The Monster

1
Requires Veteran
The power to temporarily transform into The Monster.
Used by Mary-Anne "Freakshow" Le'Grant, Created by geniebottle.
(Anyone who witnesses you activate this Effect or for its duration is very likely to be disturbed to see a transformation into a monstrous, bestial form. )

Using Substance B has rendered Mary-Anne susceptible to an inhuman transformation, dense cells packed and ready to flood her system with concentrated power when adrenaline rushes through her body.


Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and spend an Action. Whenever you fail or botch a Trauma or Self-Control roll, you must 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.

You transform into The Monster for 3 minutes. You have access to all of your Powers while you are The Monster, and you can use your equipment. The Injuries and Battle Scars of your Alternate Form and your true form are tracked separately.

While transformed, your Dexterity is increased by 3. You do not suffer any Stress while transformed.

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

If you take Injuries totaling 4 Severity or higher while transformed, you recover all Injuries and change into an even larger beast. All dice rolls are at -1 Difficulty for the next minute or until this Effect ends. Cooldown 1 day.

If you are restricted, restrained, dazed, sleepy, or stunned, you may activate this Effect to break free or end the negative effect. You cannot free yourself by transforming more than once a minute.

Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation or for its duration will almost certainly be disturbed to see a transformation into a monstrous, bestial form.

Your alternate form renders you unable to speak any human language and incapable of fine object manipulation. You can only hold or grasp objects in a crude, clumsy way.

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.

Whenever you enter Combat, roll Self-Control. If you fail, you cannot choose which targets to attack and cannot stop fighting until there are no targets remaining.

While transformed, you automatically fail any Mind roll to resist an impulse and suffer -3 dice on all other Mind rolls.

  • When narrating disturbing content, be cognizant of your group's tone and accommodating to those who would like to "fast forward" through the description.
  • When activating this Effect due to a failed Trauma or Self-Control roll, you must still pay the activation cost.
  • Attribute bonuses from multiple sources do not stack. Instead the highest bonus is used.

Community Power Gifts

Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and spend 15 minutes. Choose a specific Injury on yourself that has not yet been treated with this Effect and roll Dexterity + Athletics at Difficulty 8.

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.

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 yourself.

Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation or for its duration will almost certainly be disturbed to see Jason Brenning's body begins to pull away from itself as it they are being torn through realms of the dead, their body vigorously shaking, and twitching violently. The sounds of the bone, flesh and sinew reform becoming audible as the ghosts break away from them and "mend" the body from within, pulling away the flesh from their own to rebuild the broken. When all is said and done, it leaves behind a bloodied mess where the wounds once were.

  • When narrating disturbing content, be cognizant of your group's tone and accommodating to those who would like to "fast forward" through the description.
  • Unstabilized wounds do not degenerate during treatment.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action to activate. Select a Dead target within arm's reach. In order to target the Dead, you must have their true name. You must actively and obviously use A leather journal to activate this Effect.

The target can communicate in your language for the next ten minutes.

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

You gain the following benefits as long as you have your Blue pen in my shirt pocket.

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).

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:

  • Party Animal: You are welcome at, and will be granted entrance to, any social gathering or party, at least as an observer.
  • Poker Face: You never give any outward indication of dishonesty. It is impossible to tell that you are lying, and you are able to fool any method of lie detection without making a roll.
  • The Price Of Fame: Any sightings or recordings of your activity can easily be traced back to you. Even when disguised or using an alias, people always get a Perception check to recognize you.

  • A "social gathering" might include a birthday party, after-work drinks, a ski trip, or yoga in the park, among other things. It likely would not include a cult gathering to summon a demon, Congressional negotiations over a contentious bill, etc.
  • In rare cases, GMs may require you to make a roll to lie to particularly powerful beings.
  • If your Blue pen in my shirt pocket 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).

You gain the following benefits as long as you are engaged in unarmed combat. You must actively and obviously be using A Mask to gain the benefits of this Effect.

+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.

Exert your Mind (unless you are Sculpting) and spend one minute. Select a Location within arm's reach. You must use up a beer in order to activate this Effect. You must be in an area abundant with natural earth and/or raw minerals.

Select one of the following alterations to create out of construction materials originating at the target:

  • Sculpt: Sculpt a surface made of construction materials up to 20 feet by 20 feet. You may make aesthetic changes or minor functional improvements like a ladder or stairs. You may sculpt windows, doors, and similar alterations into structures you created with this Effect.
  • Wall: Create a straight wall made of construction materials up to 20 feet long, 5 feet high, and 6 inches thick. This wall can also be used to create a bridge, ramp, or similar. It must be free-standing.

The alteration begins to form when you activate this Effect and finishes forming on your initiative in the next Round. Until it finishes forming, it is not guaranteed to function.

This alteration lasts indefinitely but may be prematurely destroyed or altered. Your alterations may be broken through with appropriate tools. Anyone attempting to break through must roll Brawn + a relevant Ability. A cumulative Outcome of 3 across all attempts breaks a hole large enough to move through. See the extended system text for GM guidance on various tools.

You may sculpt your walls, domes, or tunnels as you create them, without any additional activation time or cost.

  • Attempting to break any alterations with inappropriate tools may damage or destroy the tools at the GM's discretion.
  • Any structures you create leave precise gaps for obstacles in their path or push them out of the way. You cannot directly destroy objects or structures or damage beings by creating walls or domes.
  • Tool guidance for GMs:
    • Difficulty 9: Brawn 5, no tools.
    • Difficulty 7-8: One-handed tools or makeshift tools (like a sword). Mythic Brawn without tools.
    • Difficulty 6: Appropriate manual tools. Crowbar, sledgehammer, armor-shredding attacks.
    • Difficulty 4-5: Power tools, vehicles, explosives.
  • 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.

Stock Power Gifts

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. 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.

Exert your Mind and spend 1 minute. You must use up at least a gallon of water in order to activate this Effect. Choose a specific Injury on yourself that has not yet been treated with this Effect and roll Brawn + Survival 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.

Spend an Action or Reaction. Select a Non-Alien Creature target within 20 feet. The target may Resist.

You possess your target and have control over their actions for the next hour. Your original body will be left behind, unconscious. You may perceive through your original body's senses by maintaining Concentration. If your original body is touched, you may roll Perception + Alertness to notice. You may spend an Action to end the possession early.

Stats: Any Actions you take will use the possessed creature’s Brawn, Dexterity, and Perception, but use your own Charisma, Intellect, and Abilities.

Gifts: You do not have access to any Gifts while you are possessing your target.

Death: If the host suffers an Injury, or is destroyed or incapacitated, you are evicted back into your own body. If the possession ends and your original body was killed or destroyed, you will die.

Eviction: You cannot force your host to take Actions which would violate their instinct for self-preservation (which includes engaging in Combat for any purpose other than self-defense or natural hunting); any attempt to do so will sever the connection and send you back into your own body. If you are forced out of the target's body prematurely, you must make a Trauma roll.

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.

This Gift cannot have more than 3 Drawbacks, and its Gift Cost is capped at 2.

  • 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.
  • 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.

Increase your sacrificial Injury's Severity by 1 and spend an Action. Select a Living or Sapient target within arm's reach. Roll Intellect + Occult at Difficulty 6. The target may resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 6.

If you succeed, you possess your target for the Contested Outcome in minutes. The target has no control over their body or actions, and they are functionally unconscious through the entire possession, retaining no memory other than any Traumas they might obtain.

You do not leave your original body behind when you possess a target. When a possession ends, your original body will reappear at the host body’s same location. You may spend an Action to end the possession early.

Stats: During the possession, you use the host body’s Body rating, but your own Mind rating. Any rolls you make use the host body’s Brawn, Dexterity, and Perception but your own Charisma, Intellect, and Abilities. You gain the effects of any physical Assets and Liabilities they have. You cannot read the target’s mind or memories.

Gifts: You have access to and can use any of your own Powers which are intrinsic to your biology or physical body. You cannot access any Powers or other supernatural effects which the target has, unless they are intrinsic to the target’s biology or physical body.

Death: If the host body is killed or destroyed while you are still possessing it, you will die along with it.

Eviction: If you attempt to force your host to take actions which would violate one of their Limits or their instinct for self-preservation, they may resist by rolling Mind. If their Outcome is higher than or equal to the contested Outcome, the possession ends and you are evicted from their body.

If you do not have a sacrificial Injury when you activate this Effect, take a new Severity-1 Injury.

  • The sacrificial Injury received from activating this Effect cannot be prevented by any means or healed before 1 day has passed. It is shared with all Effects that use sacrifice. This Injury does not requires Stabilization or cause Battle Scars when it becomes Severe.
  • Access to equipment-based Gifts such as Signature Items depends entirely on whether you are holding the relevant object, and is not impacted by whether or not you are possessing a 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.