65 KiB
[BST] [MK] What are some simple but cool superpowers that would have a lot of creative applications?
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Author: u/None *
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URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/2szgcr/bst_mk_what_are_some_simple_but_cool_superpowers/
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Score: 20
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Created: 2015-01-19T22:31:43
Post:
I'm thinking on a story that will be about a school for superheroes, something like "HPMOR meets Incredibles".
So far I've figured that one of my heroes will be able to create portals, and another will have superspeed.
Now I'm thinking on some more cool superpowers that a person like HPMOR!Harry could invent a lot of creative applications for.
Comments:
u/6340 [+27] (17 minutes later)
If you have not yet read Worm, go read Worm.
https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2011/06/11/1-1/
If you have read Worm, you will have no shortage of ideas.
u/None [+7] (3 hours later)
While it is a good read, Worm is extremely long. If you don't mind spoilers, there is good information to be had on Worm wiki pages.
u/None [+14] (8 hours later)
and extremely fucking awesome
u/Rhamni [+6] Aspiring author (14 hours later)
I got to 14 before I tired, left it for a year, and will probably finish it this time around. Weaver just got the call to go to New Delhi (23.4) to fight Behemoth.
I like it. It's got people usually being pretty smart and inventive with how they use their powers. My main complaint is that some fights get really, really drawn out. Like the Echidna thing. It took forever.
u/E-o_o-3 [+6] (7 hours later)
Off topic - can someone tell me the name of the phenomenon where superpowers can't effect people's bodies?
I think Worm was the first story to explicitly give a name to the effect but I can't remember what it is...
u/Traiden04 [+13] (7 hours later)
The Manton effect
u/E-o_o-3 [+1] (22 hours later)
Ah yes that is what I was looking for, thanks
u/None [+1] (3 days later)
The Manton Effect refers to a parahuman's inability to affect a living being though powers that effect living beings seem to be exempt. This effect prevents telekinetics from crushing someone's heart inside their chest or force field users from bisecting a person
u/scooterboo2 [+0] Tinker 3: Embeded Systems (20 hours later)
u/xamueljones [+14] My arch-enemy is entropy (3 hours later)
I'd recommend not giving anyone super-intelligence because it's very hard to realistically write about such a character since they would take actions you would have never thought of.
Instead give people savant-like abilities such as perfect video-like recall, easily learning and doing insanely complex mathematical operations mentally, and can think far more quickly than other people. It's a lot easier to write since such a character will be a lot like a Hollywood rationalist who can recite tons of facts easily, but won't necessarily be any better at making decisions than other people.
I would love to see someone who only has the power, infinite willpower. He/She can set for him/herself a task to complete, and the task will be completed no matter what.
u/696e6372656469626c65 [+2] I think, therefore I am pretentious. (6 hours later)
What do you mean by "the task will be completed no matter what"? Certain interpretations of that phrase can lead to somewhat... overpowered results. (To be charitable, I'm assuming you mean something like no procrastination, no distractions, no akrasia, etc., but that line is somewhat ambiguous...)
Also, does "infinite willpower" apply to things other than task completion? Like, say, could a character with that power resist torture indefinitely, for example?
u/xamueljones [+3] My arch-enemy is entropy (6 hours later)
Your interpretation is correct.
I was mostly thinking of something like the hero can set a goal to be completed and a way to accomplish the goal. The hero will then work on reaching the goal as soon as possible. There is some leeway in that the hero can take his/her time and not destroy him/herself trying to complete something like "get strong enough to bench-press 500 pounds" in a week. But the hero will not feel as if it's a burden to get over with, but rather as something pleasant he/she would like to do (i.e. to be very motivated). However, if the hero can't accomplish the goal with an arbitrary amount of will, then the goal won't ever be completed.
I did think of an interesting drawback where if it turns out the goal doesn't need to be completed any more, the power will force the hero to deal with an OCD-like urge to complete the goal anyway (like doing the laundry, but if someone else did it already, then the hero will still wash the clothes). But that means if a task becomes impossible to complete, the hero can go crazy trying to do it. Also if it's something like "fast for 50 days", the hero will kill him/herself doing so. It's a double-edged power.
Hmm, using it for something other than task completion...I would say only if the hero believes it can be done at all. If the hero is cocky enough to believe he/she can resist torture indefinitely, then the power will make it happen. But if the hero thinks it is impossible, then the power won't kick in. To me, it's dependent on a good deal of introspection and knowledge about one's psych. A little Dark Arts in Rationality would be very helpful for our hero.
Anyone who wants to use this idea can do so with no complaints from me.
u/Rhamni [+2] Aspiring author (14 hours later)
no matter what
I'm writing a fantasy book series. It will be a while yet, but this will eventually see play. There's a location where any oath voluntarily spoken becomes physically impossible to break voluntarily. So if you set yourself a goal and say that you will do whatever is necessary to make it true, that would do it.
It can be (ab)used for other things too, but in terms of the Infinite Willpower thing, the third to last book will see the main character breaking into the location to give himself exactly this, and then things start to escalate about as quickly as you would expect when both sides are incapable of surrendering or changing goals.
u/xamueljones [+2] My arch-enemy is entropy (18 hours later)
Ooo! How much of the series have you already finished? I would love to see or buy whatever you already have written if you have something like that rationally abused.
u/Rhamni [+1] Aspiring author (19 hours later)
Still working on the first book, I'm afraid. First draft is about 90%. 95% written and then some minor changes and additions here and there. The first book won't be Rationalist, but it will be Rational.
u/E-o_o-3 [+1] (6 hours later)
I do believe there are already people with near infinite willpower. (Also, I suspect a mentally typical individual can achieve roughly that with careful use of drugs - at possible cost to health and a few other cognitive skills)
u/xamueljones [+2] My arch-enemy is entropy (7 hours later)
Possibly...but I have never heard of any such person then again it's not a very obvious thing to notice. Also I feel like such people have something to motivate themselves into completing their difficult goals. I'm interested in a power that allows you to set an arbitrarily difficult goal with none of the self-discipline one typically learns to develop such a strong willpower.
I'm kinda visualizing the hero as someone who can put themselves into the most grueling situations possible and have absolutely no ill-mental effects whatsoever. The hero would appear very odd to others and be like Batman who built himself up to be capable of matching super-heroes.
To you it's something that exists and therefore is not a super-power. To me, it's a real-life super-power I hope to actually learn.
u/None [+2] (13 hours later)
A lot of amphetamines, such as Adderall, do more or less this. Some of the horror stories from taking too much tend to be an obsessive desire to do the one thing you want to do, and nothing else. There have been instances where people will work on something for 12 hours straight, never thinking about eating or sleeping, only to collapse in exhaustion when the effects start to wear off. Considering your description of an OCD like drawback, this sounds pretty close to a real life version of that "power".
u/eaglejarl [+1] (17 hours later)
Is it a bad sign that I read this and that my first three thoughts were:
- Holy crud, gotta get me some of that!
- Hm. I guess it might have some bad effects....
- Don't care!
u/xamueljones [+1] My arch-enemy is entropy (18 hours later)
I thought the exact same thing too. It's probably a bad sign. ;)
u/None [+1] (20 hours later)
Kids, don't try this shit at home. It's a little like having a headache for 9 hours at a time.
Source: I have been prescribed Adderall to treat ADHD at times.
u/None [+1] (20 hours later)
Kids, don't try this shit at home. It's a little like having a headache for 9 hours at a time.
Source: I have been prescribed Adderall to treat ADHD at times.
u/eaglejarl [+1] (21 hours later)
Are we talking "dull annoying throbbing" or "crippling migraine that prevents you from doing more than breathing and even that is unpleasant"? Because I think I'd be willing to put up with a headache if it let me stay focused and productive for 12 hours at a shot.
If you think about it, the entire point of drugs is to get rid of some undesirable characteristic -- an infection, a headache, whatever. Why should "lack of focus" not be treatable as well?
u/None [+1] (22 hours later)
It's more near the "dull annoying throbbing", but the thing is that it's a dull annoying throbbing that keeps you from thinking your normal thoughts. It's like having a vice strapped to your head, keeping you focused at the expense of being able to think in any mode except intensive goal-directed reasoning. It also leaves you tired and irritable at the end.
If you think about it, the entire point of drugs is to get rid of some undesirable characteristic -- an infection, a headache, whatever. Why should "lack of focus" not be treatable as well?
I don't like to say this word, but in a two-word summary: because Moloch.
u/eaglejarl [+1] (a day later)
I don't like to say this word, but in a two-word summary: because Moloch.
That's a SlateStarCodex reference, I assume? Can you translate for those of us who don't follow SSC and weren't willing to wade through that wall-o-text as our first exposure to the site?
u/None [+3] (a day later)
Sure. In this context, it means that I think making hard-stimulant usage normal in intellectual or professional settings eventually makes it required in such settings: cognitively unenhanced people simply won't be able to compete. Meanwhile, people who never particularly wanted to enhance themselves will be stuck taking amphetamines just to keep up, and everyone will have to deal with the unpleasant side-effects. And then the habitual users start developing tolerances, so they're not even getting as much of a performance boost from the drug as they once did.
So it's better just to not normalize it in the first place: the end result is just "unpleasant side-effects and addictions for everyone".
It doesn't even really make you more productive, per se, in the long run: just better at monomaniacally focusing on tedious, menial brain-labor. In my experience and that of others, you mostly can't come up with creative or original ideas when on Adderall, and it's very easy to get distracted (there's a meme, "I sat down to write a paper and wound up color-coding my sock drawer... twice").
u/eaglejarl [+1] (a day later)
I think making hard-stimulant usage normal in intellectual or professional settings eventually makes it required in such settings: cognitively unenhanced people simply won't be able to compete.
I've heard this meme before and, although I find it prima facie plausible, it doesn't seem as though the world works like that. These drugs exist and are used, yet not everyone in academia / business is popping amphetamines / Adderal / etc. Where do you think the disconnect happens? Or do you think that all successful people are taking these pills, and that's why they are more successful than others?
u/None [+2] (2 days later)
These drugs exist and are used, yet not everyone in academia / business is popping amphetamines / Adderal / etc. Where do you think the disconnect happens? Or do you think that all successful people are taking these pills, and that's why they are more successful than others?
All I can find is this bloody news article right now, but suffice to say, 1/4 to 1/3 of university students are taking these drugs as performance enhancers, and they do see, at least in the short-term before they develop a tolerance, improvements in their cognitive and academic performance. The distributions are, to my knowledge, bimodal: weak students and elite students are more likely to take the drugs. I don't have numbers of any kind on full-time white-collar employees.
But what I can say about the negative effect is: endemic drug-taking to pursue studies (we can argue philosophically about real work and the job market) destroys the value of our performance measurements while also dumping the unpleasant side-effects of drug use and addiction (amphetamines are dopamine-affecting stimulants, after all) into the population.
So effectively, amphetamines are just not the kind of all-around, general, safe, non-side-effecting cognitive enhancement drug that I can support from a "transhumanist" point of view.
I think the disconnect is: most of the people taking the drugs do so for menial intellectual work, writing class papers and that sort of thing. Eventually, menial work comes to its end, and the drugs won't actually help with the cognitive heavy-lifting that comes after it. You can't attentionally and motivationally enhance your way into greater actual intelligence or creativity, in the end.
Problem is, much of the labor that even real cognitive workers do is menial, and much of the cultural and economic emphasis is precisely on the menial labor (which is one of the great deficits of our current social system: very little ambition to produce a tomorrow substantially different from today).
So, thanks to a skewed emphasis among people, we end up with nasty incentives to take the drugs, even though they won't actually make you overall smarter than someone who doesn't.
(Personally, I was diagnosed with ADHD, although as a child, and over the long term, I've found that having been on the drugs when younger made me worse at self-organizing and self-motivating when I got older. I've had to learn those skills late, as I generally refuse to rely on drugs because of their side-effects. However, now that I have learned those skills, I am finding that I can be very productive without any need for amphetamines. It may be a case of the drug being a short-cut where proper training and lifestyle would require more effort but yield better results.)
Or do you think that all successful people are taking these pills, and that's why they are more successful than others?
I'd dearly like to see a longitudinal study that actually collects objective performance data.
u/xamueljones [+1] My arch-enemy is entropy (a day later)
I don't think that's what /u/eaturbrainz is referring to. I Googled the word and Wikipedia says:
Moloch has been used figuratively in English literature from John Milton's Paradise Lost (1667) to Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" (1955), to refer to a person or thing demanding or requiring a very costly sacrifice.
Which is more in line with his implied meaning. But why do you (/u/eaturbrainz) dislike saying the word?
u/None [+1] (a day later)
I don't think that's what /u/eaturbrainz[1] [-2] is referring to.
Yes it is.
But why do you (/u/eaturbrainz[2] [-2]) dislike saying the word?
Because I don't believe in demons, and thus dislike using one as a short-hand explanation.
u/Rouninscholar [+1] (a day later)
Fun savant ability. The ability to write programs for himself. So he can't solve all math equations, until he has loaded up a "program" to do so. Then it just takes seconds to do complex Math that he has seen before. Then the guy spends time writing the codes in his head for individual martial arts, or firing a gun. It might take him 24 hours to write the code for a punch, but then he can do it on command.
u/alexanderwales [+11] Time flies like an arrow (35 minutes later)
The range of superpowers is really, really broad. My best advice would be to go pick up a copy of Mutants & Masterminds and go look through their powers section (or just find a PDF online, which is less ethical but far cheaper), or the "Stock Superpowers" trope page. You need to answer a few questions:
- How much are the powers balanced against each other? Do some people have strictly better powers than other people, like someone who can create portals but only in doorways, and someone else who can create portals without the doorway?
- Do some people just get the shaft with their power, like the Jokers from Wild Cards or the Case 34s from Worm?
- Do you have anything like the Manton effect preventing radical offensive maneuvers? (ex. Creating a portal inside someone's head, using telekinesis to squeeze someone's heart, etc.)
- Are powers "unique"? Are there dozens of people with the same flight power, or are all the ways of flying different from each other?
- How many (if any) drawbacks do these powers have?
Anyway, there are a lot of questions that you need to answer before you start thinking about what kinds of powers are appropriate to dish out. Here are my personal favorite powers:
- Multiplication. The ability to make independent copies of yourself that can go out and live their own lives before being reabsorbed, but with no other special powers. Like Multiple Man from Marvel or Dupli-Kate and Multi-Paul from Invincible.
- Teleportation. Usually with limits, because otherwise it's overpowered - either a refactory period, a distance limitation, or something else. Maybe you can't teleport clothing/glasses/teethfillings with you.
- Precognition. Either a static future, or a future that shifts around a lot and represents a "best guess" made by the power.
u/None [+2] (42 minutes later)
Wow, thank you for the awesome reply! This will be very helpful. Coming up with good limitations for precognition power that don't break the story will be very interesting....
u/alexanderwales [+5] Time flies like an arrow (an hour later)
If you want some ideas for limits to place on a precog:
- Location limited: the power only looks at the future where the precog is currently located - put them in a cell, and they'll only be able to see the cell's future. Maybe they can only see the future of Times Square, or the future of some arbitrary spot on the planet, or something like that.
- Distance limited: the power only works up to an hour (or two hours, or three minutes, or whatever) in the future - the precog can't see beyond that.
- Access limited: the power can only be used for a limited amount of time per day, or with some amount of accumulated strain.
- Fixed point: the power looks exactly one hour (one day, one year, etc.) into the future - if you want to bet on a horse race, you have to be watching that race an hour before it happens, and anything you miss stays missed.
u/CapnJones [+2] (2 hours later)
Even then it'll be tough, having a friend hold up a piece of paper with relevant information on it while standing in a specific location an hour from now gives many of the same benefits as Time Turners.
u/Rouninscholar [+1] (a day later)
Also, make the information vague, or be delivered in a different way.
With thought I can feel your physical status up to 24 hours from now (will your hand hurt? Are you tired?what will the tempeture be?) Maybe make it more or less powerful by doing diagnosises in advance or feeling emotions.)
Give them the ability to answer a single question about an object/person. (Same question each time.) where will it be? (Object only for more fun.) who will touch it next? (Not when though)
Make them project it onto an item. Tarot cards, flip a coin, have then be able to set up a chart and roll a dice maybe. (From least to most strong)
Have them pick a person as they fall asleep. That night their dreams are equal to some or all of that persons next day.
Really, you can get creative and have lots of fun.
u/6340 [+4] (48 minutes later)
Always good to keep in mind that "better" powers is highly subjective. Being able to transform into a giant dragon may not be strictly better than controlling bugs, all dependent on the way that each power is used. In the end, it's the limitation of the power rather than the actual power itself that is key.
u/alexanderwales [+13] Time flies like an arrow (2 hours later)
"Better" is subjective, but "strictly better" (usually, depending on semantics) isn't. "Strictly better" is like the choice between paying $1.99 for a can of Mountain Dew and paying $1.09. It's the choice between capping out at a flat sprint of 60mph and 100mph. It's being able to call a coin flip correctly, and being able to call it correctly but then suffering debilitating headaches afterwards.
I would argue that this distinction is a really big one between superhero universes, since it offers a lot of differences in what stories present themselves.
u/None [+3] (2 hours later)
This is a comprehension error. /u/alexanderwales meant "better" in the sense of "my super strength lets me lift 1 ton, yours lets you lift 5 tons, with no drawbacks." Linearly better in a purely numerical way. Not better in a subjective, more-suited-for-certain-tasks way.
u/eaglejarl [+10] (17 hours later)
Some friends of mine played a Champions game at one point. Among the characters:
Triangle Man, the enormously strong telekinetic who could only control things shaped like triangles.
White Hole Man. He had a backpack. At any time he could pull anything out of that backpack that he might plausibly have put in it without anyone else seeing. So, he spends a few minutes wandering through a hardware store unobserved. He can now pull out an infinite amount of screws, bolts, duct tape, circular saw blades, rope, etc. He CANNOT pull out a laser cannon. If anyone looks in the backpack its contents are locked to whatever that person sees (which is generally "it's empty") until WHM has a chance to plausibly reload.
u/foust2015 [+0] (a month later)
White Hole Man has a hilarious superpower. I imagine that if he does end up pulling a rope out of the backpack, that same 'plausible' rope would 'disappear' from the hardware store?
(Otherwise he has infinite duplication powers as well.)
u/eaglejarl [+1] (a month later)
That was never covered that I'm aware of, but if it's disappearing from the hardware store then there's an issue of theft. Which would allow stealing things undetectably, of course.
u/foust2015 [+0] (a month later)
It would only allow undetectable theft in places where undetectable theft was trivial. Super-powered shoplifting, but not superpowered diamond theft.
u/eaglejarl [+1] (a month later)
You could probably walk into and then out of a jewelry store and nick anything that wasn't in a locked case. It would depend on your GM.
u/Gurkenglas [+1] (a month later)
Is what turns out to have been put into the backpack controlled by the WHM character or player?
The controllers superpower is Coils superpower except that he can make arbitrarily many timelines, and all the timelines may only differ in whether he put things in his backpack. Since the controller has to specify what timelines to collapse away when the backpack or the things that might have been put in it are observed, the controller has as a corrolary the power of knowing whether WHM is observed, since the controller figuratively keeps getting asked to specify whether WHM is putting the dirt on the floor into his backpack in that case.
u/eaglejarl [+1] (a month later)
Nothing is ever actually put in the backpack. If you actually look in it, it's empty. He loads it theoretically but being unobserved in a location that has stuff, and can pull out anything that he could have put in it. So, if he is unobserved in a hardware store he can pull out anything that a typical hardware store sells as long as it would fit in a backpack. If he loads it in a forest he can pull out sticks, rocks, dirt, leaves, etc.
u/Gurkenglas [+1] (a month later)
So it's the above, but with the controller being an algorithm of the form
Backpack is checked -> Collapse to "All was not put in"; X, which could have been put in, has: been taken out -> Collapse to "X was put in"; its original location observed -> Collapse to Y;, where Y is determined by some further algorithm or controller which was never covered that you're aware of.
u/eaglejarl [+1] (a month later)
So far as I know, observing the original location had no effect. I wasn't in that campaign, though.
u/Gurkenglas [+1] (a month later)
So it has nothing to do with timelines, the backpack just is able to simply summon anything tagged with the arbitrary ritual of "Be alone with it for a moment" since the last time someone looked in the backpack; and if someone looks at the object while it is being summoned they see it vanish and may be able to follow it with spells that can track Teleport.
u/eaglejarl [+1] (a month later)
You are asking questions I don't have answers to. Like I said, I wasn't in that campaign--I just heard a short description of the character from my friend and thought it was interesting and appropriate for this thread.
u/philip1201 [+6] (51 minutes later)
The ability to change the colour of things (or parts of things).
Colour the air to create 3D phantom imagery or perfect smokescreens. Blind your opponents, tattoo those you hate, and improve several fields of science by improving lenses, tagging molecules in vivo, capturing quantum dots more easily, creating the perfect solar panel (materials), etc.. I'm sure there are more options if you keep thinking.
u/Rhamni [+3] Aspiring author (14 hours later)
One very original power I found interesting was one of Leviathan's powers in the Worm universe. Whenever you move, the space you previously occupied fills with water. This... creates a lot of water. It would be extremely impractical much of the time, but it could have creative applications. From just flooding the battlefield as time goes on (Leviathan is pretty big) to creating a large reservoir of water at high altitudes to lots of cool stuff.
u/eaglejarl [+3] (17 hours later)
Thoughts on this:
- Is the water created or transported?
- What temperature is it?
- What happens if you move while you're underwater? (e.g. in a swimming pool)
- What is the initial velocity of the water? In what reference frame?
- How much do you have to move to make the water appear? Take a step? Sway slightly? Blink?
- Will it appear when only a part of you moves? If you stay perfectly still and flick your finger, does it create a water whip?
u/Rhamni [+3] Aspiring author (18 hours later)
In Leviathan's case:
Presumed created. It's a superhero universe, thermodynamics be damned.
I think it's cold liquid water. I'll guess it's four degrees centigrade, but not sure.
Not made clear in the story.
It's moving with the same momentum as Leviathan, ie if L stops the water splashes into it from behind, but does no damage because L is a great big monster with super durability.
Any movement at all (relative to Earth, but probably ignoring the movement of tectonic plates, etc). Blinking would set it off. Leviathan is constantly wet.
Yes.
u/eaglejarl [+3] (18 hours later)
My post was actually more along the lines of "here are some things for the OP to consider for their story" instead of a request for information about Worm. Thank you for the response, though.
u/Rouninscholar [+1] (a day later)
It is stated later in the story that all the "physics breaking" powers are keyed off of alternate dimensions. Basically he is moving it from a world that has far more water than ours. (Or he is moving it from the ocean with power from a world with a higher power level.)
u/wegengottdam [+3] (17 hours later)
I'm starting to work on a novel, with three different cultures all based around using one of the states of water for related magical effects. I was thinking about having that as one of the things the water people can do, except that the force from it appearing affects them, pushing them forward. And since if you're going faster, you have to have more water coming out in order to occupy the space you've been, you could use it to accelerate, and basically fly.
I think I would probably also add the ability to choose where the water comes out from, though the total amount of pressure you have to work with would be based on how fast you're going, so for instance you could choose to channel the pressure out of your hands, or feet. This would also allow you to make short range laser beams, if going fast enough, by say pushing it out the very tip of your finger and making a hydraulic cutter, though the recoil might fuck you up.
The main problem with using it is that I'm not really sure what do with all the excess water that it would create. Worm got around it by having it be an infrequent thing, but if there was a whole society that could do it, you would run into meteorological problems pretty quickly. Maybe make the water disappear after a bit? Also might be a bit op, though I think that if I made it so you could only start it at a certain minimum speed would help balance it.
u/Rhamni [+2] Aspiring author (18 hours later)
Some speed or time limitation/ability to turn it off would probably help, so their whole society doesn't have to be waterproof.
Any idea what the ice culture will get to do?
u/wegengottdam [+3] (20 hours later)
Oh yes. I think I'll have two things each culture can do, with perhaps enhanced senses based on the amount of water in the air for the additional water thing. I think you would have to be going pretty fast for it to turn on, like top level human sprinting, and also have water somewhere in contact with your body. All their warriors would have to be really good sprinters, or at least have somewhere high to jump off from
For ice, the two abilities would be personal stasis and being able to turn ice chunks into memory storage and combat simulaters. The stasis would be straightforward, touch a piece of ice, and make parts or all of you utterly immovable, except by gravity. The consumed ice would turn into water vapor, with longer periods of stasis requiring bigger pieces of ice.
The iceputers would be a bit more complicated, but basically, when one them touched a piece of ice, they could load a memory into it, turning it all silvery and making it incapable of changing temperature. A bigger piece of ice would require a longer memory, and you can't pull memories back out. Once activated, the user can send their mind inside it and view any memories. Once inside, time doesn't pass outside, giving you time to think, find any relevant information, and also look outside through the block to plan what you're going to do. When you spend time inside it, the ice slowly subliminates, giving you a limit on how much time you can spend there, as well as making it so memories have to be relearned if you want to transfer them to a new piece of ice. So, in the middle of a fight, if someone was punching you, you could go into a piece of ice that's touching your skin somewhere, figure out the best way to block the punch, and then go back into real time and continue.
I wanted to try to make it a rationalesque story, so the protagonist would be ice, since the powers seem the weakest but have a lot of potential for cleverness.
u/Rhamni [+2] Aspiring author (20 hours later)
Best of luck. Sounds like it could be interesting.
u/None [+3] (2 hours later)
I will also post a comment mentioning that you should read Worm immediately.
u/Igigigif [+2] IT Foxgirl (2 hours later)
Some highlights from the worm powerbase:
-Become better at something by stealing memories from others
-Affect emotions
-Perceive the world as mathematics
-Share powers in a group
-Super observation and induction
-Bio-manipulation
-adaptive regeneration
-fine tuned telekinesis in a limited area
-tinkers
-transfer damage taken to anyone touched that day
-accelerate entropy
u/696e6372656469626c65 [+0] I think, therefore I am pretentious. (6 hours later)
Tinkers never made sense to me, though. Like, I know Wildbow was working backwards from the premise, "Okay, here's a typical superhero setting; now how do I justify it?", and stuff like Iron Man was probably the basis for the existence of the Tinker classification, but...
Augh, no, no, a thousand times no! Science doesn't compartmentalize like that; if you can build super-destructive lasers, you can use those same principles to power cities; the principles behind anti-gravity devices can be used in so many different ways I'm having trouble naming them all, and... yeah. I'm okay with the Tinkers existing, but the limitation to a single field is just completely at odds with the way technology actually works. The universe doesn't care if you use one of its laws to build time-slowing bombs or to build super-fast computers operating in a sped-up reference frame; it's the same principle either way, so if you can do one, you should be able to do the other.
This is, of course, operating on the assumption that Tinker science is "real" science as opposed to shard-based "magic", but given the Wildbow explicitly states that Tinkers have an "advanced grasp of science" to thank for their abilities, and that they can apparently distribute their technology to be used by non-Tinkers and even unpowered people, I think that's a pretty safe assumption. Pity it just also happened to nuke my suspension of disbelief.
(Worm is awesome, though; don't get me wrong.)
u/Solonarv [+7] Chaos Legion (9 hours later)
If I recall correctly, the way Tinkers work is that their Worm. This means that a Tinker would know how to build e.g. a time-slowing bomb, but wouldn't know what makes it work.
The reason they can't use the shard's knowledge to also build an accelerated computer cluster is that the shard Worm.
u/scruiser [+3] CYOA (20 hours later)
This is pretty much the main explanation. The power only feeds the Tinker plan and instructions to build specific devices.
Another thing to consider is that the powers actively help the Tinker work through the limitations of the available materials and tools. So maybe the power tells them just how to build a tool they need just to assemble one thing right with the materials they have to work with. This also factors into the tinker tech requires active maintenance by tinkers. If the tinker isn't consciously aware of all the steps there power has made them take to get everything just right, they can't write a manual on maintenance that non-tinkers will have any hope of following.
Another common assumption is that the powers also grant low level striker abilities to help the Tinker assemble everything precisely.
Science doesn't compartmentalize like that
But technology and the engineering and manufacturing know-how to put it together might if it is being intentionally restricted or limited.
u/E-o_o-3 [+3] (7 hours later)
If you have a fairly decent understanding of science it would be possible to write tinkers like that. I mean, the real-world scientist typically does specialize, and different specializations do require different skill sets - it's just a matter of the author realizing how a specific skill might generalize.
(Also, I think it's worth breaking down "advanced grasp of science" into what exactly the magic is doing in their brain. I think one could conceptualize it as magically having the processing power for certain things. For example, someone might have the ability to instantly search the solution space of a given problem with very specific constraints for an optimal solution, and there might be a specific set of engineering fields where that comes in handy. Although, if you use mathematicians to hack at this enough you might find that you can map one set of problems to another and end up with something OP - but i guess you'd have to be a quite math oriented to even understand that sort of story.)
u/E-o_o-3 [+3] (7 hours later)
The other side to BST is "pruning".
For example, is it a problem that portals can just casually generate infinite energy, with no effort?
Given laws of momentum, how does superspeed work without automatically granting super-strength and vice versa, at least to some extent?
You know, constructing superpowers that are well defined, don't utterly break the universe. It's not strictly necessary to do this but I like to.
u/avret [+2] SDHS rationalist (9 minutes later)
Creation and control of obsidian is a more niche one, but allows some fun options.
u/notentirelyrandom [+3] (19 minutes later)
Why obsidian? I mean, I don't disagree, "control of a thing" is incredibly powerful even without creation, but why that thing in particular?
u/avret [+3] SDHS rationalist (53 minutes later)
Monomolecular blades and reflects/refracts light.
u/Capt-POTATO [+1] Chaos Legion (3 hours later)
I get the light thing, but if you can control it, anything can have a monomolecular blade, assuming you have the skill.
u/avret [+3] SDHS rationalist (4 hours later)
True, but obsidian stays stable in monomolecular blade--allows for fire and forget
u/Farmerbob1 [+2] Level 1 author (an hour later)
Powers of limited creation are always interesting. Say, something like Green Lantern, except perhaps on a smaller scale. The utility of the power is defined more by the user than by the power.
u/blazinghand [+2] Chaos Undivided (20 hours later)
Green Lantern's ability (create objects, forces, and energy by thinking about it, imitate or use technology like FTL travel, transmutation, and matter conjuration) is hideously overpowered so you'd definitely need to scale it down. The basic limiting factor for Green Lantern seems to be what the character is capable of thinking of. A sufficiently ambitious Lantern would be pretty scary.
u/ulyssessword [+4] (a day later)
I'd recommend With This Ring to anyone who wants to see a full powered Lantern. The main character gets an Orange power ring instead of Green (powered by avarice instead of willpower), but the rest is pretty much the same.
u/blazinghand [+1] Chaos Undivided (2 days later)
I like what the author does with this story. The additional limitations are excellent: mouseover for spoiler. These factors prevent him from being as powerful as Green Lanterns are, which makes the story somewhat more engaging. A similarly clever Green Lantern at full power would probably effortlessly defeat all his opponents. Even as it is, the author has to do a lot of work to present real challenges.
I can't say I'm a fan of the character having out-of-universe knowledge, though. I don't mind the author making a character like himself in terms of personality, and I think that part is done okay-- but having the character being a dude who's read all the DC comics or whatever really takes a lot of the fun out of it. The author tries very hard to make it work, but any premise like that is pretty hard to deal with.
u/ulyssessword [+2] (2 days later)
Green is better IMO, but not strictly better. Orange lanterns don't have their powers disabled by being distracted (instead having them disabled by either apathy or a change in desires). Also, Orange is much better at multitasking. It is much easier to desire multiple things at once than willing several independent things.
I'm sure that there are other differences as well, but I don't know enough about the DCverse to catch them.
u/Topher876 [+3] (4 days later)
to name a few:
Orange can use alternate power sources
Orange can convert living creatures to constructs
Orange seems more dangerous as being consumed by Avarice is a more detrimental than being consumed by Will.
Green is incredibly synergistic with the Blue Light, to the point where being in the presence of the Blue Light causes green lanterns to put out contain 400% of normal energy
All lanterns have a corps but the green and orange corps are incredibly different. This IMO is the best thing Orange has over Green, the greenies are a police force and things like developing your planet or improving life for the citizens you protect (or yourself) is a no no, with orange all you have to worry about is an insane corps leader half way across the galaxy who will take your ring if you connect to the main power battery(and maybe sorta kill you).
u/Farmerbob1 [+1] Level 1 author (20 hours later)
Agreed.
u/OffColorCommentary [+1] (a day later)
I posted an extremely limited creation power on this sub before - you can clap your hands and a dove comes out - and people immediately started suggesting uses that could get their hands blown off.
So,
The utility of the power is defined more by the user than by the power.
Indeed.
u/Traiden04 [+2] (7 hours later)
I would also recommend looking over at TV tropes section Heart is an Awesome power. It has several examples you can draw inspiration from.
u/Topher876 [+2] (14 hours later)
Heat Psychometry - The ability to feel the heat in an object through touch and perceive things about that object through it's heat. Self activation - The ability to activate muscles and bodily processes manually sacrificing natural control for the full power of your body.
u/Farmerbob1 [+2] Level 1 author (20 hours later)
Perfect ventriloquism as a power could be extremely fun. Almost any sound from anywhere. From voice mimicry, to sounding like a fire alarm or a jet engine.
You could even allow them to create sounds that might put people to sleep or have other effects on them, but it's not really necessary.
u/None [+2] (22 hours later)
Conjuring small objects. Need to kill someone? Create a chunk of ice in their aorta. Blind them? Conjure lye in their eyes. Want money? Conjure some gold or gems. Doing some household repairs? Don't go to the hardware store for screws, just create them out of thin air.
u/eaglejarl [+1] (a day later)
Some interesting restrictions you could put on this (choose any or all):
- No more than 1 gram at a time
- Not more often than one conjuration use per second / minute / hour / etc
- Not more than 10g per day, but distributed over as many uses as desired
- Not more than 1 cm^3 per use
- Nothing with a density over X or under Y
u/OffColorCommentary [+2] (a day later)
I'm a fan of overly-specific versions of stock powers. The example that's stuck in my head is a telekinetic that can only work on hammers. Run of the mill, mass-produced, normal-sized claw hammers only, no cheating - there's even a specific brand that works the best.
The thing I enjoy about this is that your overly-specific telekinetic is actually only at a small disadvantage compared to the usual general-purpose one, once you've worked out all the exploits.
u/clawclawbite [+2] (2 days later)
Generally, if you want powers to abuse, take the power and roll it back to specific phenomina.
Runs fast can be super strong legs, space warping, personal time acceleration, or Rollerblades and a jetpack. All have different spinoff effects.
u/None [+1] (3 hours later)
My suggestions:
Oracle: The ability to answer correctly any well-defined question that can be answered absolutely with either "yes" or "no". The question must be asked by another person. The Oracle must actually understand the question. Does not work at all unless these conditions are met.
Accuracy: The ability to make arbitrarily fine-grained movements, with precision to a molecular level.
Redirection: The ability to redirect any force exerted on the user. Basically, the user can make anything coming into contact with them appear to bounce or ricochet. No damage done to the object by the redirection itself. Reactionary only.
u/Chronophilia [+2] sci-fi ≠ futurology (3 hours later)
Redirection: The ability to redirect any force exerted on the user. Basically, the user can make anything coming into contact with them appear to bounce or ricochet. No damage done to the object by the redirection itself. Reactionary only.
AKA invulnerability to physical attack. That's definitely the main application here. And actually, being invulnerable with no other powers is very interesting, particularly once you combine it with the rest of a super-team.
u/Gurkenglas [+2] (a day later)
Redirection would also allow for the following corollary powers:
Temperature control: Take the jiggling of temperature inside an object you touch and align all the little arrows into the same direction. Cools the object (or air!) you target to approximately 0 Kelvin and accelerates it to a velocity approximately proportional to its former temperature. Alternatively, takes an incoming sniper round and shoots back a (slightly?) slowed molten-lead sniper round.
Flight: Take the gravity acting on you and point it in another direction. The manueverability of this would be Asteroids-esque, except that there's friction. (Reducible by turning incoming resistance air away from you?) Interestingly, you can achieve space flight with this by slapping on a radiation-proof space suit and falling upwards. It might look somewhat like Hancock when you hit the ground, since the sudden stop at the end of the fall doesn't affect you and instead affects the ground doubly.
There might be a problem here with the identifiability of your global reference frame - here assumed to be Earth - which assumption, if dropped, could lead to things like instead redirecting your attraction to the sun or the center of the galaxy, or whatever other massive objects might be out there.
Fuelless spaceship propulsion can also be achieved simply by playing ping-pong against an inner wall of your choosing; each reflection against your hand increases the momentum of your ship, while all other physical processes preserve it.
u/eaglejarl [+2] (a day later)
And actually, being invulnerable with no other powers is very interesting, particularly once you combine it with the rest of a super-team.
You might enjoy Grrl Power a superhero webcomic which features (among other members of a fairly sizable team) Achilles. Achilles is absolutely invulnerable, period. He cannot be cut, suffocated, crushed, stabbed, shot, etc etc etc. No other powers though, and he can be knocked around perfectly easily by super strength.
He knows how to use it, too -- at one point he deliberately shifts someone's swordthrust so that it hits him in the not-blinking eye...just to make her squick and drop her sword as she cringes.
u/Chronophilia [+2] sci-fi ≠ futurology (a day later)
Where did you think I got the idea from? :)
u/None [+1] (7 hours later)
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u/Solonarv [+1] Chaos Legion (9 hours later)
Escape velocity is equal to the velocity you would have if you fell from infinitely far up, encountering no resistance.
Because you encounter resistance in air and you're falling from what's essentially not that far above ground, terminal velocity cannot exceed escape velocity.
u/None [+1] (15 hours later)
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u/Chronophilia [+1] sci-fi ≠ futurology (21 hours later)
Escape velocity isn't actually a velocity, it's a speed. If you're moving at 11km/s (at sea level, neglecting air resistance), then as long as you don't actually crash into the Earth, you'll be able to escape.
Even if you're travelling horizontally - the Earth is curved, after all, and you're moving in a straight line. Redirecting the velocity with your superpower won't achieve much.
The hard part is definitely getting an object accelerated to Mach 35 and letting it fly without being slowed to a halt by air resistance.
u/Rouninscholar [+1] (a day later)
Of note if you put the hero in the back of the spaceship and threw a tennis ball at him, then caught it. You are getting twice the effect if throwing it in the first place, and you keep the ball. Which means if you could get half the force required in man power you could feasibly double it to get to space. Or while in space you could make slow changes to your volocity by playing catch in carefully controlled measurements.
u/wegengottdam [+1] (17 hours later)
You might like Alloy of Law, by Brandon Sanderson. One of the characters has that, or at least infinite regeneration, which is close enough to count, but no other offensive powers. It's fun to see how it gets used.
u/None [+1] (10 hours later)
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u/scruiser [+1] CYOA (20 hours later)
One element of Worm I will draw to your attention is how all the Thinker powers are unique. There isn't just one generic super-genius power and one generic pre-cog power, each Thinker has specializations. Tattletale is good at intuiting and extrapolating information from small clues, Accord has a planning ability that gets stronger as the plan is more complex, Taylor can multitask on numerous things, Dinah see the future as probability in response to single questions, Number Man can see math to go with everything.
Even though the each have one specialization, they use it in creative ways. Tattletale uses cold reading and pretends to be telepathic, Accord uses his ability to plan complicated traps just before combat starts, Number Man can both fight really well by predicting his opponent and make long term extrapolations by analyzing probability and trends.
another will have superspeed.
Think about the exact variety of super speed you want. Velocity in worm get super speed with no friction or inertia problems, but his ability to effect the rest of the world is reduced at super speed. Battery get superspeed with the limitation of having to charge and use her power in bursts. Assault requires an initial boost of existing kinetic energy to build up speed ((he synergizes with Battery very well). Ask yourself how your superspeed deals with friction and inertia, how their reaction times scale, how long it takes to build up, ect.
u/eaglejarl [+2] (a day later)
Number Man wasn't really a Thinker though. He was just the spear expy of Contessa / a God Mode Sue justified as "oh, well, I see math everywhere." Seriously, why would seeing math make you an awesome hand-to-hand fighter? Even if it did somehow allow you to anticipate your opponent (which I find debateable), why would it also allow you to move your body appropriately to take advantage of that knowledge?
u/scruiser [+4] CYOA (a day later)
He had a pretty BS tier power, but it made sense how it worked
From interlude 21
The notation billowed around it, and through it, he could see the movement of the pen, the plotted trajectory, the velocity and rotation of it. The numbers clicked into place with a speed that made the rest of him, his very perceptions, seem like slow motion.
His power is actively plotting events in realtime faster than his own perceptions work.
He chanced one glance backwards. The attack had left a hole in the wall, the shape matching the impression that one might have made with an outstretched hand, fingers grasping, except it was fifty-two point seven six times the man’s handspan.
More notation, more numbers to work with. He could extrapolate, get an estimation of his opponent’s weapon. He’d need a point of reference…
His power is automatically taking in sensory information and extrapolating based on it. He barely has to exert any effort to do this.
Now the Number Man was free to evade even before the attacks occurred. As a tennis player might move to cover the open court as the opponent’s racket was drawn back in anticipation of a strike, he was bolting for the safe zone, the area where incoming attacks weren’t as likely to fall, where his opponent would have to take time to adjust his orientation to effectively strike.
His power can also project probabilities for events.
So his power not only does all the math for him, it work nearly automatically and handles the sensory data and does this nearly instantly for both immediate events and events in the future. It is OP compared to most Thinker powers,
Seriously, why would seeing math make you an awesome hand-to-hand fighter?
Looking at his POV chapter, it is providing the appropriate information with perfect timing, faster than he can perceive the events. So his power is effectively giving him enhanced reflexes as a side effect.
why would it also allow you to move your body appropriately to take advantage of that knowledge?
He has either trained his body to move precisely in order to get more out of his power, or his power also takes care of that also.
a God Mode Sue
He is BS compared to other Thinkers. We never see him indicate that he gets thinker headaches and his power has a wider range than other Thinkers).
u/eaglejarl [+2] (a day later)
I fully grant that it's fun watching him work and that his fighting scenes were some of my favorite parts of the entire story. I still stand by my "God Mode Sue" guns, though.
u/iSurvivedRuffneck [+1] (4 days later)
God Mode Sue in a work of fiction that also includes...little miss 'I have a WIN button'? Let's not forget the dude whose power is explicitly 'doesn't lose fights ever'.
u/eaglejarl [+1] (4 days later)
From my original comment:
He was just the spear expy of Contessa / a God Mode Sue justified as "oh, well, I see math everywhere."
;>
u/scruiser [+1] CYOA (4 days later)
Other Thinkers have contextual limitations (Accord requires complexity for his planning ability) or have really bad thinker headaches (Tattletale, Dinah) or have very narrow applications (Dinah can only give probabilities in response to questions, even though her power can look at the futures in general). We are never given any indication that Number Man has any Thinker headaches and Number Man can apply his power both in realtime combat scenarios and in long term usages like manipulating financial transactions. It is possible there is some unexplained justification for his OPness. Number Man has been a very active cape for a while, or maybe he rations his power usage very well and thus never has his headaches on screen. But given what we know, he is comparatively OP, he has several absolute advantage that regular Thinkers don't.
Contessa is a special case that we can't compare Number Man to. .
u/eaglejarl [+1] (a day later)
Oh, here's a character for you:
Julian Hubberman (hero name: Tiresias) was an undergraduate classics major when his powers activated. Overnight, he developed a new sense: the ability to see and fully comprehend all of the worldlines that will be spawned in the next 8.3 seconds. What did he do? He put on a costume and started fighting crime. What was the obvious name to choose? Well, if you're an undergraduate classics major, obviously it would have to be 'Tiresias'...pity no one else knows the reference, or is able to spell it. Still, too late now, he's already publicized the name.
At any given time, Julian either sees with his eyes (normal vision) or with his Sight. The Sight shows him all the new Everett branches that could be spawned in the next 8.3 seconds. He can fully comprehend all of these worlds, and they are all real to him. By taking the appropriate actions to spawn a desired branch, he can force events to occur in whatever way he desires.
There's a couple drawbacks on this power:
- All of the potential branches are completely real to him. Every time he uses his Sight to force a particular branch, he has to deal with the fact that he is closing off all of the other potential branches that could have existed at that moment, and is thereby killing uncountable numbers of sentient beings.
- Whenever he activates his Sight, he can see the outcomes of his actions. This causes a problem with agency -- he knows (e.g.) exactly what words to say to convince someone. Doesn't this mean that he is taking away that person's free will? For that matter, his Sight makes it clear to him which branch will lead to the best possible outcome in any given situation (as measured by his own values and goals at the time). If he takes that branch, is he really showing agency? And if he doesn't take that branch, isn't he just being a petulant child ignoring the best choice just to show that he's in control?
NB: I got partway through this and realized that I'm riffing on /u/glennonymous's "Erica's Adventures In The Multiverse" look and feel, but going in a different direction with it.
u/Izeinwinter [+1] (a day later)
Esprit the Hyper-Escalier. Thanks to an unfortunate encounter with alien criminals and then a followup encounter with an alien justice system in which entities with a very strong grasp of justice and an entirely absent grasp of human nature tried to compensate you for the suffering incurred in the first encounter using the only currency held to have universal value - your brain has been Moravec uploaded into an equivalently sized chunk of computronium running an emulation of said brain.
This entails the following effects: Because the simulation doesn't include obvious malfunctions, at all times your thinking is as good as it was when you were previously in peak condition. Subjectively, you are always well rested, sober and at optimal bloodsugar.
More importantly, the chunk of computronium can execute the emulation at very high speed. At will, your clocktime, as compared to human base can be varied from 1 to x872 (In theory, if you learn enough to make your mind more complex, the maximal speedup factor will drop. This is unlikely to matter much)What this isn't: Super speed. Your body is flesh wired into the content's of your skull with entirely normal neurons. It can not keep up with even modest speedups. At maximal mental velocity, you might as well be a lock-in case. What it is: All the time in the world to think. About anything, limited by your ability to tolerate standing or sitting perfectly still in a world frozen in time.
u/TimTravel [+1] (2 days later)
http://www.reddit.com/r/whowouldwin/comments/2t7psk/lets_play_the_weak_superpower_game/
u/ulyssessword [+0] (6 hours later)
Super Strength + Invulnerability with no flight, enhanced momentum, touch range telekinesis, or anything else. For example, if you try to stop a car by standing it front of it, you would just get hit and bounce off (or get run over). If you try to lift it by the bumper, it would rip off. If you tried punching through a brick wall, you would push yourself away from it instead.
A power like the one from SUPERHOT: you get super speed that scales inversely with how fast you are traveling. If you are standing still, you are accelerated 100x. If you are walking slowly, you are accelerated 10x. If you are running your super speed is disabled. It would scale so that an outside observer would always see you traveling at a constant 20 km/h, no matter what your actions are.
Absolute invisibility and undetectability to everything, but also creates hallucinations that perfectly matches yourself. In other words, you can't be detected by anything except unaided human vision. Glasses, mirrors, binoculars (etc.) don't pick you up, so you are absent in mirrors, tiny or absent in binoculars (depending on how they're built) and out of focus to someone who needs glasses.
Alternate emergency precog. You get a clear view five minutes into a future where an emergency happened roughly an hour ago, from your own perspective (it resets to a new scenario every hour or three). Your power is disabled in emergency situations. If you train yourself to ignore emergencies (and check the stock market, for example) to feed your realworld self information, you risk being the actual real world version of yourself and ignoring a disaster for no benefit (and probably significant harm).
1/5000 of a groundhog day every day: you live through each day exactly twice. On Jan 1^st (a), you wake up with no special knowledge, and go through the day, and then fall asleep. You then wake up on Jan 1^st (b) along with a full set of memories, go through the day, and then fall asleep, waking up on Jan 2^nd (a).
Forcefields that are actual fields that take up a large volume, as opposed to the typical wall-style effects.
u/Topher876 [+1] (a day later)
A couple thoughts on the speed power, if there's a support system in place (justice league esque) than maybe dedicated treadmills for the purposes of conversation. His combat speed would be closer to a crawl to get his acceleration factor as high as possible.