Basic Action Super Heroes!

I came up with an idea for a character called The Librarian.
His power is simple. He knows all recorded information. In the back of his mind, he has a link to every book, CD-ROM, personal journal, and scribbled-note-on-a-napkin on earth. This does not necessarily translate to practical skill, but can certainly help.

What would be the best way to do this, if it's possible?

Brian

Does he actually KNOW all recorded info, or does he have just the possibility of access to it? I don't think there is a game mechanic way to represent actually knowing everything recorded. If he just has the possibility of access to it, then Omniscience 5 or 10 (Limit: Only stuff written down) for either 4 or 8 points would probably cover it. You could use it to give you Telepathy, but you aren't really reading their thoughts, you're only reading their personal journal, blog, etc. so you'd know things they've written down. And you could use Scan or Sense X to make a roll to know where something is, but only if someone has documented it somewhere, etc. The problem with all of those is that there is still a roll involved, so you can fail. If you unfailingly know everything written down, then I think you are in the realm of a plot device power that can't be done as specific powers. At least I'm not coming up with a way yet...

EDIT: Oh, and the Jack of All Trades advantage helps handle the skills issue.

I personally wouldn't allow it, unless there was some sort of roll involved. As a GM something like this with no chance of failure can ruin a well planned out adventure pretty quickly. Especially a mystery/ investigation sceneario.

I'd probably go with Clairvoyance 1 (present) [Limit: only written information]

or

Sense Written Information linked with Omni-Reader

(This way it would be like trying to sift through all of the data, and once you fond it, you could actually read it, rather than just knowing where it was located. )

I have similar concept in another game. She can project her consciousness into the internet (basically a cyberpunk type decker) I'd probabaly giver her another limit as well [must make computer skill check]

Actually, I think that clairvoyance is a great way to do this, with a limitation that it only applies to written stuff. I'd also go as far as to give Past Clairvoyance as well.

Another option is :

Skillful (give him every mental skill)
Jack of All Trades
Photographic Memory (this would cover the roll necessary to determine if he can access the data or not)

Maybe Boost Mental (only for Mental skills)

Heroglyph: that would be good for an Omni-skilled character, but wouldn't let someone read personal documents and secret goverment stuff.

Lindharin: Basically, he knows it. But like anyone who knows a lot of stuff it sort of depends on associations and reminders.
If someone asks you, "What do you know?" you'd be like, "Um, I don't know." but if someone asks you a specific fact, then you can give it immediately. So he might not always know that he knows something, if that makes sense, unless something reminds him.
"Ohhhh! That robot was created by SinisterCo., officially as a worker unit, but private memos say it's a weapon! The power plant is in the lower back. Aim there."
"You couldn't have told us that sooner?"
"Well, I didn't connect the robot with the diagrams. I just knew it looked familiar."

I don't know if I'd use him as a PC, unless the GM liked the idea of having a character who could feed info to the group, and he doesn't have any other practical powers or abilities. (Knowing the history of every martial art as well as being able to picture "how-to" diagrams from books doesn't give you the experience or skill to use said martial arts.)

You know, I'd probably go with the Clairvoyance with the limitation as well for something like this. However, what about a secondary power that allows him to grant "Attack Weak Spot [Limitation: Only Usable on Others]" (if that would work) for situations like the one you mentioned? That would give him an actual role in the group but he'd be very limited in that the team would basically have to shield The Librarian from harm in order for him to be useful.

The concept is reminiscent of the Archivist class for D&D 3.5. The class was built around identifying the strange and granting abilities to their team to help defeat it. My Archivist was a salty old fisherman who had stories to tell of the things he'd seen... Once the group realized they should listen to his crazy ramblings the benefits started showing up.


EDIT
After thinking about it, the Attack Weak Spot could be linked to the Clairvoyance. If he gains the information he needs then he could impart that to his allies.

I dunno. Anyone else have an idea on that?

Kinetic wrote:You know, I'd probably go with the Clairvoyance with the limitation as well for something like this. However, what about a secondary power that allows him to grant "Attack Weak Spot [Limitation: Only Usable on Others]"

To be honest, I imagined the weak spot thing as being more akin to a power stunt.
Maybe give the power the "Versatile" advantage.

Brian

Kinetic wrote:You know, I'd probably go with the Clairvoyance with the limitation as well for something like this. However, what about a secondary power that allows him to grant "Attack Weak Spot [Limitation: Only Usable on Others]" (if that would work) for situations like the one you mentioned? That would give him an actual role in the group but he'd be very limited in that the team would basically have to shield The Librarian from harm in order for him to be useful.

The concept is reminiscent of the Archivist class for D&D 3.5. The class was built around identifying the strange and granting abilities to their team to help defeat it. My Archivist was a salty old fisherman who had stories to tell of the things he'd seen... Once the group realized they should listen to his crazy ramblings the benefits started showing up.


EDIT
After thinking about it, the Attack Weak Spot could be linked to the Clairvoyance. If he gains the information he needs then he could impart that to his allies.

I dunno. Anyone else have an idea on that?

That’s definitely a neat idea to link Attack Weak Point and Clairvoyance. Maybe there could be a way the character with this power could apply a +1 Dice Bonus when assisting (see page 7) another character; even if he doesn’t have the skill. Maybe the ranks in Clairvoyance could each offer a die bonus (+1 die for Clairvoyance-Present, and +1 die for Clairvoyance-Past). This benefit could, maybe, be an Enhancement to the Clairvoyance power.