3.1 More Special Abilities (d6)
(In addition to the list in Alien Encounters Sourcebook). These abilities are listed by point cost. They are merely a short listing of some options possible. Use them at your discretion. Create roleplaying rules for other options based on what you see here. This is not a totally inclusive list. Other ability may be created by the GM or the player.
| Point Cost | Special Ability |
|---|---|
| — | — |
| 2 | Gills. The character can breathe one form of liquid (probably water) as if it were oxygen. The character is immune to drowning in it. He gains +2 to all swimming rolls. |
| 2 | Gas Tolerance. The character can breathe one form of atmosphere not tolerated (and possibly lethal to) Humans and most other aliens. |
| — | — |
| 3 | Drug Tolerance. Most drugs do not affect the character nearly as badly as most of Humanity and aliens. Add +2 to any rolls made to fight off addiction. |
| — | — |
| 4 | Ambidextrous: The character is equally adept with her right or left hand. She may perform an action with each hand in the same round, and if they are the same action (say, firing two guns), she suffers no multi-action penalty. If she is performing two different actions (say, firing a gun with one hand and fighting with a lightsabre with the other), she takes the multi-action penalty as normal. |
| 4 | Animal Control 1: This gives the character the ability to control one particular species of animal, bird or insect. The character has an Animal Control Skill Dice of Perception +3D+1. He must generate an animal control versus the Perception or Willpower of the animal (more than one animal can be targeted, although this is a multiaction).A controlled animal will serve its master faithfully, even sacrificing itself on his behalf. The power has a range of sight or voice. Note: A swarm of insects counts as one animal, as does a school of small fish. Any creature with a Knowledge value of less than 1D should be considered an animal, unless the gamemaster says otherwise. |
| 4 | Animal Friendship: The character has a natural rapport with animals and receives a +1D to beast riding skill checks or other skill attempts involving animals (for instance, trying to Persuade an animal to keep it from attacking). |
| 4 | Armor-Defeating Attack: When attacking characters protected by armor with natural weapons (the character’s fists, claws, teeth, etc.) this ability negates the adds of that armor, +1D physical. The character must specify how the attack negates the armor: an acidic mist slips through any openings, metallic-based claws, etc. There should be at least one type of armor that is unaffected by this. |
| 4 | Blur: The character is able to appear indistinct to the naked eye or non-enhanced visual aids (binoculars, etc.) Commonly, a character with this Advantage will only be spotted out of the comer of the eye. This adds +1D to the character’s stealth or sneak skill, and may add to his dodge skill (gamemaster’s option). |
| 4 | Hardiness 1: The character can take damage better than normal. Even though the character actually suffers the normal wound levels, the character acts as if he had suffered one wound level less. This Advantage is also used when the character attempts to heal damage, in relation to his healing time and his healing difficulties. However, a character who takes enough wounds to be dead is still dead, regardless of how hardy he is. |
| 4 | Long Life Span: The character is “virtually immortal.” Often, this Advantage has an Advantage Flaw attached that governs what the character must do to maintain his life. The character should gain peripheral bonuses during game play because of his “longer outlook.” |
| 4 | Multiple Abilities 1: A character might have multiple “minor” abilities that are increased by a special ability. For example, a character could have “eyestalks” that give him a +1 bonus to perception attempts that would negate surprise, the ability to focus his ears on particular types of noises (+l bonus when listening for particular sounds), and fingers that are very sensitive to subdermal motion (+ 1 bonus to lock picking against safes with moving tumblers). All the bonuses should be fairly limited in their applications, pertaining to only specific uses of particular skills (like specializations do), but there can be several of them for each selection. A lot of discretion is left to the GM where this ability is concerned. |
| 4 | Natural Resistance: The character is highly resistant to disease and receives a +1D to Strength checks when determining whether he has contracted an illness or not. |
| 4 | Omnivorousness: The character is capable of gaining nourishment from any organic substance (though he is not immune to poisons). |
| 4 | Quick Draw : The character may draw a type of weapon (sword, rifle, blaster, and so forth) immediately, i.e., it does not count as an action during a combat round. Note that this factor applies only to a single weapon type. If you want your character to be able to quick draw a sword and a knife, he must take this factor twice (for a cumulative 6 points). |
| 4 | Sense of Direction 1: The character has a good sense of direction. He gains +1D to cartography rolls, planetary navigation rolls and perception rolls to find his way. |
| 4 | Silence: The character is able to move in complete silence. He gains +1D+2 to all stealth checks. |
| 4 | Speed: The character is extremely fast, adding +5 to one of his movement rates. |
| 4 | Stamina: The character has great stamina, and gains a +1D to Strength or Stamina checks when performing taxing physical tasks (i.e, holding one’s breath underwater for a long period, running a long distance, etc.) |
| 4 | Uncanny Aptitude 1: This “Special Ability’ is very similar to the “Addition Skill Pips” Advantage in that some sort of bizarre ability gives the character added bonuses to certain actions. However, instead of selecting a group of skills that the character gains a +l, +2, or +1D bonus to, the player and the gamemaster should work out circumstances where these abilities come into play. An example might be a character who gains a +2 bonus to all Dexterity-related skills when in sunlight. |
| 4 | Ventriloquism: The character has the ability to throw his voice up to three meters away. No skill roll is required to do this, but if it is part of a trick or a con attempt, he receives a +1D bonus. |
| 4 | Youthful Appearance: The character looks much younger than he or she actually is and receives a +2 to disguise attempts which involve posing as someone youthful (in general, characters should not look more than 10-15 years younger than they are, and gamemaster discretion and common sense should be the rule here). |
| — | — |
| 5 | Animal Control II: The same rules apply as for “Animal Control I,” save that the character can control up to three species of animal, bird or insect. |
| 5 | Attack Form Resistance (Environmental) – The character is highly resistant (STR+2D) to attacks involving extremes of heat or cold. |
| 5 | Attack Form Resistance (Interaction): The character is highly resistant to one specific type of non-physical attack or perception assault, such as trick, con, intimidation, interrogation, etc. (relevant Attribute +2D to resist attack). |
| 5 | Attack Form Resistance (Specific Weapon): Due to the nature of the Star Wars armor system, this ability is hard to rationalize. It can be only in special instances. The character is highly resistant (STR+2D) to physical damage from a particular type of normal weapons (Blasters, Slugthrowers, Melee Weapon, Natural Weapons). The player and the GM will have to work out the rationalization of the ability. This is not armor, it is simply a resistance. |
| 5 | Elasticity: The character can stretch, elongate, and compress his body, allowing him to double his height or smaller openings he could not normally fit through. The character’s extremities can be stretched to fit through a keyhole or tight crack. The character gains +1D to maneuver or Dexterity skills in relation to maneuvering in tight spaces, and pick pocket, lock pick and related skill attempts. |
| 5 | Fast Reactions: The character gains a +1D to his Perception or Dexterity when determining initiative. One time during a combat session, a character can take an extra action for free, however, must rest and do nothing the following round. |
| 5 | Fear: The character is capable of automatically (no skill roll required) provoking fear in those within a one meter radius around him (willpower total of 16 to resist). He gains a +2D to all intimidation and interrogation attacks against those so affected. This can be Force-related, or just a social stigma, like the wraith. If it is Force-related, the character must be Force sensitive. |
| 5 | Hardiness II: The rules for this are the same as for “Hardiness I”, except that the character gains an “extra” wound level. If the character would normally have just sustained a wound pushing him into the dead condition (but not further), the character slips into a coma. The character will not die unless he takes another wound, but he will not wake up without medical assistance or over time (he should be treated as if mortally wounded for the purposes of healing, etc. – but he does not die from accumulated shock damage, unlike other characters). |
| 5 | Hypnotism: This ability gives the character the hypnosis skill at at 4D, as a Natural Ability. |
| 5 | Immortality: The character is immortal. If he takes six wounds, he doesn’t die – he just drops unconscious. With the proper medical attention, the character will come out of his coma. Until healed, he remains in the coma, like Hardiness II. This is usually accompanied with “Regeneration,” because without it he’ll never heal from massive wounds. However, there should be one particular set of circumstances whereby the character will die forever. These sets of circumstances should not be too unusual – killed directly by Force, drowned, decapitated, etc. are all good examples. |
| 5 | Limited Regeneration. The character recovers from one stunned result of damage during every round of combat (if the character has taken any stunned results) regardless of activity. Effects include levels of stun from a stun weapon. |
| 5 | Multiple Abilities II: Similar to “Multiple Abilities I,” save that the modifiers can now be in the +2 to +1D range (gamemaster’s discretion). |
| 5 | Paralyzing Touch: Characters who choose this ability receive it at a value of their Knowledge +4D. The character must touch his target’s flesh for the ability to work – the target must generate a Confidence or willpower total equal to the attacker’s power value (which is modified by any result points of the attack). If he fails, he’s paralyzed, and will remain that way until he makes a successful Confidence or willpower total. He may attempt to do so once per round. Note: Characters who are heavily armored or covered will be harder to hit. In general, a normal unarmed combat attack is used to hit an average character’s skin (the difficulty of hitting bare skin is balanced out by the fact that no damage needs to be caused). A character wearing clothing or armor over most of his body would gain +2, +3 or more to his relevant defensive skill. |
| 5 | Uncanny Aptitude II: The mechanics are the same as ‘Uncanny Aptitude I,” but the pluses can go as high as +1D or even +1D+1. |
| — | — |
| 6 | **Life Drain: This ability allows the character to drain off Attribute points from his target. Characters by their nature will commonly target one particular set of Attributes, either physical (DEX, STR, MECH) or mental (PERC, KNOW, TECH). The player must specify in what manner the character drains these Attributes (biting the neck, hypnosis, mental linck, use of the Force, etc.). It should involve some sort of successful attack result (either physical or mental). When the character wishes to employ Life Drain, he makes an attack on his target using the relevant skill. The difference between the defnse roll and the attack roll (result points of the attack) are used to determine points drained. See below for Life Drain Table below. For every success level obtained, the character drains one pip off each of the target’s relevant Attributes. If any of the target’s Attributes ever go to zero, the target dies. If the target survives, he will regain one Attribute point (to each Attribute affected) every hour after the attack. The character performing the Life Drain gains on Attribute point per successful Life Drain that he can apply to any of his relevant Attributes (physical or mental). Life Drained Attributes go away at a rate of one per hour. |
| 6 | Regeneration: The character heals all stunn results and . The character also heals as fast as if he was wounded at one levels less. If the character is killed, he stays dead, however (unless he has “Immortality,” in which case he will heal as if incapacitated).—-**Some abilities stretch the imagination and the philosophy of the Star Wars universe (at least in my opinion), so these are marked as optional. |
Life Drain Table
| Result Points | Drain Success |
|---|---|
| 0 | Minimal |
| 1-3 | Solid |
| 4-8 | Good |
| 9-12 | Superior |
| 13-15 | Spectacular |
| 16-20 | Spectacular+ |
| 21+ | Spectacularly Heroic+ |
Other Abilities
| Cost | |
|---|---|
| 1-6 | Acute Abilities Acute Hearing: +1 pip per point to PER, Search/Conceal, Sneak |
| 1-3 | Attractive Appearance: +1 pip/Point Bargain, Con, Command, Seduction |
| 2 | Bilingual Background: +1D Alien Races, Cultures, Languages |
| 1-3 | Natural Lie Detector: +1D per point to PER to Detect Lies (vs target’s Willpower). +1 pip per point to Bargain, Con, and Gambling |
| 1-6 | Night Vision: +1 pip per point to Sneak. No Penalties for partial darkness |
| 1-3 | Observation: +1 pip per point to PER |