Time Powers (FiD)

Starfox's Blades in the Dark fan page

Time is a mysterious and dangerous power. It allows looking into the past and possible futures. Time effects assume that there are different timelines that can interfere with each other. Paradox creates a new timeline, this can be utterly confusing to you.

Time is the governing principle of all things, the regulator or the stream from Order to Flux. Together with Space, Time governs position and movement. The universe would be incomprehensible without orderly time. Time is a favorite of disaster theorists. Many claim that time manipulation is foolhardy and dangerous. Some claim time is an artifact of our perception; that it is the ultimate prison. Time travel is possible, but temporal inertia tend to restore events to what they were and minimize the effect of any changes to the past.

Time attacks stops time for an instant, you then set up weapons and events to cause harm when time resumes. They are hard to defend against, but likely to cause severe backlash if time is released too soon.

Example consequences:

• You get horrifying glimpses of an alternate time or timeline.
• You become slowed or uncomfortably speeded as the time stream warps around you.
• Your timing become off, causing you to miss by less than a second so many times.
• You lose your sense of time for a time.
• Attract a chronovore.
• You apparent age changes dramatically.
• You permanently age.
• You suffer from deja-vu.
• A time stop attack ends prematurely, catching you in the blast.

Time Power Effects

Action	Basic No minimum 4 Stress	Advanced Minimum 2 Dice 5 Stress	Master Minimum 4 Dice 6 Stress	Apex Minimum 6 Dice 7 Stress
Attune	Chrono Sense Detect time creatures and powers.	Causality Collapse Dismiss a Time creature or power effects.	Chrono Conjuration Summon a Time a creature.	Time Travel Extremely dangerous.
Command	Time Whisper Command Time creatures that don't understand you.	Chrono Command Help an ally resist.	Temporal Tip Help yourself resist.	Time Tyrant Command Time creatures as a superior.
Consort	Alter Age You can change your age.	Temporal Transition Become an alternate self.	Chrono Change Temporal Transition others.	Temporal Thralls Temporal Transition crowds.
Finesse	Temporal Turbo Increase the speed of a mount or vehicle.	Time Technique Set up a fine and potent close-range attack.	Time Trim Manipulate time precisely in small spots.	Chrono Charge Freeze time in a chase.
Hunt	Time Trace Track time-travellers and time warps.	Temporal Target Reverse time to make a creature attack itself.	Timelapse Change how much time an event takes.	Temporal Turmoil Reverse time to make several attacks go wild.
Prowl	Time Tactician A warning of future events.	Double Time Double your movement.	Temporal Teamwork Crew Time Tactician and Double Time.	Time Stop Only you can move.
Skirmish	Stop Watch Resist Time damage.	Time Touch Set up a melee attack.	Temporal Tango Distract using time.	Time Torrent Set up a storm of attacks.
Study	Chrono Classifier Identify objects and creatures of Time.	Chrono Clarifier Learn the powers and abilities of Time.	Chrono Chronicle Observe the past and possible futures of an item.	Chrono Cartographer Chrono Chronicle on everything in a wide area.
Survey	Time Tingle Notice Time effects in a wide area.	Time Twinkle View a place in a potential past or future	Temporal Temptation View a creature in a potential past or future.	Transcend Time Perceive area in a potential past or future.
Sway	Tempo Understand time creatures and their motivations.	Translate Time Crew can communicate with time creatures.	Temporal Temptation Plant suggestions for future action in any mind.	Temporal Tyrant Permanently change the mind of a Time creature.
Tinker	Clockmaker Work with clock tools and protective devices.	Overclock Make a machine operate faster or slower.	Timeline Tinkering Conjure objects from alternate timelines.	Break Causality Create out-of-context items.
Wreck	Age Erodes Noisily compress the wear of time.	Future Fault Expose objects to potential future events.	Date of Destruction Future Fault, but silent.	Tide of Time Future Fault a large area.

Expanded Time Powers

Attune

Harness the power of Attune to perceive and manipulate supernatural energies, allowing you to detect and interact with supernatural beings and phenomena. Time does not grant access to another plane.

Chrono Sense Detect time creatures and powers.

Time creatures rarely bother to disguise themselves, but time manipulations can be very subtle and hard to detect, making this useful. You can also use this to see Time spirits. Limited outcome suffices against something you can clearly see. You need greater outcome against against something that is hidden (standard outcome) or behind a wall (great outcome).

Causality Collapse Dismiss a Time creature or power effects.

This is different from other dismiss and dispel powers in that what you do is speed up the effect so that the duration runs out. You can end the operation of any power that has a duration, be it a summon or something else. The effect needed depends on the duration.

• Limited Outcome: End an effect with a duration less than a full score.
• Standard Outcome: End any effect that lasts a full score. This is the most common situation.
• Great Outcome: End an effect that lasts more than a score but less than a year. Such effects are created by long-term projects.

Dispelling is often used as a setup action to help another character in a situation when the opposition is using powers. This improves the position of the supported action.

It can also be used to break the continuing results of powers and to force a spirit of any kind to materialize. When used directly, the effect is usually limited unless the opponent is relying on powers for their safety. Against an opponent that uses power to fly or even breathe you can have a better effect.

Chrono Conjuration Summon a Time creature.

Summon Time creatures or time twins from alternate timelines. A weakness of Time summoning is that it does not offer the control other powers do over their summons. You must bargain for their services. This means you usually try to summon creatures you expect to be friendly. A common trick is to summon alternate versions of yourself. One way to do this is to call three ages of fate, that is yourself at two additional different ages, with either the energy of youth, the maturity of adulthood, or the wisdom of age.

Another way Time summons is different is that it is basically impossible to research what creatures to summon. With infinite timelines and no real source of information, the best you can do is to picture what you want in your mind and call out to a creature based on this.

Time creatures generally come in three types, spirits, time twins, and chronovores.

Time spirits are immaterial and ephemeral. They have various Time powers and can help direct and control Time effects you use. They can use sophisticated powers and their agenda is to maintain the time stream.

Time Twins summons variants of known creatures from other timestreams or from a possible past or future. This is essentially an identical twin of the creature you based the power on, with some significant differences. Based on their experiences and choices in this alternate time stream they may have different abilities from their twin from your timeline. These alternate timelines are usually worse than the world you live in, leaving creatures from there traumatized in different ways.

Chronovores resemble normal creatures, having a biological body, metabolism, and functioning as ordinary living creatures but also have Time abilities. Chronovores are predators that haunt the timelines, attracted to extensive use of Time powers. They can be summoned but are very hard to deal with. A summoning usually lasts for the current score.

Outcome determines the amount of control you have over what kind of creature you summon.

• Limited Outcome summons only chronovores. You disturb the time continuum and a predator pounces on you out of time. Usually not helpful, but might attack other time-users warping time even more than you are.
• Standard Outcome summons a random Time Spirit or Time Twin of you. If you have previously summoned such a creature, you can choose to summon that individual again.
• Great Outcome allows you to summon a Time Twin of another creature you have a close connection to, such as close friendship.

Typical consequences include:

• The creature is hostile or incapacitated by trauma.
• You replace your Time Twin, ending up in their reality for a time.
• They observe you for their own future Time summoning.

Time Travel Extremely dangerous.

You and your crew can travel to the past, future, or to alternate timelines. This is extremely dangerous, not only because of paradox, you might also lose your way and be unable to return. Because there are infinite alternate timelines, it is rare that journeying into the past changes the present, and a future you travel to is only one of many possible futures. A more common use of Time Travel is to find some valuable object or information.

Command

Command and intimidate Time creatures, projecting authority. Position and effect depend on the situation and your relationship with the listeners.

Time Whisper Command Time creatures that don't understand you.

This is useful for intimidating Time creatures and commanding foreign or alien subordinates. Combined with Sway: Tempo, it allows two-way communication.

Chrono Command Help an ally resist.

You can warn someone of a danger they are about to face. You must have some way of communicating this information to them. You roll for this power as the situation comes up, but in the fiction you may have warned them in a flashback. This improves their position, entirely resisting consequences from a controlled position and improving a risky or desperate situation.

Temporal Tip Help yourself resist.

You sent a message from your future back to the present. A warning from the future allows you to use Command instead of the appropriate attribute (Insight, Prowess, or Resolve) to resist a consequence. The cost is that the stress cost increases, instead of six minus your die result, the cost is seven minus the die result, the cost of Temporal Tip as a Master power.

Time Tyrant Command Time creatures as a superior.

Targets will see you as an officer, professional superior, alpha, or other leader type outranking them. This does not remove existing loyalties, which can lead to conflicts. Understanding the social order of your targets helps avoid conflict with their established loyalties. Ordering Time Spirit to ignore a disturbance is harder (needs more outcome) than telling them to deal with it and move on, because their task is to protect the timeline.

Limited outcome might result in a creature not doing what it might not have done anyway, like forgetting to report you or give you a ticket. Standard outcome makes the creature do what it should, but in a way you decide, like a Time Spirit escorting you to safety or doing you a quick favor. Great outcome means targets will ignore their normal routine and go out of their way to please you, like chronovores fighting for you.

The position depends on the creatures' actual relationship to you—ordering a creature that sees itself as your superior is a desperate position. A controlled position comes from a creature that agrees you are superior, usually just making retrying harder. A risky position is typical against a creature that sees itself as your equal and not your enemy, possibly leading to heat, misunderstood orders, or small rebellions

Consort

Consort Time changes your age and at higher levels that of others. These powers might be used as a set-up action. This may give a bonus to effect or improved position, make success automatic, or even allow an action that someone of your age could not do.

A common consequences is that you are mistaken for someone, or that your assumed form is somehow a hindrance. You might be obnoxiously cute, trigger prejudices, or have unexpected handicaps. Outcome determines how exact your control of the change is.

Alter Age You can change your age.

This is not merely a physical change, your mind also changes, becoming more playful and physical when younger and more calm and wise as you age. You can also change your attire to remove wear and make it appropriate to your new age. Alter Age can be used as a set-up action for a number of other actions but may penalize other things, as appropriate to your new age.

Temporal Transition Become an alternate self.

You become a Time Twin, yourself as you would be in an alternate timeline. This can change your abilities for new ones or temporarily overcome some trauma.

Chrono Change Temporal Transition others.

This is Alter Age or Temporal Transition applied to a willing or helpless creature. You never know others as well as yourself, so if you mimic Temporal Transition you need one step greater outcome than you would need for yourself.

Temporal Thralls Temporal Transition crowds.

This is where Consort becomes a combination of the Chrono Change and Time Tyrant power abilities. You Chrono Change a number of existing creatures and give them a task that they will perform with gusto, turning them into single-minded minions. Targets must be willing, non-sentient like animals, or just very minor figures in the plot, many tiers below you.

This is usually used to create a host of goons that will fight and chase for you. Such goons are more interested in chasing and cornering targets than in actual combat. Or they can be given bit parts, creatures out of time acting as servants and workers.

Finesse

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

Temporal Turbo Increase the speed of a mount or vehicle.

Increase the speed of a mount or vehicle giving it fine quality. As an advanced power you can affect any vehicle you touch.

Time Technique Set up a fine and potent close-range attack.

Besides variety, this only substitutes for equipment, fine and potent finesse weapon is just as powerful. In a fight, using this does not take any more time, activating your attack power is equivalent to drawing a weapon.

Time Trim Manipulate time precisely in small spots.

Manipulate time precisely in small spots. This can slow down or hasten the triggering of alarms, timers, and other mechanisms. In split-second actions such as bypassing fans or automated defenses this can be crucial.

Chrono Charge Freeze time in a chase.

Freeze time except for your crew and their rides, allowing you to position anywhere you can get to in a few seconds. You cannot affect anything except yourself and your rides. Negates most negative positions in a chase and gives you a good position, but not an automatic win.

Hunt

Track, attack, and unleash devastating barrages with the power of Hunt. At short range, this can be dangerous to you and yours.

Time Trace Track time-travellers and time warps.

This does not help mundane tracking, instead it tracks time travel and travel facilitated by Time manipulation.

Temporal Target Reverse time to make a creature attack itself.

This is a ranged attack that only works against people in dangerous situations, in particular if they are using weapons. When applicable this serves as a replacement for traditional equipment; a fine and potent ranged weapon would be equally powerful in combat. While some targets may exhibit more or less vulnerability to specific types of attacks, this is the exception rather than the rule.

Timelapse Change how much time an event takes.

This is usually used as a setup, but may also change how people act in reaction to the environment—rain, smoke, or snow and the like are likely to make people want to stay indoors or run out as the case may be. This does not inflict any direct damage.

Temporal Turmoil Reverse time to make several attacks go wild.

An escalation of Temporal Target, this requires something explosive or people armed with area weapons, such as automatic weapons, grenades, or flamethrowers. Less precise then Temporal Target, this affects all creatures at a location, with a risk of collateral damage. 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 and move with stealth and agility.

Time Tactician A warning of future events.

This gives you a warning of when you will be spotted. When using Stealth and suffer a consequence, you can use this retroactively to abort that attempt, which gives you no success but only the consequences of a controlled position, with the likely consequence that you have to wait or try another path.

Double Time Double your movement.

This does not add any new types of movement, but you can do normal movement twice as fast.

Temporal Teamwork Crew Time Tactician and Double Time.

Now you and your allies can use Time Tactician and Double Time. They still use their own Prowl action.

Time Stop Only you can move.

Step out of time and move in a still landscape. You can use this to attack much like Time Touch, but that is overkill and ends the power. What is more interesting is that you can move freely and manipulate unattended objects for about thirty seconds. To observers it appears you are teleporting.

Skirmish

Prosper in the chaos of battle.

Stop Watch Resist Time damage.

You can resist damage from Time attacks and from random accidents like weapon fumbles, stumbles, and misfires. This allows you to ignore most harm from a dangerous environment matching your . Roll Skirmish when subject to harm from such energies. This is your inherent resistance, it does not require any activity on your part. Reduce the level of harm inflicted based on the level of success. 1-3: Nothing. 4-5: Reduce level of harm by one. 6: Reduce level of harm by two. Crit: Negate all harm and recover 1 stress.

Time Touch Set up a melee attack.

This substitutes for equipment, mundane weapons are just as powerful. Certain targets may be more or less vulnerable to certain attacks, but this is the exception.

Temporal Tango Distract using time.

Time Touch, and you manipulate time around you, making it impossible for enemies you scale.

Time Torrent Set up a storm of attacks.

Turns you into a one-man army. Not only do you negate the advantage your enemy may get from numbers, you also spread your damage to hurt all your enemies in the skirmish.

Study

Study and analyze objects and creatures imbued with Time to gain insight and knowledge. The outcome required depends on range.

• Limited outcome for touch.
• Standard outcome for line-of-sight.
• Great outcome to reach a target you know of or have some link to, but which is out of line-of-sight.

Position depends on the situation. Safely in your base the position is controlled. In the middle of a fight or when pinned down the position is desperate. Sometimes thing you are researching it dangerous in itself, worsening position, consequences may give you knowledge that lacks crucial details.

Chrono Classifier Identify objects and creatures of Time.

This gives the name and very basic information in narrative terms, but not details or actual rules.

Chrono Clarifier Learn the powers and abilities of Time.

You learn of any powers or special abilities the target has. This includes actual rules and game result.

Chrono Chronicle Observe the past and possible futures of an item.

This is not limited to analyzing Time effects, it works on any kind of item. You can see as significant scenes from its history and likely futures, but actions by anyone informed by this power can easily change such a future. The power zooms in on events of interest to you.

Chrono Cartographer Chrono Chronicle on everything in a wide area.

This gives you a vision of the past and possible futures of a large area, such as an entire city region. You can then zoom in on three locations.

Survey

Perceive and locate manifestations of Time power. The outcome you need depends on the target's concealment.

• Limited Outcome finds targets in concealment.
• Standard Outcome finds those hiding behind cover and in far places you can only barely see.
• Great outcome can look behind walls and into hard cover.

Time Tingle Notice Time effects in a wide area.

This is a basic spotting power, selectively sensing things related to your power.

Time Twinkle View a place in a potential past or future.

You can see significant scenes from the history and likely futures where you are, but actions by anyone informed by this power can easily change such a future. The power zooms in on events of interest to you.

Temporal Temptation View a creature in a potential past or future.

Select a creature. You can see significant scenes from its history and likely futures, but actions by anyone informed by this power can easily change such a future. The power zooms in on events of interest to you.

Transcend Time Perceive area in a potential past or future.

Perceive a large area in the past or a potential future, giving you an idea of strategic events.

Sway

Communicate, mesmerize, and manipulate Time creatures. Position is determined normally, depending on the situation and your relation to listeners.

• Limited Outcome works if it follows the target's existing impulses, just overcoming fragile self-restraint.
• Standard Outcome can convince a target with no particular stake in the matter.
• Great Outcome will convince a reluctant target, but not a passionate one.

Tempo Understand time creatures and their motivations.

You can gauge the mood and motivations of Time creatures and understand what they are saying. This does not allow you to be understood. Used together Command: Time Whisper this allows full communication.

Translate Time Crew can communicate with time creatures.

This allows you and your crew to use the Sway action at full power, overcoming cultural and linguistic barriers. You are persuading, not speaking with authority.

In addition you can influence any creature to be curious, precise, and decisive, which is commonly used as a setup for a Sway going along with these moods

Temporal Temptation Plant suggestions for future action in any mind.

This is essentially a Sway attempt that results in action in the future. Temporal Temptation allows you to implant suggestions that will trigger under conditions you set. The power remains subtle until the suggestion is activated. The target will not remember being swayed.

Suggestions cannot be absurd to the target. A typical use would be to sway a servant to leave a window open or a guard to forget to load their weapon. Suggestions fade over time depending on the level of outcome achieved: limited outcome lasts for the immediate situation, normal outcome lasts for the duration of the score, and great outcome can extend beyond the score if it fits the story.

Temporal Tyrant Permanently change the mind of a Time creature.

This is permanent but blatant. It changes the target's mind on a deep level, altering their priorities and loyalties. There are limits to this power—you cannot make a Time creature dawdle. Exceptional creatures and circumstances can break this change.

Tinker

Manipulate, shape, and create objects imbued with Time to suit your needs. This includes items imbued with Time powers, but also devices connected to time such as clocks and anything running a schedule.

The powerfulness and durability of your constructions depend on the outcome. More powerful devices are harder to sustain and will not last as long. Most creations will endure until the end of a score. Position depends on the tranquility of your workspace and if you are working on something dangerous in itself.

Tinker Time can't be made permanent and is rarely useful for long-time projects. Time Elementals can help you to maintain these items.

Clockmaker Work with clock tools and protective devices.

This ability substitutes for tools and protection devices typical of a small workshop.

Overclock Make a machine operate faster or slower.

You can change how fast an item operates. This can speed up clockwork and computers, or slow down a trap enough that you can escape it.

Timeline Tinkering Conjure objects from alternate timelines.

You can pull items out of timelines into yours, effectively creating them out of thin air. Such an item must exist in a timeline similar to your own, which means it must be possible to create in your timeline. Conjure objects from alternate timelines.

Break Causality Create out-of-context items.

You break down causality, allowing events that happens without any cause. This can create items that are not possible of your timeline, such as a high-tech weapon in a medieval setting or a magical item in a mundane world. You can also create large things, like a palace, castle, or pleasure ship. Such things are extraordinary, either fantastically decorated or seemingly ready to fall apart.

Wreck

Destroy, dismantle, and obliterate objects using Time.

The outcome required depends on the size and structural strength of your target.

• Limited Outcome: An item up to the size of a human that is built to be temporal or which requires large amounts of maintenance, such as shantytown buildings and complex machinery. You can also wreck things created by Tinker: Timeline Tinkering or Wish.
• Standard Outcome allows you to affect standard consumer items up to the size of a car. Includes cheap structures and buildings.
• Great Outcome can affect crafted objects and things produced to be durable up to the size of a house or large vehicle. You still cannot affect things made to survive eons like cultural artifacts, pyramids, and stone temples. Diamonds really are forever.

The position depends on the situation. A quiet workspace is controlled, the general hustle of adventure risky, dealing with a fight, massive crowds, or dangerous construction is desperate.

Age Erodes Noisily compress the wear of time.

You expose something to the wear of a decade of frequent use. This will not destroy something unless it is particularly frail, but will weaken it and make it unreliable.

Future Fault Expose objects to potential future events.

Your target suffers an event of your choice from a plausible future. Common events include accidents, car crashes, human errors, mechanical failures, power outages, animal attacks, transportation delays, fires, flooding, and weather phenomena such as lightning strikes. More situational events that can only occur if they are reasonable in this location include terrorist bombs, artillery strikes, arson, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, frost wedging, industrial accidents, chemical spills, tsunamis, avalanches, landslides, gas leaks and explosions, and sinkholes. An phantom of the event is experienced by people nearby, but only your target suffers.

Date of Destruction Future Fault, but silent.

Use Age Erodes or Future Fault, but the event is silent and leaves no trace; the results of the wreck silently disappears. Can remove evidence as long as you are familiar with the event you want to destroy the evidence of.

Tide of Time Future Fault a large area.

Use Age Erodes or Future Fault over a large area, such as a section of a city. Ignore the size restrictions of outcome.