Talents

Table of Contents

The Expert

Address problems with education, insight or compassion.

Applied Science: Whenever you work on a task that involves medicine, chemistry or scientific research and requires a progress clock to be filled, you fill in one extra tick of the clock.

Combat Medic: When you provide medical assistance to someone in a hazardous or stressful situation, you get +1d. If your treatment is a success, choose whether to clear 1 stress from either yourself or your patient.

For All Mankind: When you’re lending your expertise and cooperating with others to solve a problem or resolve an obstacle, add +1d to any setup actions you take or group actions you participate in.

Laser Focus: Use your trump card to reduce or negate consequences of surprise or mental harm (such as fear, confusion, losing track of someone), or to push yourself when trying to study something or solve a complex problem. Once expended, your trump card does not refresh until your next downtime phase.

Polymath: You speak a multitude of languages, and communication is almost never an issue for you. You are also broadly educated, and have a basic understanding of a wide variety of academic subjects. If there’s a question that someone with a basic background in an academic field might know, you probably know the answer.

Welcome Anywhere: You possess the unspoken authority of a doctor, scientist or academic when you wish to, and you tend to be treated as a noncombatant if you’re not openly hostile. If you’re offering to tend those in need or making your case based on your expertise, get +1d to any rolls made to persuade or sway others.

The Fixer

Address problems with charm, guile and influence.

Big Mood: Pick a kind of social mood or dynamic, such as “friendly”, “formal” or “hostile”. Whenever you’re in a social situation and that’s the mood, take +1d to all social actions. You can take this talent multiple times, picking a new kind of social dynamic each time.

Elusive: When the GM would spend a grudge to introduce an escalation (during downtime) or a complication (during a mission) from a faction, spend 2 stress to negate it. Describe what you did to talk them down, call them off, or otherwise avoid their wrath for a while longer. The grudge remains unspent.

Expedite: Whenever you work on or help with a task that requires a progress clock to be filled, you can spend 1 Cash to automatically fill in an extra tick of the clock. If it’s a kind of clock that can already be filled with Cash (i.e. ship repairs), then you get an extra tick when you do so.

Fix the Odds: You can your trump card to reduce or negate consequences for an ally as if they had resisted them, or to allow them to push themselves for free. Explain how you foresaw and/or prepared for this eventuality. Once expended, your trump card does not refresh until your next downtime phase.

Leader: When you take part in a group action, it costs 1 less stress (for all participants) to resist any consequences that ensue as a result. When you personally lead or command a group of NPCs, they get increased scale (for example, a small group counts as a medium group).

Time Well Spent: You roll +1d whenever you cut loose during downtime to relieve stress. Anyone who joins you rolls the same number of dice as you.

The Hacker

Address problems with information or cyberwarfare.

Advanced Persistent Threat: Whenever you work on a task that involves software or hacking and requires a progress clock to be filled, you fill in one extra tick of the clock.

Big Game Hunter: You have experience with the specific techniques and protocols required to hack starships. When you try to hack a ship, compare the quality of your ship and the target ship instead of using security levels. A straightforward hacking attempt can disrupt a ship’s systems and cause problems onboard, but can’t usually cause loss of life directly. As usual, more elaborate hacks take more time and investment.

Can’t Stop The Signal: Take +1d whenever you use technology to gather information. You can connect to wireless devices from twice their usual range, i.e. you can hack into someone’s datapad from within pistol range.

Electronic Warfare: You can make a hacking attempt against a device, drone or augment “on the fly”. The hack takes only a few seconds even without direct neural interfacing, but it’s noisy and you’re limited to trying to disable or disrupt the target.

Ghost in the Machine: Use your trump card to reduce or negate consequences from technological security systems of any kind, or to push yourself when hacking. Once expended, your trump card does not refresh until your next downtime phase.

The Scoundrel

Address problems with agility, subterfuge and misdirection.

Daredevil: When performing a feat of acrobatics or athletics, the risk of falling or otherwise hurting yourself adds an extra +1d to your roll.

Nondescript: Unless you appear strange or draw attention to yourself, people tend to ignore you. You’re hard to notice and remember, and you rarely get recognised. Even people who know you may miss you in a crowd unless they’re paying close attention.

Reflexes: Whenever there’s a question about who acts first, the answer is you.

Shadow: Use your trump card to reduce or negate consequences that result from detection or security measures, or to push yourself when sneaking or hiding. Once expended, your trump card does not refresh until your next downtime phase.

Slippery: You can spend 1 stress to perform a feat of unlikely escape. This allows you to automatically wriggle free (without rolling) from a restraint, cell, hold, grab or tie as long as it’s remotely feasible for you to do so.

Veil: When you participate in a group action that involves stealth, you can cover up to 2 other people with your own Sneak roll. They get the same results as you; if you suffer any consequences such as detection, they suffer them as well.

The Soldier

Address problems with force and resilience.

Bodyguard: When you protect an ally from physical danger, add +1d to any resistance rolls you make to mitigate the consequences.

Extra Effort: Use your trump card to reduce or negate consequences that come from physical harm, or to push yourself in combat. Once expended, your trump card does not refresh until your next downtime phase.

Dothe Trance: Spend 1 stress to enter a state of “hysterical strength” and endurance, allowing you to accomplish feats such as breaking metal objects with your bare hands, carrying a person easily for long periods, or lifting a car. You can safely keep up the trance for about 15 minutes, and gain the Exhausted condition when it ends. If you push it further, you’ll injure yourself.

Martial Artist: When using your bare hands, you can engage an armed opponent or a group of up to 6 unarmed opponents in close combat without being at a disadvantage.

Mule: Your load limits are higher. Light load is 5, normal load is 7, heavy load is 8.

Steady Hand: When you’re firing into the fray, the risk of accidentally hitting an ally adds an extra +1d to your roll.

Wrecking Ball: When engaging in combat or wanton destruction, the risk of causing unwanted collateral damage adds an extra +1d to your roll.

The Technician

Address problems with technology, ingenuity and proficiency.

Ace Pilot: Use your trump card to reduce or negate consequences that affect the vehicle or drone you’re currently piloting or operating, or to push yourself when doing so. Once expended, your trump card does not refresh until your next downtime phase.

Bot Herder: You can operate up to 3 drones simultaneously without worse risk or less effect, or operate a drone effectively while doing another task at the same time.

MacGyver: When you modify, repair or jury-rig a device or try to build something on the fly, the work is much faster than it should be and you don’t need all the parts or tools. You always know whether something can be fixed and what you’ll need to fix it.

Personal Drone: Designate one of your drones to be your personal drone. You can swap out your personal drone’s tags for free as a downtime action, i.e. you can swap endurance for performance. If you lose your personal drone, you can spend 2 Cash to replace it (with all tags included) with a day or so of work.

Saboteur: When you take an action to wreck, damage or sabotage something mechanical, pick one: either the result is quieter than normal and the damage is hidden from casual inspection, or the result is louder than normal and the damage is impossible to miss.

Tinkerer: If you’re working on a long-term project to build or craft something, you have access to an experimental prototype with an extra flaw or drawback as soon as you mark the first tick of the clock. When you finish the project, the flaw is removed.

The Psion

Address problems with unexpected knowledge and mysterious powers.

Empathy: Your psionic abilities (including your talents) extend to anything that has a mind, including animals and aliens. When making psionic contact with so little common ground, you can usually only communicate via emotions, intentions and vague impressions.

Farspeech: You can telepathically communicate with anyone in the same star system as you, as long as you know them. If you don’t know them well or they’re on another planet, you must roll against the risk of a weak transmission or a failed contact.

Forewarning: Use your trump card to reduce or negate consequences that originate from another living creature with a mind that can be read, or to push yourself when going up against them. This usually only includes humans unless you have the Empathy talent. Once expended, your trump card does not refresh until your next downtime phase.

Influence: Spend 1 stress and roll to psionically influence the mind of a sapient being that you can see and communicate with, by giving them a simple one sentence suggestion. To deliver the suggestion by telepathy instead of speech, spend 2 stress instead. The suggestion must be worded in such a manner as to make the course of action reasonable to the target, or suffer from reduced effect.

Mind Raze: You can twist your psionic abilities to release a terrible tempest of psionic fury that will stun anyone within a few feet. To do so, spend 1 stress and roll against the risk of razing your own mind as well. If any of your targets are psions, add the risk of failing to pierce their defenses. Spend another 1 stress for each extra feature: it causes harm instead of stunning - it extends to throwing range - only your enemies are affected.

Scrying: Spend 1 stress to look through the eyes and hear through the ears of a person with whom you have a bond, like a close friend or family member. If they’re not willing, roll against the risk of being detected or shut out. Spend another 1 stress for each extra feature: it lasts for more than a few moments - your target can communicate with you - the target can be anyone you’re familiar with.

Example Advanced Talents

Voidseer: You are able to delve into the deep well of the collective unconscious and surface with answers. When you are in a town, city or other place where lots of human beings live, you can Attune to gather information about anything that might reasonably be known by the people who live there. Prerequisite: You must Attune during an otherspace voyage and make contact with something indescribable.