Control

Control

Variable

You can shape and move a particular category of matter, energy, or force (your "element"). The higher your level of Control, the larger the quantity you can affect. Cost per level depends on how significant your element is likely to be on an adventure:

Common: An extremely broad or prevalent category such as Earth (including asphalt, brick, ceramic, concrete, and rock, but not purified metals), Fire, Gravity, Light, Metal, Plastic (any manufactured structural material that's neither Earth nor Metal, including oil-based plastics and rubber), Sound, Water (including steam and ice), or Wood (dead plant matter, but not fossils, oil, etc.). 20 points/level.

Occasional: A broad subcategory of a Common element, such as Ceramics (including glass), Ferrous Metals (iron, nickel, and cobalt – and note that steel is made of iron), Ice, Steam (all hot or cold water vapor), or Stone (brick, concrete, and rock). Most forms of energy are Common, but the GM might allow Infrared, Ultrasonics, and so on at this rarity level. 15 points/level.

Rare: Any relatively specific substance not already given as Common or Occasional, such as Brick, Iron, Paper, or Rubber. 10 points/level.

The GM should price other elements by comparison, and may allow "Very Common" categories (e.g., "All electromagnetic radiation”) for 25 or 30 points/level. Control isn't available for machinery or living beings; to create animal-, plant-, and machine-control abilities, modify advantages such as Mind Control and Possession. Control over complex processes (e.g., chemical reactions) requires an entire power – not just a single Control ability.

Limits of Control

The most important limit on Control is that you can only use it if your element is present. Control does nothing without your element, and doesn't let you call your element into existence (for that, buy Create).

For solids and liquids, you can affect up to 10 × (level squared) lbs. of matter in the form of a single object or amorphous mass. For example, Control 3 (Iron) would let you affect a 90-lb. iron ingot or even 90 lbs. of iron filings in a heap...but against a foe with a 3-lb. sword, 4-lb. helmet, and 18-lb. breastplate, all iron, you could only affect one target, even though the total weight is much less than your limit.

For gases, energy, and forces – and diffuse, airborne solids, like dust clouds – you can affect a circular area with a radius equal to your level in yards. Should height matter, the area is four yards tall. The target item must be continuous. For instance, Control 10 (Fire) would let you control a blaze 10 yards in radius, but not "all candle flames within 10 yards."

Finally, Control over matter doesn't work on complex, manufactured artifacts unless they're made almost entirely of your element. Control (Metal) could affect a sword or a revolver, but not a ray gun with only a few metallic parts.

Establishing Control

To control solids or liquids, you must touch the target object or material. This takes a second and requires a successful unarmed melee attack. If someone is wearing or carrying the target item, he may defend against your touch. If your touch succeeds, make an immediate IQ roll to establish control.

To control gases, energy, or forces, you must reach into or stand within the desired area of effect. To establish control, take a Concentrate maneuver and make an IQ roll.

If your target is already under someone else's direct control, roll a Quick Contest. You roll against IQ; they roll against IQ if using Control or Telekinesis, their skill level if using a spell, and so on. You must win to establish control. Likewise, others can overpower your Control by winning a Quick Contest against your IQ.

Effects of Control

After establishing control, you can reshape the target. Forming a simple shape (blob, column, sphere, etc.) requires a Concentrate maneuver but no die roll. If the result is meant to be beautiful or functional, though, the GM may deem the effort a long task and require skill rolls against Armoury, Artist, Machinist, and so on. You can work without tools, but you must know what you're doing.

You can also cause the target to elongate or flow at a Move equal to your Control level. This requires constant concentration. The target needn't remain in contact with you, but Control isn't Telekinesis. You can make a solid or liquid ooze, roll, or seep along the ground or a surface, and even reshape it in ways that defy gravity, but only gas or energy can actually fly through the air – and you can't "shape" a force at all.

For energy, each level of Control gives the effect of one two-dimensional reflector or insulator with length and width in yards no larger than your Control level. For instance, Control 3 (Light) would let you route light around obstacles as if you had three mirrors up to 3 yards × 3 yards in size, or block light completely as if you had three 3 yard × 3 yard screens.

For a force, each level of Control lets you adjust the force's strength by ±10% within your radius; e.g., Control 10 (Gravity) could make everything weightless (-100%) or double all weights (+100%), with effects as described in Different Gravity. This only affects the gross force on entire objects. To disintegrate things by reducing internal binding forces, buy an Innate Attack.

Control includes the ability to make minor, "cosmetic" changes. For instance, Control (Light) can give a colored cast to everything in the area, and Control (Metal) can clean corrosion off metal and make it gleam. You can produce such effects incidentally when reshaping or moving your element.

When you stop concentrating, you immediately give up control. Stable forms become permanent, while unstable ones collapse instantly.

Control in Combat

Defensively, Control over matter lets you move or shape your element to obstruct attacks. This requires a Concentrate maneuver. Such barriers give whatever cover the material normally provides. For instance, Control (Metal) might let you shape a steel table into armor with the DR of steel by making an Armoury roll, while Control (Earth) could stir up a sand cloud, with the usual effects on vision and lasers.

Control over energy or force is too slow to stop damage, but a Concentrate maneuver lets you eliminate -1 per level in combat penalties or add +1 per level to resistance rolls – your choice – for you and any allies in your area of effect, as long as you can explain the effects in terms of your element. For instance, with Control 5 (Light), you could focus available light onto all foes in your area, allowing your side to ignore up to -5 in darkness penalties...or throw up a barrier that gives everyone behind it +5 HT to resist blinding flashes.

Offensively, Control is more limited. By concentrating, you can move an existing hazard – gas, fire, radiation, etc., as befits your element – onto a foe, but this is only as harmful as the underlying substance. Nonhazardous liquids or solids merely impede his movement, like any object of that weight. In all cases, your foe can dodge.

Getting Tricky: If a foe is standing in an area where you control matter, energy, or a force – or if you can move matter or energy onto him – you may inflict combat penalties on him. This requires flexibility on the GM's part: Control 3 (Sound) might give -3 to Hearing rolls (e.g., to detect a ninja sneaking up), Control 10 (Earth) might cause a mini-earthquake good for -10 to attack rolls, and Control (Gravity) would simply produce the usual penalties that go along with reduced or elevated gravity. Tricks like this require a Concentrate maneuver and an IQ or Tactics roll.

Special Enhancements

Persistent (+40%) lets the effects of Control endure for 10 seconds after you stop concentrating. Ranged (+40%) allows you to use Control at a distance. You can't add the Area Effect enhancement, though; to affect more of your element, buy a higher level of Control. Additional enhancements include:

Collective: You aren't limited to a single object or continuous area. Your ability affects all instances of your element in a circle with a radius equal to your level in yards. You still can't affect more than 10 × (level squared) lbs. of a solid or liquid. For instance, Control 2 (Metal) with Collective lets you affect up to 40 lbs. of any one metal in a two-yard circle; in the example under Limits of Control, you could affect the sword, helmet, and breastplate. Collective is unnecessary for forces, which already work this way – a fair trade for the fact that you can’t reshape them. +100%.

Natural Phenomena: Your element is a large-scale aspect of nature. On an earthlike world, Oceans and Weather are Common; subcategories such as Currents, Precipitation, Waves, and Winds are Occasional; and phenomena like Hail and Snow are Rare. The GM sets rarity elsewhere. This ability isn't Create; it only works if the necessary air, water, etc. are present. Area of effect is 0.1 × level miles in radius. If your roll succeeds, every three full levels of Control let you produce effects that give -1 or +1 to rolls your element could hinder or help, relative to the prevailing conditions. You can apply this modifier to Influence rolls (to impress others), Survival rolls, Strategy rolls, and anything else the GM allows. Be sure to describe the effects you're producing. The GM may overrule you if the rules or common sense suggest that these conditions are outside the range of modifiers you can produce. For instance, Control 10 (Oceans) could roughen or calm seas in a 1-mile radius, for ±3 to die rolls. In rough water that gives -4 to Boating rolls, you could specify any modifier between -1 (a little foam) and -7 (huge breakers). +100%.

Special Limitation

Cosmetic: You can only make superficial changes, such as tinting the color of light or putting a shine on metal. You can't truly move or reshape your element. -80%.

Alternatives

Binding, Obscure, and Temperature Control can produce similar effects without allowing open-ended control. To do damage with an element, use Innate Attack – adding Malediction if the attack affects the element within the victim's body. Those who can hurl objects around rather than cause them to creep or flow have Telekinesis. Apply Environmental to these abilities if they depend on pre-existent materials or conditions. To summon the element, get Create.

Any of the above traits could have a Link with Control. Individuals who can control an element precisely enough to produce several of these effects should consider Modular Abilities.

Powering Up

Control is an obvious match for elemental powers. It's also standard for divine and spirit powers associated with gods and spirits that govern elements, and the cosmic powers of these entities. Adding the Natural Phenomena enhancement makes Control suitable for nature-control powers, too. Talent adds to all IQ and skill rolls to establish or use Control.

Godlike Control

The GM may allow Control over ubiquitous, abstract elements such as Space and Time. This should cost at least 30 points/level. Detailed rules are beyond the scope of this book, but the GM who wishes to "wing it" can apply ±1 per level to any task he feels the Control could influence (see Control in Combat, p. 91), and then determine the gameworld effects by interpreting this as a modifier normally associated with the element. For instance, Control (Space) 6 might give a range modifier from -6 to +6, which corresponds to a distance distortion between ×10 and ×0.1 on the Size and Speed/Range Table; Control (Time) 5 might give from -5 to +5 to time-dependent tasks, which the Time Spent rules suggest would be a time distortion between ×0.5 and ×30.