Ok say you are judging a game, and one or several of your players has somehow managed to stash away enough karma for a new power (it doesnt matter what power rank right now but lets say its a "respectable" level in whatever camlaign you are running).

As a Judge, how do you handle it in game? Do you limit the type of said new power to the overall theme of said character? Or do you allow them to pick whatever they want in terms of abilities?

In the first example say playing wolverine and allowing them to choose from such thematic powers as longetivity, self revival, pheremomes, immortality or other enhanced sense or types of animals to communicate with, as opposed the later where the person playing wolverine decides to pick flight or optic blasts or hyper intelligence or molecular conversion...

Myself I really don't subscribe to that 'powers gotta fit a theme' notion, many heroes don't actually fit a theme (Just look at the grab bag of unrelated powers Superman and Martian Manhunter have) and the event triggering the new power doesn't really have any reason to make one that somehow fits a theme that in the end is on the arbitrary end.

Consider your Wolverine example, he's been exposed to a LOT of mutation-triggering events in the comics, events that could easily cause him to acquire completely unrelated powers to his feral nature. Heck the Optic Blasts are an easy justification, somehow Cyclops' mutant power genes got imprinted onto Wolverine's giving him the new power (much like Ms. Marvel got imprinted with her powers due to being exposed to exotic radiation while it passed through the white Kree Mar-Vell). Now he has to learn to deal with this new power he's got no experience with and unlike anything he currently has an idea how to deal with.

Well Supeman's power set theme is easy. ..

He can do anything and everything better than everyone else.

The Martian Manhunter is Professor X crossed with Superman lite




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/2014 04:46AM by The_Skycutter.

Chronomancer Wrote:
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> Well supeman's power set theme is easy. ..
>
> He can do anything and everything better than
> everyone else.
>
> The Martian Manhunter is professor X crossed with
> Superman lite

Left out Kitty Pryde, Phasing is one of his powers (early on when his powers were being established he basically had reality alteration powers, even created ice cream with the power of his mind for someone).

In general, I keep an eye towards what the player's looking for. After all, gaining a whole new power is a major Karma investment for their character, so it helps to work with them on something they can enjoy.

As far as whether it should fit thematically, that largely depends on the character concept and the rationale behind *how* the character's developing this new power. While characters whose power concept is mentally designed around having trained in or otherwise personally developed their powers may often exhibit a theme of some sort, it's certainly not necessary. A sorcerer whose powers represent his spells may have a very diverse assortment of powers, and there's nothing to prevent an Emma Frost type who has previously focused her training in psionic powers on telepathic abilities to decide she'd like to branch out into Body Transformation if the player desires and has accumulated the Karma to afford it.

If the rationale behind development of a new power involves some outside stimulus, then it can easily be something unrelated to any existing powers. But it can just as easily be explained as invoking some new trigger within the mutant gene or altered DNA if the player wants to keep a theme going.

As long as there's a good rationale behind whatever new power the player wants the character to develop, it should be fine.