Imperial Herald "Pardon the disturbance, good people of America - it is your Emperor calling..."

1
The power to communicate over great distances.
Used by Issac Norton II, Created by Strazhari.
(When sending or receiving a message, it is obvious each participant is communicating with someone. You must actively and obviously be using Imperial Raiment.)

If the need is dire enough, Emperor Norton II can inscribe a missive with the Imperial Pen - if acting in his official capacity, everyone within a given postal code will receive this message immediately, typically as a copy of the written note, though other messages are possible.


Spend an Action. This Effect cannot be used unless both you & any potential targets are within the same Postal Code. You must actively and obviously use Imperial Raiment to activate this Effect.

You may send a single message to all targets which are any distance away from you. It can be no more complicated than a multi-page letter or a long email.

You must share a common language for your target to understand the message.

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

  • 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.
  • Your target must be within line of sight, or within range of another sense if more fitting for the Gift's flavor.

Community Power Gifts

Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and spend at least one Action. Select a Human target within 20 feet. Communicate a command to your target. Roll Charisma + Influence 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. You cannot order a target to "do nothing," and they are free to take other Actions as they fulfill your request. Commands can put the target into a potentially self-endangering scenario, including Combat, though you cannot force a target to directly attack themselves. 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.

  • The target must be able to understand you and must receive your communication for the suggestion to work.
  • Allowed Commands
    • 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.

The Craftsman's arms move with uncanny speed, as if robotic limbs scripted to perform.

Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and spend 1 minute. You must actively and obviously use A metalworking tool (EX: Hammer, Pliers) to activate this Effect.

Choose an Object which could fit inside a regular backpack (up to 27 liters). It must be Non-Alien and generic. You can create explosives, but they are limited in size to being no larger or more powerful than a satchel charge. You cannot create firearms.

Roll Dexterity + Crafts to fabricate up to 5 copies of your chosen Object. The Difficulty is assigned by the GM and depends on the specificity of your chosen Object. Your created items no longer expire, and will last until they are destroyed.

Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation or for its duration will almost certainly be disturbed to see The uncanny robotic nature of limbs working pristinely.

Possession of this Power grants the following Battle Scar: burn scars across the arms.

Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Compulsive honesty: You cannot lie.

  • You may cause a created item to expire at will as a Free Action, destroying the item.

You gain the following benefits at all times.

You may communicate to humans as if you are fluent in a relevant language.

  • The target of "human" refers to any target that speaks a human language.

It is apparent that UA-566-A has a level of autonomous control that occasionally overrides the collective consciousness inside of UA-566. UA-566-A has grappled and bitten a number of researchers in the past, and testing on UA-566 now requires a metal hairnet to keep UA-566-A under control.

UA-566 claims that UA-566-A is a "new addition" to it's "collection," and therefore struggles to follow the commands of the central consciousness. It claims to be improving its control over UA-566-A but a statistical analysis of recent incidents involving UA-566 have demonstrated this to likely be a falsehood.

*Addendum 566-1:* It appears as though UA-566 has developed a stronger neurological link with UA-566-A. It claims to have "worked out their differences" and "bonded over a shared love of eating." Note that UA-566-A has not been recorded to have any interest in anything other than the consumption of raw meat.

*Addendum 566-2:* UA-566 has gained an enhanced level of agility with their limb, being able to squeeze its tendrils into extremely tight spaces without sacrificing manual dexterity. It is now capable of opening doors from the inside of its containment unit. Ensure that security doors are water-tight in order to prevent a security breach.

You gain the following benefits at all times.

You gain an additional limb that functions as a standard human arm and hand.

Each additional limb you posses can take one Quick Action per Round without incurring a -2 dice penalty to your main Action. Any Battle Scars that affect or remove your additional limb will heal in a single week.

Your extra appendage can be used to attack in exactly the same manner as a Garrote.

Your appendage is capable of bending and squishing in normally-impossible ways. It may fit through any gap that is not water-tight and retain its functionality.

You may dedicate your extra Quick Action to contest any attempt to escape your Grapples. If you do so, you roll your full dice pool to contest and retain your Action.

Your extra appendage is not connected to your nervous or circulatory systems, and you will not take damage if it is hit by an attack or destroyed.

Exert your Mind and spend at least one Action. Select a Sapient target within 20 feet. Your target cannot be engaged in Combat. Communicate a command to your target. Roll Charisma + Medicine 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 minutes. 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. 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.

If the Contested Outcome of your activation roll is 4 or higher, the activation cost of this Effect is refunded.

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

  • The target must be able to understand you and must receive your communication for the suggestion to work.
  • Allowed Commands
    • 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.

Stock Power Gifts

Exert your Mind and spend an Action.

You automatically detect all illegal materials within 50 feet of you for the next hour. You have a clear sense of both the distance and direction towards any detected items. You do not learn any details about the detected items.

  • This includes any objects that come into range during activation.
  • This Effect does not satisfy the line of sight targeting requirement for other Effects.

You gain the following benefits at all times.

Your Intellect rating is increased by 1. You may Exert your Mind to automatically gain an Outcome of 5 on any roll that uses Intellect (Cannot be used on combat rolls or Power activations).

You also gain the following effects:

  • Brilliant Deduction: You may spend five minutes pondering an enigma, puzzle, or mystery, and roll Intellect at Difficulty 8. Success will reveal a clue or other tidbit that you have otherwise missed. Limit once per enigma.
  • Insufferable Know-It-All: Any social rolls you make are at +1 Difficulty, and if someone else can answer an informational question or solve a puzzle before you do, make a Trauma roll. The Difficulty of this Trauma roll cannot be reduced by any means.

  • Attribute bonuses from multiple sources do not stack. Instead the highest bonus is used.

Increase your sacrificial Injury's Severity by 1 and spend one minute. Select a Dead target within arm's reach that has died within the last hour. This Effect cannot be used unless you drained the target's blood while they were still alive.

Your target rises as an Animate being. The raised creature is totally mindless, with no memory of its past life or hint of its old personality. They cannot communicate. They will follow any command you speak.

The creature lasts until it dies again. It is revived at full health. Any Injuries it had in life are not accounted for when determining its penalties or progression towards re-death, though they may affect its ability to perform certain actions at GM's discretion. The raised creature must consume flesh every day or it will die again.

Raised creatures have their Abilities set to the same that they were in life. Their Charisma and Intellect are set to 1, but their Dexterity, Brawn and Perception are the same as they had in life. A raised creature cannot use any Effects.

Your revived targets deal 2 Weapon Damage with their unarmed attacks.

If you do not have a sacrificial Injury when you activate this Effect, take a new Severity-1 Injury.

  • The creature will die at the end of any 24 hour period gone without consuming their specified diet, and it is important that this growing desperation is reflected in how they are roleplayed.
  • The sacrificial Injury received from activating this Effect cannot be prevented by any means or healed before 1 day has passed. It is shared with all Effects that use sacrifice. This Injury does not requires Stabilization or cause Battle Scars when it becomes Severe.
  • 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 any distance away from you. You must have a specific target in mind, but you require only an intuitive understanding of them, such as their name, face, or Location.

You may send a single message to your target. It can be as complex or as large as you like. It takes at least 30 minutes before it is received.

The message may be intercepted while in transit, and may be overheard, read, or otherwise understood by anyone near either you or the recipient. You must share a common language for your target to understand the message.

This Gift cannot have more than 3 Drawbacks, and its Gift Cost is capped at 2.

  • Depending on the length of your message, it may take a target some time and/or effort to understand it in its entirety.
  • 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.

You gain the following benefits at all times.

Your Charisma rating is increased by 1. You may Exert your Mind to automatically gain an Outcome of 5 on any roll that uses Charisma (Cannot be used on combat rolls or Power activations).

You also gain the following effects:

  • Party Animal: You are welcome at, and will be granted entrance to, any social gathering or party, at least as an observer.
  • The Price Of Fame: Any sightings or recordings of your activity can easily be traced back to you. Even when disguised or using an alias, people always get a Perception check to recognize you.

  • A "social gathering" might include a birthday party, after-work drinks, a ski trip, or yoga in the park, among other things. It likely would not include a cult gathering to summon a demon, Congressional negotiations over a contentious bill, etc.
  • Attribute bonuses from multiple sources do not stack. Instead the highest bonus is used.