Quote from: The Traveller;611677Great 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.

Well, thinking up grand schemes or ideas on the spot definitely takes a lot of work and isn't necessarily something which can be done at will.

My idea was, like spells, giving PCs of exceptional ability or skill limited-use spell-like abilities.  Once they run out of uses, they run out of stamina or exhausted their mental reserves.

The ability of hyperintelligent people to understand a situation and make a plan is interesting. This depends on two different, very difficult tasks. The first is to deeply understand the people involved (as well as physics and the like). The second is to use that understanding to make a plan. If you plan correctly, the people and objects involved act according to your understanding.

How to emulate this in a game? The GM is the ultimate arbiter as to how people act. The GM determines whether any plan a character makes is successful.

So how do we give a character the ability to guess the future with any degree of specificity? The GM has to "buy into" the existence of this facility, and go along with the character's plan.

To do this, take Libertad's suggestion. We give highly intelligent characters the extraordinary (non-supernatural) ability to predict actions. These aren't divination spells, and don't have effects identical to divination spells, but they do offer similar utility (in a loose sense).

Using these abilities (and possibly in connection with an Attribute Test or skill check), the PC can get info and make a plan. The better the roll (if using such), the better info they know and the better the plan.

Players predicting the GM's characters will work, if the GM plays fair. But what about an NPC predicting the PC's actions? Are players required to "play fair" and do what's expected?

Ha!

In such a case, a retro-active "the NPC thought of it, but the GM didn't" plan is perfectly fine. This is the only plausible alternative to the GM himself being a hyper genius and perfectly predicting how players will act.

Both these abilities seem reasonable, assuming you want such a facility in your games to begin with.

Emulation of genre is very important here.

Let's look at emulating "the real world" first; being a genius at physics doesn't mean you'll actually be worth shit at shooting a gun without training. The whole sherlock holmes thing is nonsense; you get good at fighting through training not by being able to predict someone else's moves. That just doesn't work.

So beyond that we have comics and adventure movies: in that genre, supergeniuses are incredibly clever, often capable of seeing things no one else does, sometimes capable of predicting what others will try to do and thwarting them, and yet, almost to a man, they also have terrific blind spots that fuck them up.  That's why Superman ends up beating Lex Luthor or the Ultra-humanite.

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPundit;611890being a genius at physics doesn't mean you'll actually be worth shit at shooting a gun without training. The whole sherlock holmes thing is nonsense; you get good at fighting through training not by being able to predict someone else's moves. That just doesn't work.

But... jocks...

Quote from: RPGPundit;611890So beyond that we have comics and adventure movies: in that genre, supergeniuses are incredibly clever, often capable of seeing things no one else does, sometimes capable of predicting what others will try to do and thwarting them

Right. A Xanatos Gambit, a Batman Gambit, or Xanatos Speed Chess being played by a true Chessmaster. Let's assume it's appropriate for some genres. The question is: how do we emulate those genres?

For PC's, the not-quite-divination thing (coupled with GM buy-in) works. For NPC's, some kind of retroactive planning is utterly necessary.

If you're going to allow such things in your game.

(And yes, such plans can be flawed. And PC's should be able to defeat them.)

Quote from: Planet Algol;612029But... jocks...

Yeah, exactly. Its a nerd fantasy.

RPGPundit

Quote from: The Traveller;611251How do you deal with supergenius level characters and NPCs in your game?

I assume they've got contingency plans for their contingency plans. They don't need scrying, they've just planned in advance for numerous things going badly.

It's like when you create a character in a movie, TV show or book who is just incredibly witty and a quick thinker. Very few writers are quick on their feet or quick-witted, but they can come up with clever one-liners over the course of days/weeks/months and give them to the character as though he or she is Oscar Wilde X Gore Vidal.

In this case you're not ascribing clever put-downs to the character, but supreme tactical genius. So you might want to work out a bunch of complex, foolproof contingency plans for the character, and when the shit hits the fan reel them off quickly -as though the character is so fucking smart that he can pull a master plan out of his ass without even thinking.

Quote from: Elfdart;612480It's like when you create a character in a movie, TV show or book who is just incredibly witty and a quick thinker. Very few writers are quick on their feet or quick-witted, but they can come up with clever one-liners over the course of days/weeks/months and give them to the character as though he or she is Oscar Wilde X Gore Vidal.

In this case you're not ascribing clever put-downs to the character, but supreme tactical genius. So you might want to work out a bunch of complex, foolproof contingency plans for the character, and when the shit hits the fan reel them off quickly -as though the character is so fucking smart that he can pull a master plan out of his ass without even thinking.

That's true; its useful to have a week or two between adventures in which you ought to be thinking up impressive things for your supergenius to be doing or saying.

RPGPundit

Surely the problem is not playing like a Super genius all the time

And being able to predict what your openet is going to do in combat is very important. its key to a lot of fencing and martial arts moves. Probably not as important as muscle memory of course. And you teand to predict through training and knowing your oponent but certainly knowing their style lets you predict their possible reactions.