Schtick List (Action)

Heroic Action Role-Play

This page collects all Schticks excluding Powers in one place.

Attribute Schticks

Body Schticks

Schticks related to Body

Bruiser

Inherent

You are very physically powerful and look the part. Your Body can be up to two points higher than the normal Race maximum.

Determination

Inherent

Use this if you run out of Hits. You can avoid collapsing when out of Hits, but at a price. Once you are out of Hits, you take damage setbacks when damage exceeds your soak attribute by five instead of ten. If you take a damage setback while at no Hits, you are unable to continue fighting.

Guts

Limit Break

You have a fierce will to live and fight on. Heal two Hits. You can use this at the end of a round, even if unconscious due to lack of Hits. You cannot use this to wake from unconsciousness if you have taken a damage setback. Unnamed characters with this schtick have a 50% chance to recover at the end of a round. If playing with miniatures, leave the model on the tabletop and roll at the end of the round. If the roll fails, or if the unnamed creature takes a damage setback, remove the model.

Natural Reach

Inherent

You have long reach, most often because you are tall but sometimes just due to long limbs. All your Melee attacks gain a Reach of 1 per 5 Body or fraction thereof, with a minimum of 2 meters. Against creatures whose Body is lower than yours all your Melee attacks also gain Intercept.

One Last Shot

Inherent

When you take your last Hit, do one last furious burst of action. This can be a Basic Action or a Limit Break. After this your hits run out and you fall unconscious - you can heal yourself to help your survival, but you cannot heal yourself to stay in the fight. One Last Shot does not give you access to schticks and powers you don't ordinarily have, it only lets you use your normal powers out of sequence.

Unflappable

Inherent

A quiet but secure giant, you ignore the antics of smaller creatures. Your huge mass is hard to move or unbalance.

• You can use your Body instead of Maneuver as a defense against Interaction Stunts.
• You can substitute your Body for your Impress when defending against Interaction Stunts.
• You can use Body instead of Reflexes to resist interaction stunts and concussion damage from attacks. You still take damage normally from accidents and falls.
• You can use Body instead of Know to resist Analyze Weakness
• You are immune to Flank Attack and similar abilities that grant an advantage based on position.

Superstrength

Inherent

You can freely exceed the normal Body limit based on your race and weight. You can choose to not take up more Space on the Map. You must decide how large you are in advance, Superstrength does not allow you to change your mass at will. You still suffer from physical limitations on weapons, armor, and tools. This schtick is considered a Power even tough it lacks a Form. To take it, you have to have a Tradition, and if the Methods of your tradition or a Power Loss Limitation makes you lose your powers, your attribute is reduced to the normal maximum value until your powers return. Note that this is mainly a problem for Folk - other creatures do not have ability maximums. Such creatures are still limited by Mass.

Super Leverage

Inherent

Your strength does not need leverage to work; in true superhero fashion you do not need to be solidly anchored to exert strength, and you can lift impossibly large objects that would ordinarily break if their entire weight was carried by one person. You still suffer from physical limitations on weapons, armor, and tools, but you can use oversized gear sized for your actual Body. This schtick is considered a Power even tough it lacks a Form. To take it, you have to have a Tradition, and if the Methods of your tradition or a Power Loss Limitation makes you lose your powers, your attribute is reduced to the normal maximum value until your powers return.

Mind Schticks

Schticks related to Mind

Emergency Power

Limit Break

You can overcome Power Loss. You can immediately (as a part of the Limit Break) do one of these things:

• Use a power that is a basic action.
• Activate one Stance power and then take a Basic Action that is not itself a power, but that benefits from the stance you just adopted.

Genius

Inherent

You are a mental giant among your kin and have an aura of wisdom and power about you. Your Mind can be up to two points higher than the normal racial maximum.

Implemented Will

Inherent

You can use any power that could normally use an Implement bare-handed for Mind +4 damage.

Super Genius

Inherent

You can freely exceed the normal Mind limit based on your race. This schtick is considered a Power even tough it lacks a Form. To take it, you have to have a Tradition, and if the Methods of your tradition or a Power Loss Limitation makes you lose your powers, your attribute is reduced to the normal maximum value until your powers return. Note that this is mainly a problem for Folk - other creatures do not have ability maximums.

Will to Work

Inherent

You can work much longer hours than normal people, adding your Mind to your effective Body for Endurance. This often means you lead a double life, having a full professional career and an adventuring life on the side.

Reflexes Schticks

Schticks related to Reflexes

Act Now

Trigger Action

Trigger: Somebody finished their action. If you have yet to take your first action this round, you can spend three shots (in addition to 1 shot to trigger) to take your first action right now. If more than one character takes this action they act in order of current highest shot. This schtick can only be used once per round.

Athlete

Inherent

You are a physical paragon and well beyond the norm of your people, which shows in your appearance and mannerisms. Your Reflexes can be up to two points higher than the normal racial maximum.

Super Reflexes

Inherent

You can freely exceed the normal Reflexes limit based on your race. This schtick is considered a Power even tough it lacks a Form. To take it, you have to have a Tradition, and if the Methods of your tradition or a Power Loss Limitation makes you lose your powers, your attribute is reduced to the normal maximum value until your powers return. Note that this is mainly a problem for Folk - other creatures do not have ability maximums.

Quicker than the Eye

Inherent

If your Reflexes are higher than your opponent's, you can use this to gain a +3 bonus to any skill used as a defense value. As normal, you do this after you know whether the opponent's action succeed.

Move Schticks

Schticks related to Move

Dash

Trigger Action (Combo)

As a combo, before another action that allows movement, you can move an additional time.

Sprint

Inherent

You can exceed your racial Move by up to two points. You still have to pay for these attribute points.

Super Speed

Inherent

You can freely exceed the normal Move value based on your race. This schtick is considered a Power even tough it lacks a Form. To take it, you have to have a Tradition, and if the Methods of your tradition or a Power Loss Limitation makes you lose your powers, your attribute is reduced to the normal maximum value until your powers return. Note that this is mainly a problem for Folk - other creatures do not have ability maximums.

Skill Schticks

Charm Schticks

Ablative Clothing

Inherent

When in action, events conspire to show off your body. Blows miss you by the sheerest margin, slashing your outfit. Branches conspire to rip your clothes. Claws gore dress instead of flesh. This schtick is just as common among hunks and babes. Conan has it, as does many fantasy barbarians and bimbos in all genres.

Use this schtick to ignore the effects of any one physical attack or stunt. You can also use it to ignore difficult ground or other adverse terrain effects, in which case you can ignore such conditions for one Round. This rips up your clothes beyond repair. You cannot use this schtick while naked or in ripped clothes, and can only use it once per session - you generally manage to find a new outfit for the next session, tough you may have to adopt local dress.

Once you have used this you are as naked as the genre will allow. Any function your clothes once had is gone. You no longer have any armor. This can serve to activate Bulletproof Nudity if you have that schtick.

Acumen

Basic Action

You can use the Sense Motive stunt as a Basic Action, but you still need to observe your target in a social context. You can only attempt Acumen once per scene on a particular target, but you can also use Sense Motive in the same scene.

Actor

Inherent

You are a character actor, well able to maintain a role. You like to immense yourself in your assumed persona, and seem able to change your personality and demeanor on cue. When you use Acting you are Confident. You can disguise yourself as a different race, gender or as a specific person as long as you can conceal any obvious physical differences; your method acting convinces people to overlook minor oddities in your appearance.

Beauty Mask

Inherent

The Crying Freeman has this schtick, and any character can have it in almost any juncture.

This schtick gives a sort of anonymity, even when not in disguise. Your features are idealized and forgettable. People can't seem to remember just exactly what you looked like when giving a description, tought they will readily recognize you if you meet again. They know someone was there, but they just can't think of what you looked like. "He looked kinda like a movie star."

If an observer or interrogator spends a Limit Break, an opposed Charm gives a basic description.

Betrayal

Limit Break

Use this when you are with someone who trusts you implicitly and has lowered his guard to you and who you can hold or embrace without them resisting you. You can do a Finisher against your target, just as if you had just defeated him in combat, or you can put them at zero Hits and defeated.

Blind Eye

Trigger Action

Win an opposed Charm check to convince the target that something it would normally not accept is in fact acceptable. The target turns a blind eye to the problem and acts normally despite the situation. The target overlooks what would normally be unacceptable identity, behavior, or appearance, going so far as to ignore rules and social conventions. The target turns a blind eye to a single situation and its direct natural repercussions. For example, having accepted a barbarian at a cocktail party, the target will not react to that barbarian again until he does something truly outrageous. Any direct threat of harm breaks the charm.

Captivating Captive

Focus

When you are a captive or otherwise helpless or at the mercy of your opposition, you can focus.

Consummate Charm

Inherent

When you make a successful Charm stunt to affect an opponent, add +3 to your Outcome. This works as if you had Advantage which means it stacks with anything else. Outcome is commonly used to determine if you score a Setback.

Cosmopolite

Limit Break

You are at home in all cultures, able to understand and adopt to strange manners and customs. Negate any penalties on Charm or Impress rolls related to alien cultures. You know the common languages of your world. Add your Charm to the number of Languages you can learn. You have an amazing ability to piece together bits of other languages, sign language and other means of communication. As a limit Break you can learn to communicate in any one unknown language. At first, this will be at a pidgin level, it takes you a few weeks to become fluent. If you use this ability to learn more Languages than allowed, you need to trim the list down at the end of the Story. You might have to use this schtick again (another Limit Break) to understand arcane subjects, archaic versions, or dialects of the same language.

Cute

Inherent

There is something about you that makes others care for you. Depending on their personality, this might make them want to kidnap and possess you or just give you a smile and favorable treatment. You automatically have at least the minimal effect on Good Impression on everyone you meet, making them see you as special and pleasant to be with. This makes it easy for you to get into social events, make acquaintances, and generally be very popular in a non-domineering sort of way.

Fascination

Basic Action

You can make a Good Impression or Taunt against a crowd of your Reflexes creatures at once. As an alternative you can make such a stunt against a single creature and be Confident on the roll.

Fainting Flower

Inherent

Whenever you are affected by a stunt or take damage, you can choose to ignore the effect and instead swoon beautifully. This costs you all shots for this round, but lets you ignore all damage while swooning. Enemies can use Trigger Actions (Finishers) against you, as long as you do not take further damage from them.

Fainting Flower does not help against truly indiscriminate dangers such as a bomb or rockfall, tough it does help against normal area attacks. Nor can you use this schtick to defend against attempts to capture, carry away, or otherwise take possession of you; in fact you are helpless against such attacks; your Dodge is zero against them for the remainder of the round. You cannot use this to escape confinement or whatever nefarious death-traps you might be placed in while in a swoon.

Gambler

Basic Action

You have a knack for gambling. Cinematic gambling has little to do with real-world gambling, and is not about calculating odds and folding at the right time; it is all about absurd luck. This schtick gives you the ability to draw just the right card to fill out your glorious hand or to give your race horse that little extra burst of speed. You can take a Basic Action to learn the difficulty of a certain proposed task. You make Confident Rolls when gambling. Whenever you have a bet hanging on an event you can make a Charm check and substitute the result for whatever skill check would normally determine success. You don't need to be the one performing this action, this is an aspect of your luck.

Help From My Friends

Focus

When surrounded by friends, championing their cause, you gain confidence. When within Charm meters of 8 or more people that support your actions, wish you well, and generally are on your side, you can focus.

Honest Joe

Finisher or Basic Action

You have a way with people, and inspire trust and confidence without really trying to. Any basically good and law-abiding people gladly give you a hand, though there must be a reason if they are to accept discomfort or danger to help you. This lets you charm people without really trying to, and tends to make you a leaders of mobs and posses. You may come into conflict with official authority figures. Sometimes, you can even inspire this trust in goons and villains, but usually only after you have soundly trounced them.

You can make a roll to find Common Ground when you defeat an opponent [Finisher], when you rescue someone from danger, and upon first meeting good-natured, law-abiding people [Basic Actions]. The common ground you find revolves around being decent to people; an enemy will at least consider a decent life if you succeed on this.

Infiltrator

Limit Break

You can convincingly pass yourself off as a nondescript follower. To use this ability, you temporarily stop playing. Your character is presumed to have donned a disguise and gone "off camera". At any subsequent point during play you may choose any nameless, filler character (a villain’s minion, a bellboy in the hotel, the cop who just pulled you over) in a scene and reveal that that character is actually you in disguise. Make an opposed Charm roll against the most skilled opponent on the scene. If this roll succeeds, you get to pick an NPC minion who is really you in disguise. If the roll fails, the opposition chooses who you are replacing, which can often put you in a dangerous position.

You may remain in disguise for as long as you like, but if anyone is tipped off that you might be nearby, an opposed Charm roll can be performed as a Limit Break. If the spotter wins, that player (or GM) gets to decide what nameless character on the scene you infiltrated as - and generally does so when you are alone and vulnerable.

Influential Friend

Inherent

You have a friend in a high places. This can be a king, recognized hero, high official, monster, or even a god. You are childhood friends, accidental acquaintances, lovers, or otherwise know each other privately.

Inclined to act in your favor, an influential friend has many other obligations and this makes him unreliable. Your friend likes you and wants to correspond with you and spend time with you, but is aware that showing you preferential treatment is somewhat irresponsible and thus does not provide all the support he could. He will give plenty of hints, rumors, and tidbits of information as well as the occasional gift and favor. Pressuring an influential friend for more help may produce grand results in the short term, but can easily backlash. At times, your influential friend might need your help, having you act secretly as their agent in the world.

Inspiration

Inherent

You are an inspiration to others. Whenever someone else performs an action that you heartily endorse, you can use Inspiration to give them a Fortune point they must immediately spend. You lose this Fortune point as if you spent it yourself. This schtick can even be used when you are not present, but you then need to describe a montage of something you did or told them that can inspire them in the current crisis.

Lip Reading

Basic Action

You have the ability to decipher what people are saying merely from looking at their lips moving. As long as you can get a reasonably good view of a speaker's lips and know the language, you can get the gist of what is said. Certain parts may be obscure or missing, depending on your skill roll and the needs of the plot.

Medium

Limit Break

You are sensitive to psychic impressions, and can often catch the mood of a place and get glimpses of important events that happened there in the past. Make a Charm check to seek answers, which works much like Gather Information, only the answers are colored by the place instead of people.

Nurse

Inherent

You are able to help the sick and injured through care and nursing. You can do First Aid using Charm instead of Know. If you have the Medic or Psychology schticks, you can use these with Charm as well.

Protector

Limit Break

You have a protector, usually a Hero Extra with 2/3 of your points who looks out for your interest and will accompany you on adventures. Often somewhat dim witted, he is nonetheless a loyal defender and trusty companion. He generally thinks of himself as the true hero and you as the sidekick to be protected. Your protector need not be a specific person, and can actually be someone you had never seen before you met at the adventure site, or one of the villains henchmen overcome by your charms. You often get separated from your protector early in the story, but he generally reappears in the dramatic scene, having made his way into the den of evil to rescue you just as he is needed (when you take the limit break). You can also use a Limit Break to inspire your protector, restoring any Hits he might have taken. After a rescue, he will expect some measure of attention and devotion from you, just as if you had seduced him.

Self-Made

Inherent

You are successful in business and thus financially independent. And you can do it again; if you was washed up on a pacific island, you would be king of the clamshells (or whatever) in a day or two.

Silver Tongue

Limit Break

People tend to tell you things, and you tend to learn more than they intended from what they say. You can make an opposed Charm roll to make a character say way to much, even if they are on their guard. When you Gather Information the roll is routine, and you can do this directly against the character you are investigating without causing undue suspicion.

Skeptic

Trigger Action (Defense)

When you would be hoodwinked by a successful Charm, you can adopt a skeptical attitude and actively defend yourself. This gives you a +3 bonus to your Charm where your Charm skill sets the difficulty. You also give the +3 bonus to yourself and others when you do the Social Support stunt. At any time, when an interaction based on deception fails, you realize which statements were lies but you do not learn the truth.

Sleight of Hand

Basic Action

Your training gives yous several advantages when trying to use Palm Object.

In any situation where you can use Palm Object, the Charm check is routine. You can swipe an object that is larger than your hand, is in use, or that is closely supervised, but then the check is not Routine.

Spin Yarn

Basic Action

By continually speaking, you may keep your audience captive with outrageous tales, distracting them. You can keep this up beyond all reason. You must first engage the victim in conversation, and then make an opposed Charm roll. You can target several people at once with no penalties, but use the highest value in the audience for a difficulty.

For each point of outcome, you keep going for a minute. You can then try again. If the outcome exceeds your victims' Mind, they give you some boon, either out of sympathy or in an effort to get away.

Failing the roll, combat, an alarm, and even a person coming to interrupt will break your hold on people. If the situation is not dire, you can use your Spin Yarn on someone who comes to interrupt to add them to your audience.

Star Stuff

Basic Action & Inherent

You are an expressive performer who can enthrall an audience and inspire a great range of emotion. You are famous in your field, and can easily get into social events or arrange performances. You can take a Basic Action to set the mood for a scene among people who are listening to you. This effect are obvious in the extreme. Interaction rolls that go along with the emotion you set become Routine. This can be done anywhere, tough it is easier and the affected area is larger when you are on stage due to the first ability of this schtick. You can also use a Basic Action to familiarize yourself with any kind of Performance Art to the point where you can perform it on stage.

When on stage performing, you are supremely confident. Any Charm rolls you make while on stage are Confident Rolls. This is an inherent effect.

Steal the Story

Trigger Action

While another individual attempts to give an account of an event or use Charm as a basic action or limit break, you can make an opposed Charm check to deftly interject comments or statements over the course of the storytelling that cause the individual to muddle specific details. This will discredit, insult, and humiliate the speaker. If the check succeeds, the speaker does not succeed at informing listeners about what she was trying to say and the attitude of anyone who heard the altered story becomes suspicious. If your Charm check fails the target realizes that you made deliberate attempts to confuse the story.

The Kiss

Basic Action, Focus

You dramatically kiss someone adjacent to you. This is a romantic kiss, not an inconspicuous peck on the cheek. The kissed creature then has the option to reciprocate your kiss - in which case you both become focused. Otherwise this has no effect.

Create Schticks

Alchemist

Inherent

You have mastered the esoteric art of Alchemy. Any Create check you do in relation to Alchemy is Confident.

Architect

Inherent

You can plan and lead the construction of buildings, from hovels to palaces and dungeons. You have an intuitive understanding of such projects, and can make educated guesses about where to find hidden chambers, where corridors lead and where to find rooms of a certain description. You can deduce where traps and defensive works should be placed, based on the use of different chambers.

When examining the plans of a building or having it described to you, you can deduce the location of such things as if you were actually there, looking for them. You only get one chance to discern each feature this way. Any tasks related to building you could do without this schtick are Routine to you.

Artisan

Inherent

You have mastered one particular craft. This can be swordsmithing, woodcarving, painting, or any one pretty specific profession. In this you are a true master, able to craft extraordinary items of grace and quality; Tinkering rolls in your area of specialty are Routine, and anything you create is of Functional construction without increasing the difficulty (a higher construction level still pays full cost).

Craftsman

Inherent

You are a master at finding technical solutions to practical problems. There is no practical problem that cannot be solved by building a device - tough it can sometimes take 10 years and a ten thousand workers to finish the project. Create tasks that involve creating devices are Routine to you. This can involve some Tinkering and Power Experiment projects. Engineer does not apply to asks governed by other Create Schticks, such as Security. In addition, you are proficient at a number of Crafts equal to twice your Create.

Demolitionist

Basic Action

You can use the Demolish stunt as a Basic Action.

Focused Creator

Focus

You can perform a Limit Break with a Create stunt, schtick, or power as if you were focused. When you finish a task based on Create, you Focus.

Forger

Inherent

You improve your Fakes to the point where it takes a Limit Break inspection to spot the forgery.

Jury Rig

Inherent

You are a master of scrounging and improvising tools and parts. Hair pins and chewing gum work as well as tweeters and soldering in your hands. Tin foil, burned out light bulbs, and cans serve you as spare parts. As long as you can make entertaining technobabble about it, are effectively never without a toolkit or parts for Create tasks, including Tinkering at the Workshop level.

Magic Pockets

Inherent

Deep Pockets checks are routine. As long as you have some plausible way to fit or find the gear, or make up a reasonable story of why you would have stashed the gear here, you can have large items and a greater number of items.

Security

Basic Action

You are familiar with security measures of all types: locks, alarms and traps. Your Disable Mechanism checks are Routine.

Set Trap

Limit Break

You can set traps and alarms given the right equipment and circumstances. Alarms are fairly straightforward; they can be local loud alarms or remote, silent alarms depending on resources. Typical traps are weapons, snares, and pitfalls but they can also be built around powers you can use. A trap does damage equal to your Create. A snare trap steals shots equal to the attack outcome (this can carry over from a surprise round into the next round); on an outcome equal to the targets Reflexes he is rendered helpless. A pitfall causes a normal fall. When the trap attacks, make a Create roll against the Dodge of the victim, with the usual +3 bonus for being hidden. You can add a Finisher you know to the trap. If you do, and the trap inflicts a Setback, the Finisher replaces the Setback.

A trap can be found with Scan or Search and is automatically found when using Examine. Once found, traps are much less effective as there is no surprise bonus and targets can take trigger action defenses. Knowing what triggers the trap means it can often be circumvented.

Stylist

Limit Break

You have knowledge of fashions of your time and understanding of what can be worn when and to provoke which reaction. This lets you make a dress and toilette 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. This most commonly applies to dress and toilette, but it can apply to art, architecture, cuisine and other cultural traits as well.

You can take a Limit Break to dress up or spruce up an outfit to gain one of the following effects. The difficulty of the check is the target's Charm. A proper styling studio makes this check Routine.

Mood You temporarily allows subjects to use Dodge instead of either Charm or Impress, changing the impression they have on others. Only the values used for skill rolls change; the subject still uses his normal values as defense. This lasts for a couple of hours or until the target chooses to end the effect.

Occasion A makeup created for a specific social situation makes that situation Routine. This can be dressing up for a date, TV interview, board meeting or other specific social situation, generally no more than a scene in length. This only applies to the situation as it was expected to develop; if the interview turns into a hostage drama this bonus no longer applies.

Role Anyone attempting to use a disguise you helped create treat Charm rolls to maintain the role as Routine, and can impersonate specific persons and other races or genders without wearing bulky clothes.

Trapfinder

Trigger Action

Whenever you or a team member within Reflexes meters of you are about to trigger a trap, you can use this as if it was Examine to find that trap and cancel the action that would have triggered the trap.

Weapon Mods

Limit break

You fiddle with weapons, coaxing new abilities out of them. Choose one of the following weapon abilities when you use this schtick. You can pick this schtick several times to apply multiple benefits with each application. It is a Limit Break and requires a Create check against the damage the weapon does in your hands to apply the modification and the benefit lasts until the end of the session. Some mods have prerequisites, that can be satisfied either in the weapon itself, or because you have installed a Weapon Mod for that ability.

Common Mods Can be applied to any weapon.

• Dual Damage and a +2 damage bonus.
• Penetrating
• Rash and a +2 damage bonus.
• Slick
• Stun
• Change the damage type to another damage type you can convince the GM to allow.

Ranged Mods These can be applied to ranged weapons only

• Area
• Scatter
• Saturation
• Increase Range by one category]]

Melee Mods

• Disarm
• Counter
• Entangle
• Parry
• Returning — Requires Throw.
• Stun
• Throw — Cannot be used with unarmed/natural attacks.

Limitations As an option, you can instead remove one for the following weapon abilities. You can remove limiting weapon abilities gained from Signature Mods through additional Signature Mods.

• Load
• Rash
• Reload - the weapon instead becomes Slow
• Slow
• Static
• Stowed
• Stun
• Unreliable

You start each session with a weapon mod of your choice and can use this and any other weapon mods you install until the end of the session. In the hands of others, a modified weapon loses its mods at the end of any scene where they are used.

Dodge Schticks

Several of these sticks cover abilities quite unrelated to the Dodge skill. This is because a hero is always assumed to raise Dodge to the highest allowed value, and these schticks relate to the character's overall level. In other word, some Dodge sticks could just as well be based on a character's highest skill rating, placing them in Dodge is just a little more elegant.

Armor Proficiency

Inherent

You ignore the Loud and Unreliable penalties when wearing Armor.

Bodyguard

Trigger Action (Defense)

You are a trained bodyguard, and can instinctively react to threats to other people. This is an improved version of the Meatshield stunt. When somebody within your Move in meters is attacked, you can move adjacent to them. If you cannot move adjacent, you cannot move at all. You then interpose yourself between the attacker and ally, redirecting the attack to hit you. You also get a +3 Dodge_All_(Action_Powers) bonus for the current shot. You can use this even in situations where you are not aware of the attack or in a Surprise round but not when you are out of shots for other reasons.

Bulletproof Nudity

Stance

Nudity can distract an opponents at critical moments. If nothing else, it makes the audience root for you. You must be more naked than the local cultural norm allows to use this, and not encumbered by excessive gear or wear armor. You can strip down as a part of activating the stance. Add +2 to your Dodge. Multiple Dodge bonuses do not stack.

Bullheaded

Inherent

You are sure of yourself and not easily impressed by intimidation or social pressure. You can use your Dodge as a defense where you'd normally use Impress.

Cold Fish

Inherent

You are not easily swayed by charm and whiles. You can use your Dodge as a defense where you'd normally use Charm.

Crazy

Basic Action

Your motivations can rapidly and unexpectedly change. While being affected normally by social interactions and mental effects, you can completely change your motivations and negate all such effects you are currently under. You have to role-play this change of agenda. Examples include going from a peaceful healer to a raging maniac or from a loyal retainer to glory hound. You can only do this once per scene. You can use this schtick even when something would normally prevent you from doing so. This cannot end a Curse, but can cancel the effect of a social or mental curse for a round.

Defensive Reflex

Trigger Action (Defense)

You have reflexes honed to defense. When attacked and unable to use a Trigger Action (Defense), such as when you are surprised, the attack is a trigger action, or have zero shots left, you gain a Dodge bonus of +3 for the rest of the shot. You can do this even if you have no have no shots remaining.

En Garde

Stance

You scorn the use of shields and brute weapons, relying on defensive weapons and a good fighting stance to protect you. Add +2 to your Dodge. Multiple Dodge bonuses do not stack. To use En Garde, you must be using a melee weapon with the Parry ability. This includes a weapon gaining Parry from Melee Technique or similar.

Grenade Leap

Trigger Action (Defense)

When attacked by an area attack, you can use this to get a +3 bonus to Dodge and take a move in any direction, including up. You can use it with one of your own area attacks to leap in this way as long as you are in the area of the attack—you don't take damage from your own attack in this case. You are moving after the attack, so you do not get the benefit of any cover you move into.

Hold the Line

Focus

When an ally within 3 meters of you takes a Hit, you can focus.

Invincible Superiority

Trigger Action (Defense)

Use your exceptional abilities as a universal defense. This is beneficial when the difference in ability scores is more than 3. When you use this schtick, select one ability score, Body, Mind, or Reflexes. For the current shot add the chosen attribute to your Dodge and to each attacker's Melee or Shoot.

Kiss the Ground

Trigger Action (Defense)

When attacked you can drop prone and get a Dodge bonus of +3 against ranged attacks only until you take your next Basic Action or Limit Break.

Look Out!

Trigger Action (Defense)

When one or more of your friends are the target of an ability where Dodge is the difficulty, you can substitute your own Dodge for that of your friends' for the current shot. Normally, you need to be within Dodge meters of them to do this, but if you have some means of communicating and are aware of the situation, you can use this at a longer range.

Martial Arts Stance

Stance

You scorn the use of weapons, relying on a good fighting stance to protect you. Add +2 to your Dodge. To use Martial Arts Stance you must be using unarmed attacks or a Signature Melee Weapon.

Master Dodge

Basic Action

When you would ordinarily be hit by an attack you can take an active dodge, which increases your Dodge value by +3 for the current shot. You also give the +3 bonus to another when you do the Look Out! stunt. Finally, the difficulty of Analyze Weakness against you is equal to your Dodge at all times.

Signature Armor

Inherent

Select one specific set of armor, like the family ancestral full plate or the titanium flak jacket that saved your life in the Desert War. Your fate is linked to this armor.

• Even light Signature Armor gives you some protection. Your Toughness becomes Body +4 if it would normally be less than this.
• You can own and operate this armor legally even if it would normally be beyond your means, illegal, or require some special license. People tend to not question your right to take it along; unless the GM makes a montage of how it is taken, the armor stays with you. It can also pop up in the unlikeliest places seemingly on its own.
• It is harder to steal or damage this armor. You are Confident on any stunt to hide or interaction check to keep the armor. When others try stunts to disarm or make you lose the armor, they are Stymied. Even if it is stolen, it always crops up later — it is never permanently lost.
• The armor is tougher than normal, having a minimum Toughness score equal to your Dodge. Even when seemingly destroyed, the armor can always be repaired.
• You become fully proficient with the armor, gaining the effects of Armor Proficiency but only with this specific suit of armor.
• Finally, the armor becomes infused with your essence. It is considered a supernatural or magical armor in situations where this matters.

Impress Schticks

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. Perhaps spooky events occur around you, 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. 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.

Authority

Inherent

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

As long as you proclaim your identity 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)

When put under pressure, you can adopt a stubborn attitude and actively defend yourself. For the current shot you and allies within Impress meters can use your Impress +3 as the difficulty of any task where your Impress skill sets the difficulty. You also get this bonus when you do a Stand Up For stunt for creatures further away from you. In situations where loyalty to you is the issue, you can use Stand Up For at any range and without a means of communication, as you have instilled some backbone in your followers.

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

Trigger Action

When a character you succeeded at an opposed Impress check against in this scene takes a hostile action against anyone but you, you can use Challenge to get an Advantage on your next die roll against them. As long as at least one unnamed creature in a group acts against a creature other than you, you can trigger Challenge, but only once for each group of mooks.

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 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 are notorious in fashionable circles and have the presence and fame to create fashion trends. You can make an upstage stunt routine when 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.

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 equipment, 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 Extra with points 2/3 of yours. He 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. You can take this schtick several times to have several henchmen, to get a larger selection of followers to choose from, but generally only one of them accompanies you on each adventure. Your other henchmen can 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 Experts

Limit Break

You have a group of versatile, dedicated, competent, unnamed NPC followers. 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 Rabble, with 1/2 of your points. Each expert can be different. You can define these beforehand or during play, but you can only call on the services of one expert each scene. If a minion expert is defeated, they or an equivalent replacement are available again for the next story.

Minion Gang

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. Construct your followers as a group of Minion Rabble with 1/2 of your points. You gain a number of followers equal to your Mind attribute. If they are defeated or lost, you can renew them up to your normal limit at the beginning of each session, tough the GM may not allow this if you are isolated.

Minion Horde

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 minions 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 with half your points -20 and a maximum value three lower than yours. Your minions are not allowed to take the Formation or Troop schticks. You can pick this schtick an additional time to allow your minions to take these schticks. This also gives you a number of minions equal to your Impress. You can then pick this schtick further times, each time you gain an additional large group of followers.

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, as if your minion had used the Interpose stunt. The minion pays the shot cost, not you. 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. You can use this Trigger Action even when you would normally not be allowed to take actions, such as in reaction to another Trigger Action, against a Sneaking enemy, or when out of shots.

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 to affect an opponent, add +3 to your Outcome. This works as if you had Advantage which means it stacks with anything else. Outcome is commonly used to determine if you 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.

Shock and Awe

Trigger Action

When you use At Weapon Point against multiple opponent's, you can take multiple trigger Action to attack each of them, not just one.

Signature Summon

Inherent

You have a creature that you keep summoning throughout your career and that develops as you do. This is a Henchman Star, and it must spend at a third of its points on Attributes. Your fates are entangled, but the creature is entirely free-willed. In order to use its services you must Summon and either control it or bargain with it.

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. 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 to use Impress on appropriate Gather Information checks.

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.

Know Schticks

Adopted People

Inherent

You have very good relations with a people or subculture other than your own, to the point that you are considered a native, as honorable as a worthy member of this people, accepted as one of their own. You speak their language fully and fluently and have overcome any prejudice, reverse prejudice, or xenophobia. You can generally

Archeologist

Basic Action

You are an experienced archeologist, able to explore and analyze ancient sites. You have an instinctive sense for the use of each item and location, can sense which pile of earth contains a treasure and which is just rubble, and where to look for secret doors, traps, and other fantastic remains. You also have a good grasp of history and can understand where your excavations fit in the grand scheme of things. Tasks related to archeology that would be Limit Breaks for others, such as Search and Research, are Basic Actions to you.

Art Appreciation

Limit Break

You understand a person or culture trough observing its art, reading developments in its history and sociology as well as making predictions about where it is headed. You can use art as if it was a reference work with Research, making deductions about any topic by studying art related to it.

You can use art to impress and create a mood for a setting; make an opposed Know roll to set the emotion for a scene. Make a single roll and compare it against each of your guest's Know skill to see who you can affect. Interaction rolls that go along with the emotion you set become Routine against someone so influenced.

You can evaluate and give insightful and charming commentary on art of all kinds. In a setting where art is prominent (exhibition, performance and so on) you can engage another in commentary on the art and make an opposed Know check. If you succeed, your Charm checks this scene are Routine .

If you fail an art appreciation check, you cannot try again this scene.

Deduction

Limit Break

When you are speculating as to the best course of action or about the motivations of a given character, you can make an opposed Know roll against any opposing mastermind to have the GM tell straight out you whether your speculation is correct or incorrect. You must pose your question so that it can be answered very simply; yes, no, maybe, and irrelevant are typical GM responses. Deduction is not supernatural, the GM might refuse to answer if he thinks you have too little information to go on.

You can try to correlate what clues you have and test a theory of what really happened. As a player you must make a description of events as you think they are. The GM rolls your Know against the highest Know among the opposition. On a success, the GM gives a general assessment of your case, rating it as entirely false, mostly false, somewhat true, or mostly true. The GM may deem the clues you have to weak to try, weak (Stymied), strong, or complete (Confident).

Doomsayer

Basic Action

You can Refute Action as a Basic Action. Commonly linked to the Bard's Tongue Limitation.

Expert

Trigger Action (Combo)

Young man, I must mention that the coolant conductors in the thermonuclear reactor are not really suitable for climbing; their structural integrity is just 346 over 9. If you must use this delicate piece of machinery for ascension, use the illumination ducts. Those are the green cables, not the yellow ones.

Define a field of study; it must be fairly narrow. You are the very best in your field of knowledge. Butterflies and ancient languages are both good examples of narrow fields of knowledge. Within this narrow field, you are an absolute expert. You are an established master of your field, and your words should weight much more heavily in the academic world than those of anyone else, but due to academic infighting this is usually not so.

You automatically succeed at any Knowledge checks in your field of expertise. If you can convince the game master that your area of expertise is applicable to an action you or an ally is taking, (fairly spoofy reasons are acceptable), you can spend a trigger action to make the check Routine.

This schtick also lets you design new schticks and powers. In genres where a type of designs are very important, such as air fighter or mecha campaigns, this schtick lets you to create new designs and to push the envelope on technology, tough this is of course a lot of work.

Note that this schtick is not limited to the humanities, but can also apply to technological and supernatural fields. Great scientist need at least a basic understanding of the humanities (the Know skill) as well.find solutions acceptable to either your own or your adopted people. Those outside of either of your two cultures react to you based on the culture they would most favor.

Find Weakness

Basic Action

You can Analyze Weakness as a Basic Action.

Focused Mind

Inherent

When you make a Mental Push stunt, the Know roll is Confident.

Forensic Medicine

Limit Break

The not-so-glamorous skill of examining bodies (mainly of the dead) to determine their medical history. Most often used in grim settings to determinethe cause of death and to investigate murder.

If you take the time to perform an autopsy, you can automatically identify the source of death and tell a lot about the dead person's last hours - level of activity, things he ate, if any violence was made upon him, if he had sex, things like that.

Identifying strange and/or unknown things may require a Know roll, even a poor result will generally give you good clues while a good roll gives odd and disquieting insights into the patient's last hours. If some mastermind is behind the event, this is an opposed Know roll.

Investigator

Limit Break

You are a forensics expert, able to analyze clues and physical remains and create a coherent image of what happened at a scene you are investigating and clues to what kind of people were involved. As more information is added from witnesses and technical reports, you can flesh out your image of what happened. If some mastermind is behind the event, this is an opposed Know roll.

You can put all of this down into reports that other investigators can read and understand, and you can quickly skim such reports to find similar cases which can offer additional insights.

Cosmopolite

Limit Break

You are at home in all cultures, able to understand and adopt to strange manners and customs. Negate any penalties on Charm or Impress rolls related to alien cultures. You know the common languages of your world. Add your Charm to the number of Languages you can learn. You have an amazing ability to piece together bits of other languages, sign language and other means of communication. As a limit Break you can learn to communicate in any one unknown language. At first, this will be at a pidgin level, it takes you a few weeks to become fluent. If you use this ability to learn more Languages than allowed, you need to trim the list down at the end of the Story. You might have to use this schtick again (another Limit Break) to understand arcane subjects, archaic versions, or dialects of the same language.

Logical Detachment

Inherent

You are not easily swayed by emotional arguments. You can use your Know skill in place of both the Charm and Impress skills when defending against stunts; any stunt having one of these skills as a difficulty lets you use Know instead. However, you become sensitive to reasoning and logical arguments; other people can use their Know skill in lieu of the Charm and Impress skills when interacting with you. You can also end up with a knife in your guts if you don't respond appropriately to intimidation; unlike normal interaction skill your learned arguments in no way impress those who fail to sway you. Logical detachment does not work against Spurious Logic.

Loophole

Basic Action

You have a knack for finding the wrinkles and exceptions in formal sets of rules, be it a computer program, the the directive of the metropolitan police, an infernal contract, or a code of honor. Against people and organizations that have a formal code that you know of, you can cause them to hesitate with an opposed Know roll. A successful stunt reduces the opponent's shot counter by three. If the Outcome matches your opponent's Mind they suffer a Setback, often making it impossible for them to achieve their objective honorably.

Material Link

Limit Break

By investigating a place were a creature bled, slept, or performed some significant activity, you can secure a sample of their blood, hair or other tissue sufficient to give you a clue to their True Name (a DNA sample in technological settings), or at least secure an advantage against them.

Make a Know check against their Recon, on a success you gain an Advantage against them that lasts until used or to the end of the session. On an Outcome matching their Reflexes you learn their True Name.

Medic

Basic Action

You can administer medical procedures and generally function as a qualified doctor. You can save lives and help natural recovery. This can be used to do First Aid as a Routine action. You can also substitute the patient's Body with your Know skill, for as long as the patient remains still. This can soak damage and help fight infections, poison, pathogens, and other dangers. You can use this as a prophylactic, but must know what specific problem you are preventing.

Poisoneer

Basic Action/Limit Break

You know and can administer poisons. When applied to a weapon doing Cutting or Piercing damage, a poison does Infection or Neurotoxin Dual Damage.

When used in food or as a contact poison, you must first apply the poison (which might be as stunt on some other skill) and close observers get an opposed Know to discover the poison at the last minute. If the poisoning is successful, you do Infection or Neurotoxin damage equal to your Know.

You can also use this schtick as a Limit Break to design pathogens that affect specific types of creatures, such as insects, mammals, plants, or alien life forms. This requires a blood sample and a Know check against a difficulty depending on your knowledge of these creatures' biology. 12 for everyday creatures, 15 for creatures from an unfamiliar environment like deeps sea or another known planet, and even higher for entirely new forms of life. You need to use this to affect strange creatures at all, and it is also useful to create specific patogens that only affect select targets, for avoiding friendly fire and such.

Popper the Bubble

Basic Action

You can Refute Action as a Basic Action.

Power Domination

Trigger Action

You must use Power Suppression (a Know stunt) on your victim before you can use this schtick. As long as your victim remains power suppressed you can turn on and off his powers at will. This is a Trigger Action you can use anytime, and specifically when he is about to use a power. If you do not change Power Domination his powers remain as they were, either suppressed or not.

Profiling

Limit Break, One attempt per scene

A method of suspect identification which seeks to identify a person's mental, emotional, and personality characteristics. You can analyze the habits and behavioral patterns and find common traits. This lets you construct a profile from very flimsy information; you can make educated guesses about someone's personality, abilities and motivations just by analyzing clues. You do this by analyzing evidence left at a scene where the person you are seeking has been active. You do not need to know who you are looking for, looking instead for the perpetrator of a crime or the instigator of an event.

You can use this once per appearance of the person sough; this is usually one scene in the game. Make a Know roll against the target's highest skill value. On a success, you gain a limited insight about the target; the GM can hand out appropriate clues and people using your profile to investigate the case get a bonus equal to your Insight. You also get a cumulative +3 bonus on later profiling attempts. On an Outcome matching the target's Mind you get a complete profile; if the target is on file you can identify him, and you know his basic personality, skill set, and motivation.

It is possible for the target to interact with you through clues intentionally left for you to find, using normal interaction rules.

Psychology

Finisher

You work with people to modify their mental state; to either cure or create psychological disorders. This requires a cooperative or restrained patient. Such disorders are generally considered Curses, and you can work with any purely mental or behavior-related curse. You can also substitute the patients Mind attribute with your Know skill while under your direct care; this can help against mental trials and assaults.

Sense Lineage

Basic Action and Inherent

You know a lot about lineage and tradition, and you know all the great families. You can use this to roll Know against Charm to tell that persons social standing, family and lineage if it is at all noteworthy. You can only use this once per session against a particular person. A person with Blue Blood is positively radiant to you; you automatically succeed against them. In cases where others try to fool you concerning their lineage or social status, you can use your Know as both the difficulty of the stunt and as your Mind for resisting a Setback.

Speed Reader

Basic Action

You can read at incredible speeds, reading and digesting text much faster than a normal person. You can do Research as a basic action as long as you are checking one particular book.

When doing research in a library, Know rolls are Routine.

Surgeon

Limit Break

You can heal wounds and remove physiological afflictions through surgery. This is powerful in that it can actually remove a physiological Curse. Normally, this requires a complete surgical crew, specialized equipment and so on. In Action, you often have to work under much more primitive circumstances.

After successful surgery, the patient has zero Hits and will need some bed rest, but is cured of physiological ailments. The GM is the final arbiter of whether Surgery can help but is encouraged to be generous; vampirism or a transformation into a mermaid is probably curable, especially in its early stages. Being turned into stone, ghost, or parrot might not be reversible this way, depending on the technology you have access to.

The difficulty of Surgery is the damage value of the attack that caused the damage or the skill value of who or whatever caused the problem. If the surgery is performed with adequate tools and assistance, the roll is Routine, and assistants can also assist.

Torturer

Limit Break

Inflicting pain on others as punishment or to induce cooperation, most commonly to extract information. Torture can be of many kinds, but this schtick is focused on physical torture. The victim must be unable to resist and you must have means of inflicting pain. Each attempt inflicts a [[Hit (Action]|Hit]] on the target. Mage a Know check against the victim's Body + Mind. On a success, the target loses a Fortune point. On an Outcome matching the target's Mind, he loses 2 Fortune points. If the victim has no Fortune remaining, torture is successful and the target cooperates, at least until the end of the scene and potentially longer, as determined by the GM. Extracting information through torture is unreliable, as the victim is likely to say whatever he feels the torturer wants him to say, true or not. For each piece of information make a Mind check against the patient's Body or Mind, on a failure the information is corrupted by your expectations. It is possible to do torture without this schtick, use your Mind instead of Know.

Total Recall

Limit Break

You have perfect recall; years afterwards, you can call up the precise words of a conversation or recall details of a room seen only at a glance. This allows you to analyze as scene from memory as though you were actually present there now. You can retroactively notice things you didn't think of looking for when you were actually there, which in turn might give more information from Know or other skills. The game master can play up a small flashback from the time you learned the information recalled, which will often give some additional insight into your problem or your character's background.

The Limit Break refers to the act of remembering, it is not something you have to do to record the memory in the first place.

Maneuver Schticks

Block

Trigger Action (Defense)

When another creature succeeds at a roll against your Maneuver, you can make an active defense to increase your defensive Maneuver by +3 for the current shot. This bonus also applies when you do an Interference stunt.

Brachiation

Inherent

You can move trough the air as long as there are branches, vines, ropes, curtains, or other accessible handholds for you to use. This is usually the case in dense forests, but occurs in other places as well, such as in construction sites, slaughterhouses, and quaint urban neighborhoods.

Caped Crusader

Stance

Strike a pose while wearing a great billowing cloak. For the rest of the round you can glide using this cape, flying but only horizontally or downwards. The GM may allow you to do stunts to catch updrafts to rise as appropriate to the situation.

Cat Man

Inherent

When you succeed on a Climb check, you are not considered Static. If you fail the Climb you can neither move nor act.

Escape Artist

Basic Action

You have the marvelous ability to contort your limbs and dislocate your bones in order to make efficient Contortions stunts. You use Maneuver instead of Reflexes for such stunts.

Follow Through

Inherent

When you make a successful Maneuver stunt to affect an opponent, add +3 to your Outcome. This works as if you had Advantage which means it stacks with anything else. Outcome is commonly used to determine if you score a Setback.

Formation

Limit Break

Formation is a variant of Swarm and Troop and is a complex and invasive power. It is only available to Folk but not to named characters. Military Formations go out of favor at the Combustion tech level when area weapons become common, but are still used by police and rioters.

A Formation is a group of 10 identical Unnamed Folk acting with cohesion and discipline in a tight formation. Though the members of the Formation are unnamed, the Formation as a whole is usually a Henchman in rank. Assuming Formation is a Limit Break tat even unnamed characters can do and requires no focus. A creature that has both the Troop and Formation schticks can change from Formation to Troop as a Basic Action.

The Formation acts much as a single creature and most normal rules apply with the following exceptions. This represents members of the Formation using Assist to help each other and so stacks with other modifiers.

1. The space the Formation occupies on the map is twice the space in each dimension occupied by an individual creature.
2. The Formation's Impress, Melee, and Shoot skills are increased by +3.
3. Effects that affects only a single creature in the Formation have to be particularly powerful to have effect on the Formation as a whole; Add +3 to the Formation's defense value against such attacks. This adds to the bonuses from § 2.
4. The Formation cannot take Damage Setbacks from attacks that only affect a single individual; only area attacks can do Damage Setbacks.
5. Creatures can move away from the Formation and act normally using their own abilities, but each person leaving inflicts a Hit on the Formation.
6. A Formation is Stymied at Free Running. The GM may require rolls for sudden shifts in direction.

A Formation can be larger than the normal 10 individuals. Taking this Schtick several times multiplies the number of creatures in the Formation by 10 each time. Each use increases space by one two meters and increases the bonus to Impress, Melee, and Shoot as well as Dodge against non-area attacks by +2. If a Formation one size smaller (1/10 of the total of men in the Formation) leaves such a larger Formation, the parent Formation takes a Hit

Height Advantage

Focus

When you are within 10 meters on any opponent horizontally and between 2 and 20 meters above all opponents vertically, you can focus.

Parkour

Inherent

You can make Confident Rolls when Free Running.

Power Hitch

Trigger Action

When a creature within Move meters of you uses a power to move you can make an opposed Maneuver roll to hitch a ride; moving along with the target and arriving at a spot of your choice within Move meters of that target. Examples of powers you can hitch on include Abundant Leap, Fly, and Teleport powers. If you were Sneaking when you used this and end up in a place you can hide, you are still sneaking.

Skirmish

Trigger Action (Combo)

After you have performed an action that includes movement, you can use this shtick to move again. This allows you to act-move-move or move-act-move. You cannot use Skirmish if you are you are Static or the action you just did is one that in itself allows additional movement.

Sprinter

Inherent

When you perform a Run Push stunt, the Maneuver roll is Confident.

Swimmer

Inherent

You are equally fast and maneuverable on land and in water. This negates the penalties of the Swimming rules. Unlike an Amphibian you can still breathe only air - or water if you are an qauatic creature.

Tackle

Trigger Action

You can do a Interference stunt when flying or swimming and against an opponent with a Body up to 9 points higher than yours.

Troop

Inherent

Troop is a variant of Swarm and Formation and is a complex and invasive power. It is only available to Folk and not to named characters.

A Troop is a group of 10 identical Unnamed Folk acting with cohesion and discipline in an open or skirmish formation. Though the members of the Troop are unnamed, the Troop as a whole is usually at least a Henchman in rank. The Troop acts much as a single creature and most normal rules apply. Creatures that move away from the Troop can act normally using their normal abilities, but each person leaving inflicts a Hit on the Troop.

1. The space the Troop as a whole occupies on the map is three three than the space occupied by an individual creature.
2. Troops do not fill the space they take up on the map. Creatures be in the space of a Troop, and the Troop can mill around obstacles. This applies as long as the creature or obstacle is about the same size as members of the troop. The troop can pass narrow terrain as if it was a single group member.
3. The Troop's Dodge (against ranged attacks only), Impress, and Shoot skills are increased by +3. This represents members of the Troop using Assist to help each other.
4. Things that affects only a single creature in the Troop have to be particularly powerful to have any effect at all on the troop in its entirety; Add +3 to the Formation's defense value against such attacks. This adds to the bonuses from §3.
5. The Troop cannot take Damage Setbacks from attacks that only affect a single individual; only area attacks can do Damage Setbacks.
6. Creatures can move away from the Troop and act normally using their own abilities, but each person leaving inflicts a Hit on the Troop.

The normal Troop comprises about 10 individuals, but some Troops are larger. Taking this power several times multiplies the number of creatures in the Troop by 10. This increases space by three additional meters and increases the bonus to Dodge, Impress, and Shoot by +2. If a troop one size smaller (1/10 of the total of men in the troop) leaves such a larger Troop, the parent Troop takes a Hit

Tunnel Rat

Inherent

You are at home in caves, ventilation ducts, and other tight places. You can keep track of direction and distance and move without hesitation. Other people in such situations lose the movement that is part of a normal Basic Action and can only move their normal Move if they dedicate a whole basic action to it.

You automatically pass any Maneuver test to move around in a constricted space, as long as it is wider than your shoulders. Maneuver checks in tighter spaces are routine.

Melee Schticks

All-Out Attack

Basic Action

Make a Melee attack with a +2 bonus. Until your next shot comes up or the end of the round, you cannot take a Trigger Action. You can use All-Out Attack and Rash together.

Blocker

Trigger Action

You can do a Interference stunt using your Melee skill.

Charge

Focus

When your shot comes up and you are not adjacent to any enemy, and you move adjacent to an enemy and make a Melee attack, you can focus.

Clinch

Basic action

When you do a Grab stunt, you gain several advantages.

• You gain a +3 defensive bonus against all Dodge and Impress stunts, not just from the person you grabbed.
• You can still employ a small or tiny weapon, both when grabbing someone or being grabbed.
• You can attack others not involved in your grapple.
• When an opponent has a grab on you, and you score an attack on them, you can either can free yourself or grab them.
• You can grab a number of creatures at once equal to your number of arms (or similar limbs). Each must be grabbed separately, but you can maintain several grabs at once.

Combat Banter

Trigger Action (Combo)

After you perform a successful Browbeat, Distraction, Scare, or Trick attempt, you can use this to perform a Normal Melee Attack against the same target.

Combat Binding

Basic Action

You are skilled in using ropes or cuffs to restrain an opponent in melee. Make a Melee check against the target's Dodge. On a success the target is partially bound and suffers one of the penalties noted below. On an Outcome matching the target's Reflexes he is more severely bound and suffers three of the conditions, or you can apply one restriction of your choice. Restraints are applied in this order: bound arms, immobilized, bound legs, blindfolding, hogtie. Physical restraint in Action does not completely prevent a hero from action, they impose handicaps to be overcome.

1. Gagging prevents mundane speech. Stymies all Charm and Impress checks.
2. Handcuffing is when your hands are tied in front of you, but not so tightly as to make them completely unusable; you can still use one hand effectively, such as using weapons or tools of Small size or smaller.
3. Hobbling indicates restrained legs, but not fixed to each other. It means you cannot move as part of a normal Basic Action, and can only move your normal move when you do a Full Move action or otherwise do an action that grants extra movement..
4. Immobilized, stuck to something, alternatively on a short leash which prevents movement beyond one or two meters. If you are stuck to a creature whose Body is greater than yours, you are forced along as it moves, otherwise you are both immobilized unless you two cooperate.
5. Bound Legs you fall prone and cannot stand unsupported, which prevents and hinders many actions as determined by the situation and stunt description. Your Move is reduced to 1. Swimming and flying creatures are entangled, with similar effects.
6. Bound Arms prevent most physical manipulation and the use of weapons and implements. You can still use tackles and head butts for (Body +0) damage or a Tiny Ranged Weapon, but limited to Close range.
7. Blinded restricts your awareness, giving you only a rough estimate of objects and creatures in a diameter equal to your Mind; you are insensitive to things beyond this range. Everyone has enough concealment to Sneak on you, and against creatures beyond your perception range, you have to use Reflexes rather than Recon for defense against Recon stunts.
8. (or more) Hogtie A hogtied character cannot act physically and can only move one meter as a standard action; no movement is otherwise allowed. This also prevents all Defense actions.

These restraints can be escaped with a Contortions stunt pitting Reflexes against your Melee or destroyed by another person; ropes have a Body of around 12 while metal cuffs have 15 or more. Weapons larger and more unwieldy than a dagger take an attack penalty equal to their damage add when attacking bonds.

You can aim for a specific condition. Threat any roll higher than that condition as that condition. If you are aiming for a specific condition and instead achieve another, you can choose to forgo that effect to get and Advantage that can add a +3 bonus on a later attempt.

Daredevil Stunt

Basic Action

Use your melee weapon (or unarmed attack) to make a Bait, Disarm, Feint, and Wingclip stunt with a +3 bonus. Typical stunts include trips, feints, called shots, disarm, and particularly outrageous and dashing maneuvers such as carving your initials or adjusting your opponent's coiffure in combat. It enables you to do all the fun but somewhat silly things done in pulpy Three Musketeers and pirate movies.

Dauntless Attack

Limit Break

You make a flashy Normal melee Attack that renews your confidence. Hit or miss, you regain 1 Hit. If you damage your opponent you instead regain 3 Hits.

Double Damage Dealing

Trigger Action (Combo)

You can use two one-handed melee weapons together. When using two melee weapons, one in each hand, you can follow up each Melee attack you use to attack with one of these melee weapons with a Normal Melee Attack from your second weapon on the same or a different target within reach.

When armed with a pole weapon without reach, you can make this additional attack with the butt of the weapon, which inflicts Body +3 damage. The simplest example of this is the quarterstaff.

Some prefer special double weapons, that combine two one-handed melee weapons into one, such as the lajatang (a double sword), double mace, mace-spear and so on. These weapons work as if you were wielding these two weapons separately.

Duel

Limit Break

You confront an opposing character in a way where others cannot easily intervene. This is usually because of the physical setting, somehow you and your opponent end up isolated from others and lasts until the end of the next round. Against opponents with a code of honor this can be a purely social barrier. If there is no such barrier you can use, the schtick will not work, but pretty strange coincidences are allowed.

Others can try to break the isolation with stunts against your Melee, but need to achieve an Outcome equal to your Reflexes to do so, collecting an Advantage for each success that does not have enough of an outcome. Those not involved in the duel cannot distract you with these stunts and are restricted to Gain Advantage attempts.

Flank Attack

Basic Action

You must not be in reach of any enemy to use this schtick. Make a Normal Melee Attack or Outmaneuver against an opponent that is not adjacent to any of his allies. You gain a +1 bonus on your check for each of your allies adjacent to him, to a maximum of +2. You do not count as your own ally.

Guarded Attack

Basic Action

Make a Normal Melee Attack attack. Until your next action you count as actively dodging, and get a +3 bonus to Dodge. It stops when you take any action, including a trigger action. Trigger actions you take the same shot you use Guarded Strike do not end the Dodge bonus. This is particularly useful against Riposte and attacks that do not allow an active defense.

Heart Attack

Limit Break

Make a Normal Melee Attack attack. If you hit the opponent, you cause a single Hit in addition to normal damage.

Iron Fist

Inherent

You have hardened yourself so that you can do Body +4 Blunt damage with unarmed attacks. This attack does not cause any direct injury on a Damage Setback, instead favoring stun, knockback, and other non-lethal effects.

Junk Fu

Basic Action

You are very good with improvised weapons, such as beer bottles or chairs. Use this maneuver to pick up and wield some object lying about. For the rest of the round, you get a +3 bonus to Melee when using this object as a weapon. By the end of the round, if you drop the object, or if you roll snakeyes on your action die, the improvised weapon is destroyed and the effect ends. Objects with script immunity are not destroyed, merely dropped, but this schtick is still canceled for the sequence.

Improvised weapons generally do Body +1 damage, but particularly inventive items can function like some regular Melee weapon, generally with a damage penalty.

Melee Technique

Inherent

Pick one of the following weapon abilities. Any melee weapon you use, not including natural weapons and unarmed attacks, get these weapon techniques. You can take this schtick several times, selecting different changes each time.

• Change the damage type to another damage type you can convince the GM to allow.
• Counter
• Disarm
• Dual Damage and a +2 damage bonus.
• Entangle
• Parry
• Penetrating
• Rash and a +2 damage bonus.
• Returning — Requires Throw.
• Slick
• Stun
• Throw — Cannot be used with unarmed/natural attacks.

Limitations As an option, you can instead remove one for the following weapon abilities. You can remove limiting weapon abilities gained from Melee Techniques.

• Rash
• Reload - the weapon instead becomes Slow
• Slow
• Static
• Stowed
• Stun
• Unreliable

Power Attack

Basic Action

Make a Melee attack that does +2 additional damage.

Rage

Stance

Gain a +2 bonus on Melee and suffer a -2 penalty on Dodge and to Melee used to Guard.

Seven-Sword Strike

Basic Action

Make a Normal Melee Attack against all adjacent enemies. You cannot move as a part of this basic action, nor can you do Trigger Actions until your next shot comes up. See Combination Action for how you can combine this with movement.

Shield Feint

Trigger Action (Combo)

When you are wielding a melee weapon with shield in the name in one hand and another melee weapon that is of a smaller Size than the shield in the other hand, you can use this Combo to improve your attack. Opponents cannot use a Trigger Action (Defense) check against such an attack.

Shield Sacrifice

Trigger Action (Damage)

To use this, you must be using a shield. Add 10 to your Body, Mind, Reflexes, or Toughness to soak one specific attack, after the attack roll and defenses. You cannot benefit from a shield for the rest of the scene. A shield you are using breaks and is destroyed. If the shield has plot immunity, is of superior make, or of a higher tech level than the attacking weapon, you instead drop it.

Signature Melee Weapon

Inherent

Select one specific melee, like the family ancestral sword or the shiv that saved your life in prison. Your fate is linked to this melee weapon.

• Even a small signature melee weapon is dangerous in your hands. Increase the weapon's damage by one, to a minimum of Body +4.
• You can own and carry this melee weapon even if it would normally be beyond your means, illegal, or require some special license. People tend to not question your right to take it along; unless the GM makes a montage of how it is taken, the melee weapon stays with you. It can also pop up in the unlikeliest places seemingly on its own.
• It is harder to steal or disarm you of this weapon. You are Confident on any stunt to hide or interaction check to keep it. When others try stunts to disable or make you lose your item, they are Stymied. Even if it is stolen, it always crops up later — it is never permanently lost.
• The melee weapon is tougher than normal, having a minimum Toughness score equal to your Melee. Even when seemingly destroyed, the melee weapon can always be repaired.
• Finally, the melee weapon becomes infused with your essence. It is considered a supernatural or magical melee weapon in situations where this matters.

Slayer

Inherent

You are an expert at attacking a particular type of enemy. This is generally a nemesis or ancestral enemy, but might also be focused skill and practice. When you make an attack against such an enemy, the attack roll is Confident. But if you roll snake eyes on such an attack, you suffer a Setback as your zeal backfires.

The kind of targets you can select as favored enemies depend on the campaign and must be approved by the GM. In general, a favored enemy should apply about 10% of all enemies you fight. Ethnicities and organizations work, even clans. Fantasy Races are usually appropriate, except against the dominant race of the setting (usually humans) where only specific ethnicities are applicable. Even more applicable in setting where they exist are different kinds of monsters, such as fairies, dragons, and so on.

Soft Strike

Basic Action

You make an attack when you use an enemy's strength against him. Make a Melee attack against the higher of your target's Dodge or Body, inflicting Concussion Stun damage equal to your Reflexes. Concussion damage is soaked using Reflexes. The target can use Body as Dodge if Body is higher.

Strongman

Inherent

When you make a Strength Push stunt, the Melee roll is Confident.

Takedown Counter

Trigger Action (Combo)

You use the power of an enemy's attack against him. Make a melee attack against a target that just missed you in melee, inflicting Concussion Stun damage equal to your Reflexes. Concussion damage is soaked using Reflexes. If you manage to do any damage, your target loses a shot. If the target moved before attacking you, you can throw him three meters in the direction he was moving before the attack, but then the damage is not stun. The target can use Body as Dodge if Body is higher.

Trample

Trigger Action (Combo)

One per Basic Action you take, you can trample a creature that is prone or that has a Body 5 or more lower than yours. Make a Normal Melee Attack that inflicts Body damage.

Ride Schticks

Animal Mastery

Basic Action

You know how to play on animals' instincts to manipulate their behavior. Choose the animal's Impress or Charm as the difficulty. The Outcome required for a Setback is the animal's Mind. A success at either check causes the animal to back off and not attack, but neither does it give room or allow you to interfere with its pack—pressing the issue causes the animal to attack. Against Impress, a Setback causes the animal to flee, into a trap if you have one ready. Against Charm, a setback lures the animal, giving you a chance to capture and tame it. If either check fails, the animal behaves as it normally would. Once this happens, you cannot attempt this trick again, but you can use Ride instead of Impress to Scare the animal. Note that most animals do have an Impress skill but lack a Charm skill. Against an animal under supervision, the difficulty is the supervisor's Ride.

Beast Jockey

Inherent

You are at home in the saddle and treat all Terrain Driving tasks as routine as long as you are riding a live beast. This applies to all terrains your riding beast is native to.

Blood Hound

Inherent

Ride rolls for Cut Off, Track, and Trapping tasks are Routine for you.

Drifter

Inherent

You spend a lot of time on the road, and have a tendency to just happen to be there when it happens. Any time another character is alone and needs help, you can show up with an opposed Ride against the best skill among the opposition - as long as it is even remotely plausible.

Fast Hero

Focus

When you mount or sit down at the controls of a vehicle, and in the first round of an action sequence when you are driving a vehicle, you can focus.

You are also a lucky guy; people tend to leave their cars empty with the motor running near you. At the end of any round when it makes any kind of sense in the story you can find vehicles suitable for a chase ready and waiting for both you and your opposition, turning an ordinary scene into a chase scene. If an enemy makes a getaway you will generally find a suitable vehicle to chase them with, but sometimes villains are meant to escape and no pursuit will be possible.

Final Push

Inherent

When you make a successful Ride stunt against an opponent with a score of 8 or more in the attribute used to see if it is a Setback, you can add three to the Outcome of the action.

Fit Hero

Inherent

You have great Endurance. Substitute your Ride for your Body when using Endurance, Hold Breath and other stamina-related stunts.

Flyboy

Inherent

You are at home in aircraft and treat all Air Piloting tasks as routine.

Freerider

Basic Action

You can use a bike, skates, skate board, surf board, snow board, skiis, and similar toys to increase your land speed. All of these devices only work under circumstances specific to each of them, and this schtick can only be used under such circumstances.

You can move your Ride in a straight line as a basic action. This is the only way you can use this increased speed, but you can do this as part of a chase.

Mad Cap Captain

Inherent

You are at home in boats and treat all Boating tasks as routine.

Keep Moving!

Inherent

You can ride a mount or drive a vehicle and simultaneously take other actions. When mounted, you can move your Move meters before each Basic Action you take. This movement must be in a straight line, This allows you to move-move-act or move-act-move.

You cannot use Keep Moving if the basic Action is one that in itself allows additional movement or when attacking with a Static weapon.

Mount

Inherent

You have an exceptional and loyal mount. This is a Henchman and usually an animal or magical creature. Construct a mount as a Henchman with 273 of your points. You can take this schtick several times to have several mounts , but generally only one of them accompanies you on adventures: the others can appear as appropriate when you move from one environment to another.

Pathfinder

Inherent

You are a master of the wild. You can trail blaze pathways to cross road less land. You can be a tour guide and help others to avid natural dangers and discomforts. Finding food and shelter is easy for you. You can use the subtle clues of nature to find and avoid natural dangers.

• You can predict and avoid natural hazards, like cold, rain, avalanches and so on.
• Pathfinding tasks are Routine for you.
• Sense of Location stunts are inherent for you; you can make a roll for them whenever you are affected by such a power or effect.

Phat

Inherent

You may not be in the best of shape. Too much drive-in food. But with your car, you dance like a ballerina.

Normally, the effective Reflexes of a driver and his vehicle is the lower of the two Reflex values. You can ignore your own Reflexes when you are behind the wheel, using only the Reflexes of your ride.

Pioneer

Basic Action

You are a master at observing nature and its ways.

• You can Track as a part of any movement, even while running.
• When you Track the penalty is one per day old the trail is rather than one per hour, as long as there has been no significant precipitation or other manner of trail destruction.
• You automatically identify animals, plants, and minerals on sight or from spoor.
• You can scrounge medicines and improvise basic gear from nature, using Recon in place of another skill's contact element while in nature.
• Make Camp are Routine for you.

Rodeo Riding

Basic Action

You can ride the unwilling, remaining safely on top of them in spite of their bests attempts to throw you. This works against both creatures and vehicles. The target of this maneuver must be considerably larger than you, generally with a Body at least 2 higher than yours. It must also be moving about; this does not work against a stationary object.

Make a Ride check against the Dodge or Body of an adjacent target. If you succeed, you move on top of the creature and can stay there until thrown. Once mounted, you can repeat this maneuver to inflict one Hit from fatigue. You can also take any other action you like, against the mount or anyone else.

The creature cannot attack you while you are in this position. As a basic action, he can attempt to throw you. This is the reverse of the above roll; a Dodge or Body against your Ride. On a success, you end up on the ground adjacent to him and take one Hit from the fall.

Sea Wolf

Inherent

You are at home in submersibles and treat all Submersible Piloting tasks as routine.

Skirt the Edge

Limit Break

You cannot create Natural Hazards, but you can find an exploit them. When in an environment where a Natural Hazard makes sense, you can use this schtick to find an exploit such a hazard. The exact nature of the hazard is up to the GM, but you can certainly make suggestions. You are aware of the nature of the hazard, where it will strike, and so on. The hazard rating is equal to your Ride. The hazard can either trigger immediately in which case it is not a surprise, or be hidden in the environment and waiting to be triggered.

Space Jockey

Inherent

You are at home in spacecraft and treat all Space Piloting tasks as routine.

Stunt Driver

Inherent

You are at home in ground vehicles of all kinds and treat all Terrain Driving tasks on land as routine.

Sudden Start

Inherent

You do not need to spend a Basic Action to do the the Mount stunt. When you are in position, you can take control over a ride without spending any shots. If you start a round mounted, your Initiative check is Confident.

Shoot Schticks

Shoot schticks are made for use with ranged weapons. Any mention of particular types of ranged weapons in schtick descriptions, such as guns or bows, is flavor.

Artist's Cross-hairs

Inherent

You are not only an expert shootist, you are an artistic one. You can express moods and convey messages through your shots—generally negative ones. This works with both weapons and image recording devices. You can use Shoot as if it was the Charm or Impress skills, but the effect is not immediate, the result of the shot must be inspected for this to become evident. Besides psychotic slayers, this skill is also highly useful to photographers, Photography stunts are routine to you and the photographs you take can use the Charm and Impress effects above—such Shoot checks are not routine.

Bag Full of Guns

Inherent Weapon

You are carrying way more firearms than sensibly possible. This involves some kind of pack; a violin case, large suitcase, duffer bag, instrument case, bulky trench coat, or a sexy fanny pack are all typical examples.

Any gun you could reasonably have had access too and one of which could fit in the bag is in the bag, even tough it is clearly impossible for them all to fit in there at once. Restricted, futuristic, or military weapons are only in the bag if they make a reasonable part of the story. Weapons not found there in a contemporary civilian setting include flamethrowers, rocket launchers, and lasers.

Both Guns Blazing

Trigger Action (Combo)

When using two ranged weapons, one in each hand, you can follow up each Normal Ranged Attack you use to attack with a ranged weapon with a Normal Ranged Attack from your second weapon on the same or a different target.

Carnival of Carnage

Trigger Action

Whenever an unnamed character is about to make an attack while in your sight, you may use Carnival of Carnage to shoot him.

Clean Shot

Basic Action

You can make clean, damaging shots even with light weapons. If Clean Shot hits and the attack roll was greater than the target's Toughness (or whatever soak attribute is relevant for the attack you are using), it inflicts a Hit. If your damage is more effective than this, use that instead.

Cock

Stance, then Trigger Action

Start this stance by dramatically working the action of a weapon. This produces a dramatic sound, a 'click', 'ka-chak', the sound of a bow being drawn, the warm-up whine of energy weapon or the sizzling runes of a magic spell. You can do this in a surprise round, but not before a fight.

You can now shoot once as a trigger action as a response to any hostile action. Thus, you kind of "save up" an attack for later use. Firing the readied weapon in any manner or for any reason cancels the schtick.

In later rounds you can start this stance again. You cannot restart it in a round in which you used it.

Cool Steel

Basic Action

Draw a cool, fresh gun you have not used in this fight. The weapon can be one you carry or you can pick it up. The next Shoot attack with this weapon this round gets a +3 bonus. You can do other actions in between drawing this weapon and getting the attack bonus, but any firing the weapon ends the bonus.

Dramatic Reload

Bullets	Bonus
1-2	+3
3-6	+2
7+	+1
More	No bonus; can be used to refill your magazines after an earlier Dramatic Reload, but not if you ran out of bullets.

Basic Action

Reload your gun dramatically and deliberately. Depending on how many bullets you reload, you get a bonus to your Shoot attacks until your bullets run out, after which you cannot shoot any more with this weapon until you use this schtick again. All these effects end at the end of the round. You can Reload as a part of a Dramatic Reload, but weapons with the Reload quality can only hold one bullet.

"Bullets" in this case refer to the number of actions you can use to attack, not strictly to individual bullets. Automatic weapons normally fire more than one bullet with each action, but the language of this schtick ignores this.

Eagle Eye

Basic Action

You're particularly adept at firing at armored opponents and hitting the teeny-tiny bits of them that aren't armored. Your Shoot attacks that would normally be soaked by Toughness are instead soaked by Body.

This schtick never works with any kind of area attack, not does it work when attacking objects.

Fast Draw

Inherent

For the first round of any fight, your Initiative is a Closed Confident roll. Your first Basic Action for the round must involve Shoot or you lose 3 shots instead of taking that action.

Fields of Fire

Focus

When you are in combat, but at least 15 meters from the closest enemy, you can focus.

First Salvo

Inherent

Whenever you manage to score surprise, you can perform a Limit Break instead of the normal Basic Action, but the only skill you can use this with is Shoot.

Great Balls of Fire

Limit Break

There is always something in an urban combat scene that is ready to explode. You shot, and it blows up - taking everyone nearby with it. You cause an explosion that attacks everyone in a globe with a diameter equal to your Mind attribute in meters.

Damage is Body +2 impact damage.

Away from a high-tech urban setting, this schtick only works as the GM allows.

Gunnery

Inherent

You can use heavy guns and other artillery with full effect.

People lacking training with such weapons can generally still fire them. They cannot reload or use or take more advanced shots, such as indirect fire. On a snake eyes result the weapon misfires.

Gunsmith

Limit Break

You love to tinker with your guns, selecting ammunition for each target and otherwise using your gear to best effect. This adds +3 to the damage value of your gun against a specific type of target. Examples include unarmored people, people in a particular type of armor, or a particular type of monster. The benefit lasts until you use this schtick again to load a different kind of ammo or the end of the session. This schtick is often used before the action to face an expected enemy.

You are also an expert at making bullets out of unorthodox materials. If you learn what a certain target is vulnerable to, you can quickly make bullets out of that material or using that weakness if you have the materials at hand.

Hail of Bullets

Inherent

You can use fanning, simultaneous multiple arrows on the string, or some other rapid-fire technique to shot a regular weapon as if it was an auto-fire weapon. A ranged weapon in your hands adds +2 damage and gains the Area and Rash abilities.

If you are using a a Reload or Slow weapon, you do not gain the abilities listed above, but can ignore these flaws.

Hold!

Focusing

If you spend a Basic Action Shooting but not moving, you can focus.

Mercykiller

Finisher

You can decide how bad you want to hurt your target, choosing whether to inflict a Mortal Wound, a regular Regular Setback and what kind, or no special effect when you put them down.

Named Bullet

Limit Break

Narrate a brief flashback where you dedicate a specific piece of ammunition against a specific target. You must have known the target at the flashback point. Make an attack against a single target that is a Confident Roll with a +3 bonus to Shoot. Target cannot use Powers to resist this damage.

Piercing Shot

Trigger Action (Combo)

You can over-penetrate and hit two targets with the same shot, attacking a second target along the path of your bullet. Use this any time you inflict damage with a ranged attack. The extra target can stand either in front of or behind your first target. Hitting a target in front as a second target might seem odd, but the main thing is that you were concentrating on someone else and the second target is just a bonus.

Pinning Fire

Trigger Action

When you use Covering Fire the difficulty of your opponent's action is your Shoot +3. You can force a moving target to do a Free Running stunt.

Signature Mods

Inherent

You fiddle with your ranged weapons, coaxing new abilities out of them. Choose one of the following weapon abilities when you take this schtick. You can pick this schtick several times to apply multiple benefits. Any ranged weapon you use that you have had a chance to work on overnight or longer get these weapon techniques. Some have prerequisites, that can be satisfied either in the weapon itself, or because you already have a Signature Mod for that ability.

• Area
• Dual Damage and a +2 damage bonus.
• Penetrating
• Rash and a +2 damage bonus.
• Saturation - Only works on a weapon with Scatter
• Scatter
• Stun
• Increase Range by one category]]
• Change the damage type to another damage type you can convince the GM to allow.

As an option, you can instead remove one for the following weapon abilities. You can remove limiting weapon abilities gained from Signature Mods through additional Signature Mods.

• Load
• Rash
• Reload - the weapon instead becomes Slow
• Slow
• Static
• Stowed
• Stun
• Unreliable

Signature Gun

Inherent

Select one specific gun, like grandma's shotgun or one you brought home from the war. Your fate is linked to this gun.

• Even a light signature gun is dangerous in your hands. Increase the weapon's damage to Body +4 if it is less than this.
• You can own and operate this gun legally even if it would normally be beyond your means, illegal, or require some special license. People tend to not question your right to take it along; unless the GM makes a montage of how it is taken, the gun stays with you. It can also pop up in the unlikeliest places seemingly on its own.
• It is harder to steal or disarm you of this gun. You are Confident on any stunt to hide or interaction check to keep the weapon. When others try stunts to disable or make you lose your gun, they are Stymied. Even if it is stolen, it always crops up later — it is never permanently lost.
• The gun is tougher than normal, having a minimum Toughness score equal to your Shoot. Even when seemingly destroyed, the gun can always be repaired.
• Finally, the gun becomes infused with your essence. It is considered a supernatural or magical gun in situations where this matters.

Slow Mo’ Vengeance

Trigger Action

Even as the bullets strike your body, you heedlessly keep going, putting every ounce of power into your gun.

Each time you take a Hit, you can use Slow Mo’ Vengeance to make a normal ranged attack as a Trigger Action.

Sniper

Basic Action

You can make a ranged attack and still Sneak as if you had not attacked, as long as you do not move, remain in cover and are at least 20 meters from all opponents. You ignore all range penalties out to the effective range of the weapon - typically five range increments or more.

Steady Fire

Basic Action

Make a Shoot attack with a +2 bonus. You cannot move as a part of this action. Until your next shot comes up or the end of the round, you cannot take a Trigger Action.

Trick Shot

Basic Action

You are good at hitting small targets and precise locations. Think of this as a kind of limited telekinesis; if a task can be accomplished with a push or knock in the right direction, you can do the task as a gun stunt. Pushing buttons, switching levers, cutting ropes, cutting that trigger wire that disarms the bomb or sending messages by punching them out with bullets in plaster; all are simple tasks for you. Tasks requiring complex manipulation (unscrewing the lid on a barrel) takes you multiple actions and some such actions might be impossible.

You suffer no negative modifiers for stunts that require you to shoot at very small targets; you can shoot a pistol out of the hands of a gunman, or a thrown knife zipping through the air, for example. Whenever the difficulty of the shot is determined by the small size of the target, halve the difficulty.

Like the Environment Interaction stunt, you can combine Trick Shot with other actions, such as an Interaction Stunt, with no additional shot cost. When you use Covering Fire to deflect the attack of a weapon that fires a missile larger than a bullet, such as an arrow or thrown knife, you get to decide where that weapon ricochets to.

Walking Fire

Trigger Action (Combo)

You can "walk" fire from one target to the next, attacking several adjacent targets one after the other.

Pick the closest target within two meters of a target you just fired on and attack the new target with a Normal Ranged Attack. You can continue to use walking fire as long as there are targets. This is an exception to the rule that a trigger action cannot trigger another trigger action. You can do this several times in succession as long as you do not attack any target twice. Walking Fire is prone to friendly fire. If an ally or bystander is adjacent to your target you hit that friend or bystander on a Snakeyes roll, make a confident roll, this becomes the Outcome of an attack against your ally.

Weapon Implement

Inherent

Particularily at high levels of technology, the best tool to focus magic is often a modified firearm.

A Ranged weapon with this ability also works as an Implement. An implement is mainly useful for Shoot powers, but works with other powers that allow the use of Implements. The wielder gains all the weapon's abilities, including damage add, range, and other weapon abilities.

Spot Schticks

Found Ya!

Trigger Action (Combo)

When you successfully Scan and spot someone who is Sneaking, you can use this schtick to immediately take a Basic Action against that creature. If you found several creatures withe the same action, you can still only take one action but if that action targets mutliple creatures or an area, you can affect all those you just spotted.

Investigator

Limit Break

You are a forensics expert, able to analyze clues and physical remains and create a coherent image of what happened at a scene you are investigating. Certain details might need to be verified in a lab, but you can get a general idea of what happened and clues to what kind of people were involved. As more information is added from witnesses and technical reports, you can flesh out your image of what happened. You can put all of this down into reports that other investigators can read and understand, and you can quickly skim such reports to find similar cases which can offer additional insights.

Lip Reading

Basic Action

You have the rather unique ability to decipher what people are saying merely from looking at their lips moving. As long as you can get a reasonably good view of a speaker's lips and know the language, you can get the gist of what is said. Certain parts may be obscure or missing, depending on your skill roll or the needs of the plot.

Material Link

Limit Break

By investigating a place were a creature bled or slept, you can secure a sample of their blood, hair or other tissue sufficient to give you their True Name, or at least secure an advantage against them. Make an opposed Spot check, on a success you gain an Advantage against them that is persistent form scene to scene. On an Outcome matching their Reflexes you learn their True Name.

Medium

Limit Break

You are sensitive to psychic impressions, and can often catch the mood of a place and get glimpses of important events that happened there in the past. You can commune and catch glimpses of information from spirits. Make a Spot check to seek answers from spirits, which is much the same as Contacts, only the answers are colored by the nature of the spirits of the place.

This is not a Power, but it assumes spirits exist in the setting; if they do not this schtick won't work.

Observant

Inherent

You get a +5 bonus (instead of the usual +3) on Keep Watch stunts. When you do a Scan or Surveilance stunt the the roll is Confident.

Ranger

Inherent

You are a master at observing nature and its ways. When you Track the penalty is one per day old the trail is rather than one per hour, as long as there has been no significant precipitation or other manner of trail destruction. You are not distracted by natural sounds and obstructions, your Spot checks are never penalized because of such things. You can identify animals, plants, and minerals on sight.

Sensitive

Basic Action

When you use this power, you are aware if there are any active powers within ten meters times the result of your Spot roll. Within one meter per point rolled, you can pinpoint and identify such powers.

To pinpoint things that are hiding, your Spot must match their Hide.

Tactics

Inherent

You have a good sense of personal and small unit tactics. You can sense at what shot creatures within Spot 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 Spot is higher than yours.

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

Target Acquired

Trigger Action (Focus)

When you spot a Sneaking enemy or an enemy fails to Sneak on you, you can focus.

Total Recall

Limit Break

You have perfect recall; years afterwards, you can call up the precise words of a conversation or recall details of a room seen only at a glance. This allows you to analyze as scene from memory as though you were actually present there now. You can retroactively use the Spot skill to notice things you didn't think of looking for when you were actually there, which in turn might give more information from other skills such as Know. The game master can play up a small flashback from the time you learned the information recalled, which will often give some additional insight into your problem or your character's background.

The Limit Break refers to the act of remembering, it is not something you have to do to record the memory in the first place.

Trapfinder

Inherent

Whenever you are in danger of triggering a trap or alarm, you can make a Spot against the Create of the trapmaker - on a success you spor the trap just as you are about to blunder into it, and can stop doing whatever would trigger the trap. When you Scan for traps, you get a +3 modifier.