Alternate Mastery

[ds]

Firstus, sorry for the delay- I meant to post this earlier, when a friend called and I was distracted.

Alrighty, having mused on Mastery some, I've come to the general conclusion that I'm just not terribly happy with it as is.

Thus, Alternate Mastery. When purchased, the player must specify what they have Mastery over, although it can be over virtually anything. Mastery costs Action Number + 3.

A player may then spend energy into Mastery to gain any other Ability or Modifier for a limited time, as fits with their particular Mastery. Abilities so gained have a default duration of 3 (one hour on the Duration chart), while Modifiers have a default duration of 1 (this panel on duration chart). The cost in energy of the new Ability or Modifier is equal to the CL of the ability as if bought at creation. (Note- this will sometimes be a bit of a pain to calculate. It is thus recommended that players with Mastery have a variety of common schticks.) If the character already has some degree in that proficiency, then the Mastery totally overcomes it- the character either uses the Mastery-granted Ability or their native talent, but not both.

For characters that have very broad interpretations of their abilities (Magneto's magnetism does things that magnetism, by rights, shouldn't be able to do at times), then the Mastery is at +3, while for someone who has a more crippled or litteral version (such as Pyro's Fire Manipulation- he can't even create fire, after all) would have a -1.

Thus-

The Master of Information can get 'in tune' with computers, focusing himself and then directly interfacing with the Net, while also spontaniously gaining the ability to translate any language.

The Master of Space can warp space around him to become invisible, fold space into a deadly blade, and rip space apart to Teleport.

The Master of Shadows (+3) can cloak the perceptions of others (Create Illusion), step between shadows (Teleport), create impassable veils of darkness (Force Field), blast others with dark energy (Force Blast)- but his preparation time is tremendous. Caught off guard, his strength is far less.

If, at some point, the Master of Shadows created a Tendril of darkness to gank Cyc's sunglasses, no one would be terribly suprised. Likewise, if the Master of Space could suddenly Phase Shift, it shocks no one.

Mastery itself would have no direct abilities- it would only facilitate other Abilities and Modifiers being taken.

Now, the instant objection to this is that not all Masteries are created equal, and I must concede this. But I'd counter that it is already the case, and that more create players could make even Mastery of Toast a terrifying thing.

[shintashi]

hi. I heard about this post over on MURPG yahoo.

I think i see where you were going with this, however, the energy costs you require are rediculous. With your system, a character with an Energy Mastery of say, 10, mimicking only a few basic powers, like energy absorption/reflection or even forcefield, would have to pay 30-45 stones per panel. Doop is very similar in this respect (9/25-40)), and I cannot see a reason to increase his Intelligence to 20, just to provide the Minimal energies.

Masteries need a basic guide of a paragraph or three of something that basically says

Step 1: You start with Cost level of -1, meaning you cant do anything.

Step 2: select abilities from other powers, or those designed for masters, and add their cost level bonuses together. Any powers that have no Cost level modifier increase the Mastery to a Cost level of +0 and/or are "free". These free powers, which will usually suck, are the basic constitution of the mastery.

Step 3: Discount the Cost levels by 0 to 5 levels (minimum 0) of each ability. The principle of discount is "how much sense does this make ?" If everyone agrees without hesitation that a mastery can do this "whatever" as a "given" then you could discount it by 3 or more levels (thus a level +5 would become +2 or less). If the Action acquired is very agreeable "laser mastery should have laser beam force blast", then you can discount it by 1-2. If its agreeable, but questionable discount, then you can set it as a 1 discount, or "may purchase this other Action at a -1, separately".
And if it makes little sense, like Magnetism being used to create a Gravity Beam (which is really grapsing at straws), then charge full price.

Step 4: Final notation, The cost of the mastery should always be at least +1 more than the highest power cost, unless the mastery has some severe built in flaws. That's the tricky part, but obvious flaws, like "cannot actually create own mastery", or "mastery doesn't work outside of X environment" or "mastery can be negated by blah", can all account for discounted versions of the same power.

Example " Mastery of Force" - Discounts "Force Field" to +0, as long as the total cost of the mastery is is at least +4, after everything else.

[ds]

Er. Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but why would I need to pay 30 or 40 stones a panel?

Keep in mind, once you've bought an Ability with this Mastery it stays on for at least the next hour. You treat the character as though they had full normal access to the Ability. And with both Abilities and Modifiers, it's expected you'd buy the Duration up (Although this got a little problematic in playtesting- someone gave himself virtually a number of Abilities at 3 for something like a month...)

In other words.

Storm (Master of Weather 8) knows she'll be going into a fight. For her first panel, she puts 8 stones into Mastery, giving her the Flight Ability at 7 for the next hour. She takes a breather, recovers, describes her eyes turning white, then repeats this for Force Blast at 6 (with x2 Damage). Another breather, and she's ready for combat.

If she had the lead time, she could also add Telekinesis (represented by wind manipulation of stuff at a distance) or Force Field (wind, again). She could also buy the Abilities at a higher Duration- for one more stone, she has full access to the Abilities for several hours, two more and it's until the next day.

It makes the Masters interesting, in that Mastery now requires that lead time- if they have several panels to get ready, they can prepare almost anything imaginable. But, caught off guard, they can do very little.

OTOH, I do like your idea- I'm in general favor of grouping powers as 'this makes sense with that, discount'- especially as opposed to the rather open nature current given.

[shintashi]

DS- Great, i would really like your help in abreviating the above Selection of "how to build a mastery" if it works well enough and fits in a small enough box, QED can put it in the next book (the one they can still edit, not the one that is finished, but hasn't gone to print).

as for not understanding where 30-40 point costs come from, I think its because you were focusing on mini-marvel characters, while, in my proccess of trying to help Evan work out the Cosmic Beings, I've been fiddling with Action #'s of +13, +15, and +17 or higher (i jsut wrote up Kronos' Time Mastery over in Yahoo)

And this is where your system crumbles :

>while Modifiers have a default duration of 1 (this panel >on duration chart). The cost in energy of the new >Ability or Modifier is equal to the CL of the ability as if >bought at creation. (Note- this will sometimes be a bit >of a pain to calculate. It is thus recommended that >players with Mastery have a variety of common >schticks.)

Say I have a Mastery at level 9, and I want to create a x3 Disintegration AP beam. This is a +7 attack, and I havn't even considered that extra range (range 9), so, we have 9+6 = 16,
now follow with me.
10-15
11-20
12-25
13-30
14-35
15-40
16- ... 45 energy per panel, because its NOT an attribute, its only an action, but wait, if I Add the extra 5 stones I want for Far range (We are in outer space, I'm trying to do some damage to a Shiar Ship with 60 health) Totals 50 energy.

if the total is 50 energy, then it takes at least 17 Durability to use, or 25 Intelligence.
unfortunately, there are characters with Mastery attacks very similar to this one. An attack vs. durability is a +6 effect for instance, and at level 9 would cost 40 red stones of energy per panel, since it's not an attribute.

I hope that clears things up.

[ds]

Ahh. Finally see where you're coming from.

You pay the Cost Level, not the number of creation stones.

In other words, if yo uwant a Force Blast of 10, you pay 10 stones of energy, not 15.

If you want a Force Blast of 20, you pay 20 stones, not 65.

[digitalronin]

We need another alternate mastery like a hole in the head. But I'm posting this anyway. This is inspired by Dynamic Power from SAS. I think it's very simple and balanced. I like the way Sorcery is done, where you can do anything and brought that concept to the Mastery.

This is a first draft, over the next few day's I'm going to refine it more and incorporate any feed back I get. The write will be changing to be less based off of Dynamic Power and more off the Mastery action from MURPG.

Mastery
Cost AN +2/+4/+6

Mastery represents extensive control over an element, ideology, natural phenomenon, or sphere of influence. At low Levels, the character is an initiate, and can only effect minor changes in the Action. At high Levels, the character holds mastery over a Realm, and has an intimate understanding of all things relating to the Action. This is a very open-ended Action and should be discussed with the GM at length to determine the effects and limitations in his or her game. Proper use of Mastery will not unbalance the game, but rather can provide many opportunities for character innovation.

Minor or small categories cost AN +2. Examples include: a classical element (water, fire, wind, earth), a limited concept or idea (lust, protection, charm, pride), a minor aspect of nature (temperature, friction, insects, sunlight, clouds, orbits, sea creatures), or a limited sphere of influence (keys, silence, cats, writing, guns, a small locality, nutrition).

Major or large categories cost AN +4. Examples include: a broad concept or idea (love, communication, travel, strength), a major aspect of nature (weather, magnetism, gravity, electricity, animals), or a broad sphere of influence (cities, computer data, health, truth, manufacturing, fertility, weapons, drugs, shapeshifting).

Primal or universal categories cost AN +6. Examples include core concepts and primary spheres of influence: Time, War, Death, Life, Earth, Stars, Thought, Magic, Force, Math, Self, Law, Chaos, Creation, Heaven, Hell, Dimensions, Dreams, and others.

When the character assigns stones to this action he or she can manipulate aspects of the chosen area of influence. The extent of control is determined by the Mastery Action Level. Since this is a story driven Action, there are few definitive rules regarding what a character can and cannot do with a particular Action Level.

The recommended guideline are as follows: characters can influence their area of Mastery with a maximum control approximating the abilities listed for other Actions, the maximum Rank they can use these simulated Actions is the Mastery rank minus the Actions cost modifier.

For example: Fire bringer has Mastery of fire 7, this cost AN+4. She is fighting a foe and decides to do a flame blast (Energy Blast costs AN), she could do it at up rank 7. If she decided to do a flame blast with double damage (Costs AN+2) she could have a maximum rank of 5 (her 7 rank - the 2 action cost modifier)

[psistrike]

This form of Alternate Mastery would be highly unbalancing in MURPG and most GMs would proably avoid it because it is too open-ended and would slow down game play.This is for digitalronin's version.Sorry man but it's way too open for MURPG even when compared to Sorcery.Don't mean to be harsh but this is my opinion of it.

[beyonder]

DS said:

... not all Masteries are created equal, and I must concede this. But I'd counter that it is already the case, and that more creative players could make even Mastery of Toast a terrifying thing.

What ho .... a challenge? I shall create this .... this "Toastmaster". Just see if I dont! *EG*

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