Impress Schticks (Action)

Heroic Action Role-Play

Aura

Stance

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.

As long as you remain passive (neither attacking nor running away, though using Impress or Charm is OK), you will not get attacked. This 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 gentleman escorting you to prison. But he will be polite as long as your Aura holds.

In dramatically appropriate situations it is possible to try and penetrate your Aura, the opponent must make an opposed Impress rolls as a basic action. You may defend against this.

Authority

Inherent

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

You can expect reasonable cooperation from authorities and respect from the general populace. You have the right and duty to investigate cases relevant to your authority and to use reasonable means to to enforce your edicts. 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.

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.

Bulletproof Nudity

Stance

Nudity can distract an opponents at critical moments. If nothing else, it makes the audience root for you. Add +2 to your Dodge. Several different Dodge bonuses do not stack.

You must be more naked than the local cultural norm allows to use this, and not encumbered by excessive gear.

Challenge

Stance

You can challenge either one named character or all unnamed enemies in an area with a diameter equal to your Impress skill in meters to attack you; if their last action (after the challenge) was directed at any of your friends but not at you, you get a +2 bonus on any action directed at them. The effect is negated if the target is interfered with by others, including another Challenge.

Dazzling

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.

Fashion Icon

Inherent

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

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

Eerie

Trigger Action

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

Use this as a trigger action when someone would bother you because you did odd or unusual things; make an opposed Impress roll to make them stay back and desist. Does not work in combat or action scenes, but might work to prevent one from breaking out.

Followers

Inherent

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

Construct your followers as a group of Minion Extras, with your Impress skill as the highest skill value. You gain a number of followers equal to your Mind attribute. If they are defeated, it will take some time for you to recruit new ones, but they are generally there again for the next adventure.

Hands-On Leadership

Basic Action

You can give a direct order to another and expect to have the order executed quickly and well. Decide on a basic action the target is to do; he must have any relevant powers, skills, or schticks to actually do the action you ordered them to do. The target can 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.

Henchman

Inherent

You have a henchman, a loyal Extra who looks out for your interest and can accompany you on adventures, tough he is not as accomplished as a true hero. Unlike most heroes, he is willing to perform menial tasks and can be ordered about more or less as you like, tough he will resent actual mistreatment.

Construct a henchman as a named character suing the Constructing NPCs section, using your Impress skill as the baseline.

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

Heroic Identity

Inherent

You have a costumed identity that is a well-established hero. Few people will question your right to investigate things, bear arms or ask pointed questions. 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 will 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.

Honest Joe

Inherent

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. Sometimes, you can even inspire this trust in goons and villains, but usually only after you have soundly trounced them.

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.

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, the artist with a chip on his shoulder the size of Manhattan. 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.

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 as you dictate. In short, 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.

Lackeys

Limit Break

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

You generally have a number of lackeys equal to your Mind in play at once. If they are defeated or lost, you can renew up to your normal limit as a Limit Break.

Construct your followers as a group of unnamed characters using the Constructing NPCs section, using your Impress skill -3 as the baseline.

Look Out Sir!

Trigger Action (Result)

With this schtick, your unnamed followers are exceptionally loyal and willing to sacrifice themselves. Whenever you take a Hit and one of your mooks is near you, that mook will throw himself between you and a successful attack, taking the attack. This saves your skin at the expense of your mooks.

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 entire organization. You can usually use this authority to gain access to places and resources of related organizations as well.

Power Domination

Trigger Action (Finisher)

You can gain dominance over the powers of others by impressing your mastery over them when they are helpless. You cannot be affected by their powers unless willing, and you can prevent any use of your powers as a Trigger Action. This is tied to some form of submission, you must place your mark or bonds on them, and removing this mark removes the limitation.

Silver Spoon

Inherent

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

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

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

Star Stuff

Trigger Action

You are a really impressive performer and have an almost mystical ability to entrance an audience. This can be acting, playing an instrument, dancing or any performing art. You are famous in your field, and can easily get into social events or arrange performances. You are skilled in the use of instruments or your voice on stage. When performing, you can take normal actions, generally to use social skills to impress your audience. You can also use a trigger action to distract and support others.

When you perform, you can take a trigger action to distract and influence onlookers. Onlookers will not ignore obvious dangers, like a shoot-out in the middle of the audience, but minimum difficulty to Spot anything which is not plainly obvious is your Impress skill +3. You also support any interaction going along with the mood of your performance (such as a seduction with a love song), giving it a +3 bonus.

Vision

Inherent

Vision

You have some vision, perhaps of divine origin, perhaps just a personality quirk. 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.

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.