(Original Source) You have training or innate ability in evaluating and predicting the combat-related moves and behavior of a type of creature. Each creature type requires a separate advantage. Types include broad categories of animals, monsters, and humanoids – including humans.
Combat-related interactions aren't limited to killing for food, defense, or sport. They include subduing a wolf to establish dominance, placating a buffalo to avoid a charge, or gently capturing a bird for study. Combat Familiarity aids in all of these – and can be used by many animals and monsters, too!
Effects: If you lack Combat Familiarity for a creature type, you battle it with no particular bonuses or penalties. With Combat Familiarity, you gain a +1 bonus on Active Defenses against the creature's attacks, while the creature suffers a -1 penalty on Active Defenses against your attacks.
For combat-related actions not involving Active Defenses, you gain a +1 bonus on rolls or Contests. For example, the appropriate Combat Familiarity offers a +1 bonus in a Contest of DX to grapple a 'gator, a Contest of Tactics to out-maneuver a wolf pack, or a reaction roll to intimidate a threatening jaguar. (The bonus doesn't apply to rolls to make or resist Feints; the Active Defense modifiers already address the effects of these. Use the Style Familiarity perk for additional ability at reading Feints and other tricky actions.)
Note that if two creatures have Combat Familiarity for each other's type, bonuses and penalties cancel out. This means there is no effect when both combatants have Combat Familiarity for each other's creature type, or when neither does. Combat Familiarity comes into play only when one side has the advantage!
Every creature has a default instinct for how its own type of creature fights, and automatically has Combat Familiarity for its own type. This means that any creature (including a human!) fights its own type using no modifiers. This ability is free, is assumed for all creatures, and does not need to be noted on character forms.
Creature types: Creature types are set by the GM. For animals, these should be the same types used for Animal Handling skill. Humanoids are generally a single type, although the GM may rule that Giants, Gargoyles, Snakemen, Alien Greys, and other odd types act differently enough from us in combat to warrant separate types. Monsters and other unnatural creatures can be included in animal types that have similar fighting characteristics (such as dropping manticores into Big Cats), or can use their own broad categories (such as Tentacled Things), or can use narrow types (Dragons, Slimes, etc.), as the GM deems appropriate.
Examples of Combat Familiarity creature types, and combatants using the advantage, include:
Prerequisites: Purchasing the advantage for a creature type should require inborn instinct (possible for some animals or sentient races, GM willing), actual combat experience against the creature, or an appropriate skill. This would likely be the appropriate Animal Handling specialty for an animal type, or Body Language, Psychology, or Tactics for a sentient type.
Cost: Combat Familiarity costs 5 points for typical animal or monster types, 10 points for minor sentient creature types, and 15 points for PC races or other important sentient creature types. In most games, that latter type means Humanoids (however broadly or narrowly the GM defines that).
Multiple levels: The GM may allow two or more levels of Combat Familiarity, but at a sharply increased cost: double the cost per level for the second level, triple it for a third level, and so on. Thus, the first level of Combat Familiarity (Canines) costs a PC 5 points, a second level costs 10 points (total 15 points), and a third level costs 15 points (total 30 points). A human PC has Combat Familiarity (Humanoids) for free, but would pay 15 x 2 = 30 points for a second level. That gives him a serious combat advantage, thanks to an almost uncanny understanding of how people move and behave in fights. It also comes at a high cost, and a third level may be prohibitively expensive!
When using multiple levels, remember that equal levels of mutual Combat Familiarity cancel out; all that counts is the number of levels you have over the foe.
Animal Handling and Combat Familiarity: The effects of Combat Familiarity replace the written combat effects of Animal Handling. Effects are no longer part of the Animal Handling skill; Combat Familiarity must be bought separately. As compensation, however, let every level of Animal Handling above 10 reduce the cost of Combat Familiarity by 1 point (minimum 0). This makes Combat Familiarity (Canines), for example, free with Animal Handling (Canines)-15. If the GM allows multiple levels, it reduces the cost of two levels from 15 points to 5 points with Animal Handling (Canines)-20, and so on.
To use this advantage, you need a single d6 of a distinctive color (the Luck Die). Include this die as one of the dice rolled whenever you make a success or damage roll, or engage in a Contest (it affect no other kinds of rolls). If the roll is only 1d to begin with, then the Luck Die is the only die you roll.
Your Luck Die has a Wild Digit (any number from 1 to 6). Whenever this number comes up on the Luck Die, you may change it to any OTHER number from 1 to 6. The price of this advantage depends on the Wild Digit.
1 - 10 points
2 - 15 points
3 - 20 points
4 - 25 points
5 - 30 points
6 - 40 points
You may only have one Luck Die, but you may have more than one Wild Digit; just add the costs. If any Odd result is wild, for instance, the price would be 60 points. If EVERY digit on the Luck Die is wild (140 points!), you don't need to roll the Luck Die at all - just set it down showing whichever number you choose!
(This was originally proposed to simplify character templates with huge amounts of skills; instead of requiring quite so many, one can instead take the basics, and this cinematic advantage, to accomplish what they need.)
Your talents are boundless, and your experiences are rich. You've been trained by the best, tested by the baddest, and came through smiling. And it seems that every new adventure shows off yet another impressive skill.
Whenever you want a skill that isn't already on your character sheet, you can just take it at the 1 point or 2 point level (your choice). The skill is recorded permanently on your character sheet, and the price of the skill becomes an immediate debt against earned points. During future adventures, the skill can be improved normally - it's yours, now. There are, however, a few restrictions:
Necessity Is A Mother: There needs to be a REASON for the skill to pop, retroactively, onto your list of abilities. There should be a plot-related challenge to overcome, or at least a potential romantic partner or employer to impress. It should also fit your character concept (of course, if your character can justify even HAVING this advantage, that won't be a problem very often).
Earn What You Learn: If you haven't paid off character-point debts from previous sessions, this advantage is “frozen” until the skills are all paid for. Debts accrued earlier in the SAME session are no problem.
Thou Shalt Not Steal Thunder: If the PCs are together when the problem crops up, and somebody in the party already has the skill you want, or can already handle the problem in some other way, then he gets his chance first. This advantage can never be used to rob the spotlight from another PC. On the other hand, it CAN be used to Keep Up With the Joneses. If everybody in the group knows Scuba and goes for a dive, you won't get left high and dry on the quayside unless you decide, for character reasons, that you don't want to have known the skill (whether you can suddenly know Scuba in a future adventure is then a GM's call, since that kind of consistency is only a requirement in some cinematic genres).
Maintain Thine Idiom: If there is another character in the group with this advantage that would be more appropriate for dealing with the problem than you, once again you are required to hang back and give him his shot. If you're the Combat grunt and he's the Tech geek and the skill that's needed involves rescuing a crashed hard drive, the geek gets to go first. In situations where there is no clear “appropriate” PC in the party, the one with the broadest curriculum gets first crack at it.
Standard Restrictions Apply: This advantage won't let you “learn” any skill you couldn't learn otherwise. This advantage will never grant manuevers, psi skills, spells, or other supernatural abilties, either (except perhaps in worlds where every illiterate peasant is assumed to know a spell or two - GM's call). It WILL grant skills that normally require prerequisites, ALONG with the prerequisite skill at the minimum required level (which also goes into your point debt).
This advantage should be restricted to cinematic heroes and heroines who have received intensive, broad training, or at least to very talented showoffs. Characters with a clearly-defined, narrow range of abilities (a classic medieval fighter, for instance) have no reasonable use for this advantage, even in a cinematic game.
Additional levels of Resistance may be available:
You have +14 to HT rolls to resist: x4/5.
You have +12 to all HT rolls to resist: x2/3.
You have +10 to all HT rolls to resist: x3/5.
You have +8 to all HT rolls to resist: x1/2.
You have +5 to all HT rolls to resist: x2/5.
You have +3 to all HT rolls to resist: x1/3.
You have +1 to all HT rolls to resist: x1/5.
Bard: Acting, Savior-Faire, Poetry, Public Speaking, Writing. Reaction Bonus: Anyone who sees you perform or reads your material. 5 points/level.
Craftsman: Artist, Carpentry, Leatherworking, Masonry, and Sewing. Reaction Bonus: anyone you do work for. 5 points/level.
Jack-of-All-Trades: Grants a bonus to all skill defaults from attributes (but not other skills). It has no effect on skills without a default, and modified default level may may not equal or exceed the level that 1 point would purchase. Reaction Bonus: Anyone who sees you work. 15 points/level.
Occultist: Alchemy, Occultism, Ritual Magic, Symbol Drawing, Thaumatology. Reaction Bonus: Mages, Occultists, Alchemists, etc. 5 points/level.
Master Strategist: Detect Lies, Diplomacy, Interrogation, Intimidation, Strategy. Reaction Bonus: Anyone who sees you operate. 5 points/level.
Neural Manipulator: Grants a bonus to any skill you use while you are “jacked-in,” including most firearms, vehicles, and electronics. Reaction Bonus: Hackers, Socket Jocks, etc. 15 points/level.
Here are three attempts to apply the basic trait of "Damage is reduced to 1/2" within game mechanics. I'm not particularly fond of any of them, but if I had to choose I think I'd go with the Damage Reduction advantage, followed closely by Variable DR.
Damage you take is reduced, possibly to zero. Divide penetrating damage by 1 + your level of Damage Reduction (drop all fractional damage).
If you have this advantage at level 10 damage is reduced to zero instead of dividing it, however level 10 Damage Reduction must be combined with a Limited Defense limitation (p. B46).
Limited: Your Damage Reduction applies only to certain forms or damage types. See Limited Defenses (box, p. B46) for details.
You have DR equal to your level of Variable DR times the number of dice of an attack. This costs x10 the normal cost of DR (50 points per level), and you can only purchase up to DR 6 (which gives you DR 6 per die, effective immunity to damage). If you do take DR 6 with this variation you must take either the a Limited Defense or the Penetrating Damage limitation (below).
Example: You have Variable DR 3. Against an attack doing 9d damage you have 3x9=27 DR. Against an attack doing 2d damage this provides only 2x3=6 DR.
Limited: Your Variable Damage Reduction applies only to certain forms or damage types. See Limited Defenses (box, p. B46) for details.
Damage Penetration: -20%/level, up to 4 levels. For each level 1 point/die of damage automatically penetrates your DR. Note that penetrating damage cannot be greater than damage rolled. This limitation can be applied to normal DR too.
Your character (presumably from an Unaging race) is Very Old. That means that he or she has seen and done just about everything. To simulate the incredible bank of experience built up, take the Racial Memory advantage.
GMs may permit cheaper versions of this advantage with concomitant penalties to the IQ roll, to reflect a younger character.
Note that knowledge is not identical to skill. The character still has to have some skills that are actively maintained during the last few years. These have points devoted to the individual skill. A Very Old character may have been a great swordmaster during the Age of Brilliant Heroes, but if that was 700 years ago, and he hasn’t picked up a weapon since, he may have quite a bit of theoretical memories regarding swordsmanship, but his muscles and reflexes are likely to have forgotten everything, giving him no better than default in actually handling the darn thing.
A well-rounded character is one who has a lot of interests outside his “work”. The advantage effectively buys five points' worth of skills, but the player does not have to specify what those skills are during character generation. When spending XP, the player may also allocate some of these points – so, if he thinks it might be interesting, he can say “I used to practice juggling when I was at school” and spend one point on Juggling. Once the points are spent, they can't be regained.
The advantage over just keeping 10 character points spare for skills is that you don't have to study when you want to pick up a skill – it's assumed that you already learned these skills, they just haven't been specified yet. This advantage offers one way for players to flesh out their characters as the game proceeds and they have a clearer idea of the background.
1. You cannot use this advantage to get a skill you need right now. Someone who's stuck in a prison cell can't suddenly declare "Oh, by the way, I liked playing with locks when I was a kid" and get Lockpicking. (Though a character with Serendipity could use this as one of his lucky coincidences.)
2. You can't spend more than 2 points on any one skill this way.
3. You must have a plausible explanation of how you learned this skill, and why it hasn't come up in the game yet. (In particular, if -- for instance -- you're in a firefight and use your Guns default skill because you have no points in Guns, you can't afterwards say "I was a hobby shooter" and spend 'em.)
The advantages that follow are designed for cinematic campaigns. They work best in adventures where Our Heroes are above the merely realistic, and granted a blind eye from the Grim Reaper to indulge in heroic carnage — flipping cars, crashing airplanes, leaping through windows 300 feet above the ground as the terrorist bomb fills the screen with flames. GMs running more sober adventures should forbid these rules entirely, or allow them selectively.
In completely cinematic, pumping-blood-and-burning-cordite games (or in four-color GURPS Supers), many of these advantages might be given out as “campaign perks” not included in the normal price of characters. This is especially true of the Car Crawler, Cinematic Ammo, The Leap, and Second Wind advantages, which form a kind of “standard package” for modern action films and comic books.
This is the Enemy Advantage. Somebody is out to get you, but they are destined to fail. Whenever they try, it's an opportunity for you to look good for the camera.
This works exactly like the Enemy disadvantage, except you always, always win. Beneficial Enemies use any villainous tactics appropriate to the genre (kidnapping dependents, holding cities hostage, and so on). They aren't humorous unless the genre is; they're dead serious, and have no idea the deck is stacked against them. They will typically show up at opportune moments to make you look good in front of potential employers, friends, or romantic interests.
In all other ways, treat this as a normal Enemy. Each session, the GM checks for appearance, and the enemy will appear at a time in the adventure best suited to make your character look great. Point cost is equal to the value of a normal Enemy.
The bigger the villain, the better you look. After trouncing the foe, you get a temporary +2 to reactions for each 5-point base value of the advantage. This bonus applies only to characters who haven't known you for a long time.
[Cinematic]
Once per session (per level of this advantage), you can declare that any bullet you've successfully fired at a vehicle hits a vital fuel line, sparks a fume, cracks a capacitor bank, or otherwise triggers a devastating explosion. The vehicle is destroyed, and any nameless NPCs inside (generic thugs, faceless drivers, and so on), are automatically killed. Significant NPCs will somehow survive unless the GM rules otherwise. Any PCs near or in the blast must fend for themselves!
Your Boomer-Bullets can also ignite heavy machinery, barrels of fuel, or anything else that the GM rules is volatile. In TL9+ campaigns, this advantage also applies to shots from beam weapons. The GM should feel free to prohibit the use boomer-bullet shots in honest sporting competition, such as an arena battle in GURPS Autoduel.
[Cinematic]
Any time you are required to make a DX, Acrobatics, Climbing or Jumping roll to safely leap onto or off of a moving vehicle, or simply to hang on to one, you will fail only on a Critical Failure, and may always roll, regardless of how ludicrously high the penalties are. This advantage doesn't protect you from the effects of failure in any way, and some effects of success can be dangerous, especially at high speeds.
[Cinematic]
You do not follow the normal ammunition rules (including Power Cells). This advantage comes in three varieties, any of which may be combined:
Safe Reload (2 points): Anytime you run out of ammo during a gunfight, you cease to be a valid target until you have a chance to reload your weapon. You must reload as quickly as possible (using Fast-Draw and Speed-Load skills if you have them), but no hostile action can be taken towards you while you're loading up (more often than not, the opposition will take the time to reload their weapons, since they can't aim or fire at you).
Guns Everywhere (5 points): Whenever you run out of ammo in a gunfight, roll one die. On a 1-5, there is another gun at hand (lying on a nearby table, for instance) which is at least half-full of ammo (more at the GM's whim); a Ready manuever is all that's needed to be armed again (dropping your current weapon is a Free Move, as always). The guns come from a variety of sources – downed foes from earlier in the scene, your own prepared stashes, etc., as appropriate. They are most often pistols or shotguns (SMGs in some genres) – the GM may choose or determine randomly.
Cowboy Ammo (10 points): You never need to keep track of ammo; your guns almost never run out of bullets. This advantage applies to any weapon that normally has multiple shots (it doesn't apply to single- shot weapons like many holdout pistols, anti-tank weapons, or Dino Lasers, but it does apply to all shotguns, including breech-loaders). Whenever you roll a Critical Failure on a shot, however, there is a 50/50 chance that you are out of ammo, rather than the normal result. This advantage doesn't offer special protection from disadvantages that might result in lack of ammo, such as Unluckiness or Absent-Minded.
[Cinematic]
You can't see – but who needs it? This is an unrealistic version of blindness, of the sort found in martial-arts movies featuring Blind Elderly Masters, and in films like Yellowbeard and Scent of a Woman.
The Drawbacks: Colors and details don't exist. Printed images might as well be blank. Light is meaningless (although you can detect “warm” light on your skin). Unlike a normal Blind character, you pay full cost for acute senses. You still get the +1 reaction bonus in civilized societies, though.
One-Hex Radar: Within your reach (which can be extended by a cane or melee weapon), your senses of smell, hearing, and touch almost entirely make up for your lack of sight. At this range, the general shape and movement of everything is known to you. Stealth is useless against you within your reach, and you automatically recognize, by touch, any object or person you've touched before. Unencumbered by reliance on sight, you learn any melee skill at +2 to your DX.
Normal Sense Rolls: You can roll against Smell/Taste to recognize the distinctive scent of any person or animal (including lingering scents), or to identify any familiar brand of shampoo, shaving cream, perfume, and so on. With a Hearing roll, you can single out any conversation in a crowd and listen to it to the exclusion of others, or recognize anyone you've heard speak before.
Difficult Sense Rolls: With a Roll against Smell/Taste at -6, you can accurately determine someone's mood or hair color, or get a general idea of where they've been in the past two hours (they must pass within your reach). With Hearing-6, you can identify bearded men, the style of somebody's clothing, or recognize people by the distinctive sound of their movement. You can also guess at how physically attractive a person would be to the sighted, by considering their voice and demeanor, among other clues.
Each new insight requires a separate roll. The GM rolls in secret; you might be wrong, and you have no way of knowing…
Beyond your reach: You can guess at the outline of a room, with about a 50% margin of error for distances. You may make ranged attacks against any living or moving target (tracking them by sound), but range penalties are doubled. Immobile, inanimate targets may also be attacked, but you take a further -10 to skill unless a sound indicates their location. When you are attacked with a ranged attack, you get your normal Active Defenses if you make a Hearing roll. If not, you may only use Passive Defense.
[Cinematic]
Once per game session (per level of this advantage), you can change any Success Roll made by your character, or against your character (such as an enemy attack) into a Critical Success or Critical Failure.
For every time you invoke this power, the GM will turn a future Success Roll against you in the same fashion (it need not be the same type of roll). The GM may not kill your character outright with this (it's more deadly to your foes than to you!), but should otherwise reserve the “karmic backlash” as maliciously as possible to do harm to your character. The GM may reserve backlash criticals between sessions, if he wishes.
[Cinematic]
Whenever you are one-on-one with a foe (nameless thug or Feature Villain – it doesn't matter), you can eliminate the possibility of a gunfight or blade-fight by simply putting up your fists in invitation (or taking a stylized stance, depending on how you fight). You don't have to say anything; just the gesture is enough. Your foe must make an IQ roll, at a penalty equal to triple any reaction bonuses you have (penalties are ignored). If he fails, he sheathes or holsters his weapon and raises his own fists, and the scene becomes a punch-and-kick match. If he critically fails (not uncommon for nameless thugs), he sets his weapon down on a nearby table, bartop, etc., rather than holstering or sheathing it. You, of course, can maneuver to grab it during the fight.
This only works mano a mano; if you face a group of armed soldiers, you can't coax them all into fighting you with their hands unless the GM rules that they are truly insipid mooks. However, an entire group of PCs with this advantage could have that affect on an NPC group of equal or lesser size!
If any NPC tries the “fistfight invitation” on you, you must roll at Will-4 to resist! The same one-on-one conditions apply.
There is a single drug or poison which you have deliberately built up an immunity to. The poison can be anything, but the choice is subject to GM approval. Increased tolerance to alcohol is covered in GURPS Callahan's Crosstime Saloon, and is independent of this advantage. Each additional poison costs 1 point. If none of the poisons taken are lethal, reduce overall cost by 2.
[Cinematic]
You cannot be killed in an explosion unless you are trapped with it (in a sealed bank vault, for example, or literally surrounded by multiple large explosions), or you deliberately caused it. As long as there is a window, balcony, cliffside, or something else to leap over or through, you can throw up your arms and “ride” an explosive shockwave to safety (usually against a background of expensive pyrotechnics - you're “thrown clear of the blast”). You'll fall either a short distance, or a long distance ending in something soft. You take 1d-3 falling damage whenever you use this advantage (DR applies normally), but are otherwise immune to injury for the duration of the explosion.
For every level of this advantage you have, roll a d6 at the beginning of each game and record the result. These are “luck rolls” which may be substituted for die-rolls once the game begins. As each luck roll is used, it is erased. Luck rolls may be used to replace any required roll of the dice, provided at least one die remains random (exception: damage rolls). Luck rolls may not be saved between sessions.
For example, if you have three levels of Called Luck and roll a 2, a 3, and a 1 at the beginning of the game, and are then called upon to make a difficult skill roll, you could (instead of rolling 3d against your skill), roll 1d and use the 2 and the 1 to dictate the result of the other two dice! The 2 and 1 would then be erased and used up. You could not use the 2, 3 AND the 1, because at least one die must be random.
Retroactive Called Luck is also available, for 5 points/level. This advantage is identical to Called Luck, except that you may roll the dice first, and then decide whether to “spend” any of your luck rolls to alter the roll. One of the dice rolled must remain unchanged, but the choice is yours.
Called Luck may be used to affect any die-roll that normal Luck can affect.
Only total (-30 points) Pacifists may take this advantage. A single Combat/Weapon skill of your choice is doubled (tripled if the skill is for ranged attacks). When you use the skill, penalties for visibility, partial concealment, or speed are ignored. This includes total darkness and Invisibility. Related Fast-Draw and Speed Load skills are learned at +5. Size and Range still applies (if you are in an Old West campaign, you can shoot off belt-buckles without harming the wearer).
If the skill is used in melee (including defensive skills like Shield and Cloak), you get an extra attack or parry or block (as appropriate or needed) every turn for every 5 full levels of skill above 20 (using final, multiplied skill). You may also parry or block for others, if the attacking weapon is within reach!
If you injure an intelligent creature (directly or indirectly), you will suffer a nervous breakdown (use the rules under Cannot Kill Pacifism). During the breakdown, Will rolls will be required to even touch a weapon, let alone use it. If you are responsible for a death, triple the duration!
You may not have either High or Low Pain Threshold. You feel pain, but it gives you an intense rush of adrenaline! You are immune to Stun from injury. You gain no special bonus to resist torture.
The Shock rules are reversed for you – and then some. If you are hit and injured, you will have a bonus on your next turn, rather than a penalty! The bonus is equal to the amount of damage taken, and may be divided in any way between your (combat-oriented) Success Rolls, and damage rolls for hand-weapons, punches, or kicks (or more exotic body-attacks, for nonhumans). It may not be applied to Defense Rolls.
Example: Olaf the Hirsute is struck by an axe for a total of 7 points damage, which takes him to -2 HT (he had already been wounded earlier. On his turn, he has a +7 bonus that he can divide up any way he sees fit. His first order of business is to make a HT roll to stay conscious, so he takes +2 to his HT to make sure he does. He then attacks the offending axeman, taking +2 to his attack roll. If he hits, he still has +3 left over to apply to damage! If he had wanted, he could have saved the entire +7 for damage – counting on lucky rolls to make sure he stayed conscious and hit his foe.
The bonuses may not be saved between turns – they must be used on your next turn or they are lost.
Whenever you make a ranged attack, innocent bystanders are ignored. They do not provide cover for your target, and cannot be hit by missed shots unless you critically fail your attack (incidental explosions can still frag them, though). Other PCs (and your foes!) receive no special protection.
You can be seriously injured, even seemingly killed, but when the scene is over, you're better off. You might even rise from the rubble, brush yourself off, and walk away.
You take your lumps normally until the scene ends (“the scene” is left for the GM to define according the needs of the plot). In the aftermath, divide the damage you took by a factor of 1d+1, rounding in your favor. History is rewritten. If the die-roll comes up a total of 3, that 11 points of damage the spear did blowing through your torso becomes a more palatable 3 points: the difference between minor injury and short-term coma!
This isn't magical healing or a super-power – those extra 8 points of damage didn't really happen. It just looked like it. You are free to distribute this “healing” any way you like, if the GM requires that you keep track of individual wounds (for the Accumulated Wounds option, or for injuries that crippled a limb). Note that crippling wounds “undone” in this way are still considered “temporary” unless the character can make an immediate HT roll.
Note: An unconscious character is still unconscious if he's at zero hits or less. A dead character is still dead if the “second wind” doesn't bring him back above the point which he failed his HT-based “death check.”
You cannot be killed in a vehicular crash as long as you're controlling the vehicle. You can get unconscious and bloody, but even that's unlikely, since you (but not the vehicle) takes half damage from impacts or rolls. If using the rules from GURPS Vehicles, any vehicle you're operating has twice the Maneuverability Rating and Stability Rating that it realistically should. If using the Bleeding rules, you can't bleed to death from injuries sustained in a vehicular crash, unless you are hemophiliac.
This advantage comes in two forms for TL6+ campaigns: Stunt Driver (which applies to all ground and water-surface vehicles), and Stunt Pilot (for aircraft and spacecraft). Each costs 15 points. A low-tech version (“Stunt Rider”) would have similar effects for equestrians. Other effect of the advantage:
Races and Chases: You receive a +3 bonus to any Contest of Skills in a chase scene or race. All vehicles being equal, you don't often lose! And even if you're in the slow vehicle, you always have a chance.
Stunts: You can, by making an ordinary skill roll against the appropriate Vehicle skill, do all sorts of cinematic stunts (ride a cycle safely down an escalator, angle a jet-fighter between two skyscrapers, or anything the GM and players agree is entertaining). Ignore modifiers and the laws of physics – just a single skill roll and away you go (it's all special effects anyway).
Ramps: You can use nearly anything as if it were a smooth, prepared ramp. If you're driving a car or truck, any earth embankment will do the trick (and they'll almost always be handy), and you'll have the upper hand on suddenly-parting drawbridges. If you're on a motorcyle, then cars make good ramps (from the front) along with stairs, piles of trash, office furniture, and stacked firewood. Furthermore, you'll always survive a deliberate jump completely unharmed, even if your vehicle doesn't.
High-G: You are immune to “black-out” and “red-out” effects from high-G manuevers. This is mostly important to pilots, but can matter in ultra-tech ground-racing, too.
High Vehicle Mortality: The drawback of this advantage is that you go through a lot of vehicles, both your own and those of your pursuers. If you run an enemy vehicle off the road, for instance, it's likely to explode for no good reason other than “the special effects budget allowed for it.” When your own vehicle finally goes (and it will, eventually), it's spectacular, and another one is always available soon after to borrow or steal.
You are the shape emerging from the flaming wreck, the spectre of justice, the silent killer, the daring pilot, the suave agent. You're a badass, and every ounce of confidence is justified.
This advantage represents the many perks of being a cinematically-competent individual, and falls somewhere between a special kind of Luck and a special kind of Charisma. The GM should require that any character purchasing the Truly Badass advantage be able to back it up with real ability – the Truly Badass are at the top of their field: healthy, assured, and capable of getting the job done (whatever the job might be).
Important to many facets of the truly badass is the “Scrub” – any character with no real identity, unworthy as foes. Nameless thugs are scrubs. Generic congressmen wandering through a crowd scene are Scrubs. Almost all security guards are Scrubs. If the GM has assigned the character a motive that extends beyond a single scene, he probably isn't a Scrub.
The many facets of the Truly Badass:
If it isn't important, you can just kill it: That's without a die-roll of any kind. By taking a one-second Attack maneuver, any Scrub becomes dead. Or they can become unconscious or maimed, if you feel like it. They must be within reach (or yards equal to your DX, for ranged weapons). Characters or foes of significance (GM's discretion) are immune to this. If you have multiple attacks, you can make multiple kills.
If it's weaker than you, it's scared: Crowds of Scrubs will part to let you pass. Furthermore, they must make a Will roll in order to attack you. When they do attack you, rules such as Buck Fever are appropriate, if the GM enjoys them.
If it's recognizable, you recognize it: If you have Driving skill, you can identify a model of sports car by the purr of the engine. If you have Guns skill, you can identify a model of pistol by the sound of the safety releasing. If you have Savoir-Faire skill, you know an Armani on sight, and so on. This requires an IQ roll.
If you want to be there, you are: In an action scene, when nobody is looking, you seem to move like a ghost, appearing out of nowhere. You may use a Move maneuver to get anywhere in a single turn (into an air-vent, on top of an elevator, beneath a stairway), silent and undetected, provided it is within your Move in yards, and you are unobserved. No die-roll is needed (see the opening scenes of The Professional for this).
If you want to be noticed, you will be: When you decide to be conspicuous, you are. Crowded rooms will hush slightly when you enter, and people will pay attention. Nobody will forget you.
If it's mechanical, it likes you: Your motorcycle can explode, but it never breaks down. Your gun can run out of ammo, but it never jams. Your laptop can be fragged by an antitank weapon fired through the window, but you don't experience irritating system-crashes. You take great care of your equipment, and it never fails you in any mundane way. This doesn't protect you from the failures of experimental equipment.
If you play, you win: You can never lose a Quick Contest with a Scrub – the dice need not be rolled. You just win. Likewise, any skill roll made against a Scrub will also succeed – you will automatically Fast-Talk them, seduce them, Intimidate them, and so on.
Note that while this advantage is useful for sweeping aside the rabble (and speeding play), it should be used to enhance roleplaying, not to sidestep it. Saying “I kill the twerp with the Beretta pointed at me” isn't enough; the player must always describe his Badass exploits for the amusement of those at the gaming table. “I flip the Beretta's muzzle back into his gawping mouth and squeeze his hand on the trigger” is much more amusing.
For 50 points, a character can be merely “Badass.” He may choose any three of the above traits to comprise the advantage. Both Badass and Truly Badass characters are automatically immune to things like the flu, getting their shirts stuck in their fly, and other minor problems of the mundane world, as a matter of style.
[Cinematic]
You are an action hero, and action heroes can handle any kind of action! You might not be able to pilot a Jet-Ski for recreation, but if you need to chase an enemy across a lake, you'll handle one like a pro. If a conflict-action scene (including chase scenes and sports conflicts) requires a physical Animal, Athletic, Combat/Weapon, or Vehicle skill that you lack, you gain it for the duration of the scene at a level equal to your DX (IQ-based gun-bonuses and other special modifiers are ignored).
At the end of the adventure, you may put one of your earned Character Points into any skill this advantage granted during play. Optionally, the GM may require you to. From then on, you'll really have the skill, and all normal rules for it apply. This advantage is especially appropriate for action heroes with long, serialized careers (James Bond or Mack Bolan types).
You have an uncanny knack for earning the lethal emnity of villains. Any Bad Guy (GMs discretion) that is ever harmed or inconvenienced by you (even indirectly) will hate you for it, developing a savagely paranoid view of you and and obsessive desire to pay you back, even if it means being distracted to their own defeat… Thus, the rest of the party can use you as valuable bait. A dangerous, double-edged advantage, best suited to the very lucky, the very cocky, or the willingly-martyred.