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Inspired by "The Great Brain Robbery"


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Classic Comic Book Storyline #235: characters -- either a hero and villain, or a group of heroes, or a group of heroes and villains -- swap minds/bodies/powers. Hilarity ensues.

How/Why? Numerous reasons. Perhaps as a consequence of the cure from Ecal's Great Genderswitch Caper. Perhaps Quirk is feeling quirky. Magic, super-science, alien tech... take your pick.

Main problem I've been hitting is how, mechanically, to do it. At first I thought to do it pretty much like Possession: mind/"possessor" retains their mental ability scores, skills based on mental abilities, and powers with mental effects or descriptors, and gains the body's/"possess-ees" physical ability scores, skills based on physical abilities, and powers with physical effects or descriptors. (Core and UP are silent on attack/defense, feats, and saves.)

But then there's the problem of mental-heavy people (like Dr. Archeville or Scarab) getting into physical-heavy bodies (like Dark Star or Emissary), and vice versa. And associated PL considerations -- if, for example, Scarab were in Divine's body, her Toughness from Divine's godly body & Scarab's Force Field would be +21. Which is fine for comics, but not so much for games where characters should be somewhat equal.

(Though the idea of Dr. Archeville in Wesley's body, with Wes's biokinetic powers but Doc's own knowledge of life sciences & medicine, is incredibly appealing. :twisted: )

Then I got the idea that it's just personalities transferred: stats remain the same, so each player just uses a different character's sheet. It would be simplest.

So, first question first: who'd be interested?

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I suggest something like that episode of Teen Titans where Starfire and Raven swapped bodies but not powers.

I thought their powers remained with their bodies in that ep? (Though since Raven's powers are tied to her soul, Rave-in-Starfire should've had all of Raven's and Starfire's powers...)

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Um, Doc, there is you know, the Mind Switch Power. Slap the Attack and/or Range Extra on there and you're golden. And if you're looking for a villain to pop into, Malice would be up for such a challenge.

Especially if he gets put into the body of a physically powerful person, which can play off of his own mental abilities, and all he has to do is kick the crap out of whoever got his body to get his suit back and he'll have enough power to RULE THE WORLD!!! :twisted: Or at least beat the snot out of a lot of meta's, though might gum up the works quite a bit if he get's put into the body of a meta.

Red Star could do as well.

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Um, Doc, there is you know, the Mind Switch Power. Slap the Attack and/or Range Extra on there and you're golden.

Not really, since Mind Switch is explained as working exactly like Possession. I.e., silent on the attack/defense, saves, and feats thing, and with all the PL issues I mentioned above.

(Besides, it's a Plot Device power, there will be no save against the effect. :P )

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Oh sure, use logic and details to support your point. Way to be professional. ;)

But I like the idea of using someone else's character sheet, just to shake things up. But yeah, I do see your point about the Power Level thing (now that I have reread the post :oops: ) which could be a serious issue for the reasons I hinted at above. From a pure mechanics aspect, I would want to see what someone else would do with Malice's suit, and perhaps steal an idea or two :twisted:

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I like the idea, and playing Thunder in it would be very fun. However, a fair amount of martial arts is mental. Nailing down what does and doesn't transfer would be a PIA with her unless comic book pseudo-science were invoked to make such things clear.

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What sort of role-call have we got going on here?

I wouldn't mind bringing Pompadour in on this... one of the things I'm currently RPing through for him is that he doesn't have a really good handle on his own powers yet. I would probably be operating on "deja vu, all over again!" with another new set of powers that Pompadour wouldn't understand.

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