Muses for the Passive

Every player in sburb has a unique trait about them, with specific benefits and drawbacks. This is an ability unique to them and them alone (and all other selves) and they are clear in what they do, as well as they are based around an aspect of you. I think the best way to explain is through examples.

Nepeta has Apex Purredator: The lion is the master huntress and she will prove this with her prowress. Gives a power that can be used three times per long sleep. Marks a specific random target on the current planet you are on. Killing said target gains a stack of Apex Purredator. Each stack gives a boost of +5% for every combat stat for the day. However if you go a day without a successful hunt, gain -5% to all social stats, up to -15%.

Equius has Highblood’s Inherintence: the blood corsing through your veins is extrodinary even for your caste. Unarmed damage is increased by 1000%, Your grasp strength is directly proportional to your unarmed damage.

Gamzee has Sopored Nerves: Years of drug abuse has caused you to feel little pain. Except the munchies. You do feel the munchies. Don’t flinch from minor to moderate damage, however reaction times -10%

Dave has Coolest Kid: The coolest kid on the block is you, gotta keep up appearences man. +5% damage resistance and -5% damage dealt when maintaining an uncaring cool dude facade. -5% damage resistance and +5% damage dealt when your facade is broken.

Rose has Mastress of Needles: A thoughtful gift from a friend, a tendency to spite people, and instincts from two master warrior family members has caused you to be able to be lethal with the most unorthodox weapons, so long as they are pointy. +5% crit rate, damage and critical damage with all needlekind weaponry. These gifts however makes your mind easily reached. Far more likely to become addicted or corrupted.

Meenah/HIC has Bling Equals Power: I’m the master of this hood beaches and I’ll leave imprints from my solid gold rings to prove it. All enchanted jewelry effects are doubled and gain up to a +10% boost in all stats depending on how many boonbucks you have (10,000 for maximum boost.) However the drawbacks for enchanted gear are also doubled and you have a -10% maximum for having below 5,000 boonbucks.

As an example for followers, I am going to post my followers here. Their culture will be discussed later but be known they are starfiends. Beings made of dense plasma that emits light. My theme is Electrical work, with myself being the engineer and my followers being the concepts.

So my roster is

#1 Sparks, attracted to important places, people, and things, easily distracted, very clingy, almost always with a bounce in her step. Found near my house/ruins of the first palace of ozymandis (seer)

#2 Amp, photographic memory, but utterly daft. Self proclaimed know it all, gets very excited about certain topics. Found at the charred ruins of the library of secrets. (page)

#3 Load, When giving facts they will always become true at one point, however they must watch their words for if they are incorrect the universe must adjust. Quiet, caring, always close to sewing their mouth shut. (Muse)

#4 Flash, he’s basically a magnet for light, it’s attracted to him and will adjust itself to attack threats for him. Self conscious and kind of standoffish. Found in the midnight castle. (Heir)

#5 Circuit, she Has a flashlight Juju able to create hard light weapons, shapes and simple contraptions, once created it keeps the shape and density for a limited time (typically 15 minuites) can temporarily patch wounds. Merciful and envious. Found in the underground skaian light plant. (Sylph)

#6 Ohm. Horrible contagious luck, (destroys light in an area.) Sources of light tend to be very susceptible and often break or gets blown out. Very superstitious, refuses to not use his set of battle dice, stubborn as all hell. Found encased in Crystal somewhere in the world (Bard)

#7 Current, hard to ignore and speaks only when watched. Charismatic speaker and natural leader. Holds the summoning prism and 14 sets of unmarked d6s in a pouch where they cannot roll. Found in the Wreck of an active prototype Capricatian battle cruiser. (Leader)

#8 Tescoil, able to create up to three hard light shades of a person, each wielding a weaker version of their weapon (about 50% strength). Each can take one attack before shattering and can make three actions before they become unstable and . Any healing actions they take is transferred to the owner of the shade. Each creation requires a sacrifice of 3 knowledge, 3 luck, and 3 significance or related skill. Martyristic, truly honest, easily jealous. Found in the town of oaisis. (Muse)

#9 Short, destroys significance of objects and people in an area around him (my power will be toggable destroy all significance in objects, places, or creatures in an area. Npcs and people also have what they consider to be important or worthwhile not matter to them at all.) Silent, nihilistic, depressing, not much matters to him at all. Found near the temple of false lights. (Bard)

#10 Wire, they are able to ride beams of light and pull themselves and others into the mirror realm. Optimistic, bouncy, friendly. Found in the sacrificial chamber under the grand skaian temple. (Misc light/muse)

#11 Strike, wields a juju that gives the holder incredible luck, with luck dodges and crits being commonplace with her. (it looks like a seven toed rabbits foot with a horseshoe on the back.) Charitable, reckless, possessive. Found tied up by terrorbeasts around the remnants Castle Thornshill, A heavily sought after military fortification, despite its age and wear. (Heir)

#12 Watt, looking at them leads to epithanies and looking in their general direction encourages your ability to memorize and rationalize to flourish (effects of looking at them only takes effect for them when they stares at a large amount of his skin, always has the effect looking in their direction.). Staring directly at them or for too long leaves sun spots in your eyes, hurts your eyes, damages your eyes, and eventually leads to blindness. Patient, understanding, incredibly hard on themself. Found at Ozymandis’ personal library (which is actually stupid dangerous, security nut old man.) (Muse)

#13 Volt, seemingly useless, but constantly confirms that he will be useful. Also turns existing light into powerful weapons. Hyperactive, strange habit of staring at skaia and stars. Found lost in the Forgotten forest. (Page)

#14, Arc, able to redirect importance away from himself into objects or people. Silent, nervous, self sacrificing. Found panicking about horrorterrors at the bottomless canyon. (Rogue)

So I was chatting with @creative-classpect on a discord server, and we came to a consensus. Masterclass players don’t have a limitless pool of power they can spam abilities from. Instead they have a sort of minigame to deal with related to their aspects. It is tailored to both personal taste and aspect, but always should be something annoying to deal with but possible to manage.

For examples, 9’s management system is basically a mana bar, however it is basically a sink to relate the rage in himself and the area around him, the anger, determination, passions and mental fortitude within him all affect it. Specific powers need specific conditions of these, and the more is sapped from him the weaker they get.

So how my system works is a culmination of three things. narritave pressure (what the story wants/needs to be interesting) luck based rolls (I roll a d20 to gage success (with boosts from relevant stats), roll a dice related to follower number to gague effectiveness, and roll a d100 to determine cooldown or duration in seconds or minutes depending on the power.) The rolls are all affected by what the writer or author of the story decides is important, as well as the current luck I have.

So what should yours be? Well it should be frustrating but fun to deal with, be related to your aspect be affected wholy by your aspect, and should act like a mini game. A simple bar is okay but it’s a little bland for my tastes. Examples could include making it happen in a time loop any time you want to use a power or having a court trial (while nothing moves) to use your power (convince the jury).