Control Over Reality for Supers

[Joseph Paul]

Control of reality - For my purposes it doesn't have to be the dramatic Wish fulfullment of changing/rearranging matter to suit the whim of the controller. Besides how does the controller take care of all the myriad little details like what kind of art is on the wall and how long the steak knives in the drawer are?

I would prefer to limit it to changing the underlying rules of the physical universe for the making of exotic materials or applying that power to areas of space-time so that Things are Different in that area.

Like Ghostdancer, I know these things could be handwaved but I would prefer to have a points based means to act as a guide.

[vicky_molokh]

Some things that come to my mind when I hear of reality-control powers:

• Enable a skill-based task whose difficulty is supposed to be beyond the impossible. For instance, enabling an instant-use roll of Electronics Repair at -10, fixing a complicated device with a single touch instantly, avoiding the usual -9 cap.
• Parry an arrow with a well-written poem, or parry a good argument in a debate with a flick of a rapier.
• While lacking any equipment (even Improvised), disguise yourself as another person, and fool everybody in the classroom. Not shapeshift, not cast an optical and audial illusion, not mind-control people into misidentifying you. Disguise yourself. That's what makes it reality-bending.
• Change the local laws of nature. Say, change the laws of sociology in such a way that commanding more people becomes easier (like commanding few), while commanding few becomes difficult (like commanding many). Or making it so that there are more natural numbers than fractional numbers. Or make sound waves incapable of transfering symbolic meaning (the meaning becomes garbled even though the sounds are 100% 'undamaged').

[Anders]

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

Ahem. To the point. I'm envisioning a super with the power to literally change reality around him. Say he wants the trees to bow down to him - he can do that. Say he wants to turn an abandoned building into a ice cream shop - he can do that. He can penalize or enhance dice rolls of anyone he can physically see. At the most highest levels he can do this for miles. And now that I described what "Control Reality" means to me, I'd be interested in seeing what it means to other posters.

I would use Syntactic Magic, from Thaumatology. Specifically, Realms and Power with one level and one realm, costing 300 points.

[Wavefunction]

Originally Posted by Anders

I would use Syntactic Magic, from Thaumatology. Specifically, Realms and Power with one level and one realm, costing 300 points.

Now that is a neat idea.

EDIT: Personally I'd use the option to ignore energy costs and use penalties/margin of success instead, but that's a matter of personal taste. To me a reality warping super shouldn't tire after using his abilities, but they should be tricky to control. Through in a 10-point power talent that effects any rolls made as part of warping reality (including rolls to hit with floating magically-created swords, Aerobatics rolls to use those giant wings you made for yourself, etc.), and keep the idea of a Very Hard Skill to use your single realm, and you should have a workable system.

[Otaku]

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

And now that I described what "Control Reality" means to me, I'd be interested in seeing what it means to other posters.

As you did ask for it, when I think of "Control Reality" I think of Modular Abilities (Cosmic Power) Enhanced to produce any kind of Trait the user desires: physical, mental or social. Yes, that is ridiculously expensive but if you want to be able to reshape yourself, reshape your world and reshape the intangibles*. With the freedom to reinvest your CP you can tailor yourself to the situation and then tailor the situation to yourself.

Of course ultimately this is a non-answer: you need to know what traits you'll be creating with Modular Abilities anyway, but at the same time I find it difficult to separate the two. It just strikes me as odd that at the generic** and highest levels someone who can control reality can't manipulate their own being or the being of the people etc. but it does make sense that at the lower levels someone with the generic** power to do this could do any of it but not all of it at the same time.

I would also expect the "Cosmic" Power Modifier to be tiered. However the specifics are handled, if someone can shape reality to do something and they encounter someone with a previously established trait that can also do it, it again seems "odd" if the one able to literally reshape reality as he or she sees fit lacks priority. It is kind of like in various games where two - well anything really - may be affecting the game at the same time but each has mutually exclusive effects so one must be prioritized over the other.



*by which I mean ideas, relationships, etc. and not beings with Insubstantiality. ;)
**In this case, generic means we aren't dealing with a character that is supposed to be all about how he/she/it/they can affect the world but not the people, or the people's bodies but not their minds, etc.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Thanks everyone who's responded to this threat. I've not abandoned it, I'm just stupid busy renovating my new living quarters. I'll get back here when I have some more time (hopefully tonight).

[starslayer]

Actually, a good set of questions based on the rpm suggestions.

Do your reality shapers all exert the same force over creation or are some better than others?

Do they have flavors (ie is one better at making things from nothing another at making impossible physics and another one at alerting fate)

Is the power 100% reliable within their power scope or is there the possibility of failure, what does failure look like (just does not work or disastrous),

can they exert themselves to exceed their regular scope, can they play it safe with reduced power?