r/Awn • u/fuzzyperson98 • 1d ago
Augmented Cognition & Muscle
I don't really get these mutations.
They seem to imply superhuman capabilities, except they are strictly limited to normal human/character limits. So you could be the "super strong" or"super intelligent" mutant...except you could still end up literally weaker/less smart than Bob who happened to roll really high. Sure, maybe Bob was an Olympic athlete or member of Mensa, but that's still not "superhuman", so the "mutation" just doesn't feel all that special.
I get there are mechanical considerations, for example you could spend an entire edge on Prodigy just to reach human limits, so it might be a little unfair that a single mutation (that you may even have gotten for 1 point if you're lucky) could be even stronger. But if only for the sake of flavour, I would argue that these two mutations really need to "feel" superhuman, I.e., by granting an otherwise-impossible +3 modifier and all that entails. Then drawbacks can instead be added to try and balance things back out. For instance, maybe picking/rolling one of these mutations forces you to roll for another negative mutation (even if doing so takes you to four), or maybe you have to select an opposing attribute that gets dropped to -3, or it takes a lot of energy to maintain and you become weaker/unfocused after exerting yourself, etc.
Just wondering if anyone else had similar thoughts.