TN 20 instead of your Rank)
- Assets based around common secret society archetypes?

- Wait I think I have something neat: Instead of using Power Stat to track Rank and its fluctuations, use Devotion instead. The Devotion mechanics already has a mechanical framework for emulating the whole "cooperating/disobeying a greator power" thing your paragraphs for Rank imply.
- Instead of tying it to Divine Intervention, the effects of Devotion can be attributed to Friend Computer's satisfaction at how good you are at following protocol/the role it has assigned to you (and retroactively adjusting your privileges on the fly).
- Maybe something along the lines of "You start at Devotion 3 and instead of the normal effects, you die at Devotion 2", I'm just kitbashing this since I need to sleep.

Neat, I was looking for that kind of feedback because it is mostly based on something I started years ago that I lost the files to, so I tried to recreate most of that from memory.

Thanks for the feedback, I will try to make those changes because it helped a lot with finding out what was too strange on this whole thing.

[GuardianTempest]

Massive improvement over the first version, props to that! Here's the next batch of feedback:

-- You didn't specify what kind of skills would benefit from your abilities. I'm not sure if this is a bad thing (Lack of clarity) or a good thing (build agnostic). This Exalt seems like it's gonna be heavy on Deception, at least. I don't see how one would use Persuasion and Charm to avoid detection. I think it's just me though.
-- Devotion tests don't follow the normal XkY format, it's a straight d10 against a threshold. I guess make it a -2 instead? Oh, and make Pure Faith and Virgil's Guidance optional while you're at it.
-- Poisoned Chalice is worded awkwardly but I get what you're trying to do. +1k2 on saving throws and tests to resist
-- I think Relentless Sleeper would be better worded as "Whenever you fail a test you spend Leverage on..."
-- Nothing Personal: "Whenever you would make a Stunt, you may spend 2 Leverage to explode one of your rolled dice. If succeeding would cause you harm, you can put allies into harm’s way to lower the Leverage cost to 1.
-- I think giving the Paranoia feat for free would be appropriate.
-- Trojan Horse gives a lot of leeway, it's gonna be a little tricky for both the SM and the player to the fair about things. That's as far as I could assess though, subjective effects are not my strong suit. This is probably the part where playtesting would be needed.

Minor suggestion would be replacing Scam with a fancier synonym, but that's just me. You could go with Duplicity, Fraudulence, Deception, Mendacity, or something else.

[berserkx33]

May 31, 2022 5:20:19 GMT -6 GuardianTempest said:

Massive improvement over the first version, props to that! Here's the next batch of feedback:

-- You didn't specify what kind of skills would benefit from your abilities. I'm not sure if this is a bad thing (Lack of clarity) or a good thing (build agnostic). This Exalt seems like it's gonna be heavy on Deception, at least. I don't see how one would use Persuasion and Charm to avoid detection. I think it's just me though.
-- Devotion tests don't follow the normal XkY format, it's a straight d10 against a threshold. I guess make it a -2 instead? Oh, and make Pure Faith and Virgil's Guidance optional while you're at it.
-- Poisoned Chalice is worded awkwardly but I get what you're trying to do. +1k2 on saving throws and tests to resist
-- I think Relentless Sleeper would be better worded as "Whenever you fail a test you spend Leverage on..."
-- Nothing Personal: "Whenever you would make a Stunt, you may spend 2 Leverage to explode one of your rolled dice. If succeeding would cause you harm, you can put allies into harm’s way to lower the Leverage cost to 1.
-- I think giving the Paranoia feat for free would be appropriate.
-- Trojan Horse gives a lot of leeway, it's gonna be a little tricky for both the SM and the player to the fair about things. That's as far as I could assess though, subjective effects are not my strong suit. This is probably the part where playtesting would be needed.

Minor suggestion would be replacing Scam with a fancier synonym, but that's just me. You could go with Duplicity, Fraudulence, Deception, Mendacity, or something else.

Thanks a lot, yeah, I'm still refining the whole deal, it has been years since I last played DtD, so I'm mostly fishing from memory.

Yeah, for the straight first thing I will fix Devotion stuff, I had completely forgotten how that worked.
About the skills, thanks for reminding me to add them, I had completely forgotten.
And yeah, a free Paranoia Feat would be perfect.

Also, about Trojan Horse, the minor effects are generally either small penalties to tests or just wasting a turn, decided by the SM. The major ones will require some balancing. Maybe I could make it such that you can apply the effect retroactively by spending the points and asking the SM to define what happened.

[berserkx33]

Hello GuardianTempest, I finally updated it to the "final" version, give me a feedback on the Assets part, because I made it mostly to help with the intended play of the characters.

[GuardianTempest]

Jun 19, 2022 13:37:41 GMT -6 berserkx33 said:

Hello GuardianTempest, I finally updated it to the "final" version, give me a feedback on the Assets part, because I made it mostly to help with the intended play of the characters.

Sorry for the delay.

- Faking the Orbituary: Does this asset remove Hindrances? Specifically Wanted and Enemy. Just fake your death once and boom, penalties for 200 XP removed. Also, do the effects happen if you fake your death in private? Like pretend to choke then climb out a window. Would a death that isn't public still deceive? Also, 15+ Leverage might not be an issue since one can just do it in narrative time (i.e. it's practically free for them).
- Apocryphal Texts: This asset sounds very clunky, but I recognize what you're trying to go for. Ignoring Alignment is a powerful ability, not that it ever comes to play too frequently in my experience. How about...

Your character starts with Virgil’s Guidance. They may spend Leverage when making an Alignment test to add their Mendacity to the result. If they roll a 10, they may ignore further tests from that specific Alignment for the rest of the session.

Seems a little too simple for what you're going for but that's why I'm discussing it. Alternatively, just grant one instance of Heterodoxy and ignore another commandment each time you raise your Mendacity.

- Multi-Tasking the Grind: This one I just don't approve of, assuming my interpretation of "you can advance in multiple classes at once, and may freely abandon them whenever" is correct. Not only is it a bookkeeping nightmare, it's a munchkin's paradise as one cherrypicks feats from other classes. This is my subjective opinion however, we need the others to chime in to see how erroneous this asset can be.
- Masterful Bait: Strategic comma use to specify that the 2nd effect is a separate bonus. How about "You can become the bait of enemies in exchange for a constant stream of Leverage. Gain Leverage every time they try to harm, manipulate or capture you while you're aware of the attempt. Add your Mendacity as a static bonus to Deception rolls as long as they think you're an easy target." (Also, how much Leverage do you gain?)

Going back to base powers...
- Multiple Choice Past: What do you mean "Dots said background"? The amount of dots you have or wish to have? Also I assume you meant this to be used with Backing and maybe Wealth, to replicate lying about your clearances or something. What if I were to use it to gain Inheritance? or Artifacts? Would you allow that? How is this power meant to be used?

Also good job on the fluff part of the exaltation, I wanted to do the same thing for Moignos but that would delay my post even further.

[berserkx33]

Jun 19, 2022 23:29:59 GMT -6 GuardianTempest said:

Sorry for the delay.

- Faking the Orbituary: Does this asset remove Hindrances? Specifically Wanted and Enemy. Just fake your death once and boom, penalties for 200 XP removed. Also, do the effects happen if you fake your death in private? Like pretend to choke then climb out a window. Would a death that isn't public still deceive? Also, 15+ Leverage might not be an issue since one can just do it in narrative time (i.e. it's practically free for them).

I should specify, but that has to be a very publicized death that would make everyone believe that said identity died, sometimes even faking a corpse depending on the conditions. Also, you can't use that identity anymore, so you would have to come up with a new identity for you to keep existing in play. The Wanted and Enemy hindrances could be removed, but that would probably need a bigger cost, but I'm not exactly sure of what to use as a cost. Maybe add a 100 XP cost to remove each hindrance? This one needs some trimming TBH.

- Apocryphal Texts: This asset sounds very clunky, but I recognize what you're trying to go for. Ignoring Alignment is a powerful ability, not that it ever comes to play too frequently in my experience. How about...

Your character starts with Virgil’s Guidance. They may spend Leverage when making an Alignment test to add their Mendacity to the result. If they roll a 10, they may ignore further tests from that specific Alignment for the rest of the session.

Seems a little too simple for what you're going for but that's why I'm discussing it. Alternatively, just grant one instance of Heterodoxy and ignore another commandment each time you raise your Mendacity.

The later one actually works really well, since the main idea is that the character is just lying their way out of people believing they are breaking a commandment by rationalizing to them that you are not breaking it. So that actually works way better (The original concept came from Heterodoxy BTW).

- Multi-Tasking the Grind: This one I just don't approve of, assuming my interpretation of "you can advance in multiple classes at once, and may freely abandon them whenever" is correct. Not only is it a bookkeeping nightmare, it's a munchkin's paradise as one cherrypicks feats from other classes. This is my subjective opinion however, we need the others to chime in to see how erroneous this asset can be.

Yeah, that is the one that I believed was really "OK, this has potential to be game breaking", so that is the one that I really wanted feedback for because it is obviously breaking some rules that might have catastrophic consequences, so a way more experienced player would be a good judge. I mainly wanted an Asset to help with creating Fake Identities. I think I will have to come back to the drawing board with that one.

- Masterful Bait: Strategic comma use to specify that the 2nd effect is a separate bonus. How about "You can become the bait of enemies in exchange for a constant stream of Leverage. Gain Leverage every time they try to harm, manipulate or capture you while you're aware of the attempt. Add your Mendacity as a static bonus to Deception rolls as long as they think you're an easy target." (Also, how much Leverage do you gain?)

I liked your version. Also, you only get 1 Leverage for each aggression, since it is supposedly passive, and you already can pile them actively very rapidly regularly.

Going back to base powers...
- Multiple Choice Past: What do you mean "Dots said background"? The amount of dots you have or wish to have? Also I assume you meant this to be used with Backing and maybe Wealth, to replicate lying about your clearances or something. What if I were to use it to gain Inheritance? or Artifacts? Would you allow that? How is this power meant to be used?

The amount is Dots you want to have.

When it involves physical objects or financial assets, you just convince the target that you have that. So you can convince someone that some regular object is actually an Artifact or that you are rich, you can't actually just spawn that, just convince people that you have it. So like, you could get a loan by making the loaner believe you are rich enough to pay it back, or convince someone to surrender by faking having an artifact.

Also good job on the fluff part of the exaltation, I wanted to do the same thing for Moignos but that would delay my post even further.

Thanks a lot, I had fun writing it. Also, I'm really excited for the Moignos, they are amazing, a friend of mine loves ENA and I showed it to her.

[berserkx33]

GuardianTempest I did another update to the Assets and rewrote Multiple Choice Past to be more specific. Tell me what you think.

[GuardianTempest]

Jun 30, 2022 20:04:25 GMT -6 berserkx33 said:

GuardianTempest I did another update to the Assets and rewrote Multiple Choice Past to be more specific. Tell me what you think.

You should link Heterodoxy, or rather, the class that has it.

Do note that exaltation assets should have a benefit right at Power Stat 1. Motivational coaching needing 5 resource points to use makes it only usable in Power Stat 5, so it's pretty much dead weight until then. I learned this when I first made the King Crimson asset for Gemini. My suggestion for this asset would be to change its effect into "You may spend Leverage to temporarily obtain a feat from a class you qualify for but haven't entered yet. This feat lasts until the end of the scene." This would encourage having a broad set of skills to have a broad range of potential feats. Maybe add a clause to disallow feats with material benefits like Sound Constitution and Upgrade. Alternatively, gain two feats from the Novice class (Specifically Theoretical Degree and Imaginative Insight).

ALTERNATIVELY ALTERNATIVELY, a more elegant solution is to spend 1 Leverage to gain a dot and a specialty to any one skill until the end of the scene (max of 5 dots). It's simpler and more elegant, but it would seem underwhelming for some. It does help however.

Same goes for Faking the Orbituary, even if you were to stack as many dots as possible, you could only have 12 Leverage before capbreakers. The whole "only when you currently have 15 Leverage" feels weird to me because I assume Leverage is restored at the same easy pace as other resource points (and thus wouldn't be an issue in narrative time). I have a very bold and very dumb suggestion: it's activated when burning a hero point to survive, OR make it work like the Nine Lives asset in that you could only use this asset once before it's gone.

[berserkx33]

Jul 1, 2022 9:20:53 GMT -6 GuardianTempest said:

Jun 30, 2022 20:04:25 GMT -6 berserkx33 said:

GuardianTempest I did another update to the Assets and rewrote Multiple Choice Past to be more specific. Tell me what you think.

You should link Heterodoxy, or rather, the class that has it.

Do note that exaltation assets should have a benefit right at Power Stat 1. Motivational coaching needing 5 resource points to use makes it only usable in Power Stat 5, so it's pretty much dead weight until then. I learned this when I first made the King Crimson asset for Gemini. My suggestion for this asset would be to change its effect into "You may spend Leverage to temporarily obtain a feat from a class you qualify for but haven't entered yet. This feat lasts until the end of the scene." This would encourage having a broad set of skills to have a broad range of potential feats. Maybe add a clause to disallow feats with material benefits like Sound Constitution and Upgrade. Alternatively, gain two feats from the Novice class (Specifically Theoretical Degree and Imaginative Insight).

ALTERNATIVELY ALTERNATIVELY, a more elegant solution is to spend 1 Leverage to gain a dot and a specialty to any one skill until the end of the scene (max of 5 dots). It's simpler and more elegant, but it would seem underwhelming for some. It does help however.

Same goes for Faking the Orbituary, even if you were to stack as many dots as possible, you could only have 12 Leverage before capbreakers. The whole "only when you currently have 15 Leverage" feels weird to me because I assume Leverage is restored at the same easy pace as other resource points (and thus wouldn't be an issue in narrative time). I have a very bold and very dumb suggestion: it's activated when burning a hero point to survive, OR make it work like the Nine Lives asset in that you could only use this asset once before it's gone.

Nice ideas.

For the Faking the obituary, I think I will got with a mix of both. You can use that effect when using hero points to survive death BUT it will cost more hero points each time you do it, to limit how often that can be used, since the primary effect is to escape dead end situations.

[GuardianTempest]

Jul 1, 2022 23:10:23 GMT -6 berserkx33 said:

Nice ideas.

For the Faking the obituary, I think I will got with a mix of both. You can use that effect when using hero points to survive death BUT it will cost more hero points each time you do it, to limit how often that can be used, since the primary effect is to escape dead end situations.

I recommend that you don't make humans an auto-pick, but even then you can't go more than twice since you're BURNING hero points. In general burning a hero point to avoid death is already a major blow to player resources. Increasing its cost would just mean "you can only use this asset twice, first at the early game then second at the very late game after getting obscure means of more hero points". I guess your SM is just generous with hero points? The burning of hero points is already a balancing measure itself, since what this asset does is modify a costly action that isn't sought out.

Although you said "avoid dead ends", so what this asset can also do is allow you to burn hero points for other ways of getting removed from play (insanity, lost to the warp, permanently trapped at an inescapable location, etc).

[berserkx33]

Jul 2, 2022 6:13:19 GMT -6 GuardianTempest said:

Jul 1, 2022 23:10:23 GMT -6 berserkx33 said:

Nice ideas.

For the Faking the obituary, I think I will got with a mix of both. You can use that effect when using hero points to survive death BUT it will cost more hero points each time you do it, to limit how often that can be used, since the primary effect is to escape dead end situations.

I recommend that you don't make humans an auto-pick, but even then you can't go more than twice since you're BURNING hero points. In general burning a hero point to avoid death is already a major blow to player resources. Increasing its cost would just mean "you can only use this asset twice, first at the early game then second at the very late game after getting obscure means of more hero points". I guess your SM is just generous with hero points? The burning of hero points is already a balancing measure itself, since what this asset does is modify a costly action that isn't sought out.

Although you said "avoid dead ends", so what this asset can also do is allow you to burn hero points for other ways of getting removed from play (insanity, lost to the warp, permanently trapped at an inescapable location, etc).

Yeah, I will use the regular cost of 1, I mostly didn't want players to just abuse it, but you are right. 

And yeah, this can be used as a way to explain impossible escape plans for shit that goes south pretty badly.

[GuardianTempest]

"Do note, you can burn the hero point to also avoid other ways to be removed from play, like insanity, getting lost in the warp, being trapped forever, etc."

One more suggestion: I think that can be reworded to "You can also burn a hero point to survive other ways of being removed from play like insanity, getting lost to the warp, being trapped forever, etc."

But that's just a nitpick, the word choice is suppose to emphasize that you can burn a hero point in a new way. Also, you should link Demon Lord for Blasphemous Oath.