storyteller

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====== Dynamic Knacks ======
Dynamic Knacks are the parahuman powers displayed by those Inspired individuals commonly known as stalwarts.  Generally dynamic Knacks are incredible extensions of nomial human capabilities: Stalwarts tend to be faster, stronger, smarter, better-looking or more personable than regular people.  Some extreme dynamic Knacks, however, give their stalwart possessors qualities that no "normal" human could possibly attain.  As might be expected, dynamic Knacks run the gamut from barely noticeable to freakishly bizarre. Current theory holds that dynamic Knacks are the result of the stalwart channeling Z-wave energy directly into her physical form.  As such, stalwarts register as etherically active on Z-wave image resonators, and their empowered status is obvious to various superhuman methods of perception.

As with psychic Knacks, dynamic Knacks are divided into three categories. The category into which a dynamic Knack falls depends on the degree to which it affects the stalwart.   Level one dynamic Knacks are logical, if extreme, extensions of human development. ln theory, any sufficiently gifted person could achieve comparable results if given the right combination of genetics and training. Though certainly uncanny, level one Knacks are normally indistinguishable from nature’s own gifts unless perceived with a Z-wave image resonator or the like. As such, their effects are often indistinguishable from those daredevils manifest.  Level two dynamic Knacks are obviously superhuman, though they’re still direct extrapolations from the human baseline: The stalwart is just faster, smarter or stronger than any ordinary person could ever hope to be. Level three dynamic Knacks place the stalwart fimily outside the bounds of normalcy - they’re highly irregular or unnerving capabilities that surpass the usual qualities, not just capabilities, of living beings.

These powers are not hierarchical; a character does not have to buy a level one Knack before purchasing a level two power.

====== Level One Dynamic Knacks ======

===== A Single Bound =====
Your legs are better than coiled steel springs, for no mere mechanical springboard could launch you as high as your leaps can! With this Knack, you can hurdle high walls or leap across a city street. Your physique probably reﬂects this Knack in some highly noticeable manner. 

==== System ====
The character's jumping distances are tripled for both horizontal and vertical movement. lf he is riding a bicycle, his movement rate is doubled. This Knack has no effect on kick attacks or foot movement rates.

===== Cool Hand =====
You're inhumanly steady, even in the tightest situations. No matter how much your brain's screaming at you, your body keeps operating smoothly. This is not necessarily mental composure - you may be just as ‘prone to panic as anyone else. Instead, your body functions efficiently regardless of the stresses under which it's operating. You never get "the shakes," nor do you get seasick or shiver.

==== System: ====
The character still suffers injury from detrimental effects to her body - wounds, drugs, illnesses, temperature extremes, stress - but is completely immune to Dexterity-based dice pool penalties resulting from these conditions. She gains one bonus die for all physical tasks involving ultra-fine manipulation, such as lockpicking or surgery (but never combat). Her rock-steady grip also doubles the effective range of all ranged weapons (ﬁrearms, bows, fire hoses, disintegrator rays...) she wieidsj 

As a side effect of this Knack, the character never suffers any physical effects from being intoxicated. She can still get dnink, but the only outward reflection of this condition is slurred speech. She's perfectly poised right up until the point at which she passes out.

===== Heightened Senses =====
A living bloodhound, telescope and microphone all rolled into one, you enjoy sensory acuity that most people can't attain without mechanical assistance. However, this blessing can occasionally be a curse — bright flashes, loud noises and noxious smells can all incapacitate you through sensory overload. You tend to avoid big band concerts and Italian kitchens.

==== System: ====
The player gains two bonus dice on all Perception rolls that deal with tiny details or things on the edge of human perception. When the character makes an aimed ranged attack, her weapon's range doubles due to the stalwart's exceptional visual acuity (approximately 20/5 vision). Sensory overload effects are left to the Storyteller’s discretion, but should be dramatic and appropriate to the circumstances.

===== Mad Scientist =====
You are a man of science for the new era!  Your creative prowess follows no traditional path. Even the simplest schematics you design baffle the learned. Armed with only a notepad and your own formidable command of modem science, you relentlessly push back the frontiers of human achievement!

==== System ====
This Knack subtly transforms the character's brain chemistry to enhance her super-scientific ability. The player spends an Inspiration to convert her characters final research and development time from days to hours (this likewise results in a shorter construction time, figured from the final R&D duration). Such rapid genius is not without its price, however. The character relies so heavily on leaps of intuition and sudden bursts of creative mania that few can keep up. As a result, when using this Knack, the character gains no dice benefit from having research assistants other than fellow stalwarts.

===== Man for All Seasons =====
Who needs a campfire or a canteen? You can endure the utmost extremes of climate without batting an eye or losing a drop of sweat. Whether it's a hike in Death Valley in a parka or a swimsuit-clad snowball fight in the Himalayas, you're always dressed for the occasion, so to speak.

==== System ====
The character suffers no damage or penalties for heat less than 150° C or cold above -30 C.   She is immune to heatstroke, hypothermia and similar ailments. She can survive for triple the usual times without water or food. This Knack provides no protection against actual fire- or cold-based attacks.

===== Powerlifter =====
You can win iron man competitions merely by entering - your opponents take one look at the steel cables you call muscles and quietly shrink away. While your casual strength may be no greater than that of anyone else with your build, your focused might is truly awesome to behold.

==== System ====
Whenever a character attempts a Strength related task, the player rolls Strength normally. ln addition to the successes from the roll, your character gains a number of automatic successes equal to her Destructive facet score (no Inspiration expenditure is needed). lf trying to lift a target with more mass than the character’s Strength-related dice pool, the automatic successes apply as Willpower successes needed to advance her lifting capability up the chart. This Knack provides no bonus to close-combat attack and damage rolls.

===== Sex Symbol =====
Simply irresistible!  You exude raw sexuality from every pore.  A mere photgraph of you is enough to send teenagers of the apprpriate sexual orientation into hormonal frenzies, while your actual precense inspires even the most staid and reserved adults to youthful pursuits.  You're never lacking for companionship if you want it.  In fact, your biggest problem may be getting an uninterrupted night's sleep....

==== System: ====
Whenever the stalwart attempts a seduction, the player rolls the appropriate Trait dice pool normally. ln addition to the successes from the roll, your character gains a number of automatic successes equal to her Intuitive facet score (no Inspiration expenditure is needed).

===== Superhuman Reflexes =====
Your hands are faster than striking cobras, flickering at the edges of human perception. It may be possible to surprise you, but no Old West gunslinger could have ever out-drawn you. The proverbial greased lightning would have trouble striking you if you knew it was on the way.

==== System: ====
The character gains a permanent +3 bonus to Initiative.

====== Level Two Dynamic Knocks ======

===== Aetheric Vision =====
You can transform the delicate structure of your eyes to perceive portions of the electromagnetic spectrum that are completely inaccessible to normal people.  This power allows you to see heat, infrared and ultraviolet radiation and even magnetic fields or strong electrical charges. lf you are o fa mystic bent, you may consider these energies to be auras and lay lines. lf you have advanced scientific training, glowing schematics may superimpose themselves over your normal vision.

==== System ====
The player spends an Inspiration point to activate Aetheric Vision for the scene. While this Knack is active, the character takes no penalties for low light - even in complete darkness, she can see as if she had the benefit of full daylight. With a successful Perception+Technology roll, she can visually trace the path of active electrical circuits, up to locating live wires inside walls. Other applications of this power are left to the Storyteller's discretion, but may include such feats as seeing a concealed assassin’s body heat through a curtain or a thin door, tracking an airplane by the atmospheric ionization it leaves or detecting an area of dangerous radiation by its unnatural glow.  

Remember that Adventure-era scientists don't know nearly as much about the electromagnetic spectrum as modern physicists do. Accordingly, characters may see what they expect to see rather that what science dictates they should see. They may also witness phenomena for which modem physics has no rational explanation....

===== Blazing Speed =====
When seconds count, you have twice as many as everyone else — at least from your perspective with an instant's expenditure from your reserves of energy can supercharge your nerves, moving at blinding speeds to devastating effect. However, the concentration required to keep your body from flailing out of control does make you consider your actions more carefully, which may result in a momentary hesitation before you spring into motion.

==== System ====
At the beginning of a combat turn, before the Initiative roll, the player spends an Inspiration point.  The stalwart can take one additional action at the end of the tum, after every other character has taken his normal action. This additional action can be used just like a regular action — split into multiple actions, used to go fully defensive or taken as a single full action. The stalwart acts at -3 to Initiative during this turn.

===== Blindfighter =====
The phrase "blind as a bat” always gives you a bit of a chuckle. After all, bats never run into things. You may have developed this Knack to compensate for actual blindness, or it may be the result of extensive training. Regardless, darkness holds few secrets for you - an advantage that you can apply to lethal effect in combat situations.

==== System ====
The character suffers no penalties for movement or close combat in low light or darkness Ranged combat and perception rolls related to anything except spatial awareness suffer the normal penalties. The character can perceive shapes out to a radius of twice her Inspiration in meters. However, she can't sense them precisely enough to aim or dodge ranged attacks, nor can she sense surface details such as color or texture.

===== Optimized Mercibollsm =====
Methuselah was a pretender You may not be set up to live forever, but for all intents and purposes, you just may pull it off - so long as none of your enemies get you. Your body requires only trace amounts of nutrients to function, as you derive the majority of your sustenance from etheric radiation and other forms of pure energy. lt also refuses to process anything that it can’t use, which makes you immune to many poisons.

==== System ====
Once the character reaches physical maturity, she ages approximately one year for every [Stamina x10] years that pass. She can hold her breath for five times as long as a normal human with the equivalent Stamina, needs only one meal a week and takes no damage from ingested poisons or allergic reactions. She is immune to all known diseases. Alcohol and most other drugs have no effect on her whatsoever. Chemicals that physically damage her, such as acids, have their normal effects.

===== Piledriver =====
Some men break hearts; others break laws. You prefer to break bones... and bricks... and the occasional steel girder. Whether it's from a special diet, cosmic radiation, years of meditation or an inexplicable telluric energy pattem in your bones, you can strike with inhuman force. Your kicks and punches can shatter stone, and anything short of an armored car is vulnerable to you.

==== System ====
Add the character's Destructive facet to his Strength rating when calculating any damage effect based on Strength, whether for punching a mobster or a metal door. This Knack has no effect on any other situation in which the character's Strength is a factor, except feat of strength that directly involve destroying something.

===== Sun Tzu's Blessing =====
This Knack goes by various names, depending on where you're from. The French refer to it as the Touch of Napoleon, while Greeks hearken back to the glory of Belisarius when discussing your tactical prowess. Whatever the label, the effects are the same: You have an intuitive flair for the geometry of battle. With a single glance, you can assess a tactical situation involving thousands of men, and a moment's reflection tells you where best to exert pressure to break the enemy’s forces. Beware hubris, however - knowing what orders to give is not the same as knowing how to give them....

==== System ====
The character has an innate sense of strategy and tactics that surpasses those of many trained generals. When analyzing a battle's progress, developing a plan for an assault, finding the best way out of an ambush or performing any other military- or tactics-related analysis, the player rolls the relevant Trait dice pool normally (typically Wits+Leadership). ln addition to the successes from the roll, your character gains a number of automatic successes equal to her Reflective facet rating (no Inspiration expenditure is needed). This Knack gives no bonus to actually issuing orders, only on figuring out what orders to give.

===== Touch of the Muses =====
The gods smile upon your artistic efforts - or maybe the Devil inspires you to greatness. Whatever the source, you can achieve a level of aesthetic creativity to which most people can only aspire in vain. Your original vision is nigh-perfect, and your ability to execute it in paint, ink or stone is not far behind.

==== System ====
This Knack applies to any physical creative endeavor, be it sculpting, painting, choreography or the like. Note that this Knack focuses on arts with a primarily physical aspect; pursuits such as writing or poetry don't count. The player rolls the relevant dice pool (Dexterity+Performance or Dexterity+Crafts). In addition to the successes from the roll, your character gains a number of automatic successes equal to her Intuitive facet rating (no Inspiration expenditure is needed).  

====== Level Three Dynamic Knacks ======

===== Body of Bronze =====
When the shooting starts most people dive for cover. Your friends, however, know that the safest place to be is directly behind you!  This isn't out of concern for your marksmanship,  but rather because of your inhumanly resilient physique.  Your skin retains its normal consistency to a casual caress, but is as strong as steel when it comes to resisting injury.  You laugh at clubs and knives. and bullets are but as wasp stings.  Just watch out for those antitank rifles.... 

==== System: ====
The character has an innate armor rating, as if her skin was a bulletproof vest!  Her bashing armor rating is equal to two plus her Reﬂective facet, while her lethal armor rating is equal to two plus her Intuitive facet. Thus, a character who has Reﬂective facet 2 and Intuitive facet 1 has a [4/3] armor rating. This armor inflicts no penalties on mobility. These ratings are always consistent with the character‘s current Inspiration facet scores.

===== Indisputable Analysis =====
Your physical senses are transformed to interact with a synergy that is truly breathtaking to behold. Your powers of observation and deduction put the local police to shame. A mere glance at a scene can tell you more than you ever wanted to know about the place. This Knack is nothing less than a capacity for total situational awareness and subconscious analysis of everything you sense.

==== System ====
The character spends at least one minute observing the tableau she wishes to analyze. The player spends an [[Inspiration]] point and makes an [[mental_attributes|Intelligence]]+[[Alertness]] roll. For the rest of the scene, the player gains a number of bonus dice equal to the number of successes she rolled, which she may apply to all [[Investigation]] rolls that deal with the people, place and/or things she's observing. This [[knacks|Knack]] may be used once per scene on a given location. In practice, this Knack functions much like Sherlock Holmes’ capacity for extreme logical deduction - the character can reach (almost always correct) conclusions from the barest scraps of physical evidence.

===== Man of Many Faces =====
With this Knack, you can actually change your physical features to look like someone else's. Even minimal control allows you to shift your features subtly to look like some nondescript everyman. With more precise command, you can alter your features, voice, physical dimensions, garb, race and even gender!

==== System ====
To assume another appearance, the character spends 30 seconds (six tums) in concentration. The player spends an Inspiration point and rolls Appearance+Crafts (if the character is trying to conceal her own identity with a made-up one) or Charisma+Performance (if the character is attempting to assume a specific person’s identity). lf the player succeeds, the alteration lasts for the remainder of the scene or until the character voluntarily discontinues it.  It requires minimal concentration to maintain the change; if the character is knocked unconscious or suffers three or more health levels of damage in one turn, her body automatically reverts to its normal appearance.

The number of successes rolled determine the degree to which the character can change her perceived identity:

|**Successes**|**Degree of Change**|
|1|Same basic appearance, but all distinguishing details vanish|
|2|Coloration and build changes|
|3|Complete change of facial features|
|4|Full transformation of voice and physical mannerisms|
|5|Gender shift, extermes of age and size|

The stalwart cannot actually fake any knowledge that her subject has but she doesn't. With fewer than four successes, the character must rely on innate acting ability (Manipulation+Performance rolls) to convincingly pass herself off as someone else. With four or more successes, her proficiency is such that others assume any gaps in her performance are flaws of their own faulty perceptions or memories.

===== Reptilian Regeneration =====
Some lizards possess the uncanny capacity to regenerate lost limbs over a matter of days. You can go them one better, knitting torn ﬂesh and regrowing missing pieces of yourself in mere minutes. This distinctly unnatural Knack allows you to endure injuries that would destroy any normal person.

==== System ====
To regenerate, the character enters a deep trance from which nothing short of a health level of bashing damage can awaken her. The player spends an [[Inspiration]] point and rolls [[physical_attributes|Stamina]] + [[Medicine]].  Each success is one health level of damage healed. A health level of bashing damage heals in one minute; a health level of lethal damage heals in 10 minutes. When the character has healed as much damage as the roll allows, she awakens.

===== Sensory Filtering =====
Some wives complain that their husbands have selective hearing because they can hear baseball scores but not requests to mow the lawn. Those husbands would envy you if they knew of your capabilities because all of your senses are selective. You can tune out the din of a crowd to zero in on a single conversation, refuse to see everything of a particular color or ignore the ﬂashes of a blinding strobe light.

==== System ====
Sensory Filtering is always active. This Knack negates all dice pool and difficulty penalties for distractions such as noxious smells, deafening noises, blinding lights and the like. The character is immune to sudden sensory shocks such as flash-blinding from a magnesium flare. He can also choose to isolate a single sensory impulse, blocking out all sound save for a single conversation or picking the smell of poison out of a dinner buffet. When used in conjunction with Heightened Senses, this Knack removes the danger of sensory overload that otherwise accompanies use of that Knack.

===== Threat Awareness =====
You're the perfect bodyguard. Whether it’s an instinctive feel for a subject‘s posture and body language or uncanny precognition, you always know when someone is about to launch an attack. This split-second warning is enough to let you throw the first punch. You'd best be careful when choosing your responses — “I knew he was going to shoot me” isn't always the best defense against charges of unprovoked murder.

==== System ====
The stalwart always knows when a living subject whose presence she is aware of is about to make an offensive move against anyone in the immediate area. The subject must be within line of sight - though the stalwart needn't be looking at him - and no farther ay than 10 times the stalwart's Inspiration in meters. The Storyteller tells the player the subject is about to attack and who the intended target is.  The character receives no other information, though some things may be obvious - if the subject is holding a pistol, chances are good that he’s not going to throw a rock at his intended victim. 

The stalwart may then perform one action before the attacker does. In the first tum of any combat for which the stalwart has no more than three seconds’ warning, she gains a bonus to her Initiative score equal to her Perception+Alertness dice pool. ln each subsequent combat tum, this bonus drops by two, until it fades to nothing. 

This Knack provides no defense against attacks from individuals of whose presence the stalwart isn't aware, or who are beyond the range of clear sensing. She must see, hear and/or feel potential attackers to sense what they’re about to do. Likewise, it provides no warning regarding machinery; automatons and land mines don't have body language for the character to read or presence for her to sense.
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