Power System v2.1

Design adaptable systems — magic, cultivation, murim, or custom — using explicit rules, resources, costs, limitations, ranks, progression, techniques, counters, exceptions, exploits, and known unknowns.

Record

The authoritative register is power_system/POWER_SYSTEM.md — rules, costs, limitations, ranks, progression, techniques, matchups, counters, exceptions, known exploits, and unknown mechanics. Keep it current; a power system documented in the prose but not here cannot be audited.

A system is rules plus costs

Every capability needs a cost, a limit, and a condition for failure. A power with no cost cannot generate tension, because nothing is at stake in using it. Record the cost as concretely as the effect: what is spent, what is damaged, what cannot be done for some time afterwards.

Limits should be operational rather than rhetorical. "It is extremely powerful" is not a limit; "it cannot be used within an hour of another working of the same kind" is.

Scaling dimensions

Power scaling must distinguish: