Talk:Aberrant 2.0 Mental Systems

Adding Foreign Powers

"Hey, Glory. Stand over there while I fire this railgun at you."

Studying the powers of others is an important part of nova 'gadgeteering'. It allows the creator to expand his repertoire without the incredible feats of insight needed to devise a new power from scratch. But if a gadgeteer expects to have an easy time replicating a power just because he has the email address of a relevant nova, he will be disappointed.

Having your powers studied is time-consuming, often annoying, and sometimes (especially in the case of powers like invulnerability or regeneration) painful or dangerous. The nova being studied must be present in the lab for as many time intervals as it takes to accumulate the successes devoted to the power in question, and if the gadgeteer botches a roll during this time, a lab accident inflicts some detrimental effect on the testee. The nature of the accident is left up to the storyteller, and might range from amusing to mortally dangerous depending on the circumstances and the scale of the botch. Beyond this, many novas are justifiably leery of being made obsolete by gadgeteers who can replicate their powers in gadgets that won't complain about pay or working conditions.

As difficult as it may be to persuade (or force) your fellow novas to spend the day wearing mostly electrodes, it pales next to the difficulty of inventing a power from scratch. A gadgeteer who wants to create a power with no example available should have high ratings (4+) in one or more relevant abilities, and the storyteller should require that they find some way of gathering information on the power, be it deconstructing a computer fried by cyberkinesis, or taking detailed quantum readings of the site of a quantum bolt duel.