Homebrew Exaltation: The Unshackled, Jumper of Timelines
Sept 3, 2018 11:18:26 GMT -6
Post by konate on Sept 3, 2018 11:18:26 GMT -6
(Previously titled the Kismet)
The Unshackled
There is a theory that there are multiple universes, each of which is self contained - Every choice we make, going forward in time, each moment that has multiple outcomes, creates an infinite number of additional universes, each of which encases the effects of each individual choice you could have made. We are unaware of all of these offshoots, following a primary timeline for our self and our soul.
The Unshackled, however, is inherently aware of each and every one of these offshoots, able to see where they go, and choosing which one they wish to follow. To the uninitiated, this may look very similar to Precognition and Divination magic - but as an Unshackled grows in power and control, they can reach into existing alternate universes and mix them into the prime. This can often have unintended side effects, such as knots of paradox, forcing the Unshackled to slowly undo the knot over time to avoid problems.
The Unshackled can even affect others' timelines and, it has been said, do not "die" as others might. Instead, their soul, their consciousness, "resets" their timeline, which appears to function on a completely different set of principles than the rest of the Wheel.
POWERS:
Wherewithal: You can buy back burnt hero points at a cost of 300 EXP each. In addition, you can burn a hero point when you would die of old age, returning to the beginning of adulthood for your race.
Driving the Wheel: You can spend Hero Points for anything you can spend Fate for, to a maximum of your Sway per round. You gain one Echo for each Hero Point used in this manner.
Forked Path: You can spend 1 Fate to reroll a test after determining if it passes or fails. When you use Fate to reroll a test in this manner, you don't have to choose the final result. Instead, you choose which result you want to use for the test from each roll made for it. You gain one Echo for each Fate used for this power.
Echoes of the Wheel: Several of the Unshackled's powers generate Echoes. 1 Echo naturally disappears between each scene. The Unshackled may also spend 1 Echo as a free action to take a check (-5) to any one test.
Power Stat: Sway
The Power of the Unshackled is measured by their Sway, their control over the forces of Fate and how choices effect the future.
Resource Stat: Fate The character has maximum Fate equal to double their Sway score. At the end of a session, you lose all unused Fate and start with your maximum at the beginning of the next session, minus the number of Echoes you have. This can not leave you with less than 0 Fate.
A Different Kind of Paradox
A paradox usually happens when an Unshackled uses a power to significantly change an outcome of a moment, usually by spending their Fate or Hero Points to activate their powers. Minor paradoxes, such as choosing to hit when you would miss, usually resolve on their own and require no effort. However, choosing to succeed on a test that would otherwise be completely improbable (such as succeeding on a TN 100 test), or using Discontinuity for a specific artifact item with a specific purpose that you never use again, can often cause paradoxes, which are best described as a "knot" between two timelines. This knot can cause problems, such as someone killed not being dead, or someone else with that artifact coming into existence. The exact effect is up to the SM to determine, and can exceed the examples here depending on the severity.
Example 1: If you decide to have a Spelljammer, and you are riding through the Warp in it, you may suddenly find you and your party are all stowaways, which is a crime punishable by ejection into the warp.
Example 2: After retroactively gaining access to an enemy stronghold with Backing, you and your companions wake up to find yourselves imprisoned as POWs, hostages or captured spies.
Example 3: Using Wealth to buy an item will leave you with stolen goods and no record of transactions once Discontinuity wears off. Depending on the item your situation can have own complications like law enforcement.
Example 4: Neutralizing a deadly Enemy by making her into an Ally will turn her into an even bigger threat than before. She could be retaliating for the "mind control" you put her under, bring friends to rescue her from your kidnapping, or completely rewrite history so that she's your jilted ex-girlfriend hellbent on your absolute destruction. Maybe nothing changes but you find yourself with a new reputation as a turncoat who keeps switching sides.
Resolving a Paradox
You can resolve these complex Paradoxes by continuing to spend Fate to 'explain away' the paradox, when the situation presents itself. For example, if you spend background dots on an Ally named Meat Grinder, the next session you may instead have an Artifact with the same name, and eventually move it to a Contact and let it disappear from there, downsizing the importance of the Background in the story session-to-session.
Assets
Dying Echoes: When you start a new session, before regaining Fate, you remove a number of Echoes equal to half of your Sway, rounded up.
Echoes in the Warp: When you cause, or are affected by, a Psychic Phenomenon, Perils of the Warp, or Warp Travel Encounters roll, you can spend a Fate to either remove up to your Sway in Echoes to increase the result by double that amount, or gain Echoes up to your Sway in order to decrease the result by that amount.
Instant Karma: When using Intertwined Fates, you no longer gain Echoes, and remove 1 Echo when using a Hero Point on an Ally. Also, if you burn a hero point to save someone else, you remove all Echoes.
Paradoxical Pocket: You gain a number of background dots in Inheritance equal to half your Sway, rounded up. If you already have Inheritance, these new dots are a separate source. You can change any, all, or none of the equipment gained by this asset at the beginning of every session.
Tempting Fate: You can choose to gain a flat bonus to your next test equal to the number of Echoes you currently have. However, the next test that negatively affects you gains the same flat bonus. The flat bonus to the negative test is cumulative and persists between scenes and sessions.
Unshackled, Free of Choice
Unshackled Physical Features
Most Unshackled look just like any others of their race. In fact, the only thing that separates them from others is the serendipitous nature of their lives: Everything seems to constantly happen in their favor; They seem to react perfectly to every situation. Indeed, an Unshackled can easily place himself into any position of power they please, simply "trading" places with an alternate self where he did, in fact, come into that power. As such, anyone in the Wheel could have untold interactions with an Unshackled, and never know. Only those who have perfect, eidetic memory can usually tell that something is wrong.
Unshackled Tells
As the Unshackled uses their powers, others begin to notice the coincidental or precognizant nature of their lives, as though they knew something was going to happen before it did. What most can not see, however, is the light that begins shining within the Warp. If their tell reaches a high enough level, the light shone by their soul rivals that of Sigil itself.
Becoming an Unshackled
Becoming an Unshackled is not easy and is usually a gift you are born with, a small mutation upon both mind and soul that unlocks the individual from fate, time, and choice. You see what is not to happen, though may have if you had just acted differently. Low-power individuals often just assume they are naturally psychic, and take up the arts of Divination. Those few who recognize their power for what it truly is live their lives any way they want - truly, they can do so indefinitely.
Playing an Unshackled
The Unshackled are not cautious, often arrogant, and usually believe themselves to be immortal - which is mostly true. They do not hesitate to act, knowing that they can get out of the situation by simply moving to a universe where their choices did not lead them here. Oftentimes, this leads them to make mistakes that cost the lives of others, though a few of the Unshackled can undo these mistakes as well.
The Unshackled
There is a theory that there are multiple universes, each of which is self contained - Every choice we make, going forward in time, each moment that has multiple outcomes, creates an infinite number of additional universes, each of which encases the effects of each individual choice you could have made. We are unaware of all of these offshoots, following a primary timeline for our self and our soul.
The Unshackled, however, is inherently aware of each and every one of these offshoots, able to see where they go, and choosing which one they wish to follow. To the uninitiated, this may look very similar to Precognition and Divination magic - but as an Unshackled grows in power and control, they can reach into existing alternate universes and mix them into the prime. This can often have unintended side effects, such as knots of paradox, forcing the Unshackled to slowly undo the knot over time to avoid problems.
The Unshackled can even affect others' timelines and, it has been said, do not "die" as others might. Instead, their soul, their consciousness, "resets" their timeline, which appears to function on a completely different set of principles than the rest of the Wheel.
POWERS:
Wherewithal: You can buy back burnt hero points at a cost of 300 EXP each. In addition, you can burn a hero point when you would die of old age, returning to the beginning of adulthood for your race.
Driving the Wheel: You can spend Hero Points for anything you can spend Fate for, to a maximum of your Sway per round. You gain one Echo for each Hero Point used in this manner.
Forked Path: You can spend 1 Fate to reroll a test after determining if it passes or fails. When you use Fate to reroll a test in this manner, you don't have to choose the final result. Instead, you choose which result you want to use for the test from each roll made for it. You gain one Echo for each Fate used for this power.
Echoes of the Wheel: Several of the Unshackled's powers generate Echoes. 1 Echo naturally disappears between each scene. The Unshackled may also spend 1 Echo as a free action to take a check (-5) to any one test.
Power Stat: Sway
The Power of the Unshackled is measured by their Sway, their control over the forces of Fate and how choices effect the future.
Resource Stat: Fate The character has maximum Fate equal to double their Sway score. At the end of a session, you lose all unused Fate and start with your maximum at the beginning of the next session, minus the number of Echoes you have. This can not leave you with less than 0 Fate.
| Sway | Power Gained |
| * | Intertwined Fates - You can use Forked Path on tests made by willing allies, gaining Echoes normally. |
| ** | Discontinuity - At the beginning of a session, after regaining your Fate but before the first scene starts, you can use Fate to gain temporary Background dots for one session. You can spend up to your Sway score in Fate to gain that many temporary Background dots of your choice. These background dots are separate from any existing background dots you have. At the end of the session, you lose the temporary Background dots, and can not choose any of the same Backgrounds next session. Using this power generates as many Echoes as Fate used. |
| *** | Your Fate in My Hands - You can burn your own hero points to save the lives of others, as though they had burned it. When you use this power, you may have some say in the specifics of how they survive, and what happens to them afterwards, as determined appropriate by the Story Master. When you use this power, you gain a number of Echoes equal to the character's level. |
| **** | Non Sequitur Storyline - You can use Discontinuity between each scene, in addition to the beginning of the session. Any backgrounds chosen, no matter when during a session, can not be used in the following session. |
| ***** | Fated to Succeed - Once per session, you can automatically succeed at any one test. However, you gain a number of Echoes equal to the TN or opposed test result divided by 5 (rounded up). You can spend a Hero Point to gain a raise on this success as normal. |
A paradox usually happens when an Unshackled uses a power to significantly change an outcome of a moment, usually by spending their Fate or Hero Points to activate their powers. Minor paradoxes, such as choosing to hit when you would miss, usually resolve on their own and require no effort. However, choosing to succeed on a test that would otherwise be completely improbable (such as succeeding on a TN 100 test), or using Discontinuity for a specific artifact item with a specific purpose that you never use again, can often cause paradoxes, which are best described as a "knot" between two timelines. This knot can cause problems, such as someone killed not being dead, or someone else with that artifact coming into existence. The exact effect is up to the SM to determine, and can exceed the examples here depending on the severity.
Example 1: If you decide to have a Spelljammer, and you are riding through the Warp in it, you may suddenly find you and your party are all stowaways, which is a crime punishable by ejection into the warp.
Example 2: After retroactively gaining access to an enemy stronghold with Backing, you and your companions wake up to find yourselves imprisoned as POWs, hostages or captured spies.
Example 3: Using Wealth to buy an item will leave you with stolen goods and no record of transactions once Discontinuity wears off. Depending on the item your situation can have own complications like law enforcement.
Example 4: Neutralizing a deadly Enemy by making her into an Ally will turn her into an even bigger threat than before. She could be retaliating for the "mind control" you put her under, bring friends to rescue her from your kidnapping, or completely rewrite history so that she's your jilted ex-girlfriend hellbent on your absolute destruction. Maybe nothing changes but you find yourself with a new reputation as a turncoat who keeps switching sides.
Resolving a Paradox
You can resolve these complex Paradoxes by continuing to spend Fate to 'explain away' the paradox, when the situation presents itself. For example, if you spend background dots on an Ally named Meat Grinder, the next session you may instead have an Artifact with the same name, and eventually move it to a Contact and let it disappear from there, downsizing the importance of the Background in the story session-to-session.
Assets
Dying Echoes: When you start a new session, before regaining Fate, you remove a number of Echoes equal to half of your Sway, rounded up.
Echoes in the Warp: When you cause, or are affected by, a Psychic Phenomenon, Perils of the Warp, or Warp Travel Encounters roll, you can spend a Fate to either remove up to your Sway in Echoes to increase the result by double that amount, or gain Echoes up to your Sway in order to decrease the result by that amount.
Instant Karma: When using Intertwined Fates, you no longer gain Echoes, and remove 1 Echo when using a Hero Point on an Ally. Also, if you burn a hero point to save someone else, you remove all Echoes.
Paradoxical Pocket: You gain a number of background dots in Inheritance equal to half your Sway, rounded up. If you already have Inheritance, these new dots are a separate source. You can change any, all, or none of the equipment gained by this asset at the beginning of every session.
Tempting Fate: You can choose to gain a flat bonus to your next test equal to the number of Echoes you currently have. However, the next test that negatively affects you gains the same flat bonus. The flat bonus to the negative test is cumulative and persists between scenes and sessions.
Unshackled, Free of Choice
Unshackled Physical Features
Most Unshackled look just like any others of their race. In fact, the only thing that separates them from others is the serendipitous nature of their lives: Everything seems to constantly happen in their favor; They seem to react perfectly to every situation. Indeed, an Unshackled can easily place himself into any position of power they please, simply "trading" places with an alternate self where he did, in fact, come into that power. As such, anyone in the Wheel could have untold interactions with an Unshackled, and never know. Only those who have perfect, eidetic memory can usually tell that something is wrong.
Unshackled Tells
As the Unshackled uses their powers, others begin to notice the coincidental or precognizant nature of their lives, as though they knew something was going to happen before it did. What most can not see, however, is the light that begins shining within the Warp. If their tell reaches a high enough level, the light shone by their soul rivals that of Sigil itself.
Becoming an Unshackled
Becoming an Unshackled is not easy and is usually a gift you are born with, a small mutation upon both mind and soul that unlocks the individual from fate, time, and choice. You see what is not to happen, though may have if you had just acted differently. Low-power individuals often just assume they are naturally psychic, and take up the arts of Divination. Those few who recognize their power for what it truly is live their lives any way they want - truly, they can do so indefinitely.
Playing an Unshackled
The Unshackled are not cautious, often arrogant, and usually believe themselves to be immortal - which is mostly true. They do not hesitate to act, knowing that they can get out of the situation by simply moving to a universe where their choices did not lead them here. Oftentimes, this leads them to make mistakes that cost the lives of others, though a few of the Unshackled can undo these mistakes as well.