canyonmods | POWERS

POWERS

All of the powers listed below are suggestions. Players will not be required to choose powers from this list, but rather are encouraged to use it for inspiration. As long as it's not game-breaking and fits with the theme of your type, feel free to use it! We just ask that players keep the limitations in mind, either the listed limits or ones that you decide for yourself. Bolded limitations are required.

Please document all powers somewhere on your journal. There is a fun little code for it on our Monster Info Template page, but feel free to use whatever sort of coding you'd like!

Characters can app into the game with up to 3 powers. After three months in-game, you may develop 1 new power every 2 months. Please submit new powers down below for approval.

BESTIAL

Strong, swift, and feral, Bestial types draw from the animal kingdom to get their powers. They can see all the colors humans can't, hear the quietest sounds, and have instincts that set them apart from the pack. Each with their own unique set of animal parts, there's no telling what sort of special abilities this type will unveil.

ABILITIES

LIMITATIONS

⇁ Increased strength and senses in accordance with exhibited animal traits
⇁ Special abilities related to animals - e.g. pitch-perfect mimicry from a parrot Bestial or communicating via ultrasound from a dolphin Bestial
⇁ Ability to change into an animal, insect, etc., either partially or completely
⇁ Control/speak to animals of the same type the Bestial is (i.e. bee bestials communicating with a hive, wolf Bestials speaking with a pack)
⇁ Powers and abilities that cycle with the moon

⇁ In order for a Bestial character to take on the abilities/habits of an animal, they must physically display a trait from that animal somewhere on their body
⇁ The more a Bestial gives in to their base nature, the stronger their animal senses will get, but the weaker their human abilities (people skills, higher intellect, etc.) will become as a result
⇁ Weaknesses of their species (slowed healing, weakness to high-pitched sounds, prey instincts to freeze up if they're based on prey animals)
⇁ Tendency to get overstimulated by their enhanced senses
⇁ Decreased ability to understand and speak human languages

ELEMENTAL

Representing one of four primary elements - fire, earth, water, and air - Elementals embody the earth's raw power. Cooking up storms and manipulating the very elements your body is made of, these types are not to be taken lightly. Some say these types can be most creative with what counts as an "element..." Humans are nothing but dirt and water, aren't they?

ABILITIES

LIMITATIONS

⇁ Control over a primary element - every Elemental needs a primary element, out of fire, water, earth, or air. This will be their permanent element.
⇁ Minor control over a secondary element - for example, a fire primary may control earth if it's magma, or an air primary may cause rain by manipulating air pressure. Remember that this is just a secondary element - you must be utilizing your primary element in some way in order to use the second one with it! So while a water Elemental may be able to control the temperature of water to make it hotter (fire secondary), they would not be able to start fires on their own.
⇁ Ability to change partially or completely into their primary element
⇁ Teleportation using their primary element
⇁ Ability to make constructs out of their primary element

⇁ Do not cause natural disasters without mod approval
⇁ Characters may not control more than 1 primary and 1 secondary element
⇁ Characters may be weak to opposite of primary element (fire vs. water, earth vs. air)
⇁ Potential loss of control over constructs
⇁ Environmental weakening of powers in certain weather conditions (water Elementals being weaker during a heat wave, earth Elementals being weaker during winter when things are dead, etc.)

MECHANICAL

Whoever said natural is the way to go has never met a Mechanical type. With the ability to tap into wi-fi, replace the inefficient and broken parts of themselves, and engineer a solution to any problem, Mechanicals are a technological force to be reckoned with.

ABILITIES	LIMITATIONS
⇁ Ability to "link in" to technology and control it, i.e. plugging your hand into a computer to download data or send a message ⇁ Interchangeable body parts ⇁ Wi-fi capability ⇁ Ability to temporarily bring inanimate objects to "life" (to be controlled by the Mechanical) ⇁ Ability to jam up electrical signals	⇁ Easier to function in the city and areas densely populated with man-made things ⇁ Weak to water and the elements, risk of rusting ⇁ Potential to break down and need maintenance ⇁ May lose human emotions entirely with more use of their powers ⇁ Potential to "glitch out" in a multitude of ways

PENUMBRAL

Strange, twisted creatures that seem to slink out of the underbelly of the city, Penumbrals have perhaps the most capricious and mysterious of all the types. The darkness is their friend, and you can find the dark anywhere you can find the light... Manipulating emotions and shadows alike, they're sure to make you come face to face with your fears.

ABILITIES	LIMITATIONS
⇁ Ability to control shadows and make them a physical presence capable of interacting with things ⇁ Ability to sap the feelings and emotions of others ⇁ Ability to turn into a sludge-like consistency capable of absorbing things ⇁ Teleportation by melding with shadows and moving through them ⇁ Ability to dislocate their jaw large enough to swallow someone whole	⇁ Their powers do not affect Spirituals ⇁ Their powers area weaker during the day ⇁ The more they use their powers, the more they give in to their darker nature, and the less human they become either physically or mentally ⇁ Use of powers may induce auditory hallucinations of words in an unknown language ⇁ Uncomfortable with religion

SPIRITUAL

Docile until they're provoked, Spiritual types usually use their powers to help others (though there are exceptions to every rule). In tune with emotions, the spiritual plane, and the force binding all living things together, they can improve other people's lives and health while enriching their own.

ABILITIES	LIMITATIONS
⇁ Mind-reading ⇁ Ability to induce strong feelings in others (anger, happiness, lust, etc.) ⇁ Ability to become partially or completely invisible and/or intangible ⇁ Minor healing abilities ⇁ Teleportation by vanishing and reappearing	⇁ Their powers do not affect Penumbrals ⇁ Their powers are weaker during the night ⇁ The longer spent in an intangible state, the harder it is to become physical again ⇁ Healing may work by inflicting the wound on the Spiritual while taking it away from the subject ⇁ Religious fervor, delusions that they're a deity

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Please reply here with a description of the new power you want to give your character. Keep in mind that you may develop 1 new power every 2 months after your initial 3 that were approved with your app.

Re: intangibility and invisibility, will characters be able to bring items with them and use them? I'm specifically thinking of cell phones here, but in general, too.

Yes, characters may still interact with physical objects when they're invisible/intangible if they so choose! Those objects may or may not also become invisible/intangible depending on player discretion.

hiya! quick question re the boundary between spirituals' physical abilities and actual powers. if i am planning to give my character 82349283479823 working eyeballs, is the functionality of those eyeballs a power or just a normal thing eyeballs do? thanks!

In that case, the functionality of those eyeballs would not count for a power slot, they would just be able to see as per usual. However, if those eyes did anything special (i.e. shoot lasers, see through people's skin), that would need to be logged as a power.

good deal! thank you, that helps a lot :]b

Generally, do Mechanicals gain an inherent understanding of technology as they become technology, sort of like the changes to a Beastial's instincts? Or is it something that would have to be gained through approved powers or simply practicing/studying how various pieces of tech function?

Question related to this! I was planning on giving Sans wings that are usually just bird bones but when in use gain feathers made of glowing blue magic. They would not be able to do anything that normal wings couldn't do. Is that a power or a body part?

Mechanicals can gain an innate understanding of technology as they become technology, yes! This does not have to be approved via the official power system.

Because of the nature of Sans's wings (being magically-activated), this would count as a power and need to be approved.

Six invisible skeletal arms that have a six-foot reach in all directions around Sans. While invisible and intangible, they're capable of picking things up, but at no greater strength than Sans's regular arms. They do no damage in this state (well I guess he could smack someone but Sans is not strong enough to do real damage with a punch). Sans can activate them, when they become visible due to gaining the glow that is in the rest of Sans's body. Coming into contact with the arms in this state does damage like his attacks do in canon: a very small amount of damage that stacks up very quickly as long as the arms are in contact with/passing through someone. The arms can't tear through someone's body or anything--it's more like psychic or magical damage. Because of this, psychic/magical barriers will block Sans's attacks. Using his arms like this drains his magic reserves; he can't do this infinitely and is more of a glass cannon than anything--in a drawn-out fight he will absolutely run out of stamina. Cannot attack and teleport at the same time. These arms do not count as physical contact for his emotion powers.

If this needs nerfs, here's some suggestions: Lowering the range from six to four feet. Capping his max amount of damage per arm. Increasing how fast their use drains his energy.

Shadow illusions: Roman can create temporary illusions with his shadows, changing his appearance in minor ways or making things appear to people (i.e. showing them a lover, an animal, a change in immediate scenery). He can only do this for a short amount of time at once, and keeping it up will exhaust him.

INFORMATION HUD: Sort of a smaller version of what he had during the experiment, essentially facial recognition with basic information like name, height, etc. (if the information isn't measurable or in any kind of database it's not available). Still contains the notes field, he can edit the information if it needs updating, and he can turn the whole thing off if he doesn't want it in his vision.

No nerfs needed. Happy ghost handshakes, Sans!

Enjoy having a face for a while, Romy baby.

Robotnik may still occasionally get updates on what a person is thinking if the other player is alright with that. Glitches in the information he receives are possible at your discretion.

Would being able to sense things like space size with whiskers be considered a power? Like how cats use their whiskers to gauge if they can fit into a box. Or is that just considered a default ability?

For an ability like this, that would be considered a default ability that comes with having whiskers. For Bestials, extra powers would be more targeted increases in senses like night vision, a bloodhound-like sense of smell, etc., but minor improvements would be considered "cosmetic!"

Okay. That makes sense. Thank you for clarifying. I was having some issues figuring out the power thing, so this will help a lot!

Ability to heal injuries by taking them onto himself, though not necessarily in a 1:1 way, at a slightly reduced damage level. For example, if someone has a small cut on their arm on Sans it could turn into a bruise on his leg. Generally, if Sans tried to heal a lethal wound, it would become lethal on him too (if Sans healed a cut off arm and his own only got mostly cut off, that's still not great for survival). Whoever he's healing has to be alive to be healed; he can't revive the dead. Sans cannot create new limbs from nowhere, though he may be able to reattach a cleanly detached limb provided too much time hasn't passed (which would still result in Sans taking a lot of damage onto himself since it's still fixing a severed limb).

Try not to get your own limbs cut off too much, alright, Sans?

Would Electricity be considered an element? An electric elemental? Or would that be a subset of air?

For this game, electric would not be considered its own element, but rather, a subset of fire (Avatar rules!). Fire primary and air secondary, to be specific.

Vision Enhancement Suite: The mechanical changes have crept up into Papyrus's eyesockets, improving his visual perception options in a fun range of ways.
- Low light vision in the style of tapetum lucidum, intensifying the available light and reflecting a little of it to increase the light available.
- Thermal optics aka infrared vision, measures the contrast of heat signatures and translates to a visual depiction with hot things (like fires, active computers, or many animals) as bright, but cool things (like flora, inactive objects) as dark. Requires no visual light, not impeded by dust, smoke, fog, etc.
- UV-A light aka black light, emitting a light from his eyesockets that reveals fluorescence (good for cleaning stains, bad for being far more aware of far more stains than one wants to know about).
- Image magnification, minor telescopic function within allows him to zoom in to see at a greater distance.

Limitations:
Most of these are not mutually compatible, especially starting out - increased information requires increased processing, which also ties into other existing limitations of memory use. Maybe later upgrades will change that.
Low light vision: his eyesockets are now reflective in the same manner as various animals, which isn't great for being sneaky around lights, and makes taking selfies more difficult.
Thermal optics: because of the processing required, this vision comes in a lower resolution than his usual vision.
UV-A light: only functions at short range, is visible to everyone, and since bones are weakly fluorescent his skull glows faintly when using this. Not even slightly a stealthy thing.
Image magnification: It is a very limited amount of zoom, since the parts allowing it must fit within his eyesockets. Additionally, zooming in means limiting one's field of vision.

Edited 2021-10-07 19:49 (UTC)

At the unfortunate cost of Papyrus never feeling clean in a hotel room again.

Memory Upload: Thanks to the circuitry growing in his skull & chest and some experiments with downloading things, Papyrus has learned to upload bits of memories to other devices. It can be simple screenshots of what he's looking at (enhanced by his new vision), as well as things like (somewhat mediocre quality) audio/video files of his memories. They can include senses of smell/taste/touch, but these would probably take being Mechanical to parse. Being a person before a machine, his files are formatted somewhat differently than normal computer files, and take a little reformatting to upload. If he's careful enough about it, he can share simple files. If he isn't meticulous enough about the formatting, they come with meta tags hinting at his thoughts and emotions during the memories.

Limitations: The thing about needing to clean up the files before upload, lest they have fragments of Papyrus feelings, is a problem that can build up. He's learned to do this by treating digital programming like magic, like a power fueled by a mix of intent and emotion. With magic, the skeletons sometimes created static constructs - like bones to give as gifts - as well as semi-autonomous attacks like blasters that they directed in combat. Programming as if by magic synchronizes well with his Link With Technology, letting him direct machines more intuitively, but comes at the cost of the residual emotions and memories he uploads by accident. The greater length of time and the more intent focus or purpose he puts into time connected with a machine, the more it builds up a digital ghost of him in that moment, with fragments of memories, emotions, and context. Which means, his phone is getting increasingly haunted with a digital ghost of an AI of himself for the next couple months. (I assume anything to do with building potential AI of these fragments would take another power, after all. If there's any existing AI dangers out there, have fun with the hook?)

Building an AI of the fragments would take an additional power, yes! Until then, have fun with your Mechanical memshare, Papyrus ol' boy.

#nofilter #traumaticmemory #girlhelp

Double power approval request! For December and February.

Intangibility: The ability to become invisible and intangible and remain that way. He can take small items with him (phones, etc.) but not people or anything larger than he can physically carry. The longer he remains intangible, the less he wants to return to being tangible. If he remains intangible long enough, he needs an anchor to return to being tangible (a person he's close to or a place he associates with strongly).

Wall Eyes: I'll workshop that name but anyway what looks like doodles of Sans's eye sockets appear on the walls/ceilings/floors of places he thinks of as his. They look like they're drawn on, but the eyelights inside move and watch anything going by. These function as more eyes for Sans--he can see through them the same as the eyes on his body. Eyes cannot appear on glass/clear surfaces or on objects placed on walls/ceilings/floors (exception: wallpaper), which means that covering up his eyes with a painting or putting a shelf in the way or similar would block them. More eyes appear in an area the more Sans associates it with himself. Penumbrals cannot be seen at all through these eyes. I will request mod permission before placing Sans's eyes in a new location; currently, they will only appear in his house.

I wanted to make an eye pun power name up here, but I can't think of any that are better than Wall Eyes. :(

Spaghetti Code Bot(s): Remember when Papyrus started shedding bits of code and emotion into his digital files and projects? As he continues treating programming like magic, he's accidentally created all the parts he needs to summon an AI into being.

Specifically, AI based on himself, with only partial memories of his life, skills, and priorities, emphasizing the things he was using and thinking on while trying to code. Focusing on repairing the car in the driveway and thinking of driving school practice lends the ability to take over the car and drive it. Frequent texting and loitering online leaves some knowledge of how to use a phone and access the internet. The longer the AI runs autonomously, the more sense of personality it develops, and the more distinct it might become.

I'm interested in this being multiple smaller AI, ones focused on specific tasks to start, that Papyrus could try to absorb back into his programming rather than leaving to run rampant in his phone / drones / car / etc. I figure they're software, and vulnerable to everything software are - including viruses and deletion. If it makes more sense to make it a single, more coherent digital clone, that works too! And I'm open to suggestions on other limitations.

No further limitations necessary, go forth and unleash AI upon the world!

Gravity Manipulation: The ability to manipulate the gravitational field of people and things around him. At its most simple it's just increasing or decreasing the gravity of whatever he's using it on, but he can also reverse it, leading to someone floating. Can be used to float objects around at a distance. Cannot just be used to literally crush someone with gravity; if Sans pressed down as hard as possible it would be painful but you could fight against it. The larger the object/person the more difficult it is to manipulate, and the more draining. Maintaining it at length is also exponentially draining. Does not work on himself. Does not work on penumbrals. Cannot be used on very large things; Sans cannot pick up a house or anything. He may be able to push something very big if it's on wheels (and therefore meant for movement), like a car, but it would take a great deal of energy. Sans has to be able to see whatever he's manipulating to pick it up, though once grabbed he could move it out of his field of sight. Sans cannot grab something more than ten feet away from him.

Edited 2022-04-21 03:37 (UTC)

Houston, we have a power!

Shadow mind control - Roman can connect with the shadows on and around people in order to exert control over their willpower. He must be within a reasonable distance in order to do this, and his shadows have to be able to touch theirs for it to work. Will not work if he can no longer see the person or their shadows. Will not work if it is too brightly-lit.

Shadow emotional manipulation - Roman can manipulate emotions to induce strong feelings of love, fear, anger, sadness, happiness, or otherwise. Targets' eyes will go black for the duration of the emotional control. Can be broken by Spiritual interference or presence of bright lights.

Shadow strength - Roman can sap the strength out of the light in the air, making himself and his powers stronger for the duration. When this happens, all the color and light will drain out of his immediate area. The more he does this, the larger his area of influence will be, but the less control he'll have over himself. Can be interfered with by a Spiritual or by the presence of enough fire/bright lights. If not interfered with directly, Roman's powers will eventually go haywire and he will pass out, releasing the color, light, and energy back into his surroundings and leaving him vulnerable until he's been out for at least 12-48 hours.

Shadow teleportation - Roman can turn into a shadowy consistency and teleport from one shadow to another. He can go longer distances the darker it is. If a bright light is shone on him when he's in the middle of teleporting, he will re-constitute as a regular person wherever the light touches.

2 unused power slots remain at this time. APPROVED bc I'm the mod and I don't feel like logging into the mod account rn.

WiFi Capability: Thanks to absorbing his phone on revival, Papyrus finally has that power he dreaded - continuous network connectivity. As long as he's in range of a network, he'll be unconsciously connecting to it; great for his ability to fact-check on the fly and multitask watching his favorite shows, terrible for keeping a digital low profile.

Audio Manipulation Package: Papyrus's voice now solely comes from the speakers in his body, giving it that recorded and digital quality. This also comes with the ability to play other audio, including the ability to apply voice filters as he speaks. With a large enough sample of a given person's voice, he could even talk with their voice - though it would be obviously generated unless he puts a lot of effort into modulating the tones (doable with time and prepwork, not so much on the fly).

Robotic Strength: Since his full robotic transformation, Papyrus has been upgrading the capacity and durability of his limbs and torso. He can now lift and push far heavier weights than before (800lb lifting? looking at olympic weight lifters, but open to specific number suggestions), open cans and battery packages with his hands, and other obnoxious Terminator-type robotic feats.

By my count, he has 2 more unselected powers at this time (August and October)

Edited (Sneaking another power in there, since I'm looking at using it in a thread) 2022-10-24 05:00 (UTC)

Sans gets improvements to his healing abilities, yay! He can now transfer injuries between two people who aren't necessarily him! This is still awful! It still works the same way as his previous ability in that the transferred version is slightly reduced and he can't recreate body parts out of nowhere. He can also do this to himself, transferring his own injuries to someone else. Whoever Sans is transferring the injury to has to be willing for this to work. This is awful he hates it.

get fuckin swole pappy

suffer, stocky skeleton sir

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

POWERS

QUESTIONS

BESTIAL

ELEMENTAL

MECHANICAL

PENUMBRAL

SPIRITUAL

NEW POWER APPROVALS

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Re: ELEMENTAL

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belated December power

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tis the season

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