Traits List
Combat: Armor Plating, Arsenal, Bomb, Deflect, Enchant, War Machine, Warhead
Exploration: Morph Item, Grappling Hook, Identify and Improve, Ingenuity, Mobile Fortress, Perfect Replica, Pocket Plane, Prosthesis, Tool for the Job, X-Ray Vision
Interaction: A Thing of Beauty, Behold!, Master of Merchants, Communicator, Crazy Enough to Work, Don’t Push That Button!, It’s Dangerous to Go Alone – Take This, Spark
Suggested Signature Resource: Materials
Combat
Armor Plating
[ Artifice, Combat, Buff, Health, Passive ]
You may improve the effectiveness of any type of armor without adding additional bulk. Complete a CL3 challenge to add 1 defense [ ] to one suit of mundane armor or any to any PC defense granted by other traits.
Related Traits: Warfare.Juggernaut, Dragon.Scales Like Tenfold Shields, Warfare.Guardian
Arsenal
[ Artifice, Combat, Exploration, Encumbrance ]
Draw a symbol next to 3 of your inventory slots. Items you place in these slots vanish from reality (but still occupy slots). No one else can access these items. Spend a good tale to call any of these items to your person instantly. As a neutral tale, you can make them vanish again.
Related Traits: Artifice.Pocket Plane, Warfare.Strong Back, Artifice.Prosthesis
Bomb
[ Artifice, combat, Attack, AoE ]
Spend a point of your signature resource to attempt a ranged attack which affects multiple enemies. Then, bolster your audacious action to inflict harm on up to 3 clustered foes within a near range.
Spend your good tale to make the attack.
Related Traits: Arcane.Evocation, Dragon.Dragon’s Breath
Deflect
[ Artifice, Combat, Defense ]
At any point, you can break one of your currently equipped weapons, shields, or armor to completely avoid a Bad Tale related to being attacked.
Spend a point of your signature resource to rebuild it later.
Related Traits: Artifice.Pocket Plane, Arsenal, Warfare.Strong Back, Artifice.Prosthesis
Enchant
[ Artifice, Combat, Bonus Traits ]
Spend a point of your signature resource and a good tale to give an item 1 trait for several hours. The item will either utilize the trait itself, or confer the trait on to its wielder as a temporary trait, whichever makes more sense.
Backfire: The effect isn’t always reliable, it makes the item flashy and obvious, etc.
Related Traits: Bardic Lore.Jack of all Trades, Beast.Gift of the Pack, Warfare.Iron Sharpens Iron
War Machine
[ Artifice, Combat, Summon, Mount ]
You can create war machines as mounts. Treat them as characters with half your XP.
- Spend a point of your signature resource to undergo a CL3 challenge to create a roughly human sized exoskeleton-type war machine.
- Spend two points of your signature resource to undergo a CL5 challenge to create a very large mecha-type war machine.
It takes a couple of minutes to get into or out of the war machine. They’re inert without a pilot. The pilot uses the machine’s attributes instead of their own.
Collaborate: In what ways is the extra large machine better than the exoskeleton?
Related Traits: Command.Mount
Warhead
[ Artifice, Combat, Exploration, Crafting, AoE ]
You can undergo a CL5 challenge to create a warhead, which is an explosive device about the size of a backpack. Once activated, it gathers power for about 5 minutes and then explodes.
Choose one of the following for your warhead:
- Easily disarmed device which causes moderate damage out to a near distance.
- Difficult to disarm device which causes catastrophic damage out to a far distance. “Because it’s the only way to be sure.”
In either case, your next bad tale might result in a good reason for you to go back into the blast radius.
Collaborate: How does the warhead work? What does the timing mechanism look like?
Related Traits: Arcane.Evocation, Dragon.Dragon’s Breath, Artifice.Bomb
Cf. TV Tropes: Irrevocable_Order
Exploration
Morph Item
[ Artifice, Exploration, Crafting ]
Spend a good tale to replace 1 item keyword on an object you’re touching with a different item keyword.
Describe: Adapting to your weapon, bending the wood and metal, transforming it into an entirely new item.
Grappling Hook
[ Artifice, Exploration, Mobility ]
As a neutral tale, you can pull yourself to a far object, or pull it to you.
If you or your target is falling, you can use this instantly.
The movement is free, but if your path takes you through danger, or if your target is unwilling to come to you, avoiding the danger or defending yourself may still be an “uncertain action” requiring a dice roll.
Related Traits: Beast.Spin Web,Wall Climb, Martial Arts.Wall Jump, Psioniks:Telekinetics, Force Push
Identify and Improve
[ Artifice, Exploration, Identify, Loot, Bonus Trait ]
When you examine an item, spend a point of your signature resource to have the GM tell you all of its properties. Then, collaborate with the GM on 1 additional property or upgrade. Undergo a small (CL2-5) challenge to unlock the additional property or upgrade. The challenge length will depend on the upgrade potency.
Collaborate: how powerful can the upgrade be?
Describe: Conducting experiments. Breaking Crypto. Unlocking its mysteries.
Related Traits: Arcane.Detect Magic, Artifice.It’s dangerous to go alone…
Ingenuity
[ Artifice, Exploration, Utility, Crafting, Passive, Bolster ]
Your ability to fix, build, and deconstruct exceeds normal limits.
If the objective is represented by a single obstacle, you’re bolstered. If the objective is represented by a challenge, you automatically discover one shortcut.
Collaborate: What types of things do you specialize in? What are your limits? Is there anything you can’t fix?
Describe: Tinkering with gears, your expert craftsmanship, intuitively understanding how it works.
Mobile Fortress
[ Artifice, Exploration, Mount, Defense, Mobility ]
You may undergo a CL5 challenge to prepare a structure for mobility and get it moving.
The mobile structure affords you all the benefits of the original structure: accommodations, defenses, etc.
Describe: What does it look like? How does it move?
Backfire: It’s out of control, the entire structure breaks, there’s no steering, It sucks resources from the surrounding area, etc.
Perfect Replica
[ Artifice, Exploration, Crafting or Fraud ]
Spend a good tale to to create a duplicate of any item you can hold. The duplicate will not share any magical qualities of the original, but otherwise will look exactly the same.
Describe: crafting something with pure artistry, creating a magic replica.
Backfire: The item is temporary, You destroyed the original in the process, You’re the only one who thinks it’s a good copy.
Pocket Plane
[ Artifice, Exploration, Portable Hole ]
You have an extra-dimensional space, which is a miniature universe. Spend a good tale to open or close a portal to it.
Collaborate: What are its properties? How do you open the portal? Handheld Device? What happens if the device gets into the wrong hands? What lurks in inter-dimensional spaces? How do you keep them at bay?
Related Traits: Faith.Sanctuary, Beast.Strong Back
Prosthesis
[ Artifice, Exploration, Craft, Extra Limb ]
You can undergo a CL3 challenge to make a prosthetic limb. Spend a good tale to attach it to someone.
Prostheses compensate for physical disabilities and can remove permanent conditions, such as amputations. They can also give you extra limbs.
For each additional limb you have, up to four, you can carry one extra item. If they’re not carrying items, they can be pressed into service for grasping, climbing, etc. The GM should adjust the difficulty of your rolls to climb or catch accordingly.
Downside: Prosthetic limbs are difficult to conceal, and may affect how you’re treated by others, magically-powered prostheses may be affected by anti-magic effects.
Backfire: The prostheses is flawed, it takes a long time to make, you waste some materials, etc.
See also: Martial Arts.Leaping Tiger, Beast.Wall Climbing
Tool for the Job
[ Artifice, Exploration, Utility, Summon Item ]
Spend a good tale to instantly create any mundane, non-magical item. It persists as long as it’s in your presence. If necessary, the item can have up to two item keywords of your choosing.
Eg: Fancy, Melee Sword. Flat-head Screwdriver. Stepstool. Coiled silk rope. Brass tuning fork.
Describe: Conjuring a tool out of nothing, Creating a sword out of sunlight, Making a shield out of ice.
Backfire: You get the wrong item, It disappears at an unfortunate moment.
X-Ray Vision
[ Artifice, Exploration, Utility, Perception, Passive ]
You can see through all materials, except for 1 or 2. Collaborate with the GM on what those materials are.
Describe: Pulling on your sapphire lenses, entering a trance and seeing with the mind’s eye, touching a surface to make it disappear
Interaction
A Thing of Beauty
[ Artifice, Interaction, Captivate ]
Spend a good tale to make someone obsessed with a visible item worth at least 1 treasure. They gain an overwhelming desire to possess it, or they focus on it while ignoring their surroundings.
Backfire: They obsess over it in a way you didn’t expect, they also want something you didn’t expect, etc.
BEHOLD!
[ Artifice, Interaction, Deception ]
As a neutral tale, you can spend a point of your signature resource to make everyone believe that an item does something specific, even if it doesn’t. They cease to believe if they closely inspect the item.
Backfire: The effect is short-lived, they have an unexpected reaction, etc.
Master of Merchants
[ Artifice, Interaction, Utility, Fence ]
When you’re engaged in an exploration or interaction challenge to find a buyer or seller for rare artifacts, spend a signature resource to generate a bolster or shortcut opportunity.
Related Traits: Thievery.Black Market, Bardic Lore.Honeyed Words
Communicator
[ Artifice, Interaction, Crafting, Whisper/Sending ]
Complete a CL2 challenge to create one communicator.
Creatures with one of your communicators can communicate with each other over long distances.
Collaborate: What does the device look like? How do you encode your messages in case a device were to fall into the wrong hands?
Related Traits: Psionics.Telepathy
Crazy Enough to Work
[ Artifice, Interaction, Audacious ]
No plan survives encounter with the enemy, but your plan is so crazy, it just might work! Partly because you neglected to tell anyone about it.
Once per challenge, you may spend a signature resource to set up single die reroll for an unassisted, un-bolstered audacious action. Once set up, you may reroll one of the three twenty-sided dice for an over the top audacious action.
Roll20 dice notation: “/roll {{4d20dl1}dh2}+?{attribute?|0}”
Related Traits: Command.Just as Planned, Bardic Lore.Gambit Roulette.
Don’t Push that Button!
[ Artifice, Interaction, Command, Narrative Authority ]
As a neutral tale, you can spend 1 point of your signature resource and warn somebody not to do something. If they disregard your warning and do it anyways, even if the action would otherwise be harmless, you may tell a free Good or Bad Tale about how they made a terrible mistake.
It’s Dangerous to Go Alone, Take This
[ Artifice, Interaction, Crafting ]
You may undergo a CL2 challenge to “improve” an item.
Give the item a resource: Improved []. Mark it to receive a free bolster for any action relevant to the type of item.
You may spend a point of your signature resource or a good tale to restore the improved quality of the item (clear the mark to restore the bolster effect).
Describe: Slaving over a hot forge. “No one takes care of your items properly, what would they do without you?”
Related Traits: Artifice: Enchant, Ingenuity, Tool for the Job, Identify and Improve, Morph Item
Spark
[ Artifice, Interaction, Balanced, Minion, Gather Intel ]
Spend a good tale to give an item sentience. Collaborate with the GM on its personality, whether it can move, and how it communicates. Its initial disposition toward you is very good.
Spend another good tale to negotiate a contract with the item and treat it as a minion.
Backfire: It doesn’t like you as much as you hoped, the item is flawed or cursed, it’s less powerful, etc.
Empower: The item begins under contract, the item has traits and attributes worth half your XP.
Related Traits: Nature.Awaken, Beast.Awaken Beast
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