Re: New perks
 

That's what makes this sort of thing just a perk. A sudden change in when the Great Temple will become a ruin, or who will rule your country two centuries from now, to something peculiar strongly indicates something adventure-worthy is happening, which is worth knowing, but it doesn't tell you much about [what].

Re: New perks
 

So, that's when they invent the $1 immortality pill?

Re: New perks
 

Luck allows you to roll 3 times and take the best result. If your skill is below 3, it would either be outright unusable (on account of the GM not allowing a roll, which is the RAW) or only serve to make you less likely to roll a critical failure (if the GM is using a houserule that allows for a roll but doesn't allow you to succeed, the roll is just a check of "how badly do you fail").

Re: New perks
 

So you'd have three chances to roll a crit success. Still no great odds, only about 1.5% chance of making the impossible shot, but there we are. It is just a Perk, after all.

Or just read "Luck" not as that specific advantage, but as use of some similar rule that gives players meta ability over the dice result -- Buying Successes, say. So, the player that finds the Perk attractive can hang on to a CP or three just to let them make the impossible shot, should that situation ever actually come up in game.

Ignoring the "not being allowed to roll" rule is already covered by the Perk. Otherwise, there's no point in even having the discussion. To argue that it's not possible is quite easy -- there's no such rule literally permitting this in RAW; done, end of discussion. The point of making a new Perk is to try to invent a rule that _does_ allow this to happen.

Re: New perks
 

If the GM is ignoring the "no rolls below skill 3" hopefully they aren't ignoring "3 and 4 are always successes/critical successes" on pgs 343 and 347.



My House Rule ignores "cannot roll if effective skill drops below 3", but I don't allow "self imposed penalties"* to be applied in those cases, and I always treat 3 as critical success and 4 as regular success.


* So no Deceptive Attack, no Hit Location choices (unless it's the only attack they can make), etc. Positional penalties, Distance, Speed, Manuever choices, those aren't really what I call 'choices" for this purpose.

But I run ACTION! so over the top nonsense "1-in-1000 chances" has it's place at my table.

Re: New perks
 

Ooh, do you think the generous billionaire who preordered a dose for everybody subcontracted with Santa Claus to deliver to everyone that fast? I've always wanted a closer look at his reindeer and he doesn't stop at my house anymore for Christmas....

Re: New perks
 

As I read it, it means you have a bare chance of getting a clear shot at a target regardless of conditions. For example, on a foggy day you will know that the fog will lift just enough in a particular location that you can make a long-ranged sniper shot. Or, if you're you're a space fighter pilot, you know that there's this one unshielded reactor vent that leads directly to the main reactor. A hit there might just destroy your target, as long as you can get through the point defense weapons and enemy fighters and make tricky high-speed torpedo attack.

Alternatively, or additionally, the perk allows you to take shots where your effective skill is less than three or where the weapon's inherent accuracy limits normally make the shot impossible. That allows you to roll the dice, multiple times if you have Luck, and hope for that magic roll of 3.

Each of these is a weak perk on its own, but together they might have some appeal.

That's the way I'd do it. In the right sort of campaign, I might even let a player abuse the hell out of the Perk as long as they can pay for the ensuing benefits - one way or the other. ("O.K., you're now Filthy Rich, but until you come up with the CP to pay for it you also have -50 points of Enemies in the form of the Vas Vegas Mob, the IRS, and a Cabal of Mammon Cultists who want your power for themselves.")

Re: New perks
 

Tell me that isn't a great adventure hook!

Re: New perks
 

Easier to be healed/repaired.

Anyone attempting to heal/repair you gets a bonus to their respective skill to do so.

How much bonus makes sense, +1 or +2?

Re: New perks
 

Yeah, no. A perk can't just give a universal bonus to a skill; it needs to be limited in some way. Just having a prerequisite is not a limitation.

Re: New perks
 

Tactics rolls specifically to do whatever pre-combat (mapped or unmapped) option you are using would be limited enough for a perk, as would Strategy only for the Strategy roll in Mass Combat.

Although one might just give +2 to those anyway for Danger Sense or Intuition for Abilities Enhancing Skills, which therefore if you aren't doing this, this perk is actually an Extra Option, and should give +2 as well.

Re: New perks
 

Great Body, I would replace with Classic Features: Hunk/Amazon. The Tactics one, I might counteroffer with:

Have a plan to kill everyone you meet
When making Tactics/Strategy rolls to deal with a foe you were aware of but did not expect to have to fight, you never suffer penalties for not having sufficient time to come up with a plan.

Re: New perks
 

That looks good. Of course, its usefulness depends on whether the GM would normally bother to give penalties for unplanned fights.

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Irrelevant Background: Sure, you were abducted by aliens who downloaded advanced knowledge into your brain as an experiment before releasing you into 1950's Fresno. But the knowledge they gave you was, effectively, a doctorate in TL 7 mechanical engineering. Yes, it's an impressive skill, but anyone else could have gotten it the regular way.

Remarkable Feature: You have peculiar facial features, hair, or posture which is difficult for makeup or costumes to replicate. People who know you well have +1 to determine if someone is impersonating you if recognizing the feature would plausibly help.

Cuppa: Provided some amount of some approximation of tea, you can make a serviceable cup without any apparent resources or heat source.

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Subculture Dress: You gain the benefits of Fashion Sense, but only when dealing with (and wearing the fashions of) one specific subculture. Define the subculture and rename the perk suitably. For example, Cool Leather Jacket for bikers.

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Cosmically Cool
You can apply the benefits of one trait which gives a reaction bonus to one group which isn't normally affected by it, such as constructs, gods, non-sapient animals or utterly alien entities. You must specify the trait and the group affected when you buy this perk. You may rename it as appropriate, like "Sexy to Aliens" or "God-like Fashion Sense".

Effectively, it's a variant on "Good With X" but with the requirement that you buy a specific advantage and a cheap version of the Cosmic enhancement. It's effects are narrower in scope than the Universal enhancement to Appearance.

Impressive Item
You own one item which gives you a +1 bonus to Reaction rolls from one specific group of people when you carry, use or wear it. You must specify the object and the group when you buy this perk. You may rename it as appropriate, like "Power Suit" (e.g., a suit which elicits a +1 Reaction Bonus from high-status people) or "Mean-Looking Gun" (A pistol that gives +1 to reactions from people who use pistols professionally). It can be combined with other traits which affect a single item, such as Signature Gear or Weapon Bond. At the GM's option, it can be leveled, giving increased reaction bonuses.

Sort of like the Subculture Dress perk, above, but a bit more generic. It also allows otherwise low-cost items to give you the social benefits for one level of Styling without the extra expense. Good for people who gain favorable reactions based not on who they are, but what they're packing - like the One Ring, The Sword In The Stone, or The Elder Wand (from the Harry Potter Books).

Stay Apparatus
Your leg and body structure allows you to remain on your feet within minimal effort. As long as you remain relatively still, you don't lose any extra FP when standing on your feet for prolonged periods of time. You can also can sleep on your feet. You still fall down if knocked Unconscious, however, and must roll to avoid Knockdown normally if Shocked, Slammed or Stunned. Many animals have this perk.

Unhealing Attack
Wounds you inflict with one natural attack (e.g., bite, claws or striker) resist natural healing. Anyone who suffers injury from your attack must roll vs. HT-2 or suffer the effects of Slow Healing, but only to heal lost HP associated with that wound. Victims with Slow Healing heal the wound as if they had Very Slow Healing, while those with Very Slow Healing can’t heal it at all. Those with levels of Rapid Healing or Regeneration have their healing rate reduced by one step (e.g., Rapid Healing becomes normal healing). A critical failure means that the healing rate is reduced by two steps, to a minimum of Unhealing. When you buy this perk, you must specify some method of supernatural or superscience healing which allows the injury to heal at the normal rate. In any case, spells and powers which heal HP restore lost HP from the injury normally.

Re: New perks
 

Perfect Date
When you have the opportunity to suggest a date or outing, you always pick something that sounds appealing. This is usually worth a +1 reaction in the right circumstances.


Belt-Tuck
Pick one Fast-Draw skill. Your weapon is always convenient to fast-draw, effectively, this is Accessory (holster).


Hack and Parry

Pick either Axe/Mace or Two-Handed Axe-Mace. Ignore U in the parry column when using this skill. Take this perk twice for both.


Iron Gale

Treat your ST as 1 higher for the purposes of whether a melee weapon becomes unready when you attack with it. Treat it as 2 higher if you attack with two hands.


Coyote Ugly

You can ignore up to 2 points of Appearance penalties to your Sex Appeal skill. It's up to you to create the opportunity, but if you can get close to someone, you can offer what's on their mind.


-Anizer

You are good at inventing things with an extremely specific focus: rayguns, unusual boomerangs, motorcycle accessories, etc. You get +2 on skill rolls related to inventing things of that nature, including gadgeteering rolls. Should it come up, you get +1 on relevant Weird Science rolls.

Re: New perks
 

Underestimated

Basically, if they don't have any reason to think otherwise, you're underestimated. This has downsides, and in real life this would be a Quirk. However, in an adventure scenario, like RPGs this is an advantage.

Think of a ship's cook who happens to be a highly decorated combat veteran with a bad attitude towards authority. The average crook would assume he's a pushover because "he's just a cook." The brilliant academic who can't play the political games to gain tenure, the mousey young woman who is a brilliant performer, the teenager in the heavy metal band t-shirt who is an engineering genius, are all examples of this pattern.

This perk is about the advantage of surprise. Once the surprise happens a few times the perk will be lost. Similarly, in a very realistic campaign where this is a Quirk, it is also lost after a couple of surprise reveals. But the surprise reveals are less likely to happen.

Re: New perks
 

This is too good for a Perk. This is something more like a Hard Technique that's built on Defensive Attack, with -4 to hit for +2 (or +1/die) to damage (negating the damage penalty), for [5] to buy it up to full (arguably [6] for Unique Technique, but I'd be inclined to ignore that). And like your Perk, as a Technique it would be per-skill (although unlike the Perk, it would be available to other skills).

Re: New perks
 

Is it? Dungeon Fantasy RPG lets you eliminate the problem with cash. Dwarven-made. Is there an enchantment in Magic that does this, as well?

And as for the core book, the most efficient way of dealing with this problem is simply to choose a different weapon, or rely on a different method of defense. Your solution does not cost favorably compared to simply wearing heavy mail, or using a two-handed sword.

You could also wield two one-handed axes with this property, and take Off-Hand Weapon Training. Voila. Or save your point and fight axe and main-gauche.

Like many Perks, this exists simply to allow a character to do something in a certain way, that most characters do effortlessly in a standard way.

Re: New perks
 

There are also a number of Power Ups in Dungeon Fantasy which are actually Techniques purchased at the one point level.

A compromise might be to allow an Axe/Mace or Two-Handed Axe/Mace parry following an attack at -3 to Parry.

Re: New perks
 

Why would anyone ever take or use that?

Re: New perks
 

In 3e there unequivocally was. From the beginning a weapon Enchanted with Quick draw never became Unready. Later, Graceful Weapon provided the "never Unready" part without drawing itself. There were also ST levels where you didn't have to re-Ready weapons after attacking with them.

4e weakened distinctions about Ready/Unready and Parry U is this weird thing where your weapon doesn't become "Unready", it just can't be used to Parry after attacking.

Eventually Kromm just said to use the 3e Enchntments to fix Parry U.

Re: New perks
 

I don't see any reason why the perk would be lost with new people who have never heard of you.

Re: New perks
 

Valid, both gaining a reputation, with or without that being the intention, would cancel the Perk.

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Signature Compass: With a second's concentration, the person with this perk knows the direction of their Signature Gear.

Re: New perks
 

Speed Boost! [Perk] Altered Time Rate 1 [100], Costs FP (20 FP) [-100%], Nuisance Effect (Ravenous Hunger) [-5%], Nuisance Effect (Parched) [-5%], Smaller Duration (10 seconds, not a minute of activation time) [-40%] This is perk level Altered Time Rate. You basically get 10 seconds to finish your enemies, or else you pass out and if you wake up, you need food and water immediately. IT COSTS 20 FP for the reason of forcing you on the brink of exhaustion after you finish your speed boost. If you have sufficient FP, you may keep going with your speed boost by spending 10 FP per extra 10 seconds, and because it spends the FP after you finish the 10 seconds, you may have 12 FP, use 20 FP putting you at -8, then succeed your HT roll to stay conscious, and spend ANOTHER 10 FP to speed boost, and then automatically pass out afterwards as you'd have -1xFP.

Re: New perks
 

Allowing 10 seconds of ATR for one point seems potentially abusive, even if you pass out afterwards. As long as you kill your enemies, escape to safety or have allies to guard your body, it doesn't matter how long you're unconscious. There's a reason that the value of all limitations can only give a maximum -80% point reduction.

OTOH, only allowing the speed boost for one second, only allowing it vs. a rarely encountered type of foe or under rare circumstances (e.g., by the light of the full moon), converting that FP loss to HP loss (putting an average human at -HP and requiring a roll to avoid Death) or two or more of the above might nerf the power to the point that it's a reasonable perk.

A reworked version of this idea could be a really fun "finishing attack" for the right sort of character, although it's the sort of perk that the GM should think about very carefully before they allow a PC to have it.

Re: New perks
 

Yeah, I think that's more in the "super powers that cost less than 10 points" category than a Perk.

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This would render most characters useless as soon as they use it - Costs FP isn't something you pay after the first minute (10 seconds in this case), it's something you pay immediately and then it lasts for a minute (10 seconds in this case). Paying after the fact is instead Backlash, and is worth half as much as a Limitation, so -50% here. At net -100%, a Perk is probably too low of a cost (it was potentially justifiable at -150%*). You might be able to get it back down by tossing Hazard onto some of the FP cost to make it count as starvation or dehydration in place of those Nuisance Effects.

*An idea I've had in the past is to make the -80% not be a hard cap. Instead, for abilities with net Limitations beyond -80%, you reduce them to 1/5 cost and add +80%; the remaining Limitation applies to the 1/5 cost. So in this case, at -150% you're looking at dropping to [20] initially with -70% left over, which in turn becomes [7] (at -100%, you're instead looking at . Turning something worth [100] would thus require -235% net Limitation.

Re: New perks
 

I think Cosmic (Rule-exemption: no Limitation cap)( +50%) is a legit option.

Note that in Power-ups: Limitations, the author suggests the -80% limitation is within GM discretion to vary if s/he thinks the result is still reasonable.

Re: New perks
 

Someone had Lactose Intolerance in the Quirks thread, for times and places where tolerance was the norm. That implies for most times and places, you can have this perk:
Lactose Tolerance: Unlike most adults of your background, you can eat dairy products comfortably.

Re: New perks
 

Which is a variant of Immunity (Single Poison) or equivalent to Reduced Consumption 1 (Cast-Iron Stomach).

More generally, the ability to eat "raw" food products that others of your kind can't consume unless they're processed is a Perk. Sort of the opposite of the Restricted Diet disadvantage.

Re: New perks
 

I don't think this is how it should work. There's a reason the value of literacy stopped being context-dependent in 4e.

Re: New perks
 

Where would a lactose tolerant person even get dairy if they're such a rarity in the setting?

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There are dairy products that are low in lactose, like yogurt and cheese.

Re: New perks
 

As a lactose-intolerant person, most cheeses aren't low enough to avoid problems. The exceptions are Emmental and other cheeses with interior bubbles. Those have an extra phase of bacterial processing that sweeps up all the lactose.

Re: New perks
 

Those are the cheeses I would expect to find in a lactose-intolerant population. And of course, lactose intolerance isn't an on-or-off switch. You can have different levels of lactase production.

Apparently butter is also low in lactose, which makes sense.

Re: New perks
 

You could have a situation where cattle have recently been introduced as livestock - perhaps from a foreign nation. They can be useful for traction as well as meat, which a lactose-intolerant culture could make use of right away, and as noted there are dairy products that lack sufficient levels of lactose to cause problems. A character with the Lactose Tolerant Perk can drink milk straight without it needing to be processed first, so that's an additional potentially-cheaper source of calories if they're near a farm (or possibly if trading with merchants from that lactose-tolerant nation, provided there are means available to stop the milk from spoiling too quickly).

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Which is pretty much how the trait became prevalent in parts of the world.

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Perfect Comeback

You always have the perfect comeback to any insult.

Re: New perks
 

And if you want game mechanics for it, say that it gives a +2 bonus to Fast Talk, but only to counter insults.

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Improvised Buckler: You can treat any improvised weapon with a large and flat striking surface (such as a frypan or broom) as a DB 0 buckler. It takes a Ready maneuver to switch grip between holding it as a buckler and holding it as a weapon. Form Mastery, if taken, provides the usual benefits.

Run, Gun, and Hide: You may attempt to Disappear (Action Exploits p37) by taking a Move & Attack (instead of a Move) maneuver as long as you enter cover more than 4 yards away from where you attacked. Your Vanish attempt does not take the additional -2 penalty for DX rolls made during a Move & Attack.

Large and In Charge: You must have SM +1 or more to take this perk. You never suffer the SM based penalty to Intimidation for intimidating someone with a higher SM than you, and someone with a higher SM than you never gets the SM based bonus to Intimidate when intimidating you.

Larger and Charger: You must have SM +1 or more to take this perk. You know some tricks to chase down smaller prey. When you make a slam attack against a foe with an SM lower than yours, you can take an additional -2 penalty to hit in order to attempt a slam when you are adjacent to your foe without needing to enter the hex.

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Familiar Face: Anyone who sees you has the uncanny feeling that they know you. They will be very suggestible to suggestions that you are someone famous, powerful, or someone who had personal ties to them in the past although not any real person whose face they clearly remember.

Re: New perks
 

I think no more than +1 if that would include all magicks such as de-cursing, clearing one's head, etc.

Note this is a corollary to one of the main uses of other players having the "Team Player" Advantage which gives +1 to all rolls to help teammates... (and a handy medic/tech/mage would have a Talent which would give +1 t or more to their rolls in addition...)
:)

Re: New perks
 

To me this feels more like a Quirk than a Perk. Unless such abductions were really common you would have been brought to a military base, probed by your government until they are bored with you, and you are likely on a watch list after that with them checking up on you infrequently in case you disappear again. If you do anything "Adventury" they might pay a house call... It is possible they might arrange a job for you to keep probing your "knowledge" and put it to use for a non-secret government project. At that having your mind invaded wouild also likely preclude you getting most government clearances... Another Quirk? : )

Quirk: Mind-probed
You received a mind probe/mind control incident in the past by a hostile power so Big Brother does not trust you anymore. You cannot achieve any more than the lowest security clearnances (which may also limit Rank).

Re: New perks
 

That would be a good argument for "Secret." But as for the perk, I saw it manly as a perk level unusual background.

Re: New perks
 

Unusual Background lets you have traits/items that aren't normally available in the campaign, but the description here is that it gives you access to something that is normally available, you just got there a different way than normal.

Of course, depending on the GM, this may still have utility. A GM might require a more in-depth treatment of skills and traits to mesh with a character's backstory than usual. So someone with the equivalent of a PhD would need to have Area Knowledge for the college(s) they went to in addition to adhering to a general "College-Educated" metatrait (which that Area Knowledge could certainly be part of, in addition to skills like Research, Hobby Skill (Testing*), etc) and probably not being allowed to have certain Disadvantages (Illiteracy and Innumerate come to mind), and this Perk could allow you to bypass those restrictions. So if you want a character who has spent basically their entire life - from childhood on - living on the streets, but who also has expert-level knowledge in some field that normally calls for advanced education (engineering, medicine, etc), a Perk like this could work well for you.

*I don't have Social Engineering: Back to School to see if something like this is in there (I don't see anything like this in the index), but test-taking kinda is its own skill. Knowledge of the subject matter is certainly important, particularly for well-made tests, but lack of that skill can be damaging. Offhand, I'd say that taking a typical exam requires a roll against the skill (or its default for those who lack it), automatically using it as a complementary skill roll.

Re: New perks
 

I think that's a separate trait. And arguably a feature as a Taboo Trait, though it might be an important enough of one to rate a quirk assuming you have no other particular disqualifications. It's a more generic one than having been mind probed too. Your ex-girlfriend is a known spy, or that time you got passed out drunk on liberty in Freedonia and vanished for 24 hours until your ship got notified to pick you up from the drunk tank across the street from the Ministry of Freedom and Virtue...