Ghost in the Machine "I'm in."

1
The power to issue commands to technological devices.
Created by shady.
(This Effect is obviously Alien when used. When activating this Effect, it is obvious you are interacting with the target. )

True to their namesake, the hacker can penetrate the security of any computer system, granting access to its informational stores, or, in a pinch, allowing them to issue commands. The hacked system will display a flickering image of a ghost until it is dismissed.

While hacking, The Technician's fingers move with supernatural speed, blurring like a ghost.


Exert your Mind and spend 1 minute. Select a Computer within arm's reach. Does not work on Alien technology. Roll Intellect + Technology, with the Difficulty set by the GM depending on the security of the system you are hacking. Sapient targets can resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 6.

If you succeed, you may issue a single command to the targeted system. This command must have a specific outcome or be a request for specific login credentials. The command you issue must be within the machine's current capabilities. For example, you cannot order a standard security camera to grow legs and walk around.

If your command does not require bypassing the security of the target (for example, typing on a computer that is unlocked), you do not need to Exert your Mind to activate this Effect, and activation only takes a single Action.

Your Hack cannot be reversed through mundane means for a number of hours equal to your Outcome.

Every hack you make leaves behind a flickering image of a ghost in the system as a personal "calling card" that informs anyone who uses the system that the hack occurred.

  • You cannot hack things outside of your range over remote connections such as the internet. The system you are affecting must be physically within range.
  • 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 Targeted Gifts

for Skye Lovely

Previous Visual Description:
-Skye catches a gust of wind beneath her little wings. She floats in the air and glows as she sings her heavenly song.

Expansion pack: A microphone that lets her be heard by a whole audience?

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a number of Living targets equal to your Charisma within 45 feet as well as a specific emotion. You must actively and obviously use Pearl Rosary to activate this Effect. Roll Charisma + Performance at Difficulty 6. Affected targets can resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 6.

If you succeed, for the next minute, affected targets 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.

…The aftermath is initially disorienting and nauseating - the unnatural feelings of synthetic augmentation can potentially traumatize those afflicted. It may take time and therapeutic assistance in order to overcome these issues.
The nano-machines within are given a command alongside the patient - if the patient breaks protocol, the machines revert the augmentation.

Exert your Mind and spend 30 minutes. Select a Living or Animate target within arm's reach. Your target must make a Trauma roll when you activate this Effect. The target can easily Resist.

You may add one augmentation to your target. Each augmentation counts as a Battle Scar and can have exactly one of the following Effects:

  • Specialized: You receive +2 dice to a particular non-combat Action.
  • Environmental Adaptation: You do not suffer harm from heat, cold, pressure, or lack of oxygen in a particular environment, provided that challenge normally exists in that environment.
  • Implanted Tool: You have access to the functionality of some common Device at all times. The selected Device can be no larger than a motorcycle helmet.
  • Armor: You have 2 Armor at all times. As always, Armor from multiple sources does not stack.
  • Pouch: Part of your body functions as a hidden pocket. It can hold no more than a briefcase (15 liters).
  • Zippy: Your Free Movement is increased by 10 feet.
  • Maws and Claws: Your unarmed attacks do +2 Weapon Damage instead of -1.
You may specify a specific condition that the patient must adhere to. If they break this condition, the treatment is immediately reversed. Record this regimen as a Condition.

The augmentations you provide are not outwardly visible nor obvious.

Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation will almost certainly be disturbed to see Excess flesh (or material) is rapidly excised and cannibalized for mechanical alteratives. Waste not, want not..

  • When narrating disturbing content, be cognizant of your group's tone and accommodating to those who would like to "fast forward" through the description.
  • Remember: A Contractor’s Body rating is reduced by 1 for each Battle Scar after their fourth.
  • You may not augment targets with pouches or implanted devices that are larger than they are.
  • Targets without Body ratings may have a maximum of 4 augmentations.
  • 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 activates whenever consumes your bodily fluids or a target enters your mind with magic. It does not require an Action or Exertion. Select a Sapient target within arm's reach. “Your target should be intuitively based on the triggering event. 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 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.

Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation will almost certainly be disturbed to see a blinding flash of light and burning, and a powerful smell of burned hair.

  • When triggered, the Effect activation resolves immediately after the triggering Action. It is not Reaction speed.
  • When narrating disturbing content, be cognizant of your group's tone and accommodating to those who would like to "fast forward" through the description.
  • 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 Living target within 50 feet. This Effect cannot be used unless must be cursed with Mary's afflict. Roll Charisma + Influence Difficulty 6. The target may contest by rolling Body, Difficulty 6.

If the Contested Outcome is positive, the target takes that much Damage plus 4. The target's Armor is completely ignored.

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

Instead of dealing Damage all at once, the Injury caused by this Power starts at Severity 1 and worsens at the rate of one level per Round until it reaches the Severity it would have otherwise been.

  • 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 Non-Alien door, container, knot, or lock within arm's reach.

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

Possession of this Power grants the following Battle Scar: Bane: (Electricity) Because of the nanites installed... ((All Damage you take from your weakness is increased by 2 and ignores any non-material Armor you have)).

  • 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.

Stock Targeted Gifts

This Effect activates whenever someone talks about you. It does not require an Action or Exertion. Select a target Location within 75 feet. Your target should be intuitively based on the triggering event.

You may perceive things through hearing as if you were standing at that Location for the next 30 minutes. You must maintain Concentration to keep up the effect. You cannot perceive anything at your physical location while the effect is active.

  • When triggered, the Effect activation resolves immediately after the triggering Action. It is not Reaction speed.
  • This does not satisfy the Line of Sight requirement for targeted Effects.

Thank you to the original creator of this Gift, Frakcherd https://www.thecontractrpg.com/profile/view/603/

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a target within 20 feet which has both fuel and oxygen available (if you are starting a new fire). You must actively and obviously use a laser pointer to activate this Effect.

You may start or extinguish a fire as large as a fire in a residential fireplace at your target. Extinguishing a fire does not cost Exertion. You may create or extinguish fires the size of a lighter or candle flame without Exerting your Mind. Your fires require fuel and oxygen in order to continue burning.

Lighting a target on fire deals 3 Damage each Round on your turn, 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 shredded by any Damage dealt, destroying material Armor once it reaches 0.

You may extinguish flames as a Reaction. This does not extend to explosives.

You may spend a Free Action on your initiative move a fire as large as a fire in a residential fireplace that is within 20 feet to another location within 20 feet. You may Exert your Mind to draw a line which a fire up to twice as large as a fire in a residential fireplace cannot cross.

  • Your fires may be extinguished with appropriate Actions and materials. Stop, drop, and rolling to extinguish requires spending an Action and making a Dexterity + Athletics roll, with an Outcome of 3 putting out the flames.
  • If the target is larger than your flame size, the Armor destruction creates a weak point instead of applying to the entire 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.

Exert your Mind and spend two Actions performing the following ritual: place a mirror such that it reflects the subject of your illusion. Select a target within 45 feet. You must maintain Concentration while activating this Effect, and it fails if you are interrupted.

a reflection of something else in the area, which can be no larger than a person 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 may create a replica of a specific being or Object, though it is still limited by what you do or do not know about the subject.

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 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.

  • while you can use an illusion to obscure something smaller, you cannot make anything directly invisible (you can’t make a tank look like a regular baseball, but you can hide it in an illusion of a giant baseball).
  • You may only puppeteer a single illusion at once.
  • 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 25 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:

  • Gross: The target exhibits significant and obvious signs of illness, making them into a social pariah. They will be shunned in public places, and take a -2 penalty to all social actions, which grows by -1 every hour until it reaches your Outcome.
  • 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.
  • This Effect’s symptoms do not stack with themselves on multiple applications.
  • 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 (unless you win a coin flip) and spend a minute. Select a Sapient target within 20 feet. This Effect cannot be used unless the target does not know you're watching them. At the end of your investigation, roll Charisma + Investigation at Difficulty 6.

You learn a single specific piece of information, chosen from the following list, about your target:

  • You learn how to reliably contact the target.
  • The target’s trail for the past 24 hours is revealed to you and anyone you teach to follow it. This trail shows how long ago the target was there and is followable even when they are in a vehicle.

The quality and specificity of information gained depends on your Outcome.

You cannot investigate the same target more than once per day.

  • Contact info Low Outcome: a means of communication (phone, email, a secretary). High Outcome: specific phone numbers, email addresses, protocols for getting access to the individual.
  • Tracker You are not made instantly aware of where they have been in the past 24 hours; you must follow their trail. You may "happen upon" any trail they have made in the past 24 hours.
  • 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.