"Heads, or tails?" A simple 50/50 chance, yet getting it right instills one with the feeling that they are on a 'hot streak', that surely they can keep predicting the flow of luck and the face of the coin. Surely the unlikely will happen, and a big win is within reach only if one keeps gambling.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a number of Living targets equal to your Charisma within arm's reach. You must actively and obviously use a coin to activate this Effect. Roll Charisma + Thievery (8 dice) at Difficulty 6. Affected targets can resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 6 -3 dice.
If you succeed, for the next hour, affected targets will do things they otherwise wouldn’t have done, inspired by overconfidence. They will not necessarily display their emotions in an obvious way.
Actions they take will be in keeping with their character and the way they tend to deal with strong emotions. They will be unlikely to change their mind about any actions taken or decisions made until after the Effect ends.
When your target interacts with any valid target, they must roll Self-Control or be swept up in the same emotion. New targets pass it on as well, and so on, with the remaining duration decreasing by half until the chain stops.
You may only use this Effect once per day.
The Well and its inhabitants birth darkness, bathe in darkness, and breed darkness. Oblivion started in darkness and will end in darkness. Its various inhabitants have adapted to such a harsh terrain- Umbra was no different, and Luci's connection to the Well allows her to temporarily adopt some of those perceptive traits.
Luci's irises swell with cloudy blackness, like a drop of paint trailing down in a jar of water, turning her eyes from a light hazel to a deep black to annotate this change.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must use up 1 liter of ink in order to activate this Effect. You must make a Trauma roll when you use this Effect. Its Difficulty cannot be reduced by any means. If you fail or Botch, you receive one Mind Damage and a new Trauma.
Your senses are enhanced in the following way. Lasts for three hours.
Any senses which have been heightened cannot be overloaded. Battle Scars you receive cannot affect these senses.
Through years of rigorous blacksmith work Henry has learned how to suck it up and keep moving. Injuries no longer slowing him down, as steel replaces flesh in order to keep moving, it grows with the wounds, but has potential for total take over if Henry should meet that fateful encounter.
You gain the following benefits at all times.
Your Stress from Injuries is reduced to 0. Does not reduce Stress from Mind Damage.
Stress from Injuries acts as a dice bonus instead of penalty.
Eloquence: "Through words, actions, and established processes, Lawyers are able to effectively distort a target's thinking to a certain degree, making people feel very close to them or willing to trust them." [Charisma + Authority]
By structuring his words through deliberate, established processes, Nero is able to actively bend a target's will to be below his own, and force them to follow his exact orders. Any who succeed their resistance may realize that the authority Nero possesses is backed by something much deeper than pure strength of personality, however... and those especially aware may even notice the Black Emperor's visage line the officer's form when it happens.
Exert your Mind and spend at least one Action. Select a Human target within 20 feet. Your target cannot be engaged in Combat. Communicate a command to your target. Roll Charisma + Influence (6 dice) 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 Contested 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.
When activated, the air near the target location shimmers like static on an old VHS tape. A low, almost inaudible hum pulses—some swear it sounds like reversed speech or shortwave radio gibberish. Then, the illusion flickers into place, as if being beamed from a grainy broadcast or decoded from a corrupted satellite feed. Observers might feel a faint pressure in their skulls, like déjà vu or a memory that isn't theirs.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Location within 45 feet. 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 the entire effect will be ended for all targets.
The illusion will remain fixed to its initial Location. 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.
Any illusion made to disguise an Object as a different Object with a similar size and shape last a minimum of one day and can only be broken by a scientific analysis, investigative Effects, or witnessing the object being used in an inconsistent way.
Project Shining Star is TARP'S intention to find a method to get an immortal soul in an otherwise weak body, by any means necessary. The Conventions and rules of the real world would not stand for such experimentation, however in this simulation, any research would be viable in the pursuit of making Humanity a greater species.
Subject Shining Star is a testament to the hard work and ideals of TARP science and biological research: they have shown promise in a controlled setting, but how does it fair out in the field? Would this have militaristic applications?
While the Subject is unstable and prone to spontaneous combustion, they are otherwise the most promising in relation to the 12 others: The Soul's energy, when released without warning enshrouds the blast area with unstable radioactive isotopes. However when this energy is harnessed, the blast is able to set off without these consequences.
With this, the only notable flaw, the next stage of Shining Star is set to commence. Field research.
Increase your sacrificial Injury's Severity by 1 and spend an Action. The area within 25 feet of you immediately and obviously becomes imminently dangerous. On the following Rounds, you may choose to detonate the Blast as a Free Action on your initiative. When you do so-- or when one minute elapses-- roll Brawn + Athletics (8 dice) at Difficulty 6.
If the Outcome is positive, your blast hits everything within 25 feet of you with Damage equal to your Outcome + 4. If you botched the activation roll, you will also take full Damage from the blast, otherwise it will not hurt you.
Anyone hit by the blast may roll Body at Difficulty 7 as a Free Action, and reduce their Damage taken by the Outcome. Damage spreads to targets beyond the edge of the initial radius, decreasing by 2 Damage for every 5 feet traveled.
Any flammable Objects within the radius during the blast will catch fire, and any being who takes at least 4 Damage will catch fire. Starting the Round after they caught fire, flaming targets take 2 Damage per Round until the fire is extinguished.
Possession of this Power grants the following Battle Scar: Shining Star: You cannot raise your voice above a shout or a whisper. After physical activity, your body starts humming and dimly glowing; all stealth rolls are -2 dice.
Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Papa said War is War: Good soldiers follow orders, but should a dangerous situation were set up, you are the first in line to face it. In the heat of battle, roll self-control in order not to do a dangerous action to complete the mission- with no regards to collateral damage to yourself, or others.
If you do not have a sacrificial Injury when you activate this Effect, take a new Severity-1 Injury.
The musician pours their heart and soul into their music, giving others some much needed perspective and solace and all around good vibes. This can be a temporary easing of the mind, but with prolonged music therapy it can even permanently cure psychic damage.
Exert your Mind to activate. Select a Living target within arm's reach. You cannot target yourself. This Effect cannot be used unless you continuously play music for your target during the activation. Over the course of one Downtime, your patient must communicate with you and reveal at least one of their Traumas to you, including the details of those Traumas and the circumstances of how they were acquired. After the full treatment time has elapsed, roll Charisma + Performance (4 dice) at Difficulty 6.
Your target may Resist. If your treatment is successful, you may remove one of the patient's revealed Traumas without incurring any Experience cost.
Once per day per target, you may choose to use this Effect to stabilize the Mind of a target within arm's reach. Treatment takes 30 seconds but will not remove any Traumas. If you are successful, restore 2 Mind damage.
You may choose to use this Effect to temporarily relieve any number of the patient's Traumas (including mental Conditions). In this case, Treatment takes an Action and the effect lasts two hours. If the Patient is currently experiencing an episode, Difficulty is increased by 2.
The Thief examines an object closely for a minute to appraise its value. As their eyes dance across the subject, their pupils split vertically, and their irises fade to gold. If it is a particularly valuable item, the Thief may greedily lick their lips, revealing a forked tongue.
Within a minute, they have determined how materially valuable the object is and why.
Exert your Mind and spend a minute. Select a target Object within arm's reach. At the end of your investigation, roll Charisma + Culture (6 dice) at Difficulty 6.
You learn all the following information about your target:
You cannot investigate the same target more than once per day.
This is a doctor who exists on the front lines. They're most at home working under stressful conditions when the stakes couldn't be higher.
You gain the following benefits at all times.
All Stabilizations you attempt are considered Proper Stabilizations.
You also gain the following effects:
The mobster presents a reasoned, logical case to the target: there's a lot of dangerous folks out there, and only they can offer safety... for a price.
If they agree, they will pay the mobster a monthly fee for protection. If they stop making their payments... well, let's just say, the mobster can't be held responsible for any unsavory types that might pay them a visit.
This Effect cannot be used unless you are making a deal to exchange money for protection.
You may make an oath with a physically-present, Sapient target. Communicate the oath's terms to the target, including the requirements and penalties for each participant. If all agree to the terms, you must Exert your Mind and all participants must shake hands to seal the deal.
Record the oath as a Condition. If a party breaks the oath, the Condition ends and they suffer the oath's penalty.
When crafting your oath, you may incorporate any of the following penalties:
The target cannot be compelled to agree via a direct threat of violence, another Effect, or another oath. If you would like to use clever wording to mislead the target, you must succeed a contested Intellect + (Culture or Influence) roll.
Years of scouting in dangerous areas has left the survivalist hyper-vigilant. They are impossible to catch in a trap.
You gain the following benefits at all times.
Your Perception rating is increased by 1. You may Exert your Mind to automatically gain an Outcome of 5 on any roll that uses Perception (Cannot be used on combat rolls or Power activations).
You also gain the following effects: