Metaphysical Powers and Vulnerabilities

Metaphysics Tab

To select a new Power, first select the general category in the first popup box in the Select Metaphysic area. This will load the second popup with a number of choices. Choosing one of them will pre-load all the data fields with information about the Power or Vulnerability. By default, level 0 is selected. You should usually purchase at least one level of the Metaphysical Power or Vulnerability before pressing the Record button. Note that you may not qualify for all of the Metaphysics listed. If you don't have the basic prerequiste Qualities, then you will be unable to select any of the powers of the type in question. For instance, if you try to purchase Special Vampyre Powers and do not have the Vampyre Quality, none will be listed as available for you.

Any of the fields here are editable, allowing you to create variations of established Metaphysics. When you record your modified power, the program makes note of your changes so that it will appear again should you wish to go back and add levels to this Quality at a later time.

Note that the program keeps track of a variety of "hidden" fields of information. For instance, there are Metaphysics that increase certain Secondary Attributes such as Essence. This information is saved along with your character. Thus, you can mix and match Qualities from different data files when building your character provided this is acceptable to your GM.

Metaphysics Listbox

This is the place where Metaphysical Powers and Vulnerabilities purchased for the character are listed. The listbox in question lies at the top of the window and will initially be empty. As you add more Powers and Vulnerabilities, every other row will be shaded a light blue color for readability.

At the top if the listbox you will see headings for Metaphysic, Level, Cost, XP Cost and Notes. The name of each item you purchase is listing in the Metaphysic column, the total number of levels purchased is listed under the Level column, the number of Character Points spent appears in the Cost column, the number of Experience Points spent is listed in the XP Cost column, and an abbreviation of any Notes you may have recorded is listed in the Notes column.

To edit items already listed in this listbox, simply double-click on the desired item. The fields below the listbox will populate with all the information recorded about the item.

You can remove items entirely by first selecting an item (this will highlight the entire row) and either pressing the Delete button on your keyboard, or by clicking the Remove button under the list box.

Page Reference Codes

UniForge uses a shorthand method for referencing the book and page number that describes the item you are editing. The letters refer to the book and the numbers refer to the exact page in the book. This is handy if you don't remember what the item you have selected it, or need more information. The codes are as follows:

WC = CJ Carella's WitchCraft
MC = Mystery Codex
AB = Abomination Codex
BoH = Book of Hod
A = Armageddon
AFMBE = All Flesh Must Be Eaten

The meanings of any other abbreviations used should be apparent.

Prerequisites

The Prereqs field indicates what other Metaphysics are required before this Power may be acquired. If you press Record without meeting the Prerequisites listed, you will be presented with a message indicating why you can't acquire this Power and the item will not be added to your list of purchased Metaphysical Powers and Vulnerabilities in the list box at the top of the window.

Note that none of the prerequisite Qualities are listed. This is because, if you did not already meet the minimum requirements in terms of Qualities, you would not have been able to select this Power.

The format with which the prerequisites are listed bears some explanation. Each requirement is separated by double ampersands (they look like this: &&). Listed with each required Power is a level separated by a comma. Thus prerequisites that read as

Lesser Healing,1&&Lesser Curse,1

means that you must have at least one level of Lesser Healing and one level of Lesser Curse in order to purchase this Power.

Requirements that have an either-or scenario are separated by double bars (they look like this: ||). Listed with each option is a level separated by a comma. Thus prerequisites that read as

Spirit Mastery,1||Death Lordship,1

means that you may have either Spirit Mastery at level one or better or Death Lordship at level one or better. Having both is not necessary in order to fill this kind of prerequisite.

The capability of using both && and || to list requirements for a single Metaphysic is currently not supported.

Notes

This mulit-line field allows you to type any notes you may want to make on your Metaphysical Power or Vulnerability. Be aware, however, that line breaks are not preserved here. If you hit return a couple times to put space between paragraphs of notes, those breaks will be stripped once you've saved your character and then come back to it later. For detailed notes, please consider using the space provided for Notes in the Description section.

Levels and Costs

Unlike the other text fields, the Level field can't be edited directly. Use the small up and down arrows to the right of this box in order to increase or decrease the levels desired here. You can never have fewer than 0 levels of any Power or Vulnerability.

Some powers have a minimum and maximum level assigned to them. This will appear in the Min/Max Level field. When you click the up arrow to purchase a level of a Metaphysical Power or Vulnerability, UniForge will automatically accelerate the purchase to the minimum level (the number before the slash) required. Also note that you cannot have more levels than the number indicated in the Max Level field (the number after the slash). You can also edit the Min/Max Level field if more levels are needed that was provided by default.

The Cost field keeps track of how much this Power will cost you in terms of character points. The XP Cost field works just the same way, but keeps track of Experience spent here instead. If the cost is a negative number, then you know that this is actually a Vulnerability. These fields are also editable so that you can adjust the cost for special cases such as if the GM grants you a break on the cost of a new Power, as can be allowed in certain games.

The XP Cost for First Level field exists because many Powers have a different cost associated with buying the first level of a new power with Experience than for every level after that. When your character has the Character In Play checkbox marked, new powers will cost a number of Experience points equal to the value in this field.

The "Cost per Level at Creation/After level 5" indicates how many character points the Metaphysical Power or Vulnerability costs on a per level basis. The "XP Cost/After Level 5" fields indicates the same thing in terms of Experience costs. Many Powers increase in price if more than five levels are purchased. If that's the case, then the number after the slash indicates what that is. Otherwise, if the number is the same, blank or a dash is listed, the base cost is used for levels higher than five.

Your Metaphysic or Power and Your Drawback
Most data files also contain a category called "User" along with a Your Metaphysic or Power and Your Drawback selection. When you want to add a special Power or Vulnerability just for one character, it's usually best to start with one of these and modify it as needed. The Your Metaphysic or Power and Your Vulnerability entries don't have hidden information fields so you won't be modifying your character in unpredictable ways as could be the case if you simply took another Quality and modified it to suit your needs.

If, however, you are adding new powers to existing categories, you could just as easily modify and existing entry. For instance, if you have a new Invocation, you might find it easiest to modify an existing one. Or, if you want to add a new Sight power, you might just modify an existing one so that the extra bonus of one Essence per level purchased is properly added to your Essence Pool total. (Hidden bonuses are possible in Metaphysics, just like they are for Qualities.)

If there is a Metaphysic that is being added to your game that isn't listed (perhaps the GM created a new one, or is using Metaphysics from books that aren't included with the base data files) you will be better off customizing a data file by adding it there. Then, you'll have the new item available for any character you make without having to re-enter the information.

<<AFMBE is copyright Eden Studios, Inc. 1999-2001. AFMBE and logo are trademarks of Eden Studios, Inc. The AFMBE trademark is used without Eden Studio's permission and Eden Studios is not responsible for the content of this site.>>

<<Armageddon, CJ Carella's WitchCraft, Abomination Codex, Mystery Codex and Unisystem is copyright CJ Carella 1996-2003. Armageddon, CJ Carella's WitchCraft, Abomination Codex, Mystery Codex and Unisystem is a trademark of CJ Carella. Armageddon, CJ Carella's WitchCraft, Abomination Codex, Mystery Codex and Unisystem is published under exclusive license by Eden Studios. The Armageddon, CJ Carella's WitchCraft, Abomination Codex, Mystery Codex and Unisystem trademark is used without Mr. Carella's or Eden Studios' permission and neither of those parties is responsible for the content of this site.>>