Genesys Talents Expanded

By TheSapient, in Genesys

25 minutes ago, Richardbuxton said:

Deflection is obviously Djem So from the Shien Expert, So Reflect is the missing talent

We talked about reflect... a lot. We left it out because we felt it was pretty niche to Star Wars. If everyone wants it we could add it

2 minutes ago, Swordbreaker said:

I just don't see the point of having improved version of talents in the same tier. Saw that with Unrelenting Skeptic/Improved as well.

Wasn’t intentional

Just now, ESP77 said:

Wasn’t intentional

No problem.

By the way, seeing as you dropped Reflect, Circle of Shelter still mentions it.

Quick finesse question: it uses agility for brawn in light melee checks, but does it still use brawn for calculating base damage?

All of these suggestions are being shoved into a spreadsheet for consideration and rectification. Thanks and keep them coming!

5 minutes ago, ESP77 said:

We talked about reflect... a lot. We left it out because we felt it was pretty niche to Star Wars. If everyone wants it we could add it

I think an elf or Wonder Woman would want Reflect to use with a buckler, no lightsaber required. Improved Reflect is definitely questionable, but again Wonder Woman.

In the end this should be a list of EVERYTHING! It’s up to GM’s and Players to argue over what to include in their game.

7 minutes ago, Dragonshadow said:

Quick finesse question: it uses agility for brawn in light melee checks, but does it still use brawn for calculating base damage?

What says the community?

Like DragonShadow's post for "Damage is based on Brawn"

Like this post for "Damage is based on Agility"

We'll add clarification text to the document.

Edited by TheSapient
2 minutes ago, Richardbuxton said:

I think an elf or Wonder Woman would want Reflect to use with a buckler, no lightsaber required. Improved Reflect is definitely questionable, but again Wonder Woman.

In the end this should be a list of EVERYTHING! It’s up to GM’s and Players to argue over what to include in their game.

See Block in the list.

30 minutes ago, TheSapient said:

See Block in the list.

Ahh I missed that, So Deflection should reference Block then.

Honestly Block is probably a very (way too) cheap talent. Anyone taking Parry of more than a couple of ranks will grab Block and a small cheap Shield just for flexibility. You have essentially saved that person up to 65xp. Then you look at the people who build upon the concept of reflecting shots, they automatically become experts at Parry.

Honestly I would have stuck with Reflect as a Ranked Talent to keep the two as separate competencies. It would be easy to be able to do both but to be an expert requires a lot more effort.

4 minutes ago, Richardbuxton said:

Ahh I missed that, So Deflection should reference Block then.

Honestly Block is probably a very (way too) cheap talent. Anyone taking Parry of more than a couple of ranks will grab Block and a small cheap Shield just for flexibility. You have essentially saved that person up to 65xp. Then you look at the people who build upon the concept of reflecting shots, they automatically become experts at Parry.

Honestly I would have stuck with Reflect as a Ranked Talent to keep the two as separate competencies. It would be easy to be able to do both but to be an expert requires a lot more effort.

That is not unreasonable. That is to say, I agree about removing Block and bringing back Reflect as a separate ranked talent. Suggestions on wording as to the requirement of some means of actually stopping a projectile?

Edited by TheSapient
1 hour ago, Grimmerling said:

Is it just me, or is Call'em a tad powerful for Tier 1.

Why is Intuitive Casting not ranked, as Quick Strike is, I wonder.

Can you expand your thinking on Call 'Em? Would you rank it at 2?

6 minutes ago, TheSapient said:

That is not unreasonable. That is to say, I agree about removing Block and bringing back Reflect as a separate ranked talent. Suggestions on wording as to the requirement of some means of actually stopping a projectile?

Reflect is probably wrong name for Genesys, perhaps:

Deflect

Tier: 1

Activation: Active (Incidental, Out of Turn)

Ranked: Yes

When your character suffers a hit from a Ranged combat check, after damage is calculated but before soak is applied (so immediately after Step 3 of Perform a Combat check, page 102), your character may suffer 3 strain to use this talent to reduce the damage of the hit by two plus their ranks in Deflect. This talent can only be used once per hit, and your character needs to be wielding a Shield.

Perhaps an an improved version or a magic shield allows deflection of Magic attacks, perhaps Magic is just automatically included. Perhaps certain weapons could be usable with this talent too, as noted in their description.

This is an excellent list, especially as a reference to the scrape of talents I took from Star Wars.

1 minute ago, Richardbuxton said:

Reflect is probably wrong name for Genesys, perhaps:

Deflect

Tier: 1

Activation: Active (Incidental, Out of Turn)

Ranked: Yes

When your character suffers a hit from a Ranged combat check, after damage is calculated but before soak is applied (so immediately after Step 3 of Perform a Combat check, page 102), your character may suffer 3 strain to use this talent to reduce the damage of the hit by two plus their ranks in Deflect. This talent can only be used once per hit, and your character needs to be wielding a Shield.

Perhaps an an improved version or a magic shield allows deflection of Magic attacks, perhaps Magic is just automatically included. Perhaps certain weapons could be usable with this talent too, as noted in their description.

...wielding a Shield, or some other equipment that counts as the Right Tool for the Job (with GM permission)?

9 minutes ago, TheSapient said:

...wielding a Shield, or some other equipment that counts as the Right Tool for the Job (with GM permission)?

Possibly, but I think it’s simpler to just say Shield and let those specific items break the rules.

The wording of Parry doesn’t include some Right Tool for the Job allowance but arm braces or a magical ring could easily allow you to Parry with empty hands. Perhaps add that detail there as well.

it could also be worded:

wielding a Shield. Any other equipment will require GM approval to use with this talent.

Is Intuitive Casting even necessary? Per GCR Pg 215 Magic Attacks are combat checks, so Quick Strike already applies to it. The only benefit of Intuitive casting would be for curse spells possibly, which I'm not sure is worth a separate talent. Maybe just add a Tier 1 talent that sates "Quick Strike now applies to any Magic Spell" so that they don't have to purchase multiple ranks of both Talents.

I'm not sure Good Cop and Bad Cop need to be Tier 2. They cost 2 advantage to use, and you can compare it to the normal "Spend 1 Advantage to give a boost die to an ally". 2 Advantage for an upgrade is a very negligible benefit to that (if not worse) so the talents are not really valuable until you have multiple ranks anyway. In Star Wars there is a spec where Bad Cop appears at Tier 1 also, though I can't remember which one...

I also think Signature Vehicle should be Tier 1, it provides a very narrow bonus, and is really only there to set up other Talents. It appears as Tier 1 regularly in Star Wars

Vision of the Future probably needs to be re-written, as it is, it doesn't mention that it's for a Magic skill check (its only implied through the "improved spell" line, and it doesn't mention if the caster has to roll the extra difficulty after adding the effect or if its free, and if the spell is still able to be cast without the new effect in the case where the additional purple die would cause a failure with the effect.

Blood Magic (Supreme) - I would simply rework this as reducing the difficulty. "After a spell and additional affects have been chosen, reduce the difficulty by x". Also, you may want to specify that the critical cannot be avoided.

1 hour ago, saethone said:

Blood Magic (Supreme) - I would simply rework this as reducing the difficulty. "After a spell and additional affects have been chosen, reduce the difficulty by x". Also, you may want to specify that the critical cannot be avoided.

I like that. Maybe Downgrade the check three times.

3 hours ago, Richardbuxton said:

Possibly, but I think it’s simpler to just say Shield and let those specific items break the rules.

The wording of Parry doesn’t include some Right Tool for the Job allowance but arm braces or a magical ring could easily allow you to Parry with empty hands. Perhaps add that detail there as well.

it could also be worded:

wielding a Shield. Any other equipment will require GM approval to use with this talent.

I don't want to limit it to shields though. Reference The Lord of the Ring films when Aragorn deflects the dagger thrown at him by an orc with a sword. That image has always stuck with me as bad @$$!

I would also like some Improved version that let's you deflect arrows unarmed like a monk.

Edit: Dang it. Now I need to find 10 hours of my life to rewatch those films....oh well, that's what sick days are for.?

Edited by ESP77
13 minutes ago, ESP77 said:

I don't want to limit it to shields though. Reference The Lord of the Ring films when Aragorn deflects the dagger thrown at him by an orc. That image has always stuck with me as bad @$$!

I would also like some Improved version that let's you deflect arrows unarmed like a monk.

Yeah that’s fair enough. The Supreme version should still be the “if you didn’t attack then it’s one Strain” since it’s so awesome and beneficial to everyone.

Improved should be changed though, that’s so quintessential Star Wars to send the shot into someone else. But Reflect with your hands seems more niche than the Deflection talent. What if the Improved version was the way you could use any object to deflect shots:

Basic(1, Ranked ): need Shield

Improved(3): any object will do

Supreme(5): 1 Strain if you didn’t attack.

Deflection(3): OOT Incidental Manoeuvre after a Reflect.

Catching Bullets(4): can Reflect with your bare hands.

Edited by Richardbuxton

I'd suggest a note that it's only suitable in certain settings then. Wouldn't want someone deflecting a machine gun shot with their police baton in a modern setting, for example :P

1 minute ago, saethone said:

I'd suggest a note that it's only suitable in certain settings then. Wouldn't want someone deflecting a machine gun shot with their police baton in a modern setting, for example :P

Party pooper

Hey, your table/your game. Matrix away :)

8 hours ago, dresdinseven said:

This one is from another post I made, with a bit of editing from my original posting.

Talent: Technical Focus

  • Tier:1
  • Activation: Passive
  • Ranked: Yes
  • Prerequisites: None
  • Description: Choose one specific subset of the Mechanics skill (Vehicle [Pilot, Drive, or Operate], Security and Surveillance Systems, Computer Hardware, Demolitions, Cybernetics, Metal Working, ect). Increase the skill rating by 1 (to a maximum of four) per rank in this Talent when making Mechanics checks relating to the chosen specialty, as approved by the GM. Setting specific applications of Mechanics (such as Lock-picking and Trap Finding) can be used with this talent.

This is the "I want to be an auto mechanic but not an actual Do-Everything-Engineer" talent. It allows a dip into a tech specialty without committing a career skill slot or a deep dive into one facet without blowing all your XP for a bunch of utility that doesn't fit with your character concept.

This next one isn't my own, I might have seen it in a reddit post (I can't find it here or there on a cursory glance). Here is my version:

Talent: Educated

  • Tier:1
  • Activation: Passive
  • Ranked: Yes
  • Prerequisites: None
  • Description: Choose one specific subset of the Knowledge skill (such as History, Region (specify), Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, High Society, Underworld, ect) and decrease the difficulty by 1 for all related Knowledge checks. Each rank of Educated adds another specialty.

Talent: Educated (Improved)

  • Tier:3
  • Activation: Passive
  • Ranked: Yes
  • Prerequisites: Educated
  • Description: Decrease the difficulty of all Knowledge checks affected by Educated by an additional 1 per rank in Educated (Improved)

@dresdinseven . So I've been thinking alot about these talents. I want to make a more general version that encompasses all of these ala Knack for it and how it rolls up so many sw talents together.

What do you think of something like,

Specialist

Passive

Ranked: Yes

With GM approval choose a specific subskill (Melee: Sword; Mechanics: Auto). When making checks that involve your chosen specialty you upgrade the skill check once. All other checks with this skill are downgraded once. Each rank in this talent allows you to choose a new specialty.

59 minutes ago, saethone said:

I'd suggest a note that it's only suitable in certain settings then. Wouldn't want someone deflecting a machine gun shot with their police baton in a modern setting, for example :P

Honestly, this is what kept getting me when thinking about reflect. But the whole point of this project was to make a ton of options available that people could pick and choose from, and Block really isn't a good replacement. My feeling is that Reflect come back in with some additional phrasing like "when wielding an appropriate defense" and leave it to the table to figure out what that means.

10 minutes ago, TheSapient said:

Honestly, this is what kept getting me when thinking about reflect. But the whole point of this project was to make a ton of options available that people could pick and choose from, and Block really isn't a good replacement. My feeling is that Reflect come back in with some additional phrasing like "when wielding an appropriate defense" and leave it to the table to figure out what that means.

Besides how do we know said nighstick isn’t made of vibranium and wielded by a speedster with super human reflexes!??