Frame Shifting "I disagree with where I am right now."

7
Requires Seasoned
The power to leap across vast distances and tremendous heights.
Used by Minerva McAlaster, Created by Polymorph.
(This Effect is obviously Alien when used. This Effect has no explicit visibility requirements.)

Minerva focuses for a moment, and then, between one frame of the universe and the next, her location has changed. She's left in a new location.

The young girl is able to reflexively decide on her inertia, instinctively making it relative to her landing site. She can do this even without exerting her mind.


Spend an Action or Reaction. Select a Location which is at most 60 feet away horizontally or 15 feet away vertically. If you have activated this Effect 10 times it the last minute, you must Exert your Mind. If you are using this Effect as a Reaction, you must travel at least 10 feet.

You jump to the chosen location. If jumping blind or landing precariously, must roll Dexterity + Athletics to land safely. You will never take fall Damage from successfully landing a jump made with this Effect.

You may opt to trade your free movement for a Super Leap if you are jumping less than 50 feet or if you are closing a gap to an opponent and spend your Action on an attack.

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.

Instead of physically passing through the air, you are teleported directly to your destination. You may hop to the other side of walls or escape grapples but can travel no farther than 3 feet when doing so.

When you use this Effect as a Reaction to dodge, if you Exert your Mind to activate the Effect, you do not need to roll; your dodge is automatically successful.

  • 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.
  • Your target must be within line of sight, or within range of another sense if more fitting for the Gift's flavor.

Revision purchased with:
Improvement from writing up Polite Disagreements spent on improving power: Frame Shifting    (since refunded)
Revision purchased with:
Improvement from writing up Polite Disagreements spent on improving power: Frame Shifting    (since refunded)
Revision purchased with:
Improvement from writing a Journal for Mysophobia spent on improving power: Frame Shifting    (since refunded)
Improvement from writing up Production Lines spent on improving power: Frame Shifting
Revision purchased with:
Revision purchased with:

Community Targeted Gifts

Mel’s mind opens more the the world of the supernatural. With some focus he can call up the dead, and talk to them.

Exert your Mind and spend one minute. Select a Dead target within 50 feet. For dead targets, you must possess their True Name.

The target can communicate in your language for the next hour.

This Effect is not obvious, and the only sign you are using an Effect is Mel furrows his brow and looks at the target. If someone suspects that an Effect was used, they must roll Perception + Alertness, Difficulty 8 to pick up on your Tell.

You may only use this Effect once per target 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.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Location within 300 feet. You must actively and obviously use a trenchcoat to activate this Effect. Roll Perception + Investigation at Difficulty 6. All targets within 20 feet of the chosen Location may contest by Defending or Dodging.

If you succeed, all affected targets will be restricted at their location by a physical, tangible binding. They can still move their arms and use Effects, but cannot move to a new location.

Restricted targets may escape their binding by spending an Action and taking a Severity-1 Injury. Their movement is reduced by 10 feet until the Injury heals.

You may use this Effect as a Reaction to contest any physical Action a target is taking. Excess Outcome does not restrict the target. This interrupts Concentration.

If the Contested Outcome of your activation roll is 4 or higher, the activation cost of this Effect is refunded.

  • For entities whose movement could be considered an attack (e.g. a kaiju), the GM may rule that they are merely slowed instead of fully restricted.
  • 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 Location no further than 25 feet from you and in your line of sight. The area within 10 feet of the chosen Location 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 10 feet of the chosen Location with Damage equal to your Outcome + 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 an Action to activate. Select a Living target within 20 feet. Roll Intellect + Technology at Difficulty 6. The target may roll Body, -2 dice at Difficulty 7, as a Free Action to resist.

If you succeed, the target receives a new Battle Scar of your choosing, limited by the contested Outcome:

  1. A Minor Battle Scar E.g. an aesthetic-only body modification (a disfigured face, a pig's tail), impacted hand or foot, or vocal changes that complicate communication
  2. A Major Battle Scar E.g. a disabled/removed hand or foot, an inability to speak, an impacted major sense, removal of a minor sense, impacted movement.
  3. A Severe Battle Scar E.g. a disabled/removed arm or leg, deafness, aesthetic changes that are nearly impossible to conceal.
  4. An Extreme Battle Scar E.g. removal/disabling both hands or both legs, blindness, a full-body deformation that leaves the target humanoid but makes it difficult to use clothes, vehicles, and equipment designed for humans.
Refer to the stock Battle Scars on the Character Sheet for specific systems.

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

  • You may opt to inflict a Battle Scar that is less severe than what your Outcome allows.
  • Remember: A Contractor’s Body rating is reduced by 1 for each Battle Scar after their fourth.
  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.

On therapy:
Of all the things she's learned throughout her university days, it's that everyone needs therapy - she herself has gone to a session or two for reasons she won't disclose. Whether they've had a good childhood or not doesn't matter. Stress can get to anyone and it's much better if everyone willingly learns how to deal with it instead of shutting themselves away. She knows she realistically can't help every person on Earth but at least it'll save her the pain of watching yet another star blink out.

On books:
She's always loved books. She wants to share that love with everyone else too. Someone she once knew would always put on fireplace or rain ambience in the background, and she's been doing that ever since. It's a fond memory.

On psychology degrees:
People don't usually get jobs directly related to an undergraduate psych degree, and Cassiopeia wasn't dedicated enough to study any further. She's thought of being a therapist before, of course, but she wouldn't want to make that her entire life.

On the Witherheart Mask:
Cassiopeia originally intended for the gift to go on the Mask, but she realizes it's a bit disingenuous to let a magical item do all the work for you. This would've been the description had she used the Mask:
"You sit down in the fabled Cafe Cosmo, where all your worries shall fly away. The barista appears to be a masked figure who listens in silence, but it also feels like the problems you reveal are being... absorbed."

Exert your Mind to activate. Select a Living target within arm's reach. Your target must make a Trauma roll to reap the benefits of this Effect. They may choose to Resist the Effect and not make the roll. Over the course of one Downtime, your patient must communicate with you and reveal at least one of their Traumas to you, including the details of those Traumas and the circumstances of how they were acquired. After the full treatment time has elapsed, roll Charisma + Influence at Difficulty 6.

Your target may Resist. If your treatment is successful, you may remove one of the patient's revealed Traumas without incurring any Experience cost.

You may choose to use this Effect to temporarily relieve any number of the patient's Traumas (including mental Conditions). In this case, Treatment takes an Action and the effect lasts two hours. If the Patient is currently experiencing an episode, Difficulty is increased by 2.

  • The treatment time may be broken up into multiple sessions if necessary.
  • 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 Targeted Gifts

Exert your Mind and spend 15 minutes. Select a Living target within arm's reach. This Effect cannot be used unless you can forage for herbs. You must actively and obviously use water, a container, and heat to activate this Effect.

You may cure any Non-Alien diseases, toxins, or poisons afflicting your target even if you have not diagnosed or fully understood it. You may cure diseases or poisons even if they are not treatable through modern medicine. During treatment, the malady you are treating does not progress or cause additional Damage or other effects.

Whenever you cure a disease, poison, or toxin, if it had inflicted any Damage, your target is healed for half that Damage.

  • Without some sort of diagnostic Effect, “fully diagnosing” a disease or poison will always require a roll of some sort, frequently Intellect + Medicine, but the specific roll and difficulty is at GM’s discretion.
  • 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 Location within 50 feet. You must be in an area abundant with man-made structures and materials.

Select one of the following alterations to create out of standard building materials originating at the target:

  • Wall: Create a straight wall made of standard building materials up to 40 feet long, 10 feet high, and 12 inches thick. This wall can also be used to create a bridge, ramp, or similar. It must be free-standing.

The alteration begins to form when you activate this Effect and finishes forming on your initiative in the next Round. Until it finishes forming, it is not guaranteed to function.

This alteration lasts one minute but may be prematurely destroyed or altered. Your alterations may be broken through with appropriate tools. Anyone attempting to break through must roll Brawn + a relevant Ability. A cumulative Outcome of 6 across all attempts breaks a hole large enough to move through. See the extended system text for GM guidance on various tools.

  • Attempting to break any alterations with inappropriate tools may damage or destroy the tools at the GM's discretion.
  • Any structures you create leave precise gaps for obstacles in their path or push them out of the way. You cannot directly destroy objects or structures or damage beings by creating walls or domes.
  • Tool guidance for GMs:
    • Difficulty 9: Brawn 5, no tools.
    • Difficulty 7-8: One-handed tools or makeshift tools (like a sword). Mythic Brawn without tools.
    • Difficulty 6: Appropriate manual tools. Crowbar, sledgehammer, armor-shredding attacks.
    • Difficulty 4-5: Power tools, vehicles, explosives.
  • This Effect produces the substance you are controlling unless it is drawn from the environment via “Required Environment” Drawbacks.
  • 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 30 minutes. You may only target yourself. The target can easily Resist.

You may add one augmentation to your target. Each augmentation counts as a Battle Scar and can have exactly one of the following Effects:

  • Specialized: You receive +2 dice to a particular non-combat, non-Effect Action.
  • Environmental Adaptation: You do not suffer harm from heat, cold, pressure, or lack of oxygen in a particular environment, provided that challenge normally exists in that environment.
  • Implanted Tool: You have access to the functionality of some common Device at all times. The selected Device can be no larger than a motorcycle helmet.
  • Armor: You have 2 Armor at all times. As always, Armor from multiple sources does not stack.
  • Pouch: Part of your body functions as a hidden pocket. It can hold no more than a briefcase (15 liters).
  • Zippy: Your Free Movement is increased by 10 feet.
  • Maws and Claws: Your unarmed attacks do +2 Weapon Damage instead of -1.

This Gift cannot have more than 3 Drawbacks, and its Gift Cost is capped at 2.

Your alteration "heals" over the course of the next month, after which it is fully cured.

  • Remember: A Contractor’s Body rating is reduced by 1 for each Battle Scar after their fourth.
  • You may not augment targets with pouches or implanted devices that are larger than they are.
  • Targets without Body ratings may have a maximum of 4 augmentations.
  • Example environments for adaptation: space, all saltwater, all fresh water, all water under 50 feet deep, all water deeper than 50 feet, the jungle, radioactive areas, a specific alien world, etc.
  • 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.

Thank you to the original creator of this Gift, Frakcherd https://www.thecontractrpg.com/profile/view/603/

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a target within 20 feet which has both fuel and oxygen available (if you are starting a new fire). You must actively and obviously use a laser pointer to activate this Effect.

You may start or extinguish a fire as large as a fire in a residential fireplace 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 3 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.

You may spend a Free Action on your initiative move a fire as large as a fire in a residential fireplace that is within 20 feet to another location within 20 feet. You may Exert your Mind to draw a line which a fire up to twice as large as a fire in a residential fireplace cannot cross.

  • 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 3 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 a minute. Investigate an area with a radius of up to 100 feet You must actively and obviously use a magnifying glass to activate this Effect. At the end of your investigation, roll Perception + Investigation at Difficulty 6.

You learn the following information about the area:

  • You can tell the age of any structure or natural formation in the area. This includes trees and plants growing in the area.
  • You learn how heavily trafficked the area is, what sorts of Animate beings have moved through the area and when.
The quality and specificity of information gained depends on your Outcome.

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.