You issue a specific command to another character. If that character chooses to listen, any attack they attempt on their next turn is eased, and a hit deals 3 additional points of damage. If your command is to perform a task other than an attack, the task is eased as if it benefited from a free level of Effort.
When your foe is weakened, dazed, stunned, moved down the damage track, or disadvantaged in some other way, your attacks against that foe are eased beyond any other modifications due to the disadvantage.
You tell a short anecdote to a foe that can understand you about something you've witnessed in your life that's so over the top yet so convincing that, if you are successful, the foe is dazed for one minute, during which time its tasks are hindered.
Your machine parts grant you +1 to Armor and +2 to your Might Pool.
Tank Chrome is a variant of Enhanced Body for a setting where cybernetics are common and have limited self-healing capabilities; it doesn't grant as many Pool points as Enhanced Body, but doesn't have the limited healing drawbacks.
You can draw energy from the earth itself into your body. If you concentrate and don't move from where you're standing for one minute, you restore 3 points to your Might or Speed Pool. Once you use this ability, you can't use it again until you've made a ten-hour recovery roll.
If you have the Store Energy ability, you can instead use Tap Currents to add 3 points to your Siphon Pool. (This use of this ability is not limited to one use per ten-hour recovery roll.)
Action to initiate.
You are trained in any physical ranged attack that is a character ability or comes from a device. For example, you are trained when using an Onslaught force blast because it's a physical attack, but not when using an Onslaught mindslice because it's a mental attack.
Choose one task (other than attacks or defense) that you are trained in. You become specialized in that task. (You can instead use this ability as Task Training to become trained in a task you aren't trained in.)
Choose one task (other than attacks or defense) that you are not trained or specialized in. You become trained in that task.
You can make an attack on a foe as part of drawing an attack (which is not something you can do normally when attempting to draw an attack). In cases where an intelligent or determined foe isn't drawn to you, you can attempt an Intellect action as part of the attack. If that Intellect action is successful, the foe attacks you. Your defenses against that attack are hindered by one step, instead of being hindered by two steps as normal when drawing an attack.
You spend an hour instructing someone on how to perform a type ability that you know. The ability must be no higher than fourth tier. For one hour after you teach them, the student can perform that ability as if it were natural for them. They must pay the Might, Speed, or Intellect cost (if any) to use that ability. The student must be able to understand your instructions. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to increase how long the student can use the ability or to teach additional students at the same time; each level of Effort used in this way increases the duration by one hour or the number of students by one.
One hour to initiate; one hour to complete.
Through example, acts of camaraderie, stories of martial prowess, or other forms of instruction, you and your allies work better together as a cohesive unit. During any round in which you rally your team (by spending 2 Intellect points as part of another action), you and your allies inflict 1 additional point of damage in combat. This benefit applies only to allies with whom you have spent the last 24 hours. It ends if you leave, but it resumes if you return to your allies' company within 24 hours. If you leave for more than 24 hours, you must spend another 24 hours together to reactivate the benefit.
You are trained in two skills in which you are not already trained. Choose two of the following: crafting, computers, identifying, machines, piloting, repairing, or vehicle driving. You can select this ability multiple times. Each time you select it, you must choose two different skills.
You can exert force on objects within short range. Once activated, your power has an effective Might Pool of 10, a Might Edge of 1, and an Effort of 2 (approximately equal to the strength of a fit, capable adult human), and you can use it to move objects, push against objects, and so on. For example, you could lift and pull a light object anywhere within range to yourself or move a heavy object (like a piece of furniture) about 10 feet (3 m). This power lacks the fine control to wield a weapon or move objects with much speed, so in most situations, it's not a means of attack. You can't use this ability on your own body. The power lasts for one hour or until its Might Pool is depleted, whichever comes first.
If you're using Telekinesis to move an object across the room, and an average fit human could do it with their arms, you can do it with your psychokinesis. You have to use the power's Might Pool, Might Edge, and Effort only if a PC would have to do so, such as if a character tried to push open a barred door.
You can speak telepathically with others who are within short range. Communication is two-way, but the other party must be willing and able to communicate. You don't have to see the target, but you must know that it's within range. You can have more than one active contact at once, but you must establish contact with each target individually. Each contact lasts up to ten minutes. If you apply a level of Effort to increase the duration rather than ease the task, the contact lasts for 24 hours.
Action to establish contact.
When you wish it, you can contact up to ten creatures known to you, no matter where they are. All targets must be willing and able to communicate. You automatically succeed at establishing a telepathic network; no roll is required. All creatures in the network are linked and can communicate telepathically with one another. They can also “overhear” anything said in the network, if they wish. Activating this ability doesn't require an action and doesn't cost Intellect points; to you, it's as easy as speaking out loud. The network lasts until you choose to end it. If you spend 5 Intellect points, you can contact twenty creatures at once, and for every 1 Intellect point you spend above that, you can add ten more creatures to the network. These larger networks last for ten minutes. Creating a network of twenty or more creatures does require an action to establish contact.
You instantaneously transmit yourself to any location that you have seen or been to, no matter the distance, as long as it is on Earth (or whatever world you're currently on). In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to bring other people with you; each level of Effort used in this way affects up to three additional targets. You must touch any additional targets.
The PC and GM should work together to determine what kind of effect, if any, accompanies a use of Teleportation. Does the character step in and out of an exploding blast of vapor? Into a brief wormhole portal? Or is there simply no effect other than simply being gone and somewhere else?
You rapidly teleport multiple times in an immediate area, confusing your opponents and allowing you to make an additional melee attack this round. You can use this ability once per round.
You touch a creature and, if your attack succeeds, you teleport away (up to your normal maximum teleportation distance) with a significant portion of their body. If the target is level 2 or lower, it dies. If the target is level 3 or higher, it takes 6 points of damage and is stunned on its next action. If the target is a PC of any tier, they move down one step on the damage track. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to affect a more powerful target (one level of Effort means a target of up to level 3 dies or a target of level 4 or higher takes damage and is stunned, and so on).
This ability provides an asset to any tasks for attempting to deceive, persuade, or intimidate. Each use lasts up to a minute; a new use (to switch tasks) replaces the previous use
Action to initiate.
You or one willing creature you touch moves more quickly through time. The effect lasts for one minute. Everything moves more slowly for the affected character, while to all others, the character seems to move at preternatural speed. The character has an asset on all tasks until the effect ends. After the effect ends, the target is exhausted and disoriented by the experience, hindering all tasks for one hour.
You disappear and travel up to one hour into the future or the past. While dislocated in time, you perceive events as they transpire from your position using your normal senses, but you can't interact with or change anything. If you project yourself into the past, you remain there for one hour, at which point you've caught up to the present (to anyone with you in the present, you only seem to flicker out of existence for a moment). If you project yourself into the future, you remain there until the present catches up to you (to anyone with you in the present, you vanish for one hour and reappear in the place you left).
Claim the SkyYou create an object of solid light in any shape you can imagine that is your size or smaller, and it persists for about a minute (or longer, if you concentrate on it after that time). The object appears in an area adjacent to you, but afterward you can move it up to a short distance each round as part of another action. It is crude and can have no moving parts, so you can make a sword, a shield, a short ladder, and so on. The object has the approximate mass of the real object and is level 2.
Path of the PlanebreakerA companion tentacled crow—and also probably a spy—is sent to you from the mysterious but certainly aberrant entity nesting in the heart of the Grove of Crows. The tentacled crow becomes your new familiar; if you already have a familiar, they're eaten by the tentacled crow. The tentacled crow accompanies you and follows your instructions.
The tentacled crow acts on your turn. As a level 1 creature, they have a target number of 3 and 3 health, and they inflict 1 point of damage. Once per tier, you can spend 4 XP to permanently increase the level of your tentacled crow by 1, up to a maximum of level 4. If your tentacled crow dies, another one arrives to serve you 1d6 days later; this tentacled crow is the same level as the one that died.
If your tentacled crow is within an immediate distance of you when you make a recovery roll, you automatically recover 1 additional point to your Intellect Pool. For example, if you roll a 6, you get a total of 7 points, 1 of which must go to your Intellect Pool (this has no effect if your Intellect Pool is already full).
Tentacled crow: level 1, Intellect defense as level 3; flies or swims a short distance each round
You project a chilling gaze at all living creatures within short range who can see you. Make a separate Intellect attack roll for each target. Success means that the creature is frozen in fear, not moving or taking actions for one minute or until it is attacked. Some creatures without minds (such as robots) might be immune to Terrifying Gaze.
You use a bit of subtle telepathy to learn which images would appear terrifying to creatures that you choose within long range. Those images appear within that area and menace the appropriate creatures. Make an Intellect attack roll against each creature you want to affect. Success means the creature flees in terror for one minute, pursued by its nightmares. Failure means the creature ignores the images, which do not hamper it in any way.
You convince one intelligent target of level 3 or lower that you are its worst nightmare. The target must be within short range and be able to understand you. For as long as you do nothing but speak (you can't even move), the target is paralyzed with fear, runs away, or takes some other action appropriate to the circumstances. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to increase the maximum level of the target. Thus, to terrorize a level 5 target (two levels above the normal limit), you must apply two levels of Effort.
You are trained in tasks related to figuring out how to solve problems with multiple solutions (like the best way to pack a truck, calm an enraged customer, give a cat a shot of insulin, or find a route through the city for maximum speed).
Luck is not the chaotic ocean of random chance most people believe it to be. If you fail on a task (including an attack roll or a defense roll), you can change the die result to a natural 20. That still might not be enough to succeed if the difficulty is higher than 6. Once you use this ability, it is not available again until after you make a ten-hour recovery roll. (Thief's Luck doesn't work if you roll a natural 1 for an attempted task, unless you also have and use the ability Wrest From Chance.)
When you wish it, you can use points from your Intellect Pool rather than your Might Pool or Speed Pool on any noncombatAction.
You produce a remedy that removes a negative condition because you've previously spent considerable time thinking ahead and preparing for your current situation. For instance, if another character is poisoned, you produce an antidote, or if they're blinded, you produce a salve that returns sight (assuming they weren't blinded because their eyes were destroyed). The Intellect cost for using this ability is equal to the level of effect or creature that caused the negative condition.
You visualize a place within short range and cast your mind to that place, creating an immobile, invisible sensor for one minute or until you choose to end this ability. While using your third eye, you see through your sensor instead of your eyes using your normal visual abilities. You may perceive the area around your body using your other senses as normal.
Path of the PlanebreakerYou can use thoughtcrafting, the power to alter reality with your mind, as practiced by the people of Savtua. You can create any item you choose that would ordinarily have a difficulty of 4 or lower (using the crafting rules), weighs up to 3 pounds (1.4 kg), and is something you could hold in one hand, such as a broadsword, lantern, or blank book. The item lasts until you use your action to dismiss it or you create another item.
Thoughtcrafting can't create cyphers or artifacts.
Learning the Thoughtcrafting ability normally requires a character to spend a week or more practicing it in the plane of Savtua.
When you are using Enlarge and deal damage to a creature of your size or smaller with an unarmed attack, you can choose to throw that creature up to 1d20 feet away from you. The creature lands prone.
You can throw your enchanted weapon up to short range as a light ranged weapon. Whether it hits or misses, it immediately flies back to your hands, and you can automatically catch it or allow it to land at your feet.
You can throw your Force Field Shield up to short range as a light ranged weapon. Whether the shield hits or misses, it immediately dissipates and then reforms in your grasp.
This is a powerful melee stab. You make an attack and inflict 1 additional point of damage if your weapon has a sharp edge or point.
You direct a beam of focused sound at a target within long range, inflicting 2 points of damage and inducing a resonant destructive wave in their body. Each round after this initial attack, you can make another roll for the destructive wave to inflict an additional 1 point of damage to the target. If you fail this roll, the destructive wave ends. Unlike the initial attack, the destructive wave ignores Armor.
Alternatively, you can set up a destructive resonance in a physical melee weapon for one minute or until you let go of it. All attacks made with the target weapon inflict 1 additional point of damage
Action to initiate.
A perfect copy of you appears within an immediate distance. This doppelganger is probably a version of you from another timeline or the past. The doppelganger is a level 5 NPC with 15 health. It has your mind and memories, and you control it as if it were you in another body. In effect, while this ability is active, you have two bodies.
If the doppelganger uses any of your abilities that cost points, those points come from your Pools (including spending Effort). Controlling two bodies at once is difficult and distracting; while this ability is active, all tasks performed by you or the doppelganger are hindered. The doppelganger has no equipment other than simple clothing.
It remains for up to one minute, but disappears if killed or if you use an action to dismiss it. If the doppelganger is killed, you take 5 points of damage that ignore Armor, and you lose your nextAction. If you are killed while the doppelganger is present, you live on as the doppelganger (it becomes your character instead of being an NPC that disappears). In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to increase the duration of this ability; each level of Effort used in this way adds one minute to the doppelganger's existence.
If you also have this ability from another source, you may use either ability, the doppelganger is 1 level higher, and it has 3 additional health.
You call yourself from a few moments in the future to help you in the present. On the round you use this ability, your future self appears anywhere you choose within immediate range and takes an action. On the second round, you and your future self both take actions, and your future self ’s action is eased. On the third round, you and your future self both disappear. On the fourth round, you catch up to your future self, reappear wherever your future self initially appeared in the first round, and can take your actions normally.
Your future self shares your stats, so any damage that either of you takes applies to the same stat Pools. If your future self is killed, you and your future self disappear in the third round (as normal) and you reappear, dead, in the fourth round. Neither you nor your future self can use Time Loop again until you reappear as your future self in the fourth round.
In effect, Time Loop lets “you” take an action on the round you use it, two actions on the second round, and zero actions on the third round, and then you're back to normal after that. free level of Effort
You and up to three willing characters you choose within immediate range travel to a point in time that you specify when you use this ability. The point in time must be within ten years of the present. For each level of Effort applied, you can travel ten more years or bring three more creatures with you. When you appear in the new moment in time, you do so in the same position you were in when you used this ability. Upon arriving at your temporal destination, you and the other time travelers are stunned for one minute. In order to return to your original time, you must use this ability again.
You make a device do something different from its original purpose. For example, a blaster becomes a bomb. A scanner becomes a signal booster for a radio transmitter. A music player becomes a battery for another device. The effective level of the modified device is 1 lower than normal, and the device is rendered unusable (for its original purpose) until repaired.
Action to initiate.
When you use Shrink, you can choose to shrink down to about one-sixteenth of an inch (.2 cm). When you do, you add 5 more temporary points to your Speed Pool (plus any from Smaller), and because your attacks are concentrated into a very small area, you deal an additional 2 points of damage. For each level of Effort you apply to shrink even more, you become one-tenth as tall (one one-hundredth for two levels of Effort, one one-thousandth for three, and so on) and you add 1 more point to your Speed Pool.
This hard life has built up your resistance over time, so you are trained in resisting the effects of natural poisons (such as those from plants or living creatures) and radiation. You're also immune to natural diseases.
When you have an asset from using a tool, the time required to perform the task is cut in half (minimum one round).
High Noon at MidnightYour mount's flashing hooves churn up a small tornado, lifting you and your mount a long distance into the eye of the supernatural storm. The tornado moves as you direct it up to a short distance each round for up to five minutes or until you dismiss it. The swirling winds damage creatures, objects, and structures within short range of the tornado's eye. Each round, creatures in the area take 3 points of damage due to debris on the wind. Attempts to damage objects or structures with your tornado are eased by two steps.
Action to initiate.
You possess such a high level of awareness that it’s very difficult to surprise, hide from, or sneak up on you. When you apply a level of Effort to initiative and perception tasks, you gain two free levels of Effort.
Your ten-minute recovery roll takes you only one round.
When you are impaired or debilitated on the damage track, Might-based tasks and defense rolls you attempt are eased. If you also have Ignore the Pain, make a difficulty 1 Might defense roll when you reach 0 points in all three of your Pools to immediately regain 1 Might point and avoid dying. Each time you attempt to save yourself with this ability before your next ten-hour recovery roll, the task is hindered. Enabler.
A character can't apply Effort or other abilities to any task accomplished using Tough As Nails.
Working for a living has toughened you over time. You have +1 to Armor against any kind of physical damage, even damage that normally ignores Armor.
You are trained in Intellect defense tasks. If you are already trained, you are specialized in those tasks instead.
You are trained in Intellect defense tasks and gain +3 points to your Intellect Pool.
You are trained in following and identifying tracks.
Your connection with trails you've blazed is always with you. When traveling on, camping near, or within visual range of any trail you've blazed, you gain an asset on one attack or defense roll thanks to your knowledge about what else is using the path. Once used, this ability renews after your next recovery roll.
Choose one cypher that you carry. The cypher must have an effect that is not instantaneous. You destroy the cypher and embed its power into a trail you've blazed. Any time you are on that trail or a connecting trail, you gain the effect of that cypher continuously. You can choose a cypher when you gain this ability, or you can wait and make the choice later. However, once you embed a cypher into your system of trails, you cannot later switch to a different cypher—the ability works only once.
Action to initiate.
You imbue a newly created blaze symbol (or replace a blaze symbol you've previously created) with a spiritual connection to your mind's eye. For the next 24 hours, you can concentrate to see, hear, and smell through the sensor, no matter how far you move from it. If you also have a similar ability from another source, this effect lasts twice as long. The sensor doesn't grant you sensory capabilities beyond the norm. A few rounds to create the enhanced blaze symbol; action to check.
You are trained in using the stone fists from your Golem Body as a medium weapon.
You are trained in perception, climbing, and salvaging tasks.
Choose one noncombat skill that would be helpful for surviving after the apocalypse, such as hunting, tracking, carpentry, or stealth. You are trained in that skill.
It's Only MagicYou are trained in using guns (whether firing normal bullets or Spell Bullets).
You can choose from one of two benefits. Either you are trained in using guns, or you have the Spray ability (which costs 2 Speed points): If a weapon has the ability to fire rapid shots without reloading (usually called a rapid-fire weapon, such as an automatic pistol), you can spray multiple shots around your target to increase the chance of hitting. This move uses 1d6+1 rounds of ammo (or all the ammo in the weapon, if it has less than the number rolled). The attack roll is eased. If the attack is successful, it deals 1 less point of damage than normal.
Enabler (being trained in using guns) or action (Spray).
Through wit, charm, humor, and grace (or sometimes rudeness, threatening posture, and obscenity), you're better able to talk others into what you want. You are trained in all interactions.
You are trained in using swords.
While underwater, you are trained in escaping, perception, sneaking, and swimming tasks, as well as in tasks to identify aquatic creatures and geography.
You are trained in Speed defense tasks when not wearing armor.
Whether they are lines you wrote, acted, reported on, or otherwise incorporated into your talent, you compose an oratory on the fly that is so wonderful that even you believe it. For each ally who hears it (and you too), a task attempted within the next hour is eased by two steps.
When a character uses Transcend the Script, ask the player to provide a broad overview of what their character is doing that is so amazing that others are inspired.
You have adaptive learning software installed in your communicator implant. After hearing an unfamiliar human language spoken for a few minutes, the software deciphers the language and translates it for you, either directly into your ear or in your vision as holophone subtitles. If you choose, you can have the software translate what you say into this language, projecting it audibly from an implanted speaker. The software's translation improves the longer it can listen to a source language, picking up idioms and slang after a few hours.
You find any traps (like a floor that would give way beneath you) or mechanical triggers to a trap or defense system that might pose a threat. You can do this without setting them off and in lieu of making a roll to find them. This ability can find traps of level 4 or below. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to increase the level of traps that can be found by 2, so using two levels of Effort can find all traps of level 8 or below.
You are trained in creating simple traps for human-sized or smaller targets, especially many varieties of deadfalls and snares using natural objects from the surrounding environment. When you lay a trap, decide whether you want to hold the victim in place (a snare) or inflict damage (a deadfall). Creating a snare is a difficulty 3 task, while the difficulty of creating a deadfall is equal to the number of points of damage you want it to inflict. For example, if you want to inflict 4 points of damage, that's a difficulty 4 task (the training that comes with this ability eases the task).
On a success, you create your one-use trap in about one minute, and it is considered level 3 for the purposes of avoiding detection before it is sprung and for a victim trying to struggle free (if a snare).
Action to initiate, one minute or one hour to complete.
You are trained in two skills in which you are not already trained. Choose two of the following: navigation, riding, running, piloting, or vehicle driving. You can select this ability multiple times. Each time you select it, you must choose two different skills.
Path of the PlanebreakerYou draw on the mystical power of the multiverse to interact with the Path. Choose one of the following effects when you use this ability.
If you have a Path token, using this ability grants you two assets on tasks to navigate the Path.
You instantaneously transmit yourself to another planet, dimension, plane, or level of reality. You must know that the destination exists; the GM will decide if you have enough information to confirm its existence and the level of difficulty to reach the destination. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to bring other people with you; each level of Effort used in this way affects up to three additional targets. You must touch any additional targets.
GodforsakenYou animate a tree of approximately your size or smaller, creating a level 3 creature with 1 Armor. The tree follows your verbal commands for one hour, after which it reverts to a normal tree (and roots itself where it stands). Unless the tree is killed by damage, you can animate it again when the ability duration expires, but any damage it has carries over to its newly animated state. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to affect more trees; each level of Effort used affects one additional tree. Action.
You enter one tree and instantaneously and safely emerge from another one within long distance. You don’t need to specify which tree you’re exiting from (if you know there are trees in that direction, you can decide how far to go and you will step out of a tree in that area). If the starting tree’s trunk isn’t as large as your body, you must apply a level of Effort to enter it. You can choose to use Effort to increase the distance you travel; one level of Effort used in this way increases the range to very long, two levels raise it to one mile (1.5 km), and each additional level of Effort beyond that increases it by an additional mile.
While driving a car, truck, or motorcycle, your Might Edge, Speed Edge, and Intellect Edge increase by 1. When you make a recovery roll while driving, you recover 5 additional points. When you attempt a driving task or an extreme trick—such as jumping a ravine or other vehicle, spinning in the air, landing safely on another vehicle, and so on— the task is eased.
As part of the same action, you make a ranged attack against two targets that are within immediate range of each other. Make a separate attack roll against each target. The attack rolls are hindered.
You can make an attack with a light or medium ranged weapon and attempt a riding task as a single action. Riding tasks could be as straightforward as keeping up with a fleeing foe or as tricky as hanging upside down beneath your galloping mount, standing upright on the saddle of your galloping mount, and so on.
This ability functions as the Devoted Defender ability, except the benefit applies to up to three characters you choose. If you choose just one character, you become specialized in the tasks described under the Devoted Defender ability
Action to initiate.
When you stand guard as your action, allies within immediate range of you gain an asset to their defense tasks. This lasts until the end of your next turn.
This ability works like the Necromancy ability except that it creates a level 5 creature.
Action to animate.
Old Gus' Daft DraftsYou can use your bite as a light or a medium weapon, and are practiced in attacks you make with it. You can fit objects up to 1 foot (30 cm) inches in diameter into your mouth and swallow them without difficulty. If you have the time, you can eat almost anything. Your teeth are brutally flat and as hard as steel, and your digestive system (thankfully) remains a mystery. So long as you can put your mouth around something, for the most part, you can eat and subsist on it.
If you swallow something, you can use an action to retrieve it later, up to a number of hours equal to the level of the object or creature.
Certain items (enchanted items, for example) might be entirely indigestible, even by a True Omnivore. The GM might decide that your body rejects such items immediately, or that your body will pass them out in the usual way after some amount of time.
You can see in complete darkness up to 50 feet (15 m) as if it were dim light. You recognize holograms, disguises, optical illusions, sound mimicry, and other such tricks (for all senses) for what they are.
Sometimes, you've just got to roll the dice and hope things add up in your favor. When you use Trust to Luck, roll a d6. On any even result, the task you're attempting is eased by two steps. On a roll of 1, the task is hindered.
When you use an action to move, Speed defense rolls are eased until the end of your next turn.
Experience has taught you a lot, including that sometimes luck is something that you have to make for yourself. When you roll a 1, you can reroll. You must use the new result, even if it's another 1.
In a round after successfully striking a foe with a melee weapon, you can opt to automatically deal standard damage to the foe with that same weapon without any modifiers (2 points for a light weapon, 4 points for a medium weapon, or 6 points for a heavy weapon).
The ultimate test: you divide your attention and take two separate actions this round.