SpoilerWell in theory she is a zombie. Sort of. I based myself on the image Romans had of dead people. That is why she also hovers.

SpoilerAn explanation might be in order.
Along with her new, astounding physique, Asteira gained some abilities.
Invisibility - exactly what it says on the tin, for a rough 3 minutes.
Possession - This ability will be a treat. It allows her to control other people for a period of time. This period right now is restricted to a minute, and this control is restricted to words, not actions. In a way, it allows her to roleplay as another character on her turn. woo woo all aboard the loop train woo wooo!

Is this too much or is this okay?

SpoilerI'm not really sure I understand. What new physique? You're a little cryptic there.

The possession and invisibility are fine by me, the way you have them. Keep in mind that magic users may have various amounts of spiritual "sense" which may vary from getting a chill when you're close to recognizing that something spiritual is nearby, but in most cases it won't help them locate you. Experience and knowledge will play roles in this.

If Spender has a rulespace active (none for the moment) it will still affect her until she's FULLY intangible, though again she can resist the effect.

SpoilerI've got no problems with those. I do, however, want to take this opportunity to clarify some specifics regarding Thomas.

There are four separate people inhabiting his body. They are each individuals, with their own personality traits, memories, and goals. They each have their own soul. They all have a unique eye colour, and any new minds that (somehow) enter Thomas will have one that is different from any existing ones.

Control over the body is determined by force of will. A personality can take over from another by overpowering them. The personality in control can also place another in control, but that other person can resist if they want. Personalities can also gang up on other personalities to transfer control. For example, if Eric is in control and Bern wanted to take over, whoever willed harder would have control. The four personalities are fairly evenly matched, however, so a one-on-one battle for control would usually result in a stalemate until one of the other two assisted one or the other.

Because they have lived with this their whole life, they all have very powerful wills. There would be no contest if one of them came up against a typical person. A sorcerer's mind-control spells would likely take at least one of them to combat, depending on the strength and skill of the sorcerer. It would take an astonishingly powerful and experienced being to be able to wrest control from all them and actually do anything with it.

SpoilerI imagine she'd have some problems with Glere since he's rather unpredictable, and his consciousness isn't bound to his physical head, so that might prove an obstacle of sorts.

SpoilerJust wanted to let everyone know that I haven't died. I'll post something tonight, even if it's crap. Bioshock 2 has me in its hideous grasp. [img]images/smilies/mspa_face.gif[/img]

SpoilerAs I have said before, I don't have a problem with you adding new abilities to your character as long as they seem to fit with your theme and you write them well. Actually, just as long as you write them well, though fitting with your theme goes hand-in-hand with that.

Possession and invisibility do make sense, both with her role as a spectral being and her role as a manipulator. However, in the manner of a friendly tip rather than anything pertaining to the judgment of the round, I can say that, in my opinion, mind control abilities are extremely difficult to write for well. It also makes your competitors uncomfortable, as evidenced by two other players' first immediate reaction being to spout off facts about their characters that would limit that ability. That being said, besides the rather loose rules in the first post, this is an anything-goes sort of contest, and you are more than welcome to add the possession aspect if you think you can pull it off.

It should also bear to note that the sentence, "it allows her to roleplay as another character on her turn," made me double-take a bit. You, Wojjan, are already free to roleplay as another player's character on your "turn" (though I would hesitate to call the arbitrary divisions in the story based on who happens to be writing it at the time a "turn"), and they, yours. The distinction, I suppose, is that Asteira gains the ability to do so as well, with the implication that their dialogue no longer has to be in-character. Somehow that struck me as kind of meta. I don't know whether that's a bad or a good thing.

Anyway, tl;dr: You can use new abilities, but beware of the difficulty in writing the possession one.

SpoilerI think by turn I mean the possession lasts the period of time she posts, or ends before she finishes a post. Either way, that could work, as it wouldn't cause another player to have no ability to play for a bit.

Also, I'm a bit sketchy on the idea of suddenly gaining a new power. I mean, I suppose it makes sense in context, but it can seem like an asspull. Still, writing is everything. If the new power or whatnot is well described and written, all is good.

Spoiler

Baphomet Wrote:It also makes your competitors uncomfortable, as evidenced by two other players' first immediate reaction being to spout off facts about their characters that would limit that ability.

To be clear, I am not at all uncomfortable with it- to the contrary, I embrace it. I had been hoping that mind control would come into play, as it would provide an opportunity to further explore the dynamics of Thomas' minds.

In addition, suomynon's post seemed, a least to me, to be more focused on limiting the invisibility rather than the possession.

SpoilerI can't say I embrace it, frankly, but all's fair in war (love, too, but not so applicable here). Although, my advice actually applies equally well to Thomas, and Mr. Nothing, and maybe to Michelle a a suvivor-horror-genre if not a mage; any of those four could be expected to get a sense of an ill-meaning spiritual guest, especially after the first time.

My point was mostly technical anyway, as I try to keep RPing my character as pretty experienced with very supernatural things, while trying to make it a non-OP'd character. This is actually a bit difficult as I think I tend to write a bit of OP into my favorite characters; with Spender and his technology in particular, he already has a large database of spells that it would be very easy to turn into a Schrodinger's Gun. I'll do my best to set up any ability he has prior to a significant use of it so it doesn't seem pulled out of my butt.

My biggest problem regarding Asteira is finding a way in which my character couldn't immediately counter the invisibility, once he figured out that the spirit was there. Stripping an enemy character of one of its abilities isn't very sportsmanlike for me as a player, and it ruins the creepy atmosphere for me. However, I think the ability to notice and resist rulespaces will help with that, as that would be the easiest way to peg her with a nonviolent, area-effect spell.

SpoilerIce is actually pretty fragile, isn't it? If you get a good crack going in it, you might have some serious structural faults. And with the odd forces of gravity, who knows which pieces are now load-bearing...

Spender's sensor data won't help him very much pretty much unless he can already see you, although it will let him know the gravity of the local area rather precisely.

SpoilerIn DDotSK, the cave itself is not ice, but rock. It was a normal rock cave, then the ice dragon was trapped inside by the viking and made it cold. I don't think it's ever made clear whether the rock genies lived in there previously, or moved in after Bjernfnre (the dragon) did, but the point is the cave is not composed of ice.

However, temperature fluctuation makes rock very brittle, so it still makes sense for the cave to be unstable.

SpoilerAh, okay.

...

Well again, with gravity pulling every which way anyway, you never know but that something that just broke was actually load-bearing.

Maybe the rock genies will scurry off and realign things so that it isn't anymore. Just sayin'.

SpoilerOkay, so please please PLEASE let me know if I ever mess up writing for any of your characters; PM would be preferred so it doesn't clutter up the thread. I'm just really nervous I'm not going to write your guys' characters as you see them. Anyways, here we go...

Also, I hope it's okay that I'm going along with the "gravity generators breaking down" idea. I liked the idea of being on the ceiling when they broke.

SpoilerSo, again, hope I didn't screw up Michelle's character, and I'm leaving this open for either Michelle, Thomas, Spender, or Asteira to respond. Or anyone else, really. I guess it's just open, period. [img]images/smilies/mspa_face.gif[/img]

SpoilerHey! I didn't forget about that note. Funny.

In the chatroom a couple days ago, Myifan suggested that my character is written too complexly, what with the rules to my magic and so forth. Do other people think so too? I wrote like that mostly so that I can't sneak by and be too godmoding; in theory, the ATM device could produce any spell, and he certainly has the experience to use it well, so I needed SOMETHING. Writing him to be too badass OP is tempting, but he IS only mortal.

SpoilerThe big issue here is that you want other players to be able to use your character relatively easily. Especially in a fight scene.

Complex rules make your character less accessible to other players. If they feel your rules are too hard for them to keep track of, they won't feel comfortable having him use his abilities. But you want them to do that, because they'll give him good tricks that you might not have thought of on your own.

So the question for the other players is, "do you feel Spender's abilities are too hard for you to work into your own posts?" If most players find themselves saying "yes", it's a sign that you should simplify your rules.

SpoilerYeah, DFogel explains much better than I do. However, I also have to say it's also kind of a hassle knowing what your character is doing, when I have to attempt to understand a new spell or something every time. But, this is easily fixed if the spells are simpler, or at least commonly understandable.

Spoiler[img]images/smilies/pc_tense.gif[/img]

The big problem is that I don't know how to phrase his abilities in a way that people will understand because I don't have a good grasp on what they need to know. I spend so much time fantasizing that some things just seem obvious to me that won't be to others.

He can create a spellcoin at will, and once he's touched it, he can cast it within the next few seconds; other people can too, once they know the trick. He's capable of using holographics to manipulate energy, create spaces with special rules, or create things that seem physical even though they're just magic. They can read the caster's mind and react to it vis a vis magic. Once the coin is cast, it lasts for whatever duration, but it's spent, and there's no reclaiming it. One coin has one spell, fixed at creation. (Schrodinger's gun still applies of course)

If I have everything... the rest is either flavor (like the avatar spell) or creating things for him to deal with, like the restriction on sensors and pocket dimensions on this level. Most of his spells are not particularly distinct, so I'm not going to complain that you didn't get his Generic Energy Blast ™ correct. I only like to list spells that establish cool things as canon.

And frankly if you try to write him and get it wrong it's not likely you'll be completely misunderstanding the character. I'll probably grump about the details you got wrong, but too bad for me. So don't feel like you can't go out on a limb.

You'll probably do better trying to make his magic use follow his character, anyway. Theatric, guarded, with a mix of all-business and good intentions; if you can think of an ability he should have, he probably has it, whether he uses it or not.

Does that help?

SpoilerPersonally, I like having the specifics available, and, from what you've written so far, it's fairly clear what what skills you've shown us do. The specifics, at least for me, enable a much more accurate depiction of your character.

My only suggestion is a one-or-two-sentence description in plain language. For example, "Avatar replaces the caster with a hologram which is controlled like a video game." Details in addition to that are useful, but having a simple explanation is very useful as well.

SpoilerMinor Grammar Note: Whenever Thomas talks, he refers to himself plurally. "We," "Us", etc.

SpoilerI kind of assume that he spends at least a good fifteen minutes telling that story, so interrupting it immediately wouldn't work.

In other words, rest of you guys, your turns.

SpoilerMy character's name is Michelle