Hi all. My group and I are picking up WiP for the first time, and one of my players asked if he could create a character like Sylar from the TV Series ‘Heroes’. With that in mind, how would someone go about making a character that can copy powers in the system?
Hi all.
Hi all.
.
Hmm,. that’s a tricky one; you could maybe set it up something like:
Simple: absorb someone’s power for a couple hours (add their power to your Powers Summary for said amount of time).
Difficult: absorb someone’s power for a day or two (add their power to your Powers Summary for said amount of time).
Borderline: absorb someone’s power indefinitely (add their power to your Powers Summary for said amount of time).
And then they’ll probably have a few places where they can put in some extra stuff, maybe some powers they’ve already absorbed – accidentally or not a la Rogue. So when they absorb a power they can treat it like they’ve got it in their Powers Summary, but they’ll have to Push to do stuff and add it to their Profile. If they get a 10+ it stays so maybe there are vestiges that stay within them. I think that would keep it from not getting too out of hand, cause they’d still have to Push to do stuff and add it to their Profile.
In essence, they’d be like any other character, but their Powers Summary would be in flux and they could technically add anything to their Powers Profile with a good roll (provided they already had the power absorbed into their Summary that is).
That’s awesome. Nice and clean and simple.
That also sounds like a good idea.
As a follow up question, as my group and I are understanding the game, we’re wondering how these powers might be used.
For instance, if a simple power says ‘…for a few hours’ and then difficult says ‘…for a few days.’ What prevents the player from simply doing the stronger effect? What are they rolling to ‘use’ the power?
Why a power is simple vs borderline or whichever level is up to that player. It could be it takes longer, or has a requirement like BeePeeGee was talking about, or it could just physically take more out of them.
That said, all things being equal if there isn’t anything in the fiction preventing them from doing their more advanced powers they just do them. Most of the time PCs have other stuff to contend with as well though, like their environment crumbling around them, villains trying to punch them in the face, innocents to save, etc. That’s when the EIC will ask them if they think they have the time/skill/chops/whatever to do something really difficult under the circumstances. They might need to Defy Danger or they may just do it and the consequences could be rough if they fail.