Power Experiments (Action)

Heroic Action Role-Play

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Power experiments is what you use to exceed the limitations of powers in Action. Powers are designed for everyday use in an action context, not for solving large social or engineering problems, make inventions, or otherwise perform world-altering events. In other games, this might be called ritual magic, but the powers of action need not be magical and thus a more generic term is used here. Power Experiments has some similarities to Tinkering.

A power experiment represents a significant muster of resources and time. The more resources you use, the easier it becomes to succeed.

Power Experiments

In Action adventures, miracles are performed with frenzied effort and leaps of genius in very short time. These rules give a framework for power experiments; the game master must always interpret these rules in ways that fit the campaign. The following table gives benchmarks for calculating the difficulty of power experiments. There are schticks and powers that use or modify the power experiments rules.

A power experiment consists of six steps, each requiring a separate skill roll using a separate skill. This might sound daunting, but in many cases you can compensate for a low skill rating by making that aspect of the power experiment easier. Each step has a difficulty dependent on what you are trying to achieve and a consequence of failure.

Power Experiments Table

	Time	Powers	Resources	Secrecy	Size	Duration
Skill	Create	Know	Impress	Charm	Shoot	Dodge	Skill
Consequence	Retry	Delay	Delay	Intervention	Smaller	Shorter	Consequence
Difficulty							Difficulty
6	Year	Exact Power	Factory	Public	Personal	Day	6
9	Month	Relevant Power	Lab	Private	Building	Month	9
12	Week	Expert in the field	Field kit	Secret	Town	Year	12
15	Day	Relevant Form	Basic tools	Intrigue	County	Decade	15
18	Hour (Limit Break)	Relevant schtick	Nothing	Isolated	Regional	Century	18
21	Basic Actions	Nothing	Handicapped	Solipsism	Widespread	Permanent	21

Time: This is how long you spend on the project if it runs perfectly. The Powers and Resources categories frequently causes additional delays. If you fail at this step, you waste the allotted time and must start over from scratch.

Powers: This is where you work out a theory for the experiment using your Know, deciding what to do and how to proceed. Depending how relevant the powers (or schticks) you already have are, power experiments become harder. A failure here wastes time; to roll again you must reinvest the base time of the project. Expert refers to the schtick.

Resources: How much resources you have at your disposal to work your experiments. It is harder to improvise something out of rubber bands in the field than it is to order your ten thousand mooks to build it using state-of-the-art tools. A failure here wastes time; to roll again you must reinvest the base time of the project.

• Factory: A full set of equipment, plentiful supplies, and a willing and able workforce.
• Lab: Plentiful equipment and more supplies than you can carry. A truck full of gear or access to a large trash heap.
• Field kit A man-portable power experiments kit, plus suitable pieces to work with.
• Basic tools: A small toolkit and some junk. A Swiss army knife and what you can loot from a wreck.
• Nothing: Your own will and power prevails!
• Handicapped You cannot put in normal effort, perhaps because you are imprisoned, lack the full use of your body, or have other demands on your attention.

Secrecy: How tightly the lid is on, which is important if what you're doing is illegal, amoral, or if there is opposition to your project. Charm is the skill to keep things secret and root out spies. A failed roll means there is a leak, which can result in a conflict or be a plot hook for later.

Size: Larger effects are harder to create, as decided by your ballistic skill - Shoot. If you fail, the area ends up being one category less than what you actually rolled - so if you went for Regional (DC 18) and rolled a 16, you get a town-sized effect - one category less than county. Personal is the minimum effect, regardless of your roll.

Duration: Power experiments have effects that last from days to centuries. All such effects are considered Curses and can be broken with enough effort, with longer-lasting the effects being harder to break. This category is only relevant to effects that are not natural. Creating a wall of stone is in most cases a natural effect; it takes no further power for the stone to remain there. Creating a wall of fire requires continual expenditure of power and thus needs a duration roll. If you fail, the area ends up being one category less than what you actually rolled - so if you went for Year (DC 12) and rolled a 11, you get a day - one category less than the month you rolled. If you fail to achieve even a day-long result, the effect has its normal duration instead, as per the power you are basing it on.

If you exceed the needed category on a roll, you gain a +1 modifier for each additional category you achieved, that you can store and use for later rolls. You can save this bonus until after you've rolled. The bonus accumulates if you manage to make several rolls that are higher than needed.