Special Training and Super Skills

[blade76]

A trait I just noticed in how special training is done are the addition of special talents called super-skills. I thought maybe a page should exit where we post homegrown special trainings and their superskills.

[Rogerd]

A trait I just noticed in how special training is done are the addition of special talents called super-skills. I thought maybe a page should exit where we post homegrown special trainings and their superskills.

You don't really need one as they are essentially low level powers. In fact once you go through a lot of the powers like cleansing spirit, and other powers in the various books and just put Mind-Over-Matter in front of them you get a trend of powers / abilities that can be switched out to bespoke your Special Training Hero.

Just like you could easily steal some basic abilities from Gurps Martial arts, or elsewhere for that matter.

[blade76]

Anyone have new ideas for superskills.Let's use here to post them and their unique perks.

[drewkitty ~..~]

in the ..like last ten rifters there are articles that expand on the special training's power cats.

[zerombr]

if you have ideas for new special training ideas, throw em out here. I'm interested.

[Regularguy]

if you have ideas for new special training ideas, throw em out here. I'm interested.

Since the Ancient Master gets a minor super ability in much the same way a Super Sleuth can get psionic powers, I figured Living Anatomy could likewise be a solid jumping-on point for a whole category: you know, the bit where carefully observing a guy — how his voice just went up a little as his hands got a little shakier and he started breathing a little heavier, and how the microexpressions playing across his face don’t quite match his posture but do match the dilation of his pupils, and half a hundred other things besides — would let you play expert interrogator as well as expert diagnostician, giving you a crazy interpersonal knack for reading people on top of being a special-training medic who can incapacitate folks with pressure-point strikes.

[zerombr]

I think the Natural Genius has some of that with his Find Weakness ability, don't you?

[Regularguy]

I think the Natural Genius has some of that with his Find Weakness ability, don't you?

Find Weakness admittedly overlaps with the afterthought about pressure points, but I was kind of stuck with that given how it gets included with Living Anatomy. Still, for me Living Anatomy’s big one-two punch is:

1) Determining whether someone is happy or sad or angry or scared or calm or tensing for an attack or flight, plus spotting telltale signs that someone is lying or telling the truth; and

2) Determining whether someone is exhausted or injured or drugged or insane or suffering from illness, plus getting a boost to medical skills.

From that starting point — of expertly reading people the team comes across, and playing super-medic for those who could sure use it — I think you could build a specialist who’d be roughly as useful in his role as the other Special Training characters are in theirs; and, yeah, his knack for pressure-point strikes would be somewhat shared, but arguably no more than the Super Sleuth’s role is shared by the Natural Genius (you know, the fellow speed reader who gets a photographic memory, and who can also take Research and Computer Hacking and Forgery Detection and so on at +30% with go-past-98% mastery).

[drewkitty ~..~]

Then there is that the Nat. G. isn't a special training char and more associated with the psychics. Its core ideas were barely changed from the original char class in BTS1.

[gaby]

I love Special Training Updates in Rifter74,79,81,82 and 84 are all Great.

I hope someone can make characters.using them and show them here.

[Stone Gargoyle]

I love Special Training Updates in Rifter74,79,81,82 and 84 are all Great.

I hope someone can make characters.using them and show them here.

Why don't you do it if you're all so sweet on the new Special Training?

[zerombr]

I love Special Training Updates in Rifter74,79,81,82 and 84 are all Great.

I hope someone can make characters.using them and show them here.

I provided some samples in each one, but yes I'd love to see some too!

[Rogerd]

if you have ideas for new special training ideas, throw em out here. I'm interested.

Since the Ancient Master gets a minor super ability in much the same way a Super Sleuth can get psionic powers, I figured Living Anatomy could likewise be a solid jumping-on point for a whole category: you know, the bit where carefully observing a guy — how his voice just went up a little as his hands got a little shakier and he started breathing a little heavier, and how the microexpressions playing across his face don’t quite match his posture but do match the dilation of his pupils, and half a hundred other things besides — would let you play expert interrogator as well as expert diagnostician, giving you a crazy interpersonal knack for reading people on top of being a special-training medic who can incapacitate folks with pressure-point strikes.

But the Super Sleuth shouldn't get psychic powers. You are in essence building a Benedict Cumberbatch type Sleuth. I would never let a player play this type of character - it would be too much effort for the GM. They're just too damn smart. So you need to make minor super abilities that fit the class accordingly.

So if I do Heroes Unlimited, every power, and ability whether superpowers, psychic, or magic is built through the lens of HU powers list.

[Regularguy]

But the Super Sleuth shouldn't get psychic powers.

You get that it’s in there as a by-the-book option, right? That, when building a Super Sleuth, one can halve the character’s starting budget and remove a skill program to swap in four psionic powers?

[Rogerd]

You get that it’s in there as a by-the-book option, right? That, when building a Super Sleuth, one can halve the character’s starting budget and remove a skill program to swap in four psionic powers?

Just because the core book says it, it does not make it right, or that it should be adhered to.
The tv series Sherlock would be perfect for a superheroes setting, and any powers should be low level superpowers just like an ancient master.

So Sherlock would have various types of Heightened Senses, Mind-Over-Matter: Mind Palace, maybe another type of M-O-M.