Socratic Loophole The one good idea a philosopher's ever had

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The power to inflict mental trauma on a target.
Used by Phylum Moridoc, Created by baeowulf.
(When activating this Effect, it is obvious you are interacting with the target. )

Phylum's tattoos shift and move around their body and his eyes flash a color out of space. The victim's eyes shift the same way, just for a moment, as they experience their base assumptions about the world unravel.


Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Sapient target within 20 feet. Roll Charisma + Influence at Difficulty 6. Affected targets may resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 8 with a -3 dice penalty. If they are incapacitated or unconscious, they fail automatically and their Outcome is 0.

If the Contested Outcome is positive, the target takes Mind damage equal to the Contested Outcome. If you deal at least 3 Mind damage, the target will gain All that you Know is that you Know Nothing: Any time you do something that relies on an assumption (ex: firing a gun assuming that you remembered to load it), roll self control to avoid verifying the assumption. as a Trauma. This Trauma may be removed by Effects or mundane therapy, as normal. Affected targets are aware that they are being attacked and can generally tell who did it.

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

  • 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 to activate. Select a Sapient target within 20 feet. Roll Perception + Alertness at Difficulty 6. Affected targets may resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 8. If they are incapacitated or unconscious, they fail automatically and their Outcome is 0.

If the Contested Outcome is positive, the target takes Mind damage equal to the Contested Outcome. If you deal at least 3 Mind damage, the target will gain a phobia as a Trauma. This Trauma may be removed by Effects or mundane therapy, as normal. Affected targets are aware that they are being attacked and can generally tell who did it.

  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.

Take a Severity-1 Injury and spend an Action to activate. Select a target within 20 feet.

You may start or extinguish a fire as large as a torch's flame at your target. You may create or extinguish fires the size of a lighter or candle flame without Exerting your Mind. When you create a fire, you may choose to maintain Concentration for up to 4 Rounds. As long as you maintain Concentration, the fire you created cannot be extinguished. Afterwards, they require fuel and oxygen in order to continue burning, and can be extinguished as normal.

Lighting a target on fire deals 2 Damage per Round, 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 depleted by any Damage dealt, destroying the Armor once it reaches 0.

Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation will almost certainly be disturbed to see blood leaking from your body and boiling upon contact with the air.

  • When narrating disturbing content, be cognizant of your group's tone and accommodating to those who would like to "fast forward" through the description.
  • Someone may attempt to extinguish a fire that you started by spending an Action and rolling Dexterity + Athletics, Difficulty 8.
  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.

Exert your Mind and spend 2 Actions. Select a Living, Animate, or Dead target within arm's reach. You cannot target yourself. This Effect cannot be used unless succeeded by more than 4 Outcome and you have been targeted by an Effect within the last minute. Roll a single D10 as a critical failure check. If you roll a 1, the Effect fails, and you you suffer a Traumatic Brain Injury. You must actively and obviously use a prism to activate this Effect. When you Activate this Effect, roll a single d10. If the result is 5 or lower, your target receives a Minor Battle Scar. You must make a Trauma roll when you use this Effect. Its Difficulty cannot be reduced by any means. Choose a specific Injury on your target that has not yet been treated with this Effect and roll Perception + Alertness at Difficulty 6.

If you succeed, the Injury is reduced in Severity by your Outcome. If you reduce its Severity to 0, the Injury is fully healed. Otherwise, it is partially healed and will heal the rest of the way at its natural rate.

This counts as a successful Makeshift Stabilization if the Injury was not already Stabilized; any Battle Scars caused by the Injury will remain.

Exert your Mind an additional time when activating this Effect. You may treat an Injury on every target within 30 feet.

If your Outcome is greater than the Severity of the Injury you were attempting to treat, you may apply any excess Outcome to other Injuries on the same patient.

You may treat Severity 1 Injuries without making a roll or paying the Exertion cost, so long as they were not self-inflicted as an activation cost for an Effect.

If you begin healing an Injury on a target that has been dead for less than a minute, and your healing reduces their Wound Level to a non-lethal level, their life is restored.

  • Unstabilized wounds do not degenerate during treatment.
  • 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 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).

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

You also gain the following effects:

  • Poker Face: You reveal only what you want to reveal. It is impossible to determine whether or not you are lying. You may roll Charisma + Performance to resist any investigative Effect that targets you. If you successfully resist, you determine the info they get.

  • In rare cases, GMs may require you to make a roll to lie to particularly powerful beings.
  • Attribute bonuses from multiple sources do not stack. Instead the highest bonus is used.

Spend an Action to activate. Select a target within arm's reach. You must actively and obviously use Golden ring to activate this Effect. Choose an illusion to generate, which can be no larger than a briefcase.

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.

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.

Stock Power Gifts

Exert your Mind (unless you have been recently attacked by your target) and spend an Action. Select a Sapient target within 20 feet. This Effect cannot be used unless the target is undead, demonic, or another evil creature. You must actively and obviously use a gilded cross to activate this Effect. Roll Charisma + Occult at Difficulty 6. Affected targets may resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 8 with a -3 dice penalty. If they are incapacitated or unconscious, they fail automatically and their Outcome is 0.

If the Contested Outcome is positive, the target takes Mind damage equal to the Contested Outcome. If you deal at least 3 Mind damage, the target will gain a phobia of holy things as a Trauma. This Trauma may be removed by Effects or mundane therapy, as normal. Affected targets are aware that they are being attacked and can generally tell who did 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.

Exert your Mind and spend one minute. Select a Living target within 20 feet. This Effect cannot be used unless the target deserves it. Roll Charisma + Occult at Difficulty 6. Your target may resist by rolling Body at Difficulty 7.

If you succeed, the target is afflicted with a Condition that causes one of the following symptoms:

  • Poisoned: The target gains a Severity-1 Injury which ignores Armor and doesn’t heal naturally. For every hour that passes, they receive a new identical Injury. If this new Injury would kill them, they roll 1d10 at Difficulty 6. Success cures the condition; otherwise, they will die.
Symptoms begin to appear immediately, and will remain and continue to worsen until the affliction is cured. The affliction is not contagious and will not spread to others.

The affliction is not treatable by modern medicine. It may be diagnosed by rolling Intellect + Occult at Difficulty 6, and can be cured by bathing fully in clear running water.

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

  • Successfully diagnosing an affliction also includes information about the treatment method.
  • The chosen method of treatment must be something that you could obtain in a small town given an afternoon.
  • Curing an affliction removes the Condition, but does not automatically heal any Injuries, Battle Scars, or Traumas which may have been caused by that condition.
  • 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 as long as you are in werewolf form, and you are engaged in unarmed combat.

+2 dice to rolls for Attacking, Defending, and Clashing without a weapon. Unarmed attacks do +0 Weapon Damage (instead of -1). The target's Armor is fully effective against this Damage.

You also gain the following effects:

  • Armored Fist: You cannot take Damage from attacking a dangerous material (such as steel armor, a spiked carapace, or an acidic blob). You may Defend against melee, projectile, or firearm attacks from any range and Clash with those in range of your attacks.
  • Jiu-Jitsu:When you successfully grapple an opponent, you may choose to also deal damage to them equal to the Contested Outcome on the grapple roll.

  • The total damage of a ju-jitsu grapple-attack is equal to your Outcome minus their Outcome. Bonus Damage from the Bonus Damage Parameter does not apply to damage dealt through this Enhancement.
  • Unlike the Ability Brawl, this Effect does not affect small weapons such as knives.

You gain the following benefits at all times.

Your senses are enhanced in the following way.

  • Hearing: You are capable of perceiving physical shapes via sound. You must produce a cricket chirp to “ping” with your echolocation each Round you wish to use it.

Spend a Quick Action. You must actively and obviously use a scarf, sheet, or handkerchief to activate this Effect.

You may withdraw an item from your stash, or add an item that is within arm’s reach to your stash. You may only stash targets which are in your possession, grappled, or otherwise controlled by you.

You may store Objects in your stash, each no larger than something which could fit inside a briefcase (15 liters), and you may store up to 3 things at a time.

You may choose to equip any equipment you withdraw at no additional cost.

  • "Equip" refers to drawing a gun, putting on a piece of armor, etc.
  • Containers which hold multiple things may count as a single item so long as the things within are generally packaged together. For instance, you may stash a clip full of bullets, a medical kit full of medical supplies, or a box of crackers, but you cannot stash a backpack full of miscellaneous equipment.
  • You may only attempt to store Objects which are free-standing and disconnected from other things. The use of this Effect will not allow you to sever any connections holding an Object in place.
  • The Maximum Object Size parameter is intended to roughly capture the weight / size restriction of items and isn’t intended to restrict shape. GM discretion is advised. A human being is level 4 in the Maximum Object Size parameter.