New Stunts Skills

Old Skills with New Stunts

Academics

  • Weight of Reputation Requires Scholar. For a fate point, you may use your Academics skill instead of Rapport, Intimidation, Contacting, or Deceit, provided those you are dealing with are aware of your reputation (a second fate point will nearly always assure that they are).

Athletics

  • Principles of Momentum Requires Acrobat. You've become so attuned to the basic principles of movement that your every step shows efficiency most people couldn't imagine. You may save up your spin whenever you gain it on an Athletics roll, or any roll modified by Athletics, and apply it to any Athletics based or modified roll. You lose all unused spin gained this way if you are injured or stop moving, either willfully or through a Block action.
  • Like the Wind Requires Principles of Momentum. Your attention to movement has made you acutely aware of where you can and cannot escape to, allowing you to slip by all but the most formidable obstacles. Whenever you gain spin on an Athletics defense, you may use that spin immediately to move one zone as a free action.

Contacting

  • One Of The Natives: "It's amazing how cooperative people will be if you just make the effort to learn their language." +2 languages, +1 to Contacting rolls in any country that speaks a language you speak.

Leadership

Reputation
  • Great Leader When selecting this stunt, the player picks a specific field (Army, Politics, Church, and Peasants are the most common); this stunt is often written with that field incorporated, e.g., Great Leader in Politics. The character is not merely well connected in that community, he is actually a person of great importance within that area; for maximum benefit, this should be paired with an aspect that indicates similar things. In addition to the narrative benefits of such a position, the character may use his Leadership skill in lieu of the Resources skill for anything which might fall under the auspices of members in that field. This stunt may be taken multiple times, each time for a different field.
  • Order the Orders Requires Great Leader. Whenever dealing with members of your chosen field, you put out all the right signals, say all the right things. In such circumstances, you may roll your Leadership at +2, or, alternatively, use your Leadership instead of Rapport, in order to get a favorable reaction.
  • Great Name Requires Great Leader. You're so well known that an awareness of your name has crossed over into other areas as well. The first time you deal with someone who's heard of you (spending a fate point can assure that they have), and you're using your name, you get a +2 bonus to a Rapport or Intimidation roll.
  • Great Reputation Requires Great Name [+1]. Your reputation has reached great proportions, and people are willing to believe all sorts of things about you. For a fate point, you may use your Leadership skill instead of Rapport, Intimidation, Deceit, Leadership, or Resolve, provided those you are dealing with are aware of your reputation (a second fate point will nearly always assure that they do). This stunt combines with the bonus from Great Name, getting the character a +2 to Leadership when using it instead of Rapport or Intimidation.
Magnetism
  • Imposing persona Your charismatic persona is evident to all those around you. When rolling for first impressions, you may use your Leadership skill instead of Rapport.
Leader of men
  • Lead by example You are able to show people "how it´s done" while coordinating their efforts. When leading men, you may complement their efforts with the actual skill being used instead of your Leadership skill.
  • All for one You are part of a small (less than a dozen) group of friends or brothers in arms. When inspiring named characters which share this group membership aspect, you may spend effort from your Inspire roll to allow members of the group to ignore consequences for the duration of a scene. Ignoring a mild consequence costs 2 effort points; a moderate consequence takes 4 effort points and a severe consequence 6 effort points.
Logistics
  • Analytical commander You are able to keep "the big picture" in mind when commanding men, which makes it easy to coordinate many different actions. The number of mook squads or named characters you may command is doubled.

Mysteries

  • Weight of Reputation Requires Secrets of the Arcane. For a fate point, you may use your Mysteries skill instead of Rapport, Intimidation, Contacting, or Deceit, provided those you are dealing with are aware of your reputation (a second fate point will nearly always assure that they are).

Pilot

  • Defensive Flying You’re good at keeping your plane in one piece. Whenever attempting a piloting maneuver in a chase , you may treat the difficulty as if it were one lower. The difficulty of the maneuver itself is not affected, however, for any plane that might be chasing you.
  • One Hand on the Stick Piloting while doing some other action normally results in a -1 penalty. With this stunt, you don’t suffer that penalty, regardless of whether you are rolling Piloting (Piloting is your primary action, and the supplemental action is something minor), or rolling some other skill (you’re taking some other primary action, but keeping the plane on course isn’t all that challenging, allowing piloting to be the supplemental action). Furthermore, if Piloting would be a secondary skill that restricts or modifies a primary skill, but your Piloting skill is lower than the primary skill you’re using, your Piloting skill has no negative effect.
  • Turn on two wings Requires Defensive Flying. Somehow, no matter how crazy you fly, you always seem to pull it off. You’re always able to make very tight turns and fly through very narrow spaces without suffering any sort of increased difficulty due to environment, unless it is in fact physically impossible for your vehicle to fit. In many ways this functions like the Defensive Flying stunt, but instead of lowering many difficulties by one, it potentially lowers these specific difficulties quite significantly.
  • Unsafe at Any Altitude Requires at least one other Piloting stunt. The value of any damage this character does to the environment (but not characters or their vehicles) when piloting a vehicle is doubled. Any time an object is taken out by the damage, the result should be spectacular – an explosion or collapse. This is not guaranteed to always fall in the character’s favor (though it often can, and should)!

Rapport

In pre-modern games, where social status and etiquette is much more important, social graces and etiquette are included in the Rapport skill (hence some people prefer to rename Rapport to Social Graces), offering the following new stunts:

  • Toady Whenever a Toady is dealing with an opponent of higher social station, they receive +2 on Rapport rolls. Also, for the cost of a Fate Point, they can deflect a social combat attack directed at them onto any plausible person of lower station. If that person is present they can defend with Resolve; otherwise the target is Mediocre (0).
  • Courtly Grace You have a talent for gentility, protocol and discourse in the presence of the aristocracy. A true courtier, you receive a +2 bonus during social conflicts conducted in such settings or amongst those who are born to or appreciate them.
  • Style With Style you are always dressed appropriately for the occasion and at the height of fashion. Even when dressed inappropriately, others assume it's intentional — a clever statement or bon mot. So developed is your taste that you can even use clothing as semaphore, using your attire to covertly communicate or to launch social attacks on another character with Style.

Resources

  • Man on the Inside: "Yes, perhaps you should call in the torturer." Requirements: Two other Resources stunts. Similar to Master of Disguise, this allows the player to, once per session, declare that a nearby, minor NPC is "on the payroll", secretly loyal to the character. The NPC's ability and dedication are at the GM's discretion — other characteristics can be determined by the player.

Science

  • Weight of Reputation Requires Scientific Genius or Surgeon [+1]. For a fate point, you may use your Science skill instead of Rapport, Intimidation, Contacting, or Deceit, provided those you are dealing with are aware of your reputation (a second fate point will nearly always assure that they are).

Weapons

Fantasy-themed games often have lots of players developing the Weapons skill. Here's a greatly expanded list of stunts (mostly cribbed from other skills) to help ensure that no two weapons fighters need be alike.

New Skills Stunts

Magic

See also the New Mechanics section for addition magic rules.

  • Mythos magic: stunt for Cthulhu mythos magic system based on Gadget rules (several kinds of backlash, but very simple to use)
  • Simpler Mythos Magic: vastly simplified (i.e. improved) version of mythos magic — the original is still here for reference

Riding

For pre-industrial games, Riding replaces Driving. Some stunts are renamed appropriately and same stunts are removed from survival and put under Riding.

  • Faithful Steed You have a special mount. When riding that mount, you get a +1 bonus (it's assumed to have an Improvement). You may, once per session, spend a Fate Point and declare that the mount has some extra Improvement.
  • Noble Steed Requires Faithful Steed. For starters, your once-a-session Improvement, as described above, can be of any sort. Secondly, your mount has two additional inherent Improvements you may select. These improvements must be defined in advance of a session (only at the beginning or end), but you needn't pick all of them at the time you take this Enhancement. Once they're picked, they're set, until a trainer can get a chance to work at changing them. Your mount is instantly recognizable as something unusual, unless you spend one of your Improvements on making sure that it looks just like any other mount of its base type. Regardless, once people learn of its nature, there's almost certain to be attempts to steal it or otherwise learn its secrets. You'd be well advised to take an Aspect tied to your mount, so you can get Fate Points when this happens!
  • Rip-Roaring When attempting a Riding maneuver in a chase, you may treat the difficulty as if it were one lower. The difficulty of the maneuver itself is not affected, however, for any mounts that might be chasing you.
  • One Hand on the Reins Riding while doing some other action normally results in a -1 penalty. With this Enhancement, you don't suffer that penalty, regardless of whether you are rolling Riding (Riding is your primary action, and the supplemental action is something minor), or rolling some other skill (you're taking some other primary action, but keeping the mount going isn't all that challenging, allowing Riding to be the supplemental action). Furthermore, if Riding would be a secondary skill that restricts or modifies a primary skill, but your Riding skill is lower than the primary skill you're using, your Riding skill has no negative effect.
  • Turn on a Dime Requires Rip-Roaring. You're always able to make very tight turns and ride through very narrow spaces without suffering any sort of increased difficulty due to environment, unless it is in fact physically impossible for your mount to fit. In many ways this functions like the Rip-Roaring Enhancement, but instead of lowering many difficulties by one, it potentially lowers these specific difficulties quite significantly.
  • Charge Requires at least one other Riding Enhancement. Attack Rolls made from atop the mount are at +1. Any time an target is Taken Out by the damage, the result should be spectacular.
  • Hell bent for leather (Previously Survival Stunt). You know how to get the best speed out of your mount. Any sprint action you take using Riding while mounted is done at +2. If you're using your mount's Athletics skill instead (as with an Animal Companion mount, above), the +2 is applied to the mount's Athletics roll.
  • Mighty Leap Reduce any height related borders for jumping on a mount by up to three.
  • Ride Anything (Previously Survival Stunt). If it can be ridden like a riding beast, you can ride it. You suffer no penalties or increased difficulty for a lack of familiarity, no matter how strange the mount, be it dinosaur, mechanical spider-robot, or Martian bird of prey.
  • Breaking it in (Previously Survival Stunt). Your character receives a +2 on all efforts to break in a new mount. If successful, he gets a +1 to all Riding rolls on a creature he has broken for the duration of that session.
  • Veterinary Requires at least two other Riding stunts. Your character may not understand the broader aspects of healing and such, but when it comes to mounts, he knows them inside and out. Whenever trying to heal a mount, you may use your Riding skill instead of Science. Due to common principles, you may also use your Riding skill to work on other animals, at a -1.
Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 License.