manipulation powers

[winterman]

I am trying to come up with a list of manipulation powers to use. Here's what I came up with so far.

Manipulation powers

Fire
Water
Space
Plasma
Time
Entropy
Quantum
Nature
Radiowave
Radiation
Inertia
Mind
Life
Soul/Spirit
Undead
Positron (the opposite of electricity)
Electrical
Reality
Chemical
Matter
Air
Density
Size
Earth
Fate
Dream
Light
Darkness
Kinetic
Gravity
Friction
Probability
Magnetic
Mechanical
Plant
Sound
Vibration
Weather
Energy (all)

I still need momentum and continuum manipulation powers. Plus I missed anything, let me know. Also, please create new manipulation powers.

[A.J.Gibson]

I've been working on a similar system (for a homebrew). I don't know exactly what you're doing, but mine also has: Identity, Order, Chaos, Knowledge, Thought, Language, Blood/Bone/Flesh, Force, Cosmic Rays, Smoke, Wood, Minerals/Gems, Force, Ideology, Passion, Pleasure, Pain, Personality and Potential. Potential is the weird one because it represents abilities, which is how you get all sorts of meta-ability powers like Transfer and Suppress.

BTW, Positrons are the anti-matter equivalent of electrons, not the opposite of electricity.

[winterman]

I am going to post them on a website. And I ment to say what you said about positrons. By the way, what do all those do? (thought, passion, force, cosmic rays, etc.)

[Rapier]

While I applaud your efforts, the list if infinite. You can manipulate any matter or energy (which pretty much encompasses all of creation). Those you have listed is a fair start at the most common.

[A.J.Gibson]

I am going to post them on a website. And I ment to say what you said about positrons. By the way, what do all those do? (thought, passion, force, cosmic rays, etc.)

Since I'm not certain what you intend to do with this as a system, I'm not certain which ones apply, so I'll tell you how my homebrew works (briefly):
Elements (like what you have listed) are combined with functions (create, destroy, move, ride, alter, perceive) to create powers, kinda similar to what ArsMagica does.
Examples:
Manipulating thought changes what people are thinking, passion changes what people are thinking (I guess I should have called it emotion), force can be used to screw with or create force fields and telekinesis. Force isn't the same thing as energy in terms of physics, BTW, and cosmic rays are rays in the ultra high end of Electro-magnetic spectrum, such as X-Rays and Gamma Rays (I think) while radio waves and microwaves are at the low end and visible light is in the middle with infra-red and ultra violet.

Oh, Rapier has a point, BTW, trying to categorize everything is a pain, I know because I tried. My solution: define a few very broad elements, make everything else a sub-element, and allow overlapping (like organic elements overlap with water and air).

Is this for Hero?

[Zeropoint]

If i recall correctly, cosmic rays are very, very high energy particles coming from (duh!) outer space. On interaction with our atmosphere, they produce a shower of high-energy photons (gamma rays/x-rays) and particles with lower but still impressive energies.

While I'm on the subject, gamma rays and x-rays are essentially the same thing, differing only in how they are produced. By convention, gamma rays come from radioactive decay, fission, and fusion; x-rays come from the extreme acceleration of a charged particle. Both occupy the same portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, and are therefore the same thing. By this convention, the EM radiation generated by cosmic rays would be x-rays, although calling it gamma rays would also be correct.

Zeropoint

[winterman]

AJ, I think no matter how they use these, these can be used for any superhero game.

Here's what I've done so far. I've added in a few, which are marked with a *.

Classical Elements

Air: the ability to manipulate air molecules
Water: the ability to control liquid water
Fire: The ability to control flames
Earth: The ability to shape the earth, create volcanos, cause earthquakes, etc.

Physical

*Dimension: the ability to make something or yourself occupy one, two, or four dimensions rather than three.
Density: The ability to increase/decrease density
Size: Same above, only with size
Chemical: The ability to control chemical reactions
Matter: Reshape and rebuild matter in various ways

Forces

Magnetic: the ability to control magnetism, e.g. pull iron towards yourself
Entropy: control entropic forces, make someting decay or break faster
Gravity: Increase/Decrease amount of Gravity
*Momentum: Control object's mass so it will hit harder
Kinetic: Convert potential energy and change direction and speed
Force and Inertia: Reduce Force of an object, Remove inertia to change direction or stop, leap far distances, etc.
Friction: Manipulate Air Resistance, Manipulate land resistance, make some one slip, etc.

Natural and Manmade

Weather: manipulate tornados, hail, snow, etc.
*Metal: Control the properties of metal and shape it
Life: control the structure and functions of life
Mechanical: control over machines
Plants: Control plant life
Nature: Communicate with nature, and control the animals, earth, plants, etc.
Mind: control the thought of someone

Energy

Vibration: control over vibrations
Sound: COntrol over sounds
Light: Control over light
Heat: control over heat
Cold: Control over cold and ice
Energy: control over strange forms of energy (if not, all forms of energy)
Radiation: control over gamma rays, x rays, cosmic rays, that stuff.
Radiowave: control over radiowaves
Positron: can be used to distrupt machines and fire a positron bolt
Electrical: Control over electricity
Darkness: Control over darkness and shadows

Powerful

Reality: Change reality to whatever you like
*Physical Law: Change the laws of physics
Quantum: manipulate energy, light and matter as well as the fundamental forces
Time: Speed up, slow doen, rewind, you get the idea
Space: fold space and shoten distances
Fate: slow down and speed up destiny, change destiny
Probability: Manipulate luck

Supernatural

*Magic: Manipulate the forces of magic
DreamL go into peoples dreams and change them
*Holy power: The power to control heaven and be aided by angels
*Unholy power: Same above, only with evil

And last but not least,

Cosmic manipulation: the ability to do anything, anything.

Using these powers may be dangerous, so if you are power greedy and reuse
a certian power a lot, don't use some of these. I just worked on them, but I may have to adjust them later.

[A.J.Gibson]

The categories I'm using are:
Matter (that which is made of atoms)
Energy (I include force in here even though force is not actually a form of energy)
Reality (pretty much the same as your 'powerful' category, any thing that can be measured but that has no matter or energy)
Life (anything that exists solely in the mind)
Potential (elements of ability)

You might want to consider putting Dreams in with Manmade/Natural, since mind is in there, and dreams are in your mind. Also, holy, unholy and magical seem like power modifiers to me, not elements by their selves.