Helping Players define Abilities

[MonkeyWrench]

I finally got Donjon downloaded and after 2 hours of printing I had it in my hot little hands. Me and two of my players ran through most of the 'Fungus Among Us' adventure in the rulebook. We didn't get finished with it because about halfway through we all couldn't stop thinking about the different characters we could make.

Donjon seems to be the perfect system for me to run a trans-dimensional sci-fi/superhero game.....fun fun fun! So after a brief brainstorming period I sent my players on a mission, make your characters and report back to me.

Here's what player #1 came up with for her abilities and it threw me for a loop.
Altered Time Rate
Walk through Dimensions
Teleport Short Distances
Particle Beam
Increase Gravity
She wants her main ability to apply to dodge rolls and initiative rolls, pretty much anywhere that having quick reflexes would apply. She wants the Particle Beam to act like a weapon, and she wants Increase Gravity to make enemies crippled. I'm having a little trouble deciding how to defne her other abilities. Is it as simple as rolling Ability + Cerebrality v. whatever difficulty I decide? In addition I'm thinking her Increase Gravity should just damage Virility or Adroitness directly. Any thoughts?

Other than her character I've had no trouble helping my players figure out what they want to do. So far we've got a Purple Panther Sorceror and a Cyborg Soccer Player who controls his soccer ball with his mind. It's turning out to be quite an interesting party, should be fun.

[Catalyst]

Just my opinions here, but it may help to have the player define more closely what they want those Abilities to actually do in the game.

Teleport Short Distances sounds like an addition to movement tests, making it easier for the character to chase or escape. Might have to tweak for situations like escaping from being tied up where teleporting away would give an effect of adding to an escape attempt. Maybe the character doesn't teleport so much as move really really quickly for short bursts, and if they try to do this through, say, a rope, they get shredded by it? Anyway, sounds like a movement adder to me. Or it could be used in escaping from things, instead.

Walk Through Dimensions is mighty vague. What do they want to do with it? A dematerialization ability to allow walking through walls? Invisibility (reduction of perception attempts on the character)? Improve their social ability with other-dimensional natives? :)

[jdagna]

It's really up to the players to define their own abilities in game terms, and then you can hold them up against the standards in the game to see if they're appropriate or not.  This is certainly the approach I take.  In fact, I almost prefer players to write "Damage Adroitness" instead of "Increase Gravity".  

Functionally they're both the same.  The former loses all the cool color, but the latter is so vague you need a translation for it.  My method also eliminates some of the "gaminess" - players become less tempted to look for abilities that let them do more than other abilities and focus on what they really want the character to do.  But then I keep trying to play Donjon in a Sim mode...

[MonkeyWrench]

Thanks for the help. We've worked out how her abilities are going to work.

Teleport Short Distances will aid in Movement tests. We replaced Walk Through Dimensions with Become Insubstantial which will aid with active defense. Originally she wanted WTD to actually allow her to travel to other dimensions but we decided on something different instead.

So now I've got another question or two, when applying direct attribute damage do her successes mean 1 point of damage each? I'm thinking this is the way to go, but I'd like some other opinions on the matter.

By the way jdagna your approach to player created abilities really helped me get a grip on how abilities work. Thanks.