The Toolbox - Roleplaying Game Hacks and Nifty Stuff

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Hacking the Dog - Magic and Powers

Some settings may want to include supernatural powers for use by the PCs, whether they're modern occultists, spandex-wearing costumed avengers, eldritch wizards, Jedi Knights, or whatever. 

The simplest way to handle powers is to just record them as Traits - if they are assumed to be fairly commonplace (meaning both the PCs and their opposition), and the effects are general, there's no reason why they won't work as "fire magic 2d6" and "debilitating touch 1d8" and so on. You'd just incorporate them into narration with raises and sees like normal, and voila. You might spend a little more time than normal negotiating what effects can and can't be used in what situations, but overall, this method takes the least amount of work. If you don't want to take up room on your Traits list, the GM can add Powers as a separate category of stuff to the game's Backgrounds, and give that its own pool of dice to assign at character creation.

A slightly less simple approach, and one to use if there's an unequal distribution of powers either among the PCs or their opposition, is to mandate that extranormal Traits are "complicated", adding an additional +1d4 to their value the same way that guns do in standard Dogs. Using your powers pretty much means that you're taking at least one blow before conflict ends, and hence will lead to fallout and potentially troublesome outcomes more often. This provides a cool side effect that doesn't necessarily change the flow of conflicts much.

If, for some reason, your setting includes a universal set of powers that are available to all people, or just a few people (like if the PCs are all members of a single priesthood or magical tradition), you might want to consider adapting the rules for using ceremony from DitV - assign a die value to each power, that can be used in a raise or see, and the fallout it will inflict if the opponent takes the blow. Again, if the powers are meant to create complicated outcomes, you might give all of them +d4 in addition to their normal value.

So far, all the solutions above are for incorporating powers in such a way that they don't make a major impact on the default process of play, more color than substance - you're not going to see much of a change in conflict strategy, but you'll see a major difference in how actions in a conflict are narrated.

Suppose, however, that you do want that impact. In that case, you need to take what's above, and crank it up to 11.


Great Power, Great Responsibility

In this powers variant, every unusual ability that the PC has gets two ratings, which can be stated as either dice or straight-up numbers: bonus and cost. The bonus is what you get when you use the power in a raise or see. The cost is what you take in fallout when you use the power in a raise or see. That's right - you volunteer to take fallout every time you use the power. Why on earth would you want to do that? A few reasons:

1.) You can add the bonus on top of a normal raise, which means you can now raise with more than two dice. This allows you to throw forward some potentially monstrous hits.

2.) You can add the bonus on top of a normal see without having it count as taking the blow. This allows you to potentially escape a hit for a greatly reduced fallout.

3.) Associating powers with fallout ensures that their use has heavy thematic impact in play, and gives you a means to experience those effects without necessarily needing to escalate conflicts.

When you're naming powers, consider the desired flavor of your campaign - you can make them as general as "super-strength +d8 bonus, +d6 fallout" or as specific as individual spells with set effects, like "Bahamut's Wrath - a fiery dragon's head appears and chomps my enemy - +5 bonus, +3 fallout".

When you're rating power bonuses, you can pretty much go directly with effectiveness or mastery = die size - the 'complicating' effect of a d4 in your normal dice pool doesn't happen with powers, because they add for free. This is pretty simple stuff, more power = more dice.

When you're rating power fallout, it's more like potential danger = die size - d4 powers only have a risk of lasting consequences if you use them often, d6 powers risk injury, d8 powers risk near-mortal injury, and d10 powers could kill you outright, making them options of extreme last resort. 

You're going to want to fine-tune this for genre, too... so if you're doing a four-color supers game, most powers will probably only be d4 or d6 fallout regardless of their bonus, and if you're doing gritty fantasy, being a novice at magic might mean that all your spells are d8 and d10 fallout, making the choice to use any magic a powerful and demanding one.

This method can, of course, be combined with an altered ceremony list - a perfect fit for the moves list from a sword school in a chanbarra game, for instance, complete with the last ditch d10/d10 suicide secret move. (Yes, I just finished watching Samurai Champloo.)

Vincent's post, linked at the top of the page, has a couple of examples of use. I'll provide you one more:

Spider-Man has the power Enhanced Physique, +d6 to physical raises and sees, +d4 fallout. He also has a Relationship with Mary Jane at 2d6. During play, Mary Jane is accosted by thugs and he saves her, using the power twice to enhance his raises during the conflict. Spidey's player rolls 6 for fallout on 2d4, indicating a temporary effect. As they play out the scene, it's clear that MJ's developing a very intense crush on Spider-Man which could be troublesome - so, Spidey's player changes the die size of their relationship for the next conflict, down to 2d4. 

Later, when the Green Goblin captures MJ in an attempt to lure Spider-Man out, Spidey's stuck using those 2d4 in his pool, meaning he's probably going to be taking some blows from the Goblin if he wants to get her back. 

Vincent? Thank you so, so much for this.