Mind (Action)
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| Heroic Action Role-Play |
In earlier stages of development, there was a Chi attribute, which has since been merged with Mind. All references to Chi in the rules now applies to Mind instead.
Mind is a measure of your ki, ego, ability to concentrate, and inner strength. It indicates how good a grasp you have of the extraordinary, supernatural,and divine. A high mind score means that you are focused but still mentally agile; hard to persuade yet insightful and able to understand ideas and concepts outside of your fields of expertise.
Fortune
Mind is the basis of Fortune. Whether you wish to express this as the favor of the gods, the ability to go with the flow of ki, or merely foresight and intuition, the fact is that some people have an uncanny ability to put in extra energy just when it matters most.
Your Mind score is an upper limit on your daily expenditure of Fortune points. When you have spent as many Fortune points as your Mind, you cannot spend any more. If your Mind goes up or down for some reason, so does your limit on Fortune, but you should still keep a running total of the number of points you spend. if your Mind changes you can only spend additional Fortune points if your running total is less than your current Mind score. A temporary increase in Mind allows you to continue to spend while reduced Mind might mean your fortune points run out
Fortune Dice
Spending a Fortune point allows you to roll an additional bonus die on any die roll. This is called a fortune die and can be open-ended in the same way as the normal positive die, but it not used to check for snake eyes and boxcars results.
You can only spend one fortune point on any one die roll unless there is some special rule that tells you otherwise.
Active Defense
You can also spend fortune points defensively when you use a defensive trigger power. In this case, you only roll the fortune die and add the result to the effect of the trigger action.
Desperate Defense
Finally, you can use fortune to reduce the effect of an action after the fact. At any time when one of your values is used as the difficulty of a task, you can spend a fortune point and roll a fortune die to add to your relevant game value. This does not take any kind of action, but only applies to one roll your opponent makes. You can only spend one fortune point on desperate defense, but you can spend fortune on both active and desperate defenses against the same attack.
Plots and Fortune
Fortune can also be used to affect the story by introducing plot elements. A player can suggest a new twist to the story. If the GM thinks the plot development sounds interesting, he can tell the player he accepts and introduce it to the story; the player spends a Fortune point. If the gamemaster likes the idea very much, he can just adopt it right away, but this should only rarely be done. Here are some plots that can be introduced this way:
- Romance - an NPC falls for one of the heroes
- Accidental discoveries - the heroes stumble over a clue, secret door, or other plot development that was not there originally. This can help the players get back on track, but should not be over-used.
- Scene change - the foot chase suddenly becomes a car chase, the nightclub is discovered to be an underground fighting ring, the ship is secretly also a submarine.
Gamemaster Plots
The gamemaster can use Fortune to invoke setbacks on the players. At any time, the gamemaster can use fiat to give a player a setback or even have them automatically captured. This is commonly used to pull the plot back on track, but can also be a response to a characters background and/or personality. For example, the GM can make an amorous player fall for an NPC, say that a dependent has been kidnapped, or otherwise present a role-playing complication. Doing this gives the character(s) involved a Fortune point each - this can be the whole group of adventurers. If the plot continues over several scenes or even sessions, multiple Fortune points are in order.
Sometimes the GM might offer the player a choice - do you want to play this subplot or not? - and put in the Fortune reward to sweeten the pot. Other times, a player might suggest a plot to the GM and earn a Fortune point if the GM thinks the plot is interesting.