In drafting the recent blogs on Hack100’s Powers, it has become increasingly clear that there is the potential for substantial overlap between Specialities/Powers and the “Arcane” and “Spiritual” Abilities.
As a reminder, the Arcane Ability represents a character’s understanding of matters mysterious. Depending upon the setting of the game, this might include magic, the occult or highly advanced technology.
Here we continue our discussion of “Powers” in Hack100 – Specialities that are extraordinary or supernatural in some way – with a look at effects that temporarily transform a character. Some examples would be shapeshifting, lycanthropy or berserking. Such abilities may or may not be within the full control of a character.
As with our look at the use of spell casting in the previous blog, we’ll consider some illustrative examples.
Here we expand upon the use of Hack100’s “Powers” (i.e. Specialities that are extraordinary or supernatural in some way) by looking at a particular set of examples: spell casting.
Firstly, with regards to the specific wording of a spell caster’s Power, it is recommended that very broad definitions (e.g. “Magic”) are avoided in favour of narrower areas of focus (e.g. “Fire Magic”, “Illusionism”, “Necromancy”, etc.). This will help to keep the range of a given spell caster’s ability within well-defined boundaries, and also ensure that their magic use has a distinctive flavour.
In the previous blog on Health, we touched briefly upon the concept of “Powers“. Here we look at Powers in Hack100 in more detail.
A Power is any form of extraordinary or supernatural Specialism. Most obviously, a Power might be the ability to cast spells or perform miracles. However, Powers could also encompass a wide range of other special abilities – shapeshifting, psionics, berserking, or whatever. As with all Specialisms, Powers are Abilities that differentiate an individual from the vast majority. Unlike Specialisms, Powers go beyond rational everyday understanding.