Princess Abilities (PW)
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| Starfox's Princess World |
Princesses are not sent into the world without first graduating from Princess Academy. You are a highly skilled and powerful individual in your own right.
Your abilities are defined by several key aspects: your Specialty, which reflects what you embody; your Companion, who accompanies and supports you; your Princess Magic, which allows you to shape the world through Spark; and your ability to channel Wild Magic from the untamed lands.
Specialty
Perhaps most importantly, you're not just a generic magical princess. You are a princess of something. There are all sorts of princesses in this world — Dancing Princesses, Scientist Princesses, Tiny Princesses, Sword Princesses, List Princesses, Spooky Princesses, Sparkly Princesses — just so many kinds. A princess's specialty represents not just what the princess is good at, but also what she exemplifies. For example, a Tiny Princess isn't just (or even necessarily) small; she is an avatar of tininess. She stands for everything that makes being tiny special, interesting, and great.
Specialty Bonus
Any time you use your princess's specialty to help with a roll, add +1d. This includes when you're commanding something related to your specialty, remembering facts about your specialty, talking to someone about your specialty, using a tool associated with your specialty, and so on. For example, if a Baking Princess is commanding her gingerbread warriors in battle, that's +1d. If she's making biscuits, +1d. If she's at a party and works the quality of the cakes being served into the conversation, +1d.=== Changing Specialties === It is rare for a princess to change her specialty. It represents a fundamental shift in who she is and what she stands for.
If a player wishes to change their princess's specialty, work with the GM to make it part of the story. This should be a dramatic moment, such as a quest, ceremony, or transformation in the wild lands.
If a princess retires due to reaching her heart scar limit, she may change her specialty so that a legacy character may carry on in her place.
Weapon
All princesses have a special weapon they can summon and dismiss at will. This is a hand-held object that focuses the princess's power. It should be appropriate to your Princess Specialty and personality. It may resemble a weapon or magical focus, but most are idiosyncratic — a mark of the princess's style.
A princess weapon comes with an attack appropriate to its nature and her specialty.
- The Princess of Coffee has a pot that sends out spouts of boiling coffee.
- The Princess of Birds sends waves of sharp feathers.
- The Princess of Jungles sends out lianas that grab and wrestle.
- The Princess of Pillows throws her pillow, making the target drowsy or asleep before it returns to her.
Different weapons work better or worse against different targets, depending on vulnerabilities and resistances such as heat or cold. Some, like the lianas above, do not deal damage and instead incapacitate by other means.
Weapons can also perform simple tasks, such as pushing buttons or tripping creatures, but they cannot perform fine manipulation or provide broad utility.
Depending on range, different Actions apply when using a weapon. Lofty applies at long range, up to perhaps a hundred meters or more. Flowing applies at close range, up to a dozen meters. Supple, Flash, and Swift apply within reach.
If the weapon is lost or destroyed the princess can use a downtime action to create a new weapon.
Companion
Princesses often have companions accompanying them on their adventures. This can be a pet or a mount, either an animal or a tame monster. It can be a fairy, or a human or human-like companion.
Companions mainly provide company and friendship, but can occasionally help in other ways. Remember that you can Protect a companion.
A pet is a small animal or harmless monster that follows you around. It provides comfort, can fetch small items, and has an uncanny ability to escape danger and return to you, even if you have been tied up or imprisoned. This makes it useful for fetching keys or loosening your bonds.
A mount is a large animal or harmless monster that can carry you and another person. It travels faster than walking and is always something exceptional or unusual. It might be unusually fast, able to ride through the sky, swim while allowing you to breathe underwater, or have horns and fight using your Tender.
As another option, you may have a fairy who loyally accompanies you, offering advice and helping when she can. Fairies are tiny and fragile. If they suffer level 1 harm or greater, they poof into a perfect fairy gem. It takes 2 Spark (see Princess Magic) or the end of an adventure to restore the fairy.
A fairy may sacrifice herself to protect you from a single source of Harm.
You can summon or dismiss these companions just like your princess weapon, though they are still living creatures with their own instincts and priorities.
You may instead have a companion who is a human or other intelligent creature. They cannot be summoned or dismissed and are always present. They are not a princess and have no magic, but are otherwise a competent adventurer with their own opinions and tendencies.
Such a companion might be a suitor, tutor, chaperone, prankster, or fussy maid, or have another special relationship to you. These companions are more independent than other companions and can Assist you in ways appropriate to their role: a suitor can fight, a tutor knows things, a chaperone helps you avoid being deceived, a prankster can steal or spy, and a fussy maid keeps you neat and serves excellent tea.
Magic
Sometimes you need a little more oomph than usual. These magical effects cost Spark and represent charms, scrolls, small rituals, or you drawing on your inner power.
You have a pool of 5 Spark for each Adventure. You may recover Spark during play through special opportunities, such as gathering magical flowers or attending a fairy tea party, but you can never have more than 5.
These are the base rules for using princess magic. Many Princess Abilities give you new or altered ways to use Spark; such abilities may override these rules.
Princess magic creates effects. When an effect is difficult, contested, or would significantly change a situation, make an Action roll to resolve it.
- Range and Cost
The Spark cost and Action depend on how far the effect reaches:
- Supple (touch): 1 Spark
- Flowing (near): 2 Spark
- Lofty (distant): 3 Spark
If you are out of Spark, you may spend 1 Stress per Spark instead.
Princess magic is immediate and does not last beyond the current scene unless stated otherwise.
Shield
Reduce Harm you or another suffers by one level from a physical or magical source. Ineffective against social harm. You may only use Shield once against each instance of Harm.
Healing
You may spend Spark to reduce all Harm on yourself or another by one level through an interlude of tender care, expressed as something sweet or comforting.
All Harm is reduced by 1 level at the end of each significant scene.
Storage
Store one Treasure or significant item in a pocket space until you return to your kingdom. This can also represent carrying personal equipment such as outfits, picnic baskets, tools, or supplies. Items taken from Storage can last for an entire Adventure.
Illusion
Create images, sounds, or scents; alter appearances; or produce lights and visual displays. Larger illusions cost more Spark; use whichever cost is greater, size or range:
- A mount or a small group of people: 1 Spark
- A house or a small crowd: 2 Spark
- A castle or a mass of people: 3 Spark
Movement
Move quickly, jump great distances, climb unusual surfaces, or perform brief bursts of flight or teleportation. These are momentary effects rather than sustained movement.
Divination
Reveal secrets about a person, object, or place; uncover hidden things; or glimpse possible futures. The information is always partial or unclear, offering guidance rather than certainty.
The Spark cost and Action depend on how far into the future you look:
- Solid (present and past): 2 Spark
- Supple (days): 1 Spark
- Flowing (months): 2 Spark
- Lofty (years): 3 Spark
Visions of the distant future are extremely hazy and unclear.
Elemental
Imbue your magic with an element such as fire, water, air, earth, light, lightning, cold, or darkness. This determines how your magic manifests and interacts with the world.
Elemental effects may take different forms depending on your intent:
- Imbue your weapon with the element to exploiting weaknesses
- A focused mass, such as a pool of water, a bonfire, or a boulder
- A line or barrier, such as a wall of stone, a path of ice, or a curtain of flame
- A broad ambient effect, such as mist, warmth, chill, shade, wind, or light
The exact form is up to you and the situation.
Wild Magic
When you are in the wild lands, you can attempt to harness the raw magic in the area. You may use wild magic to add dice to a roll, up to your Pulse (minimum 1 die).
- If your Pulse is 2, you may add up to 2 dice.
- If your Pulse is 0 or 1, you may add 1 die.
This applies to any Action, not just magic. However, there are costs and risks:
- Add 1 Chaos to the nearest kingdom for each additional die.
- In addition to the normal Consequences of the action, any doubles rolled trigger a local wild magic surge.
Wild Magic Surge
A wild magic surge can take the form of kinetic force, elemental energy, life energy, or anything else the GM deems appropriate. It may be beneficial or harmful.
You may make a fortune roll to determine how positive or negative the effect is, or use the Wild Magic Effects Table to generate a random surge.
Any effect of a wild magic surge that directly affects you is a Consequence and may be resisted using your best Attribute.
Wild Magic Effects
- Raw magic swirls and cascades, building toward a destructive climax
- Invisible walls appear everywhere
- Dozens of random monsters appear
- All princesses may only speak in rhyme
- Elementals in the area gather, driven to fuse into a mega-elemental
- Cracks and pits appear
- A talking (possibly singing) creature appears and will not leave the princesses alone
- Things that do not normally talk begin talking
- Everyone’s voice becomes high, squeaky, and “cute”
- An extremely localized thunderstorm forms
- An aura prevents peaceful actions
- A monster lair forms nearby
- Hair becomes animate
- All princess specialties are turned into their opposites
- Princesses swap bodies
- The area is affected by a Spin
- Everything shifts into a specific genre (sci-fi, fantasy, cowboy, etc.)
- Everyone gains a hat that cannot be removed
- All princesses feel compelled to sing their actions and thoughts
- Sudden music — everything starts dancing
- Valuables attempt to escape
- No one can speak above a whisper
- Local flora grows explosively
- Bouncy music plays; monsters move to the beat
- All princesses grow magnificent beards and mustaches
- The area is affected by a Freeze
- A strong scent fills the air (onion, vanilla, rosemary, lemon, etc.)
- Structures made of cheese, tofu, or salami appear everywhere
- Terrain warps, becoming rougher and stranger
- Ghostly echoes or statues of past actions appear
- A disembodied voice narrates events, likely in a boorish style
- An odd mist appears, its color mismatched with its scent
- It begins raining something strange (lemonade, slime, coins)
- Everything spoken aloud attempts to become true
- Everyone’s voice becomes deep and smooth
- A peaceful aura prevents hostile actions
- Lies begin to physically manifest
- Terrain warps, becoming smoother and calmer
- Princess weapons become animate
- All princesses become invisible, even to themselves
- Terrain warps, becoming prettier and more peaceful
- Everything spoken sounds sarcastic
- Something tiny becomes gigantic
- Everyone becomes very sleepy
- Everything becomes sticky
- Everyone becomes very jittery
- Everything becomes slippery
- All princesses become their younger selves
- All princesses become their older selves
- All princesses become badass future versions of themselves
- All princesses become alternate reality versions of themselves (temporary new look and personality)
- All princesses become alternate genre versions of themselves (cowgirls, samurai, knights, etc.)
- Everything starts floating
- Weather reverses violently
- Clothing and styles reverse
- Inanimate objects come to life
- All princesses become intoxicated
- Everything becomes wintry
- All princesses become hyped up
- Everything becomes summery
- Everyone becomes apologetic and regretful
- Everyone becomes supportive and emotional
- Everyone becomes petty and gossipy
- Everyone becomes cynical, yet optimistic
- All princesses turn into dragons
- All princesses turn into birds
- All princesses turn into animals
- All princesses become chibi
- Structures made of teacups, books, or playing cards appear
- Words become bubbles and are only heard when popped
- Everyone now wears a mask
- All princesses heal 1 level of Harm with visible heart symbols and sound effects
- All princesses become translucent and slightly floaty
- Every action is accompanied by music and sound effects
- Everything becomes more colorful
- Everything becomes black and white
- NOBODY HAS AN INDOOR VOICE
- A treasure palace or library appears in the nearby wild lands
- A tea party appears with delicious food and drink
- A tea party appears, but is plain
- All princesses begin to glimmer and sparkle constantly
- Butterflies everywhere
- Bunnies everywhere
- Fortunes materialize (1d4 Treasure)
- Sudden fire
- Sudden water
- Sudden air
- Sudden earth
- Sudden light
- Sudden lightning
- Sudden cold
- Sudden darkness
- Sudden thunder
- Sudden stone
- A sudden pit appears
- An elemental forms around an object
- A fairy appears in a playful mood
- A fairy appears in a trickster mood
- Spark appears; recover with Supple (1–3: 1, 4–5: 2, 6: 3, 66: 5)
- A princess’s Spark bursts into light; roll Pulse: 1–3 keep 1, 4–5 keep 2, 6 keep 3, 66 keep 5