Fury
Alert
Combat
Support
Type
Power of Rage
Stores Anger to Gain Might
As a leader, when your ship(s) are lost, gain one of your marks for each lost ship as “rage”.
As an actor, after approach, use this power to consume any amount of rage and add 3 might to your fleet for each rage consumed. Persistent.
Legacy: When an alien’s ship(s) are lost, they add 1 Fury mark to their nexus. During combat, actors add 2 might to their fleet for each Fury mark they have.
Once avid disciples of the Pacifists, the Furies had their world turned upside-down after discovering the way of the Hates. Realizing what they could accomplish when they let their anger consume them, they took to the Cosmic stage to find their own form of stress relief.
Actor: Approach
Mandatory
Wild Flare
As a leader, after losing an encounter, you may discharge this flare to snipe and vaporize one ship in the enemy fleet for each ship you lost.
Leader: Encounter
Super Flare
When using your power, you may discharge this flare to add 3 might to your fleet for each rage without consuming your rage.
Actor: Approach
Modifications
- The original wields the power of “vengeance”. Changed to power of “rage” to distinguish it from Grudge.
- Original Fury can only be zapped while gaining rage, which is a much less significant time to zap it.
- Original Fury is not persistent. Gave Fury this bonus due to the additional penalty of my elimination system. Fury can cut things closer and afford to lose more ships with the extra ships to lose.
- Fury’s legacy grants everyone permanent rage from lost ships. Unlike Warpish’s legacy, this effect adds permanent might but does nothing at first. Powerful aliens that never lose can find it harder to maintain their combat advantage if the match goes on for too long. Ship-destroying aliens like Cudgel and Vacuum need to be careful about how they use their powers. Original Cosmic has no legacies.
Tips
- With 20 ships to start, Fury has a potential 60 might to be gained from losing its ships, though it will realistically only be able to get 57 of that might without losing its power unless the warp key gets involved.
- The timing of Fury’s power allows it to see might totals before deciding whether to commit. It won’t be spending rage unnecessarily unless powers with similar timing or distress pods get in the way.
- Be wary if Fury is stockpiling a lot of rage. It can choose to unload all that anger whenever it wishes, even as a sponsor.
- Fury gains something from every encounter, win or lose. The only time it truly gains nothing is a peaceful loss, such as losing to Pacifist through its power.
- Fury can use its power as leverage to get invaders to negotiate. To refuse the offer would net Fury both compensation and rage, not to mention a desire for revenge.
- Fury can decide how much rage to spend at one time. By keeping a healthy stockpile, Fury can attract both sponsors and invitations.
Development Notes
- While Fury’s power is mostly fine as-is, a big question regarding its design is when it should be zappable. Zapping it when it’s gaining rage makes sense, as it needs to use its power to get the rage in the first place. But if it can’t be zapped while consuming it, it’s got an unzappable combat power, which dips too far into Human’s territory. I elected to make it zappable only when spending the rage, as most people wouldn’t bother to zap Fury while it’s gaining rage. Gaining anger is a normal emotion, so it isn’t strictly linked to a power. It’s the anger channeling into might that makes it a super power.
- It was an absolute must to make sure that Fury’s power is mandatory, as it does not make sense to have an optional power of rage. However, Fury’s combat power requires consuming a resource, which needs some degree of choice added to it. I decided to make it so the power activation is mandatory, with the amount being up to the user. Since it specifies “any amount”, Fury can elect to spend none of it. However, I want to make it so that a potential zapper has to zap Fury’s power before the power is “used”, meaning they cannot know how much rage Fury plans to consume before zapping.
- Since the consumption and might gain are part of the same use clause, zapping the combat aspect of Fury’s power results in no rage being consumed if Fury loses.
- Mechanically, Fury is in the same camp as Warrior and Sapient, aliens that gain might from loss. Fury distinguishes itself in two main ways: it is strictly loss-based and its might gain is consumable. It can choose to stockpile all its rage for one crucial encounter, or it can spend it over time to act as a pseudo-Human. The +3 it gains per lost ship gives it a potential +12 from a single loss, 3 times what Warrior or Sapient can earn from one loss. However, their gains are permanent while Fury’s are not, so this gap is certainly welcome.
- Fury can also be compared with the similar combat power Merchant, who also gains a consumable resource that can be spent for combat potency. Merchant starts with 10-12 power in reserve and gains 2 power per invasion, while Fury gains 3 power per lost ship. Suppose two cycles pass in a standard match, which would be 10-20 invasions, the average length of a Cosmic Encounter. It provides Merchant 20-40 power from its power alone, plus any additional lucre it gains through resupplies. Fury can potentially lose 19 ships without being eliminated since it has a persistent power in my version, which is 57 total might compared to Merchant’s 30 to 52. Fury only gets power when losing, but one loss can give it the power that takes Merchant 6 encounters to gain. Merchant is also limited to 4 hired ships max at once, restricting it to 8 power at any given time. The goal is for Fury to have a stronger total combat potential, while Merchant has the bonus flexibility to use its hired ships for vouchers and compensation.
- Thematically, this power could be comparable to the abilities of the Sith or the Incredible Hulk. My changes to Hate’s theme allow this one much more breathing room to be the power of generating anger. It still comes close to Grudge in terms of its flavor, so I used the visuals to distinguish them. A vengeful or jealous spirit has a much different feel from someone who channels anger to gain strength.