Bob, you'd mentioned in another thread that you liked "One Night in Bangkok" but couldn't think of a power for it. I moved threads because that one had moved on and I wouldn't want to backtrample.
Why not just pull out all the stops? Make it a major area change a la Pinball Wizard. Doug takes the role of the American - goes totally rational, unaffected by mind-altering powers, and able to control one team's worth of enormous chess piece simulacra. They have a great deal of power, but limited speed, and he can only move one at a time - and then only in specific, limited, chesslike ways. Mostly, they're useful for blocking things (figure the pawns as slightly over one story tallk, and rather broad, and working up from there.) and crushing things that can't move quickly enough to get out of the way.
On the other side, everyone else in the area gets Opened, for want of a better word, and channels any spirits/godlings/whatever of sex/arousal/attraction/etc that may be in the area. They still have control over their own actions, and their long-term goalsets don't really change, but there is a distinct personality overlay, and their imediate desires will certainly feel some impact. They also get a set of superpower appropriate to the godling in question, and can mentally communicate with them if they wish. At the end of the song, the chess peices derez, and the spirits go home - unless, of course, both the spirit and the person find that they like the experience, in which case there is nothing stopping them from continuing it.
The power and effectiveness with which doug can wield the chess peices are directly proportionate to the number of people who are hit with the side effect.
It's got a number of potential uses. The Chess pieces are really quite powerful, to the point that, given a reasonable number of channelers, they could crush tanks into ineffectiveness. They are also nigh invulnerable and having large pieces of very hard cover that go where you tell them to is often a nice thing. If you have a pack of firendly norms under threat in your immediate vicinity, giving them each a lease-with-option-to-buy pack of low-level superpowers could be quite useful from a tactical standpoint, especially with the attributes of divine endurance, prowess, and (for the males) strength being fairly prevalent.
On the downside, well... that should be pretty obvious... particularly given the sorts of people and spirits/godlings who are most likely to both buy into the idea and convince each other to buy into the idea.
"Odious personal habit: Occasionally creates supervillains."
Why not just pull out all the stops? Make it a major area change a la Pinball Wizard. Doug takes the role of the American - goes totally rational, unaffected by mind-altering powers, and able to control one team's worth of enormous chess piece simulacra. They have a great deal of power, but limited speed, and he can only move one at a time - and then only in specific, limited, chesslike ways. Mostly, they're useful for blocking things (figure the pawns as slightly over one story tallk, and rather broad, and working up from there.) and crushing things that can't move quickly enough to get out of the way.
On the other side, everyone else in the area gets Opened, for want of a better word, and channels any spirits/godlings/whatever of sex/arousal/attraction/etc that may be in the area. They still have control over their own actions, and their long-term goalsets don't really change, but there is a distinct personality overlay, and their imediate desires will certainly feel some impact. They also get a set of superpower appropriate to the godling in question, and can mentally communicate with them if they wish. At the end of the song, the chess peices derez, and the spirits go home - unless, of course, both the spirit and the person find that they like the experience, in which case there is nothing stopping them from continuing it.
The power and effectiveness with which doug can wield the chess peices are directly proportionate to the number of people who are hit with the side effect.
It's got a number of potential uses. The Chess pieces are really quite powerful, to the point that, given a reasonable number of channelers, they could crush tanks into ineffectiveness. They are also nigh invulnerable and having large pieces of very hard cover that go where you tell them to is often a nice thing. If you have a pack of firendly norms under threat in your immediate vicinity, giving them each a lease-with-option-to-buy pack of low-level superpowers could be quite useful from a tactical standpoint, especially with the attributes of divine endurance, prowess, and (for the males) strength being fairly prevalent.
On the downside, well... that should be pretty obvious... particularly given the sorts of people and spirits/godlings who are most likely to both buy into the idea and convince each other to buy into the idea.
"Odious personal habit: Occasionally creates supervillains."
