Right Place Right time

[Fearghus]

I had an idea for a power the other day and I have been mulling over how I would go about building it. I don’t have a specific character in mind for it, but the power is kind of a great flavor power, could even just be a talent, but here’s the gist of the power.

The character has a knack for being in the right place at the right time. Almost like coincidence. Not that major things are constantly happening around him / her, but that the character is somehow cosmically always able to be where he / she needs to be when they need to be there.

This is the classic situation where the cop shows up at the drug house right as the dealer is packing up 20 kg of coke and bags of money, or a vigilante just happens to be making a bank deposit when the bank gets robbed, or when walking down the street just happens to overhear the planning of a major event / crime. Or maybe an informant that always seems the whiteness the coming and going of every major mafia figure in the town.

Basically the character will seem to be everywhere. If something major happens he’ll be there. I realize that the nature of characters is that they are the center of the action anyway, so the whole point of this power might be stupid, but I guess I am just looking to satisfy my curiosity.

[jwpacker]

Re: Right Place Right time

 

I had an idea for a power the other day and I have been mulling over how I would go about building it. I don’t have a specific character in mind for it' date=' but the power is kind of a great flavor power, could even just be a talent, but here’s the gist of the power.[/size']

 

The character has a knack for being in the right place at the right time. Almost like coincidence. Not that major things are constantly happening around him / her, but that the character is somehow cosmically always able to be where he / she needs to be when they need to be there.

 

This is the classic situation where the cop shows up at the drug house right as the dealer is packing up 20 kg of coke and bags of money, or a vigilante just happens to be making a bank deposit when the bank gets robbed, or when walking down the street just happens to overhear the planning of a major event / crime. Or maybe an informant that always seems the whiteness the coming and going of every major mafia figure in the town.

 

Basically the character will seem to be everywhere. If something major happens he’ll be there. I realize that the nature of characters is that they are the center of the action anyway, so the whole point of this power might be stupid, but I guess I am just looking to satisfy my curiosity.

 

Might just be me, but every character in my games seems to have that. Oh, sure, they come upon a dry well every now and again, but they have an uncanny knack for being right where I want them to be when I wanted them there.

 

If you insist upon codifying it, I think I would take it as some limited form of Luck.

[Sean Waters]

Re: Right Place Right time

 

Or maybe NCC Danger Sense Basically they know where it is going to kick off, even if they don't know they know!

[Killer Shrike]

Re: Right Place Right time

 

This is pretty much a text book form of Luck.

[Roth]

Re: Right Place Right time

 

Could also be a form of troublefinder... I think that's what it was called in the Old Marvel game. Basically your character teleports into the biggest amount of havoc and chaos that abounds.

 

In this case the SFX of the teleport is being in the right place at the right time.

[Phoenix]

Re: Right Place Right time

 

The name of that rare and undetectable power is called the "Aura of the PC", it is quite similar to the disadvantage known as "The Aura of the DNPC" where by every being defined as a villain or just a bad guy somehow knows who, what and where.

Others have given this unusual phenomenon their own name in an attempt to control the effects. Such names have included terms such as “Weirdness Magnet, Luck, Unluck and Whims of the GM (however, no one has ever discovered the what this being called the GM is).

[Split Decision]

Re: Right Place Right time

 

Make it a 5 point disad. Being in the right place usually means danger for a PC.

[Sean Waters]

Re: Right Place Right time

 

Generally a GM wants you to be in the right place at the right time and will write the scenario to explain why you are. As a rule I would not want a player paying for a power to accomplish this. Equally it seems wrong to me to buy it as a disadvantage - that is why the character is there most of the time.

 

Neither approach is wrong, but you really need to define what you are trying to accomplish - if it is just making sure you always have something to do, then that is the GM's job, and making it make sense is his job too.

 

If it is a disadvantage - while investigating one case you keep on running into threads from another, causing confusion - buy it as such.

 

If it really is a power - you don't have to investigate and track down the villain base - you just 'guess' where it is - buy it as luck or a sense.

 

However, generally it is neither, it is just storytelling.

 

Equally decent investigation and preparation by a character can make it seem they are always in the right place at the right time. Batman gets there on time because he gathers massive amounts of information. Superman gets there because he 'superhears' a scream and can move enormously fast.