Geneforge D20 [Archive] - Wizards Community

Geneforge D20 [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Rohano
04-06-08, 05:32 PM If you've played Geneforge, you probably know that it would be a very unique roleplaying environment in a tabletop game. The very mechanics of how to get along in the world as an adventurer are so different from D&D that I can't help but salivate at the challenge to translate it into D20.

If there's any interest, I'd be happy to have help with this project.

For information:
Geneforge 4: Rebellion (http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/geneforge4/index.html)
The most recent game in the series. Geneforge 5 is expected out for Windows next Spring.
Wikipedia: Geneforge series (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneforge_series)
Wikipedia has a few tidbits that the official website doesn't have available.

In terms of setting arrangement, I'm thinking that the easiest thing would be to put the game in the most recent point in the series. For now, that would mean the beginning of Geneforge 4 with the war between the Shapers and the Rebellion erupting and consuming the entire world. This means that both Rebellion and Shaper paths would be available for gameplay, as would all of the respective classes. Races would start with humans but would probably go on to include some of the Awakened as well as the Drakons.

The first thing to stat out would be the classes, I suppose, and then the mechanics of shaping/lifecrafting. Once the basic mechanics are down, the other races can be created, and the creations can all be arranged.
Holy_Beholder
04-08-08, 03:23 PM The basic mechanics look like they might actually be pretty simple. Basically, create the monsters, and make psionic powers work for spells. The monsters then count as a permanent, active, spell, and take the amount of power points spent. Since psionics already has augmentation, that is covered as well. Easy.
Rohano
04-09-08, 12:09 AM Except that lifecrafting and magic are two extremely different forces, which is why characters that use both have Mana as well as Essence scores (though some powerful spells also require Essence expenditure), and that magic spells don't need the caster to expend more power to increase their power, they just require that the caster increase his skill (in the spell's area, like Combat Magic for Firebolt) or ability (Intelligence and Spellcraft).
Lifecrafting, however, allows the shaper/lifecrafter to modify creation designs at leisure before creating them, expending as much or as little essence as he likes, though creations that were born of tiny amounts of essence are probably going to be useless.
Holy_Beholder
04-10-08, 07:23 PM Oh yeah. But essence is used for spells occasionally(healing). So just have a class that gives both, with healing abilities(use lots of mana, some essence), shaping(essence) and other magic(mana). So still pretty much covered.
Rohano
04-12-08, 11:32 AM Each of the classes in Geneforge capitalizes on a different combination of talents, though with only one that is truly greatest for the class. Any class can learn any talent, but if it's not one that the class heavily supports, it ends up being a lot harder to do.

It's common for shapers to have a lot of healing and buffing spells to help their creations in combat, though having spare essence to use on healing means that you can't use that essence to make a creation or increase the stats on an existing creation. It becomes a gamble, reserving essence by not shaping an extra meatshield.
The mages focus on offensive spells, like Firebolt, and use their healing to a lesser degree. However, since their shaping ability is much less formidible than a shaper's, they are more inclined to have spare essence to use to heal themselves or their few minions. But a mage may also use essence to cast other things, like Unlock (avoiding using up valuable Living Tools).

A list of classes, as I know them (there will be more in the next Geneforge game), and listed by major faction:

Shapers
-Shapers: Strong shaping, average magic, weak combat.
-Guardians: Strong combat, average shaping, weak magic.
-Agents: Strong magic, average combat, weak shaping.

Rebellion
-Lifecrafter: Strong lifecrafting, average magic, weak combat.
-Warrior: Strong combat, average lifecrafting, weak magic.
-Infiltrator: Strong magic, average combat, weak lifecrafting.

Both factions
-Shock Troopers: Strong lifecrafting/shaping, average combat, weak magic.
-Serviles*: Strong combat, average magic, weak lifecrafting.

*: Serviles are a race of creations with a race-specific class. I'd peg it as a monster class progression, which means that the servile would be unable to take other classes, though it could be a prestige class. Also note that there are very very few competant serviles working for the shapers, as the shapers have shaped the first generation of each servile family to be only intelligent enough to be servants.

Notice that the rebellion classes are the same as the shaper classes, just with different names. That means we're looking at 4 classes and a racial HD progression.

A few notes about game balance as the plot applies:
The point of the game is to gain control of a Geneforge. There are two - the South Geneforge that works on humans, and the North Geneforge to shape creations. Using the South Geneforge allows any human to gain the ability of lifecrafting (naturally-occuring shaping ability is not common among the rebels, while the shapers developed their abilities naturally), but it is a shaping process. Shaper law dictates that shaping humans is strictly illegal, that not only is it greedy to take the easy way to power but it is also unsafe and tends to not only drive people insane but also kill them. Using the North Geneforge apparently gives creations the ability to shape, but some creations have learned shaping on their own. Drakons and Serviles are the only sentient independent creations I know of, though there are many intelligent creations used as lieutenants by the shapers (though these creations have been tailored to be dependent on their masters - the result of the shapers' lessons with the drakons). Drakons are what they sound like, dragonlike paragons of creationkind who strike fear into people just at the mention of their names. Serviles are odd-looking humanoids with long, droopy snouts that were created to be, duh, servants to the shapers, but eventually a lot of them were freed by kind masters or fled to aid the rebellion and the drakons.
Many creations have the ability to propogate, which is a great boon to the owners... as natural-born creations do not require essence to maintain. The shapers breed many of their creations, such as Battle Alphas (a popular tank, though unintelligent) and Serviles (sold into slavery, more or less), while the rebellion sees sentient creations as independent citizens who may propogate as they like.
More on creations...
There are many creations that are not creatures capable of walking around and fighting. These include traps (bred with a trigger, who controls the release of the traps around it, and the various traps that root near a trigger to fight off intruders; traps can be set to trigger to humans or creations or both, and if they are maintained by a trapkeeper, they can be set to ignore members of a certain faction), living tools (they look like blue dustmops, but they are tentacled creations that live solely to unlock things and disable traps, but they die after use; they essentially give the user a bonus to his Mechanics skill, which means a capable mechanic can avoid using them altogether in all but the most difficult situations), sentries (creations that root and never move but have projectile attacks to use on enemies who pass nearby), Servant Minds (a catlike creation that is immobile, but it is superhumanly intelligent, used by shapers like a living computer or a security mainframe) and a few fungus-like creations that root and do special things, such as the Spawner (coughs up new creations regularly; shapers note that use of spawners is extremely dangerous).

Anyway, I guess I'll start with the Shaper/Lifecrafter class and the mechanics of lifecrafting. It'll take some time. Once it's done, it should be easy to stat new creations or put existing ones on paper.
strange_person
09-16-08, 05:49 PM I'd say that shaper/guardian/agent corresponds almost perfectly to psion/psychic warrior/soulknife. Power Points are Essence, and Mana is just Psychic Focus: notice that mana is recovered automatically whenever there's a pause between combats, but expended essence requires you to burn an item or rest back in town?

Creations could probably be compared to Astral Constructs for balance purposes: for the 'disposable' strategies, it's like a using a special ritual (extended manifesting time, can't be done mid-combat) so your summoned monster lasts all day, and for the 'maxed-out Fyora I've had since level 1' strategy it's like permanently reducing your PP in exchange for a cohort.
Rohano
09-17-08, 12:18 PM I'm thinking that the only easy way to offset the advantage of having summons with permanent durations is (in addition to making the PP used to summon them unreplenishable until the summon is unsummoned) to make it so they take a share of XP in encounters. This replaces the usual system of Animal Companions and Familiars in 3.5, where they just get a HD or a bonus everytime the PC levels, and it means that summoning them will still be just as "cheap" as most other spells.

As for mana and essence, I think that Psychic Focus is a brilliant mechanic but I don't think it would work here, not for the basic mechanics of Geneforge classes. Mages in the Geneforge universe have to be able to cast many spells back-to-back, even at low levels.
I think what I will do is use a PP stand-in ("Essence points") that is used for both magic and lifecrafting. Lifecrafting classes get immense bonuses when using lifecrafting abilities but only get basic spells (though, as a wizard, they'd be able to learn more at any time - but this doesn't mean they're able to last long in a spellfight against a like-levelled mage), while "mage" lifecrafters get only basic lifecrafting abilities but all kinds of bonuses with magic.

I'm beginning to think that I should arrange a single Lifecrafting class, with several ability trees, as a ranger. At a low level, the lifecrafter has to decide which way to focus. Like a wizard, the lifecrafter can pay other lifecrafters to learn abilities from them, but only by being specialized in those specific abilities can the lifecrafter reap an appreciable benefit.

Yes... the mechanics are coming together in my mind. After I'm done moving to my new apartment, I'll be working hard on this.
strange_person
09-17-08, 01:47 PM As for mana and essence, I think that Psychic Focus is a brilliant mechanic but I don't think it would work here, not for the basic mechanics of Geneforge classes. Mages in the Geneforge universe have to be able to cast many spells back-to-back, even at low levels.First level human in any psionic class, point blank shot and psionic shot and a sling loaded with rocks lets you attack every other round (refocusing on alternate rounds) for 2d6+1d3+strength, which is almost as good as a scorching ray. Later, with Greater Psionic Shot, it's substantially better than a single scorching ray. Sure, it's only every other round, but the really serious casters are Shapers (psions) who can draw upon Essence to cast more rapidly, or Agents (soulknives) who can use a blade of magical force.

Furthermore, I could argue that levels in the game don't have a one-to-one correspondence to D20 system character levels. In every case, the backstory involves your character having substantial apprenticeship and training, and the 'tutorial' section in 3 out of the 4 games so far involves defeating multiple low-level monsters with little rest and no backup, a task which is far beyond the capabilities of most first-level D&D characters.
Rohano
09-18-08, 03:20 PM But shapers are specialists in lifecrafting, not spells. They don't need to worry about lifecrafting rapidly, not at low levels - they do their lifecrafting long before combat ever happens. The only lifecrafters who would be lifecrafting in combat, and therefore worrying about speed, would be much higher level.
Using Essence Points (essentially PP) for both magic and lifecrafting seems like the best way to go right now. Other mechanics can get involved later, as addons, but the basic Lifecrafting and Spellcasting system will be point-based only. Psionic Focus may be usable at later levels to somehow yield a benefit to casters but my goal here is to make lifecrafting unique, not just Psionics pasted under a new heading.

I realize the difference between level scales, but that's fairly easy to deal with.
strange_person
09-18-08, 04:34 PM It's true shapers are better at lifecrafting than they are at magic, but they're also better at magic than guardians are.

Whenever I design a new mechanic or system, I always worry about balance. By basing the mechanical side of lifecrafting closely on the existing, well-balanced mechanics for psionics, you can be confident that it's balanced with little or no playtesting.

Flavor, of course, is never a balance issue, so by switching the crystals and nebulous energy fields of core XPH psionics for mechanically-identical vats of living sludge and clouds of acrid vapor, you can completely change the feel of the system in play with only a few changes to the actual rules.
Rohano
09-18-08, 06:50 PM Yes, I'll be using existing rules to balance the creations. I'll probably use existing powers and/or spells but the mage class (representing people who study magic but have no lifecrafting ability) will probably end up being a wizard that uses spellpoints instead of spells per day. Lifecrafting spells will be specific only to lifecrafting classes - if a mage suddenly discovers latent lifecrafting ability or uses a Geneforge, they'll have to take levels in the lifecrafter class (and if they want to stay magic-centered, they'll take the magic-focussed ability tree, essentially making them a slightly less potent wizard but with the added bonus of permanent minions).
strange_person
09-18-08, 08:31 PM I'd be more inclined to not have any arcane or divine spellcasters, just psionics-recast-as-lifecrafting and artificers.

The actual lifecrafting ability could just be a feat.
Prerequisites: must have studied Shaping techniques (whether as part of an apprenticeship or through black-market books), must be able to manifest 1st-level powers.
Benefit: add Create Fyora to your powers known. You can learn other lifecrafting powers.

When you acquire shaping ability through being shaped yourself (canisters or a geneforge) it doesn't count toward the number of feats you could normally take because you gain a Flaw at the same time
Doomsought
09-18-08, 09:28 PM HHMmm, you should try somethign like my alchemy rules for creature creation. multiple craft checks are used(add craft genetics, but still use chemistry mechanical and structural) to create creatures, you will need rules for freeform, as well as some standard creatures and templates.
Rohano
09-19-08, 10:43 AM Mages in Geneforge use arcane magic. It's studied and learned, but spellbooks aren't necessary except for complex ritual spells, as I understand it.
If I were to just take Psionics, scratch the name out and put Magic, it wouldn't make much sense. Psionic powers are obviously psionics-flavored, and though the system is already built on points, I'd be more comfortable using arcane spells with a spellpoint system, via Unearthed Arcana or just by applying pasting in PP.

Magic isn't what I'm worried about. The process of converting spells to use spellpoints is not as difficult as the rest of the challenges that Geneforge yields.

While I do find an alchemical system for creating creatures interesting, that's not the point here. It may come in useful when, at higher levels, expensive labs can be built that create creatures without using a character's essence (or using very little of it; it happens several times throughout the games).
Rohano
10-16-08, 10:33 AM I'm finally done moving; it's been sort of hectic. When I'm less busy and less tired I'll do more work on Geneforge. Suggestions are still welcome.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Rohano 04-06-08, 05:32 PM	If you've played Geneforge, you probably know that it would be a very unique roleplaying environment in a tabletop game. The very mechanics of how to get along in the world as an adventurer are so different from D&D that I can't help but salivate at the challenge to translate it into D20. If there's any interest, I'd be happy to have help with this project. For information: Geneforge 4: Rebellion (http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/geneforge4/index.html) The most recent game in the series. Geneforge 5 is expected out for Windows next Spring. Wikipedia: Geneforge series (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneforge_series) Wikipedia has a few tidbits that the official website doesn't have available. In terms of setting arrangement, I'm thinking that the easiest thing would be to put the game in the most recent point in the series. For now, that would mean the beginning of Geneforge 4 with the war between the Shapers and the Rebellion erupting and consuming the entire world. This means that both Rebellion and Shaper paths would be available for gameplay, as would all of the respective classes. Races would start with humans but would probably go on to include some of the Awakened as well as the Drakons. The first thing to stat out would be the classes, I suppose, and then the mechanics of shaping/lifecrafting. Once the basic mechanics are down, the other races can be created, and the creations can all be arranged.
Holy_Beholder 04-08-08, 03:23 PM	The basic mechanics look like they might actually be pretty simple. Basically, create the monsters, and make psionic powers work for spells. The monsters then count as a permanent, active, spell, and take the amount of power points spent. Since psionics already has augmentation, that is covered as well. Easy.
Rohano 04-09-08, 12:09 AM	Except that lifecrafting and magic are two extremely different forces, which is why characters that use both have Mana as well as Essence scores (though some powerful spells also require Essence expenditure), and that magic spells don't need the caster to expend more power to increase their power, they just require that the caster increase his skill (in the spell's area, like Combat Magic for Firebolt) or ability (Intelligence and Spellcraft). Lifecrafting, however, allows the shaper/lifecrafter to modify creation designs at leisure before creating them, expending as much or as little essence as he likes, though creations that were born of tiny amounts of essence are probably going to be useless.
Holy_Beholder 04-10-08, 07:23 PM	Oh yeah. But essence is used for spells occasionally(healing). So just have a class that gives both, with healing abilities(use lots of mana, some essence), shaping(essence) and other magic(mana). So still pretty much covered.
Rohano 04-12-08, 11:32 AM	Each of the classes in Geneforge capitalizes on a different combination of talents, though with only one that is truly greatest for the class. Any class can learn any talent, but if it's not one that the class heavily supports, it ends up being a lot harder to do. It's common for shapers to have a lot of healing and buffing spells to help their creations in combat, though having spare essence to use on healing means that you can't use that essence to make a creation or increase the stats on an existing creation. It becomes a gamble, reserving essence by not shaping an extra meatshield. The mages focus on offensive spells, like Firebolt, and use their healing to a lesser degree. However, since their shaping ability is much less formidible than a shaper's, they are more inclined to have spare essence to use to heal themselves or their few minions. But a mage may also use essence to cast other things, like Unlock (avoiding using up valuable Living Tools). A list of classes, as I know them (there will be more in the next Geneforge game), and listed by major faction: Shapers -Shapers: Strong shaping, average magic, weak combat. -Guardians: Strong combat, average shaping, weak magic. -Agents: Strong magic, average combat, weak shaping. Rebellion -Lifecrafter: Strong lifecrafting, average magic, weak combat. -Warrior: Strong combat, average lifecrafting, weak magic. -Infiltrator: Strong magic, average combat, weak lifecrafting. Both factions -Shock Troopers: Strong lifecrafting/shaping, average combat, weak magic. -Serviles: Strong combat, average magic, weak lifecrafting. : Serviles are a race of creations with a race-specific class. I'd peg it as a monster class progression, which means that the servile would be unable to take other classes, though it could be a prestige class. Also note that there are very very few competant serviles working for the shapers, as the shapers have shaped the first generation of each servile family to be only intelligent enough to be servants. Notice that the rebellion classes are the same as the shaper classes, just with different names. That means we're looking at 4 classes and a racial HD progression. A few notes about game balance as the plot applies: The point of the game is to gain control of a Geneforge. There are two - the South Geneforge that works on humans, and the North Geneforge to shape creations. Using the South Geneforge allows any human to gain the ability of lifecrafting (naturally-occuring shaping ability is not common among the rebels, while the shapers developed their abilities naturally), but it is a shaping process. Shaper law dictates that shaping humans is strictly illegal, that not only is it greedy to take the easy way to power but it is also unsafe and tends to not only drive people insane but also kill them. Using the North Geneforge apparently gives creations the ability to shape, but some creations have learned shaping on their own. Drakons and Serviles are the only sentient independent creations I know of, though there are many intelligent creations used as lieutenants by the shapers (though these creations have been tailored to be dependent on their masters - the result of the shapers' lessons with the drakons). Drakons are what they sound like, dragonlike paragons of creationkind who strike fear into people just at the mention of their names. Serviles are odd-looking humanoids with long, droopy snouts that were created to be, duh, servants to the shapers, but eventually a lot of them were freed by kind masters or fled to aid the rebellion and the drakons. Many creations have the ability to propogate, which is a great boon to the owners... as natural-born creations do not require essence to maintain. The shapers breed many of their creations, such as Battle Alphas (a popular tank, though unintelligent) and Serviles (sold into slavery, more or less), while the rebellion sees sentient creations as independent citizens who may propogate as they like. More on creations... There are many creations that are not creatures capable of walking around and fighting. These include traps (bred with a trigger, who controls the release of the traps around it, and the various traps that root near a trigger to fight off intruders; traps can be set to trigger to humans or creations or both, and if they are maintained by a trapkeeper, they can be set to ignore members of a certain faction), living tools (they look like blue dustmops, but they are tentacled creations that live solely to unlock things and disable traps, but they die after use; they essentially give the user a bonus to his Mechanics skill, which means a capable mechanic can avoid using them altogether in all but the most difficult situations), sentries (creations that root and never move but have projectile attacks to use on enemies who pass nearby), Servant Minds (a catlike creation that is immobile, but it is superhumanly intelligent, used by shapers like a living computer or a security mainframe) and a few fungus-like creations that root and do special things, such as the Spawner (coughs up new creations regularly; shapers note that use of spawners is extremely dangerous). Anyway, I guess I'll start with the Shaper/Lifecrafter class and the mechanics of lifecrafting. It'll take some time. Once it's done, it should be easy to stat new creations or put existing ones on paper.
strange_person 09-16-08, 05:49 PM	I'd say that shaper/guardian/agent corresponds almost perfectly to psion/psychic warrior/soulknife. Power Points are Essence, and Mana is just Psychic Focus: notice that mana is recovered automatically whenever there's a pause between combats, but expended essence requires you to burn an item or rest back in town? Creations could probably be compared to Astral Constructs for balance purposes: for the 'disposable' strategies, it's like a using a special ritual (extended manifesting time, can't be done mid-combat) so your summoned monster lasts all day, and for the 'maxed-out Fyora I've had since level 1' strategy it's like permanently reducing your PP in exchange for a cohort.
Rohano 09-17-08, 12:18 PM	I'm thinking that the only easy way to offset the advantage of having summons with permanent durations is (in addition to making the PP used to summon them unreplenishable until the summon is unsummoned) to make it so they take a share of XP in encounters. This replaces the usual system of Animal Companions and Familiars in 3.5, where they just get a HD or a bonus everytime the PC levels, and it means that summoning them will still be just as "cheap" as most other spells. As for mana and essence, I think that Psychic Focus is a brilliant mechanic but I don't think it would work here, not for the basic mechanics of Geneforge classes. Mages in the Geneforge universe have to be able to cast many spells back-to-back, even at low levels. I think what I will do is use a PP stand-in ("Essence points") that is used for both magic and lifecrafting. Lifecrafting classes get immense bonuses when using lifecrafting abilities but only get basic spells (though, as a wizard, they'd be able to learn more at any time - but this doesn't mean they're able to last long in a spellfight against a like-levelled mage), while "mage" lifecrafters get only basic lifecrafting abilities but all kinds of bonuses with magic. I'm beginning to think that I should arrange a single Lifecrafting class, with several ability trees, as a ranger. At a low level, the lifecrafter has to decide which way to focus. Like a wizard, the lifecrafter can pay other lifecrafters to learn abilities from them, but only by being specialized in those specific abilities can the lifecrafter reap an appreciable benefit. Yes... the mechanics are coming together in my mind. After I'm done moving to my new apartment, I'll be working hard on this.
strange_person 09-17-08, 01:47 PM	As for mana and essence, I think that Psychic Focus is a brilliant mechanic but I don't think it would work here, not for the basic mechanics of Geneforge classes. Mages in the Geneforge universe have to be able to cast many spells back-to-back, even at low levels.First level human in any psionic class, point blank shot and psionic shot and a sling loaded with rocks lets you attack every other round (refocusing on alternate rounds) for 2d6+1d3+strength, which is almost as good as a scorching ray. Later, with Greater Psionic Shot, it's substantially better than a single scorching ray. Sure, it's only every other round, but the really serious casters are Shapers (psions) who can draw upon Essence to cast more rapidly, or Agents (soulknives) who can use a blade of magical force. Furthermore, I could argue that levels in the game don't have a one-to-one correspondence to D20 system character levels. In every case, the backstory involves your character having substantial apprenticeship and training, and the 'tutorial' section in 3 out of the 4 games so far involves defeating multiple low-level monsters with little rest and no backup, a task which is far beyond the capabilities of most first-level D&D characters.
Rohano 09-18-08, 03:20 PM	But shapers are specialists in lifecrafting, not spells. They don't need to worry about lifecrafting rapidly, not at low levels - they do their lifecrafting long before combat ever happens. The only lifecrafters who would be lifecrafting in combat, and therefore worrying about speed, would be much higher level. Using Essence Points (essentially PP) for both magic and lifecrafting seems like the best way to go right now. Other mechanics can get involved later, as addons, but the basic Lifecrafting and Spellcasting system will be point-based only. Psionic Focus may be usable at later levels to somehow yield a benefit to casters but my goal here is to make lifecrafting unique, not just Psionics pasted under a new heading. I realize the difference between level scales, but that's fairly easy to deal with.
strange_person 09-18-08, 04:34 PM	It's true shapers are better at lifecrafting than they are at magic, but they're also better at magic than guardians are. Whenever I design a new mechanic or system, I always worry about balance. By basing the mechanical side of lifecrafting closely on the existing, well-balanced mechanics for psionics, you can be confident that it's balanced with little or no playtesting. Flavor, of course, is never a balance issue, so by switching the crystals and nebulous energy fields of core XPH psionics for mechanically-identical vats of living sludge and clouds of acrid vapor, you can completely change the feel of the system in play with only a few changes to the actual rules.
Rohano 09-18-08, 06:50 PM	Yes, I'll be using existing rules to balance the creations. I'll probably use existing powers and/or spells but the mage class (representing people who study magic but have no lifecrafting ability) will probably end up being a wizard that uses spellpoints instead of spells per day. Lifecrafting spells will be specific only to lifecrafting classes - if a mage suddenly discovers latent lifecrafting ability or uses a Geneforge, they'll have to take levels in the lifecrafter class (and if they want to stay magic-centered, they'll take the magic-focussed ability tree, essentially making them a slightly less potent wizard but with the added bonus of permanent minions).
strange_person 09-18-08, 08:31 PM	I'd be more inclined to not have any arcane or divine spellcasters, just psionics-recast-as-lifecrafting and artificers. The actual lifecrafting ability could just be a feat. Prerequisites: must have studied Shaping techniques (whether as part of an apprenticeship or through black-market books), must be able to manifest 1st-level powers. Benefit: add Create Fyora to your powers known. You can learn other lifecrafting powers. When you acquire shaping ability through being shaped yourself (canisters or a geneforge) it doesn't count toward the number of feats you could normally take because you gain a Flaw at the same time
Doomsought 09-18-08, 09:28 PM	HHMmm, you should try somethign like my alchemy rules for creature creation. multiple craft checks are used(add craft genetics, but still use chemistry mechanical and structural) to create creatures, you will need rules for freeform, as well as some standard creatures and templates.
Rohano 09-19-08, 10:43 AM	Mages in Geneforge use arcane magic. It's studied and learned, but spellbooks aren't necessary except for complex ritual spells, as I understand it. If I were to just take Psionics, scratch the name out and put Magic, it wouldn't make much sense. Psionic powers are obviously psionics-flavored, and though the system is already built on points, I'd be more comfortable using arcane spells with a spellpoint system, via Unearthed Arcana or just by applying pasting in PP. Magic isn't what I'm worried about. The process of converting spells to use spellpoints is not as difficult as the rest of the challenges that Geneforge yields. While I do find an alchemical system for creating creatures interesting, that's not the point here. It may come in useful when, at higher levels, expensive labs can be built that create creatures without using a character's essence (or using very little of it; it happens several times throughout the games).
Rohano 10-16-08, 10:33 AM	I'm finally done moving; it's been sort of hectic. When I'm less busy and less tired I'll do more work on Geneforge. Suggestions are still welcome.