Category: Fate

Martial Arts

Your powers are the result of rigorous training in the arts of self-defense.

 

Basic Martial Artist: Your feats appear superhuman, but they’re really just secret techniques handed down by masters to their most trusted students.  Some powers may have improbable effects, but they can be measured scientifically.  Choose Athletics, Physique, Fight, or Will, to represent the source of your martial arts abilities.

 

Enhancements:

 

Master Martial Artist: You gain a +2 to Athletics, Physique, Fight, or Will when using your martial arts to enact your superpowers.

Trained in Multiple Styles: You aren’t just a one-trick pony.  You have learned multiple martial arts and switch between styles seamlessly.  You gain a +2 to Deceive to create an advantage when you opponent is caught off guard by the change in your attacks.

Chi Strike: With a bit of concentration and a Will roll against a Fair (+2) obstacle, you can create a boost with a free invoke to channel your energy into a single strike.  If this attack lands, it gets a 1-point shift.

All Hands and Feet: If you spend a fate point, you can turn into a whirling tempest of strikes designed to prevent an opponent from hitting you.

 

Common Power Synergies

 

Super Agility: You snatch arrows/bullets from the air and preform acrobatic feats in combat that stun opponents.

Wall-Crawling: You possess the ability to run up walls, trees, and other fantastical wuxia-style feats.

 

Improved Special Effects

 

Whirlwind Attack: You attack a character with a dazzling display of martial arts prowess that involves multiple strikes and kicks.  Every attack you make suffers a cumulative 1-shift penalty, but every attack after the first adds 1 shift to the first.

 

Drawbacks

 

• You are a consummate professional and know the lethality of your own attacks. You Can’t Strike First as a consequence.
• Your clan’s secrets aren’t to be treated lightly and the special techniques you know how to use must not fall into anyone’s hands. To this end, No Living Witnesses of Your Special Moves can be left behind.
• You’ve spent too much time in combat for it to have left you unscathed. You have PTSD from past combats.

 

Collateral Damage Effects

 

Everyone Wasn’t Kung-Fu Fighting: In an especially intimidating display of physical prowess, you can attack everyone in the zone as if they were in single combat with you either through a direct strike or the body of another character flying into them from a throw maneuver you execute in a dazzling onslaught.  Nearly every trick you know is used to subdue the entire zone.  Nameless NPCs are taken out while named NPCs and PCs make an Athletics roll against a Fair (+2) obstacle to avoid suffering a mild physical consequence.

Light Projection

You powers are embodied in luminescence.  You glow with an inner light that permeates your being, bathing areas with your aura.

 

Basic Light Projection: Your power is rooted in the properties of light and how you can bend them to your whim; when your powers manifest, it is from a glow emanating from you.

 

Enhancements

 

Flash of Brilliance: You let out a dazzling display of light that blinds the unsuspected.  If you make a Deception roll against a Fair (+2) obstacle to create an advantage, you get a boost with a free invoke to blind an opponent.

Hidden by the Light: You can use light sources to hide your presence, allowing you the element of surprise, allowing you to act first in combat.

Bend o’ the Rainbow: When you project your light, you can change the color, masking either your power’s effect or the colors in the zone.  In either case, you get a + 2 to Deception rolls.

All Eyes on Me: The brilliance of your radiance draws the eye, making you a sight to behold.  Gain a +2 to Rapport.

 

Common Power Synergies

 

Teleport: You travel from location to location using reflective surfaces and the speed of light.

Illusion: It isn’t that your creations are all smoke-in-mirrors, rather they are a result of your ability to refract and reflect light to create holographic images.

 

Improved Special Effects

 

Blinded by the Light:  Instead of causing harm to your opponent, you blind them with a moderate consequence.  Their eyes will heal, but until then opponents affected by you Can’t See.

 

Drawbacks

 

• You’re not just a metaphorical beacon of light, you’re literally one. You can’t turn off your inner glow because you are Bioluminescent.
• You thrive on sunlight and it fuels your powers. You’ve never known a dim moment since you gained you powers to the point that you have A Fear of the Dark.
• You can’t generate light whenever you want, you Need a Source to Amplify.

 

Collateral Damage Effects

 

Light of a Thousand Suns: You shine with a brilliance that dwarfs anything the human eye can conceive.  Your light becomes dangerously painful, threatening to sear the retinas of anyone in your zone who sees you in your full glory.  Nameless NPCs are blinded instantly, while named NPCs and PCs make a Physique roll against a Fair (+2) obstacle to avoid being blinded.  If successful, they take a point of physical stress from the intense pain caused by the light.

Intensive Study

Your powers are a result of the intense devotion you bring to focus your mind and/or body you bring.

 

Basic Intensive Study: You are adept at many things mainly through the extensive research you’ve done on your areas of focus. You may use Lore to overcome actions using your powers.

 

Enhancements

 

Finely Honed: Choose one of the four actions. You gain a +2 to use your power for those situations. If you have multiple powers, the bonus is +1 instead.

Synergistic Applications: Once per scene, you may spend a fate point to use one of your skills in place of another to approach a problem from a different angle. The selected skill is treated as if it had the same rank as the skill temporarily replaced.

Recognized Expert: You’re a respected expert in your field of study. Whenever you deal with fellow members who travel the same knowledgeable circles as you, you may use Provoke with a +2 bonus in place of Rapport to establish your bona fides.

 

Common Power Synergies

 

Gadgeteering: You’re a master craftsman with a patent or two to your name and the technical know-how to engineer a way out of a jam.

Arcane Power: As an expert in the occult, you’ve discovered how to attune yourself to the magical weaves of the cosmos.

 

Enhanced Special Effects

 

Precision Strike: Timing isn’t everything. You can’t control when someone will fall into your intricate traps, but when they do, you cause your target 2 points of stress.

 

 

Drawbacks

 

• You spend so much time studying that you are the veritable egghead. People think you’re a Mad Genius for a reason.
• You can go on endlessly about your field of study to the point that you Annoy People.
• When people’s actions or situations are not within your purview, you Tend to be Aloof.

 

Collateral Damage Effects

 

Symphony of Destruction: There’s nothing like a well-orchestrated demolition up to one zone away to keep people on their toes. The effect takes an exchange to cause damage, but the results are spectacular. You create a devastating barrage that kills nameless NPCs instantly. Named NPCs and PCs get an Athletics roll against a Fair (+2) obstacle to get out of the zone or suffer a moderate physical consequence and being pinned in the rubble.

Inhuman

Whether alien, a Moreau, uplifted animal, or other sentient life form, you aren’t human and do not relate to them or share their experiences and your powers stem from your biology.

 

Basic Inhuman: Your powers are related to your clearly inhuman nature.  People may react differently towards you because your abilities stem from anatomical features they do not possess, but they do not necessarily fear you for it.  What they find bothersome is your ability to do what they cannot.

 

Enhancements

 

Anatomical Differences: Your organs aren’t in the same places as the majority of the population.  When you are attacked, you gain a +2 to Physique against attacks targeting your vital spots.

Fascinating: Just because you aren’t human doesn’t mean your appearance is gruesome.  Rather, you have an alluring visage that draws eyes to you.  You gain a +2 to Rapport when trying to deliberately draw attention to you.

Enchanting: Your anatomy confounds people.  When they get too close to you, they have to make a Will roll or take a mild mental consequence as they can’t comprehend how your body functions.

 

Common Power Synergies

 

Super Agility: Your species’ body structure is such that your reflexes provide you with superior flexibility beyond what average humans could achieve.

Natural Weapon: Compared to the soft flesh of humans, you possess features that can rend meat from bone.

Sonic Manipulation: Your anatomy allows you to create sounds or distort them in ways that defy most auditory processing—organic and otherwise.

 

Drawbacks

 

• Equipment is designed with different body mechanics in mind. You find it Difficult to Use Human Devices, not because you don’t understand how they work but because your body doesn’t fit them correctly.
• Even if you were once human, your experiences and perceptions don’t translate well to those around you. This can be awkward and leaves you a Stranger in a Strange Land.
• The unique personalities of humans is far different than your species’ own traits. As such, no matter how long you’ve been around them Humans are Confusing.

 

Collateral Damage Effects

 

Toxic: Your natural defenses create a toxic environment for humans.  If you are unconcerned with the consequences, you can attack an entire zone by filling it with a chemical cocktail that’s noxious.  Every person in the zone suffers 2 stress boxes each exchange they remain in the zone.  A Physique roll against an Average (+1) obstacle negates the damage for the exchange.

Earth Projection

You channel the raw elemental powers of the earth itself.

 

Basic Earth Projection: Your powers are infused with rocks, soil, dust, or other elements from the ground.

 

Enhancements

 

Gaia’s Gift: You can’t suffocate when encased in soil, rocks, etc. It doesn’t matter how you got buried.

Rock Hard: It’s like you’re made of stone. Whenever anyone physically attacks you, they take 1 physical stress.

Rooted: People find it hard to knock you off your feet or move you without your consent. You meld with the ground just enough to maintain your balance, gaining a +2 to Athletics rolls.

 

 

Common Power Synergies

 

            Super Toughness: You are hard to damage because your skin is literally made of rock.

Phasing: Because you are so attuned to the ground, you can pass through materials as if they weren’t there, giving you an element of surprise.

 

Improved Special Effects

 

Strength of the Mountain: So long as you remain in contact with the ground, you strength is enhanced beyond your body’s limits. Gain a +4 to Physique rolls to pin or otherwise maintain a hold on a target.

 

Drawbacks

 

• Your affinity for the earth is so strong that you are Acrophobic and will do just about anything to avoid losing that connection to the ground.
• Given the nature of geology, you tend to think on geologic scales. To others, this makes you appear Indecisive.
• Your body actually is harder than the average person’s, meaning you are often Slow to React and don’t like change.

 

Collateral Damage Effects

 

Earthquake: Your sympathies with the ground allow you to unleash shockwaves through the ground, causing the zone to shake, crashing it down upon those within. Nameless NPCs are killed while Named NPCs and PCs make an Athletics roll against a Fair (+2) obstacle or suffer a moderate physical consequence from the falling detritus.

Construct

You were assembled or otherwise artificially created.

 

Basic Construct: Your body is resilient and unfazed by the things that affect organic beings.  Even if you were once flesh or your body is flesh, it has been engineered.  You get +2 to Physique against attacks that target organic functions.

 

Enhancements

 

Master Construct: You’re more resilient against organic function attacks.  Gain a +2 to Physique rolls.

Shrug it Off: Once per session, you can ignore the damage caused by an attack.  Further uses cost a fate point.

Temporary Upgrade:  Once per scene, you can spend a fate point to swap out one skill with another.  This causes a point of stress if it is a skill you have no training in.  When the scene ends, your skills revert to their original set.

 

Common Power Synergies

 

Machine Control: You speak with machinery on their level and they respond within their limits.

Elasticity: Parts of your body are telescopic, giving you an extended range for melee.

Super Senses: Your components pick up on sensory data that organic beings miss.

 

Improved Special Effect

 

Fleshless Body: Your body is not organic, making you immune to disease, asphyxiation, and poisoning.

 

Disadvantages

 

• Your appearance is unsettling looking as it’s too realistic but not realistic enough you fall in the Uncanny Valley.
• You have set sequences encoded in you that give you Predictable Moves.
• Being artificial means you Don’t Heal Naturally and have to have extensive repairs to recover from consequences.

 

Collateral Damage Effects

 

Detachable Weapons: You can attack an entire zone without having to be in it.  Instead, parts of your body detach and cause massive damage, causing 2 points of stress to anyone caught in the melee.

Flailstorm: If you do not care what happens to the zone, your body can thrash around and cause extensive damage.  Everything caught in your wake makes an Athletics roll to avoid your Fight attack with its +4 bonus.

Air Projection

You are whirlwind unto yourself.

 

Basic Air Projection: Your power calls upon the very air that surrounds you.  Whenever you use your power, the air is whipped into a gust.

 

Enhancements

 

Air Glide: You can levitate, allowing you to pass over hazards on the floor without them being used against you.

Clear the Air: As an action, you can bring up a wind that pushes any fumes or fouled air out of your zone and into another.

Clad in Sky: Whenever someone successfully attacks you using Shoot, their result is shifted down by 1.

 

Common Power Synergies

 

Weather Control: You bring the storm wherever you go.

Energy Blast: You channel bursts of air to slam into opponents.

Gravity Manipulation: You turn the atmosphere into a vice.

 

 

 

Improved Special Effect

 

Steel Air: You can create a barrier between you and the next incoming attack that grants you Armor: 4 at which point the effect ends.  If you move, the air shield breaks, ending the effect.

 

Drawbacks

 

• Being like air, you don’t like to be held back. You Feel Constricted even when in loose fitting clothing.
• Your powers require a lot of air in order to work. Your powers are Ineffective in Small Spaces.

 

Collateral Damage Effects

 

Snatched Breath: You don’t just force air into a weapon, you can force it out of your zone, creating a vacuum that strangles everyone within.  Nameless NPCs are killed while Named NPCs and PCs make a Physique roll against a Great (+4) obstacle or take a moderate physical consequence from apoxia.

Tunneling

You don’t have to go through obstacles, you can around them.

 

Basic Tunneling: You travel through earth as easily as a burrowing animal. Choose either Athletics or Physique. You are either fast or have inordinate endurance, gaining a +2 to that skill when burrowing.  While you can burrow through earth, you cannot tunnel through materials like stone.

 

Enhancements

 

Master Tunneling: You are a proficient digger.  Gain an additional +2 to rolls for tunneling.

Better Digger: You have endurance and speed, making you one of the fastest and unrelenting tunnelers around.

Going Deeper: You can dig through soft stone materials like pumice and sandstone.

Fissure Sense: Tunneling is dangerous work as there is always the chance that the ground will collapse on top of you.  You are so used to tunneling that you gain a +2 to Investigate rolls when checking the stability of the ground to avoid or trigger a collapse.

 

Common Power Synergies

 

Super Strength: You can tunnel through anything.

Super Senses: Your connection to the ground has left you able to detect vibrations traveling through the ground.

 

Drawbacks

 

• You spend a lot of time underground—a whole lot. You prefer being in the ground because you’re Agoraphobic.
• Digging has its drawbacks, especially when you do it as often as you do. No matter how hard you try, you Always Seem Covered in Dirt.
• You cannot hide you who you are. You try, but you Smell of the Earth and nothing can hide the scent.
• Tunneling can get you where you want to go, but it’s a dark way to go. Your eyes are Sensitive to Light.

 

Collateral Damage Effects

 

            Sapper’s Delight: You have the ability to unleash a brutal attack against a zone by undermining it.  You tunnel under the weak points of buildings so they come crashing down unexpectedly on everyone in the zone.  Nameless NPCs are killed, while named NPCs and PCs make an Athletics roll against a Fair (+2) obstacle to avoid the debris or take a moderate physical consequence.

Earth Geyser: You can, without concern to others, cause the ground to explode under your feet and attack everyone in the zone.  The debris thrown out by this attack slam into opponents and injure anyone in the way.   Nameless NPCs are taken out, while named NPCs and PCs make a Physique roll against a Fair (+2) obstacle or take 2 points of physical stress.

Trick Shots

They can duck for cover, but they can’t hide—not from you, that is.  You can make projectiles do things physical improbable at best and impossible at worst look routine.

 

Basic Trick Shot: You get a +2 to strike opponents using zones or aspects granting them cover.  Whenever you use Shoot to hit a target, you can bank it off of other objects in the zone, or find the unprotected part of an opponent.

 

 

 

Enhancement

 

Master Trick Shot: You get an additional +2 to use Shoot to get around obstacles between you and your target.

Thread the Needle: Once per scene, you can fire through a melee or crowd to hit a target up to two zones away and ignore any penalties imposed by the intervening group used as cover.  The projectile passes by all intervening bystanders/combatants as if they were just moved out of the line of sight.

Curve the Shot: Your opponents think they can dodge your attacks, but you have learned how to arc your projectiles, making dodging a Fair (+2) obstacle to the target’s attempt.’

 

Common Power Synergies

 

Gadgeteering: You not only are a crack shot, your ammo performs tricks as well.

Energy Blast: When you throw energy, it’s deadly accurate even if it takes a circuitous route.

Telekinesis: Your attacks rarely miss because you control them with your mind.

 

Improved Special Effect

 

Locked On: Your shots follow their target.  While not a fire-and-forget ability, you can be assured that if the opponent goes around a corner, your projectile will follow suit.

 

Drawbacks

 

• You are so used to banking your attacks that you Can’t Aim Close Up.
• You’ve honed your skill to the point that you Only Use Trick Shots because of the panache.
• Because it isn’t fair to your opponents, you Explain the Angles before firing to level the playing field.
• Your weapon uses special ammo which you have to make or is hard to find. You have Limited Shots.

 

Collateral Damage

 

Bring Down the House: If you aren’t concerned with who gets caught in the attack, you can strike a critical point keeping a structure in the next zone from collapsing.  Of course, this takes time as the rest of the supports slow down the inevitable.  Nameless NPCs are killed while named NPCs and PCs get a Physique roll against a Fair (+2) obstacle to avoid a moderate consequence.

Plenty of Shrapnel: When you tear up a place, you really tear it up.  Your projectile bounces around and causes parts of objects to explode and fly around the zone, striking everyone and everything indiscriminately.  Anyone caught in the maelstrom, including you, makes a Physique roll against your Shoot; if they fail they take that much stress.

Time Control

You can manipulate fate because you can see the threads of time.  You might not be able to choose an outcome or see the future, but you can twist possibility, perhaps even edit things.

 

Basic Time Control You are able to narrow down the likely outcomes of events within your zone.  You make a Notice check, but time provides a Fair (+2) obstacle.  If you succeed, you create a boost with a free invoke; if you succeed with style, you create an advantage you and your allies can use for the scene so long as you remain conscious and are able to communicate with your teammates.  You cannot control the actions of others, even if it feels like you are pulling the strings.

 

Enhancements

 

Master Time Your ability to shape the future is uncanny.  Gain +2 to Notice when trying to manipulate the future.

Exhaust: When you touch an object or person, you can fatigue them.  They must make a Physique roll against a Good (+3) obstacle or take a minor consequence.

Loop: At the cost of a fate point, the zone is in a time loop for all intents and purposes.  The characters “repeat” the current round without worrying about countdowns and the like triggering regardless of the outcome.

Edit: By spend a fate point, you get to change the events of the last round, either by forcing the actions to be done over or by exchanging one roll with another.

 

Common Power Synergies

 

Duplication: You slow time enough that you can appear to be in several places at once.

            Super Speed: You aren’t faster than the average person, you dilate time and appear to move faster by stepping between the moments others perceive.

 

Improved Special Effect

 

Compress/Expand Time: You can do more than move the odds in your favor, you can manipulate it.  You use Will to exert this effect in your zone.  You can also affect a zone adjacent to you, but doing so is a Fair (+2) obstacle.

Blink: Spending a fate point, you move out of the current exchange and appear in the next, where you surprise your opponents.

Delayed Strike: Oh, you hit your opponent.  They just don’t know how damaging your attack was—yet.  During the scene, the damage reveals itself at a time of your choosing and it’s one step worse for the waiting.  Alternatively, if the GM agrees, you can have the damage occur at another time.  However, each encounter you wait, the severity decreases by one step.

 

Drawbacks

 

• Viewing so many potential variables to consider means you are inundated by information. You are Always Distracted.
• Knowing how time flows and seeing the world as it is, was, and may be leaves you with Analysis Paralysis as you try to hedge your bets.

 

Collateral Damage Effects

 

Shatter Time: If you don’t mind breaking reality just a little, you can fracture time so that it is constantly in flux within your zone.  The temporal stress this puts on everything within the zone causes nameless NPCs to die, while named NPCs and PCs must roll a Physique against Fair (+2) opposition or take a moderate physical consequence reflecting the extreme fatigue this causes as parts of the body age and regress simultaneously.

Warp Time: You disorient everyone in the zone.  Their actions take places before or after they intend anything that requires timing, like throwing or avoiding a punch, might not go off as expected.  This warpage causes clocks to speed up or down without a discernable pattern.  Nameless NPCs can’t act while named NPCs and PCs must roll a Will save against a Fair (+2) obstacle each exchange to avoid the effect.  This persists until you choose to end it or the end of the scene.