Metaphor

Metaphor System Skills, Combat techniques, Superpowers and more can be created and used through the use of Metaphors. Metaphors allow players to define what their character is capable of by using a modular system of modifiers and unique effects. Metaphors are made of multiple layers: Base, Ability and Sub-Ability. Metaphors can be created or improved by either Experience Points, Narrative-Progression, or through Metaphor Manuals, depending on the game scenario and Game-Master's rules. Players may write down Metaphors with a value of 0 for future reference and planning; it does not become active until it is +1 or higher. For a list of pre-made Metaphor examples, check out Recommended Metaphors. Anatomy of a Metaphor Metaphors are made up of four main components, The Type, Scope, Ability and Sub-Ability. Type The Metaphor Type helps players determine how the Metaphor is used and how it is processed in game. The following types include: ♦ Combat Combat Metaphors are used to help give bonuses and proficiency in fighting opponents to land attacks and techniques that deal damage and negative effects. Whether they rely on a external focus (such as Weapons) or are a natural part of the user (Spells, Superpowers). Combat Metaphors usually grant a ToHit Bonus to increase the odds of the appropriate attack succeeding. Users must succeed on a Tohit check against their target's Evasion/Deflection to determine if an attack hits them or not. ♦ Skill Skill Metaphors are an Improvised type that requires a Scope that defines what circumstances and actions it can be used to produce some desired outcome. Skill Metaphors require a Skill Bonus to help improve the odds of succeeding a Skill Check, if the user succeeds on the check, they will likely receive the desired outcome granted by their Metaphor. ♦ Concentration/Tension/Channel/Toggle Metaphors that go by many names but all mean the same thing, they produce a constant bonus or effect to the user or others so long as it is maintained by the user willingly, the cost comes in the form of status magnitude against the user's Body or Mind Core value. It is possible to lower the amount of installed magnitude generated by an Active Metaphor, however as a rule, this magnitude can't be lower than 2. ♦ Passive Functions like the Metaphors described above, except these effects can't be suppressed or deactivated. Instead of installing points of magnitude against a Core Value, usually the user's maximum Meta points are reduced by 10. ♦ Power Specified Metaphors that have a consistent function design with stats and effects that trigger reliably upon use and can be enhanced with Sub-Abilities. These Metaphors rely most heavily on their Baseline to describe what it does. Scope The Scope is the Description of a Metaphor, it describes the intent, limits and/or and functions of the Metaphor, as well as any stats necessary for it to make sense mechanically (especially if it's an activated power or ability). Some Metaphor types are simpler than others, Skill and Combat Metaphors focus on being able to improve Skill/ToHit checks and their outcomes vary more. Everything that is important to know about a Metaphor is stored within its Scope, with more complex powers having stat blocks. When a Metaphor is listed on a character's sheet, a brief description can be written in the Ability field along with its bonus. Ability (Bonus) A Metaphor's Ability is an extension of its Scope, normally applying a modifier to improve the chance of success or its effects. The Bonus applies to all actions under the Metaphor' scope and is the parent of any Sub-Abilities it is linked to. A Metaphor starts with a value of +1 and increments by 1 each time it is improved with experience points or some other method. Ability scores usually require two things: The Condition, and the Bonus. The Condition indicates when and where a Metaphor's bonus is meant to apply. For Abilities this is often when the situation meets the Metaphor's Scope, the bonus can be used to improve the odds of succeeding, or affect some other numerical value used in game. The Investigation Skill Metaphor could have an Ability which describes itself as “Gain a bonus to checks involving the discovery of clues, secrets and contradictions behind mysteries, conspiracies to uncover the truth.” Which basically means, whenever there’s a mystery to solve, the character can use their Investigation skill to help them solve it. This fits the Metaphor's Scope and plainly explains that this bonus applies to Skill checks when triggered. Sub-Ability (Bonus) A Metaphor's Sub-Ability are branches of the Metaphor that add more customization and bonuses to an existing Metaphor. They can either grant more numerical bonuses to more specific scenarios under a Metaphor's scope or they can grant new functions or effects that didn't exist before. Generally, Sub-Abilities have more specific conditions that can apply bonuses in the right circumstances. A player character can use Experience points to acquire more Sub-Abilities/Features to their Metaphor, but they may only have a number of Sub-Abilities equal to their Ability value, and each Sub-Ability can't have a bonus higher than their Ability value. Specialization Bonus Usually a Sub-Ability for Skill Metaphors. The scope of these Sub-abilities covers a specific task or circumstance to which the main Ability can apply to. When the condition is met, the user gains the bonus in addition to any other modifiers on a check. Example: The user creates a Sub-ability Interrogation for their Investigation skill, whenever they talk to witnesses and suspects using the Investigation skill, they gain a bonus from their Interrogation Sub-Ability bonus, this stacks with all other modifiers. Specialization Bonuses can also influence how a character is able to approach problems, as such Sub-Abilities create Precedence. A Metaphor with Precedence can allow attempts on a check that a non-specialist could not, or produce outcomes in a similar fashion, or it could alter the difficulty of such checks. Example: A character with the Knowledge Metaphor Skill could have a good understanding of all subjects, but a character with a Sub-Ability in a specific subject will create Precedence in that subject, giving them more leverage when called upon. The Precedence scale, from least or most influential is: Improvised (with an Attribute bonus), Metaphor (with Ability), then Metaphor (with Sub-Ability). Action-Sequence An Action Sequence is a special Sub-Ability that can be used in encounters/combat scenes to combine multiple Actions together to conserve Action Points. At base, it combines two distinct actions the user can perform and creates a new action that functions the same as using each in order, however it costs only one Action-Point instead of two. For example: A Firearm Metaphor with the actions Unload, Reload, Aim and Fire could have an Action-Sequence that combines two of them together, such as ‘Unload’ and ‘Reload’ becoming Quick Reload. Quick Reload performs the same actions as Unload and Reload but only costs one action point. An Action-Sequence can only be used a number of times equal to its Sub-Ability score, so Quick Reload +1 allows a character to use it once per round, whereas Quick Reload +2 will let them use it twice per round and so on. Advanced forms of Action-Sequences can be created with 3 or 4 actions. 3 actions can be combined into an Action-Sequence that costs 2 Action-Points. And a 4-action can be combined into an Action-Sequence costing 3 Action-Points. The order of actions as well as the specific form of actions are taken into account when creating all Action-Sequences. Dice Bonus Sub-Abilities, especially ones pertaining to Skill and ToHit checks, will be granted a special dice bonus relative to their Sub-Ability value. The dice used starts at d4 at +1, and increases to d6, d8, d10 and then d12 at +5 value. When interpreting the dice bonus from Sub-Abilities, take the higher value between the rolled die and the Sub-Ability value. So the possible results are as follows: ♦ +1: 1 to 4 (d4) ♦ +2: 2 to 6 (d6/2) ♦ +3: 3 to 8 (d8/3) ♦ +4: 4 to 10 (d10/4) ♦ +5: 5 to 12 (d12/5) For Sub-Abilities with a value of +6 or higher, this is treated as the same as +5, but with the added fixed value: ♦ +6: 6 to 13 (d12/5+1) ♦ +7: 7 to 14 (d12/5+2) ♦ +8: 8 to 15 (d12/5+3) etc... Multiplier Bonus (X) Sub-Abilities and Features can provide a bonus based on a multiplier instead of a fixed value. Multipliers can become difficult to balance, so you will have to check with your GM to whether this is appropriate for your Sub-ability or Feature. This can be improved with experience points, or based on the user’s Ability or Level rank. A multiplier-based bonus may use another parameter to base itself, such as a movement-based Metaphor giving bonus movement speed/distance multiplied by the ability value. Instead of moving an extra foot in distance, each multiplier can be 5 feet so that it confirms with distance/grid guidelines. It could also be used to multiply the number of dice thrown as part of an ability/sub-ability. Multiplier-bonuses can’t affect gameplay outside of the Metaphor itself, so it can’t multiply damage of a weapon if it is not the weapon itself, or the dice thrown that wasn’t created by the Metaphor itself. Rank Bonus (R) When creating more powerful Metaphor Ability or Sub-Abilities, you may want to restrict the value to how many ranks a particular stat is worth. These are denoted with the R mark and can’t be improved, thus it can never have a plus number next to it. Trained counts as 1, Adept counts as 2, Expertise is 3, Mastery is 4, and Legendary is 5. Static Feature (*) Occasionally, a Metaphor can have an added effect which can’t be scaled up numerically. This is called a Static Feature and is denoted with an asterisk mark. Static features can’t be enhanced and thus have no plus numbers. For example: A feature may grant the function to “Silence movement during a Stealth check”, but because this type of benefit can’t progress logically anything further, it can’t be improved or enhanced. This becomes a static feature that is active whenever its conditions are met or the main Metaphor is in use.