Powers & Gear

This section explains how very common abilities work, as well as the underlying mechanics for a great many powers, to help you understand what’s on your datafile or help you design new powers. It is not meant to be an exhaustive list of superhuman powers and abilities: most heroes and villains have unique aspects to their powers, so there are very few that work in any sort of singularly codified way. There are many examples, however!

Fundamentals

Like primary abilities (F.A.S.E.R.I.P.), most powers or special gear have a Rank and Rank Number; these work exactly the same as normal. Usually this means you use the Rank to determine what column to reference on the Universal Table, or the Rank number to determine the numeric effect for calculating damage or stress, determining protection, or the like. Sometimes, the Rank will be used as a Difficulty.

Gear

This isn’t a power on its own, but rather a category of power: it represents special abilities that come from an item, suit of armor, weapon, or anything else that’s (usually) separate from your physical body. In other words, it can be taken away, lost, or stolen. Such powers are marked with “(Gear)”.

Besides that, gear-based powers have one other thing to remember: Material Strength. Gear can be broken, and therefore the material it’s made of must be rated using the Material Strength Table (see MOVEMENT & ENVIRONMENT).

Power Sets

You will sometimes see rules that refer to “power sets.” When a suite of powers are contingent upon other powers, or a special piece of gear, they are arranged under a header in the Powers & Gear section of the datafile. These headers represent the power set: every power listed beneath them is a component of the header. Therefore, if something happens that disables it or causes powers to “shut down” (see below), all powers within that set are fair game.

For example, if you wear a helmet that allows you to connect with other people’s minds and communicate psychically with them (Telepathy), and also allows you to sense the presence of psychic energy (a form of Enhanced Sense), then it might be arranged as shown in the image nearby.

Perhaps the helmet is prone to short circuiting if targeted by electrical attacks. In that case, both the Telepathy and Sense Psychic Energy powers no longer work. (Usually it will tell you how to repair the item or refresh the powers in some other way.)

Powers & Gear

Psionic Helmet

As long as you are wearing the Psionic Helmet, you may use the following powers. The Psionic Helmet is Material Strength IN (40). If destroyed or if you take damage from an electrical attack (i.e. after resistance to electricity is factored in), all of this item’s powers are shut down.

Telepathy: RM 30

You may psychically contact and speak with up to 30 individuals at once within one area of you, or a single person up to 8 areas away.

Sense Psychic Energy: UN (100)

You may use this power for any of the following:

• Psychic Detection: You can detect the use of psychic powers within 60 areas, narrowing it down to the area of use.
• Psychic Analyzer: You can analyze impressions left by psychic power use up to a year in the past, identifying the signature as if it were a fingerprint. If you are familiar with the user’s powers and have interacted with them before, you can identify this fingerprint.

A power set representing a Psionic Helmet that provides telepathy and the ability to sense psychic energies.

Profiles

“Profiles” refers to characters who have multiple datafiles or different stats when they take on different forms. A wimpy scientist that turns into a giant, raging monster is a great example, but so is a genius inventor who dons one of their various armored suits.

Profiles are often bundles of powers and/or gear, and sometimes may represent an entirely different profile (you turn into someone — or something! — else entirely), or they collate a bunch of bonuses and enhancements to your normal, everyday form.

The two most common representations of this sort of power are:

• Alternate Form
• Power Armor

The powers on each sheet will tell you when you change (Alternate Form), or what improvements you receive when you utilize it (Power Armor).

Ranks

Powers often have Ranks and Rank Numbers, but not always. Sometimes, different aspects of a single power might have multiple Ranks: for example, an energy blast might have different Ranks for the range and for the damage. Generally speaking, the highest Rank is the one that is considered the Rank of the power in terms of character creation or game balance issues. Otherwise, varying Ranks within a given power are more a sign of customization and the unique aspects of the power as they appear in this individual case: it’s rare that two characters with Teleportation have the exact same appearance, range, and special effects like teleporting inside of objects or being stunned by the psychic feedback of the teleportation process itself.

A useful rule of thumb when determining how a power works is that if there are variable traits to a power — range and damage, special effects or limitations, etc. — is that each beneficial special effect or enhancement lowers the effective Rank by one. If the power has common limitations and you avoid those, then you might lower the effective Rank by one, as well. So if you have Teleportation: RM 30, and you don’t suffer from either psychic feedback or the chance of teleporting inside of an object and taking damage — two common limitations of the Teleportation power — then you might use EX 20 to determine the range you can teleport. If you have Energy Blast: AM 50 but you deal twice that damage to inanimate objects because the blast is a highly corrosive acid, then you might have a Range of only IN (11 areas) or less.

No Rank

Some powers do not have a Rank or Rank Number. These specify what they do as clearly as possible.

If there’s ever an instance where a Rank or Rank Number feels like it should apply (such as comparing two characters that have the same power to see who uses theirs better, quicker, or whatever), simply choose a primary ability that seems closest to what the trait is used for.

Combat?

Use Agility (targeting, speed), Fighting (training, tactics), Strength (brute force), or Endurance (resistance, toughness). Perception? Use Reason (logical deduction) or Intuition (awareness, insight). Social? Consider Intuition (reading others), or Psyche (imposing your will on others, your determination).

Shut down

Whenever something says it can cause a power, item, or other feature to “shut down” that means that the thing no longer works. At all. There’s usually information on how to fix or refresh the thing, and that could be time (rounds, minutes. hours, days), downtime (any scene where the character has some free time to gear up or hit the gym), or between game sessions.

Sometimes, when a particular potent power or power set has limitations or vulnerabilities that can cause them to shut down, there is a stipulation that you gain 1 Karma when this happens. This doesn’t represent anything “in the game world,” but rather ensures that if your most interesting powers and abilities are denied for a time, you at least get something to show for it. Since Karma can be used to stave off detrimental effects or call in help from your contacts, this is a nice — though by no means equal! — payoff for facing an adverse situation.

When creating powers, use both shut down and 1 Karma rewards sparingly. Try to make the situations they come up interesting, and/or up to the player to choose: denying players the use of their powers with no recourse, no choice on their part, is a very adversarial playstyle: “Sorry, you created a character with cool stuff, but now you can’t use the coolest bits.” Astonishing Super Heroes tries very hard to avoid this sort of playstyle, and when it’s unavoidable, the 1 Karma reward is a great way to say, “but here’s something you can use to save your butt!”

Special Effects (SFX)

Any individual power, and sometimes power sets, might include special effects, usually listed in a section labeled “SFX”. These often accompany attacks, but they don’t have to. Examples might be:

• A weapon that, when thrown, returns to you automatically.
• Receiving a reaction that can be used for a defensive maneuver in certain situations, such as when you have especially fast or agile flight powers.

Weaknesses

Weaknesses are limitations or “negative SFX”: they are circumstances, objects, materials, or other things that make life more difficult for the hero, often by limiting their ability to use certain powers, or by shutting down powers altogether. Some examples:

• A limitation of a power, such as when returning to one of your alternate forms, you are temporarily exhausted.
• A limitation that can shut down your power or power set, such as if it is used too often, or you are in the presence of a specific material.
• A limitation of a power when you are targeted by some other power, such as Body Armor that specifically doesn’t work against magical attacks.

Power Ranks

The following table summarizes many aspects of powers determined by their Rank. These are general guidelines, and note that many powers will have various Ranks for these different components. For example, an attack power may have one Rank for the range and a different one for the damage it deals.

List of Powers

Below is a list of common power types, along with examples of specific powers and their effects. Additionally, most categories list examples of SFX and Weaknesses.

These are meant to be a starting point, not a fully detailed listing of powers and their mechanics: powers can and should be tailored for each character!

Alternate Form

Most characters with an alternate form-type power (Science Guy > Raging Monster) will have a second (or more) datafile(s): one for each form. These are called profiles. In cases where only certain stats change, it may be easier to keep these all on one sheet and simply call attention to them by separating them visually.

For example, a creature that gets tougher as it gets angrier reflects that with increasing tiers of power listed side-by-side. The rules for increasing tiers are listed in one of the powers, usually either named “Alternate Form” or something like “Adrenaline Surge.”

Health & Resolve

If your Health and/or Resolve changes when you change forms, look for two possibilities:

Bonus

You probably have a “base form” and any other form(s) modifies your Health/Resolve. If this is listed as a number with a + sign before it, that means you increase your maximum Health or Resolve score by that amount when you first transform. Whenever you switch forms after this point, you compare your current damage or stress to the maximum Health/Resolve of the new form, and this indicates whether you are knocked out or stressed out.

Separate

Your alternate form might be a separate entity for all intents and purposes. If Health or Resolve is listed as a number with no modifier, you simply have that new form’s scores. When you switch forms in this case, your powers indicate what happens to your current damage and/or stress.

Example: The Monster (Power Set)

When you get angry or hurt, nothing can stop you from changing into a big monster!

This is an example power set, with the following two powers that define the transformation. You would use a standard datafile for your human form, and an Alternate Form datafile for your Monster stats. This second datafile would list all the different Ranks and Rank Numbers for your primary abilities, as well as anything else that might change such as Popularity, Talents, etc.

Alternate Form: The Monster

If you have taken any stress, or describe how your anger is currently influencing you, you may turn into The Monster Stage 1 on your turn. If you take any damage, or have been stressed out, you may transform into The Monster Stage 2 on your turn (even if you are unconscious or dead).

If the GM rules you must make a Psyche roll to resist such a change (i.e. it is against your wishes to change into The Monster), you make it at a Difficulty of the GM’s discretion and gain 1 Karma. If you fail the check, you turn into The Monster Stage 2. If you succeed you may choose to remain human or turn into The Monster Stage 1.

Adrenaline Surge

The listed ability scores are for The Monster when he first transforms from human form. Usually you will start at Stage 1, but in some cases you may start at Stage 2.

In Stage 2 and Stage 3, The Monster’s total Health and Resolve is modified by the amount listed. Your current Damage and Stress are affected in the opposite manner by this amount when you first move into a new Stage.

For example, when you move from Stage 2 to Stage 3, you increase your Health by 50, decrease Damage by 50, decrease your Resolve by 2 and increase your Stress by 2.

If you shift back a Stage (such as from 2 to 1), you do not modify your current damage, but if your current damage exceeds your new Stage’s maximum Health, you fall unconscious and begin dying.

To increase your Stage, you must take damage or stress before your turn (i.e. it must be in excess of your Body Armor). On your turn, use an interaction to make a Psyche roll. If the total damage you took was less than your Endurance, you must get a Yellow result, otherwise all it takes is a Green result to shift one stage.

If you take no damage in a round until your turn, or all known threats are defeated, you can shift down a Stage by making a Psyche roll. If you fail (White result), you rampage for 1d10 turns, attacking the most damaging or largest target (your choice), and then you may attempt to shift down again.

If you are dying, or you shift down from Stage 1, you become human again. When you do so, you recover all damage. If you were dying when you become human, you are stunned for 1d10 rounds, however.

Example: Dark Matter Form (Power Set)

You can call on the power of the Paradigm Gem to gain powers over reality!

This version is a power set with the following powers beneath it: Body Armor, Image Generation, Invisibility, Life Support, Regeneration, Shockwave, and Teleportation. (Those powers aren’t listed here, but would be on a datafile.)

Alternate Form

Dark Matter To gain access to this power set, you first transform into a dark-matter-powered version of yourself as an interaction on your turn. Doing so is instantaneous, and in this form, your eyes are pitch-black pools, and you are surrounded by reddish-black liquid that seems to coalesce around you.

Weakness

Psychic Feedback As soon as you choose to change back to your normal form, or you have damage equal to your Health, make a Psyche roll and refer to the results below:

• White = You are unconscious for the rest of the current scene, and your Alternate Form set is shut down for the rest of the day. Gain 1 Karma.
• Green = You are stunned for 1d10 rounds, and your Alternate Form power set is shut down for 1 hour. Gain 1 Karma.
• Yellow = You are stunned for 1 round, and your Aether-form power set is shut down for 1 hour. Gain 1 Karma.
• Red = You are fine, but one of your Aether-form powers is shut down for 1 hour. Choose one or let the GM determine randomly.

Attack Powers

This broad category covers just about any direct attack, whether it be from claws, weapons, projected energy beams, quills that fire out, or whatever. All such powers have one or more common elements:

• Material Strength: If the power has a physical manifestation separate from your body, it should have a Material Strength rating.
• Attack Type: This tells you what kind of attack it is and thus what ability roll to use, such as Fighting or Agility. Sometimes it will be the power’s Rank.
• Range: If the attack can be performed outside of melee combat or at a distance, it will list the range, found on the Range Table or Power Ranks Table.

For projectile attacks, the range will often be the power’s Rank.

• Damage: Most often, the power’s Rank Number is used to determine the damage it deals. This will usually include a damage type like blunt, edged, force, or energy, which tells you which Battle Effects column to use. (Some powers may deal stress instead.)
• Area of Effect: Some powers will affect a large area, rather than just one target. This refers to the Area of Effect column on the Power Ranks Table.
• Duration: If an effect lasts a certain amount of time— and isn’t an existing effect like Stun — it will list that here, referring to the Power Ranks Table.

Multiple Ranks

You’ll note that some powers clearly follow all the rules of their listed Rank from the Power Ranks Table: a RM 30 blaster gun has a Material Strength of RM 30, a range of 8 areas, and deals 30 damage. But you’ll find that many attack powers don’t follow this trend, too. Some might rely on the shorter thrown ranges instead of the normal ranges, or might have one Rank for their Material Strength and a completely different one for damage.

The best we can say is “roll with it.” That’s how you customize powers! Not every lightning bolt from a superhero is going to work exactly the same, so it’s nice to have some differences in there. The less obvious answer to “why is that?” is simply that during character creation you might get discounts or roll a certain way (depending on how you create your character) and this stuff happens. Again, it’s because of the customization aspect. If you want to simplify the game at all, this is a great place to do it: just have the Rank for the damage or “main effect” of the power be the one you reference for everything, and ignore different ratings for different aspects of the power.

The power’s name or description should clue you in on both the description of it in action, as well as any additional effects that may occur on Yellow or better results. For example, a character that projects flames might be able to light a match on fire with a Bullseye result, while a character with a bow and arrows might be able to pin a newspaper to the wall…but the fire projector is going to have a very different effect on that piece of paper!

SFX and Weaknesses

Attack powers are some of the most common powers to receive SFX or Weaknesses…or both. Here are some examples.

• The attack can be made as a reaction under certain circumstances.
• The attack might ignore certain types of armor or protection.
• The attack utterly destroys inanimate materials below a certain Material Strength.

Some weaknesses might be:

• You can only use the power as a reaction under certain circumstances; it’s entirely retaliatory.
• You take some amount of damage (such as half the Rank Number) when performing the attack, or when expanding its area of effect or range.

Bola Launcher (Gear): RM 30

Your forearm launcher fires electrostatic bola cables that can make a grappling attack at range.

Material Strength: RM 30 (launchers and cables).

• Attack: Grappling Attack (power Rank).
• Range: RM (4 areas); uses Thrown Ranges.
• Effect: Use the Grapple Attack on the Battle Results Table. The bolas do not deal damage, however.

Bone Spikes: RM 30

You may choose to change your melee damage to edged and get a +1R to the damage you deal for melee and grappling attacks. If you are the subject of a grapple (Partial or Hold), your opponent takes 30 damage from the spikes on each of their turns that they maintain the hold.

Corrosive Touch: RM 30

You can secret an organic acid from your hands.

• Attack: Fighting.
• Damage: RM 30 energy damage.
• SFX: Inorganic objects of Material Strength less than your power Rank targeted by this are destroyed as the acid eats through them. The acid instantly destroys hand-sized objects, and can eat through a man-sized object or create a man-sized hole in a larger object in 5 rounds. Objects with great Material Strength may be slightly corroded but are not appreciably damaged by this power, at the GM’s discretion.

Cosmic Metal Claws (Gear)

You have retractable claws made of space metal in your armor.

• Material Strength: UN 100.
• Attack: Edged Attack (Fighting).
• Damage: IN 40 edged damage.
• SFX: Mundane armor and cover of a lesser Material Strength than your claws do not provide any protection.

Extra Arms: RM 30

You have two extra arms due to your mutation. This gives you +1CS on all Strength-based rolls. Additionally, they allow you to make extra melee attacks. As an interaction, you concentrate on making different attacks with each arm and make a power roll to see how many additional melee attacks you can make: White = no additional attacks, Green = 1 additional melee attack, Yellow = 2 additional melee attacks, Red = 3 additional melee attacks.

Fire Projection: RM 30

You can project gouts of flame like a flamethrower.

• Attack: Energy Attack (Agility).
• Range: 8 areas.
• Damage: RM 30 energy damage.
• Weakness: If your fire manipulation powers are shut down, then you run the risk of setting objects on fire with this attack if you roll a White result. Roll 1d10: 1-5 no fires are started, 6-8 a nearby person or object takes the damage instead, 9-10 something flammable erupts into a fire with Difficulty equal to this powers’ Rank -1R.

Ice Projection: RM 30

You can project sheets of ice from your hands, either firing shards of bludgeoning ice, or creating a quick-freezing snare out of thin air.

• Attack: Force Attack (Agility) for ice shards, Grappling (power Rank) for ice snare.
• Range: RM (4 areas); uses Thrown Ranges for either effect.
• Damage: RM 30 force damage for the ice shards, or use the Grapple Attack on the Battle Results Table for the ice snare. The snare only deals damage when it first hits, in which case it deals GD 10 force damage.

Rotting Touch: RM 30

Your touch causes organic material to decay and rot.

• Attack: Fighting.
• Damage: RM 30 damage.
• SFX: Against objects made of organic materials (wood, cloth, etc.), you can use this power’s Rank in place of your Strength to break them.

Shockwave: RM 30

You can unleash a shockwave of force as your action, affecting everyone in your area. Make a power roll:

• White = Everyone in the area, including you, must resist a Slam result.
• Green = Everyone else in the area (not you) must resist a Slam result.
• Yellow = Everyone else in the area (not you) must resist a Slam result and — if they are slammed — then resist a Stun result.
• Red = Anyone you choose in your area takes up to RM 30 force damage (you may decrease this as much as you’d like), then must resist a Slam result (even if you deal zero damage). If they are slammed, they are automatically stunned for 1d10 rounds.

Shuriken Launchers (Gear): RM 30

On each wrist is a launcher that fires multiple reinforced shuriken-style darts all at once.

Material Strength: RM 30 (launchers and shuriken).

• Attack: Shooting Attack (Agility).
• Range: RM (8 areas).
• Damage: EX 20 shooting damage, or RM 30 when both are fired at the same target.

Sorcerous Bolts: RM 30

You fire bolts of deadly magical energy.

• Attack: Energy Attack (Agility).
• Range: RM (8 areas).
• Damage: RM 30 energy damage.

Taser Gauntlet (Gear): RM 30

Your gauntlets deliver a powerful bioelectric shock that shorts the nervous system.

• Material Strength: RM 30.
• Attack: Agility.
• Effect: As long as you hit the target with your Agility attack, the target must resist a RM 30 Difficulty Stun Effect by making a successful Endurance roll.
• SFX: Because it doesn’t need to deliver damage to affect a target, Body Armor and the like doesn’t protect against this attack.

Thunderclap: RM 30

You smack your hands together, creating a booming explosion of sound.

• Attack: Force Attack (Agility).
• Area of Effect: 1 area.
• Damage: RM 30 force damage to everyone — and all objects! — in your area.

Venomous Spit: RM 30

You can spit a glob of paralyzing venom at a target.

• Attack: Agility.
• Range: RM (4 areas); uses Thrown Ranges.
• Effect: RM 30 energy damage, and the target must resist a Stun effect at a Difficulty equal to the power Rank.

Body Armor & Force Fields

Body Armor usually refers to armored plating, thick skin, mutant scales, or the like. It doesn’t affect your chances of being hit by an attack, but instead lowers the amount of damage you receive from a successful attack.

You simply subtract the Rank Number from the damage of the attack that hits you. There are a few things to keep in mind:

• Body Armor can reduce damage to zero, but not lower: there’s no “negative damage.”
• If you take no damage, you usually cannot be affected by additional special effects, like a Slam or Stun.
• Body Armor usually tells you what types of damage it protects against, such as blunt, edged, shooting, energy, or force.
• Body Armor doesn’t usually protect you from stress.
• Body Armor almost never protects you from psychic assaults, and can sometimes be circumvented by magic or other attacks when a power’s SFX tells you so.

Some Body Armor can and does protect from special attacks. This is always noted in the description of the power. That said, most often such protection is afforded by Resistance or Invulnerability powers, such as against toxins, disease, radiation, or the like.

Force Fields

Force fields work much the same as body armor, but there are two types. A personal force field protects you, while a projected force field can be expanded to protect you, others, or you and others.

For projected force fields, the power will specify how big of an area you can cover, and whether or not you can pick and choose within the area, such as if you want to protect your friends but not some nearby enemy. Force fields will specify what types of attacks they protect against, much like Body Armor does.

Body Armor Examples

Body Armor: RM 30

Subtract 30 damage from blunt, edged, force, and shooting attacks that strike you.

Organic Metal Skin: RM 30

Subtract 30 damage from any attacks that strike you.

Force Field

Force Field Projection Belt (Gear): RM 30

The device on your belt can be used to project a force field up to 1 area in size around you, protecting anyone within it. You can choose any number of feet from you to be covered, but cannot sculpt the force field (such as to cover only allies, for example). Subtract 30 damage from any attacks that strike through the force field.

Magic Shield: RM 30

You can summon mystical energy in the palm of your hand to act as a shield, one that protects you unlike any mundane shield! When you use your action to cast this spell, you make a power roll to determine how many shield are created, and for each one, you gain a reaction in which you can use the Blocking or Shielding defensive maneuvers. When you do so, the shield allows you to subtract the Rank Number of this power from any damage that strikes you. If the damage is greater than this power’s Rank, you do not take the excess, but instead, one of the shields shatters, reducing the number of reactions you have, until all shields are destroyed. White = 1 shield, Green = 2 shields, Yellow = 3 shields, Red = 4 shields.

Personal Force Field: RM 30

You can project a force field around yourself. Subtract 30 damage from any attacks that strike you. This force field is shut down when you are unconscious or asleep.

Storm Shield: AM 50

You summon the energy of a storm to create a force field of wind, hail, and electricity, providing AM 50 protection to all allies in the same area as you, against any form of damage. Once used, this power is shut down for the rest of the scene.

Elemental Control

You have the ability to manipulate existing energy or elements in the environment around you, or you can control them entirely, possibly summoning them into being when there was none previously. Generally, if the power is named something like “Fire Manipulation” it requires that you have a fire present to use it: a lighter, car fire, or bonfire, maybe. If the name is something like “Magnetic Control” or “Dark Force Mastery” then you can summon it into being, or pull it from the ambient particles already existent around you.

These powers are very broad, but a few common elements exist.

• When making attacks enhanced with this power, you still rely on the attack’s governing ability roll (i.e. Fighting to attack with a spear made of electricity), and use the power Rank Number for the damage.
• You might have to rely on another power in order to make attacks directly with this element you control: if you can manipulate darkness, that doesn’t have any outright damaging elements, so you need something like Darkness Beams or something you can project to freeze or entangle an opponent.
• These powers often present ways to manipulate objects or environmental features, not directly affecting people but instead the conditions and terrain around them. Use the power Rank to determine things like range or Difficulty, and Material Strength to determine damage, protection, or as a gauge of the amount of volume that can be affected with the power.

Common elements include:

• Air
• Cosmic energy
• Darkforce
• Earth
• Electricity
• Fire/heat
• Gravity
• Ice/cold
• Kinetic/telekinetic
• Light
• Magnetic
• Sonic
• Technology
• Water
• Weather

These powers are almost always found as part of a power set. A character that can control the weather still needs Flight to fly, a Lightning Blast attack in order to target an individual with an electrical burst, and perhaps a second attack-like power to represent the wind effectively “grappling” an opponent and making them stay put.

Examples

Air Control: RM 30

You can create extreme gusts of wind, even on a calm day. You may create a blast of wind that acts as a Charge attack using the power’s Rank and Rank Number.

You may also summon a whirlwind to act as a force field, protecting you by subtracting your power’s Rank Number from blunt, edged, shooting, or force attacks that strike you. This lasts up to 5 rounds, but during that time, you cannot make attacks with the power.

SFX: Flight. You may control the air immediately around you, allowing you to fly at an air speed equal to your powers’ Rank (in your case: 15 areas per turn or 225 mph).

Earth Manipulation: RM 30

You can manipulate natural and semi-natural minerals; artificial and refined materials are unaffected (steel, glass, etc.). You may fashion weapons, shields, or armor with the same Material Strength as the mineral, providing you additional damage in combat (usually Strength +1R for melee or thrown weapons) or giving you the equivalent of Body Armor (subtract the Material Strength from any attacks that strike you). You can also shift the earth, digging up to 1 area at a time, or causing a single area to experience an earthquake, using your power’s Rank as the Difficulty on Agility rolls for everyone in that area to remain standing.

Electrical Control: RM 30

You can manipulate and control electrical energy around you, up to 8 areas away. You are unharmed by electricity up to your power Rank in Difficulty. You can stop, control, or forcefully start the flow of electricity to any electrically powered device, controlling its operation. For example, you can turn on/off battery powered or plugged in devices, or perform more complex manipulations to electronic devices, such as running a computer completely by thought.

SFX: Clear! You can deliver a powerful electrical charge just by touch. This could fry electronics, act as a defibrillator, or serve as an enhancement to any unarmed attack. In addition to any normal unarmed damage you might deal, you may deliver RM 30 energy damage.

Energy Reflection: RM 30

You can reflect energy or force attacks back on the attacker. As a reaction to any such attack, make a power roll against a Difficulty equal to the attack’s Rank (use the damage or effect Rank if it has multiple subtraits with Ranks). White = you fail and the attack strikes you normally, Green or Yellow = you reflect the attack upon the attacker, Red = you reflect the attack on any viable target within the same area as the attacker.

Energy Absorption: SP 75

As a reaction once per round, you may absorb up to your Rank Number energy damage. Any excess damage affects you normally.

SFX: Supercharge. Stored energy lasts until the end of your next turn. You may use it to make an Energy Attack by “throwing” the energy at a target up to 7 areas away, dealing the amount of energy damage that you have stored.

Weakness: Overloaded. Stored energy retained by the end of your turn can damage you. Make an Endurance check with a Difficulty equal to the stored energy’s Rank, and if you fail the energy is discharged, inflicting its Rank -3R energy damage to you (minimum zero).

Fire Manipulation: RM 30

You can increase or decrease the Difficulty of an existing flame, or cause it to “leap” at targets within a short distance.

SFX: Manipulate Intensity. To increase or decrease a fire’s Difficulty (which measures its size and intensity), make a power roll against the fire’s Difficulty.

• White = Change its Difficulty by 1 Rank, but your power is shut down for the rest of the scene.
• Green = Change the Difficulty by up to 2 Ranks.
• Yellow = Change the Difficulty by up to 3 Ranks.
• Red = Change the Difficulty by up to 4 Ranks.

SFX: Fire Burst. You can cause a fire of any size to “spray” a target up to a Thrown Range equal to your power’s Rank: 4 areas away from the fire. Doing so is an Energy Attack (Agility) that deals your power Rank Number in energy damage and can ignite flammable objects. You may deal damage equal to the fire’s Difficulty Rank Number, instead, if you choose, regardless of whether the Difficulty is lower or higher than your power Rank.

Gravity Manipulation: RM 30

You can increase or decrease how gravity affects a single person or object within 8 areas. When you decrease a target’s gravity, you can use this power Rank in place of your Strength to lift the target, or you can cause it to levitate, floating vertically upwards at a number of stories equal to your power’s Rank Number each round. Or if it falls, it will descend that number of stories without taking damage. If you increase a target’s gravity, anyone attempting to lift it must make a Strength roll against your power Rank as the Difficulty. If it can move on its own (a person, robot, vehicle, etc.), it must make an Endurance roll against this same Difficulty just to move:

White = cannot move at all, Green = can move no more than 1 area, Yellow = can move no more than 2 areas (if it could move more than 1 area normally), Red = can move up to 1 area less than normal.

Light Manipulation: RM 30

You can manipulate existing light energy, increasing or decreasing its intensity. You can brighten or dim an entire area, create a flashlight-like beam of light that reaches up to 8 areas, or create a strobe effect to blind a single target (they resist your power Rank’s Difficulty with either Agility or Endurance, your choice).

Magnetic Control: RM 30

You can manipulate magnetic materials such as iron and iron-based alloys. When a range is needed, it is based on this power’s Rank: RM (8 areas). This allows you to perform a number of different actions:

• Lift ferrous objects within range, using this power’s Rank in place of Strength.
• Hurl metal objects or bend them to grapple opponents. Use the power’s Rank to attack and the object’s Material Strength to determine damage or Difficulties where necessary.
• You can detect fluctuations in magnetic fields caused by the presence of metal objects or electricity within range.
• You can deal damage directly to iron or iron-based alloy objects within range equal to this power’s Rank Number.
• You can scramble electronics — objects, robots, AI, etc. — within range, forcing them to resist a Stun effect against a Difficulty equal to your power’s Rank.

Sound Manipulation: RM 30

You can dampen or increase the intensity of existing sound within any 1 area up to 8 areas away. When you dampen sound as a reaction, any noise of your power Rank in Difficulty or less is silenced, while any sound up to UN 100 is reduced to your power Rank. Higher Difficulty sounds are reduced by a number of Ranks equal to your Rank Number divided by 10. When you increase sound, you can either select a single noise or all ambient noise and increase it to your power Rank, or by a number of Ranks equal to your Rank Number divided by 10 if their Difficulty is higher than your power Rank. If you do this as an action, everyone that can hear in that area must make an Endurance roll against the sound’s new Rank or be stunned for 1d10 rounds.

Telekinesis: RM 30

You can lift and manipulate people and objects with your mind at RM range (8 areas). Treat this power’s Rank and Rank Number as your Strength or Agility when making attacks (throwing objects for blunt or edged damage), to make unarmed attacks, or to perform Grapple or Grab attacks.

Water Control: RM 30

Your mastery over water allows you to conjure it from the ambient moisture in the atmosphere, shape it, and alter its currents.

SFX: Conjure Water. As an action, may conjure a number of gallons of water equal to your Rank Number. You may ultimately conjure enough water over time to fill an entire area in this way, but then this power is shut down for the rest of the scene.

SFX: Shape Water. You may shape water — up to a volume equal to 1 area — into any shape you desire: parting it, fashioning a shield or battering ram, sculpting it, and so on. Using it as a shield can work either as a personal shield or force field up to 1 area in size (and sculpted to only protect allies, for example), subtracting your power Rank Number from any energy damage that strikes through it. Using it as a battering ram uses the power Rank and Rank Number to make a Charge attack and damage, and you may target an individual or up to an entire area (and can sculpt it to only affect enemies in that area, if you wish).

SFX: Alter Currents. You may alter the flow and intensity of a current of water within 1 area of you. This allows you (and allies in the same area, if you wish) to gain a swimming speed of your Rank. You may also resist the effects of a dangerous current using your power Rank. Finally, you may force enemies in the body of water to suffer the effects of a Slam, using your power Rank as the Difficulty on their roll.

Weather Control: RM 30

You have the power to influence and even completely alter the forces of the weather around you. You may create weather effects like fog, heat, cold, rain, sleet, or thunder that fill 1 area, anywhere up to 8 areas away from you, that have a Difficulty equal to your power Rank. You may also strike with this power in the form of slicing or bludgeoning hail, or with the electrical shock of a lightning bolt, against one target within 8 areas, using the power Rank to make an energy attack and dealing Rank Number energy damage.

SFX: Gliding. You may glide on wind currents using your power Rank to determine your flight speed (in this case: 15 areas or 225 mph). You cannot climb in altitude when gliding.

Enhanced Senses

Specify the sense or senses that are enhanced. The Rank of this power will be at least one higher than the higher of your Reason or Intuition. When rolling to perceive things, use this Rank instead of your Intuition or Reason when applicable.

Enhanced senses might also include entirely new senses, or such highly sensitive abilities that the character can do things far outside the bounds of normal people, technological sensors, and so on. Examples in these categories might include sensing danger, being able to substitute one sense for another, and so on.

Danger Sense: RM 30

You can pick up on body signals (heart rate, perspiration, breathing) that suggest fight or flight. This allows you to detect danger within the power’s range — RM (8 areas)— but you cannot pinpoint them. This means you cannot be Blindsided. If you have acted in a fight but did not take the Defend action on your turn, you may Dodge using this power’s Rank in place of your Agility. When you take the Defend action, use the better of your Agility or this power for all Dodging actions.

Detect Magic: RM 30

You have the ability to detect magical energies when they are present in an area; roll the power’s Rank against a Difficulty of the Rank of any magical effects meant to obscure the presence of magic, if any. As an action, you can also peer into the Astral Plane and see if anyone is present on that plane within one area.

Detect Radiation: RM 30

As an action, you can attune your senses to detect radiation, and evaluate the levels of each. This gives you the ability to isolate specific combinations of radiation energy, and determine how dangerous and long-lasting any radioactive materials are. Roll the power’s Rank against the Material Strength of materials that shield against radioactive materials, when applicable.

Hyper Sense – Hearing: SP 75

Your hearing has a range of SP (40 areas), and you can identify things (including people) in the same area as you without having to use other senses. You cannot be Blindsided and do not suffer combat penalties in darkness.

Mutant Detection: RM 30

You have the ability to sense the presence of the gene that causes super-powered mutation in an individual or area.

Against an individual, make a power roll: on a Green result you can sense the gene’s presence in them, and on a Yellow or better you can even track that individual in the future so long as they were present in the area you’re in within 5 rounds. If searching an area, you must be present in the area and make a power roll: on a Green result you sense the presence but not which individual has the gene, and on a Yellow or better you know which individual(s) have the gene. On a Red result on this roll, you can now track any of those individuals in the future, so long as they were in the area you’re currently in within 5 rounds.

Night Vision: RM 30

You can see clearly in dim light, and even in total darkness.

Your eyes naturally enhance any ambient light to act as daylight, while in the darkness you can see clearly at a range based on the Thrown Range column of the Power Ranks Table: 4 areas, in your case.

Protected Sense – Sight: SP 75

Your eyes can reflexively close a second, tinted membrane that allows you to see but filters out light past a certain brightness. Whenever you must resist a blinding effect or light-based attack, you do so using this powers Rank rather than one of your primary abilities.

Sense Emotions: RM 30

As an interaction, you can read the surface emotions of someone you are conversing with. Make a power roll with their Psyche as the Difficulty. If successful, you understand their current emotional state as a series of 1-3 adjectives.

Tracking: SP 75

You have heightened senses attuned to tracking the passage of someone. If you are familiar with the person’s scent, you can track them so long as they were in the vicinity within the past 2 minutes. You can detect their presence (though not their exact location) as soon as they are within 4 areas of you. If they are present, you can use an action to pinpoint their location by making a successful power roll.

Healing & Regeneration

You can heal others, but not yourself. Healing is usually all about reducing a character’s current damage. Healing lost Endurance ranks is usually reserved for especially powerful healers. Bringing characters back from the dead is possible with a healing power, but should be rare, and usually comes with a significant cost, such as:

• The need for a special magical ingredient that is incredibly hard to procure.
• A permanent reduction of your own Health.
• A penalty to one or more of your or the target’s primary abilities.
• The potential to create a temporary doorway for dangerous creatures to crossover from the lands of the dead to our world.

Regeneration, on the other hand, is your personal ability to recover from damage more quickly than normal. If you can regrow limbs, your power will say so. Normally, this power does not kick in when you are dying (see COMBAT), but if it does, it will say so, such as in the Healing Factor example below.

Chi Healing: EX 20

You can recover damage in others (but not yourself), or restore one lost Endurance Rank (such as from dying; see COMBAT) via touch. When you do so, the target recovers a number of damage equal to the power’s Rank Number or a single lost Endurance Rank. You then must make a power roll:

• White = You heal them but your power is shut down for the rest of the session. You gain 1 Karma.
• Green = You heal them but this power is shut down until you have at last a few hours of meditation to replenish your chi. You gain 1 Karma.
• Yellow = You heal them but this power is shut down for the rest of this scene.
• Red = You heal them and choose: either you can re-use this power again as an action whenever you want, or you heal them for double (2 x Rank Number or 2 lost Endurance Ranks) and shut down this power for the rest of the scene.

Regeneration Examples

Fast Recovery: RM 30

You recover lost Endurance levels (such as from dying; see COMBAT) at a faster rate. Once each day, make a power roll. On a Green result you recover 1 Endurance Rank, on a Yellow you recover 2, and on a Red you recover 3. This is in addition to the normal recovery rate of lost Endurance Ranks (1 per week, or 1 per day under professional medical care).

Healing Factor: RM 30

You recover damage equal to your Rank Number divided by 10, at the beginning of your turn, even if your damage equals your Health, as long as you are stable. If you are currently dying, you make a roll with this power at the start of your turn to see if you stabilize. If you do (Green or better result), you begin healing the following round.

Regeneration

You recover your Endurance Rank Number in Health every minute of full rest. If you are dying, this power is shut down until you are stabilized. You can regrow nonessential appendages and organs, which become fully functional once you return to full health. (The head/brain and torso/heart/lungs of a human are essential appendages; a finger, arm, or leg is not.)

Illusions

Lifelike illusions can be generated with these powers, causing victims to believe things are there when they truly aren’t. The ability to do this can vary greatly in terms of their origin and how they affect others. Sometimes they may be psychically created images within a single person’s mind, or they might be projected illusions that everyone can see or sense.

Illusions can never cause direct harm because they are not real: they deal stress, not damage. That said, the added effects of certain situations are believable enough that a victim can still be subject to them: a grapple Hold or a Stun, for example. That said, some special effects are reduced in effectiveness or are treated as different effects:

Slams never result in more than a single area of forced movement, and a Kill is treated as a Stun.

Seeing Through Illusions

Illusions can be seen through in one of two ways: you interact with it directly in close proximity (touching, conversing, hand-to-hand combat), or you are stressed out by it.

Interacting with Illusions

When you first interact with an illusion, you make an Intuition roll with the power’s Rank as the Difficulty, and a success means you no longer believe the illusion.

You can move through it harmlessly and are otherwise unimpeded by it, though it can still obscure real things they cover up. You cannot be targeted by attacks from them, and do not take stress from them. You may only attempt this again if another character can reasonably convince you of the illusion: this requires them to make a successful social interaction roll with the difficulty of the power’s Rank.

Stressed Out by Illusions

Once you are stressed out by an illusion, you recognize it for what it was in the following scene, or as soon as you are revived or recover due to the aid of another character.

The same rules then apply: you are no longer subject to stress or other impediments from the illusion.

Examples

Illusory Duplicates: RM 30

As an action, you create a number of illusory duplicates based on the rank of this power. For each one, you gain a free reaction in which you can negate an attack that targets you. Each one also gets a single action on your turn, but uses your power Rank and Rank Number for any rolls or effects, and can only deal stress, not damage.

• WK to AV = 1 duplicate
• GD to RM = 2 duplicates
• IN to SP = 3 duplicates
• UN to X500 = 4 duplicates
• C1k and up = 5 duplicates

Image Generation: RM 30

You can cover an entire area in a real-seeming illusion, complete with people, animals, objects, and so on. If combat erupts or you create the illusion of damaging terrain or events, all rolls and Difficulties use your Rank in this power, and any effects deal stress (but never damage) equal to your power Rank Number.

Visions of Fear: RM 30

You can project horrifying images within your area that afflict anyone you wish within that area for 5 rounds.

All your opponents must make a Psyche roll against a Difficulty of your power Rank. Any that fail must use their movement on their turn to move away from you (even if they don’t know where you are they will subconsciously be directed away), and any rolls they make suffer -2R.

They will avoid or attack anyone trying to stop them from fleeing by any means possible. They may make a Psyche roll to resist these effects again at the end of each of their turns (but with the -2R penalty).

Invisibility

Invisibility provides you with the benefits of always being treated as unseen (-2R on attacks that target you), and you can make Blindsiding attacks (+2R on your attack rolls) against anyone that isn’t aware of you.

The Rank of this power is used as a Difficulty to detect you by alternative means. What those means are depends on how your power is defined. You might be bending light around you, which means senses like hearing or certain types of technological sensors can still attempt to detect you. You might create a psychic aura that causes people to ignore your presence; cameras and magical detection might still pick you up. Being detected in this way simply gives someone the chance to target you; they still operate with the listed penalties, and you can still blindside them.

Examples

Chameleonic Coloring: RM 30

You can change the appearance of your skin and any worn items to match the coloration and apparent texture of your immediate surroundings. As long as you move no more than 1 area during any movement and don’t otherwise call attention to yourself, your attacks are Blindsiding attacks (+2R on your attack rolls) and attempts to find you must succeed against a Difficulty equal to your power Rank. Once you are discovered, there are no penalties to attacker’s rolls against you, and you can take an action and make a successful power roll to hide against a different background.

Invisibility: RM 30

As an action, you can magically cloak your body in an enchantment that allows you to disappear from view for up to 5 rounds. While invisible, all of your attacks are Blindsiding attacks (+2R to your attack roll). Anyone attempting to find you must make an Intuition roll against a Difficulty equal to your power Rank, or employ special sensors that don’t rely on visual means (with the same Difficulty). Once found, attacks may target you but suffer -2R to strike you.

Intangibility

You are able to change your molecular structure such that you become “out of phase” with the physical world to some degree, capable of passing through solid objects.

High levels of this power may also lead to abilities that mimic flight. Sometimes, this power also leads to the ability to phase specific parts of the body, or to interfere with electronics or mechanical devices by phasing “part way” through them.

Examples

Phasing: IN 40

You can pass through objects of Material Strength up to your power Rank. Anything higher that you pass through deals damage equal to its Material Strength Rank Number, but your power’s Rank Number acts as body armor against this: subtract your power Rank Number from the damage dealt. You may also phase through living matter as an action, and when you do so, you deal damage equal to your power’s Rank Number. However, you also take damage equal to the target’s Endurance Rank Number, but your Phasing power again acts as body armor as above.

SFX: Reactive Phase. You gain a single reaction each round of combat where you can attempt to phase through attacks aimed at you. This reaction acts as a Dodge, but you use your Phasing power’s Rank instead of your Agility.

Mimic

You can gain the special abilities of whatever you mimic, though it is limited by your rating in this power. Mimicry is a broad power, and often comes with significant limitations, or a very specific specialization, such as:

• Animal mimicry: mimic the traits of a naturally occurring animal.
• Power mimicry: mimic a single power that you observe.
• Material mimicry: you mimic the Material Strength and other traits of an inanimate object you touch.

Power Mimic: RM 30

When you witness a super power in effect, you may duplicate it for 5 rounds starting on your next turn. You follow the rules of the power in question, substituting the lower of the duplicated power’s Rank or this power’s Rank where applicable. For example, if you have Power Mimic RM 30 and witness an Energy Blast that has a range of AV 6 and deals SP 75 energy damage, your duplicated version would have the same range (it’s lower than your power Rank), but it would only deal RM 30 energy damage.

Weakness: Focused. You may only duplicate one power at a time (and never a full power set). If you decide to duplicate a new power, you may do so for 5 rounds, but lose the ability to duplicate the previous power you chose for 24 hours.

Movement Powers

Movement-related powers involve either increased speed, the ability to maneuver over otherwise inaccessible surfaces or terrain, or entirely new ways to move from point A to point B. While they don’t inherently add to your defensive capabilities, they may often come with special effects that include such abilities. (Teleportation and traversing alternative dimensions don’t actually involve movement through physical space, technically speaking, so they are treated separately. See Teleportation.)

Flight

You can fly at an air speed based on the Rank of your power. Being limited to gliding (not gaining altitude) is a weakness.

Leaping

You may jump vertically, horizontally, or both, traveling a number of feet equal to the Rank Number of your Strength +[X]R, where [X] is a number, usually between 1 and 5. For example, if you have Leaping: 3, you leap a number of feet equal to the Rank Number of your Strength +3R: if you have Strength IN 40, then you leap 100 feet because IN 40 +3R puts you at UN 100.

Lightning Speed

You can run (or otherwise move along the ground) at a land speed based on the Rank of your power.

Swimming

You can swim (or otherwise move underwater) at a water speed based on the Rank of your power.

Swing Line

You can shoot or project something that attaches to other objects and allows you to swing from place to place. Powers like this have a rating for the Material Strength of the line — a cable, webbing, grapple hook and rope, etc. — as well as a range.

You attach the line to something that is anywhere up to that number of areas away as part of your movement on your turn.

You can then immediately move a number of areas equal to double the number of areas you fired your swingline.

So if you can fire your swingline up to 6 areas (EX 20 Rank), but choose an object that is only 4 areas away, you could swing 8 areas. If you attached it to something the full 6 areas away, you could swing 12 areas.

Wall Crawling

You can move at your normal speed along vertical or upside-down surfaces without any mobility issues. The Rank of this power determines your “stickiness” which tells you what surfaces you can cling to, as well as acting as a Difficulty if someone were to try to knock you down or off such a surface.

Wall Crawling Stickiness Rank Surface WK Concrete, brick AV Glass, metal RM Oil-slicked surface IN Non-stick surface C1k Frictionless surface Other Examples

Levitation: RM 30

You can levitate, floating vertically upwards at a number of stories equal to your power’s Rank Number each round.

If you fall, you can descend that number of stories without taking damage.

Power Armor

Power armor, like alternate forms, modifies some statistics. Usually it’s the FASE stats and Health. Each suit of armor has its own profile sheet. With very rare exceptions, power armor is always Gear.

Power armor often includes additional powers in the form of Systems (see below). This accounts for things like built in weapons, some form of alternative movement or propulsion system, defensive countermeasures, and so on. You can think of power armor as Gear with multiple built-in power sets (the systems).

Stat Modifications

Stat modifications appear on the power armor profile sheet. For the stat modifications, there is a column for bonuses and a column to list the modified stat totals based on the pilot. So Jim Smarty in the Version 4 Robot Man armor has the same bonuses as Bill Bradski does in that armor, but not the same totals since they have different FASE stats.

Initiative often gets modified, too. Unlike the standard calculations for an initiative score, power armor usually only adds +1 for each enhanced movement mode. For example, power armor with flight (Rank doesn’t matter) gives +1 to the pilot’s initiative score. Meanwhile, power armor with flight and teleportation (again, the Rank of these powers doesn’t matter) provides a +2 bonus to the pilot’s initiative.

Armor & Health

For Health, power armor always lists the Health as a static number, which should be tracked separately: this is the power armor’s “Health,” a measure of its durability and structural integrity. When the armor’s Health is depleted, all systems shut down (unless otherwise specified on the armor’s profile). The pilot retains their own Health, and doesn’t take damage to their Health so long as the suit is still active. But, any damage in excess of the power armor’s Health is then applied to the pilot.

To calculate power armor’s Health, give it 10 Health for every +1 primary ability modification. So power armor that provides +1 Fighting, +2 Agility, +1 Strength, and +2 Endurance has 60 Health.

Power armor usually also has the Body Armor power listed under one of its systems (such as Defensive Systems).

Unless stated otherwise, the Body Armor Rank is also the Material Strength of the power armor, if that ever comes into play. If there is no Body Armor power, assume it has WK 2 Material Strength.

Systems & Shutting Down

Most of a power armor suit’s capabilities are listed under different “Systems” headings, such as:

• Weapon Systems
• Internal Systems
• Defensive Systems
• Propulsion Systems etc.

Whenever a capability says “shut down a system” usually that refers to one of the capabilities beneath these headings, not the entire heading.

Bullseye results might be another use for this: a bullseye against a specific system might shut down a capability: for example you might shut down an A.I. Targeting System with a well placed arrow. The player and the GM may decide to shut down all systems under a heading, however, if they feel it’s dramatically appropriate. That said, the player of the character getting a system shut down should have the right to first refusal. The exception to this is if there is only a single capability underneath a system heading: if that one is taken out, tough luck!

Example Stat Modifications

The Robot Man Version 4 power armor provides the following stat modifications:

• Fighting +1R
• Agility +2R
• Strength +2R
• Endurance +4R

This means the armor has 90 Health. Assuming it has a special mode of movement, such as the Boot Jets listed in the Example Systems, below, then it also provides the pilot with a +1 bonus to their initiative score.

Example Systems

The following systems show a few power sets (the underlined headers) and their respective powers. This suit of armor is clearly a cobbled together, jury-rigged piece of combat technology, with some advanced aspects and other parts that are anything but!

By separating these powers into different power sets, effects that might shut down just one of them can be easily designed. For example, if the Weapon Systems are shut down, both the Concussion Blasts and the A.I. Targeting System no longer work!

Defensive Systems

Body Armor: RM 30

Subtract 30 damage from blunt, edged, force, and shooting attacks that strike you.

Weakness: Exposed Electronics. Because the suit’s electronics are exposed, it is more susceptible to electrical-based energy attacks.

Propulsion Systems Boot Jets: RM 30

15 areas, 225 mph flight speed.

SFX: Evasive Maneuvers. As a reaction, make an Agility roll. You inflict a penalty on all attacks that target you until the start of your next turn, based on the result of your roll:

• White = No penalty
• Green = -2CS
• Yellow = -4CS
• Red = -6CS

Weapon Systems A.I. Targeting System: AM 50

The advanced targeting system in your HUD allows you to use this rating instead of your Agility on all Agility-related attack rolls.

Concussion Blasts: RM 30

You fire a burst of concussive force from your wrist projector.

• Attack: Force Attack (Agility)
• Range: RM (8 areas).
• Damage: RM 30 force damage.

Psychic Powers

Psychic powers cover a pretty wide gamut, but the commonality is that they all require the user to establish contact with the mind of their intended target. This can be beneficial (mental communication), invasive (probing thoughts and reading emotions), or aggressive (a blast of mental pain, mind control).

Special precautions should be taken when dealing with mind reading and mind control style powers. While these make for great drama, they can be easily abused: if low-level mind control can be used to cause a victim to act against their self-preservation, it may be awfully easy to solve (or create) a lot of problems with that power.

Before introducing such powers, make sure to have an open discussion with all players at the table what the limits of these powers are. The powers below utilize the Power Ranks Table for things like duration or area of effect, but also note subjective things like “acting against one’s nature” or being exposed to “immediate harm.” We purposely left those vague, to keep the powers short and sweet, but those are precisely the terms you should closely define with the input of your players at the outset of a campaign.

Enchantment: RM 30

You can project an aura around yourself that charms those who come into contact with you. You can do this either by touching one subject or by influencing everyone in your area. Against a single target, you must touch them (Fighting-based attack if they are unwilling, the only effect being that you can use this power on them), and they make a Psyche roll against a Difficulty of this power’s Rank; on a failure, they are enchanted. Against an area, all those present make a Psyche roll (no Difficulty), and only on a White result are enchanted. An enchanted person treats you as a dear friend for 5 rounds and doesn’t recall being enchanted afterward. They will not attack you unless you obviously attempt to harm them or their allies, and they won’t take orders from you, but they will treat everything you say and any non-hostile actions in the most positive light possible.

Mind Bolt: RM 30

You can contact another person’s mind and jolt them with psychic feedback, emotionally harming them and weakening their resolve. This operates similar to an attack, and does use an action.

• Attack: Psyche
• Range: RM (8 areas).
• Effect: RM 30 stress.
• SFX: If the target takes stress from this attack, they also take a penalty to their primary abilities in social situations or when resisting other psychic powers. The color result of the attack tells you the penalty: Green = -1R, Yellow = -2R, and Red = -3R.

This penalty lasts until their stress is fully recovered.

Mind Control: RM 30

You may dominate the mind of a target in range (RM 8 areas), making them do your bidding. They resist by making a Psyche roll with your power Rank as the Difficulty. If they fail, you can direct their actions for up to 5 rounds, which they will carry out to the best of their ability. If you direct them to do something directly against their nature, or that will cause them immediate harm, they immediately gain another attempt to resist the mind control.

Plant Control: RM 30

You can animate a plant through a form of psychic manipulation that allows it to animate and do very unplant-like things. It can move as a normal human with Endurance equal to your power’s Rank. It can manipulate objects, grab people, and generally gain the flexibility and dexterity of a person, using your power’s Rank to make any necessary rolls. It uses its Material Strength for determining if it can be broken, and effects it is vulnerable to gain +3R for determining those effects (such as fire damage). The plant has Health equal to its Material Strength plus the Rank Number of this power and has an Initiative of this power’s Rank divided by 10.

SFX: Grasping Vines. Alternatively, you can animate a number of plants in the area to simply wrap around someone and pull them to the ground. This is an action, has a range of 4 areas (there must be plants in the area), targets a single opponent, and allows you to make a Grapple Attack using this power in place of your Strength.

Psi-Screen: RM 30

You have a psychic barrier that is always in place, protecting you from mental attacks and intrusion. When you are the target of psychic attacks, you subtract the power Rank Number from any damage or stress you would take. Additionally, you may use this power Rank in place of Psyche (or other primary abilities, when applicable) to resist psychic powers, such as Mind Control, Telepathy, and so on.

Psychic Force: RM 30

Your psychic power is so strong it can manifest physically as a force attack.

• Attack: Force Attack (Psyche)
• Range: RM (4 areas); uses Thrown Ranges.
• Damage: RM 30 force damage and RM 30 stress.
• SFX: Psychic Crush. You can also make Grab or Grapple attacks at range (same as above), using this power Rank in place of Strength.

Telepathy: UN 100

You can psychically contact someone you know within 60 areas and hold a conversation with them so long as you maintain concentration. You may contact multiple people— as many people as you wish in this way, so long as they remain within range — but doing so requires you to take an action and make a power roll to establish the link, and requires concentration. To contact someone you don’t know, or who is unwilling to allow it, the target makes a Psyche roll against a Difficulty of your power Rank.

Weakness: Concentration. This power requires concentration: if you take damage or stress, the link immediately ends. You must use an action and make a successful power roll to reestablish contact.

SFX: Read Minds. To read the mind of someone to divulge their emotional state or uncover memories requires you to use an action to make a successful power roll in order to establish a link. The Difficulty of this roll is the target’s Psyche. You can only do this to one person at a time, and it takes 1d10 rounds to uncover the information you seek. You must maintain concentration (see above) during this period, or else start over.

Resistance or Invulnerability

Resistances and invulnerability are always specified as to what they apply to. The Rank of this power will be at least one higher than your Endurance. If you have resistance against something, such as poison, radiation, toxins, or the like, you make a roll using your applicable Resistance Rank, using the effect’s rating as the roll’s Difficulty. If you succeed, you are unaffected by it. If you fail, you’re affected.

In some cases, the GM may rule that your Resistance provides Body Armor-like effects, rather than entirely negating the incoming effect or attack. For example, cosmic radiation may come from a source so powerful that it causes immediate direct damage. Your Resistance versus radiation acts as Body Armor against the damage it would cause.

Invulnerability

Invulnerability is simply Resistance that is rated as C1k or higher against a thing. This means you’re immune to the thing in almost every possible form; no need to make a roll to resist it at all! The only time you worry about it is when it is rated higher than your Invulnerability (which is never if you have C5k).

Common things you might be resistant or invulnerable to include:

• Fire/heat
• Cold
• Electricity
• Radiation
• Poison
• Magical Attacks
• Emotional Attacks
• Mental Attacks
• Disease
• Acid

Any time you want to choose a type of damage — blunt, edged, force, energy — that’s Body Armor, instead. Energy is the only type that might be affected by Resistance or Invulnerability because there are so many different types of it: fire/heat, cold, radiation, and acid are all forms of energy attacks that fall under Resistance/Invulnerability.

But notably, being resistant or immune to all energy damage is something that only the rarest of powerful characters might have.

Life Support

This is a version of Invulnerability in which you are shielded from any and all detrimental effects of a hostile environment (or several). First, specify the environment(s).

Then clarify what aspects of that environment are covered: you might be immune to the effects of vacuum, but that doesn’t mean you don’t require food or water!

There is no rating for this power: it simply tells you what your immunities are.

Invulnerability – Fire/Heat: C1k

You are immune to the effects of extreme heat and fire-based attacks, unless their source has a higher Rank than this power.

Life Support – Space

Your ability to absorb dark matter energy allows you to survive in the vacuum of space indefinitely without a need for air, food, water, or rest. You also have C5k immunity to extreme temperatures, though energy-based attacks can still harm you normally.

Life Support Systems – Space (Gear)

Your space suit protects you from the effects of vacuum, and provides you with a 2-week supply of air, food, water, and waste removal.

Resistance – Fire/Heat: RM 30

You are resistant to the effects of extreme heat and fire-based attacks.

Water Breathing

You can breathe water and air equally well, can see underwater as well as on land, and survive comfortably even at extreme depths.

Shapeshifting

You have the ability to physically transform into something else. Most often, this means taking on the beneficial traits of the thing, such as:

• Changing your size
• Gaining the Material Strength of inanimate objects
• Gaining natural weapons like bites and claws
• Gaining different forms of movement such as flight or swimming This power doesn’t come with a rating. Rather, it defines your abilities’ Rank changes when you change forms.

In its most basic form, you become the thing; it’s as simple as that. You retain awareness, but you are otherwise treated as the thing mechanically until you change back.

A chair is a stationary object with a specific Material Strength, and doesn’t do anything other than provide a place to sit, an obstacle for movement, or an improvised weapon for anyone who picks it up and swings it.

In the more common form of shapeshifting, however, you are transforming into a much simpler version of an Alternate Form: you either take on predetermined primary abilities (such as those of a wolf), and perhaps gain a few powers (such as claws or alternative movement modes or speeds), but you otherwise retain your Health, Resolve, powers, and Talents. In many cases, you retain your mental traits — Reason, Intuition, Psyche, Resolve— but that’s not always the case. Regardless, your Health and Resolve do not change.

Shapeshifting is very similar to Transmutation. The major difference is that when you shapeshift, you rarely take on special properties of a different state. For example, you shapeshift into a metal chair, but you transmute into a gaseous substance. There may be overlap, or power sets that include both abilities.

Shapeshifter – Werewolf

You can shapeshift into two alternative forms: wolf and hybrid (werewolf) form.

This power might be accompanied by the Alternate Form character sheet, showing the following changes for each form.

For the wolf form, the changes are:

• Fighting = EX 20
• Agility = GD 10
• Strength = GD 10
• Endurance = EX 20
• Bite: Melee Edged (Fighting) attack that deals Strength +1R edged damage.

Enhanced smell and hearing: RM 30

• Lightning Speed: GD 10 land speed (4 areas/turn, 60 mph)

For the hybrid form, the changes are:

• Fighting = EX 20
• Agility = GD 10
• Strength = EX 20
• Endurance = RM 30
• Bite: Melee Edged (Fighting) attack that deals Strength +1R edged damage.
• Claws: Melee Edged (Fighting) attack that deals Strength edged damage.
• Enhanced smell and hearing: RM 30
• Lightning Speed: AV 6 land speed (3 areas/turn, 45 mph)

Talents and all other information remains the same as the character’s natural, human form.

Size-Changing

Powers that allow you to change your size come in all shapes…okay, never mind. The point is, these sorts of powers allow you to grow or shrink, or give you the ability to cause other people or things to do so. There are a myriad of ways these effects can apply to the game mechanics, so we present two different versions of these powers: simple and complex.

Simple Growth & Shrinking

In this version of the power, growing or shrinking is entirely beneficial, and usually only encompasses a single size shift, or very small range. It acts almost like an alternate form, but even simpler, as there are less primary ability and power changes.

You simply have a modifier for each size shift you can make, and you apply it to a set of traits. For example, if you can grow from 6 feet tall to 10 feet tall, it would look like this:

Growth: +2R You grow until you stand 10 feet tall, your body rippling with increased muscle mass. Apply the modifier to your Strength and Endurance on all rolls, and for determining damage and movement. Your Health remains the same.

Shrinking: +1R You shrink until you are only 6 inches tall, making you harder to notice (or hit), giving you access to tight spaces, and increasing your overall density despite your smaller size. Apply the modifier to your Agility and Endurance on all rolls, and add the Body Armor power, below. Your Health remains unchanged.

SFX – Body Armor: GD 10. Subtract 10 damage from all blunt, edged, and shooting attacks that strike you.

Complex Growth & Shrinking

The more complex version provides a means to grow or shrink to much more… interesting sizes! This version of the powers have a Rank and Rank Number, and this determines several related abilities as they grow or shrink.

Growth The complex version of Growth has two primary benefits and a drawback. On the plus side, you may substitute your Growth Rank for your Strength, both for any rolls and for the Rank Number when dealing Strength-based damage. You also gain Body Armor (as per the power) against blunt, edged, and shooting, and force damage. On the downside, you are easier to hit when you get bigger, providing a bonus to the attack rolls of your enemies.

Growth Table Rank Height Body Armor Hit Adjustment WK 2 8 ft. – +1R MD 4 10 ft. – +1R AV 6 12 ft. WK 2 +1R GD 10 15 ft. MD 4 +1R EX 20 18 ft. AV 6 +1R RM 30 20 ft. GD 10 +2R IN 40 25 ft. EX 20 +2R AM 50 30 ft. RM 30 +2R SP 75 35 ft. IN 40 +3R UN 100 40 ft. AM 50 +3R X150 50 ft. SP 75 +3R

• Rank: The Rank and Rank Number of your Growth power.
• Height: Maximum height at each Rank.
• Body Armor: You gain this Rank of the Body Armor power: subtract the Rank Number from any blunt, edged, shooting, or force attacks that strike you.
• Hit Adjustment: This bonus is added to your opponent’s rolls to strike you.

Note that ratings above Uncanny tend to be pretty game-breaking.

The sheer destructive potential of a being that size is substantial, and this almost certainly leads to problems of collateral damage in a typical, modern day superhero setting.

Shrinking

The complex version of Shrinking primarily makes you harder to hit, makes normal-sized targets easier for you to hit, and gives you access to areas you couldn’t get into before. On the flip side, you’re mass and density isn’t changing, which means your Strength is being proportionally diminished; this doesn’t affect Health, normally, and has a minimum of WK 2. Unlike with Growth, the Shrinking Hit Adjustment is applied as a penalty to attacks made against you, and as a bonus to your attacks against normal-sized targets.

Shrinking Table

Rank	Height	Strength Adj.	Hit Adjustment
WK 2	3 ft.	–	–
MD 4	2 ft.	–	–
AV 6	1 ft.	-1R	–
GD 10	6 in.	-1R	+/-1R
EX 20	3 in.	-1R	+/-1R
RM 30	1 in..	-2R	+/-2R
IN 40	0.5 in.	-2R	+/-2R
AM 50	0.25 in.	-2R	+/-2R
SP 75	0.1 in.	-3R	+/-3R
UN 100	0.01 in.	-3R	+/-3R
X150	near microscopic	-4R	Can’t miss

• Rank: The Rank and Rank Number of your Shrinking power.
• Height: Minimum height at each Rank.
• Strength Adjustment: Use this modifier when making any Strength-based rolls, or to calculate your Strength Rank Number (such as for damage) while shrunk.
• Hit Adjustment: This modifier is added to your rolls to strike an opponent (with anything but Grab and Grapple attacks), and is subtracted from their attempts to strike you.

Like Growth ratings above Uncanny, Shrinking ratings above Uncanny tend to be beyond the scope of simple attack roll and Strength adjustments due to the scale.

Once a character goes microscopic, they likely act on a scale that is more akin to traversing a different dimension (see Teleportation for extradimensional antics).

Variations

A variation on the complex versions of Growth and Shrinking is that there’s some magical or pseudoscience justification for the character to lose some mobility as they Grow, or not lose Strength when Shrinking. To model these sorts of situations where mass, force, and inertia concerns go out the window in fun ways, use the Body Armor column from the Growth Table to determine the ranks of various special effects. Since Growth ratings can substitute for Strength Ranks, that’s another route you can take for measuring such abilities, but be aware that the higher end of those ratings can get out of hand quickly.

That’s why the Body Armor column is present, after all.

Sorcery

Magic is often a very, very broad power, and is usually best modeled as a power set, instead: individual spells or magical items operate much like some other power or gear, you just say it comes from a magical source instead.

Sorcerous bolts (an energy attack), a magic sword (gear that deals a bunch more damage than a mundane sword), weather control, and similar magical effects all work as other powers or gear.

That said, magic that tends to create temporary effects that mimic other powers or achieve an effect similar to a single combat result (Stun, Slam, Bullseye, etc.) falls under the Sorcery power. That is, the Sorcery power is the act of quickly creating an effect through a magical spell, ritual, or force of will. Another term for this is Improvised Magic.

The other version of sorcery powers are simple effects that exist outside of most other powers, or rely on “metagame” concepts to work, like luck, manipulation of the Power Ranks Table, and so on. For example, you might be able to manipulate luck by casting a hex: this might have the effect of allowing you to make a power roll and “banking” the color result for later use on a specific type of roll.

Another option might be enchanting someone: you take over their body and act with all of their physical abilities (FASE scores and Health) while retaining your mind (RIP scores and Resolve) for a short time, before relinquishing control and returning to your own body.

Improvised Magic

Some of the most powerful spellcasters can recall little-known spells or even make up new spells on the spot.

If you’re one of those, you can cast spontaneous spells through the Sorcery power. It has a good chance of going haywire, but opens up a lot of potential effects. Generally, these spells can reproduce nearly any power imaginable, but they will operate at low power ranks and risk surges of uncontrollable magical energy.

To cast an improvised spell, entreat an entity to help you power it (“By the Crimson Halo of Sinistar…” or “By the Hoary Hosts of Horigax…”), briefly explain the effect you want to have (“…freeze this fool in place” or “…expel this demon back to the Dimension of Death”) and make a power roll.

1. Entreat & Describe Spell

Your Sorcery power tells you the source of your magical knowledge and power. Oftentimes, you must entreat an entity with a suitably evocative phrase, or perform a quick ritual as commanded by a spell’s description. Then briefly describe the end result of the spell you wish to cast.

It’s a good idea to have in mind a power from this chapter, but that isn’t necessary as long as you have a clear idea of the result.

Entreating Entities

A list of extradimensional entities will be furnished to characters who have access to entreating them for magical spells and powers.

Note that these entity listings are not complete, and the information is simply the best available at this time; there may be false pieces of information, outright lies, and quite frankly, even worse. Playing with magic (and entities) you don’t understand is a dangerous game.

2. Determine the Difficulty

The base Difficulty of the Sorcery power roll is based on how the entity you’ve entreated is aligned to chaos and order:

The entity is aligned with Chaos: RM 30

The entity is aligned with Order: IN 40

The entity is Neutral: AM 50

Optional Difficulty Modifiers

If you want a little extra variation, you may apply the following modifiers to the Difficulty of entreating the entity.

• You are in good standing with the entity’s alignment:
• -1R to the Difficulty
• You are in bad standing the entity’s alignment: +1R to the Difficulty
• You owe something to this specific entity: +1R to the Difficulty
• The effect you are calling on is similar to other spells associated with the entity: -1R to the Difficulty

3. Determine the Spell Rank

The power rank of the spell is based on the color result of your power roll.

• White = Magical Surge (see below).
• Green = the spell’s rank is AV 6.
• Yellow = the spell’s rank is GD 10.
• Red = the spell’s rank is EX 20.

4. Determine the Results

Apply the results of the spell based on the Rank and intended effects.

This formula is best when simply duplicating the effects of an existing power, but sometimes you may want to create wildly more complex or bizarre effects. In such cases, the best guidance is this:

Spells represent Difficulties that can be resisted with a roll, such as Psyche or Endurance. They may also emulate color results of some maneuvers of Green or Yellow. So even the most powerful improvised spells have a chance of simply failing outright against those of strong will. No spell will result in a Kill, but a Slam or Stun or Bullseye are all perfectly possible.

Magical Surges

Some magical spells, powers, or items note that a possible side effect of using them (or failing to use them properly) results in a magical surge. A magical surge is a random consequence that comes from playing with magic; the GM rolls on the table below whenever a surge occurs.

Magical Surge Table

d10	Effect
1	Your ability to cast spells is shut down until an object of Material Strength equal to the spell rank is “consumed” (magically erased from existence via a long ritual), or you have downtime to recuperate.
2	You take the spell’s rank in stress (if unclear, roll on the Spell Ranks Table).
3	Your Agility is reduced to WK 2 until you have downtime to recover.
4	Your Strength is reduced to WK 2 until you have downtime to recover.
5	Your Endurance is reduced to WK 2 until you have downtime to recover. You cannot cast any spells until you recover.
6	Your Reason is reduced to WK 2 until you have downtime to recover. You cannot cast any spells until you recover.
7	Your Intuition is reduced to WK 2 until you have downtime to recover. You cannot cast any spells until you recover.
8	Your Psyche is reduced to WK 2 until you have downtime to recover. You cannot cast any spells until you recover.
9	Your magic, magical items, and all magic in your area no longer functions or produces opposite effects for 1d10 rounds.
10	You are summoned to entreat directly with the extra-dimensional entity and the spell goes off as if a Green result…if you pay what they ask.

Foretelling: RM 30

You can magically divine the actions of others in the very near future. In combat situations, make a power roll at the start of the encounter, and on a success you act first and know what the intended action of the original first character to act would have been (they may change it in response to what you do, of course). Outside of combat, you may choose a specific character and make a power roll with a Difficulty of their Psyche. On a success, you may ask a single question about their Attitude (for NPCs), a single power or gear (such as its effects or weaknesses), or their primary or secondary abilities (such as the rating), and the target must answer truthfully.

Hex Curse: RM 30

You can weave an enchantment upon someone that afflicts them with ill luck. First, you must be near them, or must have something important and identifying of theirs: a lock of hair, a favorite object, a photograph of an important moment in their life, etc. Next, you must choose one of their primary abilities (FASERIP) to curse. Finally, you make a power roll with their Psyche as the Difficulty, and the color result tell you the penalty that afflicts that primary ability for 5 rounds, starting whenever you choose within 24 hours of placing the hex on them.

White = no penalty, Green = -1R, Yellow = -2R, and Red = -3R and you may inflict your power Rank Number in stress any time they fail a roll on which they have a Hex Curse penalty.

Postcognition: RM 30

You can witness the history of an item or location by concentrating on it for no less than 5 rounds. Choose an inanimate item weighing up to your Rank Number in pounds, or the area you are currently in. When you choose an object, you see everything that has happened to it, and only the surrounding area, wherever it has been during the timeframe (see below). When you choose an area, you only see the events that happened within that area during the timeframe (see below); everything outside that area is hazy and indistinct. Make a power roll to see how far back you can witness events; this is the timeframe. White = 1 minute, Green = your Rank Number in hours, Yellow = your Rank Number in days, Red = your Rank Number in years.

Weakness: Temporal Feedback. You take this power’s Rank Number in stress each time you use it.

Power Block: RM 30

You can magically nullify any superpowers in one area.

You must take an action to activate the power block, and cannot move or take actions as long as you maintain the power block. All powers with a Rank less than your power Rank simply do not function. All powers with a Rank equal or greater to your power Rank must make a successful power roll against a Difficulty of your Rank to be activated until you end the power block.

Sorcery – The Book of Eibon: RM 30

You can create improvised magical spells by entreating the entities known to Eibon, such as Azathoth, Cthulhu, Nyarlathotep, or Yog-Sothoth. See the Improvised Magic rules, as well as the list of entities below:

• Azathoth: Neutral. Typical spells: fear, teleportation.
• Cthulhu: Chaos. Typical spells: domination, mind reading, dimensional travel.
• Nyarlathotep: Chaos. Typical spells: domination, horrific visage.
• Yog-Sothoth: Chaos. Typical spells: resurrection, summoning.

Stretching

The power to elongate portions of your body is known as Stretching. This power usually just determines the range you can extend out to, using the Thrown Ranges on the Power Ranks Table. It may have other special effects, however: perhaps your body acts like rubber, or has increased strength when stretching. These special effects might be written like so:

• Use your Stretching Rank and Rank Number in place of your Strength when grappling, grabbing, or dealing unarmed damage.
• Using the Area of Effect column on the Power Ranks Table to determine how wide you can spread your body, acting like a net to catch falling objects. You might also gain Body Armor equivalent to your Stretching Rank Number when doing so, but only against blunt damage.

Alternatively, these may be entirely separate powers, governed by a power set, especially if you might have different Ranks for each power.

Elongation: RM 30

You extend your limbs a number of areas governed by the Thrown Ranges on the Power Ranks Table, based on your Rank (in this case 4 areas). You gain any number of creative uses for this power, such as extending your arms and legs to attack into other areas, extending your head to see and hear in distant areas, traverse a gap such as a ravine or pit, and so on. Additionally, one maneuver you may make is to grapple all opponents in the same area as you: apply the effects of a single Grapple Attack to each opponent individually.

Teleportation

You can instantaneously move to a point based on the Range Table (see MOVEMENT & ENVIRONMENT) without moving through the areas in between.

Upon arrival, there may be a chance of disorientation.

Make a FEAT using this power’s Rank.

• White = Stunned for 1d10 rounds.
• Green = Stunned for 1 round.
• Yellow or Red = You may take an action this round.

In the event that you teleport to a location which is enclosed or has objects you were not aware of, you risk teleporting inside of them and taking damage. Make a power FEAT roll:

• White = Take damage equal to twice the Material Strength of the object, plus stunned for 1d10 rounds.
• Green or better = Take damage equal to the Material Strength of the object, plus stunned for 1d10 round.

In any case, you are shunted to the nearest open terrain.

Astral Projection & Dimensional Travel

Some powers allow you to teleport by actually traversing some other plane of existence. You step into this other plane, travel a ways there, and then pop back into the material world (Earth) in a new location. Alternatively some powers don’t really do teleportation at all, but simply allow you to travel to other planes: you return to Earth in the spot where you left it, or even leave your body on Earth the whole time and travel psychically to these other planes. Your body appears asleep or catatonic, and might be subject to danger if you leave it unprotected! Your powers will tell you what happens.

Extradimensional Magic

In nearly every plane outside of the physical (Earth) plane, magic-based powers have a +1R across the board: they deal more damage or stress, have greater range, or provide a higher Difficulty. This means that when you are in the Realm of Mirrors, Astral Plane, Dark World, or some other plane where reality is fundamentally magical in nature, your spell ranks will get a +1R when used. This applies to improvised spells, as well.

The Astral Plane In the Astral Plane (and “mental” planes like dream or nightmare realms), your primary abilities for different things change:

• Fighting = Reason
• Agility = Intuition
• Strength = Psyche
• Endurance = Psyche

Unless a specific power or effect tells you otherwise with regard to working in such planes, everything that used to deal damage instead deals stress. Characters with powers that allow them to travel to the Astral Plane often get to add those powers’ Rank Number to their Resolve; Astral Projection is one such power that increases your Resolve, allowing you to take more stress while on these planes.

Astral Projection: RM 30

You may project your mind into the Astral Plane, allowing you to visit the unique mental realms there. Add this power’s Rank Number to your Resolve when on the Astral Plane, and make the following substitutions when you take actions on that plane:

• Fighting = Reason
• Agility = Intuition
• Strength = Psyche
• Endurance = Psyche

If you can cast spells or have other powers of a magical nature, they operate at +1R while on the Astral Plane.

Additionally, you gain Flight equal to this power’s Rank.

While on the Astral Plane, your body is helpless and unaware of its surroundings. It does not require any form of sustenance other than air to breathe, but if you are stressed out while on the Astral Plane, these protections fade and soon your body will wither away unless you can return to it.

Dimensional Aperture: RM 30

You can open a portal to another dimension that lasts up to 5 rounds, allowing anyone willing to step through (or thrown through unwillingly!) to travel to a point you are familiar with in that dimension. Anyone that steps through is physically in that dimension, even if it is a place of thought or spirit. If you wish to open a portal to a dimension or place within a dimension for which you are unfamiliar, you must make a power roll. White = the portal leads to a random dimension, Green = the portal leads to a random place in the correct dimension, Yellow = the portal leads to a random (but relatively safe) place in the correct dimension, Red = the portal leads to the closest safe place to your intended destination.

With a power like Dimensional Aperture, you should list a few of the likely dimensions that appear in your game’s universe, and the player should choose 3-5 of these for their power, along with a known location within each that they are familiar with, listed next to the dimension in parentheses. For example:

• Astral Plane (Dream Tower)
• Nightmare Plane (My childhood home)
• Plane of Fire (City of Brass)

Shadowstep: RM 30

You can teleport to the nearest gravesite, up to 8 areas away, by opening a portal to and traversing the Shadowlands, a purgatory-like realm of spirits. When you do so, make a power roll. On a Green+ result, you teleport without incident into an unoccupied space. On a White result, you are accosted by the restless spirits of the dead during your time in the Shadowlands, taking your power Rank Number in stress as you suffer terrifying visions of their deaths.

Teleportation: RM 30

You can instantaneously teleport from where you are standing to anywhere else in range (6 areas). You do not suffer from any ill effects of teleporting, and do not stand a chance of teleporting into objects in the new location.

Transmutation

Whether it’s through the magical principles of alchemy or science-based matter manipulation, you can transform one substance into another. Or, at the very least, to alter something’s properties so that it takes on enhanced or degraded attributes. You might see this in the form of altering the Material Strength of objects, changing something’s chemical makeup for a short time (turning flesh to stone), or in extreme cases, dissolving or disintegrating a thing entirely, or creating something from nothing.

Transmutation is one of the most common powers to utilize the Duration column on the Power Ranks Table, because such powerful effects are often not long lasting. Similarly, the Area of Effect column can be used to gauge the amount of material affected, disintegrated, or conjured.

You might see Transmutation paired up in a power set with Attack Powers, some form of Elemental Control, or perhaps Shapeshifting and Stretching.

Altering oneself is usually a form of Shapeshifting, though, and therefore doesn’t need to be a separate power.

Absorption

One version of a transmutation-based power is Absorption: when you are targeted by a specific form of damage or type of effect, you absorb it. This usually means that you don’t suffer any ill effects from the specified source (like immunity), and it is instead transformed into additional Health, or some form of attack that you can unleash immediately after the absorption.

Instead of increasing your Health through absorption, you might increase one predetermined primary ability to the Rank and Rank Number of the attack’s damage. Alternatively, you might make a specific type of retaliatory attack as a reaction, using the Rank and Rank Number of the attack’s damage.

Absorption – Blunt Damage: RM 30

You can absorb bludgeoning and crushing effects that strike you. Anytime you are struck with blunt damage, you take no damage. Instead, the amount of damage dealt is added to your Health, up to a maximum of your Absorption power Rank Number. This additional Health goes away at the end of the scene.

Absorption – Cold: RM 30

You can absorb cold attacks that strike you and the effects of extremely cold temperatures. Anytime you are struck with cold damage or would be subject to the effects of extreme cold, you don’t suffer those effects. Instead, the amount of damage dealt or the Rank Number of the effect is added to your Health, up to a maximum of your Absorption power Rank Number. This additional Health goes away at the end of the scene.

SFX: Unleash Cold. As a reaction, you may release any additional Health you have gained from your Absorption power as an Energy Attack affecting everyone within your area, dealing an amount of energy damage equal to your additional Health. This amount of additional Health immediately goes away when you do so.

Animation: RM 30

You can cause an inanimate object to take on a sort of animated life, allowing them to move around and act with limited sentience to follow your spoken commands. It can move as a normal human with Endurance equal to your power’s Rank.

It can manipulate objects, grab people, and generally gain the flexibility and dexterity of a person, using your power’s Rank to make any necessary rolls. It uses its Material Strength for determining if it can be broken, and effects it is vulnerable to gain +3R for determining those effects (such as force damage against glass). The animated object has Health equal to its Material Strength plus the Rank Number of this power and has an Initiative of this power’s Rank divided by 10.

Body Transformation – Light: RM 30

You can change your body into the form of light energy. You can move at the speed of light anywhere within 8 areas as your move, can move through any sized gap in a surface that light could conceivably travel through, and shed bright light that fills your entire area.

You are immune to all damage, but cannot interact physically with anything. You can maintain this form for up to 5 rounds. Once you switch back to your normal form, this power is shut down for 1d10 rounds.

Body Transformation – Fire: RM 30

You can transform your body into a living pillar of flame.

Anyone that touches you is damaged as if by a fire of your power Rank. Anything you touch burns and may ignite as if struck by a fire of your power Rank’s Difficulty. (You can walk on most normal surfaces without causing substantial damage unless you stand in place for a long time or are purposely trying to burn through it.) In this form, you are immune to mundane blunt, edged, or shooting damage, but you double the damage of any cold, ice, or water based attacks that strike you (or suffer -3R when facing Difficulties from such effects). You can maintain this form for up to 5 rounds. Once you switch back to your normal form, this power is shut down for 1d10 rounds.

Body Transformation – Gas: RM 30

Your body takes on the substance of gas, and even fly on air currents. You can pass through any gap that isn’t airtight. You can fly at an air speed determined by your power Rank (in this case 15 areas or 225 mph). Additionally, you are immune to all blunt, edged, shooting, and force attacks, but you double the damage of fire/heat, cold/ice, or wind-based attacks (or suffer -3R when facing Difficulties from such effects). You can maintain this form for up to 5 rounds. Once you switch back to your normal form, this power is shut down for 1d10 rounds.

Body Transformation – Sand: RM 30

You can change some or all of your body into living sand, allowing you to pass through gaps as if you were fine sand, attack with the crushing power of heavily packed earth, and fashion weapons or tools made of sand from your limbs. You can transform limbs or your entire body over time to flow through any gap that sand can fit into. You can use this power’s Rank in place of your Strength when dealing unarmed damage or making Grapple, Grab, and Charge attacks. As a part of any unarmed attack, you may fashion your limbs into a weapon that deals +1R blunt or edged damage, your choice. You may fashion a limb or limbs into a tool (shovel, hammer, crowbar, etc.), giving you +1R on any relevant rolls. You can maintain most alterations indefinitely, except when it is your entire body, in which case you can only maintain it for up to 5 rounds.

Once you switch back to your normal form after using it in this way, this power is shut down for 1d10 rounds.

Body Transformation – Water: RM 30

You can change your entire body to become water: you must change your whole body any time you use this power. When you do so, you can pass through any gap that liquid can fit through. Additionally, you are immune to any attacks other than fire/heat or cold, and even against those forms of attacks, this power allows you to subtract the power Rank Number from any damage you would take. You can maintain this form indefinitely. However, once you switch back to your normal form, you must make an Endurance roll: White = this power is shut down for 1d10 days and you get +1 Karma; Green = this power is shut down for a day and you get +1 Karma; Yellow = this power is shut down for a scene; Red = this power is shut down for 1d10 rounds.

Disintegrator Gun (Gear): RM 30

This wide-barreled pistol shoots a beam of disintegrating anti-matter.

• Material Strength: EX 20.
• Attack: Energy Attack (Agility).
• Range: RM (4 areas); uses Thrown Ranges.
• Effect: One inanimate object less than 1 area in size and of this power Rank’s Material Strength or less is completely disintegrated.
• Weakness: This gun only affects inanimate objects.

Living creatures within a disintegrated object — such as inside of a car that you disintegrate — are unaffected, and simply drop prone where they were positioned inside of the object.

Elemental Mimicry: SP 75

By touching an object, you take on the properties of that object’s material for as long as you wish (until you sleep or fall unconscious). You may choose to localize the effects of this mimicry, such as only to one arm, or to both legs, etc. In addition to the physical properties, your Strength, Endurance, and Health improve by an amount equal to the Material Strength of the substance, up to a maximum of your power Rank. You also gain the Body Armor power equal to the Material Strength (maximum of your power Rank): you subtract the Rank Number from any attacks that strike you, unless the material is susceptible to that form of damage (such as how wood is susceptible to fire damage), in which case you take the full damage normally.

You also gain any vulnerabilities of the substance: such effects gain +3R against you for determining their effects.

Summary

1. Powers are cool, and often break the rules, or give you neat tricks that modify the rules for you when you use the power.
2. Gear might provide special powers and abilities, but it can be lost, damaged, or stolen.
3. Power sets are groupings of powers (written as a header on your datafile) that come from the same source, so stuff that affects that source might affect all of the powers in a power set.
4. Most powers have a Rank and Rank Number just like your primary abilities (FASERIP), but not always.
5. Some powers (or even power sets) can be “shut down”: this means that they cannot be used until some listed activity is taken to refresh or recharge them.
6. Special Effects (SFX) are cool special rules that a power can do, usually under limited circumstances, or that circumvent the normal rules in some way.
7. Weaknesses are limitations on a power (or rarely, a power set) that cause it to be shut down, or nullified under some circumstances, or to come with some drawback when used.
8. There’s a big list o’ common power types, with all sorts of rules, ideas, and thoughts on how to customize them.
9. With each power type are several pre-written powers so you can see how they might look on a character sheet. (Most are rated at RM 30, but a few are higher or lower so you get a sense of what different power levels might look like.)