Powers (FiD)

Powers turn Blades in the Dark-style games into power fantasy.

Introducing Powers

Rather than the fantastical being rare and poorly understood, adding powers to your gives characters entirely new abilities they can use. Introducing these into a game changes the game world, making it more fantastical. Powers consist of two elements - a playbook, and forms.

Power Playbooks

Playbooks are the frames for acquiring powers. The playbooks are the power traditions of your world, roles such as wizard, sorcerer, saint, mutant, or technophile. Each playbook gives you access to certain powers, which are chosen in the same manner as special abilities. This is in addition to all the normal features of a playbook.

Finally, each tradition gives you a trauma condition, chosen from a list of conditions available to that playbook. This means you can't survive as much new trauma as characters who have not meddled with the powers. The actual trauma condition generally affects how you use powers, imposing conditions you must fulfil.

You cannot pick special abilities from a power playbook unless you start with that playbook. It is possible to incorporate a power playbook into your character's pool of available abilities by selecting this as a special ability. Doing so gives you access to the special abilities and items of the power playbook, but also forces you to select a trauma condition. You can even gain access to multiple power playbooks this way, giving you a wider range of powers at the price of more trauma conditions and thus more restrictions on the use of all of your powers.

Powers

Powers are what actually gives you exceptional abilities. A power playbook doesn't give you any abilities unless you select a power from that playbook's special abilities. Once you select a power, you gain abilities appropriate to the power. So if you select the electricity pool, you can shoot lightning, power electric engines, cause shortcuts, summon electric creatures, and so forth. In many cases, powers work as equipment does, empowering your normal actions.

You use your normal actions to activate powers, but there is often an associated cost. Some powers are always available. Some powers work as equipment, you pick them as item and then have access to that ability for the rest of the score. Some powers require you to push each time you use the power. You gain the advantages of a push in addition to activating the power. Some powers are all-consuming. You spend all your remaining willpower to activate the power, causing you to go into trauma. These effects are over-the-top and often has extensive collateral damage.

Unlike normal actions, which are flexible, powers are more specific. If you want to make a ranged attack using your power, that is done with Hunt action (unless the power description says otherwise), you cannot fudge this with another action as you normally can.

There is a standard list of effects that most powers have. These effects vary in appearance and detail depending on the exact power you use, but the general effect is the same. With Hunt you can make a ranged attack with most powers, if you do it with electricity this is a jolt of lightning, if you do it with fire it is a bolt of fire, if you do it with mind it is a mental blast, and if you do it with plant you fling poisonous thorns. All are ranged attacks, but depending on circumstances some are likely to be more or less effective.

Table: Common Power Effects

Action	Free	Equipment	Willpower	Trauma
Attune	Perceive You are able to perceive creatures based on this power, or using this power. This is easy if you can see them, harder if they are hidden.	Dismiss You can force a creature based on this power that is native to another plane of existence to return to that plane, or suppress the operation of the power in a creature or object.	Summon You can call a creature into this plane to serve you. This servant is generally unwilling. It will obey one command from you, more commands require this ability to be used again or other means used to control the creature.	Gate
Command	Communicate	Translate	Command	Enslave
Consort	Communicate	Translate	Infiltrate	Mesmerize
Finesse	Ride	Fine Close-Range Attack	Manipulate	Inferno
Hunt	Track	Fine Ranged Attack	Area attack	Barrage
Prowl	Perceive	Maneuver	Travel	Transport
Skirmish	Melee Attack	Fine Melee Attack	Obstruction	Nova
Study	Analyze	Research	Hindsight	Omniscience
Survey	Detect	Sensor	Scry	Omnipresence
Sway	Communicate	Translate	Suggest	Inculcate
Tinker	Handle	Shape	Create	Fabricate
Wreck	Jerk	Smash	Disintegrate	Obliterate