[Powers, Magic-as-Powers] Stimata and other 'physical' Illusion modifiers

oneofmanynameless · 02-01-2022, 10:46 AM

My first thought is of Powers: The Weird, where one of the abilities of the "Noumena" power, called Demiurgy, is about willing into existance semi-real phenomena and is built with illusion, mental, stigmata, as well as stealing the Broadcast modifier from telecommunication and adding 2 cosmic modifiers: Lingering Effect and "Can heal as well as harm." You might be interested in reading their writeup of the ability. Personally I believe you could construct an entire Magic-as-Powers system with that ability and then other "Practiced Phenomena" based on it (typically as alternate abilities), similar to how Divine Power works.

My second thought is about the force constructs route, which I've had on numerous characters. Powers suggests pairing TK with Illusions to make them seem more real. I usually add Linked (must be used together) and Visual to the TK, and Linked (may be used separately) to the Illusions. For passive structure I add DR with Forcefield, Affects Others, and Aoe to create the "force field bubble" talked about in powers page 108, then add Linked as per the TK and Selective Area. The end result is very similar to Star Trek Holograms: constructs of forcefields and light that are more or less physical but could be disrupted (but not destroyed) with sufficient force. For anything more then the extend of that I look at the "Force Constructs" Power from Gurps Powers (Page 127/128) and flavor it as an extension of illusions. If I want to keep the "you can disbelieve it" I add the Resistable (will) modifier and figure out what "disbelieving" looks like for that type of effect, and that could lead to an Acc: "Can only affect Sentient Entities" modifier as well if the illusions are mental in nature. That said, I steer away from "Create/Control (Mysterious Force aka Force Constructs)" because they'd require me to define the physical properties, including primarily the weight, of a force construct. I find DR, TK, Snatcher, and Allies (minion, adjustable) accomplishes just about anything I want.

02-01-2022, 10:46 AM	#3
oneofmanynameless Join Date: May 2012 Location: New Hampshire, USA	Re: [Powers, Magic-as-Powers] Stimata and other 'physical' Illusion modifiers My first thought is of Powers: The Weird, where one of the abilities of the "Noumena" power, called Demiurgy, is about willing into existance semi-real phenomena and is built with illusion, mental, stigmata, as well as stealing the Broadcast modifier from telecommunication and adding 2 cosmic modifiers: Lingering Effect and "Can heal as well as harm." You might be interested in reading their writeup of the ability. Personally I believe you could construct an entire Magic-as-Powers system with that ability and then other "Practiced Phenomena" based on it (typically as alternate abilities), similar to how Divine Power works. My second thought is about the force constructs route, which I've had on numerous characters. Powers suggests pairing TK with Illusions to make them seem more real. I usually add Linked (must be used together) and Visual to the TK, and Linked (may be used separately) to the Illusions. For passive structure I add DR with Forcefield, Affects Others, and Aoe to create the "force field bubble" talked about in powers page 108, then add Linked as per the TK and Selective Area. The end result is very similar to Star Trek Holograms: constructs of forcefields and light that are more or less physical but could be disrupted (but not destroyed) with sufficient force. For anything more then the extend of that I look at the "Force Constructs" Power from Gurps Powers (Page 127/128) and flavor it as an extension of illusions. If I want to keep the "you can disbelieve it" I add the Resistable (will) modifier and figure out what "disbelieving" looks like for that type of effect, and that could lead to an Acc: "Can only affect Sentient Entities" modifier as well if the illusions are mental in nature. That said, I steer away from "Create/Control (Mysterious Force aka Force Constructs)" because they'd require me to define the physical properties, including primarily the weight, of a force construct. I find DR, TK, Snatcher, and Allies (minion, adjustable) accomplishes just about anything I want. Last edited by oneofmanynameless; 02-01-2022 at 10:52 AM.