Wise Turtle Publishing

I'm converting a character from another RPG. I notice that there is no Precognition Ability in the OVA book so I am thinking I need to make it a Unique Ability. Has anyone else done anything with prescient abilities? Just looking for ideas or input before I take a crack at creating it.

Edsel wrote:I'm converting a character from another RPG. I notice that there is no Precognition Ability in the OVA book so I am thinking I need to make it a Unique Ability. Has anyone else done anything with prescient abilities? Just looking for ideas or input before I take a crack at creating it.

If it's framed in a particular way I could see 'Sixth Sense' doubling as a pre-cog kind of skill if the player wanted it, unless you want an ability with the scope of looking into the less than immediate future.

I had actually put some thought into this. Assigning Difficulty Numbers based on how far into the future the character was attempting to see. For Example.

DN2 = A few seconds into the Future
DN4 = A few minutes into the Future
DN6 = A few hours into the Future
DN8 = About a day into the Future
DN10 = A few days into the Future
DN12 = About a week into the Future
DN15 = About a month into the Future

Of course the caveat would have to be that the character can simply see a possible future. Their actions can alter that future. By merely acting differently, based on their knowledge of the future, they might change that future. In short "difficult to see. always in motion is the future."

However the player in question has now decided against playing a precog and she is instead interested in Psychic and Telekinesis, so I doubt I will do much work on this for now.

Edsel wrote:DN4 = Twenty minutes into the Future

Fixed that for you

(Glub help me if no one gets this reference)

I'm ancient enough to know 1980s television.

...Is that a Max Headroom reference???

I left out precognition because it usually tends to either A) be of the vague omen variety and Sixth Sense works just fine or B) be problematic since it basically forces specific events to happen. This can put the Game Master on the spot...and it’s possibly even worse if the Player defines the contents of the future-reading, since the Game Master is now bound to it without having options to think it out.

Of course, if you have a bunch of really creative players and a Game Master who just LOVES flying by the seat of his pants, then such a thing could be amazingly fun. I just felt like it could trip up casual gamers and the like.

But if you are going to use an actual Precognition ability, I do like framing it as a roll. It certainly works with how most stories present precognition, as an unreliable thing that gets harder the further you look into the future. I’d probably nix a level somewhere and introduce “years into the future” as the ultimate difficulty, but it all depends on what you want to accomplish with it.