Ad Hominem Go for the throat.

1
The power to inflict mental trauma on a target.
Used by Tescoh "Tez" Topping, Created by VelcroGnome.
(This Effect is obviously Alien when used. When activating this Effect, it is obvious you are interacting with the target. )

The air around you starts to churn as your sheer willpower overrides your opponent's. "Your Jordans are *fake*!" An imperceptible bassline hurtles towards your foe and worms it's way into their psyche, crippling them emotionally. They crumple to the ground, incapacitated by your force of personality.


Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Sapient target within 20 feet. Roll Charisma + Influence Difficulty 6. Affected targets may resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 7. If they are incapacitated or unconscious, they fail automatically.

If the Contested Outcome is positive, the target loses that much Source. Once their Source is depleted, excess Outcome is applied as Mind Damage. If you deal at least 3 Mind damage, the target gains a Trauma of the GM's choice.

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.

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Community Power Gifts

Exert your Mind and spend an Action.

You transform into racoon until you transform into something else or choose to return to your original form. You cannot transform into a flying creature. See the Extended System text for stats.

While transformed, you cannot use any equipment (including Artifacts and Consumables), and you do not have access to any of your Powers. The equipment you are wearing does not transform with you.

Injuries and Wound Level are carried over between forms. However, transforming can never kill you; you merely remain Incapacitated until your Injuries are sufficiently healed.

  • Creature Stats
    • Medium (large house cat up to human) Body 3. Brawn 1. Dexterity 3. Fall damage reduced by 1.
    All creatures get +3 dice to any non-combat Action that they are naturally adapted for. All creatures Medium and larger may attack by rolling Body, dealing +0 Damage (+1 for “predators”). Gms and Playgroup leaders can apply other bonuses and effects to specific animals.
  • Animals that are quicker than humans (like dogs) have 50 feet of Free Movement. Animals that are very slow (like turtles) have 0 feet of Free Movement.

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

+2 dice to all rolls with Fists. You may Defend against firearm attacks from any range using Fists.

You also gain the following effects:

  • Dismember: If one of your attacks causes a Battle Scar, you may choose for it to be some form of dismemberment, depending on the Severity of the Injury you caused.
  • Heavy Strikes: If you are attacking with a blunt weapon, if your attack causes an Injury you may choose to knock the target down and back 15 feet. Standing up is typically a Quick Action.

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:

  • Multithreaded: Instead of being unable to take Actions while maintaining Concentration, you may now take Actions at a -2 dice penalty.
  • Push Through It: When you Exert your Mind to ignore Penalty and gain +1 to your Outcome, it lasts for 3 Rounds.
  • Insufferable Know-It-All: Any social rolls you make are at +1 difficulty, and if someone else can answer an informational question or solve a puzzle before you do, make a Trauma roll.

  • Being Injured or interrupted in some way can still break your Concentration.

You gain the following benefits at all times.

Your Stress from Injuries and Mind Damage is reduced to 0.

You gain the following benefits at all times. You must actively and obviously be using Necklace to gain the benefits of this Effect.

Your senses are enhanced in the following way.

  • Sight: You can see perfectly in dark and even pitch-black environments. You suffer no dice penalty due to darkness.

Any senses which have been heightened cannot be overloaded. Any Effects or supernatural abilities which would suppress one of these senses are rolled at +2 difficulty.

  • Examples of overloading a sense include: an explosion causing temporary deafness, a bright light causing blindness, a sedative causing numbness, etc.

Stock Power Gifts

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.

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:

  • You may suspend a targeted Offensive Power which will take effect when the oath is broken. The Power must be able to target all participants the oath indicates it could hit.
  • A Battle Scar up to Severe (deaf, missing limb)
  • The oath-breaker is physically marked as an oath-breaker, and any investigative effect will reveal the terms of the oath they broke.
  • A particular Trauma and a single Mind Damage
  • The oath-breaker goes unconscious for up to 24 hours
  • An Injury up to Severity-6 (cannot be reduced by any means)

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.

  • All Oaths must have at least two participants.
  • The target must be physically present to enter the oath.
  • The terms and penalties of the oath do not need to be equitable and do not need to affect all parties equally.
  • A single action cannot break multiple oaths. You cannot 'stack' oath penalties by having a target sign multiple identical oaths, or similar.
  • 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 automatically detect all illegal materials within 50 feet of you for the next hour. You have a clear sense of both the distance and direction towards any detected items. You do not learn any details about the detected items.

  • This includes any objects that come into range during activation.
  • This Effect does not satisfy the line of sight targeting requirement for other Effects.

Spend an Action. Select a target within arm's reach. You must actively and obviously use at least a gallon of water to activate this Effect. Roll Dexterity + Athletics Difficulty 6. The target may contest by rolling to Dodge or Defend as a Reaction, Difficulty 6.

If the Contested Outcome is positive, the target takes that much Damage plus 4.

You may use this Effect to Defend against any melee, projectile, or firearm Attacks within range or Clash against any Attack targeted at you. Using it to Defend deals no Damage but does not cost Exertion.

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

  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.
  • Your target must be within line of Effect. There must be no substantial obstructions between you and your target.

Spend an Action. Select a target any distance away from you. You must have a specific target in mind, but you require only an intuitive understanding of them, such as their name, face, or Location.

You may send a single message to your target. It can be as complex or as large as you like. It takes at least 30 minutes before it is received.

The message may be intercepted while in transit, and may be overheard, read, or otherwise understood by anyone near either you or the recipient. You must share a common language for your target to understand the message.

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

  • Depending on the length of your message, it may take a target some time and/or effort to understand it in its entirety.
  • Receiving a message does not force a target to pay attention to you, and they can feel free to ignore your message if they choose. Depending on the flavor of your Gift, they may or may not be able to return to it and read it later on.
  • Generally you cannot communicate with Contractors who are not in a Contract with you.
  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.