RogerBW's Blog

I seem to end up GMing more than I end up playing. Here are some ideas and game mechanics I'd like to use in one of my characters if and when the opportunity arises.

A cinematic computer hacker, who actually knows nothing at all about computers but does it with weird powers (psychic, magical, whatever). When he steps up to a machine the display changes to a big flashing box labelled "ENTER PASSWORD", and typing in "bypass all security" can actually work.

Someone built with the Snatcher power in GURPS: you can reach into nothingness and pull out useful stuff. Obviously this needs to be in a world where such powers are possible; I see him as a covert agent, who can get through searches, manifest the bomb or assassination pistol or whatever, do the job, then stroll out with no trace left behind (manifested objects vanish when you dismiss them or use the power again).

Someone built with Imbuements from GURPS Power-Ups 1 (this could be the same as the previous character if the point budget were high enough): you can enhance your attacks with any sort of weapon, so that they can be bounced off walls, act in a cone rather than a line, continue to attack while you're doing something else, and so on. Again this needs a campaign with weird powers; I see this one specifically as a pistol specialist who pulls off shots that other people regard as impossible.

In a campaign of modern magic, a faker like the jobbing magicians whose cards used to come through my door when I lived in Upton Park. This guy's an expert at interpersonal skills including hot and cold reading, he knows people who can get your enemy beaten up, and he has amazing persuasiveness and stagecraft, but he knows that all his trappings are complete nonsense and he has nothing but contempt for the people who fall for them. Then, suddenly, he finds he has real magic.