Are some abilities better than others?
I made a Nova recently for a game I just joined. Because we had someone already playing a character with telekinetic powers, I chose to stay away from telepathy and telekinesis as an ability. Instead, I ended up choosing elemental control to get fire powers. While I could have chosen a different element that would have brought more variety to the table, I wanted the sense of danger that fire brings.
This got me thinking though, telekinesis is a much easier power to leverage into different effects. Normal people can’t ride around on top of a disk of fire like they can a disk of telekinetic force. The same would be true of ice or many other effects. Fire though, is inherently dangerous to the average person (and many Heros).
Am I effectively reducing the capabilities of my character by selecting an ability that is narratively more dangerous? Is this actually an unbalancing factor for the character or will it not matter that they are at a disadvantage compared to a differently built Nova?
The nova IS dangerous. That’s their concept. Don’t worry too much about not being effective. The fun is in being powerful and dangerous, and nothing screams that more than fire.
If you are worried about being effect, fire can pull off a lot of cool stunts. Human Torch can fly, by turning himself into fire. Some ideas might be here: http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Fire_Manipulation
My suggestion, there are some shows and anime where characters have seemingly minor and useless powers (at least when you first hear about it) that get used very well.
It gives a lot of inspiration.
There’s Yomiko Readman – Paper Master – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTwUq764-qU (actually paper masters are known in uni to be really powerful, but when the audience first hears “she controls paper and can absorb the knowledge of books” it sounds hokey
Emiya Shirou – affinity for swords – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-XACQ8vmDk (in universe he gets mocked that the only spell he knows is reinforcement…then he borrows enough power to be able to reveal that he has the ability to produce what’s called a “reality marble” which has a nigh infinite quality of just about perfect copies of every sword he’s ever encountered in any timeline…up to and including sentient artifacts)
Shiki Tohno and/or Ryougi – ability to see where they needs to cut in order to kill/destroy things – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4OewLMeE58 (not an AMV because it explains things better) (one thing from one of the short stories, Ryougi teleports by killing the concept of the distance between her and her destination…she sees the place where the concept exists, slashes it with her knife and presto)
Vibe – sense and vibrate dimensional strings
For that matter, one of the possible abilities you can get in my Divine Blood setting is “Self-Hallucination”
Things you can, your telekineticist cannot:
– You can make light.
– You can make fiery letters in the sky.
– You can keep things warm.
– You can evaporate water, creating mist.
If you’re able to make fire NOT burn certain things, that can open things up a bit too.
That’s an early fire power in Scion as well, Bolster Fire…makes it so that it doesn’t consume fuel or produce heat so you can use it as a reliable light source (or a focus of later powers such as flame viewing)
I had images of a trap with dozens of bolstered flames hanging in mid air in an area that’s imminently flammable…wait for someone to walk through and….unbolster the flames while the enemy looks at the floating fires in caution/wonder/whatever…..instant inferno
Thanks for the ideas guys. I was able to use some of this to further expand and define my power set.
You need to not worry about how strong your character is, but about how awesome a story you can spin with him.
I think mechanical balance is a concept that we’re just used to as gamers, but it is irrelevant in Powered by the Apocalypse games, especially Masks. And there’s a lot of precedence for young super teams to have members with vastly different levels of power. Think Robin & Speedy vs. Starfire & Kid Flash, or Nick Minoru vs. Chase Stein. The stories aren’t about how much power you have or how useful you are. They’re about how you overcome obstacles together.
Well, you assumed Elemental Control meant control of AN element, instead of THE elements.
It could also mean I can control actual elementals. Clarity wasn’t something they worked hard on in this case. The final power set I worked out settles halfway between sorcery and fire manipulation and I feel it is suitably broad while maintaining my theme.
the listed powers are generally only examples as well…you’re allowed to come up with your own, it’s just that the listed powers are ones that they know fit the theme of the playbooks.
I mean, I’m sure there’s more legacies we can think of for The Legacy than:
Superman, The Flash, Batman, The Shadow and Thor.
Luke Green Black Panther would count. Iron Fist too. I think the Justice society had modern counterparts inherit their identities at some point so they might count.
yeah, there are plenty, any of the Magus houses from Fate/Stay-Night works as well as well since they pretty much surgically remove and pass on a “crest” that contains the progressively built powers and knowledge of the past generations.
So the 5 power sets listed in The Legacy just don’t cover all the potential legacies, which is why the game says you’re free to make up your own.