This antag idea has been floating in my brain for a while, and I recently shared it on the discord, and it’s been received pretty well, so I decided I’ll try here too. This is mostly conceptualization to decide which of my ideas are good and which are bad and should be changed.
I feel like a antag focused around psychic abilities of various kinds would be very cool. We have wizards, vampires, wraiths and arcfiends, having a psychic would be very fitting for the setting imo. I wanted it to be like sleeper agents, a random event later into the round, around about half way through where a few random non-antags are ‘awakened’, given antag status and various powers.
This would be a antag kind of similar to wraith or vamp where they slowly increase in power. As time progress they grow more powerful but also more unstable, until they gain a fate much like Tetsuo from Akira. Psychics will have various routes to go down, like Wraith they can level up and pick from a choice of options of what type of powers they want. For the first level I imagine they get only one ability, something weak and discrete like lifting an object with your mind. There will be 4 levels, and your last level, or your endgame will be wraith or revenant level threat, and it’ll already be too late as their death will always cause immense destruction.
The paths I imagined for the psychic so far have been pyromaniac, thaumaturgy, cosmomancer, Psion, perhaps even a psychic focused on technology. How you obtain these different types will involve various methods, some will be always available, while others will take several conditions to be met before you can become one.
Pyromancer will obvious have devastating heat based abilities. thaumaturgy will pretty much be a pretty basic psychic with revenant like abilities focused on telekinesis, but still very powerful. Cosmomancer will be similar to thaumaturgy but more on space warping, they will get teleportation powers, abilities to create black hole projectiles, and various other things. Psion will have abilities focused on others brains, mass hallucinations, causing immense brain damage, and also an ability similar to Qud’s sunder mind which would mean they could explodes peoples head after a few seconds. A tech type psychic is still something I haven’t quite figured out but I’m open to ideas and still thinking of more.
My problem so far is how a psychic would go from basically bending spoons with their mind to Tetsuo from Akira. They would be a very aggressive antag that people would feel the need to have to kill before they can become full powered, especially combined with the fact they are a midround antag. I imagine in order to progress they have to use their powers, and also experience ‘inspirations’ which involve witnessing certain things, such as witnessing someone dying near you, or looking at very hot plasma, something varied and that I imagine would also be how you access certain final level psychic types. Every single endgame psychic will be pretty obvious and self-destructive, almost always involving the psychic dying in the end, with each having a special destructive death, like pyromancer will explode into tons of flaming plasma, cosmomancer will become a blackhole, and I still haven’t quite figured out the rest.
This antag is still pretty rough in my mind, but I would love your ideas and feedback. It might take me a bit before I start actually trying to work on this, but this is a start. Might make a player-project on the discord when I flesh this out more. Sorry if this was badly written!
it's an interesting take, given already how destructive the telekinesis gene. a possible idea could involve holding extra things with your mind? (i.e. extra telekinetic hands that don't drop what they're holding when you get stunned, only when you go unconscious)
a hard thing to balance however, is how most of a psychic's abilities would still function unrestrained, so sec would end up needing a way to knock them out to detain them
(03-06-2025, 03:33 PM)RSOD Wrote: it's an interesting take, given already how destructive the telekinesis gene. a possible idea could involve holding extra things with your mind? (i.e. extra telekinetic hands that don't drop what they're holding when you get stunned, only when you go unconscious)
a hard thing to balance however, is how most of a psychic's abilities would still function unrestrained, so sec would end up needing a way to knock them out to detain them
I actually really like that idea. Holding various other weapons around you and each time you attack someone they all independently attack for you as well. Might be a bit OP especially if you have like 3 batons floating around your head, but a potential cool idea for maybe an endgame thaumaturgy psychic.
Also with what you said about detaining them, the intention is less to really detain but more to kill, since they will be encouraged to be highly aggressive and actiony. I am thinking of a possible more gimmicky route as well if the player wishes to not be fully aggressive. Maybe there could be a special item added to combat the psychic, but idk
I do like the idea. We do have some mutations that already build towards psychic abilities, I think if this antag were to exist it would make sense to give those as freebies and have other powers develop.
How about some kind of aggressive action like absorbing the minds of people as a means of "leveling up"
It would leave the body alive, but the players mind would get absorbed into the psychic similar to changelings hivemind. You can give those players fun little mini-roles like acting as hallucinations the Psychic creates
Maybe job role determines what kind of branch you're developing, or more simply certain roles are worth more "brain points"
It goes without saying tinfoil hats should act as armor against them
03-07-2025, 04:18 AM (This post was last modified: 03-07-2025, 04:24 AM by FlyzerMizer.)
(03-06-2025, 05:26 PM)Frank_Stein Wrote:
I do like the idea. We do have some mutations that already build towards psychic abilities, I think if this antag were to exist it would make sense to give those as freebies and have other powers develop.
How about some kind of aggressive action like absorbing the minds of people as a means of "leveling up"
It would leave the body alive, but the players mind would get absorbed into the psychic similar to changelings hivemind. You can give those players fun little mini-roles like acting as hallucinations the Psychic creates
Maybe job role determines what kind of branch you're developing, or more simply certain roles are worth more "brain points"
It goes without saying tinfoil hats should act as armor against them
Yes, I like that idea, I’ve been having trouble on what to make the first levels of powers, because atleast until level 3 you should just have basic and stereotypical psychic abilities and should not have chosen a particular path yet.
And I am a bit indecisive about the absorbing mind part, but as they are a aggressive antag it should only be fitting they do need to do aggressive actions, also it’ll be fun for the people they kill to help the psychic kill more people.
Perhaps each psychic type could have a special use for these acquired minds, like pyromaniac can burst out ‘embers’ which are weak player controlled antags that lose power as they move away from the pyromaniac but make a path of fire wherever they move, and burst into a small 3x3 flame upon death. I do also really like your idea as making them hallucinations as well just to make it as debilitating as possible
And as for the tinfoil hat, yeah I think that’s perfect, didn’t even think about that until you said it, lol
Also another idea I thought of is if you absorb someone’s mental energy, their body becomes ‘braindead’ and they are just a still alive body but with no one home. I feel like it would be much more grim to have rows of still alive but motionless humans in like the morgue. Perhaps also if the psychic dies the bodies will gain their minds back, so it’ll encourage the crew to save them and kill the psychic.
Maybe it’s a bad idea, idk. I feel like if people die to a antag that can revive them or give them something to do after death, like vamp or ling, they kind of get a lot more frustrated if they simply just die. But that’s kind of just a non-issue
When the idea was originally fielded my initial reaction was pretty good, It's still pretty good after a while. I feel like it fills a different niche from the ones we have, -MIGHT- have more play in being a bit stealthier too, where this is a common refrain for other antags in the early game. Having a progression path really shines for wraith too, and I enjoy the basic aesthetic concept of a psyker/akira/megamind for potential gimmick variety.
For me it also passes the "does this work on RP and Classic" mark (though I personally also feel there's nothing wrong with having classic or RP specific antags even if we seem to want to aim for general parity, this is one area I actually disagree with that but not the subject of this idea). I think the basic premise for RP might let them leech off Wraith's RP-peak abilities of whispering into people's minds, and classic would do just fine with an antag that ultimately needs to engage with other players to progress its power, something we've changed recently for vampires and talk about sometimes for arcfiends in encouraging.
In short: I like the idea, but the main thing will be finding poor souls to put design document together.
03-07-2025, 01:34 PM (This post was last modified: 03-07-2025, 01:35 PM by FlyzerMizer. Edited 1 time in total.)
(03-07-2025, 12:31 PM)Lefinch Wrote: When the idea was originally fielded my initial reaction was pretty good, It's still pretty good after a while. I feel like it fills a different niche from the ones we have, -MIGHT- have more play in being a bit stealthier too, where this is a common refrain for other antags in the early game. Having a progression path really shines for wraith too, and I enjoy the basic aesthetic concept of a psyker/akira/megamind for potential gimmick variety.
For me it also passes the "does this work on RP and Classic" mark (though I personally also feel there's nothing wrong with having classic or RP specific antags even if we seem to want to aim for general parity, this is one area I actually disagree with that but not the subject of this idea). I think the basic premise for RP might let them leech off Wraith's RP-peak abilities of whispering into people's minds, and classic would do just fine with an antag that ultimately needs to engage with other players to progress its power, something we've changed recently for vampires and talk about sometimes for arcfiends in encouraging.
Yes, I agree they should also have the ability to be sneakier, and also plenty of abilities for rp potential. My goal is to make it work for both rp and classic, and that’s also why I want there to be plenty of paths. I can definitely seeing a Psion psychic that controls and manipulate minds be very fun on rp, while also still having plenty of fighting power. I don’t know fully, I’m not as familiar with RP as I am with classic, but I am using antags like the wraith as reference, especially the trickster, which is still quite a potent antag while still being very gimmicky.
My main idea of this antag, is something very powerful, very flashy, and I want each time you play as one to be different, which was how wraith felt for me (atleast for the first 3 times). Also another thing I wanted was for each psychic type to be somewhat balanced to be just as powerful as each other. Ofcourse each will have their certain niche, some more defensive than others, others more offensive, but I don’t want any to feel more weaker than the others, and especially less fun.
How about some abilities that do things like open window prompts, for a bit of flavor or as distractions? Like you're projecting your thoughts into someone's mind. Maybe these can be little minigames for the victim? Solve a math problem to get out of a dazed stat quicker? Like little click bait ads
(03-07-2025, 04:47 PM)Frank_Stein Wrote: How about some abilities that do things like open window prompts, for a bit of flavor or as distractions? Like you're projecting your thoughts into someone's mind. Maybe these can be little minigames for the victim? Solve a math problem to get out of a dazed stat quicker? Like little click bait ads
Oh my god, I love the idea that some phycological abilities can target the player and not necessarily somthing your character could see.
Despite that what I just said might get stale so some pop-ups that you'd have to solve before being able to control yourself again would be very unique
03-08-2025, 05:37 AM (This post was last modified: 03-08-2025, 05:38 AM by FlyzerMizer. Edited 1 time in total.)
I really like that. I can imagine the psychic using this ability on someone and their screen being taken over by a time consuming but relatively easy puzzle. And they can’t see what’s happening on to their character really, but they can still hear everything. And while they are trying to get rid of the popup, one of the psychic’s acquired minds will take over the persons body for as long as it takes them to get rid of the popups
I can imagine another more spammy use of this ability that will give you a debuff that’ll last like 10 seconds and while the debuff lasts your screen will fill up with random popups, making it hard to see what is going on
03-08-2025, 10:40 AM (This post was last modified: 03-08-2025, 10:43 AM by RSOD. Edited 1 time in total.)
i don't know how to quote multiple posts in one go but i'll still give my two cents (again)
if brain-eating is a thing: engineers should give 2x the points a normal person does (because they're smart enough to know how to build a table faster, i suppose)
about the window prompts for distractions / attacks: that sounds SO FUN if done right. something like having to do a flow puzzle or click a bunch of buttons in a specific order could be really interesting to see if given the right flair.
also, what about: projecting words onto people's screens, think telepathy but a lot more intrusive. they'd show up in purple, somewhat transparent and dim your screen as they do. kind of like you can't ignore them, but they're still just thoughts.
the idea of a new hivemind that gets to act more actively sounds fun to me. a big issue with being linged that i have is the fact that 90% of the time you'll just be sitting there either backseating the ling or being ignored, so maybe having brain-absorbed crew manifest itself in different ways could be cool.
(03-08-2025, 10:40 AM)RSOD Wrote: if brain-eating is a thing: engineers should give 2x the points a normal person does (because they're smart enough to know how to build a table faster, i suppose)
about the window prompts for distractions / attacks: that sounds SO FUN if done right. something like having to do a flow puzzle or click a bunch of buttons in a specific order could be really interesting to see if given the right flair.
also, what about: projecting words onto people's screens, think telepathy but a lot more intrusive. they'd show up in purple, somewhat transparent and dim your screen as they do. kind of like you can't ignore them, but they're still just thoughts.
the idea of a new hivemind that gets to act more actively sounds fun to me. a big issue with being linged that i have is the fact that 90% of the time you'll just be sitting there either backseating the ling or being ignored, so maybe having brain-absorbed crew manifest itself in different ways could be cool.
Sorry it’s taken me awhile to reply to this, I haven’t been thinking about this as much lately. I’m still trying to work this out in my head and ways to make this antag more solid.
The role xp multiplier thing I’m a bit iffy on, I feel like the you shouldn’t have a particular advantage as a psychic just based on what role you have. The idea is you’re just some average Joe whose randomly gain these powers, similar to arc.
Yes, the window idea Frank had I think is still really cool, and will definitely be there in the final product if there will be a final product. The telepathy I think would also be really cool, I can imagine the more powerful you become the more powerful those words become, more overwhelmingly there, you know?
The absorbed mind thing I think could have several different uses, but I think might be a bit hard to do. Depending on the psychic you pick you could definitely get more offensive minions, more defensive ones, ones that’ll help with certain abilities, like with someone else mentioning that they could be used in like hallucination type abilities to just make things much more disorienting.
I can also imagine there being an ability similar to the curse artifact where they manifests infront of only one person you ‘curse’ and the absorbed players can interact with that character and only that character can interact with those manifestations. I like the image of some secoff randomly stop trying to fight you as they fight invisible entities only they can see
03-15-2025, 05:53 AM (This post was last modified: 03-15-2025, 05:53 AM by RSOD.)
an idea that just came to my head is more of a joke psychic, but one whose concept seems to stick with me.
basically, a showmaster.
their hivemind are actors, and it centers around hallucinations / projections.
abilities would be more on putting on a show, be it temporarily opening an uncloseable viewport of a 5x5 area in a "dream world" that's directly controlled by the psychic this could be just cog1's crew lounge, or some exclusive ones like a small bar scene. yet to decide on that. hivemind gets to enter this dream world (it's a 20x20 room at best), and sees where viewports would show / if they are playing for anybody,
manifest several hallucinations at once, some maybe being items, while some being the hivemind's actors,
or knocking someone unconscious and bringing their mind to a scene of their choosing. maybe they're suddenly flung into a trivia gameshow, or suddenly they're in a bar fight. if they lose, be it dying in the scene or meeting some other lose condition that the scene may have, they take huge brain damage and a bunch of brute (be it their body twitching violently and damaging itself in the process)
this is probably a nightmare to code though, so my hopes are not very high for something like this. a man can dream though..
Goonhub
