Summon Copies from Future: Flashback Power

[alessandrofranzen]

Hello everyone. Did you remember a Omega flight member called Flashback?

Flashback can summon and command future versions of himself. He can make these future selves appear anywhere within his line of sight (allowing him to target flying opponents for instance), and disappear as easily. Flashback tends to rely overly much on this power, trying to defeat opponents purely by force of numbers. He has no real fighting skills however.

I know that is a modifier called Summon Copy/Copy Self (or something like this), but how we represent a working rule for this kind of character? The copies had access to the main character energy pool or each of them had one (Too much book Keeping, no)? The future selfs had the same abilities and atributes of the main character, but how we can use it?

If you don´t know who this guy is, here is a link that show him and explain his bio.

www.internationalhero.co.uk/f/flasback.htm

Thanks for the help.

[Brainstem]

The way its described, it sounds like you would use the Duplicate Self modifier, but simply change the title to "Future Self" or something along those lines. They work basically the same way, except I don't think Flashback's power requires the impact for it to work.

[alessandrofranzen]

hmmm. Duplicate self as Future Self, okay... cost 30 white. Anything else? In comics, this power had a side effect when one of the copies was killed... This can be a kind of challenge?

[Beacon]

Just use duplicate self since it’s essentially the same thing with a different “flavor”. Maybe add one stone per distance/range from the original in which the copies can manifest (for example: 4 more stones to be able to create one a quarter mile away) while dropping a stone for only being able to create them in their line of sight.

I’d think the real problem would be the possibility of interacting with their future selves. I’m not sure exactly how to handle that one.

The idea of the death of one of them causing the death of all later copies might warrant dropping another stone or two off the price too.

[Neros]

Its not completly the same... Dublicate self has some drawbacks which Flashback dosent seem to have.... Each copy has a strong personality (anger, lazy, shy, ect...), and the copy walks out of the original.

So the power you described would more or less be 40w or so instead, since there dosent seem to be any drawbacks (and create dublets in line of sight... dam...)... Also is his health affected if one of them dies?

[Beacon]

neros said:

Its not completly the same... Dublicate self has some drawbacks which Flashback dosent seem to have.... Each copy has a strong personality (anger, lazy, shy, ect...), and the copy walks out of the original.

That's a fairly new development for Madrox (sure we used to see the occasional "evil twin" but until recently they were rare) and shouldn't have any more effect on the power in the game than, say, the recent retcons on how Scarlet Witch's powers work would have on the games version of Hex Spheres.

Besides, in game terms it's less a part of the power and more a challenge that was recently added (maybe to pay for his new Leadership action in the comic?)

[Brainstem]

neros said:

Its not completly the same... Dublicate self has some drawbacks which Flashback dosent seem to have.... Each copy has a strong personality (anger, lazy, shy, ect...), and the copy walks out of the original.

So the power you described would more or less be 40w or so instead, since there dosent seem to be any drawbacks (and create dublets in line of sight... dam...)... Also is his health affected if one of them dies?

Well, you've gotta figure that if one of them dies, that's essentially causing your own death in the future. And if a future you dies that's younger than other future yous out there, all the other ones would cease to exist. While the games really won't last long enough for the death of a future self impacting the character, it would probably come with some kind of mental issues (imagine knowing that, because of your own actions, you only have so long to live, but you have no way of knowing how much longer that would be) and the pool of future selves you can pull from probably decreases. I would say they balance out with the drawbacks that come with Duplicate Self.

[alessandrofranzen]

Interesting.

By the way, I read the comments section of this power and this states that must be enough CADs to support the copies. Well, if you summon 6 copies... you will need 6 CADs? Each of then with there own energy and health? There is not much bookeeping for one RPG session?

Another question... Flashback future selves dont had the psychological quirk of split personality, so we can assume this power variantion had no such thing then players can purchase it with +2? Or we raise the power cost to 35 white to represent this?

[GhostKnight]

If I get it right Duplicate self has the drawback that if a dupe dies all the others have a white stone less of health with a minimum of 1, in this case of future selves it doesn't has this drawback but has a worse one that is that if one dies you will die in a future. In that case it would be a disadvantage but also has the advantage of not losing white stones for dupes killed.

The extra cads is to keep everyone's health/energy under control, but is not mandatory. I remember a friend of mine doing a girl who could duplicate, force field and force blast; my friend would split in teams by himself and every team member would do the same each panel (many force blasts, many force fields) so he only had a cad.

[pgholland]

Actually I looked up Flashback, he summons copies of himself from Alternate Universe's so the copies dying would have no effect on him or the others, however as soon as he's made unconcious all his copies return to the time from which they came- so those two probably balance themselves out.

[alessandrofranzen]

This simplified a lot.

Thanks.

[thedragonmaster]

That is a cool power, imagine using it as an explanation for why a player isn't there that night. lol. Just say that they were pulled into another dimension to fight a battle for another them.

[Neros]

UH UH UH!! A great drawback... The one with the Flash back power occasionally is called by his own past (since he is the future)... And as you said, if one of them dies.... Well, then you will die at that moment, and it sucks knowing when you will die, and those copies that came after that one will diseppear... Now we are talking.... 30w stones actually starts to sound to high now

[Scriptus]

i was going to say that knowing exactly when you would die would be a big limitation for the GM (not being able to kill you until then) but then i guess if you keep calling other selves from the future and they keep dying then the date of your death would simply keep moving forward. that would be terribly creepy. this power would make a great character though. so many natural challenges.

[thedragonmaster]

Anyone remember Issue 3: A Hulk Runs Through It from the MURPG books? The idea it gave me is this. While having the wrong "You" killed off in battle eliminates the others on the field, you could still get back to the same number, just pull "You's" back from progressively earlier points in time. Though this could mean that you remove yourself from several issues in a row (you were pulled out just before the mission began each time, lol)