Power Profile - Time Powers

8/12/2019 Power Profile - Time Powers

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Time is literally on your side! Time powers can speed upor slow down the flow of time, perceive the future or the

past, sidestep into parallel timelines, and even allow youto stop time altogether or change history!

TIME DESCRIPTORS The following are important descriptors for time powersand their effects.

History: The sequence of events which occurred inthe past. History is not necessarily fixed in a worldwhere time travel and temporal manipulation arepossible and, in some instances, a certain vagueness

about historical events may conceal temporal para-doxes. For example, a time-traveling hero goes backinto the past to investigate historical records of amysterious stranger involved in a particular key pointin history, only to become entangled in those eventsand discover he is the mysterious stranger who trig-gered his own investigation into the past!

Tachyon: Tachyons are theoretical subatomic par-ticles able to travel faster than the speed of light(from the Greek tachys , meaning swift). Because oftheir ability to violate causality as we understand it,tachyons are often used as an explanation for tempo-ral powers: characters emit or control tachyons as ameans of producing their effects. Tachyons are oftentreated as an exotic form of energy or radiation, al-lowing for various other power effects, similar tothose found in the Electrical Powers and RadiationPowers profiles. Examples include tachyon-basedenergy blasts inflicting Ranged Damage (perhaps

Perception Ranged and Indirect, given their nature)and tachyon force fields providing Sustained Protec-

tion or other defensive benefits. Time: The passage and measurement of time as

a game value is discussed on pages 1112 of theM UTANTS & M ASTERMINDS Heros Handbook , specificallyin terms of ranks as measurements of values of timeand the relationship between scenes (narrative time)and actions rounds (action time). Many effects inM&M use time ranks.

Countering: Time powers can potentially countereach other, either through direct manipulation of thecontinuum or by applying equal and opposite changes

(decelerating time the same amount as someoneelse accelerates it, for example) . This may also allowtime powers to counter speed powers, deceleratingtargets in time by the same amount as they speed up.

Other uses of time powers to counter tend to bein the form of indirect tampering with history ratherthan a direct power vs. power contest, causing a par-ticular effect to un-happen (or to never have hap-pened in the first place). See the Replay power underUtility Powers for an example.

TIME FEATURESFeature effects associated with Time Powers include thefollowing:

Chronal Memory: You have the ability to remem-ber other timelines. If someone changes history,your memory contains two versions of events: thecurrent timeline and the original one. These differing

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recollections let you know, first, that history has beenchanged and, second, may provide clues as to howand when it changed and what you can do about it.

Chronal Bulwark: You are fixed in time such thatwhen history is changed (see Temporal Tampering,following) you do not change with it. The difficultyis that only you (and others like you) remember the

original timeline and you are now unfamiliar with thenew world. If you have both this and the ChronalMemory Feature, you retain your traits from the origi-nal timeline, but remember both.

TEMPORAL TAMPERING The ability to alter time, especially to change history, hastremendous repercussions, and has been the subject ofcountless stories and theories. While time tampering andits effects are a common comic book plot device, they cancause considerable headaches for a M UTANTS & M ASTERMINDS

Gamemaster, if left entirely in the hands of a group ofplayers. Settings generally take one of four approaches totemporal tampering and changing the past:

Immutable Time: Historical events are essentiallyfixed in time and time-travelers cannot changethem, no matter how much they try. Either time trav-elers are incorporeal phantoms, unable to interactwith the past (in which case the Time Travel effectis unavailable; characters can only observe the pastusing Postcognition) or time itself seems to conspireto prevent time-travelers from changing anythingother than the most inconsequential events. So, goback in time and try to prevent the assassination ofa historical figure, for example, and youll find your-self stymied at every turn: stuck in traffic, trapped ina cave-in, your weapon malfunctioning, and so forth.

Resistant Time: History can be changed, but it tendsto resist change, trying to snap back to its previousshape and compensating for any changes. So, forexample, if you eliminate Adolf Hitler before his riseto power in Germany, someone else takes his place asthe demagogic leader of the National Socialist Partyand Chancellor of Germany, and World War II still

happens largely on schedule, with different details.Changes tend to even out over the long run and itis exceedingly difficult to create significant, lastingchange in history.

Mutable Time: Historical events are not fixed, andchanging them creates a whole new sequence ofevents. Given the range of variables involved, it maybe nigh-impossible to predict the outcome of anysuch changes, and the lack of resistance may makeit difficult for the time-stream to recover from inci-dences of tampering without outside intervention(which is, itself, another form of tampering).

Quantum Time: This is a combination of Mutableand Immutable Time; history can be changed, butthe change creates an alternate timeline, splittingoff from previous history at the change-point. In thenew parallel universe, history takes a different course,but the original timeline still exists somewhere in

the greater continuum. Indeed, if quantum theoryis correct, every possible universe may exist within agreater N-dimensional continuum or omniverse.

Gamemasters should note that these approaches to timetampering need not be universal. For example, time may,as a general rule, be immutable and immune to casualtampering by time travelers (including the heroes) but

certain plot devices can render it mutable, so the villainpossessing the Chronos Key does wield the power tochange history, unless the heroes can stop him without changing history themselves!

OFFENSIVE POWERSOffensive time powers involve manipulating the flow oftime in ways harmful or detrimental to targets, whetherdirectly (causing rapid aging, for example) or indirectly(using stopped time to set up harmful circumstances).

AGE MANIPULATIONExerting control over a discrete portion of time, you cancause a target to rapidly grow older or younger, even tothe point of death (or birth) where they cease to exist! The primary effect of this power is to strip away some ofthe targets capabilities: reducing physical abilities due toextreme age or youth, perhaps even reducing or remov-ing mental abilities due to infirmity or immaturity. Ulti-mately, the mechanical effects are similar. If you can shift atargets aging both forwards or backwards, apply 1 rank ofthe Variable Descriptor modifier.

By default, this power only works on living beings youcan touch. If you do not need to touch the target, applyRanged or Perception Ranged. If you can also rapidly ageobjects, to the point of causing them to break down anddecay, apply the Affects Objects modifier as well.

Age Manipulation: Cumulative Affliction (aging; Resisted andOvercome by Fortitude; Impaired, Disabled, Transformed) 2 points per rank.

TEMPORAL AMBUSH

By stopping (or vastly slowing) time, you can set up atarget for an attack: placing an object to drop onto them,for example, or a projectile to hit them. When you restarttime again, from the targets perspective, the attackappears out of nowhere. This power is often used in con- junction with Temporal Shift, Temporal Movement, and Time Stop, which also rely on stopping time.

Temporal Ambush: Perception Ranged Damage (objects andhazards of opportunity), Indirect 4 4 points +3 points per rank.

TIME FREEZE

You trap a target in a bubble of stopped (or vastlyslowed) time, essentially freezing them from the perspec-tive of the outside world. You must touch the target bydefault. If you can use this power at a distance, apply theRanged or Perception Ranged modifiers.

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Time Freeze: Cumulative Affliction (time freeze; Resisted andOvercome by Will; Dazed, Stunned, Incapacitated) 2 points per rank.

DEFENSIVE POWERSDefensive time powers take advantage of influence over

time to cheat in avoiding attacks, or involve protectionfrom the effects of time and temporal powers.

TEMPORAL PHASE

Shifting just a moment out of phase with ordinary time,you become an immaterial phantom image, able to passthrough solid objects, and you are immune to harm.

Some forms of Temporal Phase also render you undetect-able to anyone existing in normal time. In this case, addConcealment 10 to the power, giving you total conceal-

ment from all but specific exotic senses like Time Sense.

Temporal Phase: Insubstantial 4 20 points.

TEMPORAL SIDESTEP

You can evade attacks by stopping time, moving outof the path of the frozen attack, and re-starting timeagain, making it appear that you have moved faster thanthe eye can follow, or simply teleported from place toplace. Temporal Sidestep requires some conscious efforton your part (to know when to stop time and move), so itis useless against attacks you cant perceive or that catchyou by surprise.

Temporal Sidestep: Immunity 80 (Dodge and Parry basedattacks), Concentration, Limited (not against surpriseattacks); Reaction Teleport 1 (when attacked) 32 points +5 points per additional rank of Reaction Teleport.

TIMELESS

You are a fixed point in time, completely unaffectedby its passage or any other temporal effects. This powerincludes immunity to aging from the normal passageof time. It may also include the benefits of the ChronalBulwark and Chronal Memory Features (see Features ),depending on how time travel works in the setting.

More extreme forms of this power include the benefitsof Accelerated Healing and even Immortality, giving youa natural tendency to revert back to your fixed statewhen your condition is changed by damage or injury.

Timeless: Immunity 5 (temporal effects) 5 points.

MOVEMENT POWERS Time movement powers involve either moving to differ-ent points in time (time travel) or manipulating time tospeed up normal forms of travel.

TEMPORAL SHIFT

By stopping time, moving to a different spot, then re-starting the flow of time again, you make it appear as ifyou have jumped from one location to another withoutcrossing the space in between, even though you actuallydid so outside of ordinary time. The powers rank isnttechnically the distance you can go, its the time you haveto move while time is stopped for everyone else.

Temporal Shift: Accurate Teleport, Limited to places you canreach physically 2 points per rank.

You may also be able to take other objects or people withyou when you shift outside of time, in which case, applythe Perception Range and Attack modifiers to this power. This allows you to, for example, snatch something out ofsomeones hand (or off a table, etc.), making it disappearfrom their perspective, or to move a frozen person fromone spot to another, making them jump from place toplace like you do.

Manipulative Temporal Shift: Perception Range TeleportAttack, Limited to things you can physically move 4 points per rank.

The ultimate version of this power allows you to rear-range anything in an entire area, setting a whole range ofevents in motion for when time resumes its normal flow.With the Area modifier, you can shift around any subject.From their perspective, everything jumps to different lo-cations instantly.

Manipulative Area Temporal Shift: Perception Range BurstArea Teleport Attack, Limited to things you can physicallymove 5 points per rank.

TIME PORTAL

You can open a portal or gateway to a different point in time,allowing yourself or others to step through it and travel tothat time. The exact effects of time travel depend on thenature of the setting; see the Temporal Tampering section.

Time Portal: Movement 3 (Time Travel 3), Portal 15 points.

TIME TRAVEL

You can transport yourself (and anything you are wearingor carrying) to a different point in time. The exact effectsof time travel depend on the nature of the setting; see theTemporal Tampering section. Apply the Increased Massextra if you can carry along additional cargo or passengerswhen you time travel.

The Time Portal and Time Travel powers are frequentlyprovided by either vehicles (time machines or time-travelcapsules) or headquarters (installations with a time portalof some sort), providing a useful way to regulate them.

Time Travel: Movement (Time Travel) 2 points per rank up torank 3 (6 points).



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UTILITY POWERSInfluence over time is rife with possibilities. The followingare some of the useful effects, but Gamemasters shouldbe aware of the considerable potential for temporal powerstunts.

ACCELERATED HEALINGSpeeding up your own natural healing process, you canrecover from injury in moments.

Accelerated Healing: Regeneration 1 point per rank.

RAPID PERCEPTION

You speed up your ability to perceive relative to thenormal flow of time. Each rank increases your speed ofperception by a factor of 10.

Rapid Perception: Senses (Rapid, all senses) 5 points per rank.

REPLAY

You cause time to jump backwards, essentially replayingthe recent past in a way that allows events to occur differ-ently for a different outcome. For example, after a victim isstruck by an oncoming car, you might replay the momentthe victim steps off the sidewalk, allowing you the oppor-tunity to intervene and save them.

In game terms, this power is a Feature added to Precogni-tion; you gain knowledge of the future by living throughit, and can use that knowledge to re-do certain events,trying to cause them to come out differently. You can dothis once per game session per rank in Feature.

Replay: Senses 4 (Precognition), Feature 1 (retcon events) 5 points +1 point per additional Feature rank.

SEE THE FUTURE

You have visions of the future. They are most likely visionsof possible futures, depending on how temporal tamper-ing is handled in the series. Gamemasters should see theAdventure Elements section of the Gamemasters Guide for additional suggestions on handling potentially plot-breaking powers like precognition.

See the Future: Senses 4 (Precognition) 4 points.

TEMPORAL DUPLICATION

Shifting yourself sideways in time or summoning ver-

sions of yourself from parallel timelines, you can arrangeto not only meet yourself but team-up with yourself, or-selves, as the case may be.

See the Duplication power in the Summoning Powersprofile for additional details. This power assumes yourtemporal duplicates think and act much like you andare naturally friendly towards you, and that you suffer

no ill effects from anything that happens to them, asthey are not really you (but versions of you from othertimelines). The close connection between temporal du-plicates may call for the Feedback flaw on the power. Thepotential for duplicates to differ slightly from you allowsfor differences in game traits. If you can summon a dupli-cate from the future (or a timeline with more advancedknowledge) the GM may choose to treat this as an In-spiration use of hero points ( Heros Handbook, page 21).

Temporal Duplication: Summon Duplicate, Active, Heroic 4 points per rank.

TEMPORAL SUMMONING

You summon assistance from elsewhere in the timestream. This power can range from the ability to call up soldiersfrom different points in history, summoning dinosaursand other creatures of bygone ages, or even calling upon

beings from the distant future (cyborgs, aliens, or super-advanced forms of life). The basic power summons a singlebeing as a minion, apply the Summon modifiers from theHeros Handbook to customize the power, including sum-moning Heroic beings or a Horde of Multiple Minions.

Villains with this power may have access to vast armiesof temporal minions as a plot device, which is not reallyworth pricing out as a power.

Temporal Summoning: Summon, Broad Type (beings fromhistory) 4 points per rank.

TIME SENSEYou can sense temporal disturbances and the use of timepowers nearby with a successful Perception check.

Time Sense: Senses 1 (Temporal Awareness) 1 point.

TIME STOP

You can put time on pause, freezing the entire world andallowing you to move and look around at the tableau at your

leisure. You cannot affect anything while time is stopped (forthat, see Temporal Ambush ). Still, this power allows youconsiderable opportunity for scouting and surveillance, suchas stopping time, walking into a place and having a goodlook around before walking out and restarting time again.

Your effect rank determines how much subjective timeyou get; with rank 9, for example, you have an houroutside of time to do things, then time returns to itsnormal flow. The Subtle modifier means no one noticesyou move when time is stopped.

Time Stop: Quickness (Subtle 2), Speed (Subtle 2), Quirk: Limitedto routine actions while active (4 points) 2 points per rank.

VIEW THE PAST

You can perceive what happened in the past at a loca-tion as if you were there, although you cannot interact or

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changed what occurred. As with See the Future, the GMmay wish to take this power into consideration when cre-ating suitable challenges for the heroes.

View the Past: Senses 4 (Postcognition) 4 points.

OTHER TIME POWERSBecause they involve moving, acting, and reacting at afaster pace, virtually all Speed Powers can also be timepowers, representing the ability to control personal timeflow in relation to the general flow of time. Simply add atime or temporal descriptor to the powers. Time-basedspeed powers often have the Affects Others modifier, al-lowing you to accelerate others in time as well as yourself,perhaps even the Area modifier, if you can affect manyothers at once.

Given the relationship between time and space, various

Teleport Powers may also be time powers or vice versa. The ability to shift in time implies some type of ability toshift in space, since otherwise the character would beflung off the surface of the Earth or left behind by therotation of the galaxy; normally this shift just anchorsthe characters relative position in space, but it could bechangeable, granting the power to shift in space but not time (or only a very minute amount in time).

Lastly, time and probability make some Luck Powers , par-ticularly those which influence future events, into poten-tial time powers, representing minor tampering with the

timeline to bring about desired outcomes.

TIME COMPLICATIONS Tampering with time can become very complicated, veryquickly (depending on what quickly even means interms of temporal tampering). The following are some ofthe complications time powers may bring up in a series.

ACCIDENT

When your energy blast powers go awry, there mightbe some collateral damage. When your time powers goawry, all of history might be changed! A temporal acci-dent can range from a change in circumstances for a fewto cosmos-wide catastrophe, depending on how the GMwants to play it (and what the possibilities are for tempo-ral tampering in the series).

POWER LOSSGiven the potential of some time powers, Gamemastersmay want to keep this complication available, should itbe needed. For time powers that do not rely on devices,vehicles, or other things that can be taken away, there aremysterious temporal eddies (currents, storms, etc.) andpossibly higher beings overseeing the orderly flow of time

(like the Time Keepers in the Freedom City setting) able toprovide necessary interference with those powers at theproper...well, time.

QUIRK Those with time powers may be strangers in a strangeland when it comes to known history, as they are oftenfrom future eras, parallel timelines, or realities that nolonger exist except in their own memories, making themunfamiliar with many aspects of our world and culture. This complication blends into a Disability when it comesto lacking common knowledge, but is mostly a socialproblem, causing the character to act out-of-place (or,technically, out-of-time).

Likewise, time travelers may be averse to forming closerelationships, especially if they expect to leave, rewritereality, or simply outlive any potential loved ones. On theother hand, a Relationship complication could span mul-tiple timelines and occur over and over!

RESPONSIBILITY The power to affect time, and especially to know thefuture or change the past, can be a heavy burden. Charac-ters with time powers may uphold a personal code whenit comes to interfering with the natural flow of history,limiting their choice of actions and taking the high roadwhen it comes to avoiding needless tampering.

Another responsibility for time travelers might be fixing history: The characters are aware of some previous tem-poral change and seek to undo it, which might well bewhy they are acting as heroes (or villains!) in the present.For an additional twist, the characters may be the ones re-sponsible for causing the original change and now wantto undo it, if they can.

SECRET The power to influence time is an important secret in andof itself, and time powered characters may conceal their

abilities, or at least the full extent of them. It is fairly easyfor a time controller to pose as a speedster or teleporter,for example. In fact, the character may initially be aware ofany powers beyond what appears to be super-speed, onlylater discovering the time-manipulating wrinkle to thosepowers.

Those with knowledge of the future also carry the burdenof keeping it secret, lest they unintentionally change thecourse of history. Cautious or ethical time travelers mayhave secrets that can literally change the world, if they fallinto the wrong hands.

Lastly, as mentioned under Responsibility, a time control-ler might well have a secret regarding a past mistakewhich changed things, something the character is tryingto fix (or atone for) without anyone learning the truth



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Power Profile - Time Powers