Let's talk of things that go bump in the night. Stuff that makes your skin crawl. Creatures that are Beyond the Supernatural™. Also checkout the in-character site - Lazlo Society™
Okay in our grizly world of Beyond the Supernatural, there is one PCC that I beleve to have the most comic potential I have ever seen. I am speaking of our beloved supernatural nay sayers the Nega-Psychic.
Now I know that humor is most likley not the focus of many BtS games but anyone with funny, creative or just plain odd explanations for the Supernatural things that you or a Nega-Psychic you know have used please share them here.
Unfortunentaly I have yet to have had a Nega in my group so I don't have any real ones but...
Nega: Bah, it was just swampgas...
Other Player:... I bit off your foot!
Nega: Well then it was MEAN swampgas!
Well that was kinda pathetic but I'm sure you more experianced players will have better tales to tell.......
I played a Nega who was a journalist for one of those cruddy rags that they sell at the checkout counter racks (think a step below The Weekly World News).
He assumed that since all the stuff the paper printed was obviously crap and thus was sent to look for the "weird" stuff that was happening (and because he was actually chronicaling the "truth" made for some pretty weird tales).
The best way to go into it is to take a super-cynical view of EVERYTHING - that guy who says that he has psychic powers? Obviously a con-man. The feller who is doing "magic"? Sleight of hand and some really good special effects. The drooling monster? Either good makeup or perhaps just a genetic defective (which is a good way of explaining away a LOT of nasties).
"Things aren't what they used to be" is the rallying cry of small minds. When men say things used to be better, they invariably mean they were better for them, because they were young, and had all their hopes intact. The world is bound to look a darker place as you slide into the grave. Best Served Cold, Joe Abercrombie
In Kevin S's BtS2 game at Gen Con Indy last year, we had an outstanding nega-player. The nega was an old fellow, a professor, and a pacifist to boot. As the rest of us were chasing after a hellhound, he whipped out his cell phone and called animal control to report stray dogs. As some of us were confronting a Bogeyman who'd stolen some children, he was having the guy that summoned the Bogeyman arrested for kidnapping. The player's real-life wife was playing his professor character's research assistant, who was a believer, and the conversations/arguments that they'd get into over what was happening were hysterical.
Jeremiah Lionheart (Evan Cooney) Only person ever to kill another player in KS's "Secret Enemy" game. "Julius is convinced Evan Cooney was born to play Weasel Man." -Kevin
I don't have any funny nega-psychic stories...except for one in a Nightbane game (using the Rifts version), who blamed Dark Day on the Reagan Administration. Or was that the mind bleeder that did that? I can't remember. Anyway, on the topic (sorta):
A great site dealing with the truth behind "paranormal" events. Yes, unlike in the real world, the paranormal is real in BtS, but a nega-psychic would view things more rationally than others, so the reasoning and explanations are useable.
Funnily enough, I have a guy playing a medical examiner in a d20 Modern horror game I'm planning to run, and he's set up his character as a "truth and logic" sort. I wonder what he's going to do when I throw them up against a magically-enhanced Ebola virus, zombies, and an insane priest of a Mesoamerican death god...
Beelzebozo, Your Friendly Neighborhood Clown Demon
"More surprises than getting to third base with a transvestite!"
Zylo wrote:He was a decent skeptic, but I think the player was a bit too excited about screwing up other peoples powers. He wanted to be around, just so the others would have to pay more ISP or lessen the chances for success.
This is why Nega don't exist in my BtS games except as the exceptionally rare NPC. The whole concept works better for me as a localized affect brought on by ancient rituals gone horribly wrong or overwhelming psychic residue.
What a cruel thing is war: to separate and destroy families and friends, and mar the purest joys and happiness God has granted us in this world; to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors, and to devastate the fair face of this beautiful world. - R E Lee People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf. - G Orwell
Alright, time for a rant, feel free to ignore; I've always HATED the Nega-Psychic. It just made little to no sense. The Problem I've always had is, sure you can have a being who uses it's psychic energy, focused through disbelief, to 'dampen' others powers. But what happens when he encounters a power greater than his own, a power he can't dampen. Basically it requires the character to be 100% delusion and insane. It's similar to the concept of Mundane in IOU, a great concept for a comedy game, not so much for one of horror.
To put it another way, it's like Scully in the X-Files. At a certain point her skepticism becomes just unbelievable. When you've been ubducted by aliens yourself, and seen hundreds of supernatural occurances and wierd things, your continued skepticism just looked like insanity, willful self-delusion. Might be fun for a single NPC, but not as a character class. So obviously, in the very loose BTS game I may run, no Nega-Phycics.
The Way that can be told,
is not the true unchanging way
The way that can be named,
is not the true unnamable way
Wise_Owl wrote:When you've been ubducted by aliens yourself, and seen hundreds of supernatural occurances and wierd things, your continued skepticism just looked like insanity, willful self-delusion.
YES! Thank you. That's exactly the problem with the BtS Nega. At least the Rifts Nega has a playable mindset.
As seen in Rifter 20 Called "disturbing" by Therumancer. Was informed that "Recommending the destruction of a third of the nation is not appropriate."
Wise_Owl wrote:When you've been ubducted by aliens yourself, and seen hundreds of supernatural occurances and wierd things, your continued skepticism just looked like insanity, willful self-delusion.
YES! Thank you. That's exactly the problem with the BtS Nega. At least the Rifts Nega has a playable mindset.
By that logic, so does the Black Knight.
"I'm INVINCIBLE!"
-overproduced by Martin Hannett
When I see someone "fisking" these days my first inclination is to think "That person doesn't have much to say, and says it in volume." -John Scalzi
Happiness is a long block list. If you don't want to be vilified, don't act like a villain.
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