The core book makes it clear that your powers should derive from your high-concept, allowing you to leverage the high concept aspect to make your power work better (or worse, for a fate point or something) in a specific scene. For example, if your aspect was “Best Death Magic Wizard” (not a great example), then you could get bonuses for casting death magic spells but get compelled to look into dangerous books of death magic.
So, the kindly people here proposed that for my characters demonic hand (think a smaller Hellboy “Fist of Doom” connected to Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer). One ability I would like it to have is that it’s great at gripping, crushing, but that’s it. So, I can hang from a pipe indefinitely, or crush someone’s handgun, but I can’t do most things you can do with supernatural strength - punch people very hard, lift up cars, throw things further and harder. However, if you received your supernatural strength, say, from some other high concept (instead of “Weilder of the Demonic Left Hand,” it just might be plain old supernatural strength you picked because you’re a changeling or something.
Here’s where my confusion comes in. The group is very solid on the idea that BOTH of the above would cost [-2] refresh. In a traditional game, this would be handled by making some kind of limit on the strength, so that maybe it costs only -1 or something. Here, the limit is the high concept - strength comes from the hand not from my overall “supernaturalness.” So, I appear to be spending the same amount as the “other guy” for a much less effective power. This only bothers me because I want my character to be as close to my concept as possible, and as effective as possible (when called for), and have as much agency, but I’ve spent a resource and have less agency than others who spent the resource. I could have used, say, an extra -1 refresh for another power. This applies to all my other abilities I want to put into the hand.
I’m not clear on how the restricton of my high concept on my supernatural strength evens anything out. I believe fate points are given when you’re compelled, or someone tags you (I think the first tag is free or something). So, the benefit would be that I could more easily get additional fate points then “the other guy,” but I don’t get it. Other guy picks up and throws a table - no problem, he can do it. I can’t. Do I get a fate point every time I could use supernatural strength but can’t because of my high concept? Do I declare at the start of every physical combat that I’m going to strike a crushing blow with my hand, and then get a fate point because I can’t do that?
I think the posters are right, but I just have a misunderstanding of something.
