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 to resist any consequences that ensue. If you succeed, you also clear 1 stress from either yourself or your patient.
Field Scientist: When you study a mysterious artifact, substance or sample you can always ask one of the following questions: How could this be useful? How could this be dangerous?
Laser Focus: Use your trump card to resist a consequence 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 are recognisable as a doctor or scientist when you choose to be, and you are welcome even in dangerous places. If you’re offering to tend those in need or making your case based on scientific facts, 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.
Connections: Write down a person, community, organization or subculture to be affiliated with. They can help you out when the chips are down - once per session, and assuming you can get in touch with them, you can call on them for a favour without spending a bond. You can take this talent multiple times, picking a new contact each time.
Expedite: Whenever you work on or help with a task that requires a progress clock to be filled, you can spend 1 Cash to fill in an extra tick of the clock. Explain how you greased the wheels to move things along.
Fix the Odds: Use 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 coordinate a group action, reduce the amount of stress you take by 1 (to a minimum of 0). When leading or commanding a group of NPCs to do something, they get increased scale (for example, a small group counts as a medium group).
Plausible Deniability: You get +1d on all rolls made to cover up, lie about or conceal your or an ally’s involvement in suspicious or criminal activity. When you engage someone in conversation, it is especially distracting.
Time Well Spent: You roll +1d whenever you make a roll to clear stress during downtime. Anyone who joins you gets +1d as well.
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.
Can’t Stop The Signal: Take +1d whenever you use technology to gather information. You are always aware of online devices in your presence (cyberware, hidden cameras, bugs, etc).
Electronic Warfare: In combat, you can spend 1 stress to make a hacking attempt against a device, drone or augment “on the fly” in the middle of a fight. The hacking attempt takes only a few moments, even if you are not using full immersion.
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.
Mess with the Best: You receive +1d when resisting consequences that come from cyberspace, software or other hackers. When you are fully immersed in cyberspace, you don’t suffer “dumpshock” if the connection is suddenly broken.
The Scoundrel
Address problems with agility, subterfuge and misdirection.
Catch Me If You Can: You are unusually nimble, and can perform feats of superhuman athletics - climbing, scaling, jumping, squeezing through, leaping over - without any loss of position or effect.
Infiltrator: When trying to bypass security measures, you don’t suffer reduced position or effect from the quality, intricacy or sophistication of those measures.
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.
Scout: When you protect an ally from any consequences that originate from stealth - such as being detected while sneaking, or being surprised by an ambusher - add +1d to any rolls you make to resist the consequences. When you hide in a prepared position or use camouflage, you get +1d to your rolls to avoid detection.
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.
The Soldier
Address problems with force and resilience.
Bodyguard: When you protect an ally from physical danger and suffer consequences instead of them, add +1d to any resistance rolls you make to mitigate the consequences. You also get increased effect when rolling to notice or find hidden dangers or potential attackers.
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.
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 suffering any loss of position or effect.
Mule: Your load limits are higher. Light: 5. Normal: 7. Heavy: 8.
Peak Performance: You are unusually physically powerful, and can perform feats of physical force that verge on superhuman without any loss of effect. You might be able to break a metal object with your bare hands, tackle a gravbike out of the air, lift up one end of a car, etc.
Sharpshooter: You are unusually precise with ranged weapons. You can perform “trickshots” and other feats of exceptional marksmanship and accuracy without any loss of effect. You might be able to use a weapon at extreme ranges without difficulty, ricochet a bullet around a wall, shoot accurately at someone you can’t easily see, etc.
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 any loss of position or effect, or operate a drone effectively while doing another task at the same time.
Field Mechanic: You roll +1d when repairing hardware of any kind, including drones and robots. You always know whether something can be fixed and what you’ll need to fix it.
MacGyver: When you modify, alter 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.
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 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. You also get increased effect when hiding explosives or concealing a trap.
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 from the beginning. 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.
Farseeing: Spend 1 stress and make an Attune roll to remotely 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. 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.
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.
Fortress of Iron Will: You receive +1d when resisting consequences that originate from psionics, including psionic intrusion from others and the reverberations of your own psychic energies. You always know when an ally is under psionic attack, even if there are no visible signs.
Influence: Spend 1 stress and make an Attune 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: Spend 1 stress and make an Attune roll to twist your psionic abilities and release a terrible tempest of psionic fury against anyone in the immediate vicinity. Spend another 1 stress for each extra feature: it causes harm instead of stunning - you are not affected - your allies are not affected.
Advanced Talents
Killer Pet: Your animal companion gets +1d when you direct it to track or fight an injured target, and gains a special ability: crowd control, sapience, or swift. Take this talent again to choose another special ability for your pet. Prerequisite: You must have an animal companion you have bonded with.
Secret Techniques: You have learned the secret techniques of a particular style of martial arts from a master of that order, who has entrusted them to your keeping. When you engage someone using your unique fighting style, choose a beneficial extra effect (this effect occurs regardless of the outcome of your action): the target’s armor is ruined; the target’s weapon is ruined; the target is knocked sprawling; the target is forced away. Prerequisite: You must train with and earn the trust of a true master.
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.