Impress Schticks (Action)

Heroic Action Role-Play

Aura

Trigger Action (Defense)

There is something special about you. You are very ugly, majestic, holy, crazed, or otherwise special, and people tend to leave you alone because of it.

Use this as a trigger action when someone would bother you; make an opposed Impress roll to make them stay back and desist, losing the action. This works as long as you remain passive (neither attacking nor running away, though using Impress or Charm is OK).

Aura only works as long as the situation warrants it; if your goons have been defeated and your Master Plan revealed, you may have to follow the officer escorting you to prison. But he will be polite as long as your Aura holds.

Authority

Inherent

You have had an authority invested in you by the powers that be. You might be a knight, tax collector, police detective, inquisitor, witch hunter, or spy catcher. Whatever your title, you are seen as a lawful agent of a higher authority.

You can expect reasonable cooperation from authorities and respect from the general populace. You have the right and duty to investigate cases relevant to your authority and to use reasonable means to to enforce your edicts. Impress checks made under such conditions are routine.

You are allowed to use the gear your position requires, which often includes restricted weaponry. You may or may not wear a uniform, but you can always display proof of your authority and allegiance. In most cases your behavior is beyond inquiry, but if scandal erupts you might find yourself sacrificed as a scapegoat.

Backbone

Trigger Action (Defense)

Use this when you are being bullied; you gain a +5 bonus (usually to Impress) for the rest of the round.

When you Stand Up for your Friends you and your friends gain a +3 bonus on their defensive Impress for the rest of the round.

Blue Blood

Inherent

Your family is old and recognized for its nobility, one of the most prestigious in the land, a cut above everyone who does not have this schtick. In a campaign where most everyone is a noble (a chivalry campaign, for example) you may even be of royal blood.

Those who care about such things will see you as a born leader, and your career often benefits. It is easy for you to be invited to parties and social functions, and you have relatives in high places. Your word is given due consideration, you are a valuable and reliable witness, and you will mostly be assumed to have a good reason to be wherever you are doing whatever it is you are doing, even if it might seem fishy. Even those who don't respect nobility find it hard to ignore your manners and bearing, it is clear that you are a person not to be trifled with.

You're not automatically wealthy, some nobles are dirt poor. If you get caught with your hands dirty, Blue Blood may backfire; everyone loves a good scandal.

Challenge

Stance

You can challenge either one named character or all unnamed enemies in an area with a diameter equal to your Impress roll to attack you; if their last action (after the challenge) was directed at any of your friends but not at you, you get a +3 bonus on any action directed at them. The effect is negated for each individual target if they are interfered with by others, including another Challenge.

Display of Superiority

Finisher

When you defeat an opponent, you can offer them mercy and a chance to work for you. Make an opposed Impress roll. This is modified depending on personality and on how you defeated them. Single combat is generally the way to go. On a success, you turn the enemy into a follower, or at the very you least can extract some service or important concession from them.

An opponent defeated this way is not dying and takes no long-term side effects other than the service.

Fashion Icon

Inherent

You have knowledge of fashions of your time and understanding of what can be worn when and to provoke which reaction. This lets you dress for every occasion, and also gives you the savvy to dress oddly without causing a scandal. You have the presence and fame to create fashion trends. You are notorious in fashionable circles. You can make an upstage stunt routine when your kind of fashion is relevant.

This most commonly applies to dress and toilette, but it can apply to art, architecture, cuisine and other cultural traits as well.

Follower Focus

Focus

When you lead someone who succeeds at a task you can focus.

"Someone you lead" applies to such things as Henchmen and Minions, but also to leadership actions such as Hands-On Leadership and Time for Action. The GM can say that you are the effective leader in a situation outside those described.

Eerie

Trigger Action

There is something odd and unusual about you, that makes others leave you alone. This might be a mannerism, such as talking to yourself or staring vacantly into space, or an indefinable aura. The end result is that people expect odd tings from you and around you, and will pay no heed to such occurrences unless they cause some kind of direct harm. They might think you a harmless eccentric or leave you alone out of fear. If there is a witch-hunt in the area, this can backfire; people too cowardly or reserved to do something themselves might still report on you.

Use this as a trigger action when someone would bother you because you did odd or unusual things; make an opposed Impress roll to make them stay back and desist, losing the action. This is a social ability and does not work when you are engaged in combat.

Hands-On Leadership

Basic Action

You can give a direct order to another creature and expect to have the order executed quickly and well. Decide on a basic action the target is to do; he must have any relevant powers, skills, or schticks to actually do the action you ordered them to do. The target may immediately do the action you ordered them to, but are not obliged to do so. They use their own skill value or your Impress, whichever is better.

If you use this on a an unnamed character the action is executed for free, but a named character must take a Trigger Action to execute your order.

Henchman

Inherent

You have a follower, a loyal Henchman who looks out for your interest and can accompany you on adventures, tough he is not as accomplished as a true hero. Unlike most heroes, he is willing to perform menial tasks and can be ordered about more or less as you like, tough he will resent actual mistreatment. He is also capable of carrying out advanced orders independently, and performs well as a lieutenant or advanced errand boy.

Construct a henchman as a Henchman Extra using your Impress skill as the highest skill.

You can take this schtick several times to have several henchmen, but generally only one of them accompanies you on adventures: the other act as your agents and look out for your interests elsewhere.

Heroic Identity

Inherent

You have a well-established costumed identity. Few people will question your right to investigate things, bear arms or ask pointed questions while in your heroic identity. You can also gain access to places and people unavailable to the general public. Police and other law enforcement figures will often cooperate with you, but not always. People will not question who you are and why you are in costume.

Over time, your costumed identity has built an identity and reputation of its own. You can make two contacts checks for a skill, one for your mundane identity and one for your costumed identity. People may also turn to your costumed identity for help.

You need not purchase this schtick to gain access to places your job ought to give you access to. Cops usually get access to crime scenes, military officers can get into military bases. But with Heroic Identity, you can usually get into either.

Maverick

Inherent

You have an established role; forthright, successful, and center stage but seen by some as crude or even evil. You might be the archetypal diva or the artist with a chip on his shoulder. You might be a legal eagle with courtroom manners worthy of your own TV show. You might be a maverick cop that all but tortures perpetrators. You might be a bulldog politician or shotgun journalist. You say the things most people wished they had the guts to say.

You may use the full range of the Impress skill in situations where it would normally be inappropriate, and you are (almost) never punished for it. Your established domineering ways get much more tolerance than one would expect. You can browbeat witnesses into confessing, you can make the boss appear like a fool, and you can make colleagues and onlookers cry or cringe and get away without a reprimand.

Minion Extras

Limit Break

You have a group of dedicated followers, a small group of elite but identical and unnamed NPCs who act as your bodyguards or close assistants. They might not always be able to come with you, but can look out for your interests elsewhere.

Construct your followers as a group of Minion Extras, with your Impress skill as the highest skill value. You gain a number of followers equal to your Mind attribute.

You can have a number of extras equal to your Mind in play at once. If they are defeated or lost, you can renew them up to your normal limit by using this action.

Minion Experts

Limit Break

You have a group of versatile, dedicated, competent, unnamed NPCs. They are not the best in a fight, but they can perform backup tasks, investigations and the like while you handle the serious threats. They are often supplied by an organization you work for.

Construct your experts as a group of Minion Extras, with your Impress skill as the highest skill value. All experts need not be identical; you can have a number of different experts equal to your Mind. You can define these beforehand or during play, but you can add no more than one new expert in each session, potentially discarding others as needed to make room.

If a minion expert is defeated, they are available again for the next story.

Minion Rabble

Basic Action

You have a horde of faceless minions, loyal but rather incompetent lackeys that follow your every whim. They follow you when ordered to, and spread out over the neighborhood, making a nuisance of themselves but also ready to come to your aid at a moments notice.

You generally have a number of lackeys equal to your Mind in play at once. If they are defeated or lost, you can renew them up to your normal limit by using a Basic Action, and they renew themselves at the start of each round in an action scene.

Construct your followers as a group of identical Minion Rabble, using your Impress skill -2 as their highest skill value.

Look Out Sir!

Trigger Action (Result)

With this schtick, unnamed allies near you tend to end up in the line of fire instead of you, asi´ if your minion had used the Interpose stunt. Whenever you take a Hit and such an NPC is near (within his Move meters), that NPC becomes the target of the attack - which is then executed normally with the new target. This saves your skin at the expense of your unnamed allies.

Official

Inherent

You are a ranking official in some important organization, and your word is law there. You could be a military officer, district attorney, chief medical officer, chief of police and so on. No-one in your organization questions your authority. You do have superiors, but for one of them to correct you would be a loss of face for the organization. You can usually use this authority to gain access to places and resources of related organizations as well.

Overbearing Presence

Inherent

When you make a successful Impress stunt against an opponent of Mind 8 or more, you can add three to the Outcome of the action, increasing the chance to score a Setback.

Rally

Limit Break

You can inspire people to extraordinary efforts. You heal one Hit on a number of creatures equal to your Mind within Impress meters of you, as long as they can hear your voice and have not suffered any Damage Setback. You can even revive defeated/unconscious allies this way.

Silver Spoon

Inherent

You were born with the proverbial silver spoon; you have never lacked for wealth. Whenever you are in a culture with normal commerce with your home, you have access to lots of money, and can easily buy or hire most things you could ever want.

You are richer than someone who is Self Made, but he is more versatile; he can make money anywhere. If you have both Silver Spoon and Self Made, your wealth multiplies and your heirs for several generations will be rich as well.

Make sure you have some motivation to adventure other than money, or you might retire from adventuring before you know it.

Streetwise

Inherent

You are at home on the streets and in sub-cultures of the downtrodden and outcast. You can gain instant respect and a fair degree of trust from criminals, the impoverished, and outcasts. They may or may not treat you as one of their own, but neither will they try any of the tricks they play on outsiders. You keep abreast of rumors and developments on the street. You can make a confident roll to use [[Impress (Action)|Impress] to Gather Information and to use the contacts, knowledge, and Perception elements of Impress on the street.

Swagger

Basic Action

You have "the look", and can dazzle onlookers by your mere presence. This is great for becoming the center of attention at social events. You can make an upstage stunt as a basic action.

Tactics

Inherent

You have a good sense of personal and small unit tactics. You can sense at what shot creatures within Impress meters will act, and you can sense the groups minions and are organized in, who leads who, and creature's typical combat mode and Role. All of these actions are automatic and take no time to use. You cannot read creatures whose Impress is higher than yours.

When the GM has you make a roll to discern enemy tactics or deployments, such rolls are Confident.

Vision

Inherent

You have a vision, perhaps of divine origin. You wholeheartedly believe in this vision, and you have a strange power of attraction, gathering followers and creating enemies of this new vision of yours.

Your vision appeals to a certain type of people, few of them are unaffected by it. It might be a vision to liberate all slaves or to reform a religion, and all slaves and slave owners or all who believe in the religion will be very much concerned. In this way, you will quickly gather followers, but you have very little control over their actions. They will hold you in high esteem, as a spiritual guide and mentor. You also get enemies opposed to your views.

This is a schtick for great visionary leaders, like Martin Luther, Martin Luther King, or Mahatma Gandhi, but also of tyrants such as Adolph Hitler. It makes you very much the center of the campaign, and should therefore only be taken with the GMs permission. Generally, visionaries tend to be NPCs who the PCs are either to help or hinder.