Powers (FiD)

Starfox's Blades in the Dark fan page

Powers turn Blades in the Dark-style games into power fantasy.

Introducing Powers

Rather than the fantastical being rare and poorly understood, adding powers to your gives characters entirely new abilities they can use. Introducing these into a game changes the game world, making it more fantastical. Your game will change from the typical grim blades in the dark into something different and higher powered, though possibly just as grim. Powers consist of two elements—a playbook, and powers. Playbooks are frameworks for which powers you can use and how you use them. Powers describe what effects you can create.

Here follows links to power playbooks and powers, explained in the rules below.

Power Playbooks Animism You gain your power from a myriad of lesser spirits. Chi Inner power and mysticism. Jedi The mysticism of Star Wars. Mutation Power is your body, not something learnt. Orphic The power of performing art and music. Psi What powers are called in many futures. Saint Power from the blessing of god. Sorcery Power is in your heritage. Soulsworn You traded your soul for power. Technomancer Technobabble made real. Theurgy Power from studying god. Wizardry Magic from study.

Powers Air Powers Air is an elemental power that affects gasses, and to a limited extent vacuum. Animal Powers Animals are an important part of mystic experience. Barrier Powers Barriers is the ability to create walls and circles of protection. Darkness Powers Darkness is linked to both physical and spiritual darkness. Death Powers Death and disease are powerful forces. Earth Powers Earth is the base of all, the solid ground we walk on and dig into. Electricity Powers Electricity is often technology, but there was always lightning. Fire Powers Fire is an element of transformation, it can destroy but also forge. Ice Powers The power of frozen water, arctic cold, and creatures of cold. Flux Powers Flux is the power of luck, chaos, decay, and randomness, but also of freedom, inspiration, and art. Illusion Powers Illusion powers create images, sound, and other sensory impressions to confuse and delude. Kinesis Powers The ability move things, including sound. Life Powers Life power is about life energy used to heal and improve living things. Light Powers Light is both physical and spiritual light, inspiring deeds of charity and benevolence. Metal Powers Metalworkers have often been associated with mystical powers. Mind Powers Mind delves into sentience and intelligence. Order Powers Order is the power the status quo that restores normality. Plant Powers Governs plants and dead plant matter, including fungi. Space Powers Governs location and distance, the power to teleport and create extradimensional spaces. Time Powers Time allows looking into the past and possible futures, but can create deadly paradoxes. Water Powers Water is the element of life, spirituality, and endless flowing cycles.

Power Playbooks

Playbooks are the frames for acquiring powers. The playbooks are the power traditions of your world, roles such as wizard, sorcerer, saint, mutant, or technomancer. Each playbook gives you access to certain powers, which are chosen in the same manner as special abilities. A power playbook can also have regular special abilities to choose from, but rarely as many as ordinary playbooks do. This is in addition to all the normal features of a playbook.

Finally, each power playbook gives you a trauma condition. This means you can't survive as much new trauma as characters who have not meddled with the powers. The actual trauma condition generally affects how you use powers, imposing conditions you must fulfil in order to use powers.

Multiple Power Playbooks You cannot pick special abilities from a power playbook unless you are using that playbook. It is possible to add a power playbook by selecting this as a special ability. If you already have a power playbook, you can gain multiple power playbooks this way, giving you a wider range of powers at the price of more trauma conditions and thus more restrictions on the use of all of your powers.

Powers

Powers are what actually gives you exceptional abilities. A power playbook doesn't give you any power abilities unless you select a power from that playbook's special abilities. Once you select a power, you gain abilities appropriate to the power. So if you select the electricity pool, you can shoot lightning, power electric engines, cause shortcuts, summon electric creatures, and so forth. In many cases, powers work as equipment does, empowering your normal actions. Some powers allow you to do what is normally impossible, these generally have more rules governing them

Stress Cost You use your normal actions to activate powers, but there is an associated cost in stress. The stress cost of each category of power abilities is given at the top of each column, but this cost is reduced by the result of the action roll. This works much like resistance rolls, but is handled as a part of the action roll. Each power ability has a stress cost, which is reduced by the result of the action roll. A critical success reduces the cost by 2 for each six rolled beyond the first. This is the same roll used to judge the effect of the action itself. Sometimes the use of a power does not need an action roll, but you still make one to find the stress cost. For example, using Survey and darkness to allow your friends to see in the dark is not exciting enough to require an action roll. In this case, ignore the result of the action roll, it always succeeds without consequences. For basic powers not used as a part of a significant action, just ignore the cost and action roll.

Avoid The Trap of Powers Just because a power allows something does not mean that you can't do it without that power. Attacks with weapons do not lose any effectiveness just because there are power that do the same. Items can be more effective than powers because once you select an item of equipment, you usually have it for the rest of the score. Attune allows the identification of supernatural creatures even without a power.

Powers are Inflexible Unlike normal actions, which are flexible, powers are specific. If you want to make a ranged attack using your power, that is done with Hunt action unless the particular power description says otherwise, you cannot fudge this with another action as you normally can.

Powers are Flexible The abilities described for each combination of power and action are typical examples that can be expanded upon. The drift of the ability is set, but the particulars can be changed. If a character wants to do something that seems appropriate to their power but no description fits, modify existing abilities to allow it as some kind of action.

Combining Powers If you know several powers, you can combine all of them with a single action, as long as this makes sense. So if you know both the fire and plant powers, you can dismiss, infiltrate, or infiltrate using both at once. It is also possible to combine powers with another power-user as a part of assisting them. Combination powers are often more effective but become more vulnerable to the banish effect of the attunement action. This often increased effect at the cost of position as controlling a combined power is harder. Negating any of the component powers of a combined power negates the entire power.

Power Duration There are no specific rules for the duration of powers. Most powers last for a single use of an action: you use the power, the effect happens, and then the power ends but the effects of the power remains. The typical example of this is attacks, you wield your fire blade for the duration of the fight, and then it dissipates. Powers that last usually last for an entire score, but this depends on the degree of success. A possible consequence of power use is that the power suddenly ends at an inappropriate moment.

Power Area The target of powers can be described in plural or singular, but powers use the normal effects of multiple targets, increasing position and/or reducing effect as appropriate. If the power explicitly says it has an area this does no apply.

Powers Gated by Dice Power effects can be gated by the number of dice rolled for an action. This means that pushing, assists, and devils' bargain enhances the effect of your powers. No dice, no power. One die gives access to free abilities. two dice gives access to item abilities, three dice gives access to stress abilities, four dice allows access to all powers.

Optional Rule: Powers Gated by Tier If powers seem to powerful for low-tier adventures, you can tier-lock powers. At tier zero, you can only use free powers. At tiers 1-2 you can only use free and item powers. At tier 3-4 you can use free, item, and stress powers abilities. At tier 5, you can use all powers. This makes powers almost useless at tier zero and weak until tier 3. Long-term projects allows use of powers as if you were two tiers higher. Make sure to limit exceptional equipment like bombs and grenades in a similar manner.

Availability and Genre Different power and action combinations fit in different genres, as do power playbooks. The easiest way to manage this is to modify or remove the power playbooks and powers that don't fit. But you can also remove the abilities linked to certain actions.

• Removing attune removes summoning and anti-power abilities, making the setting decidedly less mystical.
• Removing command and sway powers make powers more physical and less subtle.
• Removing consort makes a creature's form more definite, making the setting less confusing.
• Removing finesse, hunt, skirmish, and wreck removes exceptional attacks, making the setting much less flashy.
• Removing prowl limits how people move, also making the setting less flashy.
• Removing study and survey removes information powers, making the setting more mundane.

It is also possible to limit sub-categories of power playbooks, making certain components secret and something that has to be earned. You can also lock certain action/power combinations behind an additional cost, such as requiring a separate ability to use Survey power if you dislike scrying.

Typical Powers and How to Use Them

This is the pattern that most powers follow. You can refer to this when interpreting how powers should work. TLDR, this list is too long to read it all every time, its here to look up in to resolve specific situations. It is good to have skimmed it at least once.

Attune

Harness the power of Attune to perceive and manipulate supernatural energies, allowing you to detect and interact with beings and phenomena from other planes of existence.

Perceive: You can detect creatures and power use tied to your power.

This is usually done to spot a disguised summoned creature. However, it can also help identify a creature's connection to powers, providing valuable insights into their nature. Naturally, this gets more difficult as the creature is more heavily obscured. This reduces effect. The position usually starts controlled, with the usual consequence that you cannot try again.

Dismiss: You can force a creature based on this power that is native to another plane of existence to return to that plane, or to end the operation of an ability of the power you use.

Dismissing a creature is hard, and might require the creature to be weakened, either by previous attempts to dismiss it, or by other attacks, interactions, or by being set up. The consequences of this depends entirely on what happens around you when you do it. If a powerful creature resists being dispelled, its obviously dangerous. Having helpers and bodyguards reduces the consequences, and sometimes a creature wants to be dismissed and the consequence might be that it loses control of itself, or that other creatures appear to intervene.

Dispelling is usually easier, but not always. Most powers only dispel effects of their own power. Read this generously. As an example, the fire power can dispel any fire power, but also powers that affect flames and heat sources, as well as powers that affect fire creatures. It can be used as a defense against others' use of power, or it can be used to break the continuing effects of powers.

Dispelling is often used as a setup action to help another character in a situation when the opposition is using powers. The position is controlled, possibly risky if there are a lot of other dangers around. Limited effect creates an opening that makes the supported action potent. Normal effect improves the position of the supported action. Great effect improves both position and effect of the supported power.

When used directly, the effect is usually limited unless the opponent is relying on powers for their safety. Against an opponent that uses power to fly or even breathe you can have a better effect.

When dramatically appropriate that a power is hard to dispel, often because it is the crux of the situation, this will simply not work, but will instead give you a clue to what you need to do to resolve the situation.

Summon: You can call a creature from a place of your power. This is generally an unwilling servant. It will obey one command from you and this can be extended. Learning who to summon may require study or be a score in itself.

What a "place of your power" means depends on the setting, but is always a different place that you normally cannot interact with. This is usually a parallel world or plane of existence, dominated by your power. So fire summons creatures from a very fiery place, air summons from a very airy place and so on. These places can be unique to each power, or one big place where different places are dominated by different powers. It might also be from other places in your own world, exotic regions of your own world or distant planets like Pluto or starts like Aldebaran. This is the usual explanation in the cosmic horror genre. In a science-fiction setting with powers this is usually related to faster-than-light travel, so if ships travel through hyperspace, this is also where summons come from. If travel is by gate, the medium the gate stretches through is where summons come from, and so on. The Gate power of Attune is the usual way to get to these places.

Summoning can bring you allies to fight, but more commonly you summon a spirit to do some specific task related to your power. Summons can use most power effects and maintain power effects you have created. They can also give advice and information related to their power. In general, you can summon generic creatures one tier lower than yourself without having to do a flashback. Such a creature is similar to a gang member.

To summon a particular creature, similar to a cohort, you need its unique identity, often called true name in the mystical power traditions. For a technomancer this would be a type id number, a blueprint, or a block of data. Learning about the right creature to summon is a task in its own right, often requiring a flashback or downtime activity to use Command, Consort, Study, or Sway to gain information. Doin this kind of preparation also counts as a set-up action for your summoning, even if you are doing it in a flashback.

It might be worth the extra effort to summon a creature of higher tier, but this is also much more demanding, using the usual rules for tiers.

Spirits generally come in three types, elementals, spirits, and creatures with powers.

Elementals only exist for powers that have a direct physical manifestation, like the four classic elements of air, earth, fire, and water, but also the other forms that have a physical manifestation, electricity, ice, metal, and plant. An elemental is a simple creature totally dominated by its power. Most elementals have animal intelligence, and often take the shape of animals as well, tough animated chunks of matter and humanoid forms are also common.

Spirits are similar to elementals in that they are made out of the stuff of their power, but the powers that create spirits are less material. This makes spirits ephemeral, less physically oriented, and usually more intelligent than elementals. They can use sophisticated power effects and usually have an agenda of their own. Darkness, Death, Flux, Illusion, Order, and Space can summon spirits.

Creatures with powers resemble normal creatures, most having a biological body, metabolism, and functioning as ordinary living creatures but also some exceptional abilities related to their power. A fire dragon is impossibly large, flies, and breathes fire. An air turtle hovers and can grow to massive size, to the point where a city can be built on top of them. An undead creature is a corpse animated by the powers of Death. And so on. Not all creatures with powers are summonable or dismissible, many are native to this world and have no special vulnerability to Attune power effects.

Depending on your degree of effect the creature is willing to do different things. Limited effect allows you to ask questions of an intelligent creature or demand a short period of physical labor from a simple creature. The creature will not fight for you. If forced into a fight due to circumstances, it will resent it afterwards.

Standard effect allows you to ask for any service appropriate to the type of creature. A devil will do evil, a fire elemental will burn stuff, and so on. This includes dangerous tasks such as combat.

Great effect allows actions outside the creature's comfort zone, but not things it directly opposes. A devil will do most things except those associated with Light, a fire elemental will heat your forge or power your steam engine. Lengthy service also requires great effect, like summoning the creature to guard a treasure for as long as it can.

The position is usually risky. The creature is being forced to serve and might lash out. Typical consequences are: The creature strikes out at you once. A tightwire struggle to keep the creature under control The creature breaks things around you, demands concessions from you. Overly literal interpretations of your commands. The creature deliberately does its tasks poorly.

Offering a creature gifts or services appropriate to its nature can make the position controlled, with consequences like half-heated efforts, demanding not to be summoned again until some time or event has passed, or just general sulkiness.

Desperate position usually comes from trading position for effect, but it might come from a difference in ethos. If you are a priest of light and summon a demon, or if the summon is three or more tiers above you the position will be desperate. Consequences include the spirit demanding you sell your soul, become its agent in the world, that you come to its home plane to serve it there for a time (usually three scores), that you defeat the creature in a duel or similar dramatic story events.

Gate: You can create a portal that allows travel to and from the plane of your power for a limited time.

This is rarely useful, but can be under exceptional circumstances. As outlined under Summoning above most powers are linked to a different world where that power is dominant. There are also things that are possible to do on these planes that are not allowed in the regular world, most effects are reduced one step in difficulty, from advanced to basic, master to advanced, and apex to master. This opens the possibility of new super-apex powers that have to be negotiated with the game master. Such effects rarely reach outside the plane where you perform them, but if they affect creatures on that plane, the effect may remain when you return to the mundane world.

Gating can allow access to creatures too powerful to summon, so you instead ask for an audience. The creature may then use the gate to come to you, call you into its presence, or just communicate with you.

Using a gate is usually played out as a score, which means there is an engagement roll. Depending on how quickly the matter is resolved, the game master may require a separate game to return home again. However if you do this in a scene that is dangerous, such as asking for help against an enemy too powerful for you to defeat, the position is usually much worse. Once you have established a connection to a certain place or audience with a certain creature, you can usually do so again from a controlled position and without doing it as a score.

Command

Command creatures based on your power with communication and authority. Position and effect is determined normally, depending ion the situation and your relation to listeners. If you know several powers and use a Command power but don't know what type of creature you are facing, it works as long as you have the appropriate power. You need not select a specific type of creature in advance. If you try to Command a type of creature and don't the appropriate power, effect is at best limited—the game master may judge that Command skill can be used non-verbally, but often you will have no effect at all. This still has the normal stress cost.

Communicate: You can make creatures understand you, but you do not understand them.

This is useful because it allows you to intimidate creatures of your power and to command foreign or alien subordinates. Combined with the basic power of Sway allows two-way communication.

Translate: You and allies can communicate with creatures based on your power. This allows full conversation with creatures of the power. It is still a Command ability, it is more forceful and less subtle than the Sway equivalent.

Authority: You can give commands to creatures based on your power, as if you were their superior. This does not remove existing loyalties, which can lead to conflicts.

This is more powerful than a normal Command action, having about one additional level of effect, but it is not absolute. Creatures of the relevant type will understand your orders.

Targets will see you as an officer, professional superior, alpha, or other leader type outranking them. It is very helpful to have a grasp of the social order of your targets, as this allows you to avoid conflicting with their established loyalties. Ordering city guards to return to barracks and ignore a disturbance is much harder (lower effect) than to tell them to scatter the disturbance and move on, because their task is to protect the city. Limited effect can lead to a creature not doing what it is supposed to, such as reporting you or giving you a speeding ticket. Standard effect makes the creature do what it is supposed to in a way you decide, such as a police escorting you to a safe location or do you a favor that is quick, such as letting you past a checkpoint even if they ought not to. Great effect means targets will go out of their way to please you, such as warriors from a neutral faction fighting for you, enemies ignoring you or even fleeing.

The position depends on the creatures' actual relationship to you—a creature that perceives itself as your superior will use a stronger rebuke. A controlled position comes from a creature that agrees you are superior to it, and usually just means that trying again is harder. A risky position is typical against a creature that perceives itself an equal to you, and not your enemy. This might lead to heat, misunderstood orders, or that targets rebel in small ways.

Enslave: You can permanently bind creatures to service. Unless affected by other powers, they will stay in one location and act according to your instructions, like very loyal and literal-minded goons.

Obviously a broken ability, and one that will have a low effect unless you are already in a position of power. The effect is similar to the authority, the difference is that this is a long-lasting and potentially permanent effect. A creature that is under the care of your enemies will likely break the effect after some time, and a creature confronted with something it used to feel very strongly about might break your control, but it otherwise lasts until removed by other effects.

Consort

Utilize the power of Consort to change forms and manipulate objects imbued with your power. You not only understand how to behave to conform to social norms, you change your own (and alter others') physical form.

Mask: You can change your clothes and accessories by imbuing them with your power. This can mask your identity or create fabulous outfits.

You do not physically change yourself, you accessorize and change your outfit. The effect is usually limited and the position controlled, but some changes might be more extreme than this.

Shapechange: You assume the form of another creature that manifests your power. Add 1d to one action and subtract 1d from all actions covered by an attribute except if you just raised one of them.

This is a true physical transmutation. You need not assume the form of an existing creature, as long as the gamemaster agrees your new form matches the power you use. This can give you new abilities, but these are things you could already do using the same power. You may get away without having to use each specific power, at the cost of losing some of the abilities of your original form. So if you turn into a fish you don't have to use powers to swim and breathe water, but you are close to helpless on land.

If desired your transmutation might benefit an action relevant to your new form, at the cost of lowering all the actions covered by a specific attribute. You rating in the improved action increases by one. The actions covered by your weakened attribute are all reduced by one, except that if you chose the attribute that governs your improved action, this action gains the benefit and does not suffer the penalty.

Example Jillyan uses the Animal power to turn herself into a monkey. She gains a +1 bonus to the Prowl action, but suffers a -1 penalty to Finesse Skirmish and Wreck. She does not suffer the penalty on Prowl, as that is the action that was improved. If the penalty had instead been applied to Insight, Hunt, Study, Survey and Tinker would all have suffered the penalty.

Transform: You can shapechange a willing or helpless creature into a form imbued by your power. This can be a curse, it can be broken but it is not easy. You can easily break the effect.

This is the shapechange power applied to another creature. The duration depends of the effect, limited effect is very temporary, more of a warning. Standard effect lasts for the duration of a score. Great effect lasts a long time and potentially become permanent, depending on the development of the story. Other abilities can be used to reverse such a transformation.

You cannot use this on a powerful opponent that cannot be defeated by a single successful action. You may have to confront them in several scenes to finally get them to the point where you can transform them.

Wild Hunt: You can transform a large number of willing or non-sentient creatures and give them a simple instruction, typically someone for them to hunt.

This is where Consort becomes a combination of the Shapechange and Summon power effects. Instead of summoning a host of allies, you transform a number of existing creatures and give them a task that they will perform with gusto. Essentially you turn them into single-minded minions. Targets must be willing, non-sentient like animals, or just very minor figures in the plot, likely several tiers below you. This is usually used to create a host of goons that will fight and chase for you. Such goons are more interested in chasing and cornering targets than in actual combat. Or they can be turned into lesser servants, like the scene with the fairy godmother from Disney's Cinderella.

Finesse

Exercise finesse with your power, manipulating and attacking with precision.

Ride: If there is a mount or vehicle of the appropriate power, you can ride it as if it was domesticated and you have the keys. You can move and breathe in conditions manifesting your power without damage or hindrance.

This allows you to use Finesse with mounts and vehicles you are not familiar with, allowing Finesse to substitute for Command and Tinker actions that could do the same thing.

Duel: You can use the power as a fine and potent close-range attack, similar in effect to a fine potent dueling sword or pistol, or you can give your friends the Ride ability for the duration of a score.

What this actually does depends on the power used. Fire burns, wind slices, ice pieces or freezes, and so on. Certain targets may be more or less vulnerable to certain attacks, but this is the exception. Besides variety, this only substitutes for equipment, fine and potent finesse weapon is just as effective. In a fight, using this does not take any more time, activating your attack power is equivalent to drawing a weapon, no more, no less.

Manipulate: You can do fine manipulation of the power, allowing you to do small and exact manipulations at range. This allows you to open doors, trigger or hinder mechanisms, or perform other minor manipulations, as long as the target is appropriate to your power.

This allows you to manipulate small amounts of matter governed by your power. This is similar to what you could do by hand, but you can do so at a distance of ten meters or so, allowing you to push buttons, trigger devices, and perform legerdemain at short range. This can substitute for simple Tinker actions, but nothing complicated.

Surge: Your power manifests like a storm of blades, suppressing the effect of multiple opponents and acting as a fine potent weapon. You can choose to affect multiple targets.

You create ans use weapon like Duel above, and also create distractions. The effect is like having a number of trusty but entirely defensive allies in the fight. This negates the advantage an enemy gets for having allies of their own, but is otherwise the same as Duel.

Hunt

Track, attack, and unleash devastating barrages with the power of Hunt. As you advance in power, the scope of your attacks becomes greater, allowing you to control significant areas and cause widespread destruction. At short range, this is dangerous to you and yours.

Track: You can track and pursue based on your power, even if the target does not leave any mundane trail or clues.

Consequences here are mainly to lose the trail, but depending on the environment and targets, it might lead you to get lost, into traps, or even into an ambush.

Potent Snipe: You can use your power to attack, similar in effect to a fine and potent rifle.

The effect of this action varies depending on the nature of your power. For instance, fire will burn, wind can slice, ice might pierce or freeze, and so forth. While some targets may exhibit more or less vulnerability to specific types of attacks, this is the exception rather than the rule. Essentially, this ability serves as a versatile replacement for traditional equipment; a fine and potent finesse weapon would be equally effective in combat. Moreover, using this action in a fight doesn't consume any additional time; activating your attack power is akin to drawing a weapon—neither faster nor slower.

Area Attack: You can use your power to attack similar to a fine and potent grenade. This allows you to fight many creatures in the same area very effectively, but there is a risk of collateral damage.

An escalation of Potent Snipe, this affects all enemies in a single location. The effect is more powerful but less precise. This means it does more collateral damage, but no more effect on enemies. Targets in trenches, behind walls, or otherwise shielded are not in direct damage, but tend to keep their heads down, which gives your side the initiative.

Barrage: You call down the equivalent of a fine potent artillery barrage, attacking everything and everyone in a wide area. Depending on your power, this can raze buildings and create rubble. Usually enough to provide cover for any escape.

Continued escalation, this can create a crater or raze buildings, but creatures are no more or less likely to survive. It is no more likely to harm creatures than Potent Snipe or Area Attack, but does so over a wide area. Enemies in bunkers and other cover are discomforted, but not damaged. Creatures in this area need to keep their heads down, which is usually enough of a distraction that your side can do something else unopposed, such as prowling about or running away.

Prowl

Sneak, move, and perhaps even fly or teleport with the stealth and agility granted by Prowl. Most powers use Prowl in ways that vary from the norm, so this is a more rough sketch than the power abilities of many other actions.

Reconnaissance: You can hide in environments linked to your power. This allows you to hide in impossible places as long as the environment manifests your power. You gain advantage when sneaking on creatures linked to your power.

This provides you cover to hide in places you ordinarily could not. Where you can use this is explained in each specific power. It otherwise works just like any other attempt to use Prowl to avoid notice. Note that only you can use this ability, your friends and allies cannot unless you use Travel, below.

Maneuver: You can move on and through environments composed of your environment. This allows you to climb on air, swim unhindered, walk through walls of the appropriate material and so on, depending on your exact power.

Again, each power will explain how it can use this mobility. Your friends and allies cannot use this unless you employ Travel, which is described later

Travel: You can bring allies along when you use Reconnaissance and Maneuver.

Now you and your allies can Prowl in places where your power is at home. They still use their own Prowl action.

Transport: You and allies can teleport from one location where your power is present to another. This is regional travel, you stay within the same city or region, but it is generally sufficient to enter or escape just about any situation or location.

How and where you use this is explained in each power. This takes you to places you are familiar with. Both effect and position is worse unless you know where you are going, which means it is great for escapes but less so for intrusion into an enemy's territory that you are likely to be much less familiar with.

Skirmish

Engage in close combat and create chaos with the power to Skirmish.

Skirmish Attack: You can use the power as a close-range attack, similar in effect to a melee weapon or pistol.

What this actually does depends on the power used. Fire burns, wind slices, ice pieces or freezes, and so on. Certain targets may be more or less vulnerable to certain attacks, but this is the exception. Besides variety, this only substitutes for equipment, mundane weapons are just as effective. In a fight, using this does not take any more time, activating your attack power is equivalent to drawing a weapon, no more, no less.

Fine Skirmish Attack: Same as Skirmish Attack, except the weapon is fine and potent.

Obstruction: Your power creates distractions and obstructions that prevent the enemy from benefiting from numbers and otherwise works as a fine potent weapon.

This creates some kind of hindrance, perhaps spectral allies, perhaps a maze or concealing mist. The effect is to deny your enemies the advantage of numbers. You also gain the benefit of the Fine Skirmish Attack, giving you a fine, potent weapon.

Flurry: Your power strikes out in all directions, attacking all enemies in a wide area.

This turns you into a one-man army. Not only do you negate the advantage your enemy may get from numbers, you also spread your effect to hurt all your enemies in the current skirmish, within 10 meters or so.

Study

Study and analyze objects and creatures imbued with your power to gain insight and knowledge.

Analyze: You can identify objects and creatures that manifest your power and see the use of the abilities of your power.

Research: You know the powers and abilities of something you analyze.

Hindsight: You can read the past events of something you analyze. This includes previous owners and how the object has been moved around as well as significant scenes.

Omniscience: You research everything in a wide area. This is easy to do where you are, more difficult at range. You can then use hindsight on some of these targets.

Survey

Survey and perceive manifestations of your power to gain valuable information and insight.

Detect: You can sense manifestations of your power at a distance and understand their general nature. This works even when you can't see the target, but both range and information suffer.

Sensor: Choose an object manifesting your power that you have detected; you can perceive as if you were at that spot. You cannot use your Survey action for anything else when doing so.

Scry: Choose a location or creature. You gain a sensor at the nearest suitable object, which is often close enough to perceive the target.

Omnipresence: You perceive from all objects manifesting your power at once over a wide area. As long as you concentrate you retain this perception and can report what you see to others.

Sway

Communicate, mesmerize, and manipulate creatures imbued with your power to achieve your goals. Sway creatures based on your power with persuasion and cajoling. Position and effect is determined normally, depending ion the situation and your relation to listeners. If you know several powers and use a Sway effect but don't know what type of creature you are facing, it works as long as you have the appropriate power. You need not select a specific type of creature in advance. If you try to Sway a type of creature and don't the appropriate power, effect is at best limited—the game master may judge that the Sway action can be used non-verbally, but often you will have no effect at all. This still has the normal stress cost.

Communicate: You can understand creatures linked to your power even if normally couldn't, and gauge their mood and motivations.

This does not allow you to be understood by those whose intentions you read. Used together with the basic Command power, this allows full communication.

Translate: You and allies can communicate with creatures based on your power.

This allows you to use the Sway power to its full effect. You are still wheedling unless you also use Command the advanced Command effect.

In addition, many powers will have the power to inspire a mood or emotion specific to that power.

Mesmerize: You can post suggestions in the mind of a creature manifesting your power, which will be triggered under conditions you specify. Common suggestions are to steal something, attack someone, or ignore some event. This is a subtle power, but easier to spot once triggered.

Essentially this is an attempt to Sway with two advantages. The target will not remember that you swayed them, and if you succeed, you can give them instructions that will activate later, in a situation you specify. A typical use of this would be to sway a servant to leave a window open in a hallway or a guard to forget to load their weapon. Besides the normal challenges of persuasion, suggestions fade depending on your effect. Limited effect lasts in the immediate situation. Normal effect lasts for the duration of the score, and great effect can last past the end of the score, as makes sense in the story.

Inculcate: You change the personality and motivations of creatures that manifest your power. This power is permanent, but blatant. The target remembers their past but regards it as unimportant compared to their new motivations.

This changes the target on a deep level, changing their loyalties and priorities. There are limit to this, particularly for creatures linked to a power - you cannot make a fire creature love the sea or an angel of light do deeds of darkness. Exceptional creatures and exceptional circumstances can break this change. This depends more on role-playing than die rolls.

Tinker

Manipulate, shape, and create objects imbued with your power to suit your needs. When used with long-term projects, powers can often substitute for missing resources such as tools or raw materials, but that is all it does until you can start using Fabricate.

Handle: You can handle materials that manifest your power as if you had the appropriate tools and protective devices.

This mainly substitutes for tools, up to a small workshop. You are also protected from any dangerous effects of working with the elements of your power.

Shape: You can shape materials that manifest your power as if they were of clay, and they will retain their new shape for some time even if they would normally not, such as water, sand, or smoke.

You can now do more than normal craft could do. You can work elements of your power that normally cannot be shaped, and it will remain in the shape you set it in. This has the effect of pipes and containers suited to the materials at hand, without any material containers or conduits. This may allow you to set up traps or devices that would normally require extensive equipment.

The position depends on how quiet your workplace is and how much time you have to work with. The effect determines the effectiveness of your construction, but also how long it will last. Devices that are more powerful are harder to contain, and thus wont last as long. Most shaping will only be good for a single scene, but if your effect surpasses that required for the effect you want, you can stretch the effect until the end of the score.

Create: You can create objects manifesting your power out of nothing or transform an object from one material to another as long as you know the power required for both the starting and final form. This can create complex tools, such as fine and potent items appropriate to the power(s) used.

This is two distinct effects. The first allows you to create matter related to your power out of nothing. This is raw matter (or energy, depending on the power used) and needs to be shaped and refined to be of much use.

The second can only be used if you know multiple powers. You transmute material connected to one of your powers into material connected to another power. The result will maintain its form as if affected by the Shape ability. The advantage of this is that you can transform a complex object and it will retain its form and function as far as its new material allows. This can transform something like a sword from metal to fire, and it would still be a functional sword. A door could be changed from wood to air, you then pass through ant the door reverts to wood. The transmutation usually

Fabricate: This is similar to Create, above, but you mass-produce objects, even a set of different objects. You can also make something large, such as a vehicle or building.

Pretty self-explanatory, this is Create on a larger scale. This is useful for equipping a large band or building something large out of nothing. When doing long-term projects that involve building or crafting, you can use Fabricate to gain great effect, even under what normally be poor conditions, but this has the usual stress cost.

Wreck

Destroy, dismantle, and obliterate objects made of stuff related to your power.

Jimmy: You can jimmy objects manifesting your power much like a sledgehammer. Noisy and leaves a twisted object in place.

Just as crude as it sounds. You destroy things related to your power, and strike with the force of a sledgehammer in combat. As usual, Wreck may be at an advantage or disadvantage compared to Finesse and Skirmish, depending on the situation.

Smash: Similar to jimmy. When smashing objects from your power, such as metallic objects for the metal power, you to affect hard objects as if they were wood. Works as a fine potent sledgehammer in combat.

This reduces the strength of strong materials, allowing you to break even the strongest barrier, as long as it of the proper material and not too thick. You can also use this as a sledgehammer to smash other things, and ads a fine, potent sledgehammer in combat.

Disintegrate: Similar to smash, but destroyed targets silently disappear or are reduced to a fine dust.

The real difference here is that wrecking things is now silent when you have the right power. You also leave less traces, as what you wreck disappears. This can also be used to get rid of evidence, as long as that evidence matches your power.

Obliterate: Similar to smash, but over a large area. This can level a city block, empty a canal system of water, raze a city wall, and similar massive destruction.

Rather straightforward, this just scales things up.