Schtick Rules (Action)

Heroic Action Role-Play

A schtick in Action is a signature move a character often uses.

Improvising

The Schtick rules can hinder player creativity if there is a schtick that covers what the character wants to do, but lacks that particular schtick. The GM is encouraged to be lenient in such situations and let the character do the action as a Stunt at a small penalty, or spend a Fortune point to use the schtick once. If a player tries to do this repeatedly, they should spend the XP and get the schtick, and possibly its required Form.

Powers, Schticks, and Actions

In Action the terms schtick, stunt, and Action are very similar. Technically, all powers are also schticks and almost all schticks are also stunts or modify stunts. However, when the rules talk about a schtick, that is usually §2 here and not stunts or powers. The same applies to the other categories, most mentions of stunts and powers reefer to §1 and §3 respectively, and not to any of the other categories.

1. A Stunt is an action anyone can do, but it can require great skill to actually succeed.
2. A Schtick is an exceptional stunt only those who have spent XP to learn that specific ability can use, but see Improvising below. Schticks do remarkable, cinematic things, but are not supernatural.
3. A Power is a supernatural schtick unlikely even in a cinematic context. Magic, super-science, psychic powers, and otherworldly martial arts are examples of powers. Powers are generally more specialized that schticks, but also more powerful. Because powers are supernatural, they require you to be connected to a power source in order to work, if you lose this connection, a rare occurrence, you suffer Power Loss. Powers can also be detected and possibly negated by other powers.