Brain-Surging

2
Requires Seasoned
You possess superhuman wits and insight.
Used by Brainsurge, Created by OffBrandOreo.
( )

Brainsurgeโ€™s brain makes use of some of the power made by the body to increase its function.


You gain the following benefits at all times.

Your Intellect rating is increased by 2. 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).

Possession of this Power grants the following Battle Scar: Soft-Spot: Head/Brain.

You also gain the following effects:

  • Re-Think: You may wait until after all relevant rolls have been made to decide whether to Exert your Mind and get +1 to the Outcome. If Exerting would have caused you to ignore your Stress and roll more dice, you may roll that many additional dice as well.
  • You may Exert your Mind any number of times per Round, including multiple times for each roll
  • 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.

  • When you exert multiple times, if you have the Enhancement Push Through It, the lingering Outcome bonus is limited to +1.
  • Attribute bonuses from multiple sources do not stack. Instead the highest bonus is used.

Community Power Gifts

The serum itself is carefully crafted by Vincent and is custom tailored to his anatomy. It is still imperfect, overworking the body while it is in effect. It also has a chance to be rejected by the recipient's immune system, causing strife that may lead to internal bleeding or extreme exhaustion.

Exert your Mind (unless Severity-3 or deadlier Injury) and spend an Action. You must use up a biochemical serum in order to activate this Effect.

You transform into a mutant for 3 minutes. You have access to all of your Powers while you are a mutant, and you can use your equipment. Your Battle Scars, Injuries, and physical Liabilities are carried over between forms. Reverting from your Alternate Form cannot cause your existing Injuries to kill you. Instead, you remain Incapacitated.

While transformed, your Brawn is increased by 1 and your Dexterity is increased by 1. Your Stress is reduced by 2.

Your alternate form is its own deadly weapon. Unarmed attacks made in your alternate form deal +3 Weapon Damage (instead of the typical -1).

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.

When you activate this Effect, roll a single D10. if the result is 5 or lower, you receive a Severity-1 Injury and a Minor Battle Scar.

  • Reminder: Weapon Damage from multiple sources does not stack. Instead, the highest value is used.
  • Attribute bonuses from multiple sources do not stack. Instead the highest bonus is used.

Guppy was standing all alone in an alleyway. No, not alone. There was a man in front of him with a grim smile on his face. Guppy didn't know the man, but he was reaching his hand out to the child. In fear, Guppy took the small needle in his pocket and stabbed the man's hand. The man cried out as the arm began to shrink down, flesh turning to polyester, muscles and blood to stuffing. The man tries to run, but Guppy is the new holder of that grim smile. He stabs the man's leg, turning that into plush as well. The man falls over onto the concrete, screaming and begging for help and for the child to stop. Guppy happily obliged to stop the pain by pricking the needle into the man's neck. It only took a few more seconds before Guppy was out of the alleyway with a tiny little dinosaur doll in tow.

Spend an Action to activate. Select a Living target within arm's reach. You must actively and obviously use a sewing needle to activate this Effect. Roll Dexterity + Legerdemain 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 3. Armor is fully effective against this damage.

Injuries caused by this Effect do not heal naturally. They can be Stabilized, but will not reduce in Severity unless they are healed through an Effect or some sort of supernatural ability.

If the target takes damage from this Effect, they will receive at least a Minor Battle Scar regardless of the Severity of their Injury. The specifics of the scar are up to GM's discretion.

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.

You gain the following benefits at all times.

Whenever you use your Movement, after all other calculations, the distance you may travel is tripled.

Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: kk.

  • Any Encumbrance penalty to your movement still applies, but you do not suffer from any sort of exhaustion.
  • Damage from a collision depends on your speed at the time, as well as what you hit. GM's discretion, but generally moving faster than a car on the freeway and hitting a dense, solid object like a wall or a tree should be lethal. Mundane armor will not apply, but any supernatural forms of protection will.

Exert your Mind and spend 10 minutes. Select a Object within arm's reach that is no larger than an SUV. Cannot be used on Alien technology. More than half the target object must be present in order to begin repairs. Roll Intellect + Science at Difficulty 6.

If you succeed, your target is repaired back to a functional state. If you fail, you spend the full time working before realizing you cannot repair the target.

  • 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.

You gain the following benefits at all times.

Your senses are enhanced in the following way.

  • Hearing: You may hear sounds of sub- and hyper-sonic frequencies, allowing you to hear tiny things (mice, insects, etc) better, and pick up on the vibrations of massive things (earthquakes, atmospheric disruptions, etc) long before others.
  • Hearing: You automatically know the origin location of any sound you hear, and you can tell which Action caused the sound.

Stock Power Gifts

You gain the following benefits at all times.

Any Injury you receive heals quickly, reducing its Severity by one level every day. Any Injuries you receive while this Effect is active automatically count as a successful Proper Stabilization and do not deteriorate further. Any Battle Scars caused by such an Injury will heal with the Injury.

You may choose to heal any Battle Scar on yourself that is not caused by an Injury. Recovery takes one day, and the Battle Scar affects you fully until that time.

Possession of this Power grants the following Battle Scar: any scars that heal this way leave the flesh in that area bluish and semi-transparent, causing you to be viewed as a freak by most people who see you.

Exert your Mind and spend 1 minute. Select a Living, Animate target within 20 feet You must maintain Concentration while the effect is active. Roll Intellect + Investigation at Difficulty 6. The target may resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 7.

You are able to view your target's memories. The target is aware that their thoughts are being probed but not of the source of the probe. The Effect ends if the target moves out of range or your Concentration is interrupted.

You may ask specific questions about their memory - โ€œwhat is their computer password,โ€ โ€œWhat were they doing at 4:00PM yesterday,โ€ etc - but you cannot get answers to broad, analytical questions like โ€œare they a good person?โ€ or โ€œwhat are their plans for the future?โ€

Each question takes as long as it takes to answer to read. When replaying a full memory, it is replayed in double time.

This Effect is not obvious, and the only sign you are using an Effect is your nose bleeding. If someone suspects that an Effect was used, they must roll Perception + Alertness, Difficulty 8 to pick up on your Tell.

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.

  • 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 or Reaction. Select a Animate target within 20 feet. This Effect cannot be used unless the target is a living human. Roll a single d10, Difficulty 4. If you fail or botch, the Effect fails and you cannot activate it again for an hour. Roll Charisma + Occult at Difficulty 6.

If you succeed, you create a barrier around your target, which absorbs the next Outcome + 2 Damage. 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.

This Effect is not obvious, and the only sign you are using an Effect is you whispering a prayer under your breath. If someone suspects that an Effect was used, they must roll Perception + Alertness, Difficulty 8 to pick up on your Tell.

  • If you use this Effect as a Reaction to dodge, you still need to make a roll to dodge. The Effect will occur regardless of the Outcome of this roll, but if you fail you will be hit by the relevant attack prior to the Effect occurring.
  • If this Effect fails due to the Unreliable check, you must still pay any associated activation costs.
  • 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 Living target within arm's reach. Roll Dexterity + Brawl Difficulty 6. The target may contest by rolling Body, Difficulty 6.

If the contested Outcome is positive, the target takes that much Damage plus 4. The target's material Armor is completely ignored.

When you activate this Effect, instead of occurring immediately, you may choose to delay its effects until the target takes a particular Action. For example: "when they fire a gun" or "when they swim in deep water."

Instead of dealing Damage all at once, the Injury caused by this Power starts at Severity 1 and worsens at the rate of one level per Round until it reaches the Severity it would have otherwise been.

  • "Material Armor" includes armor from equipment but not Armor from Mythic Brawn, barrier, or mystical armor.
  • A given target can have a maximum of one Suspended Effect on them at a time. The selected triggering Action cannot be used to reveal information about the target (e.g. no "activate when they are a vampire"). It must be an Action they take, not a thought or something that happens to them.
  • 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. You must make a Trauma roll when you use this Effect. Its Difficulty cannot be reduced by any means.

You transform into a vampire bat or a wolf until you transform into something else or choose to return to your original form. See the Extended System text for stats.

While transformed, you cannot use any equipment (including Artifacts and Consumables), and you do not have access to any of your Powers. Any equipment you are wearing transforms with you.

Injuries and Wound Level are carried over between forms. However, transforming can never kill you; you merely remain Incapacitated until your Injuries are sufficiently healed.

Possession of this Power grants the following Battle Scar: A disfigured face with bat-like ears.

  • Creature Stats
    • Large (larger than human, smaller than elephant) Body: 8. Brawn 6. Dexterity 2. Fall damage increased by 2. Armor: 1
    • Small (mouse up to regular house cat) Body 1. Brawn 0. Dexterity 4. Cannot injure others with attacks. Cannot die from falling damage. +3 dice to Stealth rolls.
    All creatures get +3 dice to any non-combat Action that they are naturally adapted for. All creatures Medium and larger may attack by rolling Body, dealing +0 Damage (+1 for โ€œpredatorsโ€). Gms and Playgroup leaders can apply other bonuses and effects to specific animals.
  • Animals that are quicker than humans (like dogs) have 50 feet of Free Movement. Animals that are very slow (like turtles) have 0 feet of Free Movement.
  • You cannot transform if there is not enough room to do so.