Kinesis Powers (FiD)

Starfox's Blades in the Dark fan page

Kinesis is the power of movement made manifest as force. It is the ability to push, pull, lift, redirect, and accelerate matter and energy without shape or substance of its own.

Unlike Barrier, which creates structure and resistance, Kinesis is formless and transient. It does not create objects or walls; it applies force. There are no kinetic creatures — Kinesis acts on what already exists.

Some regard Kinesis as the purest expression of power: nothing added, nothing transformed, only motion imposed.

Kinetic attacks are physical and real. They rely on hurled objects, redirected momentum, or forced movement rather than creating physical manifestations. This allows Kinesis to toss mundane objects and this bypasses some supernatural defenses.

Kinesis excels at repositioning — flinging enemies aside, disarming them, or turning their own motion against them. It can even more manifestations of other Forms around. Such attacks are disruptive and controlling rather than lethal; they create openings, chaos, and advantage more often than direct harm.

Kinetic Power Effects Table

Action	Basic	Advanced	Master	Apex
Dice	—	Minimum 2d	Minimum 4d	Minimum 6d
Stress	Avoid fumble (2+).	Succeed (4+).	Full success (6).	Critical (2 sixes).
Attune	Telekinetic Throttle Arrest motion.	Telekinetic Termination Sense and end kinetic effects.	Telekinetic Tether Slow or redirect movement.	Telekinetic Torpor Dampen motion across a wide area.
Command	Vocal Vortex Amplify your voice.	Projected Presence Sounds carry for miles.	Kinetic Puppetry Control like a puppet on strings.	Telekinetic Tyrant Multiple Kinetic Puppetry.
Consort	Telekinetic Tack Kinetic body glue.	Psychic Portage Load per category +1/+2/+3.	Kinetic Cargo Psychic Portage to an ally.	Kinetic Coalition Psychic Portage to a company.
Finesse	Telekinetic Tiller Telekinetically pilot a vehicle.	Telekinetic Touché Fine and Potent dueling attack.	Telekinetic Turbo Vehicle speed matches chase.	Telekinetic Travel Crew can fly long distances.
Hunt	Mindful Monitor Track creatures who are using Powers.	Telekinetic Targeting Attack like a Fine and Potent rifle.	Controlled Chaos Kinetic chaos or move things around.	Telekinetic Thunder Attack like a Fine and Potent grenade.
Prowl	Telekinetic Grip Stick to surfaces.	Psychic Stride Long jump.	Team Transport Crew Telekinetic Grip and Psychic Stride.	Legion Leap Company Telekinetic Grip and Psychic Stride.
Skirmish	Brawler Block Parry incoming Harm.	Brawler Bash Fine and Potent kinetic melee attack.	Brawler Blitz Disrupt enemies and deny scale.	Brawler Battle Kinetic strikes in all directions.
Study	Architectural Analysis Understand construction and load-bearing forces.	Trajectory Tracking Calculate paths of moving objects.	Structural Sense Infer systemic strain and force distribution.	Complete Calculations Analyze force and motion across a vast system.
Survey	Velocity Vision Sense kinetic powers and acceleration.	Detect Detail Sense mass, speed, and acceleration.	Clairvoyance Sensor at a point you choose.	Kinetic Knowledge Detect Detail a large volume of space.
Sway	Lip Language Read lips perfectly.	Whisperer’s Whim Converse with a visible creature.	Vocal Vision Listen in without line of sound.	Sound Sage Converse with many creatures at great distance.
Tinker	Align Aperture Move small things.	Align Aggregate Move a human-scale mass.	Align Assembly Move objects on the scale of a personal vehicle.	Align Atlas Move massive and abstract things.
Wreck	Psychic Pummel Telekinetic blow.	Kinetic Crush Fine and Potent telekinetic impact.	Psionic Pulverize Silent kinetic destruction.	Telekinetic Tremor Apply massive force to structures or terrain.

Expanded Kinetic Powers

Kinesis powers are common with the Psi Power Playbook and the powers are often described in psionic terms, but this is just a matter of wording. Telekinetic magic is common in fantasy games, less so in literature and myth. Technological kinesis is usually explained with artificial gravity and tractor/pressor beams. Kinetics cannot summon or dismiss creatures, but is strong in that it can dispel effects of any power, not just Kinesis powers.

Attune

Harness the power of Attune to perceive and suppress motion and physical processes, allowing you to detect, dampen, and halt movement and other power effects.

Position usually starts Controlled. It becomes Risky when in a dangerous environment and when multiple things are in motion, and Desperate in highly chaotic environments where many forces interact at once.

Telekinetic Throttle

Arrest motion.

You remove kinetic energy from a moving physical object, halting or suppressing motion. This allows you to arrest most projectiles. At higher power you can reduce the movement of creatures and later vehicles to a crawl.

Faster motion is reduced proportionally — a sprint becomes a slow walk, a racing vehicle slows to running speed. If you maintain concentration the object will gradually slow further and ultimately halt to hover in place. Arresting an object requires some concentration. You can halt a few slow objects without much effort, but many or large objects may cause you to lose Effect on other actions. When you release your hold on an object, it resumes its previous path.

You do not negate internal processes in the things you halt. As you slow motion, processes inside the moved mass actually last longer. This does not cause acceleration damage and does not cause fliers to stall Stopped machinery still functions. A halted Fire still burns. Frozen Darkness still blocks light. A slowed missile does not detonate at its usual time, a slowed Fireball continues to burn. This often creates new hazards.

You can halt solid physical objects roughly the size of your head, including solid living things and manifestations of Earth, Ice, and Metal.

At Advanced level, you can halt the movement of a viscous or cohesive physical mass roughly equal to your own body weight, including viscous living things such as slimes and jellyfish. This also includes manifestations of Abyss, Fire, and Water.

At Master level, you can halt the movement of ephemeral or force-like materials weighing up to one ton, or up to a 10-meter cube of light matter, including manifestations of Barrier, Air, and Electricity.

At Apex level, you can arrest motion at massive scale, halting colossal objects or the physical expression of abstract forces. This can affect materials weighing up to 1,000 tons or volumes up to a 100-meter cube of light matter, including the physical effects of Darkness, Illusion, or Light.

Telekinetic Termination

Sense and end kinetic effects.

You sense kinetic activity — movement, force, and acceleration — distinguishing things that move under power from inert matter.

You can end the operation of Kinesis powers and other Forms used to control movement. Dispelling can be used as a defense against others' use of powers, or it can be used to break continuing effects. Dispelling is often used as a setup action to help another character in a situation when the opposition is using powers. This usually improves the position of the supported action and can work in addition to other setup actions. When used directly, the effect is usually limited unless the opponent is relying on powers for their safety. Against an opponent that uses Animal wings to fly or turned into a fish to breathe underwater you have a better base effect. When dramatically appropriate that a power is hard to dispel, often because it is the crux of the situation, this will not negate the power but instead give you a clue to what you need to do to resolve the situation.

Forcing a spirit to materialize is easy, but limited in range; if the creature can get away from you it can de-materialize again, only to materialize again if it gets close enough. Limited effect only works on spirits within reach. Standard effect covers an area based on your tier (p 220). Great effect reaches out to a range covered by tier (p 220).

Dismissing a creature is hard and usually requires great effect. A creature that has been wounded or otherwise weakened only needs standard effect. A creature that wants to be dismissed requires only limited effect.

Telekinetic Tether

Slow or redirect movement.

This allows you to redirect, arc, or harmlessly bleed off movement speed. You can slow or stop the target or make the target move in an arc as if it was attached to you by an unbreakable cord and then release it in a new direction. Unlike Kinetic Throttle, all changes remain after you release Telekinetic Tether.

The size and type of things you can manipulate are the same as Kinetic Throttle, and you can use this on something you release from Kinetic Throttle to control how it resumes its movement. This often has a better Position than immediately using Telekinetic Tether on an object when it is in motion.

Telekinetic Torpor

Dampen motion across a wide area.

You suppress fast movement throughout a large area for the duration of a score.

Within the affected area:

• rapid motion becomes slow and labored,
• impacts lose force,
• and even massive objects (such as ships) can be hindered.

You may exclude a small number of creatures or objects from the effect. Everything else in the area is affected uniformly. You need to concentrate on this power, reducing your Effect on other Actions.

Command

Kinetic Command is not a set of mental powers. Instead, you use physical force to amplify your voice and, at higher levels, telekinesis to control the bodies of creatures.

Vocal Vortex

Amplify your voice.

You can amplify your voice to be heard across a wide area, such as an arena. Can reach many listeners.

Projected Presence

Sounds carry for miles.

You can make sounds carry for miles. This is not actually producing extreme volume; your kinetic power carries sound to distant locations. It is not deafening, and you can choose where the sound carries and where it does not. The sound need not originate from you, you can project picked-up or fabricated sounds .

Kinetic Puppetry

Control like a puppet on strings.

You telekinetically manipulate a target’s body like a puppet on strings. The target retains all senses and can continue to speak.

This is physical control, resisted by Prowess, not a mental power. Precision is limited: you can force crude actions such as pushing buttons, pulling levers, or making Wreck-style attacks, but not Finesse or Hunt actions.

You can hold a target helpless without further Command rolls. Making the target take a new action requires using the power again.

Limited Effect can control a bystander. Standard Effect can control a single member of a gang cohort. Great Effect can control a single cohort expert. At great risk it can control a PC or elite NPC of lower Tier. This always places the action in a Desperate Position, never grants sustained control, and only affects physical action, not intent or belief.

Telekinetic Tyrant

Multiple Kinetic Puppetry.

You can apply Kinetic Puppetry to multiple creatures at once without requiring higher Outcome. All targets must either remain still, perform similar movements, or contribute to the same task.

Consort

Kinetic consort is not about changing shape. Instead it attaches things, first to you, later to others. This increases item capacity.

Telekinetic Tack

Kinetic body glue.

This allows you to attach things to yourself like glue but with no residue once it ends. You use existing things and turn them into clothes and accessories faster than using glue. This is faster and about as effective as a professional disguise. You can apply this to others as an Advanced effect.

Psychic Portage

Load per category +1/+2/+3.

This increases the item capacity of a light load by +1, medium load +2, and heavy load +3. You can keep things in position kinetically and lighten the carried weight. You can only apply this once per score, and it lasts for the entire score.

Kinetic Cargo

Psychic Portage to an ally.

You can apply Psychic Portage to an ally.

Kinetic Coalition

Psychic Portage to a company.

This allows a company to use Psychic Portage. The maximum number of people increases with tier, see scale, p 221.

Finesse

Exercise finesse with your Kinesis, manipulating and attacking with precision.

Telekinetic Tiller

Telekinetically pilot a vehicle.

You use telekinesis to control a functioning vehicle, overriding locks and normal commands. This works on vehicles up to ten tons, such as personal transport and medium trucks. You do not change how the vehicle works, you control what is already there. This is harder if someone else is trying to pilot the same vehicle or if you cannot see out, and controlling a vehicle at range is harder and requires a power one level more advanced: Basic -> Advanced -> Master -> Apex.

As an Advanced effect, this can control vehicles up to 100 tons (big trucks, small ships), Master can control up to 10,000 tons (corvettes, trains), Apex can control up to 1,000,000 tons (capital ships, small megastructures).

Telekinetic Touché

Fine and potent dueling attack.

You can use kinetics to move an object to make a and Fine and Potent close-range attack, similar in effect to a Fine and Potent dueling sword or pistol. Besides variety, this only substitutes for equipment. In a fight, using this does not take any more time, activating your attack power is equivalent to drawing a weapon, no more, no less.

You can also do weak but exact telekinesis at range. This allows you to open doors, trigger or hinder mechanisms, or perform other minor manipulations. This works much like an invisible hand. You can do so at a distance of ten meters or so, allowing you to push buttons, trigger devices, and perform legerdemain at short range.

Telekinetic Turbo

Vehicle speed matches chase.

Personal vehicle and mounts you and your Crew ride can always take part in a chase, even if it would normally be too slow. To fly or swim you still need an appropriate ride. Unlike other Finesse powers, this does not allow you to take command of a vehicle or mount, it improves the performance of a ride you could ordinarily use. This does not work outside a chase.

Telekinetic Travel

Crew can fly long distances.

You, your crew, mounts, and vehicles can fly very fast over long distances inside an envelope of air you control.

Hunt

Track, attack, and unleash devastating kinetic barrages. As you advance in power, the scope of your attacks becomes greater, allowing you to control significant areas and cause widespread destruction. At short range, this might be dangerous to you and yours.

Mindful Monitor

Track creatures who are using Powers.

You can track anyone actively using any Power. Once the track is laid down, it remains even if the use of the power ends, but the track fades as time passes. Consequences here are mainly to lose the trail, but depending on the environment and targets, it might lead you to get lost, into traps, or even into an ambush.

Telekinetic Targeting

Attack like a Fine and Potent rifle.

You can use kinesis to attack, similar in effect to a Fine and Potent rifle. Essentially, this ability serves as a versatile replacement for traditional equipment.

Controlled Chaos

Kinetic chaos or move things around.

You control the movement of multiple small objects, quickly building a simple shelter, creating confusion, or blocking sight. This can involve flinging books off shelves, scattering coins across a floor, or causing curtains to billow wildly. You can also assemble or disassemble simple structures using available materials, such as barricading a door, setting up an impromptu barricade, or rigging a very simple contraption.

Telekinetic Thunder

Attack like a Fine and Potent grenade.

An escalation of Telekinetic Targeting, this affects all enemies in a single location. The effect is more powerful but less precise. This means it does more collateral damage, but no more effect on enemies. Targets in trenches, behind walls, or otherwise shielded are not in direct danger, but tend to keep their heads down, which gives your side the initiative.

Prowl

Sneak, move, and jump with the stealth and agility granted by Kinesis.

Telekinetic Grip

Stick to surfaces.

You can climb walls and hide under ceilings where people rarely look, and take no damage from falls. This allows you to hide under ceilings and on walls where only lucky or elite opponents think to look. It otherwise works just like any other attempt to use Prowl to avoid notice. Note that only you can use this ability; your friends and allies cannot unless you use Team Transport, below.

Psychic Stride

Long jump.

Jumps of less than 5 meters times your Tier are routine for you, and this distance is added to the length of an ordinary jump. You have jump control at any Tier, allowing you to change direction mid-air. You can reduce your speed when falling to land safely.

Team Transport

Crew Telekinetic Grip and Psychic Stride.

You can help allies use Telekinetic Grip and Psychic Stride. This is often used as a Group Action. Allies still use their own Prowl Action.

Legion Leap

Company Telekinetic Grip and Psychic Stride.

Your allies can use Telekinetic Grip and Psychic Stride. The maximum number of people depends on Scale at your Tier (see p. 221). If you move along with NPCs, you roll Prowl and the NPCs move with you without any additional rolls.

Skirmish

Duel and create chaos through raw kinetic force.

Skirmish Kinesis is about endurance, impact, and disruption rather than finesse or control. It excels in close, violent engagements where force and stamina decide the outcome.

Brawler Block

Parry incoming Harm.

You can take the initiative to Parry Harm, reducing or redirecting physical damage threatening yourself or someone or something else.

This applies to physical attacks (bullets, spears, blades, clubs) and to Harm caused by Earth, Ice, and Metal.

Effect starts at Limited.

• Limited Outcome reduces the Harm to Level 1.
• Standard Outcome negates the Harm.
• Great Outcome redirects the Harm to a different target or location, as justified by the fiction.

Parrying does not make the situation safe. Position is set by the incoming Harm:

• Level 1 Harm — Controlled
• Level 2 Harm — Risky
• Level 3 Harm — Desperate

With a Limited Outcome, Harm still gets through in addition to the Consequence.

Advanced Effect: You can parry Harm from Abyss, Fire, and Water.

Master Effect: You can parry Harm from Barrier, Air, and Electricity.

Apex Effect: You can parry Harm from Darkness, Illusion, and Light.

Brawler Bash

Fine and Potent kinetic melee attack.

You deliver a short-range kinetic strike with the force of a heavy impact. This functions as a Fine and Potent weapon, comparable to a pistol or melee weapon.

Activating this attack takes no more time than drawing a weapon.

Brawler Blitz

Disrupt enemies and deny scale.

You unleash chaotic bursts of kinetic force — flying debris, shockwaves, and violent motion — that prevent enemies from benefiting from numbers.

This denies the advantage of scale. You also gain the benefits of Brawler Bash during the exchange.

Brawler Battle

Kinetic strikes in all directions.

You release sustained kinetic force outward, striking all enemies engaged with you while sparing allies.

This negates the advantage of numbers and applies your effect across the entire melee. It turns you into a brutal focal point of the fight, overwhelming opponents through force and endurance rather than precision.

Study

Analyze motion, force, and structural stress through Kinesis.

Study Kinesis reveals how things move, how they are supported, and where they are most likely to fail. It excels at understanding construction, trajectories, and the hidden consequences of force.

Position depends on the situation. A stable environment is usually Controlled. Unstable ruins, active combat zones, or moving machinery are typically Risky. Combining several such hazards makes the Position Desperate.

Typical Consequences include incomplete information, missed details, lost opportunities to re-analyze, or environmental fallout such as collapsing debris or shifting terrain.

Architectural Analysis

Understand construction and load-bearing forces.

By sensing static forces and stress paths, you understand how a structure holds together. You do not “see a secret room”; you infer that something is not bearing weight as it should.

This reveals where a structure is strongest, where it is weakest, and how it is likely to fail.

Touching the structure provides the clearest results. Vibration, motion, or active stress (explosions, earthquakes, heavy machinery) greatly improves what you can learn, but worsens Position.

Trajectory Tracking

Calculate paths of moving objects.

You see the past and likely future path of a moving object, tracing it back to its origin and forward to its probable destination.

This allows you to judge whether a projectile will hit, when to move between moving platforms, or how vehicles, ships, or debris will intersect.

The clearer and more predictable the motion, the further your insight reaches in both space and time. But remember, the past is absolute; the future is subject to acceleration.

Structural Sense

Infer systemic strain and force distribution.

You perceive how forces move through a large structure or complex, sensing load paths, tension, compression, and imbalance.

This reveals areas of interest rather than specific features — regions where force behaves unexpectedly. From this, you can infer where major passages exist and where hidden spaces, supports, or modifications are likely, without identifying their exact shape or purpose.

Structural Sense works best at scale and does not require line-of-sight. It applies to large buildings, ruins, ships, fortresses, temples, or complexes rather than individual walls. It does not reveal materials, construction methods, or exact room shapes, and cannot map spaces.

Greater Effect increases scope and clarity — wider coverage, stronger patterns, and more reliable inferences.

Complete Calculations

Analyze force and motion across a vast system.

You combine Architectural Analysis and Trajectory Tracking across a large number of objects simultaneously.

This allows you to:

• coordinate traffic or movement over a wide area,
• construct a complete mental blueprint of a complex installation,
• track thousands of moving elements as a single system.

Difficulty depends on the number of objects analyzed rather than physical area — a dense city and an open ocean can be equally demanding.

Survey

Perceive movement and acceleration to gain valuable information and insight. The outcome you need depends on the target's concealment.

• Limited outcome finds those hiding behind cover and in far places you can only barely see.
• Standard outcome can look behind walls and into hard cover.
• Great outcome can look into far-away places and spots you had no idea existed.

Consequences are generally just a failure to spot something. Your vision may focus on something similar to what you wanted, revealing wildly different things, or you might be distracted making you fall for all kinds of dangers.

Velocity Vision

Sense kinetic powers and acceleration.

You can sense kinetic powers and anything that accelerates. This allows you to detect moving things when they change speed or direction.

Detect Detail

Sense mass, speed, and acceleration.

You can extend your sense of touch and learn an object's shape, texture, mass, speed, acceleration, and elasticity. This is a sort of echolocation and similar to vision, only lacking color perception. You can keep it running to navigate in the dark.

Clairvoyance

Sensor at a point you choose.

Select a point in space defined by direction and distance. You can see as if you were at this spot.

Kinetic Knowledge

Detect Detail a large volume of space.

You gain the information Detect Detail gives, but for all objects in a large volume of space. This builds a composite image that becomes more and more complete the longer you concentrate. Paths where many things move quickly become clear, dusty passages remain obscure. This covers an open square, large building, ruin, ship, fortress, temple, or other large complex.

Sway

Kinetic Sway does not rely on mental influence. Instead, it manipulates sound through physical control of vibration and motion.

Lip Language

Read lips perfectly.

As long as you can see a speaker’s lips and understand the language, you understand what is being said.

Whisperer’s Whim

Converse with a visible creature.

You can project your voice to, and listen to, any creature you can see, allowing normal conversation at a distance. This is not telepathy; it is the controlled projection and reception of sound. This alters local acoustics and is noticeable to nearby observers.

Vocal Vision

Listen in without line of sound.

You no longer need to lip-read. You perceive sound-induced vibrations in objects near a speaker.

You can listen in on a conversation as long as you can see the speakers or a nearby object. You may also project your voice through objects you can see.

Rigid materials such as glass and metal conduct vibrations best.

Sound Sage

Converse with many creatures at great distance.

You can project your voice to, and listen to, any creature you know within the same region. You do not need line-of-sight.

You may converse with multiple creatures in different locations simultaneously. You can also amplify your voice while preserving tone and timbre, allowing you to Sway large groups.

Tinker

Manipulate and move physical phenomena. This must affect a separate object or group of objects.

Tinker Kinesis does not break things or deal damage; movement is slow, careful, and deliberate. It can precisely align, rotate, and position objects, but this requires concentration.

You can use Kinesis to operate tools, but purpose-made tools are usually better.

Each ability represents a higher tier of scale and adaptability, not speed or violence.

Align Aperture

Move small things.

You can move solid physical objects roughly the size of your head, including solid living things and manifestations of Earth, Ice, and Metal.

Align Aggregate

Move a human-scale mass.

You can move a physical mass roughly equal to your own body weight, including viscous living things such as slimes and jellyfish, as well as manifestations of Abyss, Fire, and Water.

Align Assembly

Move objects on the scale of a personal vehicle.

You can move ephemeral materials weighing up to one ton, or up to a 10-meter cube of light matter, including manifestations of Barrier, Air, and Electricity.

Align Atlas

Move massive and abstract things.

You can move enormous objects and even physical manifestations of ideals, from capital ships to clouds of darkness, including the physical effects of Darkness, Illusion, or Light.

This can affect materials weighing up to 1,000 tons or volumes up to a 100-meter cube of light matter.

Wreck

Apply overwhelming force through pure motion.

Kinesis can destroy objects, but its true strength is leverage and scale — moving what should not move. Kinetic wrecking does not favor any material. Instead of careful destruction, it excels at shoving, toppling, tearing free, dispersing, or crushing through sheer momentum.

Kinetic force is powerful but imprecise. It throws or pushes rather than delicately manipulates. These examples establish what is plausible at each tier; the exact scope is always determined by the fiction and the situation.

Kinesis can move or disrupt manifestations of other Forms, but cannot sustain, shape, or precisely control them without the relevant Form.

Psychic Pummel

Telekinetic blow.

You strike with focused kinetic force, equivalent to a heavy sledgehammer. Noisy and leaves twisted, displaced material behind.

You can throw solid physical objects roughly the size of your head, including including solid living things and manifestations of Earth, Ice, and Metal. The thrown object is not accurate enough to hit a moving target, and inflicts less damage on what you throw than the same level of Wreck Kinesis used as a weapon.

Kinetic Crush

Fine and Potent telekinetic impact.

As Psychic Pummel, but with far greater force and momentum. Functions as a Fine and Potent sledgehammer in and out of combat. Noisy and leaves crushed or violently displaced remains.

You can throw a physical mass roughly equal to your own body weight, including viscous living things such as slimes and jellyfish as well as manifestations of Abyss, Fire, and Water.

Psionic Pulverize

Silent kinetic destruction.

As Kinetic Crush, but the force is perfectly damped. Objects are crushed, ground apart, or reduced to dust without sound or shockwave.

You can push ephemeral materials weighing up to a ton, or up to a 10-meter cube of light matter, including manifestations of Barrier, Air, and Electricity.

Telekinetic Tremor

Apply massive force to structures or terrain.

You unleash sustained kinetic force like a colossal pile-driver or shock press. Too slow to strike individuals, but devastating to fixed objects and construction.

You may:

• Collapse walls or towers,
• Rip anchored objects free,
• Tip massive structures,
• Spread the effect over an Area (p. 221).

At this scale, you can push massive objects and even physical manifestations of ideals, including the physical effects of Darkness, Illusion, or Light. This can affect materials weighing up to 1,000 tons or volumes up to a 100-meter cube of light matter.