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Knacks

Prodigious Talent Knacks

Prodigious Talent Knacks represent areas of mundane activity in which your character enjoys preternatural capability. They represent some combination of luck and skill (though the proportions of each may very from case to case). All Prodigious Talent Knacks specify some condition under which the target number for a roll or rolls is reduced, increasing the likely number of successes gained on any given dice pool.

  • Astonishing Prowess (Ability): This Knack is purchased separately for each Ability. Your target number on all rolls with that Ability is reduced by one (damage rolls are never Ability rolls). Prerequisite: minimum (associated Ability) 6.
  • Indomitable Will: All Willpower rolls made by your character have their target number reduced by one. Prerequisite: Willpower 10.
  • Natural Affinity: When purchasing this Knack, you select an Attribute category (Physical, Mental or Social) and choose an area or circumstance, with the same breadth as a specialty, for which to have a particular gift. Examples: Physical – Multiple Opponents, Mental – Telluric Phenomena, Social – New York City. Whenever the Storyteller deems that the circumstance applies, all Skill rolls you make that are paired with any of the Attributes of the associated group have their target numbers reduced by one. This Knack may be purchased up to three times per Attribute category, but specific Attribute + Specialty combinations may not be taken multiple times. Prerequisite: minimum (associated Attribute total) 11.
  • Naturally Evasive: All dodge and parry rolls you make while fully defensive have their target number reduced by one. Prerequisite: minimum Intuitive Facet 1.
  • Naturally Impervious: All damage pools rolled agains you have their target numbers increased by one. Prerequisite: minimum Reflective Facet 1.
  • Naturally Vorpal: Whenever damage is rolled for an effect you are responsible for (whether a punch, a gunshot, or a timed charge), lower the target number of that roll by one. (Note: in almost all cases, damage dice are the exception to the rule of 10, which dictates that all “10”s rolled count for an additional success. For this reason, when the target number for a damage roll is reduced by any amount, the first subtraction restores the rule of 10 to the damage roll, rather than reducing the literal target number before the universal baseline of 7. Further reductions beyond the first reduce the number as normal.) Prerequisite: minimum Destructive Facet 1.
  • Show Off: Whenever you use any of the ‘once per story’ Inspiration Facet advantages (‘Fast Thinker’, ‘Good Things Come…’ and ‘Things Fall Apart’) to add dice to a roll, the target number of that roll is reduced by one. Prerequisite: minimum Inspiration 3.
  • Triumph in Adversity: Whenever you are sufficiently injured to receive wound penalties (at -1 or lower), all rolls you make have their target numbers reduced by one. Prerequisite: minimum Stamina + Resistance 8.
  • World's Greatest...: Choose a Specialty linked to an Ability. This Knack puts you among the world's greatest practitioners or learned scholars of that skill, talent, field of expertise or capability. Whenever demonstrating your facility in this specific area, or testing it against non-Zetas who are not stunting, you automatically succeed. When rolling this Specialty under more dramatically important circumstances, or when opposed directly by Zetas or anyone employing a stunt, the target number of your roll is reduced by one. This Knack may be purchased any number of times, but no more than once per Specialty + Ability combination. Prerequisite: minimum designated Specialty of 3, linked Ability of 6 and associated Attribute of 5.

Feat of Daring Knacks

Feat of Daring Knacks represent special tricks, shticks and abilities at your character’s disposal. They represent exceptional skill and talent, rather than pure luck and are always active, never passive. Together with Plot-Twist Knacks and Parahuman Knacks, Feat of Daring Knacks may sometimes include activation costs in Inspiration and/or Willpower.

  • Artful Dodger: For the cost of one Inpiration, in addition to your other actions for that turn, you may choose to be treated as fully defensive, dodging (or parrying) with a starting dice pool of Dexterity + Athletics(or Melee) + Intuitive Facet. Prerequisites: minimum Dexterity 3.
  • Constant as the Northern Star: For the cost of one Inspiration, and for the duration of the scene, all non-stunting attacks made against you by non-Zetas (Baselines and other relatively "mundane" creatures) automatically fail, while all other attacks suffer a +2 difficulty. Prerequisite: minimum Reflective Facet 5.
  • Dramatic Entrance: Crashing through a skylight or sweeping onto the dance floor, your first appearance in scene commands attention. In the scene following such an entrance, you are at +3 on all Social rolls against anyone who saw you come in. Used in combat or other situations requiring initiative, this Knack has further consequences. First, if the turn order is already proceeding, your entrance ends the turn completely and initiative is rolled anew. Second, your entrance applies a -3 initiative penalty to all present. The +3 and -3 only apply against and to those who aren’t already accustomed to your presence (those who have already witnessed a number of your entrances equal to [6 – their Wits]). Prerequisite: minimum Appearance 3.
  • Fearful Symmetry: For the cost on one Inspiration, and for the duration of the scene, add to successes to all of your attack and damage rolls and two successes to all attack and damage rolls made against you. Prerequisite: minimum Destructive Facet 5.
  • Grin and Bear It: For the cost of one Inspiration, all Lethal damage your character suffers (after damage has been soaked and rolled) is converted to Bashing, while all such Aggravated damage is converted to Lethal. This effect applies to all incidences of damage that occur on the same Initiative tick. Prerequisite: minimum Reflective Facet 3.
  • Instant Expert: You can recall and mimic or duplicate any feat you’ve seen performed once. A number of times per story equal to your Wits you may gain a number of dots equal to your Intuitive Facet +1 in a single Ability in which you possess zero dots. This only lasts for the duration of one activity (though it may be a lengthy activity) and may only be used once per Ability per story. Prerequisite: minimum Wits 3.
  • Legendary Blow: For the cost of one Inspiration, you may choose to convert the damage of one of your attacks to Aggravated. This may only be applied to a Stunt which has been approved by the Storyteller. Prerequisite: minimum Destructive Facet 3.
  • Master of Dissimulation: You can double-talk and fake into any sort of professional credentials. As long as the deception remains within the realm of verbal misdirection, you can fool just about anyone. Roll Manipulation + Subterfuge; as long as you don’t break the charade, subjects may only see through it under two conditions – a) they really are experts in the field in question, and their Wits is higher than your rolled successes, or b) their Z-rating is higher than both yours and the number of successes you rolled. Prerequisites: minimum Wits and Manipulation 3.
  • Sense Intentions: Subterfuge attempts against you (such as when others attempt to lie to you, either actively or by omission) are made at +3 difficulty. Additionally, you may piece together specific information being concealed by an individual through seemingly innocuous conversation. This is accomplished through a Manipulation + Subterfuge roll opposed by the target’s Wits + Subterfuge (the penalty mentioned above applies to this roll). Degree of success required depends on how closely held the information is. If its something that the subject has no particular feelings about or actively wants to reveal but can’t, one success is enough. If its something the subject wants to avoid discussing but isn’t particularly afraid of saying, two successes will make it apparent. Emotionally sensitive topics or sworn secrets require three successes. Things that the character actively fears revealing require four successes. If the secret will get the subject killed or ruin his/her life if it gets out, you need five successes to dig it up. Prerequisite: minimum Subterfuge 3.
  • The Blink of an Eye: You may buy extra actions (up to one per turn) for the cost of 1 Inspiration. Prerequisite: minimum Intuitive Facet 3.
  • Trick Shot: You may invoke this Knack when making a ranged attack roll, with the following effects: divide the total difficulty penalty in half (rounding down), add bonus dice to the roll equal to the original penalty, and halve the net successes from the attack roll for purposes of adding to damage. Prerequisite: minimum (any ranged combat Ability) 3.
  • True Hope Is Swift: For the cost of one Inspiration, and for the duration of the scene, you may take one additional action per turn, so long as it is not an attack, or part of an extended effort. Prerequisite: minimum Intuitive Facet 5.
  • Walking Almanac: Once per scene you may spontaneously know any one fact neither generally lost nor actively concealed. Prerequisite: minimum (any five Intelligence Abilities combined) 15.

Stuff of Legend Knacks

Stuff of Legend Knacks are the passive companions to the active Feat of Daring Knacks. These Knacks increase your character’s capabilities through superb skill and tireless training and provide static bonuses rather than activated abilities.

  • Absolute Composure: You stay internally and externally calm in even the most severe of crises; you possess a forceful and enduring will and have a preternatural control over how you appear to others. You only display signs of discomfort, pain, shock or surprise when you choose to. You automatically win all staredowns against non-Inspired characters and receive a +3 bonus to staredowns against the Inspired. In either case, those who lose a staredown to you are unable to act at all on their next turn. You are immune to conventional torture and hypnotism, and all Inspired effects of this sort or that otherwise seek to tamper with your mind suffer a +2 difficulty. Finally, you are immune to minor mishaps such as tripping or spilling a drink, and manage to appear dignified at all times. Prerequisite: minimum Willpower 5.
  • Akimbo: When fighting with a weapon (ranged or melee) in each hand, you ignore all off-hand penalties and reduce the multiple action penalty for all attacks by 1. Characters who fight barehanded may also make use of this Knack, provided they have at least two limbs free for striking. Prerequisite: minimum (any combat Ability) 3. This Knack may be purchased a second time if any combat ability reaches 6.
  • Appetite for Destruction: Your minimum raw damage on any attack that beats (has more gross damage than) your target’s Hardness is equal to your Destructive Facet (rather than 1). Prerequisite: minimum Destructive Facet 2.
  • Counter Gambit: Whenever you roll to resist surprise, your successes on the roll count twice. Whenever you successfully resist surprise, you gain a free Dexterity+Stealth roll to attempt to surprise your assailant(s). Should you succeed, your free action against your ambusher(s) occurs before theirs, potentially countering their actions before they even take place. Prerequisite: minimum Intuitive Facet 4.
  • Fists of Stone: Your unarmed attacks have bonuses to Accuracy and Damage equal to 1/2 (your Destructive Facet +2), rounded up. They also have a Defense bonus equal to 1/2 (your Reflective Facet +2) and a Speed bonus equal to 1/2 (your Intuitive Facet +2). You may block Lethal attacks unarmed and without a Stunt. Prerequisite: minimum Strength 3.
  • Gadgeteer: You never suffer any penalties for using unfamiliar or even alien technology. You receive a dice bonus equal to your Intuitive Facet for all Super-science research and development rolls as well as all rolls related to understanding Telluric devices and artifacts. Prerequisite: minimum Intellegence + Wits+Inspiration 10.
  • Greased Lightning: Whenever you roll Initiative, roll a number of dice equal to your Intuitive Facet. Choose one of those to be your Initiative roll. If your Initiative die comes up "10", roll one additional die and add it to your Initiative total. Prerequisites: minimum Intuitive Facet 2.
  • Jack of All Tongues: You speak twice as many languages as your Linguistics rating would normally indicate, and you speak all of those languages with the fluency of a native speaker. When you encounter a new language you do not know, you may attempt to decipher it enough for basic functionality with a Wits + Linguistics role (if ‘on the fly’) or an Intelligence + Linguistics role (if not). Difficulty set by the ST (1= closely related to a language you speak, 5= totally alien to your species). Prerequisites: minimum Intelligence 3, minimum Linguistics 2.
  • Keen Accuracy: This Knack must be purchased separately for either ranged or hand-to-hand attacks. When calculating the damage pool after a successful attack with the associated Skill, add half the number of attack successes rolled to that pool (round up). This damage bonus is in addition to the standard “(total base damage) + (successes on the attack roll)” formula. . The ranged and hand-to-hand versions of this Knack may each be purchased once for each time that one of their two possible prerequisites is met. Prerequisite: minimum (any ranged/hand-to-hand attack Ability) 3 or Awareness 3.
  • Live by the Sword: All your final damage totals (after soak and roll) are increased by one. (This does not include attacks which fail to overcome the target's Hardness.) Prerequisite: minimum Destructive Facet 4.
  • One-Man Army: When faced with multiple opponents in combat, you suffer no penalties for such. Instead, you receive a +1 bonus to all relevant combat dice pools for each assailant threatening you, beyond the first. In addition, in every round that you face a number of foes equal to or greater than (5 – ½ your Intuitive Facet [rounded up]) you get a free action for every such set (so a character with Intuitive 3 facing 6 goons gets two free actions). Prerequisite: minimum (any combat Ability) 3.
  • Perfect Precision: +2 dice to all rolls based on long-range vision, precise perception, tiny details and ultra-fine motor control (never combat, twinkie). Difficulty penalties based on poor (or nil) visibility are reduced by 2. The effective range of missile weapons you wield is quadrupled, and the difficulty penalties for attacking at your new long-range are halved (round down). Prerequisite: minimum Perception 3.
  • Staggering Blows: This Knack must be purchased separately for either ranged or hand-to-hand attacks. Your attacks drive your victims staggering backwards in pain and shock. Whenever your attack registers even one die of raw (post-soak, pre-roll) damage, a Knockdown check automatically results (regardless of the target’s Stamina + Resistance), with an additional difficulty penalty equal to your Destructive Fact. Knockback automatically accompanies any Knockdown you inflict (barring the presence of insurmountable obstacles or effects) and the resulting distance is one yard per raw die of damage (rather than the normal one yard per three dice). Finally, add your Destructive Facet to the final damage (the number of health levels actually inflicted) when checking for Stun – Stun becomes possible if (final damage) + (your Destructive Fact) is greater than your target’s Stamina, and Stun results if the target fails a Stamina + Resistance roll at a difficulty of [(final damage + your Destructive Facet) – (the target’s Stamina). Prerequisite: minimum (associated Ability) 3.
  • Tough As Nails: All of your character's wound penalties are halved (rounding down). Prerequisite: minimum Stamina 3.
  • Universally Deadly: You are never penalized for using unfamiliar, exotic or improvised weapons. In addition, you ignore all wound penalties and receive a +1 bonus when attacking with any weapon; if attacking unarmed, you also gain a +1 bonus to damage. Prerequisite: minimum (any combat Ability) + (any other combat Ability) 8.
  • Undaunted Mettle: All final damage totals against you (after soak and roll) are reduced by one. Prerequisite: minimum Reflective Facet 4.
  • Untouchable: This Knack may be purchased for either hand-to-hand or ranged attacks. Attacks of the chosen type made against you suffer a difficulty penalty equal to your Intuitive Facet +1 - but to gain this penalty, you must either be completely unnarmed (in the case of hand-to-hand attacks) or just not armed with a ranged weapon (in the case of ranged attacks). Prerequisite: minimum Athletics 3 to purchase either or both. At Athletics 6, each version of this Knack may be purchased a second time, waving the limitations on armaments in each case.
  • Wheelman (et al): You’re an ace with some kind of vehicle (different Knack for each of Drive, Pilot, Ride and Sail). Whenever controlling such a vehicle, its top speed increases by 20 percent times your Intuitive Facet and you add that same trait rating as a dice bonus for handling rolls. Attacks against the vehicle (of which you are aware) suffer a difficulty equal to half your Wits (rounded up), before any maneuvers on your part are taken into account. You suffer no penalties for controlling a damaged vehicle until it is completely destroyed, and remain in control of the vehicle at your lowest wound penalty even if reduced to Incapacitated or below until the vehicle is destroyed or stops moving. Finally, when in a race, chase or other contest of vehicular maneuver, competitors become more accident prone. If one fails a control roll or their vehicle suffers damage, it looses an additional number of structural levels equal to your Destructive Facet, as do any passengers who suffer residual damage. Vehicles with any chance of combusting due so spectacularly when destroyed by or adjacent to this effect. Prerequisite: minimum associated Skill 3.
  • Wherewithal: You gain a bonus to your Hardness equal to half your soak. Prerequisite: minimum Reflective Facet 2.

Plot-Twist Knacks

Plot-Twist Knacks, together with Lucky Break Knacks, operate at the level of the player rather than at the level of the character. They either interact with and bolster Dramatic Editing directly or represent some sort of low-level free Dramatic Edit which is built into the character. Some of these Knacks (such as Complete Privacy or Mysterious Figure) represent a static rule which is built into any story of which the character is a part, and may be observed over time (and even planned on and around by the character and others who are aware of the pattern). But Plot-Twist Knacks that require the player’s activation or input (such as The Inductive Method or Price of Progress) are based on the player making decisions that generally benefit the character and the story, not on any sort of conscious control of reality by the character.

  • Black Cat: Dramatic Edits you make in which some sort of injury, misfortune or unpleasantness befalls another cost one less Inspiration. Prerequisite: minimum Manipulation 5.
  • Bon Mot: Dramatic Edits you make that set up some sort of snappy comeback or one-liner cost one less Inspiration. Prerequisite: minimum Wits 5.
  • Complete Privacy: Circumstance conspires to prevent all those spying on or investigating your current and past activities from learning anything of crucial importance. Baseline spies and investigators have no chance of success, while Talents suffer a difficulty equal to [your Intuitive Facet + (your Inspiration – your adversary’s Z Rating)]. Prerequisite: minimum Stealth + Subterfuge + Cipher 6.
  • Cooperative Scenery: Dramatic Edits you make which effect and involve setting elements and props in order to set up a stunt cost one less Inspiration. Prerequisite: minimum Dexterity 5.
  • Death Defiance: When using Dramatic Editing to avoid otherwise certain death for your character, the Inspiration cost is reduced by 2, to a minimum of 0, provided that your character is apparently dead for at least one scene. Prerequisite: minimum Willpower 8.
  • Don't I Know You?: Dramatic Edits you make that establish a prior relationship with a new or established character cost one less Inspiration. Prerequisite: minimum Charisma 5.
  • Launch A Thousand Ships: Dramatic Edits you make that hinge on how established characters feel about or perceive you cost one less Inspiration. Prerequisite: minimum Appearance 5.
  • Look What I Found: Dramatic Edits you make based on finding or noticing something obscure or near-impossible to detect cost one less Inspiration. Prerequisite: minimum Perception 5.
  • Mysterious Figure: People have a great deal of trouble noticing details about you and remembering much of their interactions with you in general, making it easy for you to blend in with the expected and causing you to leave little evidence of your passage (at least by human account). You gain a +2 bonus to all Social rolls to pass yourself off as someone you are not, as long as that someone is not a specific person (so you would get the bonus for masquerading as a beggar, a sailor, an important official, or such, but not for posing as the local monarch or your target’s best friend). This bonus specifically applies to contested roles for those around you to notice something “out of place” about you or your actions. Furthermore, once you have left their immediate presence, those who do not interact with you on a regular basis will tend to lose what details they did notice. Recalling more than the broadest strokes about your appearance and actions (“a man robbed our bank”) requires that the individual succeed at a Wits + Inspiration roll with a difficulty equal to your Destructive Facet +2. Prerequisite: maximum Reputation 0, unless this is specific to some sort of alias or secret identity.
  • No One Knows My Plan: You always have a plan. Dramatic Edits you make based on the argument "I thought of that before hand" has its Inspiration cost reduced by 1, to a minimum of zero. Prerequisite: minimum Intelligence 5.
  • Out of the Frying Pan...: Dramatic Edits you make which use the plot ramification rule by exposing your character to danger or harm cost one less Inspiration. Prerequisite: minimum Stamina 5.
  • Overwhelming Narrative: Hostile Dramatic Editing attempts against you or Edits you have already declared and paid for cost one more Inspiration. Your attempts to counter or change anyone else's Dramatic Edits cost one less Inspiration. Prerequisite: minimum Strength 5.
  • Price of Progress: When searching for the solution to a problem or the means to achieve a set goal, you may spend one Inspiration and one Willpower. The Storyteller sets a cost (generally some loss of materials or lives or the suffering of something undesirable) which, if you as the player accept, will be a part of the automatic achievement of your goal (it will be narrated, rather than played). Prerequisite: minimum Willpower 7.
  • Teflon Don: You are immune to all social taboos for any crimes you commit - the court of public opinion will always find your actions in some way justifiable, though it will not protect you from the law. With successive crimes, this effect could change the prevailing attitude of entire nations, but it only affects Baselines, never Talents. Prerequisite: minimum Charisma 3.
  • The Inductive Method: When attempting to solve a mystery without sufficient evidence, you may roll Wits + Investigation. For each success, you may name a clue (such as a murder weapon or notes stuffed in a book) which your character then stumbles upon miraculously. Prerequisite: minimum Perception + Intelligence 7.
  • Well Timed Absence: As an extension of the normal rules for Dramatic Editing, you may edit your character out of the current scene. Assuming that the character has remained relatively unobtrusive and nonessential to the scene so far, this requires only a plausible explanation for the absence and payment of 1 Inspiration. The more that established events have to be rewritten in order to retroactively remove your character from the scene, the higher the cost. Reshaping the established plot so that you’re no longer present for the fight you started, for instance, might cost 4 Inspiration, provided that you hadn’t yet taken any actions in combat. Prerequisite: minimum Wits or Manipulation 5.

Lucky Break Knacks

Lucky Break Knacks govern instances in which fortune smiles on your character. Lucky Break Knacks model this through the conditional rerolling of dice pools. When the odds come up against your character, these Knacks help to bend things back in the other direction. Their activation, as with Plot-Twist Knacks, is a player decision – to the character and in-game observers, they represent extraordinary good fortune, but not conscious control or influence over the course of events.

  • Assassin's Luck: The first time in a scene that another character attempts and succeeds to resist some harm inflicted by your character (such as with a Willpower, Resistance or dodge/parry roll), reroll that defense, keeping the lowest outcome. This Knack may be purchased once for each time that one of its three possible prerequisites is met. Multiple uses of this Knack may be applied to the same roll. Prerequisite: minimum Strength, Manipulation, or Medicine 4.
  • Luck of the Draw: Once per game, you may choose to reroll one roll (of yours), rerolling only the dice which did not come up as successes. Multiple uses of this Knack may be applied to the same roll. Prerequisites: minimum Intuitive, Reflective and Destructive Facets 1. This Knack may be purchased a second time when all Facets rate 3 or higher, and a third time when all Facets rate 5.
  • Scoundrel’s Luck: Once per scene, you may choose to reroll one roll (of yours), keeping the new outcome. This Knack may be purchased once for each time that one of its three possible prerequisites is met. Multiple uses of this Knack may be applied to the same roll. Prerequisite: minimum Appearance, Wits, or Larceny 4.
  • Shared Luck: You may use your luck and Inspiration abilities to affect others. These abilities include, but are not necessarily limited to, the “Sheer Heroism” and “Intuition” Inspiration effects, all Inspiration Facet advantages, and all Lucky Break Knacks. When transferring these effects to others, you do not gain their effects yourself. Prerequisite: minimum Intelligence, Performance or Stealth 4.
  • Target’s Luck: The first time in a scene that an attack is made against you and succeeds, it is rerolled, keeping the lowest outcome. This Knack may be purchased once for each time that one of its three possible prerequisites is met. Multiple uses of this Knack may be applied to the same roll. Prerequisites: minimum Dexterity, Perception, or Presence 4.
  • Veteran’s Luck: The first time in a scene that sufficient damage is rolled against you to place you at or below a wound penalty of -4, that damage pool is rerolled, keeping the lowest outcome. This Knack may be purchased once for each time that one of its three possible prerequisites is met. Multiple uses of this Knack may be applied to the same roll. Prerequisite: minimum Stamina, Charisma, or Awareness 4.

Double-Dealing Knacks

Double-Dealing Knacks bend and alter existing mechanical rules of the game, specifically those that govern narrative elements (this includes everything associated with the Inspiration trait, as well as the stunt system). These Knacks give your character some particular edge or another, usually be increasing the frequency or quantity of some narrative benefit.

  • Consuming Drive: Whenever you spend a point of Willpower to add an auto-success to a roll, add two auto-successes instead. Prerequisite: Inspiration 4.
  • Flair for the Dramatic: Whenever an action of yours is awarded Stunt dice by the Storyteller, double the total dice award. No other systemic benefit of the Stunt is affected by this Knack. Prerequisite: minimum Inspiration 5.
  • Persistent Heroism: In one scene per game, you may activate the “Sheer Heroism” Inspiration effect one additional time (beyond the normal “once per scene”). This Knack may be purchased once for each time that one of its two possible prerequisites is met. Prerequisite: minimum Willpower 6 or Inspiration 6.
  • Re-Inspired: You may activate each “once per story” Inspiration Facet advantage (‘Fast Thinker’, ‘Good Things Come…’ and ‘Things Fall Apart’) an additional time per story. This Knack may be purchased once for each time that one of its three possible prerequisites is met. Prerequisite: minimum Intuitive, Reflective or Destructive Facet 3.
  • The Spirit is Willing: You may spend Inspiration in place of Willpower whenever the later is called for or required. Prerequisite: minimum Dexterity, Wits, or Manipulation 5.
  • The Will To Power: You may spend Willpower in place of Inspiration for any purpose other than Dramatic Editing. This includes activating the “Sheer Heroism” and “Intuition” effects, as well as the Inspiration costs of certain Knacks and Gadgets. Prerequisite: minimum Strength, Intelligence, or Charisma 5.
  • Thrilling Exploits: Your character regains more Inspiration and Willpower through stunts than is normally the case. Regain one Willpower for a 1-die stunt, one Inspiration for a 2-die stunt, and one Willpower and one Inspiration for a 3-die stunt. Prerequisite: Willpower 9.
  • To the Victor…: Whenever your character uses the dice-adding ability of an Inspiration Facet (‘Fast Thinker’, ‘Good Things Come…’ or ‘Things Fall Apart’) and succeeds on the benefiting roll, that character regains 1 Inspiration. Prerequisite: minimum (any Facet) 2 plus (any other Facet) 2.
  • True to Form: Each time that this Knack is purchased, some practice, habit, or compulsive tendancy connected in some way to one of the three Inspiration Facets is specified. This must be a practice which requires some risk or inconvenience or is otherwise non-optimal for the character to perform. Examples linked to the Inutitive Facet would include: leaving a highly distinctive calling card at the scene of your every crime or public appearance, or telling a joke to everyone you meet. Examples linked to the Reflective Facet would include: providing a lengthy explanation of your motives and plan to those you capture or otherwise have at your mercy, or maintaining a strict regimen of 30 minutes of meditation every 8 hours. Examples linked to the Destructive Facet would include: choosing non-lethal over lethal force, or providing material support to the family and dependants of anyone you kill. Each time you fulfill this narrative compulsion, you regain one Inspiration. Each time you fail to fulfill the compulsion, you lose one Inspiration (if you have none left, you cannot choose to act out of habit). In particularly unimportant cases, or when the same compulsion comes up more than once in a scene, the Storyteller may choose to wave either the bonus for compliance or the penalty for noncompliance, or both. In particularly dangerous or important situations, the Storyteller may choose to double either the bonus or the penalty instead. This Knack may be purchased once for each time that one of its 3 possible prerequisites are met. Prerequisite: minimum (associated Facet) 4.
  • Where There’s a Will…: You may spend Willpower in place of Inspiration when paying costs for Dramatic Editing. Prerequisite: minimum Stamina, Perception, or Appearance 5.

Parahuman Knacks

Parahuman Knacks create more flashy and flamboyant effects than every other sort of Knack. They represent the tendency in Inspiration to break down into Quantum or Psi. In general, these Knacks are more limited forms of effects common among Psions and Novas. Parahuman Knacks also differ from all other types of Knacks in that they never have prerequisites and that they cost 3 Transformation points to purchase, rather than 2.

  • Awesome Might: Add automatic successes equal to your Destructive Facet to your character’s Might and damage rolls.
  • Body of Bronze: Your character gains additional Bashing and Lethal Soak each equal to your Reflective Facet +2.
  • Cloud the Mind: You may blur and erase yourself from the perceptions of others, becoming effectively invisible. For the cost of 1 Inspiration, your Stealth is doubled for the scene, and you suffer no environmental penalties on your Stealth rolls (ie, you may hide in an open field on a clear day without difficulty).
  • Eccentric Inventor: You may create Innovations with any scientific Ability you have Mastered. You receive a dice bonus equal to your Reflective Facet for all Super-science research and development rolls.
  • Fool Equipment: You may Attune to Artifacts as though an Exalt, have a Tolerance rating for Bioware as though a Psion, and may support Eufiber colonies as though a Nova.