Normally when NPCs and monsters go past a certain level of intelligence I give them a limited scrying ability, they can tell what's happening elsewhere just by thinking about it, with more distant and unrelated events being more difficult. As the intelligence level increases then they get the ability to see into the past and the future, and can predict what will happen with a high degree of certainty.

This gets particularly interesting when you have two supergeniuses duking it out with the world as their playing field, each trying to change the future that the other is creating, which is a whole minigame by itself.

How do you deal with supergenius level characters and NPCs in your game?

You just can't stop posting about Ron Edwards, can you?

Honestly I don't have anything as cool (or gamey) as your scrying idea.  I don't use too many real geniuses for just that reason, that they're hard to run well.

In my 3.0 days, I considered leaving some of my smarter npc wizard's spells secretly unassigned to be an audacious transgression.

More recently I've made limited use of an intelligence check to determine whether a villain has a contingency or escape plan for something the players throw at me I hadn't anticipated.  (Not my idea, got it somewhere on the internet.)  If I've actually got plans fully prepared I just let what they've got prepped stand or fall on its own, but its useful if I've thrown out a high intelligence foe without getting anything on paper.

Quote from: soviet;611252You just can't stop posting about Ron Edwards, can you?

You do realise you've just paid a tremendous compliment to the Pundit, right? Now toddle off back to your skinhead goon buddies.

Quote from: Saladman;611274More recently I've made limited use of an intelligence check to determine whether a villain has a contingency or escape plan for something the players throw at me I hadn't anticipated.

I think the possibility of deus ex machina schemes should always be present when dealing with super geniuses, which is fairly easy to roll up. If that seems like its a bit unfair to the PCs, well its never a good idea to go up against the ultrasmart. Of course resources should be taken into account here too, unless a supergenius had the ability to also manipulate events there's no reason why they should have an escape hatch handy. With that said, I'd grant a lot of leeway to the supergenius.

I immediately think of Wile E. Coyote...

-clash

I've found that genius or supergenius NPCs have cropped up quite often in my RPG campaigns: the Legion had Brainiac 5 (as well as other lesser geniuses), the Golden Age campaign has the Ultra-Humanite, even Albion has the Earl of Warwick (who may be operating on a smaller scale than the other two examples but is certainly a genius by the standards of that setting).

I generally try to AVOID the temptation to have them have a "scrying ability" or to retroactively have them adjust to the unexpected plans of the PCs, as I think that isn't really helpful.  One thing that's very important to balance out is the notion that they are geniuses (and being able to express that) with the risk of their simply being able to anything and everything because they are geniuses. Geniuses do tend to have blind spots, after all.

Instead, I prefer to have them have a very keen sense of perception and deduction, and an ability to adapt rapidly (if circumstances permit) to unexpected developments; and to make long term plans or projects of big scale and complexity that will generally work out for them as long as their operating assumptions are sound.

RPGPundit

I handle 'genius' npc's as able to figure out what is going on in front of them, or from a data source.

A genius need not be wise, or perceptive 'on the spot'


Flawed geniuses make good villains.

Quote from: The Traveller;611313You do realise you've just paid a tremendous compliment to the Pundit, right? Now toddle off back to your skinhead goon buddies.

What? That doesn't make any sense.Like all of your other posts.

Quote from: soviet;611449What? That doesn't make any sense.Like all of your other posts.

Apparently even the Spirit of Christmas Present isn't able to elevate the collective IQ of the aryan brotherhood. Hit the bricks towhead, stormfront is two floors down. Oh, and pass on my sympathies to ettin's sig, that was a damn good quote.

Quote from: RPGPundit;611432Instead, I prefer to have them have a very keen sense of perception and deduction, and an ability to adapt rapidly (if circumstances permit) to unexpected developments; and to make long term plans or projects of big scale and complexity that will generally work out for them as long as their operating assumptions are sound.

That's kind of what the scrying, deus ex machina and prescience/postscience things achieve though. I'm not a supergenius, I don't know any supergeniuses, and I have doubts that such a creature could legitimately exist in the real world. That's not about to stop me killing them and taking their stuff, naturally.

So in the absence of actual supergenius intelligence we can attempt to emulate it with the abovementioned. One example most can relate to would be Sherlock Holmes as superbly portrayed by Robert Downey Jr; with a glance at a newspaper article he can deduce the probable culprit for a jewel heist, a man too fond of fast women and slow horses. In combat, he accurately predicts every motion of his opponent in advance, only stymied when he meets someone of equivalent intelligence (Moriarty).

In practical terms this boils down to scrying, prescience, and deus ex machina machinations. Exampli gratia, when Holmes engaged in the pursuit of that woman from his bedroom, the player would say "I end up in perfect disguise to take a look at her employer", rolls on supergenius, and it happens. The limitations to such godlike powers could be skill specific (a genius in computers might not be a genius in biology), due to range whether physical or temporal, or other strictures.

So at the far end of the scale, a supergenius blows up an enemy starship. What happened was he had a woman kidnapped a week beforehand, the dear mother of a newly hired crewman, and communicated to him the facts of the matter at the appropriate time to force the crewman to fatally sabotage the enemy ship. The player doesn't need to come up with this immense chain of cause and effect personally, just make the roll.

It goes without saying that this makes supergeniuses very very dangerous enemies, your best bet is to get your own supergenius on side and let them have at it, but of course even such creatures have their Achilles' heels.

The fight, complete with awesome music from the Dubliners:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGCMfprPJoA

And for contrast, two supergeniuses fight:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ7Id0WFZOg

Quote from: The Traveller;611453Apparently even the Spirit of Christmas Present isn't able to elevate the collective IQ of the aryan brotherhood. Hit the bricks towhead, stormfront is two floors down. Oh, and pass on my sympathies to ettin's sig, that was a damn good quote.

Anyone who thinks you're an idiot is a neonazi? What? You're a babbling idiot.

Quote from: soviet;611487Anyone who thinks you're an idiot is a neonazi? What? You're a babbling idiot.

6% troll, 8% threadcrapper, 86% weeping butthurt when it all went wrong. Now if you don't mind, the grownups are trying to have a conversation, and you haven't contributed anything except failed derailment.

Quote from: The Traveller;6115336% troll, 8% threadcrapper, 86% weeping butthurt when it all went wrong. Now if you don't mind, the grownups are trying to have a conversation, and you haven't contributed anything except failed derailment.

For some inexplicably bizarre reason you said I was a neonazi. Retract it and I'll leave the thread. Otherwise, explain yourself.

Quote from: The Traveller;611251This gets particularly interesting when you have two supergeniuses duking it out with the world as their playing field, each trying to change the future that the other is creating, which is a whole minigame by itself.

How do you deal with supergenius level characters and NPCs in your game?

Oh my God, I just made a thread talking about a similar thing!  I've got the perfect explanation/YouTube video for this:

QuoteI've talked about on another site about letting D&D characters replicate magical effects through skill and talent.  I once said that a smart character might be able to replicate divination spells through planning, investigation, and deductive reasoning.

Here's an example, from the shoot-em-up Anime Black Lagoon.

Eda's (the nun with sunglasses) plan is pretty much guesswork and theory based upon the motivations of the runaway girl and the criminals, reinforced through some careful planning beforehand.  She has no guarantee that the thugs will approach the girl and chase after her in such a way, but it happens according to plan.  In a way, her recollection of events is similar to the Augury and Scry spells, and can be replicated this way in D&D.

"But wait, Libertad, couldn't PCs normally do this through player skill, by manually planning out such steps?"

Yes, but it should be a special ability with game mechanics.  Lots of times we play PCs who are smarter, wiser, and more well-spoken than we are.  Additionally, making players think up of plans the normal way makes it reliant upon DM Fiat.  Giving a Sherlock Holmes PC Divination-like abilities both reinforces the character concept, and gives the player a useful option when he can't think up a plan the old-fashioned way.

Note: the YouTube video is Mature, and requires an account to view.  It's not much trouble to sign up, and I'd recommend you do so.  It's the kind of thing you have to watch for yourself to appreciate.  Relevant part is 4:18 to 7:12 (Video should automatically start at this point)

Quote from: Libertad;611661Oh my God, I just made a thread talking about a similar thing!  I've got the perfect explanation/YouTube video for this:

Great minds eh? I think my version may be a bit more raw but definetely along the same lines. Its not really an always-on ability either, as per the first Holmes fight he seems quite content to let things proceed in a sporting fashion until the other pugilist resorts to spitting at the back of his head, at which point the kid gloves come off as it were.

Quote from: Libertad;611661Note: the YouTube video is Mature, and requires an account to view.  It's not much trouble to sign up, and I'd recommend you do so.  It's the kind of thing you have to watch for yourself to appreciate.  Relevant part is 4:18 to 7:12 (Video should automatically start at this point)

Yes, I own the Black Lagoon series, thoroughly enjoyable. Also worthy of mention is Death Note, in particular the characters of L and N.