The Russo Technique "Why yes, I do speak Sintha'unathi."

1
Requires Seasoned
The power to communicate with Creatures, humans, and Sapient beings.
Used by Frank Russo, Created by Ozz.
(This Effect is obviously Alien when used. It is clear that you are communicating with the target. You must actively and obviously be using up a cigarette.)

Surprisingly, asking for a helping hand from the eldritch being that's made you it's vessel isn't too hard! Frank's main method of interrogation requires a bit of negotiation with benefactor, namely feeding it via smoke break. After which, it's finally open to sharing a bit more of it's power, namely that over voiceovers and subtitles.

For about 30 seconds, his voice appears to cut between various crappy dubs, progressing through various human & inhuman languages before finally settling on the right one.

Communication is more than just you talking, it's what you hear too. To stop Frank's brain from frying itself from all of the heinous shit he's been forced to overhear day-to-day, his benefactor has begun offloading some of that stress to itself, protecting his mind.


Exert your Mind and spend one minute. You must use up a cigarette in order to activate this Effect.

You may understand and communicate to Creatures, humans, and Sapient beings as if you are fluent in a relevant language for the next hour.

Communicating with a being cannot directly damage your Mind or cause Injury. All rolls to resist Effects that rely on communicating with you are made at -1 Difficulty.

  • Communing with creatures does not grant them intellect but does allow you to converse with them.
  • The target of "human" refers to any target that speaks a human language.

Community Power Gifts

You gain the following benefits as long as you have your Sigil on collarbone.

Your Intellect rating is increased by 1. 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).

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:

  • 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.
  • 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. The Difficulty of this Trauma roll cannot be reduced by any means.

  • If your Sigil on collarbone is damaged, destroyed, or lost, you lose all benefits from this Effect for the next two months.
  • Attribute bonuses from multiple sources do not stack. Instead the highest bonus is used.

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

+2 dice to all rolls utilizing thrown weapons.

You also gain the following effects:

  • Catcher In The Rye: You may catch anything flying or thrown as a Free Action with no roll, as long as it is not an attack.
  • Jackie Chan: You do not receive a Difficulty penalty when throwing objects that are not designed for throwing.

You gain the following benefits at all times.

You have 2 Armor, which reduces incoming damage from all sources of physical attack except Head & Legs. Armor from multiple sources does not stack.

Whenever your Armor reduces incoming Damage, you are immediately made aware of the source of the Damage. You may pinpoint their location for 5 Rounds.

Exert your Mind to activate. Select a Living target within arm's reach. You cannot target yourself. 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 + Alertness 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.

Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Crippling Self Doubt: Whenever you roll a check in which you have five dice or more, you must first roll self control. If you fail or botch, the roll is now at difficulty 9..

  • 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.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Sapient target within arm's reach. When you Activate this Effect, roll a single d10. If the result is 5 or lower, your target receives a Minor Battle Scar. Your target may Resist to cancel the transfer.

You may choose one each of as many things as you like from the following to transfer from your target to yourself, or from yourself to them:

  • Up to two points of Mind damage
  • A single Power. Lasts two hours. You cannot transfer this Power.
  • Three points of Source
  • A single Injury and any Battle Scars it caused
This Effect cannot be used again on the same target for the next day.

Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation will almost certainly be disturbed to see purple and yellow electricity crackling from her hand into the targets body, burning and drying the body's skin before it cracks and crunches, completely charred..

Whenever you transfer an Injury, it's Severity increases by 1. Whenever you transfer Mind damage or Traumas, the recipient takes an additional Mind damage.

  • When narrating disturbing content, be cognizant of your group's tone and accommodating to those who would like to "fast forward" through the description.
  • Does not apply to transfers made through the Forced Exchange enhancement.
  • 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

Exert your Mind and spend at least one Action. All Sapient targets within 20 feet of you are affected. You must actively and obviously use a police badge to activate this Effect. Your target cannot be engaged in Combat. Communicate a command to your targets. Roll Charisma + Influence at Difficulty 6. Any affected targets may resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 7.

If the contested Outcome is positive, your targets will be compelled to follow your command to the letter-- but not necessarily the spirit-- of the command until they have completed it or for your Contested Outcome in minutes. 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. 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. Commands may force a target to violate one of their Limits, and they will need to make a Trauma roll once the suggestion wears off.

  • The target must be able to understand you and must receive your communication for the suggestion to work.
  • Allowed Commands
    • Direct Order: The target must take an immediate action (e.g. “Sit down,” "run away," or "tell me your password.")
  • 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.

Exert your Mind and spend a minute. Investigate an area with a radius of up to 100 feet Can only be activated while you are in the wilderness. At the end of your investigation, roll Perception + Survival at Difficulty 6.

You learn the following information about the area:

  • You can tell which entities lay claim to each part of the area and how these borders have shifted over time.
  • You learn where exactly creatures and people live within the area, and what sorts of creatures they are.
The quality and specificity of information gained depends on your Outcome.

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

  • 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 a Quick Action.

You may withdraw an item from your stash, or add an item that is within arm’s reach to your stash. You may only stash targets which are in your possession, grappled, or otherwise controlled by you.

You may store units of water in your stash, each no larger than something which could fit inside a briefcase (15 liters), and you may store up to 3 things at a time.

You may choose to equip any equipment you withdraw at no additional cost.

  • "Equip" refers to drawing a gun, putting on a piece of armor, etc. You may store or withdraw a maximum of 6 items in a given Round. Reminder: you may perform up to two Quick Actions for -2 dice each or 3 if you use up your Action, unless a different Effect grants you additional Quick Actions.
  • Containers which hold multiple things may count as a single item so long as the things within are generally packaged together. For instance, you may stash a clip full of bullets, a medical kit full of medical supplies, or a box of crackers, but you cannot stash a backpack full of miscellaneous equipment.
  • You may only attempt to store Objects which are free-standing and disconnected from other things. The use of this Effect will not allow you to sever any connections holding an Object in place.
  • The Maximum Object Size parameter is intended to roughly capture the weight / size restriction of items and isn’t intended to restrict shape. GM discretion is advised. A human being is level 4 in the Maximum Object Size parameter.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a target Location within 75 feet.

You may perceive things as if you were standing at that Location. The effect lasts indefinitely but you must maintain Concentration to keep it up. You cannot perceive anything at your physical location while the effect is active.

You create a visible manifestation at the Location where your senses are projected which looks like a ghostly image of yourself meditating.

  • This does not satisfy the Line of Sight requirement for targeted Effects.

Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and spend two Actions performing the following ritual: perform a fire-breathing trick. Select a target within 20 feet which has both fuel and oxygen available (if you are starting a new fire). Roll a single D10 as a critical failure check. If you roll a 1, the Effect fails, and you take a Severity-4 Injury as the fire burns your throat. You must maintain Concentration while activating this Effect, and it fails if you are interrupted.

You may start or extinguish a fire as large as a firepit's fire 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 4 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.

  • 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 4 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.