Bonus Content: Making Inspired Variations (Patreon)

In polling the patrons, the consensus is that rather than share another Variation or two, I should share the guidelines for making Inspired Variations. So, here is this week's bonus content:

Variation Principles

Designing Variations is more art than science, but there are methods that make it easier.

Nearly all the Variations in Deviant: The Renegades and its supplements started with a high concept — the main thing the Variation is meant to do. Most of the time it ends up being the name of the Variation. Flight is about moving through the air, for example, and Pyrokinesis is about manipulating fire.

Sometimes the high concept suggests several related effects. Electrokinesis, for example, is a whole toolkit in itself; its possible uses simply pile up in the mind. Other times, the high concept is quite straightforward. Carapace is armor, reducing the damage the Deviant suffers from attacks, for example.

From the high concept, there are two directions you can go: You can either borrow and modify effects from existing Variations, or you can create a new Variation from scratch. You can also mix the two approaches — borrowing for some effects while starting fresh when an effect doesn’t match anything in existence.

Borrowing

Variations in Deviant are meant to be customizable. Every published Variation offers three examples of ways it can be flavored to fit Remade of different Clades and character concepts. This works the other way around, too. If your character concept has powers that aren’t covered by any existing Variation, but you see parts of multiple Variations that do things they should be able to do, it’s perfectly fine to combine from each of them to achieve the concept.

This is easiest when the new Variation is essentially two existing Tiered Variations twined together — a choice between two Magnitude • Variations at Magnitude •, with higher-Magnitude effects building on each of the two Magnitude • effects. Even in cases where one, some, or all the source Variations are Discrete or skip around, you can think of the whole as though it were multiple Variations entangled with the same Scar.

A Magnitude ••• combined Variation, for example, can be built to emulate up to two Magnitude •• Variations, three Magnitude • Variations, or a single Magnitude ••• Variation. One of Magnitude •••••, on the other hand, can mimic up to five Magnitude • Variations, four Magnitude •• Variations, three Magnitude ••• Variations, two Magnitude •••• Variations, or a single Magnitude ••••• — together with all the relevant prerequisites.

This means that Variations that are purely a combination of two different Variations’ effects won’t have a Magnitude 5 effect on par with either of the parent Variations. Adding a twist to such twined Variations can be a good way to make it greater than the sum of its halves. It’s also okay to have a slightly more potent effect with an inherent disadvantage beyond its Scar, such as a Magnitude ••••• Variation that grants a Magnitude •••• and three Magnitude • effects — not a legal entanglement but far from an optimal one for a Magnitude ••••• Scar.

Variations are limited to five distinct effects — no more than one for each Magnitude. However, nothing prevents a Deviant from having two different Variations that act as two halves of a whole. With the Storyteller’s permission, a player whose character has reached the limits of a twined Variation might be allowed to split it into two separate Variations of lower Magnitude and entangled to the same Scar — following the spirit (although not the letter) of the Fused and Shifting Scars rule (Deviant, p. 111).

Example of Variation Creation #1

Julia wants to create a character who can manipulate local gravity. She wants it to allow her character to fall safely, jump higher, climb more easily, and maybe eventually fly a little bit. But she also wants it to be able to make objects and people lighter or heavier, slowing them down or even immobilizing them. Her Storyteller points out that that is probably too much for a single Variation. Julia agrees and decides to start with a Variation that simply weakens gravity, twining together elements of Brachiation and Flight. She’ll make one that strengthens gravity later and probably from scratch. The following Variation is the result:

Gravity Reduction (• to •••••)

Overt

Reflexive, Tiered, Toggled

The Deviant can loosen the grip of gravity on herself.

At Magnitude •, choose one:

•            Slow Fall: The Remade enjoys the benefits of Flight 1 (Deviant, p. 119).

•            Sprint: The Broken enjoys the benefits of Enhanced Speed 1 (Deviant, p. 117).

At Magnitude ••, choose one:

•            Balanced: The Deviant benefits from both Magnitude • effects.

•            Drifting Leaf: This is only available if the Remade chose Slow Fall as her Magnitude • effect. The Broken enjoys the benefits of Flight 2.

•            Wall-Run: This is only available if the Deviant chose Sprint as her Magnitude • effect. The Remade enjoys the benefits of Brachiation (Balanced) 2 (Deviant, p. 114).

Nothing too strange so far. The Remade could take both Variations at Magnitude • with a single Magnitude •• Scar entangling them both, or either of the Magnitude •• Variations with a Magnitude •• Scar entangled with them.

At Magnitude •••, choose one:

•            Diverse: The Broken enjoys the benefits of all Magnitude •• effects.

•            Ceiling Run: This is only available if the Deviant chose Wall-Run as her Magnitude •• effect. The Remade enjoys the benefits of Brachiation 3.

•            Controlled Negation: This is only available if the Broken chose Drifting Leaf as her Magnitude •• effect. The Deviant enjoys the benefits of Flight 3.

At Magnitude ••••, the Remade enjoys the benefits of all Magnitude ••• effects.

Notice what we’re doing here. By building the Variation as a combination of Brachiation and Flight, requiring the purchase of every level of effect along the way, we wind up with a custom Variation that is effectively two Magnitude 3 Variations treated as one Magnitude 4 Variation. This is really as simple as it gets. Because a Magnitude 5 Scar can entangle up to three Magnitude 3 Variations, we could borrow a Magnitude 3 effect from a completely different Variation or improve upon Controlled Negation so that it emulates one of the versions of Flight 4. However, in this case we’re going a slightly different direction.

Deviations

•            Targeting: The Broken can reduce the effect of gravity on a target of a Size no greater than the Variation’s Magnitude + Scar Power + 2. As a Directed effect, the Deviant grants one of the Variation’s effects to a target in range until the end of the scene. Remember that targeting a Directed effect always requires an action. Inanimate objects determine their effective weight by dividing their normal weight by the Variation’s Magnitude times Scar Power. A Deviant with Gravity Reduction (Wall Run; Sprint) 2 and Scar Power 5, for example could allow a 1,000-pound object of up to Size 9 to be pushed, lifted, carried, and thrown as though it weighed only 100 pounds.

This is the only effect that is not wholly borrowed from Brachiation and Flight, instead introducing an option reminiscent of Sacred Flesh but also very much its own thing — and one that is a potential game-changer if used cleverly. This is really all it takes to make a combined Variation feel less like two lower-Magnitude Variations entangled with the same Scar, and more like a new Variation.