Mind Sleuth "That's what you don't get bub: you already confessed."

3
Requires Seasoned
The power to peek into another's memories.
Used by Frank Russo, Created by Ozz.
(Activating this Effect is not obvious. The only sign you are using an Effect is reading over a manila folder. )

After briefly examining a target, a thin manila folder forms somewhere on Frank’s person. It could be tucked into his trench coat, hidden in a bag, hell, it could even manifest in his hand if he so chooses. It’s filled with a variety of papers documenting the target’s life, their memories, their experiences and desires. Images dance along the file whenever a specific memory is chosen, illuminating the truth about the target’s past.

To observers, the folder appears to be filled with nothing but blank sheets of printer paper. Those with the Clear-Sighted enhancement should be easily able to gleam that there’s something off with the folder, that some illusion or false reality prevents it’s contents from being shared.

Once the power ends, the folder dissipates.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Living, Animate target within 25 feet. You must maintain Concentration while the effect is active. Roll Perception + Investigation at Difficulty 6. The target may resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 6.

If you succeed, you are able to view your target's memories. If you fail, the target knows you're attempting to read their memories.

You may ask a number of specific questions about their memory equal to your Contested Outcome. For example, “what is their computer password,” “What were they doing at 4:00PM yesterday,” etc. You cannot get answers to broad, analytical questions like “are they a good person?” or “what are their plans for the future?”

Each question you ask and memory you replay takes a single Round to read.

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

  • In the case of a failed activation, GMs should consider how bystanders would realistically react to a potentially-outlandish accusation of mind-reading.
  • 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.

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Revision purchased with:
Improvement from running It's Cleanup Day! spent on improving power: Mind Sleuth    (since refunded)
Revision purchased with:
Gift from playing in The new horizon spent on adjusting power: Mind Sleuth    (since refunded)
Revision purchased with:
Improvement from answering questions for their questionnaire spent on adjusting power: Mind Sleuth    (since refunded)
Revision purchased with:
Gift from playing in The Winter Hunt spent on new power: Mind Sleuth    (since refunded)
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Community Power Gifts

You gain the following benefits as long as you have your Star in his right eye.

Your Dexterity rating is increased by 3. You may Exert your Mind to automatically gain an Outcome of 5 on any roll that uses Dexterity (Cannot be used on combat rolls or Power activations).

Possession of this Power grants the following Battle Scar: Soft Spot: Starry-Eyed.

Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Showdown : You must roll Self Control to not honor a fight or duel, or otherwise leave a combat where your enemy ain't dead....

If you are witnessed actively using this Effect, whoever sees it can make a Perception + Alertness roll at Difficulty 6. A complete success reveals the source of your power.

You also gain the following effects:

  • Reactionary: You gain an additional Reaction each Round. You cannot take an Action after taking a Reaction.

  • If your Star in his right eye is damaged, destroyed, or lost, you lose all benefits from this Effect for the next two months, or until you can recover any relevant missing items (which may involve a side-game and requires a GM to approve whatever process is used).
  • Attribute bonuses from multiple sources do not stack. Instead the highest bonus is used.

Many and varied are the healing touches of the world. But none like Wisdom's Embrace. Sometimes, knowing a thing is all that you need to do a thing and healing is no different. Wisdom's Embrace utilizes the user's knowledge as pure energy to perform a sequence of actions that would quickly lead to the result. "Healing" someone is merely circumstance as it is more along the lines of "Repairing what is broken".

Exert your Mind and spend 1 minute. Select a Living or Animate target within arm's reach. You cannot target yourself. Your target must also Exert their Mind to activate this Effect. Choose a specific Injury on your target that has not yet been treated with this Effect and roll Intellect + Medicine 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.

  • 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.

The computer is always scanning their senses and expounding on everything perceived. It also connects to the internet, and any of Ware's gadgets nearby.

You gain the following benefits at all times.

Your Intellect rating is increased by 0. 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:

  • Quick Thinking: Any Intellect rolls other than Power activations are made as Free Actions. You get +2 dice to all Initiative rolls.
  • Remarkably Self-Aware: You may roll Intellect at Difficulty 6 to “scan” yourself for abnormalities. With Outcome 1-3, any outside influences on your thoughts/mind will be detected, as well as Traumas. With Outcome 4+, you may Exert your Mind to cancel the Effect. One attempt per Effect.

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

All Carver does is remove the compulsions left by traumatic experiences, allowing her patient control over themselves while tackling their traumas. They'll remember what happened to them, but it will no longer spark the same trauma response.

As long as the mind isn't traumatized *again* shortly afterwards. Otherwise the old connections resurface and it's back to square one, with extra baggage this time around.

All of this works on inhuman, even unliving physiology thanks to Carver's familiarity with the not-quite-human people around her. As long as they have a sentient mind capable of being traumatized, her powers allow her to detangle them.

Exert your Mind to activate. Select a Living or Animate target within arm's reach. Over the course of one day, 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 + Medicine 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.

Your patient is required to not fail a limit check for the next month. If they violate this rule, your treatment is immediately reversed.

  • The patient is aware of the after-care requirement.
  • The treatment time may be broken up into multiple sessions if necessary.
  • 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.

You are obscured in one of the following manners. You may Spend an Action to change the way in which you're concealed.

  • Sight:You are partially obscured from being noticed by sight. All attempts to detect you using sight are rolled at a -3 dice penalty, and all attempts to detect you where sight would assist are rolled at -1 penalty. Anyone who detects you cannot determine any visual details about you beyond your general shape.

While this Effect is active, any Effect that would obscure you from other, additional senses fails automatically. If someone discovers you, this Effect will not help you hide from them for the next minute. This Effect does not end early when you activate an obvious Effect, attack, or receive an Injury.

  • GMs should use their discretion when determining the exact impacts of this Effect, particularly in conjunction with environmental factors. Standing still against a complex background may render you impossible to detect, and footprints in snow may make it easy. A chance to detect you is not guaranteed.

Stock Power Gifts

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Living target within 45 feet as well as a specific emotion. This Effect cannot be used unless you are engaged in conversation with the target. Roll Charisma + Influence at Difficulty 6. Affected targets can resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 6 -3 dice.

If you succeed, for the next minute, your target will do things they otherwise wouldn’t have done, inspired by the chosen emotion. 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.

  • Common emotions and the actions they inspire
    • Anger (shouting, cruelty, denying requests, attacking)
    • Pity (stopping an attack, executing an injured target)
    • Happiness (generosity, dancing, joking, socializing)
    • Sadness (finding solitude, openly crying, demotivation)
    • Fear (running, attacking)
  • If you succeed, the target MUST take at least one Action they otherwise would not have. Hey, GM who is reading this, I'm talking to you. You have to enforce this. Remember: Gifts must feel powerful.
  • 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 Non-Alien door, container, knot, or lock within arm's reach. This Effect cannot be used unless the targeted lock or door is being used to restrain or imprison you.

You may lock, unlock, and/or open your target.

  • Operating some locking mechanisms through this Effect may have a secondary effect, such as a turn-key ignition on an older or cheaper car causing it to start or stop. Note that the locking mechanism itself must satisfy the standard targeting requirements (including line of sight), not just the vehicle.
  • Any mechanism that requires a key, keycard, key fob, or combination may be considered locked, at the GM's discretion. This Effect may be used on doors and containers secured with control panels or other electronic locks, but not computer security systems at large.
  • 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.

You may understand and communicate to terrestrial animal as if you are fluent in a relevant language.

  • Communing with terrestrial animal does not grant them intellect but does allow you to converse with them.

Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and Spend an Action. Select a Living target within 45 feet. Roll Intellect + Occult at Difficulty 6. The target may roll Body, -2 dice at Difficulty 7, as a Free Action to resist.

If you succeed, the target receives a new Battle Scar of your choosing, limited by the contested Outcome:

  1. A Minor Battle Scar E.g. an aesthetic-only body modification (a disfigured face, a pig's tail), impacted hand or foot, or vocal changes that complicate communication
  2. A Major Battle Scar E.g. a disabled/removed hand or foot, an inability to speak, an impacted major sense, removal of a minor sense, impacted movement.
  3. A Severe Battle Scar E.g. a disabled/removed arm or leg, deafness, aesthetic changes that are nearly impossible to conceal.
  4. An Extreme Battle Scar E.g. removal/disabling both hands or both legs, blindness, a full-body deformation that leaves the target humanoid but makes it difficult to use clothes, vehicles, and equipment designed for humans.
Refer to the stock Battle Scars on the Character Sheet for specific systems.

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."

Possession of this Power grants the following Battle Scar: Witchy Appearance. You have a long, warty nose and chin, wrinkled skin, and a hunch back. Social rolls are at +2 Difficulty, and your free movement is reduced by 10 feet.

Your alteration "heals" over the course of the next month, after which it is fully cured.

Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Compulsion for payback. You must roll Self-Control to avoid using this Gift on anyone who wrongs you in a major way.

  • 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.
  • Remember: A Contractor’s Body rating is reduced by 1 for each Battle Scar after their fourth.
  • You may opt to inflict a Battle Scar that is less severe than what your Outcome allows.
  • 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 actively and obviously use a watch to activate this Effect.

Lasts 1 minute. Whenever you use your Movement, after all other calculations, the distance you may travel is doubled.

Outside of Combat, any non-Gift, non-movement Actions you attempt take drastically less time to complete, as long as your personal speed is a factor in the Action. Total time reduction is determined by the GM and capped at 90% (executing the Action takes no less than 1/10th the normal time).

  • The time reduction on non-Movement Actions applies only to the parts of actions when your personal speed is a factor,: pouring water or smoking a steak are not affected, but constructing a shelter or picking a lock would be. The GM will determine how much the total time is reduced based on how relevant personal speed is to the task.
  • 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.