[Powers] Nearly Ordinary

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Donny Brook

Sucker Blow

This is for characters who interrupt a villian's long-winded threats with a sudden punch in the face, or for ninjas who slice open a throat while everyone just stands around staring, or for evil bosses who backhand an incompetent minion across the room before he can dodge, etc.

Eh, the key power there isn't hitting people, everyone can do that. The key power is that you have the ability to get people monologueing instead of paying attention to what you're doing, so you can achieve total surprise.

[Donny Brook]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Eh, the key power there isn't hitting people, everyone can do that. The key power is that you have the ability to get people monologueing instead of paying attention to what you're doing, so you can achieve total surprise.

Originally Posted by johndallman

At least the first of those doesn't require any kind of fancy powers. Just enough insight into Tactics skill to qualify for a default roll.

Or for characters without those capabilities, they can buy this power.

[Engurrand]

Originally Posted by Donny Brook

Dogged Pursuit

This power is for those chase scenes... snip snip

Interesting idea!

Map Maven and Serendipity are the go-to advantages for the protagonist who wants to be a relentless chase-machine. Serendipity aspected to chase scenes, or chases and escapes, is so common with cinematic protagonists that it might be part of their base template.

More Valuable Alive [5/10/22/34]
Getting out of trouble is your middle name. Of course, you're also an expert at getting into trouble, but it's surviving the trouble where you really shine. When enemies could kill you, they chose not too, usually because you're 'too valuable to kill.' They want to find out how much you know, before they deliver the final blow. Note that if you use lethal force against them, they may decide capture isn't worth it no matter how much you know, but that depends on how they feel about their minions.
At level one, any enemy who wants to kill you should roll on a 10 or less to see if they recognize your value as a critical intelligence source. If the roll succeeds, then make a new reaction roll at a +4.
At level two, there is no roll to recognize. Enemies always know you're more valuable alive.
At level three, once per capture something serendipitous happens; a bar on your window happens to be loose, a guard falls asleep, a knife is left in arms reach, or rebels break in to free their friends etc. You may make suggestions, but what occurs is always up to the GM. This is a contract that says you'll always get one chance to rescue yourself, usually in addition to whatever the GM had in mind for your party. If the party only gets one chance, then you're the one who gets it.
At level four, you're so good at being captured that you gain a special charm while behind bars or in chains. Any time you're a prisoner, you gain +4 to all reaction and influence rolls.
Reputation (Worth more alive) (Large group: Enemies, Frequency of recognition: sometimes.) [5] At level 2 increase Frequency of Recognition to Always. At level 3 add Serendipity aspected to escapes (-20%) [12]. At level 4 add Charisma 4 (accessibility (only while a prisoner) -40%) [12]

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Donny Brook

Or for characters without those capabilities, they can buy this power.

The power is only useful if the villains actually engage in monologue and are distracted enough by doing so that you can get away with stuff; thus, if you don't have the power to incite monologue, your proposed power doesn't actually do anything (alternately, it's rules exemption: can act during cut scenes).

[Donny Brook]

Originally Posted by Anthony

The power is only useful if the villains actually engage in monologue and are distracted enough by doing so that you can get away with stuff; thus, if you don't have the power to incite monologue, your proposed power doesn't actually do anything (alternately, it's rules exemption: can act during cut scenes).

Um, no. I think you read the first sentence of fluff text and stopped.
The power is the ability to go first in combat if you are using a Targetted Attack.

[Engurrand]

In the old Flash Gordon serial, old Flash would end nearly every episode appearing to fall off a cliff to his doom, or down a well, or into somebody's ray-gun burst. Of course, the next episode always started with the revelation it was the other guy who fell, or the ray-gun missed by just a hair and the hero fights on! This is familiar in modern media as the save-load superpower of video game characters who, if killed, only return with a slightly better understanding of the battlefield. You could model this with luck aspected to killing failures only, but for those looking for something more thorough:

Death Defying [10/20]
You have an extremely refined sense for guessing what might kill you. If you ever take a wound, fail a health check, or fail a roll (eg climbing) that will definitely result in your death, then it turns out to have been a flash of insight, all in your head, of how you will die if you try that. This isn't true precognition: you can't direct it, and you can't 'see the future' and will never predict the lottery. Your experience as a hero has given you a good professional sense for what is doom-risking and what isn't.

If you fail a roll that will result in your doom, the GM should rewind the scene as far back as they feel appropriate to give you a fighting chance to live (note that 'living' is different from 'winning.' this power offers no special protection of your chances to win, only to survive. You can still lose all your stuff, fail your mission, watch your friends die, see everything you love burn etc etc). This is usually a second or two, but could be minutes or even days at the GMs discretion. This power comes with two important limitations: One is Knowledge Gained and the other is Players Affected.
Knowledge Gained: Your ability to visualize future events is exclusively tied to tactics that lead to your doom. When you die, it turns out to have just been you visualizing one set of events that might lead to your doom. From this visualization, you may gain tactical information, but never strategic or plot information that you had no way of guessing. Your GM must take care to never rewind the scene past events or revelations you had no way to visualize. For example, if a villain reveals their secret plot and then kicks you off a cliff to your doom, then you could rewind to the cliff-top but you could not rewind to before the big reveal. You didn't know his secret plot, so it could not have been visualized in advance. Instead, you are stuck in the cliff's edge, knowing you are about to be kicked. This creates a series of natural 'save-points' at moments when you learn things. The visualization does reveal tactical information, however.
Players Affected: Since rewinding the scene requires all the players at the table to play along, the GM may require that every player take this power or none of them. If only one character has this power, then the other players must agree to allow it, and should try to do everything the same unless the character with this power has a chance to warn them off. The GM is under no such compulsion! Events may unfold a little differently from how you visualized.
At level one this is passive only; you must play things out to your doom and only then reveal it was just a visualization.
At level two, you may direct this power. When discussing your plans, or even in the midst of action, the GM will help you identify all the possible ways you might be doomed.
Level one: Precognition, (One Event (your doom) -40%, Passive Only -20%)
Level two: Common Sense