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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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Sound Barrier“All together now!”

Cost: 0 (1 -1)

Requires Seasoned

The power to create a protective barrier.

Keith Nightly’s music comes alive and forms a barrier to defend him as he plays, letting none disturb the jam session of him and his band mates Uses Music

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must actively and obviously use Musical Instrument to activate this Effect. Roll Rizz + Performance at Difficulty 6.

If you succeed, you create a Barrier extending out 15 feet from yourself, which absorbs 2 times the next (Outcome +2) Damage. Only applies to attacks which originated outside the 15 foot radius, and protects anyone who is within that radius. The Damage reduction from the barrier is applied before Armor. You may only have 1 active barrier at a time.

You must maintain Concentration while using this Effect. The barrier will fall if you are interrupted, or if it absorbs the full amount of Damage. When a barrier falls, you cannot use this Effect again for a minimum of 2 Rounds. As long as it does not fall, the barrier regenerates back to full strength at the end of each Round of combat.

Extended System

Effects which circumvent Armor completely also circumvent your barrier.

Gift Example

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Editing Gift
Sound Barrier

Power

Barrier

Customize

Cost: 0 (1 -1)

Sound Barrier“All together now!”

Cost: 0 (1 -1)

Requires Seasoned

The power to create a protective barrier.

Keith Nightly’s music comes alive and forms a barrier to defend him as he plays, letting none disturb the jam session of him and his band mates Uses Music

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must actively and obviously use Musical Instrument to activate this Effect. Roll Rizz + Performance at Difficulty 6.

Extended System

Effects which circumvent Armor completely also circumvent your barrier.

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: 0

Style

Activated (Gift Cost: -2)

Targeted

Activation roll

Barrier Strength

Enhancements

Gift Cost: +2

Bubble Barrier (When you activate this Effect, you may opt to erect a bubble barrier. If you do so, no physical objects or entities can pass into your bubble until the barrier is broken, but you and the barrier cannot move.)

Cannot be taken with Persistent Shielding

Bubble Shield (Your barrier’s strength is doubled, and it protects everyone within a 15 foot radius of your primary target. However, any attacks that originate from inside the radius will not be absorbed.)

Concealed (Using this Effect is not obvious. Choose a Tell that occurs only when you use the Effect; if-- and only if-- someone suspects that a Effect was used, they must roll Perception + Alertness, Difficulty 8 to pick up on your Tell.)

Cannot be taken with Focus

Reflect (Any Damage absorbed by the barrier is reflected back to the attacker, up to a maximum of the Barrier Strength Parameter’s bonus. Their Armor applies in full.)

Too Slow! (You may activate this Effect as a Reaction.)

Tying Off (Any barriers you create last two hours, and you no longer need to maintain Concentration in order to maintain them.)

Cannot be taken with Persistent Shielding

Seasoned Enhancements

Insurance (Any target that is or was under the protection of your Barrier in a given Round cannot take an Injury greater than Severity 6 that Round.)

Requires Seasoned status.

Persistent Shielding (The barrier regenerates back to full strength at the end of each round of combat. It will still fall if the full amount of damage is dealt within a single round, or if you are interrupted.)

Requires Seasoned status.

Drawbacks

Gift Cost: -1

Conditional (This Effect is only available when a certain condition is met. This condition must be severe enough that this Gift is unusable the majority of the time.)

Disfiguring (Possession of this Gift grants a minor Battle Scar that can only be cured by buying off this Drawback.)

Disturbing (Witnessing this Effect is disturbing and/or morally abhorrent to the average person. Anyone who witnesses you during its activation or for its duration will be repulsed, outraged, and will likely think differently of you from that moment on.)

Draining (After this Effect ends, you cannot move quicker than a walk (15 feet per Round) for one minute and suffer a -1 dice penalty for an hour.)

Focus (Using this Effect requires a specific kind of item.)

Object:

Fuel (Using this Effect consumes some material good in addition to its other costs.)

Cannot be taken with Focus

Maddening (Possession of this Gift causes a Trauma that cannot be cured by any means. The chosen Trauma must be likely to come up on a Contract.)

Mage (Activating this Effect requires two consecutive Actions of Concentration. It involves intricate use of the body and voice. If interrupted during activation, the Effect fails. It is obvious you are preparing to activate an Effect during casting.)

Once per Day (You may only use this Effect once per day.)

Partial Shield (The barrier only prevents half of the Damage from a given attack, the rest will penetrate through to the target. The barrier is still depleted by the full amount of Damage.)

Sacrifice (Instead of Exerting your Mind or expending Source, activating this Effect gives a Severity-1 Injury that worsens by 1 Severity each time you use an Effect with Sacrifice. This Injury cannot be prevented by any means or healed before 1 day has passed.)

Traumatic (You must make a Trauma roll when you use this Effect. Its Difficulty cannot be reduced by any means. If you fail or Botch, you receive one Mind Damage and a new Trauma.)

Unreliable (When you activate this Effect, roll a single d10, Difficulty 4. If you fail or botch, the Effect fails and you cannot activate it again for an hour.)

Cannot be taken with Persistent Shielding

Customize Flavor and Finish

Gift Name

Tagline

(Optional) Introduce the Gift in a flavorful way.

Visual Description

A concise description of what this Gift looks like when it is used. What do participants and observers experience? This will be referenced by GMs at game-time to help them narrate.

This Effect is obviously Alien when used. The target and source of this Effect are obvious to bystanders.You must actively and obviously be using Musical Instrument.

Extended Description

(Optional) Wax poetic about this Gift's background, metaphysics, etc.

Gift incomplete

Gifts must cost a minimum of one Gift Credit

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Editing Gift Sound Barrier

Editing Gift Sound Barrier

Sound Barrier“All together now!”

Customize System

Style

Activation roll

Barrier Strength

Enhancements

Seasoned Enhancements

Drawbacks

Customize Flavor and Finish

Visual Description

Extended Description

Gift incomplete

Editing Gift
Sound Barrier

Editing Gift
Sound Barrier