Friday, September 22, 2017

MP - Transmutation Expanded

One of the many ways in which I can see the evolutionary tree of Mighty Protectors is how the "variable effect" modifier appears.  I use the quotes deliberately, since I'm not referring to any specific modifier, but the general class of modifier that "allows a power to have different effects at different times."

To use Transmutation as a specific example, the core power says "you can transform the character into one other thing."  That is extremely specific. For example, you can transform the target into a stone statue, possibly animated, if you dump enough points into it.

Now, there is a "variable effect" modifier called "Alternate Transmutations."  For (+5 CP), you can transform your target into stone, or air, for example.  For another (+5 CP), you could also turn the target into a kind of ooze (maybe granting 10 CP worth of Stretching, for example).  So, for (+10 CP), you can turn the target into three different things.

Now, let's say you want to recreate Circe, who turns the crew of Odysseus into animals?  Well, that's a serious GM call - I mean, is "one other thing" a specific animal, or the entire animal kingdom? Or maybe a class of animals?

It just isn't going to fly to say "Well, for (+50 CP) you can choose ten different kinds of animals..."  
Yeah, no.

Living Legends had the "Variable" advantage, which worked great, because it was very flexible and not cost insane. Want to transform the target into  six (6) different kinds of things?  No problem, that's double cost.  Want to transform the target into literally anything? Four times cost.  Expensive as sin, but workable.

For MP Transmutation, I propose an extension to the "Alternate Transmutations" modifier:

(+5 CP) - turn target into one other thing
(+10 CP) - turn target into a related class of things, such as "any kind of animal"
(+20 CP) - turn target into literally anything





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