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Here goes another one...
Personal BubbleBy Senator Cybus"Wherever I lay my hat, that's my home..."With a thought, the hero can replace the local surroundings with his ideal environment, overriding reality to give himself the home field advantage wherever he happens to be.
The
Personal Bubble manifests itself as a dome centred on the super being, in which just about any conditions can be created: this pocket reality could resemble a desert, a graveyard, the courtyard of a mediaeval castle or anything else that the character can imagine. Once created, the bubble is fixed in place and the hero can maintain it in that location for as long as he chooses. People in the real world can see and move into the bubble at any time, and vice versa. As soon as someone enters the bubble, they are subject to whatever hazards and physical laws exist inside it (see below for further details).
The concentration required to maintain a basic
Personal Bubble uses up one action/attack per melee round, but grants the following bonuses: the hero is +1 to strike, parry, dodge and roll with punch/impact, and +2 to save vs. Horror Factor (this is his home turf, he’s comfortable here and he knows his way around). Additionally, the bubble provides a constant breathable atmosphere and the temperature inside is always at optimum levels, regardless of conditions outside. High ambient radiation and airborne disease cannot penetrate the bubble.
To add additional features, players should use the following guidelines (note that the more complicated the alternate environment, the more attacks/actions that the super being must devote to keeping it active):
Any effect that empowers the hero. This could mean an area of permanent sunlight for a
Solar Powered hero, a floor of bare soil for a super being with
Earth Empowerment, or a dome filled with sea water for a character with
Underwater Abilities; basically anything that boosts the super being’s attributes or activates/enhances his powers.
Cost: one attack/action. Any effect that would hamper opponents. This is anything that hinders an enemy‘s movement or confuses their senses, but without actually injuring them (this assumes that the hero is facing normal, non-powered opponents; super beings may be able to adapt to the adverse conditions). Very bright light, such as that produced by the power of
Glow Bug, a coating of slippery ice or slime on the floor, or a terrible smell like that produced by the
Stench power would all fall under this category.
Cost: one attack/action. Any effect that injures opponents. Extreme heat/cold, high radiation, a vacuum or toxic atmosphere; anything that would cause S.D.C. loss or lead to an opponent’s death (this assumes that the hero is facing normal, non-powered opponents; super beings may be able to adapt to the adverse conditions).
Cost: two attacks/actions.Any effect that alters the environment without empowering the super being or affecting his opponents. This is anything that doesn’t directly help, harm or hamper anyone, but is different to the conditions of the outside world. This could be things like an anti-sound field (producing noise of any kind is impossible), continual pulses of electromagnetic energy that knock-out electronics, omni-directional gravity (occupants of the bubble can walk along any surface; floors, walls or ceilings), extensive ramparts or obstacles that provide cover and places to hide, or a sterile field that neutralises airborne diseases released inside the dome.
If the super being chooses, he can prohibit the usage of certain exotic energies in his pocket reality. He can block the use of I.S.P., P.P.E., super powers (the super being’s own powers are unaffected) or super technology: each counts as a separate effect, and uses up attacks/actions accordingly.
Cost: one attack/action.The cost of these effects is cumulative. For example, the aquatic hero Captain Cod decides to make his
Personal Bubble simulate the ocean floor, with a layer of sand on the bottom and sea water filling the rest of the dome. It costs him one attack/action just to generate the basic bubble, one more because the water activates his
Underwater Abilities, another one because the water would hamper his opponents’ movements and two more because being completely submerged in water will drown his opponents: this means he must sacrifice five attacks/actions per melee round for as long as he wants to sustain the bubble.
Note: It is impossible to list here all of the possible combinations of effects that a player might choose. Players and G.M.s should work together to ensure that the final design of the bubble is fair and balanced.
Once the player has selected the features of the
Personal Bubble, they cannot be changed. As the character grows in experience, the bubble can be made larger and purely cosmetic features can be added in the new space, but the basic environmental conditions cannot be altered or added to.
Environmental conditions outside the bubble do not affect the inside and vice versa; it could be blazingly hot inside the dome, but perfectly cool just an inch away. However, people and animals, solid objects and projectiles of all kinds can pass in and out of the bubble without any problem.
People within the bubble’s range are caught inside when it is created, but structures, furnishing and the normal terrain are temporarily displaced, removed to some other dimension until the bubble is cancelled.
The
Personal Bubble is useful as a temporary shelter from the elements, an obstacle, a trap for the unwary or just as a way to impress or intimidate.
Range: The bubble has a maximum radius of 10 feet (3 m) per level of experience, centred on the spot where the hero first created it. The character does not have to create a bubble of the maximum size, but once it is in place he cannot change its radius, and he must cancel it and create a new bubble if he wants a smaller or larger one.
The super being can leave at any time, but if he moves more than 100 feet (30 m) away from the bubble, it instantly disappears.
Duration: Indefinite. The bubble lasts for as long as the super being wills it.
Damage: As per chosen features.
Attacks Per Melee: Creating a bubble uses up just one attack/action. See the rules above regarding maintaining it.
Bonuses: As the super being gains in experience, he finds it easier to maintain the bubble; at experience levels six and ten, he can reduce the number of attacks/actions needed to sustain it by one (for example, if a bubble uses up four actions per melee round at level five, it only uses up three actions per round once the character reaches level six). However, the bubble always uses up at least one melee attack/action, regardless of level.
A super being with
Personal Bubble can use it to negate another character’s use of the same power. To do this, the hero and his opponent both roll a D20; high roll wins. M.E. bonuses are applicable, and both characters gain a bonus to the roll equal to their experience level (+1 at level one, +2 at level two, etc).
Whoever wins can replace reality with their bubble, and the loser cannot attempt to override that power again until they have gained at least one new level of experience.
The super being is not affected by any power or effect that alters time or space (such as
Pause Temporal Flow or
Portals) unless it originates inside the bubble; even if he can be clearly seen from the outside, he cannot be targeted from there.
Limitations: If the super being is rendered unconscious or killed, the
Personal Bubble will collapse immediately and normal reality will be restored.
The character cannot pick and choose who is affected by the conditions inside the bubble; everyone within range is exposed to its hazards, whether they are friend or foe.
Only one
Personal Bubble can be created at a time. It is fixed in place upon creation, so if the super being wants it positioned somewhere else, he must first cancel it and then physically move to the new location.