Abilities #

This chapter presents a vast catalog of more than a thousand abilities a character can gain from their type, flavor (if any), and focus. They are sorted alphabetically by the ability’s name.

A character’s type, flavor, and focus assign an appropriate tier to each ability. However, if you’re creating a brand-new focus or type, we provide a couple of additional tools.

The first is a power grade for each ability, which tells you about how potent it is in relation to other abilities. Abilities appropriate for tiers 1 and 2 characters are called “low-tier” abilities. Abilities appropriate for tiers 3 and 4 are called “mid-tier” abilities. Abilities appropriate for tiers 5 and 6 are called “high-tier” abilities.

These abilities are further sorted into ability categories based on the kinds of things they do—abilities that improve physical attacks are in the attack skill category, abilities that assist allies are in the support category, and so on.

Unless otherwise noted, you cannot choose the same ability twice, even if you get it from both your type and a flavor.)

Ability Categories And Relative Power #

Abilities can be divided into several categories based on the kinds of things they do—improve your physical attacks, assist allies, provide defense, give you a special attack form, and so on. Under each of the following category descriptions is a list of abilities that fit that category, sorted into low-, medium-, and high-tier abilities.

The categories are mainly used by GMs when designing new foci for a campaign, allowing them to search a short list of abilities instead of trying to find something appropriate among the thousand or so abilities in this chapter. For example, the GM might have a custom focus in their campaign called “Is Born of the Swamp” and want a defensive ability for tier 5, so they can look at the high-tier abilities in the protection category and quickly narrow down what options are available.

It may be possible that a character gains the same ability from more than one source (such as from their type and their descriptor). Unless the two abilities are obviously additive (such as two abilities that each add 3 points to your Might Pool, which together would give the character +6 Might points), the duplicated ability might be improved in some way, such as having a longer duration or greater effect, or automatically providing an asset. Some abilities give suggestions on how to do this; otherwise, the player and the GM should work out whether and how the ability is improved.

The ability categories are not intended to be rigid or comprehensive. Some abilities fall into more than one category, and it could be argued that some abilities could be included in more categories than are listed here.

These categories have some overlap with the categories in the Focus chapter. For example, there is a support category here and a support category in the Focus chapter. They aren’t intended to be exact parallels and they don’t mean exactly the same thing. That said, if you’re creating a support-centric focus, many of the abilities in the support ability category would be appropriate choices.

Attack Skill #

Gives you training or specialization in a specific physical attack (like swords or unarmed combat), a category of physical attacks (light bladed, heavy bashing, and so on), or another physical skill primarily used to inflict harm (such as breaking objects).

Low Tier:

High Tier

Companion #

Gives you a follower, modifies a follower, or gives you an additional benefit when interacting with or near your follower. This category includes humanoid followers, beast companions, and temporary companions like summoned swarms, conjured spirits, and so on.

Low Tier:

Mid Tier:

Control #

Controls or influences minds in ways outside of what could be done with conventional intimidation and persuasion, such as using psychic mind control, fear gas, and so on.

Low Tier:

Mid Tier:

High Tier:

Craft #

Creates useful physical things, such as mundane tools (hammers, crowbars), limited-use devices (manifest cyphers, artifacts), or independent beings (robots, elementals, zombies). Includes blueprints, plans, and effects that aid or speed crafting.

Low Tier:

Mid Tier:

High Tier:

Cure #

Cures damage, adds or improves recovery rolls, or negates, cures, suspends, or otherwise gives immunity to a harmful effect or condition, such as poison, disease, mental attacks, moving down on the damage track, or dying.

Low Tier:

Mid Tier:

High Tier:

Environment #

Manipulates the environment or things in the environment, such as with telekinesis, weather control, gravity control, illusions, and so on.

Low Tier:

Mid Tier:

High Tier:

Information #

Gives the ability to learn information about something, whether chosen by the GM like Scan, by asking a question and the GM giving the answer, or by learning a language.

Low Tier:

Mid Tier:

High Tier:

Meta #

Modifies an existing ability or character trait’s effects or parameters, such as increasing range or, damage, easing the difficulty, giving you additional noncombat actions each turn, rerolling a failed attempt, or treating a number on the die as something different than normal.

Low Tier:

Mid Tier:

High Tier:

Movement #

Increases your movement (such as increasing your basic movement speed from short to long) or adds a new type of movement (such as flight, wallcrawling, phasing, or teleporting).

Low Tier:

Mid Tier:

High Tier:

Protection #

Gives training or specialization in one or more types of combat defenses (Might, Speed, or Intellect), provides or increases Armor, or otherwise helps prevent damage.

Low Tier:

Mid Tier:

High Tier:

Senses #

Enhances your senses (seeing in the dark, seeing underwater or through mist, sensing danger, finding optimal places to stand in combat, and so on), but doesn’t provide direct answers to questions like an information ability does.

Low Tier:

Mid Tier:

High Tier:

Social #

Gives you an indirect social benefit, such as providing a useful contact in a city or letting you take advantage of your social status.

Low Tier:

Mid Tier:

High Tier:

• Group Friendship

Special Attack #

Gives the ability to make a special melee or ranged attack (weapon, energy blast, psychic, and so on). The attack might do damage, have a special effect (disarm, hinder, move the target, and so on), or both. This also includes abilities like Spray that let you attack multiple targets as your action.

Low Tier:

Mid Tier:

High Tier:

Support #

Gives some sort of benefit to an ally rather than yourself, such as an extra action or an asset on their roll.

Low Tier:

Mid Tier:

High Tier:

Task #

Gives training, specialization, or an asset in one or more noncombat skills (climbing, healing, computers, initiative, and so on).

Low Tier:

Mid Tier:

High Tier:

Transform #

A significant change that temporarily enhances you, such as growing bigger, turning into a werewolf, and so on. Also includes apparent transformations like disguises and invisibility.

Low Tier:

Mid Tier:

High Tier:

Abilities—A #

A Smile and a Word: When you use Effort on any action involving interactions—even those having to do with calming animals or communicating with someone or something whose language you do not speak—you gain a free level of Effort on the task. Action.

Able Assistance: When you help someone with a task and they apply a level of Effort, they get a free level of Effort on that task. Enabler.

Absorb Energy (7 Intellect points): You touch an object and absorb its energy. If you touch a manifest cypher, you render it useless. If you touch an artifact, roll for its depletion. If you touch another kind of powered machine or device, the GM determines whether its power is fully drained. In any case, you absorb energy from the object touched and regain 1d10 Intellect points. If this would give you more Intellect than your Pool’s maximum, the extra points are lost, and you must make a Might defense roll. The difficulty of the roll is equal to the number of points over your maximum you absorbed. If you fail the roll, you take 5 points of damage and are unable to act for one round. You can use this ability as a defense action when you’re the target of an incoming ability. Doing so cancels the incoming ability, and you absorb the energy as if it were a device. Action.

Absorb Kinetic Energy: You absorb a portion of the energy of a physical attack or impact. You negate 1 point of damage you would have suffered and store that point as energy. Once you have absorbed 1 point of energy, you continue to negate 1 point of damage from any incoming blow or impact, but the residual energy bleeds off with a flare of harmless light (you cannot store more than 1 point at a time). Enabler.

Absorb Pure Energy: When you use Absorb Kinetic Energy, you can also absorb and store energy from attacks made with pure energy (focused light, radiation, transdimensional, psychic, etc.) or from conduits that direct energy, if you can make direct contact. This ability does not change how many points of energy you can store. If you also have Improved Absorb Kinetic Energy, you can absorb 2 points of damage from other energy sources as well. Enabler.

Accelerate (4+ Intellect points): Your words imbue the spirit of a character within immediate range who is able to understand you, accelerating them so they gain an asset on initiative tasks and Speed defense rolls for ten minutes. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to affect more targets; each level of Effort affects one additional target. You must speak to additional targets to accelerate them, one target per round. Action per target to initiate.

Acrobatic Attack (1+ Speed points): You leap into the attack, twisting or flipping through the air. If you roll a natural 17 or 18, you can choose to have a minor effect rather than deal extra damage. If you apply Effort to the attack, you get a free level of Effort on the task. You can’t use this ability if your Speed Effort costs are reduced from wearing armor. Enabler.

Action Processor (4 Intellect points): Drawing upon stored information and the ability to process incoming data at amazing speeds, you are trained in one physical task of your choice for ten minutes. For example, you can choose running, climbing, swimming, Speed defense, or attacks with a specific weapon. Action to initiate.

Adaptation: Thanks to a latent mutation, a device implanted in your spine, a ritual performed with dragon’s blood, or some other gift, you now remain at a comfortable temperature; never need to worry about dangerous radiation, diseases, or gases; and can always breathe in any environment (even the vacuum of space). Enabler.

Adroit Cypher Use: You can bear four cyphers at a time. Enabler.

Advanced Command (7 Intellect points): A target within short range obeys any command you give as long as they can hear and understand you. Further, as long as you continue to do nothing but issue commands (taking no other action), you can give that same target a new command. This effect ends when you stop issuing commands or they are out of short range. Action to initiate.

Advantage to Disadvantage (3 Speed points): With a number of quick moves, you make an attack against an armed foe, inflicting damage and disarming them so that their weapon is now in your hands or 10 feet (3 m) away on the ground—your choice. This disarming attack is hindered. Action.

Advantages of Being Big: When you use Enlarge, you’re so big that you can move massive objects more easily, climb buildings by using hand- and footholds unavailable to regular-sized people, and jump much farther. While you enjoy the effects of Enlarge, all climbing, lifting, and jumping tasks are eased. Enabler.

Advantages of Being Small: You’ve learned how to leverage your strength and accuracy in proportion to your size. Your damage is no longer halved when using Shrink, and climbing and jumping tasks are eased. Enabler.

Advice From a Friend (1 Intellect point): You know your friend’s strengths and weaknesses, and how to motivate them to succeed. When you give an ally a suggestion involving their next action, the character is trained in that action for one round. Action.

Again and Again (8 Speed points): You can take an additional action in a round in which you have already acted. Enabler.

Ageless: Your body and mind do not age. Unless you are killed by violence (or some outside force such as poison or infection), you will never die. Enabler.

Agent Provocateur: Choose one of the following to be trained in: attacking with a weapon of your choice, demolitions, or sneaking and lockpicking (if you choose this last option, you are trained in both). Enabler.

Aggression (2 Might points): You focus on making attacks to such an extent that you leave yourself vulnerable to your opponents. While this ability is active, you gain an asset on your melee attacks, and your Speed defense rolls against melee and ranged attacks are hindered. This effect lasts for as long as you wish, but it ends if no combat is taking place within range of your senses. Enabler.

Agile Wit: When attempting a Speed task, you instead can roll (and spend points) as if it were an Intellect action. If you apply Effort to this task, you can spend points from your Intellect Pool instead of your Speed Pool (in which case you also use your Intellect Edge instead of your Speed Edge). Enabler.

All-Out Con (7 Intellect points): You put everything into it. You add three free levels of Effort to the next task you attempt. You can’t use this ability again until after you’ve taken a
ten-hour recovery action. Action.

Alleviate (3 Intellect points): You attempt to cancel or cure one malady (such as disease or poison) in one creature. Action.

Alley Rat (6 Intellect points): While in a city, you find or create a significant shortcut, secret entrance, or emergency escape route where it looked like none existed. Doing so requires that you succeed on an Intellect action whose difficulty is set by the GM based on the situation. You and the GM should work out the details. Action.

Always Tinkering: If you have any tools and materials at all, and you are carrying fewer cyphers than your limit, you can create a manifest cypher if you have an hour of time to spend. The new cypher is random and always 2 levels lower than normal (minimum 1). It’s also temperamental and fragile. These are called temperamental cyphers. If you give one to anyone else to use, it falls apart immediately, useless. Action to initiate; one hour to complete.

Amazing Copying: You can use Copy Power to copy more powerful abilities. In addition to the normal options for using Effort with Copy Power, if you apply two levels of Effort, the GM chooses a high-tier ability that most closely resembles that power (instead of a low-tier ability). Enabler.

Amazing Effort: When you apply at least one level of Effort to a noncombat task, you get a free level of Effort on that task. When you choose this ability, decide if it applies to Might Effort or Speed Effort. Enabler.

Amazing Leap (2 Might points): You leap through the air and land safely some distance away. You can jump up, down, or across to anywhere you choose within long range if you have a clear and unobstructed path to that location. If you have three or more power shifts in strength, your leaping range increases to very long. If you have five or more power shifts in strength, your leaping range increases to 1,000 feet (300 m). Action.

Ambusher: When you attack a creature that has not yet acted during the first round of combat, your attack is eased. Enabler.

Amplify Sounds (2 Might points): For one minute, you can amplify distant or small sounds so that you can hear them clearly, even if it’s a conversation or the sound of a small animal moving through an underground burrow up to a very long distance away. You can attempt to perceive the sound even if interceding barriers block it or the sound is very slight, though this requires a few additional rounds of concentration. To discriminate the sound you wish in a noisy environment might also require a few additional rounds of concentration as you audibly explore the surrounding soundscape. Given enough time, you could pinpoint every conversation, every breathing creature, and every device creating noise within range. Action to initiate, up to several rounds to complete, depending on the difficulty of the task.

Anecdote (2 Intellect points): You can lift the spirits of a group of creatures and help them bond together by entertaining them with an uplifting or pointed anecdote. For the next hour, those who pay attention to your story are trained in a task you choose that’s related to the anecdote, as long as it’s not an attack or defense task. Action to initiate, one minute to complete.

Animal Scrying (4+ Intellect points): If you know the general location of an animal that is friendly toward you and within 1 mile (1.5 km) of your location, you can sense through its senses for up to ten minutes. If you are not in animal form or not in a form similar to that animal, you must apply a level of Effort to use this ability. Action to establish.

Animal Shape (3+ Intellect points): You change into an animal as small as a rat or up to your own size (such as a large dog or small bear) for ten minutes. Each time you transform, you can take a different animal shape. Your equipment becomes part of the transformation, rendering it unusable unless it has a passive effect, such as armor. In this form your stats remain the same as your normal form, but you can move and attack according to your animal shape (attacks from most animals this size are medium weapons, which you can use without penalty). Tasks requiring hands (such as using door handles or pushing buttons) are hindered when in animal form. You cannot speak but can still use abilities that don’t rely on human speech. You gain two minor abilities associated with the creature you become (see the Animal Form Minor Abilities table at the end of the Character Abilities section of this document). For example, if you transform into a bat, you become trained in perception and can fly up to a long distance each round. If you transform into an octopus, you are trained in stealth and can breathe underwater. If you apply a level of Effort when you use this ability, you can either become a talking animal or take a hybrid shape. The talking animal shape looks exactly like a normal animal, but you can still talk and use any abilities that rely on human speech. The hybrid shape is like your normal form but with animalistic features, even if that animal is something much smaller than you (such as a bat or rat). In this hybrid form you can speak, use all of your abilities, make attacks like an animal, and perform tasks using hands without being hindered. Anyone who sees you clearly in this hybrid form would never mistake you for a mere animal. Action to change or revert.

“Similar” is a broad term. Lions are similar to tigers and leopards, hawks are similar to ravens and swans, dogs are similar to wolves and foxes, and so on.

Even if your animal shape has multiple attack types (such as claws and bite), you can attack only once per round unless you have some other ability that lets you make additional attacks on your turn.

Animal Shape variant: If your character concept is that you always take the same animal form instead of being able to choose from multiple kinds of animals, double the duration of the Animal Shape ability (to twenty minutes per use). The GM may allow characters with this restriction to learn additional animal forms by spending 4 XP as a long-term benefit.

Animal Form Minor Abilities Table

Use the following as examples or suggestions of what a character gains when in the shape of an animal. If an animal shape lists two skills, the character chooses which one they want each time they take that shape.

• Aquatic: The animal either breathes water instead of air or is able to breathe water in addition to breathing air.
• Armor: The animal has a thick hide or shell, granting +1 to Armor.
• Constrict: The animal can grip its opponent fast after making a melee attack (usually with a bite or claw), easing attack rolls against that foe on later turns until it releases the foe.
• Fast: The animal can move a long distance on its turn instead of a short distance.
• Flying: The animal can fly, which (depending on the type of animal) may be up to a short or long distance on its turn.
• Hands: The animal has paws or hands that are nearly as agile as those of a human. Unlike with most animal shapes, the animal’s tasks that require hands are not hindered (although the GM may decide that some tasks requiring human agility, such as playing a flute, are still hindered).
• Scent: The animal has a strong sense of smell, gaining an asset on tracking and dealing with darkness or blindness.
• Small: The animal is considerably smaller than a human, easing its Speed defense tasks but hindering tasks to move heavy things.
• Venom: The animal is poisonous (usually through a bite), inflicting 1 additional point of damage.

Animal Senses and Sensibilities: You are trained in listening and spotting things. In addition, most of the time, the GM should alert you if you’re about to walk into an ambush or a trap that is lower than level 5. Enabler.

Answering Attack (3 Speed points): If you are struck in melee, you can make an immediate melee attack against that attacker once per round. The attack is hindered, and you can still take your normal action during the round. Enabler.

Anticipate Attack (4 Intellect points): You can sense when and how creatures attacking you will make their attacks. Speed defense rolls are eased for one minute. Action.

Anticipation (1 Intellect point): You look ahead to see how your actions might unfold. The first task you perform before the end of the next round gains an asset. Action.

Automatic Glow: Hard light objects you create with your type and focus abilities shed light, illuminating everything in immediate range. Whenever you want, your body (entirely or just part of it) sheds light, illuminating everything in short range. Enabler.

Applying Your Knowledge: When you help another character undertake any action that you’re untrained in, you are treated as if you are trained in it. Action.

Apportation (4 Intellect points): You call a physical object to you. You can choose any piece of normal equipment on the standard equipment list, or (no more than once per day) you can allow the GM to determine the object randomly. If you call a random object, it has a 10 percent chance of being a manifest cypher or artifact, a 50 percent chance of being a piece of standard equipment, and a 40 percent chance of being a bit of worthless junk. You can’t use this ability to take an item held by another creature. Action.

Aquatic Combatant: You ignore penalties for any action (including fighting) in underwater environments. Enabler.

Arc Spray (3 Speed points): If a weapon has the ability to fire rapid shots without reloading (usually called a rapid-fire weapon, such as a crank crossbow), you can fire your weapon at up to three targets (all next to one another) at once. Make a separate attack roll against each target. Each attack is hindered. Action.

Arcane Flare (1 Intellect point): You enhance the damage of another attack spell with an extra charge of energy so that it deals 1 additional point of damage. Alternatively, you attack a target within long range by projecting a flare of raw magic that inflicts 4 points of damage. Enabler for enhancement; action for long-range attack.

Artifact Scavenger (6 Intellect points + 2 XP): You’ve developed a sixth sense for searching for the most valuable items in the wasteland. If you spend the time required to succeed on two scavenging tasks, you can exchange all the results you would otherwise obtain for a chance to gain an artifact of the GM’s choosing if you succeed on a difficulty 6 Intellect task. You can use this ability at most once per day, and never within the same general area. Action to initiate, several hours to complete.

Artifact Tinkerer: If you spend at least one day tinkering with an artifact in your possession, it functions at one level higher than normal. This applies to all artifacts in your possession, but they retain this bonus only for you. Enabler.

As Foretold in Prophecy: You accomplish something that proves you are truly the chosen one. The next task you attempt is eased by three steps. You can’t use this ability again until after you’ve taken a one-hour or a ten-hour recovery action. Action.

As If One Creature: When you and your beast (from your Beast Companion ability) are within immediate distance of each other, you can share damage inflicted on either of you. For instance, if one of you is struck by a weapon for 4 points of damage, divide the damage between the two of you as you see fit. Only the Armor and resistances of the target initially damaged come into play. So if you have 2 Armor and are struck by a force blast for 4 points of damage, your beast can take the 2 points of damage you would suffer, but their Armor does not come into play, nor does their immunity to force blasts, if any. Enabler.

Assassin Skills: You are trained in stealth and disguise tasks. Enabler.

Assassin Strike (5 Intellect points): If you successfully attack a creature that was previously unaware of your presence, you deal 9 additional points of damage. Enabler.

Asserting Your Privilege (3 Intellect points): Acting as only a privileged person can, you verbally harangue a foe who can hear and understand you so forcefully that they are unable to take any action, including attacks, for one round. Whether you succeed or fail, the next action the target takes is hindered. Action.

Assume Control (6+ Intellect points): You control the actions of another creature you have interacted with or studied for at least a round. This effect lasts for ten minutes. The target must be level 2 or lower. Once you have assumed control, the target acts as if it wants to accomplish your desire to the best of its ability, freely using its own best judgment unless you use an action to give it a specific instruction on an issue-by-issue basis. 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 attempt to command a level 5 target (three levels above the normal limit), you must apply three levels of Effort. When the effect ends, the target remembers everything that happened and reacts according to its nature and your relationship to it; assuming control might have soured that relationship if it was previously a positive one. Action to initiate.

Athlete: You are trained in carrying, climbing, jumping, and smashing. Enabler.

Attack and Attack Again: Rather than granting additional damage or a minor or major effect, a natural 17 or higher on your attack roll allows you the option of immediately making another attack. Enabler.

Attack Flourish: With your attack, you add stylish moves, entertaining quips, or a certain something that entertains or impresses others. One creature you choose within short range who can see you gains an asset to its next task if taken within a round or two. Enabler.

Augment Cypher (2+ Intellect points): When you activate a cypher, add +1 to its level. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to increase the level of the cypher by an additional +1 (per level of Effort applied). You can’t increase the cypher’s level above 10. Enabler.

Autodoctor: You are trained in healing, performing surgical procedures, and withstanding pain. You can perform surgeries on yourself, remaining conscious while you do so. Enabler.

Awareness (3 Intellect points): You become hyperaware of your surroundings in order to better locate your target. For ten minutes, you are aware of all living things within long range (including their general position), and by concentrating (another action), you can attempt to learn the general health and power level of any one of them. Action.

Abilities—B #

Babel: After hearing a language spoken for a few minutes, you can speak it and make yourself understood. If you continue to use the language to interact with native speakers, your skills improve rapidly, to the point where you might be mistaken for a native speaker after just a few hours of speaking the new language. Enabler.

Balance: You are trained in balancing. Enabler.

Band of Desperados: Your reputation draws a band of six level 2 desperado NPC followers who are completely devoted to you. You and the GM must work out the details of these followers. If a follower dies, you gain a new one after at least two weeks and proper recruitment. Enabler.

Band of Followers: You gain four level 3 followers. They are not restricted on their modifications. Enabler.

Bash (1 Might point): This is a pummeling melee attack. Your attack inflicts 1 less point of damage than normal, but dazes your target for one round, during which time all tasks it performs are hindered. Action.

Basic Follower: You gain a level 2 follower. One of their modifications must be persuasion. You can take this ability multiple times, each time gaining another level 2 follower. Enabler. (When you use Basic Follower, the GM may require that you actually look for a suitable follower.)

Battle Management (4 Intellect points): As long as you use your action each round giving orders or advice, attack and defense actions taken by your allies within short range are eased. Action.

Battlefield Tactician (2+ Intellect points): You scrutinize your surroundings, learning whatever facts the GM feels are pertinent about attacking, defending, maneuvering, and dealing with environmental hazards within a short distance. For example, you might notice a pile of rubble you can stand on for an advantage in melee, a sheltered corner to help protect against enemy attacks, a less-slippery part of a frozen lake, or a place where the poison gas is thinner than elsewhere. If you (or someone you tell) move to that location, you (or they) gain an asset on tasks related to that optimal position (such as attack rolls from the high ground, Speed defense rolls from the sheltered corner, balance rolls on the frozen lake, or Might defense rolls against the poisonous cloud). Instead of gaining an advantageous location, you might learn of a disadvantageous location that you could use against your enemies, such as maneuvering them into an awkward corner that hinders their melee attacks or a weak spot on the frozen lake that will break if they stand on it. You can apply Effort to learn one additional good or bad location within range (one location per level of Effort), increase the range of this ability (another short distance per level of Effort), or both. Enabler.

Beast Call (5 Intellect points): You summon a horde of small animals or a single level 4 beast to help you temporarily. These creatures do your bidding for as long as you focus your attention, but you must use your action each turn to direct them. Creatures are native to the area and arrive under their own power, so if you’re in an unreachable place, this ability won’t work. Action.

Beast Companion: A level 2 creature of your size or smaller accompanies you and follows your instructions. You and the GM must work out the details of your creature, and you’ll probably make rolls for it in combat or when it takes actions. The beast companion acts on your turn. As a level 2 creature, it has a target number of 6 and 6 health and it inflicts 2 points of damage. Its movement is based on its creature type (avian, swimmer, and so on). If your beast companion dies, you can hunt in the wild for 1d6 days to find a new one. Enabler. (A creature’s level determines its target number, health, and

damage, unless otherwise stated. So a level 2 beast companion has a target number of 6 and a health of 6, and it inflicts 2 points of damage. A level 4 beast companion has a target number of 12 and a health of 12, and it inflicts 4 points of damage. And so on.)

Beast Eyes (3 Intellect points): By linking to the creature from your Beast Companion ability, you can perceive through its senses if it is within 1 mile (1.5 km) of you. This effect lasts up to ten minutes. Action to establish.

Beast Form: On five consecutive nights each month, you change into a monstrous beast for up to one hour each night. In this new form, you gain +8 to your Might Pool, +1 to your Might Edge, +2 to your Speed Pool, and +1 to your Speed Edge. While in beast form, you can’t spend Intellect points for any reason other than to try to change to your normal form before the one-hour duration is over (a difficulty 2 task). In addition, you attack any and every living creature within short range. After you revert to your normal form, you take a –1 penalty to all rolls for one hour. If you did not kill and eat at least one substantial creature while in beast form, the penalty increases to –2 and affects all your rolls for the next 24 hours. Action to change back.

Beneath Notice: Your decreased size makes it difficult to find you. While Shrink is active on you, all stealth tasks you attempt are eased. Enabler.

Bestiary Knowledge: You are trained in the lore of flesh-eating, nonhumanoid creatures—recognizing them, knowing their weaknesses, and knowing their habits and behaviors. Enabler.

Betrayal: Any time you convince a foe that you are not a threat and then suddenly attack it (without provocation), the attack deals 4 additional points of damage. Enabler.

Better Living Through Chemistry (4 Intellect points): You’ve developed drug cocktails specifically designed to work with your own biochemistry. Depending on which one you inject, it makes you smarter, faster, or tougher, but when it wears off, the crash is a doozy, so you use it only in desperate situations. You gain 2 to your Might Edge, Speed Edge, or Intellect Edge for one minute, after which you can’t gain the benefit again for one hour. During this follow-up hour, every time you spend points from a Pool, increase the cost by 1. Action.

Better Surprise Attack: If attacking from a hidden vantage, with surprise, or before an opponent has acted, you get an asset on the attack (if you have Surprise Attack, this is in addition to the asset from that ability). On a successful hit with this surprise attack, you inflict 2 additional points of damage (for a total of 4 additional points of damage if you have Surprise Attack). Enabler.

Bigger: When you use Enlarge, you can choose to grow up to 12 feet (4 m) in height, and you add 3 more temporary points to your Might Pool. Enabler.

Bigger Animal Shape: When you use Animal Shape, your animal form grows to about twice its normal size. Being so large, your beast form gains the following additional bonuses: +1 to Armor, +5 to your Might Pool, and you are trained in using your animal form’s natural attacks as heavy weapons (if you weren’t already). However, your Speed defense tasks are hindered. While bigger, you also gain an asset to tasks that are easier for a larger creature to perform, like climbing, intimidating, wading rivers, and so on. Enabler.

Bigger Beast Form: When you use Beast Form, your beast form grows bigger than before, during which time you achieve a height of 12 feet (4 m).
Being so large, your beast form gains the following additional bonuses: +1 to Armor, +5 to your Might Pool, and you are trained in using your fists as heavy weapons (if you weren’t already). However, your Speed defense tasks are hindered. While bigger, you also gain an asset to tasks that are easier for a larger creature to perform, like climbing, intimidating, wading rivers, and so on. Enabler.

Biomorphic Detonation (7+ Might points): You radiate a pulse of biomorphic energy up to a short distance away, but you tune it to disrupt life in an area an immediate distance across. All within the detonation take 5 points of damage that ignores Armor (unless it is Armor provided by a force field effect). If you apply additional Effort to increase the damage, you deal 2 additional points of damage per level of Effort (instead of 3 points); targets in the area take 1 point of damage even if you fail the attack roll. Action.

Biomorphic Healing (4+ Might points): You consciously send out a pulse of your biomorphic field (a strange energy your body generates) and focus it on a living creature within short range. The target gains a free and immediate one-action recovery roll. You can’t use this ability again on that creature until after its next ten-hour rest. Action.

Blameless: You are trained in one of the following: deception, stealth, or disguise. Enabler.

Blend In (4 Intellect points): When you blend in, creatures still see you, but they attach no importance to your presence for about a minute. While blending in, you are specialized in stealth and Speed defense tasks. This effect ends if you do something to reveal your presence or position—attacking, using an ability, moving a large object, and so on. If this occurs, you can regain the remaining period of effect by taking an action to focus on seeming innocuous and as if you belong. Action to initiate or reinitiate.

Blessing of the Gods: As a servant of the gods, you can call up blessings in their name. This blessing depends on the god’s general demeanor and area of influence. Choose two of the abilities described below.

• Authority/Law/Peace (3 Intellect points). You prevent a foe that can hear and understand you from attacking anyone or anything for one round. Action.
• Benevolence/Righteousness/Spirit (2+ Intellect points). One level 1 demon, spirit, or similar creature within short range is destroyed or banished. 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 destroy or banish a level 5 target (four levels above the normal limit), you must apply four levels of Effort. Action.
• Death/Darkness (2 Intellect points). A target you choose within short range withers, suffering 3 points of damage. Action.
• Desire/Love/Health (3 Intellect points). With a touch, you restore 1d6 points to one stat Pool of any creature, including yourself. This ability is a difficulty 2 Intellect task. Each time you attempt to heal the same creature, the task is hindered by an additional step. The difficulty returns to 2 after that creature rests for ten hours. Action.
• Earth/Stone. You are trained in climbing, stonecraft, and spelunking. Enabler.
• Knowledge/Wisdom (3 Intellect points). Choose up to three creatures (potentially including yourself). For one minute, a particular type of task (but not an attack roll or defense roll) is eased for those creatures, but only while they remain within immediate range of you. Action.
• Nature/Animals/Plants. You are trained in botany and handling natural animals. Enabler.
• Protection/Silence (3 Intellect points). You create a quiet bubble of protection around you to an immediate radius for one minute. The bubble moves with you. All defense rolls for you and all creatures you designate within the bubble are eased, and no noise, regardless of its origin, sounds louder than a normal speaking voice. Action to initiate.
• Sky/Air (2 Intellect points). A creature you touch is immune to airborne toxins or contaminants for ten minutes. Action.
• Sun/Light/Fire (2 Intellect points). You cause one creature or object within short range to catch fire, inflicting 1 point of ambient damage each round until the fire is extinguished (requiring an action). Action.
• Trickery/Greed/Commerce. You are trained in detecting the deceptions of other creatures. Enabler.
• War (1 Intellect point). A target you choose within short range (potentially yourself) deals 2 additional points of damage with its next successful weapon attack. Action.
• Water/Sea (2 Intellect points). A target you touch can breathe water for ten minutes. Action.

Blind Machine (6 Speed points): You deactivate the sensory apparatus of a machine, making it effectively blind until it can be repaired. You must either touch the target or strike it with a ranged attack (inflicting no damage). Action.

Blinding Attack (3 Speed points): If you have a source of light, you can use it to make a melee attack against a target. If successful, the attack deals no damage, but the target is blinded for one minute. Action.

Blink of an Eye (4 Speed points): You move up to 1,000 feet (300 m) in one round. Action.

Block (3 Speed points): You automatically block the next melee attack made against you within the next minute. Action to initiate.

Block for Another: If you use a light or medium weapon, you can block attacks made against an ally near you. Choose one creature within immediate range. You provide an asset to that creature’s Speed defense tasks. You can’t use Quick Block while using Block for Another. Enabler.

Blood Fever: When you have no points in one or two Pools, you gain an asset to attacks or defense rolls (your choice). Enabler.

Bloodlust (3 Might points): If you take down a foe, you can move a short distance, but only if you move toward another foe. You don’t need to spend the points until you know that the first foe is down. Enabler.

Blurring Speed (7 Speed points): You move so quickly that until your next turn, you look like a blur. While you are blurred, if you apply Effort to a melee attack task or Speed defense task, you get a free level of Effort on that task; you can move a short distance as part of another action or a long distance as your entire action. Enabler.

Body Morph (3+ Intellect points): You alter your facial and bodily features and coloration for one hour, hiding your identity or impersonating someone. If you apply a level of Effort, you can imitate a specific person accurately enough to fool someone who knows them well or has observed them closely (including fingerprints and voice prints, but not their retina print or DNA). You have an asset in all tasks involving disguise (this is in addition to the asset from Face Morph). You must apply a separate level of Effort to be able to impersonate a different species (such as a human morphing into a humanoid alien). Action.

Bolt Rider (4 Intellect points): You can move a long distance from one location to another almost instantaneously, carried by a bolt of lightning. You must be able to see the new location, and there must be no intervening barriers. Action.

Bolts of Power (5+ Intellect points): You blast a fan of lightning out to short range in an arc that is approximately 50 feet (15 m) wide at the end. This discharge inflicts 4 points of damage. If you apply Effort to increase the damage rather than to ease the task, you deal 2 additional points of damage per level of Effort (instead of 3 points); targets in the area take 1 point of damage even if you fail the attack roll. Action.

Bolster Illusion (2+ Intellect points): You give one of your visual illusions a limited physical reality that viewers can smell, taste, hear, and feel. This effect is bound to that illusion and acts appropriate to the illusion itself. For example, it can make the illusion of a brick wall feel like brick, the illusion of a person smell like perfume and able to open a door, and the illusion of a fireplace hot to the touch.

The physical reality provided to your illusion is a level 1 effect with 3 health. If the illusion is used to make attacks, it inflicts only 1 point of damage (whether this is regular damage like an illusory punch or kick, or ambient damage like a falling brick wall or a fireplace’s flames). You can increase the level of the created effect by applying levels of Effort to this ability, each level of Effort increasing the effect’s level by 1.

You can activate this ability as part of the action to create an illusion (using whatever ability it is that you use to create illusions, such as Minor Illusion), or use a separate action to apply it to one of your existing illusions. The effect ends if the illusion is destroyed, you let the illusion lapse, the effect’s health is reduced to 0, or ten minutes pass. Enabler.

Boost Manifest Cypher (2 Intellect points): The manifest cypher you activate with your next action functions as if it were 2 levels higher. Action.

Boost Manifest Cypher Function (4 Intellect points): Add 3 to the functioning level of a manifest cypher that you activate with your next action, or change one aspect of its parameters (range, duration, area, etc.) by up to double or down to one tenth. Action.

Bouncing Shield: When you use Throw Force Shield, instead of dissipating after one attack (whether it hits or misses), it will attack up to two additional targets within short range. Effort or other modifiers applied to the first attack affect all other targets as well. Whether you hit all, some, or none of your targets, the shield dissipates and then reforms in your grasp. (If you choose Bouncing Shield and have previously taken the Throw Force Shield ability, you have the option to exchange that ability for Healing Pulse.) Enabler.

Bound Magic Creature: You have a level 3 magic ally bound to a physical object (perhaps a minor djinn bound to a lamp, a lesser demon bound to a coin, or a spirit bound to a mirror). The magic ally doesn’t yet have the full power that one of its kind could possess when mature. Normally, the ally remains quiescent in its bound object. When you use an action to manifest it, it appears next to you as a creature that can converse with you. The creature has its own personality determined by the GM and is a level higher than its base level for one area of knowledge (such as local history). The GM determines whether the magic ally has a long-term goal of its own.

Each time the magic ally becomes physically manifest, it remains so for up to one hour. During that period, it accompanies you and follows your instructions. The magic ally must remain an immediate distance from you; if it moves farther away, it is yanked back into its object at the end of your following turn and cannot return until after your next ten-hour recovery roll. It doesn’t attack creatures, but it can use its action to serve as an asset for any one attack you make on your turn. Otherwise, it can take actions on its own (though you’ll likely roll for it).

If the creature is reduced to 0 health, it dissipates. It reforms in its object in 1d6 + 2 days.

If you lose the bound object, you retain a sense of the direction in which it lies. Action to manifest the magic creature.

Brainwashing (6+ Intellect points): You use trickery, well-spoken lies, and mind-affecting chemicals (or other means, like magic or high technology) to make others temporarily do what you want them to do. You control the actions of another creature you touch. This effect lasts for one minute. The target must be level 3 or lower. You can allow it to act freely or override its control on a case-by-case basis as long as you can see it. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to increase the maximum level of the target or increase the duration by one minute. Thus, to control the mind of a level 6 target (three levels above the normal limit) or control a target for four minutes (three minutes above the normal duration), you must apply three levels of Effort. When the duration ends, the creature doesn’t remember being controlled or anything it did while under your influence. Action to initiate.

Break the Line (4 Intellect points): You have an eye for group discipline and hierarchy, even among your foes. If a group of foes is gaining any kind of benefit from working together, you can attempt to disrupt that benefit by pointing out the weak spot in the enemy’s line, formation, or swarm attack. This effect lasts for up to a minute or until all the affected foes spend a round assessing and resetting themselves to regain their normal advantage. Action to initiate.

Break the Ranks (6 Speed points): You move up to a short distance and attack up to four different foes as a single action as long as they are all along your path. Any modifiers that apply to one attack apply to all the attacks you make. If you have another special ability that allows you to move and take an action, when you use Break the Ranks, you gain an asset to attacking these foes. Action.

Break Their Mind (7+ Intellect points): Using your clever words and knowledge of others, and given a couple of rounds of conversation to gain a few specific pieces of context regarding your target, you can utter a sentence designed to cause your target immediate psychological distress. If the target can hear and understand you, it suffers 6 points of Intellect damage (ignores Armor) and forgets the last day of its life, which might mean it forgets you and how it came to be where it currently is. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to attempt to break the mind of one additional target who can hear and understand you. Action to initiate, action to complete.

Breaker: You are trained in tasks related to damaging objects with the goal of breaking, piercing, or demolishing them. It is a Might action to damage an object, and on a success, the object moves one step down the object damage track. If the Might roll exceeds the difficulty by two steps, the object instead moves two steps down the object damage track. If the Might roll exceeds the difficulty by four steps, the object moves three steps down the object damage track and is immediately destroyed. Brittle material reduces the effective level of the object, while hard material like wood or stone adds 1 to the effective level or 2 for very hard objects like those made of metal. Enabler.

Brute Strike (4 Might points): You deal 4 additional points of damage with all melee attacks until the end of the next round. Enabler.

Buddy System (3 Intellect points): Choose one character standing next to you. That character becomes your buddy for ten minutes. You are trained in all tasks involving finding, healing, interacting with, and protecting your buddy. Also, while you stand next to your buddy, both of you have an asset on Speed defense tasks. You can have only one buddy at a time. Action to initiate.

Built-in Weaponry: Biomechanical implants, a magical jewel fused to your forehead, or something just as wild now provides you with inherent weaponry. This allows you to fire a blast of energy up to long range that inflicts 5 points of damage. There is no cost for you to use this ability. Action.

Burning Light (3 Intellect points): You send a beam of light at a creature within long range and then tighten the beam until it burns, inflicting 5 points of damage. Action.

Burst of Escape (5 Speed points): You can take two separate actions this round, as long as one of them is to hide or to move in a direction that is not toward a foe. Enabler.

Bypass Barrier (6+ Intellect points): You get past a door, force field, or other barrier up to 3 feet (1 m)
thick that is blocking your way. Depending on the barrier, this might involve finding a weak spot you can push through, pressing the right button by luck, just breaking through, or even weirder explanations like touching a thin place between dimensions or an unexpected interaction with your equipment. The difficulty of the task is the level of the barrier. This ability allows you alone to pass through, not anyone else, and the way through closes at the end of your turn (which might mean you’re trapped on the far side). You have an asset in any attempts to get through it again. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to increase the maximum thickness of the barrier, each level adding 3 feet (1 m). Action.

Abilities—C #

Call Dead Spirit (6 Intellect points): At your touch, the remains of a creature dead no longer than seven days appears as a manifest (and apparently physical) spirit, whose level is the same as it had in life. The raised spirit persists for up to a day (or less, if it accomplishes something important to it before then), after which it fades away and cannot return again.

The raised spirit remembers everything it knew in life and possesses most of its previous abilities (though not necessarily its equipment). In addition, it gains the ability to become insubstantial as an action for up to a minute at a time. The raised spirit is not beholden to you, and it does not need to stay near you to remain manifest. Action to initiate.

Call in Favor (4 Intellect points): A guard, doctor, technician, or hired thug in the employ of or allied with a foe is secretly your ally or owes you a favor. When you call in the favor, the target does what they can to help you out of a specific fix (unties you, slips you a knife, leaves a cell door unlocked) in a way that minimizes their risk of revealing their divided loyalties to their employer or other allies. This ability is a difficulty 3 Intellect task. Each additional time you use this ability, the task is hindered by an additional step. The difficulty returns to 3 after you rest for ten hours. Action.

Call Otherworldly Spirit (6 Intellect points): You summon a spirit creature that manifests for up to a day (or less, if it accomplishes something important to it before then), after which it fades away and cannot be summoned again. The spirit is a creature of level 6 or lower, and it can be substantial or insubstantial as it wishes (using an action to change). The spirit is not beholden to you, and it does not need to stay near you to remain manifest. Action to initiate.

Call the Storm (7+ Intellect points): If you are outside or in a location that has a ceiling at least 300 feet (90 m) above the floor, you summon a boiling layer of lightning-lit, rumbling clouds up to 1,500 feet (460 m) in diameter for ten minutes. During daylight hours, natural illumination beneath the storm is reduced to dim light. While the storm rages, you can use an action to send a lightning bolt from the cloud to attack a target you can see directly, inflicting 4 points of damage (you can spend Effort normally on each individual lightning bolt attack). Three actions to initiate; action to call down a lightning strike.

Call Swarm (4 Intellect points): If you’re in a location where it’s possible for the creatures from your Influence Swarm ability to come, you call a swarm of them for one hour. During this hour, they do as you telepathically command as long as they are within long range. They can swarm about and hinder any or all opponents’ tasks. While the creatures are in long range, you can speak to them telepathically and perceive through their senses. Action to initiate.

Call Through Time (6+ Intellect points): You call a creature or person of up to level 3 from the recent past, and it appears next to you. You can choose a creature that you’ve previously encountered (even if it is now dead), or (no more than once per day) you can allow the GM to determine the creature randomly. If you call a random creature, it has a 10 percent chance of being a creature of up to level 5. The creature has no memory of anything before being called by you, though it can speak and has the general knowledge a creature of its type should possess. The time-shifted creature does your bidding for as long as you concentrate on it, but you must use your action each turn to direct it; otherwise it returns to the past.

In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to call a more powerful creature; each level of Effort used in this way increases the creature’s level by 1. For example, applying one level of Effort calls a specific creature of up to level 4 or a random creature with a 10 percent chance of being up to level 6. Action.

Calm (3 Intellect points): Through jokes, song, or other art, you prevent a living foe from attacking anyone or anything for one round. Action.

Calm Stranger (2+ Intellect points): You can cause one intelligent creature to remain calm as you speak. The creature doesn’t need to speak your language, but it must be able to see you. It remains calm as long as you focus all your attention on it and it is not attacked or otherwise threatened. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to calm additional creatures allied with your initial target, one additional creature per level of Effort applied. Action.

Capable Warrior: Your attacks deal 1 additional point of damage. Enabler.

Captivate or Inspire: You can use this ability in one of two ways. Either your words keep the attention of all NPCs that hear them for as long as you speak, or your words inspire all NPCs that hear them to function as if they were one level higher for the next hour. In either case, you choose which NPCs are affected. If anyone in the crowd is attacked while you’re trying to speak to them, you lose the crowd’s attention. Action to initiate.

Captivate With Starshine: For as long as you speak, you keep the attention of all level 2 or lower NPCs who can hear you. If you also have the Enthrall ability, you can similarly captivate all level 3 NPCs. Action to initiate.

Car Surfer: You can stand or move about on a moving vehicle (such as on the hood, on the roof, in the open door well, etc.) with a reasonable expectation of not falling off. Unless the vehicle veers sharply, stops suddenly, or otherwise engages in extreme maneuvers, standing or moving about on a moving vehicle is a routine task for you. If the vehicle engages in extreme maneuvers like those described, any tasks to remain on the vehicle’s surface are eased. Enabler.

Careful Aim: You are trained in attacks with all weapons that you throw. Enabler.

Careful Shot: You can spend points from either your Speed Pool or your Intellect Pool to apply levels of Effort to increase your gun damage. Each level of Effort adds 3 points of damage to a successful attack, and if you spend a turn lining up your shot, each level of Effort instead adds 5 points of damage to a successful attack. Enabler.

Cast Illusion: You can increase the range at which you create and maintain your
immediate-range illusions (such as from Minor Illusion) to anywhere within short range that you can perceive. Enabler.

Castigate (4 Intellect points): You intimidate any opponent within long range who understands speech (even if it is not your language) so much that they lose their next action and all the rest of their actions are hindered for one minute. Each additional time you attempt this ability against the same target, you must apply one more level of Effort than you applied on the previous attempt. Action.

Celebrity Talent: You are trained in two of the following areas: writing, journalism, a particular style of art, a particular sport, chess, science communication, acting, news presentation, or some related noncombat skill that led to your celebrity. Enabler.

Center of Attention (5 Intellect points): A literal (or metaphorical, depending on the genre) beam of pure radiance descends from on high and spotlights you. All creatures you choose within immediate range fall to their knees and lose their next action. Affected targets cannot defend themselves and are treated as helpless. Action.

Chamber of Dreams (8 Intellect points): You and your allies can step into a chamber of dreams, decorated as you wish, that contains a number of doors. The doors correspond with other locations that you have visited or know reasonably well. Stepping through one of the doors delivers you to the desired location. This is a difficulty 2 Intellect-based task (which could be modified upward by the GM if the location is warded). Action to step into chamber of dreams; action to move through a door in the chamber.

Change the Paradigm (6+ Intellect points): You sway the worldview of a creature you spend at least one round speaking to, as long as it can understand you. The creature changes its mind on a significant belief, which could include something as straightforward as helping you instead of trying to kill you, or it could be something more esoteric. This effect lasts for at least ten minutes, but it can last longer if the creature wasn’t previously your foe. During this time, the creature takes actions in accordance with the wisdom you have imparted to it. The target must be level 2 or lower. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to increase the maximum level of the target by one for each level of Effort applied. Action to initiate.

Charge (1+ Intellect points): You can charge an artifact or other device (except a cypher) so that it can be used once. The cost is 1 Intellect point plus 1 point per level of the device. Action.

Charge Weapon (2+ Intellect points): As part of making an attack with your enchanted weapon, you charge it with magical power, inflicting 2 additional points of energy damage. If you make more than one attack on your turn, you choose whether to spend the cost for this ability before you make each attack. Enabler.

Charging Horde (7 Might points): You and two or more of your followers next to you can act like a single creature to make a charge attack. When you do, all of you move up to a short distance, during which time you can attack anything that comes within immediate range along your path with an asset to the attack. Targets that take damage take an additional 3 points and are knocked prone. Action.

Charm Machine (2 Intellect points): You convince an unintelligent machine to “like” you. A machine that likes you is 50 percent less likely to function if said function would cause you harm. Thus, if a foe attempts to detonate a bomb near you controlled by a detonator that likes you, there is a 50 percent chance that it won’t explode. Action to initiate.

Cloak of Opportunity (5 Intellect points): You set small objects from the environment (rocks, broken items, clumps of dirt, and so on) swirling about you for up to ten minutes, which grants you +2 Armor. Action to initiate.

Closed Mind: You are trained in Intellect defense tasks and have +2 Armor against damage that selectively targets your Intellect Pool (which normally ignores Armor). Enabler.

Cloud Personal Memories (3 Intellect points): If you interact with or study a target for at least a round, you gain a sense of how its mind works, which you can use against it in the most blunt fashion possible. You can attempt to confuse it and make it forget what’s just happened. On a success, you erase up to the last five minutes of its memory. Action to prepare; action to initiate.

Coaxing Power (2 Intellect points): You boost the power or function of a machine so that it operates at one level higher than normal for one hour. Action to initiate.

Cognizant Offense: During combat, your brain shifts into a sort of battle mode where all potential attacks you could make are plotted on vector graphs in your mind’s eye, which always provides the best option. Your attacks are eased. Enabler.

Cold Burst (5+ Intellect points): You emit a burst of cold in all directions, up to short range. All within the burst (except you) take 5 points of damage. If you apply Effort to increase the damage rather than to ease the task, you deal 2 additional points of damage per level of Effort (instead of 3 points); targets in the area take 1 point of damage even if you fail the attack roll. Action.

Colossal: When you use Enlarge, you can choose to grow up to a base height of 60 feet (18 m). When you do, you add 5 more temporary points to your Might Pool (plus any from Gargantuan and Bigger), and you deal an additional 2 points of damage with melee attacks (plus any from your Huge ability). For each level of Effort you apply to increase your height further, your total height increases by 10 feet
3 m), and you add 1 more point to your Might Pool. Thus, the first time you use Enlarge after a ten-hour recovery roll, if you apply two levels of Effort, your base height is 80 feet (24 m), and you add a total of 17 temporary points to your Might Pool. Enabler.

Combat Challenge: All attempted tasks that draw an attack to yourself (and away from someone else) are eased by two steps. Enabler.

Combat Prowess: You add +1 damage to one type of weapon attack of your choice: melee weapon attacks or ranged weapon attacks. Enabler.

Command (3 Intellect points): Through sheer force of will, you can issue a simple imperative command to a single living creature, who then attempts to carry out your command as its next action. The creature must be within short range and able to understand you. The command can’t inflict direct harm on the creature or its allies, so “Commit suicide” won’t work, but “Flee” might. In addition, the command can require the creature to take only one action, so “Unlock the door” might work, but “Unlock the door and run through it” won’t. A commanded creature can still defend itself normally and return an attack if one is made on it. If you possess another ability that allows you to command a creature, you can target two creatures at once as your base effect if you use either ability. Action.

Command Beast (3+ Intellect points): You can command a nonhostile, nonhuman beast (such as one that you’ve made calm with Soothe the Savage) of up to level 3 within short range. If you are successful, for the next minute the beast follows your verbal commands to the best of its understanding and ability. The GM has final say over what counts as a nonhuman beast, but unless some kind of deception is at work, you should know whether you can affect a creature before you attempt to use this ability on it. Aliens, extradimensional entities, very intelligent creatures, and robots never count.

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 command a level 5 beast (two levels above the normal limit), you must apply two levels of Effort. Action to initiate.

Command Machine (4 Intellect points): If you’ve charmed an unintelligent machine or have spoken telepathically with an intelligent machine, you can attempt to command it to take one action within its capabilities on its next turn. (If you use this ability to command an intelligent machine, it likely becomes hostile to you afterward.) Action.

Command Metal (5 Intellect points): You reshape a metallic item as you desire. The item must be within sight and within short range, and its mass can be no greater than your own. You can affect multiple items at once as long as their combined mass falls within these limits. You can fuse multiple items together. You can use this power to destroy a metal object (as the Destroy Metal ability), or you can craft it into another desired shape (crudely, unless you have the proper crafting skills). You can then move the new object anywhere within range. For example, you could take a few metal shields, fuse them together, and use the resulting shape to block a doorway. You can use this ability to make an attack—causing a foe’s armor to constrict, rendering a metal item into shards that you fling across the battlefield, and so on—against one target within short range. Regardless of the form of the attack, it is an Intellect action that deals 7 points of damage. Action.

Command Spirit (3 Intellect points): You can command a spirit or animated dead creature of up to level 5 within short range. If you are successful, the target cannot attack you for one minute, during which time it follows your verbal commands if it can hear and understand you. Action to initiate.

Communication (2 Intellect points): You can convey a basic concept to a creature that normally can’t speak or understand speech. The creature can also give you a very basic answer to a simple question. Action.

Community Activist: When speaking to others in a community you have a strong connection to, you are trained in persuasion and intimidation tasks about topics that directly relate to the community. Enabler.

Community Knowledge (2 Intellect points): If you’ve invested yourself in a community and have spent at least a few months living there, you can learn things about it through a variety of methods. Sometimes contacts slip the information to you. Other times, you’re able to draw conclusions simply by what you can see and hear. When you use this ability, you can ask the GM one question about the community and get a very short answer. Action.

Computer Programming: You are trained in using (and exploiting) computer software, you know one or more computer languages well enough to write basic programs, and you are fluent in internet protocol. Enabler.

Concussion (7 Intellect points): You cause a pulse of concussive force to explode out from a point you choose within long range. The pulse extends up to short range in all directions, dealing 5 points of damage to everything in the area. Even if you fail the attack roll, targets in the area take 1 point of damage. Action.

Concussive Blast (2 Intellect points): You release a beam of pure force that smashes into a creature within short range, inflicting 5 points of damage and moving it back an immediate distance. Action.

Confidence Artist: When you’re hacking into a computer system, running a con, picking a pocket, fooling or tricking a dupe, sneaking something by a guard, and so on, you gain an asset on the task. Enabler.

Confounding Banter (4 Intellect points): You spew a stream of nonsense to distract a foe within immediate range. On a successful Intellect roll, your defense roll against the creature’s next attack before the end of the next round is eased. Action.

Confuse Enemy (4 Intellect points): Through a clever bit of misdirection involving a flourish of your coat, ducking at just the right moment, or a similar stratagem, you can attempt to redirect a physical melee attack that would otherwise hit you. When you do, the misdirected attack hits another creature you choose within immediate range of both you and the attacking foe. This ability is a difficulty 2 Intellect task. Enabler.

Conjuration (7 Intellect points): You produce, as if from thin air, a level 5 creature of a kind you have previously encountered. The creature remains for one minute and then returns home. While present, the creature acts as you direct, but this requires no action on your part. Action.

Connected: You know people who get things done—not just respected people in positions of authority, but also a variety of online hackers and regular street criminals. These people are not necessarily your friends and might not be trustworthy, but they owe you a favor. You and the GM should work out the details of your contacts. Enabler.

Contortionist (2 Speed points): You can wriggle free from bindings or squeeze through a tight spot. You are trained in escaping. When you use an action to escape or move through a tight area, you can immediately use another action. You may use this action only to move. Enabler.

Control the Field (1 Might point): This melee attack inflicts 1 less point of damage than normal, and regardless of whether you hit the target, you maneuver it into a position you desire within immediate range. Action.

Control Machine (6 Intellect points): You can attempt to control the functions of any machine, intelligent or otherwise, within short range for ten minutes. Action.

Control the Savage (6 Intellect points): You can control a calm nonhuman beast within 30 feet (9 m). You control it for as long as you focus all your attention on it, using your turn each round. The GM has final say over what counts as a nonhuman beast, but unless some kind of deception is at work, you should know whether you can affect a creature before you attempt to use this ability on it. Aliens, extradimensional entities, very intelligent creatures, and robots never count. Action.

Control Swarm (2 Intellect points): Your swarm creatures from your Influence Swarm ability within short range do as you telepathically command for ten minutes. Even common insects (level 0) in large enough numbers can swarm about a single creature and hinder its tasks. Action to initiate.

Control Weather (10 Intellect points): You change the weather in your general region. If performed indoors, this creates minor effects, such as mist, mild temperature changes, and so on. If performed outside, you can create rain, fog, snow, wind, or any other kind of normal (not overly severe) weather. The change lasts for a natural length of time so that a storm might last for an hour, fog for two or three hours, and snow for a few hours (or for ten minutes if it’s out of season). For the first ten minutes after activating this ability, you can create more dramatic and specific effects, such as lightning strikes, giant hailstones, twisters, hurricane-force winds, and so on. These effects must occur within 1,000 feet (300 m) of your location. You must spend your turn concentrating to create an effect or maintain it in a new round. These effects inflict 6 points of damage each round. If you have this ability from another source, the cost for the ability is 7 Intellect points instead of 10. If you already have the Storm Seed ability, you can immediately replace it with a new ability of the same tier. Action to initiate.

Controlled Change: You can try to use your Beast Form ability to change into your beast form on any night you wish (a difficulty 3 Intellect task). Any transformations you make using this power are in addition to the five nights per month that you change involuntarily. Action to change.

Controlled Fall: When you fall while you are able to use actions and within reach of a vertical surface, you can attempt to slow your fall. Make a Speed roll with a difficulty of 1 for every 20 feet (6 m) you fall. On a success, you take half damage from the fall. If you reduce the difficulty to 0, you take no damage. Enabler.

Coordinated Effort (3 Intellect points): When you and the duplicate from your Duplicate ability would attack the same creature, you can choose to make one attack roll with an asset. If you hit, you inflict damage with both attacks and treat the attacks as if they were one attack for the purpose of subtracting Armor from the damage. Action.

Copy Power (2+ Intellect points): You can copy someone else’s superpower for an hour, performing it as if it were natural for you. Within the past hour you must have touched the creature whose power you want to copy (an attack roll) and must have seen that ability used by them. Choose the power you want to copy, and the GM chooses an appropriate low-tier ability that most closely resembles that power. For example, if you’re battling a supervillain who can create blasts of force, if you copy that ability, you gain a low-tier ability that creates a blast of force.

In addition to the point cost of Copy Power, you must pay the Might, Speed, or Intellect cost (if any) of the equivalent ability that the GM chose. For example, if you want to copy a supervillain’s force blast, the GM will probably decide that’s equivalent to Onslaught (167), so you’d pay 2 Intellect points to activate Copy Power and 1 Intellect point to use Onslaught.

You can copy only one power at a time; copying another one ends any other power you’re copying with this ability.

Copy Power doesn’t copy effects of a power that permanently adds points to your Pools, such as Enhanced Body (134).

In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to copy an ability you saw longer than one hour ago; each level of Effort used in this way extends the time period by one hour. Action.

Counter Danger (4 Intellect points): You negate a source of potential danger related to one creature or object within immediate distance for one minute (instead of one round, as with Foil Danger). This could be a weapon or device held by someone, a creature’s natural ability, or a trap triggered by a pressure plate. You can also try to counter an action (like moving or making a conventional mundane attack with a weapon, a claw, etc.). Action. (Using Counter Danger is usually a matter of the character applying quick thinking in the face of immediate danger. The ability doesn’t rely on supernatural means, but rather a practical act.)

Countermeasures (4 Intellect points): You immediately end one ongoing effect (such as an effect created by a character ability) within immediate range. Alternatively, you can use this as a defense action to cancel any incoming ability targeted at you, or you can cancel any device or the effect of any device for 1d6 rounds. You must touch the effect or device to cancel it. Action.

Courageous: You are trained in Intellect defense tasks and initiative tasks. Enabler.

Crafter: You are trained in the crafting of two kinds of items. Enabler.

Create (7 Intellect points): You create something from nothing. You can create any item you choose that would ordinarily have a difficulty of 5 or lower (using the crafting rules). Once created, the item lasts for a number of hours equal to 6 minus the difficulty to create it. Thus, if you create a set of sturdy manacles (difficulty 5), it would last for one hour. Action.

Create Deadly Poison (3+ Intellect points): You create one dose of a level 2 poison that either inflicts 5 points of damage or hinders the poisoned creature’s actions for ten minutes (your choice each time you create the poison). You can apply this poison to a weapon, food, or drink as part of the action of creating it. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to increase the level of the poison; each level of Effort used in this way increases the poison level by 1. If unused, the poison loses its potency after one hour. Action.

Create Water (2 Intellect points): You cause water to bubble up from a spot on the ground you can see. The water flows from that spot for one minute, creating about 1 gallon (4 liters) by the time it stops. Action to initiate.

Creature Insight (3 Intellect points): When examining any nonhuman creature, you can ask the GM one question to gain an idea of its level, its capabilities, what it eats, what motivates it, what its weaknesses are (if any), how it can be repaired, or any other similar query. This is for difficult or strange creatures beyond those readily identified by using skills. Action.

Critter Companion: A level 1 creature accompanies you and follows your instructions. This creature is no larger than a large cat (about 20 pounds, or 9 kg) and is normally some sort of domesticated species. You and the GM must work out the details of your creature, and you’ll probably make rolls for it in combat or when it takes actions. The critter companion acts on your turn. As a level 1 creature, it has a target number of 3 and 3 health, and it inflicts 1 point of damage. Its movement is based on its creature type (avian, swimmer, and so on). If your critter companion dies, you can search an urban or wild environment for 1d6 days to find a new one. Enabler.

Crowd Control (6+ Intellect points): You control the actions of up to five creatures in short range. This effect lasts for one minute. All targets must be level 2 or lower. Your control is limited to simple verbal commands like “Stop,” “Run away,” “Follow that guard,” “Look over there,” or “Get out of my way.” All affected creatures respond to the command unless you specifically command them otherwise. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to increase the maximum level of the targets or affect an additional five people. Thus, to control a group that has a level 4 target (two levels above the normal limit) or a group of fifteen people, you must apply two levels of Effort. When the Crowd Control ability ends, the creatures remember your commands but don’t remember being controlled—your commands seemed reasonable at the time. Action to initiate.

Crushing Blow (2 Might points): When you use a bashing or bladed weapon in both hands and apply Effort on the attack, you get a free level of Effort on the damage. (If fighting unarmed, this attack is made with both fists or both feet together.) Action.

Crystal Lens: You can focus the inherent energy surging through you from your Crystalline Body ability. This allows you to fire a blast of energy that inflicts 5 points of damage on a target within very long range. Action.

Crystalline Body: You are composed of animate, translucent crystal the color of amber. Work with your GM to decide your exact form, though it is likely about the shape and size of a humanoid. Your crystal body grants you +2 to Armor and +4 to your Might Pool. However, you’re not quick and your Speed defense tasks are hindered. Certain conditions, like mundane diseases and poisons, do not affect you. Your crystalline body repairs itself more slowly than a body of living flesh would. You have only the one-round, one-hour, and ten-hour recovery rolls available each day; you do not have a ten-minute recovery roll available. Any ability you have that requires a ten-minute recovery roll instead requires a one-hour recovery roll. Enabler.

Curious: You’re always curious about your surroundings, even on a subconscious level. Whenever you use Effort to attempt navigation, perception, or initiative tasks in an area that you’ve only rarely or never visited before, you can apply an additional free level of Effort. Enabler.

Cutting Light (2 Intellect points): You emit a thin beam of energized light from your hand. This inflicts 5 points of damage to a single foe in immediate range. The beam is even more effective against immobile, nonliving targets, slicing up to 1 foot (30 cm) of any material that is level 6 or lower. The material can be up to 1 foot thick. Action.

Cypher Casting: You can cast any of your subtle cyphers on another creature instead of yourself. You must touch the creature to affect it. Enabler.

Cypher Surge: When you use a subtle cypher spell, as part of that action you can expend one other subtle cypher. Instead of the second cypher’s normal effect, you add one free level of Effort to the first cypher spell. Enabler.

Cyphersmith: All manifest cyphers you use function at one level higher than normal. If given a week and the right tools, chemicals, and parts, you can tinker with one of your manifest cyphers, transforming it into another cypher of the same type that you had in the past. The GM and player should collaborate to ensure that the transformation is logical—for example, you probably can’t transform a pill into a helmet. Enabler.

Abilities—D #

Damage Dealer: You inflict an additional 3 points of damage with your chosen weapon. Enabler.

Damage Transference: When you or your duplicate (from the Duplicate ability) would take damage, you can transfer 1 point of damage from one to the other provided that you and your duplicate are within 1 mile (1.5 km) of each other. Enabler.

Damn the Guilty (3 Intellect points): You speak words of revelation and judgment to everyone within close range. Those whom you have designated as guilty with your Designation ability take an additional 3 points of damage from any attack they receive from anyone who heard your judgment. This judgment lasts for up to one minute or until they move at least a long distance away from you. Action.

Danger Instinct (3 Speed points): If you are attacked by surprise, whether by a creature, a device, or simply an environmental hazard (a tree falling on you), you can move an immediate distance before the attack occurs. If moving prevents the attack, you are safe. If the attack can still potentially affect you—if the attacking creature can move to keep pace, if the attack fills an area too big to escape, etc. —the ability offers no benefit. Enabler.

Danger Sense (1 Speed point): Your initiative task is eased. You pay the cost each time the ability is used. Enabler.

Dark Explorer: You ignore penalties for any action (including fighting) in extremely dim light or in cramped spaces. If you also have the Eyes Adjusted ability, you can act without penalty even in total darkness. You are trained in sneaking tasks while in dim or no light. Enabler.

Dark Matter Shell (5 Intellect points): For the next minute, you cover yourself with a shell of dark matter. Your appearance becomes a dark silhouette, and you gain an asset to sneaking tasks and gain +1 to your Armor. The dark matter shell works seamlessly with your desires, and if you apply a level of Effort to any physical task while the shell persists, you can apply an additional free level of Effort to that same task. Action to initiate.

Dark Matter Shroud (4 Intellect points): Ribbons of dark matter condense and swirl about you for up to one minute. This shroud eases your Speed defense tasks, inflicts 2 points of damage to anyone who tries to touch you or strike you with a melee attack, and gives you +1 Armor. Action to initiate.

Dark Matter Strike (4 Intellect points): When you attack a foe within long range, dark matter condenses around your target and entangles its limbs, holding it in place and easing your attack by two steps. The ability works for whatever kind of attack you use (melee, ranged, energy, and so on). Enabler.

Dark Matter Structure (5 Intellect points): You can form dark matter into a large structure consisting of up to ten 10-foot (3 m) cubes. The structure can be somewhat complex, though everything has the same matte black color from which no light shines. Otherwise, the structure can possess different densities, textures, and capacities. This means it can include windows, doors with locks, furnishings, and even decor, as long as it is all black as pitch. For example, you could shape the dark matter into a large, defensible structure; a sturdy 100-foot (30 m) bridge; or anything similar. The structure is a level 6 creation and lasts for 24 hours. You can’t keep more than one such structure solid at any one time. Action.

Datajack (1 Intellect point): With computer access, you jack in instantly and learn a bit more about something you can see. You get an asset on a task involving that person or object. Action.

Daydream (4 Intellect points): You pull someone into a daydream, substituting a dream of your own creation for the target’s reality for up to one minute. You can affect a target within long range that you can see, or a target within 10 miles (16 km) that you have hair or skin clippings from. To all outward appearances, an affected target stands (or lies) unmoving. But inside, the substituted reality (or dream within a dream, if the target was sleeping) is what the target experiences. If the target is under duress, it can attempt another Intellect defense roll each round to break free, though the target may not realize its state. Either the dream unfolds according to a script you prepared when you used this ability, or if you use your own actions (forcing you into a similar state as the target), you can direct the unfolding dream from round to round. Using this ability on a sleeping target eases the initial attack. Action to initiate; if you direct the dream, action to direct per round.

Dazing Attack (3 Might points): You hit your foe in just the right spot, dazing them so that tasks they attempt on their next turn are hindered. This attack inflicts normal damage. Action.

Dazzling Sunburst (2 Intellect points): You send a barrage of dazzling colors at a creature within short range and, if successful, inflict 2 points of damage on the target. In addition, the creature’s attacks are hindered on its next turn, unless the target relies primarily on senses other than sight. Action.

Deactivate Mechanisms (5+ Speed points): You make a melee attack that inflicts no damage against a machine. Instead, if the attack hits, make a second Speed-based roll. If successful, a machine of level 3 or lower is deactivated for one minute. For each additional level of Effort applied, you can affect one higher level of machine or you can extend the duration for an additional minute. If you have the Scramble Machine or Disable Mechanisms ability (or an ability that works similarly), when you apply a level of Effort to any of them, you gain an additional free level of Effort. Action.

Deadly Aim (3 Speed points): For the next minute, all ranged attacks you make inflict 2 additional points of damage. Action to initiate.

Deadly Strike (5 Might points): If you strike a foe of level 3 or lower with a weapon you’re practiced with, you kill the target instantly. Action.

Deadly Swarm (6 Intellect points): If you’re in a location where it’s possible for your swarm of creatures from your Influence Swarm ability to come, you call a swarm of them for ten minutes. During this time, they do as you telepathically command as long as they are within long range. They can swarm about and hinder any or all opponents’ tasks, or they can focus the swarm and attack all opponents within immediate range of each other (all within long range of you). The attacking swarm inflicts 4 points of damage. While the creatures are in long range, you can speak to them telepathically and perceive through their senses. Action to initiate. (Swarms don’t usually have game stats, but if needed, a typical swarm is level 2. Only attacks that affect a large area affect the swarm.)

Death Touch (6 Intellect points): You gather disrupting energy in your fingertip and touch a creature. If the target is an NPC or a creature of level 3 or lower, it dies. If the target is a PC of any tier, they move down one step on the damage track. Action.

Debate (3 Intellect points): In any gathering of two or more people trying to establish the truth or come to a decision, you can sway the verdict with masterful rhetoric. If you are given one minute or more to argue your point, either the decision goes your way or, if someone else effectively argues a competing point, any associated persuasion or deception task is eased by two steps. Action to initiate; one minute to complete.

Debilitating Strike (4 Speed points): You make an attack to deliver a painful or debilitating strike. The attack is hindered. If it hits, the creature takes 2 additional points of damage at the end of the next round, and its attacks are hindered until the end of the next round. Action.

Decipher (1 Intellect point): If you spend one minute examining a piece of writing or code in a language you do not understand, you can make an Intellect roll of difficulty 3 (or higher, based on the complexity of the language or code) to get the gist of the message. Action to initiate.

Deep Consideration (6 Intellect points): When you develop a plan that involves you and your friends working together to accomplish a goal, you can ask the GM one very general question about what is likely to happen if you carry out the plan, and you will get a simple, brief answer. In addition, all of you gain an asset to one roll related to enacting the plan you developed together, as long as you put the plan into action within a few days of the plan’s creation. Action.

Deep Reserves: When others are exhausted, you can push through. Once each day, you can transfer up to 5 points among your Pools in any combination, at a rate of 1 point per round. For example, you could transfer 3 points of Might to Speed and 2 points of Intellect to Speed, which would take a total of five rounds. Action.

Deep Resources: You gain an additional 6 points to your Speed Pool. Enabler.

Deep Water Guide: While underwater, any creature you choose that can see you has an asset on swimming tasks. Enabler.

Defend All the Innocent: You protect everyone within immediate range whom you have designated as innocent with your Designation ability. Speed defense rolls made by such creatures gain an asset. Enabler.

Defend the Innocent (2 Speed points): For the next ten minutes, if someone you have designated as innocent with the Designation ability stands next to you, that creature shares any defensive advantages that you might have, other than mundane armor. These advantages include the Speed defense from your shield, the Armor offered from a force field, and so on. In addition, Speed defense rolls made by the innocent creature gain an asset. You can protect only one innocent creature at a time. Action to initiate.

Defending Weapon: When using your enchanted weapon, you are trained in Speed defense tasks. Enabler.

Defense Against Robots: You have studied your enemy and are trained in anticipating the actions that a robot or machine is likely to take in a fight. Defense tasks you attempt against these foes are eased. Enabler.

Defense Master: Every time you succeed at a Speed defense task, you can make an immediate attack against your foe. (If you have Dodge and Respond, you can exchange that ability for Dodge and Resist.) Your attack must be the same type (melee weapon, ranged weapon, or unarmed) as the attack you defend against. If you don’t have an appropriate type of weapon ready, you can’t use this ability. Enabler.

Defensive Augmentation: By upgrading your nervous and immune systems, you are trained in Might defense and Speed defense tasks. Enabler.

Defensive Blinking (4 Intellect points): You enter a heightened reactive state so that when you are struck hard enough to take damage, you teleport an immediate distance in a random direction (not up or down) to help evade the brunt of the attack. Your Speed defense rolls are eased for one minute. Action.

Defensive Field: Thanks to subdermal implants, a permanent spell, alien modifications, or something similar, you now have a force field that radiates 1 inch (2.5 cm) from your body and provides you with +2 Armor. Enabler.

Defensive Phasing (2 Intellect points): You can change your phase so that some attacks pass through you harmlessly. For the next ten minutes, you gain an asset to your Speed defense tasks, but during this time you lose any benefit from armor you wear. Action to initiate.

Define Down (4 Intellect points): The natural gravity within an area a short distance across that you are within immediate range of changes directions so that it flows in the direction you determine (up, up and to the south, west, and so on) for a few seconds, then snaps back. Affected targets could be tossed up to 20 feet (6 m) and take a few points of damage. Action.

Deflect Attacks (1 Intellect point): Using your mind, you protect yourself from incoming attacks. For the next ten minutes, you are trained in Speed defense tasks. Action to initiate.

Defuse Situation: During the course of an investigation, your questions sometimes elicit an angry or even violent response. Through dissembling, verbal distraction, or similar evasion, you prevent a living foe from attacking anyone or anything for one round. Action.

Demeanor of Command (2 Intellect points): You project confidence, knowledge, and charisma to all who see you for the next hour. Your demeanor is such that those who see you automatically understand that you are someone important, accomplished, and with authority. When you speak, strangers who are not already attacking give you at least a round to have your say. If speaking to a group that can understand you, you can attempt to have them produce their leader or ask that they take you to their leader. You gain a free level of Effort that can be applied to one persuasion task you attempt during this period. Action to initiate.

Designation: You assign an innocent or guilty label to one creature within immediate range, based on your assessment of a given situation or a predominant feeling. In other words, someone who is labeled innocent can be innocent in a certain circumstance, or they can be generally innocent of terrible crimes (such as murder, major theft, and so on). Likewise, you can declare that a creature is guilty of a particular crime or of terrible deeds in general. The accuracy of your assessment isn’t important as long as you believe it to be the truth; the GM may require you to give a rationale. Henceforth, your tasks to socially interact with someone you designate as innocent gain an asset, and your attacks against those you designate as guilty gain an asset. You can change your assessment, but it requires another designation action. The benefits of the designation last until you change it or until you are shown proof that it is wrong. Action. (The benefits provided by Designation apply to the character using the ability, their allies, and anyone who hears or is told of their judgment and believes their assessment.)

Destined for Greatness: You enjoy uncanny luck as if something was watching over you and keeping you from harm. When you would otherwise descend a step on the damage track, make an Intellect defense roll versus the difficulty set by the level of the foe or effect. If you succeed, you do not descend that step. If the step was because you fell to 0 points in a Pool, you are still at 0 points; you just don’t suffer the negative effects of being impaired or debilitated. If you would otherwise descend the final step on the damage track to death, a successful defense roll keeps you at 1 point in one Pool, and you remain debilitated. Enabler.

Destroy Metal (3 Intellect points): You instantly tear, rip, or burst a metal object that is within sight, within short range, and no bigger than half your size. Attempt an Intellect task to destroy the object; the task is eased by three steps compared to breaking it with brute strength. Action.

Destroyer (6 Might points): If you succeed on a Might task to damage an object, instead of descending one step on the object damage track, the object descends all three steps and is destroyed. Action.

Detect Life (3+ Might points): You consciously send out a pulse of your your life energy. You detect all living creatures within short range, even if they are behind cover, though not if they’re behind a force field. When you detect a creature, you detect its general location (to within an immediate range). If you apply two additional levels of Effort, you can increase the range of detection to long. Action.

Device Insight (3 Intellect points): When examining any unknown, alien, or high-technology device, you can ask the GM one question to gain an idea of its capabilities, how it functions, how it can be activated or deactivated, what its weaknesses are (if any), how it can be repaired, or any other similar query. This is for difficult or strange things beyond those readily identified by using the appropriate knowledge or technical skill. Action.

Devoted Defender (2 Might or Intellect points): Choose one character you can see. That character becomes your ward. You are trained in all tasks involving finding, healing, interacting with, and protecting that character. You can have only one ward at a time. Action to initiate.

Diamagnetism: You magnetize any nonmetallic object within short range so that it can be affected by your other magnetic powers. Thus, with Move Metal, you can move any object. With Repel Metal, you are trained in all Speed defense tasks, regardless of whether the incoming attack uses metal. And so on. Enabler.

Dimensional Squeeze (2+ Intellect points): You cram yourself into a transitional dimension, allowing you to instantaneously appear anywhere you choose within short range if you have a clear and unobstructed path to that location. You can pass through an intervening barrier if it has an open space that you could easily fit your head through—about 1 square foot (30 cm by 30 cm square). In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to pass through a smaller opening in a barrier; each level of Effort used in this way reduces the minimum opening size by one-fourth. You land safely when you use this ability. Action.

Transitional dimension: A dimension where distances are shorter compared to those in other dimensions, so travel through it is faster than normal movement.

Dirty Fighter (2 Speed points): You distract, blind, annoy, hamper, or otherwise interfere with a foe, hindering their attacks and defenses for one minute. Action.

Disable Mechanisms (3 Speed points): With a keen eye and quick moves, you disrupt some functions of a robot or machine and inflict upon it one of the following maladies:

• All its tasks are hindered for one minute.
• Its speed is halved.
• It can take no action for one round.
• It deals 2 fewer points of damage (minimum 1 point) for one minute.

You must touch the robot or machine to disrupt it (if you are making an attack, it inflicts no damage). Action.

Disappear (4 Intellect points): You bend light that falls on you so you seem to disappear. You are invisible to other creatures 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, 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. Action to initiate or reinitiate.

Disarming Attack (5 Speed points): You attempt a Speed task to disarm a foe as part of your melee attack. If you succeed, your attack inflicts 3 additional points of damage and the target’s weapon is knocked from their grip, landing up to 20 feet (6 m) away. If you fail, you still attempt your normal attack, but you don’t inflict the extra damage or disarm the opponent if you hit. Action.

Disarming Strike (3 Speed points): Your attack inflicts 1 point less damage and disarms your foe so that their weapon is now 10 feet (3 m) away on the ground. (If your chosen weapon is a whip, you can instead deposit the disarmed weapon into your hands; if your chosen weapon is a bow or other ranged weapon that fires physical rounds, you can instead “nail” the disarmed weapon to a nearby object or structure. Choosing to do either of these hinders your attack.) Action.

Discerning Mind: You have +3 Armor against damaging attacks and damaging effects that target your mind and Intellect. Defense rolls you make against attacks that attempt to confuse, persuade, frighten, or otherwise influence you are eased. Enabler.

Discipline of Watchfulness (7 Intellect points): You keep your allies on their toes with occasional questions, jokes, and even mock drills for those who care to join in. After spending 24 hours with you, your allies can apply a free level of Effort to any initiative tasks they attempt. This benefit is ongoing while you remain in the allies’ company. It ends if you leave, but it resumes if you return to the allies’ company within 24 hours. If you leave the allies’ company for more than 24 hours, you must spend another 24 hours together to reactivate the benefit. You must spend the Intellect point cost each 24 hours you wish to keep the benefit active. Enabler.

Disguise: You are trained in disguise. You can alter your posture, voice, mannerisms, and hair to look like someone else for as long as you keep up the disguise. However, it is extremely difficult to adopt the appearance of a specific individual without a disguise kit at your disposal. Enabler.

Disguise Other (4+ Intellect points): You apply your shapechanging ability to another creature of your size or smaller, giving them a form that you are able to assume. This lasts for about ten minutes.

In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to increase the duration; one level of Effort increases it to an hour, two increases it to a day. A creature can revert to its normal form as an action, but it cannot then change back into the altered form. Action.

You probably can’t use Disguise Other to disguise a kind of creature that is very different from you, such as a human disguising a robot, animal, or crystalline alien

Disincentivize (1 Intellect point): You hinder all actions attempted by any number of targets within short range who can understand you. You choose which targets are affected. Affected targets’ actions are hindered for one round. Enabler.

Disrupting Touch (1+ Might points): You can turn your Phase Sprint into a melee attack by purposefully grazing another creature as you run. When you do, the touch releases a violent blast of energy that inflicts 2 points of damage to the target (ignores Armor). Whether you hit or miss, your movement (and turn) ends immediately, which puts you within immediate distance of your target. If you apply Effort to increase damage rather than to ease the task, you deal 2 additional points of damage per level of Effort (instead of 3 points); the target takes 1 point of damage even if you fail the attack roll. Enabler.

Distance Viewing (5 Intellect points): You know that space and distance are illusions. You concentrate to create an invisible, immobile sensor at a location you have previously visited or viewed (at the GM’s discretion, you may have to succeed at an Intellect task if the location is warded). The sensor lasts for one hour. Once it is created, you can concentrate to see, hear, and smell through the sensor. It doesn’t grant you sensory capabilities beyond the norm. Action to create; action to check.

Distant Interface (2 Intellect points): You can activate, deactivate, or control a machine at long range as if you were next to it, even if normally you would have to touch or manually operate it. If you have never interacted with the particular machine before, the task is hindered by two steps. To use this ability, you must understand the function of the machine, it must be your size or smaller, and it can’t be connected to another intelligence (or be intelligent itself). Action.

Distortion (2 Intellect points): You modify how a willing creature within short range reflects light for one minute. The target rapidly shifts between its normal appearance and a blot of darkness. The target has an asset on Speed defense rolls until the effect wears off. Action to initiate.

Diver: You can safely dive into water from heights of up to 100 feet (30 m), and you can withstand pressure when in water as deep as
100 feet. Enabler.

Divert Attacks (4 Speed points): For one minute, you automatically deflect or dodge any ranged projectile attacks. However, on your next turn after you’re attacked with ranged projectiles, all your other actions are hindered. Action to initiate.

Divide Your Mind (7 Intellect points): 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 use a special ability. Action.

Divine Intervention (2 Intellect points, or 2 Intellect points + 4 XP): You ask the divine to intervene on your behalf, usually against a creature within long range, changing the course of its life in a small way by introducing a major special effect upon it. The major special effect is akin to what occurs when you roll a natural 20 on an attack. If you want to try for a larger effect, and if the GM allows it, you can attempt a divine intervention with a more far-reaching effect, which is more like the kind of GM intrusion initiated by the GM on their players. In this case, Divine Intervention also costs 4 XP, the effect may not work out exactly like you hope, and you may not make another plea for divine intervention for a week. Action.

Divine Knowledge: You are trained in all tasks related to knowledge of godly beings. Enabler.

Divine Radiance (2 Intellect points): Your prayer calls divine radiance from the heavens to punish an unworthy target within long range, inflicting 4 points of damage. If the target is a demon, spirit, or something similar, it also stands in unwilling awe of the divine energy coursing through it and is unable to act on its next turn. Once exposed to this blessing, the target can’t be awed by this attack again for several hours. Action.

Divine Symbol (5+ Intellect points): You invoke divine power by scribing a glowing symbol in the air with your fingers. Writhing pillars of divine radiance spear up to five targets within long range. A successful attack on a target inflicts 5 points of damage. If you apply Effort to increase the damage, you deal 2 additional points of damage per level of Effort (instead of 3 points); targets take 1 point of damage even if you fail the attack roll. Action.

Do You Know Who I Am? (3 Intellect points): Acting only as someone who is famous and used to privilege can, you verbally harangue a living foe who can hear and understand you so forcefully that it is unable to take any action, including making attacks, for one round. Whether you succeed or fail, the next action the target takes after your attempt is hindered. Action.

Dodge and Resist (3 Speed points): You can reroll any of your Might, Speed, or Intellect defense rolls and take the better of the two results. Enabler.

Dodge and Respond (3 Might points): If a melee attack misses you, you can immediately make a melee attack in return, but no more than once per turn. Enabler.

Double Strike (3 Might points): When you wield two weapons, you can choose to make one attack roll against a foe. If you hit, you inflict damage with both weapons plus 2 additional points of damage, and because you made a single attack, the target’s Armor is subtracted only once. Action.

Dragon’s Maw (6 Intellect points): You fashion and control a “hovering” phantasmal construct of magic within long range that resembles a dragon’s head. The construct lasts for up to an hour, until it is destroyed, or until you cast another spell. It is a level 4 construct that inflicts 6 points of damage with its bite when directed. While the construct persists, you can use it to manipulate large objects, carry heavy items in its mouth, or attack foes. If you use it to attack foes, you must use your action to directly control the phantom maw for each attack. Action to initiate.

Drain at a Distance: Your Drain Machine and Drain Creature abilities work on a target within short range. Enabler.

Drain Charge: You can drain the power from an artifact or device, allowing you to regain 1 Intellect point per level drained. You regain points at the rate of 1 point per round and must give your full concentration to the process each round. The GM determines whether the device is fully drained (likely true of most handheld or smaller devices) or retains some power (likely true of large machines). Action to initiate; action each round to drain.

Drain Creature (3+ Intellect points): You can drain energy from a living creature you touch, inflicting 3 points of damage and restoring 3 points to your Might or Speed Pool. Action.

Drain Machine (3+ Intellect points): You can drain the power from an artifact or powered device you touch. If the target is a robot, you inflict 3 points of damage and restore 3 points to your Might or Speed Pool. If the target is an object, you restore points to your Might or Speed Pool equal to the level of the target. If the target is a manifest cypher, it is fully drained and useless. Artifacts and similar devices must immediately check for depletion (items with a depletion of “—” are either immune to this ability or have a depletion of 1 in 1d10 when attacked with this ability). Action.

Drain Power (5 Speed points): You affect the main power source of a robot or machine, inflicting upon it all four conditions in Disable Mechanisms at once. You must touch the robot to do this (if you are making an attack, it inflicts no damage). Action.

Draw Conclusion (3 Intellect points): After careful observation and investigation (questioning one or more NPCs on a topic, searching an area or a file, and so on) lasting a few minutes, you can learn a pertinent fact. This ability is a difficulty 3 Intellect task. Each additional time you use this ability, the task is hindered by an additional step. The difficulty returns to 3 after you rest for ten hours. Action.

Drawing on Life’s Experiences (6 Intellect points): You’ve seen a lot and done a lot, and that experience comes in handy. Ask the GM one question, and you’ll receive 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. Action.

Dreadwood (6 Intellect points): You manipulate wind, mist, and shadows to embody the primordial fear of mysterious woods. For the next minute, you gain an asset on intimidation tasks. Creatures within short range may become frightened; make a separate Intellect attack roll for each creature (if you are larger than normal from using Great Tree or another source, these rolls are eased). Success means that they are frozen in fear, not moving or taking actions for one minute or until they are attacked. Some creatures without minds might be immune to this fear. Action.

Dream Becomes Reality (4 Intellect points): You create a dream object of any shape you can imagine that is your size or smaller, which takes on apparent substance and heft. The object is crude and can have no moving parts, so you can make a sword, a shield, a short ladder, and so on. The dream object has the approximate mass of the real object, if you choose. Your dream objects are as strong as iron, but if you do not remain within long range of them, they function for only one minute before fading away. Action.

Dream Thief (2 Intellect points): You steal a previous dream from a living creature within short range. The creature loses 2 points of Intellect (ignores Armor), and you learn something the GM chooses to reveal about the creature—its nature, a portion of its plans, a memory, and so on. Action.

Dreamcraft (1 Intellect point): You pull an image from a dream into the waking world and place it somewhere within long range. The dream lasts for up to one minute, and it can be tiny or fill an area an immediate distance in diameter. Though it appears solid, the dream is intangible. The dream (a scene, a creature, or an object) is static unless you use your action each round to animate it. As part of that animation, you could move the dream up to a short distance each round, as long as it remains within long range. If you animate the dream, it can make sound but does not produce odor. Direct physical interaction or sustained interaction with the dream shatters it into dispersing mist. For example, attacking the dream shatters it, as does the strain of keeping up appearances when an NPC moves through a dream scene or engages a dream creature in conversation for more than a couple of rounds. Action to initiate; action to animate.

Driver: You are trained in all tasks related to driving a car, truck, or motorcycle, including mechanical repair tasks. Enabler.

Driving on the Edge: You can make an attack with a light or medium ranged weapon and attempt a driving task as a single action. Enabler.

Dual Defense: When you wield two weapons, you are trained in Speed defense tasks. Enabler.

Dual Distraction (1+ Speed points): When you wield two weapons, your opponent’s next attack is hindered, and if you apply Effort on your next attack against that same foe, you get a free level of Effort on the task. Enabler.

Dual Light Wield: You can use two light weapons at the same time, making two separate attacks on your turn as a single action. You remain limited by the amount of Effort you can apply on one action, but because you make separate attacks, your opponent’s Armor applies to both. Anything that modifies your attack or damage applies to both attacks, unless it’s specifically tied to one of the weapons. Enabler.

Dual Medium Wield: You can use two light weapons or medium weapons at the same time (or one light weapon and one medium weapon), making two separate attacks on your turn as a single action. This ability otherwise works like the Dual Light Wield ability. Enabler.

Dual Wards: You can have two wards from Devoted Defender at a time. Choosing a second ward can be its own action, or you can choose two wards with one action (and only pay the cost once for doing so). The wards must remain within an immediate distance of each other. Benefits provided by Devoted Defender apply to both your wards. If your wards separate, you choose which retains the benefit. If they come back together, both regain the benefit immediately. Enabler.

Duel to the Death (5 Speed points): Choose a target (a single individual creature that you can see). You are trained in all tasks involving fighting that creature. When you successfully attack that target, you inflict +5 damage, or +7 damage if the creature is engaging someone else instead of you. You can duel only one creature at a time. A duel lasts up to one minute, or until you break it off. Action to initiate.

Duplicate (2 Might points): You cause a duplicate of yourself to appear at any point you can see within short range. The duplicate has no clothing or possessions when it appears. The duplicate is a level 2 NPC with 6 health. The duplicate obeys your commands and does as you direct it. The duplicate remains until you dismiss it using an action or until it is killed. When the duplicate disappears, it leaves behind anything it was wearing or carrying. If the duplicate disappears because it was killed, you take 4 points of damage that ignore Armor, and you lose your next action. Action to initiate.

Dust to Dust (7 Intellect points): You disintegrate one object that is 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. Action.

Abilities—E #

Earthquake (7 Might points): You direct your destructive resonance into the ground and trigger an earthquake centered on a spot you can see within very long range. The ground within short range of that spot heaves and shakes for five minutes, causing damage to structures and terrain in the area. Buildings and terrain features shed debris and rubble. Each round, creatures in the area take either 3 points of damage due to the general shaking, or 6 points of damage if in or adjacent to a structure or terrain feature shedding debris. Action to initiate.

Echolocation: You are especially sensitive to sound and vibration, so much so that you can sense your environment within a short distance regardless of your ability to see. Enabler.

Effective Skill: Choose one noncombat skill when you gain this ability. You get a minor effect with that skill when you roll a natural 14 or higher (the d20 shows “14” or more). You get a major effect with that skill when you roll a natural 19 or higher (the d20 shows “19” or higher). You can select this ability more than once. Each time you select it, you must choose a different noncombat skill. Enabler.

Elastic Grip (3 Might points): Your attack with your stretchy limbs or body is eased. If you hit, you can grab the target, preventing it from moving on its next turn. While you hold the target, its attacks or attempts to break free are hindered. If the target attempts to break free instead of attacking, you must succeed at a Might-based task to maintain your grip. If the target fails to break free, you can continue to hold it each round as your subsequent actions, automatically inflicting 4 points of damage each round by squeezing. Enabler.

Electric Armor (4 Intellect points): When you wish it, electricity crackles across your body for ten minutes, granting you +1 Armor. While electrified, you have an additional +2 Armor versus electrical damage specifically, and you inflict 2 points of damage on any creature that touches you or attacks you with a melee weapon that conducts electricity. Enabler.

Electrical Flight (5 Intellect points): You exude an aura of crackling electricity that lets you fly a long distance each round for ten minutes. You can’t carry other creatures with you. Action to activate.

Elemental Protection (4+ Intellect points): You and every target you designate within immediate range gains +5 Armor against one type of direct elemental damage (such as fire, lightning, shadow, or thorn) for one hour, or until you cast this spell again. Each level of Effort applied increases the elemental protection by +2. Action to initiate.

Elusive (2 Speed points): When you succeed on a Speed defense action, you immediately gain an action. You can use this action only to move. Enabler.

Embrace the Night (7+ Intellect points): You fashion a truly horrifying facade of a creature from swirling ribbons of dark matter and launch it at your foes within long range. Each round, you can attack a target within long range using the creation as your weapon. When you attack, the creature inserts hair-fine tendrils of shadow into the target’s eyes and brain. The target takes 3 points of Intellect damage (ignores Armor) and is stunned for one round so that it loses its next turn. Alternatively, you can cause the creature to take other actions, as long as you are able to see it and mentally control it as your action. The creature disperses after about a minute. Action to initiate.

Embraced by Darkness (6 Intellect points): For the next hour, you take on some characteristics of a shadow thanks to a fundamental adaptation of your flesh or a device you’ve kept secret. Your appearance is a dark silhouette. When you apply a level of Effort to sneaking tasks, you get a free level of Effort on the task. During this time, you can move through the air at a rate of a short distance per round, and you can move through solid barriers (even those that are sealed to prevent the passage of light or shadow), but not energy barriers, at a rate of 1 foot (30 cm) per round. You can perceive while passing through a barrier or object, which allows you to peek through walls. As a shadow, you can’t affect or be affected by normal matter. Likewise, you can’t attack, touch, or otherwise affect anything. However, attacks and effects that rely on light can affect you, and sudden bursts of light can potentially make you lose your next turn. Action to initiate.

Enable Others: You can use the helping rules to provide a benefit to another character attempting a physical task. Unlike the normal helping rules, this doesn’t require you to use your action helping the other character with the task. This requires no action on your part. Enabler.

Enchanted Movement (4+ Intellect points): You use your enchanted weapon to move yourself to any location within a long distance that you can see, as long as there are no obstacles or barriers in your way. The exact way this happens depends on your weapon; you might throw your magical hammer and be pulled along after it, shoot an arrow from your bow that pulls you forward like a grapple line, and so on. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to increase the distance traveled; each level of Effort used in this way increases the range by another 100 feet (30 m). If you have another ability (such as from your type) that allows you to cross a long distance, the range of that ability and this one increases to very long. Action.

Enchanted Weapon (1 Intellect point): You attune yourself to a physical weapon, such as a sword, hammer, or bow. You know exactly where it is if it is within a short distance of you, and you know its general direction and distance if farther away. All of your other focus abilities require you to be holding or wielding this weapon. You can be attuned to only one weapon at a time; attuning yourself to a second weapon loses the attunement to the first one. Action to initiate, ten minutes to complete. Enabler.

If you attune yourself to a different weapon, come up with a story reason for why you are able to do that and why you chose this new weapon.

Encouragement (1 Intellect point): While you maintain this ability through ongoing inspiring oration, your allies within short range ease one of the following task types (your choice): defense tasks, attack tasks, or tasks related to any skill that you are trained or specialized in. Action.

Encouraging Presence (2 Intellect points): For one minute, allies within short range gain an asset on defense rolls. Action.

Endurance: Any duration dealing with physical actions is either doubled or halved, whichever is better for you. For example, if the typical person can hold their breath for thirty seconds, you can
hold it for one minute. If the typical person can march for four hours without stopping, you can do so for eight hours. In terms of harmful effects, if a poison paralyzes its victims for one minute, you are paralyzed for thirty seconds. The minimum duration is always one round. Enabler.

Energize Creature (6+ Might points): You extend your Absorb Kinetic Energy ability to one creature within immediate range so that they also can absorb energy from physical attacks and impacts for one hour. That creature, however, cannot release excess energy as a blast. For each level of Effort you apply, you can increase the number of targets you affect by one. If you have Absorb Pure Energy or Improved Absorb Kinetic Energy, those abilities are also duplicated in your target when you use Energize Creature. Action to initiate.

Energize Crowd (9 Might points): You extend your Absorb Kinetic Energy ability to up to thirty creatures within short range so that they also can absorb energy from physical attacks and impacts for one hour. If you have Absorb Pure Energy or Improved Absorb Kinetic Energy, these creatures can use those abilities as well. The creatures, however, cannot release excess energy as a blast. Action to initiate.

Energize Object: By focusing your Absorb Kinetic Energy ability on an object (like a weapon), you infuse it with your power. The object holds the energy until it is touched by anyone but you, so putting it into your melee weapon or the ammo of a ranged weapon allows the weapon to trigger the energy in combat. The energy inflicts 3 points of damage on the creature touched in addition to any damage the weapon itself might do. You cannot have more than one energized object on your person at a time. Action to initiate.

Energized Shield: Your force shield from your Force Field Shield ability now pulses with dangerous energy whenever you manifest it. Each time you use your shield as a melee or ranged weapon, it inflicts an additional 3 points of damage. Enabler.

Energy Protection (3+ Intellect points): Choose a discrete type of energy that you have experience with (such as heat, sonic, electricity, and so on). 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 24 hours. 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. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to protect more targets; each level of Effort used in this way affects up to two additional targets. You must touch additional targets to protect them. Action to initiate.

Energy Resistance: Choose a discrete type of energy that you have experience with (such as heat, sonic, electricity, and so on). You gain +5 to Armor against damage from that type of energy. 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 can select this ability more than once. Each time you select it, you must choose a different kind of energy. Enabler.

Enhance Strength (3 Intellect points): For the next ten minutes, you gain an asset on tasks that depend on brute force, such as moving a heavy object, smashing down a door, or hitting someone with a melee weapon. Action to initiate.

Enhanced Beast Form: When you use Beast Form, your beast form gains the following additional bonuses: +3 to your Might Pool, +2 to your Speed Pool, and +2 to Armor. Enabler.

Enhanced Body: Your machine parts grant you +1 to Armor, +3 to your Might Pool, and +3 to your Speed Pool. Traditional healing skills, medicines, and techniques work only half as well for you. Each time you start at full health, the first 5 points of damage you take can never be healed in these ways or recovered normally. Instead, you must use repairing skills and abilities to restore those points. For example, if you start with a full Might Pool of 10 and take 8 points of damage, you can use recovery rolls to restore 3 points, but the remaining 5 points must be restored with repair tasks. Enabler.

Enhanced Intellect: You gain 3 points to your Intellect Pool. Enabler.

Enhanced Intellect Edge: You gain +1 to your Intellect Edge. Enabler.

Enhanced Might: You gain 3 points to your Might Pool. Enabler.

Enhanced Might Edge: You gain +1 to your Might Edge. Enabler.

Enhanced Phased Attack (5 Intellect points): This ability works like the Phased Attack ability except that your attack also disrupts the foe’s vitals, dealing an additional 5 points of damage. Enabler.

Enhanced Physique: You gain 3 points to divide among your Might and Speed Pools however you wish. Enabler.

Enhanced Potential: You gain 3 points to divide among your stat Pools however you wish. Enabler.

Enhanced Speed: You gain 3 points to your Speed Pool. Enabler.

Enhanced Speed Edge: You gain +1 to your Speed Edge. Enabler.

Enlarge (1+ Might point): You trigger an enzymatic reaction that draws additional mass from another dimension, and you (and your clothing or suit) grow larger. You achieve a height of 9 feet (3 m) and stay that way for about a minute. During that time, you add 4 points to your Might Pool, add +1 to Armor, and add +2 to your Might Edge. While you are larger than normal, your Speed defense rolls are hindered, and you are practiced in using your fists as heavy weapons.

When the effects of Enlarge end, your Armor and Might Edge return to normal, and you subtract a number of points from your Might Pool equal to the number you gained (if this brings the Pool to 0, subtract the overflow first from your Speed Pool and then, if necessary, from your Intellect Pool). Each additional time you use Enlarge before your next ten-hour recovery roll, you must apply an additional level of Effort. Thus, the second time you use Enlarge, you must apply one level of Effort; the third time you use Enlarge, two levels of Effort; and so on.

Action to initiate.

Enlightened: You are trained in any perception task that involves sight. Enabler.

Entangling Force (1+ Intellect point): 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 use its action attempting to break free. You can increase the level of the force snare by 1 per level of Effort applied. Action to initiate.

Enthrall (1 Intellect point): While talking, you grab and keep another creature’s attention, even if the creature can’t understand you. For as long as you do nothing but speak (you can’t even move), the other creature takes no actions other than to defend itself, even over multiple rounds. If the creature is attacked, the effect ends. Action.

Entourage: You gain an entourage of five level 1 twenty-somethings that accompanies you wherever you go unless you purposefully disband it for a particular outing. You can ask them to deliver things for you, run messages, pick up your dry cleaning—pretty much whatever you want, within reason. They can also run interference if you’re trying to avoid someone, help hide you from media attention, help you muscle through a crowd, and so on. On the other hand, if a situation becomes physically violent, they retreat to safety. Enabler.

Enveloping Shield: Your Force Field Shield ability produces an envelope of force that enfolds you while you are holding the shield, granting you +1 to Armor. Enabler.

Erase Memories (3 Intellect points): You reach into the mind of a creature within immediate range and make an Intellect roll. On a success, you erase up to the last five minutes of its memory. Action.

Escape (2 Speed points): You slip your restraints, squeeze through the bars, break the grip of a creature holding you, pull free from sucking quicksand, or otherwise get loose from whatever is holding you in place. Action.

Escape Plan: When you kill a foe, you can attempt a stealth task to immediately hide from anyone around, assuming that a suitable hiding place is nearby. Enabler.

Evanesce (3 Speed points): You step into shadows or behind cover, and everyone who was observing you completely loses track of you. Although you’re not invisible, you can’t be seen until you reveal yourself again by moving out of the shadows or from behind cover (or by making an attack). Action.

Evasion: You’re hard to affect when you don’t want to be affected. You are trained in all defense tasks. Enabler.

Everything Is a Weapon: You can take any small object—a coin, a pen, a bottle, a stone, and so on—and throw it with such force and precision that it inflicts damage as a light weapon. Enabler.

Exile (5 Intellect points): You send a target that you touch hurtling into another random dimension or universe, where it remains for ten minutes. You have no idea what happens to the target while it’s gone, but at the end of ten minutes, it returns to the precise spot it left. Action.

Expanded Repertoire: The number of subtle cyphers you can bear at the same time increases by one. Enabler.

Experienced Defender: When wearing armor, you gain +1 to Armor. Enabler.

Experienced Finder (6+ Intellect points): When you are looking for something specific, such as a particular rare component, a chemical needed to complete a vaccine for a disease, a spare part required to repair a damaged device, the tracks of a specific beast, or the sword that a thief stole from you, this ability is of great use. For the next 24 hours, if you come within short range of the thing and circumstances are such that it is possible for you to perceive the thing (for example, it’s not in a locked chamber for which you do not have the key), you find it. This ability assumes that you are constantly on the lookout, always looking everywhere possible, peering behind obstacles, and so on—if you’re running for your life, sleeping, or otherwise occupied, this ability does not help you. You use this ability in lieu of making a roll to find the thing, but only if the difficulty for finding the object is level 6 or below. You can apply Effort to increase the maximum level of the thing you’re trying to find (each level of Effort used this way increases the maximum level by 1). Action to initiate.

Experienced in Armor: The cost reduction from your Practiced in Armor ability improves. You now reduce the Speed cost by 2. Enabler.

Expert Crafter: Instead of rolling, you can choose to automatically succeed on a crafting task you’re trained in. The task must be difficulty 4 or lower. If you are able to reduce the assessed difficulty of a crafting task to 4 or lower, this ability also applies to each subtask, assuming something doesn’t interrupt you during the ensuing time to build. Enabler.

Expert Cypher Use: You can bear three cyphers at a time. Enabler.

Expert Driver: You are specialized in all tasks related to driving a car, truck, or motorcycle, including mechanical repair tasks. Enabler.

Expert Follower: You gain a level 3 follower. They are not restricted on their modifications. You can take this ability multiple times, each time gaining another level 3 follower. Alternatively, you could choose to advance a level 2 follower you already have to level 3 and then gain a new level 2 follower. Enabler.

Expert Pilot: You are specialized in all tasks related to piloting a starcraft. Enabler.

Expert Skill: Instead of rolling a d20, you can choose to automatically succeed on a task you’re trained in. The task must be difficulty 4 or lower, and it can’t be an attack roll or a defense roll. Enabler. (A character can’t apply Effort or other abilities to any task they accomplish using Expert Skill.)

Explains the Ineffable: Through anecdotes, historical retellings, and citing knowledge that few but you have previously understood, you enlighten your friends. After spending 24 hours with you, once per day, each of your friends can ease a particular task by two steps. This benefit is ongoing while you remain in your friends’ company. It ends if you leave, but it resumes if you return to your friends’ company within 24 hours. If you leave your friends’ company for longer than that, you must spend another 24 hours together to reactivate the benefit. Enabler.

Exploit Advantage: Even if you can do something well, you’ve learned that you can always do it even better. Whenever you have an asset for a roll, you ease the task by one additional step. Enabler.

Exploratory Experience: You are trained in two additional skills in which you are not already trained. Choose from the following navigation, perception, sensing danger, initiative, peacefully opening communications with strangers, and tracking. Enabler.

Explosive Release (6 Intellect points): You can amplify the energy stored in your Siphon Pool (from your Store Energy ability) and release it in a massive blast that affects either one target within short range or everything within immediate range. If you choose a single target, it takes 2 points of damage for every point in your Siphon Pool. If you choose an area, everything in the area (except you) takes 1 point of damage per point in your Siphon Pool (or half that if your attack fails against them). This drains your Siphon Pool to 0 points. Action.

Extra Recovery: You gain an additional
one-action recovery each day. Enabler.

Extra Skill: You are trained in one skill of your choice (other than attacks or defense) in which you are not already trained. You can select this ability multiple times. Each time you select it, you must choose a different skill. Enabler.

Extra Use (3 Intellect points): You attempt to gain an extra use from an artifact without triggering a depletion roll. The difficulty of the task is equal to the level of the artifact. If you crafted the artifact, you gain an asset to the task. On a failure, the depletion roll occurs normally. You could also try to use a manifest cypher without burning it out, but the task is hindered. A failed attempt to gain an additional use from a manifest cypher destroys it before it can produce the desired effect. Action.

Extreme Mastery (6 Might or 6 Speed points): When using your chosen weapon, you can reroll any attack roll you wish and take the better of the two results. Enabler.

Eye for Detail (2 Intellect points): When you spend five minutes or so thoroughly exploring an area no larger than a short distance in diameter, you can ask the GM one question about the area. The GM must answer you truthfully. You cannot use this more than one time per area per 24 hours. Action to initiate, five minutes to complete.

Eye Gouge (2 Speed points): You make an attack against a creature with an eye. The attack is hindered, but if you hit, the creature has trouble seeing for the next hour. During this time, the creature’s tasks that rely on sight (which is most tasks) are hindered. Action.

Eyes Adjusted: You can see in extremely dim light as though it were bright light. You can see in total darkness as if it were extremely dim light. Enabler.

Abilities—F #

Face Morph (2+ Intellect points): You alter your features and coloration for one hour, hiding your identity or impersonating someone. This affects only your face, not the rest of your body. You can’t perfectly duplicate someone else’s face, but you can be accurate enough to fool someone who knows that person casually. You have an asset in all tasks involving disguise. You must apply a level of Effort to be able to impersonate a different species (such as a human morphing into a humanoid alien). Action.

Familiarize: You can familiarize yourself with a new area if you spend at least one hour studying a region up to a long distance across that you are able to directly access and move about in. Once you’ve familiarized yourself with an area, all your tasks related to perception, navigation, salvaging and scavenging, defense, and moving about the area gain an asset. Each time you familiarize yourself with a new area, you lose focus on a previous area unless you spend 1 XP to retain the familiarity permanently. Action to initiate, one hour to complete.

Far Step (2 Intellect points): You leap through the air and land some distance away. You can jump up, down, or across to anywhere you choose within long range if you have a clear and unobstructed path to that location. You land safely. Action.

Fast Kill (2 Speed points): You know how to kill quickly. When you hit with a melee or ranged attack, you deal 4 additional points of damage. You can’t make this attack in two consecutive rounds. Action.

Fast Talk (1 Intellect point): When speaking with an intelligent creature who can understand you and isn’t hostile, you convince that creature to take one reasonable action in the next round. A reasonable action must be agreed upon by the GM; it should not put the creature or its allies in obvious danger or be wildly out of character. Action.

Fast Travel (7 Intellect points): You warp time and space so that you and up to ten other creatures within immediate distance travel overland at ten times the normal rate for up to eight hours. At this speed, most dangerous encounters or regions of rough terrain are ignored, though the GM may declare exceptions. Outright barriers still present a problem. Action to initiate.

Faster Wild Magic: If you spend ten minutes preparing your magic, you can fill any of your open cypher slots with subtle cyphers chosen randomly by the GM (this time can be part of a ten-minute, one-hour, or ten-hour recovery action if you are awake for the entire time). You can’t use this ability again until after you’ve taken a ten-hour recovery action. You can still use Magical Repertoire to fill your cypher slots. Action to initiate, ten minutes to complete.

Fearsome Reputation (3 Intellect points): You and those you travel with have earned a fearsome reputation in some parts. If your foes have heard of you, affected targets within earshot become afraid, and all attacks they make against you are hindered until one or more of them successfully inflicts damage on you or one of your allies, at which time their fear abates. Action.

Feat of Strength (1 Might point): Any task that depends on brute force is eased. Examples include smashing down a barred door, tearing open a locked container, lifting or moving a heavy object, or striking someone with a melee weapon. Enabler.

Feint (2 Speed points): If you use one action creating a misdirection or diversion, in the next round you can take advantage of your opponent’s lowered defenses. Make a melee attack roll against that opponent. You gain an asset on this attack. If your attack is successful, it inflicts 4 additional points of damage. Action.

Fellow Explorer: You gain a level 2 follower. One of their modifications must be for tasks related to perception. Enabler.

Fetch (3 Intellect points): You cause an object to disappear and reappear in your hands or somewhere else nearby. Choose one object that can fit inside a 5-foot (2 m) cube and that you can see within long range. The object vanishes and appears in your hands or in an open space anywhere you choose within immediate range. Action.

Field of Destruction (4 Might points): When you cause an object to descend one or more steps on the object damage track, you gain 1 additional point of Armor for one minute. Enabler.

Field of Gravity (4 Intellect points): When you wish it, a field of manipulated gravity around you pulls incoming ranged projectile attacks to the ground. You are immune to such attacks until your turn in the next round. You must be aware of an attack to foil it. This ability does not work on energy attacks. Enabler.

Field-Reinforced Armor: You gain +1 to Armor while wearing the power armor from your Powered Armor ability. Enabler.

Fiery Hand of Doom (3 Intellect points): While your Shroud of Flame is active, you can reach into your halo and produce a hand made of animate flame that is twice the size of a human’s hand. The hand acts as you direct, floating in the air. Directing the hand is an action. Without a command, the hand does nothing. It can move a long distance in a round, but it never moves farther away from you than long range. The hand can grab, move, and carry things, but anything it touches takes 1 point of damage per round from the heat. The hand can also attack. It’s a level 3 creature and deals 1 extra point of damage from fire when it attacks. Once created, the hand lasts for ten minutes. Action to create; action to direct.

Fight On: You do not suffer the normal penalties for being impaired on the damage track. If debilitated, instead of suffering the normal penalty of being unable to take most actions, you can continue to act; however, all tasks are hindered. Enabler.

Final Defiance: When you would normally be dead, you instead remain conscious and active for one more round plus one additional round each time you succeed on a difficulty 5 Might task. During these rounds, you are debilitated. If you do not receive healing or otherwise gain points in a Pool during your final round(s) of activity, you are subject to the effects of Not Dead Yet. Enabler.

Find an Opening (1 Intellect point): You use trickery to find an opening in your foe’s defenses. If you succeed on a Speed roll against one creature within immediate range, your next attack against that creature before the end of the next round is eased. Action.

Find the Guilty: If you have used Designation on a target, you are trained in tracking them, spotting them when they are hidden or disguised, or otherwise finding them. Enabler.

Find the Hidden (4+ Intellect points): You see the traceries of objects as they move through space and time. You can sense the distance and direction of any specific inanimate object that you once touched. This takes anywhere from one action to hours of concentration, depending on what the GM feels is appropriate due to time, distance, or other mitigating circumstances. However, you don’t know in advance how long it will take. If you use at least two levels of Effort, once you have established the distance and direction, you remain in contact with the object for one hour per level of Effort used. Thus, if it moves, you are aware of its new position. Action to initiate; action each round to concentrate.

Find the Way: When you apply Effort to a navigation task because you don’t know the way, are lost, are attempting to blaze a new route, need to choose between two or more otherwise similar paths to take, or something very similar, you can apply a free level of Effort. Enabler.

Finishing Blow (5 Might points): If your foe is prone, stunned, or somehow helpless or incapacitated when you strike, you inflict 7 additional points of damage on a successful hit. Enabler.

Fire and Ice (4 Intellect points): You cause a target within short range to become either very hot or very cold (your choice). The target suffers 3 points of ambient damage (ignores Armor) each round for up to three rounds, although a new roll is required each round to continue to affect the target. Action to initiate.

Fire Bloom (4+ Intellect points): Fire blooms within long range, filling an area 10 feet (3 m) in radius and inflicting 3 points of damage on all affected targets. Effort applied to one attack counts for all attacks against targets in the area of the bloom. Even on an unsuccessful attack, a target in the area still takes 1 point of damage. Flammable objects in the area may catch fire. Action.

Fire Servant (6 Intellect points): While your Shroud of Flame is active, you reach into your halo and produce an automaton of fire that is your general shape and size. It acts as you direct each round. Directing the servant is an action, and you can command it only when you are within long range of it. Without a command, the servant continues to follow your previous command. You can also give it a simple programmed action, such as “Wait here, and attack anyone who comes within short range until they’re dead.” The servant lasts for ten minutes, is a level 5 creature, and deals 1 extra point of damage from fire when it attacks. Action to create; action to direct.

Fire Tendrils (5 Intellect points): When you wish it, your halo (from your Shroud of Flame ability) sprouts three tendrils of flame that last for up to ten minutes. As an action, you can use the tendrils to attack, making a separate attack roll for each. Each tendril inflicts 4 points of damage. Otherwise, the attacks function as standard attacks. If you don’t use the tendrils to attack, they remain but do nothing. Enabler.

Fists of Fury: You inflict 2 additional points of damage with unarmed attacks. Enabler.

Flamboyant Boast (1 Intellect point): You boastfully describe an act that you will accomplish, and then as part of the same action, you attempt it. If an average person would find the action difficult (or impossible) and you succeed on it, creatures who witnessed it who are not your allies are potentially dazed on their next turn, and all tasks they attempt are hindered. The GM will help you determine whether your boast is something that would impress onlookers so significantly. If you attempt the task you boast about but fail to accomplish it, all your attempts to affect or attack onlookers who saw you are hindered for about ten minutes. Enabler.

Flameblade (4 Intellect points): When you wish it, you extend your Shroud of Flame to cover a weapon you wield in flame for one hour. The flame ends if you stop holding or carrying the weapon. While the flame lasts, the weapon inflicts 2 additional points of damage. Enabler.

Flash (4 Intellect points): You create an explosion of energy at a point within close range, affecting an area up to immediate range from that point. You must be able to see the location where you intend to center the explosion. The blast inflicts 2 points of damage to all creatures or objects within the area. If you apply Effort to increase the damage, you deal 2 additional points of damage per level of Effort (instead of 3 points); targets in the area take 1 point of damage even if you fail the attack roll. Action.

Flash Across the Miles (6+ Intellect points): You can move to an open location on the planet that you’re familiar with almost instantaneously, transformed into a bolt of lightning. If you apply a level of Effort, you can attempt to penetrate covered locations that you’re aware of as long as a route exists from the open air to the area you want to reach that electricity can easily follow. Action.

Flee (6 Intellect points): All non-allies within short distance who can hear your dreadful, intimidating words flee from you at top speed for one minute. Action.

Fleet of Foot (1+ Speed points): You can move a short distance as part of another action. You can move a long distance as your entire action for a turn. If you apply a level of Effort to this ability, you can move a long distance and make an attack as your entire action for a turn, but the attack is hindered. Enabler.

Flesh of Stone: You have +1 to Armor if you do not wear physical armor. Enabler.

Flex Lore: After each ten-hour recovery roll when you have access to a high-technology digital reference library (such as one that might be found in a starship or in a learning center), choose one field of knowledge related to a specific planet or some other location. The field might be habitations, customs, governments, characteristics of the main species, important figures, and so on. You’re trained in that field until you use this ability again. You could use this ability with an area of knowledge you’re already trained in to become specialized. Enabler.

Flex Skill: At the beginning of each day, choose one task (other than attacks or defense) on which you will concentrate. For the rest of that day, you’re trained in that task. You can’t use this ability with a skill in which you’re already trained to become specialized. Enabler.

Flex Weapon Skill: At the beginning of each day, choose one type of attack: light bashing, light bladed, light ranged, medium bashing, medium bladed, medium ranged, heavy bashing, heavy bladed, or heavy ranged. For the rest of that day, you are trained in attacks using that type of weapon. You can’t use this ability with an attack skill in which you’re already trained to become specialized. Enabler.

Flight (4+ Intellect points): You can float and fly through the air for one hour. For each level of Effort applied, you can affect one additional creature of your size or smaller. You must touch the creature to bestow the power of flight. You direct the other creature’s movement, and while flying, it must remain within sight of you or fall. In terms of overland movement, a flying creature moves about 20 miles (32 km) per hour and is not affected by terrain. Action to initiate.

Flight Exertion (3 Might or 3 Speed points): You can fly up to a short distance as your movement this round. If all you do is move on your turn, you can fly up to a long distance. Enabler.

Flight Not Fight: If you use your action only to move, all Speed defense tasks are eased. Enabler.

Fling (4 Intellect points): 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. Action.

Flying Companion: You gain a level 3 companion creature that can fly at the same speed as you; depending on other aspects of your character, this might be a trained bird, a machine drone, or a helpful strange creature such as a familiar. This creature accompanies you and acts as you direct. As a level 3 companion, it has a target number of 9 and 9 health, and it inflicts 3 points of damage. If it’s killed or destroyed, it takes you one month to find or create a suitable replacement. Enabler.

Foil Danger (2 Intellect points): You negate one source of potential danger related to one creature or object that you are aware of within immediate distance for one round. This could be a weapon or device held by someone, a trap triggered by a pressure plate, or a creature’s natural ability (something special, innate, and dangerous, like a dragon’s fiery breath or a giant cobra’s venom). You can also try to foil a foe‘s mundane action (such as an attack with a weapon or claw), so that the action isn‘t made this round. Make your roll against the level of the attack, danger, or creature. Action.

Font of Healing: With your approval, other creatures can touch you and regain 1d6 points to either their Might Pool or their Speed Pool. This healing costs them 2 Intellect points. A single creature can benefit from this ability only once each day. Enabler.

Force and Accuracy: You inflict 3 additional points of damage with attacks using weapons that you throw. Enabler.

Force at Distance (4+ Intellect points): You temporarily bend the fundamental law of gravity around a creature or object (up to twice your mass) within short range. The target is caught in your telekinetic grip, and you can move it up to a short distance in any direction each round that you retain your hold. A creature in your 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. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to increase the amount of mass you can affect. Each level 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 would affect a creature eight times as massive, three levels would affect a creature sixteen times as massive, and so on. Action to initiate.

Force Bash (1 Might point): This is a pummeling melee attack you make with your Force Field Shield. Your attack inflicts 1 less point of damage than normal but dazes your target for one round, during which time all tasks it performs are hindered. Enabler.

Force Blast: You figure out how to project blasts of pure force from the gauntlets of the power armor from your Powered Armor ability. This allows you to fire a blast of force that inflicts 5 points of damage with a range of 200 feet
(60 m). Action.

Force Field (3 Intellect points): You create an invisible energy barrier around a creature or object you choose within short range. The force field moves with the creature or object and lasts for ten minutes. If the target is a creature, they gain +1 to Armor; if the target is an object, attacks against it are hindered. Action.

Force Field Barrier (3+ Intellect points): You create an opaque, stationary barrier of solid energy (a force field) within immediate range. The barrier is 10 feet by 10 feet (3 m by 3 m) and of negligible thickness. It is a level 2 barrier and lasts for ten minutes. It can be placed anywhere it fits, whether against a solid object (including the ground) or floating in the air. Each level of Effort you apply strengthens the barrier by one level. For example, applying two levels of Effort creates a level 4 barrier. Action.

Force Field Shield: You manifest a small plane of pure force, which takes on a shield-like shape with the barest flicker of a thought. You can dismiss it just as easily. To use the force shield, you must hold it in one of your hands. You are practiced in using your exotic shield in one hand as a light melee weapon; however, if you attack with both your shield and a weapon held in the other hand, both attacks are hindered. When you are unconscious or sleeping, the force field dissipates. Enabler. (A shield, including one produced by a force field, provides an asset to a character’s Speed defense task while it is held in one hand.)

Force to Reckon With: You can break through force fields and energy barriers as if they were physical walls. Enabler.

Force Wall (5 Intellect points): You can trigger the energy in your Force Field Shield to expand outward in all directions to create an immobile plane of solid force up to 20 feet by 20 feet (6 m by 6 m) for up to one hour or until you take your shield back. (The force shield becomes the force wall.) The plane of the force wall conforms to the space available. While the force wall remains in place, you cannot use any of your other abilities that require Force Field Shield. Action to initiate.

Fortification Builder: Whenever you attempt a crafting task—or help in the crafting task—to build a wall or other fortification, you ease the crafting difficulty by two steps, to a minimum of difficulty 1. Enabler.

Fortified Position (2 Might points): For the next minute, you gain +1 Armor and an asset to your Might defense tasks, as long as you haven’t moved more than an immediate distance since your last turn. Action to initiate.

Foul Aura (5+ Intellect points): Your words, gestures, and touch invest an object no larger than yourself with an aura of doom, fear, and doubt for one day. Creatures that can hear and understand you feel an urge to move at least a short distance away from the object. If a creature does not move away, all tasks, attacks, and defenses it attempts while within the aura are hindered. The duration of the aura is extended by one day per level of Effort applied. The aura is temporarily blocked while the object is covered or contained. Action to initiate.

Freakishly Large: Your increased size intimidates most people. While you enjoy the effects of Enlarge, all intimidation tasks you attempt are eased. Enabler.

Free to Move: You ignore all movement penalties and adjustments due to terrain or other obstacles. You can fit through any space large enough to fit your head. Tasks involving breaking free of bonds, a creature’s grip, or any similar impediment gain three free levels of Effort. Enabler.

Freezing Touch (4 Intellect points): Your hands become so cold that your touch freezes solid a living target of your size or smaller, rendering it immobile for one round. If you have another cold ability activated by touch (such as Frost Touch), you can use it as part of the Freezing Touch attack. Action.

Frenzy (1 Intellect point): When you wish, while in combat, you can enter a state of frenzy. While in this state, you can’t use Intellect points, but you gain +1 to your Might Edge and your Speed Edge. This effect lasts as long as you wish, but it ends if no combat is taking place within range of your senses. Enabler.

Friendly Help: If your friend tries a task and fails, they can try again without spending Effort if you help. You provide this advantage to your friend even if you are not trained in the task that they are retrying. Enabler.

From the Shadows: If you successfully attack a creature that was previously unaware of your presence, you deal 3 additional points of damage. Enabler.

Frost Touch (1 Intellect point): Your hands become so cold that the next time you touch a creature, you inflict 3 points of damage. Alternatively, you can use this ability on a weapon, and for ten minutes, it inflicts 1 additional point of damage from the cold. Action for touch; enabler for weapon.

Further Mathematics: You are specialized in higher mathematics. If you are already specialized, choose some other sphere of knowledge to become trained in. Enabler.

Fury (3 Might points): For the next minute, all melee attacks you make inflict 2 additional points of damage. Action to initiate.

Fusion: You can fuse your manifest cyphers and artifacts with your body. These fused devices function as if they were one level higher. Enabler.

Fusion Armor: A procedure gives you biometal implants in major portions of your body, you grow metal-hard skin, the blessings of an angel protect you, or something similar happens. These changes give you +1 to Armor even when you’re not wearing physical armor. Enabler.

Abilities—G #

Gain Unusual Companion: You gain a special specimen as a constant companion. It is level 4, probably the size of a small dog, and follows your telepathic commands. You and the GM must work out the details of your creature, and you’ll probably make rolls for it in combat or when it takes actions. The companion acts on your turn. If your companion dies, you can hunt in the wild for 1d6 days to find a new one. Enabler.

Gambler: Each day, choose two different numbers from 2 to 16. One number is your lucky number, and the other is your unlucky number. Whenever you make a roll that day and get a number matching your lucky number, your next task is eased. Whenever you make a roll that day and get a number matching your unlucky number, your next task is hindered. Enabler.

Game Lessons: You’ve played so many games that you’ve picked up some real knowledge. Choose any two noncombat skills. You are trained in those skills. Enabler.

Gamer: Pick any one style of game such as real-time strategy games, games of chance in the style of poker, roleplaying games, and so on. You can apply an asset to a task related to playing that style of game once between each recovery roll. Enabler.

Gamer’s Fortitude: Sitting and playing a game for twelve hours straight is not something most people can do, but you’ve figured it out. Once after each ten-hour recovery roll, you can transfer up to 5 points between your Pools in any combination, at a rate of 1 point per round. For example, you could transfer 3 points of Might to Speed and 2 points of Intellect to Speed, which would take a total of five rounds. Action.

Gaming God: Any time you use Effort on an Intellect action, add one of the following enhancements to the action (your choice):

• Free level of Effort
• Automatic minor effect

Enabler.

Gargantuan: When you use Enlarge, you can choose to grow up to 30 feet (9 m) in height, and you add 3 more temporary points to your Might Pool (if you also have the Bigger ability, the temporary points from Gargantuan are in addition to the points from Bigger). Enabler.

Gather Intelligence (2 Intellect points): When in a group of people (a caravan, a palace, a village, a city, etc.) you can ask around about any topic you choose and come away with useful information. You can ask a specific question, or you can simply obtain general facts. You also get a good idea of the general layout of the location involved, note the presence of all major sites, and perhaps even notice obscure details. For example, not only do you find out if anyone in the palace has seen the missing boy, but you also get a working knowledge of the layout of the palace itself, note all the entrances and which are used more often than others, and take notice that everyone seems to avoid the well in the eastern courtyard for some reason. Action to initiate, about an hour to complete.

Generate Force Field (9+ Intellect points): You create six planes of solid force (level 8), each 30 feet (9 m) to a side, which persist for one hour. The planes must be contiguous, and they retain the position that you choose when initiating this ability. For instance, you could arrange the planes linearly, creating a wall 180 feet (55 m) long, or you could create a closed cube. The planes conform to the space available. Each additional level of Effort you apply increases the level of the barrier by one (to a maximum of level 10) or increases the number of hours it remains by one. Action to initiate.

Get Away (2 Speed points): After your action on your turn, you move up to a short distance or get behind or beneath cover within immediate range. Enabler.

Ghost (4 Intellect points): For the next ten minutes, you gain an asset to sneaking tasks. During this time, you can move through solid barriers (but not energy barriers) at a rate of 1 foot (30 cm) per round, and you can perceive while phased within a barrier or object, which allows you to peek through walls. Action to initiate.

Go Defensive (1 Intellect point): When you wish, while in combat, you can enter a state of heightened awareness of threat. While in this state, you can’t use points from your Intellect Pool, but you gain +1 to your Speed Edge and gain two assets to Speed defense tasks. This effect lasts as long as you wish or until you attack a foe or no combat is taking place within range of your senses. Once the effect of this ability ends, you can’t enter it again for one minute. Enabler.

Go to Ground (4 Speed points): You move up to a long distance and attempt to hide. When you do, you gain an asset on the stealth task to blend in, disappear, or otherwise escape the senses of everyone previously aware of your presence. Action.

Goad (1 Intellect point): You can attempt to goad a target into a belligerent—and probably foolish—reaction that requires the target to try to close the distance between you and attempt to physically strike you on its next turn. They attempt this action even if this would cause them to break formation or to give up cover or a tactically superior position. Whether the target strikes you or fails to do so, they come to their senses immediately afterward, after which further tasks attempting to goad the target again are hindered. Action to initiate.

Golem Body: You gain +1 to Armor, +1 to your Might Edge, and 5 additional points to your Might Pool. You do not need to eat, drink, or breathe (though you do need rest and sleep). You move more stiffly than a creature of flesh, which means you can never be trained or specialized in Speed defense rolls. Furthermore, you are practiced in using your stone fists as a medium weapon. Enabler.

Golem Grip (3 Might points): Your attack with the stone fists from your Golem Body ability is eased. If you hit, you can grab the target, preventing it from moving on its next turn. While you hold the target, its attacks or attempts to break free are hindered. If the target attempts to break free instead of attacking, you must make a Might-based roll to maintain your grip. If the target fails to break free, you can continue to hold it each round as your subsequent actions, automatically inflicting 4 points of damage each round by squeezing. Enabler.

Golem Healing: Your stone form from the Golem Body ability is more difficult to repair than flesh, which means you are unable to use the first, single-action recovery roll of the day that other PCs have access to. Thus, your first recovery roll on any given day requires ten minutes of rest, the second requires an hour of rest, and the third requires ten hours. Enabler.

Golem Stomp (4 Might points): You stomp on the ground with all of your strength, creating a shock wave that attacks all creatures in immediate range. Affected creatures take 3 points of damage and are either pushed out of immediate range or fall down (your choice). Action.

Good Advice: Anyone can help an ally, easing whatever task they’re attempting. However, you have the benefit of clarity and wisdom. When you help another character, they gain an additional asset. Enabler.

Got a Feeling (4 Intellect points): You have an uncanny intuition when it comes to finding things. While exploring, you can extend your senses up to 1 mile (1.5 km) in any direction and ask the GM a very simple, general question—usually a yes-or-no question—about that area, such as “Is there an orc encampment nearby?” or “Is there dark matter to be found in that rusted hulk?” If the answer you seek is not in the area, you receive no information. Action.

Grab: While you are using the Enlarge ability, you can attack by attempting to wrap your massive hands around a target the size of a normal human or smaller. While you maintain your hold as your action, you keep the target from moving or taking physical actions (other than attempts to escape). The target’s escape attempt is hindered by two steps due to your size. If you wish, you can automatically inflict 3 points of damage each round on the target while you hold it, but you can also keep it protected (by taking all attacks otherwise meant for the target). Action.

Grand Deception (3 Intellect points): You convince an intelligent creature that can understand you and isn’t hostile of something that is wildly and obviously untrue. Action.

Grandiose Illusion (8 Intellect points): You create a fantastically complex scene of images that fit within a 1-mile (1.5 km) cube that you are also within. You must be able to see the images when you create them. The images can move in the cube and act in accordance with your desires. They can also act logically (such as reacting appropriately to fire or attacks) when you aren’t directly observing them. The illusion includes sound and smell. For example, armies can clash in battle, with air support from machines or flying creatures, on and above terrain of your creation. The illusion lasts for one hour (or longer, if you concentrate on it after that time). Action.

Granite Wall (7+ Intellect points): You create a level 6 granite wall within short range. The wall is 1 foot (30 cm) thick and up to 20 feet by 20 feet (6 m by 6 m) in size. It appears resting on a solid foundation and lasts for about ten hours. If you apply three levels of Effort, the wall is permanent until destroyed naturally. Action to initiate.

Grasping Foliage (3+ Intellect points): Roots, branches, grass, or other natural foliage in the area snags and holds a foe you designate within short range for up to one minute. A foe caught in the grasping foliage can’t move from its position, and all physical tasks, attacks, and defenses are hindered, including attempts to free itself. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to deal damage with the initial attack. Each level applied inflicts 2 additional points of damage when Grasping Foliage first snags and holds your foe.

You can also use this ability to clear an area of entangling growth in the immediate radius, such as an area of tall grass, thick brush, impenetrable vines, and so on. Action.

Gravity Cleave (3 Intellect points): You can harm a target within short range by rapidly increasing gravity’s pull on one portion of the target and decreasing it on another, inflicting 6 points of damage. Action.

Great Tree: When you use Wooden Body, you may grow to up to 12 feet (4 m) in height. In this larger form, you add 7 points to your Might Pool and +2 to your Might Edge. If you chose to grow, when Wooden Body ends you subtract 7 points from your Might Pool (if this brings the Pool to 0, subtract the overflow first from your Speed Pool and then, if necessary, from your Intellect Pool). When you use Wooden Body, whether or not you choose to grow, instead of looking like a wooden version of your normal self, you can take on the full appearance of a humanoid tree creature or an actual tree (including growing additional branches, extra foliage, and so on). This does not affect any of your abilities—in tree shape, you can use type abilities, other focus abilities, and so on. In tree shape, pretending to be a tree and hiding among normal trees are eased by two steps. Enabler.

Greater Beast Form: When using Beast Form, your beast form gains the following additional bonuses: +1 to your Might Edge, +2 to your Speed Pool, and +1 to your Speed Edge. Enabler.

Greater Controlled Change: It’s easier to change into and out of the shape granted by your Beast Form ability. Transforming either way is now a difficulty 2 Intellect task. Enabler.

Greater Designation: You can assign an innocent or guilty label to all creatures within immediate range when you use Designation. The one label applies to all affected creatures. This lasts until you use Greater Designation again. Action.

Greater Enhanced Intellect: You gain 6 points to your Intellect Pool. Enabler.

Greater Enhanced Might: You gain 6 points to your Might Pool. Enabler.

Greater Enhanced Physique: You gain 6 points to divide among your Might and Speed Pools however you wish. Enabler.

Greater Enhanced Potential: You gain 6 points to divide among your stat Pools however you wish. Enabler.

Greater Enhanced Speed: You gain 6 points to your Speed Pool. Enabler.

Greater Frenzy (4 Intellect points): When you wish, while in combat, you can enter a state of frenzy. While in this state, you can’t use Intellect points, but you gain +2 to your Might Edge and your Speed Edge. This effect lasts as long as you wish, but it ends if no combat is taking place within range of your senses. If you have the Frenzy ability, you can use it or this ability, but you can’t use both at the same time. Enabler.

Greater Healing Touch (4 Intellect points): You touch a creature and restore its Might Pool, Speed Pool, and Intellect Pool to their maximum values, as if it were fully rested. A single creature can benefit from this ability only once each day. Action.

Greater Necromancy (5+ Intellect points): This ability works like the Necromancy ability except that it creates a level 3 creature. Action to animate.

Greater Skill With Attacks: Choose one type of attack, even one in which you are already trained: light bashing, light bladed, light ranged, medium bashing, medium bladed, medium ranged, heavy bashing, heavy bladed, or heavy ranged. You are trained in attacks using that type of weapon. If you’re already trained in that type of attack, you instead are specialized in that type of attack. Enabler.

Greater Skill With Defense: Choose one type of defense task, even one in which you are already trained: Might, Speed, or Intellect. You are trained in defense tasks of that type, or specialized if you are already trained. You can select this ability up to three times. Each time you select it, you must choose a different type of defense task. Enabler.

Group Friendship (4 Intellect points): You convince a sentient creature to regard you (and up to ten creatures that you designate within immediate distance of you) positively, as they would a potential friend. Action.

Guide Bolt (4+ Intellect points): When you make
an attack with a metallic bolt or metal-tipped arrow on a target within short range, you can improve the attack’s aim and velocity, which grants an asset to the attack and inflicts an additional 2 points of damage. If you apply a level of Effort, you grant the same benefits to a ranged attack made by an ally within immediate range. In any case, you can use this ability only once per round. Enabler.

Guild Training: Your type abilities that have durations last twice as long. Your type abilities that have short ranges reach to long range instead. Your type abilities that inflict damage deal 1 additional point of damage. Enabler.

Gunner: You inflict 1 additional point of damage with guns. Enabler.

Abilities—H #

Hack the Impossible (3 Intellect points): You can persuade robots, machines, and computers to do your bidding. You can discover an encrypted password, break through security on a website, briefly turn off a machine such as a surveillance camera, or disable a robot with a moment’s worth of fiddling. Action.

Hacker (2 Intellect points): You gain quick access to a desired bit of information in a computer or similar device, or you access one of its primary functions. Action.

Hand to Eye (2 Speed points): This ability provides an asset to any tasks involving manual dexterity, such as pickpocketing, lockpicking, games involving agility, and so on. Each use lasts up to a minute; a new use (to switch tasks) replaces the previous use. Action to initiate.

Handy: You work for a living and are trained in tasks related to carpentry, plumbing, and electrical repair. Your knowledge in these realms also gives you an asset to craft entirely new items within your spheres of knowledge and the limits of possibility within the setting. Enabler.

Hard Choices: Sometimes, you believe that you’ve got to lie to those who trust you for their own good. You are specialized in deception tasks. Enabler.

Hard Target: If you move a short distance or farther on your turn, all Speed defense rolls are eased. Enabler.

Hard to Distract: You are trained in Intellect defense tasks. Enabler.

Hard to Hit: You are trained in Speed defense tasks. Enabler.

Hard to Kill: You can choose to reroll any defense task you make but never more than once per round. Enabler.

Hard to See: When you move, you are a blur. It is impossible to make out your identity as you run past, and in a round where you do nothing but move, stealth tasks and Speed defense tasks are eased. Enabler.

Hard-Won Resilience: In your explorations of dark places, you’ve been exposed to all sorts of terrible things and are developing a general resistance. You gain +1 to Armor and are trained in Might defense tasks. Enabler.

Harder Light: When you create an object out of hard light, the object is one level higher than normal. Enabler.

Hardiness: You are trained in Might defense tasks. Enabler.

Have Spacesuit, Will Travel: Somehow or another, you became the legal owner of a fully functional and advanced spacesuit. The spacesuit provides +1 Armor and, more important, allows you to survive in the vacuum of space using suit reserves for up to twelve hours at a time with enough reaction mass to get around in zero gravity on jets of ionized gas for that same period. After each use, the suit must be recharged, either with already-charged cartridges of air and reaction mass or by allowing the suit to sit idle in an area with breathable atmosphere for at least two hours, during which time it will recharge both air and reaction mass using integrated solid state mechanisms. The suit’s power supply is a radioisotope thermoelectric generator, which means it’ll function for a few decades before needing to be changed out. Enabler.

Heads-Up Display (2+ Intellect points): Your Powered Armor ability comes with systems that help you make sense of, analyze, and use your weapons in your environment. When you trigger this ability, you gain an asset on one attack roll as the suit perfectly outlines foes and steadies your aim, regardless of whether you’re making a melee or ranged attack.

Alternatively, you can use the heads-up display to magnify your vision, increasing your vision range to 5 miles (8 km) for two rounds. If you apply one level of Effort, you can also see through mundane materials (such as wood, concrete, plastic, and stone) to a short distance in false color images. If you apply two levels of Effort, you can see through special materials (such as solid lead or other substances) to an immediate distance in false color images; however, the GM might require you to succeed at an Intellect-based task first, depending on the material blocking your armor’s sensors. Enabler.

Healing Pulse (3 Intellect points): You and all targets you choose within immediate range gain the immediate benefits of using one of their recovery rolls (as long as it is not their ten-hour recovery roll) without having to spend an action, ten minutes, or one hour. Targets regain points to their Pools immediately but mark off that recovery use. PCs who have already used up their one-action, ten-minute, and one-hour recovery rolls for the day gain no benefit from this ability. NPCs targeted by this ability regain a number of health points equal to their level. Action.

Healing Touch (1 Intellect point): With a touch, you restore 1d6 points to one stat Pool of any creature. This ability is a difficulty 2 Intellect task. Each time you attempt to heal the same creature, the task is hindered by an additional step. The difficulty returns to 2 after that creature rests for ten hours. Action.

Hedge Magic (1 Intellect point): You can perform small tricks: temporarily change the color or basic appearance of a small object, cause small objects to float through the air, clean a small area, mend a broken object, prepare (but not create) food, and so on. You can’t use Hedge Magic to harm another creature or object. Action.

Heightened Skills: You are trained in two tasks of your choosing (other than attacks or defense). If you choose a task you’re already trained in, you instead become specialized in that task. You can’t choose a task you’re already specialized in. Enabler.

Hemorrhage (2+ Might points): You make a powerful and precise strike that inflicts additional damage later. On your next turn, the target of this attack takes an additional 3 points of damage (ignores Armor). The target can prevent this additional damage by making a recovery roll, using any ability that heals it, or using its action to attend to the injury. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to increase this duration by one round. Action.

Heroic Monster Bane: When you inflict damage to creatures more than twice as large or massive as you, you inflict 3 additional points of damage. Enabler.

Hidden Closet: The magic ally from your Bound Magic Creature ability can store items for you within its bound object, including extra sets of clothing, tools, food, and so on. The interior of the object is, in effect, a 10-foot (3 m) square pocket dimension that normally only the magic ally can access. Enabler.

Hidden Reserves: When you use an action to make a recovery roll, you also gain +1 to both your Might Edge and your Speed Edge for ten minutes thereafter. Enabler.

Higher Mathematics: You are trained in standard and higher mathematics. Enabler.

Hold Breath: You can hold your breath for up to five minutes. Enabler.

Horde Fighting: When two or more foes attack you at once in melee, you can use them against each other. You gain an asset to Speed defense rolls or attack rolls (your choice each round) against them. Enabler.

Horde Tactics (7 Might points): For up to one hour a day, you and at least three other allies can act like a single creature. Use your stats, but add +8 to your Might Pool, +1 to your Might Edge, +2 to your Speed Pool, +1 to your Speed Edge, and +1 to your Armor. Enabler.

Hover (2 Intellect points): You float slowly into the air. If you concentrate, you can control your movement to remain motionless in the air or float up to a short distance as your action; otherwise, you drift with the wind or with any momentum you have gained. This effect lasts for up to ten minutes. Action to initiate.

How Others Think: You have a sense of how people think. You’re trained in one of the following tasks: persuasion, deception, or detecting falsehoods. Enabler.

Huge: When you use Enlarge, you can choose to grow up to 16 feet (5 m) in height. When you do, you add +1 to Armor (a total of +2 to Armor) and deal 2 additional points of damage with melee attacks. Enabler.

Hunter’s Drive (5 Intellect points): Through force of will, when you wish it, you grant yourself greater prowess in the hunt for ten minutes. During this time, you gain an asset to all tasks involving your quarry, including attacks. Your quarry is the creature you selected with your Quarry ability. Enabler.

Hurl Flame (2 Intellect points): While your Shroud of Flame is active, you can reach into your halo and hurl a handful of fire at a target. This is a ranged attack with short range that deals 4 points of fire damage. Action.

Abilities—I #

Ice Armor (1 Intellect point): When you wish it, your body is covered in a sheen of ice for ten minutes that gives you +1 to Armor. While the sheen is active, you feel no discomfort from normal cold temperatures and have an additional +2 to Armor versus cold damage specifically. Enabler.

Ice Creation (4+ Intellect points): You create a solid object of ice that is your size or smaller. The object is crude and can have no moving parts, so you can make a sword, a shield, a short ladder, and so on. Your ice objects are as strong as iron, but if you’re not in constant contact with them, they function for only 1d6 + 6 rounds before breaking or melting. For example, you can make and wield an ice sword, but if you give it to another PC, the sword won’t last as long for that character. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to create objects larger than you. For each level of Effort used in this way, you can create an object up to twice again as large as you. Action.

Ice Storm: You attempt an additional Intellect task as part of your Cold Burst attack, and if successful, you blind foes for up to one minute with a layer of freezing ice. All tasks of blinded creatures are hindered by two steps. Enabler.

Ignition (4 Intellect points): You designate a creature or flammable object you can see within short range to catch fire. This is an Intellect attack. The target takes 6 points of ambient damage per round until the flames are extinguished, which a creature can do by dousing itself in water, rolling on the ground, or smothering the flames. Usually, putting out the flames takes an action. Action to initiate.

Ignore Affliction (5 Might points): If you are affected by an unwanted condition or affliction (such as disease, paralysis, mind control, broken limb, and so on, but not damage), you can ignore it and act as if it does not affect you for one hour. If the condition would normally last less than an hour, it is entirely negated. Action.

Ignore the Pain: You ignore the impaired condition and treat the debilitated condition as impaired. Enabler.

Illuminating Touch (1 Intellect point): You touch an object, and that object sheds light to illuminate everything in short range. The light remains until you use an action to touch the object again, or until you’ve illuminated more objects than you have tiers, in which case the oldest objects you illuminated go dark first. Action.

Illusory Disguise (2+ Intellect points): You appear to be someone or something else, roughly of your size and shape, for up to one hour. Once created, the disguise requires no concentration. For each additional Intellect point you spend, you can disguise one other creature. All disguised creatures must stay within sight of you or lose their disguise. Action to create.

Illusory Duplicate (2 Intellect points): You create a single image of yourself within immediate range. The image looks like you as you are now (including how you are dressed). The image can move (for example, you could make it walk or attack), but it can’t move more than an immediate distance from where you created it. The illusion includes sound and smell. It lasts for ten minutes and changes as you direct (no concentration is needed). If you move beyond short range of the illusion, it vanishes. Action to create.

Illusory Evasion (5 Intellect points): When you would be hit by an attack, you teleport an immediate distance away, leaving behind an illusory copy of yourself to be struck by that attack instead of you. This destroys the illusion but leaves you unharmed by the attack. If the attack affects an area and the teleportation can’t get you out of that area, the attack still affects you normally. Enabler.

Illusory Selves (4 Intellect points): You create four holographic duplicates of yourself within short range. The duplicates last for one minute. You mentally direct their actions, and the duplicates aren’t mirror images—each one can do different things. If struck violently, they either disappear permanently or freeze motionless (your choice). Action to create.

Immovable: You gain +3 to your Might Pool. You can attempt a Might task to avoid being knocked down, pushed back, or moved against your will even if the effect attempting to move you doesn’t allow it. If you apply Effort to this task, you can apply two free levels of Effort. Enabler.

Impart Ideal (3 Intellect points): After interacting for at least one minute with a creature who can hear and understand you, you can attempt to temporarily impart an ideal to it that you could not otherwise convince it to adopt. An ideal is different than a specific suggestion or command; an ideal is an overarching value such as “All life is sacred,” “My political party is the best,” “Children should be seen, not heard,” and so on. An ideal influences a creature’s behavior but doesn’t control it. The imparted ideal lasts as long as befits the situation, but usually at least a few hours. The ideal is jeopardized if someone friendly to the creature spends a minute or more bringing it back to its senses. Action.

Impart Understanding: Your Learning the Path ability works more effectively, allowing you to ease a task by two steps or to provide two assets to a friend’s task, instead of easing normally. Enabler.

Impersonate (2 Intellect points): For one hour, you alter your voice, posture, and mannerisms, whip together a disguise, and gain an asset on an attempt to impersonate someone else, whether it is a specific individual (Bob the cop) or a general role (a police officer). Action to initiate.

Impetus (2 Intellect points): A loose object within short range that you could carry in one hand is drawn to your free hand. If the object is stuck or held by another creature, you must succeed on a Might roll to rip it free, or the object remains where it is. Action.

Impossible Walk (5+ Speed points): You can walk (or crawl or run) on steep inclines and horizontal surfaces (such as walls and cliffs) for the next minute as if they were flat ground. When using this ability, “down” for you is either the surface you are walking on or the normal orientation of gravity (your choice). If you apply one level of Effort, you can also walk on the ceiling or on a liquid or semi-liquid surface such as water, mud, quicksand, or even lava (although touching a dangerous surface like lava still harms you). If you apply two levels of Effort, you can also walk on air as if it were solid ground. Enabler.

Impressive Display (2 Might points): You perform a feat of strength, speed, or combat, impressing those nearby. For the next minute you gain an asset on all interaction tasks with people who saw you use this ability. Action.

Improved Absorb Kinetic Energy: When you use Absorb Kinetic Energy, instead of being able to absorb 1 point of damage from a physical attack or impact, you can absorb 2 points. You can also store up to 2 points of energy from any source. However, you can still release energy only 1 point at a time. Enabler.

Improved Apportation (6 Intellect points): You call a creature of up to level 3, which appears next to you. You can choose a creature that you’ve previously encountered, or (no more than once per day) you can allow the GM to determine the creature randomly. If you call a random creature, it has a 10 percent chance of being a creature of up to level 5. The creature has no memory of anything before being called by you, though it can speak and has the general knowledge a creature of its type should possess. The creature is receptive to communication and helping you (unless shown that it should do otherwise). Action.

Improved Command Spirit: When you use your Command Spirit ability, you can command a spirit or animate undead creature of up to level 7.
Enabler.

Improved Companion: Your companion (such as a controlled beast) or follower increases to level 4. As a level 4 creature, it has a target number of 12 and 12 health, and it inflicts 4 points of damage (though in most cases, instead of attacking, it provides an asset to your attacks). You can gain this ability once per tier. Each additional time you select it, it increases your companion or follower’s level by 1. Enabler.

Improved Copying: You can use Copy Power to copy more powerful abilities. In addition to the normal options for using Effort with Copy Power, if you apply one level of Effort, the GM chooses a mid-tier ability that most closely resembles that power (instead of a low-tier ability). Enabler.

When you use Improved Copying, a copied ability must be low, medium, or high tier according to how it is listed in the ability categories. It doesn’t matter if a type or focus makes it available at a lower or higher tier.

Improved Designation: When you use Designation, you can designate one additional creature to be innocent or guilty, which means up to two creatures at a time may be innocent, or two guilty, or one innocent and one guilty. Enabler.

Improved Edge: Choose one of your Edge stats that is 0. It increases to 1. Enabler.

Improved Gravity Cleave (9 Intellect points): You can harm a group of targets within long range by rapidly increasing gravity’s pull on one portion of each target and decreasing it on another, inflicting 6 points of damage. The targets must be within immediate range of each other. Action.

Improved Machine Companion: The machine from your Machine Companion ability improves, becoming a level 5 creature with the ability either to fly a long distance each round (and carry you) for up to ten minutes at a time, or to carry an extra cypher for you that doesn’t count against your cypher limit. Enabler.

Improved Monster Bane: When you inflict damage to creatures more than twice as large or massive as you, you inflict 3 additional points of damage. Enabler.

Improved Object Bond (5 Intellect points): When you manifest the ally from your Bound Magic Creature ability, it is now a level 4 creature. Also, the creature gains a pulse attack that renders all artifacts, machines, manifest cyphers, and lesser magic devices within short range inoperable for one minute. After the creature uses this ability, it must retreat to its object to rest for three hours. Enabler.

Improved Recovery: Your ten-minute recovery roll takes only one action instead, so that your first two recovery rolls are one action, the third is one hour, and the fourth is ten hours. Enabler.

Improved Sculpt Light (7+ Intellect points): You create an object of solid light in any shape you can imagine whose base size can fit within a 10-foot (3 m) cube. The object appears in an area adjacent to you or floating freely in space up to a long distance away, and the object lasts for a few days. The object is crude and can have no moving parts, so you can make a wall segment, a block, a box, stairs, and so on. The sculpted object has the approximate mass of the real object and is level 6. If you apply Effort to increase the size of the object, each level applied increases the size by an additional 10-foot (3 m) cube. Action.

Improved Sensor (2 Intellect points): When you use Sensor, you can place the sensor anywhere you choose within long range. Enabler.

Improved Success: When you roll a 17 or higher on an attack roll that deals damage, you deal 1 additional point of damage. For instance, if you roll a natural 18, which normally deals 2 extra points of damage, you instead deal 3 extra points. If you roll a natural 20 and choose to deal damage instead of achieve a special major effect, you deal 5 extra points of damage. Enabler.

Improvise (3 Intellect points): When you perform a task in which you are not trained, you can improvise to gain an asset on the task. The asset might be a tool you cobble together, a sudden insight into overcoming a problem, or a rush of dumb luck. Enabler. (Improvise can be used on a task a character has an inability in, but instead of gaining an asset, the character just loses the inability penalty.)

In Harm’s Way (3 Intellect points): When you put your friends before yourself as your action, you ease all defense tasks for all characters you choose that are adjacent to you. This lasts until the end of your next turn. If one of your friends would be damaged, you can choose to take up to half the number of points of damage they would otherwise take, but only if you’re not already impaired or debilitated. Enabler.

Incomparable Pilot: While on a starcraft you own or have a direct connection with, your Might Edge, Speed Edge, and Intellect Edge increase by 1. When you make a recovery roll on a starcraft you’re familiar with, you recover 5 additional points. Enabler.

Increased Effects: You treat rolls of natural 19 as rolls of natural 20 for either Might actions or Speed actions (your choice when you gain this ability). This allows you to gain a major effect on a natural 19 or 20. Enabler.

Increasing Determination: If you fail at a noncombat physical task (pushing open a door or climbing a cliff, for example) and then retry the task, the task is eased. If you fail again, you gain no special benefits. Enabler.

Incredible Feat of Science (12 Intellect points): You do something amazing in the lab. This takes parts and materials equivalent to three expensive items. Possible incredible feats include:

• Reanimate and command a dead body for one hour.
• Create an engine that runs on perpetual motion.
• Create a teleportation gate that remains open for one minute.
• Transmute one substance into another substance.
• Cure one person with an incurable disease or condition.
• Create a weapon designed to hurt something that can’t otherwise be hurt.
• Create a defense designed to protect against something that can’t otherwise be stopped.
• Action to initiate; a full day of work to complete.

Incredible Health: Thanks to a dip in a magical pool, an injection of artificial antibodies and immune defense nanobots into your bloodstream, exposure to strange radiation, or something else, you are now immune to diseases, viruses, and mutations of any kind. Enabler.

Incredible Recovery (6 Might points): You move up one step on the damage track or shake off any unwanted ongoing condition. Action.

Incredible Running Speed: You move much farther than normal in a round. This means as a part of another action, you can move up to a long distance. As an action, you can move up to 200 feet (60 m), or up to 500 feet (150 m) as a Speed-based task with a difficulty of 4. Enabler.

Infer Thoughts (4 Intellect points): If you interact with or study a target for at least a round, you can attempt to read its surface thoughts, even if the subject doesn’t want you to. You must be able to see the target. Once you have gained a sense of what it’s thinking—through its body language, its speech, and what it does and doesn’t say—you can continue to infer the target’s surface thoughts for up to one minute as long as you can still see and hear the target. Action to prepare; action to initiate.

Inferno Trail (6 Intellect points): For the next minute, you leave a trail of flame in your wake. The trail matches your path and lasts for up to a minute, creating a wall of flame about 6 feet (2 m) high that inflicts 5 points of damage to any creature that passes through it, potentially catching them on fire for an additional 1 point of damage each round (if they are flammable) until they spend a round putting out the fire. Action.

Infiltrator: You are trained in interactions involving lies or trickery. Enabler.

Influence Swarm (1 Intellect point): You master one type of small creature (such as insects, rats, bats, or even birds) and they respond to you in number. Your creatures within short range will not harm you or those you designate as allies for one hour. Action to initiate.

Information Gathering (5 Intellect points): You speak telepathically with any or all machines within 1 mile (1.5 km). You can ask one basic question about themselves or anything happening near them and receive a simple answer. For example, while in an area with many machines, you could ask about the location of a specific creature or individual, and if they are within a mile of you, one or more machines will probably provide the answer. Action.

Informer: You gain an informer within an allied community. They act as your secret (or known) informer. If something of note happens in your informer’s location, they will use whatever means they have available to tell you about it. Enabler.

Infuse Spirit: When you kill a creature or destroy a spirit with an attack, if you choose, its spirit (if unprotected) immediately infuses you, and you regain 1d6 points to one of your Pools (your choice). The spirit is stored within you, which means it cannot be questioned, raised, or restored to life by any means unless you allow it. Enabler.

Inhabit Crystal (4 Intellect points): You transfer your body and whatever you are carrying into a crystal at least the size of your index finger. While in the crystal, you are aware of what is going on around it, seeing and hearing through the crystal. You can even speak through the crystal and carry on conversations. You cannot take actions other than to exit the crystal. You remain within as long as you wish, but you are not in stasis and should exit to eat, drink, sleep, and so on as normal (breathing is not an issue). If the crystal is destroyed or takes major damage while you are within it, you immediately exit, cannot act for three rounds, and move two steps down the damage track. Action to enter and exit. (A character should specify where they place the crystal for the Inhabit Crystal ability before using it, even if it’s just on the ground at their feet.)

Innate Power: Choose either your Might Pool or your Speed Pool. When spending points to activate your focus abilities, you can spend points from this Pool instead of your Intellect Pool (in which case you use your Might Edge or Speed Edge instead of your Intellect Edge, as appropriate). Enabler

Inner Defense: Life’s trials have toughened you and made you hard to read. You are trained in any task to resist another creature’s attempt to discern your true feelings, beliefs, or plans. You are likewise trained in resisting torture, telepathic intrusion, and mind control. Enabler.

Innovator: You can modify any artifact to give it different or better abilities as if that artifact were one level lower than normal, and the modification takes half the normal time. Enabler.

Insect Eruption (6 Intellect points): You call a swarm of insects in a place where it is possible for insects to appear. They remain for one minute, and during this time, they do as you command while they are within long range. They can swarm about and hinder any or all creatures’ tasks, or you can focus the swarm and attack all targets within immediate range of each other (all within long range of you). The attacking swarm inflicts 2 points of damage per round. You can also command the swarm to move heavy objects through collective effort, eat through wooden walls, and perform other actions suitable for a supernatural swarm. Action to initiate.

Insight: You are trained in tasks to discern others’ motives and to ascertain their general nature. You have a knack for sensing whether or not someone is truly innocent. Enabler.

Inspiration (6 Intellect points): You speak words of encouragement and inspiration. All allies within short range who can hear you immediately gain a recovery roll, gain an immediate free action, and have an asset for that free action. The recovery roll does not count as one of their normal recovery rolls. Action.

Inspire Action (4 Intellect points): If one ally can see and easily understand you, you can instruct that ally to take an action. If the ally chooses to take that exact action, they can do so as an additional action immediately. Doing so doesn’t interfere with the ally taking a normal action on their turn. Action.

Inspire Aggression (2 Intellect points): Your words twist the mind of a character within short range who is able to understand you, unlocking their more primitive instincts. As a result, they gain an asset on their Might-based attack rolls for one minute. Action to initiate.

Inspire Coordinated Actions (9 Intellect points): If your allies can see and easily understand you, you can instruct each of them to take one specific action (the same action for all of them). If any of them choose to take that exact action, they can do so as an additional action immediately. This doesn’t interfere with them taking their normal actions on their turns. Action.

Inspire the Innocent (3 Intellect points): You speak words of encouragement and inspiration to everyone within immediate range whom you have designated as innocent with your Designation ability. They immediately gain a free recovery roll. One person you choose can gain an immediate free action instead of a free recovery roll. If you also have the Inspiration ability, the target who gains a free action also gains an asset on it. Action.

Inspiring Ease: Through stories, songs, art, or other forms of entertainment, you inspire your friends. After spending 24 hours with you, once per day each of your friends can ease a task. This benefit is ongoing while you remain in the friend’s company. It ends if you leave, but it resumes if you return to the friend’s company within 24 hours. If you leave the friend’s company for more than 24 hours, you must spend another 24 hours together to reactivate the benefit. Enabler.

Inspiring Success (6 Intellect points): When you succeed on a roll to perform a task related to the stat that you choose upon selecting this ability, and you applied at least one level of Effort, you may choose another character within short range. That character has an asset on the next task they attempt using that stat on their next turn. Enabler.

Intelligent Interface (3 Intellect points): You can speak telepathically with any intelligent machine within long range. Further, you are trained in all interactions with intelligent machines. Such machines and robots that normally would never communicate with a human might talk to you. Enabler.

Intense Interaction (3 Intellect points): You gain an asset on intimidating, persuading, and influencing people for ten minutes. Action.

Interaction Skills: You are trained in two skills in which you are not already trained. Choose two of the following: deceiving, persuading, public speaking, seeing through deception, or intimidation. You can select this ability multiple times. Each time you select it, you must choose two different skills. Enabler.

Interface: By directly plugging into a device, you can identify and learn to operate it as though the task were one level lower. Enabler.

Interruption (4 Intellect points): Your vociferous, booming command prevents a creature within short range from taking any action for one round. It can defend itself if attacked, but when it does so, its defense is hindered by two steps. Each additional time you attempt this ability against the same target, you must apply one more level of Effort than you applied on the previous attempt. Action.

Inventor: You can create new artifacts in half the time, as if they were two levels lower, by spending half the normal XP. Enabler.

Investigate: You are trained in perception, cryptography, deceiving, and breaking into computers. Enabler.

Investigative Skills: You are trained in two skills in which you are not already trained. Choose two of the following: perception, identifying, lockpicking, assessing danger, or tinkering with devices. You can select this ability multiple times. Each time you select it, you must choose two different skills. Enabler.

Investigator: To really shine as an investigator, you must engage your mind and body in your deductions. You can spend points from your Might Pool, Speed Pool, or Intellect Pool to apply levels of Effort to any Intellect-based task. Enabler.

Invisibility (4 Intellect points): You become 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, 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 hide your position. If you have another ability that also confers invisibility, using either one allows you to remain invisible for twice as long as the duration specified. Action to initiate or reinitiate.

Invisible Phasing (4 Might points): You become invisible while using Phase Sprint and during the following round. While invisible, stealth is eased by two steps and Speed defense is eased by two steps (this replaces the asset to Speed defense tasks provided by Phase Sprint). The first attack you make using any Shreds the Walls of the World attack abilities is also eased by two steps; however, if you attack a creature, Invisible Phasing ends immediately instead of lasting for one additional round. If you have the Invisibility ability, you can remain invisible during the entire round, which means that if you use Scratch Existence or Shred Existence, attacking each target along your path is eased by two steps. Enabler.

Iron Fist: Your unarmed attacks deal 4 points of damage. Enabler.

Iron Punch (5+ Intellect points): You magnetically pick up a metallic heavy object within short range and hurl it at someone within short range, an Intellect action that deals 6 points of damage to the target and to the hurled object. For each additional level of Effort applied, you can pick up a slightly larger object, allowing you to affect one additional target within short range as long as it is next to the prior target. Action.

Abilities—J #

Jaunt (5+ Intellect points): You instantaneously teleport yourself to any location within long distance that you can see. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to increase the distance you can travel; each level of Effort used in this way increases the range by another 100 feet (30 m). Action.

Juggernaut (5 Might points): Until the end of the next round, you can move through solid objects such as doors and walls. Only 2 feet (60 cm) of wood, 1 foot (30 cm) of stone, or 6 inches (15 cm) of metal can stop your movement. Enabler.

Jump Attack (5+ Might points): You attempt a difficulty 4 Might roll to jump high into the air as part of your melee attack action. If you succeed at the jump and your attack hits, you inflict 3 additional points of damage and knock the foe prone. If you fail at the jump, you still make your normal attack roll, but you don’t inflict the extra damage or knock down the opponent if you hit. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to enhance your jump; each level of Effort used in this way adds +2 feet to the height and +1 damage to the attack. Action.

Junkmonger (2 Intellect points): You are trained in crafting two kinds of items using scavenged junk. If you have scavenged (or otherwise obtained) at least two pieces of junk in different categories (electronic, plastic, dangerous, metallic, glass, or textile), you have the materials you need to craft a new item in one of your areas of training (unless the GM deems otherwise). Enabler.

Jury-Rig (5 Intellect points): You quickly create an object using what would seem to be entirely inappropriate materials. You can make a bomb out of a tin can and household cleaners, a lockpick out of aluminum foil, or a sword out of broken furniture. The level of the item determines the difficulty of the task, but the appropriateness of the materials eases or hinders it as well. Generally, the object can be no larger than something you can hold in one hand, and it functions once (or, in the case of a weapon or similar item, is essentially useful for one encounter). If you spend at least ten minutes on the task, you can create an item of level 5 or lower. You can’t change the nature of the materials involved. For example, you can’t take iron rods and make a pile of gold coins or a wicker basket. Action.

Just a Bit Mad: You are trained in Intellect defense tasks. Enabler.

Abilities—K #

Knock Out (5+ Might points): You make a melee attack that inflicts no damage. Instead, if the attack hits, make a second Might-based roll. If successful, a foe of level 3 or lower is knocked unconscious for one minute. For each level of Effort used, you can affect one higher level of foe, or you can extend the duration for an additional minute. Action.

Know Their Faults: If a creature that you can see has a special weakness, such as a vulnerability to loud noises, a negative modification to perception, and so on, you know what it is. Ask and the GM will tell you; usually, this is not associated with a roll, but in certain cases the GM may decide that there is a chance for you not to know. In these cases, you are specialized in knowing creature weaknesses. Enabler.

Know Where to Look: Whenever the GM obtains a result for you on the Useful Stuff table, you get two results instead of one. If the GM is using some other method to generate rewards for finding valuables, you should gain double the result you would otherwise obtain. Enabler.

Knowing: You are trained in one area of knowledge of your choice. Enabler.

Knowing the Unknown (6 Intellect points): By accessing the resources appropriate to your character, you can 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. Action.

Knowledge of the Law: You’re trained in the law of the land. If you don’t know the answer to a question of law, you know where and how to research it (a university’s law library is a good place to start, but you’ve also got online sources). Enabler.

Knowledge Is Power: Choose two noncombat skills in which you are not trained. You are trained in those skills. Enabler.

Knowledge Skills: You are trained in two skills in which you are not already trained. Choose two areas of knowledge such as history, geography, archeology, and so on. You can select this ability multiple times. Each time you select it, you must choose two different skills. Enabler.

Abilities—L #

Lab Analysis (3 Intellect points): You analyze the scene of a crime, the site of a mysterious incident, or a series of unexplained phenomena, and maybe learn a surprising amount of information about the perpetrators, the participants, or the force(s) responsible. To do so, you must collect samples from the scene. Samples are paint or wood scrapings, dirt, photographs of the area, hair, an entire corpse, and so on. With samples in hand, you can discover up to three pertinent pieces of information about the scene, possibly clearing up a lesser mystery and pointing the way to solving a greater one. The GM will decide what you learn and what level of difficulty is needed to learn it. (For comparison, discovering that a victim was killed not by a fall, as seems immediately obvious, but rather by electrocution, is a difficulty 3 task for you.) The task is eased if you take the time to transport the samples to a permanent lab (if you have access to one), as opposed to conducting the analysis with your field science kit. Action to initiate, 2d20 minutes to complete.

Late Inspiration (3 Intellect points): You retry a task you failed within the past one minute, using the same difficulty and modifiers, except this time you have an asset on the task. If this retry fails, you can’t use this ability to retry it again. Enabler.

Lead by Inquiry: You keep your allies on their toes with occasional questions, jokes, and even mock drills for those who care to join in. After spending 24 hours with you, your allies are treated as if trained in tasks related to perception. This benefit is ongoing while you remain in your allies’ company. It ends if you leave, but it resumes if you return to the allies’ company within 24 hours. If you leave the allies’ company for more than 24 hours, you must spend another 24 hours together to reactivate the benefit. Enabler.

Lead From the Front: You gain 3 new points to divide among your stat Pools however you wish. Enabler.

Learned a Few Things: You are trained in two areas of knowledge of your choice, or specialized in one area of knowledge of your choice. Enabler.

Learning the Path (2 Intellect points): You observe or study a creature, object, or location for at least one round. The next time you interact with it (possibly in the following round), a related task (such as persuading the creature, attacking it, or defending from its attack) is eased. Action.

Legal Intern: You gain a level 4 follower who is mostly interested in helping with your law-related tasks, but who might also help you in other areas. Enabler.

Legerdemain (1 Speed point): You can perform small but seemingly impossible tricks. For example, you can make a small object in your hands disappear and move into a desired spot within reach (like your pocket). You can make someone believe that they have something in their possession that they do not have (or vice versa). You can switch similar objects right in front of someone’s eyes. Action.

Lend Animal Shape (6+ Intellect points): You change into an animal, and one willing creature within immediate range also transforms into an animal of that type (bear, tiger, wolf, and so on) for ten minutes, as if they were using your Animal Shape ability. For each level of Effort applied, you can affect one additional creature. All creatures transforming with you must be your size or smaller. A creature can revert to its normal form as an action, but it cannot then change back into the animal form. One creature (whether you or someone else) changing form does not affect any other creature affected with this ability. Action.

A creature that takes animal form with Lend Animal Shape counts as an animal for the use of Animal Scrying.

A character might be able to take the shape of a creature that is similar to a common animal, such as a unicorn instead of a horse or a basilisk instead of a lizard, but doing so should require applying at least one level of Effort to the change, and the character wouldn’t gain any of the creature’s magical abilities.

Lethal Damage: Choose one of your existing attacks that inflicts points of damage (depending on your type and focus, this might be a specific weapon, a special ability such as a blast of fire, or your unarmed attacks). When you hit with that attack, you inflict an additional 5 points of damage. Enabler.

Lethal Ploy (5+ Intellect points): Long experience has revealed to you that subterfuge is your friend in desperate situations. You push, attack, or distract the target in some seemingly inconsequential way that leads to the target’s death. The target must be level 2 or lower. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to increase the maximum level of the target by 1. Thus, to kill a level 5 target (three levels above the normal limit), you must apply three levels of Effort. Action.

Lethal Vibration (7 Might points): You set up a lethal vibration in your own body and pass it to a creature you touch with a successful attack. If the target is level 2 or lower, it dies, exploding in a peal of thunder. If the target is level 3 or higher, it sustains 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 explodes and a target of level 4 or higher takes damage and is stunned, and so on). Action.

Levity: Through wit, charm, humor, and grace, you are trained in all social interactions other than those involving coercion or intimidation. During rests, you put friends and comrades at ease so much that they gain +1 to their recovery rolls. Enabler.

Life Lessons: Choose any two noncombat skills. You are trained in those skills. Enabler.

Like the Back of Your Hand: All tasks directly related to a starcraft that you own or have a direct connection with are eased. Tasks include repair, refueling, finding a breach in the hull, finding a stowaway, and so on. The same goes for any attack or defense rolls you make within the starcraft against enemy boarders, as well as any attack or defense rolls you make with the ship against enemy ships. Enabler.

Link Senses (2 Intellect points): You touch a willing creature and link its senses to yours for one minute. At any time during that duration, you can concentrate to see, hear, and smell what that creature is experiencing, instead of using your own senses. If you or the creature move out of long range, the connection is broken. Action to initiate.

Living Armor (4 Intellect points): If you’re in a location where it’s possible for your creatures from Influence Swarm to come, you call a swarm around you for one hour. They crawl over your body or fly around you in a cloud. During this time, your Speed defense tasks are eased, and you gain +1 to Armor. Action to initiate.

Living Light (6+ Intellect points): Your body dissolves into a cloud of photons that instantly travel to a location you choose and then reform. You can choose any open space big enough to contain you that you can see within very long range, or any place you have lit by Illuminating Touch that is still shining. You disappear and almost instantly reappear in the space you chose. It takes until the end of the round for your body to become fully solid, so until the start of the next round, you take a maximum of 1 point of damage from any given attack or source of damage. Each level of Effort you apply allows you to bring along one additional person besides yourself, as long as they are within immediate range when you depart. Action.

Living Off the Land: Given an hour or so, you can always find edible food and potable water in the wilderness. You can even find enough for a small group of people, if need be. Further, since you’re so hardy and have gained resistance over time, you are trained in resisting the effects of natural poisons (such as those from plants or living creatures). You’re also immune to natural diseases. Enabler.

Living Wall (3 Might points): You specify a confined area—such as an open doorway, a hallway, or a space between two trees—where you stand. For the next ten minutes, if anyone attempts to enter or pass through that area and you don’t wish it, you make an automatic attack against them. If you hit, not only do you inflict damage, but they must also stop their movement. Enabler.

Lock (2+ Intellect points): A door, gate, chest, drawer, locket, or other object that can be closed within long range snaps shut and is magically locked (level 3 effect) for one hour. If an object or creature is physically holding the target object open, you must also succeed on an
Intellect-based attack. For each level of Effort you apply, the quality of the magical lock increases by one level. Action to initiate.

Lost in the Chaos: When faced with several foes at once, you have developed tactics for using their numbers against them. When two or more foes attack you at once in melee, you play one off the other. Speed defense rolls or attack rolls (your choice) against them are eased. Enabler.

Lunge (2 Might points): This ability requires you to extend yourself for a powerful stab or smash. The awkward lunge hinders the attack roll. If your attack is successful, it inflicts 4 additional points of damage. Action.

Abilities—M #

Machine Affinity: You are trained in tasks involving electrical machines. Enabler.

Machine Bond: From very long range, you can activate and control a device (including a robot or vehicle) that you have bonded with. For example, you can detonate a manifest cypher even when it is held by someone else, or cause an automated turret to fire where you direct. Bonding is a process that requires 24 hours of meditation in the presence of the machine. Action.

Machine Companion: You create a level 3 animate, intelligent machine that accompanies you and acts as you direct. As a level 3 machine companion, it has a target number of 9 and 9 health, and it inflicts 3 points of damage. If it’s destroyed, it takes you one month to create a new one. Enabler.

Machine Efficiency (3 Intellect points): You can make a blaster shoot farther, coax more speed from a skycycle, improve the clarity of a camera, jury-rig a light to be brighter, speed up a network connection, and so on. You increase an object’s level by 2 for one minute, or you treat the object as an asset that eases an associated task by two steps for one minute (your choice). Action to initiate.

Machine Enhancement: Any time you use Effort on an Intellect action, add one of the following enhancements to the action (your choice):

• Free level of Effort
• Automatic minor effect

Enabler.

Machine Hunting: You are trained in tasks associated with tracking, spotting, or otherwise finding robots and animate machines. You are also trained in all stealth tasks. Enabler.

Machine Interface (2 Intellect points): For one minute you gain an asset on tasks to discern the level, function, and activation of technological devices that you touch. Enabler.

Machine Telepathy (3 Intellect points): You can read the surface thoughts of a machine within short range, even if the machine doesn’t want you to. You must be able to see the machine. Once you have established contact, you can read the target’s thoughts for up to one minute. If you or the target move out of range, the connection is broken. If you have the Mind Reading ability, when you apply Effort to Machine Telepathy, you gain a free level of Effort. Action to initiate.

Machine Vulnerabilities: You inflict 3 additional points of damage against robots and animate machines of all kinds. Enabler.

Magic Shield (1 Intellect point): You gain +1 to Armor for an hour. Action to initiate.

Magic Training: You are trained in the basics of magic (including the operation of magic artifacts and cyphers) and can attempt to understand and identify its properties. Enabler.

Magical Repertoire: The number of subtle cyphers you can bear at the same time increases by two. If you spend one hour preparing your magic, you can fill any of your open cypher slots with subtle cyphers chosen randomly by the GM (this hour can be part of a one-hour or ten-hour recovery action if you are awake for the entire time). As part of this preparation process, you may discard any number of subtle cyphers you carry to make room for more subtle cyphers. Enabler.

If a character has Magical Repertoire, the GM should give the PC frequent opportunities to gain new subtle cyphers, whether from preparation or by gaining them automatically as explained in the Cyphers chapter

Magical Training: You are trained in all of your spells. As a result, you ease any task involved in the use of your spells. Enabler.

Magnetic Field (4 Intellect points): When you wish it, a field of magnetism around you pulls incoming, ranged, metallic projectile attacks (such as arrows, bullets, a thrown metal knife, and so on) to the ground. You are immune to such attacks for one round. You must be aware of an attack to foil it. Enabler.

Magnificent Moment: If you make an attack or attempt a task with the immediate action you gain by using Seize the Moment, the attack or task is eased. Enabler.

Major Illusion (3 Intellect points): You create a complex scene of images within immediate range. The entire scene must fit within a
100-foot (30 m) cube. The images can move, but they can’t leave the area defined by the cube. The illusion includes sound and smell. It lasts for ten minutes and changes as you direct (no concentration is needed). If you move beyond immediate range of the cube, the illusion vanishes. Action to create.

Make Judgment: You are trained in discerning the truth of a situation, seeing through lies, or otherwise overcoming deception. Enabler.

Maneuvering Adept: If you apply at least one level of Effort to a task involving climbing, jumping, balancing, or some other kind of maneuvering, you get a free level of Effort. Enabler.

Mask (5 Intellect points): You transform your body to become someone else. You can change any physical characteristic you wish, including coloration, height, weight, gender, and distinguishing markings. You can also change the appearance of whatever you are wearing or carrying. Your stats, as well as the stats of your items, do not change. You remain in this form for up to a day or until you use an action to resume your normal appearance. Action to initiate.

Master Crafter: You are trained in the crafting of two kinds of items, or you are specialized in two kinds of items that you are already trained in. Enabler.

Master Cypher Use: You can bear five cyphers at a time. Enabler.

Master Entertainer: Your Inspiring Ease ability works more effectively, easing your friends’ tasks by two steps rather than one step. Enabler.

Master Identifier: You are trained in identifying the function of any kind of device. Enabler.

Master Machine (8 Intellect points): You can control the functions of a machine you have bonded with using Machine Bond, intelligent or otherwise. In addition, if you use an action to concentrate on a machine, you are aware of what is going on around it (you see and hear as if you were standing next to it, no matter how far away you are). You must touch the machine to create the bond, but afterward, there is no range limitation. This bond lasts for one week. You can bond with only one machine at a time. Action to initiate.

Master of Unarmed Fighting Style: You are specialized in unarmed attacks. If you are already specialized in unarmed attacks, you instead deal 2 additional points of damage with unarmed attacks. Enabler.

Master Thief: You are trained in climbing, escaping from bonds, slipping through narrow places, and other contortionist moves. Enabler.

Masterful Armor Modification: Choose one of the following modifications to make to the Powered Armor from your Powered Armor ability. If you choose to make a different modification later, you can do so, but you must spend 2 XP each time and substitute the updated modification for the previous modification.

• Cypher Pod. The power armor provides an insulated pod in which you can carry one additional manifest cypher beyond what your cypher limit normally allows. Enabler.
• Drone (3 Intellect points). A level 4 drone no larger than 1 foot (30 cm) on a side launches from your armor for one hour, flying up to a long distance each round. The drone accompanies you and follows your instructions. It has manipulators, allowing it to attempt to accomplish physical tasks. You’ll probably make rolls for your drone when it takes actions. A drone in combat usually doesn’t make separate attacks but helps with yours. On your action, if the drone is next to you, it serves as an asset for one attack you make on your turn. If the drone is destroyed, you must spend another 2 XP to rebuild it or choose another Masterful Armor Modification. Action to initiate.
• Improved Field Reinforcement. You gain +1 to Armor while wearing your power armor. Enabler.
• Jet-Assisted Flight (3+ Might points). You modify your power armor to allow you to blast off the ground and fly for one minute at a time. For each level of Effort applied, you can increase the duration by an additional minute. Action.

Mastery in Armor: The cost reduction from your Practiced in Armor ability improves. You now reduce the Speed Effort cost for wearing armor to 0. Enabler.

Mastery With Attacks: Choose one type of attack in which you are trained: light bashing, light bladed, light ranged, medium bashing, medium bladed, medium ranged, heavy bashing, heavy bladed, or heavy ranged. You are specialized in attacks using that type of weapon. Enabler. (If you aren’t trained in an attack, select Skill With Attacks to become trained in that attack.)

Mastery With Defense: Choose one type of defense task in which you are trained: Might, Speed, or Intellect. You are specialized in defense tasks of that type. You can select this ability up to three times. Each time you select it, you must choose a different type of defense task. Enabler.

Matter Cloud (5 Intellect points): Pebbles, dirt, sand, and debris rise into the air around you to form a swirling cloud. The cloud extends out to immediate range, moves with you, and lasts for one minute. When it ends, all the materials fall to the ground around you. The cloud makes it harder for other creatures to attack you, giving you an asset on Speed defense rolls. 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, dealing 1 point of damage to each creature and object in the area. Action to initiate.

Maximize Cypher: Choose one subtle cypher you bear. Its level becomes the maximum level possible for that cypher. For example, a meditation aid has a level range of 1d6 + 2, so maximizing that cypher changes its level to 8. You can have only one maximized subtle cypher at a time. You can’t use this ability again until after you’ve taken a ten-hour recovery action. Enabler.

Mechanical Telepathy (3 Intellect points): By touching a thinking machine, you gain access to its surface “thoughts.” Action.

Medium Teleportation (5+ Intellect points): You instantly teleport yourself to any location within a long distance that you can see. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to increase your range, teleport to a location you can’t see, or bring other people with you. Each additional long distance costs one level of Effort. Teleporting to

a destination you can’t see costs one level of Effort. Each additional one or two targets brought with you costs one level of Effort (you must touch any additional targets). These levels of Effort are counted separately, so teleporting an additional long distance away to a location you can’t see with two passengers costs a total of three levels of Effort. Action.

If you already have Short Teleportation when you select Medium Teleportation or Teleportation, you may replace Short Teleportation with another tier 4 type ability.

Memory Becomes Action (4+ Intellect points): You can duplicate a one-action character ability, performing it as if it were natural for you. You must have seen the ability used within the past week, it must be third tier or lower, and it must be an ability with a point cost. In addition to the point cost of Memory Becomes Action, you must pay the Might, Speed, or Intellect cost of the ability you are copying. For example, if you want to copy a friend’s Lunge attack (which normally costs 2 Might points), you’d pay 4 Intellect points to activate Memory Becomes Action and 2 Might points to use Lunge. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to copy an ability you saw longer than one week ago; each level of Effort used in this way extends the time period by one week. Enabler.

Mental Link (1+ Intellect point): You open a pathway to another creature’s mind via a light touch, which allows you to transmit thoughts and images to each other. The mental link remains regardless of distance and lasts for one hour. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to extend the duration by one hour for each level of Effort applied. Action to initiate.

Mental Projection (6+ Intellect points): Your mind fully leaves your body and manifests anywhere you choose within immediate range. Your projected mind can remain apart from your body for up to 24 hours. This effect ends early if your Intellect Pool is reduced to 0 or if your projection touches your resting body.

Your disembodied mind is a psychic construct that looks like you, though its frayed edges trail off into nothingness. You control this body as if it were your normal body and can act and move as you normally would with a few exceptions. You can move through solid objects as if you were phased, and you ignore any terrain feature that would impede your movement.

Your attacks inflict 3 fewer points of damage (to a minimum of 1) and you take 3 fewer points of damage (to a minimum of 1) from physical attacks, unless they can affect transdimensional or phased beings, in which case you take full damage. Regardless of the source, you take all damage as Intellect damage first.

Your mind can travel up to 1 mile (1.5 km) from your body. Each level of additional Effort applied extends the range that you can travel by 1 mile (1.5 km).

Your physical body is helpless until this effect ends. You cannot use your physical senses to perceive anything. For example, your body could sustain a significant injury, and you wouldn’t know it. Your body cannot take Intellect damage, so if your body takes enough damage to reduce both your Might Pool and your Speed Pool to 0, your mind snaps back to your body, and you are stunned until the end of the next round as you try to reorient yourself to your predicament. Action to initiate.

Mentally projecting characters may attract psychic entities and predators that PCs normally don’t have to deal with, run into weather psychic phenomena that risks severing their connection, and possibly even become lost on a different metaphysical plane.

Mentally Tough: Staring into the naked weave of hyperspace, warped space, or a similar effect related to faster-than-light travel is hard on the mind, but you’ve developed resistance. You’re trained in Intellect defense tasks. Enabler.

Meticulous Planner: If you spend a long time planning an action, you gain an asset on performing it. The time to study and plan for the action is ten times as long as it takes to perform the action. For example, if you want to jump across a hole in the floor (one action), you can study the area for ten rounds (about a minute), and when you attempt to jump over the hole, you have an asset on the jump. This benefit applies to only one roll—if you want to perform the task again with the benefit of an asset, you need to study and plan again. Enabler.

Microgravity Adept: You ignore all the ill effects of low gravity and no gravity on movement; you are trained in low-gravity maneuvers and
zero-gravity maneuvers. (You might still be subject to negative biological effects of long-term exposure, if any.) Enabler.

Microgravity Avoidance: By taking advantage of microgravity conditions, you gain an asset to Speed defense tasks while in zero-gravity or
low-gravity conditions. Enabler.

Mind Control (6+ Intellect points): You control the actions of another creature you touch. This effect lasts for one minute. The target must be level 2 or lower. Once 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. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to increase the maximum level of the target or increase the duration by one minute. Thus, to control the mind of a level 5 target (three levels above the normal limit) or control a target for four minutes (three minutes above the normal duration), you must apply three levels of Effort. When the duration ends, the creature doesn’t remember being controlled or anything it did while under your command. Action to initiate.

Mind for Might: When performing a task that would normally require spending points from your Intellect Pool, you can spend points from your Might Pool instead, and vice versa. Enabler.

Mind Games (3 Intellect points): You use lies and trickery, mockery, and perhaps even hateful, obscene language against a foe that can understand you. If successful, the foe is stunned for one round and cannot act, and it is dazed in the following round, during which time its tasks are hindered. Action.

Mind of a Leader (6 Intellect points): When you develop a course of action to deal with a future situation, you can ask the GM one very general question about what is likely to happen if you carry out the plan, and you will get a simple, brief answer. Action.

Mind Reading (2 Intellect points): You can read the surface thoughts of a creature within short range, even if the target doesn’t want you to. You must be able to see your target. Once you have established contact, you can read the target’s thoughts for up to one minute. If you also have the Mind Reading special ability from another source, you can use this ability at long range, and you don’t need to be able to see the target (but you do have to know that the target is within range). Action to initiate.

Mind Surge: In addition to your normal recovery rolls each day, you can—at any time between ten-hour rests—recover 1d6 + 6 points to your Intellect Pool. Action.

Minor Illusion (1 Intellect point): You create a single image of a creature or object within immediate range. The image must fit within a 10-foot (3 m)
cube. The image can move (for example, you could make the illusion of a person walk or attack), but it can’t leave the area defined by the cube. The illusion includes sound but not smell. It lasts for ten minutes, but if you want to change the original illusion significantly—such as making a creature appear to be wounded—you must concentrate on it again (though doing so doesn’t cost additional Intellect points). If you move beyond immediate range of the cube, the illusion vanishes. Action to create; action to modify.

Minor Wish: At your request, the magic ally from your Bound Magic Creature ability can use its action to cast a minor spell on you. Afterward, it must retreat to its bound object to rest for one hour. The effects it can produce include the following. Action to initiate.

Golden Anger. A golden light touches your eyes. For the next several minutes, if you attack a target, you inflict 2 additional points of damage.

Golden Ward. You gain +1 to Armor for one hour from a translucent sheen of golden light.

Light of Truth. Whenever you attempt to discern falsehood during the next hour, the task is eased by two steps.

Touch of Grace. With the magic ally’s touch, you add 3 points to any stat Pool. If you are not damaged, you add the points to your chosen Pool’s maximum. They remain until you spend them, you lose them to damage, or an hour passes.

Miraculous Health: When you would descend a step on the damage track, you can attempt a Might task to resist, with a difficulty equal to the level of the foe or effect that harmed you. If successful, you don’t descend the step and you regain 1 point in any Pool that is bereft of points. You can’t use this ability again until after your next ten-hour rest. Enabler.

Misdirect (3 Speed points): When an opponent misses you, you can redirect their attack to another target (a creature or object) of your choosing that’s within immediate range of you. Make an unmodified attack roll against the new target (do not use any of your or the opponent’s modifiers to the attack roll, but you can apply Effort for accuracy). If the attack hits, the target takes damage from your opponent’s attack. Enabler.

Misdirect Blame (2+ Intellect points): Using your clever words and knowledge of others, you can attempt to alter the narrative so that a target of up to level 3 within short range becomes uncertain of its conviction in one simple area, such as their conviction that you just stole a fruit from their stand or their belief that they’ve never met you before. This effect usually lasts only for the period of time you spend speaking, and perhaps up to a minute longer, before the target realizes its error. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to increase the target level that can be affected. Afterward, all your tasks to persuade or otherwise socially interact with the target are hindered. Action.

Mist Cloud (1+ Intellect points): You create an area of mist an immediate distance across. The cloud lingers for about a minute unless conditions (such as wind or freezing temperatures) dictate otherwise. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to increase the area (one level of Effort to fill a short area, two to fill a long area, or three to fill a very long area). Action.

Mobile Fighter (3 Speed points): As part of your attack, you can leap on or over obstacles, swing from ropes, run along narrow surfaces, or otherwise move around the battlefield at your normal speed as if such tasks were routine (difficulty 0). You can’t use this ability if your Speed Effort costs are reduced from wearing armor. Enabler.

Moderate Wish: At your request, the magic ally from your Bound Magic Creature ability can spend its action casting a moderate spell on you. Afterward, it must retreat to its bound object to rest for at least one hour. The effects it can produce include the following. Action to initiate.

• Golden Armor. You gain +3 to Armor for one hour from a translucent sheen of golden light.
• Golden Fury. A golden light blazes in your eyes. For the next three minutes, if you attack a target, you inflict 5 additional points of damage.
• Improved Touch of Grace. With the magic ally’s touch, you add 6 points to any stat Pool. If you are not damaged, you add the points to your chosen Pool’s maximum. They remain until you spend them, you lose them to damage, or an hour passes.
• Invisible. With a touch, the magic ally bends light that falls on you, so you seem to disappear. You are invisible to other creatures 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, 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. Action to initiate.

Modify Artifact Power (6 Intellect points): You permanently add +1 to the level of an artifact of up to level 5. The difficulty of this task is equal to the modified higher level of the artifact. If the task is failed, the artifact makes a depletion roll and is not advanced in level. Once modified, the artifact can’t be similarly boosted again. Action.

Modify Cyphers: You can take any two manifest cyphers and quickly jury-rig a new manifest cypher of the same level as the lowest-level cypher. You determine the function of the new cypher, but it must be that of a cypher you have used before (but not necessarily one you’ve ever built). The new cypher is a temperamental cypher, like those created with Always Tinkering. The original two cyphers are consumed in this process. This ability does not function if one or more of the original cyphers are temperamental cyphers. Action.

Modify Device (4 Intellect points): You jury-rig a piece of mechanical or electrical equipment to make it function above its rated specs for a very limited time. To do so, you must use spare parts equal to an expensive item, have a field science kit (or a permanent lab, if you have access to one), and succeed at a difficulty 3 Intellect-based task. When complete, using the device eases all tasks performed in conjunction with the device, until the device inevitably breaks. For example, you could overclock a computer so research tasks using it are easier, modify an espresso maker so that each cup of coffee made with it is better, modify a car’s engine so that it goes faster (or modify its steering so it handles better), and so on. Each use of the modified device requires a depletion roll of 1–5 on a d20. Action to initiate, one hour to complete.

Momentum: If you use an action to move, your next attack made using a melee weapon before the end of the next round inflicts 2 additional points of damage. Enabler.

Monster Bane: You inflict 1 additional point of damage with weapons. When you inflict damage to creatures more than twice as large or massive as you, you inflict 3 additional points of damage. Enabler.

Monster Lore: You are trained in the names, habits, suspected lairs, and related topics regarding the monsters of your world. You can make yourself understood in their languages (if they have one). Enabler.

Moon Shape (4+ Intellect points): You change into a monstrous natural beast, such as a wolf, bear, or other terrestrial creature, for up to one hour. If you try to change during daylight hours when you are not deep underground (or otherwise away from the daylight), you must apply a level of Effort. In your new form, you add 8 points to your Might Pool, gain +2 to your Might Edge, add 2 points to your Speed Pool, and gain +2 to your Speed Edge. Reverting to your normal form is a difficulty 2 task. While in beast form, you are prone to fits of rage (triggered by GM intrusion), during which you attack every living creature within short range, and the only way to end the rage is to revert to your normal form. Either way, after you revert to your normal form, you take a –1 penalty to all rolls for one hour. If you did not kill and eat at least one substantial creature while in beast form, the penalty increases to –2 and affects all your rolls for the next day. Action to change; action to revert.

Mount: A level 3 creature serves you as a mount and follows your instructions. While you’re mounted on it, the creature can move and you can attack on your turn, which provides an asset to your attack. You and the GM must work out the details of the creature, and you’ll probably make rolls for it when it takes noncombat actions. The mount acts on your turn. If your mount dies, you can hunt in the wild for 3d6 days to find a new one. Enabler.

Move Metal (1 Intellect point): You can exert force on metal objects within short range for one round. 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 metal objects, push against metal objects, and so on. For example, in your round, you could lift and pull a light metal 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. Action.

Move Mountains (9 Intellect points): You exert a tremendous amount of physical force within 250 feet (75 m) of you. You can push up to 10 tons (9 t) of material up to 50 feet (15 m). This force can collapse buildings, redirect small rivers, or perform other dramatic effects. Action.

Movement Skills: You are trained in climbing and jumping. Enabler.

Moving Like Water (3 Speed points): You spin and move so that your defense and attacks are aided by your fluid motion. For one minute, all your attacks and Speed defense tasks gain an asset. Enabler.

Multiple Copying: When you use Copy Power, you can copy two of the creature’s abilities at the same time. In addition to the normal options for using Effort with Copy Power, you can apply levels of Effort to copy additional abilities, each level of Effort copying an additional ability beyond the initial two (three for one level of Effort, four for two levels, and so on). Enabler.

Multiple Quarry (6 Intellect points): This ability functions like the Quarry ability except that you can select up to three creatures as quarry. You must be able to see all three creatures when you initiate this ability. If you have Hunter’s Drive, it applies to all three creatures. Action to initiate.

Multiple Skills: You are trained in three skills of your choice in which you are not already trained. You can select this ability multiple times. Each time you select it, you must choose three different skills. Enabler.

Multiplicity (6 Might points): This ability functions as Duplicate, except you can create two duplicates. Action to initiate.

Multi-Vanish (4+ Intellect points): You turn up to five human-sized creatures or objects invisible for a short amount of time. The targets you choose must be within an immediate area and within short range of you (if you are in the area, you can make yourself invisible and don’t count toward the limit of five invisible targets). Anything invisible has an asset on stealth and Speed defense tasks. Affected creatures can see each other in a limited way, and you can see them clearly.

The invisibility ends at the end of your next turn. If one of the affected creatures does something to reveal their presence or position—attacking, using an ability, moving a large object, and so on—the invisibility ends early for that creature. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to increase the duration; each level of Effort used in this way increases the duration by one round (but creatures can still end it early for themselves). Action.

Murderer (8+ Speed points): With a swift and sudden attack, you strike a foe in a vital spot. If the target is level 4 or lower, it is killed outright. For each additional level of Effort you apply, you can increase the level of the target by 1. Action.

Muscles of Iron (2 Might points): For the next ten minutes, all Might-based actions other than attack rolls that you attempt are eased. If you already have this ability from another source, the effect of this ability lasts for one hour instead of ten minutes. Enabler.

Abilities—N #

Natural Charisma: You are trained in all social interactions, whether they involve charm, learning a person’s secrets, or intimidating others. Enabler.

Natural Crafter: All commonplace objects or structures you craft are effectively one level higher than an average example of that object or structure. For instance, if you craft a defensive wall that would normally be level 4, its effective level is 5. Enabler.

Necromancy (3+ Intellect points): You animate the body of a dead creature of approximately your size or smaller, creating a level 1 creature. It has none of the intelligence, memories, or special abilities that it had in life. The creature follows your verbal commands for one hour, after which it becomes an inert corpse. Unless the creature is killed by damage, you can reanimate it again when its time expires, but any damage it had when it became inert applies to its newly reanimated state. If you have access to multiple bodies, you can create an additional undead creature for each additional Intellect point you spend when you activate the ability. Action to animate.

Negate Danger (7 Intellect points): You permanently negate a source of potential danger related to one creature or object within immediate distance. This could be a weapon or device held by someone, a creature’s natural ability, or a trap triggered by a pressure plate. Action.

Negotiate (3 Intellect points): In any gathering where two or more people are trying to establish the truth or come to a decision, you can sway the verdict with masterful rhetoric. If you are given a few rounds or more to argue your point, either the decision goes your way or, if someone else effectively argues a competing point, any associated persuasion or deception task is eased by two steps. Action to initiate, one or more rounds to complete.

Network Tap (4 Intellect points): You can ask the GM one question and get a very short answer if you succeed on an Intellect roll against a difficulty assigned by the GM. The more obscure the answer, the more difficult the task. On a failed roll, feedback or perhaps some defense from the network you’re accessing inflicts 4 points of Intellect damage on you (ignores Armor). Action. (Generally, knowledge that you could find by looking somewhere other than your current location is level 1, while obscure knowledge of the past is level 7. Gaining knowledge of the future is impossible.)

Never Fumble: If you roll a natural 1 when attacking with your chosen weapon, you can ignore or countermand the GM intrusion for that roll. You can never be disarmed of your chosen weapon, nor will you ever drop it accidentally. Enabler.

Nightmare (5 Intellect points): You pull a horrifying creature from your worst nightmare into the waking world and sic it on your foes. The nightmare (level 5) persists each round while you use your action concentrating on it (or until you disperse it or it is destroyed). It has one of the following abilities, which you choose when you call it.

• Confusion. Instead of making a normal attack, the nightmare’s attack confuses the target for one round. On its next action, the target attacks an ally.
• Horrify. Instead of making a normal attack, the nightmare’s attack horrifies the target, which drops to its knees (or similar appendages). The target takes 3 points of damage that ignore Armor and is dazed for one round, during which time all its tasks are hindered.
• Pustule Eruption. Instead of making a normal attack, the nightmare’s attack causes rancid, painful pustules to rise all over the target’s skin for one minute. If the target takes a forceful action (such as attacking another creature or moving farther than an immediate distance), the pustules burst, dealing 5 points of damage that ignore Armor. Action to initiate, action each round to concentrate.

Nightstrike: When you attack a foe in dim light or darkness, you get a free level of Effort on the attack. Enabler.

Nimble Swimmer: You are trained in all defense actions while underwater. Enabler.

No Need for Weapons: When you make an unarmed attack (such as a punch or kick), it counts as a medium weapon instead of a light weapon. Enabler.

No One Knows Better: You are trained in two of the following skills: persuasion, deception, intimidation, research, knowledge in one area, or seeing through deception. If you choose a skill in which you’re already trained, you become specialized in that skill instead. Enabler.

Noble’s Courage (3+ Intellect points): Your noble lineage teaches that courage is necessary to do things that are difficult, tedious, or dangerous. When your mind would be negatively affected by an effect of up to level 4, whether something as overt as a psychic command or illness or something as subtle as fear or even boredom, your courage neutralizes the effect for up to a minute or, if you’re actively being attacked, until the next attack. For each level of Effort applied, you can increase the level of the effect you can neutralize by 1. Enabler.

Not Dead Yet: When you would normally be dead, you instead fall unconscious for one round and then awaken. You immediately gain 1d6 + 6 points to restore your stat Pools, and you are treated as if debilitated until you rest for ten hours. If you die again before you make your ten-hour recovery roll, you are truly dead. If you also have this ability from another source, your healing from this ability increases to 1d6 + 12. Enabler.

Nothing but Defend: If you do nothing on your turn but defend, you are specialized in all defense tasks for one round. Action.

Nullify Sound (3 Might points): You pulse perfectly misaligned sounds within short range to create a zone of absolute quiet up to an immediate distance across for one minute. All sound is canceled in the zone. Action to initiate.

Abilities—O #

Object Bond (3 Intellect points): When you manifest the magic ally from your Bound Magic Creature ability, it can move up to 300 feet (90 m) from you before being returned to its bound object. Also, it can remain manifest for an extended period, lasting until the end of your next ten-hour recovery roll. Finally, if you give permission, the magic ally can emerge from and enter the bound object on its own initiative. Enabler.

Object Bond Mastery (7 Intellect points): When you manifest the magic ally from your Bound Magic Creature ability, it is now a level 7 creature. It can remain manifest for only three minutes, after which it must return to its object and rest for three days before you can manifest it again.

The magic ally can make its own magic touch attacks (when it does, you roll for it). If it uses its pulse attack from Improved Object Bond, instead of deactivating items, it can take control of one item within short range for one minute, if applicable.

Finally, the magic ally can transform into smoke and flame as its action, giving it +10 to Armor but rendering it incapable of attacking foes. In this form, it can fly a long distance each round, and the first time each day it returns to flesh (as an action), it regains 25 points of health. Enabler.

Obstacle Running (3 Speed points): For the next minute, you can ignore obstacles that slow your movement, allowing you to travel at normal speed through areas with rubble, fences, tables, and similar objects that you would have to climb over or move around. This movement might include sliding on a railing, briefly running along a wall, or even stepping on a creature to boost yourself over something. If an obstacle would normally require a Might or Speed task to overcome, such as swinging on a rope, balancing on a rope, or jumping over a hole, you are trained in that task. Enabler.

One With the Wild (6 Intellect points): For the next hour, natural animals and plants within long range will not knowingly harm you or those you designate. In addition, your Might Edge, Speed Edge, and Intellect Edge increase by 1, and if you make any recovery rolls during this period, you recover twice as many points. Action to initiate.

Oneirochemy: You are trained in tasks related to sleep and mixing natural elixirs to help creatures fall asleep. Enabler.

Onslaught (1 Intellect point): You attack a foe using energies that assail either their physical form or their mind. In either case, you must be able to see your target. If the attack is physical, you emit a short-range ray of force that inflicts 4 points of damage. If the attack is mental, you focus your mental energy to blast the thought processes of another creature within short range. This mindslice inflicts 2 points of Intellect damage (ignores Armor). Some creatures without minds (such as robots) might be immune to your mindslice. Action.

Open Mind (3 Intellect points): You open your mind to increase your awareness. You gain an asset to any task involving perception. While you have this asset and you are conscious and able to take actions, other characters gain no benefit from surprising you. The effect lasts for one hour. Action.

Opening Statement: You’re trained in tasks related to persuasion, deception, and detecting the falsehoods of others. Enabler.

Opportunist: You have an asset on any attack roll you make against a creature that has already been attacked at some point during the round and is within immediate range. Enabler.

Oratory (4 Intellect points): When speaking with a group of intelligent creatures that can understand you and aren’t hostile, you convince them to take one reasonable action in the next round. A reasonable action should not put the creatures or their allies in obvious danger or be wildly out of character. Action.

Out of Harm’s Way: No matter how careful, an investigator sometimes ends up in a scrap. Knowing how to survive is more than half the battle. You are trained in Speed defense tasks. Enabler.

Outlast the Foe: If you have been in combat for five full rounds, you have an asset for all tasks in the remainder of the combat, and you deal 1 additional point of damage per attack. Enabler.

Outlaw Reputation (3 Intellect points): People know of your notorious exploits, which have been told and retold so many times that they bear little resemblance to reality. But people fear your name when they recognize you (or you declare yourself). They become so afraid that all attacks made against you by affected targets within earshot are hindered until one or more of them successfully inflicts damage on you or one of your allies, at which time their fear abates. Enabler.

Outside Reality (6+ Intellect points): You exist outside of everything until the start of your next turn. To you, a few seconds pass while you are alone in a cool void. To everyone else, you seem to vanish for a few seconds and reappear in the same place. While in this unreal state, you can use abilities or objects on yourself, but you can’t perceive, interact with, or affect the rest of the world, and vice versa. Time-based effects already on you (like a poison that inflicts damage every round) are paused while you exist outside reality, but when this ability ends they resume as if no time had passed. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to increase the duration; each level of Effort used in this way adds one round to how long you spend outside reality. Enabler.

Outwit: When you make a Speed defense roll, you can use your Intellect in place of your Speed. Enabler.

Overawe (5 Intellect points): A blast of divine radiance from the heavens spotlights a target you select within long range, pushing the target to its knees (or similar appendages, if any) and rendering it helpless in the light for up to ten minutes, or until it breaks free. The overawed target cannot defend itself, make attacks, or attempt anything other than to shake free of the divine awe each round. If the target is a demon, spirit, or something similar, it also takes 1 point of damage that ignores Armor each round it remains affected. Action to initiate.

Overcharge Device: You infuse 1 point of energy gained from using Absorb Energy or related ability into a device, such as an artifact, raising its effective level on its next use by three (to a maximum of 10). Action.

Overcharge Energy: When you use Release Energy, it inflicts an additional 2 points of damage. Enabler.

Overcome All Obstacles (3+ Intellect points): Those who stand against you do so at their peril and eventually shrink away in your presence. When you focus on a particular foe within long range, the target suffers 2 points of Intellect damage (ignores Armor) each round for one minute or until the target can throw off the effect. This ability can only be active on one target at a time. You can apply Effort to increase damage during the first round, and for any one round in which you apply Effort and use another action. Action to initiate.

Overload Machine (3+ Intellect points): Through the robot assistant from your Serv-0 ability, you infuse a powered device of level 3 or lower with more energy than it can handle. If affected, the device is destroyed or disabled for at least one minute, depending on its size and complexity. The GM may rule that the disabling effect lasts until the device is repaired. 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 overload a level 5 device (two levels above the normal limit), you must apply two levels of Effort. Action.

Overwatch (1 Intellect point): You use a ranged weapon to target a limited area (such as a doorway, a hallway, or the eastern side of the clearing) and make an attack against the next viable target to enter that area. This works like a wait action, but you also negate any benefit the target would have from cover, position, surprise, range, illumination, or visibility. Further, you inflict 1 additional point of damage with the attack. You can remain on overwatch as long as you wish, within reason. Action.

Abilities—P #

Parry (5 Speed points): You can deflect incoming attacks quickly. When you activate this ability, for the next ten rounds you ease all Speed defense rolls. Enabler.

Passing Mechanic: You are trained in tasks related to the repair and maintenance of a starcraft. Enabler.

Patient Recovery: You gain an extra ten-minute recovery roll each day. Enabler.

Pay It Forward (3 Intellect points): You can pass on what you’ve learned. When you give another character a suggestion involving their next action that is not an attack, their action is eased for one minute. Action.

Perfect Control: You no longer need to make a roll to use Beast Form or change into your normal form. You can change back and forth as your action. When you return to your normal form, you no longer take a penalty to your rolls. Enabler.

Perfect Speed Burst (6 Speed points): You can take two separate actions this round. Enabler.

Perfect Stranger (3 Intellect points): You alter your posture and way of speaking and make a small but real alteration to an outfit (such as putting on or taking off a hat, reversing a cloak, and so on). For the next hour (or as long as you keep up the alteration), even creatures that know you well don’t recognize you. All tasks related to hiding your true identity during this period gain one free level of Effort. Action to initiate.

Perks of Stardom: You are adept at claiming the rewards that fame can generate. When you are recognized, you can be seated at any restaurant, be let into any government building, be invited to any show or sports event (even if they’re sold out), get a seat at a private function of any sort, or get into any club, no matter how exclusive. When dealing with someone who can’t or won’t immediately give in to your desire, you gain an asset on all tasks related to persuasion if that person recognizes you or is convinced that you’re a celebrity even if they don’t recognize you. Enabler.

Permanent Illusion (9 Intellect points): An illusion (or portion of an illusion) that you create using Minor Illusion or related ability that fits within a 10-foot (3 m) cube becomes permanent.You can permanently end the illusion as an action, but others must expend exceptional ingenuity to prevent the illusion from regenerating even if it has apparently been dispersed. Enabler.

Phase Detonation (2+ Might points): When you use Phase Sprint or Walk Through Walls, you can choose to significantly damage normal matter around you with a blast of transdimensional energy when you first go into or come out of phase (your choice). This detonation inflicts 4 points of damage that ignores Armor to all creatures and objects within immediate range. If you apply Effort to increase the damage rather than ease the task, you deal 2 additional points of damage per level of Effort (instead of 3 points); targets in the area take 1 point of damage even if you fail the attack roll. Enabler.

Phase Door (4 Intellect points): You can phase into a solid object’s surface and then phase out of any other solid object within long range of the first, even if the two objects are not connected. There must be no intervening barriers between the two objects, and you must be aware of or able to see the destination object. Action.

Phase Foe (6+ Intellect points): You gather disrupting energy in your fingertip and touch a creature. If the target is an NPC or a creature of level 3 or lower, it becomes phased as if it had used the Ghost ability. However, unless it can figure out how to control its movement while being phased, which most creatures have no experience with, it begins to sink through solid matter. If it can’t control itself or end the effect, it might be gone for good because when it becomes solid again after ten minutes, it’s probably deep in the earth. For each additional level of Effort you apply, you can attempt to affect a target of one level higher. Action.

Phase Sprint (1+ Speed points): You can run up to a long distance as long as you take no other actions. During your action and until the beginning of your next turn, you are partially phased, and some attacks pass through you harmlessly. While phased, you gain an asset to your Speed defense tasks, but you lose any benefit from armor you wear.

Note that some of your other special abilities may enable specific actions that you can take while using Phase Sprint. For instance, when using Disrupting Touch, you can make one touch attack while moving (though this ends your movement). Action. (You don’t have to run in one long, straight line when using Phase Sprint, but can instead zig and zag, curve, or even return to where you started.) (Other abilities can be used with Phase Sprint to unlock additional effects, including Disrupting Touch, Scratch Existence, Invisible Phasing, and Phase Detonation. These abilities are additive enablers, requiring the user to spend points for both abilities, and sometimes from two different Pools.)

Phased Attack (3 Intellect points): The attack you make on this turn ignores your foe’s armor. The ability works for whatever kind of attack you use (melee, ranged, energy, and so on). Enabler.

Phased Pocket (2+ Intellect points): You connect yourself for one hour to a small space that is out of phase and moves with you. You can access this space as if it were a convenient pocket or bag, but nobody else can perceive or access the space unless they have the ability to interact with transdimensional areas. The space can hold up to 1 cubic foot. The space is a part of you, so you can’t use it to carry more cyphers than your limit, a detonation cypher activated inside the space harms you, and so on. When the connection ends, anything in the space falls out. For each 2 additional Intellect points you spend, the pocket lasts an additional hour. Enabler.

Physical Skills: You are trained in two skills in which you are not already trained. Choose two of the following: balancing, climbing, jumping, running, or swimming. You can select this ability multiple times. Each time you select it, you must choose two different skills. Enabler.

Physically Gifted: Any time you spend points from your Might Pool or Speed Pool on an action for any reason, if you roll a 1 on the associated die, you reroll, always taking the second result (even if it’s another 1). Enabler.

Pierce (1 Speed point): This is a well-aimed, penetrating ranged attack. You make an attack and inflict 1 additional point of damage if your weapon has a sharp point. Action.

Pilot: You are trained in all tasks related to piloting a starcraft. Generally speaking, piloting tasks are Speed-based tasks, though using sensors and communication instruments are Intellect-based tasks. Enabler.

Play to the Crowd (3 Intellect points): You give a speech that is both rousing and terrifying. Those within short range who can hear and understand you have their next action either eased (an asset) or hindered—you choose, and it can be different for each individual. Action; a few rounds to complete.

Poetic License: You are trained in all social interactions, including persuasion, deception, and intimidation. You also know two additional languages. Enabler.

Poison Crafter: You are trained in crafting, sensing, identifying, and resisting poisons. Your poison crafting has given you some immunity to poisons; you have +5 Armor that applies specifically to poison damage. Enabler.

Poison Resistance: Thanks to an injection of biological agents, a quaff of a magical elixir, a ring from a dying alien, or something just as extreme, you are now immune to poisons, toxins, or any kind of particulate threat. You are not immune to viruses, bacteria, or radiation. Enabler.

Post-Apocalyptic Survivor: You are trained in stealth and Might defense tasks. Enabler.

Power Strike (3+ Might points): If you successfully attack a target, you knock it prone in addition to inflicting damage. The target must be your size or smaller. You can knock down a target larger than you if you apply a level of Effort to do so (rather than to ease the attack). Enabler.

Power Crash (3 Intellect points): You strike your enchanted weapon against the ground (or a similar large surface), creating an explosion of energy that affects an area up to immediate range from that point. (If your enchanted weapon is a ranged weapon, you can instead target a point within close range to be the center of the explosion.) The blast inflicts 2 points of damage to all creatures or objects within the area (except for you). Because this is an area attack, adding Effort to increase your damage works differently than it does for single-target attacks. If you apply a level of Effort to increase the damage, add 2 points of damage for each target, and even if you fail your attack roll, all targets in the area still take 1 point of damage. Action.

Power Memory: When you use Copy Power, you only need to have seen the ability used within the past day (instead of the past hour), and using Effort extends how long ago your copying can reach to one day per level of Effort (instead of one hour per level). Enabler.

Powered Armor: You have a suit of powered armor. It is effectively medium armor (+2 to Armor); however, you suffer no Speed penalties for wearing it. Also, your suit grants other benefits: it provides breathable air for up to eight hours and a comfortable environment even in bitter heat, cold, vacuum, or underwater to a depth of 4 miles (6 km); and it allows you to see in the dark up to a short distance. Getting into the suit requires an action (and, of course, access to your suit). Enabler.

Powerful Rhetoric (1 Intellect point): After engaging a creature in conversation for at least a minute, you can attempt to influence how that creature is perceived, promoting it as a friend, dismissing it as a fool, or denouncing it as an enemy. Your words are so well chosen that even you and it are affected, because your conviction and its doubt are paramount. The accuracy of your assessment isn’t important as long as you keep up the rhetoric. From then on (or until you change your rhetoric or the creature offers a convincing defense to those who’ve heard your label), the friend’s social interactions gain an asset, the fool’s social interactions are hindered, or the enemy’s defenses are hindered. Action to initiate, one minute to complete.

Practiced in Armor: You can wear armor for long periods of time without tiring and can compensate for slowed reactions from wearing armor. You reduce the Speed cost for wearing armor by 1. You start the game with a type of armor of your choice. Enabler.

Practiced With All Weapons: You become practiced with light, medium, and heavy weapons and suffer no penalty when using any kind of weapon. Enabler.

Practiced With Guns: You are practiced with guns and suffer no penalty when using one. Enabler.

Practiced With Medium Weapons: You can use light and medium weapons without penalty. If you wield a heavy weapon, attacks with it are hindered. Enabler.

Practiced With Swords: You are practiced with swords and can use them without penalty. Enabler.

Precise Cut: You inflict 1 additional point of damage with light weapons. Enabler.

Precision: You deal 2 additional points of damage with attacks using weapons that you throw. Enabler.

Precognition (6 Intellect points): You dimly sense the future for the next ten minutes. This has the following effects until the duration expires:

• Your defense tasks gain an asset.
• You can predict the actions of those around you. You gain an asset to seeing through deceptions and attempts to betray you as well as avoiding traps and ambushes.
• You know what people are probably thinking and what they will say before they say it, which gives you an edge. You gain an asset to all interaction skills.

Enabler.

Predictive Equation (2 Intellect points): You observe or study a creature, object, or location for at least one round. The next time you interact with it (possibly in the following round), a related task (such as persuading the creature, attacking it, or defending from its attack) is eased. Action.

Predictive Model (2+ Intellect points): If you’ve used Predictive Equation on a creature, object, or location within the last few days, you can learn one random fact about the subject that is pertinent to a topic you designate. If you also have the magic flavor ability Premonition, one use of either ability grants you two random but related facts about the subject. In addition, you can use Predictive Model on the same subject multiple times (even if you’ve learned a creature’s level), but each time you do, you must apply one additional level of Effort than on your previous use. Action.

Premonition (2 Intellect points): You learn one random fact about a creature 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 ability. Action.

Preternatural Senses: While you are conscious and able to use an action, you cannot be surprised. In addition, you are trained in initiative actions. Enabler.

Privileged Nobility: You are adept at claiming the rewards that a noble background can generate. When recognized, you can be seated at any eating establishment no matter how full, get a room in an inn even if that means others are turned out, be let into any court or other structure where laws are decided or nobility rules, be invited to any gala, and get a seat at a private function of any sort. In addition, you are trained in persuasion. Enabler.

Projection (4 Intellect points): You project an image of yourself to any location you have seen or previously visited. Distance does not matter as long as the location is on the same world as you. The projection copies your appearance, movements, and any sounds you make for the next ten minutes. Anyone present at the location can see and hear you as if you were there. However, you do not perceive through your projection. Action to initiate.

Protective Wall (6+ Might points): When engaging in combat that directly relates to defending a community you are associated with, you can attack up to five different foes as a single action as long as they are all within immediate range. If you hit an attacker, they are pushed back an immediate distance. All of the attacks have to be the same sort of attack (melee or ranged). Make a separate attack roll for each foe. You remain limited by the amount of Effort you can apply on one action. Anything that modifies your attack or damage applies to all of these attacks. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to increase the number of foes you can attack with this ability, one additional foe per level of Effort. Enabler.

Protector: You designate a single character to be your charge. You can change this freely every round, but you can have only one charge at a time. As long as that charge is within immediate range, they gain an asset for Speed defense tasks because you have their back. Enabler.

Pry Open (4 Intellect points): You tear apart the defenses of a creature within long range. Any energy-based defenses it has (such as a force field or a Ward ability) are negated for 1d6 + 1 rounds. If the creature has no energy defenses, its Armor is reduced by 2 for one minute. If it has no energy-based defenses or Armor, attacks against it are eased for one minute. Action.

Psychic Burst (3+ Intellect points): You blast waves of mental force into the minds of up to three targets within short range (make an Intellect roll against each target). This burst inflicts 3 points of Intellect damage (ignores Armor). For each 2 additional Intellect points you spend, you can make an Intellect attack roll against an additional target. Action.

Psychic Passenger (6 Intellect points): You place your mind into the body of a willing creature you choose within short range and remain in that body for up to one hour. Your own body falls down and becomes insensate until this ability ends.

You see, hear, smell, touch, and taste using the senses of the creature whose body you inhabit. When you speak, the words come from your defenseless body, and the creature you inhabit hears those words in their mind.

The creature you inhabit can use your Intellect Edge in place of their own. In addition, you and the creature have an asset on any task that involves perception.

When you take an action, you use the creature’s body to perform that action if they allow it. Action to initiate.

A character should using Psychic Passenger should consider secreting their actual body someplace away from prying eyes and wild beasts, or they may return to an unfortunate situation.

Psychic Suggestion (4 Intellect points): You attempt to make the target take the action you indicate on its next turn. If the action you wish the target to take would cause direct harm to itself or its allies, your mental attack is hindered. Action.

Psychokinetic Attack (5 Intellect points): You can use this attack in one of two ways. The first is to pick up a heavy object and hurl it at someone within short range. This attack is an Intellect action, and if successful, it deals 6 points of damage to the target and to the hurled object (which could be another foe, although that would require two rolls—one roll to grab the first foe and another roll to hit the second foe with the first). The second way is to unleash a shattering burst of power that works only against an inanimate object no larger than half your size. Make an Intellect roll to instantly destroy the object; the task is eased by three steps compared to breaking it with brute strength. Action.

Psychosis (4 Intellect points): Your words inflict a destructive psychosis in the mind of a target within long range that can understand you, dealing 6 points of Intellect damage (ignores Armor) per round. The psychosis can be dispersed if a target uses an action doing nothing but calming and centering itself. Action to initiate.

Pull a Fast One (3 Intellect points): When you’re running a con, picking a pocket, fooling or tricking a dupe, sneaking something by a guard, and so on, you gain an asset on the task. Enabler.

Punish All the Guilty (3 Speed points): You can attack up to five foes within immediate range that you have designated as guilty with your Designation ability, all as part of the same action in one round. Make separate attack rolls for each foe, but all attacks count as a single action in a single round. You remain limited by the amount of Effort you can apply on one action. Anything that modifies your attack or damage applies to all attacks. If you also have the Spin Attack ability, you inflict 1 additional point of damage when you use Punish All the Guilty. Action.

Punish the Guilty (2 Might points): For the next ten minutes, if you attack someone you have designated as guilty with your Designation ability, you inflict 2 additional points of damage. Action to initiate.

Push (2 Intellect points): You telekinetically push a creature or object an immediate distance in any direction you wish. You must be able to see the target, which must be your size or smaller, must not be affixed to anything, and must be within short range. The push is quick, and the force is too crude to be manipulated. For example, you can’t use this ability to pull a lever or close a door. Action.

Push Off and Throw (3 Speed points): You can make precise, point-to-point jumps in microgravity, which means you can move up to a long distance and make a melee attack or attempt to grab a foe of your size or smaller. If you successfully grab your foe, you move your foe up to a short distance from its original position.

Alternatively, while you come to a standstill (or move off in an immediate distance per round in any direction you choose) you can launch your foe in a chosen direction through space at a rate of a short distance per round. Action.

Push on Through (2 Might points): You ignore the effects of terrain while moving for one hour. Enabler.

Abilities—Q #

Quarry (2 Intellect points): Choose a quarry (a single individual creature that you can see). You are trained in all tasks involving following, understanding, interacting with, or fighting that creature. You can have only one quarry at a time. Action to initiate.

Question the Spirits (2 Intellect points): You can call a spirit to you and petition it to answer a few questions (usually no more than three before the spirit fades).

First, you must summon a spirit. If it is a spirit of the dead, you must have personally known the creature, have an object that was owned by
the creature, or touch the physical remains
of the creature. For other spirits, you must know the spirit’s full name or have a great deal of an element (such as fire or earth) that the spirit is associated with.

If the spirit responds, it can manifest as an insubstantial shade that answers for itself, it can inhabit an object or any remains you provide, or it can manifest as an invisible presence that you speak for.

The spirit may not wish to answer your questions, in which case you must persuade it to help. You can attempt to psychically wrestle the spirit into submission (an Intellect task), or you can try diplomacy, deception, or blackmail (“Answer me, or I’ll tell your children that you were a philanderer” or “I’ll destroy this relic that belonged to you”).

The GM determines what the spirit might know, based on the knowledge it possessed in life. Action to initiate.

Quick Block: If you use a light or medium weapon, you are trained in Speed defense tasks. Enabler.

Quick Death (2 Speed points): You know how to kill quickly. When you hit with a melee or ranged attack, you deal 4 additional points of damage. You can’t make this attack in two consecutive rounds. Action.

Quick Recovery: Your second recovery roll (usually requiring ten minutes) is only a single action. Enabler.

Quick Strike (4 Speed points): You make a melee attack with such speed that it is hard for your foe to defend against, and it knocks them off balance. Your attack is eased by two steps, and the foe, if struck, takes normal damage but is dazed so that their tasks are hindered for the next round. Action.

Quick Study: You learn from repetitive actions. You gain a +1 bonus to rolls for similar tasks after the first time (such as operating the same device or making attacks against the same foe). Once you move on to a new task, the familiarity with the old task fades—unless you start doing it again. Enabler.

Quick Switch: You can activate Shrink as part of another action (the ability is now an enabler for you instead of an action). While the one-minute duration of Shrink is active, on your turn you can change size once before taking an action and once after taking an action. For example, on your turn you could change to small size, make an attack, and then return to your normal size, or you could change to your normal size, use your action to move a short distance, and then return to small size. Enabler.

Quick Throw (2 Speed points): After using a thrown light weapon, you draw another light weapon and make another thrown attack against the same target or a different one. Action.

Quick to Flee: You are trained in stealth and movement tasks. Enabler.

Quick Wits: When performing a task that would normally require spending points from your Intellect Pool, you can spend points from your Speed Pool instead. Enabler.

Quick Work (3+ Intellect points): One use of any artifact (or one minute of its continuous function) is increased by one level if you use it within the next minute. If you spend 4 additional Intellect points, the use is increased by two levels if you use it within the next minute. Action.

Quicker Than Most: Experience has honed your reaction times, because those who act first gain the advantage in most situations. You’re trained in tasks related to initiative, seeing underlying patterns, and solving puzzles. Enabler.

Abilities—R #

Rally to Me (2 Intellect points): You cry out, blow a battle horn, or otherwise signal to everyone within very long range that you require aid. All allied creatures who respond by moving to within an immediate distance of you within the next few rounds gain one asset on any one attack or defense task within the next hour that you suggest, such as “Hold the gate,” “Charge that group of orcs,” or something similar. Action to initiate.

Range Increase: Ranges for you increase by one step. Immediate becomes short, short becomes long, long becomes very long, and very long becomes 1,000 feet (300 m). Enabler.

Rapid Attack (3 Speed points): Once per round, you can make an additional attack with your chosen weapon. Enabler.

Rapid Processing (6 Intellect points): You or a target you touch experiences a higher level of mental and physical reaction time for about a minute. During that period, all Speed tasks (including Speed defense rolls) are eased. In addition, the target can take one extra action at any time before the ability’s duration expires. Action.

Rapid Recovery: You can make most recovery rolls faster than normal. You can make your
one-action recovery roll as part of another action or when it isn’t your turn, your ten-minute recovery roll takes you only one action, and your one-hour recovery roll takes you only ten minutes (your ten-hour rest is unchanged). If you make a recovery roll when it isn’t your turn, until the end of your next turn all of your tasks are hindered. Enabler.

Ray of Confusion (2 Intellect points): You project a grey beam of confusion at a creature within short range, inflicting 1 point of damage that ignores Armor. In addition, until the end of the next round, all tasks, attacks, and defenses the target attempts are hindered. Action.

Reaction: If a creature you attacked on your last turn with a melee attack uses its action to move out of immediate range, you gain an action to attack the creature as a parting blow, even if you have already taken a turn in the round. Enabler.

Reactive Field: Thanks to a remarkable enhancement of science, magic, psionics, or something even stranger, you now have a force field that radiates 1 inch (2.5 cm) from your body and provides you with +2 to Armor. In addition, if struck by a melee attack, the field creates a backlash that inflicts 4 points of electricity damage to the attacker. Enabler.

Read the Signs (4 Intellect points): You examine an area and learn precise, useful details about the past (if any exist). You can ask the GM up to four questions about the immediate area; each requires its own roll. Action.

Reading the Room (3 Intellect points): You gain knowledge about an area by speaking with dead spirits or reading residual energies from the past. You can ask the GM a single, matter-of-fact question about the location and get an answer if you succeed on the Intellect roll. “What killed the cattle in this barn?” is a good example of a simple question. “Why were these cattle killed?” is not an appropriate question because it has more to do with the mindset of the killer than the barn. Simple questions usually have a difficulty of 2, but extremely technical questions or those that involve facts meant to be kept secret can have a much higher difficulty. Action.

Recruit Deputy: You gain a level 4 follower. They are not restricted on their modifications. Alternatively, you can choose to advance a level 3 follower you already have to level 4 and then gain a new level 3 follower. Enabler.

Recycled Cyphers: All manifest cyphers you use function at one level higher than normal. In addition, if given a week and at least ten items of junk from the Junk table, you can tinker with one of your manifest cyphers, transforming it into another cypher of the same type that you had in the past. The GM and player should collaborate to ensure that the transformation is logical— for example, you probably can’t transform a pill into a helmet. Enabler.

Regenerate: Your ability to heal (whether from a potent spell, unique mutation, or cybernetic graft) continues to function even if you die from violence, as long as your body is mostly intact. One minute after your death, this ability activates and brings you back to life; however, you come back with a permanent 2-point deduction from your Intellect Pool. Enabler. (A character might discover that Regenerate is both a blessing and a curse, because relying on it too much leads to a kind of malaise that vitality alone can‘t fix.)

Regenerate Other (9 Might points): You can confer your Regenerate ability on another creature that you touch and attempt to return it to life, as long as its body is mostly intact. (If you don’t have the Regenerate ability, you gain it, but can use it only on yourself.) The difficulty of the task is equal to 3 plus the number of days the target has been dead. (If the body has been perfectly preserved in stasis or through some other non-damaging preservation mechanism, no time limit applies.) Enabler.

Regeneration (6 Intellect points): You restore points to a target’s Might or Speed Pool in one of two ways: either the chosen Pool regains up to 6 points, or it is restored to a total value of 12. You make this decision when you initiate this ability. Points are regenerated at a rate of 1 point each round. You must remain within immediate range of the target the whole time, either touching them or conversing with them. In no case can this raise a Pool higher than its maximum. Action.

Reinforcing Field (6+ Intellect points): You can reinforce any object or structure by infusing it with a force field for one hour. The force field increases the level of the object or structure by 2 for tasks related to durability and withstanding damage and destruction. Action to initiate.

Release Energy: You release 1 point of energy you’ve absorbed with your Absorb Kinetic Energy ability, magnifying and focusing it into a blast of energy that strikes a single foe within long range for 4 points of damage. (If you don’t have any kinetic energy absorbed, you can still use this ability, but it requires that you transform a fraction of yourself into the blast, which costs 1 point of Might.) Action.

Reload (1 Speed point): When using a weapon that normally requires an action to reload, such as a heavy crossbow, you can reload and fire (or fire and reload) in the same action. Enabler.

Relocate (7 Intellect points): Choose one creature or object within immediate range. You instantly transport it to a new position within long range that you can see. The new position can be any direction from you, but it cannot be inside a solid object. Action.

Remote Control (5 Intellect points): You can use a starcraft’s communication and sensor arrays to launch an attack that briefly renders an enemy starcraft within 20 miles (32 km) inoperative for up to a minute. Action. (Remote Control is a masterful attempt to jam or hack an enemy spacecraft, a task normally requiring multiple rolls, and you only succeed if you roll a total of three successes before rolling a total of two failures. However, all such tasks are hindered by at least two steps due to hardened spacecraft electronic security.)

Remote Viewing (6 Intellect points): Distance is an illusion, as all space is one space. With great concentration, you can see another place. This ability can be used in one of two ways:

• Distance and direction. Pick a spot a specific distance away and in a specific direction. You can see from that vantage point as if you had used the Sensor ability there, but only for one minute.
• Think of a place you have seen before, either conventionally or using the other application of this power. You can see from that vantage point as if you had used the Sensor ability there, but only for one or two rounds.

Either application takes anywhere from one action to hours of concentration, depending on what the GM feels is appropriate due to time, distance, or other mitigating circumstances. However, you don’t know in advance how long it will take. Action to initiate; action each round to concentrate.

Repair Flesh (3 Intellect points): When you touch an impaired or debilitated character, you can move them up one step on the damage track (for example, a debilitated PC becomes impaired, and an impaired one becomes hale). Alternatively, if you use this ability on a PC during a rest, you grant them a +2 bonus to their recovery roll. Action.

Repel Metal: By manipulating magnetism, you are trained in Speed defense tasks against any incoming attack that uses metal. Enabler.

Reshape (5 Intellect points): You reshape matter within short range in an area no larger than a 5-foot (1.5 m) cube. If you use only one action on this ability, the changes you make are crude at best. If you spend at least ten minutes and succeed at a hindered appropriate crafting task, you can make complex changes to the material. You can’t change the nature of the material, only its shape. Thus, you can make a hole in a wall or floor, or you can seal one up. You can fashion a rudimentary sword from a large piece of iron. You can break or repair a chain. With multiple uses of this ability, you could bring about large changes, making a bridge, a wall, or a similar structure. Action.

Resilience: You have 1 point of Armor against any kind of physical damage, even physical damage that normally ignores Armor. Enabler.

Resilient Duplicate: Increase the health of
any duplicate you create (such as with Duplicate) by 5. Enabler.

Resilient Ice Armor: The sheen of ice you generate using your Ice Armor ability gives you an additional +1 to Armor. Enabler.

Resist the Elements: You resist heat, cold, and similar extremes. You have a special +2 to Armor against ambient damage or other damage that would normally ignore Armor. Enabler.

Resist Tricks: You’re trained in solving puzzles and recognizing tricks from years of game playing. Enabler.

Resist Underwater Hazards: Whether you’re resisting crushing waters while exploring the depths or a sting from a poisonous fish, all defense tasks while submerged in water are eased. Enabler.

Resonance Field (1 Intellect point): Faint lines in a color you choose form a tracery over your entire body and emit faint light. The effect lasts for one minute. Whenever a creature within immediate range makes an attack against you, the pattern energizes to block the attack. You can make an Intellect defense roll in place of the defense roll you would normally make. If you do so and you get a minor effect, the creature attacking you takes 1 point of damage. If you get a major effect, the creature attacking you takes 4 points of damage. Action to initiate.

Resonant Frequency: You can infuse an item of up to level 7 that you can hold in one hand with a special vibration generated from your core. The object then functions as if two levels higher for one minute. At the end of that minute, the resonant frequency ramps up exponentially until the object finally shatters from the energy buildup. Anything within immediate range of the detonation suffers 5 points of damage. Action to initiate.

Resonant Quake (7 Intellect points): You can infuse the ground beneath you with a special vibration generated from your core. This creates a small quake whose epicenter you can select within a very long distance. Everyone within short range of the epicenter is subject to 8 points of damage (from shaking and being struck by toppling objects, crumbling walls, and so on). However, you are dazed for a round afterward yourself, during which time all your tasks are hindered. If you have the Move Mountains ability, both abilities cost 3 fewer Intellect points to use. Action.

Restful Presence: Creatures who make a recovery roll within short range of you add +1 to their roll. Enabler.

Restore Life (9+ Intellect points): You can attempt to restore life to a dead creature of up to level 3, as long as the corpse is no more than a day old and is mostly intact. You can also attempt to restore life to a corpse that is much older but is especially well preserved. The difficulty of the Intellect task is equal to the level of the creature you’re attempting to restore to life. For each additional level of Effort applied, you can attempt to restore the life of a creature whose level is 1 higher. When first restored to life, a creature is dazed for at least a day, and all tasks they attempt are hindered. Action; one minute to initiate.

Restorative Bloom (5 Might points): When Wooden Body or Great Tree is in effect, you produce a flower, acorn, fruit, or similar plant-based edible item. A creature that eats this food is nourished for a full day and restores their Might Pool, Speed Pool, and Intellect Pool to their maximum values, as if they were fully rested. Eating a second food produced by this ability in a day has no effect. If the food is not eaten within ten minutes, it spoils. Action to produce, action to eat.

Resuscitate (6 Intellect points): You can resuscitate a character who is up to two steps down on the damage track as your action. The target ascends one step on the damage track. If a character has dropped all three steps on the damage track (dead) but is otherwise in one piece and less than a minute has passed since they descended to the third step, you can resuscitate them if you succeed at a level 6 healing task. If you use this ability on an NPC who has no health but has been dead for less than a minute and is otherwise in one piece, the NPC is resuscitated with 1 health. Action.

Retinue: Four level 2 followers join you (and your first follower, if you have one). One of their modifications must be for tasks related to serving as your personal assistants. In addition to other tasks they might individually take on your behalf, they can also work together to run interference if you’re trying to avoid someone, help hide you from the attention of others, help you muscle through a crowd, and so on. If a situation becomes physically violent, they provide an asset to your Speed defense tasks and, if you command it, try to hold a foe’s attention while you escape. Enabler.

Retrieve Memories (3 Intellect points): You touch the remains of a recently killed creature and make an Intellect-based roll to restore its mind to life long enough to learn information from it. The GM sets the difficulty based on the amount of time that has passed since the creature died. A creature that has been dead for only a few minutes is a difficulty 2 task, one that has been dead for an hour is a difficulty 4 task, and one that has been dead for a few days is a difficulty 9 task. If you succeed, you awaken the corpse, causing its head to animate and perceive things as if it were alive. This enables communication for about one minute, which is how long it takes for the creature to realize that it’s dead. The creature is limited to what it knew in life, though it cannot recall minor memories, only big events of importance to it. When the effect ends, or if you fail the roll, the creature’s brain dissolves to mush and cannot be awakened again. Action.

Return to Sender (3 Speed points): If you succeed at a Speed defense task against a melee attack, you can make an immediate melee attack against your foe. You can use this ability only once per round. Enabler.

Return to the Obelisk (7+ Intellect points): You transfer your body and personal possessions into a crystal of any size that you can touch, and you exit from another crystal of any size, including any crystal obelisks that you are aware of. You must know of the crystal you are going to use as an exit before you enter the first crystal. You can take one additional creature with you for each level of Effort applied. Action.

Reveal (2+ Intellect points): You adjust a creature’s eyesight so that it can see normally in areas of dim light and darkness. You can affect one willing creature within immediate range for one hour. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to affect more targets; each level of Effort applied affects two additional targets. You must touch additional targets to affect them. Action to initiate.

Ribbons of Dark Matter (2 Intellect points): For the next minute, dark matter condenses within an area within long range that is no bigger than an immediate distance in diameter, manifesting as swirling ribbons. All tasks attempted by creatures in the area are hindered, and leaving the area requires a creature’s entire action to move. You can dismiss the dark matter early as an action. Action to initiate.

Rider: You are trained in riding any kind of creature that serves as a mount, such as a noble warhorse. Enabler.

Roaming Third Eye (3 Intellect points): When you use your Third Eye ability, you can place the sensor anywhere within long range. In addition, until that ability ends, you can use an action to move the sensor anywhere within short range of its starting position. Enabler.

Robot Assistant: A level 2 robot of your size or smaller (built by you) accompanies you and follows your instructions. You and the GM must work out the details of your robot. You’ll probably make rolls for it when it takes actions. A robot assistant in combat usually doesn’t make separate attacks but helps with yours. On your action, if the artificial assistant is next to you, it serves as an asset for one attack you make on your turn. If the robot is destroyed, you can repair the original with a few days’ worth of tinkering, or build a new one with a week’s worth of half-time labor. Enabler.

Robot Builder: You are trained in tasks related to building and repairing robots. For the purposes of repair, you can use this skill to heal robots that use similar technology. Enabler.

Robot Control (2+ Intellect points): You use your knowledge of robot command and control (and possibly devices that transmit on the proper frequency) to affect any mechanized system or robot of level 2 or lower within short range. You can render several targets inactive for as long as you focus all your attention on them. If you focus on just one target, you can attempt to take active control of it for one minute, commanding it to do simple tasks on your behalf while you concentrate. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to increase the maximum level of the mechanized system or robot. Thus, to affect a level 4 target (two levels above the normal limit), you must apply two levels of Effort. Action to initiate.

Robot Evolution: Your first artificial assistant from the Robot Assistant ability increases to level 5, and each of your level 2 robots from Robot Fleet increases to level 3. Instead of choosing this option, you may instead choose one upgrade from the Robot Upgrade ability. Enabler.

Robot Fighter: When fighting a robot or intelligent machine, you are trained in attacks and defense. Enabler.

Robot Fleet: You build up to four level 2 robot assistants, each no larger than yourself. (They are in addition to the assistant you built at first tier with Robot Assistant, which may have seen a few upgrades since then.) You and the GM must work out the details of these additional robots. If a robot is destroyed, you can build a new one (or repair the old one from its parts) after a week of half-time labor. Instead of this ability, you can select one of the following abilities: Expert Follower, Robot Control, or Robot Upgrade. Enabler.

Robot Improvement: Your artificial assistant from the Robot Assistant ability increases to level 4. Enabler.

Robot Upgrade: You modify your artificial assistant from the Robot Assistant ability with one new capability. Standard options include the following. Work with your GM if you prefer a different capability.

• Cypher Pod. The robot can carry one extra manifest cypher for you. Enabler.
• Flight. The robot can fly a long distance each round. It can carry you, but only for up to an hour between each of your ten-hour recovery rolls. Enabler.
• Force Shield. The robot can erect an opaque level 5 force field around itself and anyone within 10 feet (3 m) of it for one minute (or until it is destroyed). It cannot do so again until after your next recovery roll. Action.
• Mounted Laser Configuration. The robot can reconfigure itself and become an immobile laser weapon on a gimbal mount. In this configuration, the robot is a heavy weapon that deals 7 points of damage. If the robot acts as an autonomous turret, treat it as one level lower than its normal level. However, if the laser is fired by you or someone else who has your permission, the laser attacks are eased. Action to reconfigure; action to return to normal robot configuration.

Ruin Lore: You are trained in scavenging, which means you’re more likely to find useful things, and junk that can potentially be turned into useful things in the ruins of what came before. Enabler.

Run and Fight (4 Might points): You can move a short distance and make a melee attack that inflicts 2 additional points of damage. Action.

Runner: Your standard movement increases from short to long. Enabler.

Abilities—S #

Safe Fall: You reduce the damage from a fall by 5 points. Enabler.

Sailor: You are trained in tasks related to sailing and trained in the geography of islands and coastlines. Enabler.

Salvage and Comfort (2 Intellect points): You’re familiar with open space. If you spend an hour using your spacecraft’s sensors and make a difficulty 3 Intellect roll, you can find salvage in the form of abandoned spacecraft, drifting motes of matter that were once inhabited, or a place to hide from pursuit in what most people would otherwise assume to be empty space (such as in a nebula, an asteroid field, or the shadow of a moon). Salvage you turn up includes enough food and water for you and several others, as well as the possibility of weapons, clothing, technological artifacts, survivors, or other usable items. In other contexts, this ability counts as training in tasks related to perception. Action to initiate, one hour to complete.

Scan (2 Intellect points): You scan an area equal in size to a 10-foot (3 m) cube, including all objects or creatures within that area. The area must be within short range. Scanning a creature or object always reveals its level. You also learn whatever facts the GM feels are pertinent about the matter and energy in that area. For example, you might learn that the wooden box contains a device of metal and plastic. You might learn that the glass cylinder is full of poisonous gas, and that its metal stand has an electrical field running through it that connects to a metal mesh in the floor. You might learn that the creature standing before you is a mammal with a small brain. However, this ability doesn’t tell you what the information means. Thus, in the first example, you don’t know what the metal and plastic device does. In the second, you don’t know if stepping on the floor causes the cylinder to release the gas. In the third, you might suspect that the creature is not very intelligent, but scans, like looks, can be deceiving. Many materials and energy fields prevent or resist scanning. Action.

Scramble Machine (2 Intellect points): You render one machine within short range unable to function for one round. Alternatively, you can hinder any action by the machine (or by someone attempting to use the machine) for one minute. Action.

Scratch Existence (1+ Might points): You can choose to phase in a way that “scratches” normal matter in a long streak as you run using Phase Sprint. This tears a bit at you, too, reflected by the Might cost. When you use Phase Sprint, you inflict 2 points of damage (ignores Armor) to one target you select as you pass within immediate range, without triggering Disrupting Touch. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to increase the number of targets along your path that you can attack as part of the same action. Make a separate attack roll for each foe. You remain limited by the amount of Effort you can apply on one action. Anything that modifies your attack or damage applies to all of these attacks.

Alternatively, if you apply Effort to increase the damage rather than ease the task, you deal 2 additional points of damage per level of Effort (instead of 3 points); the target takes 1 point of damage even if you fail the attack roll. Enabler.

Sculpt Flesh (2 Intellect points): You cause a willing creature’s fingers to lengthen into claws and their teeth to grow into fangs. The effect lasts for ten minutes. The damage dealt by the target’s unarmed strikes increases to 4 points. Action.

Sculpt Light (4 Intellect points): You create an object of solid light in any shape you can imagine that is your size or smaller, and it persists for about an hour. The object appears in an area adjacent to you. 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 4. Action.

Sea Legs: You have gotten used to rough seas and unexpected surges. You are trained in balance. Any movement task that would be hindered by a pitching deck, moving through rigging, and so on is a routine task for you. Enabler.

See History (4 Intellect points): You touch an object, read the subtle echoes of its existence through time, ask the GM a question about the object’s past, and get a general answer. The answers are often in the form of brief images or sensations rather than specific answers in a language you know. 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. After you use this ability, you have an asset on identifying the object. Action. (“Obscure” is a relative term—a sage might not know how a vampire acquired a specific artifact, but someone using See History on that artifact would have an easy time sensing that event.)

See the Future (6 Intellect points): Based on all the variables you perceive, you can predict the next few minutes. This has the following effects:

• For the next ten minutes, your defense rolls gain an asset.
• You have a sort of danger sense. For the next ten minutes, you gain an asset in seeing through deceptions and attempts to betray you, as well as avoiding traps and ambushes.
• You know what people are probably thinking and what they will say before they say it. For the next ten minutes, you gain an asset to tasks involving interaction and deception.

Enabler.

See the Unseen: You can automatically perceive creatures and objects that are normally invisible, out of phase, or only partially in this universe. When looking for things more conventionally hidden, the task is eased. Enabler.

See Through Matter (3+ Intellect points): You can see through matter as if it were transparent. You can see through up to 6 inches (15 cm) of material for one round. Doing so is a task whose difficulty is equal to the material or object’s level. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to see through another 6 inches of material for each additional level of Effort you apply toward that goal. Action.

See Through Time (7 Intellect points): Time is an illusion, as all time is one time. With great concentration, you can see into another time. You specify a time period regarding the place where you now stand. Interestingly, the easiest time to view is about one hundred years in the past or future. Viewing farther back or ahead is a nearly impossible task.

This takes anywhere from one action to hours of concentration, depending on what the GM feels is appropriate due to time, distance, or other mitigating circumstances. However, you don’t know in advance how long it will take. Action to initiate; action each round to concentrate.

Seeds of Fury (1 Intellect point): You throw a handful of seeds in the air that ignite and speed toward a target within long range, scratching the air with twisting smoke trails. The attack deals 3 points of damage and catches the target on fire, which inflicts 1 additional point of damage per round for up to a minute or until the target uses an action to douse the flames. Action.

Seize the Initiative (5 Intellect points): Within one minute of successfully using your Draw Conclusion ability, you can take one additional, immediate action, which you can take out of turn. After using this ability, you can’t use it again until after your next ten-hour recovery roll. Enabler.

Seize the Moment (4+ Speed points): If you succeed on a Speed defense roll to resist an attack, you gain an action. You can use the action immediately even if you have already taken a turn in the round. You don’t take an action during the next round, unless you apply a level of Effort when you use Seize the Moment. Enabler.

Sense Ambush: You are never surprised by an attack. Enabler.

Sense Attitudes: You are trained in sensing lies and whether a person is likely to (or already does) believe your lies. Enabler.

Sensing Package: You can see in dim light and darkness as if it were bright light, and you can see up to a short distance through fog, smoke, and other obscuring phenomena. In addition, if you apply a level of Effort to perception or searching tasks, you get a free level of Effort on that task. Enabler.

Sensor (4 Intellect points): You create an immobile, invisible sensor within immediate range that lasts for 24 hours. At any time during that duration, you can concentrate to see, hear, and smell through the sensor, no matter how far you move from it. The sensor doesn’t grant you sensory capabilities beyond the norm. If you also have this ability from another source, it lasts twice as long. Action to create; action to check.

Sensor Array (3 Intellect points): You are trained in using starcraft sensory instruments. These instruments allow users to answer general questions about a location, such as “How many people are in the mining colony?” or “Where did the other spacecraft crash?” Action.

Serv-0: You build a tiny robot assistant. It is level 1 and cannot take independent actions or leave your immediate area. In truth, it’s more an extension of you than a separate being. It gains a modification in using machines and other technological devices. Enabler.

Serv-0 Aim: Your Serv-0 aids you in ranged combat. It gains a modification in ranged attacks. Enabler.

Serv-0 Brawler: Your Serv-0 aids you in melee combat. It gains a modification in melee attacks. Enabler.

Serv-0 Defender: Your Serv-0 aids you in combat by blocking attacks. It gains a modification in Speed defense. Enabler.

Serv-0 Repair: Your Serv-0 aids you in repairing other devices. It gains a modification in repair. Enabler.

Serv-0 Scanner (2 Intellect points): Your Serv-0 gains the Scan ability. Enabler.

Serv-0 Spy (3 Intellect points): You can send your Serv-0 up to a long distance away for up to ten minutes and see and hear through it as though its senses were your own. You direct its movement. Action to initiate.

Share Defense: If your training in a defense task is greater than that of an ally within short range, your advice and insight allow them to substitute your training for that defense task. Enabler.

Share the Power: When you use Drain Creature or Drain Machine to drain energy, you can transfer it to another creature, restoring points to their Might or Speed Pools (or health for an NPC) instead of yourself. You can spend points from your Siphon Pool (from the Store Energy ability) in the same way. You must touch the creature you want to heal, unless you have the Drain at a Distance ability, in which case they can be up to a short distance away. Enabler.

Share Senses: While your duplicate created by the Duplicate ability is in existence and within 1 mile (1.5 km), you know everything it experiences and can communicate with it telepathically. Enabler.

Sharp Senses: You are trained in all tasks involving perception. Enabler.

Sharp-Eyed: Because you must always keep an eye out when you’re traveling, you are trained in all tasks related to perception and navigation. Enabler.

Shatter (2+ Intellect points): You interrupt the fundamental force holding normal matter together for a moment, causing 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, dealing 1 point of damage to all creatures and objects in the area. If you apply Effort to increase the damage, you deal 2 additional points of damage per level of Effort (instead of 3 points); targets in the area take 1 point of damage even if you fail the attack roll. Action.

Shatter Mind (7+ Intellect points): Your words reverberate destructively in the brain of an intelligent level 1 target within short range that can hear and understand you. They destroy tissue, memories, and personality, triggering a vegetative state. 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 shatter the mind of a level 5 target (four levels above the normal limit), you must apply four levels of Effort. Action. (The vegetative state created by Shatter Mind can be healed by advanced magic or science, or by a condition remover cypher that cures psychosis.)

Shattering Shout (5+ Might points): Your focused shout sets up a destructive resonance in a creature or object within long range. Nothing happens on the round you strike your target other than an ominous humming or buzzing sound emitted by the target. But on your next turn, the resonance shatters discrete inanimate objects, inflicts major damage to structures, or inflicts 4 points of damage on a creature (ignores Armor).

If you shatter a discrete object, it shatters explosively, inflicting 1 point of damage on all creatures and objects within immediate range of it. If you apply Effort to increase the damage rather than ease the task, you deal 2 additional points of damage per level of Effort (instead of 3 points); targets in the area take 1 point of damage even if you fail the attack roll. Action to initiate.

Shepherd’s Fury: You inflict 3 additional points of damage when engaging in combat that directly relates to advancing the needs of a community you are associated with. (You and the GM can decide whether a particular situation warrants the additional damage.) Enabler.

Shield Burst: When you make a melee or ranged attack and hit with your Force Field Shield, it releases an explosion of energy, inflicting an additional 2 points of damage on the target and everything within immediate range of the target. If you applied Effort to inflict additional damage as part of the attack, each level of Effort inflicts only 2 additional points to all targets instead of 3 points. If you use Shield Burst with a melee attack, you and creatures behind you are not affected by this explosion. If you use Shield Burst with a ranged attack, the shield dissipates after the attack and then reforms in your grasp. Enabler.

Shield Master: When you use a shield, in addition to the asset it gives you (easing Speed defense tasks), you can act as if you are trained in Speed defense tasks. However, in any round in which you use this benefit, your attacks are hindered. Enabler.

Shield Training: If you use a shield, Speed defense tasks are eased by two steps instead of one. Enabler.

Ship Footing (3 Speed points): For ten minutes, all tasks you attempt while on a spaceship are eased. Action to initiate.

Shipspeak: You can make basic maneuvers from a planetary distance with a starship that you have bonded with using Machine Bond. You can send it to a designated place, call it to you, have it land, allow or deny entrance, and so on, even if you are not on board. Bonding is a process that requires a day of meditation while jacked into the ship. Action.

Shock (1 Intellect point): Your hands crackle with electricity, and the next time you touch a creature, you inflict 3 points of damage. Alternatively, if you wield a weapon, for ten minutes it crackles with electricity and inflicts 1 additional point of damage per attack. Action for touch; enabler for weapon.

Short Teleportation (4+ Intellect points): You instantly teleport to any location within a short distance that you can see. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to increase your range, teleport to a location you can’t see, or bring other people with you. Each additional short distance costs one level of Effort. Teleporting to a destination you can’t see costs one level of Effort. Each additional target brought with you costs one level of Effort (you must touch any additional targets). These levels of Effort are counted separately, so teleporting an additional short distance away to a location you can’t see with one passenger costs a total of three levels of Effort. Action.

If you already have Short Teleportation when you select Medium Teleportation or Teleportation, you may replace Short Teleportation with another tier 4 type ability.

Show Them the Way (6+ Intellect points): Your presence overwhelms a creature that you touch and ask to aid you. Essentially, if the creature fails to defend against your presence, you control its actions for up to ten minutes. The target must be level 3 or lower. Once you have established control, you maintain control through verbal instruction. You can allow the target to act freely or override control on a case-by case basis. 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 affect a level 5 target (two levels above the normal limit), you must apply two levels of Effort. When the effect ends, the creature vaguely remembers doing your will, but it’s as blurry as a dream. Action to initiate.

Shred Existence: When you use Disrupting Touch, Scratch Existence, or Phase Detonation, you inflict an additional 5 points of damage that ignores Armor. Enabler.

Shroud of Flame (1 Intellect point): At your command, your entire body becomes shrouded in flames that last up to ten minutes. The fire doesn’t burn you, but it automatically inflicts 2 points of damage to anyone who tries to touch you or strike you with a melee attack. Flames from another source can still hurt you. While the shroud is active, you gain +2 Armor against damage from fire from another source. Enabler.

Shrink (1+ Might points): You (and your clothing or suit) become much smaller than your normal size. You become 6 inches (15 cm) tall and stay that way for about a minute. During this time, you add 4 points to your Speed Pool and add +2 to your Speed Edge. While you are smaller than normal, your Speed defense rolls are eased, your movement speed is one-tenth normal, and your attacks inflict half the normal amount of damage (divide the total damage in half after all bonuses, Effort, and other damage modifiers). You can return to your normal size as part of another action.

When the effects of Shrink end, your Speed Edge, movement speed, and damage return to normal, and you subtract a number of points from your Speed Pool equal to the number you gained (if this brings the Pool to 0, subtract the overflow first from your Might Pool and then, if necessary, from your Intellect Pool). Each additional time you use Shrink before your next ten-hour recovery roll, you must apply an additional level of Effort (one level of Effort for the second use, two levels of Effort for the third use, and so on).Action to initiate.

The increased Effort cost for repeat uses of Shrink between ten-hour recovery rolls only applies to new activations of Shrink, not to multiple size changes within one use of Shrink enabled by Quick Switch.

Shrink Others: You can use Shrink on other willing creatures within an immediate distance. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to affect more targets; each level of Effort affects one additional target. Unless these creatures have an ability to change their size, they remain small until the one-minute duration of Shrink ends for them. Enabler.

Silent As Space: By taking advantage of microgravity conditions, you gain an asset to stealth and initiative tasks while in zero-gravity or low-gravity conditions. Enabler.

Skill With Attacks: Choose one type of attack in which you are not already trained: light bashing, light bladed, light ranged, medium bashing, medium bladed, medium ranged, heavy bashing, heavy bladed, or heavy ranged. You are trained in attacks using that type of weapon. You can select this ability multiple times. Each time you select it, you must choose a different type of attack. Enabler.

Skill With Defense: Choose one type of defense task in which you are not already trained: Might, Speed, or Intellect. You are trained in defense tasks of that type. Enabler.

Sleuth: Finding the clues is the first step in solving a mystery. You are trained in perception. Enabler.

Slice (2 Speed points): This is a quick attack with a bladed or pointed weapon that is hard to defend against. You are trained in this task. If the attack is successful, it deals 1 less point of damage than normal. Action.

Slip Into Shadow (2+ Intellect points): You attempt to slip away from a selected target and hide from view in a nearby shadow, behind a tree or a furnishing, or in the next room, even if in full view of the target. For each level of Effort applied, you can attempt to affect one additional target, as long as all your targets are next to each other. Action to initiate.

Slippery: You are trained in escaping any kind of bond or grasp. Enabler.

Slippery Customer: When you apply Effort to tasks involving escaping from bonds, fitting in tight spaces, and other contortionist tasks, you get a free level of Effort on the task. Thanks to your experience, you are also trained in Speed defense tasks while wearing light armor or no armor. Enabler.

Small Flight (3+ Intellect points): For the next hour, when using Shrink, you can fly through the air. You might accomplish this flight by growing wings from your body, extending wings from your suit, calling a tiny creature to carry you, or “surfing” air currents. When flying, you can move up to a short distance as part of another action or a long distance if all you do on your turn is move. Action to initiate.

Smaller: When you use Shrink, you can choose to shrink down to about half an inch (1 cm) high, and you add 3 more temporary points to your Speed Pool. Enabler.

Snap Shot: You can make two gun attacks as a single action, but the second attack is hindered by two steps. Enabler.

Sneak: You are trained in stealth and initiative tasks. Enabler.

Snipe (2 Speed points): If you spend one action aiming, in the next round you can make a precise ranged attack. You have an asset on this attack. If your attack is successful, it inflicts 4 additional points of damage. Action.

Sniper’s Aim: By dint of almost constant practice playing games that simulate making ranged attacks, your hand-eye coordination is off the chart. You have an asset on all ranged attacks. Enabler.

Something in the Road: When you use a vehicle as a weapon, you inflict 5 additional points of damage. Enabler.

Soothe Mind and Body: The body and the mind are connected. All healing tasks you attempt are eased by two steps. Enabler.

Soothe the Savage (2 Intellect points): You calm a nonhuman beast within 30 feet (9 m). You must speak to it (although it doesn’t need to understand your words), and it must see you. It remains calm for one minute or for as long as you focus all your attention on it. The GM has final say over what counts as a nonhuman beast, but unless some kind of deception is at work, you should know whether you can affect a creature before you attempt to use this ability on it. Aliens, extradimensional entities, very intelligent creatures, and robots never count. Action.

Soul Interrogation (5 Intellect points): You determine the weaknesses, vulnerabilities, qualities, and mannerisms of a single creature within long range. The GM should reveal the creature’s level, basic abilities, and obvious weaknesses (if any). All actions you attempt that affect that creature—attack, defense, interaction, and so on—are eased for a few months afterward. Action.

Sound Conversion Barrier: Attacks that hit you—especially energy attacks like focused light, heat, radiation, and transdimensional energy—are partially converted to surges of harmless noise similar to the sound of a wave crashing to shore. This ability grants you +1 Armor against all attacks and an additional +2 Armor against energy attacks. Enabler.

Space Fighting: By taking advantage of microgravity conditions, you can use inertia and mass to your advantage. If you spend a round setting up a melee attack (or an attack from a thrown or launched object) while in zero-gravity or low-gravity conditions, the attack inflicts 6 additional points of damage. Enabler.

Speaker for the Dead (2+ Intellect points): You can ask a question of a dead being whose corpse you are touching. Because the answer comes through the filter of the being’s understanding and personality, it can’t answer questions that it wouldn’t have understood in life, and it can’t provide answers that it wouldn’t have known in life. In fact, the being is not compelled to answer at all, so you might need to interact with it in a way that would have convinced it to answer while it was alive. For each additional Intellect point you spend when you activate the ability, you can ask the being an additional question. Action.

Special Shot: When you hit a target with a gun attack, you can choose to reduce the damage by 1 point but hit the target in a precise spot. Some of the possible effects include (but are not limited to) the following:

• You can shoot an object out of someone’s hand.
• You can shoot the leg, wing, or other limb it uses to move, reducing its maximum movement speed to immediate for a few days or until it receives expert medical care.
• You can shoot a strap holding a backpack, armor, or a similarly strapped-on item so that it falls off.

Enabler.

Specialized Basher: You are specialized in using the stone fists from your Golem Body ability as a medium weapon. Enabler.

Specialized Throwing: You are specialized in attacks with all weapons that you throw. Enabler.

Speed Burst (4 Speed points): You can take two separate actions in this round. In the following round, all actions are hindered. You cannot use this ability two rounds in a row. Enabler.

Speedy Recovery (3 Intellect points): Your words enhance the normal regenerative ability of a character within short range who is able to understand you. When they make a recovery roll, they must spend only half the normal amount of time required to do so (minimum one action). Action.

Spin Attack (5+ Speed points): You stand still and make attacks against up to five foes, all as part of the same action in one round. All of the attacks have to be the same sort of attack (melee or ranged). Make a separate attack roll for each foe. You remain limited by the amount of Effort you can apply on one action. Anything that modifies your attack or damage applies to all of these attacks. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to increase the number of foes you can attack with this ability (one additional foe per level of Effort used in this way). Action.

Spin Identity (2+ Intellect points): You convince all intelligent creatures who can see, hear, and understand you that you are someone or something other than who you actually are. You don’t impersonate a specific individual known to the victim. Instead, you convince the victim that you are someone they do not know belonging to a certain category of people. “We’re from the government.” “I’m just a simple farmer from the next town over.” “Your commander sent me.” A disguise isn’t necessary, but a good disguise will almost certainly be an asset to the roll involved. If you attempt to convince more than one creature, the Intellect cost increases by 1 point per additional victim. Fooled creatures remain so for up to an hour, unless your actions or other circumstances reveal your true identity earlier. Action.

Spirit Accomplice: A level 3 spirit accompanies you and follows your instructions. The spirit must remain within immediate range—if it moves farther away, it fades at the end of your following turn and cannot return for a day. You and the GM must work out the details of your spirit accomplice, and you’ll probably make rolls for it when it takes actions. The spirit accomplice acts on your turn, can move a short distance each round, and exists partially out of phase (allowing it to move through walls, though it makes a poor porter). The spirit takes up residence in an object you designate, and it manifests as either an invisible presence or a ghostly shade. Your spirit accomplice is specialized in one knowledge skill the GM determines.

The spirit is normally insubstantial, but if you use an action and spend 3 Intellect points, it accretes enough substance to affect the world around it. As a level 3 creature with substance, it has a target number of 9 and a health of 9. It doesn’t attack creatures, but while substantial, it can use its action to serve as an asset for any one attack you make on your turn.

While corporeal, the spirit can’t move through objects or fly. A spirit remains corporeal for up to ten minutes at a time, but fades back to being insubstantial if not actively engaged. If your spirit accomplice is destroyed, it reforms in 1d6 days, or you can attract a new spirit in 2d6 days. Enabler. (An insubstantial creature can’t affect or be affected by anything unless indicated otherwise, such as when an attack is made with a special weapon. An insubstantial creature can pass through solid matter without hindrance, but solid energy barriers, such as magical fields of force, keep it at bay.)

Spot Weakness: If a creature that you can see has a special weakness, such as a vulnerability to fire, a negative modification to perception, or so on, you know what it is. (Ask and the GM will tell you.) Enabler.

Spray (2 Speed points): If a weapon has the ability to fire rapid shots without reloading (usually called a rapid-fire weapon, such as a crank crossbow or submachine gun), you can spray multiple shots around your target to increase the chance of hitting. This ability uses 1d6 + 1 rounds of ammo (or all the ammo in the weapon, if it has less than the number rolled). You are trained in making this attack. If the attack is successful, it deals 1 less point of damage than normal. You can also use this ability on multiple thrown weapons (stones, shuriken, daggers, and so on) if you‘re carrying them on your person or they are all within reach. Action.

Spring Away (5 Speed points): Whenever you succeed on a Speed defense roll, you can immediately move up to a short distance. You cannot use this ability more than once in a given round. Enabler.

Sprint and Grab (2 Speed points): You can run a short distance and make a melee attack to grab a foe of your size or smaller. A successful attack means you grab the foe and bring it to a halt if it was moving (this can be treated as a tackle, if appropriate). Action.

Spur Effort (5 Intellect points): You select an ally within immediate range. If that character applies Effort to a task on their next turn, they can apply a free level of Effort on that task. Enabler.

Stalker: You gain an asset to all types of movement tasks (including climbing, swimming, jumping, and balancing). Enabler.

Stand Watch (2 Intellect points): While standing watch (mostly remaining in place for an extended period of time), you unfailingly remain awake and alert for up to eight hours. During this time, you are trained in perception tasks as well as stealth tasks to conceal yourself from those who might approach. Action to initiate.

Stare Them Down: One doesn’t play games of chicken with other maniac drivers without gaining mental strength. You’re trained in Intellect defense tasks. Enabler.

Stasis (3 Intellect points): You surround a foe of your size or smaller with scintillating energy, keeping it from moving or acting for one minute, as if frozen solid. You must be able to see the target, and it must be within short range. While in stasis, the target is impervious to harm, cannot be moved, and is immune to all effects. Action.

Stay the Course (5 Intellect points): When your companions are flagging, you can help inspire them with a well-timed word or two. Any ally (except you) within immediate range can make a recovery roll that is not an action and does not count toward their daily limit. Action.

Steal Power: When you use Copy Power to copy an ability, the creature you copied it from loses access to that ability for about a minute. While you have their ability, any attempt by the creature to use their ability requires them to succeed at a task (Might, Speed, or Intellect, as appropriate to the stolen ability) opposed by your eased Intellect task. If they succeed, they regain the use of their ability and you lose it. Enabler.

If you want to make it more difficult for someone to take back their stolen power, become skilled in the Steal Power ability, or put a power shift in power for it.

Stealth Skills: You are trained in your choice of two of the following skills: disguise, deception, lockpicking, pickpocketing, seeing through deception, sleight of hand, or stealth. You can choose this ability multiple times, but you must select different skills each time. Enabler.

Still As a Statue (5 Might points): Drawing upon the power of your Golem Body, you freeze in place, burying your essence deep in your stone core. During this time, you lose all mobility as well as the ability to take physical actions. You cannot sense what’s happening around you, and no time seems to pass for you. While Still As a Statue, you gain +10 to Armor against damage of all sorts. Under normal circumstances, you automatically rouse to normal wakefulness and mobility a day later. If an ally you trust shakes you hard enough (with a minimum cost of 2 Might points), you rouse earlier. Action to initiate.

Stimulate (6 Intellect points): Your words encourage a target you touch who can understand you. The next action it takes is eased by three steps. Action.

Stone Breaker: Your attacks against objects inflict 4 additional points of damage when you use a melee weapon that you wield in two hands. Enabler.

Store Energy: When you drain energy with your focus abilities, you can store some of it for later in a Siphon Pool. You can spend points from your Siphon Pool as if they were from your Might or Speed Pool, or use an action to spend them to restore an equal number of points to your Might or Speed Pool. Your Siphon Pool can safely store up to 3 points; each point beyond that hinders all of your tasks. Enabler.

Storm Seed (3 Intellect points): If outside or in a large-enough enclosed space, you can seed a natural storm of a kind common to the area. Doing so requires at least an hour’s concentration as you use your connection to the air (whether this is due to nanobots, elemental spirits, magic, or some other source) to initiate proper conditions, though it could take longer if the GM feels there are additional obstacles at play. Once the storm begins, it lasts for about ten minutes. Once during that period, you can create a more dramatic and specific effect appropriate to that kind of storm, such as a lightning strike, a squall of giant hailstones, the brief touchdown of a twister, a single gust of hurricane-force winds, and so on. These effects must occur within long range of your location. You must spend your turn concentrating to create the effect, which occurs a round later. The effect inflicts 6 points of damage, after which the storm begins to disperse. Action to initiate, an hour or more to complete. (Storm Seed usually calls thunderstorms, but in an area where stranger weather is common, a Storm Seed could call that instead. For instance, some settings have particular kinds of magical weather.)

Straightforward: You are trained in one of the following tasks (choose one): breaking things, climbing, jumping, or running. Enabler.

Strategize (6 Intellect points): Having an action plan in place before facing a challenge improves the odds of success, even if that plan is eventually changed or discarded once it’s put into play. If you and your allies spend at least ten minutes going over a plan of action, all of you gain one free level of Effort that can be applied to one task you attempt during the execution of that plan within the next 24 hours. The plan of action must be something concrete and executable in order to gain this benefit. Action to initiate, ten minutes to complete.

Stronger Together: When you and your companion from the Beast Companion ability are within immediate distance of each other, you inflict 2 additional points of damage when you attack and both of you gain an asset to defense actions. Enabler.

Stun Attack (6 Speed points): You attempt a difficulty 5 Speed task to stun a creature as part of your melee or ranged attack. If you succeed, your attack inflicts its normal damage and stuns the creature for one round, causing it to lose its next turn. If you fail, you still make your normal attack roll, but you don’t stun the opponent if you hit. If you also have this ability from another source (such as having it as a type ability and a focus ability), using this costs you only 3 points instead of 6 points. Action.

Sturdy: You are trained in Might defense tasks. Enabler.

Subconscious Defense: Your subconscious constantly runs predictive models for avoiding danger. You gain an asset on your Speed defense tasks. Enabler.

Subsonic Rumble (2 Intellect points): For one minute or until you use some other sound manipulation ability, you emit a subsonic rumble that most living creatures can’t hear but which has an effect on them all the same. The effect lasts for one minute and affects all creatures you select within short range. All tasks related to resisting persuasion, intimidation, and fear are hindered by two steps for affected targets. Action to initiate.

Subtle Steps: When you move no more than a short distance, you can move without making a sound, regardless of the surface you move across. Enabler.

Subtle Tricks: You can use your skills and special abilities in ways that don’t look like you’re doing anything. If the skill or ability would normally require an obvious movement, phrase, or other action by you, it instead seems to happen on its own. Instead of using your tools to pick a lock, the lock clicks open as you stand near it. Instead of manipulating a computer screen, the information you want appears on the screen when you look at it. Instead of bluffing your way past some guards, they step aside as you approach and let you through. This ability usually only works up to an immediate distance. You still must spend points and make rolls to use your skills and abilities with Subtle Tricks. Using a skill or ability in a subtle way hinders the task. This ability can’t be used to conceal your attack or defense rolls. Enabler.

Successive Attack (2 Speed points): If you take down a foe, you can immediately make another attack on that same turn against a new foe within your reach. The second attack is part of the same action. You can use this ability with melee attacks and ranged attacks. Enabler.

Suggestion (5+ Intellect points): You suggest an action to a creature within immediate range. If the action is something that the target might normally do anyway, it follows your suggestion. If the suggestion is something that is outside of the target’s nature or express duty (such as asking a guard to let an intruder pass), the suggestion fails. The creature must be level 2 or lower. The effect of your suggestion lasts for up to a minute.

In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to increase the maximum level of the target you can affect by 1. Thus, to affect a level 5 target (three levels above the normal limit), you must apply three levels of Effort.

When the effects of the ability end, the creature remembers following the suggestion but can be persuaded to believe that it chose to do so willingly. Action to initiate.

Summon Demon (7+ Intellect points): A demon appears within immediate range. If you applied a level of Effort as part of the summoning, the demon is amenable to your instructions; otherwise, it acts according to its nature. Regardless, the demon persists for up to one minute before it fades away—you hope. Action to initiate.

Summon Giant Spider (4+ Intellect points): A giant spider appears within immediate range. If you applied a level of Effort as part of the summoning, the spider is amenable to your instructions; otherwise, it acts according to its nature. Regardless, the creature persists for up to one minute before it fades away. Action to initiate.

Sun Siphon: The safe limit of your Siphon Pool from the Store Energy ability increases by 3 points. If you spend an hour in sunlight (or an hour in contact with a suitable powerful energy source), you automatically fill your Siphon Pool to its safe limit. You can’t refill your Siphon Pool this way again until after your next ten-hour recovery roll. Enabler.

Sunlight (3 Intellect points): A mote of light travels from you to a spot you choose within long range. When the mote reaches that spot, it flares and casts bright light in a 200-foot (60 m) radius, and darkness within 1,000 feet (300 m) of the mote becomes dim light. The light lasts for one hour or until you use an action to dismiss it. Action.

Superb Explorer: You are trained in searching, listening, climbing, balancing, and jumping tasks. Enabler.

Superb Infiltrator: You are trained in lockpicking and tinkering with devices in an effort to make them work, or at least work for you. Enabler.

Superior Duplicate (2 Might points): When you use your Duplicate ability, you can create a superior duplicate instead of a normal duplicate. A superior duplicate is a level 3 NPC with 15 health. Enabler.

Surging Confidence (1 Might point): When you use an action to make your first recovery roll of the day, you immediately gain another action. Enabler.

Surprise Attack: If attacking from a hidden vantage, with surprise, or before your opponent has acted, you get an asset on the attack. On a successful hit, you inflict 2 additional points of damage. Enabler.

Swim (1+ Intellect points): You can swim like a fish through water and similar liquid for one hour. For each level of Effort applied, you can extend the duration by one hour. You swim about 10 miles (16 km) per hour, and you are not affected by currents in the water. Action to initiate.

Swipe (1 Speed point): This is a quick, agile melee attack. Your attack inflicts 1 less point of damage than normal but dazes your target for one round, during which time all tasks it performs are hindered. Action.

Abilities—T #

Take Command (3 Intellect points): 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. Action.

Taking Advantage: 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. Enabler.

Tall Tale (3 Intellect points): 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. Action.

Targeting Eye: 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. Enabler.

Task Specialization: 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.) Enabler.

Task Training: Choose one task (other than attacks or defense) that you are not trained or specialized in. You become trained in that task. Enabler.

Taunt Foe (4 Might or Intellect points): 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. Enabler.

Teach Trick (5+ Intellect points): 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. Action; hour to complete.

Teamwork: 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. Enabler.

Tech Skills: 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. Enabler.

Telekinesis (2 Intellect points): 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. Action. (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.)

Telepathic (1+ Intellect points): 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.

Telepathic Network (0+ Intellect points): 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. Enabler.

Teleportation (6+ Intellect points): 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. Action.

Teleportation Burst (3 Intellect points): 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. Enabler.

Teleportive Wound (7+ Intellect points): 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). Action.

Telling (2 Intellect points): 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.

Temporal Acceleration (5 Intellect points): 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. Action.

Temporal Dislocation (7 Intellect points): 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). Action.

Temporary Light (2 Intellect points): You 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. Action.

Terrifying Gaze (6 Intellect points): 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. Action.

Terrifying Image (6 Intellect points): 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. Action.

Terrifying Presence (2+ Intellect points): 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. Action.

There’s Your Problem: 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). Enabler.

Thief’s Luck: 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.) Enabler.

Think Your Way Out: When you wish it, you can use points from your Intellect Pool rather than your Might Pool or Speed Pool on any noncombat action. Enabler.

Thinking Ahead (variable Intellect points): 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. Action.

Third Eye (1 Intellect point): 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. Action.

Throw (2 Might points): 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. Enabler.

Throw Enchanted Weapon: 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. Enabler.

Throw Force Shield: 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. Enabler.

Thrust (1 Might point): 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. Action.

Thunder Beam (2 Might points): 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.

Time Doppelganger (6+ Intellect points): 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 next action. 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. Action.

Time Loop (4 Intellect points): 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. Action.

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.

Time Travel (10+ Intellect points): 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. Action.

Tinker (1 Intellect point): 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.

Tiny: 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. Enabler.

In campaigns where characters can travel to parallel dimensions, using Tiny to shrink to one-thousandth of your normal height may be a means of doing so.

Tool Mastery: When you have an asset from using a tool, the time required to perform the task is cut in half (minimum one round). Enabler.

Total Awareness: 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. Enabler.

Totally Chill: Your ten-minute recovery roll takes you only one round. Enabler.

Tough As Nails: 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.)

Tough It Out: 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. Enabler.

Tower of Intellect: You are trained in Intellect defense tasks. If you are already trained, you are specialized in those tasks instead. Enabler.

Tower of Will: You are trained in Intellect defense tasks and gain +3 points to your Intellect Pool. Enabler.

Tracker: You are trained in following and identifying tracks. Enabler.

Trained Basher: You are trained in using the stone fists from your Golem Body as a medium weapon. Enabler.

Trained Excavator: You are trained in perception, climbing, and salvaging tasks. Enabler.

Trained Gunner: 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).

Trained Interlocutor: 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. Enabler.

Trained Slayer: You are trained in using swords. Enabler.

Trained Swimmer: While underwater, you are trained in escaping, perception, sneaking, and swimming tasks, as well as in tasks to identify aquatic creatures and geography. Enabler.

Trained Without Armor: You are trained in Speed defense tasks when not wearing armor. Enabler.

Transcend the Script (5 Intellect points): 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. Action.

Trapfinder (3+ Intellect points): 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. Action.

Trapster: 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.

Travel Skills: 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. Enabler.

Traverse the Worlds (8+ Intellect points): 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. Action.

Tree Companion (5+ Intellect points): You 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.

Tree Travel (4+ Intellect points): 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. Action.

Trick Driver: 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. Enabler.

Trick Shot (2 Speed points): 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. Action.

True Defender (6 Might or Intellect points): 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.

True Guardian (2 Might or Intellect points): 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. Enabler.

True Necromancy (8+ Intellect points): This ability works like the Necromancy ability except that it creates a level 5 creature. Action to animate.

True Senses: 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. Enabler.

Trust to Luck (3 Intellect points): 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. Enabler.

Tumbling Moves (5 Speed points): When you use an action to move, Speed defense rolls are eased until the end of your next turn. Enabler.

Twist of Fate: 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. Enabler.

Twisting the Knife (4 Speed points): 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). Action.

Two Things at Once (6 Intellect points): The ultimate test: you divide your attention and take two separate actions this round. Enabler.

Abilities—U #

Ultra Enhancement: You gain +1 to Armor and +5 to each of your three stat Pools. Enabler.

Unarmed Fighting Style: You are trained in unarmed attacks. Enabler.

Unarmored Fighter: While unarmored, you are trained in Speed defense tasks. Enabler.

Uncanny Luck (4 Speed points): When you roll for a task and succeed, roll again. If the second number rolled is higher than the first, you get a minor effect. If you roll the same number again, you get a major effect. If you have Uncanny Luck from another source or a similar ability, it’s your choice (no roll required) whether you get a minor effect, a major effect, or a free activation of one of your tier 1–3 focus abilities. Enabler.

Understanding (1 Intellect point): You observe or study a creature or object. Your next interaction with that creature or object gains one asset. Action.

Underworld Contacts: You know many people in a variety of communities who engage in illegal activities. These people are not necessarily your friends and might not be trustworthy, but they recognize you as a peer. You and the GM should work out the details of your underworld contacts. Enabler.

Undo (5 Intellect points): You turn back time a few seconds, effectively undoing a single creature’s most recent action. That creature can then immediately repeat the same action or try something different. Action.

Unexpected Betrayal: Within a round or two of successfully using Enthrall, Fast Talk, or a similar ability on a target within short range, the first attack you make on that target is eased by two steps. Once you use Unexpected Betrayal on a target, using your abilities or attempting simple persuasion on that target is permanently hindered by two steps. Enabler.

Unmovable (3 Might points): You avoid being knocked down, pushed back, or moved against your will as long as you are upright and able to take actions. Enabler.

Unraveling Consumption: You can drain energy from a living creature by touching it and concentrating for a minute or more. Each minute you spend in contact with and concentrating on the creature deals it 1 point of damage (ignores Armor) and restores 1 point to your Might or Speed Pool. Because of the extended contact required for this ability, normally you can use it only on a willing or helpless creature. If the creature takes enough damage to knock it unconscious or kill it, it crumbles into ash, dust, or some other inert material. Action to initiate.

Untouchable (6 Intellect points): You change your phase state for the next minute so that you can’t affect or be affected by normal matter or energy. Only mental attacks and special transdimensional energies, devices, or abilities can affect you, but likewise you can’t attack, touch, or otherwise affect anything. Action to initiate.

Untouchable While Moving (4 Intellect points): You change your phase state for the next minute so that you can’t affect or be affected by normal matter or energy, as long as you move at least an immediate distance each round while phased. If you don’t move on your turn, the effect ends. While you are phased, only mental attacks and special transdimensional energies, devices, or abilities can affect you, but likewise you can’t attack, touch, or otherwise affect anything. Action to initiate.

Up to Speed: If you do nothing but move for three actions in a row, you accelerate greatly and can move up to 200 mph (about 2,000 feet each round) for up to ten minutes (about 35 miles), after which you must stop and make a recovery roll. (Move up to 322 kph [about 600 m each round] for up to ten minutes [about 56 km].) Enabler.

Use Senses of Others (4 Intellect points): You can see, hear, smell, touch, and taste through the senses of anyone with whom you have telepathic contact by using Telepathic or similar abilities. You can attempt to use this ability on a willing or unwilling target within long range; an unwilling target can try to resist. You don’t need to see the target, but you must know that it’s within range. Your shared senses last ten minutes. Action to establish.

Using the Environment (4 Intellect points): You find some way to use the environment to your advantage in a fight. For the next ten minutes, attack rolls and Speed defense rolls are eased. Action to initiate.

Using What’s Available (4 Intellect points): If you have the time and the freedom to scrounge for everyday materials in your environment, you can fashion a temporary asset that will aid you once to accomplish a specific task. For example, if you need to climb a wall, you could create some sort of climbing assistance device; if you need to break out of a cell, you can find something to use as a lockpick; if you need to create a small distraction, you could put together something to make a loud bang and flash; and so on. The asset lasts for a maximum of one minute, or until used for the intended purpose. One minute to assemble materials; action to create asset.

Usurp Cypher: 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. However, once you usurp a cypher’s power, you cannot later switch to a different cypher—the usurping ability works only once. Action to initiate.

Abilities—V #

Vacuum Skilled: You are trained in two of the following skills: vacuum welding, algae farming, ecosystem design, circuit design, spacecraft maintenance and repair, or some similar skill related to traveling and colonizing planets, moons, and stations located in the solar system. Enabler.

Vanish (2 Intellect points): You become invisible for a short amount of time. While invisible, you have an asset on stealth and Speed defense tasks. The invisibility ends at the end of your next turn, or if you do something to reveal your presence or position—attacking, using an ability, moving a large object, and so on. Action.

Verbal Misdirection (2+ Intellect points): With fast talk and bewildering words, you can confuse and distract anyone that you’re speaking with, giving you an asset on social interactions with that person for ten minutes. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to affect additional creatures (one per level of Effort). Enabler.

Versatile Mind: When you make a Speed defense roll, you can use your Intellect in place of your Speed. Enabler.

Very Long Sprinting: When you use Phase Sprint, you can travel up to a very long distance as your action instead of a long distance. Enabler.

Vigilance (2 Intellect points): You take a cautious approach to combat, focusing more on protecting yourself than on hurting your opponents. While this ability is active, you gain an asset on Speed defense rolls against melee and ranged attacks, and your melee and ranged attacks are hindered. This effect lasts for as long as you wish, but it ends if no combat is taking place within range of your senses. Action to initiate.

Vigilant (5 Might points): When affected by an attack or effect that would daze or stun you, you are not dazed or stunned. Enabler.

Vindictive Performance (5 Intellect points): When you tell a joke, perform a song or poem, draw a picture, relate an anecdote, or otherwise provide entertainment, you can select one individual from the audience who is able to understand you. During your performance, you heap indirect but biting derision on this target. If you succeed, the target doesn’t realize that they’ve become the victim of your performance until you wrap up the entertainment at a moment you choose in a way that strikes home. The target suffers 6 points of Intellect damage (ignores Armor) and loses their next turn. One or more actions to initiate.

Void Wings (3 Intellect points): Swirling ribbons of weird matter grasp you and lift you up, allowing you to fly for one round as quickly as you can move. Enabler.

Abilities—W #

Walk Through Walls (2 Intellect points): You can slowly pass through physical barriers at a rate of 1 inch (2.5 cm) per round (minimum of one round to pass through any barrier). You can’t act (other than moving) or perceive anything until you pass entirely through the barrier. You can’t pass through energy barriers. Action.

Wall of Lightning (6 Intellect points): You create a barrier of crackling electricity up to 2,500 square feet (230 sq. m) in size, shaped as you wish. The wall is a level 7 barrier. Anyone within immediate distance of the wall automatically takes 10 points of damage. The wall lasts for one hour. Action to create.

Wall With Teeth: You inflict 2 additional points of damage with all attacks when using your Living Wall ability. Enabler.

War Flesh: You can instantly transform your hands and feet into claws, and your human teeth into fangs, or revert to your normal human appearance. When you make attacks with your claws or fangs, they count as medium weapons instead of light weapons. Enabler.

Ward: You have a shield of energy around you at all times that helps deflect attacks. You gain +1 to Armor. Enabler.

Warding Shield: You have +1 to Armor while you are using a shield. Enabler.

Water Adaptation: You can breathe water as easily as you breathe air. Enabler.

Weapon and Body (5 Speed points): After making a melee weapon or ranged weapon attack, you follow up with a punch or kick as an additional attack, all as part of the same action in one round. The two attacks can be directed at different foes. Make a separate attack roll for each attack. You remain limited by the amount of Effort you can apply on one action. Anything that modifies your attack or damage applies to both attacks, unless it is tied specifically to your weapon. Action.

Weapon Crafter: You are trained in crafting tasks associated with your chosen weapon. For instance, if your weapon is a bow, you are trained in tasks related to crafting bows and fletching arrows; if your weapon is a sword, you are trained in tasks for forging swords and sharpening blades; and so on. Enabler.

Weapon Defense: While your chosen weapon is in your hand(s), you are trained in Speed defense rolls. Enabler.

Weapon Master: You inflict an additional 1 point of damage with your chosen weapon. Enabler.

Weaponization: One light or medium melee weapon of your choice is built into your body, and you are trained in using it. The weapon is concealed until you wish to use it. Enabler.

Wear It Well: When you wear armor of any kind, you gain an additional +1 to Armor. Enabler.

Weather the Vicissitudes: Helping your friends means being able to stand up to everything the world throws at you. You have +1 to Armor. Also, you resist heat, cold, and similar extremes and have an additional +1 to Armor against ambient damage or other damage that would normally ignore Armor. Enabler.

Weight of the World (6+ Intellect points): You can increase a target’s weight dramatically. The target is pulled to the ground and can’t move physically under its own power for one minute. The target must be within short range. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to affect additional creatures (one per level of Effort). Action.

Weightless Shot: You have a sixth sense when it comes to lining up trajectories and moving in low-gravity and zero-gravity environments, which also translates to making ranged attacks. When you hit a target with a ranged attack in microgravity conditions, you can choose to reduce the damage by 2 points but hit the target in a precise spot. Some of the possible effects include (but are not limited to) the following:

• You punch a hole in the target’s suit, so it begins to leak air into the vacuum slowly, or all at once (your choice).
• You hit the reaction mass of the target’s maneuvering pack, which means the target can no longer change their trajectory, or they go spinning off in a random direction (your choice).
• You can shoot a spacecraft, and degrade one ship system by one step (systems include engines, weapons, and atmosphere).

Enabler.

Weighty (1 Intellect point): You briefly increase the weight of a target within short range enough to stop them in their tracks, preventing the target from moving and hindering any attempted tasks on their next turn. Action.

Weird Science Breakthrough (5+ Intellect points): Your research leads to a breakthrough, and you imbue an object with a truly amazing property, though you can use the item only once. To do so, you must buy spare parts equivalent to an expensive item, have a field science kit (or a permanent lab, if you have access to one), and succeed at a difficulty 4 Intellect-based roll to create a random manifest cypher of up to level 2. The GM decides the nature of the cypher you create. Attempting to create a specified cypher hinders the task by two steps. Creating a cypher does not allow you to surpass your normal cypher limit. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to increase the level of the cypher you create; each level of Effort increases the level of the cypher and the difficulty of the Intellect task to create it. Action to initiate, one hour to complete.

Whirlwind of Throws (5 Speed points): With a large handful of small objects—tiny knives, shuriken, stones, jagged bits of metal, coins, or whatever is on hand—you attack every creature in an immediate area within short range. You must make attack rolls against each target. Each attack is hindered. You inflict 3 points of damage on targets you hit. Action.

Wild Camouflage (4 Intellect points): By drawing your clothing about you just so and using various tricks and your deep knowledge of your surroundings, you become invisible in the wilderness for ten minutes. While you are invisible, this asset eases your stealth and Speed defense tasks by two steps. This effect ends if you do something to reveal your presence or position—attacking, 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. Action to initiate or reinitiate.

The Wild Is on Your Side (5 Intellect points): While you’re in the wilderness, foes within short range are tripped by rocks, tangled in vines, bitten by insects, and distracted or confused by small animals, which hinders all their tasks for ten minutes. Action to initiate.

Wild Insight: You gain a momentary perfect understanding of the flow of magic around you at this moment. When preparing your magic, choose one specific subtle cypher and make a magical lore skill roll against level 6. If you succeed, you gain that subtle cypher (the cypher’s level is 6); if you fail, you get a random subtle cypher. If you aren’t sure what specific subtle cypher you want, you can ask for a broad category such as “healing,” “movement,” or “skill”; this eases the magical lore task, and if you succeed, the GM chooses a random cypher that fits that category. You can’t use this ability again until after you’ve taken a ten-hour recovery action. Enabler.

Wild Vitality (4 Intellect points): You attune with the life force of a natural creature (your size or bigger) within long range that you can see. This is a level 2 Intellect task. If you succeed, the creature is not harmed, but through resonance with its wild vitality, you gain several benefits for up to one minute: an asset to all your Might-based tasks (including attacks and defenses), +2 to your Might Edge and Speed Edge, and 2 additional points of damage on all successful melee attacks. Action to initiate.

Wildcard Powers: You have a gift with using copied powers in unusual ways. Whenever you try a power stunt and use a level of Effort on the special roll to modify the ability, you get a free level of Effort on that roll. Enabler.

Wilderness Awareness (4 Intellect points): Your connection to the natural world extends to a degree that some would call supernatural. While in the wilderness, you can extend your senses up to a mile in any direction and ask the GM a very simple, general question about that area, such as “Where is the orc camp?” or “Is my friend Deithan still alive?” If the answer you seek is not in the area, you receive no information. Action.

Wilderness Encouragement (3 Intellect points): While in the wilderness, or when talking about your time in the wilderness, your stirring words of encouragement grant a target within short range that can understand you 1d6 points to one Pool. You can’t use this ability on the same creature again until they’ve made a recovery roll. Action.

Wilderness Explorer: While taking any action (including fighting) in the wild, you ignore any penalties due to natural causes such as tall grass, thick brush, rugged terrain, weather, and so on. Enabler.

Wilderness Life: You are trained in two of the following: climbing, swimming, navigation, or identifying plants and creatures. Enabler.

Wilderness Lore: You are trained in wilderness navigation and in identifying plants and creatures. Enabler.

Will of a Leader (9 Intellect points): You harden your allies’ dedication and capabilities. Each ally within immediate range gains +1 Edge to one stat of their choice for one hour. You also gain this benefit to one stat of your choice. Action.

Will of Legend: You are immune to attacks that would captivate, mesmerize, charm, or otherwise influence your mind. Enabler.

Willing Sacrifice: When you take an attack meant for another character, you know how to take the attack in a way that minimizes its effect. The attack automatically strikes you, but instead of taking 1 additional point of damage, you take 1 less point of damage (to a minimum of 1 point). Additionally, you can take more than one attack in a given round provided that all the attacks were originally meant for one target. Enabler. (Two characters attempting to draw an attack at the same time cancel each other out.)

Wind Armor (1 Intellect point): When you wish it, a cyclone of wind surrounds your body for ten minutes, giving you +1 to Armor and an additional +2 to Armor against physical projectile weapons specifically. While the cyclone is active, you feel no discomfort from the wind, and you can interact with other creatures and objects normally because the wind flow automatically diverts to enable such interaction. Enabler.

Wind Chariot (7+ Intellect points): You summon winds that pick you up and allow you to fly for up to a long distance each round in combat or with an overland speed of up to 200 miles per hour (320 kph) for up to ten hours. For each level of Effort you apply, you can bring one ally of about your size with you through the air or increase the duration of the effect by one hour. Action to initiate.

Windrider (4+ Intellect points): You summon winds that pick you up and allow you to fly for one minute at a rate of up to a long distance each round. For each level of Effort you apply, you can carry one ally of about your size with you through the air or increase the duration of the effect by one minute. Action to initiate.

Windwracked Traveler (4+ Intellect points): You condense a wide wing of dark matter that can carry you through the air for a period of up to one hour. For each level of Effort applied, you can add one hour to the duration or carry one additional creature of your size or smaller. You must touch the additional creatures for them to be tucked under your wing. They must remain relatively still while the wing lasts or they will fall. In terms of overland movement, you fly at about 20 miles (32 km) per hour and are not affected by terrain. Action to initiate.

Wings of Fire (4 Intellect points): While your Shroud of Flame is active, you can spread wings of fire and can levitate, moving at a rate of up to 20 feet (6 m) per round in any direction for one minute. You can also take one other
non-movement action on your turn. Action.

Wing Weapons: You can use your wings to make melee attacks (even when flying), leaving your hands and feet free. Your wings are medium bashing or bladed weapons (your choice). You are practiced with this attack. Enabler.

Winter Gauntlets: When you use Frost Touch, you inflict an additional 3 points of damage if you touch a creature, or an additional 2 points of damage if you infuse a weapon. In addition, damaged targets are frozen in place (if standing on a solid surface) and can’t move from their location until they use an action to break free. The target can still attack and defend. Action for touch; enabler for weapon.

Wooden Body (1+ Might points): You transform your body into living wood for ten minutes, which grants you several benefits. You gain +1 to Armor and you are practiced in using your limbs as medium weapons. You need about one-tenth as much air as a human. Hiding among trees or on a tree is eased. However, in your wooden form you move more stiffly than a creature of flesh, hindering your Speed defense rolls. Action to change or revert.

Your wooden body might be smooth like a polished board, rough like tree bark, or a mix of both.

Word of Command (6 Intellect points + level 6 cypher): You utter a word so powerful that to fully invest it, you sacrifice a cypher in your possession that is level 6 or higher. You issue the word to one creature within long range that you can see. The affected target must obey the command for several hours before it is free to act as it wishes. Targets that are attacked while under the effect of the command can defend themselves. Typical commands include “retreat,” “calm,” “come,” and “stay.” The GM decides how the target acts once a command is given. Action.

Word of Death (5+ Intellect points): Your attack is the utterance of a magic word so terrible that it snuffs the life from a living target within short range. The target must be level 1. 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 kill a level 5 target (four levels above the normal limit), you must apply four levels of Effort. Action.

Work the Friendship (4 Intellect points): You know just what to say to draw a little extra effort from an ally. This grants one creature you choose within short range an additional, immediate action, which it can take out of turn. The creature uses the additional action however it wishes. Action.

Wormhole (6 Intellect points): You create a doorway through time and space. The shortcut manifests as a hole in reality large enough to accommodate you and creatures of your size or smaller. One side of the doorway appears anywhere within immediate range, and the other side opens at a spot you choose anywhere within long range. Any character or object moving into one side exits from the other. The door remains open for one minute or until you use an action to close it. Action to initiate.

Wound Tender: You are trained in healing. Enabler.

Wraith Cloak: At your command, the spirit from your Spirit Accomplice ability wraps itself around you for up to ten minutes. The spirit automatically inflicts 4 points of damage to anyone who tries to touch you or strike you with a melee attack. While the wraith cloak is active, all tasks to evade the perceptions of others are eased. Enabler.

Wreck: Using two hands, you wield a weapon or a tool with a powerful swing. (If fighting unarmed, this attack is made with both fists or both feet together.) When using this as an attack, you take a –1 penalty to the attack roll, and you inflict 3 additional points of damage. When attempting to damage an object or barrier, you are trained in the task. Action.

Wrest From Chance: If you roll a natural 1 on a d20, you can reroll the die. If you reroll, you avoid a GM intrusion—unless you roll a second 1—and might succeed on your task. Once you use this ability, it is not available again until after you make a ten-hour recovery roll. Enabler.

Abilities—Y #

You Studied: To be able to put two and two together to reach a deduction, you have to know a few things. You are trained in two areas of knowledge of your choosing (as long as they are not physical actions or combat related) or specialized in one area. Enabler.

Abilities—Z #

Zero Dark Eyes: Some people’s eyes are degraded by constantly playing games. And maybe that’ll happen to you, but not yet. You’re still young and instead of degrading, your vision is actually better thanks to all your practice. You can see in very dim light as though it were bright light. You can see in total darkness as if it were very dim light. Enabler.