Hunter’s Instinct The scent of fear, the whisper of movement—nothing escapes the eyes and ears of a true predator.

2
You possess supernaturally heightened senses.
Used by Huey .D Harmon, Created by jamesdsoup.
(This Effect may or may not be obviously Alien.)

Huey pupils dilate like a wolf’s at night. His nostrils flare as he picks up subtle scents invisible to others, and his ears seem to twitch toward even the faintest noise. To any observer, his entire demeanor shifts—his posture lowers slightly, and an intense stillness takes over, like a predator zeroing in on prey. This effect isn’t overtly supernatural unless someone is paying close attention.

Cursed and blessed in equal measure, Huey’s senses are a constant reminder of the wild beast within. Every scent, every sound tells a story that others can’t perceive—footsteps echo with intent, and fear has a distinct metallic tang on the air. His heightened awareness is a double-edged sword: the clearer the world becomes, the harder it is to ignore the primal urges buried deep in his subconscious. Each time he leans into this power, Huey walks a fine line between man and monster.


You gain the following benefits at all times.

Your senses are enhanced in the following way.

  • Smell: Your nose is highly sensitive and can differentiate between scents the way a dog can, as well as recognize things you have smelled before.
  • Hearing: You automatically know the origin location of any sound you hear, and you can tell which Action caused the sound.

Any senses which have been heightened cannot be overloaded. Battle Scars you receive cannot affect these senses.

Any heightened senses require you to maintain Concentration to use, and do not apply to any passive Perception checks.

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

Community Power Gifts

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:

  • Jackie Chan: You do not receive a Difficulty penalty when throwing objects that are not designed for throwing.
  • Nobody Tosses A Dwarf: Anything you can lift, you can throw 50 feet. Weapon damage for a heavy improvised thrown weapon is equal to the Brawn required to lift it minus 2 (minimum 0).
  • Yeet!: You can throw things up to 100 extra feet per point of Brawn with no penalty. Anything thrown further than 100 feet will not land at its target until the next Round on your initiative.

If there’s any god out there with an interesting story, it’s certainly Dionysus.

Exert your Mind to activate. Select a Living target within arm's reach. This Effect cannot be used unless you are at a bar or large party. 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 + Influence 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.

  • 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 as long as your Stop When I'm Dead power is active.

You get +4 dice to any Body resistance rolls you make. You also gain the following effects:

  • Inoculation: If you succeed a Body resistance roll against an Effect, you are immune to that Effect for the next 24 hours.
  • Purge Toxins: You may take a Severity-1 Injury to cancel the effect of any non-Alien drug, poison, or toxin in your system, as long as you are aware of its existence.

  • These bonuses apply only to Body rolls made to resist Effects and other supernatural phenomena. They do not apply to other contexts such as attacks made while under the Creature Transformation Effect.

Exert your Mind and spend a Quick Action. You must actively and obviously use a token of the desired creature to activate this Effect.

You transform into a raven or a timber wolf until you transform into something else or choose to return to your original form. See the Extended System text for stats.

While transformed, you cannot use any equipment (excluding Artifacts and Consumables, which you can use), and you do not have access to any of your Powers. Any equipment you are wearing transforms 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.

While transformed, you are obviously unusual, unnatural, or alien, and the average person will take a special interest in you.

  • Creature Stats
    • Large (larger than human, smaller than elephant) Body: 8. Brawn 6. Dexterity 2. Fall damage increased by 2. Armor: 1
    • Small (mouse up to regular house cat) Body 1. Brawn 0. Dexterity 4. Cannot injure others with attacks. Cannot die from falling damage. +3 dice to Stealth rolls.
    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 cannot transform if there is not enough room to do so.
  • The form you take must have the same stats and abilities as a single, extant animal of the relevant size.

Zeta's limiters are dropped and extra radiators protrude from Zeta's back. The excessive heat melts the flesh and burns the cloths on Zeta's body revealing a mechanical nightmare that was hiding underneath.

Zeta's metal skeletal structure elongates to provide more leverage. The hands are revealed to be serrated claws. Zeta's now revealed chrome skull splits in half and the melted flesh drips away to reveal more mechanical eyes that over her entire head. Tooth caps fall away to reveal rows of sharp, pointy teeth.

Steam shoots out from under Zeta's revealed ribcage and bellows around her feet. Zeta's thigh bones split in two as they're revealed to be double and reverse jointed to provide greater maneuverability.

Zeta only has one thing left to say before the voice box is shutdown as it's power is diverted to combat prowess.

"Targets Acquired"

Exert your Mind and spend an Action.

You transform into Battle Mode for 3 minutes. You have access to all of your Powers while you are Battle Mode, and you can use your equipment. Your Battle Scars, Injuries, and physical Liabilities are carried over between forms. Reverting from your Alternate Form cannot cause your existing Injuries to kill you. Instead, you remain Incapacitated.

While transformed, your Brawn is increased by 1, your Dexterity is increased by 1, and your Perception is increased by 1. You do not suffer any Stress while transformed.

Your alternate form is its own deadly weapon. Unarmed attacks made in your alternate form deal +3 Weapon Damage (instead of the typical -1).

Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation or for its duration will almost certainly be disturbed to see Obviously a murder Machine.

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.

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.

  • Reminder: Weapon Damage from multiple sources does not stack. Instead, the highest value is used.
  • When narrating disturbing content, be cognizant of your group's tone and accommodating to those who would like to "fast forward" through the description.
  • Attribute bonuses from multiple sources do not stack. Instead the highest bonus is used.

Stock Power Gifts

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must actively and obviously use cell phone to activate this Effect.

Summon a single Sapient goon at your location. They last for two hours or until they are destroyed. They are controlled by the GM but will follow any commands you give. You may have at most one minion active at a time.

  • Initiative: Minions act directly after you in Combat starting the Round after they are summoned.
  • Combat: Minions roll 4 dice to dodge, Grapple, or make melee Attacks. Their unarmed Attacks are melee range and deal +2 Damage.
  • Body/Mind: Minions have 5 Body. Your minions roll 3 Mind resistance dice.
  • Armor: Minions have 1 Armor.
  • Movement: Minions can move 15 feet per Round as Free Movement and double that when performing an all-out Sprint.
  • Intelligence: Minions have human-level intelligence and can speak your language. They can use equipment, Artifacts, and Consumables. However, they cannot Exert their Mind.
  • Actions: Any Perception checks they make are rolled with 3 dice. Any other roll is made with 3 dice. They can lift and haul as though they have 2 Brawn.
  • Unusual: Minions are not obviously Alien.

  • Minions die if targeted with Energy Transfer (before the Effect resolves) or if an Artifact or Consumable they use would Injure them or cause them to roll Trauma.
  • Your minions may count as additional targeting types based on their flavor. For example: Living, Computer, Creature, etc.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must actively and obviously use your instrument to activate this Effect. The area within 25 feet of you immediately and obviously becomes imminently dangerous. Roll Charisma + Performance at Difficulty 6. Targets inside the radius may attempt an appropriate Reaction at GM’s discretion. Finding a physical barrier to use as cover will cut total Damage taken in half (applies after Reaction roll but before Armor).

If the Outcome is positive, your blast hits everything within 25 feet of you with Damage equal to your Outcome + 4. If you botched the activation roll, you will also take full Damage from the blast, otherwise it will not hurt you.

You may only use this Effect 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.

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.

You gain the following benefits at all times.

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).

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

You gain the following benefits at all times.

Any Injury you receive from a source other than silver or fire. heals quickly, reducing its Severity by one level every 6 hours. Any Injuries you receive while this Effect is active do not deteriorate over time. However, any Battle Scars caused by such an Injury will remain unless it is Properly Stabilized as normal.

You may Exert your Mind and spend an Action to reduce the Severity of one of your Injuries by 2. Does not affect Injuries suffered as an activation cost for Effects.

Injuries you receive from silver or fire. are increased in Severity by 1.

  • The increase in Injury Severity stacks with any similar effects, such as the Vulnerable drawback on Inhuman Physiology.