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Super-Powered
Fate
Power Aspect gaming for Fate Core and Fate Condensed Tiago Maciel (Order #30502015)
Introduction After eight years of experience with Fate Core System (FCS), the clever people at Evil Hat have brought us Fate Condensed (FC). And it really is Fate condensed. It’s also Fate Tweaked (again, eight years of experience), and many things have been made clearer. The result is a sleek, streamlined little system book which, in keeping with the goal of being condensed, has none of the bells and whistles of campaignspecific rules. Enter Super-Powered Fate. Super-Powered Fate was built on Fate Core System, with an emphasis on guided superpower design using Aspects, Skills, and Stunts to recreate any superpower from the comics. It was designed for Wearing the Cape: The Roleplaying Game (WtC:RPG), which came with special rules of its own—among other rules, a division of the basic Skill list into Attributes and Skills, with some Skills modified. WtC:RPG has been well received, but due to its rules changes it’s mostly used by groups wishing to play in a superheroic setting, whether the one it provides or one of the group’s making. This iteration of Super-Powered Fate (SPF) brings what has been called the Power Aspect System from WtC:RPG in line with Fate Condensed (it can also be used with Fate Core System, but the page references are mostly for FC). With it, a gaming group using Fate Core System or Fate Condensed will have the tools needed to quickly select their style of superhero campaign and then build their heroes! The supplement begins by discussing necessary campaign mechanics decisions, then moves on to using Character Aspects, Skills, and Stunts to describe individualized and even unique super-powers. As always with supremely hackable Fate, SPF is intended to be alterable as needed.
Table of Contents Some Useful Power Stunts��������������������������������� 10
Superhero Campaign Mechanics���������������3
Special Power Stunt: Power Scale���������������������������11 Sample Power Scale������������������������������������������������������� 12 Scale Ratings vs. Difficulty Ratings���������������������������� 12
Player Character Construction�����������������������������3 Setting Rules���������������������������������������������������������4 Power Scale (FC p.52, p.11)����������������������������������������������4 Stun Damage (p.11)��������������������������������������������������������4 Collateral Consequences (FT p.61)���������������������������������4 Summing Up��������������������������������������������������������������������4
Powers and Consequences��������������������������������� 13
Superhero Archetypes��������������������������� 14 Gear Stunts������������������������������������������������������������� 14 You Want to Do What?������������������������������������������� 15 More Guidelines than Rules, Really���������������������� 16
Superpower Creation�������������������������������5 Step One: Describe Your Power�������������������������������������5 Step Two: Write a Power Aspect�����������������������������������5 Power Aspects and Permission�������������������������������������6
Example Characters������������������������������� 18
Kiera Baxter ~ Ultramaid������������������������������������������ 18 Power Skills��������������������������������������������6 Koan (birth name unknown)��������������������������������������� 19 The Default Rule������������������������������������������������������������7 Professor Billy-Bob Steiner��������������������������������������� 20 Power Skill List������������������������������������������������������7 Jennifer (Jenny) Dauntless ~ Fortuna������������������������� 21
Power Stunts������������������������������������������9
Credits��������������������������������������������������22 Legal Stuff��������������������������������������������22
Power Stunts May Grant Bonuses���������������������������������9 Power Stunts May Change the Rules����������������������������9
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Superhero Campaign Mechanics FC’s first instruction is to Define Your Setting, laying down the rule that “Your choice of setting forms the basis of the table’s consensus about what is true, and what is acceptable in play and in character concepts.” These decisions will affect game mechanics in two ways: Player Character construction (establishing starting character Aspects, Skills, Stunts, Refresh, and Stress), and Setting Rules (Scale and other special rules needed to model stories in the chosen setting).
Player Character Construction Evil Hat’s Fate Toolkit discusses much of this in a broader context (FT p.47-49). Emulating the comics, superhero campaigns can easily range from Gritty Noir to Super-Heroic by dialing the default presets up or down. Very briefly:
Aspects (FC p.4-5). The default is 5 Character Aspects, but adding one or two extra Free Aspects (FC p.5) allows room to describe things like special equipment/gadgets common to superheroes as Aspects. Additional Aspects widen the range of options available to the characters. A Team Aspect might be a shared Character Aspect, but in interest of keeping track of it all, 7 Character Aspects should probably be an absolute cap.
Skills (FC p.6). The default starting Skill pyramid is topped with one Great (+4) Skill. Lowering the pyramid and decreasing the number of starting Skills will leave the PCs competent but not heroically so. Raising the pyramid to start with one Superb (+5) Skill, two Great (+4) Skills, etc., moves the PCs firmly into heroic pulp-adventure territory. Going higher to start with one Fantastic (+6) Skill, two Superb (+5) Skills, and so on, moves into epically super-heroic territory. And Remember that Skill ratings don’t have to be arranged in a smooth pyramid (FC, p46).
Refresh (FC p.10). The default is 3 Refresh. Lowering starting Refresh will make for a grittier game. Raising it to 5 or 6 allows more Invokes during a session, giving greater scope to act heroically (or more Refresh to spend to buy Stunts).
Stunts (FC p.10). The default is 3 free Stunts. More Stunts equals more heroic awesomeness, and pulpy or super-heroic adventure calls for at least 5. Default Stunt Bonuses are +2; superheroic Stunt bonuses might also be set at +3 instead!
Stress (FC p.12). PCs start with 3 Physical 1-point Stress boxes and 3 Mental 1-point Stress boxes. Starting with 4 or 5 Stress boxes, with more purchasable as Stunts, will give the PCs more staying power in Conflicts and superhero campaigns are all about the epic fights.
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Setting Rules In addition to these five “dials” that directly affect character construction, there are three special rules to consider which can hugely shape superhero campaigns.
immediately. If they miss the window of opportunity, however, the initial Consequence will move into Recovery automatically, often renamed (Injured Bystanders might change into Anti-Cape Hysteria, for example), and stick around for the normal duration of the Consequence.
Power Scale (FC p.52, p.11) Superhero campaigns involve characters presenting a wide range of power, and Fate Condensed wisely incorporated Scale as an optional rule. The group will need to decide where on the Power Scale the average PC hero’s power is going to lie. Will they mostly be street-level powers? Cosmic powers? Somewhere between?
Collateral Consequences could also be used by the GM as consequences of hero’s failures or bad decisions. If the narrative justifies it, the GM could choose to apply the Consequence of a successful Attack as a Collateral Consequence rather than to the character. For example, an “invulnerable” hero gets blown through a wall. The GM could declare that instead of inflicting harm on the hero the environment takes the hit as a Collateral Consequence. A Stunt may also boost a power at the cost of creating a Collateral Consequence.
Once the campaign’s average Power Scale is chosen, all PC’s powers will operate at that PS rating as a free Stunt! If they wish a lower PS rating for their power, they will gain 1 Refresh or Stunt for each PS level they drop; if they wish a higher PS rating (up to any ceiling the group agrees on), they can purchase each additional level as a Stunt.
In either case, applying the Collateral Consequences rule can create a more socially realistic superhero campaign, with the PCs Stun Damage (p.11) having to deal with the fallout of mistakes or failure in the form of Stun is offered here as a Stunt, but it can easily be a campaign rule. Collateral Consequences that, if they can’t fix them in the Scene, In the comics and movies, superheroes get beat up—and even will stick around in some form until the next Major Milestone. Taken Out—quit often but bounce back fast to be ready for the Summing Up next fight. If the group wishes the game to reflect this, then they From the beginning the GM and players need to be on the same can simply declare that all Consequences inflicted on the heroes page as to what style of superhero campaign they wish to play, are treated as Stun Damage harm unless specified otherwise. Or and set the 5 dials and decide what Scale and special rules they they can decide that some types of damage are Stun Damage need to apply to support it. A Grim and Gritty campaign could (fists, for example), and other types (bullets?) are not. Alternatively, incorporate reduced Skills, Refresh, and Stunts with a mid-level damage inflicted on a character of a higher PS rating might be Power Scale and enforced Collateral Consequences. A Four-Color only Stun Damage unless some created advantage permits more Comics campaign (think superhero cartoons) might be high lethal damage. on the Refresh and Stunts, with universal Stun Damage, and Collateral Consequences (FT p.61) Collateral Consequences that lean heavy on the property damage To quote directly and at length from Fate Toolkit on the optional but seldom allow bystanders to be even seriously injured. Collateral Consequences rule: “In addition to their usual complement of Consequences, the players can also make use of We’re going to use a new group of players, Alice, Bob, John, three Communal Consequences, one of each degree of severity. and Jen plus their GM, for examples. After talking it out as These represent damage to the environment or new complications a group, they decide they want an epic experience, perhaps in the story, such as Injured Bystanders or Anti-Cape Hysteria. on a level with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. They opt for Players can effectively use them to offload harm from themselves 5 Character Aspects, a Skill Pyramid peaking at +5 to start, onto the world around them. A Collateral Consequence can be 5 Refresh, 5 Stunts, 5 Stress Boxes, Power Scale 2, Stun cleared just like a regular one, using an Overcome Action with Damage for melee combat not involving sharp weapons, whatever Skill seems most appropriate, with two exceptions. One, and stiff Collateral Consequences. it must be done during the Scene in which the Consequence is incurred. Two, there’s no delay—with a good enough Skill roll it clears immediately. This option is best suited for genres, such as supers, in which the PCs are likely to care a great deal about the world around them.” To clarify: if the PCs can “fix” the collateral damage before the scene ends, then even if it’s a Severe Consequence it will clear
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Superpower Creation The Define Your Setting step goes beyond the discussion of campaign-style requiring the above rules decisions. In your superhero setting, what powers are even allowed? If it’s a setting limiting superhuman powers to mental powers, or specific categories of superscience or elemental magic powers, that’s one thing, and if it’s a kitchen-sink approach where the only limit is Power Scale, that’s another. The group may decide to take some powers completely off the table, at least for PCs; time-travel or true telepathy, for example. Or some powers might come with strong limits. Once the broad outline is decided upon, it’s time for players to design their characters’ powers.
Step One: Describe Your Power
John decides he’s going to play a mutant teleporter, with the power to “jump” to any destination he can see within his range. “Seeing” a destination will include seeing it through a real-time image, so long as he also knows where it’s located relative to him. If he’s been there before he can also visualize it.
Above all when deciding their powers, GMs and players should favor strong and flavorful descriptions. What is your superpower going to look like? Is it going to be superhuman strength and toughness and the power to fly (superheroes with this utterly stereotypical power set are known as Flying Bricks), the ability to command animals, the power of invisibility, or the gift of psychic foresight? Get as absolutely detailed as you want.
Bob decides he’s going to play an accident of science. The accident gave him the power to generate any number of temporary quantumdupes. He and his dupes are united in a group mind so that what one dupe knows they all know and they can act with perfect teamwork. The one drawback is information overload—too many dupes means too many distractions, especially if focused on different tasks.
Alice decides she’s going to play a Flying Brick. Discussion with the rest of the table confirms that a superhero world without Flying Bricks just wouldn’t be a superhero world so she can go for it. She decides that Flying Bricks in the setting are the hosts of an alien symbiote that can be passed on to another host via touch if they die. The K-Symbiote grants the K-Host not only superhuman strength, toughness, and flight, but also superhuman senses and practically regenerative healing. Since these extra powers are often also associated with Flying Bricks, the group allows it.
Jen decides she’s going to play a private detective and avatar of Fortuna. Her divine power operates as a wildcard in her favor, and favorably or unfavorably on those she designates. She can try and direct it, but fortune has a mind of its own; in situations where her health and safety are jeopardized it gets especially creative. As the Flying Brick example shows, the chosen power need not be singular; it can be several powers united by a theme, in this case a comic book archetype. Another example from comics would be a “mental powers” package that includes both telepathy and telekinesis. Magic-users in comics traditionally have the power to cast spells encompassing a broad range of magic abilities. Spell them out.
Step Two: Write a Power Aspect This bit is easy—just write a Character Aspect that references the described power. The Power Aspect can be any Character Aspect (FC p.4-5). It’s usually the High Concept, but sometimes it’s a Free Aspect and occasionally it’s even the Trouble Aspect. The Power Aspects the group settles on are Involuntary K-Symbiote Host (High Concept), Hunted Mutant Jumper (Trouble), Accident of Science (Free Aspect), and Avatar of Fortuna (High Concept). Note that in Bob’s case, he’s written an Aspect that doesn’t even directly name the power created by the accident; it’s all good so long as the group knows what it refers to—the accident-created duplication power.
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Power Aspects and Permission
Fate Condensed hammers home the basic Fate concept that Aspects are true, and its first example is a superpower, the Precog Sniper Character Aspect (FC p.5). Just describing the character as a precognitive sniper means the character “sees the future and is a crack shot with a rifle.” The precognitive sniper’s player can spend a Fate Point to Invoke the Precog Sniper Power Aspect for a +2 to Attack with his Shoot Skill, or for a +2 against an attempt to Create an Advantage based on surprise against him, or whatever else the power would justify. This is the principle of Aspect Permission.
John’s Hunted Mutant Jumper can instantaneously move the full distance allowed by his Athletics Skill. Obstacles he can see past won’t stop him (likewise if he can’t see but has been to his target location), and he ignores all Zone Aspects that would affect someone crossing the intervening distance physically (FC p.27). He can invoke his Power Aspect for the +2/reroll when doing things like fighting and dodging, representing him teleporting out of the way or into good tactical positions relative to opponents. Bob’s Accident of Science allows him to be present in multiple locations simultaneously. If he’s not in a Scene at its start, he can always spend a Fate Point to announce that one of his dupes was close by enough to enter it. He can spend a Fate Point in a Scene to leave the Scene by declaring himself to be a dupe in the Scene and disappearing. He can perform long Actions more quickly if having more than one pair of hands would decrease the time needed. If he has one or more dupes with him then he can Invoke his power for the +2/reroll when dodging, on the principle that the attack is more likely to hit a disposable dupe.
Another example; a player whose character has an Invisible Man Power Aspect can turn invisible. The GM could decide that turning invisible is trivial—an Automatic Action—or require a Skill roll (probably against Will), to create the Invisible Situation Aspect. In either case, the player can then point to the created Situation Aspect for permission to make Stealth rolls “in plain sight” (the character’s invisible now, after all). He can also invoke the Situation Aspect for a +2 or reroll on any Action that would be aided simply by being invisible; fighting and dodging while invisible, obviously, but possibly also Actions under the Burglary Skill. To be clear, the Invisible Situation Aspect grants permission to walk unseen—though not necessarily undetected—even without the Invoked bonus because it’s true. It doesn’t need to be invoked to be true, although it can be Invoked for the +2 or the reroll. Now let’s look at our example group’s Aspect Permissions. Alice’s K-Symbiote Host can use her Athletics Skill to simply fly over obstacles that would stop a nonflier and use Notice over greater distances and even in Pitch-Darkness by seeing into the infrared wavelengths generated by heat. She can also eventually fully recover from any kind of injury that doesn’t completely remove body parts—no scarring, no crippling injury once recovery is finished (the lasting effects of Extreme Consequences will likely be mental or social)—simply as a narrative effect of her power. She can spend a Fate Point and Invoke her Power Aspect for the +2/reroll in any Action where flight, strength, toughness, or enhanced senses or physical recovery would contribute. All of that is covered by her Power Aspect’s narrative permissions.
Jen’s Avatar of Fortune can Invoke her Power Aspect for the +2/ reroll in any situation where luck would help her. She can also spend a Fate Point to declare that, “By amazing coincidence,” she knows someone/has something/heard something/etc. that will help her in her current situation. (This is the Declare a Story Detail option. (FC p.24)) Again note that Aspect Permission doesn’t automatically make rolled-for Actions easier (the Aspect must still be Invoked for that), but it can make otherwise impossible Actions possible and even trivial enough to not require a roll (like flying over walls or teleporting past obstacles). It can also make Actions impossible. The GM could rule a gunman couldn’t even try to shoot the Invisible character unless he had some way of creating a There You Are Aspect against him first (well, he could try, but failure at any real distance would be automatic). On the other hand, the Precog Sniper might know right where he needs to shoot to hit him.
Power Skills It can’t be emphasized enough that Skills are all about Actions and that Character Aspects give the Actions context. So a cop or minion will Shoot with their gun, a superhumanly skilled archer will Shoot with their bow, an electrokinetic villain will Shoot lightning, a wizard will throw (Shoot) curses, and the right kind of telepath can “Shoot” mental blasts because SHOOT is the Skill all about ranged Attack Actions of any kind. (Note that other actions-atrange can fall under different Skills.)
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Like Power Aspects, Power Skills are just Skills that express how a power is used. Athletics is the movement Skill, so it covers not just running but also flying and teleporting if the Power Aspect enables it. Alternatively, John and the GM might decide that since actual physical activity isn’t involved in teleporting, his teleportation movement for purposes of distance and dodging should be covered by Will and Notice respectively (the first would still be an Overcome Action, the second a Defend Action).
Blessed by Fortune or Cursed with Ill Luck is dependent on her Will. Using her power will cost her a Create an Advantage Action, and allows her targets an opportunity to Defend with their Will!
The First Rule of Power Skills is that simply assigning a Skill—or multiple Skills—to use with a Power Aspect costs nothing but the Character Aspect and the Skill slots in the pyramid.
Note that for transformation powers (the Invisible Man in the above example), Will is also usually the go-to Skill; Will gets used a lot for active powers that aren’t tied directly to physical actions. When transforming, the Phantom uses his Will to Create an Advantage, the Immaterial Situation Aspect. Someone with a power allowing him to attempt to negate the Phantom’s power (turning him material), or trap or restrain him “physically”, would need to succeed at an Overcome Action or a Create an Advantage Action against the Phantom’s Will. If the group decided that was too much of an advantage, the Phantom could instead Defend against physical Attacks or attempts to Create an Advantage with his Will (he wouldn’t be 100% immaterial, just diffuse and hard to affect). Or the power could come with limitations, permissions built into the description that allow it to be ignored or negated by certain materials or conditions.
The Second Rule of Power Skills: If a Situation Aspect is created using a Skill (as with the Invisible Situation Aspect example, above), the Difficulty of overcoming the Aspect will usually be equal to the Skill Rating used. For example, a hero capable of generating forcefields could use a wrapping forcefield to render a target character Completely Bound (Create an Advantage with Will). To be able to do anything that requires being free of the binding, the target character must first overcome the Aspect denying him freedom—an Overcome Action against the forcefield projector’s Will Skill Rating.
All clear, now? There’s one last thing to consider about Power Skills; the Default Rule.
Jen decides that her Avatar of Fortune’s ability to target others with
The Default Rule What if your electrokinetic villain wants to shoot somebody but doesn’t want to, or can’t, use his lightning to do it? If you want to make a non-power use of a Skill you’ve centered around a power, there are two restrictions. 1) The non-power use of the Skill must be narratively possible (in this case, the electrokinetic must get his hands on a gun first), and 2) the Skill will default to a Mediocre (+0) Skill Rating for the non-power Action. For example, a cyberkinetic hacker might have a high Burglary Skill to help him penetrate computer systems, but if he needed to commit physical breaking
and entering (jimmying a window, picking a lock, etc.) then his Burglary Skill would default to Mediocre. One way to work around this is to simply give the dedicated Power Skill a new name, Hacking, with mundane Burglary in a separate slot. You could easily possess two Fight Skills, one for physical combat, the other for psychic combat; name one Mindscape Fighting, and note that all Stress/Consequences inflicted are mental/psychological.
Power Skill List Players should have lots of ideas on how to apply their powers to Skills, so this is a good place for a quick review of the most obvious possibilities. Some Skills come into play far more than others, but all Skills can become Power Skills with the right story.
Academics
Burglary
Academics deals with non-esoteric knowledge, so it could be a Skill for cyberkinetics, representing their ability to pull useful information out of cyberspace. Since medicine falls under Academics, it will be the go-to Skill for powers that aid others in the form of healing (although magical healing might fall under Lore).
The Burglary Skill is all about getting into or out of places. Infiltration and exfiltration. Obviously phantom-types, capable of turning immaterial and literally walking through walls, would use this Skill. Less obviously, a telepath might use the Skill to enter a target’s mind undetected. Technopaths or cyberkinetics would use the Skill when hacking computer systems.
Athletics
Athletics is the Skill for physical movement, so it’s the obvious Skill Contacts for speedsters. It’s also the Skill for flyers; Aerobatics. Teleporters, While Contacts might not seem an empowerable Skill, knowing and telekinetics who can levitate, often use Will for their move- and making connections with people could come from Cosmic Knowledge. Limited access to the Akashic records could at least ment instead.
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cover the knowing part of the Skill. Getting more sinister, a mind- Investigate manipulator might be able to turn targets into contacts by making Investigate revolves around finding things out through them think they know him as a valued connection. “concentrated effort and in-depth scrutiny.” In the case of Power Skills, this might include: telepathic recovery of a target’s Crafts memories, extrasensory perceptions revealing clues at a crime Also Engineering and Mechanics, and this is a big Skill for powers scene, vision-quests for knowledge, accessing cosmic knowledge that create something. Gadgeteers, tinkers, mad scientists—think (the Akashic records again), or decrypting computer records. of Reed Richards, Tony Stark, Lex Luthor, anyone who makes superscience stuff from rayguns to robots to time-machines, Lore often in the middle of an adventure. Also elemental masters, Knowledge is power, and a common comic-book trope is the hero alchemists, enchanters, and others who can bring stuff into or villain who gains power from esoteric or arcane knowledge. existence that wasn’t there before. Energy field manipulation Likewise the scientist who discovers a new field of physics or allowing the creation of temporarily “solid” objects would use the reverse-engineers alien tech. Sorcerers might use Lore for any Craft Skill. spell that doesn’t readily fall under any other Skill, or use Stunts to attach Attack and Defend Actions onto it.
Deceive
Notice
Anything that presents a lie as reality falls under Deceive. Mental and physical Illusions, obviously, but also shapeshifters imitating someone else. You could Defend with Deceive in cases where the power allows for creating decoys or distractions, or obscuring targets. Actually creating illusions or simple shapeshifting might fall under another Skill—possibly Craft or Will—but if the primary purpose of an illusion or shape change is to deceive then putting the Action under this Skill is appropriate.
Being all about perception, Notice will be defined by Power Aspects and power descriptions that grant superhuman perception. Alice’s K-Symbiote Host can perceive living things in pitch-blackness because she can see infrared radiation, an ability that costs her nothing beyond her Power Aspect. Wizards may be able to sense magic as part of their power, and telepaths can “hear” minds around them (although reading them would fall under Empathy and accessing memories under Investigate).
Drive (Pilot) As Fate Core puts it, Drive is all about “operating vehicles and things that go fast.” So powered armor, drones, anything that’s not you and yet moving under your direction goes here. This Skill often goes hand in hand with Craft for the gadgeteering heroes. Attack can be added to the Skill as a Stunt for attached weapons like fixed or mobile guns, but players can also stick with Shoot for that.
Empathy
Superhuman strength and toughness is of course one of the core superhero powers, but a high Physique Skill rating can be about more than inherent attributes; a suit of powered armor could be the source of a high Physique, as could a transformation power. In cases like this Physique also falls under the Default Rule—out of the powered armor or untransformed, the character will even lose the benefit of the extra Stress boxes and Mild Consequence slot!
Provoke
Described as “the emotional Notice Skill,” Empathy would be the core of a telepathy Power Skill; being able to read surface thoughts and so perceive true intentions. Or it may just be the power to feel a subject’s true emotional state or even just know by pure cosmic awareness.
Provoke is a Skill that can benefit from appearances—scaring someone is much easier if you look like a clear threat. Overwhelming auras of might or horror can be a power. Frightening someone with illusions or nightmares absolutely fits. Since Provoke Attacks can do mental harm, it’s also the go-to Skill for mental Attacks with powers like telepathy if the attack is emotion-based.
Fight Armed or unarmed, powered or unpowered, Fight covers fighting in close-quarters combat. Characters who use their powers to fight will rarely be able to fight as well without their powers, so Fight almost always factors in the Default Rule. However, often a power will enhance an underlying Skill in armed or unarmed combat that is higher than Mediocre (+0) because training; then it’s better to keep the base Fight Skill and add Power Stunts to reflect the benefit of the power.
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Physique
Rapport See above comment about appearances; superhuman or godlike beauty can create a high Rapport Skill. Telepaths who can manipulate minds will lean heavily on the Skill, as will magic-users who can charm subjects, and so on. Cosmic Lovability could be a thing. Again, the Default Rule comes into play if the characters encounter something that blocks their powers.
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Resources
negates or bypasses invisibility. Alternatively, a power may simply The Resources Skill might come from powers—the easiest give the Skill big boosts in the form of Stunts. Stealth covers every examples being alchemists or psychics playing the lottery—but kind of stealth there is; a telepath hiding their mind from another won’t generally manifest a power in an Action. On the other hand, telepath’s attempt to detect them would require a Stealth check. A it could represent a magical resource-pool for needed physical hacker would use Stealth to erase his tracks to spoof cybersecurity trying to backtrack him (and could use Deceive to lay a false trail). things. Real but limited wish-fulfillment.
Will
Shoot
With superpowers, Will translates into psychic strength and the Skill can be the basis for any power not centered more physically. The group must decide if mental fortitude = mental power. Traditionally, psychic power has been linked to strength of will, but non-psionic Will dependent powers may invoke the Default Rule separating the hero’s strength with his Will-directed power from his strength resisting mental fatigue, temptation, and so on.
Power blasts, lasers, fireballs, hexes, lightning bolts, direct telekinetic attacks, etc., the Shoot Skill is often on the menu of Power Skills enabled by a Power Aspect. Even a mental attack, if it does shifts of harm at range, can fall under the Shoot Skill.
Stealth Powers can lean on Stealth in a big way; with invisibility, Stealth would be the core of the Skill—use the Default Rule if anything
Power Stunts Power Stunts are simply Stunts applied to Power Aspects. Most powers don’t require Stunts at all—a Power Aspect and possibly an associated Skill or three are all that’s needed. But Stunts can certainly enhance powers, and some absolutely require them to be fully played. Alice’s K-Symbiote Host is super strong, and while she can give her hero a Superb (+5) Physique (the highest starting Skill Rating available in their heroic campaign), and Invoke her Power Aspect for the +2 when using her strength, that doesn’t really encompass the level and effect of superhuman strength she envisions. For that, she’ll need more. This system book provides a list of Stunts applicable to powers. However, it’s worth it here to expand on the Fate Condensed instructions for creating Stunts in the context of application to Power Aspects and Power Skill. As explained Stunts will either 1) add a Bonus to an Action, or 2) create a rule change.
Power Stunts May Grant Bonuses
Power Stunts May Change the Rules
As covered in Fate Condensed, there are broad categories of ruleschanging Stunts, including but not limited to:
All the bonuses in a Stunt don’t need to go on a single Action. The simplest way to calculate the value of Skill Bonuses and Weapon/ Armor Ratings granted with a Power Stunt is to pick two options from this list (you can pick the same option twice).
Swapping Which Skills are Used. For example, a forcefieldgenerating hero using his Notice Skill in place of his Fight Skill to fight using his fields.
g + 1 to one situational application of a Skill. For example, +1 to Attack with Shoot when using your power.
Using an Action with A Different Skill. A teleporter using Notice to Defend (blinking out of the way of Attacks) rather than Fight or Athletics.
g + 2 shifts of harm (Weapon: 2) on a Tie or greater when Attacking with your power.
Granting
g - 1 shift of harm (Armor: 1) if you Tie or Fail when attacked and Defending with your power. Notes: This method of dividing bonuses was first introduced in Evil Hat’s Atomic Robo. If you choose the option for +3 super-heroic Stunts, then pick from the above options three times! You can of course stack Power Stunts: an incredibly powerful “stacked” energy blast could have a +2 to Attack and a Weapon: 4 for a cost of 2 Refresh! However, if you are using the Power Scale rule it’s a good idea to cap Weapon and Armor Ratings at WR2/AR2.
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a
Skill Bonus Equivalent
to a
+2. The given
example being an extra Free Invoke with a specific Action’s success. Perhaps also filling the lowest available Consequence slot rather than inflicting Stress on a successful Attack.
Allow
a
Character
to
Make
a
Specific Rules Exception.
The examples given were 2 extra Stress Boxes or a second Mild Consequence Slot—perfect for creating more robust heroes.
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The GM is designing a Powerful Mutant Psi for a supervillain, and decides he wants to create a single Telepathic Projection Skill (built
on Rapport). He wants his mutant psi to be able to both manipulate emotions and create mental illusions only his targets can see. Normally he might cover those with Rapport for the emotion manipulation and Deceive for the illusions—both of them Create an Advantage Actions—but to create the single Telepathic Projection Skill he sticks with Rapport for the emotion manipulation and uses a Stunt to switch Create an Advantage with illusions from Deceive to Rapport.
Note: GMs need to pay attention to balance when allowing special rules. For example, Attack isn’t a Physique Action—there’s the Fight Skill for that, and for good reason. Making Physique the Skill for both strength/toughness and fighting at the low cost of a single Refresh (2 Refresh if you add the ability to Defend against all physical Attacks as well) would be hugely unbalancing.
Some Useful Power Stunts Every campaign setting has a few Stunts that fit it especially well. In the case of superhero settings, Stunts that make heroes tougher or more versatile are appropriate. Here are a few Stunts from Wearing the Cape: The Roleplaying Game, reworked where necessary to be compliant with Fate Condensed.
Exchangeable Skill Levels. For every level of the Stunt you buy, you a minimum +2 per target). This rule and Stunt can be applied you may choose one Skill to raise +2 levels or two Skills to raise +1 level during play by lowering another Skill level by -2 or two Skill levels by -1. The Skills must be chosen when the Stunt is purchased, and no Skills may drop below Terrible (-2). The exchange must be part of a transformation or some other action explaining the change. Versatile shapeshifters may be able to exchange almost any Skills (with the likely exception of knowledge/social Skills like Academics, Contacts, etc.); in this case the Stunt costs 2 Stunt slots/Refresh.
to Overcome and Create an Advantage Actions if a power enables the character to act at faster-than-human speeds. Speedsters are the obvious types for this (they can use it to move through multiple impeding zones), but cybernetic minds/artificial intelligences could process information and act through computer links to take multiple Actions per turn as well. This Stunt can always be stacked for +2 or even +3 shifts to each Attack/Action, with the limitation that none of a split Attack/Action’s shifts can be higher than the unsplit result would be.
Creating a Phantom character, the GM decides that a tradeoff of -2 to Athletics for a +2 to Stealth works with an NPC who can turn invisible; not being able to see himself makes him less coordinated, but he’s still harder to detect!
The Dupes created by Bob’s Accident of Science allow him to perform multiple Actions with this Stunt in any scene where it’s already established that he has multiple Dupes. If his Engineering roll delivers an Epic (+7) result, he can split the shifts among 3 Actions for a +5/+1/+1. If he has 3 levels of this Stunt, that would give him +8/+4/+4 shifts, but since none can go above +7 he’ll have +7/+4/+4 shifts. Better for him to split the +7 into a +4/+2/+1, for a boosted +7/+5/+4!
A gadgeteer-built set of powered armor gives its wearer a +2 to Physique in exchange for a -2 Stealth.
Hard as Nails. This Stunt requires Superhuman Recovery (below). You automatically succeed at your Recovery Action for Physical Consequences short of Extreme, and get a +2 bonus to recover from Extreme Consequences. Also, once per Session you may change a Severe Physical Consequence to a Moderate Physical Consequence (if the Consequence Slot is available), or treat a Moderate Physical Consequence as a Mild Physical Consequence when Recovering.
Power Gear Aspect. If you are empowered or enhanced by gear you carry (special weapons, powered armor, etc.) you can name the gear as a Gear Aspect. If you do, you get 1 Free Invoke per Scene on the Aspect—but the GM can always Compel your gear as an Aspect! The Stunt essentially creates an extra Character Aspect; you don’t need to Invoke it to use it for permission, and you can attach other Stunts to it. This Power Stunt is often used to give characters secondary powers; for example, a physically enhanced supersoldier given an Unbreakable Shield he can use to Defend with Fight against Shoot Attacks and throw to Attack with Fight at range.
Lethal Attack. Once each scene, if you inflict a Consequence on a target, you can spend one Fate Point to increase its severity by one step. If your target was already going to receive a Severe Consequence, he must also take an additional Consequence or be Taken Out.
Reflected Attack. You can reflect an Attack back on itself! If you
Multiple Attacks/Actions. Per the rules (FC p.57), given the right succeed with Defend against Fight Attacks, you may spend 1 FP circumstances you can split your shifts of Attack between as many targets as you like in the same target area, down to one shift per target. With this Stunt you add a +1 bonus to each attack (giving
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to reflect your shifts of success against your attacker as Stress/ Consequences, ignoring Armor.
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Stun Attack. Your Attack deals shifts of harm normally, but will Package in advance for each form/gear configuration, following treat each Consequence slot as if it were a Mild Consequence; each slot will take only 2 shifts to fill. This means that only 5 shifts of stun can fill the Mild, Moderate, and Severe Consequence slots in one shot if all Stress boxes were previously filled. The result of being Taken Out with a Stun Attack can’t be more serious than a knockout, however; all stun-inflicted Consequences are all treated as Mild Consequences for Recovery, so they’re cleared at the end of the next Scene.
the guidelines of the Exchangeable Skill Levels Stunt for swapping within the pool. An Open Stunt Pool, which can be used to add new Stunts during a Scene, will either cost 2 Stunt slots/Refresh or have some other added cost (see below).
Superhuman Recovery. Spend 1 Fate Point to recover from all Physical or Mental Stress taken during the Scene or remove 1 Mild Consequence.
Superhuman Regeneration. On your turn, you may make a See Setting Rules (p.4) for incorporating this Stunt as a campaign rule. Recovery roll for physical injuries as a Free Action! If you succeed Powers that allow Attack Actions might have lethal and stun modes of (with no penalty for “doing it yourself”), the wound Consequence damage as well, a function of how much power is put into the attack. is in recovery and “covered up.” It can’t be Invoked against you or Stunt Pool. You can set aside a number of Stunts and/or Refresh impede you in any way. However, it still fills the Consequence slot specifically for Power Stunts appropriate to different transformed until the time it would normally go away.
forms, gadgets, or weapons loadouts. Create a Power Stunt
Special Power Stunt: Power Scale While most superpowers are abilities unpowered people don’t possess to any degree, some powers are enhancements that take normal human abilities to superhuman levels: strength, toughness, speed, persuasiveness, alertness, etc. Athletics and Physique, especially, are two Skills that become outright powers when raised above Superb (+5). Likewise, damage levels from some powers might equal or exceed that of battlefield artillery! While regular Stunt bonuses can work to model superhuman levels of ability, they are more easily modeled using the Scale Rule (FC p.52). How the Power Scale applies to a hero will depend on their Power Aspect; a Flying Brick would get the bonuses for strength, toughness, supersenses, and flying speed—but not willpower or quickness or anything else not part of their defined power set. Speedsters would of course benefit in any Action where reacting and moving fast makes a difference. This will mean that especially powerful superhumans are only easily attacked by others who possess matching or countering powers on the same scale, or from directions of attack that get around their powers. Also note that the Power Aspect and its narrative will affect how a Scale Advantage is applied. The three options are: g +1 per level of difference to their Action before the roll, or g +2 per level of difference to the result after the roll, if the roll Succeeds, or g +1 additional Free Invoke per level of difference to the results of a successful Create an Advantage Action.
Example: Brick vs. Speedster On his turn the PS4 brick swings at the PS4 speedster. The speedster attempts to avoid the swing, and the GM rules that the speedster’s PS4 speed gives him a +4 to his Athletics Skill with his Defend Action against the brick’s Attack Action since the brick’s speed is normal-human (PS0). Since brick’s superhuman strength doesn’t increase his likelihood of landing a punch, Option 1 isn’t appropriate—but if he did land a hit, the speedster has normal human toughness (PS0) so Option 2 would give the brick +8 shifts with his success! Predictably however, the brick fails his Attack Action badly enough that the speedster gets a Got Him Off Balance Boost to use against him. On the speedster’s turn, the GM rules that his superhuman speed won’t help him in a straightforward Attack Action—while he can easily hit the brick, the brick’s PS4 superhuman toughness makes hitting him like punching a stone statue—so the speedster instead opts to entangle the brick in a cocoon of metal cable (they’re fighting in a construction site). That will be a Create an Advantage Action, for which the Speedster takes Option 3. He succeeds with his roll (spending his a Got Him Off Balance Boost), creating the All Tied Up Aspect on the brick and gaining an extra 4 Free Invokes on top of the results of his rolled success!
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(Continued) To Overcome the All Tied Up Aspect and free himself, the brick now faces a Difficulty Rating based on the strength of the wrapping metal cable vs. the brick’s superhuman strength—made harder by the 4 Free Invokes for the thoroughness of the speedster’s super-speed wrapping job. It will take him awhile.
Sample Power Scale A power scale doesn’t need to come with level names, but they might be useful. In this sample scale the GM rules that, in addition to the bonuses, in any Contest between Skills/Power Skills at different scales, the opponent with Scale Advantage wins automatically unless some created advantage negates the difference.
gP S0: Human Scale. Normal human capacity, up to geniuses and Olympic Athletes at Superb (+5). gP S1: Enhanced Scale. Still human but over the line into achievements only possible with enhancement whatever the source; superscience, magic, mutation, divine aid, etc.
gP S2: Superhuman Scale. Now obviously superhuman. No contest in any physical match between a PS2 superhuman and the strongest non-powered human. A PS2 speedster can outrun cars.
gP S3: Metahuman Scale. Beyond human to the point where most civilian weapons are simply ignorable and no mere human can physically oppose them. The super strong hero could fight King Kong. A PS3 speedster can break the sound barrier.
gP S4: Megahuman Scale. The highest level PCs should be able to attain. Can ignore attacks from even “merely” enhanced humans and from all but anti-armor field weapons. This is King Kong, could fight Godzilla. A PS4 speedster can outrun bullets.
gP S5: Ultrahuman Scale. Also called Ultimate Scale, the highest level NPCs still recognizable as less than Ultimate Entities can possess. The “true” scale of this level can vary extremely; in the comics the world’s strongest heroes have been able to lift or push around anything from a cruise ship to a planetoid and possibly survive a direct nuclear strike. In space-oriented adventures, these heroes take on massive starships. Alice decides to make her K-Symbiote Host character PS4—she can simply ignore human scale physical threats but doesn’t possess godlike levels of strength. She decides PS4 is the scale level for K-Symbiote hosts generally as well, and the group agrees. The group had opted for a Campaign Power Scale of PS2, so the PS4 will cost Alice 2 Stunts!
Scale Ratings vs. Difficulty Ratings Scale Ratings are applied to characters, whether PCs or NPCs, added on top of their Skills. Difficulty Ratings (FC p.14) apply to other obstacles or conditions. Scale Ratings are absolute: the range of power represented by each level is set. Difficulty Ratings are relative, and Scale Ratings should be guides to Difficulty Ratings. For example, a GM could assign a PS0 character faced with a brick wall a DR6 (and require a sledgehammer) to Overcome it by knocking a hole in it. For a hero with Physique +5 and PS4, however, he could assign a trivial Difficulty Rating, a DR2 or less. He may not even bother requiring a roll—the PS4 hero could simply crash through the wall as part of his movement!
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Paying for Power Stunts Most Stunts cost just 1 Stunt slot or point of Refresh, and many “Mega-Stunts” are simply stacked bonuses and applications easy enough to calculate. But Special Rule Stunts can sometimes be strong enough to be worth more and sometimes Mega-Stunts will have two settings: normal and boosted. Any Stunt can be purchased with enough Stunt slots or Refresh, but 1 Stunt slot or Refresh plus X, with X being alternative methods of payment through added conditions, is always an option. Sometimes these added conditions make for better roleplaying!
going to limit a Stunt to once per Scene, then make it a Stunt you’re likely to want to use every Scene (or every Conflict Scene, anyway)—something with punch but not a game-changer. Once per Session is a more significant limit, so you can make the Power Stunt more powerful, enough to dominate your tactics for that one Scene. Some examples: Once per Scene, invoke [Aspect] for free to then [do X]. Once per Session, raise [Skill] by +2 for the duration of the Scene. Once per Session, gain Armor: 4 vs. either physical or mental Attacks (chosen at creation) for the duration of the Scene.
Spend a Fate Point to use the Stunt. If a Stunt is so powerful that it shouldn’t be able to be used every Turn, a simple added cost is to require spending a Fate Point to use it. However, if a Stunt costs a Fate Point to use, then it must do something more than just create a one-shot +2 bonus or a favorable Aspect. You can already do that by spending a Fate Point to invoke an Aspect for the bonus or to declare a story detail, no Stunt required! The best way to think about it is as a bonus or permission plus.
Create
an unfavorable
Aspect
when the
Stunt
is used.
Succeed or fail, your use of the Stunt creates an unfavorable Aspect that affects your part in the Scene. It could be a personal Situation Aspect like Tapped Out, an Aspect on the scene like Now Everything’s on Fire (see Collateral Consequences, p.4) or even a Minor Consequence like Exhausted. Note that “unfavorable” means “bad for the character!” It’s effectively a Self-Compel triggered by Examples: When you spend an FP to Invoke an opponent’s Character using the Stunt. Aspect or Consequence, you gain a +3 instead of a +2 bonus. Or when Alice decides that one part of the K-Symbiote Host PS4 package, is your Stunt creates an advantageous Aspect, it comes with two Free the ability to “supercharge” the power, gaining PS5 Scale Levels of Invokes attached to it instead of one. strength/flight speed for 1 full Exchange. The cost of this Scale boost is Power Exhaustion, an extra Minor Consequence that removes the Limit use to once per Scene, or even once per Session. Some K-Symbiote Host’s PS3 rating until the end of the next full Scene. The powers feel like they should require a “recharge” or a waiting K-Symbiote Host still retains their powers, but is reduced to PS0 Scale period before using them again—the bigger the Power Stunt, the until they can rest and recharge. longer the wait—or be reserved for a “finishing move.” If you’re
Powers and Consequences Writing up Consequences can be an art. It’s important to remember that 1), at heart all Consequences are just “sticky” Aspects, and 2) Consequences are relative, but should reflect the severity of their Difficulty Ratings (+2/+4/+6). Remember that these Difficulty Ratings apply not only to Recovery, but also to Actions which the Consequences might inhibit (if not completely disallow). For example, a GM could rule that a PC with a treated Leg Wound, a Medium Consequence, can’t even attempt a long jump. Also the Leg Wound would create a +4 Difficulty Rating for “impeding” movement (FC p.29); the PC would need to make an Overcome roll vs. +4 DR to move from one zone to the next (unless he could fly, teleport, etc.).
Powers should affect the way both Stress and Consequences are described! For example, a duplicating hero could describe Stress taken as individual dupes taking hits and vanishing, with Consequences being the effect of “dupe-shock” or physical damage to the original. A hero whose power is almost immediate recovery/regeneration might describe Stress taken as actual hits that would kill or incapacitate anyone else, which he ignores or shrugs off, and describe Consequences as slower-healing injuries that he can still work around. So think about how your powers will affect the way you write Consequences!
GM: “ You fail to hear the villain as he steps out behind you. Laughing maniacally, he empties his AK-47’s full clip, most of the bullets hitting you. You take 7 shifts of harm.” Player: “Okay, my Stress will soak up all but 2 shifts, so I fill my Mild Consequence Slot with Riddled with Bullets. I turn to face him and say, ‘Well now I’m just hurt.’”
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Superhero Archetypes There can be no exhaustive list of superpowers or power types. The superhero genre can pull in every power and power-source imaginable and no list can include every Cool Power players and GMs can come up with. However, most superhero concepts will fall into one of these ten archetypes. These descriptions are meant as guidelines; players and GMs should feel free to build heavily on them or do something different—the only real limits on powers is that the group can agree on them!
Brick/Flying Brick
Power Stunts. In addition to bonuses, levels of Power Scale
Superhuman prowess is the proto-power, the first one ascribed to ancient heroes and demigods. The Power Aspect will be invokable for anything involving physical strength, toughness, and ability to recover—and compellable for downsides like being a Man of Steel in A Cardboard World. Other parts of the description will be the hero’s related appearance (Totally normal? Incredibly buff? Monstrous?) and secondary powers that are part of the package (like flight for Flying Bricks). Ask questions like “Do they need to breath?” Also, do they have any vulnerabilities? If they do then those vulnerabilities could block invoking the Power Aspect, or even be used to Invoke or Compel the Power Aspect against them. It’s all part of the power description tied to the Aspect.
will determine how much mass or volume of an element can be controlled, as well as range limits (see Scale as General Difficulty, above) and Attack and Defend strength where appropriate. Stunts that allow Craft or Will to Defend against Attacks by instantly interposing barriers of the element are common. More powerful Stunts (including higher Power Scale levels) will often include collateral damage as an added cost
Element Controller
Power Stunts. Most gadgeteer Stunts will be bonuses to Actions
Gadgeteer
The inventor who builds freeze guns, powered armor, forcefield belts, mind-transfer devices, and shrink rays, sometimes in a billion-dollar lab but as often in their basement, is a comic book staple. More “realistic” Power Aspect descriptions should focus on one area of “science,” but don’t have too; superscience polymaths Power Skills. Physique and Fight are the core Skills for Bricks, with are common in the genre. The Power Aspect mostly acts as Athletics a secondary Skill for Flying Bricks for their movement. permission to use Skills in gloriously insane ways, for all sorts Shoot is a valuable Skill as well, with super-strong heroes picking of powers claimed by other archetypes, often created on the fly up and throwing objects to Attack at range (this might instead during a Session or even a Scene. The Aspect can be Invoked to become a Stunt for their Fight Skill), or in some cases possessing declare story details involving having the right tool or gadget for an ancillary Projection power or two (see Projectors below). the job, or for the bonus/reroll on related Skills. The Aspect can Power Stunts. Levels of Power Scale will give their level bonuses also be Compelled for “bugs” in the gadgeteer’s work. to Actions involving strength, toughness, and Recovery, and Power Skills. Craft (Engineering) is the obvious Skill for possibly movement, senses, and ancillary powers. Superhuman gadgeteers, but most stuff the gadgeteer makes will require other Recovery and Hard as Nails will be almost ubiquitous Stunts with Skills to use; Pilot/Drive for a suit of powered armor, Shoot for ray this archetype. guns, etc. Earth. Air. Fire. Water. Also heat, cold, electricity, weather, magnetism, light, darkness, gravity, forcefields, dream-stuff, mental force (for telekinetics), and phlogiston; the ability to control and even create a single “element” is a signature superhero power. The Power Aspect will be invokable for any Action control of the element will allow. Immunity to effects of the element is a common permission; fire can’t burn fire-controllers, watercontrollers can’t drown, etc. Flight is a common power, propelled by the controlled element.
taken when using their gear. The GM can require gadgeteers to take Power Scale levels, their level reflecting the limits of the bang their gadgets can bring. Gadgeteers may also keep Open Stunt Pools for building or modifying gadgets during play.
Power Skills. Craft is the core Skill for a control power that creates discrete objects or forms with various uses; shields of earth, air, or pure energy for example. Otherwise, use Will. Overcome Actions with either Skill can be used to “destroy” the element (smother the fire, turn water into vapor or free hydrogen and oxygen, etc.). Shoot will allow ranged attacks with the element.
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Gear Stunts Gear Stunts are Stunts with the name of the item as both Aspect and Stunt-name. For example: Jet Pack. Like all Aspects, Gear Stunts can be Invoked and Compelled and grant permission to do what is otherwise undoable, in addition to whatever bonus or special rule the Stunt gives. The GM may require that, unless Gadgeteer are creating something new on the spot, they have a list of these in order to use their Open Stunt Pools.
Jumper
Mystic
Mystic’s powers come from mastery of their magic art and so power descriptions need to focus on what kind of magic is possible; is it flamboyant, pyrotechnic, wand-waving magic? Or subtle event-influencing magic? Can it summon magical beings? Create permanent effects? Mystic superheroes tend to have a limited list of on-the-spot options available, while also being able to create unusual or one-time effects with research and careful preparation, making them like gadgeteers who substitute rituals for tool benches. They may also resemble Element Controllers, with magic as an “element” (mana?) they can sense (and possibly hoard and be deprived of). The Power Aspect may give permission Power Skills. As mentioned, Athletics is the obvious basis for a for magic sensitivity—and magic dependence that might be Jumper Power Skill. GMs may also require Will as “mental strength” Invoked or Compelled against them! limiting how much weight a jumper can take with them. Notice Power Skills. Mystics in superhero settings tend to be highmight become the Skill for dodging/blocking by “skipping.” powered and multifaceted, so mystic PCs will resemble Mentalists Power Stunts. A jumper-specific Stunt might be the ability to in having many Power Skills. Their magic “sense” would be a move their full number of allowed zones plus perform an Action, function of Notice, Craft would cover things created, transformed, so long as they can see their destination. Grabbing and jumping or summoned by their power, etc. Resistance to magic attacks or with someone might Daze the jumper’s passenger. A bonus to hostile effects will likely be a function of Will (and anyone can Athletics for dodging may be the most common jumper Power resist). Stunt. Power Scale bonuses might be added to Overcoming distance or increasing carrying capacity (possibly not at the same Power Stunts. A mystic’s Power Scale levels will tend to describe things like duration as well as range of effect. Players can look to time), the details depending on the power description. Element Controllers, Gadgeteers, and Mentalists for Power Stunt Mentalist variations. Telepaths, empaths, and psychics are all mentalists; their power is about perceiving and affecting the world on the mental plane, You Want to Do What? the realm of thought. The Aspect will grant permission for them Teleportation—the power to move from one point to another without physically traversing the space between—is a common superpower and the Power Aspect is invokable in any situation where movement can be enabled or enhanced by being able to “jump” from one point to another. Power descriptions can be tremendously varied. Is jumping instantaneous? Are there physical effects besides the movement itself? Does it work by transforming into energy for the trip (in which case it could possibly be blocked), by shifting into another reality in which the distance is traversed, or some other method?
to perceive and possibly communicate with and influence others with the mind rather than eyes, ears, and speech. Few mentalists can do everything, so power descriptions need to spell it out; the Power Aspect can be invoked in any situation where their extra perceptions can help.
Gadgeteers and mystics do some of their best work away from the clash of powers that is the usual superhero fightscene. One way to make this more dynamic is to play out their inventing (or enchanting) and other complex tasks as Challenges (FC p.32) involving several of their Skills.
Power Skills. Empathy is the central Skill for telepaths, but lots
A gadgeteer uses his Investigate, Academics (esoteric physics), and Craft (engineering) Skills to study a power phenomenon, design a new system to counter it, and build the system.
of Skills can be performed mentally: Stealth (“Nothing to see, here.”), Provoke/Rapport/Deceive (mental manipulation), Notice (opening the inner eye to see the world on other levels), Shoot (direct mental Attacks), etc. Will is generally the Skill non-psis will default to for defending against mental attacks and manipulation.
Power Stunts. Psi-tech may be a common thing; gadget Stunts that amplify, detect, or block mental power. Astral Projectors can normally invoke the Power Aspect to declare a story detail to create an astral body; as a Power Stunt, the power can be made dependent on a Create an Advantage Action with Will, or made a once-per-scene Automatic Action power with 1 Free Invoke on the Astral Form Situation Aspect, etc.
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A witch attempts to break a powerful curse with a lengthy ritual, using Lore, Craft, and Will to reflect her mastery of the required knowledge, techniques, and mental states (mind, hand, and will). Alternatively, GMs might assign high Difficulty Ratings, requiring several Create an Advantage Actions with different Skills before the final roll with the main Skill (the witch could use Free Invokes from successes with her Lore and Craft Skills to leverage the Overcome Action with her Will). In either case, this kind of approach gives players incentive to branch out and cover several “core Skills” that can add a lot of nuance to the game.
Paragon
Shapeshifter
A Paragon is a person or thing perfectly exemplifying a particular Lots of heroes transform, often between a “normal” and a quality. Numerous superheroes have been described as paragons “powered” form (transforming Bricks are common), but shapeof human physical ability. As a power description, being a physical shifters are superhumans whose power is all about changing. paragon grants permission to invoke the Power Aspect to help in An animal shapeshifter that can go from a mouse to an owl to any physical endeavor, from fighting and feats of athleticism and an elephant and anything in between. A rubber hero capable endurance to Recovery. Mental paragons are also possible, as well of stretching, flattening, inflating, and twisting his body into as absolute paragons (see Doc Savage). In the comics, Batman and the unlikeliest shapes. A doppelganger capable of mimicking Captain America are examples of paragons. anybody’s physical appearance, dress, mannerisms, possibly Power Skills. GMs should at least require a Superb (+5) Athletics even abilities. The shapeshifter’s Power Aspect justifies creating Situation Aspects that give new permissions (like the powers of and Great (+4) Physique, or the reverse, before allowing this Power flight and night-sight by becoming an owl), and can be Invoked Aspect for a physical paragon. A physical paragon’s secondary for the bonus or reroll to actions where quick transformations will Skills would be Skills like Drive, Fight, Shoot, and Stealth. A mental help (quick-shrinking to dodge, for example). paragon’s primary Skill would be Notice, and their secondary Skills Power Skills. If the power has a core Skill it’s likely to be Will, with would be Empathy, Investigate, Academics/Lore, and Will. Power Stunts. Paragon Stunts will focus on physical/mental transformations done as Create an Advantage for [Transformed Form] Situation Aspects. Transformation difficulty defaults to +2— excellence, bordering on superhuman, in areas like total physical although the GM may want to assign Difficulty as 2 + 1/per Stunt coordination, absolute recall, etc. Most physical paragons will swapped in for the transformation, below. Deceive and Stealth take the kinds of Recovery-related Stunts taken by Bricks/Flying can obviously be performed through shapeshifting, and Provoke Bricks, but with the wide range of Invoke possibilities granted by or Rapport could be enabled by pleasing or frightening forms. their Power Aspect, they will often take only a few Stunts and Power Stunts. The Power Scale may set a limit to the literal scale convert their unassigned Free Stunts into additional Refresh. of transformations—transforming into a full-size dragon could Projector require a PS4! Upside, the dragon could face a PS4 Flying Brick A projector is a superhuman who’s primary power is blowing on equal terms. Shapeshifters may have Stunt Pools, unlocking holes in things at range. They commonly project some type preset Stunt packages with transformation Situation Aspects. The of force, often just defined as “energy blasts” but they could ability to fluidly change shape during conflicts lends itself to all create and project solid projectiles, or pure kinetic force, or even sorts of Stunt bonuses. be unpowered individuals possessing an arsenal of gadgets or superscience weaponry (super-archers are a common superhero trope). Projectors may be capable of dialing their power up or More Guidelines than Rules, Really down to be able to merely stun targets or blow up battle-tanks. You’ll notice that none of these types give hard numbers. Or they may be purely “heavy artillery,” purely nonlethal, or a mix. This is in keeping with Fate’s philosophy of leaving as much Power descriptions need to set the limits, as well as describe side as possible up to description and narrative, but this leaves a effects and drawbacks like what collateral damage could look like. lot for the group to negotiate. Answers to questions like “Is teleporting as physically stressful as any physical activity?” Power Skills. The obvious Power Skill is Shoot. Notice is a very can seriously affect the story. If the answer is “No,” then useful non-power Skill, as is Athletics for dodging, since projectors a teleporters absolute range might be global—even if are usually otherwise normal humans. he has to hop. If the answer is “Yes,” then he’s likely much more limited—perhaps to how far he could normally walk. Power Stunts. The Shoot Skill will get extensively modified with this archetype; for example, the Stun Attack, Multiple Attacks, and Since questions like these don’t deal with the rules, their Lethal Attack Stunts listed above. A point-defense power—the answers won’t often create Stunts, either, which means ability to block Shoot or Fight Attacks with their own shots— that much of a superhero’s limits are purely descriptive and not reflected at all in the Aspect/Skill/Stunt balance would add a Defend Action. The Power Scale Stunt should be on their character sheet. used to set the level of absolute damage; at higher PS levels GMs shouldn’t hesitate to turn misses—or even hits—into collateral damage Situations Aspects.
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This returns us to world-building and goes beyond the Setting Rules (p. 4).
Speedster By definition, speedsters do things fast—the Power Aspect can act as permission for players to get their speedster somewhere near instantaneously, speed-learn that new research, perform all the steps of a Challenge in an eye-blink, run up walls or on top of water, etc. Speedster abilities vary tremendously in the comics, and the group needs to agree on just what special abilities superhuman speed confers. Even speedster characters may never take more than one turn during an exchange—but it’s up to the GM to determine how many tasks speedsters can perform with a single turn (any number of automatic-success Actions, or using the Multiple Attacks/Actions Rule as needed) and speedsters can perform many long Actions very quickly! Speedsters can Invoke their Power Aspect for a bonus to any Action that would benefit
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from being able to act/react with superhuman speed, and even to declare story details like “I ran and got that tool/weapon/expert we need!”
Power Skills. Athletics, being all about movement, is the speedster’s core Skill. Being able to move superhumanly fast may make other Skills possible in new contexts: Burglary for “vibrating” through walls, Stealth for moving so fast as to be neigh invisible, Shoot for throwing stuff with the velocity of bullets, and so on.
Power Stunts. The easiest way to model the effects of speed
on Actions is to use Power Scale to grant the Skill Bonus for every level above PS0 when facing normal-speed humans. Superhuman Recovery and Multiple Attacks/Actions (above) are two common speedster Power Stunts.
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Example Characters Remember that our group of players opted for 5 Character Aspects, a smooth Skill Pyramid peaking at +5 to start, 5 Refresh, 5 Stunts, 5 starting Stress Boxes, and Power Scale 2. They also decide to allow the option of replacing the Relationship Aspect with an additional Free Aspect. With that in mind, here are their builds.
Kiera Baxter ~ Ultramaid
Description: Kiera is linked to a K-Symbiont, giving her powers of superhuman strength and toughness, flight, enhanced memory and senses and super-healing.
High Concept: Involuntary K-Symbiont Host Trouble: Uncertain Hero Relationship: Of interest to—and interested in—Prof. Steiner. Free Aspect: Backed by No Such Agency (NSA) Free Aspect: “Knowledge is Power.”
SKILLS
Superb (+5): Academics (general knowledge). Great (+4): Athletics, Physique Good (+3): Fight, Notice, Will
Fair (+2): Contacts, Empathy, Provoke, Resources Average (+1): Deceive, Drive, Investigate, Rapport, Stealth
STUNTS
Power Scale 4 (2), Superhuman Recovery, Hard as Nails, Superhuman Regeneration
Physical Stress: 8 Stress Boxes Mental Stress: 8 Stress Boxes Consequence Slots: 1 Mild, 1 Moderate, 1 Severe. Refresh: 5
Background Kiera Baxter was “just” a talented and ambitious editor for a major publishing house, monomaniacally focused on her authors and her career to the point of having no outside life. Then a dying Ultramight crashed (was blown into) the commuter train she was taking home much too late at night. There were only six fatalities on the almost empty train; Kiera was badly injured but she found Ultramight in the wreck, broken and dying. He took her hand and the contact passed the symbiont to her. Fortunately, Ultramight’s NSA support team got to his body and to her before first-responders reached the crash zone, removing them both to preserve their anonymity. Now the NSA is training Kiera as Ultramight’s successor; she’s desperately needed in the fight against bad K-Hosts and other mega and ultra-scale threats, and she’s had her public debut as Ultramaid.
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Kiera…isn’t so sure. She’s not physically brave, and doesn’t appreciate having her career path derailed. The NSA has prevailed upon her bosses to help keep her secret, however, and she’s able to do much of her work from her “home office.” On the plus side, she needs almost no sleep now so she can make up a lot of her hours and her memory is suddenly near-photographic. Her degree was in English Lit but she’s learning whole new fields at an incredible speed, starting with combat training (tactical and strategic) but encompassing superhuman taxonomy and studies. Knowledge is power.
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Koan (birth name unknown)
Description: A mutant, Koan is an effortless teleporter.
High Concept: Principled Supervillain Trouble: Hunted Mutant Jumper Free Aspect: “Nobody knows me.” Free Aspect: Shielded and Aided by Vox Non. Free Aspect: Zeroed.
SKILLS
Superb (+5): Jump Great (+4): Burglary, Shoot Good (+3): Deceive, Fight, Contacts
Fair (+2): Notice, Physique, Resources, Stealth Average (+1): Academics, Investigate, Provoke, Rapport, Will
STUNTS
Power Scale 0 (2 extra Refresh) Disorienting Jump. Koan can grapple and take passengers
with him on a jump. A successful Create an Advantage with Jump (below) will move them both and inflict Dazed and Disoriented with 1 Free Invoke on his passenger. May combine with Fast Jumps.
Fast Jumps. Koan can jump up to 3 zones as part of his free move with an Action. He can split these moves, performing three 1-zone jumps or one 1-zone jump and one 2-zone jump during his Action.
Trained Shooter. When Koan Attacks multiple targets with Shoot, he gets a +1 bonus with each target.
Social Chameleon. Koan has learned to maximize his physical non-descriptness. He gets a +2 to Deceive when attempting to pass as “somebody else, not who you’re looking for.” Shadow Contacts. Through Vox Non’s broad access to a vast underground of subversive and resistance movements, Koan gets a +2 to Create an Advantage with his Contacts Skill.
New Skill: Jump is movement by teleportation, Athletics as a Power Skill. The Skill allows Overcome, Create an Advantage, and Defend Actions in all situations where teleportation will enable the Action. Will is treated as Physique for determining how much weight Koan can carry with him on his jumps.
Physical Stress: 6 Stress Boxes Mental Stress: 6 Stress Boxes Consequence Slots: 1 Mild, 1 Moderate, 1 Severe. Refresh: 7
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Background Koan is a mutant teleporter, capable of effortless teleportation within his range, his only limitations being his carrying capacity and his need to see his destination either with his own eyes (memory and pictures work, too, but only if the target zone remains unchanged and exactly as pictured). Koan is a mystery. He wears a nylon face-covering mask that completely obscures his features and, whoever he was, no government agency has his unmasked face, his DNA, or his fingerprints, on record with any legal identity. Koan has supplied what little is known about him, claiming to be a citizen who was “disappeared and erased” by an unnamed government organization that wanted to use and study his mutation. He’s provided no proof of his claim, but he has the support of Vox Non, a Dark Net collective of conspiracy theorists, revolutionaries, and radical activists. Koan acts as Vox Non’s “physical insertion specialist” in situations where needed information can only be obtained physically, and acts as their mouthpiece when revealing “secret crimes” of the powerful to the public. In return, Vox Non supplies Koan with cover identities and other necessities for living untraceably. Koan also engages in occasional but lethal anti-gang vigilantism; lawenforcement agencies speculate this is less a vendetta and more a case of cleaning up his local environment under whatever identity he’s living as. Koan’s given no motivation for his actions, beyond “I hide to live,” but Koan-fans speculate that he and Vox Non are seeking the people responsible for his “erasure.”
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Professor Billy-Bob Steiner
The accident gave him the power to generate any number of temporary quantum-dupes. He and his Dupes are united in a Description: Totally a mad scientist. Actually a lab of scientists, group mind so that what one Dupe knows they all know and they since that little accident… can act with perfect teamwork. The one drawback is information High Concept: One-Man Research Organization overload—too many Dupes means too many distractions.
Trouble: “Hold my beer, for science!” Relationship: Finds Ultramaid scientifically and personally
Bob’s power allows him to be present in multiple locations simultaneously. If he’s not in a scene at its start, he can always spend a Fate Point to announce that one of his Dupes was close by enough to enter it. He can spend a Fate Point in a scene to leave the scene by declaring himself to be a Dupe in the scene and disappearing. He can perform long actions more quickly if having more than one pair of hands would decrease the time needed. If he has one or more Dupes with him then he can Invoke his power for the +2/reroll when dodging, on the principle that the attack is more likely to hit a disposable Dupe. So far his known limit has been twenty-seven iterations working as one mind (it’s very weird to watch).
fascinating.
Free Aspect: Accident of Science. Free Aspect: “I’m not mad, just inspired.”
SKILLS
Superb (+5): Engineering Great (+4): Academics, Will Good (+3): Contacts, Fight, Resources
Fair (+2): Athletics, Deceive, Investigate, Notice Average (+1): Pilot, Physique, Provoke, Rapport, Shoot
Steiner builds amazing tech from off-the-shelf components or from scratch in his home or mobile labs. None of it’s extensively STUNTS Power Scale 3. The stuff that Stein builds in his lab (forcefield field-tested, though, so performance can be iffy and safety is secondary to it working. Nonetheless, able to spin observation projectors, boot-jets, Big Freaking Guns, etc.) performs at and theory into functional tech in no time—especially after Power Scale 3. (1) his accident—Steiner is the kind of genius who can observe Multiplication x3. (p.10) When Stein splits his shifts in a roll metahumans and come up with counters to their powers or between as many Actions as he has bodies for (FC p.57), he adds gadgets built on how he thinks they work. He refuses to sell any of a +3 bonus to each Action. (3) these gadgets to government or private organizations, however, Open Stunt Pool 1. When Stein engineers a new gadget, if it and so keeps that part of his researches under wraps, selling onerequires bonuses or special rules he can devote this Stunt to it. offs on the dark net with the help of Vox Non. He also studies He can pass the item to other characters to use (and “retrieve” metahumans for the DSA; understanding K-Symbionts has been his Stunt Point), but a PC must spend a Refresh to use the Stunt an ongoing project, although he found Ultramight a pain to work for the Scene and purchase it as a Stunt if they wish to keep it with. Ultramaid, on the other hand, has been a different matter, and he’s found himself dedicating more of his time to the project (they can use the gear without the Stunt, of course). (2) though he’s not sure why. Physical Stress: 6 Stress Boxes
Mental Stress: 8 Stress Boxes Consequence Slots: 1 Mild, 1 Moderate, 1 Severe. Refresh: 4
Background Professor Billy-Bob Steiner is an autodidactic genius and polymath. He also has no time for anything outside his focus of interest and so never finished college; he built his own lab and his income derives from dozens of patents companies have found too useful not to pay for the right to use. MIT awarded him an honorary doctorate and professor emeritus status ten years after he dropped out. Steiner accidentally split himself attempting to create a teleportation device to duplicate Koan’s power (Koan had wanted a range booster).
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Jennifer (Jenny) Dauntless ~ Fortuna
and “covered up.” It can’t be Invoked against her or impede her in any way. However, it still fills the Consequence slot until the time it would normally go away.
Description: Supernatural luck, ridiculously whimsical serendipity, possibly an overactive Fate.
Physical Stress: 6 Stress Boxes Mental Stress: 8 Stress Boxes Consequence Slots: 1 Mild, 1 Moderate, 1 Severe, 1 Mild Mental. Refresh: 4
High Concept: Avatar of Fortune Trouble: “If it’s weird, it’ll find me.” Relationship: “Why these three?” Free Aspect: Thinks on her feet. Free Aspect: “Dauntlesses are dauntless.”
Background
SKILLS
Superb (+5): Will Great (+4): Investigate, Notice Good (+3): Drive, Fight, Shoot
Fair (+2): Athletics, Physique, Stealth Average (+1): Burglary, Deceive, Drive, Rapport, Resources
STUNTS
Power Scale 2. (0) Fortuna’s Luck PS will boost her “merely human” efforts, often in ridiculous ways (naturally, compared to her most people have PS0 Luck).
Unbelievable Luck. When Jenny Invokes Avatar of Fortune for a bonus to any Skill roll, she gets a +3 rather than a +2.
Instant Karma. In a Conflict, if Jenny Succeeds with Style with a Defend Action, rather than taking a Free Invoke, she may opt to inflict 2 shifts of Stress on her assailant. If all Stress boxes have been checked, she will fill the lightest available Consequence slot instead.
Will
of Fortune. Jenny makes all Recovery rolls with her Will. If she ever takes an Extreme Consequence (FC p.48), the changed Character Aspect will reflect social or psychological consequences rather than physical injury. This is in line with her luck keeping her from serious lasting harm.
Jennifer was a private investigator of the hardboiled kind, practically embodying the Film Noir tropes. She lived from job to job, doing background checks, taking pictures, tracking down people who didn’t want to be found, whatever paid the bills. She was an honest PI with a low opinion of human nature. Then one day she caught a weird case—a theft the overworked police had made only a token pass at investigating due to its low reported value. The owner wanted an old trunk back and its contents back: a journal, vintage clothes, and a few itemized souvenirs, one of them a small bronze statue that looked vaguely like Lady Justice (blindfolded, but holding a small spoked wheel instead of scales). The client paid in cash and Jennifer found the chest and its contents, but then he tried to kill her when she showed him the statue. Tried: his cheap gun blew up in his hand, a piece of shrapnel slicing his throat. He bled out in seconds, and a shellshocked Jennifer took the chest and left the scene for the cops to find. Then she started having strange dreams involving the statue. The cases coming her way started getting really weird—she developed a kind of reverse-serendipity that had her stumbling over incidents that became cases. Or unbelievable police reports.
Jennifer has been chosen by Fortuna, the goddess of luck whose Fortune’s Blessing, Fortune’s Curse. Jenny can inflict good image it is. As the first worthy or ill fortune on a target, as a Create an Advantage Action with Avatar of Luck chosen in a century, her Will. The target may Defend with Will; if no defense is Jennifer now finds herself drawn to attempted, the Difficulty Rating is 2. The new Situation Aspect, situations involving people who need Blessed by Fortune or Cursed by Ill Luck, will remain on the target her luck—good or bad. Jennifer thinks of it as being an agent of karma, when until the end of the Scene if not removed somehow. she thinks about it at all; mostly she just Dodged that Bullet. Jenny may spend 1 Fate Point to recover works on surviving and staying ahead of from all Physical or Mental Stress taken during the Scene or the game. Recently, her luck has thrown her remove 1 Mild Consequence. into the paths of Ironmaid, Koan, and Prof. Not as Bad as It Looked. Jenny’s turn, she can make a Recovery Steiner. The mounting coincidences are roll for physical injuries as a Free Action! If she succeeds (with no making her very nervous. penalty for “doing it herself”), the Consequence is in Recovery
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Credits Writing & Design: Marion G. Harmon Art: Travis Hanson Graphic Design: Patrina Beard
Legal Stuff Super-Powered Fate is © 2020, Marion G. Harmon; created by Marion G. Harmon. This work is based on Fate Condensed© 2020 (found at http://www.faterpg.com/), product of Evil Hat Productions, LLC, developed, authored, and edited by PK Sullivan, Ed Turner, and Fred Hicks, and licensed for our use under the Open Game License Version 1.0a.
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