GURPS Core Resources: Modifiers

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A modifier is a feature that you can add to a trait – usually an advantage – to change the way it works. There are two basic types of modifiers: enhancements and limitations. Adding an enhancement makes the underlying trait more useful, while applying a limitation attaches additional restrictions to your ability.

Modifiers adjust the base cost of a trait in proportion to their effects. Enhancements increase the cost, while limitations reduce the cost. This is expressed as a percentage. For instance, a +20% enhancement would increase the point cost of an advantage by 1/5 its base cost, while a -50% limitation would reduce it by half its base cost.

You can apply any number of modifiers to a trait. Total them to find the net modifier, and then apply this modifier to the base cost of the trait. Round the resulting cost up to the next-highest whole number. For example, a +10% enhancement, a +40% enhancement, a -30% limitation, and a -45% limitation would give a net modifier of -25%. This would reduce the cost of a 10-point advantage to 7.5 points, which would round up to 8 points.

Modifiers can never reduce cost by more than 80%. Treat a net modifier of -80% or worse as -80%. Thus, no matter how many limitations you take, you cannot lower the cost of a trait to less than 1/5 its base cost.

The GM has the final say as to which traits you can modify, and in what ways. Some combinations make no sense (imagine Unaging with the Limited Use limitation!), others have potential for abuse, and still others might not suit the campaign. Percentile modifiers can also result in a lot of extra math. GMs who prefer to keep things simple may wish to prohibit modifiers altogether.

Many advantages, and some disadvantages, offer “special enhancements” and “special limitations.” These modifiers are generally applicable only to the specific trait(s) with which they are described. However, the GM may choose to extend the special modifiers of one particular trait to other, very similar traits.

When applying modifiers, you occasionally need to know the range, area of effect, or duration of an advantage for which one or more of these quantities is not specified – for instance, when applying an enhancement that gives a range to an ability that normally has none. Assume that rangeis 100 yards, area is a circle 2 yards in radius (and 12’ high, should volume matter), and duration is 10 seconds, unless the advantage specifies otherwise. Exceptions will be noted.

Some enhancements and limitations are intended only for Affliction, Binding, and Innate Attack, and for advantages modified with the Ranged enhancement (p. 107). They are called “attack” modifiers. Certain of these have additional restrictions; e.g., Armor Divisor applies only to Affliction and Innate Attack. Attack enhancements and limitations are marked (A).

When you use an enhanced trait, you must use all of its enhancements unless a particular enhancement – or the underlying ability itself – explicitly allows you to turn an enhancement “off.” (The extended capabilities that many enhancements provide might have no effect in certain situations, but they are still on.) To be able to pick which enhancements are “on” at any given moment, take the Selectivity enhancement.

If the GM allows, you can add a limitation to an enhancement. This restricts the enhancement, reducing its value as an enhancement without directly affecting the underlying ability.

Apply the limitation to the percentage value of the enhancement exactly as if it were a point value. This cannot reduce the value of the enhancement below 1/5 normal. Then apply the cheaper enhancement to the cost of the ability.

Example: Your Selective Area (+20%) enhancement has the Vision- Based (-20%) limitation. You don’t need eye contact to make the attack work, but you must make eye contact with someone in your area of effect in order to single him out. A -20% limitation on a +20% enhancement reduces the net enhancement to +16%.

A few limitations require a specific enhancement. For instance, Emanation (p. 112) always accompanies Area Effect (p. 102). Such limitations affect the underlying ability. You cannot use this rule to apply them to just the enhancement.

The GM may choose not to use this option, as it requires extra bookkeeping.

As a rule, leveled advantages become more effective at higher levels, while any enhancements they have remain equally potent. However, some ability concepts call for these enhancements to lose effectiveness as the advantage increases in power. For example, a laser may be very accurate at low power levels, but increasingly hard to aim as it channels more energy.

Both the advantage and the enhancement must come in levels. Attack advantages must also have Variable. Then, follow these steps.

1. Decide what the enhancement level will be when the advantage is used at level 1. For simplicity, the enhancement level should be a whole-numbered multiple of the advantage level, or vice-versa.

2. If the answer to step 1 is greater than the advantage level, go directly to step 3. Otherwise, divide the advantage level by the answer to step 1. The result is how many levels of the advantage you can use before losing one level of the enhancement. For example, with a result of 3, your enhancement is at full strength for levels 1-3, at -1 for levels 4-6, at -2 for levels 7-9, and so on. Go directly to step 4.

3. Divide the answer to step 1 by the advantage level. The result is how many levels of the enhancement you lose per level of the advantage used. For example, with a result of 3, your enhancement is at full strength for level 1, at -3 for level 2, at -6 for level 3, and so on.

4. Figure the cost of the enhancement from step 1 – that is, multiply the per-level enhancement cost by the level chosen there – and multiply that by (the advantage level + 1). Then divide the result by (the advantage level ¥ 2); round up. This is the cost for the declining enhancement.

Example: Zzap has the laser mentioned above, as Burning Attack 12d. When firing shots that inflict 1d damage, he has Acc 9. For step 1, because attacks have Acc 3 by default, this requires the Accurate 6 enhancement. For step 2, the advantage level (12) divided by the enhancement level (6) is 2, which means that every two levels of Burning Attack past the first will lose a level of Accurate. For step 4, the final cost is (+5% ¥ 6) multiplied by (12 + 1) and divided by (12 ¥ 2), or +16.25%, which rounds up to +17%. Zzap’s laser has Acc 9 for 1d or 2d, Acc 8 for 3d or 4d, Acc 7 for 5d or 6d, Acc 6 for 7d or 8d, Acc 5 for 9d or 10d, and Acc 4 for 11d or 12d.

Example: Zzap also has Temperature Control 3, the range of which depends on how hot he’s trying to make things. For step 1, he adds Increased Range 100x, which is six levels of that enhancement. For step 3, the enhancement level (6) divided by the advantage level (3) is 2, which means that he loses two levels of Increased Range for every level of Temperature Control past the first. For step 4, the final cost is (+10% x 6) multiplied by (3 + 1) and divided by (3 x 2), or +40%. His ability has 100x range at level 1, 20x range at level 2, and 5x range at level 3.

Ammunition Options and Thrusting Blade both offer means by which an attack can change damage types, much like Alternative Attacks (p. B61). Each enhancement is intended as a simpler way to handle a common situation – specifically, modern guns and thrusting blades built as Innate Attacks. While the two approaches are point-balanced for most builds, there are some circumstances under which the enhancement may cost up to a few points more than if the same ability were built using alternative attacks… but for many gamers, this small variance will be worth the simplicity!

When creating new abilities – particularly as part of a power – it often makes sense for the GM to build several very similar abilities. For example, he may create two dozen new abilities for a Holy power, where half are “auras of power” that share many modifiers. Bundling these common modifiers into a single meta-enhancement can streamline power-building and simplify the final write-up.

To create a meta-enhancement, just identify which modifiers are common to every one of your builds. Then total them up and treat them as a single enhancement (or limitation). Any unshared modifiers can be added separately. Alternatively – if two or three modifiers aren’t common to all of the abilities, but each is common to several of them – it may be worth creating different versions of the meta-enhancement; see Songs (p. 5) for an example.

The following are meta-enhancements that have appeared in previous GURPS publications.

This is a new special enhancement for Affliction; it must be combined with one or more of Advantage, Attribute Penalty, Disadvantage, Incapacitation, Irritant, or Negated Advantage. Aura of Power is a meta-enhancement that turns the Affliction into a two-yard area effect, centered on the adventurer, that affects any targets he wishes.

Aura of Power (+175%): Area Effect, 2 yards, +50%; Aura, +80%; Malediction 1, +100%; Melee Attack, Reach C, -30%; Reduced Duration, 1/60, Only after the target leaves the area, -30%; Requires Will Roll, -5%; Selective Area, +20%; Takes Extra Time, -10%.

The user must take a Concentrate maneuver and make a Will roll to bring up the aura. If he fails, he may try again on later turns, but each successive attempt costs 1 FP. If successful, then the aura is active for the next minute. For a beneficial Affliction, the user may roll Will (as a free action) when someone he wants to bless enters his area of effect. Success means that person is blessed; note the margin of success. On a failure, he may continue to roll once per second (again, as a free action) with no penalty or cost, until successful in blessing that subject.

Those blessed stay that way until they leave the area or the aura ends, in which case the effects of the aura linger for seconds equal to the user’s original margin of success for that person. For a hostile Affliction, the user may attempt to curse anyone entering the area of effect. This works the same as blessings, but is treated as a Quick Contest of the user’s Will versus the target’s HT. The victim suffers the effects for seconds equal to the user’s margin of victory.

The user must make a new Will roll each minute to keep his aura up. If he fails, the aura drops; on any subsequent turn, he may pay 1 FP, take a Concentrate maneuver, and make a Will roll to bring it back up. He may also turn it off voluntarily at the beginning of his turn (as a free action); if so, there is no FP cost to switch it back on.

The adventurer must decide how the aura acts against targets of which he is not aware. He can choose (when buying the ability) whether to affect all unknown targets. Either option is balanced; the decision depends on whether the user would rather risk targeting someone who shouldn’t have been or risk not noticing a potential (but unseen) target until it’s too late. Deities and other powers above (or below) often grant special abilities to their most dedicated followers, and the capability to instill courage or greatness on their allies just by their presence is a common gift. Auras of Power are specially suited for followers of a deity with a limited portfolio, though omnipotent deities could grant any of them if the GM deems it reasonable.

Sample Aura of Power: Chaos 33 points for level 1, plus 5 points for each additional level

The gods of Chaos can confuse the minds of mortals with horrible visions. The aura covers a two-yard radius around the user. Each additional level doubles that radius, cumulatively. Those cursed by the aura see nightmarish visions overlaying their perceptions, as per Hallucinating (p. B429). Thus, before each skill roll, those affected must roll against Will. On a success, the victim suffers only -2 to the action, due to disorientation. On a failure, the penalty is increased to -5 and lasts for 1d seconds. On a critical failure, the hallucinations become so real that the victim loses touch with reality for 3d seconds: Roll 1d at the beginning of each of the victim’s turns. On 1-3, he treats foes as friends and friends as foes; on 4-6, the visions are too confusing and the victim just stands still, unable to act or perform active defenses. Statistics: Affliction 1 (HT; Aura of Power 1, +175%; Hallucinating, +50%) [33]. Higher levels add more Area Effect, at +50% and +5 points per level.

Songs are potent musical abilities, used by supernaturally powered bards to either aid allies or hinder foes. In rules terms, they’re Afflictions with one of these meta-enhancements:

Baneful Song (+105%): Area Effect, 2 yards, +50%; Bard-Song, -30%; Based on Will, +20%; Emanation, -20%; Malediction 1, +100%; Reduced Duration, 1/60, -35%; Selective Area, +20%.

Beneficial Song (+105%): Area Effect, 2 yards, +50%; BardSong, -30%; Based on Per, +20%; Emanation, -20%; Malediction 1, +100%; Reduced Duration, 1/60, -35%; Selective Area, +20%.

Songs potentially affect everyone the bard chooses to influence within two yards of him. The Bard-Song limitation comprises the following drawbacks: the bard needs to play or sing for at least a second, there must be mana, the song is hindered by Magic Resistance, and the target has to be able to hear the music.

For Baneful Songs, roll a Quick Contest of Will vs. Will plus Magic Resistance (if any). The bard has -5 in low mana. Foes with Immunity to All Mind Control (zombies, greater demons, etc.) are never affected.

For Beneficial Songs, allies simply roll vs. Per minus any Magic Resistance they have. Low mana gives -5. The margin of victory or success, respectively, is the number of seconds the Song’s effects last. The bard can play constantly, causing a roll every turn, or cease after a second and hope that the residual effects will suffice.

Dirge dooms the bard’s enemies to failure and disaster, usually in combat. Those who fail to resist suffer -3 to ST and DX for the duration, penalizing attack and damage rolls. The song reaches a two-yard radius around the performer. Each additional level doubles that radius, cumulatively.

Statistics: Affliction 1 (Will; Attribute Penalty, -3 ST, -3 DX, +45%; Baneful Song, +105%) [25]. Higher levels add more Area Effect, at +50% and +5 points per level.

Allies affected by Alarum are inspired to strike down foes brutally and with relish. For the duration, they enjoy +2 to ST for the singular purpose of dealing blows. This normally gives +1 to damage with thrusting attacks and +2 to damage with swings. The song reaches a two-yard radius around the performer. Each additional level doubles that radius, cumulatively.

Statistics: Affliction 1 (Per; Advantage, Striking ST 2, +100%; Beneficial Song, +105%) [31]. Higher levels add more Area Effect, at +50% and +5 points per level.

Storms are powerful elemental abilities, based on Innate Attack, that blast many foes. They work even in good weather or indoors! All have these modifiers:

Elemental Storm (+190%): Accessibility, Requires gesture, -10%; Area Effect, 16 yards, +200%; Bombardment, Skill 14, -5%; Emanation, -20%; Limited Use, 1/day, -40%; Nuisance Effect, Exploitable hole in center, -5%; Overhead, +30%; Persistent, +40%. In practical terms, once a day, the user may take an Attack maneuver to plant his staff in the ground – or make a similar bold gesture, like smashing his oil lamp – and initiate the Storm. On that turn and on each of his next nine turns (10 seconds total), the Storm blasts everyone (friend or foe) within 16 yards of the spot where he stood. Roll an attack from above at skill 14; victims may block or dodge, but must focus their attention either upward or at ground level, suffering -2 on defenses vs. attacks from the direction ignored. The summoner is safe if he remains at the eye – as is any foe in close combat with him – but if he steps from where he started his Storm, he takes damage. He cannot end the Storm early, dial back damage, etc.

Bolts of lightning fry the area from above. Anyone struck takes 2d+1 burning damage. A wounded victim must make a HT roll, at -1 per full 2 HP of injury, or be stunned. He may roll vs. HT each turn to recover, but later bolts can stun him anew. Advantages: Burning Attack 2d+1 (Elemental Storm, +190%; Side Effect, Stunning, +50%) [41].

As an optional rule, the GM may allow abilities built with a Variable Enhancement – an enhancement that’s actually a “placeholder” for any enhancements the user wants. This decision is a free action, and may be changed every time the ability is used. The value of Variable Enhancement is equal to 10¥ the cost of the enhancements that can be added (minimum final cost of +50%). Example: Emma takes Burning Attack 2d (Variable Enhancement, +150%) [25]. It’s expensive, but now every time she fires it, she can choose +15% worth of enhancements to add. One turn she may add Incendiary (+10%) and Variable (+5%), and the next she could add Fragmentation 1d (Cutting) (+15%). She could not add Increased Range, 5¥ (+20%), and Inaccurate 1 (-5%), even though those sum to +15%, because Variable Enhancement only allows adding enhancements, not limitations.

If you can switch around your enhancements, but have to choose from a fixed list, see Selectivity (p. B108) and Alternative Enhancements (p. 13).

Cosmic is one of the broadest enhancements in GURPS, and arguably the most abusable. After all, the whole point of Cosmic is to let its underlying advantage break the rules! For this reason, even in a campaign where the GM allows players to build their own powers freely, the Cosmic enhancement always requires GM approval on a case-by-case basis. Still, Cosmic has limits.

• Cosmic cannot alter the fundamental nature of an advantage. No version of Cosmic will let you use Mind Reading to project your thoughts or Invisibility to walk through walls. For this, buy the various advantages you wish to emulate as alternative abilities (see Powers).

• Cosmic cannot change the intended subject of an advantage. You cannot add Cosmic to Metabolism Control and use it to put your enemies in a coma. To use a self-only advantage on others, see Affects Others (p. 12) and Affliction (p. B35).

• Cosmic cannot remove a target’s resistance roll. It can overcome active defenses and advantages which aid resistance (e.g., DR, Mind Shield, and Resistant), but if the victim gets a Contest or unopposed roll to avoid an advantage’s effect, Cosmic cannot take it away. To better overcome your target’s resistance in a Quick Contest, raise your own activation roll using Reliable (p. 16), or a power Talent or power skill (see Powers) – and consider Cosmic, No Rule of 16 (p. 7). Alternatively, if you’re using Affliction, simply raise its level; the higher your level, the worse your subject’s roll, and the Rule of 16 is unlikely to be an issue!

• Cosmic offense cannot overcome Cosmic defense. Some versions of Cosmic allow the advantage to ignore non-Cosmic defenses against it. When such an offense comes up against Cosmic defense, however, handle it as if neither side had Cosmic; the defense protects normally. The “one-upmanship” stops here; e.g., you cannot make an attack that ignores Cosmic DR. To overcome Cosmic DR, buy an attack that does more damage – even Cosmic DR has a finite amount of protection. Cosmic options are cumulative. For instance, an Innate Attack that requires no roll to hit (+100%), allows no active defense (+300%), and ignores DR (+300%) is +700%. An Attack maneuver lets you immediately apply your damage roll to your target’s HP! Because of the effect this can have on game balance, even if the GM allows Cosmic to be used freely, he may wish to disallow certain combinations of Cosmic. On a carrier attack, all forms of Cosmic raise the cost of Follow-Up on the follow-up attack.

There are three established levels of Cosmic, each with several preexisting examples. This doesn’t mean the GM can’t add more! Use the guidelines below to determine what the cost of a new Cosmic enhancement should be. All “flavors” of Cosmic can be found below, with the exception of Cosmic as a power modifier. Power modifiers are beyond the scope of this book; see Powers for details.

The lowest level of Cosmic is generally used for either removing an inherent restriction or countering a higher level of Cosmic. These improvements are limited in scope and should still feel “fair.” For example, this level of Cosmic could allow an Innate Attack to emanate from any point on the user’s body (e.g., eyes, hands, shoulder – making it impossible for enemies to negate its use by binding his hands, blindfolding him, and so on), but could not make the attack hit automatically or bypass defenses.

Your ability is not subject to some type of built-in restriction. For example, you could buy Cosmic for Snatcher to avoid the “cannot get items that use different natural laws” drawback, or for Serendipity to avoid the “coincidences must be plausible” limitation. (In the latter case, you would still need Wishing to dictate a coincidence.) Don’t write this down as Cosmic, Avoiding drawbacks; list the actual reason it’s being purchased – e.g., Snatcher (Cosmic, Items need not obey local laws of physics). In some cases, it makes sense to buy this multiple times, to avoid unrelated restrictions on an ability; see Cosmic in Action: Enhanced Move (p. 9) for an example.

Your defense or countermeasure is proof against Cosmic effects. See the final bullet point under the introduction to Cosmic (p. 6) for details. This is most commonly used to counter Cosmic, Irresistible attack (below), but a single application covers all Cosmic offense.

Example: Chris has Corrosion Attack 2d (Cosmic, Irresistible attack, +300%; Cosmic, Lingering effect, DR does not heal, +100%). When he hits someone, they take full damage regardless of DR, their DR is reduced by 1 for every 5 points of damage, and natural DR does not heal normally from this attack! (Normally, DR heals at the same rate as HP; in this case, the DR will need Cosmic treatment to recover.) However, Chris attacks Ben, who has DR 10 (Cosmic, Defensive, +50%). His DR blocks up to 10 points of damage from Chris’ attack (countering the “irresistible attack” aspect) and if damaged, it heals normally (countering the “lingering effect” aspect as well). It is still reduced by 1 for every 5 points of basic damage, however, as that’s part of how corrosion damage works, not a Cosmic effect.

Your supernatural ability ignores the Rule of 16 (p. B349). When rolling a Quick Contest against a subject, you may always use your full (modified) skill. If you are highly skilled, this may make resistance nearly impossible! The subject may always try to resist, even if his effective resistance is less than 3 (due to penalties from high levels of Affliction, previous attacks, etc.). In such a case, only a roll of 3-4 succeeds; treat this as success by 0, not as automatic resistance! If your margin of success is 1 or better, you still overcome his resistance.

Your attack or activation roll, and the subject’s defense or resistance roll (if any), cannot be rerolled by anyone else’s nonCosmic meta-game abilities – unless you want it to be. This includes advantages like Destiny, Luck, and Super Luck, and spells like Bless, Lesser Wish, and Wish. As well, no one can buy success or use player guidance (p. B347), non-Cosmic Serendipity, or similar tricks to interfere with or mitigate the use of your ability. This does not affect your target’s ability to defend or resist – it just prevents anyone from using meta-gaming abilities to dictate or retroactively alter the result.

These variants of Cosmic break the rules in a significant, noticeable way. Instead of just removing inherent restrictions, they can ignore or overrule something important to game balance. Cosmic applications at this level are less concerned with fairness, but still cannot casually overwhelm a target’s defenses.

Your ability has an enduring effect that standard powers or methods cannot counteract; only another Cosmic ability can stop it. For example, this could be combined with Cyclic if there is no normal way to stop the repeating damage – though Healing (Cosmic, +50%) could still do so. This never applies to the ability to heal the damage afterward, but see Unhealing damage (below).

Only for abilities that require a success roll: Your advantage works if you have any chance of success. Apply all the usual modifiers to your base skill. If your effective skill is 3 or more, you succeed – don’t bother to roll. The only way you can fail is if your effective skill falls below 3. If your ability’s effectiveness is based on your margin of success (e.g., Maledictions, Mind Reading), roll anyway to determine that margin; if you fail, treat it as success with a margin of 0.

The damage from your attack does not heal normally – whether via internal means (e.g., rest and recovery, Regeneration) or external ones (e.g., medical aid, magical healing, or the Healing advantage). There are two exceptions. First, any advantage with Cosmic has full effectiveness against it. Second, you must specify a category of treatment that works normally. This type of treatment must exist in the campaign setting, and cannot be rare or unique; “requires natural herbal preparations to heal” is fine, but “requires the leaves of a flower that only grows in Tibet” is not. This is a variant of Lingering effect (above), broadening the effect, but also the countermeasure.

Examples of valid treatment categories include:

• Treatment from one specific power source (e.g., magical, psionic, or divine).

• Potions (in a fantasy game) or drugs (in a modern one).

• Natural healing – that is, the wound will heal normally, but nothing else (except Very Rapid Healing) can accelerate the recovery.

• Surgery (even for a surface wound).

• Any external treatment, but only if administered by a specific type of person (e.g., only a member of a certain religion).

At this level, Cosmic doesn’t just allow cheating, it lets the ability do something completely unfair: ignoring a target’s defenses, affecting subjects it should not be able to, and so on. New forms of Cosmic, at this level, can have powerful and farreaching effects on the underlying advantage – but still subject to the limits described under the introduction to Cosmic (p. 6).

Added to any sort of offensive ability, this allows it to bypass non-Cosmic passive protection: DR (for Afflictions and Innate Attacks), Mind Shield (for mental intrusion), Fearlessness and Unfazeable (for Terror), Resistant and Immunity (for any resisted attack), and so on. It does not affect the target’s active defenses; see No active defense allowed (below) for that. It also does not affect resistance rolls; see the introduction to Cosmic (p. 6) for more details. If this enhancement is combined with the Multiple Projectile variant of Rapid Fire (p. B108), the rules for extremely close range shots (Shotguns and Multiple Projectiles, p. B409) no longer apply; roll such attacks normally.

Only for attacks that the target can dodge, block, or parry. Your target gets no active defense against your attack, no matter how fast or skilled he is. If your attack roll succeeds, you hit. The victim’s DR and other purely passive protection work normally; see Irresistible attack (above) to fix that. This enhancement doesn’t prevent resistance rolls; see the introduction to Cosmic (p. 6) for more details.

When bought for an ability that interacts with any one power source – like Neutralize, Psi Static, or Static (from Powers) – this allows it to work with, on, or against any power. The user can decide when using it, as a free action, which power to affect.

Anything In-Between

When coming up with new forms of Cosmic, the GM is not limited to just these three levels! If a new ability seems too powerful for +100%, but not quite up to the +300% level, don’t hesitate to call it +200%. Removing two unrelated restrictions on an ability is normally a net +100% (two separate +50% Cosmic enhancements) – but if the GM feels that doing so makes the ability too potent, he’s free to call that a new +150% Cosmic. Because Cosmic is so wide-ranging in its applicability, pricing it can often be as much an art as a science.

Cosmic Active Defenses

Cosmic, Defensive (above), is most commonly applied to passive protection (e.g., DR), negating the effects of Cosmic, Irresistible attack (p. 8). However, this suggests that characters should be able to add Cosmic, Defensive, to their active defenses as well, to counter Cosmic, No active defense (p. 8). This is possible, using the cost of Enhanced Defenses (p. B51) as a guideline, and treating all defenses as being bought up from the base of 3.

Dodge: Round Basic Speed down to the nearest whole number, then multiply it by 7.5 and round up, to find the point cost.

Parry, One Skill: Halve the skill and round down, then multiply it by 2.5 and round up, to find the point cost. For untrained, unarmed attacks, use DX as your skill level. Parry, All: Halve DX and round down, then multiply it by 5 to find the point cost.

Block: Halve Shield skill and round down, then multiply it by 2.5 and round up, to find the point cost.

A Cosmic active defense can be used even when the rules state that such a defense isn’t possible against a particular type of attack – not just to stop Cosmic attacks! Thus, Cosmic Dodge lets you attempt to dodge a surprise attack, Cosmic Parry (Rapier) makes it possible to parry a flail, Cosmic Block allows you to try blocking a bullet, and so on. This never applies to Maledictions, area-effect attacks, etc. – only to attacks for which the active defense would normally be appropriate, were it not for a rule or circumstance disallowing it in this particular situation. These rules should not be generalized to other forms of Cosmic (or other enhancements). In particular, Cosmic, No die roll required, is strictly forbidden!

If you enhance an active defense, you must also enhance any levels of Enhanced Defenses you add to that defense.

COSMIC IN ACTION: ENHANCED MOVE

Enhanced Move increases the user’s top speed, which is not the same thing as increasing his Basic Move, Air Move, etc.; see High-Speed Movement (pp. B394-396) for details. But what would it take to change that?

The top speed granted by Enhanced Move differs from Basic Move in a few ways:

1. You have to make control rolls when turning quickly or encountering hazards.

2. You have to accelerate to reach top speed.

3. You have to take a Move or Move and Attack maneuver in combat.

This implies that three forms of specialized Cosmic exist to avoid these drawbacks:

Cosmic, Complete maneuverability. You are exempt from control rolls and can turn on a dime, without concern for acceleration. Because this affects even non-enhanced Move, you must take this on both Enhanced Move and the underlying movement ability (e.g., Amphibious or Flight). +50%.

Cosmic, Instantaneous acceleration. You can go from a standing start to top speed, or vice-versa, in a single Move maneuver. This does not allow you to make hairpin turns at full speed (use Cosmic, Complete maneuverability for that), but you can approach a point at full speed, stop and change facing, then zoom away on your next turn. +50%.

Cosmic, Retained speed. You can use your Enhanced Move with any combat maneuver. Calculate your Step using your current Move. You may also All-Out Attack or All-Out Defend when using high-speed movement – and may accelerate or decelerate by up to half your Basic Move when doing so. Note that combat usually requires sudden turns and has many hazards; unless you also have Cosmic, Complete maneuverability, you may be making a lot of control rolls! +50%.

With all three enhancements, Enhanced Move replaces Basic Move (or Air Move, Water Move, etc.) for all purposes. In a supers game, the GM may wish to bundle all three together into a new enhancement (Second-Nature, +150%) to enable the quick and easy creation of super-speedsters.

The rules for applying enhancements to advantages are straightforward: Every advantage has a base cost, and any modifiers simply alter that cost. But what about modifying things with no base cost? A hero may wish to add an Armor Divisor to his punches – which seems problematic when his ST 10 was free! Or perhaps he wants to turn his revolver into a ghost-shooter by adding Affects Insubstantial, and it doesn’t seem fair to make him repurchase his gun as an Innate Attack with gadget limitations.

Fortunately, GURPS is flexible enough to accommodate these situations. The following rules always require significant GM oversight. While the suggestions for each category are not hard-and-fast rules, it’s crucial to ensure that the enhancements added make sense for the attack. See also ST-Based (pp. 20-21) and Enhanced ST-Based Attacks (p. 20).

UNARMED ATTACKS

The GM might permit certain attack modifiers on unarmed thrust damage. These should affect the hero’s ability to inflict damage. Suitable enhancements include Affects Insubstantial (to fight spirits), Armor Divisor (to strike at weak points in objects), Double Knockback (for punching enemies through walls), and Incendiary (for fists o’ fire). Valid limitations include No Blunt Trauma (for martial artists whose strength is “chi projection,” not brute force), No Knockback (ditto!), and Takes Extra Time (for big, slow fighters). Some modifiers are strictly forbidden, however (a * marks limitations found in Powers):

• Those already built into melee attacks: Melee Attack,

Melee-Capable, Variable, and Visible*.

• Those that create attacks that belong to classes mutually

exclusive with close-combat melee: Area Effect, Cone, Explosion, Jet, and anything with such a modifier as a prerequisite (e.g., Bombardment, Dissipation, Drifting, Emanation, Erosive, Mobile, Persistent, Selective Area, and Wall).

• Penetration modifiers other than Armor Divisor, Cosmic, or Surge, Arcing: Blood Agent, Contact Agent, FollowUp, Malediction, Mental Defense Only, Respiratory Agent,

and Sense-Based.

• Those intended for non-physical attacks: Cyclic, Hazard,

Onset, Radiation, and Resistible.

• Those intended for ranged attacks: Accurate, Blockable*,

Extra Recoil, Guided, Homing, Inaccurate, Increased Range, Long-Range, Minimum Range*, Overhead, Ranged, Rapid Fire, Reduced Range, Ricochet, Short-Range*, and Surprise Attack.

To apply modifiers to your unarmed damage, follow these steps:

1. Find thrust damage for the highest ST you can use for unarmed combat. This is the sum of regular ST, Arm ST, and Striking ST.

2. Calculate the “effective point cost” of the basic thrust damage from step 1 as if it were a Crushing Attack. Don’t pay this cost! You just need it for step 4.

3. Total the desired modifiers. Treat a net limitation larger than -80% as -80%.

4. Multiply the cost from step 2 by the net modifier from step 3 to find the cost of the modifiers. Round up. Record a positive cost as an advantage, a negative one as a disadvantage. Example: Kaytee has ST 12, Arm ST 5, and Striking ST 10. She can strike with ST 27, which gives her 3d-1 thrust damage. Crushing Attack 3d-1 would cost 14 points, so Armor Divisor (10), +200%, would be an 28-point advantage for Kaytee, while No Blunt Trauma, -20%, would be a -2-point disadvantage.

Enhancements benefit kicks, punches, bites, head butts, and all other unarmed melee attacks – but not weapons. Limitations affect all muscle-powered attacks, from unarmed through melee to ranged! If you have Claws, Strikers, or Teeth and modifiers on muscle-powered damage, you must buy your body weaponry with exactly the same modifiers.

MELEE WEAPONS

You may modify the damage done via a specific weapon. If you lose the weapon, you lose the enhancements as well – though not the points spent on them. The GM should allow you to either replace the weapon with an equivalent, or to shift the modifiers to a different weapon; the latter may cost additional points, if the new weapon is better! These rules should only be applied to weapons bought using cash (or Signature Gear, etc.); if your sword is actually a Cutting Attack with gadget limitations, just apply any modifiers directly to it. Similarly, the ability to add enhancements to any weapon you use, instead of just one, can be found in Imbuements.

Your choice of modifiers is restricted as per Unarmed Attacks (pp. 9-10). In addition, you may only apply enhancements. If you wish to include limitations, use the rules for modifying unarmed attacks; the limitations automatically apply to every attack you make, including one made with your weapons. The GM may allow exceptions to this restriction, to reflect foibles or drawbacks that only apply to this one weapon, but there are a few special rules:

• Each limitation is only worth 1/5 its normal value.
• If the net modifier for the weapon, after limitations, is 0%

or less, do no further math – just treat this as a perk. (A modified weapon is never free or a disadvantage.)

• Any limitation applies to all uses of the weapon, not just

to the enhancements.

• If a character takes the same limitation on multiple

weapons, the GM is within rights to insist that he instead add the limitation to his overall damage (using the rules for modifying unarmed attacks). The process for calculating point cost is very similar to that for unarmed damage:

1. List the damage you can do for each mode of weapon use, including the amount and the damage type. If the weapon can be used at range, and its ranged damage is better than its melee damage or you plan on adding ranged modifiers to it, see Muscle-Powered Ranged Weapons (p. 11).

2. Calculate the “effective point cost” for each mode, as if it were the appropriate type of Innate Attack. Take the highest point cost of all these modes, and ignore the others. Exception: If all of the enhancements being added would only apply to one mode (e.g., Double Knockback would apply to a sword’s cutting swing, but not its impaling thrust), use that mode regardless of cost.

3. Total the desired enhancements (and limitations, if any).

4. Multiply the highest cost from step 2 by the net modifier from step 3 to find the cost of the modifiers. Record this as an advantage.

Example: Kaytee wants to add Double Blunt Trauma to her fine thrusting broadsword. Her modes of attack are 5d+3 cutting and 3d+2 impaling. Cutting Attack 5d+3 would cost 42 points, while Impaling Attack 3d+2 would cost 29 points, so she uses the former. Double Blunt Trauma is a +20% enhancement, and 42 ¥ 0.20 = 8.4, which rounds up to 9 points.

She also talks the GM into letting her have an incendiary dagger, the blade of which burns up and reforms (taking time) every time she strikes with it. Her dagger does 3d-2 impaling. Impaling Attack 3d-2 would cost 20 points. She adds Incendiary (+10%) and Takes Recharge, 15 seconds (-20% / 5 = -4%), a total of +6%. She pays 20 ¥ 0.06 = 1.2, which rounds up to 2 points. The dagger now does an extra 1 point of burning damage, but any use causes the blade to disintegrate for 15 seconds; Takes Recharge doesn’t just apply to the incendiary affect, but to the use of the dagger as a whole.

At the GM’s option, these rules can be used to modify one type of unarmed damage (e.g., just punches or just bites) instead of using Unarmed Attacks (pp. 9-10). The only advantage to doing so is that limitations can be added on an attack-by-attack basis, instead of affecting all muscle-powered attacks.

MUSCLE-POWERED RANGED WEAPONS

Muscle-powered thrown and missile weapons, such as bows, use the rules for melee weapons (pp. 10-11) with one exception: Enhancements intended for ranged attacks (the last bullet point under Unarmed Attacks, pp. 9-10) are explicitly allowed. The GM should also be generous about allowing the ranged-attack limitations to be added on a per-weapon basis.

Example: Kaytee’s bow can target ghosts and force them to materialize, but it has horrible range. Her composite bow does 3d+2 impaling, which would cost 29 points as an Impaling Attack. She adds Affects Insubstantial (+20%); Symptoms, Negated Advantage (Insubstantiality) after losing 2/3 HP (+80%); and Reduced Range, 1/5 (-20% / 5 = -4%); for a net +96%. She pays 29 ¥ 0.96, or 28 points. Her bow is an excellent ghost hunting weapon, but it has range 108/135 instead of 540/675, even when she’s not attacking ghosts!

OTHER WEAPONS

Many modern and futuristic weapons, such as firearms and beam weapons, do not use ST-based damage. In some ways, this makes them simpler; each does a fixed amount of damage, making it possible to calculate the point cost of any enhancement in advance. Ignore any special effects, damage modifiers, etc. – as for other weapons, all that you need to know is the number of dice dealt and the type of damage.

Things become more complex in other ways, however, particularly when deciding which modifiers to allow on a given weapon. The advice from Unarmed Attacks (pp. 9-10) isn’t necessarily relevant when applied to a gamma-ray pistol! The GM must carefully vet each modifier to ensure balance in his campaign.

Otherwise, use the options for muscle-powered ranged weapons (above) with two additional rules:

• If the PC has access to a way to boost basic damage,

improve the damage type, or both, you must take this into account when calculating what the Innate Attack would cost. This is most often accomplished via special ammunition for firearms (e.g., hollow-point rounds, which bump pi to pi+) or via “hotshotting” or similar techniques for beam weapons. Don’t worry about ammunition, etc., hidden away in military arsenals or research labs. However, if the PC later does get access to such things, the GM should recalculate the point cost of this ability – just as for a warrior who upgrades his sword (Melee Weapons, pp. 10-11).

• To improve RoF, consult Rapid Fire (p. B108). If the

weapon is at the upper end of a RoF band (e.g., RoF 2, 3, 7, 15, 30, etc.), pay the difference between the current RoF band and the new one. Otherwise, treat the weapon as belonging to the RoF band a step down and pay the difference between that band and the new one. (See the example below.) This rule ensures that RoF can never be raised for free.

Example: Kaytee’s campaign uses the detailed guns from GURPS High-Tech. She has a FN MK 16 MOD 0 rifle that does 4d+2 pi. However, Kaytee can boost the damage and damage type to 5d(0.5) pi+ by using HP+P ammo. Large Piercing Attack 5d costs 30 points. (The Armor Divisor (0.5) does not affect these rules.) She wants to boost its RoF from 9 to 30, so she can empty an entire magazine in one second. RoF 9 is within the “8-15” band for Rapid Fire, but it’s not the upper end of that band. Thus, the MK 15 is treated as having Rapid Fire at the +70% level. She wants to buy it up to Rapid Fire 30 (+150%), a difference of +80%. This costs 30 ¥ 0.80, or 24 points.

If the MK 16 had had RoF 15 instead of RoF 9, it would have already been at the upper limit of “RoF 8-15” (+100%), and thus upgrading it to RoF 30 (+150%) would have only cost 30 ¥ 0.50, or 15 points.

While the details can be fussy, the concept behind rules like Cosmic Active Defenses (p. 7) and Modifying Existing Damage (pp. 9-11) is a simple one: Figure out what the cost of the enhancement would be if you had paid for the inherent ability. With GM permission, this can be generalized to other traits. Be careful, as the potential for abuse is high; many enhancements were never designed to be added to attributes, characteristics, etc.! Example: Wesley wants his Hearing and Vision to be linked together, so that if he hears something, he doesn’t have to make a second roll to see it, and vice-versa. The GM approves, and decides that Link (+20%) is the proper enhancement. (The +10% version would force Wesley to look at what he was hearing, and that doesn’t seem right.) Wesley’s Vision roll (p. B358) is a 12 and his Hearing roll (p. B358) is a 13. The GM uses Acute Senses to determine the fair value, and charges Wesley (12 ¥ 2 ¥ 0.20) + (13 ¥ 2 ¥ 0.20), or 5 + 6, or 11 points.

Below are examples of power modifiers appropriate to broad categories of powers. They attempt to stay true to the way novels and movies depict those powers. Each lists its individual subcomponents to make it easier to customize and to demonstrate the principles of design. The overall modifier is the sum of these parts – don’t apply the component modifiers a second time! Be sure to change the generic names to suit specific powers.

Your power is a physical capability of your body. It’s fatiguing to use because your metabolism must supply all of the energy: pay an extra 1 FP whenever you use an active ability (Costs Fatigue, 1 FP, -5%). Anything that upsets your unique metabolism might deprive you of your power – including targeted pathogens, drugs, and nanotech designed by your enemies (technological countermeasures, -5%).

Your power emanates from your life force – a mysterious energy often called chi or ki. To strengthen your chi to the point where you can channel it for superhuman feats, you must engage in exercises and meditation for a few hours each day. This requirement is a -10-point disadvantage (-10%), most often Disciplines of Faith (Monasticism or Mysticism) or a comparable major Vow. Should you neglect this, your power fails you the first time you call upon it under stress (+0%). To restore it, you must take 1d days to rebalance your chi (+0%). Until you do, you feel ill; the GM should choose one of these afflictions from Irritating Conditions (p. B428): Coughing/Sneezing, Drowsy, Nauseated, or Pain.

Your power originates from the energy of creation! Your abilities ignore the ordinary countermeasures that work against wild advantages, and you always have access to them – nothing can neutralize your power or cut off its energy source. This is identical to the +50% level of the Cosmic enhancement on p. B103. If you have individual abilities with more expensive versions of Cosmic, your power modifier only covers the first +50% of their value; after that, you must pay for Cosmic normally.

A deity grants you your power. Nothing can prevent your god’s power from reaching you… but your patron expects certain behavior in return. The precise details depend on your god.

A good god expects you to lead a virtuous life. The required moral code is a -10-point disadvantage (-10%), typically Honesty (12), Sense of Duty (Coreligionists), or a major Vow. Should you transgress, your god will suspend your power – but since he’s benevolent, he won’t cut you off if this would endanger you (+5%), save for the most egregious of sins. To make amends, you must offer significant penance: up to a month of fasting, questing, or equivalent (-5%).

An evil god lets you do as you wish, provided you make suitable sacrifices, corrupt the innocent, etc. These requirements are worth -10 points (-10%), most often in the form of Intolerance or a heinous major Vow such as “Kill someone on the night of the full moon.” If you forget, your deity will revoke your power instantly (+0%). It will turn on you in horrible ways until you make amends (-5%). A single killing or desecration will get you back in favor – since you’ve already sold your soul, this should be easy for you (+5%).

An ineffable force of nature only rarely concerns itself with mortal affairs, leaving you free to act in its name as you see fit. But it has principles – often strange, confusing ones – that constitute a -10-point disadvantage (-10%), perhaps a Code of Honor such as “Respect nature, and violently oppose those who do not” or a complex Trademark that few can understand. It will immediately cut you off for any perceived improbity (+0%). To get back in good standing, you must complete a minor quest (+0%) suggested to you through omens.

Your power lets you manipulate an “element”: one particular kind of natural matter or energy, or its absence. Examples include Air, Cold/Ice, Darkness, Earth, Electricity, Heat/Fire, Light, Radiation, Sound/Vibration, and Water. This power isn’t psionic or channeled from an elemental god; powers like that are Psionic or Divine, respectively. Instead, you’re cosmically attuned to your element; in effect, you are an elemental spirit.

The GM should choose a mundane countermeasure or insulator that can interfere with your elemental energy. Either way, this is worth -10%. If your element would not logically merit the full -10% for countermeasures or channeled energies, the GM may rule that this limitation is a little of both. It’s fairest if every elemental power is more or less equally limited.

Your power channels ambient magical energy (mana). This is difficult to block and found almost everywhere. “No-mana zones” – areas where your power doesn’t work at all – occur only rarely in nature. However, low-mana zones are more common, and all rolls to use your abilities are at -5 in such regions. This aspect of the limitation is worth -5%.

In addition, a variety of anti-powers can thwart your abilities. The Mana Damper advantage simulates the effect of a low- or no-mana zone, while Magic Resistance shields others from your attacks. Moreover, spells that dispel or protect against magic affect your abilities exactly as if they were spells. This is worth another -5%. This modifier is identical to the Mana Sensitive limitation on p. B34.

Your power comes from some cosmic moral principle – Chaos, Evil, Good, Order, etc. – that transcends the mortal and even the divine. This isn’t a true cosmic power… it’s more like half a cosmic power, because it has an opposing anti-power (-5%): Chaos vs. Order, Evil vs. Good, and so on. This anti-power offers its wielders Neutralize and Static abilities (and perhaps other gifts) that they can use against you. Your power gives you similar weapons, of course.

Your ability to tap this power stems from your dedication to a moral code, to which you must adhere at all times. This is a -15-point disadvantage (-15%), usually Fanaticism – although Honesty (9) or Sense of Duty (Humanity) is just as likely for Good. If you falter, even for a moment, you lose your power instantly (+0%). To get it back requires an extreme demonstration of commitment that costs at least 2d days of lost time or earnings (+0%). Details are up to the GM, who should pick something appropriate to your power; e.g., a large donation to charity, for Good.

This modifier only exists in settings with absolute morality, where moral forces battle openly in the world and are both tangible and detectable.

Your power channels the vital energy that surrounds all living things. This exists even in the driest deserts and on the most barren peaks, but the ravages of civilization interfere with it, acting as a mundane insulator against your power (-10%). You’re at -1 to use your abilities in a despoiled wild place such as a clear-cut forest, -3 in a city, -5 amidst ordinary pollution, and -10 in a poisoned wasteland.

Technology – not technological countermeasures, but any technology – also impairs your power. In effect, it’s a mundane countermeasure (-10%). You’re at a penalty equal to half the TL (round up) of the most advanced manufactured item you’re carrying, wearing, or riding in or on. Use the full TL of implants. Thus, a TL3 sword gives -2, while a TL8 pacemaker gives -8. An ability that requires no die roll loses 10% of its effectiveness (bonus to reactions or skills, DR, etc.) per -1 instead. If the penalties total -10 or worse, you’re powerless.

This modifier best suits Animal Control, Plant Control, and Weather Control powers.

Your power is an innate capability of your mind. The energy comes from within, but a large number of countermeasures exist, including anti-powers in the form of Antipsi power (-5%) and technological countermeasures in the form of “psychotronic” or “psi-tech” defenses (-5%).

The Basic Set includes several specific examples of psionic powers: ESP, Psychic Healing, Psychokinesis, Telepathy, and Teleportation.

Your power comes through commanding spirits: you give orders and the spirits do the work. Since only those with powers of their own are likely to realize this, it’s often hard to distinguish your abilities from chi, psi, etc. But there are some important differences.

Spirits are fickle (-20%), and whether they answer your summons at all depends on an unmodified reaction roll. You can command them, but you must show basic respect. This imposes a -5-point disadvantage (-5%) – typically Disciplines of Faith (Ritualism), Sense of Duty (Servitor Spirits), or a simple Trademark in the form of a small offering or token. If you fail to live up to this, the spirits turn against you, depriving you of your power at the worst possible moment (-5%). Since they ultimately want you to turn them loose on the world, though, it’s easy to make amends – a minor sacrifice, such as a food offering, is usually enough (+5%).

The spirits associated with an individual ability might be more or less friendly, giving from -4 to +4 on reaction rolls. If so, that one ability has an extra -5% modifier per -1, or +5% per +1, on top of the basic power modifier that applies to all abilities.

In some settings, spirits aren’t this capricious and the GM might dispense with the reaction roll. This reduces Spirit to -5%.

A power modifier can be +0%. This means that, on average, the power’s abilities are neither better nor worse than wild advantages. It doesn’t mean that they are identical to wild advantages. A power might end up with a +0% modifier because its benefits and drawbacks cancel out. Whether this is by design or coincidence, it’s important to spell out the effects to keep players from assuming that zero cost implies zero effect. For instance, Things Man Was Not Meant To Know might grant cultists an unstoppable power (Cosmic, +50%), but they might be fickle (-20%) and demand extremely strict behavior (-25% for required disadvantages) – and using the power might have unpleasant consequences (Nuisance Effect, -5%). The total modifier is +0%, but certainly not irrelevant!

The rules for countermeasures, required disadvantages, and channeled energies can also result in a +0% modifier. A power might face countermeasures different from but no more common than those that affect wild advantages… or require minor upkeep that the user can safely put off for a day… or channel energy that isn’t prone to interference. All of these things are worth +0%, but you should still note them, because they can matter in play.

Finally, the GM can add a +0% modifier as a “special effect,” possibly for the sole purpose of marking the power’s abilities as part of the power. Even then, the modifier isn’t irrelevant. If nothing else, it determines which advantages benefit from the power’s Talent and what traits those who have the power can add later on (see Adding and Improving Powers, p. 33). It might even make the power mutually exclusive with some other power.

Your power is a “generic superpower.” Details depend on the game world. What’s common to all such powers is that they face Neutralize and Static – as wild advantages and as part of various anti-powers (-5%) – and that weird-science devices built by gadgeteers can block them or even steal them (-5%). In effect, this is just a special form of the Psionic limitation. In many settings, the two are one and the same.

Certain super-powers are subject to mundane insulators or countermeasures that limit their ability to affect the world. For instance, being underwater might be as effective as Static or a power-suppressing serum for negating a fire-related power. If your power is like this, you may give it both the Super and Elemental modifiers. This is an exception to the restriction against “stacking” power modifiers.

You can apply enhancements to advantages, and more rarely to basic attributes and secondary characteristics. The GM might even permit specific enhancements on certain skills, but this is difficult to justify unless the skill functions much as an advantage (which is sometimes true of racially innate skills possessed by nonhumans).

Modifiers inflate the complexity of any GURPS game. Enhancements in particular add a whole new range of ways to potentially abuse the system. As such, the GM should be careful when vetting an ability based on a heavily enhanced advantage. Just because something is built “legally” doesn’t mean the GM has to allow it in his campaign. For example, Toxic Attack 1 point [1] is unlikely to unbalance any game, but Toxic Attack 1 point (Area Effect 22, +1,100%) [12] could potentially damage every person in North America simultaneously, while wiping out thousands of insect and small animal species, all in a single shot – despite being only 11 points more expensive!

As a general rule, extreme levels of any enhancement can be problematic. As well, Cosmic (pp. 6-9) always deserves a close look – it’s potent on its own, but it can be extremely powerful when combined with other enhancements. Adding Cosmic, Irresistible attack to the example above would increase the cost by only 3 points – but the two enhancements together would ensure that no one was safe from the attack, as it effortlessly struck through armor, walls, etc.

While it may seem odd to include modifiers specifically for Affliction, it’s important to realize that the modifiers below can also be used as the basis of a Side Effect or Symptom (both p. B109) enhancement. Density Increase and Slower Move can affect inanimate objects as well as living beings.

Density Increase: The subject’s mass and weight (but not his volume or size) is drastically increased. This is worth +5% for x2 weight, +10% for x5, +15% for x10, +20% for x20, +25% for x50, +30% for x100, and so on. By itself, this enhancement only covers the nuisance of being heavier (e.g., breaking chairs and being harder to carry). The subject’s ST, Move, etc., are unchanged; assume that his muscles become proportionately dense. To simulate the kind of density increase that leaves him staggering under his new weight, add any of Attribute Penalty (ST, DX, or both), Disadvantage (Lame, Reduced Basic Speed, or Reduced Basic Move), or Slower Move (below).

Itching: This is a new irritating condition. The subject is at -2 to DX for the duration of the itch. Scratching for one full second relieves the itch, but he can do nothing else while scratching; this requires a Do Nothing maneuver in combat. +10%.

Slower Move: The subject becomes proportionately slower than he was, reducing his Move in all mediums, but not his Basic Speed. Unlike Disadvantage (Lame), this even affects subjects who slither, fly, swim, etc. This is worth +10% for 0.8¥ Move, +20% for 0.6¥, +30% for 0.4¥, +40% for 0.2¥, and +50% to reduce Move to 0. For the first four levels, round Move down, to a minimum of 1.

Your attack is unusually accurate. Each +1 to Accuracy is a +5% enhancement.

Any ability with the Ranged enhancement can have Accurate. See Reliable for an enhancement that affects die rolls other than those for ranged attacks.

Your ability affects insubstantial targets in addition to normal, substantial things.

Affects Insubstantial is common on the abilities of divine, magical, psi, and spirit powers. Advantages modified with it affect those using Clairsentience, Jumper, or Warp with the Projection modifier – not just targets using true Insubstantiality.

When using your advantage, you may choose to have it affect just insubstantial targets, just substantial targets, or all targets. (If you can only affect insubstantial targets, take the Insubstantial Only limitation.)

You can extend your advantage’s benefits to others. If you can affect a limited number of willing subjects by touching them, Affects Others costs +50% per person. This isn’t an attack – it has no effect on unwilling recipients. You must take a separate Ready maneuver to make contact with each companion, who must be within reach. This bestows the effects of the advantage, not the ability to use it. You turn it “off” and “on,” set its level, and so on, and your decisions apply equally to you and all subjects.

Your ability only affects others while they’re touching you. They can end its effects at any time by breaking contact with you. To affect those who are merely nearby, add Area Effect – in which case a Ready maneuver lets you affect any number of people up to your limit, if they’re in your area.

The above version of Affects Others is for movement abilities (e.g., Flight and Permeation) and physical transformations (e.g., Growth and Shrinking). It’s a good way to keep the PCs together on adventures that would leave behind those who can’t fly, shrink, etc. The GM may allow Affects Others on other traits when it serves this purpose.

If you apply Force Field (p. 14) to one of the defenses listed for that enhancement, you may add Affects Others for a flat +50%, provided you also take at least one level of Area Effect. Together, these three modifiers let you extend your advantage’s protection to everyone inside your area. This force field works against attacks and hazards crossing it from the outside. Threats inside the force field bypass its protection.

If based on Damage Resistance, the force field impedes movement, too. Foes who wish to cross it must force their way in. Those who try this as a free action (allowed once per turn) roll thrust damage. Those who use Attack, Move and Attack, or All-Out Attack to blast their way in roll their attack’s usual damage. If damage exceeds DR, they make an opening large enough to step through. This closes at the end of their turn, and doesn’t weaken the force field.

The GM shouldn’t allow either form of Affects Others on advantages that let the user do something, such as Healing, Innate Attack, and Mind Control. To grant forbidden traits or affect unwilling subjects, buy Affliction with a suitable Advantage enhancement.

Your ability affects substantial targets even when you are insubstantial. It also affects insubstantial creatures normally.

Those who possess Clairsentience, Jumper, or Warp with the Projection modifier, Shadow Form, or any similar ability that renders them effectively insubstantial can use this modifier to let advantages that wouldn’t normally affect the physical world do so.

(Do not add this enhancement to magical or psi abilities; these can already affect the substantial world at -3.)

Note to GMs: This enhancement is very powerful. It lets insubstantial characters affect the material world with little fear of retribution. Feel free to disallow it, restrict it to NPCs, or to make sure that lots of foes have the Affects Insubstantial enhancement!

When using your advantage, you may choose to have it affect just insubstantial targets, just substantial targets, or all targets.

Selectivity (p. B108) allows you to decide which enhancements are “on” and which are “off,” as a free action, every time you use the ability in question. You can alternate between using a single enhancement, using all of them, or anything in between! But some abilities don’t call for that level of flexibility.

If you have access to multiple enhancements, but can only use one at a time, treat this as a new enhancement: Alternative Enhancements. Its cost is equal to that of the most expensive enhancement, plus 1/5 the total value of the remaining enhancements. (This is an adaptation of Alternative Attacks, p. B61.) Treat any enhancement less than +5% (e.g., Game Time) as +5% for these purposes.

At the beginning of each turn, as a free action, you must choose which of the enhancements is being used – for simplicity, establish a “default setting” with the GM, and then let him know whenever you switch it.

Example: Cade can read any mind, whether organic or digital. However, she finds flesh-and-blood minds much easier to read. She buys Mind Reading (Alternative Enhancements, Cybernetic or Reliable 6, +56%) [47] and sets Reliable as her default use. When she knows she needs to read a computer, she may consciously switch over to Cybernetic instead, losing her Reliable bonus. The enhancements must be thematically linked; they have to make sense as alternative settings for the ability.

For example, Burning Attack (Alternative Enhancements, Armor Divisor (2) or Cone, 1 yard, +70%) can be justified as “adjusting the focus of my laser,” but Affliction (Alternative Enhancements, Coma, Malediction 2, or Respiratory Agent, +290%) would be much harder to explain. For even more versatility, see Variable Enhancement (p. 5).

Your attack – which must do piercing damage – can switch between different types of ammunition. Switching is a free action at the beginning or end of your turn. If it takes you a full turn to select between ammo types, add a flat -5% to the final value of this enhancement.

You may only choose one of the options below. Each enhancement is restricted to attacks that do a certain type of piercing damage. This is to avoid an impossible situation; e.g., a huge piercing attack can’t have HP Ammo, because there’s no way to increase the damage type by a step!

“–” means the enhancement is not available for this type of attack.

You can fire armor-piercing rounds instead of normal ones. Doing so reduces your damage type by a step, but raises your armor divisor by a step. For example, a 3d pi attack becomes a 3d(2) pi- attack.

You can fire hollow-point rounds instead of normal ones. Doing so increases your damage type by a step, but lowers your armor divisor by a step. For example, a 3d pi attack becomes a 3d(0.5) pi+ attack.

You may fire AP ammo or HP ammo, as per the two enhancements above.

Your ability works as an area power instead of affecting a single target. Everything in the area suffers the attack’s damage or other effects. On a miss, use the scatter rules (p. B414) to see where the area is centered. Active defenses don’t protect against an area attack, but victims may attempt to dive for cover or dodge and retreat to leave the area. For more information, see Area and Spreading Attacks (p. B413).

Further levels continue to double the radius. If applied to an advantage that already covers an area, each level doubles the base radius.

Area Effect is a prerequisite for Mobile, Persistent, Selective Area, Bombardment, and Emanation.

For advantages that already affect an area, the area of effect sometimes depends on the advantage level. If so, the only way to increase the area is to buy a higher level of the trait – Area Effect is off limits.

Area Effect makes it possible to affect groups of people with nonattack advantages that normally affect just one target; e.g., Healing, Mind Control, and Telekinesis. Several special rules apply to such abilities:

• If the advantage has a FP cost, multiply this by the radius in yards. Paying this cost lets the user affect everyone in the area – he doesn’t pay FP separately for each subject. For instance, on a single subject, Healing costs 1 FP per 2 HP healed; on everyone in an eight-yard radius, it costs 8 FP per 2 HP healed (which the GM may interpret as 4 FP per HP).
• If the advantage affects the target via a Quick Contest, the user must roll a separate Contest with each potential victim in the area.
• If the advantage specifies a penalty to affect each victim after the first, the user has a penalty equal to the total number of potential victims, less one, on his roll for each subject. For example, to use Mind Control (Area Effect) on four people at once, roll to affect each of them at -3.
• If the advantage has user-defined effects, these must be the same for all subjects. In the Mind Control example above, the controller could tell all four victims, “Attack those men by the door!” He could not order, “John, save the girl. Paul, grab the treasure chest. George and Ringo, attack the men by the door!” If the ability is ongoing, it takes a second (or the usual amount of time for the advantage, if longer) to specify different effects for a particular subject, during which time the others continue to experience the last effect specified.

Your attack can pierce more armor than its base damage would indicate.

Only Innate Attacks and Afflictions can have this enhancement. Armor Divisor is a “penetration modifier”; you cannot combine it with other penetration modifiers, such as Contact Agent and Follow-Up.

The GM may allow this modifier – as an enhancement or a limitation – on attacks affected by specialized defenses other than DR. Adjust the defense’s level just as you would DR. For example, an Affliction with Vision-Based (which bypasses DR) could add Armor Divisor (5) to reduce the effects of Protected Vision from +5 to +1.

Your attack takes the form of a malefic aura that affects anyone you touch (reach C) or who touches you. If a weapon strikes you, your aura affects the weapon. You can switch the aura on or off at the start of your turn (if not, take Always On). You must take Aura in conjunction with Melee Attack (p. 112) at the -30% level (reach C), and you cannot claim the extra -5% for “cannot parry” – an aura cannot parry in the first place.

The classic example of an Aura is the sheath of flame surrounding a fire elemental. See Body of Fire for how to write this up.

Creatures that bleed acid, flame, and so on when wounded have a Burning Attack or Corrosive Attack that combines Aura (+80%) with Always On (-20%), Blood Agent (-40%), and Melee Attack (-30%), for a net -10%. Always On is worth -20% because it’s inconvenient to fry your possessions whenever you’re cut. Blood Agent works “in reverse” here; see Blood Agent for details.

This enhancement is only available for abilities that allow a resistance roll against ST, DX, IQ, HT, Perception, or Will. It moves the resistance roll from the usual attribute or characteristic to a different one, specified when you buy the ability. This is considered an enhancement because it lets you finetune your ability to be more effective against targets with known weaknesses.

Some sinister entities (e.g., demons) can “aim” Afflictions, Mind Control, and so on at their victim’s weaknesses. If the GM permits, an attack can have several instances of this enhancement, letting the user choose how his attack is resisted. Each attribute – including the one that normally resists the attack – costs +20%. For instance, to target IQ, HT, or Will costs +60%. The attacker must choose the target attribute before he attacks.

The GM may permit this modifier on advantages that require the user to roll against his own DX, IQ, HT, Will, or Per, shifting the roll to another of these scores. This still costs +20%. He can take this enhancement twice to change his roll and his target’s roll, where logical.

This enhancement is available for any ability that requires the user to roll against his own DX, IQ, HT, Will, or Per to use. It shifts the roll from the usual attribute or secondary characteristic to a different one. (Note that ST is deliberately excluded; you cannot shift a roll to or from ST.) This does not affect the target’s resistance roll, if any! Use the standard Based on (Different Attribute) (p. B102) for that.

On an attack with Area Effect or Cone, this is an enhancement. See the Blood Agent limitation for details.

A physical transformation normally affects your body but not your belongings. With this enhancement, your advantage also transforms objects you’re carrying or wearing. It ceases to affect these things when you put them down. Can Carry Objects is already defined for Insubstantiality, Invisibility, Permeation, Shadow Form, and Shrinking, but it’s also useful for Chameleon, Elastic Skin, Growth, Morph, and anything else the GM allows.

Cost depends on how much you can carry: No encumbrance is +10%; Light, +20%; Medium, +50%; Heavy, +100%; and Extra-Heavy, +150%. To affect people you’re touching, add Affects Others. To extend defensive effects to your possessions, take Force Field.

Your attack spreads to affect everyone in a cone-shaped area. Cones use special rules; see Area and Spreading Attacks (p. 413). Decide on the maximum width of the cone, in yards, at the attack’s maximum range. Cone costs +50% plus +10% per yard of maximum width.

You cannot combine Cone with Area Effect, Aura, Jet, Melee Attack, Rapid Fire, or Emanation.

The notes under Area Effect also apply to Cone. The only difference is that the user multiplies the FP cost of non-attack advantages by the maximum width of the cone instead of a radius in yards. When combining Cone with Malediction – which has no Max statistic – assume that the cone spreads by one yard per yard of range. It attains its maximum width at a range equal to that width (e.g., at five yards, for a five-yard-wide cone), and has no effect on more distant targets. Work out the range modifier separately for each target within the cone, following the usual rules for Malediction.

On an attack with Area Effect or Cone, this is an enhancement. See the Contact Agent limitation for more information.

Your ability operates on a “higher level” than is usual in your game world. This allows it to work under all circumstances, and possibly even ignore opposing powers! The value of the enhancement depends on the underlying trait:

Ability other than an attack or a defense. Your ability is not subject to the usual built-in restrictions. For instance, your Healing might cure otherwise “incurable” diseases, your Insubstantiality might allow you to penetrate barriers that would block other insubstantial beings, or your Shapeshifting might be immune to negation by external forces. +50%.

Defense or countermeasure. Your defensive trait provides its usual benefits against offensive abilities modified with the Cosmic enhancement. +50%.

No die roll required. Only for abilities that require a success roll. Your advantage works if you have any chance of success. Apply all the usual modifiers to your base skill. If your effective skill is 3 or more, you succeed – don’t bother to roll. The only way you can fail is if your effective skill falls below 3. You can add this enhancement to attacks, but not to abilities with effects based entirely on margin of success. This excludes such resisted abilities as Mind Control and Maledictions. +100%.

Attack with a lingering special effect. Your attack has an enduring effect that only another Cosmic power can counteract; e.g., a burning Innate Attack that sets fires that water cannot extinguish, or a toxic Innate Attack that inflicts Cyclic (below) damage that medical technology cannot halt. This does not negate the target’s protection! DR still affects Innate Attack, a HT roll is still allowed for a Resistible attack, etc. +100%.

Irresistible attack. Your attack does negate the target’s protection; e.g., an Innate Attack that ignores DR, or Mind Control that ignores Mind Shield. The target may still attempt an active defense against the attack, if applicable. You cannot combine this enhancement with other “penetration modifiers,” such as Follow-Up. +300%.

No active defense allowed. Only for attacks that the target can dodge, block, or parry. Your target gets no active defense against your attack, no matter how fast or skilled he is. If your attack roll succeeds, you hit. The victim’s DR and other purely passive protection works normally, and this enhancement doesn’t prevent resistance rolls. +300%.

Cosmic options are cumulative. For instance, an Innate Attack that requires no roll to hit (+100%), allows no active defense (+300%), and ignores DR (+300%) is +700%. An Attack maneuver lets you immediately apply your damage roll to your target’s HP! No version of Cosmic bypasses the resistance roll against Affliction, Mind Control, Maledictions, and similar abilities. Despite its name, “irresistible attack” simply negates protection such as DR and Mind Shield – it doesn’t deny the target his chance to resist. On a carrier attack, all forms of Cosmic raise the cost of Follow-Up on the follow-up attack.

Cosmic as a Power Modifier: At the +50% level, Cosmic is often a power modifier (see p. 26). On abilities with this modifier, reduce the total cost of all Cosmic options by +50%. In effect, the first +50% of Cosmic is built in. When using Powers, Great and Small (below), each tier has an enhancement cost, and pays a premium equal to that cost for a lingering attack, or five times that cost for an irresistible attack. “No die roll” and “no active defense” are at full cost, less the value of the tier enhancement.

Cosmic vs. Cosmic: When Cosmic abilities conflict, handle it as if neither side had Cosmic. For instance, DR with Cosmic subtracts from “irresistible” attacks with Cosmic. The not-quite-cosmic powers of \\Powers, Great and Small
only count as Cosmic against lower tiers – and only top-tier powers count as Cosmic against wild abilities. Powers on the same tier interact as if neither were Cosmic.

Ordinarily, two advantages that interact in a particular way in their wild form interact no differently when one or both belongs to a power – even if their power sources are very different. For example, Mind Shield resists all mental attacks, of any source, whether it’s a wild advantage or a chi, psi, or magical ability. Similarly, Damage Resistance subtracts from the damage inflicted by Innate Attack, regardless of the source of either trait, unless the DR is limited not to work against the attack or the Innate Attack is enhanced to bypass DR. Cosmic powers are the sole exception.

If you wish, though, you can set things up so that certain powers operate on a higher plane than others. To do so, arrange the powers into “tiers.” Whenever a power interacts with a higher-tier power, treat the higher-tier power as if it were cosmic. For instance, if there are three tiers, then bottom-tier See Invisible can only defeat bottom-tier Invisibility; middle-tier See Invisible can pierce bottom- or middle-tier Invisibility; and top-tier See Invisible can penetrate any Invisibility.

In this model, truly cosmic powers add +50% to their power modifier and are superior to all other powers. The “least” powers add +0% and are inferior to all others. Powers in between add an intermediate value that depends on which tier they occupy and how many tiers there are, as follows:

Two tiers: Tier 1 (Cosmic), +50%; Tier 2 (everything else!), +0%.

Three tiers: Tier 1 (Cosmic), +50%; Tier 2, +25%; Tier 3 (least), +0%.

Four tiers: Tier 1 (Cosmic), +50%; Tier 2, +30%; Tier 3, +15%; Tier 4 (least), +0%.

Five tiers: Tier 1 (Cosmic), +50%; Tier 2, +35%; Tier 3, +25%; Tier 4, +10%; Tier 5 (least), +0%.

Six tiers: Tier 1 (Cosmic), +50%; Tier 2, +40%; Tier 3, +30%; Tier 4, +20%; Tier 5, +10%; Tier 6 (least), +0%.

This enhancement is only available for Innate Attacks that inflict burning, corrosion, fatigue, or toxic damage. It represents an attack that persists on the victim: acid, disease, liquid fire, poison, etc. (For attacks that linger in the environment, see Persistent.)

A Cyclic attack damages its target normally – but once the target has been exposed, the attack damages him again each time a set interval passes! All penetration modifiers (e.g., Contact or Follow-Up) continue to apply; for instance, a Cyclic attack with Follow-Up continues to ignore DR. Worst of all, the victim cannot recover HP or FP lost to a Cyclic attack until the attack stops damaging him!

You must specify a reasonably common set of circumstances that halt any further damage from your attack. For instance, to halt cyclic corrosion or burning damage, the victim might have to wash the acid off or roll on the ground to extinguish the flames, taking one or more seconds and a DX or IQ roll. Fatigue or toxic damage might require drugs or medical care (use Physician skill). Details are up to the GM.

The base value of Cyclic depends on the damage interval.

Burning or corrosion attacks shouldn’t have intervals longer than 10 seconds. At the GM’s option, someone taking damage at one-second intervals might have to make a Fright Check!

Multiply the base value by the number of cycles after the first. The GM should consider limiting large numbers of cycles to attacks that do less than 1d damage.

Cyclic attacks are often Resistible; if so, an extra resistance roll is allowed for each cycle, with a success preventing any further damage. If the attack is Resistible, halve the value of Cyclic.

Some Cyclic attacks are contagious. If the attack is contagious, those who come into contact with victims must roll against HT, per Contagion (p. B443). “Mildly contagious” (+20%) means the required contact is holding or being held by an infected victim for a full cycle, or contact with bodily fluids. “Highly contagious” (+50%) means the effects spread at the slightest touch.

These factors are cumulative. For instance, a resistible disease with 31 daily cycles would cost +10% x 30 x 1/2 = +150%. If it were highly contagious, it would cost +200%.

You may give an Innate Attack one or more of these modifiers to further qualify the way it does damage.

Available for Innate Attacks that do burning, corrosion, cutting, impaling, or piercing damage. Burning and corrosion attacks enhanced this way inflict 1 HP of blunt trauma injury per 10 points of basic damage resisted by flexible armor. Cutting, impaling, and piercing attacks with this enhancement inflict the same blunt trauma as a crushing attack: 1 HP of blunt trauma injury per 5 points of basic damage resisted by flexible armor.

This lets a crushing or cutting attack inflict twice as much knockback as usual; see Knockback (p. 378). To make this meaningful for low-damage attacks, double the basic damage of the attack, for knockback purposes only, instead of doubling yards of knockback.

The attack produces an explosion at the point of impact (on a miss, check for scatter; see p. 414). The target takes damage normally; anything nearby receives “collateral damage” equal to basic damage divided (3 x the distance in yards from the blast). If the attack also has an Armor Divisor, it does not apply to this collateral damage.

You can take up to two additional levels of Explosion if you desire a blast that isn’t as affected by distance. The second level divides basic damage by twice the distance in yards and is +100%; the third level divides damage by the distance in yards and is +150%. Explosion is usually limited to crushing and burning attacks, but the GM may permit other combinations. For more on explosions, see Explosions (p. 414).

The attack scatters damaging fragments on impact. Decide on the dice of fragmentation damage and note this in brackets after the attack’s basic damage. Everyone within 5 yards per die of fragmentation damage is attacked with effective skill 15, modified by range penalties from the point of impact; see Fragmentation Damage (p. 414).

Fragments inflict cutting damage. If you add Fragmentation to a burning attack or one with the Incendiary enhancement (below), the fragments are Incendiary at no extra cost. If you apply it to an attack with Follow-Up, penetration indicates the fragments automatically hit the victim but no one else. Fragmentation often accompanies Explosion (above), but this is not required.

Fragmentation costs +15% per die of fragmentation damage. A damage of [2d] or [3d] is typical of a grenade-sized blast. Maximum fragmentation damage is [12d] or the attack’s basic damage, whichever is less.

Hot Fragments: The fragments inflict burning damage with the modifiers Cyclic (Six 10-second cycles) and Armor Divisor (0.2) instead of cutting damage. Cost is unchanged.

Large Piercing Fragments, like the ball bearings hurled by modern antipersonnel mines, cost +15% per die.

Impaling Fragments, like the flechettes scattered by some artillery shells, cost +20% per die. In all cases, use the usual fragmentation rules; damage type is all that changes.

You may give an Innate Attack that inflicts fatigue damage one of these enhancements: Dehydration, +20%; Drowning, +0%; Freezing, +20%; Missed Sleep, +50%; Starvation, +40%; or Suffocation, +0%. Treat FP lost to the attack identically to FP lost to the relevant hazard for all purposes, notably recovery (see Chapter 14).

Traits that protect the target from the hazard in question also shield him from this damage. For instance, a Starvation attack would inflict FP that could only be recovered by eating a meal, but someone with Doesn’t Eat or Drink would be immune.

Pyrokinetic Fatigue Attacks that inflict gradual heating (as opposed to rapid burning) can add a new Hazard: Heat, +20%. FP lost to this Hazard follow the rules on p. B434.

An Innate Attack other than a burning attack may be Incendiary. This gives the damage a secondary flame effect that can ignite volatile material (fuel, dry tinder, etc.).

Optionally, to represent superscience and magical attacks with fire-starting potential out of proportion to damage, add Incendiary to a Burning Attack. This moves the effective flammability class of anything damaged by the attack up a step; see Making Things Burn (p. B433).

If the GM agrees and the special effects support it, an attack may lack one of the normal “side effects” of its damage type. The absence of an effect that damages the target’s HP, FP, or DR is worth -20% (like No Blunt Trauma); e.g., No DR Reduction, for a Corrosion Attack. Most other limitations are worth -10% (like No Knockback); e.g., No Incendiary Effect, for a Burning Attack.

The GM may allow this on Burning and Corrosion Attacks. For a Burning Attack, roll damage normally but use it only to determine whether the attack sets a fire; see Making Things Burn (p. B433). In the case of a Corrosion Attack, the damage only serves to reduce the target’s DR.

The attack irradiates the subject. Roll damage normally, but whether or not the attack penetrates DR, it inflicts 1 rad per point of basic damage rolled. See Radiation (p. 435) for effects. For a toxic attack, this dosage is instead of regular damage, and the enhancement is worth +25%; this is typical of “ordinary” radioactivity. For a burning attack, the radiation dose is as well as regular damage, and the enhancement is +100%; use this for particle beams. Other damage types cannot have this enhancement.

In settings that feature weird, mutation-inducing radiation, attacks with this modifier can bathe the target in these energies instead of causing regular radiation damage. Effects are up to the GM.

The attack produces an electrical surge or pulse that can disable electronics or anything with the Electrical disadvantage.

Electronics that take over 1/3 HP from an attack with this enhancement must make a HT roll to avoid shorting out. Failure disables the target for seconds equal to the margin of failure; critical failure disables it until repaired (see Repairs, p. B484).

Burning Attacks or Afflictions designed to represent powerful electric charges (such as lightning) can take a higher level of Surge, below.

Surge, Arcing: In addition to the regular effects of Surge, your attack treats any conductive, metal armor as DR 1, regardless of its actual DR. This is a “penetration modifier”; you cannot combine it with other penetration modifiers. It may be combined with Side Effect. +100%.

Some advantages offer a form of “immunity” to those who successfully resist, making it either impossible or just more difficult to use your ability on them again. Each level of this enhancement shifts this immunity down one level on the chart below. It does not affect any penalties in play for repeated attempts. Note that some levels have two equally limiting effects; you must choose which alternative applies when buying this enhancement.

Switching between two alternatives on the same level is a +20% enhancement. Note it as “Decreased Immunity 0” along with the new effects chosen.

If you do not roll to use the ability, interpret each -2 penalty as a +2 bonus for your subjects to resist. Terror is a special case, in that subjects also get a bonus to resist further use, whether they succeed or fail. Thus, for Terror, each level of Decreased Immunity also shifts the bonus, from “+1 per Fright Check after the first within 24 hours” to “+1 per Fright Check after the first within an hour” to no cumulative bonus for Fright Checks.

Example: Yvette buys Mind Reading (Decreased Immunity 1, +50%). Mind Reading normally has a cumulative -2 penalty lasting one hour (level 1) for those who resist, while a critical failure reading a subject makes him immune for one day (level 3). This reduces both effects, to level 0 and level 2, respectively. Thus, Yvette is at no penalty to try again if a subject resists, and she may choose (when adding this enhancement) whether a critical failure grants the subject immunity for an hour or gives her a cumulative -2 penalty, lasting one day, to read him.

Example: Mikey buys Terror (Decreased Immunity 1, +50%). Normally, if a target succeeds at his Fright Check, he is immune for one hour; Mikey chooses to instead give the subjects a cumulative +2 to resist lasting one hour. In addition, the window in which his victims get a +1 cumulative bonus to resist multiple Fright Checks has shrunk, from 24 hours down to a single hour.

This enhancement delays the attack’s effects until sometime after you hit the target. This lets you simulate time bombs and the like. You must specify some way to neutralize the effect before it occurs. Work out this detail with the GM.

A fixed delay (e.g., 2 seconds) is +0%.

A variable delay is +10% if you can set it for any time from “no delay” to 10 seconds, or +20% if you can set it for longer (minutes, hours, days…).

You must select the delay before you roll to hit.

Triggered Delay: Instead of a time delay, the effects are triggered by a simple action: a radio signal, touch, pressure, a metal object passing within a yard, etc. Specify the trigger when you buy the attack. +50%.

The attack goes off if the victim performs some forbidden act: attacks someone, speaks, etc. This is worth the usual +50% if the triggering condition is fixed, +100% if the attacker can specify the details of the curse when he attacks. The traditional way to neutralize such attacks is with an exorcism, Remove Curse spell, or similar measure.

Prerequisite: Melee Attack or Melee-Capable. Your attack damages weapons it parries or that parry it. Roll damage normally and apply it to your foe’s weapon on a successful parry by either of you; see Damage to Objects (p. B483) for effects.

You may add this enhancement to any attack with Delay (above) or Persistent (p. 107). The initial attack roll places the effect. It then drifts from that point with the wind, water currents, solar wind, etc., as appropriate. Use this for poison gas, ball lightning, floating mines, and so forth.

Prerequisite: Melee Attack or Melee-Capable. Your ability generates two melee weapons – usually one in each hand – permitting a Dual-Weapon Attack (p. B417).

Erosive must accompany one of Blood Agent, Contact Agent, or Respiratory Agent, and either Area Effect or Cone. Your attack is a gas that eats away at the seals on gas masks, environment suits, etc. Whenever the wearer of such gear is exposed to the gas, roll against his equipment’s HT. Assume HT 12 unless otherwise specified. Any failure means enough gas seeps in to affect him and reduce the HT of his equipment by 1 (this loss is cumulative). Restoring a point of lost HT is a major repair (see Repairs, p. B484).

This enhancement increases the normal duration of your ability. “Multiple” applies to the original duration (or changes it to permanent).

Duration occasionally depends on advantage level. If so, the only way to increase it is to buy a higher level of the advantage; Extended Duration isn’t allowed.

* You must specify a reasonable set of conditions that will dispel the effect (or cure it, for abilities such as Affliction and Mind Control). The GM is the judge of what is “reasonable.” If there is no way to end the effect, the enhancement is +300%. To keep PCs from granting each other free advantages, the GM may wish to forbid this level of Extended Duration on Afflictions with the Advantage modifier.

To add Extended Duration to an attack, the attack must either have Aura, Persistent, or Wall, or specifically allow this enhancement. You can also add Extended Duration to any advantage that has the Ranged enhancement.

If the modified trait has multiple facets with separate durations, you must specify which duration you are extending. For instance, a cloud of sleeping gas could have this enhancement to extend the duration of the sleep it induces or the length of time the cloud persists; to do both, buy this enhancement twice.

Example: Pedro buys Affliction 1 (HT; Advantage, Alternate Form, Frog, +150%; Extended Duration, Permanent, Dispelled with a Santeria ritual, +150%) [40]. He can turn a person into a frog indefinitely – but if someone knows the appropriate ritual, they can restore the victim within mere minutes!

Shawn takes Affliction 1 (HT; Advantage, Alternate Form, Frog, +150%; Extended Duration, 10,000x duration, +160%) [41]. His transformations only last a few weeks, but there is no simple way to end the effect before then!

* These have been rounded to convenient values, within 10% of the exact product.

Prerequisite: Either Guided or Homing. Cinematic missiles don’t crash on a miss . . . they turn around and make another pass. This costs +10% for each pass after the first; e.g., Crushing Attack (Extra Passes 2, +20%; Guided, +50%) gets a total of three chances to hit. If the initial attack misses, reroll it one second later, using the same effective skill as on the first attempt. Roll again once per second until the attack hits or runs out of extra passes – or, if Guided, the attacker stops guiding it.

This enhancement turns a duration that depends on margin of success or failure (e.g., for Affliction) into a fixed time. Figure the duration as though the margin of success or failure was 3; for most abilities, this means three minutes. This can be modified further with Extended Duration or Reduced Duration.

Your attack’s effects are delivered by a “carrier.” Use this to represent poison on a dart, an explosive in an armor-piercing shell, etc. Pick a different attack as the carrier. This can be either body weaponry (e.g., Claws or Teeth) or an Innate Attack (usually one that does cutting, impaling, or piercing damage).

A Follow-Up attack need only list its damage amount and type. All other details depend on the carrier attack. The Follow-Up attack only hits if the carrier attack hits. If the carrier attack penetrates the target’s DR, DR has no effect on the Follow-Up attack’s damage or HT rolls.

If the carrier attack is a natural weapon, such as Claws or Teeth, Follow-Up is a +0% enhancement. (Exception: On a passive carrier attack such as Spines, Follow-Up is a -50% limitation.)

If the carrier attack is an Innate Attack, the cost of Follow-Up depends on the modifiers on the carrier attack. The cost of Follow-Up equals the sum of the costs of whichever of the following modifiers apply to the carrier attack: Always On, Aura, Cone, Drifting, Emanation, Emergencies Only, Extra Recoil, Guided, Homing, Increased Range, Jet, Limited Use, Malediction, Melee Attack, Preparation Required, Rapid Fire, Reduced Range, Takes Extra Time, Takes Recharge, Unconscious Only, Uncontrollable, or Unreliable. If none of these modifiers apply to the carrier attack, Follow-Up costs +0%. Note that the Follow-Up attack itself cannot take any of these modifiers. Only its carrier attack may have them.

Follow-Up is a “penetration modifier”; you cannot combine it with other penetration modifiers (although the carrier attack can have them).

Follow-Up is only valid on attacks that can’t normally ignore DR. If an attack that normally ignores DR (e.g., Leech) only works if a natural weapon – Claws, Teeth, etc. – pierces DR, use the Blood Agent limitation (-40%) instead.

This variant of Follow-Up (p. B105) allows your attack to “piggyback” on any unarmed or weapon attack you make, whether melee or ranged – but not on an Innate Attack. (Of course, you can buy this enhancement, then add standard Follow-Up enhancements to cover your Innate Attacks.) It only hits if your mundane attack hits. If that attack penetrates the target’s DR, the Follow-Up attack ignores DR completely. Follow-Up, Universal is a “penetration modifier”; you cannot combine it with other penetration modifiers.

This enhancement converts a defensive trait into a field projected a short distance from your body. The field engulfs and protects your entire body – including your eyes – and everything you’re carrying or wearing (p to Extra-Heavy encumbrance), even if the unmodified trait wouldn’t. Always apply its effects before those of armor, environment suits, etc. See Extending Defenses (Powers, p. 173) for other benefits

Force Field is suitable for Damage Resistance (but never with Tough Skin), Improved G-Tolerance, Magic Resistance, Pressure Support, Protected Sense, Radiation Tolerance, Resistant, Sealed, Slippery, Temperature Tolerance, and Vacuum Support. The GM may permit it on other advantages. If you have multiple traits with Force Field, note whether you have one force field or several (and their order).

Force Field often occurs in combination with Affects Others and Area Effect (see Affects Others, p. 107, for rules), and alongside the Active Defense limitation (p. 112)

The attack scatters damaging fragments on impact. The damage done by these fragments depends on the level of this enhancement, and cannot exceed the lower of 12d or the attack’s basic damage. List the fragmentation damage and type after the attack’s basic damage, in brackets – e.g., 8d [3d pi+] cr ex. For cutting fragments, you may omit the damage type (e.g., 8d [3d] cr ex), as fragments are assumed to be cutting by default. When the attack hits, everyone within (5 ¥ dice of fragmentation damage) yards is attacked with effective skill 15, modified by range penalties from the point of impact. See p. B414 for full rules.

If the base attack does burning damage or has the Incendiary enhancement, the fragments are incendiary at no extra cost. For hot fragments, this raises the flammability class of anything hit instead of adding a point of burning damage; see Incendiary (below) for more.

Your fragments inflict cutting damage, as for most bursting shells. This is the default assumption for Fragmentation; if listed by itself, assume cutting fragments.

Your fragments are like white phosphorus or napalm. They do burning damage, with an armor divisor of (0.2). If they hit someone, they continue to burn, inflicting the same damage every 10 seconds. This lasts for six cycles (a total of 50 seconds) or until the victim can put the fire out.

Your fragments are flechettes or some similar form of stabilized dart. They do impaling damage.

Your fragments are rounded, like the ball bearings hurled by modern antipersonnel mines. They do large piercing (pi+) damage.

Some traits – including Luck, Serendipity, and Wild Talent – rely on real time. This modifier lets such an advantage use game time instead. If it usually works at least once per real hour, you get uses per game day equal to its maximum possible uses per real hour; e.g., Ridiculous Luck, which works every 10 real minutes, gets six uses per game day. If it’s rated in uses per session, you get that many uses per game week; e.g., Serendipity 3 gives three uses per game week.

These ratios assume a campaign with a significant amount of “fast” time and “real” time (Time During Adventures, p. B497). They may be unfair in a combat-heavy game, or any game with a significant amount of “slow” time. In such a case, the GM may adjust these ratios, multiplying the frequency by anywhere from 2 (e.g., “twice per hour” becomes “four times per day,” and “once per session” becomes “twice per week”) to 7 (e.g., “once per hour” becomes “seven times per day,” and “twice per week” becomes “14 times per week”). These improved ratios are what the “+” in “
+” (above) refers to.

It makes sense for certain abilities to allow a Per- or IQ-based resistance roll to see past the glamour, as opposed to a Will-based one. This is a special effect that does not change the value of the limitation.

You can guide your attack – or perhaps it “homes in” by itself! Use this enhancement to create guided missiles and supernatural effects such as magical javelins that seek your foes.

Guided: You steer your attack to the target using your own skill. This lets you ignore all range penalties to hit! If the target is so distant that your attack needs multiple turns to reach it (see below), you must take a Concentrate maneuver each turn. If you lose sight of the target while the attack is en route, your attack automatically misses. +50%.

Homing: Your attack steers itself. Decide how it seeks its target: with ordinary vision or a sensory advantage such as Detect, Infravision, Night Vision, Scanning Sense, or Vibration Sense. The attack uses this sense for the purpose of combat modifiers; e.g., radar ignores darkness but can be jammed. To “lock on,” you must Aim at the target and make an unmodified skill roll. Do not roll against your skill to hit. Instead, use the attack’s skill of 10 – plus Accuracy, if you made your skill roll – and ignore all range penalties. Homing costs a base +50%, plus 1% per point the chosen homing mechanism would cost if bought as an advantage (without any modifiers); e.g., Infravision costs 10 points, making Homing (Infravision) +60%. Ordinary vision uses the base +50%.

If a Guided or Homing attack has a 1/2D statistic, read this as the attack’s speed in yards/second. The attack can hit a target at up to its 1/2D range on the turn you launch it. It requires multiple turns to reach more distant targets. Do not halve damage, but defer the attack roll until the attack reaches its target.

Cinematic missiles don’t crash on a miss… they turn around and make another pass. Add +10% to the enhancement per pass after the first; e.g., a Guided attack that gets three chances to hit is +70%. If the initial attack misses, reroll it a second later, using the same effective skill as on the first attempt. Roll again once per second until the attack hits or runs out of extra passes – or, if Guided, the attacker stops guiding it. For attacks with Rapid Fire and either Guided or Homing, make the attack roll as usual, but the roll is for the entire pack of missiles. Success means one missile hits, plus additional missiles equal to the margin of success, to a maximum of the attack’s RoF.

For more information, see Guided and Homing Weapons (p. B412).

This is a type of Hazard (p. B104) for attacks that inflict fatigue damage. Treat all FP lost to the attack as though they were lost to extreme heat; see p. B434 for full rules.

You can “overload” your generator’s attack to fire a hotshot. Each hotshot uses up two shots (if applicable), but multiplies damage by 1.3 or adds +1 damage per die, whichever is better. For attacks that inflict attribute penalties or affect an area, also multiply penalty or radius by 1.3.

This comes at a price: when firing a hotshot, the attack gains a Malfunction of 17 (this can be reduced, with each -1 adding -5% to the enhancement’s total cost). If more than 10 times its RoF hotshots are fired within a minute, the attack “overheats.” This results in the Malfunction number dropping to 14 (or 12 if firing more hotshots while it’s overheated!). This can be avoided by spacing shots every 10 seconds or with complete nonoperation for a full minute. If a roll indicates a malfunction, roll to see if the ability is crippled, at a penalty equal to 18 minus its current Malfunction number.

For Burning Attack, this enhancement does not add the “inc” damage modifier. Instead, it moves the effective flammability class of anything damaged by the attack up one step. See Making Things Burn (p. B433) for details.

You may normally have only one level of Incendiary. For Burning Attack only, it’s possible to break this rule, but doing so requires GM permission and a special application of Cosmic. Higher levels make targets more flammable, as described above; they do not improve the amount of burning damage done. Incendiary 2 (+20%) requires Cosmic (+50%); Incendiary 3 (+30%) requires Cosmic (+100%); and Incendiary 4 (+40%) requires Cosmic (+300%). Further levels are not available and should not be necessary – a Burning Attack with Incendiary 4 can ignite brick or metal with only 1 point of damage!

You may add this enhancement to any advantage that has a range; e.g., Innate Attack or Scanning Sense. Each level increases range as follows:

Further levels follow the same “2-5-10” progression.

If applied to a ranged attack, each level increases 1/2D and Max. You may increase 1/2D or Max individually at half cost (that is, “Increased 1/2D” and “Increased Max” are +5%/level). However, you cannot increase 1/2D past Max. At most, you can make 1/2D equal to Max – this means the attack has no 1/2D range. For attacks that already have no 1/2D range, you can increase Max for +5%/level.

Increased Range isn’t allowed on advantages whose range depends on advantage level. To increase the range of such traits, buy more levels of the advantage. When adding this enhancement to a trait that normally doesn’t work at a distance, Ranged (p. B107) is a prerequisite.

Increased Range, Line-of-Sight (LOS) allows the user to reach anything he can see. He must have a clear view of the target, using his own vision; while optical binoculars are permissible, viewing from a remote TV feed is not. If the advantage adds a new sense (e.g., Detect or Scanning Sense), you must identify the target visually before scanning it with your new sense. (This is the equivalent of the Sense-Based (Reversed) limitation from Powers; the two modifiers are incompatible.)

The value of this enhancement depends on the typical range of the advantage – the longer it is, the less it costs to extend range to LOS. If range falls between two values on the table below, use the lesser value (e.g., treat a 30-yard range as “20 yards”).

This enhancement is for advantages that require concentration to control. Your ability demands no attention after the initial Concentrate or Ready maneuver to activate it. If it requires a die roll, it lasts for minutes equal to your margin of success (your margin of victory, for a resisted ability) or its usual duration – whichever is less. During this time, it’s completely self-sufficient. Its effects endure even if you’re incapacitated or killed.

Independent doesn’t allow multiple instances of the advantage’s effects unless this is standard for the trait. If this is standard, all instances are “hands free” and you’re exempt from penalties for simultaneous uses.

The only downside is that you don’t control your ability after activation. Its effects last for the entire duration specified above – you can’t end them early or maintain them. You must specify all particulars required by the ability when you activate it, and can’t change these later on.

Independent is worth +40% for most advantages, +70% for those with penalties for simultaneous uses.

Your attack is a continuous stream, like a flamethrower. Treat it as a melee weapon with a very long reach rather than as a ranged weapon. Do not apply penalties for target range and speed.

An attack with Jet has no Acc, and has 1/2D 5 and Max 10 instead of its usual range. Increased Range increases range by 100% per level instead of its usual effects.

Jet is incompatible with Area Effect, Aura, Cone, Follow-Up, Melee Attack, and Rapid Fire.

Jets have limited range but enjoy many benefits reserved for melee attacks. They can use All-Out Attack (Double), Deceptive Attack, Feint, and Rapid Strike, and get +4 to hit with All-Out Attack (Determined). A jet is narrow – no thicker than a pole weapon – and must engage targets one at a time. For a “jet” that can sweep an area, take Cone. Jet is for force blades, flame jets, plasma swords, and so on that are longer than Melee Attack (p. B112) allows.

You can use two or more advantages simultaneously, as if they were a single ability. For +10%, your abilities are permanently linked into a single power, and must be used together – you cannot use them separately. For +20%, you can also use them separately. You must add this enhancement to all the abilities you wish to link.

If you link two attacks into one and give them identical Malf., 1/2D, Max, Acc, RoF, Shots, and Recoil, you can treat them as a single attack with one attack roll but separate rolls for damage. This is not the same as the Follow-Up enhancement!

Link is a key building block of custom abilities – without it, a tangler grenade that strikes its target for damage (Crushing Attack) and releases webbing that restrains and blinds the victim (Binding and Affliction) would be impossible. Label each Link on the character sheet in a way that distinguishes it from other Links and makes all connections clear. No trait can have multiple Links, but a single Link can connect any number of advantages. The GM wish to use these optional rules:

Asymmetric Links: A set of linked advantages can mix the +10% and +20% versions of Link. The advantages with the +20% level work both as part of the Link and on their own. Those with +10% level are only available when using all of the linked advantages at once.

Discretionary Links: When a set of advantages has Link at the +20% level, the user can specify that he’s using one, some, or all of them, in any combination. For instance, if his Affliction, Binding, and Innate Attack had a +20% Link, he could use just one of the three attacks, or any of three combinations of two, or all three at once.

Your ranged ability uses a better class of range penalties than usual. From worst to best, these classes are -1/yard like a Regular spell (p. B239), the Size and Speed/Range Table (p. B550), Long-Distance Modifiers (p. B241), and no penalties at all. Each level of Long-Range makes the penalties one step more favorable.

Long-Range can be applied to attack abilities, but the GM should be aware that this will drastically improve the user’s ability to hit, as Long-Range 1 (+50%) effectively removes range penalties out to 200 yards. The attack’s 1/2D and Max range don’t change; use Increased Range or Reduced Range for that. Long-Range affects the cost of Follow-Up.

An attack normally has a “signature”: a flash of light, a sound, etc. If left unspecified, this is assumed to be similar to a gunshot or a stroke of lightning – that is, a brilliant flash and a loud report. This enhancement makes your attack less obvious.

Low Signature: The attack is no more easily identifiable as an attack than the loud pop of a champagne cork; e.g., a suppressed pistol shot. +10%.

No Signature: The attack is almost completely unnoticeable; e.g., a blowgun’s dart. Alternatively, it is utterly undetectable by normal means, but leaves a magical or psionic trace. +20%.

These enhancements make any ability less noticeable – they aren’t just for attacks. If the GM desires extra detail, he can charge +5% per -2 to rolls to notice the ability, and treat -10 (+25%) as “undetectable.” These penalties apply to Sense rolls to spot most abilities, or to supernatural attempts to trace those that are magical, psionic, etc. If the ability is obvious and traceable, buy the enhancement twice to foil both forms of detection.

This enhancement muffles the ability’s supernatural emanations, rather than its physical signs. Others have difficulty detecting it with their own psychic powers, spells (e.g., Aura or Know Illusion), psi-tech sensors, etc. Every +5% imposes -2 on applicable rolls. This includes using Detect (Supernatural Powers) or Psychometry to notice it, Mind Reading to realize that the user is affecting someone’s mind, Danger Sense to be aware of an incoming psychic attack, spells like Aura or Know Illusion to notice an effect, psychotronic sensors (like those in GURPS Psi-Tech) to spot psionics, and so on. At -10 (+25%), your ability is undetectable.

This does not affect the physical evidence of any attack. In particular, Affliction and Innate Attack are still loud and visible, even with Malediction. To remedy this, use either Low Signature, Variable, or Low or No Signature (p. B106).

This variant of Low Signature (p. B106) offers extra detail. Instead of a flat penalty to detect an ability, every +5% gives -2 on all rolls to notice the ability. Treat -10 (+25%) as “undetectable.” These penalties apply to all Sense rolls to detect the ability being used. For supernatural attempts to trace an ability, use Low Psychic Signature (above). This enhancement replaces both Low Signature and No Signature (p. B106).

Your attack is not a conventional ranged attack; it works more like a Regular spell (p. 239). It lacks Malf., 1/2D, Max, Acc, RoF, Shots, and Recoil statistics, and cannot have any enhancement or limitation that modifies those statistics. Most importantly, the target’s DR has no effect on the attack’s damage, resistance roll, or other effects!

Malediction requires a Concentrate maneuver rather than an Attack maneuver to use. It can target any victim you can see or otherwise clearly perceive. To determine if the attack succeeds, roll against your Will, applying the range penalties detailed below. Your foe may choose to resist; if so, resolve the attack as a Quick Contest of Will. You must win to affect the victim.

When enhancing an Affliction, the Quick Contest above replaces the usual resistance roll. You roll against Will, but your target rolls against HT – or other attribute, if the attack has Based on (Different Attribute) – modified as usual for the Affliction. For instance, an Affliction that allows a HT-1 roll to resist would result in a Quick Contest of your Will vs. the target’s HT-1.

The value of Malediction depends on the range modifiers it uses. If it takes -1 per yard of range, like a Regular spell, it costs +100%. If it uses the range penalties on the Size and Speed/Range Table (p. 550), it costs +150%. And if it uses the penalties given under Long-Distance Modifiers (p. 241), it costs +200%.

A Malediction affects substantial and insubstantial targets equally, whether the user is substantial or insubstantial. This makes Malediction especially suitable for divine, magical, psi, and spirit abilities. In some settings, it might only be available for abilities with supernatural power modifiers.

Malediction is a “penetration modifier”; you cannot combine it with other penetration modifiers, nor with modifiers that apply only to conventional ranged attacks.

This may be applied to any ranged attack, allowing it to be used as a melee attack. You may switch between the two modes as a free action at the beginning of your turn; if it takes a Ready maneuver to switch, add -5% to the final value of this enhancement; this cannot reduce cost below +5%. The cost of Melee-Capable is +40%, plus whatever the value of the equivalent Melee Attack (p B112) limitation would be. For example, Melee-Capable, Reach 1-4, is a +25% enhancement, while Melee-Capable, Reach C, Cannot Parry, is a +5% one.

This may be applied to any attack that is normally affected by DR (including Affliction). Your attack completely ignores all DR, whether natural or from armor – but if the target has a Mind Shield, treat it as providing DR equal to its level. Mental Defense Only is a “penetration modifier”; you cannot combine it with other penetration modifiers, such as Contact Agent (p. B103) or Malediction (p. B106).

You may only add this enhancement to an attack that has both Area Effect and Persistent. The area of effect moves under your control. Move equals the level of the enhancement (Move 1 at +40%, Move 2 at +80%, and so on), and cannot exceed the attack’s Max range.

To move the area of effect, you must take a Concentrate maneuver. To make the mobile area autonomous, add Homing (which causes it to attack the nearest valid target) and possibly Selective Area (so it only seeks out enemies). Buy these enhancements twice if they’re intended to apply to both the initial attack roll and the autonomous area.

Mobile is mutually exclusive with Drifting.

This enhancement is legal for any ability with an enduring area effect, even if it lacks one or both of Area Effect and Persistent; e.g., Obscure with the Ranged enhancement.

This is only available for physical transformations that end if you’re knocked out or killed – mainly Elastic Skin, Shadow Form, and Shapeshifting. You revert to your “normal” form only if you consciously choose to do so. Sleep, unconsciousness, and death don’t force you to change back. Severed body parts may remain transformed after you change back, if you wish; specify this when you buy your ability.

Your attack can alter its angle to strike from a different side of the target – usually the top. This bypasses any cover that does not provide overhead protection, and negates attack penalties to hit crouching, kneeling, sitting, or prone targets. (If you are already above or below your target, adjust this appropriately.) Use this to represent a rain of fire, a missile that swoops up and then dives down at the last moment, an airburst grenade, etc.

The target of an Overhead attack defends at -2 the first time he’s attacked; after that, assume he’s on the lookout (see Attack from Above, p. B402). Defenses against attacks that swoop around the target and strike from behind are also at -2 (see “Runaround” Attacks, p. B391). The GM may allow a special variant:

Surprise Attack: Your attack originates behind the target. Victims with 360º Vision or Peripheral Vision defend normally, while those with Danger Sense may defend at -2 on a successful Perception roll. Otherwise, no active defense is possible. This is most suitable for attacks that teleport or emerge from extradimensional portals behind the target. +150%.

You may only add this enhancement to an Area Effect attack. This causes the area of effect to remain in place for 10 seconds, continuing to damage (or attack and possibly damage, if taken with Bombardment) anyone entering or passing through it. Use Extended Duration to increase the duration.

An advantage doesn’t need Area Effect as a prerequisite for Persistent if it affects an area innately. Any Persistent ability can be “on” in several different areas simultaneously as the result of successive attacks, unless the underlying trait forbids this. Multiple uses in the same area never “stack,” however.

This enhancement gives range to an advantage that normally affects your immediate area, or that requires a touch to affect others. By default, it has 1/2D 10, Max 100, Acc 3, RoF 1, Shots N/A, and Recoil 1. Duration is 10 seconds, unless the ability lists another duration (like Neutralize or Possession) or is instantaneous (like Healing), and you cannot use the ability again until all existing effects have worn off. You can apply other modifiers to change the ranged combat statistics and duration.

This enhancement is normally restricted to Healing, Mana Damper, Mana Enhancer, Neutralize, Possession, and Psi Static. The GM is free to allow it on other traits, but it should never modify body weaponry (such as Strikers or Vampiric Bite) or abilities that already have a range.

When applied to an ability that works as a touch-based Malediction (e.g., Mind Probe, Neutralize, and Possession), this enhancement does not turn it into a true ranged attack. Instead, it becomes a Malediction that uses standard range penalties (p. B550).

Abilities that are normally “touch only” or “zero range” – Control, Create, Healing, Illusion, Leech, Mana Damper, Mana Enhancer, Neutralize, Possession, Static, etc. – often work at a distance in fiction. The GM may also permit Ranged on information-gathering abilities (such as Mind Probe, Precognition, and Psychometry), allowing them to “read” distant subjects. Ranged doesn’t prevent an advantage from working the usual way (in an area around the user or by touch, as appropriate) when the wielder wishes. For other rules on using Ranged with specific advantages, see the advantage text and the notes in this chapter. Where Ranged appears as a special enhancement, as it does for Obscure, use that version of Ranged and not the general one.

When creating abilities based on advantages that normally have no range, Ranged is a prerequisite for all modifiers that affect ranged attack statistics (Range, Acc, RoF, Shots, and Rcl).

An Innate Attack’s base Rate of Fire (RoF) is 1. Consult the table below to find the cost for a higher RoF:

Special options are available for attacks with this enhancement:

Multiple Projectile: Each shot splits into multiple projectiles after you attack, like a shotgun blast or forked lightning. Express this as a multiplier following RoF; for instance, RoF 3×4 means each of three shots fired divides into four individual projectiles.

Modifier cost is based on the RoF times the multiplier; e.g., RoF 3×4 costs the same as RoF 12.

Selective Fire: You may designate a RoF 5+ attack as Selective Fire, allowing it to fire as if it had RoF 1-3. This costs an extra +10%.

Rapid Fire assumes the attack delivers its RoF over the course of a full second, but some TL8+ projectile weapons fire their full RoF in a tiny fraction of a second. They shoot so rapidly that recoil isn’t felt until after the entire burst is in the air. The resulting stream of projectiles is a lot like a beam. The following option simulates this:

Very Rapid Fire: You fire your full RoF almost instantly. Follow the rules under Rapid Fire (p. B373), except that you get two extra hits per point by which you make your attack roll. When using rapid fire against close stationary targets (see p. B408), any success means you hit with all shots. You can’t attack multiple targets or an area with spraying fire or suppression fire, however – you can only ever attack one target. This costs +10% over and above the cost of Rapid Fire, and is incompatible with Extra Recoil.

You may only take this enhancement for abilities that cost FP, and never in conjunction with the special modifier “Usually On.” You can take it any number of times. Each level cuts the cost to use the ability by 1 FP. If you must “maintain” the ability by spending FP on a regular basis, reduce this maintenance cost by a like amount.

In situations where the rules multiply the FP cost to use an ability, this enhancement subtracts 1 FP per level from the cost after multiplying. For example, when using Healing with Area Effect and Reduced Fatigue Cost, multiply FP cost by radius and then reduce it.

You may only add this enhancement to abilities that require time to activate. You can take it any number of times. Each level halves the time required to use the ability (round up). Once time is reduced to one second, a further level of Reduced Time makes the ability instantaneous – using it is a free action.

Note that you cannot add Reduced Time to attack powers, to traits that list any kind of special modifier that affects activation time, or to Magery (to reduce casting times).

Reflexive is for defenses that take a second to activate, senses that require a second of concentration (e.g., Detect), and anything the GM feels serves a purpose similar to either. It lets your ability switch itself on – under attack if a defense, in the presence of something “interesting” if a sense – without a Ready or Concentrate maneuver. If this normally demands a success roll, activation requires a roll at -4; otherwise, it’s automatic. If you’re asleep, successful activation also wakes you up.

Reflexive counts as a level of Reduced Time when you use your ability consciously. It’s incompatible with Always On (p. B110), as well as Active Defense and Usually On (both from Powers).

Your ability generally works as intended. Perhaps you have extensive experience or natural aptitude with it, or maybe it’s just easy to use. Whatever the reason, you get a bonus on all rolls to use it. This works exactly like, and is cumulative with, a power Talent (see Powers for details). Reliable is handy for advantages that routinely suffer large penalties (e.g., the -8 to use Precognition actively). It isn’t available for ranged attacks – use Accurate (p. B102) for those. Reliable costs +5% per +1 bonus, to a maximum of +10.

Reliable does not interact well with Skills for Everyone (GURPS Powers, p. 162), a key part of building and using psionics. If allowing players to build their own psionic abilities, it is recommended not to allow Reliable except to remove inherent penalties; see Prognostication (pp. 37-38) for an example.

Your attack must be inhaled to have any effect, but it ignores all DR. Only Doesn’t Breathe and Filter Lungs protect completely – although a victim who makes a Sense roll to notice the attack in time may hold his breath (see Holding Your Breath). To make your attack less noticeable, take Low Signature.

You may only add this enhancement to an Affliction or to an Innate Attack that inflicts toxic or fatigue damage, and you must combine it with one of Area Effect, Cone, or Jet. Persistent is common but not required.

Respiratory Agent is a “penetration modifier”; you cannot combine it with other penetration modifiers, such as Follow-Up.

This can be applied to any attack that is affected by DR and requires an attack roll. The attack can “bounce” on its way to the target! The attacker must be able to see the target clearly or know exactly where he is; the GM can require a Sense roll if there’s any doubt, at -2 per camera, mirror, telepathic relay, or other “remove.”

The attacker must then describe the path the attack will take, bouncing it off as many surfaces as he likes. Ignore details such as the angle of incidence and the DR and HP of the surfaces; all that matters is that they are convincingly “hard.” Figure the range penalty using the total path length to the target (not a straight line). If spotting the target required a penalized Sense roll, apply that penalty to the attack roll, too. And finally, there’s an additional -2 per bounce. If the attack roll succeeds, it may manage to surprise the target completely – there’s no defense roll against an unexpected attack suddenly bouncing around the corner! If he’s able to see the attack coming – even if it bounces behind him first – he may still defend, but at -1 per bounce. The attack does full damage if it hits.

This enhancement is not likely to break a game if allowed, but it is thoroughly unrealistic! At the GM’s option, any attack may be able to ricochet in a cinematic or four-color supers game – but if so, lacking this enhancement means the attack’s damage (or level, for Afflictions, Binding, etc.) is reduced by 10% per bounce (round down).

You may add this enhancement to any Area Effect or Cone attack. It lets you choose which targets within your area are actually affected.

Any ability that can affect multiple targets may have this enhancement. The user can either exclude specific subjects or limit the effect to them. He must base this decision on either sensory input (e.g., he could affect any group he can see, unless blind, but “everyone who has committed murder” would demand special gifts) or a guess (but then he’s at the GM’s mercy!). Other examples include:

• Attacks with Rapid Fire. An attack with Selective Effect and Rapid Fire can hose down an area that contains both friend and foe without risking a “friendly fire” incident. The GM might even permit Selective Effect on attacks with RoF 1. This would prevent shots that miss or overpenetrate from hitting allies in the line of fire. Either option is suitable for the “smart bullets” seen in pulp sci-fi.

• Elastic Skin, Invisibility, and Shapeshifting with the Glamour limitation. This keeps the user from being misidentified or overlooked by his allies . . . and lets him make his enemies look like madmen (“What man? You’re talking to a dog!”).
• Illusion. Another way to make people look crazy!
• Telecommunication. This lets the user choose who can receive – or make sense of – a broadcast (e.g., by Radio, or Telesend with the Broadcast enhancement). This combination is useful for simulating secure tactical communicators.
• Terror. This is appropriate for dragons, deities, and other powerful entities that can demoralize their foes without frightening off their allies.

Abilities that only affect a single subject may take this enhancement if it would make sense to restrict the effect to a single part of the subject. Examples include:

• Afflictions. This can allow an irritant or incapacitation to target a specific part of the body; e.g., to paralyze a single limb, or cause severe pain in a localized spot (perhaps convincing the target that he’s been shot). Other effects may be possible, such as combining Advantage, Invisibility and Selective Effect to make a victim’s legs “disappear”!
• Attacks with Malediction. Normally, such attacks cannot target hit locations, but combining Malediction and Selective Effect makes it possible!
• Detect. This allows the user to narrow the range of what he’s looking for, whether to simply limit the class of substances or to pare the search down to a single, specific subject.

Area-effect abilities should generally take Selective Area (p. B108) instead of Selective Effect, but either one may fit. The former allows the user to precisely control the area of effect, while the latter allows him to control the targets affected.

Neither is compatible with Always On (which is only a limitation if you can’t choose who is affected), or with advantages that offer the Discriminatory special enhancement.

This enhancement lets you turn a trait’s other enhancements off and on at will. For instance, if you had an attack with Area Effect, you could turn this enhancement off to affect only one other person. You must specify which enhancements you wish to ignore before you activate the ability. The default assumption is that you are always using all of your enhancements.

By allowing you to select which enhancements you use, Selectivity permits you to have multiple versions of the same ability without having to buy the ability multiple times. This can be extremely useful when creating comic-book supers!

Abilities with Selectivity can have mutually incompatible enhancements, if the GM permits. For instance, a spirit might buy Visualization with Selectivity plus both Blessing and Cursing in order to curse or bless, while a super might take a Burning Attack with Cone, Jet, and Selectivity so he can “dial down” his broad cone to a precise jet in close quarters. The user pays full price for all of his enhancements, but he must choose just one of them when he uses his ability; incompatible enhancements can’t be active at the same time.

Your attack is channeled through your victim’s senses, allowing it to ignore DR! You must specify the sense(s) affected. Examples include vision, hearing, smell, and exotic senses such as Detect. This is worth +150%, plus an extra +50% per sense after the first; e.g., Vision and Hearing-Based would be +200%. Your attack only affects someone who is using the targeted sense. For instance, a Vision-Based attack cannot affect a blind subject or someone with his eyes closed, while a Smell-Based attack doesn’t work underwater or on a target with a gas mask. Advantages (such as Protected Sense) and equipment that protect the sense in question either negate the attack completely or, in the case of attacks that allow a roll to resist (such as Afflictions, Maledictions, and Resistible attacks), give a bonus to the resistance roll.

The most common Sense-Based attack is an Affliction that knocks out the sense it is based on; for instance, Affliction (Blindness; Vision-Based) for a blinding flash. However, Sense- Based attacks can also be deadly, like a banshee’s wail or basilisk’s gaze.

Sense-Based is a “penetration modifier”; you cannot combine it with other penetration modifiers, such as Follow-Up (p. 105).

Exception: You can combine Sense- Based with Malediction. In conjunction with Malediction, or when added to an ability that already ignores DR (e.g., Mind Control or Mind Reading), Sense-Based becomes a limitation. It is worth -20% if it works through one sense, -15% if two senses, or -10% if three senses. If it works through more than three senses, it is not a significant limitation.

You may only add this enhancement to an Innate Attack, and you cannot combine it with penetration modifiers other than Armor Divisor. If any damage penetrates the target’s DR, he must make a HT roll, at -1 per 2 points of penetrating damage, or suffer a “side effect.”

Choose the side effects from the effects described for Affliction. Valid choices are stunning, Attribute Penalty, Disadvantage, and Incapacitation. The cost of Side Effect is a base +50%, plus the cost of the Affliction enhancements. For instance, stunning would be +50%, while Disadvantage (Blindness) would be +100%.

You may specify more than one side effect. If the victim gets a single resistance roll against all of them, treat them as a single Side Effect enhancement, totaling their cost. If the victim must resist each effect individually, take a separate Side Effect enhancement for each effect.

Stunning wears off normally, while other effects last (20 - HT) minutes, minimum 1 minute. If Incapacitation is combined with other effects, the other effects last for another (20 - HT) minutes after the Incapacitation wears off.

An Innate Attack with Side Effect can have Based on (Different Attribute) to shift the resistance roll from HT to another attribute. Use this score instead of HT in the duration formulas, too. This is especially suitable for a supernatural attack that produces a curse-like effect that’s tied to wound severity but more logically resisted by Will than HT.

Your attack spreads out from you, affecting an ever-increasing area the longer you use it. This could represent the emission of some gas or liquid, continuously growing roots or vines, the build-up of supernatural energies, an overbearing aura, or the accumulation of some other substance. Like anything enhanced with Area Effect, everything in the affected area suffers the attack's damage or other effects, and active defenses don’t protect against it.

While your attack is switched on, it effects anyone standing in your hex (except you, if the effect is bad). If you stand in the same spot for 10 seconds while your attack is activated, it will spread to effect the ring of hexes directly around you. If you stand in that same spot for another 30 seconds, it will spread to effect the next ring out. If you continue standing in one spot, it will spread to effect the third ring of hexes after another 50 seconds, the fourth ring of hexes after another 70 seconds, the fifth ring of hexes after another 90 seconds, the sixth ring of hexes after another 110 seconds, and so on. Your attack can potentially spread to effect an area of any size, though this may take an exceedingly long time for large areas. To figure out how long it will take for your ability to spread to fill/cover an area with a radius n, multiply the square of n by 10.

As long as you stay anywhere within the area of your spreading attack, it will continue to spread, though the GM may rule that when you move near to the edge of your effect, the spreading effect will begin to build up on that side of the effected zone until the effected area is 'more or less' circular again. In general, your attack spreads to roughly six new hexes every ten seconds. If you are in a confined space, such as a hallway, your attack will spread more rapidly into available directions, but will effect the same total area at the same rate. If you are sealed inside a building, container, spaceship, etc. with walls that your attack is not permeable to, your attack will eventually fill the whole area and then stop spreading. If your attack is totally unaffected by barriers (as might be the case for a supernatural energy), add +50% to the value of Spreading.

In order to increase or decrease the rate at which your attack spreads, add Reduced Time or Takes Extra Time. The former would be appropriate for a rapidly-spreading gas attack, while the latter would be appropriate for a slowly seeping slime or lava discharge, or a slowly growing root Binding. Keep in mind that even if you reduce the time it takes for your attack to spread by more than tenfold, this does not mean that your attack will instantly spread to cover the entire universe. For example, a Toxic Attack with Spreading +100% and Reduced Time 5 +100% would instantly fill the ring of hexes surrounding you when activated, it would then take 1 second to spread to the second ring, 2 more seconds to spread to the third ring, 3 more seconds to spread to the fourth ring, 3 more seconds to spread to the fifth ring, 4 more seconds to spread to the sixth ring, and so on. You would calculate the time required to fill an arbitrarily large area with a radius of n as the square of n times ten and divided by 32.

If you deactivate your attack or leave the area of your spreading effect for more than 10 seconds, it will dissipate. In order to increase or decrease the time your effect remains after you leave, add Extended Duration or Reduced Duration.

By default, this enhancement already includes the effects from the Area Effect, Aura and Melee Attack, and Persistent modifiers: don't add any of those to an ability with Spreading. You may not take the Emanation limitation with Spreading either, since it is incompatible with Melee Attack modifiers.

With the exception of Emanation, any modifier that can be applied only on Area Effect, Cone, or Explosion attacks can also be applied to Spreading. Blood Agent, Bombardment, Contact Agent, Dissipation, Drifting, Low or No Signature, Mobile, Resistible, Respiratory Agent, Selective Area, Sense-Based, Underwater, and Wall are common. Accessibility, Environmental, and Nuisance Effect limitations are a must for most realistic spreading attacks: for example, Accessibility: Only on earthbound targets -10%, Environmental: Only with a floor -10%, Nuisance Effect: Can't spread uphill -5%, and Nuisance Effect: Mundane insulators, cold and water -10%. would be a must for a spreading lava attack.

This enhancement lets you add your dice of thrust or swing damage to that of an Innate Attack, effectively turning it into a musclepowered weapon. It may be applied to any melee or ranged attack that does crushing, cutting, or impaling damage. ST-Based is incompatible with any modifiers that don’t suit a muscle-powered attack. These include Area Effect, Blood Agent, Cone, Contact Agent, Cyclic, Explosion, Follow-Up, Jet, Malediction, Onset, Resistible, Respiratory Agent, Sense-Based, and any modifier that has one of these modifiers as a prerequisite.

You may choose, when attacking, whether to use your thrust or swing damage. Under most circumstances, the higher swing damage is the better choice, but there are times when thrust makes more sense; e.g., when attacking underwater. Also, if you use swing damage to make an impaling melee attack, it may get stuck in your foe (p. B405)!

A ST-Based attack can make use of All-Out Attack (Strong) (p. B365), Mighty Blows (p. B357), and other similar methods of increasing muscle-powered damage. You may also use abilities like Power Blow (p. B215) to boost your ST directly, though this does not affect the damage contributed from the Innate Attack. The damage provided by your ST is automatically Variable, but the Innate Attack damage is not. The full ST-Based enhancement is +100% and works as described above. For +30%, a weaker version – ST-Based, Limited – is available with the following additional drawbacks:

• It must be combined with the Melee Attack limitation.

• When making a cutting attack, you may only use your swing damage. When making an impaling attack, you may only use your thrust damage. Crushing attacks may use either.

• The total damage added by your ST cannot exceed that of the Innate Attack. For example, Crushing Attack 1d (Melee Attack, Range C, -30%; ST-Based, Limited, +30%) could inflict a maximum of 2d damage, even if you had ST 100. All-Out Attack (Strong), Mighty Blows, etc., can still be applied to this capped damage.

ST-Based can unbalance certain aspects of the game. In particular, Crushing Attack 1d (Melee Attack, Range C, 1, -20%; STBased, +100%) [9] boosts the damage of bites, head butts, kicks, and punches approximately as well as Striking ST 8 [40]! And a weak Cutting Attack or Impaling Attack can be an inexpensive alternative to Claws or Strikers. The GM should consider these issues before allowing ST-Based in a non-supers game.

The ST-Based enhancement (above) does not normally require familiarity with the rules for modifying muscle-based damage (pp. 9-11). By definition, if you have Cutting Attack 3d (ST-Based, +100%), you don’t need to do anything special to your ST or muscle-based damage to apply it to the Cutting Attack – if you do 5d+2 swing, then your attack does 8d+2 cutting. It’s as simple as that.

Things do get more complex when an attack has ST-Based and one or more enhancements that affect the attack’s ability to damage things or the effects of its damage:

• Affects Insubstantial
• Affects Substantial
• Armor Divisor
• Cosmic (Attack with a lingering special effect or Irresistible attack)
• Damage Modifiers (any)
• Mental Defense Only
• Side Effect
• Surge, Arcing
• Symptoms

If an attack has ST-Based and any of the enhancements above, you must use the rules for modifying unarmed attacks (pp. 9-10) to add them to the damage being contributed by your muscles. (Don’t use the rules for weapons, even for a non-crushing attack – you’re not wielding a weapon, you’re using an innate ability!)

Example: Brad has ST 19, for 2d-1 thrust damage. He buys a spike shuriken attack as Impaling Attack 1d (Armor Divisor (2), +50%; No Blunt Trauma, -20%; No Signature, +20%; ST-Based, +100%) [20]. He must also apply Armor Divisor (only) to his muscle-based damage: 2d-1 crushing would cost 9 points, and 50% of 9 rounds up to 5, so he adds 5 points to the cost of this attack, raising it to 25 points total.

The list above covers all known general enhancements to date – but it cannot foresee modifiers added in future GURPS books! The GM, as always, is the arbiter of whether a given new enhancement should be added to the list, using the following guidelines.

The list intentionally leaves off limitations; acquiring an attack with limited utility doesn’t reduce the usefulness of your built-in strength! Enhancements that affect range, rate of fire, targeting ability, etc., are also not an issue, as such things are unconnected to the damage contributed by your muscles. Finally, any enhancement that covers something that inborn strength can already do (e.g., Variable) can be ignored.

In addition to the regular effects of Surge (p. B105), your attack treats any conductive, metal armor as DR 1, regardless of its actual DR. This is a “penetration modifier”; you cannot combine it with other penetration modifiers. It may be combined with Side Effect. Electronics that take over 1/3 HP from an attack with either Surge or Surge, Arcing, must make a HT roll to avoid shorting out. Failure disables the target for seconds equal to the margin of failure; critical failure disables it until repaired (p. B484).

Your attack originates behind the target. Victims with 360° Vision or Peripheral Vision defend normally, while those with Danger Sense may defend at -2 on a successful Perception roll. Otherwise, no active defense is possible. This is most suitable for attacks that teleport or emerge from extradimensional portals behind the target.

Most skills in GURPS have default levels based on attributes. Those defaults are limited by the Rule of 20 (p. B173) – if a basic attribute is higher than 20, skills default to it as if it were 20. This provides a measure of realism since defaults are limited to 16 (for most Easy skills), 15 (for most Average skills), and 14 (for most Hard skills), which represents a high level of competence but not brilliance. Applied to attributes or secondary characteristics, this modifier lets you disregard the Rule of 20 for skills that default to them. Apply the enhancement to attribute points in excess of 20; each point bought that way raises the limit for skill defaults by 1. That is, your new attribute limit for defaults becomes 20 + (levels of the attribute bought with this enhancement). Example: Divine Grace has DX 26 – but this was purchased as DX 22 [240] and DX+4 (Super Attribute, +25%) [100], for a total cost of 340 points. The four points of DX with Super Attribute raise the normal limit of DX 20 for skill defaults to DX 24, so she has Acrobatics-18, Cloak-19, and Knife-20, without spending points on them.

This enhancement only exists for physiological features (e.g., Claws), defenses, and other traits that are normally “always on.” It lets you switch your advantage off and on with a Ready maneuver. Specify whether it switches on or off – or remains in its current state, whatever that is – when you’re knocked out.

You can’t add Switchable to an advantage that lists special modifiers that enable you to turn it off and on, regardless of whether your ability has those modifiers. If an advantage notes Switchable as a special enhancement with a different value, use that value instead. Switchable isn’t permitted on meta-traits, either. To get a switchable meta-trait, buy an Alternate Form.

A weaker version of Switchable is logical for some advantages:

Usually On: Only for advantages that are “always on” by default. Your ability is usually on, but you can switch it off by expending 1 FP per second. For advantages that are normally off by default, this is a limitation; see Always On (p. 99). +5%.

Symptoms are effects that occur if the cumulative damage (HP or FP loss) inflicted by the enhanced Innate Attack exceeds a fraction of the victim’s basic HP or FP. The victim does not get a HT roll to resist Symptoms! The GM should consider limiting Symptoms to attacks that inflict 1d damage or less.

Choose Symptoms from the following effects described as enhancements for Affliction: Advantage, Attribute Penalty, Disadvantage, Irritant, and Negated Advantage. If the threshold for the Symptom is 2/3 the victim’s basic HP, use the cost under Affliction. If the threshold is 1/2 basic HP, double this cost. If it’s 1/3 basic HP, triple this cost.

Example: Blindness is worth +50% as an Affliction, but as a Symptom that occurs when the victim has lost half his HP to an Innate Attack, it is a +100% enhancement.

Unlike Afflictions, Symptoms abate only when the damage that caused them is healed. In the example above, the Blindness would only end when the victim’s HP healed past the halfway point.

An Innate Attack can have multiple Symptoms, representing different effects that that occur at different damage thresholds.

This enhancement is available for any attack that does cutting damage. You may choose to have your attack do impaling damage instead! Doing so halves the basic damage, rounding down; e.g., a 4d+3 cutting attack would become a 2d+1 impaling attack. To halve damage that does an odd number of dice, convert one die into +4 damage before dividing; e.g., 3d+1 becomes 2d+5, half of which is 1d+2. For small values, use this chart:

Attacks that do less than 1d-2 or 2 points of damage cannot take this modifier.

If this is combined with ST-Based (pp. 20-21), the strength-based portion of the damage is not halved – but with ST-Based, Limited, the maximum amount of damage your muscles can contribute is!

Your ability works across time. Rolls to use it this way have a penalty for the time gap between you and your target; use Long-Distance Modifiers (p. B241) and substitute “days” for “miles.” Find the distance in space as if you were at the same point in time. This is worth +50% if you can reach just the past or just the future, or +100% for both; add -50% to either value if your ability doesn’t work in the present.

The GM decides which advantages can use this enhancement. It’s meant for sensory and communications abilities (e.g., Clairsentience and Telesend), but might suit other mental abilities – like Possession – if the user also has an ability that lets him sense his target across time. If the GM allows this on an attack, Cosmic (+50%) is a prerequisite.

Attacks are assumed to be usable in air or in vacuum, but ineffective in liquid. This enhancement lets an attack work underwater at 1/10 range.

The GM may permit aquatic heroes to add Underwater to abilities other than attacks – e.g., Scanning Sense and Telecommunication – that don’t normally work (or work well) underwater. Like attacks, they function at 1/10 range underwater. This is unrealistic for radio waves, but comic-book supers often ignore such details.

Only for advantages that are “always on” by default (e.g., DR or Invisibility). Your ability is usually on, but you can switch it off by expending 1 FP per second. See also Switchable (p. 17).

You can reduce the level of your attack. For example, if you have an Innate Attack that normally does 3d damage, you could reduce it to 1d or 2d damage. You must indicate this before you make your attack roll.

Variable is strictly for attacks, which otherwise work at full power at all times. Non-attack abilities don’t need it – their range, area, level of effect, and so on are variable automatically.

You fire your full RoF almost instantly. Follow the rules under Rapid Fire (p. B373), except that you get two extra hits per point by which you make your attack roll. When using rapid fire against close stationary targets (see p. B408), any success means you hit with all shots. You can’t attack multiple targets or an area with spraying fire or suppression fire, however – you can only ever attack one target. This costs +10% more than the equivalent Rapid Fire (p. B108) enhancement would. It is incompatible with Extra Recoil (p. B112).

You may only add this enhancement to an attack that has both Area Effect and Persistent.

For +30%, you can set up your Area Effect as a wall filled with the substance or effect of your ability. This affects anyone or anything passing through it. You get a three-yard-long by one-yard-wide wall per yard of radius in your area.

For +60%, your wall works as above, but you can form it into any shape you choose.

You must define your wall as either permeable or rigid:

Permeable: The wall is composed of liquid, gas, energy, or an amorphous solid (e.g., thorn bushes). It impedes vision, and inflicts damage on anyone who attempts to cross it, but an intruder can traverse it provided he is not stunned, knocked out, killed, etc. by its effects. Anything effective against the substance of the wall will disperse it; e.g., water or a fire extinguisher could extinguish a wall of fire.

Rigid: The wall is a material barrier. This is only possible for Innate Attacks that deal crushing, cutting, impaling, or piercing damage. Each yard of wall has DR 3 and 1/2 HP per die of damage (round up); e.g., a 6d attack produces a wall with DR 18 and 3 HP. The wall does no damage itself, but the damage type applies to the injury inflicted on anyone crashing into it.

Your ability can reach parallel worlds. Find the distance in space as if you and your subject were on the same world. The GM may also permit a Plane-Spanning variant for abilities that work across dimensions other than parallel worlds. Either is worth +50% if you can only contact other worlds or planes, or +100% if your ability also works in your current realm. See Time-Spanning (p. 17) for guidelines on allowed advantages.

You can apply limitations to almost any trait (although as with enhancements, skills are normally off-limits). When you apply a limitation to a disadvantage, you reduce its value as a disadvantage; e.g., a -10% limitation on a -25-point disadvantage would make it a -22.5-point trait, which rounds to -22 points. Limited disadvantages are worth fewer points because they affect you under more restricted circumstances.

Remember that no matter how many limitations you take, you cannot reduce the cost of a trait by more than 80%. That is, when totaling modifiers, treat net modifiers below -80% as -80%.

Accessibility is a catchall limitation you can use to cover any restriction not specifically defined elsewhere. Accessibility limitations fall into two broad categories: those that limit the targets your ability can affect and those that limit the situations in which it works.

Accessibility (p. B110) is a catchall limitation – a means to restrict your ability in a way that other limitations don’t cover. As such, it asks more of the GM than any other limitation; he must decide whether a proposed Accessibility is a valid limitation and then assign a fair value. It’s as much art as science, and that fair value can even vary from one campaign to the next – “Accessibility, Only while underground” might be worth -30% in most games, but in a fantasy campaign set beneath the Dwarven Mountains, the GM would be generous to call it -5%!

Use the following examples as guidelines and benchmarks when adjudicating the value of new Accessibilities. However, remember that the combination of limitation and other modifiers must be legal, the combination of limitation and trait must be legal, and that the trait is actually being limited. In particular, be wary of Accessibilities that limit acceptable targets to those on which the advantage would already be used; e.g., if the campaign setting specifies that only women develop psychic powers, then Neutralize (Accessibility, Only on women) is not a valid combination. Likewise, Fatigue Attack (Accessibility, Not on machines) would be free points, as machines have no FP!

If your ability can only affect certain targets, the limitation depends on how common the target group is. “Only on women,” “Only on men,” or anything else that covers about half of the population is worth -20%. “Only on Electrical” or “Only on machines” is worth -20% in a technological setting.

“Only on sea creatures” is worth -30% – unless the campaign is set on a world mostly covered with water, in which case it isn’t worth more than -10%. “Only on aliens” is worth -30% or -40%, depending on the world. “Only on psis” is worth -50% in most settings. “Not on redheads” is identical to “On everyone but redheads,” and is worth -10%.

The same yardstick applies to limitations based on the situation. “Only at day” or “Only at night” is worth -20%. “Only in direct sunlight” is worth -30%. “Only in water” is worth -30% on Earth – but more on a desert planet and less on an ocean world. “Only during full moon” or “Only during new moon” is worth -40%. And “Useless under stress” is a whopping -60%, since it makes the ability worthless in most adventuring situations!

You can also link situational Accessibility to your actions. The more unusual, difficult, or obnoxious the required action is, the greater the limitation value. Some examples:

Only in altered body form (Invisible, Insubstantial, etc.): -10%.

Only while playing trumpet: -20%.

Only while flying, Only while swimming, Only in hypnotic trance: -30%.

Only by one side of split personality: -40%.

“Only on supers” is worth -50% in settings where supers make up much less than 1% of the general population, as in most comics. In worlds where a significant percentage of people have powers, use the table. This limitation doesn’t apply to Neutralize, Static, or any other advantage that only affects those who have powers in the first place.

A common limitation on mental influence abilities is “Only on those who share a language with me.” This is worth -10%, and valid only on abilities that already require the user to talk, such as those with Hearing-Based.

Abilities that let the user defy gravity – Clinging, Walk on Air, Walk on Liquid, etc. – often have “Only while moving.” If the user stops moving, he falls. This is worth -10% if he must take at least a step per second, -20% if he must travel at half Move, or -30% if he must use his full Move. It’s incompatible with All-Out.

Some supernatural abilities require ritual or worship by others to work. To evaluate “Only with assistants,” halve the basic point value that Maintenance (p. B143) gives for that number of people and write it as a percentage; e.g., 11-20 people is -25%.

A limitation that prevents an attack from working on targets it couldn’t affect anyhow is meaningless, and worth no discount. For instance, “Not on machines” isn’t valid for a Fatigue Attack (machines lack FP), and “Only on psis” isn’t allowed on Neutralize (Psi).

Finally, limitations such as “Only when using ability X” are forbidden if the limited ability has a Link to X.

In all cases, if the ability is only weakened (half power) instead of becoming useless, halve the value of the limitation.

The GM shouldn’t allow meaningless Accessibility limitations. For instance, buying a helpful ability with the limitation “Only on friends” gives no cost break. Buying it with “Only on enemies” would be interesting, though! Likewise, the GM should reject any proposed limitation that is already implicit in the ability. For instance, “Only while flying” is not an acceptable limitation for Enhanced Move (Air).

If an ability works only in a situation that occurs an easily calculated percentage of the time (e.g., “Only on a Sunday” is 14% of the time) or on a percentage of the population (e.g., “Only on women” is about 50% of the populace), find the limitation on this table.

These types of Accessibilities can go below -40%. At this point, it becomes easier to switch from percentages to frequency – that is, how often a person you come across will be a potential subject.

In-between frequencies use the lower limitation value. The GM must consider the campaign scope when determining the fair value for this Accessibility.

Example: In a particular setting, only one person in a million has superpowers. However, the game takes place in New York, where (for whatever reason) about one person in 50,000 has powers. Therefore, “Accessibility, Only on supers” is worth -50% in this campaign.

When modifying advantages to represent spells, the following limitations are useful. Anyone observing gestures or words will automatically realize that you’re casting a spell if he has any familiarity with magic. Someone with actual magical training (even if only theoretical, such as Occultism or Thaumatology) may roll vs. an applicable skill (or IQ) as a free action to identify what the spell will do. This roll is at -4 if you are only speaking or gesturing, or at no penalty if you’re doing both.

Requires gestures: Your hands – and to a lesser degree, the rest of your body – must be free to move about. If your arms are restrained in any way, or your lower body is fully pinned or clamped in place, you cannot use your ability. -10%.

Requires magic words: You must chant at normal conversation levels. You cannot be gagged, and stealth is impossible. -10%.

Requires material component: You must have something specific in your hand (or with your hand resting on it, for large things). It needs to be defined with some specificity: “a rock” is too broad, but “an agate” is fine. (Extremely rare needs may be worth an extra -5%, if the GM is feeling generous.) Unlike Trigger (p. B115), the component is not used up. -10%.

Some supernatural abilities are powered by a ritual that must be performed on a regular basis, instead of every time the spell is used. If not, the ability shuts down until you can invoke the ritual. Decide if it’s required once per day or once per session; either way, the following values are fair. Requires simple ritual: It merely calls for 1d minutes of quiet chanting, and simple materials weighing no more than a pound. -5%. Requires typical ritual: It involves cumbersome preparation and materials (lots of loud chanting, several candles, a bonfire, a complicated circle drawn on the floor, etc.), or a successful casting of a relevant spell at minimum FP cost, taking 1d¥5 minutes either way. -10%. Requires complex ritual: It’s something entailing 1d/2 hours of work, serious expense, actively illegal or somewhat dangerous behavior, or some combination thereof. -20%.

Special Limitations: For Advantages this is essentially an Accessibility Limitation: Only while above X HP. Appropriate cost would be:

Only while above 1/2 HP: -30%

Only while above 0 HP: -20%

Only while above -1xHP: -10%

Only while above -2xHP: -5%

Loses 1/4 of it's levels per HP “Threshold”, -20%

Loses 1/3 of it's levels per HP “Threshold”, -25%

Loses 1/2 of it's levels per HP “Threshold”, -30%

For advantages that lose effectiveness if you lose Fatigue points the appropriate with the thresholds for the Accessibility are:

Only while above 3/4 FP, -30%

Only while above 1/2 FP, -20%

Only while above 1/4 FP. -10%

Loses 1/4 of it's levels per FP “Threshold”, -15% (at 0 FP the advantage stops functioning).

Loses 1/3 of it's levels per FP “Threshold”, -20%

Loses 1/2 of it's levels per FP “Threshold”, -25%

For Disadvantages, this is essentially a Mitigator (though mitigators are usually items or substances, I see no reason not to expand it to conditions):

Only while below 1/2 HP: -40%

Only while below 0 HP: -60%

Only while below -1xHP: -80%

Gains 1/4 of it's levels per HP “Threshold”, -50%

Gains 1/3 of it's levels per HP “Threshold”, -45%

Gains 1/2 of it's levels per HP “Threshold”, -40%

Only on those who share a language with me: This commonly accompanies Hearing-Based (Sense-Based, p. B109) on mental-influence abilities. -10%.

Only while moving: Abilities that let the user defy gravity – Clinging, Walk on Air, Walk on Liquid, etc. – often have this. In a sci-fi game, pair it with Requires Low Gravity (p. 17). It’s incompatible with All-Out (p. 11). If the user stops moving, he falls. This is worth -10% if he must take at least a step per second, -20% if he must travel at half Move, or -30% if he must use his full Move.

Only while succumbing to (disadvantage with self-control roll): The ability is available only while the user is giving into his disadvantage, whether voluntarily or because he failed a self-control roll. The size of the limitation is equal to the unmodified size of the disadvantage, as a percentage; e.g., “Only while succumbing to Gluttony” would be -5%, regardless of the self-control roll chosen. See Only When Berserk (p. 16) for a special case and Required Disadvantages (p. 16) for disadvantages that lack self-control numbers. Only while using (ability): This ability turns on only when a different ability is in use. For this to be a valid limitation, both abilities must be useful on their own and neither can have a Link (p. B106) to the other. -10%.

Only with assistants: Some supernatural abilities require ritual or worship by others to work. Halve the basic point value that Maintenance (p. B143) gives for that number of people and write it as a percentage; e.g., “11-20 people” is -25%.

Requires (item): This variant of “Requires material component” (above) suits abilities that seem like they should use gadget limitations (pp. B116-117) but actually work with any piece of appropriate mundane equipment. For example, a super-archer with a special, custom bow would buy his Innate Attack with gadget limitations. However, one who can pick up any bow and make unrealistic shots would use Accessibility, Requires bow; if his bow is stolen or damaged, he can just run into a sporting goods shop and grab another. -10%.

While conscious: Your ability requires a Concentrate maneuver (never a Ready or a free action) to activate, and it switches off immediately if you lose consciousness. Use this with switchable abilities, but not with transient ones (including most attacks), as those automatically shut down after the turn in which you use them. -5%.

This limitation is appropriate for any passive defensive ability, such as Damage Resistance, Improved G-Tolerance, Magic Resistance, Pressure Support, Protected Sense, Radiation Tolerance, Resistant, Sealed, Slippery, Temperature Tolerance, or Vacuum Support.

Your ability only protects you against threats you’re aware of – and only if you make a roll to interpose it in time. This roll is at DX/2 + 3, +1 for Combat Reflexes. If you try to use the same ability more than once in a turn, apply a cumulative -4 per attempt after the first. You roll at -4 if stunned, and can’t roll at all in situations where you wouldn’t get an active defense (attack from behind, unconscious, etc.).

If your roll fails, all future attempts to activate the ability (until you succeed) cost a flat 1 FP but are at no additional penalty. However, if you drop to 3 FP or less from this, your ability shuts down until all FP are regained.

Your ability is independent of your actual active defenses. It does not count as your active defense against an attack; it is activated alongside it, not as an alternative to it. You may always choose whether to attempt your activation roll before your defense, after it, or not at all.

Active Defense, Independent: If you can make this activation roll against surprise attacks (e.g., your DR is reflex armor that triggers upon being struck), halve the value of this limitation to -20%. This also eliminates the -4 for being stunned and allows a roll even if unconscious.

You suffer the effects of a Temporary Disadvantage, but only once your advantage switches off. You can add this only to a switchable advantage that you can and must eventually turn off – whether because you’ll run out of FP to maintain it, its duration is fixed by Limited Use or Trigger, or leaving it on indefinitely would negatively affect your health. Find the limitation value as usual, and halve it.

A disadvantage with no self-control roll will be in full effect for as long as you used the modified trait, with a minimum of 10 minutes. A disadvantage with a self-control roll instead leaves you with an urge that endures until you get into a situation where you have to make that roll. Success means you fight the urge. Failure means you give in for at least 10 minutes. Either way, there are no further effects.

With GM permission, other limitations may have Aftermath variants that kick in after the fact, halving their normal values. For example, Insubstantiality (Aftermath Costs Fatigue, 2 FP, -5%; Maximum Duration, 30 minutes, -25%) would allow you to phase out for up to half an hour without paying FP. However, the instant you resumed tangibility, you would lose a total of 2 FP for the first minute and 1 FP for each additional minute. If you had been insubstantial for 20 minutes, the loss of 21 FP would likely knock you unconscious and cause serious injury!

Your ability requires an All-Out Attack maneuver; you can’t use it with any other maneuver (e.g., Move or Change Posture). You have no active defense while using it. If it would let you move more than a step, you’re limited to half your Move in a forward direction. You may attack if the advantage is one that lets you do so, and receive the benefits of All-Out Attack, but All-Out isn’t just for attack abilities – you can add it to any advantage that requires a maneuver to use (typically Concentrate or Ready), replacing the standard maneuver with All-Out Attack. Explain what you’re doing that limits you: deep concentration, spinning in place, etc.

All-Out Concentrate: This variant of All-Out is suitable only for abilities that normally require a Concentrate maneuver to use. Your ability requires an All-Out Concentrate maneuver to use. This new maneuver gives you +1 to all rolls required to perform your ability, but at the cost of your active defenses. You may move only a step. If you are knocked down, injured, or otherwise distracted, you must make a Will-2 roll (the usual Will-3, at +1 for this maneuver) to maintain your concentration. -25%.

You cannot switch your advantage off. You may only add this to an ability that can normally be switched off and that is inconvenient if you can’t turn it off. It is worth -10% if the effects are social or cosmetic, -20% if they are physically inconvenient, and -40% if they are dangerous (to you!). Always On appears as a “special limitation” for most of the traits to which it would apply. The GM can add new costs as appropriate for other abilities.

For Insubstantiality and Obscure, Always On is worth -50%. The GM may permit this level of Always On for other abilities. To qualify, the ability must be at least as crippling as Insubstantiality (user can’t interact with the physical world) or Obscure (user is deprived of a sense and can’t use stealth). A weaker version of Always On makes sense for many abilities:

Usually On: Any advantage that can be Always On can instead be Usually On. The ability is on almost all the time – but the user can switch it off briefly by expending 1 FP per second. If Always On is no worse than -20%, Usually On is worth half as much; if it’s a larger limitation, add a +10% enhancement to find the value of Usually On.

Your attack can pierce less armor than its base damage would indicate. “Divisor” is the factor by which you divide. “DR Multiplier” is an equivalent calculation – multiply your opponent’s DR by this number.

In addition, if you have any level of this limitation, targets that have DR 0 (e.g., bare flesh) get DR 1 against your attack.

Only Innate Attacks and Afflictions can have this limitation. Armor Divisor is a “penetration modifier”; you cannot combine it with other penetration modifiers, such as Contact Agent and Follow-Up.

The GM may allow this modifier – as an enhancement or a limitation – on attacks affected by specialized defenses other than DR. Adjust the defense’s level just as you would DR. For example, an Affliction with VisionBased (which bypasses DR) could add Armor Divisor (5) to reduce the effects of Protected Vision from +5 to +1.

When using this option with the Armor Divisor limitation, treat targets that lack the specialized defense as if they had the lowest level of the defense. For instance, a radiation beam with little penetrating power might be a Toxic Attack with Radiation and Armor Divisor (0.5). Targets with Radiation Tolerance would get double its divisor; those without Radiation Tolerance would gain the benefits of Radiation Tolerance 2 (the lowest level).

Your ability works only when pursuing a specific class of related tasks or activities (e.g., athletics, combat, investigation, or social interaction), or in a specific area of daily life (e.g., job, personal health, or romance). The GM has the final say and can make the categories as broad or as narrow as he wishes.

The GM also decides which advantages can take Aspected. Suitable traits include Common Sense, Intuition, Serendipity, and those that directly alter your odds of success at tasks (Luck, Super Luck, Visualization, etc.). Certain aspects aren’t useful even on normally permitted abilities, though; for instance, Visualization is so slow that Aspected, Combat would make it worthless.

When applying Aspected to other advantages, it’s important to set the focus relative to what the trait can already do. For example, Aspected, Social would fit Common Sense but not Charisma, which is already limited to social interaction. However, Aspected, Job would fit both.

Something about your ability attracts a particular type of dangerous creature or person (the “threat”). The GM will secretly roll 3d each time you use this ability out of combat – at most once per minute – and once after any battle in which it was used at all. On a 6 or less (-5%) or 9 or less (-10%), the threat noticed you from afar and has traveled to attack! If the GM has established that your threat is already present (e.g., you use an advantage with Attracts Threats, Reptiles in a jungle full of snakes), he may add up to +3 to the target number before rolling.

If you have multiple abilities with this limitation, the GM rolls just once if any of them were used. Similarly, if multiple people have the same limitation, the GM rolls only once; if the threat shows up, it attacks everyone! This applies only if everyone has a shared threat – Attracts Threats, Ghosts and Attracts Threats, Birds do not interact in any meaningful way.

The GM needs to balance the threat encounter fairly. As a general rule, it should be a danger, but one that the character can reasonably overcome. A random encounter table can be a fun way to mix light annoyances with the occasional boss monster.

You suffer noxious effects when you use your ability. Choose these from among Attribute Penalty, Incapacitation, Irritant, and Stunning, as defined for Affliction (p. B35). If you succumb for a minute (a second, for Stunning), and can roll against HT once per minute (second) after that to recover, apply a limitation equal in size to the equivalent enhancements. If you get a HT roll to resist, and the effects last for minutes (seconds) equal to your margin of failure, halve this. For instance, Nauseated is worth +30% on Affliction, so nausea is worth -30% if automatic or -15% if resistible.

Ranged attack abilities (Affliction, Binding, Innate Attack, advantages with the Ranged enhancement, etc.) normally work like firearms when it comes to the target’s legal active defenses: the victim can only dodge. Abilities that affect an area – including anything with Area Effect, Cone, or Explosion – only allow an attempt to dive for cover, whether or not they’re ranged. If either kind of attack produces an effect that the target can try to block, it has a -5% limitation – or -10%, if he can attempt a block or parry.

Use this limitation to simulate slow-moving projectiles (like nets or Missile spells), summoned swarms of biting creatures, and so on. To block an attack with Blockable and Overhead – like a rain of stones – the defender must hold his shield over his head.

Can Be Parried: Your attack can be dodged or parried, but not blocked. This variant (really just the extra -5% for a fully Blockable attack without the base -5%) suits few real-world attacks, but may make sense for certain supernatural ones. -5%.

Your attack must reach a mucous membrane (eyes, open mouth, nose, etc.) or an open wound to have any effect at all. DR always stops it. This limitation is intended for Afflictions, and for Innate Attacks that inflict fatigue or toxic damage. It is especially appropriate for poisonous spit or spray. In conjunction with Aura, it can also represent an attack that is delivered via intimate physical contact.

When an attack that normally ignores DR (like Leech) depends on a natural weapon – such as Claws or Teeth – penetrating the victim’s DR, apply the Blood Agent limitation. Don’t use Follow-Up; that’s intended for attacks that can’t normally ignore DR.

Exception: If the attack also has Area Effect or Cone, Blood Agent works as described above and also when inhaled (like Respiratory Agent. This lets it ignore all DR. Only targets with the Sealed advantage – or with one of Doesn’t Breathe or Filter Lungs and one of Nictitating Membrane or Protected Vision – are immune. This powerful ability converts Blood Agent into a +100% enhancement when combined with Area Effect or Cone!

This is a “penetration modifier”; you cannot combine it with other penetration modifiers, such as Follow-Up.

Your attack requires you to bleed on your victim. You must suffer at least 1 HP of injury from a cutting, impaling, or piercing attack, and then ensure that your blood reaches your target.

This is automatic if combined with Aura; otherwise, it requires an attack roll. The GM may rule that such attacks simply don’t work underwater or in other environments where blood would be diluted or washed away. The target’s DR works normally.

For abilities that aren’t attacks, such as personal advantages that activate automatically after you’re hurt, use Trigger, Injury (-15%) instead.

You may only take this limitation in conjunction with Area Effect or Cone. The attack does not automatically hit everyone in the area. Instead, it attacks each potential target in the area at an effective skill, which sets the value of the limitation.

Bombardment is a legitimate limitation for Area Effect and Cone attacks that conjure something that attacks everyone in the area instead of truly “bombarding” it. The classic example is a swarm of biting pests. In this case, the “effective skill” of the attack is the skill of whatever the attack summons. Such attacks often have Blockable.

Modify effective skill for target size only – not for range or for any other factor. Determine hit location randomly. If the target is under cover, the cover protects normally against the damage.

This limitation is intended for attacks like electrical or ice storms, which could affect some but not all individuals within a given area.

You can take this limitation only on a switchable advantage. While in use, it places undue stress on your heart; you must roll against HT immediately (14+ always fails) and then continue to make periodic rolls. Failure means loss of 1d FP; critical failure means a heart attack (p. B429).

Cost depends on how often you need to make the HT roll:

Cerebral Stress: This variant, especially suitable for mental abilities, works like Cardiac Stress, with two differences. First, the roll is made against the lower of HT or Will, as both mental and physical health are a factor. Second, critical failure puts you into a coma (p. B429) instead of causing a heart attack.

Your attack must touch bare skin or porous clothing to have any effect at all. DR always stops it.

This enhancement is intended for Afflictions, and for Innate Attacks that inflict fatigue or toxic damage. Taken with Aura, it can represent a “contagious” attack that spreads via skin contact.

Exception: If the attack also has Area Effect or Cone, Contact Agent lets it ignore all DR. Only targets with the Sealed advantage are immune. This powerful ability converts Contact Agent into a +150% enhancement when combined with Area Effect or Cone!

This is a “penetration modifier”; you cannot combine it with other penetration modifiers, such as Follow-Up.

This limitation can be applied to psionic abilities that require skin-to-skin contact. If the ability can normally be used at range, apply Melee Attack as well.

Attackers who must touch victims with their bare skin should take Touch-Based, not Contact Agent; see Sense-Based.

A trait with this limitation causes you to accumulate Corruption each time it’s used. You gain 1 point of Corruption per point by which Corrupting reduces the cost of the modified trait.

Corrupting can also be applied to a disadvantage that offers a self-control roll. In that case, it’s a +20% enhancement, worsening the disadvantage. You gain 1 point of Corruption per 5 points of unmodified disadvantage value each time you fail a self-control roll.

The GM is free to modify the amount of Corruption gained, changing the values above. See GURPS Horror, pp. 146-148, for the effects of Corruption.

Those adding Costs Fatigue to an Innate Attack that has the Variable enhancement may, if the GM permits, specify that the FP cost is proportional to the dice of damage used. To find the size of the limitation:

1. Set the FP cost to use the ability at full effect.

2. Divide this maximum FP cost by the attack’s maximum dice of damage to find the FP cost per die.

3. Multiply cost per die by “average” damage dice – (1 + maximum dice)/2 – to find average FP cost.

4. Drop all fractions.

The result is the number of levels of Cost Fatigue to take. Example: Laser Lad has Burning Attack 10d with Variable and Costs Fatigue. His FP cost at full effect is 20. His attack requires 20/10 = 2 FP per die. “Average” damage dice are (1 + 10)/2 = 5.5d, so average FP cost is 2 ¥ 5.5 = 11 FP. He takes Costs Fatigue 11, for -55%. When he attacks, he pays 2 FP for 1d, 4 FP for 2d, and so on, to a maximum of 20 FP for 10d.

Use the same method to add a variable FP cost to nonattack abilities that come in levels; just substitute levels of effect for dice. Abilities other than attacks don’t need the Variable enhancement to use this option.

Your ability costs FP to use. This is worth -5% per FP per use. What constitutes a “use” depends on the underlying trait.

For abilities that produce instantaneous effects (e.g., Innate Attack), you must pay this FP cost every time you trigger the ability.

For advantages that produce continuing effects (e.g., Flight), you must pay this FP cost to activate the ability for one minute. However, once you have paid this initial cost, you need only pay half as many FP (round up) per minute to keep the ability active. If an advantage that produces continuing effects only lasts one second, and you must pay the cost to maintain it every second, this doubles the value of the limitation to -10% per FP.

In campaigns with powers, the GM may require Costs Fatigue on all but completely passive abilities, forcing the heroes to think strategically rather than hurl their powers at every problem. This is especially appropriate if powers are supposed to be mysterious. It can also help balance powers against spells and cinematic martial arts skills.

Hazard: You may wish to build an ability whose FP cost causes a particular type of Hazard FP, such as Dehydration or Starvation. Treat this as the appropriate Hazard modifier (p. B104), applied directly to the Costs FP limitation. So Starvation FP would be -5% x 1.4 = -7%.

Dehydration, -6%

Drowning, -5%

Freezing, -6%

Missed Sleep, -7.5%

Starvation, -7%

Suffocation, -5%

Your ability costs HP to use. This is worth -10% per HP per use. What constitutes a “use” depends on the underlying trait.

For abilities that produce instantaneous effects (e.g., Innate Attack), you must pay this HP cost every time you trigger the ability.

For advantages that produce continuing effects (e.g., Flight), you must pay this HP cost to activate the ability for one minute. However, once you have paid this initial cost, you need only pay half as many HP (round up) per minute to keep the ability active. If an advantage that produces continuing effects only lasts one second, and you must pay the cost to maintain it every second, this doubles the value of the limitation to -20% per HP.

Special Limitations

Radiation: As above, but apply the Radiation modifier (p. B105) directly to the Costs HP limitation:

Radiation Only, -12.5%

Damage & Radiation, -20%

You may add the following limitations to an Innate Attack:

An attack that inflicts crushing, cutting, impaling, or piercing damage normally inflicts blunt trauma (see p. 379). Add this limitation if it does not.

An attack that inflicts crushing or cutting damage normally inflicts knockback (see p. 378). Add this limitation if it does not.

The attack inflicts basic damage, and may cause knockback and blunt trauma, but its penetrating damage has no wounding effect (HP or FP loss). Apply this limitation to a crushing attack to represent effects such as a mighty gust of wind or jet of water. Use it with impaling, piercing, or cutting attacks that are carriers for Afflictions or Innate Attacks (usually those that inflict fatigue or toxic damage) with the Follow-Up modifier; this represents small poison darts, stings, etc. that can slip through armor without inflicting grievous wounds.

You may only take this limitation in conjunction with Area Effect or Cone. The further the victim is from the center of the area or the apex of the cone, the less effective your attack is. See Area and Spreading Attacks (p. 413) for details.

This limitation can be applied only to an ability that affects someone else and offers him a resistance roll to avoid the effects. If your target possesses an ability that aids his resistance (e.g., Magic Resistance or Resistant), multiply its resistance bonus or skill penalty by (1 + your Easily Resisted level). If not, he gets a bonus equal to your Easily Resisted level to all rolls to resist. Your roll to use the ability is unaffected. The GM must set the maximum level available. A cap of four to six levels is recommended.

You may only take this limitation in conjunction with Area Effect (p. 102). It means the effect has no range or Accuracy, but radiates from your body (without affecting you, if the effect is a bad one). This is incompatible with Melee Attack and ranged attack modifiers.

The GM may allow Emanation in conjunction with Explosion (p. B104) instead of Area Effect. Use this combination to simulate antipersonnel grenades mounted on the hull of an armored vehicle… or the attack of an entity that flares like a phoenix without destroying itself.

Your ability is triggered by your fear or excitement; you cannot use it under “routine” conditions. The GM is the final arbiter. He may rule that multiple successive failures of your power make you angry enough that it begins to work, but this is entirely up to him.

An “emergency” is any event that causes severe mental, emotional, or physical stress. Most situations involving self-control rolls for disadvantages, Fright Checks, or HT rolls for major wounds qualify. The GM should also let a hero with a Code of Honor, Sense of Duty, or Vow that compels him to protect others use his ability to aid an innocent person who’s in immediate danger (being mugged, falling to his death, suffering a heart attack, etc.).

Full Power in Emergencies Only: If your ability works at half power under normal conditions, but at full power under stress, this limitation is not worth as much. For traits that come in levels, “half power” means half as many levels. The GM must decide what this means for other traits (half range, duration, bonuses, etc.). -20%.

Only advantages that affect others can have this limitation. Your ability manipulates an existing item or condition, which must touch or surround the target. Unlike Accessibility, this doesn’t influence activation – you can trigger your ability anywhere, barring a failed roll or another limitation. However, your ability is effective only if the subject is in a particular environment . . . and the GM can alter its impact if the environment you’re attempting to manipulate is at all unusual.

Example: A Binding that commands plants to entangle the victim would do nothing in an area without vegetation. It would be little more than a nuisance if the only plant nearby were a small potted fern . . . and totally unpredictable in an alien jungle!

The GM should base the value on the environment’s rarity. Very Common: Environment is present all the time, outside of one or two unusual situations that would be difficult for an enemy to arrange; e.g., in a gravity field, in the presence of air, or on a planet. -5%.

Very Common: Environment is present all the time, outside of one or two unusual situations that would be difficult for an enemy to arrange; e.g., in a gravity field, in the presence of air, or on a planet. -5%.

Common: Environment is present most of the time, but a resourceful foe could arrange for it to be absent; e.g., in contact with dust or in the presence of microbes. -10%.

Occasional: Environment is often absent, or easily avoided by enemies (although a crafty user might be able to “rig” an important encounter to work around this); e.g., in a city, in the wilderness, outdoors, or touching the ground. -20%.

Rare: Environment is usually absent and difficult for the user to arrange; e.g., in a storm, in dense vegetation, in the desert, or underground. -40%.

Very Rare: Environment is so unlikely that the ability is useless most of the time; e.g., in lava, in quicksand, or in vacuum. -80%.

The GM should forbid proposed Environmental limitations that duplicate one of the ability’s built-in restrictions; e.g., “in water” isn’t valid for Control (Water). In games with powers, an ability that gets -10% for a mundane countermeasure or insulator as part of its power modifier already has this limitation – don’t apply it a second time.

By default, a ranged attack has Recoil 1, making it virtually recoilless (see p. 271). You may give an attack with Rapid Fire (p. 108) a higher Recoil (Rcl) as a limitation.

This limitation is incompatible with Very Rapid Fire; see Rapid Fire.

Your ability is or seems sentient, and sometimes reacts poorly. Make an unmodified reaction roll whenever you wish to use it. For an attack, make this roll before each use. For other abilities, the advantage works until you need to make a success roll for it . . . then make a reaction roll. For instance, Flight requires a reaction roll when you try a DX roll to “push the envelope,” or an Aerobatics or Flight skill roll, while Dark Vision calls for a reaction roll anytime you attempt a Vision roll in the dark.

On a reaction of Neutral or better (10+), the ability works as expected and you can attempt your attack roll, DX roll, Sense roll, etc., as applicable. A Very Good reaction (16-18) gives +1 to the ensuing roll; an Excellent reaction (19+) gives +2.

On a reaction of Poor or worse (9 or less), the ability fails. If it wasn’t already active, it refuses to activate. If it was active, it shuts down. This doesn’t normally endanger you directly; for instance, Flight sets you down gently and Insubstantiality leaves you in open space. Of course, the sudden loss of DR in battle, Dark Vision in an unlit room full of traps, and so forth can endanger you indirectly.

On a reaction of Very Bad or worse (3 or less), the ability does endanger you or turns on you in some unpleasant way. Flight drops you like a stone, Insubstantiality leaves you stranded inside a wall, your attack blasts you, and so forth. The GM should be creative!

You can try to invoke a failed ability every second if you wish, but the reaction roll is at a cumulative -1 per repeated attempt as your ability (or the forces behind it) become increasingly annoyed by your requests. To eliminate this penalty, you must go for a full hour without using your ability.

The GM may permit a weaker limitation:

Requires Reaction Roll: Your ability works as described above, but with two major changes. First, all normal reaction modifiers apply. Second, you can substitute an Influence roll; if so, unless the GM feels that it was especially appropriate or inappropriate, success produces the equivalent of a Good reaction. -5%.

This can be applied to any advantage that alters how others perceive you, such as Appearance, Chameleon, Elastic Skin, Invisibility, Shapeshifting (with the Cosmetic limitation), Silence, or Voice. Your ability controls others’ perceptions through a persistent hypnotic suggestion, mental illusion, or psychic compulsion. It doesn’t affect machines.

Living victims get a Will roll to resist your influence and sense you normally, and individuals with Mind Shield may add their level to this roll. A resistance roll against Will-5 is worth -5%. Each +1 to the roll is a worth another -5% (e.g., Will+4 is -50%).

It makes sense for certain abilities to allow a Per- or IQ-based resistance roll to see past the glamour, as opposed to a Will-based one. This is a special effect that does not change the value of the limitation. (The same applies when switching the resistance roll for Resistible, p. B115).

This is a general version of Granted by Familiar (Familiars, p. B38). Your ability is not innate or inherent; rather, it is something that another individual – not an omnipresent deity! – empowers you to do when physically nearby. Examples include a mage who can only fly when his hawk familiar is with him (Flight with Granted by Familiar), a martial artist who’s faster when his ancestor is present in spirit (Altered Time Rate with Granted by Ancestor), and a robot whose senses are enhanced by an add-on drone (Hyperspectral Vision with Granted by Drone).

This is a significant limitation because the ability is inherent to the granter, not you. Thus, if he wishes to deny you access to it, for any reason, you immediately lose it. (Assuming the granter is an Ally, this will be rare, but even Allies can be mind-controlled, reprogrammed, swayed by Fast-Talk, etc.)

Your ability also goes away if the granter is ever stunned, unconscious, killed, or simply not present. There’s some leeway in the definition of “not present,” so it’s important for the GM and player to agree on what this means ahead of time. In all cases, if the granter is an Ally and his appearance roll fails, he is not present. Past that, a good guideline is that the granter must be able to reach you in a minute or less (thus, within 300 yards for the average person). However, this can be altered to fit the specific relationship.

Example: Zora is a cyberkid whose robot pal Alpha helps her process sensory data incredibly quickly. She buys this as Enhanced Time Sense (Granted by Alpha). But rather than Alpha’s physical presence, what matters is her network connection to him. She can use her ETS whether Alpha is right next to her or miles away – but if anyone can jam that signal, it goes away no matter where he is.

What if you want a swarm of drones rather than just one? Or you’re a supervillain who works best when his team of henchmen is cheering him on? This requires defining your granter as a group. The value of the limitation depends on how many members are in your group, as shown in the table.

When any of the members are unhelpful, stunned, not present, etc., you lose their proportional value from the strength of this ability. For example, if you have a group of four people, each one missing weakens your ability by 25%. If none are present, then your ability doesn’t work at all.

If the ability is one that wouldn’t make sense to “weaken,” you can treat each 10% loss (or fraction thereof) as -1 to all rolls to use it or +1 for others to resist. If that isn’t meaningful either, treat the percentage loss as a limitation value and add the nearest level of Unreliable (p. B116)!

As per Granted by (Other), except that in this case the ability is granted unwittingly by your worshipers.

If you only require a single fervent believer for your ability to continue working, this functions identically to Granted by (Other), except that your worshiper does not need to be in your vicinity, and since he is granting you your ability unwittingly, anything that makes him lose faith (seeing you defeated in battle, failing to have his prayers answered, or dying, for instance) may cause your ability to stop working.

The value of each believer is proportional to the power of his belief. A single fervent believer (a cultist eager to sacrifice himself and others on your alter, a crusader hell-bent on conquering all in your name, a jihadist who will martyr himself with ecstasy, a monk who will forgo all worldly things, etc.) is worth 10 moderate believers (cultists who are happy to sacrifice goats but not humans, evangelists who regularly go door-to-door with pamphlets, people who get down on their hands and knees and pray every single day, average priests, etc.), and a single fervent believer is worth 100 passive believers (people who identify with the religion but don't do much beyond going to church on certain holidays, wearing some holy jewelry, and observing some sacred superstitions).

In game terms, Fervent probably means at least a -5 to -15 point Vow, Code of Honor, Pact, or other self-imposed mental disadvantage. Moderates probably have a -1 to -5 mental disadvantage. Passive believers might be anything between a -1 quirk and a 0 point feature.

If you've got 90 passive believers and 1 moderate believer, that's as good as 100 passive believers, 9 moderate believers and 10 passive believers, or 1 fervent believer. The value of the limitation correlates to the minimum number of believers required for your ability to function. Always list the number of fervent believers required in notation.

If the number of believers you require falls below the threshold, the ability stops working entirely. If, instead, the ability works at half-power below the threshold, halve the value of the limitation. If working at half-power doesn't make sense for the ability, you can instead treat it as a -5 to all rolls to use it or +5 for others to resist. If that doesn't make sense either, treat the halved limitation value as the nearest equivalent level of Unreliable (p. B116).

This is a serious limitation, especially at higher levels. If your god-powers will turn off if you don't have at least 100 fervent believers, then you must put considerable effort into ensuring that your worshipers stay fervently faithful, that they aren't swayed to worship other gods, that they don't get wiped out by competing religions, and of course, if you're immortal, you must ensure that your worshipers continue spreading the faith so that your religion doesn't die along with your mortal worshipers some day.

Though it is not required for this limitation to function, you may buy Allies or Ally Groups (p. B36) to fill out the ranks of your worshipers. It is up to the GM to determine how fervent, moderate, or passive each one is, depending on how you treat them and their backstories. As a general rule of thumb, an ally with a constant frequency of appearance (e.g., one who is willing to follow you anywhere, even into the jaws of death) might be a fervent believer, allies with quite often or fairly often frequencies of appearance might be moderate believers, and allies with a quite rare frequency of appearance might be passive believers. This isn't set in stone however: a constant companion who sees you as a friend, but not as an object of worship, isn't a believer at all, and perhaps your most devoted minion only appears in your adventures rarely because he spends all of his time preaching to the congregation. Work out the details with your GM on a case-by-case basis.

If your worshipers are particularly needy or helpless, regularly requiring you to defend them from invaders or save them with miracles, you may want to buy them as both Allies and Dependents (p. B131).

This limitation is appropriate for various gods and demons who require worship in order to remain potent, like the gods from Terry Pratchett's Discworld or the Ori from Stargate SG1. It may even work for more mundane situations, perhaps a politician's Charisma (p. B41) or a singer's Talent (p. B89) is only effective in light of his fans' fervor, and if people stop believing in him, the magic goes away.

Each level of Hard to Use, to a maximum of four levels, gives -3 to all rolls to use your ability. If it’s part of a power, Talent doesn’t help. This is incompatible with Reliable (Power-Ups 4, p. 16) and forbidden on ranged attacks (but see Inaccurate, p. B112).

You must concentrate for a long time before using your ability. Unlike Preparation Required (p. B114), you cannot concentrate and then save your ability for later use; it must be used as soon as it’s ready. The value of this limitation depends on the amount of time that you must spend taking Concentrate maneuvers first:

Advantages that normally take one minute or longer to activate cannot take Immediate Preparation Required, 1 Minute; use Takes Extra Time instead.

For fair results, the GM may wish to restrict Takes Extra Time to two levels; past that, use Immediate Preparation Required.

Your attack benefits little from careful aiming. Most attacks start with Accuracy (Acc) 3. Each -1 to Acc is a -5% limitation. You may not reduce Acc below 0.

This limitation can be taken on any ability that is resisted with a Quick Contest (like a Malediction). It provides a degree of “immunity” to anyone who successfully resists, making it either impossible or just more difficult to use your ability on him again. Where penalties for repeated attempts apply even without this limitation, they are above and beyond this drawback.

Each level of this limitation shifts this immunity up one degree on the chart below. Degree Effect 4 Permanently immune 3 Immune for one day or Permanent, cumulative -2 2 Immune for one hour or Cumulative -2 lasting one day 1 Cumulative -2 lasting one hour 0 No effect If the advantage has a built-in immunity for those who resist (e.g., Mind Reading, which starts with degree 1 immunity: a cumulative -2 for the next hour), start on the most appropriate line and move up from there. Some degrees list two equally limiting effects; you must choose which alternative applies when adding this limitation.

If you do not roll to use the ability, interpret each -2 as +2 to your subjects’ resistance rolls.

Terror (p. B93) is a special case: In addition to its natural degree 2 immunity, subjects also get +1 to resist further Fright Checks within 24 hours, whether they succeed or fail. Thus, for Terror, each level of Increased Immunity also increases that time frame, first to “+1 per Fright Check after the first within a month” and then to “+1 per Fright Check after the first, regardless of the time that passes.”

This limitation can be applied to various social advantages, including Clerical Investment, Legal Enforcement Powers, Legal Immunity, Security Clearance, and Tenure. You don’t officially have the advantage in question – but you can exercise its privileges, and both the public and legal authorities accept you doing so. However, those benefits can be revoked at any time without formal proceedings of any kind. The GM is the judge of when this happens; he may be guided by reaction rolls. Many cinematic heroes have Legal Immunity with this limitation – the police cooperate with them, or juries won’t convict them – but it can be taken away without even an administrative hearing if they do something unethical.

Your ability only affects intangible targets: beings with the Spirit metatrait, individuals using Insubstantiality, and those using Clairsentience, Jumper, or Warp with the Projection special modifier. This modifier is especially useful for attacks intended to exorcise spirits.

This is essentially a Nuisance Effect, worth -5% if the signature is only detectable with specialized equipment or through the use of Psi powers, or -10% if it is detectable by a normal person without the aid of special equipment (i.e. leaves a glowing hand print on the victim). If the signature lasts an unusually long period of time (over 24 hours) it's worth an additional -5%.

You can use your ability only a limited number of times in a 24-hour period. For most advantages, each “use” is 1 minute of activation. For an attack, each “use” gives shots equal to your RoF, with a minimum one shot per use; for instance, three uses of an attack with RoF 2 would give six shots. The value depends on the number of uses you get.

More than 10 uses per day is not a significant limitation.

For the purpose of this limitation, treat any advantage that produces an instantaneous effect – e.g., Healing, Jumper, Rapier Wit, Snatcher, Terror, Visualization, or Warp – like an attack. Each “use” lets you roll once per 24 hours to use the advantage. For information-gathering abilities such as Blessed, Mind Probe, and Psychometry, each question answered counts as one “use.”

Limited Use isn’t allowed on social advantages, advantages that must always be “on” to make sense (like Destiny, Digital Mind, and Unaging), or advantages with built-in usage limits (notably Extra Life, Gizmos, Luck, Oracle, Serendipity, and Wild Talent).

Two special options are available for attacks (and optionally, other abilities) that have this enhancement:

Fast Reload: You can replace all your uses in 3 to 5 seconds simply by replenishing ammunition. The GM determines the weight and cost of the ammunition. This halves the value of the limitation; e.g., three or four uses would be worth only -10%.

Slow Reload: As above, except if you have two or more shots (not uses!) you must reload each shot individually (taking 3 or more seconds per shot). If you have only one shot, it must take at least 6 seconds to reload – possibly longer, if using this limitation to represent a very slow-firing weapon such as a flintlock. This makes the limitation worth 5% less than usual; e.g., three or four uses would be worth only -15%.

Available only for switchable, beneficial abilities that you could normally leave “on” indefinitely (e.g., Insubstantiality). Your ability can operate only for a limited length of time.

After that, it shuts down without warning and you can’t reactivate it for five minutes. The value of the limitation depends on the time limit:

Your attack functions as a melee weapon. It has no range, but allows you to parry, use Rapid Strike, Feint, etc. It lacks Malf., 1/2D, Max, Acc, RoF, Shots, and Recoil statistics, and may not have any enhancement or limitation that modifies these statistics. Instead, it has a Reach statistic.

Mental abilities that can normally be used at range (e.g., Mind Control, Telesend) can take this limitation (as Melee Attack, C, -30%) to turn it into a touch-only ability.

Abilities with Melee Attack 1-4 can have a greater Reach. Each +1 yard increase adds +5% to the modifier, up to 0% for Melee Attack 1-7 (just like a whip). For an additional +10% to the modifier, the Reach can be made variable as a Ready maneuver. If this is a free action, this becomes +20%.

If your attack cannot parry, it is worth an extra -5%.

Melee Attack results in an effect like energy claws or a flaming sword. This extends from the wielder’s body, letting him attack and parry. “Touch only” abilities that call for a light touch with the hand have Reach C and can’t parry (-35%). Those that must touch bare skin also have Contact Agent (-30%), while attacks that circumvent DR should add Malediction 1 (+100%) if resistance is possible, Cosmic (+300%) if not.

Melee Attack turns an attack advantage into a powered melee weapon, not a ST-based one; damage isn’t cumulative with thrust or swing damage. It lets the user wield his attack in one hand. The GM may permit modifiers that relax these restrictions, possibly turning Melee Attack into a net enhancement:

Melee Attack (Destructive Parry): Your attack damages weapons it parries or that parry it. Roll damage normally and apply it to your foe’s weapon on a successful parry by either of you. Price Melee Attack as usual, and then add a +10% enhancement.

Melee Attack (Dual): Your ability generates two melee weapons – usually one in each hand – permitting a Dual-Weapon Attack (see p. B417). Price Melee Attack as usual, and then add a +10% enhancement.

Melee Attack (ST-Based): Only for Crushing, Cutting, and Impaling Attacks. You can add your dice of thrust or swing damage to the damage of your Innate Attack. Work out Melee Attack as usual, and then add a +100% enhancement. (This modifier is more cost-effective than Striking ST; the GM may wish to reserve it for cinematic genres.)

Available only for switchable abilities that would – in the GM’s opinion – seriously inconvenience you if you couldn’t deactivate them at will. Your ability must stay “on” for a certain period of time once activated; you can’t shut it off before this time is up. Minimum Duration can never exceed Maximum Duration (if any). The limitation’s value depends on the minimum amount of time your ability stays on:

On an advantage that allows Always On (p. B110), this limitation is worth at most -5% less than Always On; e.g., if Always On is -20%, Minimum Duration can’t go beyond -15%.

You can’t use your ranged ability on a target inside a certain range. Use this for weapons that have a minimum fusing distance or that fire in a high arc, and for sensors with a “blind spot” within which they can’t resolve targets. The GM should restrict this modifier to ranged abilities that are normally useful at relatively close range. This is worth -10% for a minimum range of 5% maximum range, or -5% for a minimum range of 1% maximum range (always at least a yard).

If the GM agrees and the special effects support it, an attack may lack one of the normal “side effects” of its damage type. The absence of an effect that damages the target’s HP, FP, or DR is worth -20% (like No Blunt Trauma); e.g., No DR Reduction, for a Corrosion Attack. Most other limitations are worth -10% (like No Knockback); e.g., No Incendiary Effect, for a Burning Attack.

You may only apply this limitation to a disadvantage. A particular item or substance – the mitigator – temporarily negates your disadvantage. The more effective the mitigator, the fewer points you get for the disadvantage. Use the following guidelines:

Mitigator is vulnerable, and easily stolen, broken, or misplaced (e.g., a pair of glasses). -60%.

Mitigator is a drug or other treatment that you must take daily. -60%.

Mitigator is a weekly treatment. -65%.

Mitigator is a monthly treatment. -70%.

This assumes your treatments are available at pharmacies. If you require a special (and possibly expensive) prescription, add +5% to the values above; e.g., -70% becomes -65%. If you can only get your treatments from one specific source, such as an experimental drug program, add +10%; e.g., -70% becomes -60%.

Example 1: Bad Sight is worth -25 points. Glasses cure Bad Sight while worn, but are breakable, for a -60% Mitigator limitation. This reduces Bad Sight to -10 points.

Example 2: Jan has AIDS, and would die in a month without treatment. This level of Terminally Ill is normally worth -100 points. Fortunately, Jan is on an experimental drug plan that is holding him in remission. The treatments are weekly (-65%) but impossible to find outside his program (+10%), for a -55% Mitigator limitation. This reduces Terminally Ill to -45 points. As long as Jan stays with the program, his countdown to death is halted.

Your ability has a “side effect” that causes you serious inconvenience. The GM must approve this limitation and determine its value in each case, and should ruthlessly forbid effects that are abusive or that do not genuinely limit the ability’s value. A few guidelines (a given trait can have more than one of these drawbacks):

• Your ability earns a reaction penalty from those around you. Perhaps it makes you look disgusting, or requires you to perform some sort of distressing ritual. -5% per -1 to reactions (maximum -4).
• Your ability makes you obvious, limiting stealth and attracting enemies. -5%.
• Your ability physically inconveniences you – it attracts stinging insects, causes your armor to rust, makes you ravenously hungry, etc. -5%.

You cannot take a valuable power as a Nuisance Effect. For instance, “Kills everyone within a mile” is not an acceptable Nuisance Effect! Neither can you claim a limitation for a harmless nuisance. If your Terror advantage attracts gerbils instead of frightening them, this is amusing but not a limitation.

Harsher-than-usual consequences under the optional rules in Chapter 4 of Powers can be Nuisance Effects. Examples include being unable to affect a given subject for 24 hours after a failure when using Repeated Attempts (Powers p. 159), or having to check for crippling after any failure when using Crippled Abilities (Powers p. 156). Each such drawback is worth -5%.

An ability that prevents the use of certain skills while active can claim -5% if the GM feels the skills it disrupts would be especially useful with that ability. For instance, a rocket-powered robot that can’t use Stealth while flying could claim -5% on Flight.

Those whose abilities severely inconvenience them may use this variant:

Backlash: You suffer noxious effects when you use your ability. Choose these from among Attribute Penalty, Incapacitation, Irritant, and Stunning, as defined for Affliction (p. B35). If you succumb for a minute (a second, for Stunning), and can roll against HT once per minute (second) after that to recover, apply a limitation equal in size to the equivalent enhancements. If you get a HT roll to resist, and the effects last for minutes (seconds) equal to your margin of failure, halve this. For instance, Nauseated is worth +30% on Affliction, so nausea is worth -30% if automatic or -15% if resistible.

Your advantage applies only when in a berserk rage! The Berserk disadvantage (p. B124) is required for this limitation. You may deliberately go berserk to use the affected ability, but you are limited in your actions and may be a danger to your friends.

Only When Berserk is a special case of Accessibility, broken out as a separate modifier and given a cost befitting the drastic behavior brought on by Berserk.

You must “stack” this limitation with one of Blood Agent, Contact Agent, Follow-Up, Malediction, or Respiratory Agent. It delays the damage or affliction caused by the attack until some time after exposure. The delay determines the value of the limitation.

Delays that fall between two values use the smaller limitation; e.g., 30 minutes is -10%. If you can control the onset time, take Delay instead.

A variant limitation is Exposure Time, which is only available for attacks with Aura or Persistent. Use it to represent radioactivity, mildly toxic gases, etc. It works just like Onset, except that the victim must be exposed for the entire period to suffer the effect (or repeat it, if you continue exposure). This is worth an extra -20%; e.g., 1 minute is -30%.

The Exposure Time variant is legal – and appropriate – for advantages that work like Maledictions (e.g., Mind Control). It represents a compulsion that slowly creeps over the victim as he views or speaks with his influencer. This is worthless in combat but subtle enough to escape notice in social situations. Limitation value is unchanged.

A Higher Power – god, spirit, etc. – grants your ability under the condition that you follow a strict moral code. This code must take the form of one or more of the traits listed under Self-Imposed Mental Disadvantages. These disadvantages give you the usual number of points. Should you ever stray from the path, your ability immediately ceases to function until you repent. The limitation value is numerically equivalent to the point cost of the required disadvantages; e.g., a -10-point Vow gives a -10% Pact limitation.

A hero can have a Pact with the GM, if the GM agrees. The GM should only allow this if both the Pact and the modified ability support a genre convention, like “kung fu movie realism.”

For instance, the player of a super-heroic karate master might make a deal with the GM: if he fights his foes hand-to-hand, bullets mostly won’t hurt him. He takes a -10-point Vow (“Never use a gun.”) and buys DR with Limited, Bullets, -60% and Pact, -10%. If he uses a gun, he gives up his DR for the rest of the fight.

The GM may also give limitations for disadvantages other than self-imposed mental disadvantages:

Required Disadvantage: You have a disadvantage such as Increased Consumption or Sleepy. If you fail to meet its requirements, you lose your ability in addition to the usual effects of missing meals, sleep, etc. Alternatively, you must indulge an Addiction to keep your ability. In either case, if you lose your ability, the only way to restore it is to satisfy the needs of your disadvantage and recover fully from any ill effects it caused you during the period where you didn’t: FP or HP loss, attribute penalties, afflictions, etc. Price this limitation exactly as you would Pact.

Abilities with power modifiers that include Pact or Required Disadvantage can’t take a separate limitation for these; see Required Disadvantages (Powers, p. 21).

Partial: Multiple Locations. This is priced just like the Partial limitation on p. B47, except that once you price each location you multiply the percentage values of all limitations together, then round up to the next -5%. (Exception: If any limitation exceeds -80%, reduce it to -80% before this calculation).

Example: A character has one Cyber Arm (which includes the hand) and his other hand is also cybernetic. To find the value of One Arm (-40%) and One Hand (-80%) you would multiply 0.4 × 0.8 = 0.32, then round that up to -35%.

Example 2: A character has DR that protects his Skull (-70%), Face (-50%) and Neck (-50%). 0.7 × 0.5 × 0.5 = 0.175, rounding up to -20%.

Some concepts call for an “either/or” limitation. With Damage resistance this often comes from with Subdermal Armor which has Tough Skin while the cybernetic limbs DR simply has Partial (Cyber Limbs). To calculate the cost of such a combination simply multiply the value of the limitations together, then round up to the next -5%. In the case of Partial: Multiple Locations find the final cost for that, as described above, then multiply that by the other limitations.

Example: A character has Subdermal Armor providing Tough Skin (-40%) except on his Cyber Arms (-20%). The cost is 0.4 × 0.2 = 0.08, rounding to -10%.

Your power must be sustained or renewed from an external source, which takes about a minute; if you don’t have contact with that source, it stops working. For this to be a valid limitation, access to the source has to be a major difficulty, such as not being able to carry it around with you and having to go somewhere else to recharge, or having to wait an hour after using your ability before recharging it. This doesn’t restrict the number of times you can use your ability in the period between recharges. Likewise, using it at less than full power to “save energy” won’t prolong the cycle; when your time is up, that’s it.

The value of the limitation depends on the interval between recharges:

Interval Modifier Up to 1 minute -80% Up to 10 minutes -40% Up to 1 hour -20% Up to 8 hours -10% Up to 24 hours -5%

An interval longer than 24 hours is not a meaningful restriction and does not count as a limitation.

You have a set of abilities that come from a common power source; you may take Talent for this source at the rate of five points per level (to a maximum of four levels) to increase your natural or learned ability to control said power, and may apply an appropriately sized limitation based on how easily the power can be changed or subverted.

When calculating power modifiers, it’s useful to have all the numbers in one place. Unless indicated otherwise, all modifiers are cumulative.

Ambient energies blocked by (choose one)*:

Esoteric or supernatural item/condition: -5%

Mundane item/condition: -10%

Fickle: -20%

Cosmic Power: +50%*

Mundane countermeasures: -10%

Special advantages or skills: -5%

Technological countermeasures: -5%

Code of conduct: Point value of required disadvantages, expressed as a percentage.

Power disappears (choose one):

Gradually: +5%

Immediately: +0%

Power turns against user: -5%

A day: +5%

A week, a minor quest, or minor harm: +0%

A month, a major quest, or serious harm: -5%

* Cosmic powers can neither be blocked nor have countermeasures.

This is the power of magical song. Its abilities are subject to the Bard-Song limitation. Rolls to use them are made at a bonus equal to the bard’s Bardic Talent level.

Bard-Song abilities require the bard to sing or play a musical instrument at skill 14+; all effects end immediately if he stops. Anything that affects others only works on targets who can hear the music, while any messages or instructions the bard sends have to be hidden in song. Bard-Song abilities are also subject to the constraints on wizardly magic: they need mana to work, Dispel Magic can end their ongoing effects, and modifiers such as the -5 for low mana and penalties for Magic Resistance apply to rolls to use them.

Empathy (PM, -30%) [11]; Mimicry (PM, -30%) [7]; Mind Control (PM, -30%) [35]; Rapier Wit (PM, -30%) [4]; Speak With Animals (PM, -30%) [18]; Subsonic Speech (PM, -30%) [7]; Telecommunication (Telesend; PM, -30%) [21]; Terror (PM, -30%) [21]; and Ultrasonic Speech (PM, -30%) [7].

Bardic Talent both adds to Bard-Song rolls and lets the bard cast Communication and Empathy and Mind Control spells (only!) as if he were a wizard who had the same level of Magery with the Song limitation.

Those with any points in Bard-Song can learn Captivate (p. B191), Hypnotism (p. B201), Musical Influence (p. B210), Persuade (p. B191), Suggest (p. B191), and Sway Emotions (p. B192).

This power channels the user’s life energy, or chi. All of its abilities have the Chi limitation. Rolls to use them enjoy a bonus equal to the wielder’s Chi Talent level.

Chi abilities depend on special diet, exercise, and meditation. The user must take the disadvantage Disciplines of Faith (Chi Rituals) [-10] to reflect this. Each day, roll 1d; this is how many hours less he has for sleep, standing watch, etc. Moreover, he must pay double for rations, which reflects not just an unusual diet, but incense, ointments, etc. If deprived of these things, or if he fails to sacrifice the necessary time, he must take a day out to rebalance his chi. His entire power will immediately burn out for 1d days if called upon before he does this.

Catfall (PM, -10%) [9]; Damage Resistance 1 or 2 (PM, -10%; Tough Skin, -40%) [3 or 5]; Danger Sense (PM, -10%) [14]; Enhanced Move 0.5 or 1 (Ground; PM, -10%) [9 or 18]; Extra Attack 1 or 2 (PM, -10%) [23 or 45]; Metabolism Control 1 to 5 (PM, -10%) [5 to 23]; Perfect Balance (PM, -10%) [14]; Regeneration (Slow, Regular, or Fast; PM, -10%) [9, 23, or 45]; Resistant to Metabolic Hazards (+3) or (+8) (PM, -10%) [9 or 14]; Striking ST 1 or 2 (PM, -10%) [5 or 9]; and Super Jump 1 or 2 (PM, -10%) [9 or 18].

Chi Talent adds to both Chi Mastery rolls and the special chi skills below. In general, a power’s Talent doesn’t add to its special skills – this one is an exception!

Those with any points in Chi Mastery can learn Autohypnosis (p. B179), Blind Fighting (p. B180), Body Control (p. B181), Breaking Blow (p. B182), Breath Control (p. B182), Esoteric Medicine (Chi) (p. B192), Flying Leap (p. B196), Immovable Stance (p. B201), Invisibility Art (p. B202), Kiai (p. B203), Light Walk (p. B205), Mental Strength (p. B209), Mind Block (p. B210), Parry Missile Weapons (p. B212), Power Blow (p. B215), Pressure Points (p. B215), Pressure Secrets (p. B215), Push (p. B216), Throwing Art (p. B226), and Zen Archery (p. B228).

DRUIDIC ARTS

This power emanates from nature itself. Its abilities must be bought with the Druidic limitation. Rolls made for them get a bonus equal to the user’s Druidic Talent level.

Power Modifier: Druidic -10%

In areas where nature is weak, druidic abilities take the same penalties to success rolls that druidic spells suffer; see Druidic Spells (p. 19). Abilities that don’t require a success roll instead lose 10% of their potency – Ally point value, DR, etc. – per -1 (round down).

Druidic Abilities

Allies (Nature spirit or powerful totem beast of equal points; 12 or less; PM, -10%; Summonable, +100%) [19] or (15 or less) [29]; Animal Empathy (PM, -10%) [5]; Channeling (PM, -10%; Specialized, Nature Spirits, -50%) [4]; Damage Resistance 1 or 2 (Limited, Elemental, -20%; PM, -10%) [4 or 7]; Detect (PM, -10%) for all plants [18], all animals [18], or anything alive [27]; Medium (PM, -10%; Specialized, Nature Spirits, -50%) [4]; Mind Control (Animals Only, -25%; PM, - 10%) [33]; Plant Empathy (PM, -10%) [5]; Speak With Animals (PM, -10%) [23]; Speak With Plants (PM, -10%) [14]; and Terrain Adaptation (PM, -10%) [5] for ice, mud, snow, or other weather-related conditions.

Druidic Talent 5 points/level

Each level of Power Investiture (Druidic) costs 10 points, includes a level of Druidic Talent, and thus adds to both druidic spells and rolls for Druidic abilities. Spellcasting druids should buy that advantage – not this one.

Druidic Skills

Those with any points in Druidic Arts can learn Esoteric Medicine (Druidic) (p. B192) and Herb Lore (p. B199).

HOLY MIGHT

This power is granted by the user’s patron deity. Its abilities have the Holy limitation. Any rolls necessary to use them receive a bonus equal to the user’s Holiness.

Power Modifier: Holy -10%

Holy abilities depend on the possessor living a virtuous life. He must adopt a moral code worth -10 points: Honesty (12), Sense of Duty (Coreligionists), a major Vow, etc. If he transgresses, he loses his power – although his god won’t endanger him unless the sin is terrible. To recover his power, he must offer significant penance: coin and goods equal to starting money ($1,000), a full month of fasting, a major quest, etc.

Holy Abilities

Allies (Divine servant of equal points; 12 or less; PM, -10%; Summonable, +100%) [19] or (15 or less) [29]; Blessed (PM, - 10%) [9]; Detect (PM, -10%) for evil [18], good [18], or supernatural beings [18]; Healing (Faith Healing, +20%; PM, -10%) [33]; Intuition (PM, -10%) [14]; Oracle (PM, -10%) [14]; Patron (Deity; 6 or less; Highly Accessible, +50%; PM, -10%; Special Abilities, +100%) [36] or (9 or less) [72]; Resistant to Evil Supernatural Powers (+3) or (+8) (PM, -10%) [5 or 9]; Spirit Empathy (PM, -10%) [9]; and True Faith (PM, -10%; Turning*, +65%) [24].

* Take a Concentrate maneuver and roll a Quick Contest of Will with any undead or evil spirit in sight. If you win or tie, the creature can’t come closer than yards equal to your margin of victory (minimum one yard). If it’s closer already, it must move away. Effects endure for as long as you concentrate and for 1d seconds afterward.

Holiness 5 points/level

This is the Talent for Holy Might, and is normally bought by holy warriors. Clerics buy Power Investiture instead, at 10 points/level. Each level of Power Investiture both adds to clerical spells and counts as a level of Holiness. Holy Skills Those with any points in Holy Might can learn Esoteric Medicine (Holy) (p. B192) and Exorcism (p. B193).

DF Psionics: -10%

Psi abilities require 1 FP to activate for a minute and 1 FP/minute to maintain – or 1 FP per attack, for Mind Blast. Using such gifts attracts psionic monsters. The GM will roll 3d every time you activate psi abilities and after each battle in which you use Mind Blast. On 6 or less, Astral Things (treat as insubstantial spirits for the purpose of what affects them), mindwarpers, or something similar will strike. The odds rise to 9 or less if such monsters are already present in the dungeon!

Psionics Abilities

Clairsentience (PM, -10%) [45]; Damage Resistance 1 to 6 (Limited, Psi*, -20%; PM, -10%) [4 to 21]; Detect (Psionics; PM, -10%) [9]; Mind Blast† [29]; Mind Control (PM, -10%) [45]; Mind Reading (PM, -10%) [27]; Mind Shield 1 to 6 (Limited, Psi*, -50%; PM, -10%) [2 to 10]; Psychometry (PM, -10%) [18]; Scanning Sense (Para-Radar; PM, -10%) [36]; Telecommunication (Telesend; PM, -10%) [27]; and Telekinesis 1 to 10 (PM, -10%) [5 to 45].

* Limited, Psi means DR only works against psionic attacks like the mindwarper’s psychokinetic lash, and Mind Shield only helps vs. things like Mind Blast.

† Mind Blast: Take an Attack maneuver and roll a Quick Contest of Will, at -1/yard, against your foe’s Will. Victory stuns him for 3 seconds; he may try a Will roll every 3 seconds to recover. Victory by 5+ knocks him out for minutes equal to triple the margin. This is Affliction 1 (Based on Will, +20%; Extended Duration, 3¥, +20%; Malediction 1, +100%; No Signature, +20%; PM, -10%; Secondary Unconsciousness, +40%) [29].

Psi Talent 5 points/level

This Talent gives +1 per level to all Psionics rolls.

Psi Skills Those with any points in Psionics can learn Hypnotism (p. B201), Mental Strength (p. B209), and Mind Block (p. B210).

Power Modifier: Unholy -10%

Unholy abilities are disturbingly easy to get: just sign here, here, and right here in blood. They’re 10% off because the recipient must take Social Stigma (Excommunicated) [-10] (see Evil Clerics, p. 23). There’s no meaningful behavior code – although a reprobate who destroys a perfectly functional cursed item or slays a demon (one of his gods’ pets) will immediately be rendered powerless until he makes a blood sacrifice.

Unholy Abilities

Allies (Demon or undead of equal points; 12 or less; PM, -10%; Summonable, +100%) [19] or (15 or less) [29]; Channeling (PM, -10%; Specialized, Demons, -50%) [4]; Detect (PM, -10%) for evil [18], good [18], or supernatural beings [18]; Dread Touch* [14]; Medium (PM, -10%; Specialized, Demons, -50%) [4]; Patron (Deity; 6 or less; Highly Accessible, +50%; Minimal Intervention, -50%; PM, -10%; Special Abilities, +100%) [29] or (9 or less) [57]; Resistant to Good Supernatural Powers (+3) or (+8) (PM, -10%) [5 or 7]; Spirit Empathy (PM, -10%) [9]; and Terror (PM, -10%) [27].

* Dread Touch: A successful unarmed melee attack inflicts 1d toxic damage, bypassing DR. Each attempt costs 1 FP. This is Toxic Attack 1d (Cosmic, Irresistible Attack, +300%; Costs Fatigue, 1 FP, -5%; Melee Attack, Reach C, Cannot Parry, -35%; PM, -10%) [14].

Unholiness 5 points/level

This is the Talent for Unholy Might, intended for unholy warriors. Evil clerics buy Power Investiture (Unholy) instead, at 10 points/level. Each level of Power Investiture both adds to evil clerical spells and counts as a level of Unholiness.

Unholy Skills

Miscreants with any points in Unholy Might can learn Exorcism (p. B193). Success with this skill either casts out the evil spirit or binds it to an hour’s service – your choice. Failure means it tries to kill you. There’s no honor among scum.

Your ability requires special preparation before you can use it. Perhaps you have to meditate first, or perform some ritual to focus concentration. This limitation is particularly appropriate for supernatural traits such as Channeling and Medium.

You cannot use an unprepared ability. To prepare, take the Concentrate maneuver for the required amount of time. You need not specify how you plan to use your ability while you are preparing it, but you must specify which ability you are preparing if you have more than one trait with this limitation.

You can use a prepared ability normally – either immediately or at a later time. However, you can only have one advantage with this limitation prepared at a time, and it becomes unprepared immediately after use, regardless of success or failure (but if your ability has continuing effects, you can maintain them once activated).

The value of this limitation depends on the time required to prepare the ability.

Weakened Without Preparation: Your ability works if you do not prepare it beforehand, but at half duration, range, effect, etc. This does not make sense for all advantages (GM’s decision as to when it does). Weakened Without Preparation is worth exactly half as much as listed above.

Your ability lasts for a shorter time than it should. Note that this limitation cannot be applied to advantages with a “maintained” duration, such as Mind Control (though Mind Control with the Independent enhancement would qualify).

The limitation’s value depends on the reduction in duration:

This table can be extended from the progression shown, but the minimum duration for an ability cannot be taken below one second. For example, Affliction (Disadvantage) has a variable duration that lasts a minimum of one minute, and is thus eligible for no more than Reduced Duration, 1/60, while unmodified Affliction has a minimum duration of one second, and could not take any level of Reduced Duration.

Based on Granted by Worshipers. You may take this limitation as a Mitigator (p. B112) on a disadvantage (for example, Terminally Ill, p. B158), such that you will begin to feel the effects of the disadvantage if your number of worshipers falls below the threshold. In this special case, add 100% to the value of the limitation and flip the sum's sign from + to - in order to determine its new value as a Mitigator, e.g. Granted by Worshipers (1,000) -70% → Mitigator: Prevented by Worshipers (1,000) -30%.

For example: Terminally Ill (Up to one month) (Mitigator: Prevented by Worshipers (1) -60%) [-40]. This works well for any Terry-Pratchett-type gods who will swiftly cease to exist if no one believes in them any more. If the only thing keeping your god character from going blind is the power of his worshipers' belief, or the only thing keeping a super-star character away from alcohol is the power of his fanatical fans' loving devotion, then this works too.

You may add this limitation to any advantage that has a range; e.g., Innate Attack or Scanning Sense. It comes in three levels, depending on the range divisor.

If applied to a ranged attack that has a 1/2D range, each level reduces both 1/2D and Max. You may reduce 1/2D only at half value (that is, “Reduced 1/2D” is -5%/level). You may not reduce Max independently.

When adding this limitation to a trait that normally doesn’t work at a distance, Ranged is a prerequisite.

You have a disadvantage such as Increased Consumption or Sleepy. If you fail to meet its requirements, you lose your ability in addition to the usual effects of missing meals, sleep, etc. Alternatively, you must indulge an Addiction to keep your ability. In either case, if you lose your ability, the only way to restore it is to satisfy the needs of your disadvantage and recover fully from any ill effects it caused you during the period where you didn’t: FP or HP loss, attribute penalties, afflictions, etc. The limitation value is numerically equivalent to the point cost of the required disadvantages; e.g., a -15-point Addiction gives a -15% Required Disadvantage limitation.

This limitation works like Unreliable (p. B116), except that instead of rolling against a fixed activation number to trigger your advantage, you roll against DX, IQ, HT, Will, or Per (choose one when you buy the ability). This is worth -10% for a DX, IQ, or HT roll, or -5% for a Will or Per roll. Things that temporarily modify your score do affect this roll.

For a defensive ability, roll each time the defense would mitigate an attack or a hazard – or once per minute, for constant exposure. If your roll fails, all future attempts to activate it (until you succeed) cost a flat 1 FP but are at no additional penalty. However, if you drop to 3 FP or less from this, your ability shuts down until all FP are regained.

If the attribute roll that you make can be resisted by potential subjects as a Quick Contest, add -10% to the value of this limitation. For example, Invisibility (Requires IQ vs. Per Roll, -20%) would require you to win a Quick Contest of your IQ vs. the Perception of anyone who might see you. This cannot be combined with Glamour (pp. 13-14) or Resistible (p. B115), and is incompatible with any trait that already allows a resistance roll. Advantages that currently necessitate an attribute roll to work may turn that roll into a Quick Contest for a flat -10%. Note this, for example, as Empathy (Requires IQ vs. Will Roll, -10%) if you must win a Quick Contest of IQ versus Will to use your Empathy. See Under the Hood: Active Defense (p. 10) and below for notes on customizing this limitation further.

Requires (Skill) Roll: As a special effect that does not change the value, Requires (Attribute) Roll may be turned into Requires (Skill) Roll, as long as the skill in question is based on that attribute. For example, Requires Mathematics (Applied) Roll would be priced identically to Requires IQ Roll (-10%), because Mathematics (Applied) is an IQ-based skill. Hard skills are the most balanced when used in this manner, but using an Average or Very Hard skill is not a significant enough change to warrant altering the limitation value. An Easy skill, however, reduces the size of the limitation by 5% (e.g., Requires Carpentry Roll would be a -5% limitation).

A special version of this limitation exists for the defensive traits listed under Force Field (p. 108):

Active Defense: Your ability only protects you against threats you’re aware of – and only if you make a roll to interpose it in time. This roll is at DX/2 + 3, +1 for Combat Reflexes. If you try to use the same ability more than once in a turn, apply a cumulative -4 per attempt after the first. You roll at -4 if stunned, and can’t roll at all in situations where you wouldn’t get an active defense (attack from behind, unconscious, etc.). -40%.

Your ability requires a series of Concentrate maneuvers to maintain. Taking any other maneuver (such as Attack or Move) causes it to switch off. Thus, you can only move one step per second while using it, and can’t attack, aim, etc. Your ability shuts down if you lose your concentration (e.g., if attacked and you fail your Will roll).

You can’t combine this with All-Out, All-Out Concentrate, or Requires Ready. Normally, only switchable advantages that would otherwise stay on without an active effort can take this limitation. A passive ability without definite activation conditions (e.g., Empathy) can also take it; if so, it requires a Concentrate maneuver to use.

Requires Ready: As above, except that your ability requires a series of Ready maneuvers. This is less of a limitation because foes cannot cause you to lose the ability to ready as easily as they can make you lose concentration. -10%.

Your ability doesn’t function in gravity fields over a certain strength. This can be appropriate for movement abilities that work better in lower gravity, such as Clinging or Flight. This is worth -5% for each 0.1G under 1G at which the ability does not work (-5% at 0.9G, to -50% if the ability works only in zero gravity).

For Flight specifically, this limitation assumes a standard pressure atmosphere (1 atm). In other environments, multiply the gravity in which the flier can operate by the atmospheric pressure. Thus, someone who can only fly in up to 0.2G could fly in 0.3G if the atmosphere were 1.5 atm, but would be limited to 0.1G if it were 0.5 atm.

This limitation is only available for Innate Attacks that inflict fatigue or toxic damage. You must combine it with one of Blood Agent, Contact Agent, Follow-Up, Respiratory Agent, or Sense-Based. It represents poison, disease, or a similar effect that a sufficiently healthy victim can resist or “shrug off.”

The victim gets a HT roll to avoid the effect. A resistance roll against HT- 5 is worth -5%. Each +1 to the roll is a worth another -5% (e.g., HT-4 is -10%, and HT+4 is -50%).

If the attack is also Cyclic, the victim rolls before each cycle (including the first). Success means the attack ends without further injury; failure means the target takes damage normally and the attack continues.

A supernatural disease or magical poison (like an alchemical elixir) might allow a Will-based resistance roll. An ultra-tech threat might be engineered to require a ST, DX, or IQ roll. Represent either by adding Resistible and specifying an attribute besides HT; e.g., “Resistible, Will-3, -15%.” Don’t use Based on (Different Attribute). The GM is the final judge of what combinations are allowed.

On an attack with Malediction or an ability that normally ignores DR (e.g., Mind Control), this is a limitation. See the Sense-Based enhancement for details.

This variant has the same value as normal Sense-Based (p. B109), but works “in reverse” – through the user’s senses, that is, your senses. To affect your target, you must see it with your unaided eyes (Vision-Based), hear it with your own ears (Hearing-Based), touch it with your bare hand (Touch-Based), and so on. If you can’t – or if you’re deprived of your sense (e.g., by a blindfold for Vision-Based or heavy gloves for Touch-Based), or using a technological or paranormal intermediary – your ability doesn’t work. This variation is allowed as a limitation only on an advantage that’s normally unaffected by DR.

Example: A robot that analyzes minerals by detecting minute quantities of airborne dust has Detect (Minerals; Smell-Based, -20%), and can’t use its ability in a vacuum or from within a sealed suit.

Your ranged ability uses a worse class of range penalties than usual. Each level of Short-Range, to a maximum of three, makes the penalties one step more unfavorable on the table.

The ability’s 1/2D and Max range don’t change; use Increased Range (p. B106) or Reduced Range (p. B115) for that. You can combine Short-Range with Reduced Range, but the total limitation value can’t exceed -30%. Short-Range affects the cost of Follow-Up. It’s incompatible with Guided, Homing, Long-Range, and Melee Attack.

You may add this limitation to any exotic or supernatural ability that is not designed primarily to improve skills. For example, you could not take this on Brachiator, because the +2 to Climbing is a fundamental part of what that trait grants, but you could add it to Telekinesis because the +4 to Gambling, etc., is an add-on to that advantage’s true benefit (acting at a distance). See Abilities Enhancing Skills (GURPS Powers, pp. 162-163) for a long list of appropriate traits.

Your ability’s overt effects are extremely limited. You can use it to gain a bonus to a skill: +2 if the ability substitutes for fine-quality mundane equipment; +4 for miraculous aid. You can’t use this gift on its own, apart from any skill, or in conjunction with an ability roll whose primary effect is to achieve a successful use of the power (such as Flight or Innate Attack). This is a good limitation for “wild talent” superheroes who are just starting to learn to use their powers.

Specific restricts an ability that lets you interact with a material to a subset of what it normally affects. Applicable advantages include Clinging, Penetrating Vision, Super Climbing, Walk on Air, and Walk on Liquid. Advantages that already require a particular choice of materials can’t be Specific.

This limitation is generally worth -40% for common materials, -60% for uncommon ones, and -80% for absurd ones – but the GM sets the precise value, which might be as little as -10% for very common materials. Abilities that affect ferromagnetic metals – iron (including steel), nickel, and cobalt – have a -50% limitation, called “Magnetic” and not “Specific, Ferromagnetic Metals” to save space.

You have an attack or other ability that normally works on both substantial and insubstantial opponents, such as a Malediction. However, yours works only on substantial opponents.

You can only apply this limitation to abilities that require time to activate and that work fast enough to be useful in an emergency (e.g., combat). This is up to the GM, who is free to restrict this limitation to advantages that take only 1 or 2 seconds to activate.

For abilities that require a Ready or Concentrate maneuver, each level of Takes Extra Time doubles the time required. Activation occurs at the end of this time. For instance, Takes Extra Time 1 on an advantage that usually requires a one-second Ready maneuver would increase the Ready time to 2 seconds.

For attacks, the first level of Takes Extra Time results in a one-second Ready maneuver before you can make your Attack maneuver. Successive levels double the Ready time.

Takes Extra Time means the ability is constantly available but demands a long “ready time” immediately prior to use, making it unavailable in “quick response” situations. It isn’t the same as Preparation Required, which allows the wielder to prepare in advance, giving him a single use with which to respond instantly. To keep the two balanced, the GM may restrict heroes to two levels of Takes Extra Time, which is equal in value to the lowest level of Preparation Required.

When Takes Extra Time results in more than one second of Ready to use an ability, it is possible to interrupt the user, just as if he were concentrating (see p. B366).

Your ability requires “recharging” after each use. It is unavailable during the recharge period. Value depends on the time between uses: five seconds (or twice the time required to use the ability, if longer) is -10%, 15 seconds (or 5 times the time required to use the ability, if longer) is -20%, and one hour (or 10 times the time required to use the ability, if longer) is -30%. Longer recharge times are not valid as limitations (but see Limited Use).

This limitation is suitable for energy attacks that fire from an “accumulator” charged by a power plant or the user’s body. If the attack has Rapid Fire, it gets shots equal to its RoF before it needs to recharge. Once all shots are fired, the attack is unavailable until one full recharge period passes; then shots equal to RoF are available again. Shots don’t trickle back gradually during the recharge period.

You may add this limitation to any advantage that can be switched off and on at will, and that takes at least one second to switch. When you switch on the advantage, you suffer one or more disadvantages until you switch it off again. This limitation is worth -1% per point the temporary disadvantages are worth, to a maximum of -80%.

Example: You can use your feet as hands, but can’t walk while doing so. This is Extra Arms 2 (20 points) with Temporary Disadvantage: Legless (-30%), for 14 points.

The point break due to Temporary Disadvantage cannot exceed 80% of the value of the original disadvantage.

Example: You have Altered Time Rate 1 (100 points) with Temporary Disadvantage: Hemophilia (-30%) – you bleed faster, too! Since Hemophilia is worth -30 points normally, the most it can be worth as a Nuisance Effect is -24 points; therefore, it reduces the cost of Altered Time Rate by 24 points (to 76 points) and not by 30 points (to 70 points).

You may only take Temporary Disadvantages that could logically inconvenience you for the period of time the advantage is normally on. In the case of mental disadvantages (Berserk, Lecherousness, etc.), if a failed self-control roll indicates that you give in to the disadvantage, you will suffer the disadvantage’s effects until the GM rules you have regained your composure – which might be long after you deactivate the advantage with this limitation!

You can also use this limitation to remove an advantage temporarily. This is worth -1% per point the negated advantage is worth, and the point break cannot exceed 80% of the deactivated advantage’s cost. Only one of the involved advantages can take this limitation – you cannot take two advantages, both with this limitation, each of which negates the other when used.

Temporary Disadvantage can simulate those who suffer a mental breakdown the instant they activate their gifts. To do so, select a mental disadvantage that requires a self-control roll (e.g., Berserk or Pyromania), specify a self-control number of “N/A,” and price Temporary Disadvantage as if the disadvantage were worth 2.5 times its listed cost (drop fractions). Using the ability always causes the effects specified for a failed self-control roll. For example, Temporary Disadvantage, Berserk (N/A) is worth -25%, and immediately drives the user berserk whenever he uses his ability!

An “always on” advantage can have Temporary Disadvantage. Instead of affecting the entire character, the disadvantage has the potential to shut down the advantage. See Cybernetics (p. B46) and Cyberpunk Abilities (Powers, p. 116) for more information. In this case, “temporary” means the disadvantage is irrelevant after it causes the advantage to fail.

An “always on” advantage can have Temporary Disadvantage (p. B115), if – instead of affecting the entire character – the disadvantage has the potential to shut down the advantage. In this case, “temporary” means the disadvantage is irrelevant after it causes the advantage to fail.

Cybernetics (p. B46) are the most common example, with Temporary Disadvantage, Shutdown, Electrical, signifying that surges can shut down the cybernetic advantages instead of shutting down the owner.

This is allowed only on abilities that affect others for at least a minute. Your enemies can end your ability’s ongoing effects with a simple act: kissing the subject, speaking three words, etc. If this condition isn’t met, the effects have their usual duration.

This is worth -5% if the condition is arcane enough to require research; -10% if a skill roll (against Religious Ritual, Ritual Magic, Thaumatology, etc.) can discover it; or -20% if common knowledge. These values become -0% (a special effect), -5%, and -10% if the condition is difficult to arrange even if known, like a kiss from a princess or words spoken by an elf.

Abilities that can’t end until a certain condition is met just have Extended Duration, Permanent (+150%). That enhancement already requires such a condition – you can’t take Terminal Condition separately.

To convert a ranged ability or attack to a touch-based one, add Melee Attack, Reach C (-30%), from p. B112. Despite this modifier’s name and its classification as an attack limitation, the ability need not be offensive; for example, you could use it to change Telesend to touch-based telepathy.

An ability that is unaffected by DR and works via touch – either inherently or because of Melee Attack – can be restricted further, by giving it one of the following mutually exclusive options.

Touch-Based (p. B109): Your ability works only if you make contact with the target’s skin, or through light clothing at most. Any DR or rigid covering that prevents him from feeling your contact will stop the effect. -20%.

Touch-Based, Reversed (below): Your ability works only if you touch the target with your bare hand. You cannot wear even light gloves. The subject’s clothing, armor, etc., have no effect, but you must feel the connection. -20%.

Contact Agent (p. B111): You must make skin-to-skin contact with the target. Your skin must touch his. -30%.

Your advantage requires exposure to a specific substance or condition (e.g., a dose of a drug) to function. One dose or exposure is required per one-minute “use.” Cost depends on the rarity of the Trigger:

Very Common (available almost anywhere): -10%.

Common (expensive, somewhat hard to find): -20%.

Occasional (very expensive and hard to find): -30%.

Rare (cannot be bought; must be found or made): -40%.

Multiply the limitation value by 1.5 if the Trigger is illegal, addictive, or otherwise dangerous.

Injury is an entirely valid Trigger. Since a desperate hero can nearly always find a way to wound himself, this Trigger is Very Common… and since injury is by definition dangerous, the limitation is worth -15%. This isn’t the same as Blood Agent “in reverse.” The user needn’t bleed on his victim or suffer a particular form of injury; even 1 HP of blunt trauma will do.

If a “use” of the advantage is defined as being longer than one minute, the value of Trigger (p. B115) drops. If each dose allows you to use the ability for 10 minutes, halve the value. For one hour, quarter it. For eight hours, divide it by 8. In all cases, round up (toward 0) to the nearest 5%.

Example: Tam gains Flight for an hour (1/4 value) by drinking a rare elixir (-40%); he buys it with Trigger, 1 Hour, Flight Elixir, -10%. He also acquires Absolute Direction for an hour (1/4 value) when he eats wildflowers (-10%). The fraction reduces the limitation to -2.5%, which rounds up to -0%; this is thus not a meaningful limitation.

If your trigger is unique and difficult to use in some way, compare Periodic Recharge (p. 16).

You may only take this limitation in conjunction with Uncontrollable (below). You cannot consciously activate your ability at all; it can only come into play under GM control, as a result of stress. Like Uncontrollable, you may buy this off later on, as you gain control over your ability.

Your ability tends to manifest itself at undesirable or inappropriate times. Whenever the GM rules that you are in a stressful situation – including any situation that requires a Fright Check or a self-control roll for a mental disadvantage – you must make a Will roll to keep your ability under control, even if you did not intend to use it! You need only roll once per stressful situation, but a roll of 14+ always fails, regardless of Will.

On a failure, the GM takes over your ability, playing it as though it were an entity of a prankish or hostile nature. The actions of your ability will often reflect your “suppressed desires,” as reflected in your quirks and mental disadvantages.

An ability that cannot inflict damage – for instance, Flight or Jumper – will activate unexpectedly. This is inconvenient and embarrassing, but not overly dangerous. After each uncontrolled act, you get another Will roll to control your power. This goes on until you make a Will roll. In this case, Uncontrollable is worth -10%.

A harmful ability goes after obvious foes first, and will never turn on you… but nobody else is safe! After each uncontrolled act (or before an attack on a Dependent or other loved one), you get another Will roll to control your power. This continues until you make a Will roll or destroy everything around you! For destructive powers, Uncontrollable is worth -30%.

You may buy this limitation off later on, as you gain control over your ability.

Situations that involve self-control rolls for disadvantages, Fright Checks, or HT rolls for major wounds qualify as “stressful”; see Emergencies Only. Disadvantages that don’t allow self-control rolls can also trigger this limitation. For instance, a hero with Pacifism might lose control if forced to commit violence.

Anyone who takes Uncontrollable must specify the “intelligence” that commandeers his ability: his subconscious or something else. His subconscious uses his scores for all rolls, and its first priority is always to deal with the cause of the stress. For example, if a super were to lose control of her Death Ray due to a major wound, her ability would go after whoever caused the injury first – even a foe she must capture unharmed, or a friend with bad aim – and use her Innate Attack skill to hit.

If the ability originates from a demon, implanted AI, or other intelligence the user can’t fully control, it has its own scores and agenda (determined by the GM, exactly as for an Enemy). It acts purposefully and perhaps subtly; it could let the user remain “in control” but pervert his intent. For instance, Mind Control might work as desired but send victims additional suggestions, unknown to the user.

The GM may allow the following variant:

Uncontrollable Trigger: Your ability manifests uncontrollably in the presence of an item, not stress. Use the rarities given for Weakness (p. B161). This isn’t a meaningful limitation if the item is “Rare.” It’s worth -5% if “Occasional,” -10% if “Common,” or -15% if “Very Common.” Triple this for destructive abilities. Unconscious Only is a frequent addition.

Your ability manifests (as for Uncontrollable, p. B116) in the presence of an item or environment. Use the rarities given for Weakness (p. B161):

Rarity Modifier Rare -0% Occasional -5% Common -10% Very Common -15%

Triple the value for harmful or destructive abilities.

This limitation goes well with Unconscious Only (p. B115).

Sometimes your ability works and sometimes it doesn’t! It just comes and goes, and you’ve never identified why. This is completely separate from any roll normally needed to activate the ability. You can have skill 20 and still have problems making it work!

Every time you want to use the power, you must roll the activation number (see below) or less on 3d. Once you succeed, the ability will work for that particular use. When you cease to use it, you must make another activation roll to start it again.

If you cannot activate your ability on your first attempt, you may try again once per second after that, at no penalty. Each successive attempt costs one FP. If you are reduced to three or fewer FP, you must rest until all FP are regained before you can attempt to use your ability again.

Unreliable works differently when applied to attacks which are also gadgets or built-in firearms. Instead of requiring an activation roll, it gives a Malfunction number worse than 17. The GM may allow natural attacks to have a “Malf.” statistic similar to that used for gadgets and built-in firearms. This is especially suitable for abilities that originate from experimental drugs or surgery – or cinematic genetic engineering or mutation.

Unreliable offers a “Malfunction” variant, intended for built-in firearms and similar gadgets. However, it can apply to any attack ability that doesn’t work as well as it should. On an attack roll equal to or greater than Malf., roll 3d:

3-4 – The ability fails to go off and is crippled. See Duration of Crippling Injuries (p. B422) to determine recovery time. In some worlds, a Bioengineering, Physician, or Surgery roll can hasten recovery.

5-8 – The ability fails to go off and is temporarily unavailable. After three seconds, make a HT roll. Success means the ability comes back online. Otherwise, wait three more seconds and roll again. Critical failure on any of these HT rolls means the ability is crippled as in 3-4.

9-11 – The attack fires a single shot and then fails as described for 5-8.

12-14 – As 5-8.

15-18 – As 3-4, but the attack also strains the user. He suffers 1d-3 (minimum 1) each of fatigue and injury. DR doesn’t protect.

You may take this limitation on some of your ST or DX, or on any transient ability: one used for brief spurts of activity. The latter class includes advantages used to attack, move, or perform physical feats – or to defend actively (e.g., Enhanced Dodge or any advantage with Active Defense, p. 10).

Your body has not adapted to make proper use of this ability. Every time you use it for any transient feat (but not for slow, sustained effort), you must roll against HT afterward. (In combat, roll at the very beginning of your next turn.) Success means no problem occurs, but a failure causes 1 point of injury; critical failure, or two failures in consecutive seconds, does 1d injury and causes any one limb you are using to be crippled.

Example: Kurt buys Lifting ST 10 (Unsupported). Every time he uses that extra strength to lift, grapple, or throw, he must roll against HT. However, once he’s lifted a load (or if someone else helps him do so, so he doesn’t even have to use his Lifting ST), he can carry it without making constant HT rolls.

You may only apply this limitation to abilities that normally require a skill to use. You can’t learn to control your power well. You learn all skills associated with it as though the relevant attribute were only 8 (or at one less than its usual value, if already at 8 or worse), and your maximum skill level is 10.

Abilities with Untrainable gain no benefit from Talent. This is in addition to the limitation’s other effects. Abilities that require a roll to use can take this special version:

Hard to Use: You have a penalty on all rolls to use your ability, and Talent doesn’t help. Each level of Hard to Use gives -3. This is incompatible with Reliable and forbidden on ranged attacks. -5% per -3, to a limit of -12.

You may add this only to an advantage that can normally be switched off and that is inconvenient if you can’t easily turn it off. Your ability is on almost all the time – but you can switch it off briefly by expending 1 FP per second. This is worth -5% if the effects are social or cosmetic, -10% if they are physically inconvenient, -30% if they are dangerous (to you), and -40% if they are absolutely crippling (e.g., Insubstantiality and Obscure).

Your ability has a manifestation that makes it plainly obvious to everyone nearby. The effects and value depend on the underlying advantage:

• A communication, influence, information, or sensory ability that would otherwise have no visible effect – such as Clairsentience or Mind Reading – generates an attention-grabbing effect (shimmering ray, floating eye, etc.) that gives away the fact that you’re affecting or observing the subject. This makes subtlety impossible (if it doesn’t, you don’t have a limitation). -10%.
• An ability that lets you physically attack might qualify if it’s normally invisible and largely unavoidable; e.g., Telekinesis. In addition to the effects above, your target gets an unpenalized defense roll to avoid the attack. -20%.

This limitation can be applied only to an ability that normally works like a ranged Malediction. In other words, it must use a Quick Contest instead of an attack roll and it must be unaffected by DR. Suitable advantages include Mind Control and Mind Reading. As well, Mind Probe, Neutralize, and Possession would be valid with the Ranged enhancement.

This limitation turns the advantage into a normal, visible, ranged attack. The GM must decide which attack skill it will use – usually a specialty of Innate Attack. The attack uses Size and Speed/Range modifiers (p. B550) and can be dodged. If it hits, the target resists by making an unopposed roll against the appropriate attribute (e.g., Will for Neutralize). If the resistance roll fails, determine the effects as usual, using the subject’s margin of failure instead of the user’s margin of victory.

Weaponized is worth a base -50% if the victim’s DR has no effect, or -80% if his DR adds to his resistance roll, as for an Affliction (p. B35). If the subject has a fixed penalty to his resistance roll, this adjusts the modifier value by +10% for every -1, to a maximum of -5. For example, a Neutralize ray that ignored DR and gave the subject a Will-3 roll to resist would have a net -20% limitation.

Note: This modifier is intended for turning psionic abilities into psychotronic devices, such as Neutralization Grenades and Mind Control Rays.

The GM may require you to pay points for any “gadget” that grants traits that usually cost points (attribute levels, advantages, etc.). However, he should charge points only for items that even the most advanced technology could not produce (e.g., a ring that bestows Luck) – and even then, only if those items are not for sale at any price in the game world.

In particular, the GM should never charge points for ordinary, manufactured equipment – or even for special equipment, if it is for sale – unless it happens to be Signature Gear. Body armor, a rifle, and night-vision goggles effectively bestow Damage Resistance, Innate Attack, and Infravision, respectively… but since anyone could buy these items, they have a cash cost, not a point cost.

Traits bestowed by items have their usual point cost. You can give them any logical combination of modifiers, plus one or more of the special limitations below.

Your foes can destroy the item. Once destroyed, it will cease to grant you its benefits until repaired. Add the following elements together to find the final limitation value.

Durability: The easier the object is to break, the greater the limitation. Decide on the gadget’s weight and DR.

If the object is a machine that can break down (as opposed to a simple artifact, like a ring or a hat), add another -5%. See Damage to Objects (p. 483) to determine HP and the effects of damage.

Reparability: You can normally repair your gadget if it breaks; the GM chooses the skill(s) needed to make repairs. If you cannot repair it, and it requires inconvenient time, effort, or expense to replace (GM’s decision), it is worth an additional -15%.

Size: The item’s Size Modifier affects Vision rolls to identify it out of combat and rolls to hit it in combat.

Your foes can take this item from you, depriving you of its benefits. This is only a limitation if the item is obviously powerful and likely to be the target of theft! The value of the limitation depends on how hard it is to steal:

Easily snatched with an unopposed DX roll (e.g., a hat): -40%.

Thief must win a Quick Contest of DX (e.g., a bracelet) or ST (e.g., a wand) with you: -30%.

Can only by taken by stealth or trickery (e.g., a coin in a pocket): -20%.

Must be forcefully removed (e.g., a suit of armor): -10%.

Halve the value of the limitation if the gadget will not immediately work for the thief.

You may only take this limitation in conjunction with Breakable or Can Be Stolen. Normally, you can replace a broken or stolen gadget – although this might require significant time and effort (GM’s decision). If the item is Unique, you cannot replace it! Character points spent for the item are lost for good if it is broken or stolen.

This is the end of the file.