I have a question about the Nova.
If I take, say, Cosmic Energies as my character’s ability. Am I “limited” to using it for the Flares I’ve chosen or can I use it for whatever I can imagine/justify?
I have a question about the Nova.
I have a question about the Nova.
You are “limited” by these flares when using your flare powers.
You can however do A BUNCH of different things when you unleash your powers. Think of your flares more as “rotes”. You can do these things more precise, with a more predictable outcome. Unleashing is a way more unpredictable tool.
Unleashing is your hammer. Flares are your precise (but chaotic) tools.
‘Cosmic Energies’ are the descriptor of your powers. They’re not what you do, they’re how you do it. A theme, not an effect. You’re only limited by the available mechanical effects, not by narrative description. Always remember that there’s a difference between the two.
During the game I played, I used Overcharge to get an automatic 10+ on unleashing your powers, and decided to ‘reshape your environment’, by putting lots of distance between us and the villain.
I narrated it as Coil grabbing the subway’s third rail, and using all that juice to turn the rails into a rail gun, using the villain as the ammunition. It got him away from us long enough to rescue the kidnapping victim, and get the heck out of dodge.
Another character, with a different power theme might have described it as collapsing the subway tunnel between the villain and the team. Or throwing up a force field. Or warping space with an intense gravitational field. Or tying the villain up with a length of subway rail. Or any number of other things that are thematically consistent with the description of their power set.