Is a Non-Persistent Environment possible?

[Coinage]

Originally Posted by Lovewyrm

Glamour seems to be just a thing that changes someones perception of you.
Why would something like being insubstantial be affected by a glamour?

And why is resetting reality just fluff?

Just curious here.

I'm not sure about the glamour thing. However, the whole "Non-Persistent Reality" thing is not something that needs to be statted out. So, I figured it could be something I tell the players. It would just be a feature of the environment, like a weird Dream world or a Virtual Reality.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Coinage

That is the idea. Nobody knows what happened.

The idea is that the PC who is doing this is some kind of Ghost or Extraterrestrial Biological Entity (EBE) that cannot normally interact with the physical world. However, I wanted my players to be able to do something. So, I came up with this work around.

What does the PC actually gain from this? If everything resets what is the purpose of doing it?

[Varyon]

How, exactly, do you see this working in play? You mentioned the ghost knocking down a wall to get through it... but the ghost is insubstantial, so could just float through it anyway. Can corporeal characters walk through the broken wall and stay on the other side once reality resets, or do they also get reset to where they started? If the ghost pushes someone off a cliff, when reality resets do they wind up at the bottom miraculously unharmed, teleport back to the top of the cliff, or simply fall to their death? What about if the ghost breaks a wall, then restrains someone and holds their head where the wall used to be? If the ghost smothers a grenade such that the explosion doesn't harm those nearby, when reality resets do the characters who were within range of the shrapnel retroactively suffer injury? If the ghost tells someone a secret, do they remember it once reality resets? How about if the ghost grabs a pistol from one person, hands it to another person, and the second person shoots the first prior to reality resetting?

[Coinage]

Originally Posted by KarlKost

So, with a Glamour Limitation on "Affects Substantial", you could drop books, break stuff and spook the living.

If the memories of the living also reset thou, then there is truly nothing here, and this would be a 0 points special effect.

If their memories DONT reset, then it could be used to spook them, or send messages, like typing stuff in a computer screen that shortly disappears, but in that case the living would soon begin to go mad.

Anyway, Glamour on "Affects Substantial" should do the trick IF the living keep the memories.

If not, it's just a 0 cost special effect.

Okay, so the Glamour limitation on the "Affects Substantial" power of the Insubstantiality.

Originally Posted by KarlKost

HOWEVER

If EVERYTHING resets - including the memories of the living, but you still have to deal with solid objects like door and walls, then your insubstantiality should have a SERIOUS limitation - or become an outright disadvantage. A SERIOUS disadvantage.

Remember, with insubstantiality you dont need to open doors, and walls are nothing to you.

I think that would count as the Zeroed advantage.

[Pursuivant]

I'd treat this as an enhancement to Insubstantiality.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by Coinage

That is the idea. Nobody knows what happened.

Including the PC? What exempts them from the universal reset? If the ability is for just the one PC, then all the other PCs reset, too. Also everything all the substantial PCs did in the last 5 seconds goes away.

Reminds me of the Temporal Inertia Advantage (B93), minus the part about duplicates in different timelines. Or the "reality quakes" from the Infinite Worlds setting. (The major differences being that the PCs can control the nature of the quake, that it's pretty local, limited to just what the PC can change, and of course that it all just resets after 5 seconds anyway.)

Sounds fairly pointless to me, since nothing the PCs can do will have an effect longer than 5 seconds, and there's nothing "irreversible" they can do if the whole universe resets. Might fit right into a White Wolf Wraith game, since (as far as I can recall) that was all about the complete inability of the PCs to do anything anyway, other than angst about their fate in the afterlife and hope they didn't get turned into soul coins by the bad guys. But I probably don't understand how the ability is meant to function in the game.

What's the game about? That is, what choices do the PCs make, and what are they supposed to be doing in a typical game session?

[Coinage]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Including the PC? What exempts them from the universal reset? If the ability is for just the one PC, then all the other PCs reset, too. Also everything all the substantial PCs did in the last 5 seconds goes away.

Reminds me of the Temporal Inertia Advantage (B93), minus the part about duplicates in different timelines. Or the "reality quakes" from the Infinite Worlds setting. (The major differences being that the PCs can control the nature of the quake, that it's pretty local, limited to just what the PC can change, and of course that it all just resets after 5 seconds anyway.)

Sounds fairly pointless to me, since nothing the PCs can do will have an effect longer than 5 seconds, and there's nothing "irreversible" they can do if the whole universe resets. Might fit right into a White Wolf Wraith game, since (as far as I can recall) that was all about the complete inability of the PCs to do anything anyway, other than angst about their fate in the afterlife and hope they didn't get turned into soul coins by the bad guys. But I probably don't understand how the ability is meant to function in the game.

What's the game about? That is, what choices do the PCs make, and what are they supposed to be doing in a typical game session?

The distinction would be Illuminated characters vs. characters with a Mundane background.

I was just trying to iron out an idea I had. The idea is that the PC's would be like ghosts fighting other ghosts in the contemporary world. It's an urban fantasy setting with a Masquerade. They do not really interact with the material human world all that much. However, I wanted to provide an option just in case the PC's wanted to interact with the physical world, but also to maintain the Masquerade. It was just a way for me to be safe and plan ahead.

I wanted the "Non-Persistent Environmental Damage" option as a way to reinforce the Masquerade. I was thinking about combining it with the Façade option.

I hope that clears things up.

[KarlKost]

Originally Posted by Lovewyrm

Glamour seems to be just a thing that changes someones perception of you.
Why would something like being insubstantial be affected by a glamour?

And why is resetting reality just fluff?

Just curious here.

Sorry, it would be Insubstantiality with "Always On" with Glamour limiting "Always On".

There is, "Almost Always On" but those times that he isnt Insubstantial would be just a Glamour, just a sort of illusion.

But that's not ACTUALLY what OP wants, what OP wants is for a MORE potent version of Insubstantiality as a DISADVANTAGE - along with Invisibility and Mute by the way - but even more potent because he actually is hampered by physical objects - for example, he actually has to break doors to get in.

Therefore, he has to buy those traits as DISADVANTAGES and, in the case of Insubstantiality, it wouldnt be "Always On", but rather... I dont know... Uncontrolable Only, but in this case as an ENHANCEMENT for the disadvantage.

For example:
Insubstantiality -150 CP disadvantage
(Uncontrolable +50%)

Meaning that he is just insubstantial to the way that he cant affect the material world, however the material world can still affect HIM, and that would be a -150 CP disadvantage. A bullet going over his way would STILL hurt him, a few seconds before the "time reversal" effect reverted the bullet to its proper course.

The "reverse time" thing would be a Special Effect.

That's how I would price it anyway

[KarlKost]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Might fit right into a White Wolf Wraith game, since (as far as I can recall) that was all about the complete inability of the PCs to do anything anyway, other than angst about their fate in the afterlife and hope they didn't get turned into soul coins by the bad guys.

The WW Wraiths had a few powers that allowed them to interact with the material world in limited ways. So, not quite exactly as that. The wraiths were ALMOST limited to just angst in fear to be dragged by the monsters from the depths of hell, but there were a few tricks they could do to influence the living.

[KarlKost]

Originally Posted by Coinage

The distinction would be Illuminated characters vs. characters with a Mundane background.

I was just trying to iron out an idea I had. The idea is that the PC's would be like ghosts fighting other ghosts in the contemporary world. It's an urban fantasy setting with a Masquerade. They do not really interact with the material human world all that much. However, I wanted to provide an option just in case the PC's wanted to interact with the physical world, but also to maintain the Masquerade. It was just a way for me to be safe and plan ahead.

I wanted the "Non-Persistent Environmental Damage" option as a way to reinforce the Masquerade. I was thinking about combining it with the Façade option.

I hope that clears things up.

Oh, so it's a sort of Switchable thing then?

But that Switchable state has to be out of the control of the big bad monsters of the night, otherwise one or another fool would let the masquerade slip.

What's the thing that flips the Switch thou? Is it any kind of supernatural action - like flying, or a vampire bitting an AWARE victim or a werewolf turning in front of a crowd?

Can one of the "illuminati" kill a regular by mundane means? And what about by supernatural means?