Distortion Twisting the fundamental laws of existence.

1
You possess the ability to interact with the world without physically touching it.
Used by 'EGO' (Emile Campbell), Created by Monday.
(This Effect may or may not be obviously Alien. It is obvious that you are the one exercising control over your target. )

It appears almost effortless, as Ego bends the foundational rules of the universe. There's no need for any physical motion or verbal components-- in fact, he doesn't even need look where he's casting to manipulate reality all the same. The space around him simply warps to his will, as if affected by an uncanny gravitational pull, or a glitch in the physics engine of the world.

Upon closer examination, it's clear that the raw source of this power comes from somewhere within Emile. The intense concentration needed to just conjure any of this ability would be enough to break any normal individual, crushing them under the weight of what they attempt to lift. But for Ego? There's no toll too high, no barrier too much for him to overcome.

"If I could just bend my environment to my whims, through the power of my mind alone..." Perhaps if Emile believed this was remotely possible for himself, then none of this would have ever happened.

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. The same degree of force necessary for Distortion to take effect is applied to Emile's character in full, heightening his personality quirks to their natural extreme and afflicting his body with e̶l̴d̷r̸i̴t̸c̵h̶ consequences. To achieve this power fantasy in the way Emile deludes of, he must be shaped into something almost unrecognizable.


You gain the following benefits at all times.

As long as you maintain Concentration, you can take Actions and interact with things that are within 75 feet without needing to physically touch them or be near them. Any rolls made for Actions taken in this way use a Mental Strength of 4 in place of your Brawn rating, a Mental Agility of 4 in place of your Dexterity, and otherwise use your own Attributes and Abilities.

Telekinetic actions have the following restrictions and behaviors:

  • Line of Sight: You may use this Effect to take non-Combat Actions on targets which are out of sight, provided you have an understanding of their location.
  • Unarmed Combat: You can use this Effect to deal damage through unarmed attacks, grapples, and thrown objects. Attacks deal +1 Damage. Unarmed Mastery does not apply.
  • Weapons: You cannot wield weapons effectively in combat.
  • Fine Tools: You are otherwise limited to actions that a normal human could do with their bare hands.
  • Levitation: If you are strong enough to lift yourself, you may levitate up to 75 feet away from the ground. Movement is limited to 5 feet per Round.
  • Multiple Items: You may control 4 total objects at the same time. Their total weight cannot exceed what you could lift with your given Mental Strength.
  • Lifting and hauling: you may lift 180 pounds. If you Exert your Mind, you may lift up to 2000 pounds for one hour.

Possession of this Power grants the following Battle Scar: Smug Bastard: Your face has a chronic, detrimentally smug expression that makes any social interaction much more difficult. All social rolls are made at +1 Difficulty. The Beautiful Asset is suppressed as long as you have this Battle Scar, Mental Overload: Your brain is flooded with a sea of e̶l̴d̷r̸i̴t̸c̵h̶ knowledge, leaving it susceptible to being rattled by a well aimed attack. Called Shots to your head do +2 Damage [Requires Outcome 6]. Whenever you Exert your Mind, your eyes briefly flash a shimmering silver as if your Samson activated., and Incipient Corruption: The fingers of your left hand appear withered, as if undergoing the first stages of necrosis. A small price to pay for power, isn't it? You are at a -1 die penalty for any roll utilizing the affected hand.

Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Vindicative Vindication: You tire of dealing with the senseless opinions of the masses, and refuse to take any shit from them lying down. Each time someone wrongs you or disrespects you in a major way, you must succeed a Self-Control roll to resist taking revenge, Savior Complex: Your inner desire to aid people and improve the world has been warped with your sense of worth as a person, and your need to seek approval from others. Whenever you have the opportunity to help someone in need, you must succeed a Self-Control roll to resist the impulse, and L'appel Du Vide: Its call beckons at every moment, and you must bring yourself closer to that edge to fill its v̷o̸i̵d̸. When faced with the opportunity to perform an action in a more dangerous or exciting way, you must roll Self-Control to resist the impulse..

  • Using this Effect on targets which you cannot see will not give you any descriptive information about their location or surroundings, though you will have a sense of whether or not you are “touching” them, or if they bump into something.
  • Any telekinetic actions which interact with Animate targets may require contested rolls at GMs discretion.

Community Power Gifts

Exert your Mind (only for extinguishing a fire, no cost for starting one) and spend an Action. Select a target within arm's reach which has both fuel and oxygen available (if you are starting a new fire).

You may start or extinguish a fire as large as a fire in a residential fireplace at your target. 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.

  • 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.

You gain the following benefits at all times.

You may move easily and without a roll in any of the following situations.

  • Pathfinder: You are adept at making your way through crowds, underbrush, and other dense, congested environments. While doing so, you move at full speed.
  • Spider Climber: You are able to climb on and cling to any surface without regard for the ordinary rules of gravity. You climb at half your normal movespeed.

Any humanoid body or skeleton, including buried ones buried up to 6 feet underground is available to be used as a zombie minion. These undead minions will follow their master until he dismisses them or until they are defeated.

Undead minions cannot enter sacred spaces and are vulnerable to holy water.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. This Effect cannot be used unless Available corpse.

Summon a single Zombie at your location. They will last until they are destroyed. They are controlled by the GM but will follow any commands you give. You may have at most 2 minions active at a time.

  • Attacking: Minions can make melee range attacks with 5 dice to attack and +1 Damage.
  • Body: Minions have 4 Body.
  • Movement: Minions can move 20 feet per Round as Free Movement, and double that when performing an all-out Sprint.
  • Intelligence: Minions have dog-level intelligence, and cannot communicate back to you. They cannot actively use Equipment.
  • Actions: Minions cannot dodge or Defend. Any Perception checks they make are rolled with 3 dice.

Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation or for its duration will almost certainly be disturbed to see Zombies!.

  • When narrating disturbing content, be cognizant of your group's tone and accommodating to those who would like to "fast forward" through the description.

Spend a Free Action.

You may send a single message to all targets which are within 300 feet of you. It cannot be longer or more complex than a couple short sentences.

You must share a common language for your target to understand the message.

Possession of this Power grants the following Battle Scar: Debilitatingly Loud: You are very loud and you can't be quiet: It is +3 difficulty to actaully coherently understand you.. and any "Hearing" rolls are at up to +3 difficulty whenever you are speaking... if you speak, you automatically fail any stealth roll.

  • 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.
  • 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 eight hours. You may only target yourself. 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.

The augmentations you provide are not outwardly visible nor obvious.

  • 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.

Stock Power Gifts

Spend one minute. Select a Sapient target within 20 feet. You must actively converse with the individual in question for one minute in order to gather any information. At the end of your investigation, roll Perception + Influence at Difficulty 6.

You learn all the following information about your target:

  • You learn a hidden desire of the target. Roll Outcome determines the relevancy / secret-ness of the desire.
  • You learn their relationship to a specific individual (chosen prior to the effect activation).

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

Any information you gather is spoken aloud in conversation and made publicly available.

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

You cannot investigate the same target 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.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Living, Animate target within 25 feet. You must maintain Concentration while the effect is active. Roll Intellect + Investigation at Difficulty 6. The target may resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 6.

If you succeed, you are able to view your target's memories. If you fail, the target knows you're attempting to read their memories.

You may ask a number of specific questions about their memory equal to your Contested Outcome. For example, “what is their computer password,” “What were they doing at 4:00PM yesterday,” etc. You cannot get answers to broad, analytical questions like “are they a good person?” or “what are their plans for the future?”

Each memory takes as long to read as it takes to answer the question. When replaying a full memory, it is replayed in double time.

This Effect is not obvious, and the only sign you are using an Effect is your nose bleeding. If someone suspects that an Effect was used, they must roll Perception + Alertness, Difficulty 8 to pick up on your Tell.

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.

  • 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 an Action.

Lasts 1 minute. Whenever you use your Movement, after all other calculations, the distance you may travel is doubled.

  • 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.

You gain the following benefits as long as Must be driving a rugged vehicle such as an SUV truck or armored car. and you are piloting any vehicle.

You receive +2 dice to any rolls to pilot a vehicle.

You also gain the following effects:

  • Drive-By: You may drive or pilot your vehicle as a Free Action, without taking any penalty on other Actions.
  • Steady As She Goes: The motion of your vehicle never causes your passengers dice penalties, and you do not suffer dice penalties from the unsteadiness of any vehicle you are riding in.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Location within 50 feet. You must be in an area abundant with man-made structures and materials.

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

  • Wall: Create a straight wall made of standard building materials up to 40 feet long, 10 feet high, and 12 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 one minute 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 6 across all attempts breaks a hole large enough to move through. See the extended system text for GM guidance on various tools.

  • 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.
  • This Effect produces the substance you are controlling unless it is drawn from the environment via “Required Environment” Drawbacks.
  • 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.