Abyss Powers (unofficial)

[RPGPundit]

Have you made your own version of what an Abyss-based power would be like, different from Wujcik's version in the gamebook?

If so, what did it look like? How many points did it cost? What did it do, and how did it match up to the other powers of the game?

RPGPundit

[Croaker]

I toyed with a purely entropic power.

No abyssal creatures, no shadow manipulation, but it could sap anything. It could also make things more random, in an uncontrolable way. Twas a "bad guy" power.

[RPGPundit]

That's interesting; and how did that stand up to the other powers in the game?

RPGPundit

[Croaker]

That's interesting; and how did that stand up to the other powers in the game?

RPGPundit

Simple. It never came into play

[RPGPundit]

And if it had?

RPGPundit

[Croaker]

Well, overall, I intended it to be similar in power to Pattern/Logrus and dangerous to use, it's just that in play, it could have been more or less powerfull, it's difficult to say without playtest.

[Warder]

Well, the official version never quite made sold it to me. Oberon had a lot of time to try and make do with most aspects of the setting and never got at least to try it? We know he could shapeshift, Abyss diving was known among the courts, so maybe he had it but never used it? Anywho, here's my take on it: unnecessary, less powerfull because of it unstable nature, probably fatal after prolonged exposure, slow in comparision to other alternatives and friggin volatile. Good for a suprise move(other more elegant methods for that do exist), empowering other powers in unexpected combinations, if nothing else works... In summary not worth the hassle, fiddling with entropy has sad results in the long run.

[RPGPundit]

I would think that the obvious power of the abyss should involve being able to simply erase something from existence.  Since metaphysically speaking, the Abyss is everything that is "outside" of the Multiverse.

RPGPundit

[Croaker]

To me, your depiction speaks of lovecraftian eldritch horrors. Could be fun

[RPGPundit]

To me, your depiction speaks of lovecraftian eldritch horrors. Could be fun

Yeah, exactly.  In my last Amber campaign there was a space even beyond the abyss, wherein the Abyss was "nothingness", there was something beyond that was "negative nothingness" (borrowing a concept from the hermetic Kabbalah), which was full not of things that are no more but of things that never were.  That was where the Shroudlings lived, waiting to break loose and devour the multiverse.

RPGPundit

[Malleus Aforethought]

Yeah, exactly.  In my last Amber campaign there was a space even beyond the abyss, wherein the Abyss was "nothingness", there was something beyond that was "negative nothingness" (borrowing a concept from the hermetic Kabbalah), which was full not of things that are no more but of things that never were.  That was where the Shroudlings lived, waiting to break loose and devour the multiverse.

RPGPundit

Reminds me a bit of how I describe the realm of Tir-na Nog'th in my current campaign: the realm of reflected possibilities, what might have been and what may never be. Maybe an appropriate place for Shroudlings, but I don't care much for the Merlin canon.

[RPGPundit]

Reminds me a bit of how I describe the realm of Tir-na Nog'th in my current campaign: the realm of reflected possibilities, what might have been and what may never be. Maybe an appropriate place for Shroudlings, but I don't care much for the Merlin canon.

In my campaign, Tir Na Nog is a place of what is, was, and might be; while the realms of the Shroudlings is the realm of what could never be.  Tir Na Nog is one of the first places overrun by the Shroudlings when they start to leak through into the multiverse.

RPGPundit

[Lorrraine]

I have an Abyss Diver power  available in the campaign I run. It does not give control over the Abyss so much as it allows the user to temporarily resist the destructive effects of the Abyss.

[RPGPundit]

I have an Abyss Diver power  available in the campaign I run. It does not give control over the Abyss so much as it allows the user to temporarily resist the destructive effects of the Abyss.

And how does it work? How do you handle the elements of risk?

RPGPundit

[Lorrraine]

And how does it work? How do you handle the elements of risk?

Abyss Divers get a few benefits. They can maneuver themselves in the emptiness of the Abyss without getting lost/turned around/confused by the nothingness. They can also reinforce their personal reality with their will letting them resist dissolution for a time and even extend this reinforcement into someone or something by touch. Abyss divers have access to bits of new creation that come into existence within the Abyss. While they have no control over what they find, they can and often do find things that exist nowhere else.

As to risk, step one comes with power acquisition. Easy peasy, jump into the Abyss with no backup and nothing to protect yourself. In the unlikely event you survive you have the power. Strangely enough none of my players have tried to acquire the power after character creation. Maybe they know me a bit too well.

I emphasize the dangers with the occasional disappearance and presumed death of NPC Abyss Divers. Dying in the Abyss leaves no remains.

As far as the risk to the PC that comes down to choices.

"You think you sense something a bit deeper than you have gone before. Go for it or pull out?"

"You have a bad feeling about going into the Abyss today. No real reason for it, but..."

"The thing you grabbed seems resistant to your power. You can protect it, but it will tire you rapidly or you could let it go."

"None of the other Abyss divers want to go in today. None of them will say why."

"As you head toward the surface everything seems to slow down. Push through or pull back and try something else?"

I expect any reasonably experienced GM can come up with plenty more in that vein.

How many wrong decisions does it take to kill a PC Abyss Diver? It takes at least one. Sometimes it may take more depending on stats and circumstances.