SPECIAL ABILITIES 101

THIS IS IDEO a character of the One Piece world who utilizes a fighting style which allows him to create impacts so strong they literally explode. Ideo doesn’t use a devil fruit but rather is a Long Arm character who - rather than lets his extra joints hang loose - folds them back to his shoulders to create extreme tension like a coil. When released in a punch, the ensuing tension rockets outward and creates explosion.

In this example, the special theme is “Destruction Fist” and what you as a member would describe is just what I did earlier. The abilities that would come from this theme are the various explosions, explosion sizes, or other variations to an explosive fist that one would come up with (a basic explosive punch, a mid-long ranged explosive punch, a delayed reaction explosive punch, etc.).

THIS IS CAVENDISH another character in the series, but rather than a fighting style, Cavendish’s special theme takes the form as a multiple personality disorder. In Cavendish’s case, once he falls asleep, a murderous second personality takes over his body, one that is naturally far stronger than the man while he is awake. This second personality has displayed extreme speed in combat.

In this example, the special theme is “Multiple Personalities” and can be carried out a few different ways. I personally would take a more versatile route if I used this as a character: while Cavendish only has the one personality that grants extreme speed, each of my special abilities under the theme would be a different personality that would grant different boosts/buffs/effects. You may have a personality that grants speed, one that grants power, one that grants durability, etc.

-Non-Superpowered or regular natural attacks - A punch, kick, or sword attack isn’t going to be your overall theme. If you wanted to run a theme that adds some effects or backs your simple attacks that would be totally fine.(A theme adding a vibration on your simple attacks for various effects would suffice: adding a vibration to a punch to numb a target, a slash to make the targets hands quake when your weapons collide, a stomp that would reverberate a shockwave through a set surface to throw off balance. They all fall under the “vibration attack” theme.

-Series of simple attacks using weaponry - If you thought you had to list a basic series of sword slashes or punches as a special ability or theme, you’re wrong. Unless your barrage is backed by some kind of power(a barrage of fireballs). An acceptable theme for barrages would be something along the lines of a high speed martial art that doubles up all of your attacks: strikes using the art would be doubled, tripled, or however much you’d like. A specific ability would allow someone to throw 4 extremely fast punches while only making 1 or two of those visible.

-Specific speedy movement - One thing everyone wants is a highspeed movement. There’s nothing wrong with this, however, it’s not a theme. You may have a theme, that utilizes utilizing your muscles to their fullest extent: an application would be using the full strength of your legs to move at an incredible speed.

-Justification for you to do ANYTHING/EVERYTHING outside the bounds of your attributes without having a devil fruit - I don’t think I can stress this enough, but a special theme DOES NOT allow you to do everything within the bounds of the universe. Your specific theme isn’t going to allow you to create fire, create afterimages, harden your skin, observe super fast movements, and fly. A theme is just that: a theme - an overarching umbrella that correlates in some way or another. Be weary when creating a theme because your abilities must in some way make sense to the theme. If you limit yourself by the description of your theme just because you wanted to use 1 specific ability, staff will not care and will literally deny every ability your try to make under the theme that doesn’t make sense to the theme.