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.

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.

Doing so gives you access to the special abilities and items of the power playbook, but also forces you to accept its trauma condition. You can even gain access to 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.

Animism

You gain your power from a host of spirits, each less in power than the patrons of other power playbooks but versatile in their breadth. You may see these spirits as your masters, allies in a cause, servants you bully, mischievous friends, or slaves to capture or a mix of all of these. An animist might be known as a medicine woman, miku, shaman, or druid.

Trauma Condition (Animism)
Spirit Realm Your powers work best in a place where you have had time to get to know the local spirits, reducing the danger of the position. In strange places your powers work normally. In the home base of others spirits tend to be loyal to the locals, making it more dangerous to use your powers Worsen position by one.
Spirit Symbols To use powers you must show symbols of all the pacts you have with various spirits. This is usually small tokens, but can be tattoos, scents, holograms, piercings, or spirits visibly floating around you. Observers can tell your power playbook and those in the know can learn your powers from your symbols. The stronger you are, the more you look like a flea market.

Items

1. ☐ A bribe for your spirits that gives +1d on a single use of a power.
2. ☐ A temporary pact that allows you a single use a power you do not know.
3. ☐-☐ A disguise that hides your spirit symbols when you are not using any powers.
4. ☐ Armor that works against any type of attack.
5. ☐ A blessed weapon that is potent.

Powers There are myriad spirits, giving you access to oh so many powers. Air, Animal, Barriers, Darkness, Death, Earth, Electricity, Fire, Ice, Flux, Illusion, Kinesis, Life, Light, Metal, Mind, Order, Plant, Space, Time, Water.

Special Ability Options

• Wisdom of the Spirits You can commune with the spirits of a locale. They will tell you a task you must do ingrain yourself to them. This is usually to purge som corruption or defeat some foe with power over the environment. If you succeed you and allies recover 2 stress each. Sometimes the spirits are content and have no complaint for you to administer to, but this is rare, especially in the places scores are done in. When indulging your vice, you add 1d.

Chi

The inner power of a living creature that can be channeled into amazing feats. Associated with martial arts, meditation, chacras, and oriental medicine. Chi is mainly about affecting yourself and your own body, it can create effects in the world around you but this is harder to do.

Trauma Condition You must be free to move to use chi. Using powers that affect you or a target you touch gains +1d. Powers used at a range of more than a meter out of reach suffer -1d.

Clever Friends, Rivals

Items Chi users have access to a number of medicine bundles, known as potions. Once the action that benefits from the potion is resolved, you take minor harm that cannot be resisted.

1. ☐, ☐ A potion that adds 1d to an action roll.
2. ☐ A potion that allows one use of a power on the list of chi powers that you do not know.
3. ☐, ☐ An outfit showing your school or allegiance that can be used as armor against prowess and resolve effects.

Powers Air, Animal, Barriers, Darkness, Death, Earth, Electricity, Fire, Ice, Flux, Illusion, Kinesis, Life, Light, Metal, Mind, Order, Plant, Space, Time, Water.

Special Ability Options

• Reflexes When there’s a question about who acts first, the answer is you.
• Master Flashback You can use a flashback to your teachings to gain a 1d bonus on a roll or gain a single use of a power allowed by this playbook that you do not have.
• Remember Your Teachings Have a flashback to when you learnt your powers. Replace one of your beliefs with one fitting this situation. Recover all spent stress. You can only use this after your next advancement phase.

Mutant

Mutants are born with power or gain innate powers from exceptional circumstances. This also covers superheroes and monsters.

Trauma Condition A mutant manifests one power (see powers below), this makes them sensitive to power effects that affect such creatures.

Items

1. ☐, ☐, ☐ Drug that reduces the stress cost of activating a power by 2, but inflicts light harm: mutating. This consequence cannot be resisted. Others taking the drug suffers the consequence without the benefit.
2. ☐ A costume that shows your identity or affiliation, adjusted to compensate for the flaws in your powers. This gives you a pool of three points of stress that can inly be used to pay for power use. ☐☐☐

Powers A mutant is born with a link to one power, this must be the first power selected for this playbook. Air, Animal, Barriers, Darkness, Death, Earth, Electricity, Fire, Ice, Flux, Illusion, Kinesis, Life, Light, Metal, Mind, Order, Plant, Space, Time, Water.

Special Ability Options

• Power Focus You can use one stress to push an ability from your linked power. This also gives your power an individual signature, making it easy to recognize you used it.

Orphic

Orphic magic is worked through music and song. Mostly used to charm and influence, a masterful orphic can calm the waves through song and even enchant death itself.

Trauma Condition You must make music to use your powers, which can attract attention. This is not obviously supernatural, but it is easy to guess what power you are invoking. As an orphic you must take either the animal, flux, illusion, life, mind, order, or time power as your first power selection. Thereafter you can select any available power you wish.

Clever Friends, Rivals

Items

1. ☐☐☐ An instrument that allows the oprhic to push any resolve action (not just powers) at the cost of only one stress.
2. ☐ Notes and lyrics that allows one use of a power on the list of orphic powers that you do not know.
3. ☐ A memento that can the stress cost of powers by three.

Powers Air, Animal, Barriers, Darkness, Death, Earth, Electricity, Fire, Ice, Flux, Illusion, Kinesis, Life, Light, Metal, Mind, Order, Plant, Space, Time, Water.

Special Ability Options

• By performing for 5 minutes with an audience (other player characters suffice) you can reduce the stress cost of a power by two.

Notes Many orphics have a hard time with relationships. Most orphics can easily charm others, but such relationships are troubled; jealousy, infidelity, broken friendships, overzealous fans and similar over-emotional events conspire to make many orphics lonely. This is a common second trauma condition for orphics.

Psi

Psionics is futuristic magic. The list of powers varies greatly depending on setting.

Trauma Condition A psyker is vulnerable to powers and suffer -1 position against others who use powers. If the enemy is also a psyker, you also gain +1 effect. It is not uncommon for a psychic duel to end with both blowing out their brains.

Clever Friends, Rivals

Items

1. ☐☐☐ Ferronnière, headband, or tattoo on the hands, forehead, or temples that allows you to push powers at a cost of one stress.
2. ☐, ☐, ☐ Crystal that allows one use of a power on the list of psi powers that you do not know.

Powers Air, Animal, Barriers, Darkness, Death, Earth, Electricity, Fire, Ice, Flux, Illusion, Kinesis, Life, Light, Metal, Mind, Order, Plant, Space, Time, Water.

Saint

Gods and spirits share their powers with select servants.

Trauma Condition (Miracles) As a miracle-worker need to love and serve your patron saint, spirit, or god. This does not mean that all disciples of the same patron agree on much of anything, religious dissent is as old as religion. Creatures you summon are servants of your patron. This makes them less hostile, but strict in matters of faith.

You cannot use powers with the the consort, hunt, and skirmish actions except your domain power, see special abilities below. Picking up another power playbook that does allow these actions negates this limitation.

Clever Friends, Rivals

Items

1. ☐, ☐, ☐ Holy item that gives +1d on an action roll used against supernatural enemies of the faith.
2. ☐, ☐, ☐ Armor that works against any type of attack.
3. ☐ A blessed melee weapon that is potent.

Powers Air, Animal, Barriers, Darkness or Light (not both), Death, Earth, Electricity, Fire, Ice, Flux or Order (not both), Illusion, Kinesis, Life, Metal, Mind, Plant, Space, Time, Water.

Special Abilities
In addition to the listed powers, you have access to these special abilities.

• Community: Name a religious faction. Gain +1d and increased effect on insight and resolve action checks when dealing with that faction, including lay worshipers.

• Domain Power Any one power outside of this list, or an action normally forbidden, representing the patron's sphere of divine influence. This even allows the prohibited combinations light + dark and flux + order. You can choose a power normally allowed to miracle-workers as your domain, in which case you reduce the stress cost of all abilities of that power by one.

Sorcery

One of the most powerful power users, both competent and flexible. Wizards study magic powers with a philosophical, sometimes even scientific mindset and record their lore in tomes and libraries.

Trauma Condition A wizard must speak out loud and gesture to use powers. Their powers are recoded in tomes called spellbooks, and a wizard gradually loses their powers if they can't access this book.

Items

1. ☐☐ Staff (or similar large item like a tome or big crustal ball) that allows pushing action rolls for powers at a cost of one stress.
2. ☐, ☐, ☐ Scroll that allows one use of a power on the list of sorcerer powers that you do not know.
3. ☐ A familiar, a small intelligent animal that serves you as a spy and confidante.

Powers Air, Animal, Barriers, Darkness, Death, Earth, Electricity, Fire, Ice, Flux, Illusion, Kinesis, Life, Light, Metal, Mind, Order, Plant, Space, Time, Water.

Soulsworn

Some people sell their soul to a monstrous patron to gain power. Devils and fey are common patrons.

Trauma Condition You must invoke the name of your patron to use powers. Ordinary people who don't know you well find you scary, and are reluctant to offer you services or hang out around you. Your patron puts demands on you, if you don't follow it will mess with you, but can't remove your powers.

Clever Friends, Rivals

Items

1. ☐ A Familiar Spirit, a monster in the form of a small animal that acts as an agent of your patron and serves you as a spy and confidante. If this familiar helps you use your powers, it reduces the stress cost of powers by one. Using the familiar this way reveals its true nature.
2. ☐☐ Drug that restores 4 stress to you but inflicts medium harm: disoriented. This consequence cannot be resisted. Others taking the drug suffers the consequence without the benefit.
3. ☐☐ a fine potent melee weapon, usually a sword or dagger. If you kill another creature with this weapon, you recover a point of stress.

Powers Air, Animal, Barriers, Darkness, Death, Earth, Electricity, Fire, Ice, Flux, Illusion, Kinesis, Life, Light, Metal, Mind, Order, Plant, Space, Time, Water.

Special Ability Options

• Sacrifice When you kill a creature, you can dedicate their soul to your patron to recover one stress. You can recover up to eight stress per score this way.

Technomancy

These "powers" are actually just high tech.

Trauma Condition As technomancer you have some trait that distinguishes you; a peculiar jargon, a technological gadget or prosthetic, or some such that makes you easy to recognize as a technomancer. You need gadgets for all your powers and some kind of technobabble explanation for how they work. You can only use free and equipment abilities from the attune, command, and sway actions unless you create a gadget that allows you to do so, see equipment.

Clever Friends, Rivals

Items

1. ☐, ☐, ☐, ☐ Battery or power cell that reduces the stress cost of a power by two.
2. ☐☐ A gadget you build in a flashback that allows you to use a power you do not have for the rest of the score. This costs stress like any other flashback.

Powers Air, Animal, Barriers, Darkness, Death, Earth, Electricity, Fire, Ice, Flux, Illusion, Kinesis, Life, Light, Metal, Mind, Order, Plant, Space, Time, Water.

Theurgy

You work divine magic by invoking secrets that compel divine powers to help you, or you have studied the abilities of divine beings and their servants to the point where you can imitate their powers. In either case, those devoted to these powers are likely to detest you, but this need tot be everyone in the church.

Trauma Condition (Theurgy) You are seen as a blasphemer and possibly an apostate by religious people. You can learn both the dark and light powers and the order/chaos powers but must pick an action for your domain power. You cannot use a holy symbol or blessed melee weapon. You cannot use powers with the the consort, hunt, and skirmish actions unless you choose that as your domain, see special actions. Picking up another power playbook that does allow these actions negates this limitation.

Clever Friends, Rivals

Items

1. ☐, ☐, ☐ Holy item that gives +1d on an action roll used against supernatural enemies of the faith.
2. ☐, ☐, ☐ Armor that works against any type of attack.
3. ☐ A blessed melee weapon that is potent.

Powers Air, Animal, Barriers, Darkness, Death, Earth, Electricity, Fire, Ice, Flux, Illusion, Kinesis, Life, Light, Metal, Mind, Order, Plant, Space, Time, Water.

Special Ability Options

Wizardry

One of the most powerful power users, both competent and flexible. Wizards study magic powers with a philosophical, sometimes even scientific mindset and record their lore in tomes and libraries.

Trauma Condition A wizard must speak out loud and gesture to use powers. Their powers are recoded in tomes called spellbooks, and a wizard gradually loses their powers if they can't access this book.

Clever Friends, Rivals

Items

1. ☐,☐ Staff (or similar large item like a tome or big crustal ball) that reduces the stress of powers to 1.
2. ☐ Pouch containing materials that can reduce the stress cost of a power by one, usable three times. ☐, ☐, ☐
3. ☐, ☐, ☐, ☐ Scroll that allows one use of a power on the list of wizard powers that you do not know.

Powers Air, Animal, Barriers, Darkness, Death, Earth, Electricity, Fire, Ice, Flux, Illusion, Kinesis, Life, Light, Metal, Mind, Order, Plant, Space, Time, Water.

Special Ability Options

• Crafty Creator Add increased effect to all rolls made using tinker. For you tinker is always an appropriate aspect to use when working on a long term project.
• Loremaster You may always use study for a set up action, either in the moment or as a flashback. On a partial success, improve position or increase effect. On a full success, improve position and increase effect. On a critical success, improve position, increase effect, and also increase the result level of actions affected by the set up by one (so a miss becomes a partial success, a partial success becomes a full success, and a full success becomes a critical success).

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.

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, but using barrage or research using both powers at once makes less sense. 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. 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 uses the normal effects of multiple targets, increasing position and 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. This can include adding the powers currently forbidden to a certain playbook.

Power Specifications

List of powers and how they differ from the generic power table.

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