Using Powers

While I wait for my lunch to cool down enough to eat it, I thought I'd post some quick thoughts about ways to limit the use of Powers. In some settings, you don't want powers to be used all the time. In a fantasy campaign where one PC is a wizard and the others are warriors and thieves and other mundane archetypes, you don't want the wizard to be dominating every scene with powerful spells. On the other hand, if it's a high fantasy setting where everyone knows some magic, then you don't want it too be too difficult to use minor spells. Thinking about Star Wars, I think it would be stupid to say that Jedi or Sith can only use telekinesis X times per day or something like that.

One option of limiting power use is a system of "Mana" or "Power Points" but I don't want to do that. I don't want to keep track of how many points have been used or how many are left. Above all, I don't want to keep track of how quickly they recharge. The option I chose to use by default is to make more potent powers more difficult to use. Instead of saying a power costs 3 Mana to use, it will be cast with a difficulty of 3. This isn't a very onerous limit. A wizard could use a spell every round to blast his enemies with a lightning bolt or something, but the mundane characters could match his output with a (much less flashy and mystical) bow or gun. In fact, the mundane characters might have the advantage because their difficulties may be lower.

In campaigns where magic needs to be rarer and more limited, there are other options. One is the Vancian Magic option: spells must be prepared in advance. If using powers is slow and must be done in advance, the effects aren't limited but the uses of them are. There is also diminishing returns: if the powers become increasingly difficult the more you prepare, there will be an upper limit to the number that can be ready for use at one time. Another option is resource expenditure. A warrior who can put everything into one Fighting skill will be able to do his thing for less cost than a wizard who needs to use Knowledge: Magic, Shooting, and Concentration skills to fully use all of his powers. In settings where powers are common, they can be used with less resources (like one skill) and in settings where they are less common, they may require more skills to fully use so it takes more character resources to get good at them.

Power Sources

I've been working on the powers chapter this week. It's probably the hardest one in the whole book for me. I want to keep things simple, because I don't like to use complicated rules in play. Unfortunately, my natural inclinations are to make things complicated and detailed when designing. I think my typical pattern with this chapter has been to spend a few hours writing one section, then look at it a few days later and think "Why did I write all this? I don't want to deal with all these details!" Then I spend more time trying to trim the excess away. I wish I could write the simple version the first time, but they say "90% of writing is re-writing".

The powers are all those special abilities that go above and beyond the mundane effects of skills and standard equipment. They may be called magic, divine blessings, mutations, secret martial arts techniques, psychic powers, mad science, prototype gadgetry, hypertrained skills, or any of dozens of other things. I'm providing a list of generic powers as a toolkit to make the specific powers needed for a particular setting. I'm also including a few examples of specific power sources, including Vancian "fire and forget" magic, Mentalism/Psionics, Infernalism (trafficking with demons), Shamanism (asking spirits for favors), alchemy/strange science (creating items that have powers), Miracles (to get powers granted by a god in exchange for obeying taboos, following a code of conduct, and promoting an ideology), Superpowers (for mutants in spandex), and supernatural martial arts (for punching through ninjas).

I need to make a quick reference page for the list of powers, so I'm going to do that here to give you an idea of how things are broken down.

Enhance Weapon: Add damage or other weapon qualities to an attack

Bolt: Make a ranged attack (lightning bolts, etc.)

Strike: Make an attack against one or more targets in the same Area (a fan of flames, cone of cold, etc.)

Blast: An area attack that hits everything in one Area, like the classic fireball spell

Energy Drain: Creates an area effect that deals Strain damage (clouds of choking smoke, sleep spell, etc.)

Push: Forcibly moves a target from one area to another.

Armor: Add a bonus to Toughness.

Deflection: Makes the target of the power more difficult to hit (a magical shield, or knowing how to parry gunfire with your laser sword, etc.).

Dispel: This power negates another power.

Intangibility: This power allows its user to become ethereal and insubstantial.

See the Past: This power allows the user to see the past of an object, person, or place.

Detect/Conceal Aura: Reveals the presence of powers (a wizard casting a detect magic spell, mad scientist with a high-tech unobtainium scanner locating the energy signatures of other high-tech devices running on unobtainium power sources).

Analysis: Identify important information about people or things.

Locate: Find something specific.

Mind Probe: Find information from a character's mind or implant new information.

Clairvoyance: Sense places and events beyond normal limits.

Major Divination: Determine the circumstances of a future event.

Communication: Talk with entities normally unable to communicate (animals, plants, rocks, etc.).

Environmental Protection: Immunity to the background hazards for a particular environment (breathe and endure pressure and cold underwater, etc.).

Healing: Restores wounds and treats afflictions like poison and disease.

Light: Creates a light source to allow the user to see.

Obscure: Makes everything in an area harder to see.

Telepathy: Communication at a distance.

Alter Attributes: Rearrange the target's attributes (shapeshifting, etc.)

Enhance/Diminish Attributes: Add or subtract attribute dice or points of static attributes.

Instill Traits: Gives the target a Talent or Drawback (dozens or hundreds of powers can be made from this one).

Enhance Skill: Another power that can be used to represent dozens of other powers. It grants a bonus to a skill, even if the target of the power does not have the skill. Can be used for Invisibility (super Stealth), Fear (super Intimidate), Disguise (super Bluff), etc.

Incite/Still Passion: Forces or prevents a character from using their passions. 

Skill Swap: Use one Attribute or Skill in place of another. Telekinesis by using Will for Might, casting a lock opening spell by using Knowledge: Magic to pick the lock, etc.

Puppet: Take control of someone temporarily with an opposed roll.

Barrier: Make walls or chasms to limit movement.

Bridge/Door: Cross a gap or make an opening in a wall.

Jump: Rapid movement across short distances (teleporting, jumping really far in one bound, etc.)

Entangle: Hinders a character's movement.

Petrify: Puts a character in stasis, essentially frozen in time.

Fly: Adds more dimensions to movement.

Creation: Produces items (including food and water)

Summoning: Summons another character, creature, vehicle, etc.

So far, every effect that I can think of (that I would actually want to use in a game) can be covered by one of these. Some of them are even a little redundant. For example, Armor could just be a specific use of Alter Attributes. These powers are very broad, but in actual play I expect them to be used in a more limited way. A wizard will probably have many different spells that are all based on the same power instead of one spell that does everything the power does.