Socratic Loophole The one good idea a philosopher's ever had

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The power to inflict mental trauma on a target.
Used by Phylum Moridoc, Created by baeowulf.
(This Effect is obviously Alien when used. When activating this Effect, it is obvious you are interacting with the target. )

Phylum's tattoos shift and move around their body and their eyes flash a color out of space. The victim's eyes shift the same way, just for a moment, as they experience their base assumptions about the world unravel.


Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Human target within 20 feet. Roll Charisma + Influence Difficulty 6. Affected targets may resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 7. If they are incapacitated or unconscious, they fail automatically.

If the Contested Outcome is positive, your target will take 2 points of Mind Damage and gains two new Traumas of your choice. The Trauma should be general and not specifically mention you. You should not have to be involved to trigger the Trauma.

these Traumas may be removed by Effects or mundane therapy, as normal. Targets that receive a new Trauma are aware that you are interacting with them but they do not view it as an attack or view the resulting Trauma as malicious. If their Trauma is treated, they will be able to see the reality of the situation.

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

  • 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

This Effect activates whenever someone you've met before is within 200 meters of you. It does not require an Action or Exertion. “Your target should be intuitively based on the triggering event. Roll a single d10, Difficulty 4. If you fail or botch, the Effect fails and you cannot activate it again for an hour.

You automatically detect the closest of any ________ within 50 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.

You receive aura for each being you detect.

  • When triggered, the Effect activation resolves immediately after the triggering Action. It is not Reaction speed.
  • If this Effect fails due to the Unreliable check, you must still pay any associated activation costs.

You gain the following benefits at all times.

Any Injury you receive heals quickly, reducing its Severity by one level every 6 hours. Any Injuries you receive while this Effect is active do not deteriorate over time. However, any Battle Scars caused by such an Injury will remain unless it is Properly Stabilized as normal.

You may Exert your Mind and spend an Action to reduce the Severity of one of your Injuries by 2. Does not affect Injuries suffered as an activation cost for Effects.

You gain the following benefits as long as you have fed in the last 24 hours.

You get +1 dice to any Body resistance rolls you make. You also gain the following effects:

  • Purge Toxins: You may take a severity-1 Injury to cancel the effect of any non-Alien drug, poison, or toxin in your system, so long as you are aware of it's existence.
  • Survivor: You are immune to all non-Alien diseases.

  • These bonuses apply only to Body rolls made to resist Effects and other supernatural phenomena. They do not apply to other contexts such as attacks made while under the Creature Transformation Effect.

This Effect activates whenever using Power Chord. It does not require an Action or Exertion. Select a Animate target within 20 feet. Roll Dexterity + Performance at Difficulty 7.

If you succeed, the target will suffer a dice penalty equal to the Outcome for the next 1 Round. 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. Select a Dead target within 50 feet. Dead targets must have died within the past week, and you must have their remains in your possession.

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

  • 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 an Action. You must actively and obviously use a clock or watch to activate this Effect.

You phase out of reality for 4 Rounds. During this time, you cannot perceive or affect the outside world or take any Actions. You cannot move. Nothing can interact with you in any way.

When you phase out, you may bring up to 1 additional target in arm's reach with you.

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

Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and spend a minute. Select a Sapient target within 20 feet. This Effect cannot be used unless the target does not know you're watching them. 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 your target:

  • You learn how to reliably contact the target.
  • The target’s trail for the past 24 hours is revealed to you and anyone you teach to follow it. This trail shows how long ago the target was there and is followable even when they are in a vehicle.

The quality and specificity of information gained depends on your Outcome.

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

  • Contact info Low Outcome: a means of communication (phone, email, a secretary). High Outcome: specific phone numbers, email addresses, protocols for getting access to the individual.
  • Tracker You are not made instantly aware of where they have been in the past 24 hours; you must follow their trail. You may "happen upon" any trail they have made in the past 24 hours.
  • 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 2 Actions. You must actively and obviously use a piece of clothing you wouldn't normally wear to activate this Effect.

You become disguised in a manner of your choosing. The disguise lasts for two hours, or you may end it early at will.

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 cannot directly mimic an existing person. 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.

This Effect ends if you take an Injury or are stunned or incapacitated.

While disguised, you cannot use any Activated or Targeted Powers.

  • 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.
  • ‘Appearance’ includes voice, bone structure, skin quality, hair length and color, eye color, muscle tone, flesh texture, and generally anything perceivable about your body.

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. Select a Location which is at most 60 feet away horizontally or 15 feet away vertically. This Effect cannot be used unless you are in werewolf form.

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.

  • 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 must be on a surface of some kind in order to activate this Effect; it cannot be activated while in mid-air.
  • 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.