The secret to making a great power system

"Catch it!" he yells as the ancient vial containing the only remnant of the potion falls from the helicopter, and the main character catches it and drinks it to gain the "All killer beam". He then proceeds to kill every last one of the aliens with ease after almost dying fighting one of the alien henchmen.

Amazing right? When it looked like all hope was lost, the hero swoops in and saves the day by pure luck of the vial falling right to him. When I was younger, this felt like the perfect ending. The tension had been building for hours, and finally the hero gets the power he needs to save everyone. Looking back now, though, one question always comes to mind: "Does this ending really do justice to all the effort the characters put in?"

More often than not, the answer to this question seems to be no. I mean, why did the main character dedicate his whole life to learning and becoming one of the strongest just to get saved by luck? Was there any meaning to watching the entire show if the none of his character development and powers even mattered in the end. If you don't wanna fall into that trap, and learn how to make an actually good power system, you're at the right place!

Rules and Limitations

A good power system needs rules and limitations. Set rules are what make the difference between creativity being the limit and plot armor having to save the day. A great example of a grounded and limited power system from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is Hamon.

Hamon

Hamon is a martial arts power system controlled by breathing techniques that generate and allow for the manipulation of the same energy as the sun.

☀ HAMON TRAINING ☀

Hamon begins with controlled breathing. Try it yourself.

Begin Breathing

It looks cool right? This may sound like an overpowered or easily exploited system, but it has many limitations and rules Which I will list below:

• The breathing technique needs to be controlled and focused on heavily in order to use Hamon
• Its use cases are niche as it is mainly effective against enemies like vampires and the pillar men who are weak to the sun
• It can only be channeled through extremities (hands and legs)
• It is weak and requires incredible amount of energy to use unless channeled through something else like Lisa Lisa's scarf or Joseph's cracker balls

The reason these kinds of limitations and rules make Hamon a good power system is because it forces the users to get creative with how they use it. Joseph Joestar fights so many different enemies in part 2 of the show and each fight is resolved through different types of creative use of Hamon. That makes every episode in part 2 feel unexpected and unique as the power system which seems so limited is used to its fullest potential. What also makes it interesting is That no one Hamon user uses Hamon the same way. To give you some examples, there's a character who channels his Hamon through bubble based attacks and a character who channels it through her scarf. This leads us onto the next thing that makes a great power system: Individuality

Individuality

Individuality is one of the core identities of the JoJo's power system. As we stated above, the use of Hamon by each person was so unique that it felt like each person was using their own different power up when it was just creativity of the user. This takes a whole new step from part 2 and onwards when the power shifts to Stands.

Stands

The concept of Stands is that every character gets their own unique ability. But unlike Hamon, Stands are not learned through training. They are awakened.

Every Stand begins with an arrow. Those who survive being pierced by the Stand Arrow awaken a power unlike anyone else.

Pierce Yourself

Your Stand has awakened...

Star Platinum

The World

Silver Chariot

← Back

Attack

No two stands are the same, and each stand has its strengths and weaknesses. These strengths and weaknesses are what present the rules and limitations with stands. For example, we have Jotaro Kujo's stand which is one of the strongest physical stands, but its limitation is that its range is very short and it gets significantly weaker the farther away it is from Jotaro.

These limitations paired with the unique abilities that each stand provides makes for extremely interesting fights and puzzle solving. For example, the final fight in part 4, Diamond is unbreakable is between Josuke and Kira. Josuke's stand, Crazy Diamond is extremely strong in close range and has the ability to repair/heal anything, but its range is only 2 meters and it can't heal Josuke. Kira's stand on the other hand, Killer Queen turns anything it touches into a bomb, can create a long range heat tracking bomb, and even create a tiny bomb that spies on individuals. On paper, its abilities seem completely different from Crazy Diamond's. Yet the final battle works because both Stands have clear strengths and limitations rather than one simply being "better."

Creativity over Strength

A common misconception is that a good power system needs powerful abilities. In reality, the most memorable powers are often the ones that use creativity to make the most out of any power it proposes.

There are numerous other stands that have seemingly weird and useless abilities that are used very creatively and in the right situations. One example is Survivor, which is a stand whose only ability is to make people around it very aggressive and angry. Extremely chaotic, that could be bad for even the user themself, but it is used very cleverly in part 6. Another famous stand that has an odd ability is Sticky Fingers whose ability is to create zippers on anything. Sound kinda useless, but Bucciaratti, the owner of the stand uses it for hiding, separating body parts, moving through surfaces, and much more. Isn't it crazy to think that Unique and unexpected abilities make for a great power system? Yeah, but just that wasn't what made it great.

Conclusion

Well, after reading all that, what is it that actually makes a great power system? If you ask me, it's one that has rules and limitations that push the characters to have to use their powers in unique ways and discourage exploiting systems that allow characters to find easy ways out. Standing by the power system that was designed with so much thought and figuring out the best way to use it without having to break the rules of it will make your power system just that much cooler and stronger. JoJo's stands out because of this very reason.

Think about the hero from the beginning. Imagine instead that he defeats the final villain using the skills he's spent the entire story mastering, exploiting the limitations of both his own powers and the enemy's. Now that doesn't feel lucky anymore, it feels fulfilling and earned making the ending that much better.

When you go out there and create your own power system think of it from different angles rather than the usual, "who is stronger" or "how do i make the coolest and most overpowered character?" Instead think about "how can i bound this power so it seems more fair and makes for more interesting fights and usage scenarios?" and "what could make this power weak to the enemy while also giving it a unique edge over the enemy?" These kinda of questions will automatically elevate your power system and make it much more interesting to engage with.