Powers

You wrote your powers. Now here is how they behave at the table, and why they will not break the game no matter how far you climb.

The GM asks one question

When you try something with a power, the GM asks: does an Aspect cover it?

• Yes — it works. Roll if there is anything to roll for.
• Almost — it works, and it costs you 1 Strain.
• No — it does not work. Not today.

That is the whole adjudication procedure. There is no chart, no spell level, no per-use budget.

The "no" is not permanent, either. Aspects are earned in play: pull off something enough times, or pay for it visibly enough, and the GM will hand you the Aspect that covers it. Your power grows because of things that happened in the fiction, which is a better reason than a purchase.

Your GM will never refuse you

This is written into the GM's standing instructions, so you can rely on it. Propose anything. The answer will be one of:

• "Yes."
• "Yes, and it costs Strain."
• "Yes, but here is what it wakes up."

You will not get a flat no from a described power use, and you will not get a rules argument. What you will get is a price.

Rating adds dice. It does not add Scale.

This is the piece people get wrong, so it is worth being blunt about.

Powers do not set Scale. Scale sets Scale.

A Rating 5 power at Scale 1 is a scalpel — extraordinarily precise, extraordinarily good, and still bounded by what a peak human body can affect. The same power at Scale 4 levels a city block. The Rating never changed. The Scale did.

Keeping those two numbers apart is why you can advance your powers all campaign without ever breaking the arithmetic. Rating is how good you are at the thing. Scale is how big the thing is.

Signature powers cost you

Some powers are recognisable in public. Using one openly raises Heat, and the powers that are best in a fight tend to be the worst for this. Arclight blanks every camera in the corridor, which is superb — and it also tells anyone reviewing the footage exactly which of the four people in Verge who can do that was standing there.

Check a power's Heat On Public Use before you rely on it in daylight. Then read the next chapter but one.