//Making this, hold on. This page is brain vomit notes until then.
//Ether as it currently is is stupid. The system lacks freedom, and is really just a thinly veiled copy of D&D's spells. Instead, I want to design something like what I plan to do for manufacturing. Where the ability to design anything is based on templates. I'm not sure if I want to make a Connected character spend CP on learning specific abilities (I did before), but give them the ability to completely customize their loadouts (because it went so well in Morrowind). Regardless, powers will have template-based power costs. It's basically designing powers with their own set of traits, and the cost of the ability in both CP and EP is based on what you design.
//Geez, I've designed and redesigned this system over and over for a decade now. I haven't liked how it came out every time, but here's another attempt!
//Just a heads-up, I haven't done any creative writing in a long while, and all the notes that I've made for the game for the past three years have been in shorthand. I'll prettify the text later, but I just need to get this down first.
Ether is both the name of the field that Connected characters manipulate, and what the effects they generate are referred to. When a character invests the points to become a connected, they gain the Connection Attribute at 2 (remember, attributes are rated from 2-10, and Connection is no different). Through gaining this stat, they also gain Ether Points, or EP for short. In addition, they gain the ability to spend Awesome to learn ways to manipulate the Ether that for the moment, I am calling Effects. At character creation, a character automatically learns a number of effects equal to their starting Connection stat.
//I REALLY need to play with balancing character creation. This will change.
//Remember, that naming scheme pass is still going to happen eventually to make all the terms less confusing and obnoxious.
//Oh, and I might refer to this as the magic system, but make no mistake, Connection is not magical. I'm actually planning on adding Magic in a post-release update, which will function more like the abilities Corvo and Emily gain from the Outsider in Dishonored. That power will come from ancient beings from across the stars. This is all very well catalogued and researched. More of a scientific discovery than anything arcane and mysterious. Think Espers from the Raildex 'verse. It's pretty much treated the same way.
//I am toying with the idea of creating a "Ether Fatigue". A streamlined, single-number multiplier that would make it easier to calculate how difficult it will be to manifest the next power. The following text may include references to your Fatigue. This is probably going to be in the final system, but since this is brain vomit at the moment, nothing is set in stone.
//I am adding both a Fatigue Track and a Cooldown Counter, thanks to Dhrall for the idea. The rules will be below all this shit.
Basic effects are fairly weak, but most of them come at no cost to the Connected manifesting them. However, a Connected can modify their power in a number of different ways that make them a force to be reckoned with. Or, y'know, lagging on the roll and ending up in a seizure on the ground because they tried to manifest everything they know at once. That could happen too. If you have to roll to manifest a power (not, per se, to attack with a power) you roll Connection + the Ether Manipulation skill. The base Ease of the roll is 7. If you fail the Manifestation roll, something bad happens depending on your current Fatigue level.
//Or, in the event I don't end up using something that would make the game that much easier to play, it will depend on what you were trying to do with the power, which will be in the descriptions of the modifiers below. If you're modifying your power in multiple ways, and you fail the manifestation roll, you suffer ALL of the bad effects, duplicates stacking.
Not exactly a modification, but manifesting consecutive powers without sufficient cooldown period (still working on finding a satisfying timeline) will cause the next Power(s) to be harder to manifest. Whenever you manifest a power, you add one to your Cooldown Counter. Manifestion rolls require 1 additional measure of success for each point on your cooldown counter.
Alone, the power level of each effect is very low. Like a cantrip in D&D. But a Connected can raise the Strength of an effect when they manifest a power. Each effect will list what a higher strength version of it improves in its description. For each level of strength manifested, add one additional point to your cooldown counter.
//I need to tweak all of these fail effects, but for now, I just want this on the page.
Adding additional effects to your Power is the most dangerous thing a Connected can do to themselves, but the immense improvements to the action economy (to steal a term from CharOp) make it well worth the risk. This is what it says on the tin. You start with one effect your character knows, and add a second one (or more) to the Power that you are manifesting. ALL powers with multiple effects require a Manifestation roll, even if each of the effects are at base strength.
The ease on the roll is reduced by 1 for the second effect, and an additional 3 for each effect thereafter. This is not necessarily a hard cap at three effects, is just means you need ways to improve the Ease on the roll to add more (since a roll with an Ease of 0 is impossible). In addition, whether you succeed OR fail the Manifestation roll, each additional effect costs 1 EP per level of strength of the effect. If you fail the manifestation roll, the Power does not manifest. If you lag on the roll, you roll on the Feedback table once for every effect you tried to manifest in addition to the normal +1 to the Fatigue track.
//I am on the fence about making any further penalties for a failed manifestation roll here. This can be incredibly powerful, and should carry a heavy risk, but EP damage on a success, the reduced Ease, and the risk of at least two bouts of feedback is already pretty dangerous. If I do anything else, it would be to add a step on the Fatigue Track on a Failed roll, which would stack with the step for a lag.
//This has the largest potential for abuse, and it DEFINITELY needs to be handled carefully. I am aware of how powerful modifying the action economy is.
COOLDOWN COUNTER
Whenever you manifest a power your cooldown counter goes up by one. You need one additional measure of success on Manifestation rolls per level of your cooldown counter. The counter lowers by one for each turn you spend without manifesting a power. There will be chems to increase the number the cooldown counter decreases per turn, but you always have to spend a turn not manifesting a power to get that benefit.
FATIGUE TRACK
1 +1 Measure of Success required on Manifestation Rolls per level of the Fatigue Track.
2 -1 Ease on Manifestation Rolls per level of the Fatigue Track.
3 All EP Drain +1
4 All Cooldown Counter Increases +1
5 Roll on the Feedback Table for a failed Manifestation Roll
6 Count any result on the feedback table as 1 higher
7+ Manifesting a power costs 1 EP per level of the Fatigue Track
//Formatting as a real table later. I just wanna get this down so I can get feedback.
//7+ might seem harsh, but if you're at 7 Fatigue and your reaction is to keep manifesting, you're an Epic level character and have the EP to spare.
When you fail a Manifestation roll, you go one step further on the Fatigue track. It sucks. It makes manifesting powers harder, and snowballs quickly. Avoid Fatigue however possible. When you spend a turn without manifesting a power while your cooldown counter is at zero, your reduce your Fatigue Track by one. Unlike the cooldown counter, you cannot reduce more than one Fatigue per turn.
FEEDBACK TABLE
1 +1 Cooldown Counter
2 Ether Burns - One Hazard Level of Heat
3 Gain Exhausted Condition until you take a break
4 -1 EP for each Fatigue Level you have (Minimum 1)
5 +1 Fatigue Track
6 Ether Damage to Self equal to your fatigue level. (Minimum 1)
7 Gain Nauseated Condition for 1 minute
8 AoE 3 Blast of Ether Damage equal to your Fatigue Level (Minimum 1)
9 -1 Effective Connection until you take a break
10 Seizure (Stun, Prone, etc)
11 Lose 1 Connection stat (down to 2 minimum)
12 Atomize into the Ether
//I'm sure I had more I wanted to write, but I just lost my entire thought process to some ADHD fuckery. I still have to decide if the effects are standalone, or have a tech tree-style requirement. I want to design a trait that lets you tap into your HP to restore your EP as a free or bonus action. Similar to Warlocks' Life Tap in WoW. I also have to decide what happens when you hit 0 EP, but my first instinct is to say you fall unconscious. That said, a wound table similar to the optional HP system would be pretty interesting, maybe similar to perils of the warp? In a lot of ways, this game wants you to push your characters past their limits, so having dropping to 0 not be the end kinda encourages that, too.
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OLD SHIT
//I'm getting stuck here, the same with networking and manufacturing. I need to break it down.
Shit you can do, that need costs.
Damage
Elements
Kinetic Manipulation (This covers a lot)
DoT
Multiple Hits
Defense
Shield
Wall
Invisibility
Summoning
"Elemental" Creation
Homunculi
Ether Projection
Communication
Travel
Pocket Dimension
Manipulate Technology
Overload
Deceive
Performance Boosts (Bonus Dice)
Connected characters all develop their own ways of manifesting Ether Powers. Mostly this is gained through trial and error, as there's no real way to "teach" Connected how to use their power, much like you can't teach an infant how to control their arms and legs, it just comes naturally over time with practice. Connected characters design Ether powers themselves. A list of common effects will be provided with point costs, but feel free to submit your own ideas to the GM.
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//I need more utility here. Connection should not be better than any other path, but it should have the thing it can do best and be able to mimic other things to a lesser extent.
//And that's the revelation there, I think. Ether Manipulation is what Connected do, and that would dictate how their abilities work. For that, I'd like to fully decide what the Ether is.
//Because I've been playing it as just a scientific discovery that can't be explained. Similar to dark matter in today's science, just understood a little more.
//...but isn't that just the same as saying it's magic, I don't gotta explain shit?
//Alright, here's where I wish I had studied physics more in school. I want Connected to manipulate the Ether, kind of a field of matter, encompassing everything, but unable to be interacted with normally. Except when you have some mutated gene that identifies you as Connected. Oh the fun we can have with the history of my setting. Let's mix budding interplanetary and inter-species governments, with religion (because that won't ever disappear), and magic/superpowers. No, really, it'll be fun. Like a cross between Marvel's Civil War and the Imperium of Man's policies on Psykers in Warhammer 40K.
//Anyhow, the Connected can convert this matter into energy. Then use that Energy to do what they want with it. From a game-mechanics standpoint, the only requirement is that you need to be standing somewhere within reach of this all-encompassing field. Because it's matter, there must be a finite amount of it, especially if it's constantly getting converted into energy by Connected using their powers. But, nothing has ever indicated that there's a shortage in any one area.
//FTL Communications and travel are possible through this. Except that while they can make it do anything, they can only make technology convert it to do one specific task.
//How fast do I want this FTL travel to be? Do I want there to be plotted jump routes, like EVE or Dauntless, or do I want it to be freeform, the ship itself doing the legwork of the travel?
//Are there gates? Is it a warp drive, or is it just an engine capable of going that fast? Do I blatantly steal 40K's design of travel through the Astral Plane (in that case, the nightmare plane) or do I focus on other aspects? There are so many questions about ship propulsion that I never gave thought to, and I don't know where to go from a design standpoint.