Control (Physics)

[Anthony]

If you wanted to change the laws of reality in an area, what is that? It's probably going to vary (being able to change the laws for things such as 'the half-life of the proton is less than 1s' might be problematic), but in an IW campaign (or perhaps something Torg-influenced) the ability to impose alien cosm laws on an area seems entirely reasonable. Some relative of 'mana enhancer/damper' seems vaguely appropriate, but I'm curious if people have thoughts on how to do this and play it in a game.

[Brandy]

I'll start with the same question I ask my players: "What do you imagine will be the in-game effects of this power?"

[Figleaf23]

Is there anything he can't affect?

[whswhs]

Well, to start with, are we assuming a physicalist view of the universe, in which everything that exists is subject to the laws of physics? Or are we assuming that mind, or the soul, or magic, or some sort of ontological substratum is exempt from the laws of physics? That is, is this "Control Everything" or "Control Matter, Energy, Space, and Time" or what? Or do you actually mean "Control All Natural Laws Whatever"?

(I'm assuming that by "(Physics)" you mean "(Physical Reality)" and not "(The Content of Textbooks, Journal Articles, and the Minds of Physicists)." Compelling all physicists to assume the truth of medieval impetus theory would be powerful, but not nearly as powerful as changing reality itself.)

Controlling a delimited realm of physical phenomena might be worth 30 points—comparable to Space or Time, though Time, at least, would include magical and spiritual things that arguably are not Physics (and hence Time is not just a subset of Physics). Controlling all natural laws would seem to be worth 40 points.

You almost surely will want the "Natural Phenomena (+100%)" enhancement.

So I think you'd want three levels to get a minimum ±1 to everything subject to physical law. That looks like 180 points.

Bill Stoddard

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Bookman

I'll start with the same question I ask my players: "What do you imagine will be the in-game effects of this power?"

At this point, I was just thinking about the question in an abstract sense. The most likely in-game version would be "the physics obey the rules from world X instead of world Y, and thus my devices from world X work, and devices from world Y maybe don't (depending on whether they would work on world X)".

For example, in the Torg RPG, 'Storm Knights' (PCs) carried the rules of their home cosm around with them, and thus could (sometimes requiring a roll) do things that were possible at home but not normally possible at their current location. The Grimjack comic book had 'portable reality generators', which were devices that had similar effects.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Anthony

At this point, I was just thinking about the question in an abstract sense. The most likely in-game version would be "the physics obey the rules from world X instead of world Y, and thus my devices from world X work, and devices from world Y maybe don't (depending on whether they would work on world X)".

For example, in the Torg RPG, 'Storm Knights' (PCs) carried the rules of their home cosm around with them, and thus could (sometimes requiring a roll) do things that were possible at home but not normally possible at their current location. The Grimjack comic book had 'portable reality generators', which were devices that had similar effects.

Didn't the rules for Flux (Designers Notes for something Infinite Worlds? Supers?) have a Flux Enhancer?

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Didn't the rules for Flux (Designers Notes for something Infinite Worlds? Supers?) have a Flux Enhancer?

It was Supers, and I think there was something like that. It's been a while.

Bill Stoddard

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by whswhs

It was Supers, and I think there was something like that. It's been a while.

The designer's notes don't specify any mechanics, but do suggest they'd work like mana related traits. You did specifically mention TORG as an example.

So, yeah, I'd give storm knights Flux Enhancer, not Control (Physics).

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

The designer's notes don't specify any mechanics, but do suggest they'd work like mana related traits. You did specifically mention TORG as an example.

So, yeah, I'd give storm knights Flux Enhancer, not Control (Physics).

You know, I wrote a article a couple years back based on the Supers Designer's Notes and created a whole system using Flux as its base. I used it a couple of times, but it's rough. I wonder where exactly I put it. Hmmm...

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

You know, I wrote a article a couple years back based on the Supers Designer's Notes and created a whole system using Flux as its base. I used it a couple of times, but it's rough. I wonder where exactly I put it. Hmmm...

I was planning on using as the basis for All Along the Watchtowers, but they didn't pick it.