Playing with the Natural Genius...

[znbrtn]

i just crossed out the paragraph about skill restrictions with a big fat marker in my copy of PU2.

[znbrtn]

Hmm... I felt the restrictions were somewhat necessary. Quite frankly, if you give a NG the option to take 10 Espionage/Military/Rogue/Physical programs... you've just negated Special Training. The NG can even eclipse several of them on one character if they so choose. The bonuses won't be quite as high, but it's pretty much a given that the NG will have an IQ bonus, and they have those spiffy special abilities that would compensate fairly well.

But aside from that (or in addition to it, as the case may be), what do you guys think of the way I resructured the skill programs? Do you feel that it de-powers them, overpowers them, or is it 'six of one, half a dozen of the other' to you? Do you feel that these changes adequately deal with the problems that I listed (I understand you may not see the same problems, I'm asking you to work with a hypothetical here), or do you have other suggestions?

I do appreciate the feedback, and the personal examples that have been given. I don't mean to lessen the contributions at all, and I honestly would like to hear more about how others have handled the NG... but as greedy as this is going to sound, I also want some feedback to help me figure out if what I've done actually sounds plausible to anyone but me.

your execution looks like it works very well. i tend to like things that make characters scale better, because that has been something that palladium lacks in my experience.
i just posed a simpler fix that fits my personal tastes better.

[Daniel Stoker]

I see what you're doing and I think I like it, but I really need to sit down and look over the class again and see what a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd level character are going to look like now with the changes you made.


Daniel Stoker

[LostOne]

Anytime chosen skill programs have duplicated skills, I simply drop one of the duplicates and add an OCC related skill choice.

OR

Drop one of the duplicates and add a 10% bonus to the other.

[NMI]

Drop one of the duplicates and add a 10% bonus to the other.

That is usually what I do.

[gaby]

What are the number of Natural genius abilities,one can have?

What can I pic from?

[gaby]

I do not have PU2.

I known ther not real super-powers,But I would like to known them.

I give one and only one of them to Special training Player Characters when I am a GM,if they get to a higher level,it,s due to Training.

Thank for the Help.

[LostOne]

...Natural Geniuses are considered a Mega Class...

Where do you get this from?
(Not trying to start a fight or anything, but I have just read the section 3 times and cannot find any reference to them being a Mega)

IIRC Rifter 37 gives rules to make them mega.

[Prince Cherico]

Natural genuses are not mega heros
they may have a lot of skills but they
still have that nasty weakness to
mr shotgun.

[LostOne]

Natural genuses are not mega heros
they may have a lot of skills but they
still have that nasty weakness to
mr shotgun.

The mega category was meant to make the classes more powerful. Just because you can't get past the idea of the guy in the big red cape doesn't mean you can't have a Natural Genius mega.

Mega Mutant > Mutant
Mega Super-Soldier > Super-Soldier
Mega Natural Genius > Natural Genius

Seems clear to me.

It also gives players more choices when the GM says, "Ok, we're all rolling up mega heroes." The guy that wanted to play a Natural Genius was kinda boned before, but now he has the mega natural genius option.

[LostOne]

Then the player was not thinking properly.

A certian movie that just came out on May 2nd could describe a Natural Genius.

Except I think he's better quantified as Hardware.

Natural Genius strikes me more as the bald enemy of the guy in the red cape.

[RockJock]

I like what you are doing here with the NG. Without play testing it is hard to say how it would work out. On a different note, I always thought of the big rival (not enemy, rival) of the boy scout would be a NG.

[drewkitty ~..~]

My solution to skill overlap is that any time the skill programs over lap one of two things happen,

1) just drop the skill and choose another simmiler skill
or
2) add a level's worth to the repeated skill.

[Yendor]

The too many skills thing, I usually take any duplicate skill and either let it add to the skill (such as Sing becoming pro), or at full bonus a skill from the same category, or half bonus a skill from any category (so if you have Dance +20% twice, you could have Dance +20%, 1 Domestic at +20%, or 1 Any Skill at +10%).

Skill restrictions I dropped, so you could make a Natural Genius who specializes in crime (Professor Moriarty, of Sherlock Holmes), one who specializes in medicine (Dr. Frankenstein, if you feel so inclined), etc., allowing you to fit it to how you see the Natural Genius (I've had Natural Geniuses specialize in drugs to make JAEP/Juicers, or illegal drugs, etc. as villains).

[Stone Gargoyle]

My solution to skill overlap is that any time the skill programs over lap one of two things happen,

1) just drop the skill and choose another simmiler skill
or
2) add a level's worth to the repeated skill.

I just generally make it an added added 10% (not that this is the only option available, just the way the book seems to recommend), similar to when one takes Sewing or Writing twice to make it professional quality.