Couple of questions about Doug's Powers

[Loki Laufeyjarson]

This aren't really ideas about songs that might bring powers, just some questions that have occured to me while thinking about the possibilties.
I understand, from what I have read, that Doug's powers require a song to have lyrics, that he (thinks) he understands, in order to gain new power and that he has no cotrol over activating a gift, once he hears a song.
- Does his power work for A Cappella songs? Could in emergency situations when he has no helmet get powers from comrades or supporters forming an impromtu chorus.
- Is Doug musically and could he trigger his own gift by perfoming a song?
- How does his talent define a song? Just one paticular recording of a song triggers the power? What about cover versions with the same lyrics? Is there any penalty that prevents him from just getting the longest running recording of a song.
- Continuing with the penalty idea: Are his powers simply on/off or do they come in degrees with 'stronger' powers for especially good recordings and 'weaker' versions if the quality of the recording or performace has been bad.
- From what I have read, the power starts with the first note of a song not with the lyrics. What about instrumental versions of a song or covers and parodies that sound the same up to a point?
-And finally since it is his subconsciousness that makes the decisions and not some external agent. Can he be fooled or fool himself into activating a power? Does it work if he only thing he hears a song? Telepathy, self-hynosis and so on.

[Bob Schroeck]

Many of these questions have been answered in other threads, but I'll cover them again here:

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Does his power work for A Cappella songs?

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No.

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Is Doug musically and could he trigger his own gift by perfoming a song?

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Doug cannot, with or without accompaniment, trigger his own power. He has a good singing voice (although he thinks he doesn't), but does not play any musical instruments. By the time he was of an age where he might have learned the typical garage band instruments, he was already coping with a poorly-understood metagift that had already run out of control once and caused millions of dollars of property damage.

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How does his talent define a song?

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Most of the time, it seizes on a repeated image or phrase and defines the power around that. Sometimes it seems to rely only on the title, although this is relatively rare. In one unique case, his first exposure to a song was a music video, and the power came from the images in the video, not the lyrics. ("Take On Me", by A-Ha.)

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Just one paticular recording of a song triggers the power? What about cover versions with the same lyrics?

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Different recordings by the same artist produce substantially the same effects. Different artists usually cause changes in power level or manifestation, although the general "theme" will be the same. The canonical example is "Hazy Shade of Winter". The original Simon and Garfunkel version drops the local temperature and puts ice slicks and patches of snow around him. The version by the Bangles lets him do a full "Ice Man" act.

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Is there any penalty that prevents him from just getting the longest running recording of a song.

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None at all. Look at the end of, um, chapter 2 I think it is, where he summons the simulacrum of Maggie on the roof of his building (while Lisa watches from the stairwell). He notes that prefers to use the bootleg concert version of "On The Dark Side" because, among other reasons, it lasts longer.

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Continuing with the penalty idea: Are his powers simply on/off or do they come in degrees with 'stronger' powers for especially good recordings and 'weaker' versions if the quality of the recording or performace has been bad.

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See above. But to be a bit more specific -- as long as he can identify a recording as a particular artist and song, he will get the power defined for that combination at the level defined. Part of the reason for this is the way powers are handled in V&V -- most of the time the only gradation in effect is based on your attributes, or a one-time decision you make at character creation.

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From what I have read, the power starts with the first note of a song not with the lyrics. What about instrumental versions of a song

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No effect. This may not be entirely realistic, but it makes for easier story-telling.

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or covers and parodies that sound the same up to a point?

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A case that has never come up in 17 years of play or in the five years I've been writing him. I'd say the power could get fooled, then would shut down immediately as soon as the difference manifested. The power would then treat the song as any other first-time exposure, probably with an increased chance of some effect of some sort, and be able to tell the difference the next time it is encountered. (This latter, again, for ease of play; if it ever becomes a point of drama in a story, it might act more realistically...)

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And finally since it is his subconsciousness that makes the decisions and not some external agent. Can he be fooled or fool himself into activating a power? Does it work if he only thing he hears a song? Telepathy, self-hynosis and so on.

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Now that's a very good question. Some of it has been answered in play. During the event that Doug angsts over a couple of times in the story -- when Arcanum borged his childhood friend and set him against Doug -- the power Jack was given was the ability to put Doug into a state of sensory deprivation, shutting off all his sensory input. In an attempt to get around this, I tried to set up a link with the team's telepath (Tygra, I think it was at that time) whereby Doug could listen to the song from his helmet through the telepath's ears. The GM ruled that this didn't work.
Self-hypnosis... well, this isn't quite the same thing but is close. In another adventure, Doug had something sort of like a combination slave collar/psionic amplifier clamped around his neck, and had his helmet taken away. By dint of extreme concentration and willpower, he forced his way through the "punishment" effects of the collar and, turning the amplifier against itself, recited the lyrics of "Lightning's Hand" until the power of lightning control manifested -- the amplifier being used to "open up" those portions of his power that normally needed the song input to work. But this was dependant upon the collar, which for several reasons he wanted to (and eventually did) free himself from. As soon as the collar was gone, his power went to normal.
So in general, under normal circumstances he cannot bypass the limits of his power. It may be possible for a post-hypnotic suggestion to believe he's hearing a specific song to work; it depends on which level of the brain (relative to where the "inputs" for his power are) handles such suggestions. I suspect the answer will be, if it works for my story (or GM's!), then yes. Otherwise, don't hold your breath.

-- Bob
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Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.