Sample Character: Prince Goran of Mars

Today, I made a sample character sheet to show how the character sheet looks when it's filled out. This character is for a pulp-style "sword and planet" science-fantasy setting. In this setting, Earth is the evil Terran Empire. It's currently fighting a civil war with Luna, but it has ambitions to conquer the solar system as its birthright (Earth is the birthplace of humanity, they reason, so all of humanity should be ruled under the banner of Terra). The other planets of the system have their own governments and cultures. Mars is a rugged desert frontier world with many crumbling decadent cities and an unknown number of nomadic barbarian tribes that roam the wilderness.

"Prince" Goran of Mars claims to be a prince among his own people but he's really just another proud warrior from one of those barbarian tribes. His tribe lived as hunters and pirates, but they were proud and honorable people. Although they were pirates, they always gave their prey the opportunity to surrender peacefully and they never fired on unarmed travelers. After he witnessed a Terran expedition raiding a Martian town for slaves and greenmetal ore, Goran got caught up in a brawl between the Terrans and some offworlders who were trading with the Martian city-dwellers. Goran joined up with them and now travels the system with a ragtag crew of mercenaries and traders who run cargoes for profit. They carry equipment, personnel, and information for the Lunar rebels and try to give Terra a black eye whenever they can. Although he hates slavers, Goran maintains his tribe's honor code: if his opponent only has a melee weapon, he won't draw his gun; if his opponent only has a knife, he won't draw his saber; if his opponent is unarmed... well, slavers still have to die, so Goran will snap their necks with his bare hands if he has to.

Sample character sheet: "Prince" Goran (PDF)

The Passions provide free Drama Points. Each Passion can be used once per scene to get a free Drama Point (which can be spent for bonuses) if the Passion is relevant to that scene. Goran's Rage Passion is slavery, so he never has to worry about not having any Drama Points on hand when he runs into Terran slavers. His Noble Passion is honor, so he also has a little something extra to give when his reputation is on the line (such as in a duel or when handicapping himself to face a foe with inferior weapons). His Fear Passion is obscurity, so if he finds himself in danger alone, he'll be more motivated to get back to his friends alive (or at least get word to them before he dies so his story can be told). His Focus Passion is "The free winds of the dead seas of Mars are in my blood! You'll never chain or cage me!" so he always has access to one more Drama Point when someone tries to capture or imprison him (or convince him to settle down and retire, for that matter). These are the kinds of scenes that really matter most to Goran.

The Signs are visible manifestations or hints of strong traits. There is a Sign for every Talent or Drawback and every Attribute or Skill with a score of 3D or more. Signs provide a +1D bonus certain rolls in play, but their major purpose is to provide a cool description of the character that is more than just height, weight, eye color, hair color, etc.

+Talents and -Drawbacks are situational modifiers (bonus and penalty, respectively). Goran grew up in the Martian wastelands, so he's an expert in surviving the harsh environments and dealing with the dangerous flora and fauna to be found in such wild places. He's a good fighter, but he excels with the sword which is his weapon of choice and in battle, he has a fierce battle-cry that rattles his foes. Goran also has two -Drawbacks: "Barbarian" and "Lust for Life". The first penalizes him when dealing with polite society and the second makes it hard for him to resist temptations to enjoy himself (i.e. he's easily seduced or lured into drinking contests when he should be doing other things). The -Drawbacks only apply when his player chooses to use them, but he gets a Drama Point any time a -Drawback causes a problem for him, so it's advantageous for Goran if he occasionally acts boorish among high society or parties a little too hard.

The Facets are basically different kinds of "hit points". In this setting, the GM has chosen not to use Mind because there aren't any sources of mental damage. There are psychics, but they don't have telepathic attacks; there are eldritch horrors, but this is a pulp action setting where the heroes don't really get scared (at most, they're reasonably cautious) so there's no need for keeping track of how much their sanity is blasted. For this campaign, the premise is "rogue traders ply the spacelanes for profit as a front for rebel missions", so wealth will mostly be just a cosmetic issue. The character of the captain of the ship probably has a higher Wealth rating for getting a bigger share but that would go toward maintaining the ship and funding the next mission, in the same way Indiana Jones hunts for artifacts to sell to museums so he can afford to go on more trips to hunt for artifacts to sell to museums. The money isn't really important and the Wealth Facet could easily be crossed off here. It's only real use for Goran is to put a limit on the scale of his carousing: he can spend a night drinking in a bar and getting into fights, but he's not going to be buying and crashing sports cars for fun. If the campaign were set entirely within Goran's own honor-obsessed culture, the group could add a Reputation or Honor Facet to keep track of their social standing, but for this campaign, that will just be something Goran worries about.

So, how does it look?

Simple is hard

I'm still in the process of trimming the system down and editing my writing for clarity. Unfortunately, I only have a little time every day to spend on this project. Over the past two or three weeks, I've trimmed the combat section down a lot. I always try to make things too complicated, so most of my writing is actually just re-writing for simplicity. I had so many specific rules for combat situations that were really not necessary. To be honest, most of them were just examples of how to use the standard task resolution rules for combat. I struggled to figure out ways to represent things that I suddenly realized I had no interest in playing anyway, so I cut them. It's really hard to make these cuts, because I liked making the fiddly little details, but they're actually useless and need to go.

I've got the combat stuff trimmed down to a reasonable level and I decided how I want to do damage and healing issue. This week, I've been revisiting the Social Conflict chapter to bring it more in line with the revised skill list and combat rules. I've decided that I don't want to have separate "combat" and "social" rules. I want them both to be handled as "conflict". Today, while I was cleaning up the social conflict section, it occurred to me that I really need to tie it in with the damage system.

The damage system isn't particularly revolutionary, but I decided to track damage for physical, mental, and social values in addition to other things (although not every campaign or setting will need to use all of them). I originally planned for the Social damage track to relate to your position in society. If someone causes Social damage to you, it's because they humiliate you or make you look foolish in front of everyone and cause you to lose face (for settings where that matters). It occurred to me today that I need to actually talk about how this works in the social conflict section on an individual scale too.

The guiding principle here is "social skills are not mind control". Mind control can make a character do something that the character doesn't want to do; however, social skills can make a character do something that the player doesn't want. Characters only have so much willpower. I know from personal experience that baser instincts can win over better judgement. Just because the player knows that it's probably a trap when the sultry femme fatale invites him up for coffee, that doesn't mean the character will refuse. Just like I know I shouldn't eat a second piece of cake, but sometimes I do it anyway.

Skills are what you do.

In working on the skills this week, I've decided to make some minor cosmetic changes and a fundamental mechanical change. First, I've decided to make all skill names into verbs for consistency. Secondly, I've eliminated some skills. I made an earlier post about how I thought "Notice" was unnecessary and counterproductive as a skill. I've made the same decision in regards to "Investigation" and "Survival". Investigation should be pursued through the use of other skills that are appropriate to the situation; survival can be replaced by a setting-specific knowledge (the Know skill) or talent.

The big change is that I've decided to cut the association between skills and attributes. I was trying to arrange the skills so that they wouldn't all be concentrated under Cunning and Finesse and I finally decided that there were too many justifications for placing a skill under one attribute or another. Is intimidation a product of projecting a strong personality to socially dominate someone? Or, is it more important to have a powerful physical presence? Could you intimidate someone by simply being clever enough to know which psychological buttons to push in order to manipulate them? Instead of choosing one "right" way to use a skill by tying it to an attribute, I've decided to just cut them all loose.

This loses the effect of some skills being easier to learn for characters that have good attributes in that area, which I liked. However, I think this will cut down on bookkeeping questions like "If I raise an attribute first, the skill will be cheaper. If I raise the skill first then the attribute, can I get the points back?" I don't really want the order to matter that much, because I don't want to encourage "character building" like that. Designing a character should be a matter of choosing what skills and attributes they have and not what order is the most efficient to learn them in. That way lies the madness of D20 arguments about whether your rogue/fighter should take rogue first for the extra skills at first level or take fighter first for the immediate use of the weapon and armor proficiencies (and never mind the fact that either combination is inferior to just playing a spellcaster).

I liked that skill discount but I don't think it would be missed in actual play, so I'm happy to cut it out to options more versatile.

Eureka moment

I've just had a eureka moment while in the shower. I was thinking about the changes I made recently to the damage and healing system. (Specifically, I altered the way damage is recorded and finally settled on how it is healed and recovered.) Then, I suddenly remembered that I still have unresolved issues with how to balance the Powers system with everything else (i.e. how much does it cost to learn a Power compared to raising an Attribute, etc.) and I realized that I could link the two together. This is just a rough idea right now, but I haven't made a post in a while, so I'm going to put my notes here before I forget this idea.

The damage system: Each character will have Facets* that determine their state of health. Characters would have a Body Facet to represent their physical health or "hit points" in most settings (obviously in a setting like Wraith: The Oblivion where everyone is a ghost, this would be replaced with another Facet). In settings like Cthulhu Mythos investigations, there would be a Sanity Facet to represent mental stability. In settings where wealth is important but counting pennies isn't, there could be a Wealth Facet to represent how much money a character can throw around without denting their wallet. Not every setting will need or use every Facet. Facets will be part of the setting rules that must be chosen for any given campaign.

(*Originally, I called these Aspects, but I decided to change it to avoid confusion with FATE's Aspects which are more like Van Gogh's Talents and Drawbacks. I'm not really that familiar with Fate. I've only really read the Tri-fold FATE pamphlet made by Michael Moceri and absorbed a lot through osmosis by reading gaming forums like rpg.net. Still, I think that there may be some overlap between FATE and Van Gogh so I want to avoid using the same terms for different things.)

So how does this tie in to the Powers? Powers could be, er, powered by "damage" to different Facets. Warriors with special combat techniques could exhaust themselves by causing light damage to their Body Facet (or Chi in a wuxia "jiang hu" setting) when they use their techniques, so they can't use too many fancy moves without taking a break to rest. In a Cthulhu Mythos setting, using magic spells would be harmful to your Sanity Facet. In a D&D style fantasy world where magic has a limited number of uses per day but no real downsides, spells would damage your Magic Facet; once your Magic is depleted, you can't cast any more spells until you sleep/study/meditate/pray but your health and well-being is otherwise completely unaffected (because in a setting like that, the Magic Facet isn't used for anything else except limiting how much magic someone can use in a limited span of time).

Powers could be altered and adjusted for each setting simply by adjusting the Facet that powers them. In a D&D style world of Vancian magic, spells would be powered by draining the Magic Facet. The only drawback to draining the Magic Facet is not being to cast spells until it recovers, but recovering it is a simple matter of resting overnight and studying your spellbook: magic has no harmful effects but its use is limited. In a Cthulhu Mythos campaign, spells drain a resource that does more than just power your spells--it keeps you sane--and recovering Sanity is a slow and difficult process involving extensive therapy with an alienist who's probably not really equipped to handle your particular issues: magic is detrimental to anyone who wants to stay sane. In a superhero setting where all the important characters have a set of powers, they might not cost anything to use (because powers are always available unless it's a special "Captain X loses his powers to Yellow Flubtonite" collector's issue) but they have to be aimed and controlled with a skill.

Powers can also be controlled by the kind of damage they do to a Facet. A power that does light damage to a Facet can be used repeatedly because that damage is equivalent to being winded and disappears between scenes when characters can catch their breath for a few minutes. Powers that do more serious damage will have to be used more sparingly because it will be more difficult to recover the damage they do.

The Die Cap

By default, all rolls are limited to a maximum of 6 dice. Any dice lost to the Die Cap are converted to Free Wagers, the ability to retroactively Wager (adjust the difficulty of a roll for extra Advantage on a success). I feel that a Die Cap of 6 is perfect for any of the settings or campaigns I would like to run and I don't anticipate writing any settings or supplements that will use a different Die Cap, so I'm cutting the section about adjusting or eliminating the cap. For those that are interested, this is the section on alternate caps that I'm cutting out:

"The Die Cap can be adjusted or eliminated if desired for a particular setting, but this will have an effect on levels of success. A lower Die Cap means that highly skilled characters will have their maximum level of success reduced (because they will not be able to roll as many successes), but the Free Wagers will ensure that they perform more consistently near their peak because they will have more Advantage on their rolls. A higher Die Cap means that highly skilled characters will be capable of scoring more successes (each die is potentially 0-2 successes), but they will need to risk wagering to make full use of those extra successes."

Divination and Example Power 12: See the Past

Many GMs are wary of allowing divination powers in their games because divination can neutralize mystery plots. It is true that magic or psychic powers or other divination methods might reveal clues about a mystery that ordinarily would have gone unnoticed by conventional investigation, but that doesn't necessarily invalidate the conventional investigation techniques. For example, if a psychic detective is investigating a series of murders, his special abilities may tell him that the killer is the brother-in-law of the mayor. That's a helpful piece of information but the case isn't solved yet because most settings don't allow psychic hunches or cosmic “vibes” as admissible evidence in a court of law. That poor psychic detective can't arrest the killer without real tangible evidence and a judge won't issue a warrant based solely on the detective's word or gut instincts.


Divination powers alone won't solve the case for you (unless you're a vigilante who acts as judge, jury, and executioner). On the other hand, they can save a lot of time by letting you avoid red herrings and dead end leads, because you can focus the investigation on the guilty party and spend your time gathering evidence that links them to the crime. Divination can tell you the answer to a mystery, but if you want anyone else to believe you, you'll still need to prove it. The key to running a good mystery game with divination powers is to ensure that the PCs don't live in a vacuum. PCs who have the ultimate authority to act on their information and answer to no one can just say "Oh, the mayor's son-in-law is the killer? I waste him with my crossbow. Case closed." In a campaign structured like that, you'll either need to disallow divination for PCs or be comfortable with the fact that mysteries aren't going to provide much challenge in themselves. On the other hand, PCs who live in a society with laws and public opinion that matters will still need to find real evidence. Just think of all the police dramas that feature detectives investigating someone that they know is guilty but they can't find the evidence they need to convict him. With that in mind, the first divination power is after the jump.

Example Powers 11: Intangibility

Kitty Pryde walking through walls, vampires turning into mist, sci-fi tech that makes things "out of phase" with the rest of the universe, and other powers that allow similar "here but not solid" abilities are covered by this power. 

Example Powers 10: Dispel ("I cast magic missile!" "Nuh-uh!")

The Dispel power is used to cancel another power. Classic examples include opening a magically sealed door by turning to the nearest magician and asking "Can't you wizard it open?" Or, turning to your Chief Engineer when faced with an enemy ship with powerful shields and asking "Can you re-modulate the frequency of our gigionic torpedoes to penetrate their plasmonic shields?" (The answer is yes because anything with that many made up technical words is bound to work!)

Example Powers 9: Deflection ("Not in the Face! Not in the face!")

This power is called Deflection. It's a defensive power that makes it harder to attack a character. Like Armor, this power could be replicated with a more generic power to alter a character's traits (such as boosting Defense), but I'm setting it aside as a common application for ease of reference.

Example Powers 8: Armor

This example power is called Armor and, as you would expect, it makes it harder to hurt a character under its effect. This power is basically a specific form of another power that alters a character's attributes (in this case, Toughness), but I'm making it a separate power because I think it will be a common application in most settings so I'm separating it for ease of reference.

Example Powers 7: Puppet

Today's power is called Puppet and represents a wide variety of ways to control another character through super hypnosis, telepathic suggestion, magical enchantment, or just physical force. 

Example Powers 6: Push (a.k.a. "Get over here!")

This power is used to move a target from one Area to another. Some examples of this in action are Mortal Kombat's Scorpion using his whip to pull enemies to him, Jedi knights using the Force to telekinetically knock battle droids aside, or tractor beams in various sci-fi media.

Example Powers 5: Energy Drain

This is another example of a power and how it can be adapted to represent different things. This power is called Energy Drain and it inflict Strain damage. Strain is a more generalized form of damage that covers things like drowning, thirst, exposure, exhaustion, and other environmental penalties. If you're engaged in a sword fight in a sauna, your opponent's sword will deal normal damage to your Health, but the sauna will inflict Strain on you. I enjoy a nice sauna, but it's not a comfortable place for strenuous physical activity and I wouldn't want to live in one.

Example Powers 4

Here's another installment of specific implementations of a generic power. In this case, it's the classic "Fireball".

Blast: This power allows its user to deal 3D damage to every target in an area. Advantage can be spent to increase the damage by +1D or to exclude a target in the affected area (to avoid friendly fire or self-inflicted injury).

• The Necromancers of Taj Neroth know two spells that use this power. The Western Rite necromancers use a Scene spell they call “The Dholian Maw”, which causes a black pool of oil to seep up from the ground and extend a swarm of gnashing black blade-like pseudopods that glisten like oily teeth. Anything on the ground (or within a few feet of it) will be repeatedly savaged by the blades that swirl and strike like a frenzied school of piranha. The Eastern Rite necromancers use a Focus spell called the “Convulsions of Rahng Nang”, which summons a cluster of greenish-brown spikes like giant porcupine quills that erupt from the earth then retract again. The quills randomly erupt from the ground every round the spell is maintained and are accompanied by the hellish tortured squealing of an apparently very large creature which is being wracked by spasms just below the surface of the ground. Perhaps it is fortunate that nobody has yet seen the body of “Rahng Nang” in its entirety.
• Among the Elemental Mages, this power is very popular and comes in many varieties. Most of them are Instant powers that take the form of an explosion of elemental energy or shrapnel. The most popular spells include “Ball of Fire”, “Meteor Storm”, “Avalanche” (which actually causes the ground in an area to overturn rather than fall from above as the name implies), “Rain of Ice Daggers”, “Acid Deluge”, and “Wrath of Lightning”.
• Aetheric Engineers and Hermetic Dynamicists use this power to create a wide variety of bombs, rockets, and grenades. Hermetic Dynamicists tend to focus on variations of thermal detonators and plasma grenades while Cryobionicists use this power to create frost flak cannon, flash freeze grenades, and bombs that project icy shrapnel. The so-called “void cannons” of Planet X that annihilate matter in a spherical area around the point of impact are also based on this power (Instant, 4D damage).
• The most powerful Ma Quy sorcerers have been rumored to use this power to create “Storms of Hatred”, a wild wide-scale version of the “Fires of Hatred” power. “Storm of Hatred” is a Scene power that deals 5D damage (difficulty 5: Scene 3 +2 for extra damage) and continues to burn even if the caster is dead, unconscious, or leaves the area. It is not unheard of for casters to be destroyed in their own conflagrations.
• The Tyrian Brotherhood use this power when facing many enemies single-handed. They call it “One Light Against the Darkness” or “Rage of Solitary Justice”. Their version of this power cannot be used at range: it can only be used against the Area the Tyrian Knight is in. Upon casting the power, the knight swirls through the area like a mad dervish cutting down every foe with broad weapon sweeps and swift strikes with elbows, knees, head, and feet.

Example Powers 3

Here's an example of how our sample groups would use another power.

Strike: This power allows its user to deal 4D damage to a target in the user's Area. Advantage can be spent to boost the damage or to affect additional targets.

• The Necromancers of Taj Neroth know two spells that use this power. The Western Rite necromancers use an Instant spell they call “Tsathic Flames”, which summons a fan-shaped spray of green flames from the caster's hands. The Eastern Rite necromancers use a Focus spell called the “Chant of Vajra Leng”, which summons a purplish-red streak of lightning that arcs from the caster's forehead and jumps from one target to another in a chain of electrical agony.
• Among the Elemental Mages, this power is known as many different spells. Most of them are Instant powers that take the form of a fan- or cone-shaped spray of damaging energy. Some of the more common spells include “Dragon's Breath”, “Cone of Frost”, and “Acid Spray”. The earth elementalists have two common variations: “Gravel Burst” is an Instant spell that creates a shotgun like blast of jagged gravel; “Scouring Sands” is a Focus spell that can eventually strip flesh from bone or whittle trees to kindling.
• Aetheric Engineers and Hermetic Dynamicists use this power to create plasmathrowers, directed-blast energy mines (labeled “This side toward enemy”), or even an irradiator with a nozzle choke to spread the beam. The effects of these weapons are generally horrific and diplomats are trying to limit their use in warfare by treaties such as the Luna Convention. The Cryobionicists use this power to generate blasts of icy shrapnel or rapid-fire frost needlers that can quickly spray an area with slivers of frozen death. The most hideous weapons to use this power are the close assault weapons of the Invaders from Planet X: they appear to use short range tractor/repulsor beams that alternate hundreds of times a second to shake targets apart. The gruesome effects of these weapons are evident from nicknames like “jelly guns” or “liquifiers”.
• Templars usually use the Bolt power to telekinetically crush or pummel targets, but several Ma Quy have been known to use the Strike power to generate blasts of purplish flame called the “Fires of Hatred”. It is extremely rare for Dai Zha templars to use this power, but very few have been known to use the Astral Source to mimic the effects of “Fires of Hatred” without using negative emotions. The Astral version of this power is called “Luminescent Judgment” and manifests as white lightning.
• The Tyrian Brotherhood use this power when faced with demons or undead. They call it “Glorious Light” because it summons a brightly shining aura that burns such creatures of unnatural evil. It has no damaging effects on living creatures, but the “damage” roll of the power can be used for Advantage on a Command roll (to rally allies) or Duel of Wits roll (to cow enemies).

Example Powers 2

Here is another power with specific examples of how it can be used by different groups and power sources.

Bolt: This power allows its user to make a ranged attack for 3D damage with a basic success. Advantage can be spent to generate additional bolts or add +1D to a bolt's damage.

• The Necromancers of Taj Neroth call this spell “The Breath of Choth Ka”. It is a Focus power (difficuly 2) that causes the caster to exhale a long tendril of greenish black smoke that lashes out to strike like a serpent each round for as long as the caster maintains the spell. The caster must make a Cunning roll to hit with it. Its touch burns like acid but no scientific analysis of the wounds has ever revealed the presence of any chemical agents.
• Among the Elemental Mages, this power is known as many different spells. Most of them are Instant powers that create some sort of projectile: Pyre Lance, Frost Missile, Acid Jet, Lightning Bolt, and so on, but there are exceptions. The Stone Talons spell causes spikes to erupt from the ground to skewer its target. Chant of Ignition is a Focus power that allows the caster to burn targets within line of sight with a Shooting roll each round the chant is maintained. The Frost Scorpion spell is a difficulty 4 (Scene duration 3 +1 for extra damage die) power that generates a large cloud of shimmering ice crystals vaguely shaped like a siege engine; it floats around the caster, who can use it to deal 4D damage to a target every round with a Shooting roll.
• Aetheric Engineers use this power to create a variety of death rays. The most common types are disintegrators that pervert tractor beam technology to rip targets apart on the molecular level, irradiators that bombard a target with highly energetic particle beams, or disruptors that use pulsing waves of energy to break down the atomic bonds in the target's molecules. Hermetic Dynamicists use this power to create lasers and heat rays and Cryobionicists from Neptune have been known to use it to give their war creatures the ability to extrude and launch ice missiles.
• Ma Quy Templars use the Cthonic Source to focus their hatred and anger to telekinetically crush and choke their enemies. Dai Zha templars sometimes use this ability against inanimate objects or to indirectly strike a foe by telekinetically flinging an object as a projectile, but such things are usually frowned upon by their order. In either case, this "Telekinetic Bolt" is a Focus power that can be used with a Concentration roll every round that the power is maintained. 
• The Tyrian Brotherhood does not use this power.

Examples of Powers in Use

I've promised that my next post would include examples of how to use the generic powers to make specific powers, so here are some examples with one power. First, let me introduce our example power users.

• The Necromancers of Taj Neroth, a dangerous cult that worships pre-human deities in a 1920s pulp adventure world. They have cells hidden all over North America, Europe, and Asia and are doing their best to infiltrate all levels of society. Their ranks include socialites, politicians, captains of industry, longshoremen, fishermen, and lumberjacks (although rarely in the same cell together). Their cells go by different names and appear to worship different gods but they all ultimately serve the pantheon of Taj Neroth in various guises. For example, Nai Ctagn, may be worshiped as the Great Buck by lumberjacks in the north woods while urban middle-class businessmen worship it as the Black Stag in their local lodge hall and the idle rich worship it as Naitan, a hedonistic satyr-like figure, in wild debauches in swank hotel ballrooms.
• Elemental Magic, a loosely organized tradition of wizards in a medieval fantasy world. These wizards rarely convene in one place, but sages often communicate with each other to exchange advice and information. More adventurous wizards who travel the world in search of knowledge also seek out their more sedentary brethren to learn new spells and share the knowledge they have gathered in their travels. Some specialize in a particular element while others are generalists.
• Aetheric Engineering, an exciting field of scientific endeavor which is as much art as it is science in a "sword and planet" setting. Aetheric Engineering is used by all the great powers in the Solar System from Venus to Uranus to design and construct their advanced technology which is powered by nuclear reactors and aetheric power transmitters. The Mercurians and Neptunians both use some kind of psychic amplification technology which is not yet well understood (or functional) for the other peoples of the Solar System. Mercurian ascetics use technology based on the field of Hermetic Dynamics (which seems to allow them a greater degree of control over thermal and kinetic energy) and the mysterious Neptunian priesthood uses technology based on Cryobionics (which allows them to create pseudo-living machines of icy crystal). The piratical invaders from Planet X use a previously unknown type of power but reports are still too sketchy to speculate on what it might be.
• The Source, a mystical energy field that permeates the galaxy and can be harnessed for telepathic, clairvoyant, and telekinetic abilities in a space opera setting. The Dai Zha Templars use the positive Astral Source to defend justice and peace in among the worlds of the Galactic Confederation. The Ma Quy use the negative Cthonic Source to service their own ambitions of conquest and empire-building.
• The Tyrian Brotherhood, an order of holy knights whose signature purple tabards and standards have come to represent honor, courage, and goodness throughout all the known kingdoms. They travel the world righting wrongs and correcting injustices. They lead armies against the forces of evil and stand as a shining beacon in the darkness. They possess miraculous powers, but perhaps the greatest is the infectiousness of their incredible courage.

Powers can be used with one of 4 durations: Instant (has an effect one time, usually immediately), Focus (can be maintained from round to round but maintaining it counts as an action), Scene (effects last for the entire scene), and Permanent (effects continue indefinitely). The base difficulty to use these powers is 1, 2, 3, and 4 respectively (although Permanent powers may incur an additional cost). Using powers at range also increases the difficulty by 1 per Area (just like Shooting attacks). 

Now, let's take a look at a power and how it is used by these different groups and power sources. 

Enhance Weapon: This power adds +1D to a weapon's damage (including unarmed attacks) or other qualities for each point of Advantage. For example, a blade enchanted to guide its wielder's hand could be given the Precise quality (+1D to attack rolls), one given preternatural sharpness can be given the Brutal quality (+1D to damage rolls), etc.

• The Arrows of Nai Ctagn: Among the Necromancers of Taj Neroth, this Instant spell is used to temporarily enchant ammunition with a powerful corrosive venom. It grants a single shot the Brutal (+1D damage) and Armor-Piercing (+1D damage against armored targets) qualities. The difficulty to cast it is 2 (Instant power plus an extra point of Advantage for a second quality).
• Among the Elemental Mages, this power is known as many different spells. They are all  Scene powers that add one quality to a weapon. The Burning Blade sheathes the weapon in a halo of fire that grants the Brutal property. The Diamond Edge spell supernaturally hardens a weapon's striking edges to give it the Armor-piercing quality. The Fluid Weapon spell gives a weapon the flexibility of a rivulet of water which gives long weapons the Short quality and short weapons the Reach quality. The Storm Blade spell grants the Precise quality by surrounding a metallic weapon with crackling arcs of lightning; these arcs jump to foes on a near miss and help to draw the weapon into the foe.
• Aetheric Engineers use this power to create many upgraded melee weapons such as vibroblades (Brutal, Armor-piercing), shocklances (Armor-piercing, Tricky), and force field generating batons (Parrying, Shielding). Hermetic Dynamicists also use this power to boost the speed of their melee and ranged weapons (Quick, Sweeping).
• Templars use the Source to enhance their fighting abilities with an energy blade by using the Blade Focus Meditation, a Focus power that they use to give their blades a variety of weapon qualities as they need them (most commonly Parrying, Quick, and Sweeping). When targeted by blasters, they use the Shielding weapon quality to deflect the shots with their blades.
• The Tyrian Brotherhood knows this power as Reaping the Unrighteous, a Focus power with difficulty 3 that grants their weapons Sweeping and Brutal to allow them to mow through evil hordes.

Power Summary

This is my most recent trimmed down version of the powers list. It could be trimmed down further because some of them are just specific uses of other powers, but I'm going to keep them separate for now. The categories are just for ease of reference and don't really have any effect.


Attack Powers
Enhance Weapon: This power adds damage and/or weapon qualities. A specific form of Instill Traits.
Bolt: This power makes a ranged attack for 3D damage with a basic success.
Strike: This power allows its user to deal 4D damage to a target in the user's Area. (This includes short range attacks that can hit multiple opponents in other systems, like spray or "cone" area effects.)
Blast: This power allows its user to deal 3D damage to every target in an area. (This is the usual area effect attack like the fireball spell, grenades, etc.)
Energy Drain: This power causes Strain in an area.
Push: This power moves a target from one area to another.
Puppet: Take control of someone with an opposed roll.

Defense Powers
Armor: This power increases a character's Toughness. (A specific form of Alter Attributes, but I think it will be commonly used so I'm leaving it as its own power for easier reference.)
Deflection: This power misdirects attacks. (A power that could be done with Enhance Skill but this specific form will probably be commonly called for in many settings.)
Dispel: This power negates another character's power.
Intangibility: This power allows its user to become ethereal and insubstantial.

Divination Powers
See the Past: This power allows the user to see the past of an object, person, or place.
Detect/Conceal Aura: This power reveals or hides the presence of powers. (Also useful for realizing when Obi-Wan Kenobi is on your battlestation...)
Analysis: This power identifies important information about people, places, or things.
Locate: This power is used to find something specific.
Mind Probe: This power is used to find, hide, or implant information
Clairvoyance: This power senses places and events beyond normal limits.
Major Divination: This power determines the circumstances of a future event.

Utility Powers
Communication: This power communicates with entities normally unable to. (Speak to animals, plants, etc.)
Environmental Protection: Immunity to the background hazards for a particular environment.
Healing: This power restores wounds and treats afflictions like poison and disease.
Environmental Control: This power alters ambient environmental penalties such as light/darkness etc. Specific examples would be creating light, darkness, gusts of wind, etc. (probably as separate powers in most settings).
Telepathy: communication at a distance

Skill Powers
Alter Attributes: This power allows its user to modify the target's attributes by rearranging, adding, or subtracting dice.
Instill Traits: Gives the target a Talent or Drawback.
Enhance Skill: This power grants a bonus to a skill or gives a skill to someone who doesn't have it.
Incite/Still Passion: Double up or forbid uses of Passions.
Skill Swap: Use one Attribute or Skill in place of another. (For example, telekinesis is using Will instead of Might to move things around.)

Movement Powers
Barrier: This power creates a barrier (i.e. a wall or gap) to impede movement between Areas.
Portal: This power penetrates barriers and crosses gaps (i.e. makes bridges and doorways).
Jump: Rapid movement across short distances, including short teleportation hops.
Entangle: This power hinders or stops movement.
Petrify: This power puts a character in stasis. (Medusa, Han Solo in carbonite, etc.)
Fly: This power ignores movement penalties.

Summon Powers
Creation: This power produces mundane items. (Although they might not look that mundane if you're creating them temporarily with something like a Green Lantern power ring, but they are still just equipment and gear to be used by characters and don't have their own attributes.)
Summoning: This power summons another character, creature, vehicle, etc. (These are things with their own attributes.)

Are there any important powers that I'm missing?

Talents and Drawbacks

I've been feeling rather unmotivated recently. I meant to post the Talents and Drawbacks section about a week ago, but I've been putting it off. I've also been very slowly working through the Powers chapter. I've had that file open but minimized for the past few days but I only occasionally look at it and work on it. I usually do some work on it late at night before going to sleep. I start to make some progress then decide to go to bed and continue the next day, but then I wait until late at night again. The Powers chapter is still a monstrous hodgepodge of abilities that I'm struggling to trim into shape. When I'm actually working on it, it doesn't seem so bad. When I'm not working on it, I have the idea in mind that it's going to be really hard so I procrastinate working on it. The Talents and Drawbacks chapter used to be a similar monstrosity but I've finally cut it down to size. 

Talents are like Edges in Savage Worlds, Feats in D20, or similar advantages in other systems. In my original draft of that section, every Talent was a special case with its own rules. As I had more and more ideas, it started to bloat out of control. It was turning into what I hated about those other systems. I needed to trim it back and get it under control. When I showed it to Mike Addison over at Zombie Dojo, he suggested that I give Talents a limited set of effects and then just vary the circumstances where they apply. In their new stripped down form, Talents essentially function like Fate's Aspects in the way they all provide the same bonus when they apply. However, unlike Aspects, there's no cost to invoke them: they apply whenever they are appropriate. I like the way this works because it means that the different Talents can still have their different descriptions of what they are and how they work, but the specific mechanical effects are easy to remember. You only have to read the Talent once and the name of it should be enough to remind you of when you can use it. I'm also hoping that Talents will provide another layer of description to  help define a character and differentiate one character from another. Rules and examples after the jump.

Creative Combat Options

Han Solo screaming and chasing a bunch of stormtroopers down a hallway. Hobbits ducking through a troll's legs. Swashbucklers swinging on chandeliers. A fierce orc warrior bellowing a war cry to draw the attention of his gods and make his enemies freeze in terror for fatal fraction of a second. The comic relief con artist trying to fast talk his way out of a beating, then distracting the thugs so he can hit them over the head with a nearby blunt object before running away. There are so many interesting things that can happen in combat and I really want to encourage combat scenes to be more than just "I hit him". With that in mind, I made options to use other skills and abilities to boost combat skills (primarily using the concept of Advantage from the Detailed challenge in the core resolution mechanics).