Another question about theme I suppose is in the Whispers power, Channel. My first reading of it was straightforward-you can use electroplasm to get some basic obvious effects. Lightning generation and perhaps a few things dealing with ghosts (ending a possession, hollowing a person, that sort of thing).
First whisper that picked it up was quick to notice that it didn’t say what kind of effects it could produce, and swiftly added all sorts of elemental items, bringing the power in light with wizardry in a traditional RPG. Apoc World games have long been teaching me to ‘roll with’ player ideas-you don’t want to say no to an idea, it just stifles creativity, but it kind of feels that allowing this thing would change the setting and tone considerably.
WHat do you guys think? What sort of powers should be usable with channel? Should it be okay to let whoever gets this power to introduce flight, telekenisis, mind control and whatever other effect they can conjure and similarly empower NPC’s who will have access to the same special power?
One idea I had was: seeing the ‘Demon Blood vials’ in the equipment list for the Whisper, my assumption was that you could power a single use of Channel using up a vial in absence of any other sources of power or electroplasm lying around in the immediate area.
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Go with the will of the table. If everyone thinks all this is awesome, great! If the ideas are met with scorn and there is much disparaging muttering about “breaking immersion” and “violating the electropunk setting” then regretfully limit the craziness of Channeling.
Vaulting off of Daniel Helman ‘s comment: an easy way to “govern” the more dramatic uses of Channel would be to up their risk. Channeling to divine the ghost signature of a retrieved spirit mask in the privacy of one’s home might be a Controlled move. Channeling to throw elemental lightning at a Bluecoat might be a Desperate move, since throwing around that much electroplasm draws the attention of the attuned, of ghosts, etc.
The other thing to remember is precedent. If the PC whisper can do it, so can any whispers the crew goes up against
These are all good answers. Also, there’s an occult chapter in the full game that will go into some detail about what Channel might do. It’s definitely not traditional RPG wizardry. 🙂