Signal Sparring "My thoughts are the only thing sharper than my blades."

2
The power to issue commands to technological devices.
Used by Tam Starling, Created by Polymorph.
(Activating this Effect is not obvious. The only sign you are using an Effect is fingers tapping against your side. )

Tam starts to tap her fingers against her side, a soft smile on her face as she looks away a little. This was just another kind of sparring - and she was good at that.

A manifestation of Tam's telekinetic abilities, Tam has learned to manipulate the internals of electronics.


Spend 2 Actions. Select a Computer within 20 feet. Does not work on Alien technology. You must make a Trauma roll when you use this Effect. Its Difficulty cannot be reduced by any means. Roll Intellect + Technology, with the Difficulty set by the GM depending on the security of the system you are hacking. Sapient targets can resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 6.

If you succeed, you may issue a single command to the targeted system. This command must have a specific outcome or be a request for specific login credentials. The command you issue must be within the machine's current capabilities. For example, you cannot order a standard security camera to grow legs and walk around.

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

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

Possession of this Power grants the following Battle Scar: Atrophied Shoulder - One of your shoulders is damaged. Whenever it takes a major blow or is otherwise put under stress the GM may dislocate it. A dislocated limb cannot be used until you Exert your Mind and spend an Action to reset it.

  • 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 and spend an Action. You must use up a mouthful of four thieves vinegar in order to activate this Effect.

You automatically detect all animates with diseases and animates with battlescars within 300 feet of you for the next hour. This includes any who come within range during the duration. You have a sense of how many valid targets are nearby, as well as their distance and direction.

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.

The tomb turned me into a stronger being, but at what cost…

Exert your Mind and spend an Action.

You transform into Demon, red, forked tail, wings, etc/ greatest fear (after soul control is unlocked) for 3 minutes. You have access to all of your Powers while you are Demon, red, forked tail, wings, etc/ greatest fear (after soul control is unlocked), 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 Attributes are the same. Your Stress is reduced by 2.

Your body is adapted to Flight. You receive +3 dice on non-attack rolls related to Flight.

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

Exert your Mind and spend an Action to activate. Select a Creature within 20 feet.

For the next day, you may issue specific commands to your target which they will be compelled to follow.

Your commands must be relatively simple and within the target’s intellectual grasp. You can make them endanger themselves or otherwise go against their self-preservation instincts. The effects of the command will fade after a day has passed.

  • Your commands must be directly communicated to your target in some way, though this does not require a shared language.
  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.

As Jordan continues to awaken from a sleeper agent into an active agent, he may unlock sections of this database that are currently locked off from him…such as knowledge of alien languages, and of creatures outside his primary assignment of infiltrating human society. Now he has continued along that reawakening, and so alien portions of this database have unlocked as well.

You gain the following benefits at all times.

You may understand and communicate to Creatures, humans, and Sapient beings as if you are fluent in a relevant language.

This also includes understanding any recorded communications from the relevant targets, including writings, scent trails, etc.

  • Communing with creatures does not grant them intellect but does allow you to converse with them.
  • The target of "human" refers to any target that speaks a human language.
  • When reading written communications, you get no information beyond what the writer was intending to communicate.

Exert your Mind and spend at least one Action to activate. Select a Sapient, Living 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. Your command cannot be obviously self-endangering or 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.

  • 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.

Stock Power Gifts

Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and spend two Actions performing the following ritual: perform a fire-breathing trick. Select a target within 20 feet which has both fuel and oxygen available (if you are starting a new fire). Roll a single D10 as a critical failure check. If you roll a 1, the Effect fails, and you take a Severity-4 Injury as the fire burns your throat. You must maintain Concentration while activating this Effect, and it fails if you are interrupted.

You may start or extinguish a fire as large as a firepit's fire at your target. Extinguishing a fire does not cost Exertion. You may create or extinguish fires the size of a lighter or candle flame without Exerting your Mind. Your fires require fuel and oxygen in order to continue burning.

Lighting a target on fire deals 4 Damage each Round on your turn, starting in the Round after the one in which they caught fire. This Damage is reduced by Armor, but the target’s Armor rating will be shredded by any Damage dealt, destroying material Armor once it reaches 0.

You may extinguish flames as a Reaction. This does not extend to explosives.

  • Your fires may be extinguished with appropriate Actions and materials. Stop, drop, and rolling to extinguish requires spending an Action and making a Dexterity + Athletics roll, with an Outcome of 4 putting out the flames.
  • If the target is larger than your flame size, the Armor destruction creates a weak point instead of applying to the entire 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.

  • Smell: Your nose is highly sensitive and can differentiate between scents the way a dog can, as well as recognize things you have smelled before.

You gain the following benefits as long as you are engaged in combat with playing cards.

+2 dice to all rolls utilizing playing cards.

You also gain the following effects:

  • Point Control: Called Shots that you attempt only require a Contested Outcome of 2 for small targets and 4 for tiny targets.
  • Ricochet: You can make a thrown attack against a target behind cover so long as there is at least one exposed pathway to them.

You gain the following benefits at all times.

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

Possession of this Power grants the following Battle Scar: You are muscled like a gorilla and have a slight muzzle and animal facial features.

You also gain the following effects:

  • Champion of the Caber Toss: You may lift an additional 2000 pounds per point of Brawn beyond 5, and you may throw items up to this weight to a distance of your throwing roll’s Outcome x10 feet.
  • Heavy Hitter: Successful attacks made with Brawn will either knock your target back Outcome x 5 feet, or knock them down to the ground. Choose which effect the attack will have prior to rolling for it.
  • Ham-Fisted: You cannot limit yourself when handling delicate objects or physically interacting with people. You may need to roll Dexterity + Athletics to avoid breaking things or causing unintended injury.

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

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Non-Alien Creature within 20 feet. This Effect cannot be used unless the target is a terrestrial animal.

For the next day, you may issue specific commands to your target which they will be compelled to follow.

Your commands can be complex and multi-layered, though they must still be specific. You cannot make them obviously endanger themselves or violate their instinct for self-preservation. The effects of the command will fade after a day has passed.

  • Your commands must be directly communicated to your target in some way, though this does not require a shared language.
  • If targeting a Sapient target that counts as a Creature due to an Effect, you must succeed a contested Mind roll. You roll at Difficulty 6, and the target rolls at Difficulty 8.
  • Targets with Body ratings higher than 10 require a Charisma + Animals roll resisted by the target’s Body. Kaiju and environment-scale targets are immune.
  • 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.