Part 3 - Points and Advancement -- A Handbook for the Imminently Awesome

--"Points" are a sort of expendable resource one earns through roleplaying on this site. Points allow a person to invest in their Power(s) to evolve them further and further along. Each point spent in a given Power allows the player to add features and remove limitations, as well as compensate for the upper limits of their power's growth. Each Point invested must purchase a feature before the power gains any of the other benefits of gaining a point.

-In order to gain a point, one needs to roleplay. This means that the character must be approved, as well as their power up to the point they are playing it at. All you must do otherwise is complete a Roleplay Thread, and get it graded.

-While the site runs on Liquid Time, only one thread can be Graded from the lot of a given Character's threads. If any thread was started or running during the time that a Graded thread was running, even if only a portion of the time or started minutes before the thread ended, that thread is not eligible for Grading.

--Clarification One: A thread can be Graded for any number of individuals in the thread without affecting the remainder's ability to get other threads Graded.
--Clarification Two: A player with multiple characters may have multiple threads running at the same time (one for each of their characters) and get them all graded for the respective characters upon completion of each.

-An exception to the rule is when a Graded Thread was not deemed worthy of a Point, which will become more and more common of an occurrence as a character evolves and gains points. Essentially, each time you gain a point, expect the basic requirement for a point to be doubled in difficulty! But if you gain a Point, none of the threads running at the same time as that thread which earned you a Point will be eligible to be graded anymore.

-As threads continue to pile up without earning you anything, don't worry. You are slowly picking away at the requirements nonetheless, and will earn a Point if you keep working at it!

-The maximum number of unspent points you can have horded on a character is 1. This means you are ineligible to earn more points if you have not spent your most recent point. This is in place to make sure everything advances at an even pace and stays true to the detail that nobody's power starts great and it takes work to make it better. People in this world don't miraculously spawn powers with 2 or 3 points in them already, nor do powers advance in leaps and bounds. It's always step-by-step even if some steps are larger than others.


-Points, as specified earlier, can be used to evolve your Power to have new features and remove limitations, as well as compensate for the automatic increase in power inherent to using points.

--New Features includes things that are not accessible by virtue of the power being the power. Things like precise control are not inherent to a control power like Pyrokinesis, Ranged Manipulation of Created Objects is not inherent to Creation, things of that nature. Another kind of Feature would be "Circumstantial Enhancements" which would be features that ramped up certain capabilities of a Power given a certain set of circumstances, such as increased Flight Speed when it was Raining. This is different from a Limitation, since it doesn't restrict the power from functioning normally outside of those circumstances.
--Other things included "Features" are "Power Stunts", for example being able to whirl your arms around super fast to create tornadoes to blow things away can be considered a Super Speed Power Stunt rather than a power altogether. Another example would be using Flame Generation to propel oneself through the air as if through a rocket-style flight power. "Power Stunts" are treated as extensions to a basic power rather than entirely different powers, and thusly can be purchased to give the Point Benefits to your primary power.
--Removing Limitations is like spending a point to unrestrict your powers from working in a certain way. Most common in high-potential powers, like Teleportation, where one would generally have 3 or 4 Limitations to buy off before they would feel safe with that being their only power. Removing the Limitation (sometimes seen as 'Enabling' a Power) not only makes the power more free to function, but also gives the Benefits of spending Points in a power.
--Compensating for Powers is a common thing that occurs with powers that involve going beyond the human limits, such as Super Speed, or Super Strength. At a certain point, Super Speed becomes way more than a human can keep up with, which means, unfortunately for Speedsters, they won't be able to use their top speed without serious repercussions, since the powers don't do anything to supplement anything else on their own. Super Speed does not automatically come with the ability to see and react super fast, only move as such. Similarly, Super Speed does not automatically come with Friction Immunity. Such luxuries will need a point to be spent on them, which will enable Super Speed to be used more freely and without worry.

-Points can also be spent in one more way: Purchasing New Powers. New Powers are considered entirely separate from other powers, and evolve on a different line, meaning points spent on one power are not spent on the other for determining Benefits from spending points.

--New Powers must be Within One Step of the Basic Power, Maintain a Theme, or be Diametrically Opposed to the Basic Power. This means that if the base power is Pyrokinesis, New Powers must either be within one step (Lava, Explosions, Lightning, Steam, etc), Maintain a Theme (Weapon/Armor Creation with a Forge Theme, etc), or be Diametrically Opposed (Ice, Water, Mud/Earth, etc). More new powers can branch off from powers the user has, even if they haven't put more points into them, still following the rules of getting new powers.
--New Powers start at Basic Level, meaning even if you have 10 points invested in your base power, a New Power will start just as awkward and unwieldy as your first one did.

Power Stunts VS New Powers:

-Every time you spend a Point on a power, all of that power's "Amounts" are doubled. This includes those purchased by points, and those which are restricted. The only ones which do not innately increase are "Target" Amounts as seen in Mind Powers, commonly. Even if one purchases a Feature which lets "Target" equal "more than 1" The targets will only increase in number One per point, rather than doubling like it does for the rest.

--When an "Amount" is doubled via points (either buying an Increased Amount Feature or from spending a point) this means that the amount is legitimately increased by double. 1.5 lbs becomes 3 lbs, which will later become 6 lbs. and so on and on. One Tribal Bonfire would become Two Tribal Bonfires, or perhaps a new abstract Amount. If you move on to a new abstract Amount, make sure to provide a new image reference. 10 meters becomes 20 meters, becomes 40 meters, and so on. If a power had all three of these "Amounts" all three would double at the dropping of a point!


-This is intentionally exponential, so that we can get from the rather weak Basic Powers, to something capable of fighting off alien invasions and saving the world from meteors, within a reasonable timeframe of advancement for such power to be gained. While the difficulty in getting points may be adjusted to keep the game more fun and less about grinding, we have high hopes that the Exponential Growth between points won't need to change for any reason.