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Homebrew Exaltation: The Unshackled, Jumper of Timelines; An Exaltation who travels between alternate realities as easily as walking down the street.
Topic Started: Dec 16 2016, 02:56 PM (1,846 Views)
Konate

(Previously titled the Kismet)

The Unshackled
There is a theory that there are multiple universes, each of which is self contained - Every choice we make, going forward in time, each moment that has multiple outcomes, creates an infinite number of additional universes, each of which encases the effects of each individual choice you could have made. We are unaware of all of these offshoots, following a primary timeline for our self and our soul.

The Unshackled, however, is inherently aware of each and every one of these offshoots, able to see where they go, and choosing which one they wish to follow. To the uninitiated, this may look very similar to Precognition and Divination magic - but as an Unshackled grows in power and control, they can reach into existing alternate universes and mix them into the prime. This can often have unintended side effects, such as knots pf paradox, forcing the Unshackled to slowly undo the knot over time to avoid problems.

The Unshackled can even affect others' timelines and, it has been said, do not "die" as others might. Instead, their soul, their consciousness, "resets" their timeline, which appears to function on a completely different set of principles than the rest of the Wheel.

POWERS:
Wherewithal: You can buy back burnt hero points at a cost of 300 EXP each. In addition, you can burn a hero point when you would die of old age, returning to the beginning of adulthood for your race.
Driving the Wheel: You can spend Hero Points for anything you can spend Fate for, to a maximum of your Sway per round. You gain one Echo for each Hero Point used in this manner.
Forked Path: You can use Fate or Hero Points to reroll a test after determining if it passes or fails. When you use Hero Points or Fate to reroll a test in this manner, you don't have to choose the final result. Instead, you choose which result you want to use for the test from each roll made for it. You gain one Echo for each Fate used for this power.
Echoes of the Wheel: Several of the Unshackled's powers generate Echoes. 1 Echo naturally disappears between each scene. The Unshackled may also spend 1 Echo as a free action to take a -2k1 penalty to any one test.

Power Stat: Sway
The Power of the Unshackled is measured by their Sway, their control over the forces of Fate and how choices effect the future.

Resource Stat: Fate The character has maximum Fate equal to double their Sway score. At the end of a session, you lose all unused Fate and start with your maximum at the beginning of the next session. If you have any Echoes, you then subtract those Echoes from your Fate. This can not leave you with less than 0 Fate.

Sway
Power Gained
*Intertwined Fates - You can use Forked Path on tests made by willing allies, gaining Echoes normally.
**Discontinuity - At the beginning of a session, after regaining your Fate but before the first scene starts, you can use Fate to gain temporary Background dots for one session. You can spend up to your Sway score in Fate to gain that many temporary Background dots of your choice. At the end of the session, you lose the temporary Background dots, and can not choose any of the same Backgrounds next session. Using this power generates as many Echoes as Fate used.
***Your Fate in My Hands - You can burn your own hero points to save the lives of others, as though they had burned it. When you use this power, you may have some say in the specifics of how they survive, and what happens to them afterwards, as determined appropriate by the Story Master. When you use this power, you gain a number of Echoes equal to the character's level.
****Non Sequitur Storyline - You can use Discontinuity between each scene, in addition to the beginning of the session. Any backgrounds chosen, no matter when during a session, can not be used in the following session.
*****Fated to Succeed - Once per session, you can automatically succeed at any one test. However, you gain a number of Echoes equal to the TN or opposed test result divided by 5 (rounded up). You can spend a Hero Point to gain a raise on this success as normal.


Paradoxes


Assets
Dying Echoes: When you start a new session, before regaining Fate, you remove a number of Echoes equal to half of your Sway, rounded up.

Echoes in the Warp: When you cause, or are affected by, a Psychic Phenomenon, Perils of the Warp, or Warp Travel Encounters roll, you can spend a Fate to either remove up to your Sway in Echoes to increase the result by double that amount, or gain Echoes up to your Sway in order to decrease the result by that amount.

Instant Karma: When using Intertwined Fates, you no longer gain Echoes, and remove 1 Echo when using a Hero Point on an Ally. Also, if you burn a hero point to save someone else, you remove all Echoes.

Paradoxical Pocket: You gain a number of background dots in Inheritance equal to half your Sway, rounded up. You can change any, all, or none of the equipment gained by these background dots at the beginning of every session.

Tempting Fate: You can choose to gain a flat bonus to your next test equal to the number of Echoes you currently have. However, the next test that negatively effects you gains the same flat bonus. The flat bonus to the negative test is cumulative and persists between scenes and sessions.

Unshackled, Free of Choice
Unshackled Physical Features
Most Unshackled look just like any others of their race. In fact, the only thing that separates them from others is the serendipitous nature of their lives: Everything seems to constantly happen in their favor; They seem to react perfectly to every situation. Indeed, an Unshackled can easily place himself into any position of power they please, simply "trading" places with an alternate self where he did, in fact, come into that power. As such, anyone in the Wheel could have untold interactions with an Unshackled, and never know. Only those who have perfect, eidetic memory can usually tell that something is wrong.

Unshackled Tells
As the Unshackled uses their powers, others begin to notice the coincidental or precognizant nature of their lives, as though they knew something was going to happen before it did. What most can not see, however, is the light that begins shining within the Warp. If their tell reaches a high enough level, the light shone by their soul rivals that of Sigil itself.

Becoming an Unshackled
Becoming an Unshackled is not easy and is usually a gift you are born with, a small mutation upon both mind and soul that unlocks the individual from fate, time, and choice. You see what is not to happen, though may have if you had just acted differently. Low-power individuals often just assume they are naturally psychic, and take up the arts of Divination. Those few who recognize their power for what it truly is live their lives any way they want - truly, they can do so indefinitely.

Playing an Unshackled
The Unshackled are not cautious, often arrogant, and usually believe themselves to be immortal - which is mostly true. They do not hesitate to act, knowing that they can get out of the situation by simply moving to a universe where their choices did not lead them here. Oftentimes, this leads them to make mistakes that cost the lives of others, though a few of the Unshackled can undo these mistakes as well.
Edited by Konate, Jun 21 2018, 06:43 PM.
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Konate

This wasn't inspired by the legendary hero, but it did motivate me to post this
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Marr965

Fated, and then borrow TES's thing about Heroes for your fluff.
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Konate

I'm thinking of moving the Control 4 ability to be standard as part of the echoes of the wheel, and you gain an additional Control/2 (round up).

I'm also thinking of having each successive reroll gain a number of raises equal to the hero points spent up to that point (so second roll gains +5, 3rd gains +10) to tempt you into building echo.

Thoughts on these changes, and a replacement control 4 ability?
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Username

I like it, a very interesting idea.
It sure gets a lot of Hero Points, although that is a bit the point. I'm not so sure if it should get more Hero Points as a Paragon and Dragon-Blooded get Resource though. I do see both outlooks, they don't get as many Hero Points as a Paragon gets action points combined with Hero Points, and they need to balance spending them as Hero Points and Resource points. But that is still a lot of Hero Points if you use them as Hero Points. As an aside, this Exalt would love the Punk Class since it gives you +1 Resource, in this case a Hero Point.

There are a few issues however in the actual rules that you'd need to address to have this Exalt's abilities work properly, which will actually make it a bit better comparatively than you envisioned it.

Page 239 of the first book details hero points:
Page 239
 
USING HERO POINTS
Hero Points allow an adventurer to manipulate situations by mitigating bad results or turning a mishap into fortune. Among other things, this allows players to take more risks, which makes the game faster and far more exciting. A hero has a limited pool of Hero Points, and when a Hero Point is spent, that pool is reduced by one. Spent Hero Points are restored at the beginning of the next gaming session, or possibly under special circumstances in the middle of a game session that the SM deems appropriate. A Hero Point can be used at any time, either on the character's own turn or in reaction to the action of another character.
Spending a Hero Point is a Free Action. In the Glossary, it details about Free Actions:
Quote:
 
Free Action: A free action is a type of action that takes almost no time at all. During their turn, a character may preform any number of free actions, to reasonable limits of what the SM allows, and no more than one action of a given type per turn.
This would seem to imply that you can only spend a single hero point per turn normally. Is this intended? Difficult to say, but to be better safe than sorry you might want to clarify the issue by annulling that rule for this Exaltation in one of its powers, addressing that you can spend them up to your normal resource limit as set by Power Stat or somesuch.

Also on Page 239, there's another issue for the Forked Path ability.
page 239
 
Spending a Hero Point allows for one of the following effects:
* Reroll a failed Test once. The results of the reroll are final.
So with this in mind you'll want to bring up that you can use Hero Points to reroll tests more than once, not just imply it.

How does the spending of Echoes work as far as actions and numbers? Is there a limit to how many you can spend in a single turn, like a Resource or Hero Point? Does it share the same limit as your Resource limit, such as if you have Control 4 you could spend 2 Echoes and 2 Hero Points in a turn, or 4 of both? You might also want to change the phrasing to "If you use a Hero Point to reroll a test and choose any result other than the original" to better clarify.

With Intertwined Fates, can you Burn a Hero Point for an Ally, or merely spend it? Presumably the second one, but something to consider.

Echoes of the Warp is a funny little ability. You can use it to make Psychic Phenomena that would affect you into one that targets everyone, or if someone else was the primary target you an move it up to an option that no longer selects you. It is generally worse than Calm the Winds though, but you can do it with your Anti Resource so that's not so bad.

Stable Revolution is a bit poorly worded, even though you're replacing it. Are those permanent Hero Points you get, or should they instead be referred to as something like "Temporary Hero Points until the end of the session. They may be spent, but not burnt."


More fluff related, but I think the word Sway would be better for the Power Stat than Control. Just brainstorming.

Power Stat: Sway:
Sway encompasses your abilities to influence, control and hold sway over the fates of yourself, others and in time the very Wheel itself. The more your Sway expands, the less you sway in your actions, forcing causality to follow you off the beaten path. In time you stand firm and the very Wheel itself may turn around you, to your liking.

Other than Fixing Power Stat 4 and a few minor issues mentioned above, the most immediate issue I see is figuring out the Assets. Did you have any in mind? I see the classic "Gain Divination and a bonus to Divination" as an obvious choice for one, scrying and controlling destiny and whatnot.
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Konate

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Dec 16 2016, 08:18 PM
I like it, a very interesting idea.
It sure gets a lot of Hero Points, although that is a bit the point. I'm not so sure if it should get more Hero Points as a Paragon and Dragon-Blooded get Resource though. I do see both outlooks, they don't get as many Hero Points as a Paragon gets action points combined with Hero Points, and they need to balance spending them as Hero Points and Resource points. But that is still a lot of Hero Points if you use them as Hero Points. As an aside, this Exalt would love the Punk Class since it gives you +1 Resource, in this case a Hero Point.

There are a few issues however in the actual rules that you'd need to address to have this Exalt's abilities work properly, which will actually make it a bit better comparatively than you envisioned it.

Page 239 of the first book details hero points:
Page 239
 
USING HERO POINTS
Hero Points allow an adventurer to manipulate situations by mitigating bad results or turning a mishap into fortune. Among other things, this allows players to take more risks, which makes the game faster and far more exciting. A hero has a limited pool of Hero Points, and when a Hero Point is spent, that pool is reduced by one. Spent Hero Points are restored at the beginning of the next gaming session, or possibly under special circumstances in the middle of a game session that the SM deems appropriate. A Hero Point can be used at any time, either on the character's own turn or in reaction to the action of another character.
Spending a Hero Point is a Free Action. In the Glossary, it details about Free Actions:
Quote:
 
Free Action: A free action is a type of action that takes almost no time at all. During their turn, a character may preform any number of free actions, to reasonable limits of what the SM allows, and no more than one action of a given type per turn.
This would seem to imply that you can only spend a single hero point per turn normally. Is this intended? Difficult to say, but to be better safe than sorry you might want to clarify the issue by annulling that rule for this Exaltation in one of its powers, addressing that you can spend them up to your normal resource limit as set by Power Stat or somesuch.

Also on Page 239, there's another issue for the Forked Path ability.
page 239
 
Spending a Hero Point allows for one of the following effects:
* Reroll a failed Test once. The results of the reroll are final.
So with this in mind you'll want to bring up that you can use Hero Points to reroll tests more than once, not just imply it.

How does the spending of Echoes work as far as actions and numbers? Is there a limit to how many you can spend in a single turn, like a Resource or Hero Point? Does it share the same limit as your Resource limit, such as if you have Control 4 you could spend 2 Echoes and 2 Hero Points in a turn, or 4 of both? You might also want to change the phrasing to "If you use a Hero Point to reroll a test and choose any result other than the original" to better clarify.

With Intertwined Fates, can you Burn a Hero Point for an Ally, or merely spend it? Presumably the second one, but something to consider.

Echoes of the Warp is a funny little ability. You can use it to make Psychic Phenomena that would affect you into one that targets everyone, or if someone else was the primary target you an move it up to an option that no longer selects you. It is generally worse than Calm the Winds though, but you can do it with your Anti Resource so that's not so bad.

Stable Revolution is a bit poorly worded, even though you're replacing it. Are those permanent Hero Points you get, or should they instead be referred to as something like "Temporary Hero Points until the end of the session. They may be spent, but not burnt."


More fluff related, but I think the word Sway would be better for the Power Stat than Control. Just brainstorming.

Power Stat: Sway:
Sway encompasses your abilities to influence, control and hold sway over the fates of yourself, others and in time the very Wheel itself. The more your Sway expands, the less you sway in your actions, forcing causality to follow you off the beaten path. In time you stand firm and the very Wheel itself may turn around you, to your liking.

Other than Fixing Power Stat 4 and a few minor issues mentioned above, the most immediate issue I see is figuring out the Assets. Did you have any in mind? I see the classic "Gain Divination and a bonus to Divination" as an obvious choice for one, scrying and controlling destiny and whatnot.
a lot of great feedback. I've been brainstorming on it all day - I'll definitely be overhauling it overnight. I'll bump the thread once I've updated it to a more final state :D
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Konate

there. updated, and also cleaned up! AND IT MATCHES THE OFFICIAL BOOK FORMAT aren't you happy

edit: Changed "Instant Karma" to be Sway x 15, not Sway x 10. it feels like it scales more with hitty people that way
Edited by Konate, Dec 16 2016, 11:39 PM.
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Username

Ah, so much prettier to look at.

These extra Hero Points you get for being a good boy and not ending with Echoes: Can they be burnt? When you start with less, are they actually GONE or just pre-spent? I think clarifying language is a good idea here.

Favored by Fates, when it say Background, does that mean tests involving the Backgrounds from the book such as Followers and Artifact? What qualifies as a Background test? Contacts and Wealth are obvious, but what about Artifact? Would attacking with an Artifact count? Having an Ally attack?

Backtracking the Path is nice but seems like it would be really annoying. Might want to ensure there's a once per scene or day limit of some sort.



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Konate

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Dec 16 2016, 11:38 PM
Ah, so much prettier to look at.

These extra Hero Points you get for being a good boy and not ending with Echoes: Can they be burnt? When you start with less, are they actually GONE or just pre-spent? I think clarifying language is a good idea here.

Favored by Fates, when it say Background, does that mean tests involving the Backgrounds from the book such as Followers and Artifact? What qualifies as a Background test? Contacts and Wealth are obvious, but what about Artifact? Would attacking with an Artifact count? Having an Ally attack?

Backtracking the Path is nice but seems like it would be really annoying. Might want to ensure there's a once per scene or day limit of some sort.



addressed all of these concerns!
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Konate

I couldn't sleep until I fixed the terrible assets
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