Time (Action Powers Form)
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| Heroic Action Role-Play |
Time is the governing principle of all things, the regulator or the stream from Order to Flux. Together with Space, Time governs position and movement. The universe would be incomprehensible without orderly time. Time is a favorite of disaster theorists. Many claim that time manipulation is foolhardy and dangerous. Some claim time is an artifact of our perception; that it is the ultimate prison.
- Alternate Names: Process
Associations
- Skill : Maneuver
- Attribute : Reflexes
- Sense : Time reckoning
- Mood : Curious, precise, fast
- Blast: Blunt
Time Cantrips
Basic Action
You can tell time, both subjective time and objective time, avoiding confusion caused by temporal disturbance. You can set a silent alarm to alert you at a specific future time. You can time an event in the world around you. You can sense temporal disturbances out to Mind x 10 meters away.
Charm Time
Charm Time Elementals
Basic Action
You are supernaturally enchanting to certain creatures. You master whatever form of communication they use, even if you are normally unable to communicate with them at all.
Enchanting someone requires an opposed Charm roll. On an Outcome equal to the target's Mind, the target falls for your enchantment. On a lesser success you gain an advantage. A failed check interrupts the process, forcing you to look for a new opportunity at a later time.
Once someone has been enchanted, they will willingly follow and help you out. They seek to avoid conflict with their old allies, but if push comes to shove you cannot guarantee how they will react; they will try to avoid seeing you harmed, but they might make you a captive to save you later or even to have you at their mercy, or they might decide to throw in their lot with you and abandon their former allies. Someone who you have enchanted expects trust and help from you, but the enchantment breaks automatically only in the most blatant cases of maltreatment. If you are callous and disregard their interests they can make opposed Charm rolls against you to see through the enchantment. The same applies if a friend points out they have been charmed, but in this case it is an opposed roll against the friend's Charm skill and takes a Limit Break to do.
Enchantment normally wears off in about a weeks time, but can be maintained through continuous use of the power; it will last indefinitely if reapplied once per day. Even after the power ends you leave your targets with fond memories of you unless you mistreated them. Someone who realizes they have been enchanted and used can become vindictive or even downright hostile, but this is not the normal result.
This power only works on Time Elementals.
Loan From The Future
Limit Break
Select any one Schtick (not a Power). You know this Schtick until the end of the scene or until you use this power again.
Time Inspiration
Trigger Action
You inspire others to be curious, precise, and fast. Whenever you or someone within Charm meters fails an action based on these virtues, you can take a trigger action to give him an immediate reroll. If the original roll was Confident or Stymied it remains so. This applies to most uses of the Maneuver skill, and to other skills and rolls as determined my the GM.
Time Out
Basic Action
You step out of time to observe and plan. No physical actions are possible during this time, but you can use the perception and knowledge elements of skill to analyze the situation at hand, as long as no physical action is required to do so. You can also converse with nearby allies - a number of creatures up to you Mind within Charm meters who can observe the situation just as you can. A time-out lasts for about a minute of subjective time for those affected, but no objective time passes. It is possible to use the Assist action during this time, as long as this only involves advice, not physical action.
Create Time
Analyze Time
Inherent
You have a perfect internal clock and call always tell local and global time, even when involved with time dilation, time travel, and other confusing circumstances. You can analyze the properties of time in your vicinity. You learn and whether it has been affected by any powers recently. These ripples are easy to detect, but hard to pinpoint. The GM should give you warning well ahead of time when you encounter someone using Time magics other than time sense. Distance is about ten meters or minutes per point of Mind you have. You can increase your sensitivity by setting up chronal disruption detectors; this is mainly a plot device which can be used as an adventure hook against time-using rivals.
Reconstruction
Limit Break
You recreate a place out of history, restoring ancient glories to fallen ruins and resetting traps and inanimate guardians. Anything that has been destroyed, worn out or fallen into decay in the location is restored; objects that were taken away are not. Some specific eternal guardians may be restored as well, but generally, mortal creatures are not affected. This is great for adventures in exotic past locations, looking for treasures in buried palaces and so on. The difficulty does not depend on the amount of time bridged, but on the connection between the present time and place and your target. So, if you want to travel to the time of Ancient Egypt, go to the pyramids. You must research the time you want to go to and its relationship to your own time, finding the exact spot and time when time shift is possible. This must be done as a part of the preparations for an adventure, in collaboration with the GM. If you manage to come to the specific time and place and use this power, the story usually depends on this effect, and thus it works. Otherwise, it fails.
Restore Object
Limit Break
You restore a personal device, man-sized or smaller object, or small piece of scenery to an earlier state. The GM might allow you to affect larger objects with additional work. Pick a point in the past (usually when the object or device was new and in pristine condition) - the object is restored to its state at this time. You have an intuitive feeling for the state of the object at various times, but exacting work requires more detailed study. You can only restore parts of the object that are available; you can reconstruct a piece of paper from the component molecules among the moldering earth it has been buried in, but if half the object is missing you cannot restore the missing part. You can destroy an object this way, reverting it to its components just before assembly, but you cannot go any further back than that. Besides repairs, this power can be useful for restoring evidence and examining the object at various times. Affecting an object in the possession of another creature requires that you be within reach and succeed on an Create vs. Dodge roll. Affecting a mechanism, such as a lock, uses the normal difficulty for that kind of stunt; you are considered qualified to manipulate whatever you are trying to restore.
Time for Work
Limit Break
You can create more time for an individual, giving him more time for work, sleep, play and leisure. It seems time never runs out for this guy, though he moves no faster than usual. This is usually done to benefit yourself, but you can affect another, or even s small group as long as they stay together during the entire period. Add your Mind to his effective Body for Endurance. It effectively lets a character work two jobs in one day, or to adventure and still work normally. This can involve small time-leaps of a Mind hours at most. Generally this aspect of the power is ignored, but it can sometimes be used as a tool or hook in an adventure, with the GMs active cooperation. If someone under Time for Work ever get spotted by his old self, he takes one Hits per round of such contact.
Dodge Time
Foresight
Trigger Action (Defense)
You react to an unfortunate event that just happened, canceling actions so that they never succeeded in the first place. This provides a +3 bonus to Dodge. This trigger action can be used even when you otherwise could not use a trigger action - such as against a Water Strike or when you are surprised or out of shots. If you have no shots remaining, the shot cost of this power is ignored.
Slither of the Snake
Stance
You enter a sinuous fighting stance that gives you a +2 to Dodge. Does not stack with other Dodge bonuses.
Impress Time
Slow
Basic Action or Finisher
Make an opposed Impress roll, on a success the target's Reflexes suffers a penalty of -1 until the end of the scene. This can be increased by various factors.
- If the attack scores an Outcome matching the target's Reflexes (before all modifications), the penalty is increased by two.
- If performed as a Finisher, the penalty is increased by two and the effect is a Curse - including any previous Slow results.
The target also loses as many shots as the penalty, with a minimum of three shots lost.
Alter Age
Finisher
You alter a living target's age, making them older or younger without changing who they are. The GM decides which of the following age categories the target is. You subtract the modifiers given for that age from the target's age, then you add the modifiers for the age you make the target assume. If a certain age has a negative modifier, you do not lose that modifier when you change out of the category, but you gain the penalty when you change into that category. Certain ages also have disadvantages gained when you make someone into that age category.
Child Body -2, Kid limitation.
Youth Reflexes +2
Adult Body +2
Elderly Mind +2
Ancient Mind +2, Reflexes -2, Body -2, Elderly limitation.
People will generally not recognize someone whop has had his age altered, a Charm check against your Impress is needed to either see through the change for the target to convince someone who they are. Family and close friends get a hefty bonus on these checks. This is a Curse, but you can give it a fixed duration if desired.
Summon Time Elemental
Basic Action
You can seize a creature whose True Name you know through time and space and bring it into your presence. The creature must be in another dimension or juncture, and not currently summoned, imprisoned or otherwise occupied. You can summon one Henchman or a number of Minions of the same type equal to your Mind. It takes an Impress roll against the creature's Dodge or Impress to summon. The creature immediately makes an initiative check to see when it will next act, but this cannot be earlier than the shot in which it is summoned. In future rounds, the creature has its own initiative score. You can also use this power again on a creature (or group of unnamed creatures) you have summoned along with an Impress roll against the creature's Dodge or Impress, in order to extend your control over it until the end of the following round. During combat, you must succeed at this action each round or the creature will break free, but you can try repeatedly in each round. Out of combat, you only need to roll every scene, but any failed roll means you lose control of the creature. While a creature is under your control, you can order it to return to its home plane at any time. A creature that breaks free of control can choose to return on its own. Summoned creatures can also be Dispelled. You can also use this power to take control of a summoned creature did not summon yourself whose True Name you know. This requires an Impress roll against the creature's Dodge or Impress or against its summoner's Impress if he is present.
A creature cannot be ordered to perform deeds alien to its nature; an air elemental cannot be summoned into solid earth or water, an Epitome cannot act against its spiritual inclination, and so on. Summoned creatures can perceive your aura as you summon them. Their initial attitude depends on your reputation among this kind of creature and whether you have an allegiance or pact with them. In case of extreme misalignment, you may not even be able to summon them at all.
When you lose control of a summoned creature it usually returns home shortly; the creature knows anyone who knows its true name can seize control of it as noted above. But the creature might choose to remain on your plane indefinitely to act out its inclination. In order to acquire lengthy services you must bargain with the creature, or use a Power Experiment or other means to acquire its services. If you bargain a creature into a formal pact, it is considered controlled for as long as the conditions of the pact are met and cannot break the contract or return to its home until the pact expires.
This power only works on Time Elementals.
Time Prison
Finisher
You wrest your target out of the time stream. This is a Curse. He now exists in a prison where no time passes. When freed, he returns at the same spot and in exactly the same condition he was in when he was imprisoned.
Time Trial
Limit Break
This effect is mostly for non-player characters to use on players. GMs are encouraged use this as a plot device; players can use it at the GMs whim, but it is generally much less interesting for them.
You wrest your target out of the time stream with a successful opposed Impress roll. He now exists in a pocket of time, a bubble with a diameter equal to your Mind in meters. He stays there until some set event causes the Time Cell to collapse, whereupon he is restored to the time stream.
Time Cells are not very stable, their existence are tied up to specific events or objects. You can prepare the cell in advance, putting a creature, maze, trap or similar inconvenience in the Time Cell. When this obstacle has been overcome, by force, guile or other appropriate means, the cell collapses and the target returns to the normal time stream.
If you use this power again, you can choose to create a new time cell, or put the target in an already existing cell. If two or more people are into the cell, it lasts until all conscious creatures in the cell agree to depart together.
The most common combat use of this effect is to place a monster or deathtrap in the time cell beforehand, then force your opponents into it. For players, this might be played out, but for NPCs it's usually made as an abstract roll. In general, it takes an opposed skill check against whatever skill you used to create the trick to open a time cell; each failed roll indicates one round of time is lost and the victim takes a hit. Out of an action scene, each roll instead takes an hour, but there is no Hit.
A time cell can also be used as a retreat for study, healing and other activities you don't want interrupted. Characters in a time cell do not need to eat or drink and never run out of air. Time passes at the same rate inside and outside the cell.
Know Time
Dispel Time
Limit Break
You can end the effects of other powers but accelerating time around them, making them run out. You can dispel any power that has a duration; you cannot affect permanent or instantaneous effects. You can only dispel powers you know of (though a vague description, such as "whatever is making Bert turn green" is ok). You can try to dispel a single Curse, Limit Break, Finisher, or any power that has been in effect for a week or more, or you can try to dispel all powers except those mentioned above on one creature or in an area with a diameter equal to your Mind. When dispelling several powers at once, you can choose to ignore some and dispel others.
A power that has been dispelled cannot be used again by that creature in this scene, and another creature that tries to use the same power in the same general area must match your Know with the stunt the power is used with, or it fails. You can use a Defense to increase your Know when someone tries to activate a power like this.
This will not dispel a Curse, but will tell you how to defeat it if the roll is successful. Inherent powers cannot be dispelled.
The difficulty is the skill of the most skilled creature involved in making the effect. Effects that have much remaining duration are harder to dispel: see this table. Use the highest relevant difficulty.
| Time | Minimum Difficulty |
| One Week | 12 |
| One Month | 15 |
| One year | 18 |
| A decade | 21 |
| A century | 24 |
| A millennium | 27 |
Restoration
| Time | Difficulty |
| One Day or less | 9 |
| One Week or less | 12 |
| One year or less | 15 |
| A century or less | 18 |
| A millennium or less | 21 |
Limit Break
You can restore a creature you touch, or part of it, to a previous condition. This is used to heal wounds or ailments.
Side effects are common, their seriousness depend on the severity of the injury. If used to restore mental health or restore whole-body conditions. The difficulty of avoiding them depends on the period of time the victim has been suffering the injury or the skill or damage or skill value of whatever caused the injury. A failed roll still restores the patient to full health, but brings an appropriate Setback or in severe cases or fumbles, a Curse. This typically involves the loss of memories first of the incident that caused the damage, on more severe failures long gaps in memory can occur, or the patient might forget a certain fact or person. Severe cases can induce total amnesia. Restoration does not help against Limitations or Curses.
Restoration can alleviate aging, but the difficulty is based on the target's chronological life span, it must be used once a year, any failure causes all removed age to return, and even with successful treatment the beneficiary is Cursed to become increasingly conservative and reactionary.
Mist of Time
Limit Break
You focus detection powers in a radius equal to your Know in meters around you. Anyone trying to detect or remotely sense the area see what occurred there in a at a point in the past you pick when using the power unless they score an Outcome on their skill roll matching your Know. The effect lasts until the end of the session.
Maneuver Time
Instant Action
Basic Action
One ally gets a burst of extra time and can immediately take one Basic Action or add three to their shot counter. Remember that the shot counter can never be higher than the current shot. If the target has Reflexes higher than your Maneuver, you must succeed at a Maneuver check against their Reflexes in order to affect them.
Task Prediction
Basic Action
A specialized prediction effect where you look into the future to see the most opportune way to do specific action. This makes the task Routine. If conditions change before you use this bonus, it is lost, so task prediction is usually best used in the same round. In order for another character to get this bonus, you must somehow transmit the information—such as by giving them advice. This only works on tasks that require direct action—it cannot help on Knowledge or Contact checks. It can be used for defense values, but that must be specified when the power is first used.
Time for Action
Basic Action
Up to Mind allies of you within Maneuver meters makes their next Initiative roll as a Closed Confident roll.
Time Stop
Limit Break
You stop time for everyone except yourself. Make a Maneuver check against the highest Reflexes among the opposition. If you succeed, you have a number of shots equal to the outcome where only you can act. Treat this as a separate round that is played out right now and where only you have an initiative count. Once your extra shots are spent, play resumes where it was. During this time, there are some special rules.
- You cannot focus during a time stop, and you cannot use time stop continuously.
- The only creature that can act or be directly affected by actions or events is you. All other characters are frozen in time and immovable and invulnerable. There minds are not there to be interacted with, and they cannot perceive anything.
- You can move (but not damage) nonliving, unattended objects by conscious effort. Objects do not move except when you move them. Even a flying or falling object is frozen in mid-air. An object you move this way loses its kinetic energy and, if unsupported, falls to the ground when time resumes.
- By setting up an object to trip or hider a creature, you can do so a Trip stunt with a +3 bonus, whose effect is applied after the time stop ends.
- Because creatures cannot perceive you, you can do a Sneak stunt with Confidence.
Melee Time
Coil of the Snake
Trigger Action (Focus)
You can use this to focus when you are attacked in melee and your opponent misses.
Lunge of the Snake
Limit Break
This is a Melee attack with a +3 bonus on the attack roll and against which an opponent cannot use an Trigger Action. A trigger action that can be used when surprised still works against Lunge of the Snake.
Strike of the Snake
Trigger Action (Defense)
Whenever you are attacked in melee, you may use this to do an unarmed Melee attack for Strength +0 damage.
Time Touch
Stance (Damage Boost)
You can imbue a Melee or Shoot attack with an additional type of damage. The damage of the attack increases by +2. Against a target that has different soak values against the two types of damage, use the lesser soak value but decrease the damage by 2. You increase the effective mass of your weapon to cause Blunt damage.
Timelesss Strike
Inherent
You can make melee attacks that does Body +4 Blunt damage. Targets cannot take trigger actions in response to a Timeless Strike.
Recon Time
Deceptive Speed
Trigger Action (Combo)
You can move in bursts of speed so fast that you cannot be seen. After you have performed a Basic Action, you can use this Trigger Action as a combo to move an additional time. If this movement ends up in cover, you can make a Sneak stunt. You cannot use this and an Invisibility power at the same time.
Prediction
Basic Action
You can try to predict the future, either the future of a person present or future events of the location you are in. The future is very uncertain, so predictions are never very accurate. The GM will give you his best estimate of what will happen, but he might well be wrong. To gain information this way you make an opposed check against the targets' Recon. You gain valuable information based on the outcome of this roll; if the outcome matches the target's Mind you gain clear and important insights into the target's activities. On a failed roll, you learn obvious details and trivia; if the negative Outcome matches your Mind you learn misleading information or the target notices your spying. The Recon of an object or place is it's most frequent user's skill for the purpose of this power.
You are planning to attack a warehouse, and want a clue about how it will go. The GM knows this is the hideout of a sorcerer. A result less than the sorcerer's Recon will give a general impression of a hard-fought victory, as the GM is expecting a tough but not impossible fight. A roll about equal to his Recon might yield images of the hostile sorcerer's flame blasts. A higher result might show how some goons as they come out of their hiding places (making it impossible for them to surprise you during the fight) while an Outcome matching the sorcerer's Mind clearly shows the enemy sorcerer enchanting the goons' weapons to cause poisoned wounds—a poison that a Medic can provide an antidote for.
Postcognition
Basic Action
You can look into the past to see what really happened. This is not reading psychic impressions, this is actually seeing exactly what was in the past. You can read the past of a location, person, or object you touch. Higher rolls give better impressions. To gain information this way you make an opposed check against the targets' Recon. You gain valuable information based on the outcome of this roll; if the outcome matches the target's Mind you gain clear and important insights into the target's activities. On a failed roll, you learn obvious details and trivia; if the negative Outcome matches your Mind you learn misleading information or the target notices your spying.
You can see the past of a place, creature, or object. The past of a place includes everyone there. The past of an object or person only includes the thing observed and occasional minor glimpses of what is very near. The Recon of an object or place is it's most frequent user's skill for the purpose of this power.
If you do not know when the event you want to see occurred, you have scant the past, shifting trough events. It can also considerable time to scan large spans of time, so it is always best if you know what date you are looking for.
Ride Time
Accelerate
Stance
Select a creature or vehicle you touch; its Move is increased by +2.
Momentous Occasion
Limit Break
Select an event of Momentous Occasion, something that is important to you. You must describe this event, such as "When general Xaramos meets the king of Holl" or "When Lucan receives a mortal blow". Once this event comes to pass you teleport to the location of the event. You receive a short advance warning, allowing you to take a Basic Action to prepare. When used in downtime, Momentous Occasion is often the hook for an adventure. If used in a story, it generally dissipates with no effect if it hasn't triggered by the end of that story. The GM is the final arbiter of when Momentous Occasion triggers or dissipates. If the event happens in secret, you must succeed on a Ride check against the best Recon of the participants.
Time Gash
Limit Break
To use this power, you must make a record of how the scene is at the beginning of a round, noting positions, numbers, conditions, and health of everyone in the scene. If using miniatures, this is best done with a photograph of the map. You need nt actually use Time Gash, just because you have made these preparations, but if you always make these preparations just in case, you are likely to annoy the GM.
When you use Time gash, time is rewound to the start of the round, just before initiative is rolled. Everything that happened in the round didn't actually happen, and all results of the round are undone, with the exception of your own Fortune points spent - which remain spent.
This requires a Ride check against the greatest initiative result anyone involved in the action scored, and affects an area with a radius equal to your Ride check in meters. if the area is insufficient to contain the entire scene, the power fails. The GM might judge that a part of a larger scene is sufficiently separate to allow the power to work, such as in a duel in the middle of a battlefield.
Those who are affected by this even might have some memories or flashbacks about the lost time if it further the plot.
Time Pocket
Limit Break
You, your allies, a target and the target's allies enter a pocket of time. This cannot be more creatures than your Mind; if more creatures than that would be affected, the power fails. You cannot use this to isolate a target from its immediate allies; if you include a creature its allies on the spot must be included as well or the power fails.
While in this loop everything else in the universe is frozen in time; impossible to affect in any way.
The power lasts for one scene or until any creature moves further away from where you activated the effect than a number of meters equal to the result of the Ride roll made when you activated the power. When the power ends, time resumes normally for the rest of the universe.
Time Travel
Limit Break
Those present teleport away to a faraway time. They usually stay there only for a limited time, or until a specific event occurs, but this is highly variable. Any changes caused while time traveling are usually temporary and will have worked themselves out in the intervening time, so you usually cannot change the present by changing the past. You can gain new knowledge, rescue someone, find loot and so on, depending on the exact properties of this particular time rift and the GM's whim.
The difficulty does not depend on the amount of time bridged, but on the connection between the present time and place and your target. So, if you want to travel to the time of Ancient Egypt, go to the pyramids. You must research the time you want to go to and its relationship to your own time, finding the exact spot and time when time shift is possible. This must be done as a part of the preparations for an adventure, in collaboration with he GM. If you manage to come to the specific time and place and use this power, the story usually depends on this effect, and thus always works. Otherwise, it fails.
Shoot Time
Damocle's Sword
Inherent
You can make a Ranged Attack - either the basic stunt or using some other stunt, schtick, or power. Damage is Mind +2, or more if you are using an Implement to improve damage. Targets cannot take trigger actions in response to this attack. Damocle's sword blunt damage. You step outside of time set up projectiles to hit the target. The projectiles move when time resumes. Any ranged or thrown weapon can be used as an implement of this attack. If you are within reach, you can use a melee weapon. Doing this changes the damage add and type to that of the weapon.
Arrows of Time
Limit Break
You can blast all enemies in a globe with a diameter equal to your Mind; you must be somewhere in this area. Your control of this attack is so precise that you can avoid any friends in the area. Damage is Mind +2, or more if you are using an Implement to improve damage. Make a separate attack roll against each target. Targets cannot take trigger actions in response to this attack.
Arrows of time does blunt damage. You step outside of time and set up projectiles to hit each target. The projectiles move when time resumes. Any ranged or thrown weapon can be used as an implement of this attack. Doing so changes the damage add and type to that of the weapon.
Hail of Time
Limit Break
You blast everyone in a cone; a triangle with you at one corner. You can control the exact dimensions of the cone when you create it, with some limitations. The base of the triangle can be as wide as your Mind and both the other sides have the same length and can be as long as your Shoot. All measurements are in meters. Damage is Mind +2, or more if you are using an Implement. Make a separate attack roll against each target, including friends and bystanders. Targets cannot take trigger actions in response to this attack.
Arrow of time does blunt damage. You step outside of time and hurl projectiles at the area. The projectiles move when time resumes. Any ranged or thrown weapon can be used as an implement of this attack. Doing so changes the damage add and type to that of the weapon.
Time Tomb
Finisher
Time Tomb puts the target into suspended animation, removing him from the time stream until the effect collapses. He either ceases to exist in the meantime, or stands about still as a statue, impervious to everything in normal time. Time Tomb is normally permanent, but can be broken as a Curse.