[Types]
Paradoxes are the mad scientists, the sorcerers, and the breakers of the rules of reality. They are not bound by what others believe to be true. Paradoxes derive their abilities from a connection to the Strange, regardless of where they claim their power originates. With those abilities—called revisions—they can transgress the laws of reality and alter the rules of a recursion. The Strange permeates the cosmos, though it's hard for anyone not quickened to its presence to interact with it like paradoxes (and spinners and vectors, in their own ways) do.
Though most paradoxes refer to their special abilities as revisions, some refer to them as knacks, prayers, spells, or psychic gifts.
Many paradoxes come from a background that includes extensive training of a scientific, technical, religious, or spiritual nature. They could also have experience in an esoteric order. As a result, they have an aptitude with equipment, paraphernalia, or rituals that may aid them in their pursuits.
Paradoxes are often treated with respect due to the esoteric knowledge that their backgrounds provide; whether scientists, engineers, priests, shamans, or psychics, paradoxes are usually part of a meritocracy. If a paradox were to reveal the possession of paranormal abilities, society at large would react according to the nature of the location. On the prime of Earth and recursions from the same mold, the paradox would likely be subject to a lot of derision, some fear, and possibly some official interest.
In places like Ruk, and especially in places like Ardeyn, where such things are more common, these abilities wouldn't gain much notice.
Though paradox talents may be remarkable, their knowledge is often their most valuable asset to a group. Many paradoxes possess valuable expertise in areas such as geography, botany, medicine, and lore. When the party comes upon unsettling clues, relics, artifacts, cyphers, creatures out of distant recursions, or other elements of the Strange, the paradox usually has an idea about how to best analyze and deal with the situation.
Paradoxes don't actually perform miracles, though it can seem like that to other people. But the explanation is far more strange. Every paradox knows something about the Strange. In addition to the Strange being the source of their power, it can be endlessly fascinating to a paradox. Whenever elements of the Strange, such as cyphers (and related artifacts), Strangers, or new recursions are discovered, a paradox is the first to try to understand their meaning and significance. When it comes to cyphers and related artifacts, paradoxes are not especially choosy. On the other hand, a paradox can carry only so much equipment, which means a smart paradox is generally drawn to items that provide protection, give ranged artillery options, and grant travel to and protection within recursions.
As paradoxes gain more experience, they typically learn new and more powerful revisions. They start out with abilities that allow them to acquire secrets, travel to new recursions with a lot of effort, affect matter, and bend laws of nature in small ways, but eventually they can learn to break the laws of nature, destroy matter, and skip through several recursions using only an effort of will.
| Stat | Pool Starting Value |
|---|---|
| Might | 8 |
| Speed | 8 |
| Intellect | 12 |
You get 6 additional points to divide among your stat Pools however you wish.
First-tier paradoxes have the following abilities: Effort: Your Effort is 1.
Aptitude: You have an Intellect Edge of 1, a Might Edge of 0, and a Speed Edge of 0.
Expert Cypher Use: You can bear three cyphers at a time.
You are trained in one area of knowledge or technical expertise of your choice.
You are trained in general topics regarding the Strange, which allows you to attempt to understand and identify related phenomena, including the effect of a particular cypher. Strange training is also sometimes called Strange knowledge or Strange lore.
You can use light weapons without penalty. If you wield a medium weapon, increase the difficulty of the attack by one step. sIf you wield a heavy weapon, increase it by two steps.
You can participate in the process of traveling to another recursion. Each time you do, you can choose to initiate, hasten, or ease a translation. If you choose to hasten or ease the process, someone else in the group must initiate the translation. As a paradox, you are most effective at initiating a translation. This initiation advantage provides you with additional opportunities during the process of translating. In order to translate, you must know that the recursion you are translating to exists. The GM will decide if you have enough information to confirm its existence and determine what level of difficulty is needed to reach the destination.
Action to initiate.
You can tap into the Strange to affect the world around you. When you use a revision, you essentially revise reality. Most revisions require that you spend 1 or more Intellect points (and have a free hand that you use to direct the release of the revision’s effect). If no Intellect point cost is given for a revision, it functions continuously without needing to be activated. Some revisions specify a duration, but you can always end one of your own revisions any time you wish.
Select two revisions from those described below. You can’t choose the same revision more than once unless its description says otherwise.
A target within long range is subject to a disorienting, brain-jarring pulse of energy that deals 1 point of damage that ignores Armor. On a successful attack, in addition to the damage, the difficulty of all actions attempted by the target on its next turn increases by one step.
You are trained in Intellect defense tasks and have +2 to Armor against damage that selectively targets your Intellect Pool (that normally ignores Armor).
An ongoing effect created by a cypher within short o end it. Disperse Strange Energy could reintroduce to the timestream the target of a stasis keeper, strip away the asset to Speed defense rolls granted by a temporary shield, make visible the subject of a vanisher, or eliminate the ability of a water adapter user to breathe underwater, for example.
A target within short range is subject to a snare constructed of semi-tangible lines of force for one minute. The force snare is a level 2 construct. A target caught in the force snare cannot move from its position, but it can attack and defend normally. The target can also spend its action attempting to break free. You can apply Effort to increase the level of the force snare by 1 per level of Effort applied.
Action to initiate.
You pick one creature within long range. The target is jolted by a confluence of fundamental forces for 4 points of damage. If the target you select is not native to the recursion where you attack it, its senses are overwhelmed. On a successful attack, in addition to taking 4 points of damage, it cannot act on its next turn. Once exposed to this revision, a non-native creature normally can’t be affected by the sense-overwhelming portion of this attack again for several hours.
You can temporarily bend the fundamental force of gravity on a creature or object (no larger than yourself) that is within long range. The target’s level can be no more than 2 above your tier. On a successful attack, an affected target floats an immediate distance over the ground for one round. A levitating target hovers just above the ground, able to take actions, but unable to gain purchase through physical contact. Each round after the initial attack, you can attempt to keep the target aloft by spending 1 additional Intellect point and succeeding at a difficulty 2 Intellect task. If your concentration lapses, the target drops back to the ground. You can’t directly move a levitating object with this revision, but strong winds, a hearty push by someone else, or other forces can move the target.
Action to initiate.
Despite appearances, reality is quantum and noncausal, which means a careful observer can discover information leaks. You learn one random fact from a person or location that is pertinent to a topic you designate. Alternatively, you can choose to learn a creature’s level; however, if you do so, you cannot learn anything else about it later with this revision.
You interrupt the fundamental force holding normal matter together for a moment, creating the detonation of an object you choose within long range. The object must be a small, mundane item composed of homogeneous matter (such as a clay cup, an iron ingot, a stone, and so on). The object explodes in an immediate radius, attacking all creatures and objects in the area for 1 point of damage. Because this is an area attack, adding Effort to increase your damage works differently than it does for single-target attacks: for each level of Effort applied to increase the damage, add 2 points of damage to each target. If you increase the damage through Effort, even if you fail your attack roll, all targets in the area still take 1 point of damage.
Second-tier paradoxes have the following abilities:
When you use Reach Beyond, you can access training in a skill provided by a focus you have in another recursion. You must have used the skill in its proper recursion at least once before. You can use the skill once. To use it again, you must use Reach Beyond again.
Choose one of the following revisions (or a revision from a lower tier) to add to your repertoire. In addition, you can replace one of your first-tier revisions with a different first-tier revision.
You release a beam of pure force that smashes into a creature within short range, inflicting 5 points of damage and moving it an immediate distance farther back.
You open a pathway to another creature’s mind via a light ouch, which allows you to transmit thoughts and images to each other. You can communicate without having to speak, though communication is vastly improved if you both speak the same language. The mental link remains regardless of distance (but not across recursion boundaries) and lasts for one hour. Instead of applying Effort o decrease the difficulty, you can extend the duration by one hour for each level of Effort applied.
If you apply a level of Effort when you use this ability on an intelligent target that doesn't share your language, you can communicate with the target reasonably well.
Action to initiate.
An object that you've previously designated and prepared instantly appears in your hand. The object must be small enough to fit in your hand. This is a difficulty 2 Intellect-based task. Preparing a designated object requires that you use this power on it as you place it in a secure location you've set aside, such as a locked chest, safe, or treasury. If the object is moved after you've prepared and secured it, you lose your link to it. You can have up to three prepared items at the same time.
You call up a field of shielding energy that grants you +1 to Armor for ten minutes. You can increase the Armor bonus by spending Effort. Each additional level of Effort increases the Armor value you gain by 1.
You can secure (or unlock) a regular door or other object that can be closed or opened, such as a drawer, laptop, satchel, book, window, and so on, even if it can’t normally be locked. You can also lock (or open) a permanent or semipermanent recursion gate, including translation gates and inapposite gates. To unlock or lock the target, you must touch it. If the object is locked and you wish to unlock it, succeed at an Intellect task with a difficulty set by the GM (usually equal to the level of the lock or effect holding the object closed). On a success, the target is unlocked. You automatically succeed in locking an object if that is your goal; an object or gate is locked at a level equal to 4+your tier
The shimmer may look different to every player who uses Eye for the Strange, and its appearance may also vary from character to character and from place to place.
You can read the mind of a creature you can see within short range. You gain access to its surface thoughts for up to one minute as long as it is within range.
Action to initiate.
You induce an ionized arc of plasma to leap between two targets that you can see and that are within short range of each other. Both targets must also be within long range of you. You roll an attack for each target separately. If you successfully attack only one target, it takes 4 points of damage from the intense heat. If you successfully attack both targets, each takes 4 points of damage. Effort applied to one attack counts for both, but you must abide by your Effort level limit for each action.
You can revise flesh with your touch in one of two ways. When you touch an impaired or debilitated character, you can choose to move the character up one step on the damage track (for example, a debilitated PC becomes impaired, while an impaired creature becomes hale). Alternatively, you can grant a character a +2 bonus to his recovery roll if you use this ability on the PC during a rest.
Third-tier paradoxes have the following abilities:
Adept Cypher Use: You can bear four cyphers at a time.
Choose one of the following revisions (or a revision from a lower tier) to add to your repertoire. In addition, you can replace one of your lower-tier revisions with a different one from a tier lower than third.
You create a temporary inapposite gate to a nascent recursion that is a pocket dimension. The recursion is no larger than 225 square feet (21 square meters) and has characteristics determined by the GM, but it’s essentially a safe place for you and any allies who accompany you to rest for up to twelve hours. The gate to the pocket recursion is invisible to anyone but you and those you designate. The gate dissolves twelve hours after you create it with this revision. As is true of any recursion, once you’ve visited, you can return via normal translation if you wish. Using Down the Rabbit Hole connects to a completely different recursion each time, the same one as previously, or a mix, at the GM's discretion.
You violently launch a creature or object about your size or smaller within short range and send it flying a short distance in any direction. This is an Intellect attack that inflicts 4 points of damage to the object being flung when it lands or strikes a barrier. If you aim the primary target at another creature or object (and succeed on a second attack), the secondary target also takes 4 points of damage.
You imbue an object with the permanent ability to serve as a mental link between a single creature and whomever is touching the object, regardless of distance (even across recursion boundaries). Both the creature and the object must be within immediate range of you when you imbue the object. The subject creature must be intelligent enough to be able to communicate using language. The object can be no larger than you (such as a sculpture, a large painting, or a mirror) and no smaller than a key fob, a figurine, or a playing card. The link allows the object holder and the linked creature to transmit thoughts and images (and, potentially, mental attacks) to each other.
If a linked creature tries to
reject a particular instance
of contact from an imbued
communication fetish, the
contact initiator can force
the link to be established by
succeeding on an Intellect
attack, but the difficulty of
the attack is increased by one step.
Action to imbue, action to initiate link.
Choose a discrete type of energy that you have experience with (such as heat, sonic, electricity, and so on). You must be familiar with the type of energy; for example, if you have no experience with a certain kind of extradimensional energy, you can’t protect against it. You gain +10 to Armor against damage from that type of energy for ten minutes. Alternatively, you gain +1 to Armor against damage from that energy for one day. Instead of applying Effort to decrease the difficulty of this revision, you can apply Effort to protect more targets, with each level of Effort affecting up to two additional targets. You must touch additional targets to protect them.
Action to initiate.
You see a “shimmer” around creatures and objects that are not native to the current recursion and around native creatures that possess the spark. If you spend an action concentrating on a nonnative target with such a shimmer, you can see the form it originally possessed prior to translating to the current recursion (if it went through an inapposite gate, it retains the shimmer, but may not look much different). If two or more characters in a group have Eye for the Strange, they can assist each other with this revision, decreasing the difficulty of the task by one step.(although you can use an Action to enhance, as stated).
You temporarily bend the fundamental law of gravity around a creature or object (up to twice your mass) within short range. The target’s level can be no more than 2 above your tier. On a successful attack, an affected target is caught in your telekinetic grip, and you can move the creature up to a short distance in any direction each round that you retain your hold. A creature in your telekinetic grip can take actions, but it can’t move under its own power. Each round after the initial attack, you can attempt to keep your grip on the target by spending 2 additional Intellect points and succeeding at a difficulty 2 Intellect task. If your concentration lapses, the target drops back to the ground. Instead of applying Effort to decrease the difficulty, you can apply Effort to increase the amount of mass you can affect. Each level of Effort allows you to affect a creature or object twice as massive as before. For example, applying one level of Effort would affect a creature four times as massive as you, two levels of Effort would affect a creature eight times as massive, three levels can affect a creature sixteen times as massive, and so on.
Action to initiate.
You are trained in any mental revision or mental ability that comes from a cypher, an artifact, or your focus. For example, you are trained when using Mind Reading because it’s a mental ability, but not when using Plasma Arc.
An observer with the ability to revise reality knows that space and distance is an illusion. You concentrate to create an invisible, immobile sensor at a location within a recursion you have previously visited or viewed (at the GM’s discretion, you may have to succeed at an Intellect task if the location is somehow warded). The sensor lasts for about an hour. Once it is created, you can concentrate to see, hear, and smell through the sensor whether you are somewhere else in the recursion or on a connected prime. The sensor doesn’t grant you sensory capabilities beyond the norm. Creating such a sensor on the prime world of Earth requires that you spend a level of Effort.
Action to create; action to check.
Choose one of the following revisions (or a revision from a lower tier) to add to your repertoire. In addition, you can replace one of your lower-tier revisions with a different one from a tier lower than fourth.
You create one end of a translation gate. The gate exit does not connect to anything unless you earlier created a different gate exit within another recursion, in which case that exit and the new one connect, creating a translation gate. Unconnected gate exits last for about a month or until destroyed. After two gate exits link up to form a translation gate, the gate lasts for about a year or until destroyed. (Like all objects, translation gates have levels that speak to their ability to withstand harm. The translation gate exit you create with this ability is level 5.) You can create a permanent translation gate by using this revision every day for seven days on either exit of a connected translation gate.
One hour to initiate.
You bend light around you, becoming invisible for ten minutes. While invisible, you are specialized in stealth and Speed defense tasks. This effect ends if you do something to reveal your presence or position—attacking, performing a revision, using an ability, moving a large object, and so on. If this occurs, you can regain the remaining invisibility effect by taking an action to focus on hiding your position.
The dream of invisibility is usually everything people imagine, but also remember that buses, stampeding creatures, and normally benign automated machinery also can’t sense you. Adjust for your safety accordingly.
Action to initiate or reinitiate.
Pebbles, dirt, sand, and debris rise into the air around you to form a swirling cloud. The cloud extends out to immediate range and moves with you. The cloud remains around you for ten minutes. When it ends, all the materials fall to the ground around you. The cloud makes it harder for other creatures to attack you. You have an asset on all Speed defense rolls until the effect ends.
In addition, while the cloud is around you, you can use an action to whip the material so that it abrades everything within immediate range. Each creature and object in the area takes 2 points of damage.
Action to initiate.
When you initiate a translation, instead of translating into a known recursion, you can attempt to draw an unliving, untended, and mundane object to wherever you are. You describe the general parameters of the object you are looking for, and the GM determines what appears if you are successful. The object you produce from fiction appears through an inapposite gate, is (usually) level 5, and could be a weapon, a small vehicle, a piece of art, a chest of gold, and so on (though nothing larger than could fit in a 10-foot [3 m] cube). This is a difficulty 5 translation roll. Instead of applying Effort to decrease the difficulty, you can apply four levels of Effort to attempt to draw an artifact from a world that operates under a different law than the recursion where you attempt Sift the Worlds. For example, if you're on Earth and you attempt to produce a magic sword from Ardeyn (as opposed to a regular sword), you must apply four levels of Effort. Objects that operate under a different law begin to degrade in usefulness after a minute.
Four hours to initiate the translation; two hours to initiate if hastened by another character; ten minutes to initiate if hastened by another character who's a spinner.
You ward an area no larger than a long distance across, making it more difficult to translate into that location. You do so by raising the effective level of the area by 1 plus the level of the recursion hosting the area. This is a difficulty 2 Intellect-based task. Instead of applying Effort to decrease the difficulty, you can apply Effort to increase the level of the ward. Thus, to increase the effective level of the warded area by 4 (three levels above the normal limit), you must apply three levels of Effort.
As a separate use, you can also use Translation Ward to permanently redirect those who fail to translate into an area you warded. When you do this within 1 mile (1.6 km) of the warded area, recursors who attempt and fail to translate into the warded area are not subject to an effect from the Translation Failure table, but instead appear in an area that you choose within immediate range.
You control the actions of another creature you touch. This effect lasts for ten minutes. The target must be level 2 or lower. After you have established control, you maintain mental contact with the target and sense what it senses. You can allow it to act freely or override its control on a case-by-case basis. Instead of applying Effort to decrease the difficulty, you can apply Effort to increase the maximum level of the target. Thus, to control the mind of a level 5 target (three levels above the normal limit), you must apply three levels of Effort. When the Mind Control revision ends, the creature doesn’t remember being controlled or anything it did while under your command.
Action to initiate.
You or a target you touch experiences a higher level of mental and physical reaction time for about a minute. During that period, the target modifies all Speed tasks by one step to its benefit, including Speed defense rolls. In addition, the target can take one extra action at any time before the revision’s duration expires.
You tug on the fundamental laws of the recursion to create a zone of distraction and confusion around a creature you can see within long range for one minute. All attacks against the target are modified by one step to the attacker’s benefit, and all attacks made by the target are modified by one step to its detriment. If the target attempts an attack and fails, it automatically hits one of the target’s allies if an ally is in range of that attack.
Fifth-tier paradoxes have the following abilities:
Master Cypher Use: You can bear five cyphers at a time.
Choose one of the following revisions (or a revision from a lower tier) to add to your repertoire. In addition, you can replace one of your lower-tier revisions with a different one from a tier lower than fifth.
Regardless of the recursion you currently inhabit, you and your equipment become rimed with hellish frost from the recursion of Hell Frozen Over for one minute. The rime grants you +5 to Armor against all attacks. When a creature successfully strikes you, you choose whether to instantly discharge a portion of the rime to automatically inflict 5 points of damage to your foe (which also decreases Armor by 1 with each use). Each level of Effort applied increases Armor by 1 and the revenge damage by 1 point.
You split your consciousness into two parts. For one minute, you can take two actions on each of your turns, but only one of them can be to make an attack of any kind.
You disintegrate one nonliving object smaller than you and whose level is less than or equal to your tier. You must touch the object to affect it. If the GM feels it appropriate to the circumstances, you can disintegrate a portion of an object (the total volume of which is smaller than you) rather than the entire thing.
You produce, as if from thin air, a level 5 creature of a kind you have previously encountered in a recursion that you have visited. The creature you name appears through a transitory inapposite gate and remains for one minute. The creature is drawn back to its home recursion when the revision ends. The creature acts as you direct. It appears through an inapposite gate, and at the GM’s discretion, it may face difficulties according to the rules of the location you draw it into, such as suffering a step penalty to some or all tasks it attempts. As a level 5 creature, it has a target number of 15 and a health of 15, and it inflicts 5 points of damage.
You send another creature you can see within long range to the recursion of its origin or (if the creature is not native to a recursion) to one you’ve previously visited. The target must be level 5 or lower, and you must succeed on an attack. If successful, the creature is exiled through a transitory inapposite gate. If the creature resists, all its actions are modified by two steps to its detriment for one minute. Exiled creatures can’t return to the recursion you exiled them from under their own power for seven days (even if they have the ability to move between recursions or if they find a gate).
You exchange your current focus for the focus you possessed in an alternate recursion (or connected prime) for up to one hour. Doing so is a transgression of reality and the rules of translation, which means that it saps both your Intellect Pool and your Might Pool. While you retain the forced focus, your appearance is a hybrid of your current appearance and what you look like in the recursion or prime whose focus you are borrowing. You can use your current focus while the forced focus is active.
Action to initiate.
Tapping into the immense processing capacity of the Strange, you ask the GM one question and get a general answer. The GM assigns a level to the question, so the more obscure the answer, the more difficult the task. Generally, knowledge that you could find by looking somewhere other than your current location is level 1, and obscure knowledge of the past is level 7. Gaining knowledge of the future is impossible.
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.
Sixth-tier paradoxes have the following abilities:
Choose one of the following revisions (or a revision from a lower tier) to add to your repertoire. In addition, you can replace one of your lower-tier revisions with a different one from a tier lower than sixth.
You send a creature within immediate range that you can see into one of a number of recursions filled with brimstone, hellfire, and demons. On a successful attack on a target of up to level 7, the target is pulled through a transitory inapposite gate and takes 6 points of damage as it is dragged through the hellish recursion behind some unspeakable monstrosity. If you concentrate, you can attempt to keep the target translocated with a new action and a new attack roll each round. Each round the target remains translocated, it suffers another 6 points of damage. If the target returns before dying (or if the initial attack wasn’t successful at pulling the target into a hellish recursion), all tasks the target attempts on its next turn are modified by two steps to its detriment.
You briefly align the fundamental forces of existence, creating a point where they merge into a single interaction at a location you can see. This allows you to briefly rewrite one rule of the recursion where you are currently located. The effect can be dramatic, but it is always local and lasts anywhere from one round to a minute, depending on the nature of the change. Possibilities include changing the color of the sky, causing an eclipse, halving (or doubling) gravity, changing the speed of light, and similar effects. The GM will decide if your brief annotation of the laws of existence is reasonable, how long it will last, and what level of difficulty is needed to achieve it.
You cause time to stop flowing everywhere within immediate range for one minute. The effect ends if you leave the area or if you use an action to end it early. The freezing affects everything in the area except you. Affected creatures are frozen in the moment when you used this revision, and when the effect ends, they resume what they were doing as if no time had passed. Affected creatures and objects are impervious to all damage and cannot be moved or manipulated. You and everything outside the area act normally.
Action to initiate.
You feel a mental tug toward the nearest recursion gate that you don’t already know about. You discern the location of and distance to that gate (translation or inapposite), and you learn enough information regarding the general nature and theme of the recursion it connects with to enter it directly using Translation.
When you initiate a translation, you can choose to also hasten and/or ease it. To do so, expend the Intellect cost to trigger this revision as you begin the translation trance. Then you can apply one level of Effort to ease or hasten the translation (instead of applying Effort to decrease the difficulty), or two levels of Effort to both ease and hasten the translation. You must know that the recursion exists; the GM will decide if you have enough information to confirm its existence and determine what level of difficulty is needed to reach the destination.
Action to initiate.
When you initiate a translation, instead of translating into a known recursion, you can attempt to translate into a recursion you're not directly familiar with, but one that you specify the general parameters for. The GM determines the actual nature and characteristics of the recursion you translate to if you are successful. The translation roll is one step more difficult than translating to a recursion of a given level would normally be, plus any additional steps the GM believes is appropriate. For instance, if you specify that you're looking for an Earthlike recursion where your favorite paranormal investigator runs a wizard shop, the difficulty would be 5 (Earth is a level 5 recursion), plus 1 for attempting to find it blind, plus 1 because of the very specific nature of the request, for a total difficulty of 7. Otherwise, normal rules for translation apply.
Four hours to initiate; two hours to initiate if hastened by another character; ten minutes to initiate if hastened by another character who's a spinner.
Choose one cypher that you carry. The cypher must have an effect that is not instantaneous. You destroy the cypher and gain its power, which functions for you continuously. You can choose a cypher when you gain this ability, or you can wait and make the choice later. After you usurp a cypher’s power, you cannot later switch to a different cypher—the ability works only once.
Action to initiate.
Roll a d20 or choose from the following list to determine a specific fact about your background that provides a connection to the rest of the world. These connections mostly assume your character begins on Earth.
Adapt them if you hail from a recursion, or create your own fact.
JD wants to play a paradox. He figures he’d like to be a tad more defensive and tougher, so he puts a point each into Might and Speed, bringing each Pool up to 9. The other 4 points go into his Intellect Pool, making it 16. His paradox is something of a brain. He has an Intellect Edge of 1, a Might Edge of 0, and a Speed Edge of 0. As a first-tier character, his Effort is 1. He is trained in the Strange. He gains Translation as an automatic revision, then chooses Shatter and Premonition, giving him an offensive boost and a way to find things out.
He can bear three cyphers, but the GM gives him two: an occultic cypher (which counts as two cyphers for this purpose) and an anoetic cypher. The occultic cypher is an orb that can be thrown down to form a temporary portal into (and out of) a linked recursion. The other cypher is a device that allows the paradox to fly for up to one minute when attached to his belt.
For his descriptor, JD chooses Skeptical, which adds 2 more points to his Intellect Pool, bringing it to a whopping 18! The descriptor also gives him training in identifying things and seeing through various sorts of tricks.
For his focus, he chooses Solves Mysteries. His character is a scientific-minded investigator. In fact, he decides that he works in a police crime lab. His focus gives him training in perception and the ability to use points from his Might Pool or Speed Pool for Intellect tasks.
For his equipment, JD gets a laptop, a flashlight, a utility knife, a cell phone, and a choice of two weapons. He chooses a pair of brass knuckles and a light pistol. Both are light weapons, so they decrease the difficulty of attack rolls, but they inflict only 2 points of damage. He chooses to have no armor, since being a paradox doesn’t give him any practice with it, and it might hinder him more than help in the long run. The GM generously allows him to have a crime scene investigation kit instead.
JD is a Skeptical paradox who Solves Mysteries.