Wardsman

I always thought the essence flows in shadow world were a neat concept. And they parallel the concept of Nodes from White Wolfs Mage. And Shadow World hero stats for Dragons were awesome!

Here is my problem. the system is based on built in susceptibilities. I can have susceptibility to objects a certain shade of blue. Would necessitate a minor transform? What make old school kryptonite more than cosmetic?

More on Godsend. In that world Peter Parker(who is not in the cannon) wouldn't get powers from a radioactive spider. That is just silly! No the spider Accident triggers something in his subconscious that lets him access his latent and rudimentary Ka abilities. In this case his subconsciousness shapes them into "spider" powers. He could do so much more he just doesn't know it. The really powerful users can sense Ka and mold it. Think low powered silver surfer types. I guess the new flash with his speed force drains could fit this. In the first edition (non d6 version) there archetype rules. Which is why I thought about taking some gestalt heros ideas and mixing in as well. Like I said it would make a great hero setting.

I really didn't tell that much. The Elohim are a humanoid race thare able to manipulate an unknown cosmic power they call Ka. Stars generate this energy. They are feudal but technological space faring race with El being their leader. They are fighting a war with another cthonic Ka using race, the Chimera. There is popular general named Attis among elohim who is almost as good at using Ka as El and El feels threatened by both his popularity and ability. So after the war is won El creates a group servants whose Ka ability is stunted that bleeds it off in a nimbus or aura. A halo if you will. They are Angelos and have access to high tech as well. El has the Angelos arrest Attis and followers and put them on a prison transport with chimera prisoners to send to Sheol which is between the arms of the galaxy(Ka poor Region). Something happens on the way. And the star drive is engaged but malfunctions and a hole in spacetime is formed in which the ship is lost. Part of it crashes on Earth Five or six thousand years ago. Both the Chimera prisoners and Elohim escape while the Angelos try to fix the ship. The Elohim decide to use the Godsend agenda, something they used in their dealing with primitive planets while serving in El's army where they pretend to be Gods. Not difficult if you can manipulate Ka, Attis want to do this to build up and guide Humanity. A dissenting faction led by Typhon secretly just want to rule. They encounter an elder race humans who have some skill in the use of Ka themselves, the Atlanteans. Who can see through the disguises of the Elohim. At first the Atlanteans thought the Elohim were an alien horde invasion their prophets had seen in a vision. They realized they were wrong and it is a future chimera invasion and made peace with Attis. Unfortunately Typhon's forces disliked the uppity humans and attacked. Destroying the civilization. Survivors scattered and take roles similar what is in the Donovan song while breeding their own group humans with Ka' potential that will activate when they sense Chimerans and they have weakness that they tend to burn out explosively. Meanwhile the Chimerans become monsters of legend. At some point Attis realizes that for humanity to move forward, The "Gods" must be reigned in. So using tech they salvaged from the wreck Attis and his faction build shields to limit Ka exposure on Earth. Some elohim get trapped in their roles and don't remember who they but the power levels are greatly reduced. Oh and Agelos engineer monotheism to hurt the influence of the Elohim which they are trying to capture. Fast forward to modern times. Ka levels are rising again Supers are appearing. The Atlantean breed mutants mass activate in what covered up as the Spanish influenza outbreak. Governments start to investigate. But don't know what is going but more than public. Angelos are pulling strings Atlanteans have their conspiracies and The Elohim begin fighting amongst themselves again. Oh did I mention all factions can sometimes breed with baseline humans? Yes even the Chimerans! Oh that Alien horde is still on track to hit Earth. Some think it is coming in 2012

Sure I do. That is what makes it interesting That is what makes it more real . Again the Wildcards universe aint your typical Campaign. BTW Black Paladin was around long before crowns of krim was retconned into his history.

That seems to be consensus but I don't see why it is more than a cosmetic personally.

House could be done by change environment.

Yep! I agree. While variable Limitation may fit some super mages, But Zantanna definitely has static Incantations on all her stuff.

I suggest that certain Masques only work for certain people.

And call them Masques!

Not at all I have mystic masters. I don't have most of the 5th ed Ultimates. Though I'm slowly changing that. MM downplayed Material/Mandela (FOci) , Somatic/Mudra(gestures). and Incantations/Mantra limitations in SH setting. Which I'm not sure it should have.

As example in the Wild Cards setting super powers exist due to humanity being used as guinea pigs for a bio weapon created by a near human alien race. That race has psionic abilities so the DNA in the retrovirus bioweapon passed some of that to humans. The ones who survived gained abilities. It implies a few things all powers including bricks at their base are psionic in the wildcards universe. No gadgeteers , power suits, mad scientist weapons When #2 finally did show up in the anthologies, they only worked for the owner because they are psionic based whether people know it or not Defining some things in the setting can change how things work. Someone quotes faserip(whats that?). Perhaps Dr. Strange types are pacters and need to be built similar to how I Paladins/clerics. If I may digress for an example. Once I stepped away from AD&D (boy am I dating myself) I realized certain things that AD&D got wrong. In classless system like hero clerics & Paladins are two sides of the same coin, Crusading knights. Sorcerers impose their will on the world so their magic should be based on ego Priests and Clerics make pacts with Genius Loci, Gods, or whatever and they must know correct rituals, so their magic must be based on Int Clerics and paladins , to me should run off endurance batteries or charges that only recharge when doing rituals for their patrons. #4 seems to fit the supermage idea. Perhaps with a little tweaking. As someone else states if they tap a power something connected to that power my notice. Addendum: What mental effects were restricted to magic?

Depends on the setting. As I said Comico all heros have supernatural origin. But In a world that has both I'd like a little fluff and crunch to distinguish the two. Unique assumptions about a superhero setting add flavor. Such as the Wild Cards setting. Which up to a point had no gadgeteers or powered armor until someone shoehorned them in. Sometimes stepping out of generic superhero is interesting. http://www.wildcardsonline.com/

There are lot ways to go about this. In the Comico universe most if not all super powers are based on magic. In Aberrant Universe, Super Magic doesn't seem to be all that different than normal mutant powers. How do you make Super Sorcery(Dr. Strange, Dr. Fate) feel different than standard superpowers? Is there somethings one can do but not the other? Is there an effect overlap? Is there something other than the limitations and advantages each takes? Open to all ideas.

"I will briefly give you a run down on the game. Around 4000 BC three types of aliens crashed on earth, the Elohim, the Angelos, and the Chimera. The aliens withe there super powers and high technology placed themselves as gods among the primitive humans. Some did this for benevolent purposes, others for reasons less benign. on earth at that time were also super powered humans, they were Atlanteans. anyway lots of stuff goes down throughout the ages( the game dedicates almost a hundred pages to explaining it all.). skip to modern day, super humans have been popping up more and more frequently in the last century. so we have this world with a huge secret history, and all kinds of colorful NPCs. " http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=3415.0;wap2 It is an interesting setting I have the original non-d6 version. I think I picked up another edition but may have lost it. It would make a great Hero System Setting. Game Geeks Classics #22 Godsend Agenda Khepera Publishing

Body of the Item. Say a witch want to consecrate an athame to strike at spirits and sea salt for warding. In my game all magic users will choose a path . Each path has weaknesses. Say voodoo practitioner can be stopped by red brick dust(susceptibility:Brick dust acting as a force wall) But sea salt from witch will not affect him unless it is consecrated. (susceptibility: Consecrated powdered warding substance) But letting normals with simple non magical ritual undo a consecration on a weapon(not needed on the dust unless you are setting a trap) is a good idea. what you are summoning demon and someone desecrating your consecrated warding powder? oops!

There is two inspirations for it. Cockney rhyming slang is the most well known. But if wikipedia is to be believed it actually did exist in the real world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thieves%27_cant http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~kemmer/Words04/usage/slang_cockney.html

Damage reduction with activation rolls? Though why I do not know why one would keep saving throws . They are a 1970's answer as to how to defend against magic for a miniature game. Feats are after my time with AD&D. But you might want to look at advanced package deals and build feats with an advancement in a package deal.

Well I've seen a skill based system in 4th ed that required time an endurance. We have the Create effect. You could build one with transform You could used extended skill rolls and difficulty checks from ultimate skill What have y'all used?

Oh I see where you going with this now I think. reversing transformations on both sides.

Yeah I thought about change environment for Holy or consecrated ground.

Consecration goes beyond religious use. Many mystical traditions use the term. The point was to create an item that could trip a susceptibility or vulnerability. What really interesting if you have a pantheon with differing power blocks which powers or interests run counter to others.

As others have pointed out, In D&D Platemail makes you harder to hit instead of reducing damage. In my mind it makes no sense. But to each his own. It is one of the many reasons I left AD&D back in the days of yore. I dislike classes and levels as well. That why I gravitate toward hero and BRP(chaosium).

Perhaps blue was not the best analogy. But you brought some points about defenses being more common. I was thinking of the susceptibility or vulnerabilities to consecrated items as a the world's defense. Also I was not thinking everyone knowing how to do it . But those in the know it would be almost trivial. Dispelling the transformation would be a simple desecration ritual. One not even necessarily magical in nature. Or having a non-magic thug sweeping the brick dust or salt away.solve the issue as well.

I agree. And I'm not saying you are wrong. But why is this different changing the items color to blue and bad guys have susceptibility to blue items? The more common the blue/blessed objects the more points the bad guys get. I'm just trying to see both sides of the cosmetic/ minor question.