Re: [ORE] Really really dangerously useful powers

If it's an out-and-out harmful attack, even when it's indirect, I usually declare that if they want to do that they have to buy the Attack quality. I explain it as part of the metaphysics of the super powered universe. If their power has Useful but not Attacks, there is something preventing them from harming their target.

Take teleportation, for instance. Everyone agrees that without an Attack quality you can't use your teleport to directly harm an opponent. You can't have them materialize inside a boulder, you can't teleport their heart, and you can't reintegrate them at their destination inside-out. By extension, you can't teleport them into the surface of the sun. From a purely metagaming perspective, it wouldn't be fair to one player to allow it and another to disallow it simply because one player thought of a way of describing the effect in Useful terms. From a univers standpoint, the same metaphysical laws/supernatural intelligence/alien physics that saves you from turning into Brundlefly when you teleport into the same location as a swarm of insects, the same universal laws that prevent your feet from merging with the floor when you teleport into a room you've only seen through a window, also stops you from using your power to deliberately hurt someone. To harm someone you need the Attack quality, which represents a change in the "safety lock" feature of your power, whether that's because the laws of the universe or your character's own subconscious require it. 

This still leaves room for interpretation. Can you teleport someone 2,000 metres in the air? That won't kill them immediately, but the sudden stop at the end of the fall won't be pleasant. Is teleporting someone 2,000 metres straight up considered unsafe by your power? If so, does your power have some sort of intelligence that can rate a target's survivability? What if you want to teleport someone 2,000 metres into the air so they can be caught by Superman? Would that be okay or would your power refuse to do that as it considers that height harmful?

My rule of thumb is if the target doesn't take damage within a combat round of the miracle's use, it's allowed without the Attacks quality. That would mean teleporting into the sun or onto the surface of Pluto (where in the latter case they'd still be conscious for 5 to 10 seconds and death wouldn't hit for a couple of minutes) is right out, as is teleporting someone right in front of a speeding train. Teleporting someone onto the tracks 5 seconds in front of a speeding train would be okay, as would teleporting them up to about 3,500 metres. That at least gives the PC a sporting chance to be saved by a friendly character or a successful dodge, etc.

That still leaves some convoluted edge cases. Could one PC teleport a boulder to a point 3 metres above a red X while another PC teleports a target to the red X? Neither PC's miracle harms anyone on its own. Is that allowed? What if you try to teleport a truck onto a bare stretch of road and a villain teleports a hostage in front of the truck? Is the hostage safe? Does the truck not teleport, potentially harming civilians that were about to be run over?

My other rule of thumb in these situations is that the PC without the Attack quality can't use their power for an action if they believe there is a reasonable chance of their target being harmed by that action (it's up to the GM to decide if a situation is "reasonable"). Two teleporters without Attack couldn't conspire to hurt someone with their powers. A character without Attack could reasonably expect to teleport a truck onto a bare stretch of road even if the villain teleports a hostage to the truck's destination at the same time, provided the PC didn't know the villain was going to do that. Of course the villian would need the Attacks quality (unless the villain didn't know the truck was going there; accidents do happen).

That's my personal take on it, anyway. Other GMs likely have their own interpretation.