Solilpist character

[knnn]

I haven't quite fleshed it out, so any suggestions welcome:

The idea behind Solipsism is that you are the only "real" person in the universe.  Everything else is figments of your imagination.  Sort of "I think therefore I am" on an extreme scale.  Less extreme versions include "head in a jar" or "Matrix" realities where there's a shared belief.

The premise of the character would be that he believes in things so strongly that he can actually change reality in a limited way.  Sort of a "true believer" on steroids.  The way I'm thinking of playing him is as a mediocre character, saving as many Fate Points as possible to spend on placing aspects on enemies/locations.

Examples:
1.  Fighting an evil spell caster, this guys believes that this particular necromancer is trying not to break the first law for fear of being obviously tainted.  He spends a fate-point (with the GM's agreement) to place that aspect on the necromancer, and is less worried about being killed (can tag that aspect with another fate point later on).

2.  Tracking someone.  He believes this guy always goes to a bar to "calm down".  Door-to-door checking of bars follows (tagging that aspect with another fate point).
 
3.  He believes that this building has a back door/ the key was under the mat/someone left the door unlocked.

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This guy would be something of a target for various deities, faeries, powers, because his extreme belief/convictions would be a source of power for their divinity/magic.  He would also be something of a paranoid nutcase - his beliefs jumping in all directions.  Maybe he's also lucky in a weird way:  "If this coin came up heads three times in a row, it must come up tails next".  He would be both a loner (It's hard to believe you are the center of the world if you care too much about your friends), but also afraid of being lonely.  Not sure yet if he should get any kinds of wizard talents (evocation or thaumatugry could both be useful, but I think would start taking up too many fate points).


Possible aspects:
It's true because I said so.
"I disbelieve"
Don't leave me.
If I close my eyes it will all go away.

[lankyogre]

Personally I find most of your examples to be thiings already allowed by declarations and fate points.
I can see the idea of a solilpist as justificaion for some powers though. A lot of the inhuman powers or evocation seem to fit just as flavor text.

[Belial666]

Greater Glamours, based on conviction.

[Ryan_Singer]

Greater Glamours, based on conviction.

Yes.

[Tsunami]

Ok, the problem i see here is the following:

Declarations, be they made through Fate Points, or by rolling for them, are actions taken by the Player, not the Character.
The Character has no Idea they happen.
If i declare that the house i want to get into has a back door with the Key under the mat and that Declaration takes effect, then from a Character viewpoint the House has always had such a door.
Only from our perspective as Players there is a change.

This Proposed character actually changes stuff. Noticeably so. That's a whole different deal.
If you want a character that can form reality to his liking, and consciously so, you'll need to create some kind of power for it.
At least thats how i see it.

The Power could actually be a minor ability, something like:

-2 Solipsism
Your selfcenteredness is is off the scale. Your belief is strong enough to actually warp reality. Use Conviction to do maneuvers in social and physical conflicts.

I price this at -2, because it really is highly useful. But it's just one idea how it could be done.

[knnn]

Declarations, be they made through Fate Points, or by rolling for them, are actions taken by the Player, not the Character.

Tsunami, you've described exactly what I'm talking about.

The character is actually changing reality in game. 

-2 Solipsism
Your selfcenteredness is is off the scale. Your belief is strong enough to actually warp reality. Use Conviction to do maneuvers in social and physical conflicts.

This is not a bad start - for simple, fatepoint-less actions.
I'm actually trying to model something a little more extreme - if you're willing to spend the fate points.

Going from simple to extreme beliefs:

- "Your gun is empty".
- "These dice are lucky"
- "I never miss when I use my Black Arrow"

- How about the "If I can't see you, you can't see me" law that kids (and Bugblatter Beasts of Traal) seem to believe?
- "The good guys always win"
- "It works in the movies"
- "I read this on the internet"

- "I don't believe in faeries"
- "God is dead" (ok, this one might need two fate- points)   

[noclue]

This Proposed character actually changes stuff. Noticeably so. That's a whole different deal.
If you want a character that can form reality to his liking, and consciously so, you'll need to create some kind of power for it.
At least thats how i see it.

Or just use the same mechanic and describe it differently? Rather than the door has always been there. The Player says "A door appears." The impact to the game is basically the same (Player wanted a door. Player got a door.)

[lankyogre]

I guess my reasoning is that its already something allowed in the game. I'd make it a -0 power for things that still require fate points, which were most of your examples. Evocation and Thaumaturgy can create most of the other effects this character would look for. I guess I see the powers listed as fairly broad, and I would prefer to reword or reflavor something instead of creating completely new powers.

Since powers and refresh are constructs of the players, characters don't know how much refresh they have, moving another player construct to the characters doesn't seem like it should cost refresh.

Essentially, I as a GM would allow a player to do most of those things already, so forcing someone to spend refresh to do it "in character" when it can be done ooc anyway seems like an overcharge.

If fate points are spent (which is what I am getting from the OP), I don't see it as being worth even -1 refresh unless it comes with an additional trapping.

[Sanctaphrax]

Perhaps a stunt/power that allows you to make declarations with Conviction would do what you want it to. After all, there are already rules for making declarations with a skill. Throw in some spellcasting and you've got yourself a reality warper.

[Tsunami]

Tsunami, you've described exactly what I'm talking about.

The character is actually changing reality in game.  

Have I ?... now i'm confused. I thought i'd pretty much refuted the original idea of using Fate and declarations.

Declarations do not constitute a change.
They define how reality is, and always has been.

Therefore, declarations are not the tool to go with here.

Ok, now this character believes he's the only real person. He obviously isn't, or maybe he is, but lets go with he isn't because the other Players want their chars to be real too .
His belief however is channeled as some form of power to affect the environment and the entities within.
That's what my proposed power does.
The severity of the change determines how hard you have to believe. And that's where fate points come in. You can spend them on the conviction roll as normal.

However, as it's a maneuver, the result is still temporary.
Imagine a bubble of distorted reality around the character within which the world bends to his beliefs. When he leaves, reality and other peoples beliefs reassert control and return the world to its natural state.


Actual, permanent change to reality would require some other form of power, probably modeled after thaumaturgy.
http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,11734.msg504484.html#msg504484

Code: [Select]

Q:  What are the upper levels of magic?
A:  There are none, if the person has enough juice.  If someone was strong enough, they could completely rewrite reality.
Maybe model it off of sponsored magic, call it solipsism, and give it Thaum at Evo Speed(Transformations)
Follow the same rules, and now you can actually change someone and give them aspects as consequences.

[knnn]

Have I ?... now i'm confused. I thought i'd pretty much refuted the original idea of using Fate and declarations.

Heh.  I meant that you captured exactly why using the normal "fate points for declarations of things that are reality" is not correct, and that something different was needed to explain this power.  I agree with you totally on this, just that my OP didn't not explain it well enough, and you clarified the point beautifully.

He obviously isn't, or maybe he is, but lets go with he isn't because the other Players want their chars to be real too .

I'm not interested in playing a solo game   

The severity of the change determines how hard you have to believe. And that's where fate points come in. You can spend them on the conviction roll as normal.

Now I understand what you're saying.  This makes it fall within the mechanics of the game more easily.  It simply a power that changes reality temporarily - similar to magical bolts of fire.

Maybe model it off of sponsored magic, call it solipsism, and give it Thaum at Evo Speed(Transformations)
Follow the same rules, and now you can actually change someone and give them aspects as consequences.

Nice!

[ralexs1991]

"God is dead" (ok, this one might need two fate- points)   

i hope no one in your game is trying to play a knight of the Cross.... 

[Richard_Chilton]

I've come across a character like that in another series of books by Simon R Green - Jessica Sorrow the Unbeliever.  She thought that nothing was really real, that everything was basically happening in her own imagination, and if she stopped believing in you she could edit you out of reality.

Call it killing with a thought.

Eventually she was given a Teddy Bear she had had as a child that she knew was real and slowly started to believe that really might exist outside her mind - but only when she had the Teddy Bear.

Richard

[ralexs1991]

I've come across a character like that in another series of books by Simon R Green - Jessica Sorrow the Unbeliever.  She thought that nothing was really real, that everything was basically happening in her own imagination, and if she stopped believing in you she could edit you out of reality.

Call it killing with a thought.

Eventually she was given a Teddy Bear she had had as a child that she knew was real and slowly started to believe that really might exist outside her mind - but only when she had the Teddy Bear.

Richard

kinda reminds me of that one kid from twilight zone