Shadow Clones

[Jhamin]

Ok, so I've been watching a lot of the Naruto Anime lately. And as a classic hero gamer I've been mentally statting out the characters. (which will likely end in a Subruck submission eventually)

 

One power I'd like to run by the community is the "Shadow Clone" Jutsu that is the trademark of the main character but is also used by several others.

 

In the show, the user of this power typically spends an action and creates 1-5 copies of themselves. These copies have all the creators powers and even seem to have some limited self awareness, but are all well aware that they are only temporary copies and are willing to act accordingly.

 

Advanced users can do this without spending an action, can create more (many more) copies, and have all sorts of teamwork based attacks using their own clones.

 

So far, it is basically hero system duplication with a few advantages.

 

The wrinkle I want to run by everyone is this: The Shadow Clones are completely disposeable. They have no body or stun of their own and any damage causes them to vanish in a puff of smoke. Furthermore, the loss of a Clone doesn't harm the creator in any way. These Shadow Clones are frequently used as distractions and cannon fodder by their creators.

 

So my question is: Is this just a GM handwave of the normal duplication recombining rules coupled with a "disappears when hurt" physical lim on the duplicates?

Do we have to break out the summon rules for what is otherwise classic duplication?

Is there another angle I should be looking at this from?

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Shadow Clones

 

What you're describing does sound a lot more like Summoning than Duplication, since the Shadow Clones are unconnected to the main character as far as damage goes. You'd want to give the Summon Power the right level of Amicable Advantage to reflect the self-sacrificing nature of the clones.

 

Since the clones don't have STUN or BODY, another possibility would be to buy all the character's applicable Powers with Indirect, and Ranged if necessary, to allow them to originate well away from the character. In that case the clone is merely the Special Effect of Indirect.

[Jhamin]

Re: Shadow Clones

 

Well, the rules as written seem to support the idea that Summon is indeed the way to go with this.

 

Which I consider a crying shame. Shadow Clones are duplicates in every way except for the way they take damage. Hero really needs an adder for Duplication that allows it to create "mooks" who are identical to you except they get one-shotted.

 

This is how duplication works in movies, cartoons, and comics at least half the time. The "dead duplicates are gone" way of handling these things is actually fairly uncommon these days.

[Roth]

Re: Shadow Clones

 

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