Aura of Obscurity [-0]
Description: You cannot be photographed clearly- be it film, digital, or video, you are somehow always out of focus, blurred, etc… Furthermore, people who don’t know you well have a very difficult time remembering you clearly.
Musts: a suitably sneaky supernatural, vampiric, or magical Aspect.
Skills Affected: Alertness, Deceit, Discipline, Stealth
Effects:
Image Obscurity: Unlike the Vampires of old, you can be photographed… it just doesn’t work very well. Film, digital and video images of you are always just out of focus, blurred, or otherwise subtly altered in such a way as to make your image impossible to positively identify. Note that these images are otherwise unaffected.
Veil of Obscurity: Rather like your image on film, people have a difficult time clearly remembering details about you. General information or memories are completely untouched.
“yeah, a guy came through here a while ago…”
Do you remember what he looked like?
“uh… not really. Average height and build, I guess…”
Did you talk to him?
“Yeah, I guess so… nothing important. Asked for directions, I think.”
Directions to where?
“I don’t know… somewhere around here. Look, I, uh… I gotta go.”
Add +2 to the difficulty of remembering any significant details regarding the character (vrs Awareness or Discipline, as appropriate).
People so affected generally tend to avoid those memories entirely, as their attention just never quite gels on you or your presence, leading to an overall feeling of unease which is best just avoided.
Any significant interaction, such as a conversation of over a minute or one of real importance, threats or actual violence, etc… will nullify the power completely.
Fate's Equalizer (-varies)
Fate has empowered you to fight things far greater than yourself. When facing opponents more powerful than yourself (more refresh spent on powers) add the difference in your refresh to any roll interacting with them (up to the max of +1 for every refresh you have spent in this power).
REALITY MARBLE [-1]
Description: You can travel to a magical sub-universe of your own creation and drag other people with you.
Note: Many characters are more powerful inside their Reality Marble than they are outside of it. Such characters should attach an appropriate version of the Limitation Power to whatever Powers they have while inside the Marble.
Skills affected: Conviction, others.
Effects:
Personal Universe. You have a personal universe called a Reality Marble. Design it when you take this Power. You may give it an Aspect of your choice, and as long as it has at least one zone you may give it any number of zones you want and arrange them as you please. You must designate one zone as the "entry zone" which characters arrive in when you use this Power. Your Reality Marble cannot be inhabited, and its design cannot include anything that gives you a significant advantage.
Reality Marble. As an action, you may spend a Fate Point to enter your Reality Marble. If you wish to bring other people with you, you may roll your Conviction skill. Then every other character in your zone is forced to enter your Reality Marble with you unless they beat your roll with a defense roll using Conviction or Athletics. People drawn into the Marble remain there until you decide to send everyone back or lose consciousness. You can't send people back one by one; it's all or nothing. And you can't keep people longer than the time indicated by adding your Conviction roll to "half a minute" on the time chart.
Different Rules [-varies]. Your Reality Marble has a special rule. Negotiate the effects and costs of this upgrade with your GM. You can only purchase this upgrade once. Here are some examples of possible special rules, with appropriate costs:
[-1] Peaceful World. Inside your Marble, all attempts at physical violence face a block with strength equal to your Conviction. In addition, all characters in your Marble have armour 4 against all physical attacks.
[-1] Random Entry. Instead of entering the Marble through the entry zone, characters are randomly scattered among the zones of the Marble. If the Marble is large enough, this may prevent them from seeing each other when they enter.
[-1] Clinging Marsh. The soft and sticky ground of the Marble imposes a border value of 1 on every zone.
[-1] Heavy Gravity. Might restricts all physical skills inside the Marble.
[-2] Anti-Technology Field. Anything rated 8 or lower on the hexing table fails to function inside the Marble.
[-2] Killing Heat. Everyone faces an accuracy 6 weapon 2 attack against their Endurance each exchange from the extreme heat of the Marble.
[-2] King Of The Hill. You enter your Marble in a different zone than everyone else. A zone border equal to your Conviction blocks entry to your zone, and its fortifications add 3 to whatever armour value its occupants have against attacks coming from outside of it.
[-3] Ocean Depths. The entire Marble is underwater.
Shapeshifting Disguise [–1]
Description: This is a variant on Human Guise (page 176) that offers a few extra benefits. Most commonly used shapeshifters who have a limited range (such as only humanoid forms).
Skills Affected: Social skills.
Effects:
Almost Perfect Disguise. You may fashion a disguise with a supplemental action, altering your height, weight, build, appearance etc. Your disguises are almost entirely perfect and are very difficult to see through. There is, however, always one method to unmask you. It may be that uttering your true name strips you of all false pretenses, or perhaps your eyes always look the same, no matter the form you take.
Appearance Can Be Deceiving. Your disguises match your role almost perfectly. Any social action where appearance is a primary factor gains a +2 on the roll, so long as your disguise matches the role you are trying to play.
Clothes to Fit the Role. You are naturally able to fashion appropriate attire along with the magical act of modifying your appearance. As long as your disguise persists, so do the clothes generated by it (even if they are separated from your person). These clothes can look like anything, be of any material, color, or cut. As they are technically a part of you, they can act as a biological link for the purposes of tracking or thaumaturgy.
Puppeteer [-3]
Description: The most terrifying ability of the Golden Strings is the ability to directly take control of victims, moving them around like puppets as long as the bearer plays. In the past this has been used for everything from forcing people to commit crimes to making people work in a factory past the point of exhaustion. It is pure physical control and the victim knows they are not in control of themselves. This makes it no less terrifying, but ironically makes it cause (very slightly) less lasting psychological harm than true mind control.
Skills Affected: Performance
Effects:
Master of Puppets: You're able to do maneuvers at +2 to your roll (using Performance) to place a temporary aspect of control on characters (most often "Puppet on Golden Strings"), so long as you continue playing the instrument strung with the Golden Strings. The victim defends with his Discipline or Might. You can also prevent the victim from taking other actions as well if you do this as a block instead of a maneuver, or use this to establish a grapple. This power can be used as a spray, at a range of up to one zone away, or both. In some circumstances it may work up to two zones, provided the music clearly carries that far.
Pulling Your Strings: Whenever you maintain a grapple with this power-in addition to the normal options for a grapple-you can force the subject to take a single physical action of your choice (fire a gun, swing a knife, etc). If you succeed at the grapple roll, use the Effect of your roll (if any) as the skill bonus for any rolls necessary for the victim's action. If you choose instead to move the victim, you do not have to move with them. If you choose to inflict a hit to the target, you can choose for it to deal mental or physical stress.
Reality Marble [-2, plus powers from "Unlocked Potential"]
Description: A reality marble is placing your own inner world materialized and projected onto reality. You have the ability to project a limited world of your design into reality.
Skills Affected: Conviction, others.
Effects:
Personal Battleground: The created location appears as you choose, it defines your nature, and can take any form. This form cannot change after creation. Additionally, create a pair of Location Aspects that are always in place. (Some canon examples are "Field of Swords," "Overwhelming Forces," "Memory Suppression," and "Desert Wasteland"). These aspects are important for "Projection," below. These scene aspects cannot be removed, and new scene aspects cannot be created within the Reality Marble.
Projection: As an action, spend a Fate Point and roll your Conviction vs. the highest Discipline of your targets (can name multiple targets within the same zone). If you succeed, you are given a number of free tags to any of your Scene Aspects equal to the margin of success, and only you can access the Aspects. If you tie, you are only given one free tag, but only you can access the Aspects. If you fail, you must spend Fate Points to access your Scene Aspects, and ALL within the Marble may access the Aspects. Regardless of success, all targets are brought within the Marble, and are removed from any current conflict that was not with you.
Trapped: All who enter the Reality Marble are trapped until the Marble is broken, you are Taken Out, or an amount of time equal to your margin of success after "half of minute" on the time table has passed. Extra amount of time can be acquired by taking a Mental Stress for each additional turn. If you choose to end the effect of the power, you may place your victims at any location up to a zone away.
A Reality Marble can be destroyed by a powerful attack targeting it. The Reality Marble automatically has a defense skill of your Conviction + your Margin of Success on the Conviction roll. When the Marble is destroyed or you are Taken Out, everyone returns to where they were when this power activated.
Unlocked Potential
As the Reality Marble follows the rules governed by the creator, the creator often has an ability that is inaccessible to them in the "real world." While within the Reality Marble, you are able to use that special ability.
Purchase a single or multiple powers with +1 point refund due to the limitation of being accessible within the Marble.
ENTHRALLMENT [-2]
Description: You can control minds. It's not quick or easy, but it's effective.
Skills Affected: Discipline.
Effects:
Domination. You may engage a willing or helpless target in a mental conflict. Discipline is used to attack and to defend. You automatically win initiative, and taking an action in this conflict requires a character's full attention. If you are taken out, the conflict ends and you may not resume it for twenty four hours. Each exchange in this conflict takes roughly half an hour by default. You can rush this, but you'll suffer a penalty to all rolls in the rushed exchange. This penalty is -1 for a five minute exchange, -2 for a one minute one, and -3 for a combat-time exchange.
Enthrallment. If you take your target out, you may turn them into a rough thrall or into a Renfield. A rough thrall is identical to the character it once was, except that it now obeys you robotically and takes no initiative. Change its High Concept to reflect that. A rough thrall can recover given roughly a month without re-enthrallment, the help of a wizard or therapist, or a Compel against you on one of its aspects triggered by an attempt to force it to do something diametrically opposed to its nature. A Renfield is similar to a rough thrall, but retains none of its previous memories or identity. Renfields are incurable.
Superior Enthrallment [-1]. Your Enthrallment attacks inflict two additional stress. In addition, you may transform defeated targets into fine thralls. A fine thrall is identical to the character it once was, except it now seeks the goals you assign for it in place of its own. Change its High Concept to reflect that. You may also transform thralls into supernatural beings. Select four Refresh of Powers and stunts. Whenever you enthrall a character, you may grant them those abilities. Change their Aspects to reflect their new nature, as normal.
