Powers

Your character's powers are rated by the bonus they apply to your power rolls.

Using Powers

To use a power, you will compare the result of a power roll to the power scale table to determine if you mustered enough energy to create your desired effect.

To make a power roll, roll 3d10, count the number of dice that exceed the target number, and add your power's rank. The standard target number is 6.

Example. Bianca Blues wants to use a Sonic Blast (+3) to open a whole in a brick wall. She rolls 3d10 and gets a 3, a 6, and a 8. The 6 and 8 are at or above the target number, so her power roll total is a 5: 2 successes plus her +3 rating for Sonic Blast. She compares this to power scale table and finds that 5 successes is enough to destroy brick: brick wall demolished.

Power Scale Table

In the power scale table, weight indicates the weight that can be lifted over head. The weight that can be thrown 50 feet is approximately 1/10th of the weight shown.

The speed shown is the maximum running speed for 50m. Over a mile or more, the speed is approximately 1/2.

Power Surge

Your powers are not fixed: they ebb and flow with your energy, adrenaline and intensity. At critical times, you can surge your powers to achieve incredible effects that you are normally incapable of. Doing so is stressful, but allows you to temporarily exceed your normal limitations.

When you perform a power surge, you add a number of dice to your power roll die pool and incur a number of stress. To add 1 die to your die pool, you will incur 1 point of stress. To add 2 dice to your die pool, you will incur 3 points of stress.

During your power surge, any 10s rolled during your power rolls "explode": you can reroll them and add subsequent successes to your success count. Any 10s rolled during these subsequent rolls explode as well.

Designer's Note: Because this is a rules-light system that involving super powers, you will often find yourself wondering "would a player's powers be able to do that?" If the answer seems to rest somewhere between certainly yes and certainly not, allow the player to take a power surge to accomplish the feat.

Power Soak

Your powers also provide you with an enhanced durability. You can use your powers to soak damage. Whenever you would take a wound, instead, you may choose to soak that damage with one of your powers.

When you soak damage, you temporarily reduce a power by as many levels as you would have taken wounds. Your power stays at this reduced level for 24 hours, or until you have a full night's sleep, whichever is longer.

Powers reduced below +1 in this way cannot be used until you have recovered.

If you incur more wounds than you can soak with a single power, you can use multiple powers to soak the damage. If damage is partially soaked, the remainder is incurred as wounds.

Power Stunt

Alternative, you can also use your powers to "stunt" other abilities. So long as it makes narrative sense, your game master may allow you to pay a stress to use your power to achieve effects normally associated with another.

After a power stunt has been performed, the next time you advance in level, you may elect to be able to perform this stunt without paying the stress cost. If you elect not to gain the stunt at that level, you must perform the stunt again in order to take it again.

If you are performing a stunt you have already performed this level, the courage save to resist cracking is very easy.

Example. Strong Steve is fighting three zombies. He wants to smash his hands into the ground and create a thunderwave. The game master rules he can do this. Steve rolls his Strength (+7) power pool (9, 4, 7) and counts 9 successes: his shockwave tosses the zombies back several hundred feet. Steve incurs a stress and must make a courage save.

Drawbacks

Your powers may have drawbacks: a cost associated with using the power.

Some common drawbacks are:

• Appearance: your appearance is disfigured
• Activation: you must activate the power before using it
• Build Up: the power starts weaker (-2, -1), but gets stronger as you use it more (+1, +2)
• Charge Up: you must charge up the power before using it
• Dependency: you must wait for something to happen before you can use the power
• Linked: you must use another power to use this one
• Utility Belts / Super Suits: you are dependent on items or equipment
• Vulnerability / Weakness: you are particularly susceptible to something

Power drawbacks can be minor (+1) or major (+2).

Minor drawbacks are drawbacks that hinder the use of a power, but do not prevent the character from performing other tasks or fitting in in society. For example, dependency on a super suit, or the requirement to activate a "fire form" before manipulating fire energy would be minor drawbacks.

Major drawbacks impact a character's ability to fit in in society or significantly reduce the utility of more than one power. Examples of a major drawback would be: an inability to make physical contact with others, or a grotesque and monstrous appearance.

The same drawback cannot apply to more than one power.

Using Powers While Cracked

When you have cracked, controlling your powers becomes more difficult.

Whenever you make a power roll, subtract any dice below your stress level from the number of successes you would have achieved.

If the number of dice rolled below your stress level is greater than the number of successes rolled, you have lost control of your powers.

Roll on the table below: