Okay so from BAM! #6, you may have seen this preview of Awesome Powers.
Creating New Powers
While the list of effects covered by the powers in BASH! Ultimate Edition, and the list of specific powers covered in this book may be able to cover just about anything you could think of, there is certainly many things we didn't think of first. How do you make your own powers?
First, consider powers that already exist. What Power is most similar to what you want to make? Does the power you want do less, or do more than existing power?
If it does less, could you simply build this by adding a limitation to an existing power? For example, if you wanted a Levitation power, you might notice that Flight is already similar, but less limited than the power you want. You could simply make it be Flight 2 <Situational>.
If it does more, can it be accomplished by simply adding an Enhancement to an existing power? For instance, if you have some sort of rotating buzz-saw like shield, you might take Deflect [Extra Effect: can “reflect” damage on Hand-to-Hand attacks as well as ranged].
Can it be accomplished by combining two existing powers? For this, you can simply use the Linked enhancement. For instance, if you want an attack that stuns an opponent while it injures them, you can Link Daze with Special Attack.
If it doesn’t do more or less; but is about equally as powerful and is just different, maybe you just change some of the wording for the power. For instance, the Impossible Balance power was created by taking a similar power – Water Walking – and applying it to enable you to walk on solid surfaces that were very skinny, even if they cannot support your weight.
If not directly able to just limit or enhance an existing power, maybe you can increase or add one aspect to the power while reducing or eliminating another aspect.
If the power is in no way similar to any existing power, you now have the task of coming up with an entirely new power. However, this would also involve a comparison between the new power and existing powers. If it is about equal in power to another power, its cost should be the same. If it is more powerful it should be +1pt more expensive, and if it is very much more powerful, it should be +2pts more expensive. Likewise, if it is weaker, it should be -1pt less expensive, and very much weaker, it should be -2pts less expensive. As always, the Narrator will determine the parameters.
What powers can people come up with using these guidelines? What are some things that these guidelines CANNOT help with?
So here is a power I am thinking of for my Eldritch Ilses Campaign [Magical Apocalypse devastates Britain as fey, demons and eldritch horrors vie for control over a nation in ruins]. LMK what you think:
Geas
[Mental Power] 4 +3 points [based on – Mind Control linked to Continual Damage with the Variable enhancement]. Possible Extended Duration enhancement.
You can compel a target to fulfill a single command or task within a stated time or suffer the consequences. Make a Mind vs. Mind attack on the target. If you exceed their defense they are under the effects of your geas. The geas lasts until it is either fulfilled or the consequence takes effect. If you have telepathy, you can utter the geas mind to mind, otherwise you must be able to communicate with your target.
Geas is essentially a limited form of Mind Control, with the damage of Continual Damage as a stick to enforce compliance. Once you issue your command you have no further control over the target, how or even whether they fulfill the command. The target, even if they fail the Mind vs. Mind check, can always choose to refuse the Task and suffer the Consequence immediately.
The Task must be something that may be accomplished and finished, it cannot be open-ended or impossible. So you could geas someone to defeat The Living Weapon by sundown or Suffer the * of Being Cut to Pieces. But you could not compel someone to Stare into the Sun for the rest of their lives, or Fly to the moon and bring back the American flag [unless the target of your geas had the ability to do that]. The Narrator is the arbiter of what are ‘fair’ terms for your geas.
The Consequence may vary in type according to your Geas, but is limited to the same number of power points as the Geas itself, just as though the continuous power were linked to what is essentially a limited form of Mind Control. So Suffering the * of Being Cut to Pieces may summon swords, cleavers and chainsaws to attack the character if she does not complete the task, but the actual level of the effect is based on the level of the associated geas power [ geas is a 4 point power, so you have Continual Damage 4]. With Narrator permission it might be possible to increase or decrease the level of the Continual Damage above or below 4 by making Variable Continual Damage the Base Power for the link and then adding the Mind Control for +2 Points.
Your geas must resolve itself during the current Issue. However, with GM approval [or in the hands of an NPC] the duration might be made longer with Extra Effect - Duration.
