Custom Powers Master List (Work In Progress)

[Sanctaphrax]

Looks interesting, but your formatting and wording are giving me trouble.

Is this the same as what you wrote?

UNLIMITED BLADE WORKS [-4]
Description: You can call up weapons from a magical realm inside your soul.
Sponsor: This magic is self-sponsored.
Agenda: As self-sponsored magic, this power lacks an agenda. Compels from its debt generally involve brutal headaches or one's magic going haywire.
Evocation: Unlimited Blade Works Evocations take the the form of spectral swords that appear from nowhere.
Thaumaturgy: Unlimited Blade Works rituals can be used to conjure weapons.
Evothaum: Unlimited Blade Works allows its user to conjure weapons with Evocation's speed and methods.
Extra Benefits: Unlimited Blade Works allows its user to use rituals to create temporary Items of Power. The complexity of such rituals is set by the GM.

If so, seems kinda weak.

I think it might be fair to include the Reality Marble in Unlimited Blade Works.

Reality Marble would make a pretty cool stand-alone Power though. We'd just need to define the process of entering the world and its duration a bit more. Might be worth including some clear advantages for being in your own marble too.

PS: If anyone has any ideas for making Limitation clearer, I'd like to hear them. I'm mostly talking to Lavecki, but everyone's welcome to contribute.

[Lavecki121]

Ok. If a link could be put up to the original power or the power as it stands I would be glad to help

[Sanctaphrax]

LIMITATION [+varies]
Description: Your abilities are limited in some way.
Note: You may take this Power multiple times. Suffering from the negative consequences of taking this Power will often, but not always, be a Compel. If the importance of this Power changes during play, it might be necessary to change its cost or compensate with Compels.
Skills Affected: None.
Effects:
Limited Powers. Attach this Power to at least one other Power that you possess. Then, select a circumstance. Whenever that circumstance applies, you are treated as though you did not possess the attached abilities. You may not select Powers with drawbacks unless the GM approves, and even if the GM does approve they may rule that you do not receive any rebate for the cost of the Powers in question.
Rebate. This Power reduces the Refresh cost of the attached Powers. The percentage that the cost is reduced by depends upon how commonly the limitation on your Powers will cause problems for you.

• If it will matter rarely (perhaps once every 6 sessions or so), reduce the cost by one-sixth.
• If it will cause problems from time to time (in some, but not all, sessions), reduce the cost by one fourth.
• If it will be a frequent impediment (once a session on average), reduce the cost by half.
• If it will prevent you from using your Powers except in unusual situations (no more than once a session on average), reduce the cost by three fourths.

At the GM's discretion, difficult-to-classify limitations might grant a rebate in between two of the suggested ones. Decimal costs should be rounded to the nearest integer, with GMs rounding halves based on what cost seems more appropriate.
Item Limitation [-0]. You may transfer Limitation and the Powers attached to it to another character, causing you to lose them and causing the other character to gain them. They may then transfer them freely, but if another character has your Powers when a Milestone occurs, they must pay for them. Note that though the Limitation will be the same, it might be valued differently owing to the other character's differing circumstances. Similarly, if you do not have your Powers when a Milestone occurs the Refresh invested in them is refunded. Whenever the Limited Powers trapping causes you to lose access to your Powers it is possible that another character will steal them. If they do so, it is as though you had voluntarily transferred the Powers to them. You may choose the process by which your Powers are transferred or stolen, but both processes should be roughly equal in difficulty. This upgrade is usually used to represent items that grant Powers, and the process for acquiring Powers through it is generally just picking up the item in question.

[Lavecki121]

Well, right of the bat, I feel that item limitation should be its own power (coincidently that is a lot like that transfer power we were talking about a while ago).

[crusher_bob]

What utility effects that you can't 'copy' rules wise with evocation/thaumaturgy did you want out of unlimited blade works?

For example, can I generate several weapons, give them out to all my friends and stage the most well armed prison break in history?

That's something that 'sword themed evocation' can't accomplish.  Then, the next question to ask is, "is this usage of the power going to be a one off thing, which could be modeled by using fate points for temporary access to a power, or something that happens often?"

So, as an example, White Court vampires technically have access to some sort of domination/long term mental control through their powerset.  If we look at Tomas as a PC, how often has he used this?  Never.  So it probably shouldn't appear on his character sheet.

So, when writing up a custom power, you should be thinking along the lines of, 'what will it be used to do 90% of the time?'  Then, you can add expansions of the power-set that are there for people who use uncommon applications of the power on a regular basis.

[Oblyss]

Looks interesting, but your formatting and wording are giving me trouble.

Is this the same as what you wrote?

UNLIMITED BLADE WORKS [-4]
Description: You can call up weapons from a magical realm inside your soul.
Sponsor: This magic is self-sponsored.
Agenda: As self-sponsored magic, this power lacks an agenda. Compels from its debt generally involve brutal headaches or one's magic going haywire.
Evocation: Unlimited Blade Works Evocations take the the form of spectral swords that appear from nowhere.
Thaumaturgy: Unlimited Blade Works rituals can be used to conjure weapons.
Evothaum: Unlimited Blade Works allows its user to conjure weapons with Evocation's speed and methods.
Extra Benefits: Unlimited Blade Works allows its user to use rituals to create temporary Items of Power. The complexity of such rituals is set by the GM.

If so, seems kinda weak.

I think it might be fair to include the Reality Marble in Unlimited Blade Works.

Reality Marble would make a pretty cool stand-alone Power though. We'd just need to define the process of entering the world and its duration a bit more. Might be worth including some clear advantages for being in your own marble too.

PS: If anyone has any ideas for making Limitation clearer, I'd like to hear them. I'm mostly talking to Lavecki, but everyone's welcome to contribute.

Sorry about the formatting, and yeah that looks like it more or less. I was trying not to make it too crazy. And yeah, I think Reality Marble is worth being it's own power. Maybe a -1 cost on it? And reality marbles should do different things for everyone. One version of a Reality Marble, or rather something similar to one, set up a world where the user's attacks bypassed all defenses. That's just an example though, so I suppose that sort of thing should cost differently from power to power. That one specifically would probably be -4 to match Mystic eyes of death perception.

What utility effects that you can't 'copy' rules wise with evocation/thaumaturgy did you want out of unlimited blade works?

For example, can I generate several weapons, give them out to all my friends and stage the most well armed prison break in history?

That's something that 'sword themed evocation' can't accomplish. 

Sure you can. It's just different flavor for the same ability and simplifying the mechanical description.

Instead of bothering to calculate the cost of summoning swords that are only going to be used in an attack in a summoning ritual, you just do a basic spirit attack. If you are planning on arming a bunch of people with swords, you would do a ritual to summon swords instead of an attack.

That's something that 'sword themed evocation' can't accomplish.  Then, the next question to ask is, "is this usage of the power going to be a one off thing, which could be modeled by using fate points for temporary access to a power, or something that happens often?"

So, as an example, White Court vampires technically have access to some sort of domination/long term mental control through their powerset.  If we look at Tomas as a PC, how often has he used this?  Never.  So it probably shouldn't appear on his character sheet.

So, when writing up a custom power, you should be thinking along the lines of, 'what will it be used to do 90% of the time?'  Then, you can add expansions of the power-set that are there for people who use uncommon applications of the power on a regular basis.

Are you referring to the reality marble or the power as a whole? Of course I plan on using it as much as possible, though not on random thugs of course.(both) I was just trying to balance the Reality Marble around being able to trap enemies in a 'Faux Demesne' for a fight.

[crusher_bob]

No, I'm saying that if you are just going to use the power 90%+ for the attack/block/maneuver that evocation can already do, and use it to 'make' relatively normal weapons that you can hand out to your friends (some sort of thaumaturgy at evocation speeds) then the power is fine as just 'sponsored magic'.

So, the parts of the power that you can't do with that power already should be the ones you spend all the time and rules effort on.

Technically, evocation is really a power that allows you to attack, block, or maneuver and interacts with the action economy, certain skills, etc in certain ways.  And what sponsored magic does is to provide a 'story hook' that describe the theme of your attacks, blocks, and maneuvers.

For example, the the 'reality marble' just an excuse to have fight where you can throw huge gouts of fire at each other and not damage the countryside?  May be best implemented as a genre convention of the game, not a specific power.

Or can you do other things with it?
Examples I can think of:
Store stuff in it. even large things, like, say boats, automobiles, or minions and then take them out when you need them.

Act as a barrier to escape, so that once someone is in it, they have to deal with you?

Act as a maneuver generation engine, that doesn't have the stress limitations of evocation (i.e. something like the 'incite effect' power)?

----------------

Now that I think of it, writing up 'magical sponsor' as a power which adds onto magical powers and replaces 'sponsored magic' may help clean up the rules a little bit.  This also allows you have sponsors which are more powerful (and costs points) or sponsors that suck somehow (and give you back points).

This also removes the odd cost difference of sponsored magic when you do or don't already have other magic powers.

[crusher_bob]

So, something like

Magical Sponsor [-Varies]
Maybe you just have an exceptional talent, maybe you have a magical sugar daddy, or maybe the abyss has taken root behind your eyes and is driving you around like a car.  In any event, you can do things with magic that most people can't.

Agenda:
Most sponsors that are willing to give you power want you to support their agendas.  Since they are usually more powerful than you, it's usually a good idea to nod your head a lot when they start talking.

Alternatively, the extensive practice of certain subsections of magic (e.g. Kemmlerian Necromancy) tends to produce... let's call them predictable mental aberrations in practitioners which make them want to follow certain patterns of thought and action.

But the bottom line is that you are giving up a certain amount of your free will in exchange for power.

Sponsor debt:
You are able to 'borrow' fate points from your sponsor.  Which you can spend on magical actions.  The 'sponsor' is then able to demand repayment by (later) compelling you later to take actions in line with it's agenda.

Of course, assuming you have free will, you can resist these compels.  But resisting compels from your sponsor when the bill comes due tend to have entirely predictable results, like horrible death and getting worse from there.  No one said that free will was safe.

Expansions:
Expansions go here.
Examples:
thaumaturgy at evocation speeds
directly satisfying catches with magic

Limitations:
You sponsor can put limitations on you too
Examples:
Your powers don't work against: X
Your powers don't work in situation X
You can't use your powers to do X

---------------

Note that is technically allows you to write up 'Life magic, as practiced by the White Council and most other (sane) human practitioners' as a sponsor, with the laws of magic as limitations.  With the laws of magic being something like a -2? limitation. 

[Oblyss]

No, I'm saying that if you are just going to use the power 90%+ for the attack/block/maneuver that evocation can already do, and use it to 'make' relatively normal weapons that you can hand out to your friends (some sort of thaumaturgy at evocation speeds) then the power is fine as just 'sponsored magic'.

So, the parts of the power that you can't do with that power already should be the ones you spend all the time and rules effort on.

I see, I hadn't slept when I wrote that post so I'm not surprised I misunderstood something.

For example, the the 'reality marble' just an excuse to have fight where you can throw huge gouts of fire at each other and not damage the countryside?  May be best implemented as a genre convention of the game, not a specific power.

Or can you do other things with it?
Examples I can think of:
Store stuff in it. even large things, like, say boats, automobiles, or minions and then take them out when you need them.

Act as a barrier to escape, so that once someone is in it, they have to deal with you?

Act as a maneuver generation engine, that doesn't have the stress limitations of evocation (i.e. something like the 'incite effect' power)?

----------------

The reality marble, as with the rest of the custom ability, is just a power I'd really like and my attempt to define it in a balanced manner in game terms. The gouts of fire aren't specifically something I desire, but they are a part of the power itself. And they work as just a simple show of illusion magic that last a short second as a byproduct of the use of the ability. The ability more specifically transports everyone in the vicinity to a wide open battlefield with no hiding spots, and is a form of Demesne. Though I wasn't sure how to balance a demesne trap in refresh.

And yeah, you nailed it in one of the questions. Once someone is inside of it, it should be crazy difficult to escape and yes they have to deal with me.  I'm not positive I understand you on the maneuver generation engine part, I haven't dealt with incite effects much at all.

----------------

Now that I think of it, writing up 'magical sponsor' as a power which adds onto magical powers and replaces 'sponsored magic' may help clean up the rules a little bit.  This also allows you have sponsors which are more powerful (and costs points) or sponsors that suck somehow (and give you back points).

This also removes the odd cost difference of sponsored magic when you do or don't already have other magic powers.

Well it's supposed to be an ability that gives you the means of casting magic to summon blades instantly, so if you don't already have evocation and thaumaturgy it cost more, but if you have them already then you get a rebate. I wasn't the one who suggested that part.

[Lavecki121]

Well, right of the bat, I feel that item limitation should be its own power (coincidently that is a lot like that transfer power we were talking about a while ago).

Additionally I would alter the wording so that it says, instead of •If it will matter rarely (perhaps once every 6 sessions or so), reduce the cost by one-sixth.
Maybe have it say, If you will be able to use it 5/6 sessions the cost is 1/6 less, rounding up or down as GM wishes.

[Sanctaphrax]

There is a Sponsor Power on the list already, for what it's worth. It's not very nicely formatted though.

I think Unlimited Blade Works needs something extra. Any ideas? I'm not familiar with the source material, so I don't know what's appropriate.

As for Reality Marble, how about this:

REALITY MARBLE [-1]
Description: You can travel to a magical sub-universe of your own creation and drag other people with you.
Skills affected: Conviction, others.
Effects:
Reality Marble. As an action, you may spend a Fate Point to enter your Reality Marble. If you wish to bring other people with you, you may roll your Conviction skill. Then every other character within a zone is forced to enter your Reality Marble with you unless they beat your roll with a defense roll using Conviction or Athletics. People drawn into the Marble remain there until you decide to send everyone back or get knocked unconscious. However, you can't keep people longer than the time indicated by adding your Conviction roll to "half a minute" on the time chart.
Different Rules [-varies]. The laws of physics are somehow different in your Marble. Negotiate the effects and costs of this upgrade with your GM. Examples to come.

[Sanctaphrax]

Well, right of the bat, I feel that item limitation should be its own power (coincidently that is a lot like that transfer power we were talking about a while ago).

Not sure how that could work.

Additionally I would alter the wording so that it says, instead of •If it will matter rarely (perhaps once every 6 sessions or so), reduce the cost by one-sixth.
Maybe have it say, If you will be able to use it 5/6 sessions the cost is 1/6 less, rounding up or down as GM wishes.

Um, doesn't that change the meaning?

[Hick Jr]

Would Reality Marble be adujudicated similarly to Reality Warper, but only while you're inside the marble? I could see it as just Reality Warper or Demesne with a bunch of upgrades, and a Cassandra's Tears-esque ability to place world aspects, like THE NAZIS WON, DINOSAURS EVERYWHERE, or OLD WORLD OF DARKNESS.

[Lavecki121]

Um, doesn't that change the meaning?

No same meaning. If I can only use it 1/5 times it's the same as not being able to use it 4/5 times.

The confusion may be though that I am saying how often they can use the powers affected instead of how often limitation affects the powers.

[Sanctaphrax]

Would Reality Marble be adujudicated similarly to Reality Warper, but only while you're inside the marble? I could see it as just Reality Warper or Demesne with a bunch of upgrades, and a Cassandra's Tears-esque ability to place world aspects, like THE NAZIS WON, DINOSAURS EVERYWHERE, or OLD WORLD OF DARKNESS.

Sure, you could do that with Limitation.

No same meaning. If I can only use it 1/5 times it's the same as not being able to use it 4/5 times.

The confusion may be though that I am saying how often they can use the powers affected instead of how often limitation affects the powers.

Limitation mattering once per 6 sessions does not mean it matters 1/6th of the time.