Estate thought 2, Manifestations

I’ve been trying to figure how to do things where you might be inclined to pick up a secondary Estate just to get a specific feel for the character — Frex, “J’hon Wu, the Power of Guns” might want to have doves burst into frame whenever he does an Aspect miracle of 4 or higher.
A ‘book’ example of this is Delerium of the Endless and her butterflies/fish/whatever — a more subtle example might be the sound of wings whenever Death is around.
The problem is, even spending 1 point on something like this is a heck of a lot for a special effect.


Alternately (ripping off an idea I saw on a website last week), I might have players pick a manifestation of their power (though perhaps not part of the Estate itself) that would accompany expressions of their power (regardless of which actual Stat’s being used).
To use an example from the current game, the Power of Electricity might decide that his manifestation is a minor power surge or fluctuation in the area affected. When he tries to search for somebody with Divination, they might figure out that he’s looking for them by the lights flickering in the area a little and the static on the television.
This might add some fun and maybe provide information indirectly (NPCs would also have recognizable manifestations the players could pick up on). For stealthy stuff, a Power could usually restrain their manifestations, although if they couldn’t it’d probably be a good Handicap :).
Dunno. I’m just thinking out loud today.

3 comments

  1. These could be very minor gifts (1 or 2 pts), but I’m with you… if it’s just something cool that doesn’t otherwise do much, I’d be all for the “you can get one for free” side of things.
    Giving away free cool stuff is a great way to make sure every character has some (unless the player chooses otherwise).

  2. I think it’s a super idea, especially because it allows info/flavor adds to the environ. Environ in Nobilis is a characteristic which needs to be part info, part flavor, and part malleable interface with the Characters.

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