Golden Star "Papa said War is WAR"

1
The power to cause a destructive blast of damage in an area.
Used by Lucky Number 13, Created by PoisedIvyT_T.
(This Effect is obviously Alien when used. Both the source of the effect, as well as the danger zone it creates, are obvious to observers. )

Project Shining Star is TARP'S intention to find a method to get an immortal soul in an otherwise weak body, by any means necessary. The Conventions and rules of the real world would not stand for such experimentation, however in this simulation, any research would be viable in the pursuit of making Humanity a greater species.

Subject Shining Star is a testament to the hard work and ideals of TARP science and biological research: they have shown promise in a controlled setting, but how does it fair out in the field? Would this have militaristic applications?

While the Subject is unstable and prone to spontaneous combustion, they are otherwise the most promising in relation to the 12 others: The Soul's energy, when released without warning enshrouds the blast area with unstable radioactive isotopes. However when this energy is harnessed, the blast is able to set off without these consequences.

With this, the only notable flaw, the next stage of Shining Star is set to commence. Field research.


Increase your sacrificial Injury's Severity by 1 and spend an Action. The area within 25 feet of you immediately and obviously becomes imminently dangerous. On the following Rounds, you may choose to detonate the Blast as a Free Action on your initiative. When you do so-- or when one minute elapses-- roll Brawn + Athletics at Difficulty 6.

If the Outcome is positive, your blast hits everything within 25 feet of you with Damage equal to your Outcome + 4. If you botched the activation roll, you will also take full Damage from the blast, otherwise it will not hurt you.

Anyone hit by the blast may roll Body at Difficulty 7 as a Free Action, and reduce their Damage taken by the Outcome. Damage spreads to targets beyond the edge of the initial radius, decreasing by 2 Damage for every 5 feet traveled.

Any flammable Objects within the radius during the blast will catch fire, and any being who takes at least 4 Damage will catch fire. Starting the Round after they caught fire, flaming targets take 2 Damage per Round until the fire is extinguished.

Possession of this Power grants the following Battle Scar: Shining Star: You cannot raise your voice above a shout or a whisper. After physical activity, your body starts humming and dimly glowing; all stealth rolls are -2 dice.

Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Papa said War is War: Good soldiers follow orders, but should a dangerous situation were set up, you are the first in line to face it. In the heat of battle, roll self-control in order not to do a dangerous action to complete the mission- with no regards to collateral damage to yourself, or others.

If you do not have a sacrificial Injury when you activate this Effect, take a new Severity-1 Injury.

  • The sacrificial Injury received from activating this Effect cannot be prevented by any means or healed before 1 day has passed. It is shared with all Effects that use sacrifice. This Injury does not requires Stabilization or cause Battle Scars when it becomes Severe.
  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.
  • Your target must be within line of sight, or within range of another sense if more fitting for the Gift's flavor.

Community Power Gifts

Exert your Mind and spend an Action to activate. You must actively and obviously use the Staff of Tomorrow to activate this Effect.

You phase out of reality for up to 10 minutes. During this time, you cannot affect the outside world or take any Actions. You cannot move. Nothing can interact with you in any way.

When you activate this Effect, you may limit its duration to a period of your choosing. If you are able, you may also end it as a Free Action on your initiative.

You leave a shimmering after-image at your location.

After this Effect ends, you cannot move quicker than a walk (15 feet per Round) for one minute and suffer a -1 dice penalty for an hour.

  • You may use your Free Movement on the Round you phase back in, but you cannot take an Action.

You gain the following benefits as long as you have your Blue pen in my shirt pocket.

Your Charisma rating is increased by 1. You may Exert your Mind to automatically gain an Outcome of 5 on any roll that uses Charisma (Cannot be used on combat rolls or Power activations).

If you are witnessed actively using this Effect, whoever sees it can make a Perception + Alertness roll at Difficulty 6. A complete success reveals the source of your power.

You also gain the following effects:

  • Party Animal: You are welcome at, and will be granted entrance to, any social gathering or party, at least as an observer.
  • Poker Face: You never give any outward indication of dishonesty. It is impossible to tell that you are lying, and you are able to fool any method of lie detection without making a roll.
  • The Price Of Fame: Any sightings or recordings of your activity can easily be traced back to you. Even when disguised or using an alias, people always get a Perception check to recognize you.

  • A "social gathering" might include a birthday party, after-work drinks, a ski trip, or yoga in the park, among other things. It likely would not include a cult gathering to summon a demon, Congressional negotiations over a contentious bill, etc.
  • In rare cases, GMs may require you to make a roll to lie to particularly powerful beings.
  • If your Blue pen in my shirt pocket is damaged, destroyed, or lost, you lose all benefits from this Effect for the next two months, or until you can recover any relevant missing items (which may involve a side-game and requires a GM to approve whatever process is used).

Future Upgrades:
Range - 500 feet (Seasoned); Blind Spying (Drawback Buy-Off); Virtual Tour (Veteran)

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a target Location within 75 feet. This Effect cannot be used unless you have an invertebrate at the location under your control.

You may perceive things through sight as if you were standing at that Location for the next 30 minutes. You may move your senses back and forth between your projected location and your real location without prematurely ending the effect. You may only have one projected location active at a time.

This Effect is not obvious, and the only sign you are using an Effect is an unfocused, inattentive gaze—a “thousand yard stare”. If someone suspects that an Effect was used, they must roll Perception + Alertness, Difficulty 8 to pick up on your Tell.

  • This does not satisfy the Line of Sight requirement for targeted Effects.

Until “Hackable” is taken off of Dozen Jointed Limbs, these limbs count as objects and may be hackable at gm’s discretion.

Exert your Mind and spend an hour. Select a Living or Animate target within arm's reach. You must use up prosthesis parts in order to activate this Effect. Select a Battle Scar on your target to treat.

The treated Battle Scar heals as you finish activating this Effect. You may specify a specific condition that the patient must adhere to. If they break this condition, the treatment is immediately reversed. Record this regimen as a Condition.

Healing a Battle Scar in this way leaves behind a custom designed monstrous limb based on the target’s personality and other details on the target which cannot be healed.

  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.
  • Your target must be within line of sight, or within range of another sense if more fitting for the Gift's flavor.

An ability created through total mastery of the Yokai Wire. Typically the Yokai Wire requires previous installation and can only so much as support the weight of the user without snapping. This ability overcomes those limitations and allows the user to use it to freely jump about as they please without even needing to use the item, so long as they have it on their person.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Location which is at most 75 feet away horizontally or 15 feet away vertically. You must actively and obviously use a Yokai Wire to activate this Effect.

You jump to the chosen location. If the landing is precarious, the GM may call for a roll to land safely. You will never take fall damage from successfully landing a jump made with this Effect.

You may activate this Effect while in free-fall, as long as your target Location is a surface on which you can land. You are immune to fall damage.

  • If you are Encumbered, the maximum range is cut in half. If Encumbrance has reduced your total movement to 0, you cannot activate this Effect.
  • vertical jump height measures to the bottom of your feet, so your total vertical reach is at least a body length greater.
  • Rolls to land safely will generally be Athletics, but GMs may call for a different roll at their discretion if it makes sense for the specific circumstances.
  • You may only use this Effect once per Round of combat, regardless of any Enhancements you have taken.
  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.
  • Your target must be within line of sight, or within range of another sense if more fitting for the Gift's flavor.

Stock Power Gifts

You gain the following benefits at all times.

You are permanently and visibly transformed: you are an android, with pale skin and yellow eyes. You are considered to be a Sapient, Non-Living Computer when targeted..

You are immune to damage from cold. If cold is a substantial component of other damage you would take (e.g. falling from a great distance into a vat of liquid nitrogen), that damage is reduced by 2 (in addition to Armor)

No single organ in your body is critical for life. Called Shots do no additional Damage to you. You may perceive the world through separated body parts, take Actions with them, and reattach them by spending an Action and Exerting your Mind.

Your Injuries no longer degrade with time. You do not age naturally, and supernatural attempts to age you fail.

You cannot ignore or decrease the effects of Stress for any social rolls you make.

The Severity of any Injury caused by electricity is increased by 2.

  • Detached parts move at 5 feet per Round. You may activate awareness Effects through detached sensory organs. This does not grant extra Actions.
  • You must still perform some equivalent of eating, sleeping, and drinking unless other Effects allow you to ignore that requirement.
  • The increase in Injury Severity stacks with any similar effects, such as the Silver Bullets drawback on Regeneration.
  • Attribute bonuses from multiple sources do not stack. Instead the highest bonus is used.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action.

You transform into a brown bear for two hours or until you choose to end the Effect. See the Extended System text for stats.

While transformed, you cannot use any equipment (including Artifacts and Consumables), and you cannot use your Active, Targeted, or Trap Powers. However, you can use your Passive Powers. Any equipment you are wearing transforms with you.

Injuries and Wound Level are carried over between forms. However, transforming can never kill you; you merely remain Incapacitated until your Injuries are sufficiently healed.

Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Intolerance for society. When you are in a situation with strict social protocols (like a trial or a formal dinner) roll Self-Control not to enter a flight or fight response.

  • Creature Stats
    • Large (larger than human, smaller than elephant) Body: 8. Brawn 6. Dexterity 2. Fall damage increased by 2. Armor: 1
    All creatures get +3 dice to any non-combat Action that they are naturally adapted for. All creatures Medium and larger may attack by rolling Body, dealing +0 Damage (+1 for “predators”). Gms and Playgroup leaders can apply other bonuses and effects to specific animals.
  • Animals that are quicker than humans (like dogs) have 50 feet of Free Movement. Animals that are very slow (like turtles) have 0 feet of Free Movement.
  • You cannot transform if there is not enough room to do so.
  • The form you take must have the same stats and abilities as a single, extant animal of the relevant size.

You gain the following benefits as long as you are engaged in combat with melee ninja weapons.

+2 dice to all rolls with melee ninja weapons. You may Defend against firearm attacks from any range using melee ninja weapons.

You also gain the following effects:

  • Assassin: If your attack Injures your target, they cannot make a sound, even incidentally, for a single Round. Even the sound of their body and equipment dropping to the ground is silenced.
  • Falling Crane Strike: If you move and then make a successful attack against a target closer than the full distance you could have moved, you may choose to travel the excess movement in a straight line beyond the target.

Exert your Mind and spend a Quick Action.

You transform into a werewolf for 3 minutes. You have access to all of your Powers while you are a werewolf, and you can use your equipment. Your Battle Scars, Injuries, and physical Liabilities are carried over between forms. Reverting from your Alternate Form cannot cause your existing Injuries to kill you. Instead, you remain Incapacitated.

While transformed, your Brawn is increased by 2 and your Dexterity is increased by 2. You do not suffer any Stress while transformed.

Your alternate form is its own deadly weapon. Unarmed attacks made in your alternate form deal +3 Weapon Damage (instead of the typical -1).

Your alternate form renders you unable to speak any human language and incapable of fine object manipulation. You can only hold or grasp objects in a crude, clumsy way.

After this Effect ends, you cannot move quicker than a walk (15 feet per Round) for one minute and suffer a -1 dice penalty for an hour.

While transformed, you automatically fail any Mind roll to resist an impulse and suffer -3 dice on all other Mind rolls.

Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Whenever you are struck by the light of a full or gibbous moon, you must roll Self-Control to resist transforming. Triggers a max of once per night.

  • Reminder: Weapon Damage from multiple sources does not stack. Instead, the highest value is used.
  • Attribute bonuses from multiple sources do not stack. Instead the highest bonus is used.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Living, Animate target within 25 feet. You must maintain Concentration while the effect is active. Roll Intellect + Investigation at Difficulty 6. The target may resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 6.

If you succeed, you are able to view your target's memories. If you fail, the target knows you're attempting to read their memories.

You may ask a number of specific questions about their memory equal to your Contested Outcome. For example, “what is their computer password,” “What were they doing at 4:00PM yesterday,” etc. You cannot get answers to broad, analytical questions like “are they a good person?” or “what are their plans for the future?”

Each memory takes as long to read as it takes to answer the question. When replaying a full memory, it is replayed in double time.

This Effect is not obvious, and the only sign you are using an Effect is your nose bleeding. If someone suspects that an Effect was used, they must roll Perception + Alertness, Difficulty 8 to pick up on your Tell.

After this Effect ends, you cannot move quicker than a walk (15 feet per Round) for one minute and suffer a -1 dice penalty for an hour.

  • In the case of a failed activation, GMs should consider how bystanders would realistically react to a potentially-outlandish accusation of mind-reading.
  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.
  • Your target must be within line of sight, or within range of another sense if more fitting for the Gift's flavor.