Viirin
2018-07-24, 01:01 PM
You were living your life in your normal way, until one day you stumbled across a stained, badly damaged, handheld cardboard box patched together with shoddy repairs using poorly chosen materials and a total lack of skill. The only legible words written on it, were "Crayon Cards". In effect, a numenera.
You found that while in your possession, your life experiences became more interesting.
Maybe you were fighting, and a monster breathed fire at you, and when you got up from the ground after a narrow dodge, you saw a Card with an image of that same breath attack.
Was it a friend using a salve to heal one of your wounds, both of you surprised to see a Card appear in front of you that let you invoke the same effect?
Perhaps you found a Card someone else made, and it reacted to you.
Were you instead at a shop, touching various goods until something you touched made a Card appear that performed the same function?
It doesn’t matter. Either way, you learned that you have the power to copy any and all magical effects, and any effects that look like magic, as easily as it was an esotery you had trained yourself in. Each specific effect can only be gained once; a fireball, flame blade, and a flamethrower are different things, though.
You already know you need your Crayon Card box. Without that, you can't activate your Cards. You also have become aware of it by now if you weren't already- some paper scrap at the shop, some frayed weaving from a nearby person's shirt, some metal filings from the blacksmith. When Cards manifest, nearby tidbits of who-knows-what disappears when your Card is created. You now keep a pocket full of garbage for just that occasion.
(Basically the Crayon Card box was once a box of playing cards, or a box of crayons, stained with ink, food coloring, hair dye, paint, or anything else. Also it was repaired with steel corner brackets, paper napkins, parts of other cardboard boxes, shattered circuitboard, leather, or most anything else. It looks held together with tape, glue, tiny nails, sewn-in fishing string, staples, or most anything else. Since the nanites didn't know what it used to be, it's in a permanent state of repair, making it invincible. It acts like a key and file folder to the datasphere, and it's bonded user's experiences act like access authority to the same effect's data files that present themselves as Cards.)
Inability: Cardcaptors cannot apply Effort to their focus abilities.
Cardcaptors are especially weak against pickpocketing and theft! Acquiring new Cards in one way or another might piss off the other Cards, rendering one or more of them inert until convinced otherwise.
Pick one other PC. This character knows about at least one other Card. Whether they fear the magic you might one day possess, want to manipulate your abilities for their own purposes, or have strong personal feelings for/against you is up to them. Knowledge on the Card might be nothing but rumor, and not necessarily from a reliable source.
One Card that replicates an effect from your backstory (fireball, land mine, smoke breath, etc).
Suggestion: Use 1 XP or sacrifice 1 cypher per additional Card you start with. Let your GM know how many of what you want to sacrifice for them to come up with what you get out of it (can give suggestions or requests though; not necessarily listened to).
Card Capturing: Items such as artifacts, cyphers, oddities, esoteries and focus powers of other characters, special abilities used by monsters, and other items or beings with strange abilities can be copied, but instead of becoming the Cardcaptor’s esotery, they become playing/trading Cards that are weaker by 1 level than they were originally (level 1 abilities don’t weaken) and invoking them always uses the Intellect pool. Cards you didn't manifest yourself cost an additional Intellect (possibly changes at Tier 3). Effects that hit the Cardcaptor (healing, de/buff, damage, curses, etc) don't have a penalty, but things that are only witnessed (such as animation, transmutation, or summoning abilities) have a -1 penalty to Card Manifestation rolls.
-2 Levels below user: Free
-1 Level below user: 1 Intellect
0 Level difference from user: 2 Intellect
+1 Level over user: 3 Intellect
+2 Levels over user: 4 Intellect
(keeps going this way)
Minor Effect Suggestions:
You recognize a telegraph, giving you a +1 to copy the incoming effect.
Major Effect Suggestions:
Effect is not only copied, but negated and absorbed.
Cardcaptor: (required 1-9 Cards owned) Once per day, you can attempt to manifest a new Card. Doing this makes it impossible to invoke any Card effects until the following day. Additionally, Cards can be invoked without using the entirety of their effect. Acid smoke breath might be told to only make smoke, as an example.
Cardcaptor II: (required 10-19 Cards owned) Any Card in your possession can have Experience applied to it, strengthening a single one of its natural stats (area of effect, recovery rate, maximum time delay, damage, etc).
Cardcaptor III: (required 20-29 Cards owned) Cards you didn't manifest yourself can be converted into your proper ownership if they're used twice their level (level 2 Cards have to be used 4 times). This costs twice the activation cost in Intelligence and you lose your daily manifestation chance. Trap and Summon Cards return to your hand as long as you're within 2 KM of them when they are triggered, but your location is revealed.
Intellect Edge +1
Cardcaptor IV: (required 30-39 Cards owned) Two Cards can be cast in a single action as a merged spell, and holding them in your hand before invoking them is no longer necessary- they already know which of them are being thought of and activate themselves. Also, you now have a chance to copy offensive esoteries and monster abilities by simply watching it get used on someone else without a penalty, instead of having to be nearly killed by stuff.
Cardcaptor V: (required 40-49 Cards owned) You can manifest a new Card by simply witnessing any type of effect without penalty, or even reading about it in a book that is sufficiently illustrated and detailed.
Card Guardian: Cards can be evoked into a guise (which is designed based on the mage’s subconscious opinion of the Card) with very obvious representation of the effects they produce. Invoked Cards begin to show personality and emotion through their body language and facial expressions, if they have them.
Cardmaster: (required 50+ Cards owned) Simply touching someone else’s Card/s converts it/them to belong in your Deck automatically. Additionally, the Cardcaptor can manifest an additional new Card once a day at 60 Cards, and once more for every 10 Cards over that amount with no source needed; they simply imagine what effects they want produced, and a Card can create itself.
Card Quartermaster: Nonmagical materials can be given to the guise of a Card, which become permanent parts of their Card artwork, which cease to exist otherwise. Incompatible items are destroyed upon summoning but return to perfect condition when the spell effect ends (such as a fireball wearing a folded paper hat). Cards that are given items that don’t make sense (a hydroponic farm Card being given a lasso) would only have these gifts as decoration since they would never understand how to use it.
You found that while in your possession, your life experiences became more interesting.
Maybe you were fighting, and a monster breathed fire at you, and when you got up from the ground after a narrow dodge, you saw a Card with an image of that same breath attack.
Was it a friend using a salve to heal one of your wounds, both of you surprised to see a Card appear in front of you that let you invoke the same effect?
Perhaps you found a Card someone else made, and it reacted to you.
Were you instead at a shop, touching various goods until something you touched made a Card appear that performed the same function?
It doesn’t matter. Either way, you learned that you have the power to copy any and all magical effects, and any effects that look like magic, as easily as it was an esotery you had trained yourself in. Each specific effect can only be gained once; a fireball, flame blade, and a flamethrower are different things, though.
You already know you need your Crayon Card box. Without that, you can't activate your Cards. You also have become aware of it by now if you weren't already- some paper scrap at the shop, some frayed weaving from a nearby person's shirt, some metal filings from the blacksmith. When Cards manifest, nearby tidbits of who-knows-what disappears when your Card is created. You now keep a pocket full of garbage for just that occasion.
(Basically the Crayon Card box was once a box of playing cards, or a box of crayons, stained with ink, food coloring, hair dye, paint, or anything else. Also it was repaired with steel corner brackets, paper napkins, parts of other cardboard boxes, shattered circuitboard, leather, or most anything else. It looks held together with tape, glue, tiny nails, sewn-in fishing string, staples, or most anything else. Since the nanites didn't know what it used to be, it's in a permanent state of repair, making it invincible. It acts like a key and file folder to the datasphere, and it's bonded user's experiences act like access authority to the same effect's data files that present themselves as Cards.)
Inability: Cardcaptors cannot apply Effort to their focus abilities.
Cardcaptors are especially weak against pickpocketing and theft! Acquiring new Cards in one way or another might piss off the other Cards, rendering one or more of them inert until convinced otherwise.
Pick one other PC. This character knows about at least one other Card. Whether they fear the magic you might one day possess, want to manipulate your abilities for their own purposes, or have strong personal feelings for/against you is up to them. Knowledge on the Card might be nothing but rumor, and not necessarily from a reliable source.
One Card that replicates an effect from your backstory (fireball, land mine, smoke breath, etc).
Suggestion: Use 1 XP or sacrifice 1 cypher per additional Card you start with. Let your GM know how many of what you want to sacrifice for them to come up with what you get out of it (can give suggestions or requests though; not necessarily listened to).
Card Capturing: Items such as artifacts, cyphers, oddities, esoteries and focus powers of other characters, special abilities used by monsters, and other items or beings with strange abilities can be copied, but instead of becoming the Cardcaptor’s esotery, they become playing/trading Cards that are weaker by 1 level than they were originally (level 1 abilities don’t weaken) and invoking them always uses the Intellect pool. Cards you didn't manifest yourself cost an additional Intellect (possibly changes at Tier 3). Effects that hit the Cardcaptor (healing, de/buff, damage, curses, etc) don't have a penalty, but things that are only witnessed (such as animation, transmutation, or summoning abilities) have a -1 penalty to Card Manifestation rolls.
-2 Levels below user: Free
-1 Level below user: 1 Intellect
0 Level difference from user: 2 Intellect
+1 Level over user: 3 Intellect
+2 Levels over user: 4 Intellect
(keeps going this way)
Minor Effect Suggestions:
You recognize a telegraph, giving you a +1 to copy the incoming effect.
Major Effect Suggestions:
Effect is not only copied, but negated and absorbed.
Cardcaptor: (required 1-9 Cards owned) Once per day, you can attempt to manifest a new Card. Doing this makes it impossible to invoke any Card effects until the following day. Additionally, Cards can be invoked without using the entirety of their effect. Acid smoke breath might be told to only make smoke, as an example.
Cardcaptor II: (required 10-19 Cards owned) Any Card in your possession can have Experience applied to it, strengthening a single one of its natural stats (area of effect, recovery rate, maximum time delay, damage, etc).
Cardcaptor III: (required 20-29 Cards owned) Cards you didn't manifest yourself can be converted into your proper ownership if they're used twice their level (level 2 Cards have to be used 4 times). This costs twice the activation cost in Intelligence and you lose your daily manifestation chance. Trap and Summon Cards return to your hand as long as you're within 2 KM of them when they are triggered, but your location is revealed.
Intellect Edge +1
Cardcaptor IV: (required 30-39 Cards owned) Two Cards can be cast in a single action as a merged spell, and holding them in your hand before invoking them is no longer necessary- they already know which of them are being thought of and activate themselves. Also, you now have a chance to copy offensive esoteries and monster abilities by simply watching it get used on someone else without a penalty, instead of having to be nearly killed by stuff.
Cardcaptor V: (required 40-49 Cards owned) You can manifest a new Card by simply witnessing any type of effect without penalty, or even reading about it in a book that is sufficiently illustrated and detailed.
Card Guardian: Cards can be evoked into a guise (which is designed based on the mage’s subconscious opinion of the Card) with very obvious representation of the effects they produce. Invoked Cards begin to show personality and emotion through their body language and facial expressions, if they have them.
Cardmaster: (required 50+ Cards owned) Simply touching someone else’s Card/s converts it/them to belong in your Deck automatically. Additionally, the Cardcaptor can manifest an additional new Card once a day at 60 Cards, and once more for every 10 Cards over that amount with no source needed; they simply imagine what effects they want produced, and a Card can create itself.
Card Quartermaster: Nonmagical materials can be given to the guise of a Card, which become permanent parts of their Card artwork, which cease to exist otherwise. Incompatible items are destroyed upon summoning but return to perfect condition when the spell effect ends (such as a fireball wearing a folded paper hat). Cards that are given items that don’t make sense (a hydroponic farm Card being given a lasso) would only have these gifts as decoration since they would never understand how to use it.