The Monster

1
Requires Veteran
The power to temporarily transform into The Monster.
Used by Mary-Anne "Freakshow" Le'Grant, Created by geniebottle.
(Anyone who witnesses you activate this Effect or for its duration is very likely to be disturbed to see a transformation into a monstrous, bestial form. )

Using Substance B has rendered Mary-Anne susceptible to an inhuman transformation, dense cells packed and ready to flood her system with concentrated power when adrenaline rushes through her body.


Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and spend an Action. Whenever you fail or botch a Trauma or Self-Control roll, you must activate this Effect. You must make a Trauma roll when you use this Effect. Its Difficulty cannot be reduced by any means. If you fail or Botch, you receive one Mind Damage and a new Trauma.

You transform into The Monster for 3 minutes. You have access to all of your Powers while you are The Monster, and you can use your equipment. The Injuries and Battle Scars of your Alternate Form and your true form are tracked separately.

While transformed, your Dexterity is increased by 3. You do not suffer any Stress while transformed.

Your body is adapted to running. You receive +3 dice on non-attack rolls related to running.

If you take Injuries totaling 4 Severity or higher while transformed, you recover all Injuries and change into an even larger beast. All dice rolls are at -1 Difficulty for the next minute or until this Effect ends. Cooldown 1 day.

If you are restricted, restrained, dazed, sleepy, or stunned, you may activate this Effect to break free or end the negative effect. You cannot free yourself by transforming more than once a minute.

Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation or for its duration will almost certainly be disturbed to see a transformation into a monstrous, bestial form.

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.

Whenever you enter Combat, roll Self-Control. If you fail, you cannot choose which targets to attack and cannot stop fighting until there are no targets remaining.

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

  • When narrating disturbing content, be cognizant of your group's tone and accommodating to those who would like to "fast forward" through the description.
  • When activating this Effect due to a failed Trauma or Self-Control roll, you must still pay the activation cost.
  • Attribute bonuses from multiple sources do not stack. Instead the highest bonus is used.

Community Power Gifts

There's a crack through the air, from an apartment in a place long unknown.
Blood paints the walls as the corpse falls.
There stands a champion of life, weapon held tight.
Lighter in hand, he reflects
in the lands of eternal night.

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

+2 dice to all firearms rolls.

You also gain the following effects:

  • Point Control: Called Shots that you attempt only require a Contested Outcome of 2 for small targets and 4 for tiny targets.
  • Quick Fingers: Drawing your weapon is a Free Action as long as it is on your person. You may reload or swap ammo as a Free Action.
  • Swift Shooter: You may move your full Dash distance and make an attack without a movement penalty in the same Round of combat.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action to activate. Select a Animate target within 20 feet. Roll Charisma + Influence at Difficulty 7.

If you succeed, the target will suffer a dice penalty equal to the Outcome for the next 2 Rounds. Dice pools may be reduced all the way down to 0 by this penalty. This breaks Concentration.

  • This Penalty is not removed if a character Exerts their Mind to ignore penalty.
  • If a character has a dice pool reduced to 0, they cannot attempt that action.
  • 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 to activate. Select a Location no further than 50 feet from you and in your line of sight. The area within 20 feet of the chosen Location immediately and obviously becomes imminently dangerous. Roll Brawn + Alertness at Difficulty 6. Targets inside the radius may attempt an appropriate Reaction at GM’s discretion. Finding a physical barrier to use as cover will cut total damage taken in half (applies after Reaction roll but before Armor).

If the Outcome is positive, your blast hits everything within 20 feet of the chosen Location with Damage equal to your Outcome + 1. Armor is fully effective against this damage.

  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Roll Brawn + Melee 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 a heat shimmer. 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.

Exert your Mind and spend two Actions performing the following ritual: Consumes a mind effecting substance and says "Here piggy piggy". You must maintain Concentration while activating this Effect, and it fails if you are interrupted.

You automatically detect the closest of any Law Enforcement within 300 feet of you for the next hour. This includes any who come within range during the duration. You have a sense their direction and distance.

If no Law Enforcement targets are within 300 feet of you, and then one enters range, you automatically detect it, even if this Effect is not active.

Stock Power Gifts

Exert your Mind and Spend an Action.

You transform into your own corpse for one minute. While transformed, you may control the functioning of the object you have transformed into. You can perceive your surroundings as normal. You can be targeted as a Non-Living, Sapient Object.

If you are damaged while transformed, the damage is realized when you return to normal. If you are damaged before you transform, your inanimate form will appear partially damaged.

You may end this Effect prematurely as a Free Action.

  • If a character is inside of you when you revert to your original form, you take a Severity-5 Injury when they burst from your innards as you shrink.
  • You cannot move in any way the object wouldn't normally be able to move. If you are a feather duster, you cannot float around, etc.

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.

This Effect cannot be used unless you are making a deal to exchange money for protection.

You may make an oath with a physically-present, Sapient target. Communicate the oath's terms to the target, including the requirements and penalties for each participant. If all agree to the terms, you must Exert your Mind and all participants must shake hands to seal the deal.

Record the oath as a Condition. If a party breaks the oath, the Condition ends and they suffer the oath's penalty.

When crafting your oath, you may incorporate any of the following penalties:

  • You may suspend a targeted Offensive Power which will take effect when the oath is broken. The Power must be able to target all participants the oath indicates it could hit.
  • A Battle Scar up to Severe (deaf, missing limb)
  • The oath-breaker is physically marked as an oath-breaker, and any investigative effect will reveal the terms of the oath they broke.
  • A particular Trauma and a single Mind Damage
  • The oath-breaker goes unconscious for up to 24 hours
  • An Injury up to Severity-6 (cannot be reduced by any means)

The target cannot be compelled to agree via a direct threat of violence, another Effect, or another oath. If you would like to use clever wording to mislead the target, you must succeed a contested Intellect + (Culture or Influence) roll.

  • All Oaths must have at least two participants.
  • The target must be physically present to enter the oath.
  • The terms and penalties of the oath do not need to be equitable and do not need to affect all parties equally.
  • A single action cannot break multiple oaths. You cannot 'stack' oath penalties by having a target sign multiple identical oaths, or similar.
  • 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 (unless you win a coin flip) and Spend an Action. Select a Living target within 45 feet. Roll Intellect + Occult 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.

When you activate this Effect, instead of occurring immediately, you may choose to delay its effects until the target takes a particular Action. For example: "when they fire a gun" or "when they swim in deep water."

Possession of this Power grants the following Battle Scar: Witchy Appearance. You have a long, warty nose and chin, wrinkled skin, and a hunch back. Social rolls are at +2 Difficulty, and your free movement is reduced by 10 feet.

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

Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Compulsion for payback. You must roll Self-Control to avoid using this Gift on anyone who wrongs you in a major way.

  • A given target can have a maximum of one Suspended Effect on them at a time. The selected triggering Action cannot be used to reveal information about the target (e.g. no "activate when they are a vampire"). It must be an Action they take, not a thought or something that happens to them.
  • Remember: A Contractor’s Body rating is reduced by 1 for each Battle Scar after their fourth.
  • You may opt to inflict a Battle Scar that is less severe than what your Outcome allows.
  • 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.

You may move easily and without a roll in any of the following situations.

  • Amphibious: You are able to move about in liquids using standard Movement rules rather than any special swimming rules.