Telepaths for the d20 Supers System

Here's another addition to the feats and talent-based superpowers system that's been developing here at the NUELOW Games blog, and in our comics/RPG-hybrid books over the past few years. All text in this post is released under the Open Game License. Copyright 2016 Steve Miller.

New Feat
Telepathy [Minor Power]
You can communicate telepathically with other intelligent beings.
   Benefit: As a free action, you may broadcast your thoughts to a number of intelligent beings (Intelligence score 3 or higher) up to your Wisdom bonus, and you hear their thoughts in return. If you wish to perform other actions, or take damage while maintaining telepathic contact, you must roll a Concentration skill check (DC12, plus the amount of damage suffered if injured). You may re-establish contact on the following round if it is lost. Ending the telepathic connection with a target is also a free action.
   The range of your telepathy is line-of-sight and a 50-foot radius. The telepathic link is always two ways; you broadcast your thoughts to the targets and you in turn can hear theirs. Unwilling targets may roll Willpower saves (DC15) to push you from their minds.
   If you establish a connection with multiple minds at once, making sense of the babble of thoughts you receive back from them as difficult as if you were trying to keep track of several conversations at once. You may roll an Intelligence check (+1 to the roll for each being beyond the first one linked to) to successfully keep the mind-babble straight in your head.




New Talent Tree
Telepathy Superpower Talent Tree
The talents in this tree grant or enhance telepathic powers.
   Enhanced Telepathy: As the Telepathy feat, but you may choose to broadcast your thoughts to all intelligent beings within a 100-foot radius, or to a number of specified intelligent beings up to twice your Wisdom bonus. With a standard action and a successful Will save (DC12), you can isolate the thoughts of a specific being, causing all the others to fade into background noise. You may switch to a different mind to emphasize every round you maintain mental contact.
   Prerequisite: Telepathy minor power feat
   Mental Eavesdropping: As the Telepathy minor power feat, except the connection is one-way; you hear the thoughts of the targets, but they cannot hear yours. The GM should roll a secret Will save (DC12) for each target. If the Will save is successful, they feel as though someone is watching them. Targets that possesses the Telepathy feat or talents from the Telepathy tree are certain that someone is listening in on their thoughts if they successfully save and may make a second Will save (DC15) to force the eavesdropping telepath from their minds.
    Prerequisite: Any one minor power feat
   Superior Telepathy: As Enhanced Telepathy, but you may choose to broadcast your thoughts across great distances. The range and number of people you contact depend on level of success you have with a Willpower save, made as a free action when establishing the telepathic links.
   DC11: 10-mile radius, choose to limit contact to targets up 5 times your Wisdom bonus.
   DC13: 100-mile radius, choose to limit contact to targets up 10 times your Wisdom bonus.
   DC15: 1,000-mile radius, choose to limit contact to targets up 20 times your Wisdom bonus.
   DC17: 10,000-mile radius, choose to limit contact to targets up 50 times your Wisdom bonus.
   DC19: 100,000-mile radius, choose to limit contact to targets up 100 times your Wisdom bonus.
   DC21: One million-mile radius, choose to limit contact to targets up 200 times your Wisdom bonus.
   DC23: 10 light year radius, choose to limit contact to targets up 500 times your Wisdom bonus.
   DC25: 100 light year radius, choose to limit contact to targets up 1,000 times your Wisdom bonus.
   Further, with Superior Telepathy, you only hear the thoughts of those specific beings you choose to hear; this is strictly a one-way broadcast unless you wish otherwise.
   Prerequisite: Enhanced Telepathy
   Telepathic Hub: Establish telepathic contact with other characters possessing the Telepathy minor power feat. For each such character contacted, every person gains a +2 bonus to telepathy-, Intelligence-, and Wisdom-related skill checks and saving throws while the link is maintain. If more than one character possesses the Telepathic Hub talent, the bonus is still only applied once.
   Prerequisite: Telepathy minor power feat

Castro vs. Kennedy (A ROLF!: Houseboat on the River Styx Battle Scenario)

On November 25, 2016, the long-time dictator of the Cuban communist regime, Fidel Castro, passed away. This is some of what happened next, as Castro joins the cast of characters in NUELOW Games' A Houseboat on the River Styx setting. Based on the writings of John Kendrick Bangs, it's a place where historical figures and fictional characters meet, have adventures, and fight with each other.
   This post contains ROLF! stats for Kennedy and Castro, so you can play out their first meeting in the afterlife.

ON THE SHORES OF THE RIVER STYX, NOT TOO LONG AGO....
   "Ay caramba!" exclaimed Fidel Casto. "You mean I really, truly am dead?!"
   "Yes." Charon nodded almost imperceptibly within the shadows of his voluminous hood. "The land you have arrived in is Hades, and the river we just crossed is Styx."
   "But there is a city here! And over there--a houseboat with a gringo dressed up like Shakespeare! And there are people riding horses, people riding in cars, people--people riding on dragons?!"
   Castro pointed skyward where a sleek, scaly azure dragon was winging its way way through the cloudy sky after a furry white one; on the back of each, a human form could be discearned, and a woman's voice drifted down, "Fates curse you, Atreyu--you bring back my helmet, or I'll make you wish you'd been swallowed up by Despair and Hopelessness!"
   Again, near-invisible nod of Charon's head. "Yes... Hades is a land where creations of the imagination and the spirits of those who have fired imaginations live and mingle. You will find that--"
   "Well, I'll be! If it isn't Fidel Castro!"
   Charon and Fidel turned in the direction of the voice. John F. Kennedy came striding onto the boat dock.
   "Kennedy," Castro said coldly, his eyes narrowing under his bushy brows.
   "Fidel," Kennedy said, smiling. "I guess the cigars finally killed you, eh?"
   "Indeed. But it took 50 years longer than the bullet that finished you off."
   "Why, you commie bastard!"
   "Capitalist pig!"
   "Gentlemen, gentlemen," Charon said, waving his gnarled hands to get their attention. "There is no need to--"
   "Stay out of this," roared Kennedy and Castro in unison, each turning their baleful stares on Charon--causing him to shrink further into the shadows of his robe--before locking eyes with each other.
   "You're about to get your ass kicked so hard you're going to wish you were alive again," Kennedy snarled.
   "Less talk, more fight, bourgeois dog!"
   As the fists started to fly, Charon boarded his boat and shoved off. "I'll be back," he said, "when you gentlemen are finished. Nikita, Che, and Karl wanted me to bring Fidel by so they could get a bridge game going."

THE FIGHT
Castro and Kennedy start fighting at close range. The fight ends when one defeats the other.

FIDEL CASTRO (Male)
Brawn 20, Body 13, Brains 5
Traits: Coldhearted, Egomaniac, Stone Cold Killer
Combat Maneuvers: Basic Attack, Bitch Slap, Debate Philosophy, Dodge, Withering Insult
 Important Stuff Worn/Wielded. Beard (Armor, absorbs 1 point of damage).

JOHN F. KENNEDY (Male)
Brawn: 19; Body: 18; Brains: 7
Traits: Egomaniac, Irrepressible Optimist, Limousine Liberal
Combat Maneuvers: Basic Attack, Debate Philosophy, Knock Out, Seduction, Strike Pose, Run Away!, Walk and Chew Gum
Important Stuff Worn/Wielded: Nice Suit and Tie (clothes).

Snuggies for the Witchkind

Suggested by Dave Mendez--a pair of magic items for use by the Witchkind!

Satanic Snuggy
Favored by evil witchkind for lounging around the house and for coven meetings or castings of group spells in particularly chilly locations. The Satanic Snuggy is available in dark red, deep purple, and midnight black. Gold or silver trim featuring snippits of your favorite spells, the motto of your coven, or the names or symbols of the dark gods to which you’re dedicated can be added. All words and phrases are rendered in High Atlantean, Lemurian, Latin, or Esperanto.
   When worn by an intended character, the Satanic Snuggy provide a +1 bonus to all morale checks and Will saves, as well as a +2 bonus to saving throws against cold spells. If a character of good alignment or allegiance wears a Satanic Snuggy, he or she suffers a -1 penalty to all saving throws and attack rolls because of a sense of unease. The feeling and penalties end once the Snuggy is removed.

Seraphic Snuggy 
Favored by good witchkind for lounging around the house and for coven meetings or castings of group spells in particularly chilly locations.  The Seraphic Snuggy is available in snow white, heavenly blue, and heartfelt red. Gold or black trim featuring snippits of your favorite spells, the motto of your coven, or the names or symbols of the dark gods to which you’re dedicated can be added. All words and phrases are rendered in High Atlantean, Lemurian, Latin, or Esperanto.
   When worn by an intended character, the Seraphic Snuggy provide a +1 bonus to all morale checks and Will saves, as well as a +2 bonus to saving throws against cold spells. If a character of evil alignment or allegiance wears a Seraphic Snuggy, he or she suffers a -1 penalty to all saving throws and attack rolls because of a sense of unease. The feeling and penalties end once the Snuggy is removed.

All text in this post was presented under the Open Game License. For more, check out Secrets of the Witchkind from NUELOW Games.

d20 Feat: Portable Safe Space

A d20 System feat for our times....

Portable Safe Space [General]
You can retreat to your safe space, anytime, anywhere.
    Benefit: On a round during which you have initiative over a foe, you can use your first action to declare, "My character goes to his safe space." For the rest of that round, you may not take any other actions, but you gain a +1 to all saving throws and to AC/DR for the rest of the round.
    On the following round, you gain a +2 bonus to all Bluff and Diplomacy skills checks, and a +2 bonus to Dodge rolls. The bonus lasts a number of rounds equal to your Charisma bonus.
   Special: Dedicated Heroes (d20 Modern) may choose this feat as one of the bonus feats earned through level advancement.

(This text is released under the Open Game License and may be reproduced in accordance with it. Copyright 2016 Steve Miller)

Modern Basics of 2016

The latest from NUELOW Games is a collection of feats, talents, and templates that have been revised from material that originally appeared in posts here or on the NUELOW Games Facebook page.

The cover for a collection of tools to make your d20 System gam ultra postmodern!

The Modern Basics 2016 Annual features work by NUELOW Games regulars L.L. Hundal, Dave Mendez, and Steve Miller, and it was mostly inspired by things you've seen in the news during the year that will (thankfully) soon be over.


You can see previews and get your copy of the one product you need to accurately replicate the aura of 2016 in your d20 Modern games at RPGNOW and DriveThruRPG. Get yours today and fix flaws in the game system you didn't even know existed!

It's not only Election Day in the U.S. on November 8. It's also....

...Redhead Day! So whether you're some foreigner (living in the US or outside the US), you now have reason to think November 8 is a special day. Instead of celebrating Democracy, you can celebrate redheads! (Little Known Fact: L.L. Hundal is a redhead! Give her the gift of royalties on Her Special Day by purchasing something she worked on for NUELOW Games!)


A more specific way to observe Redhead Day would be to get a copy of OGL Redheads and bring their power to your d20 System games! Click here to unleash the Power of the Redhead at your gaming table!

The only d20 supplement focused on redheads!