This section deals with the core of Character creation, the skills, talents, powers, and disadvantages. Some new additions to Hero Rules are here, and some new ways of looking at old powers and skills, plus some helpful notes on Disadvantages.

CONTENTS

• Skills
• Talents
• Powers
• Disadvantages

Although this is not a rule, it is a helpful reminder. Knowledge Skills are theoretical knowledge, information about a subject. Professional Skills are applied skills, things you can do. PS are useful for representing things not in the skill list, such as hunting and hacking. Science Skills are a sort of blending of these two skills, a theoretical and practical knowledge of a specific area of study. In general, the skills in the various published source books are acceptable in Kestrel Universe games.

LANGUAGES: The language chart on page 29 of the Champions rules is excessively complicated and not used. Fantasy Hero has a somewhat similar effect, however, see the Jolrhos Player's Handbook.

LITERACY: Some games require a literacy skill for the character to be able to read the language known. If the character spends the 1 point on literacy, he will be able to read all languages that he knows. Some languages may not have a written component, however.

PARAMEDIC: If the character makes a paramedic roll in a clean controlled environment, such as a hospital room, or a home, one body can be healed. This takes a minimum of five minutes to accomplish, and represents that minor wounds may be patched with a quick bandaging or simple rest. Like some other skills, Paramedic is not a single phase skill, it requires at least a turn to take affect. To use this skill in a single phase is a -3 roll, unless it is something simple, such as stopping bleeding.

PERKS: Keep in mind that given Fringe Benefits are not always the price listed, and all require GM approval.

CONTACTS AND FAVORS: In most campaigns, you may buy undefined favors and contacts. This represents contacts that the player's conception would include, but the campaign world is too poorly defined or too little is known to make exact choices. These may be defined in play with the GM's approval.

SKILL ENHANCERS: In general, no player may buy Skill Enhancers (such as Linguist) except in creating the character. These talents are part of the character's initial definition, and adding them does not make sense in most cases.

COMBAT SENSE: Like all talents that use a skill roll, the player may take it as a familiarity, paying 1 point for an 8- roll with the talent. If Danger Sense is bought as a familiarity, it may not have any additional sensitivity bought for the power, it is at the most basic level.

DANGER SENSE: Like all talents that use a skill roll, the player may take this as a familiarity, paying 1 point for an 8- roll with the talent.

In Heroic games, players may usually only take the intuitional version of Danger Sense at most.

DEEP COVER: Players do not permanently lose points when thier 'cover' is blown, they lose the ability to use that cover normally (although this may not be true in some campaigns, it may only be lost for the adventure or a short time thereafter). The points spent on Deep Cover can be spent on another cover or something else as if they were experience.

DEFENSE MANEUVER: Defense Maneuver IV (does not require a half phase action) does not require the previous 3 levels to be purchased, it is a modifier that can be applied to any level.

ENCUMBRANCE LEVELS (new): With this talent, the character is able to move about more freely and comfortably while bearing significant burdens. Each time an Encumbrance Level is purchased, it moves the level of encumbrance up one step on the chart. Each Encumbrance Level costs 5 points, and must receive GM approval.

EXAMPLE: Bronan is very strong and used to carrying his armor and weapons around, he buys 1 Encumbrance Level. Now at 100% weight encumbrance, he is considered to be at 75% weight, and the penalties for that amount of encumbrance apply instead. Bronan simply moves better and is less adversely affected by his encumbrance.

FAST DRAW: Like all talents that use a skill roll, the player may take this as a familiarity, paying 1 point for an 8- roll with the talent.

FIND WEAKNESS: Like all talents that use a skill roll, the player may take this as a familiarity, paying 1 point for an 8- roll with the talent.

Buying Find Weakness with Usable vs Others allows the player to give their find weakness effect to another player, they can point out the place to hit so another player can capitalize on the weakness discovered.

RAPID ATTACK: This Talent also negates the -1 OCV penalty for attacking after a half move.

UNIVERSAL TRANSLATOR: Universal Translator's cost is halved, 10 points for the base level of the talent.

Like all talents that use a skill roll, the player may take this as a familiarity, paying 1 point for an 8- roll with the talent. Universal Translators can be considered sort of a super Linguist skill enhancer, and as such, there are some other skill enhancers that can be expanded as well. Each of these works in the same fashion and cost as Universal Translator:

ABSORPTION: You do not gain anything from using an attack on yourself that you drain, unless the attack comes from a separate source, such as a weapon. In other words, you can't pound your fist into your hand and absorb the damage into your powers.

AID: Aids can be bought to grant powers that the character does not already have. This is different from Usable by or Usable against others in several key ways. Aid is instant, fades on its own, does not take up a spell slot to maintain, and is not affected by either range, line of sight, or even the caster being conscious. The cost and structure of Aid make it a very elegant and useful tool for building certain powers in a way that Usable on Others cannot simulate.

AUTOMATON: While characters may buy themselves with Automaton abilities, this is strictly up to the GM, all such attempts must be cleared by the GM. Defenses do NOT triple in price for automotons that take no stun, they have already paid a high price for this ability. Characters should be aware that while they may not need non resistant defenses to protect them from being stunned or knocked out, they do get these defenses against taking body from normal attacks, which often exceed body from killing attacks in superheroic games.

CHANGE ENVIRONMENT: Despite the statement in the rules, you most certainly can create beneficial effects, with GM approval, using this power.

CLAIRVOYANCE:
Retrocognition has a standard inexactitude that takes effect as a PER Roll of -1 per step up the time chart past one minute.

DARKNESS: Remember darkness is an active, aggressive, and very easy-to-perceive method of interfering with a sense.

DENSITY INCREASE: Ignore the part that says you shouldn't use Density Increase to simulate very dense characters. Buy them using the new 'innate' advantage and consider Mr Long to be having a bad day when he wrote this part.

DESOLIDIFICATION: Desolidified characters that fall into solids can slow their rate of descent by 1" per phase. They can then "walk" out of this material at 1" per phase as well.

DISPEL: This MAY be targeted against senses, unlike the rules state. This causes VERY temporary effects; if someone's hearing is dispelled they are deaf, but can hear again on the next segment they move, for example.

DUPLICATION: If a duplicate dies, it is not forever lost, thereby crippling the power until experience is spent to replace it. You recover the points of the lost duplicate at the rate you heal Body until it is 'healed' and available again.

ENHANCED SENSES: N-Ray is a Sense Modifier (it changes the way a sense works rather than being a separate sense of its own) and as such can be bought on any sense.

ENTANGLE: The limitation Deteriorates can be purchased on Entangle. This makes the Entangle gradually lose DEF until it no longer has effect. With a -1/4 limitation, the Entangle loses 1 DEF per turn. For each step down the time chart this is worth an additional -1/4 (so -1 DEF per phase is -1/2)

FORCE WALL:There is an advantage available for Force Wall that keeps it from collapsing when the defense is exceeded. Does Not Fail When Breached is a +1 advantage, and although an attack may exceed the defenses of the Force Wall and damage the target within, it does not cause the wall to collapse.

Another Advantage that can be bought is One-Way. This advantage makes the Force Wall have no effect from one direction (typicaly the one that the person who created it is standing on). Attacks pass through as if the wall is not there, someone can walk through it as if it is not there at all. One Way is a +1 advantage.

GROWTH: Ignore the part that says you shouldn't use Growth to simulate very large characters. Buy characters that cannot be forced to shrink with dispel (for example) using the new 'innate' advantage.

INSTANT CHANGE: This power is still in the game, as written in previous editions and not as a bizarre rule-breaking Transformation construct.

MENTAL DEFENSE: All characters have mental defense as a figured characteristic, such as PD or ED. If you have any Ego, you have EGO/5 in mental defense. NNDs that are blocked by mental defense must be defined at what level they are blocked at (for example, 10 mental defense), lest they be useless. See the note on NNDs below. Mental Defense is not a persistent power, in order to protect yourself from mental assault, one must turn on his Mental Defense.

MIND CONTROL: Single command mind controls automatically get the 'telepathic' advantage. In addition, some single command mind controls may be worth a greater limitation than the listed -1/2.

MISSILE DEFLECTION: Characters with missile deflection may attempt to block hand to hand attacks just as they may missile attacks using the increased CV bought for Missile Deflection. This is different than a normal block in that you may not attack first the next phase, but is in all other aspects similar.

SENSES: WIth GM Approval, Normal senses are not completely inherent, they can be dispelled, but not drained, transferred, Aided, and such. A dispelled sense is simply shut off until the character’s next action (usually their next phase, unless they have a held phase).

SHAPESHIFT: A PC with Shapeshift of an appropriate special effect (plasticity, for example) does not have to purchase Desolidification to be able to slide under normal doors, flow through air vents, etc. A good rule of thumb is that if such a character can fit his hand through a given opening, he can use his power to travel through it.

SHRINKING: Shrinking is used to buy characters that are always smaller, ignore the rule that says not to use this power. In addition, there is no "growth momentum" benefit to turning off Shrinking with an attack; buy that as an HTA with limitations if you want this to happen.

TELEKINESIS: This power has a minimum cost, it is one of the powers that can have effect at 0 or negative points. The minimum cost for Telekinesis is 1 point.

You can move an object each phase the distance of a Standing throw in a Half-Phase, or the distance of a Running throw in a Full Phase, using the TK strength. Telekinesis can also be used to 'fly' with, moving at 1" for each 5 STR over what is needed to lift the character, at half DCV.

Telekinesis bought with vs ECV (Psychokinesis) is innately invisible to all but the Mental Awareness sense group.

TRANSFER: If the transfer's benefit to the character is maxed, it still continues to drain the target if used, regardless of the rule written in the book. It simply doesn't benefit the character any further until the points fade away.

TRANSFORMATION: Mental transformation attacks may be bought without "vs ECV" on them - such transformation attacks function just like an ordinary one, but change the mind rather than the body of the target. If vs ECV is bought on the transform, it results in a power that attacks the EGO rather than BOD of the target, works vs Line of Sight, etc.

Transformation attacks can target all three elements (body, mind, and soul) without buying each one separately and linking them together. Simply buy one mode of transformation, then add each additional element for a +1/2 advantage

TUNNELING: Tunneling can be bought in separate elements, 2 points for each inch of Tunneling, and 3 points per defense tunneled through. This makes it easier to buy characters who can tunnel with incredible speed but only through weak substances, for example.

SUGGESTED NEW POWERS

This section is simply some thoughts on what new powers or changes should be done with the rules to result in a better game. Any such changes would require significant playtesting and examination to see how well they worked with the rules, but in my opinion they would fill some gaps or weaknesses in the present rules.

CURSE: This power is based upon Aid, and like that power grants points to a target. However, while Aid is beneficial, Curse gives drawbacks and detriments to the victim. Typically this takes the form of disadvantages such as vulnerabilities and succeptibilities. This power can also be used to grant "negative powers" to a victim, but only those that cannot be simulated with Drain. For example, lowering someone's Strength is a Drain, but giving them +3" knockback (anti-knockback resistance) would be possible with Curse. Curse costs 20 points per D6 and otherwise follows the same mechanics of Aid. Some thoughts on this power would have to include the rule that any disadvantage with a frequency modifier (such as Uncommon/Common/Very Common for Psychological Limitations and Vulnerabilities) would have to be paid for at the maximum value. No matter how rare an effect someone Curses, it's pretty unlikely they will give such a disadvantage that they will not then exploit, thus making the frequency less rare than it ordinarily would be.

GRANT: With this power, a character can be given new powers that they do not normally possess. It is identical in construction, cost, and restriction to Aid in every way, except one: Unlike other Adjustment powers, Grant cannot be bought with the Variable Effect advantage, because of the unbalanced results. This gives a "fire and forget" simple method of "buffing" characters that does not take up any "spell slots" or similar mechanic, does not end when a power framework changes, and fades on its own. This is a much smoother, more simple construct than the cumbersome, complicated "usable by others" mechanic.

IMPROVED TRANSFORMATION: As the Transform power is now designed, changing someone significantly and changing them totally are of virtually the same cost. Adding wings to someone and turning them into a salt shaker have the same cost, for widly different potency. Further, very trivial effects, such as turning someone's eyes blue instead of brown cost as much as knocking them out instantly, which seems a bit excessive. Thus, a new system would be useful, one with an additional level of granularity.

AGE: Great youth can also be taken as a disadvantage, a character below the age of 18 can take a 5 point disadvantage similar to age. This level of age has -5 Maximum STR, BOD, PRE, and EGO, and +3 Maximum COM and INT.

DEPENDENCE: Dependence is almost always better purchased as a Physical Limitation for such effects as addictions. Be aware, however, that Dependence does not have to do damage to the character, it can cause a flash, drain, mind control, etc.

PHYSICAL LIMITATION: Any limitation that cannot the character voluntarily or be forced to (by Mind Control, for example) change his mind over (such as illiterate or does not understand modern technology).

A very large, very small, or very dense character might have physical limitations associated with their status, but these are in addition to buying the powers as normal. The usual way to make someone in these states constantly is with Density Increase, Growth, and Shrinking, not with disadvantages etc.

PSYCHOLOGICAL LIMITATION: Any limitation that can be changed with a force of will is a psychological limitation.

SUSCEPTIBILITY: Be aware that Susceptibility does not have to do damage to the character, it can cause a flash, drain, mind control, etc.

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