Power Systems

A **power system** defines the limits and mechanics of supernatural powers within a particular setting. Some power systems seem to be more productive and alluring to Tyler Colborn than others; just because the power systems in two series seem to be the same, that doesn't mean those series are set in the same universe.

### Inspiration

The most inspiring power system in manga, in my opinion, is the one from 'Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, Part 8: Jojolion.' It's not necessarily my favorite Jojo part, but I am fascinated by the subtext communicated by the stands in the series: the Rock Humans mostly seem to have highly dangerous but often situational and/or automatic stands, while the human characters have more versatile but weaker stands. This reinforces the status of Rock Humans as more sociopathic, aggressive and isolated than human beings. There are two exceptions to this, mostly in the start of the series: both Fun! Fun! Fun! and Born This Way are both very dangerous and very situational, although Fun! Fun! Fun! doesn't quite seem to fit the aesthetic of the Rock Human stands.

I Am a Rock and Brain Storm are arguably not automatic stands, but they basically 'curse' the victims, and thus at least function similarly to automatic stands. Doobie Wah!, Blue Hawaii, Ozon Baby and Wonder of U are definitely automatic stands. However, Schott Key Nos. 1 & 2, Vitamin C and Doctor Wu are definitely not automatic stands (although Vitamin C have minor automatic features, given Wu Tomoki's supernatural ability to control the various parts of himself, and Vitamin C's absolute effect within its territory).

Note that I am not referring specifically to the stands from 'Jojo's Bizarre Adventure'; I am referring to personal abilities not fitting into particular elemental archetypes, which are generally on a scale from versatile/weak to situational/strong.

### Scales of Power System

This does not refer to 'powerscaling'; it refers to the scales on which all power systems sit.

1. Partibility of the Person from their Ability
	1. Grimoires: can one man's grimoire be used by another? Can a man place a 'lock' on his grimoire?
	2. Talismans: It would be generally assumed that talismans are completely partible from their users, but some might be limited to one bloodline, to members of a particular religious order, to those with particular personalities... or their makers or owners.
	3. Stands: Even outside of 'Jojo's Bizarre Adventure,' stands would often be subconsciously connected by the audience to the particular personalities of their users. Thus, it would seem strange for a character to pass his stand onto another, but it could be an interesting choice for a particular series. Even within 'Jojo's Bizarre Adventure,' there is one stand which can steal the stands of others, Whitesnake.
	4. Martial Arts: A man's technique is his own, or at least, no two men's techniques should be exactly alike. However, martial arts depends upon the idea that a man has developed his technique with guidance from other men, and two practitioners of the same school should be incredibly similar in practice.
	5. Spells: All men should be able to use spells in the same way; that seems self-explanatory, the nature of spells. However, it's possible that only those fluent in a particular language or those in possession of a related talisman would be allowed to use certain spells.

### The Difficulties of Different Power Systems

1. AN ISSUE WITH SPELLS, TALISMANS AND GRIMOIRES: There should be dozens, hundreds or even thousands of 'spells' (or their equivalent) in a logical, realistic world. However, this inherently takes tension away from the story, as it's hard to come up with a situation where no spell would resolve it fairly quickly. Of course, the way that a character proves their ingenuity is by stringing together a fine series of spells to accomplish their goals, but it's very easy to write a scene in the beginning of the story which would be very easily resolved later in the story. This can make more sense if the characters gain experience as they go through the world of the story, but if there are side characters that are supposed to be highly competent, they can fall victim to power creep even though there's an in-story explanation for the main characters to "walk in tune" with power creep.
2. A setting focused on grimoires would mean that different sorcerers have access to different spells. However, the overlap, and the rarity of certain spells, would give crucial insight into the politics, the characters and other details of the setting. It would be difficult to come up with a
3. Stands are (mostly) hard and strict movesets for the characters they belong to. Thus, one stand can HARD TRUMP another stand,