First things first, a few things to get out of the way....

1) I know that according to the rules of 200X and without massive revision of powers via strengths and weaknesses, there is no way to permanently erupt and grant powers to a baseline short of Quantum Supremacy(Lvl 5 power)

2) I know that if a nova did exist that could do these things that didn't have Divis Mal scale power and information was to get out that this individual had these abilities, the Directive, Utopia, Proteus, Corporations, organizations from here till the end of time would be hunting that nova down for abuse at best, dissection at worst. Playing this character would be playing a character with a clock over their head counting down to the time when someone picked them up and carried them off never to be seen again.

3) With all this in mind, this is the concept that was at the root of the character "Mr. Smith". A single nova power was to create other novas. I'm still looking to play at least a version of this character. If the effects can't be permanent(and according to the rules, they can't) then I would be looking to make them as long term as possible.

Along with the excessive potential for abuse of such a character's power set, I believe that there is also great potential for some holy crap style good stories to be told from it. Even at the outset I had no intention of using this power to break the game. Frankly the character would probably only use the power once, maybe twice in its entire existence(before all the Cipher in the world won't help you).

What are people's thoughts on this idea? I know it's more than a little controversial, but I would daresay that it's not canon-breaking in the slightest. A nova erupting baselines into novas? That is part of the canon. Albeit it's the White Wolf super-godlike NPC of doom that's doing it, but it's happening.

Anyways, Thoughts?

You can work with this thought:

During eruption he DID erupt other novas. But he can't now. Because in Planck Time he was a GOD. But coming out of that his powers have been reduced to a mere shadow of what they were for that wonderful moment. So...the potential is there and he's working towards it.

Theoretically, every nova has the potential to trigger an eruption in a latent baseline. You could go with that.

You could also got with Boost with the ability to Affect Others, for raising stats to mega-stat level.

As for "it's in the canon," sorry, but I don't really buy into that as a justification. There's a dude who can travel through time in canon, as well as a race of photokinetic space aliens. I think people would be pissy at me if I were to play a space alien or a time traveler (or a space alien who IS a time traveler.)

I don't think the idea of "makes others erupt" is gonna work that well. Sorry.

Hmm, Doesn't Node Spark has a small section saying that it can affect baselines but giving a ton of temp taint and might just end up killing them?

No. That is Nova Proxy. While Proxy can give baselines the Nova's powers temporarily, it is highly toxic to them.

You have a theme, not a power set. Let's try building Smith with abby rules instead.

The easiest way to do this is with Domination+Parasite. Put some powers onto that, Boost+Affects Other is a good choice, Attune 5 would probably help a lot, and you're there.

Of course you also have the problem that if the host dies then so do you, so the obvious way around this is "Clone". You make clones, they possess people and/or "give them powers". Maybe you even could put a flaw on the clones so the only way they can exist is as "ghosts".

Note that you don't *have* to fight your host for control. You could get inside, give them powers, Quote: "Make them erupt" UnQuote, and this is all pretty legal. I'm not sure Node Spark works, it isn't like they really get a node and all clones share the original, but so what? They get powers and so forth.

Nay.

Weaknesses are fairly basic in their design. There are only a specific group of items that can have a weakness:

Target opportunities.
Range
Dice Pool
Area
Duration
Damage
Multiple Actions.
Sensory Basis
Linked Actions.


That's pretty much it. Making the clones ghosty doesn't sound like anything of the above.

Clone linked to Domination+Parasite.

Might want to have a chat with Rev, then, since he's already using Parasitic Domination. (Just a suggestion. I know there's a limited number of powers, but there's no reason to trample on toes.)

In all fairness Revenant and Shadow Revenant break the rules of strengths and weaknesses. Well, Shadow Rev does for certain.

However, what Mr. Smith is trying to do is duplicate a level 5 power through various lower level powers and the character customization rules. That I'm affraid should not be permitted. That's why Proxy is toxic to baselines and wh Node Spark only works on things with a node.



Clones also share the same quantum pool as the owner. The more he made the more his pool would suffer. Not to mention is the clones all started using powers.

Node Spark and Proxy is a good bet for Smith. He Node Sparks powers and gives them to baselines temporarily. Why you though permanent was a good idea is beyond me or the scope of this post.

Since the Node Spark powers are not technically his, who cares if he loses the dots to a baseline. This is where you should be careful. Node Spark is very specific about what you can spark, so I recommend (if you decide this) that he starts with maybe two or three powers that he has himself to spark. He can then proxy those to baselines and watch them die. As time goes on he can learn additional powers to spark. Since this character is about 'erupting' others he should at not time be permitted to Spark himself.

Also since this guy uses Node Spark like Solsitce goes through Soma, his Taint and Temporary Taint should be closely monitored.

Just my two cents.

Personally I like Couriers idea. Very inventive. The q cost won't be as big of a deal if he spends a portion of his starting NPS on a bigger pool, buys some powers with RQC or uses quantum leech to "feed" on other novas.

Hmm... should be a way to shift that burden onto the baselines. That is the entire point of Poxy.

Maybe Poxy them Nodespark and some power to spark?

The current setup is this:

Nova Proxy
Quantum Imprint + Range + Multiple Targets
(I thought about going for enhanced imprint as well but decided against)

This way it's at least somewhat feasible to have access to a wide array of powers to proxy into people since at some point he's probably at least sampled a good number of different powers.

O.O

Would that even work?

No. Because people still don't seem to grasp that something without a node (i.e. is not a nova) can not Node Spark. Even if you Proxy Node Spark to a baseline there is no ball of flesh there to enhance.

If the ghost idea takes off, he'd have to link Density Decrease to each Clone unless he already had it active when he activated clone. Since it's a linked power, that's not likely. So 6 Clones = 18QP to create. 2 for each activation of DD plus 1QP for each
clone created.



The power at that point would be so weakened there would be no point in using it, but I'm curious to see what you have planned for the break down of it.

As a side note, I'm not a moderator. I have no say over what will or will not be accepted in terms of what a character may possess for powers, strengths, weaknesses, or color of their skivies. While I have no issues with helping someone design and customize a character, I do not have any idea how the mods will react to your power scheme.

Not quite Rev...since the Clone would be linked to the parasitic possesion, both would activate simul, negating the need for DD since the PP already makes one incorporeal...

I didn't think so. In fact I seem to remember a similar conversation not long ago.

At any rate, as it stands Smith's an Imprinting / Proxying type.
Not so much with the sparking at the moment though Boost seems plausible...

Assuming you don't want to go the Node Spark route (it's unhealthy), the best say to get lots of powers to use for Proxy is to have lots of powers.

One dot in each Mega, that's 27 nova points.
Unlimited Bodymorphs (i.e. Matter Chameleon), that's 5.
Unlimited Bodymods (i.e. Shapeshift), that's another 5.

And he doesn't get those as 'Dots'. They're extensions of the power he used. If you use MC to create diamond claws and you proxy someone, they do not get diamond claws, they get a dot in MC from you.

The MC, SS route doesn't fly in my opinion.



No, it discorporates. It makes the nova into nothing, just Q-charged brainwaves, the nova isn't a ghost, they just cease to be and inhabit the body. Making something incorporeal requires DD.

So 1QP per clone, and 3QP per activation of Parasitic Possession. All clones need to make eye contact and target resists with WP. Awfully expensive.

Nein.

Those aren't strengths. Those are extras you've bought for 3 NP without increasing the level as required.

What you're trying to do is under the Tradeoffs option which says you trade 3 levels of weakness, then spend 3 NPs to get an extra without raising the level.

You need weaknesses to do that.

True... but if he goes the Clone+Dom+Par route then he could sub in one for the other. I.e. he uses Attune5+Shapeshift to give someone wings.

I was the one who used the word "ghost", but I was thinking of more "ghost in the shell". Sorry if that was confusing.

+1 for Attune, +3 for Shapeshift. Or maybe even 3 for Proxy on top of that. He might be able to avoid eye contact by paying 3 for Telepathy+Channel which would make it even more expensive.

And it would work for only the scene... although that might be changed with a weakness on the Clone power (linked for example), but yeah, this is extremely expensive. You'd have one or a bare handful of super powered "baselines" around...

Much of this IMHO could be done better with psi-link and Proxy by themselves. That brings us back to 9 mega-stats, giving you a lot of choice for what you can give people. Followers 5 would be another good choice.


EDIT: Wait a moment! New idea. Shrinking. Use Shrinking 5 to ride around in the baselines shoe or something. Now you can use Proxy normally.

I have no idea what rule book your reading...

I am reminded of something several people here have said to me time and time again. Some concepts just canot be built with this system.

I have a feeling this may be the case here.

I'm thinking so as well. It's trying to get more power at a low level than the system is designed to give.

Unfortunately, he's already started posting on the OpNet.

Ya, there's a reason why the system has a Q-min of 7 for this sort of thing.

If it's really that impossible to do this, then it's not that hard to simply stop posting on opnet and make a new concept. (Cipher 5 nova just disappears, go figure) Wasn't expecting the idea to get shot down at every angle.

You're right, for the most part, I was designing Smith to be a very specific user of what amounted to being a Quantum Supremacy technique. Reasoning being that every single high end power has a either more specific or simply weaker version at lower levels.

Universe Creation -- (various environmental/area-affecting supremacy/authority powers) -- Matter Creation / Quantum Construct

Planck Scaling -- Quantum Supremacy -- Quantum Authority -- (and here's the split) Nova Proxy/Node Spark/Disimmunize/Quantum Forgery/Quantum Imprint

Quantum Inferno -- Quantum Bolt -- Quantum Conversion

However, as we can see, it didn't quite work out as planned so what I'm thinking is this: Straight up drop Smith. It's not that hard to change concept. It's not like he's said anything important(besides commenting on FF6) My next idea will most likely be just as off the wall as the last one (thinking of a redux of Synapse and "Bug", probably tainted to hell and gone) but much easier to do without a stack of strengths and weaknesses.

The problem I have with that idea is this.

I understand being eager to jump in, but it probably wasn't the best idea to start posting on the OpNet and interacting with other characters until everything was set and ready to go. You have, however, and I think it's a little unfair and disrespectful to ask everyone to retcon what you've done so far.

That being said, if he does just disappear, you've sacrificed one of your two new character concepts allotted for the year, as per the 200X Bible (one within the first 30 days of the forum, one following). You couldn't even start playing him until April 8th, since the section "went live" on March 8th. (March has 31 days.)

On a personal note- If you haven't done so already, please, please, please read the 200X Bible here to find out what the rules are for this particular section of the forums. It would have saved you a lot of trouble with Mr. Smith, I think, and will definitely help the rest of us in communicating ideas and concerns.

I'm not asking for a retcon, far from it. I would say just continue as you were. A guy came on named Smith, no avatar, stated specifically that he wasn't actually in New York, didn't do anything special, and nobody had ever heard of him until now. Now he's gone.

It's the reason he really never did anything important and no actual fics were posted. Talking about Drew Carey? Come on...

As far as the concept sacrifice, yes I know. I looked it over, actually. The only part that I think I missed was the Permanence thing, which was dealt with immediately as we are all aware.

Mod post:

I'm in a forgiving mood. If Mr. Smith disappears never to be seen again and his profile is deleted, then the character will not count against your "first 30 days" character credit.

However, I demand that you read the 200X Bible! It sets the tone for this setting, particularly the bits about cooperating with the other writers.

If you could fix the issue with Strengths and Weaknesses, I think he'd be all right, as far as I can tell. Then again, there are people here who are far more adept than I at catching errors with the mechanics of the system.

And as a word of caution: S/W are a real sore spot with a lot of the writers. Overly enthusiastic and innovative S/W combinations will not sit well.

Just so ya know.

Yeah, I about figured that from the reaction I got. I'm going to see what I can do without them before adding them in again.

I've got no sore spots with them just so long as they're used correctly and done to make a character unique and interesting rather than to squeeze out every last possible iota of POWER.