Unusual Super Powers Roleplaying

[SimplyJohn]

Shortly I'll be starting a new roleplay game at my local club centred around a group of supervillains working together to commit a large-scale crime and am currently trying to think up a good model for how to incorporate unusual super powers and abilities into the game. What I mean by 'unusual' is things which aren't the usual super-strength, flight, enhanced senses abilities most superheroes and villains tend to have, but other more intricate abilities.

What I'm looking for is a few ideas of what people would be considered more extreme abilities, as well as ideas for how to balance them as part of the gameplay and narrative.

Examples I've already thought of include Slice, a girl with a cyborg arm which can adapt itself to the situation at hand; Zeitgeist, a psychic who gains more power when large groups of people are thinking or feeling the same thing; Nightshade, a scientist with the ability to manipulate shadows and darkness; Tempus, a time-walker with the ability to transport himself back and forth in time.

With Slice I've decided the player will have to give a list of the components in the arm (for instance a power cell, charging coil, emitter lens, etc) and then would have to come up with an explanation for how those elements interact in order to generate4 the effect they want. For instance, if she wanted to fire a plasma bolt from her hand she'd use the power cell to energise the charging coil and then fire it through the emitter lens. If the player can't come up with a reasonable explanation on the spot then they can't use the ability, since Slice wouldn't know how to ge4t the job done under pressure either.

With Zeitgeist, his ability would be based on how many PCs and NPCs are in the current area and how many of them are focusing their attention on a single target. This wouldn't necessarily have to be Zeitgeist himself, as any focus of attention would activate his power, so if he was teamed up with someone like the Hulk (or She-Hulk, if she was wearing a bikini) then he'd be able to feed of their ability to distract large groups. Again the player would have to come up with scenarios Zeitgeist could use to his advantage in order to get people to focus.

Nightshade's ability depends solely on the light levels in the surrounding area. The whole argument as to what counts as a shadow and what's just darkness may cause problems, so I've decided to simply class the ability as darkness manipulation. This would make Nightshade extremely powerful in a pitch black cave, but helpless against someone waving a flare around.

Tempus gave me the biggest headache, as a character who can basically retcon entire scenes would make things difficult during gameplay. What I've come up with is a couple of limits to the character's powers. The first is scope, in that Tempus can only transport himself in time and when he arrives in the past he immediately replaces the previous version of himself. There would never be a time where there would be two of himself, and he wouldn't be able to double-team an opponent with a temporal doppelganger. The second limit is range, in that during adventures Tempus would only be able to travel a few seconds at a time, and wouldn't be able to 'chain-jump' further distances without preparation. This means he could basically reroll his last action or defense against another character's action, but wouldn't be able to jump all the way back to the start of an encounter and replay the entire thing.

Do these limit sound fair to you? Are there any changes you'd make or additions which could be added? What other strange powers can you come up with and what limits would you put on them?

[Frettzo]

I think Tempus is better off in the idea archives, having a time-traveller in any setting is a mess and effectively turns everything that happens into a discussion on "Why didn't Tempus travel back in time to stop this from happening?"

Slicer's limit on the player knowing how the arm works is unfair, who knows what components one needs to fire a plasma bolt? It makes the character completely undesirable to play to anyone who's not passionate for physics or science. I recommend outlining which abilities she can use.

Nightshade is underpowered. Nobody's going to walk into a dark cave willingly, and even if they do, they'll bring a pretty potent light with themselves. You could give him the ability to use shadows to temporarily turn off any light source, like flashlights, unless you intend to force Nightshade to stay in a dark cave for all of his existence.

Zeitgeist, while an idea with potential, I can't see him being really interesting or important in a RPG. It's already difficult for a writer to devise how such a character would control the attention and feelings of hundreds of people, it's even more difficult for a player to do the same thing. Also, what do you mean by psychic? A telepath? A seer? A mind control kinda guy?

Why not go with the super powers that are known to be fun and have been proven to work?

I have a feeling I could have sugar coated things a lot more. I'm sorry if anything of what I've written is offensive to you, but you asked for criticism. Of course, with more work applied on the ideas, they can become something I'd find fun myself. Keyword being I.

[SimplyJohn]

<Snipped quote>
I have a feeling I could have sugar coated things a lot more. I'm sorry if anything of what I've written is offensive to you, but you asked for criticism. Of course, with more work applied on the ideas, they can become something I'd find fun myself. Keyword being I.

@Frettzo

These four are characters that potential players came to me with and I've tried to build around what they've request. The guy playing as Slice has a pretty good idea how her powers work, he'll just have to limit himself to plausible uses of her arm to prevent her turning into a sonic screwdriver for every and all problems.

Nightshade can teleport between shadows and dark environments, letting her attack an opponent from unexpected angles but still has decent combat abilities as well as her powers, plus the brighter the light, the darker the shadows. If someone's carrying a bright flare in front of themselves then the shadow will be cast right behind them.

For Zeitgeist he was described to me as a kind of empathic vampire, feeding off ambient emotional energies in order to power himself up and then being able to project the crowd's emotions onto his target. When working as part of the team he can boost the rest of the party with a unified sense of purpose and when working alone he prefers to stick to crowds and densely populated areas where his abilities can make use of innocent bystanders. The guy playing him prefers support role characters so I can see it working for him in that regard.

As I said Tempus is the headache. I usually prefer to avoid time travel in any form, as it almost always causes problems, but as long as it's heavily limited, say to a few seconds at most, then I can accept it as part of the group. If the player tries to stretch the ability too far then Tempus might just find himself slipping into a coma, or running afoul of some other GM inspired malady.

Other players have come to me with a metal strongman and either a cryomancer or pyromancer (he hasn't decided which yet) but those are both mainstream enough to not cause too many problems during the game. I hope.

PS. No problem with the criticism by the way, that's what I'm looking for so I can get help to sort all the tricky points out in my head.

[Ellri]

you could always have a villain like "Captain Corrosion"... Rather than the classic control over metal, he's very good at corroding stuff, at breaking down metal. Perfect for those pesky vault doors and guard weapons.

A good superpower should also have disadvantages, or at least inconveniences. Super-strength, for example, can be limited by the fact that finer motor control on fragile things like non-solid metal objects tend to break when squeezed.

A cryomancer probably won't do too well in hot environments, and visa versa for the pyromancer and cold environments.

another interesting superpower would be someone capable of literally flattening themselves against a wall. And so forth. There's simply no real limit to what can be done.

[Frettzo]

I think Nightshade might be overpowered then. If it controls darkness, then it can literally kill you from inside your body, cause light almost never reaches the inside of your body. If Nightshade's only ability is teleporting from shadow to shadow, it can be pretty interesting. I'd hesitate to accept someone who like, creates tendrils of darkness out of shadows.

The others seems fine to me now. With the exception of Tempus. I wouldn't trust anyone, not even myself, with controlling a time-traveler xD If it's just seconds, though... It would be kinda UP, wouldn't it? Most situations you'd find an use for that ability would be situations where you'd already be dead when you realized you needed to go back in time. Like disarming a bomb or moving to a different piece of cover in a shooting.

[SimplyJohn]

I think Nightshade might be overpowered then. If it controls darkness, then it can literally kill you from inside your body, cause light almost never reaches the inside of your body. If Nightshade's only ability is teleporting from shadow to shadow, it can be pretty interesting. I'd hesitate to accept someone who like, creates tendrils of darkness out of shadows.

@Frettzo

There wouldn't be any solid form shadows, but Nightshade would be able to manipulate shadows to a limited degree, making them longer and stretching them before teleporting through them. THis would be very difficult for the player though, as they'd have to concentrate on using the ability and then perform the attack before the shadow snapped back to its original position, so I'd see it only being used when ambushing an unsuspecting target. Mainly Nightshade would be just teleporting between existing shadows and attacking her targets directly.

The others seems fine to me now. With the exception of Tempus. I wouldn't trust anyone, not even myself, with controlling a time-traveler xD If it's just seconds, though... It would be kinda UP, wouldn't it? Most situations you'd find an use for that ability would be situations where you'd already be dead when you realized you needed to go back in time. Like disarming a bomb or moving to a different piece of cover in a shooting.

@Frettzo

It's all about the 'Oh Shit' moments, where you have an instant to realise you've made a mistake just before the consequences kick in. As part of the gameplay this would mainly be used to reroll failed actions and defenses with the difficulty increasing each time. Tempus would probably suffer Stress each time he tried to use his power, so frivolous use would make it more difficult for him to keep going unless he took a chance to rest and recover. This power could end up being very overpowered, as he'd be theoretically able to keep rerolling until he got the result he wanted, no matter how unlikely it would be, but since the Stress would be building I can see things balancing out.

Having said that, there would be times when Tempus wouldn't be allowed to use the power, for instance when he wasn't aware of something happening until too late. For instance, if he was poisoned or gassed he might not become aware of the danger until he was already beginning to feel the effects, and by then even if he did jump back he'd not be able to prevent the attack from taking place. Other examples would include sniper or stealth attacks which hit without warning.

[Nemaisare]

Hmmm... I have to say that there does not seem to be a lot that one can do with shadows,them being intabgible manifestations of a lack of light, but if you can reshape them, I suppose that might have some bearing on, I dunno, freaking people out if they're around the corner. Manipulating it wouldn't really do much, that I can think of. Maybe I'm just thinking too small. But I can see useful implications for traveling through shadows if the character can then turn shadows into doorways. They could then potentially cut someone, if they're too big to fit or if the fall on the edge of the shadow but are pulled through. And there'd be other aspects to think of like what happens to them when they're going through the dark, and how they know where they're going. Actually manipulating shadow just sort of strikes me as hard and kinda pointless unless one happens to be in the circus and likes putting on shadow plays.

I do have a suggestion for Slice and Tempus, though the latter would likely only work if it's a turn-based, tabletop thing. Which I'm assuming it is based on what's been said so far. But rather than letting the character go back in time as many times as he can withstand, even if it is only for a few seconds, why not allow them to mess with time without being able to go back themselves? I think it's the spacetime theory? But if they could flip the order of two actions around in one or two turns, only two actions mind, and only things within a certain timeframe, that might give them a little more leeway, without either taking away the point of timetravelling(a few seconds really isn't a long time at all) or giving them too much power. This would need more thinking about, certainly, for instance, would causal actions be switchable, like throwing a glass and it breaking, or hitting someone with a sword and them falling over? And how much leeway would they have in defining a causal action if they aren't switchable? Someone drinking wine after it's been poisoned vs before it's been poisoned, for instance.... If that's something you wouldn't mind allowing, then you could say that the character would have to be able to guess or know which actions would achieve the goal they want(so they might not succeed in whatever they're trying to accomplish even if the actions do switch) and both actions would have to be within that limited timeframe(ie if someone had poisoned the wine days before it was drunk, they would have to find another solution, if they can).

As for Slice, I see the point of an adaptable arm, and the unfair point of having to know how to make a plasma blast. But I think the whole listing what's in the arm is a good idea. And might do with another list of potential possibilities so that the player and the character both know what the arm is basically capable of before starting, and what you'd be willing to allow or not allow. But a true weakness should be set in place concerning maybe, power limits(do the batteries need charging?) or weight(the more equipment the arm has, the heavier it will be, the more lopsided the character's balance...)

[SimplyJohn]

Hmmm... I have to say that there does not seem to be a lot that one can do with shadows,them being intangible manifestations of a lack of light, but if you can reshape them, I suppose that might have some bearing on, I dunno, freaking people out if they're around the corner. Manipulating it wouldn't really do much, that I can think of. Maybe I'm just thinking too small. But I can see useful implications for traveling through shadows if the character can then turn shadows into doorways. They could then potentially cut someone, if they're too big to fit or if the fall on the edge of the shadow but are pulled through. And there'd be other aspects to think of like what happens to them when they're going through the dark, and how they know where they're going. Actually manipulating shadow just sort of strikes me as hard and kinda pointless unless one happens to be in the circus and likes putting on shadow plays.

@Nemaisare

With Nightshade we're looking at the shadow powers being similar to using a Portal gun. He can jump in one shadow and immediately out of the other as though they were directly connected, and wouldn't spend any time suspended 'elsewhere' between the two. Nightshade can transport anything he's in physical contact with through a shadow with him, including other people and potentially a vehicle he's riding in as long as he could concentrate hard enough to make a portal big enough. And yes, he could grab someone, pull them back halfway through and then shut off his power to slice them in half, but this would involve him actually being able to grapple the other character first in order to pull them back into the shadow.

Note to self: Need to think about angles of shadows, as stepping into a shadow on the wall and then dropping from the ceiling or vice versa could be possible. Also dropping a target through a shadow on the floor beneath them would be a little too easy.

I do have a suggestion for Slice and Tempus, though the latter would likely only work if it's a turn-based, tabletop thing. Which I'm assuming it is based on what's been said so far. But rather than letting the character go back in time as many times as he can withstand, even if it is only for a few seconds, why not allow them to mess with time without being able to go back themselves? I think it's the spacetime theory? But if they could flip the order of two actions around in one or two turns, only two actions mind, and only things within a certain timeframe, that might give them a little more leeway, without either taking away the point of time travelling(a few seconds really isn't a long time at all) or giving them too much power.

@Nemaisare

The game we'll be playing is a tabletop turn-based system, with dice rolls to determine the success of actions and attacks, which allows for Tempus rerolling failed actions as he steps back and tries the same action in a slightly different way.

The problem with flipping actions is that if you replace something which happened in the previous round then the whole chain of events collapses, with every action past the point of change needing to be repeated. As an example, the party are in a hallway as the door ahead opens and a group of three guards arrives. One of the party shoots down the hall until they run out of bullets and kills a guard and another member of the party charges forwards to engage a second guard, slicing them down with a sword. Tempus pulls out his gun and shoots at the third guard but misses.

In the reroll model Tempus would jump back a moment and retake the shot, aiming a little to the left this time and hitting the third guard. In the flipping model Tempus jumps back to before the other party member shot and aims for the easier target who was killed by his colleague, stealing the kill for himself instead. The problem then is that the first party member's shooting attack now needs to resolves again against the two remaining guards and the second party member's charge would have to be resolved again, and so both the players would have to roll for their actions again even though they'd already succeeded. While this is better for Tempus it means you'd spend most of your playing time going back and replaying the same scenes again as each temporal incursion alters the flow of events.

This would need more thinking about, certainly, for instance, would causal actions be switchable, like throwing a glass and it breaking, or hitting someone with a sword and them falling over? And how much leeway would they have in defining a causal action if they aren't switchable?

@Nemaisare

The definition I usually use for a 'casual action' is something which has no effect on any character other than the one performing it. If they place something in their pocket or pick something up then that's casual, but if they interact with someone else, like hitting them with a sword, then it's not casual as the other character would need to have a chance to react to either prevent being hit or recover from the attack. Throwing a glass and it breaking may be casual or not, depending on the circumstances. If you're hiding and try to use the glass as a distraction it wouldn't be casual (the people hunting you would need to respond) but if you're in the middle of a friendly meal and toss the glass away then it's casual.

Someone drinking wine after it's been poisoned vs before it's been poisoned, for instance.... If that's something you wouldn't mind allowing, then you could say that the character would have to be able to guess or know which actions would achieve the goal they want(so they might not succeed in whatever they're trying to accomplish even if the actions do switch) and both actions would have to be within that limited timeframe(ie if someone had poisoned the wine days before it was drunk, they would have to find another solution, if they can).

@Nemaisare

One of the rules I'm imposing for Tempus is that he's physically travelling through time, and so any injury or effect he's suffered would persist. In the case of whether to drink a potentially poisoned drink or not, even if he travelled back after drinking the wrong cup he'd still be poisoned as he drank it and then traveled back and so as part of his own personal timeline the event did actually happen to him.

The main reason I'm using this rule is to prevent Tempus from becoming immortal with his powers. If the player steps out into a hallway filled with armed guards then he's going to get shot. The player would have to think their way around the problem rather than relying on their powers to get them through unscathed. However if Tempus stepped around a corner and spotted the guards before they shot he could use his powers to just back a second and decide not to turn the corner instead. In gameplay terms, the player would have to decide to make a saving roll and use the power before the enemy rolls to attack Tempus, rather than waiting to see if the enemies would manage to hit Tempus or not before choosing whether to jump back or not. In situations where he's already been attacked and injured he may still choose to go back to warn the party of an incoming attack, but would retain the injuries he'd suffered before travelling.

Similarly the precognitive ability I think you're describing reminds me of the Nicholas Cage film Next, where the character knew the outcome of every decision he could possibly make within the next five minutes, which let him walk through the middle of a battle between an army of terrorists and federal law enforcement officers without being injured, search an entire ship of mines without setting any off and finding the exact location of a hostage in seconds. All of these abilities would be far too powerful as part of the narrative and would involve the players having to either replay the same five minutes over and over until the perfect result was achieved, or simply jumping to the perfect result without playing through any of the failed attempts, which then makes any dice roll pointless as it could be simply wished away.

As for Slice, I see the point of an adaptable arm, and the unfair point of having to know how to make a plasma blast. But I think the whole listing what's in the arm is a good idea. And might do with another list of potential possibilities so that the player and the character both know what the arm is basically capable of before starting, and what you'd be willing to allow or not allow. But a true weakness should be set in place concerning maybe, power limits(do the batteries need charging?) or weight(the more equipment the arm has, the heavier it will be, the more lopsided the character's balance...)

@Nemaisare

The logic behind Slice's arm is that rather than having a different device for every use instead she has the components which lock together slightly differently to generate different effects. For instance the arm would have a phase coil, used to generate and control electromagnetic fields. This could be used to help control the flow of plasma, to create a magnetic force field, to create a railgun launch mechanism, to magnetise her arm, etc. Similarly the arm would have a plasma power core which could be used to project plasma, power a force field or electrify her arm.

However, if the player decided he wanted to try and use the arm to unlock a mechanical lock made out of non-magnetic components they wouldn't have a component which could be tailored to the task, so unless they could come up with an explanation as to how the plasma and magnetic fields could be used to unlock the door (other than blowing it off its hinges with a blast of plasma) then they wouldn't be allowed to use the arm to complete the task.

As far as power supply and weight goes, the plasma core uses up fuel as it operates but can also replenish itself over time. In terms of gameplay this works the same way as the Stress for Tempus's powers but in reverse where the power would drain as tasks are performed but then recover over time as the character rested. The weight issue is actually the reason for the interlocking components explanation of the arms operation, since it wouldn't need extra equipment to operate differently as long as the existing components could reconfigure to achieve the goal.

[SimplyJohn]

you could always have a villain like "Captain Corrosion"... Rather than the classic control over metal, he's very good at corroding stuff, at breaking down metal. Perfect for those pesky vault doors and guard weapons.

@Ellri

Interesting idea for a power, but how much control would the player have over it? Is it an activated power, where they can choose to corrode something when they touch it but can equally choose not to, or a permanently active power, where anything they touch, at any time, would corrode?

A good superpower should also have disadvantages, or at least inconveniences. Super-strength, for example, can be limited by the fact that finer motor control on fragile things like non-solid metal objects tend to break when squeezed.

A cryomancer probably won't do too well in hot environments, and visa versa for the pyromancer and cold environments.

@Ellri

There's already enough source material around to easily accommodate things like super-strength, melting cyromancers and the like, so I'm not having too much trouble building gameplay models for how to deal with their powers. It's the unusual and esoteric abilities which cause problems, since they can be used in unexpected ways which break the game rules too easily.

another interesting superpower would be someone capable of literally flattening themselves against a wall. And so forth. There's simply no real limit to what can be done.

@Ellri

Nice idea, but with characters like Reed 'Mr Fantastic' Richards, Elongated Man and Plastic Man around there's enough source material for those powers as well. :)

[Nemaisare]

Note to self: Need to think about angles of shadows, as stepping into a shadow on the wall and then dropping from the ceiling or vice versa could be possible. Also dropping a target through a shadow on the floor beneath them would be a little too easy.

@SimplyJohn

Suddenly fall from the ceiling. lol Could they use their own shadow? Cuz, it'd shrink as they went, although, I suppose the same, making it bigger would work for that too, possibly.

The game we'll be playing is a tabletop turn-based system, with dice rolls to determine the success of actions and attacks, which allows for Tempus rerolling failed actions as he steps back and tries the same action in a slightly different way.

The problem with flipping actions is that if you replace something which happened in the previous round then the whole chain of events collapses, with every action past the point of change needing to be repeated.

@SimplyJohn

While I admit I had not put too much thought to the idea that everyone would then need to redo their actions, I was working under the assumption that Tempus is working for the rest of his party, and would try, at the least, not to screw anything up too much for the other party members. Unless, I suppose, they're going for a double-cross... But in the example you gave, switching the order of who shoots when doesn't actually change where each shoots. I suppose if they're each waiting for the other to pick a target... but realistically, unless they're all shouting out who they're going after, they'd just wind up shooting at the same easy target. I suppose that doesn't generally happen in turn-based rp(of any sort, heh).

Would it be possible to reuse the old rolls for the previous actions and simply have the other players quickly put them to another action? I haven't played a lot of dice/tabletop stuff, so now I'm kind of just being curious.

The definition I usually use for a 'casual action' is something which has no effect on any character other than the one performing it.

@SimplyJohn

I actually did mean causal, not casual. I can understand your definition of casual action, but it's kind of the opposite of causal, as causal actions are actions that cause something... :P So, one person putting their sunglasses down while another person takes a drink are two separate actions that have little bearing on each other, and so, would be casual, not causal. And which happens first doesn't really matter. Throwing a glass, however, caused that glass to break. So the glass can't be broken before someone throws it. (well, it could, but that's a whole different sequence of events and the person would probably then never throw it)

One of the rules I'm imposing for Tempus is that he's physically travelling through time, and so any injury or effect he's suffered would persist. In the case of whether to drink a potentially poisoned drink or not, even if he travelled back after drinking the wrong cup he'd still be poisoned as he drank it and then traveled back and so as part of his own personal timeline the event did actually happen to him.

@SimplyJohn

I don't think the flipping actions around would necessarily allow Tempus to avoid being injured or poisoned or whatever the case may be. If he can't figure out which action caused the effect, flipping another wouldn't change the outcome. Drinking a cup of poisoned wine before suspicious Sally touches it would not stop it from being poisoned if it wasn't suspicious Sally who poisoned it, or if that particular handling of it wasn't when she poisoned it.

Similarly the precognitive ability I think you're describing reminds me of the Nicholas Cage film Next, where the character knew the outcome of every decision he could possibly make within the next five minutes, which let him walk through the middle of a battle between an army of terrorists and federal law enforcement officers without being injured, search an entire ship of mines without setting any off and finding the exact location of a hostage in seconds. All of these abilities would be far too powerful as part of the narrative and would involve the players having to either replay the same five minutes over and over until the perfect result was achieved, or simply jumping to the perfect result without playing through any of the failed attempts, which then makes any dice roll pointless as it could be simply wished away.

@SimplyJohn

No precog ability, just guesswork, hindsight might be 20/20 when you've got all the clues, but being able to look back and think I shouldn't have done that, is different from being able to know what will come of doing that same thing in a different sequence.

Either way, I can see why this could have the same problem with the whole having to redo the turns for the sequence things all over again that being able to go farther back in time would have. Though a limit like, you can only do this once every twenty minutes in game, might work to make that happen less?

The logic behind Slice's arm is that rather than having a different device for every use instead she has the components which lock together slightly differently to generate different effects.

As far as power supply and weight goes, the plasma core uses up fuel as it operates but can also replenish itself over time. In terms of gameplay this works the same way as the Stress for Tempus's powers but in reverse where the power would drain as tasks are performed but then recover over time as the character rested. The weight issue is actually the reason for the interlocking components explanation of the arms operation, since it wouldn't need extra equipment to operate differently as long as the existing components could reconfigure to achieve the goal.

@SimplyJohn

Oh, there's a plasma core. I have no idea what that means other than really hot fourth state of matter, so I'll just think alternative power source and be happy with that. :P I wasn't thinking too much have every component be singularly capable of one thing, just that along with the list of every component, the player might offer you a second list of basic arm functions and ideas they have so that they aren't always stuck having to quickly think up something, have some practise at thinking up combinations, and know what you're willing to let sneak past if it's not exactly scientific. Then you both have some idea of what the other thinks is acceptable and willing to compromise about.

I still say that a cyborg arm is going to be heavier than a regular flesh and blood arm, that, or it would be more easily damaged, particularly if it has the same amount of working parts. If something heavy hit it, instead of bruising, it might jam one of those components and until it can be fixed or rejostled into place, that particular component would be capable of reconfiguring with the rest. And whether or not those components work together or singularly, the rule of the more there are, the heavier it'll be still applies. :)

[DMZ]

-Misclick-

[SimplyJohn]

Would it be possible to reuse the old rolls for the previous actions and simply have the other players quickly put them to another action?

@Nemaisare

You could do, but this could then lead to problems of over overlapping results. Going back to the guards example, the three guards enter ally #1 shoots guard #1, ally #2 sword swipes the guard #2, Tempus shoots at and misses guard #3. Tempus resets and shoots guard #2 instead, ally #1 shoots guard #1 and ally #2 is now charging down the corridor to engage with the already dead guard #2. This would leave guard #3 with a perfect opportunity to gun down ally #2 as they stand in the middle of the now corpse-filled corridor. Trying to switch the melee attack to guard #3 would cause problems as the difficulty of the attack would be different and ally #2 may not have succeeded with the same result.

The only way for the player not to find themselves at a disadvantage due to Tempus's interference would be to allow ally #2 to change the action they took in response to the interference, leading to a different outcome. While this would be fine as a one-off instance, with Tempus's powers firing off during every engagement the game would change from a plot-driven narrative to a long sequence of replays as each session ran ove4r the same engagement over-and-over until Tempus came out on top (or the other players get bored and head over to McD's instead.)

I actually did mean causal, not casual.

@Nemaisare

My mistake there, too used to dealing with typos on these boards. :)

The problem with determining the causal links in a chain of events is how far back do you take the chain and how do you account for changes in the chain which may have been caused by the smallest of actions, Butterfly Effect and all that. Different characters may also choose to do something other than what they had the first time round after Tempus reset, plus the players may choose to make use of their own foreknowledge to alter events, even though their character's wouldn't be aware of the change in outcome (cheating bastards that they are.)

Either way, I can see why this could have the same problem with the whole having to redo the turns for the sequence things all over again that being able to go farther back in time would have. Though a limit like, you can only do this once every twenty minutes in game, might work to make that happen less?

@Nemaisare

THe Star Wars roleplay system handles this in a good way by having Signature Abilities for high-level characters. These require the players to use Fate points to trigger the effect, require them to pass a skill check AND can only be used once per session. With these sorts of limits I'd be willing to allow Tempus a one-time free pass on time travel, with the warning that he may not even succeed if the skill test fails.

The physical travel through time rule would still apply though, so if he's almost dying after a particularly bad combat then he still wouldn't be allowed a miraculous cure by jumping back, although if there was a healer/medic in the party he may be able to get aid which wouldn't otherwise be available.

Oh, there's a plasma core. I have no idea what that means other than really hot fourth state of matter, so I'll just think alternative power source and be happy with that. :P I wasn't thinking too much have every component be singularly capable of one thing, just that along with the list of every component, the player might offer you a second list of basic arm functions and ideas they have so that they aren't always stuck having to quickly think up something, have some practise at thinking up combinations, and know what you're willing to let sneak past if it's not exactly scientific. Then you both have some idea of what the other thinks is acceptable and willing to compromise about.

@Nemaisare

I'll be using the Treknology rule for explanations on how the arm works, which basically means if the explanation looks logical at first glance and is consistent with what has happened before then it can be done, even if it's scientifically unsound in the real world.

Slice is a previously developed character the player wants to bring into the adventure and he seems to know what her limits are already, her backstory has all kinds of details which sound semi-plausible (like the arm being built out of a metallic crystalline lattice material which can grow along the paths of electrical current. making it easily compatible with Slice's nervous system.) I've already asked him to provide me with a list of the components he has at her disposal and what kinds of effects these would be used for. Once I have the list I'll check it and may veto anything which would give an unfair advantage (like a flux capacitor.)

I still say that a cyborg arm is going to be heavier than a regular flesh and blood arm, that, or it would be more easily damaged, particularly if it has the same amount of working parts. If something heavy hit it, instead of bruising, it might jam one of those components and until it can be fixed or rejostled into place, that particular component would be capable of reconfiguring with the rest. And whether or not those components work together or singularly, the rule of the more there are, the heavier it'll be still applies. :)

@Nemaisare

Crippling the arm will be treated the same as a normal arm, making it useless until repaired, the only difference being it would need a mechanic rather than a medic to o the healing. Since Slice's main role is to be a method of transportation for her arm, which is the basis for most of her abilities and attacks, I'm not going to set too high a limit on how easily it would get damaged, since it would be unfair to have her one ability taken out of action every time someone managed to hit it.

[Geoffrey Silt]

I think somebody once made a thing where the person was exactly what people thought of them. So like, if they thought they were a beast of incredible strength, they were, but if they thought they were a dumb rat. Well. They were. But they had no control over what they were, it always depended on other people's thoughts. Could be cool if you got a person to think you were a giant monster, then everybody thought you were, so you were most often a giant monster. Then somebody thinks otherwise and BAM you're screwed

I mean maybe it could be where they neeeeed to keep it a secret from their opponents etc etc. Could be kinda.

You did say weird super powers.

Thas weird.

ALSO, IF NOT ALREADY SAID. A person who manipulates gravity. He can only change the gravity of one person at a time. Its harder to use on others, easy to use on himself. Eh?

[SimplyJohn]

@Geoffrey Silt interesting idea. I take it the character would be a psychic of some kind, imprinting a mental image of himself onto others and then causing psychosomatic injuries based on what the target thought they should be suffering from his attacks?

As for the gravity manipulator, I've already got rules for Magneto's magnetic powers which can easily be reworked as gravity control instead. :)