FILES ON EVERYONE: At the beginning of the game, choose an opposing character and a standard attack or damage power they currently possess. When that character possesses that power, Batman is dealt no damage from that character's attacks unless it is the only opposing character on the map.

How would you guys rule this for the current rules? I was thinking of just having it be when that power is displayed on the dial but i vaguely remember there being a ruling of this stuff becoming "can use"

I would rule that as a power that they are currently showing on their starting click (or trait or Willpower via Indom).

The old reference of "possesses" when it comes to powers is only what's showing in the window, not a power that could be used by any other source. If you wanted to go by the letter of what it was at the time, I would say "showing in the window"... but there is a certain member here that rewrote all special powers with current language and I'm sure he'll come in sooner or later.

It just gets translated to "can use", like 99% of other old "possess" wordings.

General rule of thumb is, if it still functions by changing it to "can use", then that's the only thing that gets changed. "Possess" under the previous rules never just meant "displayed on the dial".

I thought i remembered seeing this but i felt it was better to ask.

Asking is always fine. It just bugs me when people try to twist the rules for arbitrary reasons. There are only a small handful of cases in the game where the "possess > can use" translation doesn't work (like ADW Iron Man). The vast majority are covered by the simple advice of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

True, there were a few exceptions that had traits that said the figure possessed a power instead of could use, but in general, it was just powers that showed on the dial. I keep forgetting about those exceptions because I wasn't playing when they were made... that's why I was saying if you want to go by what it was at the time, not saying that's what it has to be now.

Possess is also one of the tough ones, IMHO, as there are different ways to translate it and some judges may translate it differently and rule it that way in a game... in that aspect, you may want to ask your judge how they'll rule it (and any powers with game terms that don't exist anymore and are too old to have an errata) before the game. Just my 2 cents.

This is exactly why I try to keep people on the same page. Aside from the few oddball cases where you do need to bend things a little to make something actually work, keeping it as simple as possible limits confusion and discrepancies in rulings. Some effects get more powerful, others get less, but that's not something we can really take into account when dealing with this type of thing.