reality hacking, something I came up with to help balance amgic orginally. Options

[Samuel Chase]

i came up with this a while back after beating Jericho, as a bit of a counter balance to the way magic seemed to be a bit out of balance with the rest of the system.

any and all comments and suggestions are welcome (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

note this all assumes the player has a the equipment, to handle it all, in my games i had to introduce orricalcum comlinks to allow and justify this


Reality hacking rules

Reality hacking is a power ability allowing the player to alter the world around him in a way that they see fit. To a certain point of course. Reality does not take kindly to this alteration. And will revert back within a minute of being altered.

To be a reality hacker, the player needs to take the 15 point Positive quality- Reality Deviate-

This quality gives the player a Reality score of 1 which like magic and resonance, can be increased accordingly. And unlike most qualities, can be bought after character creation at the cost of 30 karma plus the karma cost of the chosen paradigm

Once bought the player must choose a paradigm to take

Matter- energy- time- space

These works as active skills and can be raised normally. The player may take all 4 as a Reality paradigm skill group, but their reality score cannot be raised to 7 otherwise.

There are special rules to govern a reality score of 5-6 or 7

Rules for reality score. Basic reality Powers only occur for 1 minute or reality score *20 seconds, which every is lower.

1- The RH, can sense any changes in his chosen paradigm, example-a space paradigm RH, can sense if the space around him has altered, down to the introduction of fresh air. This power is always on.

2- The RH can accelerate any aspect of his chosen paradigm. Example. A Time RH can accelerate the aging of any object. ( yes even people but be aware reality will snap back to normal very quickly) *special rules to effect living objects exsist*

3- The RH can freeze or pause any aspect of his chosen paradigm. Example. A Energy RH can freeze the kinetic energy in an object, causing it to return to potential energy. Stopping bullets in mid air are no obstacle for any RH of this level.

4- The RH can manipulate his chosen paradigm in any way he chooses fit, including doing several things at once. Example, a matter RH, chooses to make his body armor and vehicle armor denser, increasing armor rating by 2 at the same time. Or making he steel wall in front of him glass while making the glove on his hand as hard as steel, when he strikes it.

Reality hacking above and beyond the normal lvls is known as paradox powers. These powers are not availably unless the player has all 4 paradigms at least 4.

5- Limited Paradox-The RH has the ability to perform limited paradox, altering all 4 paradigms at once for any single function. Btu the alteration will only occur for Reality score*10 seconds.
Example, he RH, doesn’t like the color of that tree and believes they should be blue

6- TOTAL paradox, at this level the RH can such control over reality that anything they see fit is possible, no matter how improbable, BUT only for a minute. A solid minute. Example. A reality hacker walks into a murder scene. The Rh choose to rewind the scene 4 hours in hopes of solving the murder. A moment later he is standing in the same room 4 hours earlier, as he looks around he realizes that the murder ahs not occurred yet. And as such is in the wrong time. Before he can do anything else his minute is up and he is force able ejected from this altered reality back to his base reality, breaking his arm in the process.

7- ABSOLUTE paradox. The RH’s understanding of reality has reached such a point that he no longer asks reality to do anything, as much as telling reality to bend to their will. The RH may use Total paradox for as long as they wish, assuming the can succeed in a series of extended tests, for every minute beyond the first. The longer the power is held, the more likely reality is going to drop the individual from its grasp. Effectively killing the player. For every minute that the power the players grip on reality is weakened and the player must make a Willpower roll of at least 2 hits and burn all their edge, to remain in reality ever use of this power increases the number of successes on a willpower roll to remain in reality. 1st time 2 hits 2nd-3hits, 3rd- 4 hits, etc etc.
All skill test are made with a dice pool of Reality score+ paradigm. Paradox powers are made with a dice pool of reality score + willpower + average paradigm score.

Rules for affecting a living object, if the being is willing there is no test. If the object is unwilling then they must making a willpower + body roll, and the RH must beat the number of hits. When the duration of the hack is up, the being will revert to normal as if the power failed.
Removing a living being from reality totally requires a use of Total paradox, and a 100% hit roll(as in all hits ont eh dice pool), as well as a permanent edge.

Powers above 6 cannot be learned only taught by a Greater RH, and only 1-2 RH’s have ever achieved level 7 and not died. So access to it should be restricted in every way possible.

NEW SKILLS!


Matter paradigm (reality)-
Understanding of the states of matter and how each interacts.
Default- No
Skill group- reality paradigm

Energy Paradigm (reality)
Understanding of how energy flows in the universe
Default-no
Skill group- reality paradigm

Time Paradigm (reality)
Understanding of the flow of time in all directions.
Default- No
Skill group- reality paradigm

Space Paradigm (reality)
Understanding the very fabric of space and everything’s place within.
Default- No
Skill group- reality paradigm


Any suggestions or comments would be greatly appreciated.

[Draco18s]

Uh.

Mage: The Awakening?

[Samuel Chase]

no

marijuana the stoning.

sounded good in my head when i wrote it (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Samuel Chase]

but technically yeah except with less rules and complications (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[GreyBrother]

Ahhh Jericho... best in-game explained savepoints system ever and why you get new ammo for your guns... ("I rewind the time in the clips and stashs. And i set a backup here so if something dire happens, i rewind time to this point.")

I dunno if this is appropriate for shadowrun. It's just another another magic system it seems.

But yeah, Cole was one awesome Faux Action Girl ^^

[Degausser]

I messed around with reality hacking in my game once, although it was nothing like this. Actually, it was just a different path of magic. It used Logic as the main attribute (like hermetic mages) and the spirits were shuffled around. Basically, reality hackers believe that reality, like the matrix, can be hacked, and that is how they explain their powers. They view the astral as the "Debugging" mode of reality, because it allows them to look into how a 'Program' (read: person) is running (read: emotional state/essense state.) They share great kinship with technomancers, because they think that technomancers are a matrix yin to their reality yang.

Most of the time their spells are based on manipulation. They even had a mentor spirit.

"Mentor Spirit" Reality Hacker (5 points)
You believe that the world is a computer system that can be hacked, and you are just the one to do it.
Bonus: +2 dice to manipulation spells, +2 Dice to any electronics or cracking skill (chosen when gaining quality)
Downside: You honestly see the world as a complex computer system, including people and the astral. You have little time for those who do not think as you, believing them to be simple 'utility programs' and such. Your cold demenor gives you a -2 etiquette penalty when dealing with "Normal" people (that is to say, non hackers/technomancers/Reality Hackers.)

[Rayzorblades]

This reminds me of Jamie Braddock from Marvel Comics; His ability to see super strings and tweak them to hack reality.

They view the astral as the "Debugging" mode of reality, because it allows them to look into how a 'Program' (read: person) is running (read: emotional state/essense state.)

This made me think of Terrence McKenna's description of the DMT trips that most people have on it, self transforming machine elves and whatnot.

[Maelstrome]

this looks like it might go good with my baroques. baroques are people that have split off from the parameters of reality giving them the ability to distort themselves to gain powers.

if anybody is interested in seeing the stuff for it ill open a new thread. the old thread was my base concepts and are out of date.

edit: im going to go ahead and post it. ive got nothing better to do.

[mrslamm0]

Intresting idea I know sure as hell this would be abused with some people in my gaming group. It sounds a lot like a out of print game I played once (and didnt care for much) called TORG where you used something called possibility points to change the world around you...