Look at Yourself Reflecting the ugly truth.

1
The power to learn details about others.
Used by Nathan Hong, Created by Ltyinkwint.
(Activating this Effect is not obvious. The only sign you are using an Effect is As the large man in front of Nathan explains the wonderful quality of his wares, the reflection of the liar in Nathan's eye becomes monstrous as thick wads of cash form his hair, his eyes morph into golden coins and his teeth rot into disrepair.. )

As the large man in front of Nathan explains the wonderful quality of his wares, Nathan obviously maintains eye contact and nods along to the lies. A voice in his mind whispers the truth.


This Effect activates whenever a Sapient within range who you stare into the eye of lies. It does not require an Action or Exertion. Select a Sapient target within arm's reach. At the end of your investigation, roll Intellect + Occult at Difficulty 6. The target resists by rolling Mind at Difficulty 7.

You learn all the following information about your target:

  • You learn what they were hiding with their lies.

The quality and specificity of information gained depends on your Outcome.

This Effect is not obvious, and the only sign you are using an Effect is As the large man in front of Nathan explains the wonderful quality of his wares, the reflection of the liar in Nathan's eye becomes monstrous as thick wads of cash form his hair, his eyes morph into golden coins and his teeth rot into disrepair.. If someone suspects that an Effect was used, they must roll Perception + Alertness, Difficulty 8 to pick up on your Tell.

  • When triggered, the Effect activation resolves immediately after the triggering Action. It is not Reaction speed.
  • 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.

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Revision purchased with:
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Community Targeted Gifts

Exert your Mind and spend at least one Action. Select a Sapient target within 20 feet. Your target may be actively engaged in Combat. Communicate a command to your target. Roll Charisma + Alertness at Difficulty 6. The target may resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 7.

If the contested Outcome is positive, your target will be compelled to follow your command to their best understanding of the letter and spirit of the command until they have completed it or for your Outcome in hours. You cannot issue another suggestion to the target until 10 minutes after they have completed the first command or 10 minutes after a failure.

The target is unaware that they are under supernatural influence and feel they are acting of their own free will. If you fail, they realize that you were attempting to influence them supernaturally with your command.

Your command can be an order to take an immediate Action and a conditional request. You cannot order a target to "do nothing," and they are free to take other Actions as they fulfill your request. Your command cannot be obviously self-destructive. The Effect ends if following your command would cause a target to cross one of their Limits in a way that would necessitate a Trauma roll.

This Effect ends if you are stunned, fall asleep, go unconscious, are incapacitated, die, or if your total Stress ever exceeds 5.

  • You cannot order your target to endanger themselves, but you may order them to flee, attack a certain target, take a defensive or offensive stance, or similar.
  • The target must be able to understand you and must receive your communication for the suggestion to work.
  • Allowed Commands
    • Conditional Request: implants a triggered response or latent order. (e.g. "when you see your mom, give her a kiss" or "when I give the signal, strip naked and pretend you're possessed by the devil.")
    • Direct Order: The target must take an immediate action (e.g. “Sit down,” "run away," or "tell me your password.")
  • 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.

If you’re convincing enough, anything is possible.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a target within arm's reach. Choose an illusion to generate, which can be no larger than a coffee mug.

The chosen illusion is generated at your target, and it will remain in place for the next minute or you choose to end it. It can be perceived by people through their sight. The illusion cannot be used as an attack. You cannot make an exact replica of an existing Animate being or Object.

Anyone who touches the illusion (or who would be able to perceive it significantly through a sense it cannot fool) realizes it is an illusion and can choose to perceive it or not at will.

The illusion will remain fixed to its initial target, and can only change locations if the initial target is mobile in some way. It may have moving parts and engage in simple, predetermined movements but cannot perform anything complex or interactive unless you maintain Concentration and “puppeteer” it.

  • while you can use an illusion to obscure something smaller, you cannot make anything directly invisible (you can’t make a tank look like a regular baseball, but you can hide it in an illusion of a giant baseball).
  • You may only puppeteer a single illusion at once.
  • 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.

Spend an Action. Select a Living target within 45 feet. You must use up incense powder in order to activate this Effect. Roll Perception + Occult at Difficulty 6. The target may roll Body, -2 dice at Difficulty 7, as a Free Action to resist.

If you succeed, either modify an existing Battle Scar on the target or inflict a new one. You determine the new Battle Scar, limited by the contested Outcome:

  1. A Minor Battle Scar E.g. an aesthetic-only body modification (a disfigured face, a pig's tail), impacted hand or foot, or vocal changes that complicate communication
  2. A Major Battle Scar E.g. a disabled/removed hand or foot, an inability to speak, an impacted major sense, removal of a minor sense, impacted movement.
  3. A Severe Battle Scar E.g. a disabled/removed arm or leg, deafness, aesthetic changes that are nearly impossible to conceal.
  4. An Extreme Battle Scar E.g. removal/disabling both hands or both legs, blindness, a full-body deformation that leaves the target humanoid but makes it difficult to use clothes, vehicles, and equipment designed for humans.
Refer to the stock Battle Scars on the Character Sheet for specific systems.

You may affect up to 3 targets within range.

This Gift cannot have more than 3 Drawbacks, and its Gift Cost is capped at 1.

Your alteration "heals" over the course of the next month, after which it is fully cured.

  • When modifying an existing Battle Scar, you may increase or decrease its severity, depending on your Outcome.
  • Remember: A Contractor’s Body rating is reduced by 1 for each Battle Scar after their fourth.
  • You may opt to inflict a Battle Scar that is less severe than what your Outcome allows.
  • 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.

Conner’s Perspective (The Caster)

As Conner prepares to bridge the vast distances between himself and those he’s marked, he settles into a familiar ritual with the tattooing gun in hand. This instrument, more a wand than a tool in this moment, hums to life with an almost eager anticipation. As he begins the process, not on another but on his own flesh, the needle dances with precision and intent. It doesn’t inscribe a new tattoo but activates the magic latent within him, a conduit to those he seeks.

The ink under his skin stirs, coalescing into the face of the individual he wishes to communicate with. It’s a generic face, a template that morphs to adopt the nuances of expression and emotion, a mirror to the person’s current state. This face doesn’t belong to anyone yet resembles everyone, a paradox made possible through magic. It’s a surreal experience, watching these features form and shift, their eyes locking with his in silent conversation. The connection is palpable, a thread of energy that tugs at his core, a blend of concentration and a mysterious, ethereal bond.

The Tattooed Individual’s Perspective (The Receiver)

For the person on the receiving end, the experience is equally mystifying. The tattoo that marks their bond with Conner, usually a static image, begins to undulate gently. This movement is subtle, not painful but undeniably present, like the first hint of a breeze that promises the storm to come. Then, as if the ink itself is alive, their tattoo morphs into a face.

This face, while not Conner’s, carries an echo of his presence. It’s a visage without identity, yet filled with expression, changing and responding as if part of a conversation. This manifestation is deeply personal, a visual representation of the invisible line that now connects them over distances untold. The voice that accompanies this visual transformation is clear, resonating not in the air but in the mind, a direct conduit to Conner. It’s an intimate exchange, shielded from the world, as though the words are whispered directly into their soul.

Spend an Action. Select a number of targets up to your Mind rating any distance away from you. You must have specific targets in mind, but you require only an intuitive understanding of them, such as their name, face, or Location. This Effect cannot be used unless “Connor has used Permanent Magical Tattoos on the target.”. You must actively and obviously use Tattooing Gun to activate this Effect.

You open up a line of communication to your targets, and may converse with them as long as one of you maintains Concentration

The conversation will only be perceived by the intended recipient. You must share a common language for your target to understand the message.

  • Receiving a message does not force a target to pay attention to you, and they can feel free to ignore your message if they choose. Depending on the flavor of your Gift, they may or may not be able to return to it and read it later on.
  • Generally you cannot communicate with Contractors who are not in a Contract with you.
  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.

Take a Severity-1 Injury and spend a minute to activate. Select a non-Alien Device within arm's reach. You must actively and obviously use A necklace of the image Yog-sothoth to activate this Effect. Cannot be used to improve Armor.

For the next day, your target receives 1 extra dice to all actions taken with its intended use.

You may choose a second valid Device target while activating this effect and splice both targets into a single new Device. The newly created item has the same size as the larger of the two initial targets, and can be used to perform the same actions as either of the original items. It receives 1 extra dice to those actions for the next day.

  • After the effect ends, spliced items become un-spliced and return to being separate items.
  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.

Stock Targeted Gifts

Exert your Mind and spend a minute. Select a Sapient target within 20 feet. You may select a target at any range if you use up fresh tracks of the target. At the end of your investigation, roll Perception + Survival at Difficulty 6.

You learn all the following information about your target:

  • You may follow the target's trail, no matter where or how they have traveled, so long as the trail is less than a day old.

The quality and specificity of information gained depends on your Outcome.

Any information you gather is revealed by illuminating the trail in a glowing light and made publicly available.

  • Tracker You are not made instantly aware of where they have been in the past 24 hours; you must follow their trail. You may "happen upon" any trail they have made in the past 24 hours.
  • 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.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a target within 45 feet. Roll Charisma + Performance Difficulty 6. The target may contest by rolling to Dodge or Defend as a Reaction, Difficulty 6.

If the contested Outcome is positive, the target takes that much Damage plus 4. Armor is fully effective against this damage.

  • 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.

Spend an Action. Select a target within arm's reach. You must actively and obviously use bread or a fish to activate this Effect.

For the next 24 hours, your target does not require any food, water, or sleep. Any attempts to age your target fail.

This Gift's Cost is capped at 2 and cannot be increased further.

  • 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.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Animate target within 20 feet. You must actively and obviously use a watch or clock to activate this Effect. Roll Intellect + Science at Difficulty 7.

If you succeed, the target will suffer a dice penalty equal to the Outcome for the next 2 Rounds. Dice pools may be reduced all the way down to 0 by this penalty. This breaks Concentration.

You may activate this Effect as a Reaction to contest any Action a valid target is taking, reducing their Outcome by your own. Your command has no impact beyond disrupting their Action.

  • This Penalty is not removed if a character Exerts their Mind to ignore penalty.
  • If a character has a dice pool reduced to 0, they cannot attempt that action.
  • 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.

Exert your Mind and an Action. Select a Inanimate target within arm's reach which could fit inside a briefcase (15 liters). You must actively and obviously use a pointed hat with stars and moons to activate this Effect.

Your target will become Animated indefinitely. You may choose to end the effect at will, as a Free Action. You can maintain a max of 4 targets animated at once.

Animated Objects have the following restrictions and capabilities:

  • Awareness: Animated targets are capable of perceiving the world around them within reasonable limits. They cannot communicate in a clear or coherent way.
  • Movement: Animated targets can use an existing method of locomotion (wheels, etc); otherwise they can move across the ground at 15 feet per round, or hover up to a height of 7 feet in the air at 10 feet per round.
  • Combat: Animated objects cannot take offensive actions in combat.
  • Artifacts: Animating an Artifact does not grant the animated object access to any Effects built in to that Artifact.
  • Ability Use: If an action requires a roll, Animated objects have a dice pool of 7 when performing a task for which they were designed, and a dice pool of 4 for taking any other actions.
  • Toughness: Animated targets are as easy to destroy as they were prior to being animated. If destroyed, the effect ends.
  • Following Orders: Animated objects are controlled by the GM, and will follow any commands you give them, as long as they don't require problem-solving.

  • A task for which an object was designed might include a broom sweeping, a gun shooting things, a car driving, a towel rubbing up on stuff, etc.
  • Animated objects may be more or less susceptible to certain attacks at GMs discretion. A scarecrow golem would be easily destroyed by a sword (or fire). An animated suit of armor may not fear bullets but could be smashed to bits with a hammer. A full bronze statue is largely indestructible but might have difficulty standing up if toppled.
  • 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.