How do you balance a bbeg who's power is literally being

>>48851028
He must work backwards. Say he was to kill the current president, he would have to systematically erase everything he had done up to this point, then undo his election victories, and then change history so he is caught in a fatal car accident. History then "catches up".

Also, he cannot do something that would be "impossible". For instance, if he wrote that Osama Bin Laden won the electoral collage, it wouldn't do anything because he is ineligible as a president and would not get anywhere near enough votes.

Thus, he can only change things if such a change would be "reasonable" and if he has knowledge of the events that directly led to it.

Don't do time travel and don't do altering history.

If you really want to and not go into McGuffin/DESTINY then have some arbitrary thing like any changes only take place after sunset, or the bbeg needs the blood of someone who was of the time period she is changing.

>>48851111

I personally think that this just makes the power lame, and while that is one way of making it not overpowered that also means its a lot more work to find out cool and fun ways for the bbeg to use this power without requiring the players to have a lot of setting knowledge.

Something like that one Justice League episode where the guy had a time traveling suit but was still a bit of a loser despite styling himself as overlord of time.

Basically, he could travel through time and change events but was a pushover in combat and ended up getting robbed by a wild west bandit, who proceeded to use the timesuit to steal shit from the future.

>>48851152
Or it encourages the players to come up with black boxes to prevent their actions being retconned out of existence.

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>>48851028
I wish I had that power.

>>48851212

Well now we are running with assumptions about how the power works.

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>>48851239
U jelly?

>>48851028
You could make somekind of False Hydra-like power, in which he can change small facts that people will overlook and take for granted, but everytime he has to act or use the power the effect will be off for that period of time.
For example, he can change the fact that king Louis had a seventh son, which turned to be the actual prince, but he hasnt changed the fact that he's being a prince right now, so he changes that fact now, but meanwhile other characters could notice that somethings off (that's stop when the bbeg is done with changing history).

>>48851028
Through the bone of an Ancestor and the blood of a descendant; may their fate be re-weaved.

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>>48851269

>>48851028

GURPS has a power called "serendipity". It gets a revamp in Powerups 5: Impulse Buys that might be of interest to you.

Basically it's a limited, refreshing-points-based system to provide retcons based on plot impact and the degree of change.

The secret is that anything can be changed that's so far been "off camera". Anything that is on camera (ie described to players) is off limits, though you can fluff that things that the players have already seen are only that way because he made them so. That takes care of 90% of the continuity problems

Depending on the enhancements, limitations, and power modifier you select, this might be psi, magic, luck, divine blessing, or anything else. It might also reflect an evil mastermind "All According to Plan" power where nothing actually CHANGES, it's just that his overarching plan was so detailed even his player didn't know it, but fortunately he has all the pieces in place to close his diabolical trap. Those modifiers affect the mechanics you use, but not the general effect.

The main trick is to remember that especially with powers like these, you're changing a STORY, not a real world. Don't confuse the in-game rationale for how it happens for the effect on the drama.