About the Cubefall stuff...
Summary of Changes Due to Cubefall, plus a Q and A
Physical Appearance
-Bonzo is currently several years younger than he ought to be; physically, he's in his mid-teens (15 or 16).
-His hair is somewhat lighter. Not enough to freak anyone out, but it's now dark brown instead of black.
-He's also dropped an inch or two on his height. Nothing major, but it should be slightly noticable.
-Any scars he has are cleaned away.
-----------------------------------
Powers:
Telekinesis:
Range: I'm going to peg it at 20-50 feet. Maybe a bit further, but nothing further than a football field under any circumstances.
Strength: Basically, if he can't do it himself, he probably can't do it at any distance whatsoever. There's a distinct limit on that; it's no boost to anything he can do personally, and the more distance involved the less he can do (though the decline is sharpest near the edge of his range).
Q. But what if he has some implement or something else at some point?
A. No boost over his natural strength.
Q. But what if he has steroids or something?
A. Only if it causes his body to become stronger.
Q. Alright, what about walls and so forth?
A. He needs either direct line-of-sight or something very close to it to affect anything.
Q. What about picking locks?
A. He might be able to twist a doorknob. He might be able to fiddle with a sliding latch or a twisting lock. But he can't press down the parts of a lock to unlock a door.
Q. What about stopping bullets?
A. No. Well, qualified no: If enough bullets are flying at him, he might stop one or two...but it ain't like that'll matter. If there's a lone shot or two, he might be able to block it. However, that's a theoretical matter; practically-speaking, if he can't see either the bullet itself (which he won't be able to) or where it's coming from (which will happen at times), then he's up the creek. Even if he can see where the shot is coming from, he'd have to get very lucky with timing to do anything more than exhaust himself in a minute or two. The first time he tries this is likely to be the last, even if he doesn't die in the process.
Note that he doesn't know that yet, and is likely to find out in a very painful way, since even stopping a shot is going to hurt, and even if he gets his aim dead on, it's likely to be akin to the effect Teddy Roosevelt's speech: The bullet slows down, but does keep on moving.
Q. What about blaster bolts?
A. That's more likely, if just because they're more visible and move a tad more slowly AFAIK. However...if he's got several coming at him in a short time, he's still screwed. Again, the first time he tries this is likely to be the last.
Q. What about (ins. big, dumb object here)?
A. Can he do anything about it without the powers? If so, yes. If not, then the answer's "no" unless the only obstacle is distance from it.
Q. What about a fist fight?
A. There he can cause some trouble; if he's in a hand-to-hand situation, then he'll be at an advantage because of the element of surprise. Also, he can disarm at a short distance, but that's probably going to take some work if the opponent has a good grip on their weapon.
-----------------------------------
Powers:
Flying:
Q. What can he do?
A. Bonzo can fly.
Q. What does this mean? I mean, what kind of fly? Fly a spaceship?
A. No, he can physically...you know, fly/float.
Q. What are the distance limitations?
A. He can fly across the room. He can get down a football field. And he'll be exhausted if he tries to fly more than a few miles. If he tries anything further, he'll probably drop out of the sky.
Q. What about speed?
A. He can go pretty fast over a short distance. The faster he goes, the faster he'll tire.
Q. So...
A. That means that if he tries to tear off at a hundred miles an hour, he'll be tired by the time he's to the end of the block no matter how rested and ready to go he was before.
Q. Anywhere he can't go?
A. If he goes into space, he'd better be wearing a space suit. Otherwise, he'll suffocate pretty quickly. Same thing if he tries to go too high; if he tries flying up 30,000 feet he'll probably drop out of the sky from both exhaustion and a lack of air. And no, he can't go through walls or anything else like that; if he tries, he'll leave a dent...most likely in himself before the wall.
Q. What if he's carrying X?
A. Then X had better be something he can carry IRL. If he tries picking up a car, then he'll be lucky to get it more than a few inches up, if that. If he's wearing a full pack of military gear, then he'll be panting very quickly.
Q. What about just plain floating?
A. He'll slowly tire; it'll be something like treading water, though he won't wear out quite as quickly if he's still.
Q. What if he's both floating and pushing stuff?
A. Then he'll probably be falling and not pushing stuff very quickly.
-----------------------------------
General Q&A:
Q. Where does it work?
A. Only on worlds where magic works. Also, if item X would cut the predominant form of magic off in a world, it'll cut him off from this.
Q. What causes it?
A. I don't know, but I will explicitly state that it is NOT, repeat NOT the Force. This is due to issues coming up earlier in the game.
Q. Did you plan this?
A. No. I explicitly intended that option not to be chosen; in the first RP (where he selected being a tribble over it), he veered away. Explicitly veered away. It was only in the RP where Enzo poked at him and promised to stop him if he abused them that Bonzo picked this option. I expected the different-looking other baseline human option to be chosen (and stick), largely as a matter of identity cover.
Q. If you didn't plan for this, why did you create a situation where it could happen?
A. I'm a doofus.
Ok, it's a little more complex, but the first point stands: He was going to explicitly decline that power out of concern of misuse. As you can see, he -did- decline it the first time, and nearly did the second time.
Q. Alright. You didn't plan him to select that option. Why didn't you have him hand it back?
A. Blame Enzo again. Nothing like a decently powerful friend patting you on the back and promising to keep you from causing trouble to allay concerns, is there?
Yet again, this is a case of "I picked a bad RP position to run that scene in", but I didn't want to have the result be a result of a solo RP. That's landed me in hot water before, and I didn't want a repeat.
Q. And what about this Q and A? Why'd you write it?
A. First and foremost, I want to avoid getting yelled at. I know that'll happen anyway, but since it doesn't tend to happen until I'm already over the line in peoples' minds, and have been for a long time, and even then with a vaguely directed statement the majority of which could be directed at several other players (and after which it takes three months for anyone to expressly approach me about the issue), I wanted to both put in some general limits on myself for future use (notably avoiding "power creep" at any later date) and to deal with as much of this "stuff" right away.
Q. Then why is anything vague?
A. First, there's the fact that I don't want to get into an RP and have to ask a page of questions before doing anything. Second, there's always situational conditions (how tired he is, how good of a shape he's in, etc.). And third, I've penciled myself in fairly well.
Q. Anything else to add?
A. The floating ability is, when it comes down to it, not much more than he was able to do in the Battle Room in Ender's Game; only difference is that now, he's able to do that in a non-zero-G environment for a while. The TK is fairly well-restrained; it'll let him hold his own against Fett in a fistfight...at which point, Fett will fire with his flamethrower and put an end to the fight. Also, with the TK, he'll generally need to be able to aim at whatever he wants to move with his hand(s).
-------------------------------------
If there are further questions, comments, or you just want to chew me out for this, IM me. If you've got a good idea to help me terminate this power situation, IM me. For now, I hope they're at least useless enough to avoid being a major controversy.
Physical Appearance
-Bonzo is currently several years younger than he ought to be; physically, he's in his mid-teens (15 or 16).
-His hair is somewhat lighter. Not enough to freak anyone out, but it's now dark brown instead of black.
-He's also dropped an inch or two on his height. Nothing major, but it should be slightly noticable.
-Any scars he has are cleaned away.
-----------------------------------
Powers:
Telekinesis:
Range: I'm going to peg it at 20-50 feet. Maybe a bit further, but nothing further than a football field under any circumstances.
Strength: Basically, if he can't do it himself, he probably can't do it at any distance whatsoever. There's a distinct limit on that; it's no boost to anything he can do personally, and the more distance involved the less he can do (though the decline is sharpest near the edge of his range).
Q. But what if he has some implement or something else at some point?
A. No boost over his natural strength.
Q. But what if he has steroids or something?
A. Only if it causes his body to become stronger.
Q. Alright, what about walls and so forth?
A. He needs either direct line-of-sight or something very close to it to affect anything.
Q. What about picking locks?
A. He might be able to twist a doorknob. He might be able to fiddle with a sliding latch or a twisting lock. But he can't press down the parts of a lock to unlock a door.
Q. What about stopping bullets?
A. No. Well, qualified no: If enough bullets are flying at him, he might stop one or two...but it ain't like that'll matter. If there's a lone shot or two, he might be able to block it. However, that's a theoretical matter; practically-speaking, if he can't see either the bullet itself (which he won't be able to) or where it's coming from (which will happen at times), then he's up the creek. Even if he can see where the shot is coming from, he'd have to get very lucky with timing to do anything more than exhaust himself in a minute or two. The first time he tries this is likely to be the last, even if he doesn't die in the process.
Note that he doesn't know that yet, and is likely to find out in a very painful way, since even stopping a shot is going to hurt, and even if he gets his aim dead on, it's likely to be akin to the effect Teddy Roosevelt's speech: The bullet slows down, but does keep on moving.
Q. What about blaster bolts?
A. That's more likely, if just because they're more visible and move a tad more slowly AFAIK. However...if he's got several coming at him in a short time, he's still screwed. Again, the first time he tries this is likely to be the last.
Q. What about (ins. big, dumb object here)?
A. Can he do anything about it without the powers? If so, yes. If not, then the answer's "no" unless the only obstacle is distance from it.
Q. What about a fist fight?
A. There he can cause some trouble; if he's in a hand-to-hand situation, then he'll be at an advantage because of the element of surprise. Also, he can disarm at a short distance, but that's probably going to take some work if the opponent has a good grip on their weapon.
-----------------------------------
Powers:
Flying:
Q. What can he do?
A. Bonzo can fly.
Q. What does this mean? I mean, what kind of fly? Fly a spaceship?
A. No, he can physically...you know, fly/float.
Q. What are the distance limitations?
A. He can fly across the room. He can get down a football field. And he'll be exhausted if he tries to fly more than a few miles. If he tries anything further, he'll probably drop out of the sky.
Q. What about speed?
A. He can go pretty fast over a short distance. The faster he goes, the faster he'll tire.
Q. So...
A. That means that if he tries to tear off at a hundred miles an hour, he'll be tired by the time he's to the end of the block no matter how rested and ready to go he was before.
Q. Anywhere he can't go?
A. If he goes into space, he'd better be wearing a space suit. Otherwise, he'll suffocate pretty quickly. Same thing if he tries to go too high; if he tries flying up 30,000 feet he'll probably drop out of the sky from both exhaustion and a lack of air. And no, he can't go through walls or anything else like that; if he tries, he'll leave a dent...most likely in himself before the wall.
Q. What if he's carrying X?
A. Then X had better be something he can carry IRL. If he tries picking up a car, then he'll be lucky to get it more than a few inches up, if that. If he's wearing a full pack of military gear, then he'll be panting very quickly.
Q. What about just plain floating?
A. He'll slowly tire; it'll be something like treading water, though he won't wear out quite as quickly if he's still.
Q. What if he's both floating and pushing stuff?
A. Then he'll probably be falling and not pushing stuff very quickly.
-----------------------------------
General Q&A:
Q. Where does it work?
A. Only on worlds where magic works. Also, if item X would cut the predominant form of magic off in a world, it'll cut him off from this.
Q. What causes it?
A. I don't know, but I will explicitly state that it is NOT, repeat NOT the Force. This is due to issues coming up earlier in the game.
Q. Did you plan this?
A. No. I explicitly intended that option not to be chosen; in the first RP (where he selected being a tribble over it), he veered away. Explicitly veered away. It was only in the RP where Enzo poked at him and promised to stop him if he abused them that Bonzo picked this option. I expected the different-looking other baseline human option to be chosen (and stick), largely as a matter of identity cover.
Q. If you didn't plan for this, why did you create a situation where it could happen?
A. I'm a doofus.
Ok, it's a little more complex, but the first point stands: He was going to explicitly decline that power out of concern of misuse. As you can see, he -did- decline it the first time, and nearly did the second time.
Q. Alright. You didn't plan him to select that option. Why didn't you have him hand it back?
A. Blame Enzo again. Nothing like a decently powerful friend patting you on the back and promising to keep you from causing trouble to allay concerns, is there?
Yet again, this is a case of "I picked a bad RP position to run that scene in", but I didn't want to have the result be a result of a solo RP. That's landed me in hot water before, and I didn't want a repeat.
Q. And what about this Q and A? Why'd you write it?
A. First and foremost, I want to avoid getting yelled at. I know that'll happen anyway, but since it doesn't tend to happen until I'm already over the line in peoples' minds, and have been for a long time, and even then with a vaguely directed statement the majority of which could be directed at several other players (and after which it takes three months for anyone to expressly approach me about the issue), I wanted to both put in some general limits on myself for future use (notably avoiding "power creep" at any later date) and to deal with as much of this "stuff" right away.
Q. Then why is anything vague?
A. First, there's the fact that I don't want to get into an RP and have to ask a page of questions before doing anything. Second, there's always situational conditions (how tired he is, how good of a shape he's in, etc.). And third, I've penciled myself in fairly well.
Q. Anything else to add?
A. The floating ability is, when it comes down to it, not much more than he was able to do in the Battle Room in Ender's Game; only difference is that now, he's able to do that in a non-zero-G environment for a while. The TK is fairly well-restrained; it'll let him hold his own against Fett in a fistfight...at which point, Fett will fire with his flamethrower and put an end to the fight. Also, with the TK, he'll generally need to be able to aim at whatever he wants to move with his hand(s).
-------------------------------------
If there are further questions, comments, or you just want to chew me out for this, IM me. If you've got a good idea to help me terminate this power situation, IM me. For now, I hope they're at least useless enough to avoid being a major controversy.