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The Illumination
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Setting: The Illumination
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Building Custom Gifts

"Gifts are why we sign The Contract"

Each session of The Contract, the Players' Contractors are invited to risk their lives in a deadly mission. Those who succeed are rewarded with a Gift Credit that can be spent here in exchange for extraordinary Artifacts or incredible Powers.

No two Contractors are alike. Each Contractor's Gifts are a unique expression of their concept, and any character concept can be realized by building custom Gifts.

Each Gift's system is automatically generated during creation. These systems are simple but specific. While such precise systems can be verbose, they focus gameplay on creatively using Gifts rather than interpreting them, and they ensure your Contractor plays the same no matter who is acting as GM.

Building Custom Gifts is Easy

Form an idea of what you want your Contractor to be able to do.
Describe your concept to this Gift-Building webpage. Select a Gift Type and Effect, then customize its modifiers until it matches your idea.
Apply flavor to your Gift by adding a description, name, and tagline.

You can also start by customizing a premade Stock Gift.

Watch the video tutorial

Further instructions are available at the bottom of this initial "Select Gift Type" page, and many elements can be tapped on hovered over for more information.

Gift Type: Powers

"Everything in life comes and goes. Everything but Powers."

Powers are a Contractor's bread and butter. They may be obvious or subtle, arcane or technological, actively called upon or passively empowering. Powers are the only Gift Type that doesn't always require equipment, making them the most reliable.

Powers include:

Any superpower
Magical spells and divine invocations
Cybernetic implants and other bodily augmentations
Supernaturally honed Abilities
Mythical Brawn, Dexterity, Intellect, Perception, or Charisma
Beneficial effects stemming from your Contractor's otherworldly nature

If your idea for a Gift isn't obviously one of the other Gift Types, it's probably a Power.

Gift Type: Legendary Artifacts

"I sure hope no one steals this."

Legendary Artifacts are high-risk and high-reward. These one-of-a-kind items are far more powerful than Powers or crafted items. However, they can be lost, destroyed, or even stolen by other Contractors. While there are ways to protect Legendary Artifacts, some risk always remains.

As your Contractor progresses, you may invest multiple Gifts and Improvements into a single Legendary Artifact, granting it multiple activated and passive Effects. Just remember, your Legendary Artifacts can be used by anyone, whether or not you're still alive.

Legendary Artifacts Include:

Unique alien technology
Mythical relics
Family heirlooms
One-of-a-kind creations

Any extraordinary equipment your Contractor did not create themselves is a Legendary Artifact.

Gift Type: Artifact Crafting

"Sure, I'll make you one. If you provide the proper incentive."

Artifact Crafting turns your Contractor into the golden goose. No Gift Type demands more sacrifice, nor a higher price. However, those Contractors who invest in Artifact Crafting create equipment that rivals the Gifts of the Harbingers. And make no mistake: most Contractors' loyalty can be bought.

Any Contractor who takes a crafting Gift can craft. When you craft with an Artifact Crafting Gift, you can either create a new Artifact with that Gift's Effect or add its Effect to another Artifact you've created.

Investing a Gift Credit or Improvement into an Artifact Crafting Gift lets you craft it once for free. After that, crafting with the Gift costs Experience equal to its Gift Cost + 1.

Crafted Artifacts Include:

Extraordinary weapons and armor
Skunkworks prototype devices
Spellbooks
Alien technology
Super-suits for your team

If you're looking to rival Hephaestus or Stark, you want Artifact Crafting.

Gift Type: Consumable Crafting

"Everybody take one. Use it if you get into trouble."

Consumables are single-use items that are easy to share and trade.

Any Contractor who takes a crafting Gift can craft. Each Downtime between Contracts, Contractors can craft one of each of their Consumables for free. Investing a Gift Credit or Improvement into a Consumable Gift grants an extra one for free. Additional Consumables may be crafted at a cost of 1 Exp each.

Crafted Consumables Include:

Potions
Specialty ammunition
Settable traps
Deployable super-tech
Magic makeup
Energy drinks that turn you into a mongoose

If it's supernatural, single-use items your Contractor makes, it's Consumable Crafting.

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Domain Expansion II

Cost: 1

Requires Seasoned

The power to create an environmental hazard.

Kitty can extrude a powerful aura of force, affecting creature's abilities to cast spells.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must actively and obviously use a prism to activate this Effect.

You create a hemispherical dome of oppressive gravitational force originating at your Location, with a radius of 60 feet. and lasting for 5 minutes. You are fully immune to the effects of your zone. The area inside your zone is affected in any number of the following ways:

Overwhelming: Anyone inside the zone cannot Exert their Mind, and Mind rolls made within the zone are at -2 dice.

The zone expands immediately to its full size from the chosen Location and will spread to fill the entire area regardless of any barriers or cover.

Any time someone leaves your zone, they remain affected by your Zone Effects for an additional 3 Rounds as if they were still within the zone.

You may only use this Effect once per day.

Extended System

Affected targets may still spend Source.
The Effect does not follow you after you activate it.
If you select a location at the edge of your range, you will be just outside the zone once the Effect is activated
You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.
Your target must be within line of sight, or within range of another sense if more fitting for the Gift's flavor.

Gift Example

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Editing Gift
Domain Expansion II

Power

Environment Control

Customize

Cost: 1

Domain Expansion II

Cost: 1

Requires Seasoned

The power to create an environmental hazard.

Kitty can extrude a powerful aura of force, affecting creature's abilities to cast spells.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must actively and obviously use a prism to activate this Effect.

Overwhelming: Anyone inside the zone cannot Exert their Mind, and Mind rolls made within the zone are at -2 dice.

The zone expands immediately to its full size from the chosen Location and will spread to fill the entire area regardless of any barriers or cover.

Any time someone leaves your zone, they remain affected by your Zone Effects for an additional 3 Rounds as if they were still within the zone.

You may only use this Effect once per day.

Extended System

Affected targets may still spend Source.
The Effect does not follow you after you activate it.
If you select a location at the edge of your range, you will be just outside the zone once the Effect is activated
You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.
Your target must be within line of sight, or within range of another sense if more fitting for the Gift's flavor.

Customize System

Customize your Gift's behavior.

When you're satisfied, scroll down to flavor and finish.

Tap this button any time to preview your Gift:

Cost: 1

You must choose at least one Zone Effect Enhancement. The number of Zone Effect Enhancements attached to this Gift is limited to 2 for Novices.

Style

Targeted (Gift Cost: -1)

Trap (Gift Cost: -2)

Environmental Effect

The type/appearance of your environmental effect. E.g. "rain," "creeping vines," "inky blackness"

Radius

Duration

Enhancements

Gift Cost: +4

Draw Borders (You may affect an area within any 3-D shape, chosen when you activate this Effect, as long as it fits within the maximum radius.)

Cannot be taken with Nexus

Easy (When you activate this Effect, flip a coin. If you win, its Exertion cost is refunded.)

Lingering (Your Zone Effects linger for a short time after someone leaves the zone.)

Subtle (Your zone blends with the environment, seeming to arise naturally from local effects. Observers who roll Perception + Alertness and achieve an Outcome 4 or higher notice that it is unnatural.)

Willful End (You may end this Effect before its duration has elapsed as a Free Action.)

Zone Effect: Danger Zone (The area is extremely inhospitable. At the end of each Round, everyone in the zone must roll for Acute Exposure.)

Zone Effect: Disorienting (Any time someone moves within or through the zone, they must roll Mind at Difficulty 8. If they fail or botch, they move a similar distance in a different direction of the GM’s choice.)

Zone Effect: No Comms (Any being inside the zone cannot communicate in any way with any being outside the zone and vice-versa.)

Zone Effect: Obscure Vision (The zone is partially blocked from view. Anything within the zone will have difficulty seeing anything or being seen from the outside. Any rolls that rely on sight are made at -3 dice, and rolls that would benefit from sight are rolled at -1 dice.)

Zone Effect: Slippery (All movement distances are halved within the zone. Anyone who wishes to move further than their Free Movement within a Round must roll Dexterity + Athletics. If they fail, their movement is limited to their Free Movement and they fall down.)

Zone Effect: Suppress Hearing (The zone is rendered completely silent. No one inside of the zone can hear any meaningful sound, and no meaningful sound escapes the zone. Rolls that rely on hearing fail automatically, and rolls that benefit from hearing are at -3 dice.)

Zone Effect: Suppress Smell (The zone is blocked from scent and taste. No meaningful scents or tastes escape the zone or can be perceived inside the zone. Rolls that rely on smell or taste fail automatically, and rolls that normally benefit from smell or taste are at -3 dice.)

Zone Effect: Suppress Vision (The zone is fully blocked from view. Nothing within the zone may see anything or be seen from the outside. Any rolls that rely on sight fail automatically, and any rolls that benefit from sight are made at -3 dice.)

Requires: Obscure Vision

Seasoned Enhancements

Ephemeral Storm (The zone occupies its full area of effect, regardless of any barriers or cover in the area.)