A superior power classification system, discussion and exploration.

Friends, Romans, Countrypersons.
Today I come to you with a proposal.
A proposal to strike down the tyranny imposed by Wildbow's wildly sub-par power classification system implemented in and popularized by Worm!

I realise this comes out of nowhere, but this has gone on too long. No longer should teleporters and speedsters have the exact same rating! No longer will the empath share their category with the hypercognate!

Drama aside the following is my WIP proposal for an alternative, any feedback or other suggestions are welcome.

 

What would the levels be? 1- 10? And what would be considered peak for each category. Also you should try to include magic for marvel/dc universes

 

There's no defined scale at this time, something to work on perhaps, and the system is descriptive rather than prescriptive, so it should be equally applicable to magic users.

 

First decide what problem you are trying to solve, then design a solution to that problem.

What is the intended use case of this system?

The model produced by Wildbow works within that context, it has flaws, but it is a good solution. What scenario is yours designed for?

 

The problem is the number of quests, both on this site as well as others, that utilise Wildbow's system for various things out of convenience.
Wildbow's model is even worse when you consider its supposed in-universe use.
This is intended as an ability descriptor short-hand for general use as needed by authors.

 

A meta system not designed for a world is harder to execute, because you are competing with more. A simple test here is just trying it on various characters and seeing if it works well. For example by your model would Skitter be a sensory minion character? What does calling her Sensory 1 Minion 4 tell us that is an improvement over a quick description of her powers or even the model from Worm?

That is what I think is important to consider looking at use cases and see how they can be improved.

I would argue too that Wildbow made a model that works well for the supposed in-universe use, a little clunky or redundant at times but fairly well overall.

 

its worth noting that Wildbow's system is explicitly not a powers classification system. it's a Responce classification system.
and in that context it works

 

You do not respond to a teleporter and a speedster the same way.
You do not respond to a mind controller and a minion summoner the same way.
You do not respond to a precog and an emotion senser the same way.
You do not respond to the sheer breadth of the shaker and breaker the same way.

if you want to use her as an example, I'd probably classify her as Interface:4 Minion:1 Mind:3 Sensory:2.
This quickly tells you that she controls other units, has some way to replenish her units, the high Mind rating implies she has the mental capacity to micro manage or otherwise use the units to their full potential, and Sensory tells us she can probably use the units to gather information, or has some other way to know more about the battlefield than would be immediately obvious. (the numbers are fairly arbitrary, like I said I haven't come up with an effective scale right now)

 

You should probably attach some sort of tag to the post saying it’s about Worm.

 

Not in exactly the same way, but you don't respond to any two powers in exactly the same way.

Generally speaking, for both the teleporter and the speedster you should try to limit their mobility wherever possible while being ready for an attack from any direction.
For both minion makers and mind controllers target the master before the minions.
For both precog and emotion sensors they will know more they should, what knowledge depends on the particulars of the power but assume they know your plan before you do.
For shaker and breaker... well they are different classifications so they have different general responses.

While the exact response should differ based on the exact powers in play (both yours and theirs) the broad strokes are the same, and that is the point.

Taylor wouldn't be interface at all according to your system as written because interface is mind, or technology, controlling while Taylor explicitly only controls the body. I think this is butting up to a problem with trying to compare your system and Wildbows, it's an apples to oranges comparison. Wildbow's system categorizes the threat that a parahuman represents and is fairly flexible because the setting necessitates that. Your system categorizes powers and would be significantly less useful in-universe because of that. If you want to keep developing this as a system for quest makers to use then more power to you. The best system for any quest would be one that is specifically tailored to that quest but having a template to start from could be useful for a lot of people, but it doesn't make sense to replace Wildbow's system with one like this.

 

I'd like to suggest that the [exotic] modifier not have a number attached to It and instead use simple modifiers to dictate how it's exotic for an example the Celestial Forge would be
creation-10 exotic- growth

 

After a fair bit of experimentation, I have come up with another classification standard running parallel to this, somewhat on similar lines.

Categories:

1. Vector
2. Mode
3. Application

Vector:

It becomes clear to those who understand and study powers that its use depends upon the Parahuman and the way their ability expresses itself. One can say that there are three vectors for the use of a power/ability.​

• Auto​
• Exo​

- Auto is the use of power through the self, either with the body of the Cape or with elements directly originating from the body. The earlier classifications of Brutes would generally fall here automatically, alongside Breakers, a large number of Movers, almost all Strikers, most Changers and many Strangers.
What this means is that as long as a power is used through the physical body of the Parahuman it is an Auto-Vector Power.

- Exo is the use of power through elements not of direct origin from the physical body of the Parahuman. Instances where a power takes its origin outside the Parahuman's self, such as Tinkers, Exo classification also applies to Parahumans whose ability effectively places a distance, be it literal or metaphorical, between the Parahuman and the exotic effect of their power (re: Shakers, Masters, Blasters, et al.)

Mode

What is certain from these studies is the unique nature of all powers. No two powers are fundamentally the same, even if most show traits similar to one another to be grouped. Mode, here, refers to this very aspect. The form that a power takesis important in order to better understand its effects, the threats posed by it and counters to the ability. We can say that powers come in 6 Modes:

• Affective
• Transformative
• Constructive
• Informative
• Explosive
• Reactive

A basic idea of what these modes are can be gleaned from their names alone.​

- Affective powers, as the name suggests, are powers that have an impact upon usage. These powers have wide ranging effects on the basis of its application, but widely, Affective powers fall under the bracket of those powers which have a visible effect and results in some change.

- Transformative powers are those powers that, in essence, bring forth a transformation of objects, persons, concepts, constants, laws, phenomena, etc. These are further grouped as Instantiating and Inciting groups, depending on the degree of separation from Parahuman and Power.

- Constructive powers are those powers that function solely through creating, building, constructing or crafting the power expression in a physical form. Note that while all Tinkers seemingly fall into this group, it is not always the case. Nor is this mode limited to that type alone. Parahumans who can create hardlight shields, raise walls of different materials, create material objects, etc. also have Constructive Mode of power.

- Informative Powers are those powers that work on the basis of accumulation and analyisis of information, but also to a wide range of other effects that work together in order to gain a better understanding of the physical world.

- Explosive. The name is a misnomer and is quite misleading. This mode is for those powers that are not within the standards of power effects. Any power which can cause tremendous or noticeable changes in both the physical and non-physical environment is an Explosive Power. For instance, the power that is displayed by the Siberian is an Explosive Power, for it is a "Minion" or rather, a Projection, which obeys a different set of rules than normal, and in turn, creates new anomalies with reference to other powers. It is usually a temporary classification.

- Reactive powers are powers that only have an effect in reaction to another power effect. It is often fondly called Restless Domino, for instances of such powers seeking out the trigger (or spark) to kickstart its effects are noticed.
Powers such as that of August Prince, which responds to any threat to the Parahuman fall into this category.

Application
Application refers to the means by which a power can enforce itself upon the physical world. It deals with the evaluation of the mechanism of a power or ability. Application is concerned with how the power affects something, rather than in what way.

It can broadly fall into one of three categories:​

• Additive
• Alterative
• Subtractive

- Additive powers are applications of powers in order to 'add' something, such as an attribute, an object, an effect, etc, which wasn't there prior to the power taking effect and cannot naturally persist on its own power. These powers generally take the form of a visible and tangible effect upon reality, usually lasting and sometimes, permanently.
- Alterative abilities alter a pre-existing condition or state of something, be it an object, mind, etc. Alterative powers often result in localised changes that are reversible naturally or otherwise. Any permanent alteration is likely to become a property that can exist without any additional reinforcement by the power.
- Subtractive. The opposite of Additive, subtractive powers take away from an existing thing, a certain quality, trait, definition, ability, etc. It often finds itself a part of a larger set of power effects. Undoing of other power effects is a good example of a subtractive power.

Note: If the power has none of these three applications, it is automatically assumed that the Mode alone will suffice to explain the effect of the power, and gives the Parahuman a Zero Application rating. If the power can perform all three applications, then it gets an AAS designation.

​

---

Types-
1A, 1M, 1H (Average, Moderate, High)
2N, 2B, 2F (Neutral, Belligerent, Friendly)
3C, 3L, 3I (Cooperative, Lethal, Inexperienced)

Where 1 is Destructive scope of Power, 2 is Disposition of the Parahuman and 3 is the Helpful nature of the Power.

Format:
Name of the Parahuman- Vector/Mode/Application 123[Values]

Example:
Kaiser- A-E/Con/AAS MBC
Skitter- E/Aff-Inf/0 MBC

---

Since the usage of Power Classification is required to quickly assess and evaluate a power upon noticing it, especially for trained PRT Squads and Law Enforcement, brevity is the only concern that this system of classification faces. We request the readers to help refine this system to better suit the standards of a bureaucracy that is rife with corruption.


With regards
Greycell.​

 

Okay, what is the utility of your system over Wildbows? You mention brevity but it is a lot quicker to call skitter a master 9 than say that she is an exo, affective & informative, zero, moderate, belligerent, cooperative, cape. I suppose you could just say the abbreviations but that would still be longer and be more difficult to parse especially in a high stress situation.

Let us also take a moment to examine what information is actually conveyed to us by the classification. Using Skitter as an example, exo tells us that the cape affects their environment instead of themself (sort of), affective tells us that that the power has a visible effect and causes some change (why is this useful?), informative is basically thinker from Wildbow's system, the lack of additive/alterative/subtractive tells us that it doesn't add/remove/alter anything, the destructive scope and disposition are actually useful, and finally "the helpful nature of the power" I am assuming this is talking about the disposition of the power itself, but if so the rating makes no god damn sense in universe. At the start of canon, very few people had any idea that powers had anything approaching sentience and at no point in the PRT's entire existence do they have the capability to measure this.

The sum total of what the rating conveys(ignoring the last bit) is that skitter is a belligerent cape whose power has moderate destructive scope, doesn't add/remove/alter anything, has a visible effect on her environment, and has a thinker component. How is the PRT supposed to use this? The Affective classification is so broad that it is practically useless for figuring out how to respond to a cape. Actually, this is a criticism that could be leveled against most of the modes in your system.

This is unfortunately another mark against your system vs Wildbow's. It is a lot quicker and easier to fit any given parahuman into Wildbow's system than yours, meaning that new capes can't be quickly assessed and assigned ratings.

If you want to further develop a backend system for quests to use then I offer you both my encouragement and my (hopefully constructive) praise/criticism. However, designing an in universe replacement for Wildbow's system... This is already a pretty hard job because while Wildbow's system works relatively well the more important part is that the world (intentionally or not) conforms to his system. Trying to use a system that classifies powers rather than the threat that they represent just makes an already hard job ten times more difficult.

 

Thank you so much for pointing out the various flaws within the system and for your gracious feedback!
Although the system is to classify powers themselves and what effect they have on the world around them, it would, in actuality, be hard to realise and use this system in an actual real-world scenario.

It was my desire to create a classification method running parallel to the "Wildbow System" but focusing on what exactly the power does rather than a method to simply denote what the power is.

Think HTML versus XML.

The presentation of the facts and facets of a specific power is reliably determined with the use of the Wildbow System, but focusing on the ability itself, one can find that, as the OP claims, multiple powers of different nature's are grouped under a broad category, which is irksome and disappointing.

I had expected that my method would be more useful to those actually studying a power and would path an easier way to classifying the power under any of the 12 types provided by Wildbow. More accurately, I had hoped that this system would be more useful from an academic perspective; to help achieve a detailed analysis of the effects of a power and how it could be countered specifically (tailored counters, in a sense)

Addressing the point of Type-3, it denotes to what extent the power affects the user, for it is obvious that in-universe, it is generally believed that trigger events are always traumatic and lead to "broken people", something that most relevant figures in the story seemed to understand.

Alongside this, the existence of Case-53s, for those not "in-the-know" about their origins, it would seem as if their power randomly mutated them, which is not something a cooperative power would do.
Add in the Conflict Drive that many Parahumans seem to have, factor in the benign nature of some powers and the banal nature of others (excluding a few select circumstances), it becomes necessary to group them to better predict interactions between powers and people, so as to create contingencies, plans and containment measures for specific powers.

I'll be the first one to agree that such a system is, in the end, pointless. Ultimately, the decision to use it as a substitute for the canon method would be ill-advised, and I concur with you on many of its disadvantages.

I aim to improve it to suit a standard I'm not sure actually exists.

With regards,
Greycell.

 

Except that you do, in broad terms. Especially when viewed in context of how powers operate in Worm.

For teleporters and speedsters, the best response is to negate their mobility, and to try and lure them into situations where their power is constrained. Remember that most teleporters in the setting require line of sight, gave severe weight and distance limits, and so on. Speedsters are usually breakers that, like all Worm powers, have additional limitations; they are not The Flash. And a great many mover powers are simply very basic flight or acrobatic skill — which fall under the same ‘constrain their movement’ rule.

Precogs, emotion sensors, people with enhanced senses or enhance cognitive ability… to combat them your primary goal is to deny them as much information as possible. Remember especially that precogs like Tattletale, Dinah, Coil, and Contessa are extremely beyond the norm, too, and that most of them require heaps of solid information in order to produce even vague predictions in the form of numbers or colors.

Shakers specialize in battlefield control and disruption, so making sure they do not have the time to entrench themselves or to hide behind allies as support is paramount.

Breakers meanwhile are literally the same as your ‘exotic’ category, basically meaning ‘their bodies don’t interact with physics normally. Don’t expect conventional weapons to work properly, and check their secondary ratings’

It is not a system that’s meant to be used as a granular ‘how do we specifically defeat this power category?’ label. Take Movers as your example: The goal is not to say ‘Only fight them in small spaces where they can’t jump around’. It’s to say ‘Focus on using what we know about this cape to control their mobility.’ It’s a quick-and-dirty label you can slap onto a cape in order for troops to be able to look at with a glance in a crisis situation and know what NOT to do, what to prioritize, and what sort of policies to apply when potentially interacting with them.

Going back to your proposal again, you bring up teleporters. The problem for example with trying to put ‘teleporters’ in their own category is that exactly how their power functions is going to affect *any* general rule. You can’t say ‘cut line of sight’, because not all of them
need it. You can’t say, ‘weight them down’, because not all of them have weight limits and many can choose what if anything to bring with them. You can’t pull a Jumper and look for their photo album, because some teleporters don’t need to see or even have been somewhere to get there. And so on and so on.

The ONLY thing that works as a formal system is a very generic set of instructions or advice — which Wildbow’s system does very well.

That isn’t to say it couldn’t use some expanding if you wanted to take it to other settings, of course. Reed Richards and Tony Stark -type superscientists and gear-users like Batman and Green Arrow don’t fit the Tinker mold, for example; Tinkers are much more like Brennus’ ‘Contrivers’, as opposed to being Gadgeteers. Actual Psychics or Magic Users don’t fit into the system either in many ways. But for what it was designed for? It works just fine. The problem is the authors who want to take it out of context.