General Has anyone used secret societies IYTU?

[Spinward Flow]

As I was looking over the list of available items, I noticed a note: change any listed weapon type to 'laser', add X to stats. The list was mostly gunpowder firearms, but asked if that could be applied to melee weapons, and the puzzled GM said yes hesitantly. I picked a sword to change into a laser sword

I am suddenly reminded of playing the Spy class in Tabula Rasa, armed with a Photonic Blade (which, when swung around, sounded pretty much like a "laser sword" from a different franchise) and just backstabbing/carving through everything on the battlefield.

Ah, those were the days ... when I came up with the Spirit stat maximized Grey Ghost build, that was basically unstoppable ... because like the undead, it was DIRT CHEAP to make repairs after every death (making repeated suicide runs into ambushes feasible when necessary) and the incredibly high stacking of Spirit meant an incredibly high proportion of attacks did critical hits (which bypassed shields and armor, dealing damage directly to health, killing stuff faster).

The Grey Ghost used ALL GREY (lowest quality) equipment, which had the lowest base stats, but was also the cheapest to customize with crafted modifiers. This allowed me to pile on the modifiers (+STR, +MIND, +SPIRIT and +Regeneration) on every bit of gear that I could equip, which actually yielded better throughput of damage onto targets than if I'd gone with a much higher grade of equipment (blues or purples) that would have higher base stats but which would be too expensive to customize and too expensive to repair after getting myself killed. The net result was a bit "glass cannon"-ish in that I had lower than typical ability to withstand incoming fire, but after each battle it took me less than 10 seconds regenerate all of my consumable stats (health, armor, shield, mind) back up to full, creating something of an energizer bunny type of feel to the gameplay. If you didn't kill me, you didn't kill me ... and if you did kill me, I'd be back soon, for more. Quite the roller coaster to play, but also incredibly powerful when played the "right" way (take on enemies sequentially, not in parallel).



So yeah, good on you for choosing a Laser Sword and then carving your way to GLORY with it!

 

[aramis]

I've always assumed there were plenty...
but the canonical one, the Psionics Institutes, is seldom used.

 

[Dragoner]

IMTU I have a lot, they are usually listed in the planetary write-ups, of a variety, some Illuminati type student organizations to interplanetary Thieves' Guild types.

 

[Murph]

Oh yes, I have mafia, GeneCo, the Gilfig religion, etc. Lots going on under the surface.

 

[Condottiere]

Wizards can take apprentices.

 

[Jame]

I have a MTU that i've been working on for a long time, and so far the one session I've played has had something called the Red Guard.

 

[willtron3030]

I don't think I use much by way of 'secret' societies IMTU that are big enough to get past the 'conspiracy' category.

But most of the well known organizations have factions, activities and goals that are, at best, tangential to their public activities and at worst entirely counter to them. Those actions and motives aren't for public examination.