Beard of the Archmage

1
Requires Seasoned
You possess superhuman wits and insight.
Used by Preston Vincent Astor III, Created by ShadyTradesman.
( Your beard must be used or obviously visible while you are actively benefitting from this effect.)

Preston’s beard is an incredible focus of power. With it, controlling his spells is as easy as breathing, and he understands whether he is being targeted by outside influences.


You gain the following benefits as long as you have your beard.

Your Intellect rating is increased by 0. You may Exert your Mind to automatically gain an Outcome of 5 on any roll that uses Intellect (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:

  • Multithreaded: Instead of being unable to take Actions while maintaining Concentration, you may now take Actions at a -2 dice penalty. You may maintain Concentration from two different Effects, but you are unable to take Actions when doing so.
  • Remarkably Self-Aware: You may roll Intellect at Difficulty 6 to “scan” yourself for abnormalities. With Outcome 1-3, any outside influences on your thoughts/mind will be detected, as well as Traumas. With Outcome 4+, you may Exert your Mind to cancel the Effect. One attempt per Effect.

  • Being Injured or interrupted in some way can still break your Concentration.
  • If your beard 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).
  • Attribute bonuses from multiple sources do not stack. Instead the highest bonus is used.

Community Power Gifts

You gain the following benefits at all times.

You are permanently and visibly transformed: built like a bear.. You are considered to be a Sapient, Living being when targeted. Your Brawn is increased by 2 and your Charisma is increased by 2.

You may make a +2 Weapon Damage Heavy Windup Punch (Heavy Sniper Rifle) attack without additional equipment.

Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Poorphobic - You have a delusional hatred of the poor and impoverished: roll Self Control to take any belief or opinion of the poor or impoverished that is not motivated primarily by Hate..

You cannot be mistaken for a normal human. You cannot always use standard human clothes, equipment, vehicles, and facilities, and when you can, you suffer an increased Difficulty.

You are incapable of fine object manipulation and can only hold or grasp things in a crude, clumsy way.

  • Attribute bonuses from multiple sources do not stack. Instead the highest bonus is used.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action to activate.

You transform into A swarm of Vermin for the next minute. You may end the effect early and return to your normal form at will. Your structure must remain relatively contiguous. It is not necessarily obvious that your transformed state is an unusual phenomena or that it is acting with singular purpose.

While in this form, you can squeeze through any gap that a rodent could fit through.

Damage from standard attacks is halved, but damage from AOE effects is increased by 1.

You cannot communicate, use equipment, or use Gifts while transformed. Your equipment does not transform with you beyond basic body coverings. Carrying capacity is unaffected.

The fungus takeover and Hawthorne now has control over the individuals body. Hawthorne can maintain this control only for a short amount of time but can choose to sever the connection completely with her old body by dying and takeover the new one

Exert your Mind and spend an Action to activate. Select a Living or Sapient target within 20 feet. Roll Intellect + Science at Difficulty 6. The target may resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 6.

If you succeed, you possess your target for a number of minutes equal to the Contested Outcome. The target has no control over their body or actions, though they retain consciousness and will remember anything that occurs during the possession.

Your original body will be left behind, unconscious, in its same location. You may perceive through your original body's senses, but will be at a -2 dice penalty to all Actions while doing so. If your original body is touched, you get a Perception + Alertness check to notice. You may spend an Action to end the possession early.

Stats: During the possession, you use the host body’s Body rating, but your own Mind. Any rolls you make use the host body’s Brawn, Dexterity, and Perception but your own Charisma, Intellect, and Abilities. You gain the effects of any physical Assets and Liabilities they have. You cannot read the target’s mind, know their secrets, or access any hidden knowledge or information they possess.

Gifts: You have access to and can use any of your own Powers which are not intrinsic to your biology or physical body. You cannot access any Powers or other supernatural effects which the target has, unless they are intrinsic to the target’s biology or physical body.

Death: If the host body is killed or destroyed while you are still possessing it, you will die along with it. If the possession ends and your original body was killed, you may make a contested Mind roll against the host. The loser becomes a helpless observer as long as you both inhabit their body.

Eviction: If you attempt to force your host to take actions which would violate one of their Limits or their instinct for self-preservation, they must make a Trauma roll. If they succeed, the possession ends and you are evicted from their body. If they fail, they will gain a new Trauma, but can still choose to Exert their Mind and evict you back into your original body.

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

  • If you are a helpless observer, you cannot activate any Effects, including this one, with one exception: If a co-inhabited body is possessed, a helpless observer may cast Possession on the new inhabitant's original body.
  • Access to equipment-based Gifts such as Signature Items depends entirely on whether you are holding the relevant object, and is not impacted by whether or not you are possessing a target.
  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.

As customary for every field agent of X, Jackie has a form of self defense. His facial cybernetics mark him as a field agent, but also has a dual purpose. Unassuming, the cybernetics have a slight red glow to them, which can draw attention. upon activation, the pulsating and the glow mount until they lance forth, peaking in a triangular shape. From here, the lance is unleashed upon any fool who needs a reminder of the weakness of their flesh. (uses same stats as rifle.) rolls off intellect/dex)

You gain the following benefits at all times.

You are permanently and visibly transformed: facial cybernetics. You are considered to be a Sapient, Living being when targeted..

You may make a +2 Weapon Damage lancing beams attack without additional equipment.

  • Attribute bonuses from multiple sources do not stack. Instead the highest bonus is used.

Spend a minute. Investigate an area with a radius of up to 100 feet You must actively and obviously use sweets to activate this Effect. You cannot investigate the same target more than once per hour. At the end of your investigation, roll Charisma + Investigation at Difficulty 6.

You learn a single specific piece of information, chosen from the following list, about the area:

  • You learn about any traps or ambushes in the area. Using this power does not trigger said traps or ambushes.
  • 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.

This Gift's Cost is capped at 2 and cannot be increased further.

  • 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

Exert your Mind and spend two Actions performing the following ritual: open up the app on your cell phone, make your selection, and prepare to film. Select a target within arm's reach. You must actively and obviously use cell phone camera to activate this Effect. You must maintain Concentration while activating this Effect, and it fails if you are interrupted. Choose an illusion to generate, which can be no larger than a person.

The chosen illusion is generated at your target, and it will remain in place as long as you maintain Concentration or you choose to end it. It can be perceived by people through their hearing, smell, and sight. The illusion cannot be used as an attack. You may create a replica of a specific being or Object, though it is still limited by what you do or do not know about the subject.

Anyone who touches the illusion (or who would be able to perceive it significantly through a sense it cannot fool) realizes it is an illusion and can choose to perceive it or not at will.

The illusion will remain fixed to its initial target, and can only change locations if the initial target is mobile in some way. It may have moving parts and engage in simple, predetermined movements but cannot perform anything complex or interactive unless you maintain Concentration and “puppeteer” it.

  • You must retain Concentration to keep up the effect; if your Concentration is interrupted, the effect will end.
  • while you can use an illusion to obscure something smaller, you cannot make anything directly invisible (you can’t make a tank look like a regular baseball, but you can hide it in an illusion of a giant baseball).
  • You may only puppeteer a single illusion at once.
  • 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.

You gain the following benefits at all times.

Any Injury you receive from a source other than silver or fire. heals quickly, reducing its Severity by one level every day. Any Injuries you receive while this Effect is active automatically count as a successful Proper Stabilization and do not deteriorate further. Any Battle Scars caused by such an Injury will heal with the Injury.

You may Exert your Mind and spend an Action to reduce the Severity of one of your Injuries by 1. Does not affect Injuries suffered as an activation cost for Effects.

Injuries you receive from silver or fire. are increased in Severity by 1.

  • The increase in Injury Severity stacks with any similar effects, such as the Vulnerable drawback on Inhuman Physiology.

Take a Severity-1 Injury and spend an Action. You must use up a corpse in order to activate this Effect.

Summon a single zombie at your location. They will last until they are destroyed. They are controlled by the GM but will follow any commands you give. You may have at most 1 minion active at a time.

  • Attacking: Minions can make melee range attacks with 5 dice to attack and +1 Damage.
  • Body: Minions have 6 Body.
  • Movement: Minions can move 20 feet per Round as Free Movement, and double that when performing an all-out Sprint.
  • Intelligence: Minions have dog-level intelligence, and cannot communicate back to you. They cannot actively use Equipment.
  • Actions: Minions cannot dodge or Defend. Any Perception checks they make are rolled with 3 dice.

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, Direct, 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.

Spend an Action. Select a target within arm's reach. You must actively and obviously use bread or a fish to activate this Effect.

For the next 24 hours, your target does not require any food, water, or sleep. Any attempts to age your target fail.

This Gift's Cost is capped at 2 and cannot be increased further.

  • 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.