Base AP Cost: 5‐9 (See below) Activation Difficulty: Base Difficulty (6 – TL) + Control Modifiers Activation Time: Simple Action Requires a Power Source and Affinity Ability Be it through magical training, psychic ability, or divine will, you are able to control… something. It might be a specific type of energy or matter (such as fire, gravity, light, sound, earth or metal), slightly more abstract concepts like darkness or the weather, or broad ranging concepts like kinetic energy, the mind, or even reality itself.
The base AP cost of this Power depends on how prevalent the thing that you control is, which is referred to as your “domain”. The table below provides some examples of substances and costs.
AP Cost Sample Domains
5 Fire, Earth, Air, Metal, Computers, Weather, etc.
7 Kinetic Energy, Matter, the Mind, Space, etc.
9 Reality
When you use Control, you must first roll for activation. The activation difficulty is set by adding any modifiers you choose to the base difficulty. The base difficulty is equal to 6 – the campaign’s Tech‐Level. If the campaign uses multiple TLs, use the highest.
You may elect to increase the activation difficulty of this Power in exchange for more potent effects. Just remember that the higher the difficulty, the more stress you are likely to take. Also, if you fail to meet the base difficulty on an activation roll (the difficulty before any increases are added), not only do you suffer the stress you would normally suffer, but your attempt to use your Control is actually disrupted and you can’t use it this round.
For example, let’s say your base activation difficulty is 3, and you want to increase the activation difficulty to 6 in exchange for a more powerful effect. If you roll an 8, you activate your Control and suffer no stress. If you roll a 4, you can still use your Control but suffer 2 points of stress. If you roll a 1, you suffer 5 points of stress and your Control fails to activate altogether. Also remember that the ability to control your domain does not necessarily allow you to create things from nothing. To control metal, there must be metal nearby for you to control. This is why the domains that are effectively everywhere are more expensive.
The following sections describe how Control can be used to perform some common actions:
Attack
Depending on your domain and your surroundings, you may be able to use your control over your domain to make attacks. For example, you might use your control over fire to turn a cigarette lighter into a flame thrower, or control of the mind to unleash a devastating psychic barrage.
To resolve any attack using your domain, you must first determine what type of attack you are performing (physical or mental). Then decide on the attack’s Weapon Rating. The WR is then added to the activation difficulty to use Control.
Once activated, roll your Affinity to attack, and your target may defend with whichever Ability seems most appropriate. Generally Agility is used to solid objects or bursts of energy, Endurance is used to fight off direct assaults on the body such as disease, poison, radiation, etc., and Willpower is used to resist attacks against the mind.
Ranged attacks generally have a range rating equal to your Affinity, though if your attack instead requires you to be in the same zone as your target, reduce the activation difficulty by ‐1.
An attack comes and goes in an instant, requiring only a simple action to activate and make the attack roll.
Area of Effect: You may elect to attack everyone inside a zone instead of a single target. When doing so, increase the activation difficulty of this use of Control by +4. In addition, instead of adding a Weapon Rating, you add an Explosive Rating. And as with a Weapon Rating, you add your Explosive Rating to the activation difficulty to use Control in this manner.
Persistent Attack: By increasing the activation difficulty by +4, your attack deals damage over time, such as with a slow burning acid. If you hit an opponent with your attack and he suffers stress, each additional round he suffers an amount of stress equal to the amount he suffered on the previous round ‐3. Once the amount of stress he suffers drops to 0, the attack has ended.
So if your opponent suffers 7 points of stress with the initial attack, he’d suffer 4 the next round, then 1, then 0.
Ignore Armor: If you attack using Control in such a way that renders your target’s Armor Rating useless (such as a mental attack), increase the activation difficulty of this use of Control by an amount equal to the setting’s Tech‐Level. If your setting uses multiple TLs, use the highest.
Defense
Often times your use of Control may allow you to roll your Affinity Ability to defend instead of one of your mundane Abilities. For example, you may be able to divert incoming projectiles with a current of air (substitute your Affinity instead of dodging with Agility), or disrupt a telepathic control spell with your own mastery of mind magic (substitute Affinity for Willpower). To do this, you must roll to activate your Control. This is a free action, and you use your base difficulty. Once activated, you may use your Affinity Ability instead of your normal Ability to for a single defensive roll that turn. Also, for every +2 by which you elect to increase your activation difficulty, your Affinity is considered +1 higher for the purposes of that defense roll. Block This is any attempt to hamper or stop another action from happening with Control. It works very much like a normal block action (pg. 260), but uses your Affinity Ability.
Once activated, you can hold a block action as long as you concentrate on holding it. Concentrating on a block is a supplemental action that requires you to suffer a ‐2 penalty on all other actions (pg. 261).
A block action will only last for a round unless held with concentration. Extended Coverage: By increasing the activation difficulty by +2, you can extend your block to cover another person instead of yourself. For every additional +2 added, your block covers another person (which can include yourself). You block may cover an entire zone by increasing the activation difficulty by +3. Protection: By rolling against your base activation difficulty, you may create some sort of armor or shield for yourself. This protection lasts for one round and provides an Armor Rating equal to your TL. You may further increase the AR by +1 for every +1 by which you increase the activation difficulty of this use of Control.
Extended Duration: You may change the duration of your block or protection to last the duration of the scene by spending a Fate Point.
Perform Maneuver
Add +2 to the activation difficulty whenever you want to use your control of your domain to place an Aspect on yourself, a target or a zone. Though for especially difficult or complex Maneuvers, the GM may add more penalties.