CP Gain in alternate realities

[Brian]

Influence:

   (Also Known As: Your GM Thought Champions Wasn't Already Confusing Enough!)

   As we wander through the joys of alternate realities, and deal with non-PC PCs, and the fact that your current bodies have different memories, skills, and (apparently) powers, you've probably figured out that there's supposed to be a way for you to really understand exactly what's going on.

   And there is!

   Basically, you gain CP while in this world, just like the normal world.  You also gain points of Influence.  Influence is what you use to 'pull' something from your host out of wherever they're keeping it, and use it for yourself.  At this point, at the outpost, after clearing the Pass of Nuclear-Powered Laser Spiders, you each have 10 points of Influence.

   This means that when I hand you your character's 'new' character sheets, you get to see what equipment they have (and how the points work) and what abilities and powers they have.  And if you're willing to spend influence on their abilities and powers, you can use them as well.

   Before, this wasn't an issue (Ginrai was able to use his spells, and Unseen his musical powers even though the expenditure was greater than the 10 points you have to spend).  Of course, at that point, you can be assumed to still be adjusting.  As you continue through the game, you'll earn more influence (one should hope) and all will be well.

   In RP terms, this is actually finding the soul of the person who you are using the body of, and taking it into yourself.  At least, a little bit.  You don't have their memories, only their abilities, and the vague suggestions of how they learned it.  But these are dead-ends, and you can't recover their actual memories.

   In terms of mechanics, you have all of your pre-existing skills.  You retained (you should notice) your own EGO and INT.  Presence is separate from these, however.  This entire thing is considered a very particular and bizarrely designed V.P.P. (variable power pool), with no endurance costs on any of your abilities (to have them; using them is another matter).  Switching your influence around takes a full phase in combat, or a few seconds of thinking out of combat.

   The reason this is being stated OOC instead of IC is because I have a suspicion that it rings an awful lot like a gimmick to draw the game out, and away from the interesting parts of the story, and don't want to throw something in designed to slow you down even more, when you have a goal in sight.

   So.  I'd like you to all basically start to figure this out on your own (or maybe trade notes) IC.  OOC, this whole thing is super complicated, so, yeah, making you puzzle it all out in game would be needlessly cruel.

   At least, that's what I think.

[Dracos]

It's an interesting twist.  And I agree, trying to swing this entirely IC would cause all of our heads to explode and blood to splatter around the walls.

Dracos

[Rezantis]

Man, if you thought the NPCs got confused by LOTR references, just wait until we start trying to figure out game mechanics. ;)

[Brian]

Also, at this point, your other-selves have 3 CP (each) with which to improve their abilities or skills.

[Rezantis]

Is it possible to only buy part of a skill with influence ?

Say, someone had a 9 point combat skill, could they use 6 points worth of that skill and another skill that was worth 3?

[Brian]

Yes.

And if you have some noncombat skill that's plus 3, you can use just the normal skill, for three points, without any of the pluses (for example; you could also use two of them, or just one, as long as you have the influence to pay for them).

[Rezantis]

Hmmm . . .

Original skills, I imagine, don't stack (doubt it's applicable in many cases anyway).  Just checking though, do skills like blanket +1s to stuff carry over?

[Brian]

Yes, all your skills carry over, and also stack.

For calculating the value of something that you've improved, take the total number of points in your skill, say, inventor.  If you've got that at the three point level, and your other-self ALSO has it at the three point level, then you've got six points of inventor, which means you get the three point inventor skill, and a +3 (since each +1 costs 1 point).

All skills are calculated that way, except for 'Apply to any x roll' and combat skills.  Those will stack, but their costs are different.  Combat skills are going to cost 3 points per +1.  So if you had naturally, say, +4 OCV with sword, and your otherself has +2, you can combine the total point values (12 and 6, and get 18.  18 divided by 3 is 6, so now you've got +6 OCV with swords.

Note for martial artists: These combat skills will stack with your MA pool, and add to it.  (So you may get an extra +1 to 'anything' in your pool to assign.)

[Brian]

Update on Influence.  You've now discovered that you can spend it to pull your base-self's powers through!

According to what you've been told by the Pax agents, anyway.  But it turns out to be true!  How handy.

Influence can therefore be applied both ways.  According to Liandral, you can also pull THINGS through from your other-selves.  Like Ginrai's knife.  Though, that happens to have a lot of weight (and therefore require a lot of influence) to pull through.

Experiment.  There's more to figure out yet. :)