In one of my favorite generic and universal role-playing game systems (with rules that could be used to make things as varied as robots, magicians, or even dragons) there was a concept called ‘Alternative Abilities’ that I really liked. This concept allowed one to make a character with several different abilities that all relied on the same ‘power’ to function; the extra powers were bought at a discount, but only one of the abilities could be used at any given time. In theory using the Alternative Abilities rule resulted in a character that was technically less powerful at any given single instant in time (because they had paid points for powers that couldn’t be used together) – but the trade-off was a huge increase in versatility.

I had honestly never seen any gamer use Alternative Abilities except for me, and while I will admit it is hard to plan a character who constantly has to swap out powers according to the situation, I had never understood why this rule was so neglected. Here I was, in real life, and I was more excited than I had been in years – but I also knew it was going to be hard as hell figuring out how to visualize something this complex.

I had thought up a number of different power sets that might have synergy, but it was best to focus on only one. Having more than one set of Alternative Abilities could be crippling, ending up with a character who was spread too thin: A jack of all trades, master of none. So I reviewed my options again, wanting to be sure before I spent any of my CP.

AbilitiesWind Blast: Create a concentrated wind bullet that flies at high velocity.Wind Shield: A controlled vortex of wind surrounds the user, protecting them from harm.Wind Wall: Erect a wall of wind at the target location, blocking movement and lifting small debris into the air.Wind Jump: An assisted leap that propels the user long distances and helps provide soft landings.

AbilitiesFire Blast: Create a concentrated ball of fire which can be thrown, and will explode upon impact.Fire Shield: A controlled vortex of flame surrounds the user, protecting them from harm.Fire Wall: Erect a wall of fire at the target location, blocking movement and burning flammable material in the area.Explosive Jump: Detonate a controlled explosion that propels the user long distances, and can be used to reduce the impact a fall.

AbilitiesIce Shard: Create a sharpened ice shard which can be thrown.Ice Armor: Covers the users entire body in a protective layer of ice.Ice Wall: Erect a wall of ice at the target location, creating an impassable barrier.Ice Construct: Manipulate ice into any shape desired.

AbilitiesMinor Lightning Bolt: Create a targeted blast of lightning by ionizing the path a burst of electricity will travel.Ion Shield: Use electromagnetic forces to manipulate the molecules surrounding the user into a protective barrier.Magnetic Field: Create a strong magnetic field in an area, which will attract or repel other magnetic objects.Magnetize Object: Impart a magnetic charge to any object. Charge duration depends on target material.

I found myself heavily leaning towards the electricity based abilities – probably because I understood electricity a lot better than any of the other elements. I understood electrons and how electricity and magnetisms are (more or less) the same thing, and I saw a lot more potential in the last set of abilities than I could see in any of the others. I might end up picking and choosing some of the powers from my other lists later on, but I wanted to focus on something that would give me the highest chance of survival now. It had been about three years since the last beast attack, and they usually happened every three to five years… though we generally had plenty of warning and suffered far fewer casualties than we had during the previous attack.

Taking a deep breath, I tried to focus and calm my racing heart as I prepared myself for my first attempt at using CP to buy an ability. I wanted to make sure that the ability set would actually be able to come together and not end up as separate abilities. So I visualized the first ability that I had ever come up with, Minor Lightning Bolt, picturing energy coming through my veins from my chest and generating a contained voltage just in front of my hand. Then, while trying to keep that in my mind, I pictured the path the energy would need to take from me to a target I had placed on the other side of the room – a block of iron from the Smithy. I tried to keep in mind a group of charged ions containing the voltage, held together by a magnetic field, then completing the path to the iron: This would help me make sure that this power was compatible with the other three abilities I had imagined. I practiced for nearly ten minutes, taking my time and being sure to imagine each step in turn, before…

Contratulations!

You have successfully trained 'Minor Lightning Bolt' to Level 0!

Purchase this ability? Cost: 1 CP for each point of Damage

Yes, purchase 'Minor Lightning Bolt' immediately!

No. Save 'Minor Lightning Bolt' to the Abilities menu.

I got a pop-up of the notification I had prepared for when an ability was ready to be purchased! I felt that it was a bit wordy, but I designed how it was supposed to look more than a year ago. This was the first time I had actually seen it work, as I hadn’t been certain if I would actually get to choose whether to spend the CP or not after training an ability up to 100%.

After selecting the ‘yes’ option I felt something change, shifting and tingling as a small surge of energy ran though my body. I looked at the block of iron on the stone floor and decided to give it a shot, holding my breath and squinting my eyes. I should have brought some of those goggles from the forge…

*ZAP*

The effect was surprisingly loud, a popping noise that I hadn’t expected, and I had completely missed the block of iron… but the wall now had a small scorch mark on it… I heard mother coming to investigate the noise, and quickly moved to wipe the soot off the wall.

Using the lightning bolt tired me out about as much as throwing a heavy rock, and my accuracy was terrible, but now that I had purchased the ability I should be able to practice with it as much as I wanted – but only if I could find somewhere safe.