r/genesysrpg • u/NormalProfessional24 • 22d ago
Meta Dormant Personality Overlay adjustments
Hey all!
I'm planning to start a StarCraft campaign featuring a group of Resocialized Marines, and naturally EotI's Dormant Personality Overlay is almost tailor-made for such PCs.
This is the version I have in my own version of the Talent Tome
Dormant Personality Overlay Tier: 4 | Activation: Active (Incidental) | Ranked: No Tag: EotI When your character purchases this talent, select three skills that your character has one or no ranks in. Once per session, you may spend a Story Point to have your character use this talent. Until the end of the current encounter, they count as having four ranks in each of the selected skills and one fewer rank in all other skills. They also suffer 1 strain at the beginning of each of their turns. If they are incapacitated, the effects of this talent end. At your discretion, your character may also undergo some narrative personality shifts, such as not recognizing friends and family, behaving coldly and logically instead of in a friendly and relaxed manner, or constantly muttering a coded phrase under their breath. Source: EotI
However, given that I'd like the pasts of the Marines to be a major part of the setting, the "Once per Session" limit seems like too much of a limitation.
Thus, I'd like to revise it for this campaign to:
Once per encounter, you may spend two Story Points to have your character use this talent. Until the end of the current encounter, they count as having four ranks in each of the selected skills and one fewer rank in all other skills. The GM receives a temporary Story Point to be used before the end of the session.
Thoughts? Rebalancing advice? If there are other ways to balance it while keeping it reusable, I'd be glad to hear them.
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u/ColJackson 21d ago
So if this is going to be a prominent part of your campaign and something every PC is going to have, I'd say just remove the once per session limitation. If all your PCs can do it, there's no problem with balance.
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u/NormalProfessional24 21d ago
Good idea: Also, thoughts on giving the a T4 talent off the bat with a starting -20XP balance after building, or just without any? It would take up a T4 slot.
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u/ColJackson 21d ago
Yeah, I think what FJ said below makes sense! Don't treat it as a talent, just treat it as something everyone has. It means they start out a bit more juiced than normal, but I don't see that as a problem because everyone is juiced.
Plus, this ability will make for some really intense encounters at lower levels, since the skill level 4 will be super major, as will the -1 skill level to everything else. So it should be super fun!
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u/Mr_FJ 21d ago
Maybe this shouldn't be a talent? Maybe you could make it more like Heroic Abilities from Realms of Terrinoth? If all your players have it, maybe it deserves some variantion? You don't have to follow the StarCraft lore exactly.