With our powers combined . . . We can plan a heist!

[Sir Jerric]

Everyone likes a gang of Mistings, assuming they can be on your side. Whether you want them for security or for raiding, or for some other purpose entirely, there is a great deal that can be done with the full set of sixteen powers.
 
In one of my projects (several, actually, but I digress), I have a magic system where each practitioner has a unique talent. But despite three years of pondering, I've not built up a full set of powers.
 
So I turn to the wonderfully diverse creative minds that wander this forum. I'm going to give you the list of talents that I'm planning to use. I am not going to give you the number of blanks to fill.
 
All I ask of you is to create a bunch of convoluted projects (heists or vaults, for example) that involve the use of large numbers of magic talents in concert, and add (or subtract) as many powers as you need to make your design(s) work.
 

You may also ask questions and concoct abuses of individual talents, if that suits you.

With any luck, I'll get the inspiration I need to fill out my worldbuilding for this project. Thanks for participating.
 
Commonalities of the System:
> Talents can be used on what you are touching.
> A user can only use so much talent before their fuel supply is exhausted. One grand use or many small uses are options.
> Many applications of talents can be undone, reclaiming spent fuel. You can only undo your own deeds.
 
Some Magic Talents:
> Proxies - Enchant a matched pair of objects such that by touching one, you are "touching" objects in contact with the other.
> Stealing magic - Soak up another user's fuel, and gain the ability to use their talent while it lasts.
> Power battery - Your fuel is a wildcard that you can add to any other user's supply.
> Cloning - Make a full size, independent simulacrum of an object. After a few hours, it fades and vanishes. If a living simulacrum is undone, the user will share its memories.
> Tracking - Enchant an object and you will know which direction it is in.
> Alarm ward - Enchant an object and you will know when it is touched or modified.
> Emotion control - Enchant an object so any sapient beings who perceive it (by any sense) feel an emotion of your choice.  
> Instinct control - Enchant an object so any living creature perceiving it (by any sense) has its instincts react to a stimulus of your choice. 
> Heat sync - Enchant a matched pair of objects such that their temperature is linked and changes as an object of twice the mass.
> Light transfer - Enchant a matched pair of objects such that light striking one is reflected from the other. (Refracted and absorbed light is not transfered.)
> Surface retexturing - Change the texture of an object's surface to any state. If two surfaces are in contact and both are changed at the same time, the surfaces fuse and cannot be magically undone.
> Temporal shifting - Reach back into an object's recent history and make it skip the intervening time. Any physical changes during that window have not occurred, until the enchantment is undone.

Edited November 14, 2015 by Sir Jerric

[Elbereth]

A couple questions as I read through this.

Talent does not recharge, ever?

Can you have multiple powers (not using stealing)?

If you can steal, and you steal more than one person's fuel, can you use the fuel from one to power the other's talent?

If you're a battery, does your fuel return to you once the other person uses it, or is it gone forever?

If you don't undo a simulacrum before it fades, do you reclaim its fuel? And if the object doesn't have eyes, how will you experience the memories? Only through touch?

Explain Instinct control. I'm not sure I completely understand it.

Does light transfer also mean that the objects switch colors?

I really like alarm ward, temporal shifting and heat sync.

Also, if you're in want of inspiration, also check out this thread. It's alternative allomancy, but some of the powers (particularly some of the rejected ones) might be of interest to you.

[Sir Jerric]

Thanks for participating. Sorry for being so skimpy with the details.

A couple questions as I read through this.

Talent does not recharge, ever?

It does recharge over several days.

Can you have multiple powers (not using stealing)?

Did you want to add a method of doing that?

If you can steal, and you steal more than one person's fuel, can you use the fuel from one to power the other's talent?

Nope. Each fuel powers that talent only. The fuel supply cap also applies to stealing, so no stealing from everyone and stockpiling.

If you're a battery, does your fuel return to you once the other person uses it, or is it gone forever?

Neither. It recharges.

If you don't undo a simulacrum before it fades, do you reclaim its fuel? And if the object doesn't have eyes, how will you experience the memories? Only through touch?

The fuel is expended linearly with time. Partial use is a partial return. Faded away is none returned, though a small amount will have regenerated by then.

Only living objects have memory, and you would experience the memories with its senses.

Explain Instinct control. I'm not sure I completely understand it.

The inspiration was to design a magical insect repellent. While I was camping.

You can make creatures respond to your hat as to a dangerous predator. Most creatures respond with fear and run away. Hang the hat on a hat stand and come back after nightfall; you will have to convince yourself that there is not an angry mobster hiding in the shadows. And the city watch will have a poor reaction to you in broad daylight. And how does mother bear respond to a threat moving closer to her cubs?

It can also help with animal training. You can associate a stick with an authority figure and lead herd animals. Let them see it enchanted a few times, and eventually they will react to any similar object in the same way without the enchantment in effect. You don't want the wolves to think their alpha is already down among the sheep, after all.

Good thing you can undo that enchantment at will. Except once the creature has made an association, turning off the effect doesn't clear their memory.

Does light transfer also mean that the objects switch colors?

No. The objects have to be matched very thoroughly.

I really like alarm ward, temporal shifting and heat sync.

Thanks. Have some plans for them?

Also, if you're in want of inspiration, also check out this thread. It's alternative allomancy, but some of the powers (particularly some of the rejected ones) might be of interest to you.

Thanks for the link. I'll check that out.

[Elbereth]

Thanks for participating. Sorry for being so skimpy with the details.

It does recharge over several days.

Oh, good. That makes it much easier to deal with.

Did you want to add a method of doing that?

I'm just asking if it's possible. If powers are randomly granted (which I'm assuming- is there a pattern to who gets powers?), then in theory someone could be randomly granted two powers, right? Is that actually the case, or is there a mechanic in place preventing people frombeing granted two or more powers?

The inspiration was to design a magical insect repellent. While I was camping.

You can make creatures respond to your hat as to a dangerous predator. Most creatures respond with fear and run away. Hang the hat on a hat stand and come back after nightfall; you will have to convince yourself that there is not an angry mobster hiding in the shadows. And the city watch will have a poor reaction to you in broad daylight. And how does mother bear respond to a threat moving closer to her cubs?

It can also help with animal training. You can associate a stick with an authority figure and lead herd animals. Let them see it enchanted a few times, and eventually they will react to any similar object in the same way without the enchantment in effect. You don't want the wolves to think their alpha is already down among the sheep, after all.

Good thing you can undo that enchantment at will. Except once the creature has made an association, turning off the effect doesn't clear their memory.

Hm. Okay. This is interesting, and probably has a ton of applications.

No. The objects have to be matched very thoroughly.

So basically, if you pair two wooden cubes, and then shine a flashlight on one of them, the other one gets brighter? Does the one that you shine the flashlight on get brighter too? What if you put a colored filter over the light? Will the other object reflect that color as well?

Can you make a simulacrum of a human?

I can't promise I'll actually work on this, given the number of projects I've got going right now. But I can at least do ramifications of the powers. Also, check out the Reckoners RPG list of Epics thread. There might be some inspiration there too.

[Sir Jerric]

I'm just asking if it's possible. If powers are randomly granted (which I'm assuming- is there a pattern to who gets powers?), then in theory someone could be randomly granted two powers, right? Is that actually the case, or is there a mechanic in place preventing people from being granted two or more powers?

In this setting, I decided to use a systematic distribution that has no possibility of multiple powers.

But if someone thinks they can make a cool effect that requires one person to have multiple powers, I don't want to tell them no. I'm already letting them modify the available power set, so why not?

So basically, if you pair two wooden cubes, and then shine a flashlight on one of them, the other one gets brighter?

Does the one that you shine the flashlight on get brighter too?

What if you put a colored filter over the light? Will the other object reflect that color as well?

Wood would be about the worse choice of material for this system. You would need to match them down to the grain pattern, and not just on the surface.

 

But yes, your first example is correct.

In the second case, depending on the environment, you may see a feedback loop of illumination. And I believe wood can have some slight transulcence, which might cause a feedback loop without environmental considerations.

Yes, color and angle of incidence and all other standard reflective properties are preserved.

 

I told my brother the light transfer definition a day before making this thread. His first thought was mirror televisions. Given that I haven't changed my wording . . .

Can you make a simulacrum of a human?

Yep. That is the expensive end of the spectrum.

I can't promise I'll actually work on this, given the number of projects I've got going right now. But I can at least do ramifications of the powers. Also, check out the Reckoners RPG list of Epics thread. There might be some inspiration there too.

Comitments are not necessary. I'm just offering something that people might have some fun playing with. If participating in a thread like this starts feeling like work, then take a break and come back some other time.

 

I will check that reference as well. I checked the first, and I did achieve one workable idea from it: Petrification. Probably going to be temporary and non-fatal when used on living objects. I almost wonder why that idea hadn't already occured to me.

 

I noticed that you liked the ramifications angle. You are going to wind up asking a great many questions, since I am still being close-mouthed about the rest of the details. But I will tell one other thing that you don't seem to have considered yet: You can use your talent on yourself. Five of the talents won't get any benefit from that, but the others get to have some fun.

[Elbereth]

In this setting, I decided to use a systematic distribution that has no possibility of multiple powers.

But if someone thinks they can make a cool effect that requires one person to have multiple powers, I don't want to tell them no. I'm already letting them modify the available power set, so why not?

I didn't have anything immediately in mind. I just wanted clarification. If I do think of something that requires multiple powers (and can't be done just by stealing), I'll go ahead and break the system, but until that point I'll stay single power to single person.

Wood would be about the worse choice of material for this system. You would need to match them down to the grain pattern, and not just on the surface.

 

But yes, your first example is correct.

In the second case, depending on the environment, you may see a feedback loop of illumination. And I believe wood can have some slight transulcence, which might cause a feedback loop without environmental considerations.

Yes, color and angle of incidence and all other standard reflective properties are preserved.

 

I told my brother the light transfer definition a day before making this thread. His first thought was mirror televisions. Given that I haven't changed my wording . . .

Well, I couldn't think of much else. But okay, you have to make them exactly alike. Do they have to be exact in composition, or just in appearance? For instance, if you painted that piece of wood with several layers of white paint until the grain wasn't coming through anymore, and then painted a piece of metal the exact same size and shape with the same technique, could you match them?

Comitments are not necessary. I'm just offering something that people might have some fun playing with. If participating in a thread like this starts feeling like work, then take a break and come back some other time.

 

I will check that reference as well. I checked the first, and I did achieve one workable idea from it: Petrification. Probably going to be temporary and non-fatal when used on living objects. I almost wonder why that idea hadn't already occured to me.

 

I noticed that you liked the ramifications angle. You are going to wind up asking a great many questions, since I am still being close-mouthed about the rest of the details. But I will tell one other thing that you don't seem to have considered yet: You can use your talent on yourself. Five of the talents won't get any benefit from that, but the others get to have some fun.

Petrification sounds great. And yes, I like doing ramifications. It's good practice for my own magic systems, and a lot of fun as well.

OOH! That sounds amazing. Okay. Definitely cool ideas there.

Also, a couple ideas adapted from my own projects (no obligation to use them, obviously): The ability to touch a person, and then be invisible to everyone else.

The ability to enchant something to keep the state it is currently in (kind of goes with temporal shifting) You could use this for stopping bullets, for instance. Maybe the more force applied to it, the more talent it uses up. So you can only stop one bullet, but you can stop lots of knives from cutting into it.

The ability to transform your likeness into whatever you're touching. I'm not sure about this, but maybe you could make it workable?

If you don't care about conservation of energy (or matter in this case), then the ability to grow or shrink an object.

That's all I've got for now.

[Sir Jerric]

If it were done with a supernatural level of precision, you may succeed in enchanting the paint itself as a matched pair, but the cubes underneath would not be part of the enchantment. As I said, they must be matched on a level deeper than the surface.

 

Paint on natural wood is going to fill the little crevases in the grain. Since a metal cube is unlikely to share that pattern of crevases, the paint on the two would be different, even if you matched the exteriors to perfection. So most people would tell you that you would never succeed.

 

The size scaling power could be made to fit my system, but I'd need to find a nice limitation for that talent. Changing the scale of something has several negative ramifications when used in a straightforward application.

 

Ramifications are fun. I am still poking at the consequenses of petrification, and trying to decide whether I can explain why it is non-fatal, or if I need to handwave that, or if I want to discard the power entirely.

 

By the way, you said you liked the alarm ward. Is there a particular application you thought of for that?

[Kobold King]

Can I enchant the seal of a vault to trigger an incredibly strong sense of revulsion in anyone who perceives it, warding away would-be thieves? Could I do the same but with paralyzing fear or guilt?

[Delightful]

I'm just popping in to say the thread title reminds me strongly of Captain Planet.

[Elbereth]

I mean, I just thought the ward was very original. You could... I don't know. Enchant your doormat so that you know when people are coming. Could you enchant a person? Would the alarm still go off when they're sleeping, or just when they're awake? You could enchant the doors of a cell, or the lock, for obvious reasons. You could enchant anything you don't want stolen. Etc., etc.

[Kobold King]

If I enchant a strand of a virus's DNA and it replicates its genome, will the replicated virus possess the same enchantment as the original? Can I use this principle to create an ultra-contagious virus which causes everyone on the planet to become permanently and irreversibly happy?

[Elbereth]

Kobold, I like the way you think.

[Sir Jerric]

Can I enchant the seal of a vault to trigger an incredibly strong sense of revulsion in anyone who perceives it, warding away would-be thieves? Could I do the same but with paralyzing fear or guilt?

Probably, but I hold to the perspective that emotions are not capable of literal paralysis, or any physical controls. Any who choose to check their emotions with a logical filter are capable of pressing on despite.

 

Might be a great distraction, however. =)

 

I'm just popping in to say the thread title reminds me strongly of Captain Planet.

Hmm. I wonder why?

 

I mean, I just thought the ward was very original. You could... I don't know. Enchant your doormat so that you know when people are coming. Could you enchant a person? Would the alarm still go off when they're sleeping, or just when they're awake? You could enchant the doors of a cell, or the lock, for obvious reasons. You could enchant anything you don't want stolen. Etc., etc.

You can enchant a person, as long as you can touch them to place the enchantment. I plan on allowing some flexibilty in choosing the shape of the triggering area, but this is one of the powers that I have not thoroughly considered yet.

 

I expect that the current state of the enchanted object is the non-triggered state, but that any change in what is touching the object will activate the alarm continuously until the orginal state is restored. And if the object itself is modified or damaged, then the user becomes aware of this by the alarm signal flaring and dying.

 

So the user would experience a person stepping on a doormat differently from someone planting a knife in the doormat. But the user would not know the difference between a leaf landing on the doormat, and the doormat being thrown aside and landing upside down.

 

If I enchant a strand of a virus's DNA and it replicates its genome, will the replicated virus possess the same enchantment as the original? Can I use this principle to create an ultra-contagious virus which causes everyone on the planet to become permanently and irreversibly happy?

Amusing, but the enchantment would not be replicated. And even if it were, how aware are you of the individual strands of DNA in a virus? The victim needs to perceive the enchanted object before they feel anything. Which makes me wonder if hearing an enchanted flute on the radio might work. . . .

[VladJunior]

What about a syphon? Someone who could touch an object and pull out energy to transfer to another object (not a battery, but actual energy). Kind of like converting potential energy to kinetic energy by placing that object in motion. Once it's released, however, the object is still subject to the laws of physics. The part where the object is touched appears with a hand print or something that looks like melting, because heat is released. But a syphon can also pull enough energy out of an object to cause an explosion... i.e. suicide, nuclear bomb, etc. On some objects, you could have a syphon know the rate of energy transfer and motion so that the object acts like a grenade and explodes from the chain reaction of released energy. Other practical uses would be overloading electrical circuits, destabilizing support structures, and heating enclosed spaces from the release of heat.