Definition
An Appendage, or Limb, is a part of a character's body that can be used to perform Actions and activities. It is used as part of the action economy of Metaforce to give characters the ability to multi-task within a reasonable limit with the time they have available. Generally, an appendage can't be used for two actions/activities in the same moment of time but different appendages can.
Valid Appendages
Regardless of the character's biology, each seperate limb of the character can be considered an appendage, including a number of atypical examples which will be listed below. The definition of seperate means the Left limb of a pair can be used independently of the Right and so each limb can perform a different activity within reason. Example Appendage/Limb Definitions • Arm(s), Hand(s): Grasping appendages of a humanoid. • Leg(s), Feet: Locomotive appendages of a humanoid. • Tail: Striking and/or prehensile appendage of a creature. • Head, Brain, Active/Passive: Mental concentration and focus of a creature. Characters with more limbs than a humanoid are free to use any additional limbs as they see fit, but there may be a limit to how many activities can be performed within the same frame of time. Some activities make some appendages unusable for other activities. "The Saurian, who possesses a large tail they can use to attack with, tries to swipe their tail against several foes in a circle during an Action Frame. While they are only using their tail in this activity, they prevent the use of their legs and arms as they are needed to perform this particular activity, the legs for turning the body around and the arms to keep balance."
Mental Appendages
One of the atypical appendages is a character's Mental/Concentration. A character has an Active and Passive appendage exclusively for managing activities beyond the automatic and biological functions of a character. In other words, anything more complex than a character's natural instincts uses Active/Passive concentration. Active Concentration is the mental activity of focusing specifically on something, be it an ability or a target in combat. This will be the thing your character is dedicating their time, energy and thoughts towards. When it comes to targeting, this activity is only applicable once and then becomes instinct to continue following a target until focus is lost. Passive Concentration, or Echoic Memory, is the mental activity of remembering important things a character might want to keep focusing on even when it isn't immediately apparent. Characters with abilities that require constant attention to like concentration spells or powers or else the effect will end. Keeping such an activity in Echoic memory ensures the character will not need any additional checks to maintain concentration on that particular ability. Maintaining Multiple Concentration Abilities When maintaining more than one concentration ability, it is important to note that some abilities can be maintained so long as one concentrates at least once per round, others may require concentration to be unbroken, meaning such an ability will be lost if it is not concentrated upon for even one frame. A character can use both their Active and Passive concentration to keep Unbroken concentration abilities active while maintaining more lenient ones. Theoretically, a character could maintain up to three Loose concentration abilities without impacting their option to act. One could juggle a Unbroken concentration ability by spending a frame to maintain it along with their other Loose abilities. A character can also juggle two Unbroken concentration abilities at once but lose the ability to concentrate on any other activity. Metaphor Tip: An ability or spell that requires Unbroken concentration can be upgraded to a Loose concentration (Once per round, instead of per frame) by using the Optimize Metaphor feature.
Memory Limits
Although a character's Mental appendages are less tangible than those of their physical limbs, there are limits to how much can be processed in a single Action Frame, even with the two concentration types to work with. The list below is all the activities one can do in a single Action Frame • Targeting: A character can typically focus on one target at a time, multiple only if the activity they are close by each other, especially when using an attack or ability that might hit all of them. Targeting is a free activity so long as the target is not hidden or in some way harder to track than normal. • Plan/Enact Activity: A character can think of what they want to do next and to whom. This can include things such as Setup actions to enhance attacks or activities to be performed later. This typically requires Active Concentration as it forms the bulk of what a character does for that Action Frame. • Maintain Concentration: When a character has an activity, ability or power held for some reason, concentration needs to be kept to ensure it remains active and not lost. The frame after such an ability is activated, it can be maintained in the character's Passive/Echoic memory, allowing them to still perform Active thought processes without interruption. Abilities with Loose concentration only need to be applied once per frame, whereas Unbroken concentration must be maintained every frame or it will be lost. • Any other Instinct: Above all, the natural instincts and muscle memory of a character can be performed regardless of a character's memorisation status. This means being able to stand or even walk is possible while maintaining multiple concentrations. Also such things as tracking target(s) you previously focused on before can be maintained without extra thought. Keeping hold of things in grasping limbs, releasing them, and stopping concentration on anything is also free to do without extra thought. Talking is a free action, but only an amount of words that can fit within an Action Frame.
Broken Concentration
Especially in stressful situations or in combat, a character's concentration can be disrupted, affecting how they act and maintain abilities. The ability to concentrate is heavily reliant on characters having full control of themselves for every Action frame of an encounter. Losing frames to disruptive interactions will affect how many and how easily one can lose any concentrated abilities a character is focusing on. Since many actions and activities can be performed within an Action Frame, activities such as attacking, moving and instant abilities don't suffer much from being disrupted. If such an activity is disrupted, one can simply try again the next frame without losing anything more than time. Abilities that require concentration however will be affected since if the character can't maintain concentration in time, they can lose the effect and have to start over if they want to bring it back online. Scenarios which disrupt Concentration Getting Stunned can greatly affect Concentration as it prevents the character from performing any actions for a number of frames. Unbroken concentration will undoubtly break and limit the number of Loose concentration abilities one can maintain at a time.