Red String Theory "The world is a script, and he’s reading between the lines"

1
The power to learn new information about the area you are in.
Used by John Deere, Created by Noralius.
(This Effect is not obviously Alien when used. During Effect activation, you are obviously investigating the area. )

John Deere’s eyes flicker with a faint, unnatural glow as connections form before him, threads of logic and fate weaving an invisible web. Clues highlight themselves like stage directions in a cosmic play, guiding him through the scripted world he’s desperate to expose.


Exert your Mind and spend a minute. Investigate an area with a radius of up to 100 feet At the end of your investigation, roll Perception + Alertness at Difficulty 6.

You learn the following information about the area:

  • You can tell which entities lay claim to each part of the area and how these borders have shifted over time.
  • You can locate the source of any Alien energy or the presence of any Alien effects on the area. Specific information about the function of these effects beyond their general type is not forthcoming.
The quality and specificity of information gained depends on your Outcome.

Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Don't trust the system (Paranoia).

You cannot investigate the same area more than once per day.

  • 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

You gain the following benefits as long as the mental attacks are psychic or emotional in nature.

You get +4 dice to any Mind resistance rolls you make. You also gain the following effects:

  • Compartmentalizing: You can take a maximum of 1 Mind Damage per Round.
  • Resilient mind: Stress doesn’t apply to any mind rolls you make.

  • If you have an Effect that allows you to Exert your Mind more than once per Round, each Exertion still causes one Mind Damage.
  • These bonuses apply only to Mind rolls made to resist Effects and other supernatural phenomena. They do not apply to Trauma rolls or self-control rolls.

Spend a Quick Action. You must actively and obviously use Sleeves to activate this Effect.

You may withdraw an item from your stash, or add an item that is within arm’s reach to your stash. You may only stash targets which are in your possession, grappled, or otherwise controlled by you.

You may store Objects in your stash, each no larger than something which could fit inside a briefcase (15 liters), and you may store up to 3 things at a time.

You may choose to equip any equipment you withdraw at no additional cost.

  • "Equip" refers to drawing a gun, putting on a piece of armor, etc.
  • Containers which hold multiple things may count as a single item so long as the things within are generally packaged together. For instance, you may stash a clip full of bullets, a medical kit full of medical supplies, or a box of crackers, but you cannot stash a backpack full of miscellaneous equipment.
  • You may only attempt to store Objects which are free-standing and disconnected from other things. The use of this Effect will not allow you to sever any connections holding an Object in place.
  • The Maximum Object Size parameter is intended to roughly capture the weight / size restriction of items and isn’t intended to restrict shape. GM discretion is advised. A human being is level 4 in the Maximum Object Size parameter.

Exert your Mind and spend 2 Actions. This Effect cannot be used unless you are possessing a host.

You become disguised in a manner of your choosing. The disguise lasts until you either activate a new disguise, or choose to end the effect.

The new appearance may have a different sex, age, and race to your own, and you may alter height by up to a foot and your weight by 50%. Your disguise may directly mimic the appearance of a specific individual. You may change the appearance of your outfit. A disguise cannot affect your Attributes or other stats.

You may roll Charisma + Crafts to attempt to make your disguise Beautiful. If your Outcome is 6 or higher, non-Effect Charisma rolls where your good looks could help are rolled at -2 Difficulty. If you fail or botch, you are ugly instead, and non-Effect Charisma rolls are made at +2 Difficulty.

Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation will almost certainly be disturbed to see your flesh and skin split apart before mixing and slapping back together as a different person.

Possession of this Power grants the following Battle Scar: Bane: Fire - You are weak to a specific material or type of attack. (All Damage you take from [Fire] is increased by 1 and ignores any non-material Armor you may have.).

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.

Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Alien Isolation - Paranoia.

  • A performance check is generally required to pass with people who know the individual you're mimicking.
  • While you may alter your outfit's appearance, this does not grant or store equipment. This does not allow you to change the appearance of Artifacts or conceal their Alien appearance.
  • When narrating disturbing content, be cognizant of your group's tone and accommodating to those who would like to "fast forward" through the description.
  • ‘Appearance’ includes voice, bone structure, skin quality, hair length and color, eye color, muscle tone, flesh texture, and generally anything perceivable about your body.

“With you forever more, my one true love”.

You gain the following benefits at all times.

If you would take an Injury that would kill you, you don’t die. Instead, you survive in an Incapacitated state, though you appear dead to any means of detecting life. This state lasts for the next hour, at which point you fully return to life. Unstabilized Injuries do not degrade while you are Incapacitated

If, while you are unconscious, your wound level rises above your rating in Body + Brawn, or if you take an Injury with Severity greater than your rating in Brawn, you die. After you return, the Injury that would have killed you, as well as any Injuries sustained while Incapacitated, are healed. Battle scars obtained during this time remain.

Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: technophobe.

On gift conception:
It was a night with a full moon, as she walked along the shores of Miami trying to think of a gift. On a regular night the stars would be nigh invisible from light pollution, but she noticed they were twinkling as brightly as if she were out camping in the wilderness. Suddenly there was a woman standing beside her; any normal person wouldn't bat an eye, but Cassiopeia saw a strange blue aura around her. The woman looked up at the moon and asked if she believed in Artemis. She asked if Cassiopeia would want to join the Hunt. Cassiopeia knew where this was going. She knew what she was in for, and there was one aspect that concerned her the most. Thus, she told the woman, "I would, but only if I can continue to age." There was a long silence, as if Artemis waited for Cassiopeia to change her mind, but after a few hours' long standoff, the goddess was intrigued enough to accept Cassiopeia's terms.

On Artemis' oath:
"I, Cassiopeia, pledge myself to the goddess Artemis. I turn my back on the company of men, accept eternal maidenhood without immortality, and join the hunt."

On semantics:
Cassiopeia has always been wary of wording in agreements, and this one was no different. Did "men" refer to people in general, or just... men?

On romance:
So long as Cassiopeia swears off of romantic love, she will be protected by Artemis. Is it cruel? Cassiopeia can't tell. But she doesn't see it as much of an obstacle because she's lived so long without the need for it (or any kind of affection at all). It makes for a good experiment to see if love is really powerful enough to make her turn against the gods.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Roll Charisma + Influence at Difficulty 6.

If you succeed, you create a barrier around yourself, which absorbs the next Outcome +4 Damage. The Damage reduction from the barrier is applied before Armor. You may only have 1 active barrier at a time.

The barrier will fall after two hours, or if it absorbs the full amount of Damage. When a barrier falls, you cannot use this Effect again for a minimum of 2 Rounds.

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

  • Effects which circumvent Armor completely also circumvent your barrier.

Stock Power Gifts

You gain the following benefits as long as engaged in combat with wooden longbows.

You receive +2 dice to all rolls using wooden longbows. Reloading is a Free Action, and drawing your weapon does not require a Quick Action as long as it is on your person.

You also gain the following effects:

  • Bullet Parry: You may use a Reaction to Defend against any Melee, thrown, or projectile Attack in range of your Attacks.
  • Bullseye: If you are not making an attack or activating an Effect, any projectile you fire will be considered a complete success without needing to make a roll.

Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and spend two Actions performing the following ritual: perform a fire-breathing trick. Select a target within 20 feet which has both fuel and oxygen available (if you are starting a new fire). Roll a single D10 as a critical failure check. If you roll a 1, the Effect fails, and you take a Severity-4 Injury as the fire burns your throat. You must maintain Concentration while activating this Effect, and it fails if you are interrupted.

You may start or extinguish a fire as large as a firepit's fire at your target. Extinguishing a fire does not cost Exertion. You may create or extinguish fires the size of a lighter or candle flame without Exerting your Mind. Your fires require fuel and oxygen in order to continue burning.

Lighting a target on fire deals 4 Damage each Round on your turn, starting in the Round after the one in which they caught fire. This Damage is reduced by Armor, but the target’s Armor rating will be shredded by any Damage dealt, destroying material Armor once it reaches 0.

You may extinguish flames as a Reaction. This does not extend to explosives.

  • Your fires may be extinguished with appropriate Actions and materials. Stop, drop, and rolling to extinguish requires spending an Action and making a Dexterity + Athletics roll, with an Outcome of 4 putting out the flames.
  • If the target is larger than your flame size, the Armor destruction creates a weak point instead of applying to the entire target.
  • 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.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a object that uses electricity within 20 feet no larger than a duffel bag (35 liters). You must actively and obviously use a smart watch to activate this Effect. Roll Intellect + Technology Difficulty 6.

If your Outcome is 4 or higher, the target will be completely destroyed and can no longer function, though it may still be repaired. If your Outcome is less than 4, the target will be partially damaged, and any attempts to use it will suffer a dice penalty equal to your Outcome.

When a target is destroyed, it sends shards flying. Anyone within 5 feet of the object rolls 4d10 at Difficulty 6 and takes damage equal to the Outcome. Can be reacted to.

  • The penalty from an object being damaged will stack with itself if a target is hit multiple times, but the object is destroyed when it reaches a total penalty of -4.
  • 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.

Spend a Quick Action.

You may withdraw an item from your stash, or add an item that is within arm’s reach to your stash. You may only stash targets which are in your possession, grappled, or otherwise controlled by you.

You may store units of water in your stash, each no larger than something which could fit inside a briefcase (15 liters), and you may store up to 3 things at a time.

You may choose to equip any equipment you withdraw at no additional cost.

  • "Equip" refers to drawing a gun, putting on a piece of armor, etc. You may store or withdraw a maximum of 6 items in a given Round. Reminder: you may perform up to two Quick Actions for -2 dice each or 3 if you use up your Action, unless a different Effect grants you additional Quick Actions.
  • Containers which hold multiple things may count as a single item so long as the things within are generally packaged together. For instance, you may stash a clip full of bullets, a medical kit full of medical supplies, or a box of crackers, but you cannot stash a backpack full of miscellaneous equipment.
  • You may only attempt to store Objects which are free-standing and disconnected from other things. The use of this Effect will not allow you to sever any connections holding an Object in place.
  • The Maximum Object Size parameter is intended to roughly capture the weight / size restriction of items and isn’t intended to restrict shape. GM discretion is advised. A human being is level 4 in the Maximum Object Size parameter.

Spend a Quick Action. You must actively and obviously use a burlap sack to activate this Effect.

You may withdraw an item from your stash, or add an item that is within arm’s reach to your stash. You may only stash targets which are in your possession, grappled, or otherwise controlled by you.

You may store Objects in your stash, each no larger than something which could fit inside a briefcase (15 liters), and you may store up to 3 things at a time.

You may choose to equip any equipment you withdraw at no additional cost.

  • "Equip" refers to drawing a gun, putting on a piece of armor, etc. You may store or withdraw a maximum of 6 items in a given Round. Reminder: you may perform up to two Quick Actions for -2 dice each or 3 if you use up your Action, unless a different Effect grants you additional Quick Actions.
  • Containers which hold multiple things may count as a single item so long as the things within are generally packaged together. For instance, you may stash a clip full of bullets, a medical kit full of medical supplies, or a box of crackers, but you cannot stash a backpack full of miscellaneous equipment.
  • You may only attempt to store Objects which are free-standing and disconnected from other things. The use of this Effect will not allow you to sever any connections holding an Object in place.
  • The Maximum Object Size parameter is intended to roughly capture the weight / size restriction of items and isn’t intended to restrict shape. GM discretion is advised. A human being is level 4 in the Maximum Object Size parameter.