Here are the five Roles, which replace the basic Action Roleplaying roles as described on page 122. Each has a handful of Talents. These Talents work differently than Action Roleplaying by default. Each has two effects: a normal version and a “maxed” version. The normal ver-sion is free to use. The maxed verver-sion costs a Plot Point to activate.
CoMMAnder
The Commander Role is in charge of keeping the squad together. He acts as leader, as diplomat, and as a moral hub for the group. Use Commander any time you’re deal-ing with others through persuasion or threats, or when you’re dealing with squad mates or developing tactics. A primary Commander should always be ready to delegate, diffuse, and decide.
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CoMMAnder tALents FIRST AID
Your Commander has constant eyes on the battlefield, and can intervene when his troops are in danger.
Normal: When a squad mate is making a roll that would lead to her being knocked out, she can spend a Plot Point to add your Commander die, if you’re present.
Maxed: Spend a Plot Point to return a squad mate to play when she’s been knocked out.
LEGENDARY
Your Commander is the stuff of war stories. He’s walked close to death many times, and will always come back for more.
Normal: Once per scene, when you are knocked out, gain a Plot Point.
Maxed: Spend a Plot Point when facing death. Return from the brink at a dramatically appropriate time, and count an additional die in your next roll.
MOTIVATION
Your Commander is a master of rousing speeches, and knowing just the right thing to keep his squad fighting at its level best.
Normal: Give a squad mate one of your Plot Points with a motivating speech or a bit of perspective.
Maxed: Spend a Plot Point to allow a squad mate to count an additional die in any challenge and add your Commander die to that roll.
engineer
The Engineer Role takes charge of the team’s tech needs.
She hacks security systems, scrambles communications devices, and takes control of enemy robotics. Any time you’re dealing with tech or gear, Engineer is the Role to use.
engineer tALents DRONE
Your Engineer can summon forth a short-lived drone to assist her in minor combat, investigative, and other simple tasks. When taking this Talent, choose a Distinction that applies to your drones. You can change this up between missions. You can only have one active drone at a time;
creating a new drone makes the previous disappear.
Normal: You can summon a drone at any time. It uses 2d6 in any actions, as well as its Distinction.
Maxed: Spend a Plot Point to create an overcharged drone. It uses d6 and d10 in any actions, as well as its Distinction. As well, in a combat action, you can sacrifice the drone to add a third die to its total.
ENERGY SHIELDS
Your Engineer carries a portable energy shield generator.
At any time, she can have a shield on herself or one of her squad mates. She can change the recipient with a minute of reprogramming.
Normal: Add d6 to any rolls that would benefit from a shield.
Maxed: Spend a Plot Point. The shield’s recipient denies his enemy its highest die type before rolling. However, maxed shields are prone to glitches. Give a Complication to reflect a glitch.
PULSE GRENADE
Your Engineer can rig a grenade to release an electromag-netic pulse that only affects enemy frequencies.
Normal: Remove the highest die from your next pool to step down one die in an enemy’s next roll.
Maxed: Spend a Plot Point to remove a die from an enemy’s pool before he rolls.
PsYCHiC
Most Cold Fusion characters wield guns against the coming onslaught. Your character wields his mind as a weapon. He can control minds, throw objects, and even shake the ground with the force of his psychic power.
Unless your character has d8 or higher in the Psychic Role, he cannot use psychic abilities. However, the Psychic Role is the defense for any psychic powers.
PsYCHiC tALents PSYCHIC SHIELDING
Your Psychic knows how to defend himself and others with his psychic abilities. He’s always somewhat resistant to mental effects, but he can create a force shield with effort.
Normal: Add a d8 in any roll where your character is defending himself against mental or emotional influence.
He can shake the Urging Talent with a single Plot Point.
Maxed: Spend a Plot Point to build a psychic shield around your squad, defending them against fast-moving projectiles. Give one of them a d8 to any roll to defend against ranged attacks.
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PSYCHOKINESIS
Your Psychic can lift and throw things with his mind. With effort, he can throw them with the force of a deadly weapon.
Normal: Your character can do things with his mind that he could usually do with his hands. He can lift. He can throw. He can manipulate.
Maxed: He throws with force. Spend a Plot Point. Choose a gun Signature Asset. Use your Psychic die for that gun type any time your character throws a person or thing.
URGING
Your Psychic bends the minds and wills of his targets, and forces them to act the way he chooses. This Talent only works on living, thinking creatures.
Normal: If you knock out an opponent, you can choose to make her do one simple thing for you. This must be accomplished in the same scene, and only one action.
Maxed: Spend a Plot Point to take control of a knocked out subject for the scene. Your character must remain in constant concentration while controlling another. The subject may give you two Plot Points to end the effect.
If she does so, she’s immune to this effect for the rest of the Mission.
sniPer
The Sniper stays back in the shadows, removing her en-emies quickly and silently. She’s an expert at both starting fights, and ending them. Any time your character has to use espionage to solve problems, or go unseen, use the Sniper Role.
sniPer tALents CLOAKING FIELD
With a little tech, and a lot of skill, your Sniper can move throughout the battlefield without being seen.
Normal: Until your character engages in combat, she can go uninhibited and unnoticed by anything without advance scanning technology or psychic abilities. This Talent must be activated when nobody can see her.
Maxed: Spend a Plot Point to engage the cloaking field in plain sight.
KILL SHOT
Your Sniper is an expert at hitting at the right place, at the right time, to maximize the damage caused. She has to take a moment to aim for Kill Shot to work.
Normal: You can reroll a single die on a roll to shoot an opponent. You have to take the second total.
Maxed: Spend a Plot Point to reroll any number of dice in a roll to shoot an opponent.
PERFECT SENSES
Your Sniper has trained her senses to a fine point. She always notices details and ambushes before they become problems.
Normal: Your character automatically succeeds in any Notice Action.
Maxed: Spend a Plot Point when making a Notice Action. Not only does your character succeed, but the Gamemaster must give you an important detail, and you get a d8 when acting on that detail.
soLdier
The Soldier Role is the iconic combatant. Psychics and Engineers use tricks to win a fight. Snipers use subtlety to get one good shot. The Soldier just focuses on using the right gun at the right time, and making bullets fly in all the right places. Any general athletic rolls use the Soldier Role, as well as rolls to take a hit or to endure the environment.
soLdier tALents GRENADE BOMBARDMENT
Your Soldier is always prepared. If the preparation needed is a bandoleer of grenades, that is. He can toss a few off with a moment’s notice.
Normal: You can add a d6 to any Fight Action against a crowd of enemies.
Maxed: Spend a Plot Point during any Fight Action against a crowd of enemies. No matter the results of the Fight Action, even if you’re knocked out, they’re knocked out at the end.
GUNZERKER
Your Soldier can unleash a massive hail of bullets from multiple guns at the same time.
Normal: You can use multiple weapon Assets and Signature Assets in the same roll.
Maxed: Spend a Plot Point to step up all gun Signature Assets in a single roll.
SUPPRESSING FIRE
Your Soldier is adept at filling the battlefield with bullets.
This forces enemies to take cover, or to take a shot.
Normal: Enemies must make a choice: Step down their biggest die once, or take the SUPPRESSED Complication.
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Maxed: Spend a Plot Point. Enemies must make a choice:
Count one fewer die in their total, or you may take a d10 and count an additional die in your total.
CULtiVAtors
Cultivators are the scourges of the universe. Evidence suggests that they destroyed all other life in the universe millions of years ago. It appears that’s their goal again.
When portraying Cultivators, play up their alien as-pects. Do a Google search for the strangest undersea and insect life you can find, and use those as a basis for your descriptions. They should be odd and distant. They’re not relatable antagonists; they’re very much “the other.” Look to Lovecraft and derivative authors for inspirations. Their motivations should remain a mystery without extensive investigation. Even when their motivations come to life, they should only barely make sense, on a cosmic scale.
Cultivators are relentless, tough, and act as a collective.
In any given conflict, be sure to engage all the players.
Have at least a mob of mook Cultivators for each Agent, as well as any signature Major Characters. Major Characters are capable of limited communication, but this should mostly serve to bring home just how terrifying and driven these monsters are.
Cultivators should use the normal rules for Fight Actions, and for Major Characters. However, Cultivator Major Characters can use special Talents to reflect their monstrous abilities. Cultivator Talents are not struc-tured like PC Talents; they tend to just change the rules a bit in the monster’s favor. Give a Major Character Cultivator two Talents, or four for a particularly loath-some specimen.