Powers
Powers something that makes shifters and vampires unique individuals. Possessing a power group makes your character unique. Not all Shifters are created the same, and so there will be things that a wolf can do where a cat might not, etc. Our shifter powers reflect what we consider to be the most interesting powers from across the genre.
Your background should reflect your powers. Bear in mind that nobody is good at everything. Players will exit chargen with no more than 5 powers appropriate for their race/type. You are not required to take a species-specific skill, but they are there for your character-building fun! Alpha or old PCs may be intitled to more powers, but please consult with Staff before assuming anything.
Common Abilities for all Shapeshifter Races
- Heightened Speed: Supernatural creatures move fast. Some can move very, very fast. Heightened Speed allows shifters and vampires to move at bursts of accelerated speed of up to 5x normal human speeds. They will be very hungry afterwards and forced to feed or risk fainting or going dormant. Practitioners work up to greater speed, some being mildly faster while others being very fast
- Affinity: This power is the ability of shifters to summon or dispell non-sentient members of their species. Messages are extremely simple and can be refused by the animal if they don't want to behave. Less skilled shifters will be able to call animals within the range of their human voice (as heard by human ears). More skilled users might be able to call animals from up to a mile away, and might be able to convey very simple One-word instructions (that still might be ignored— animals never behave completely).
- Regeneration: Regeneration is just as it sounds: the ability to regrow tissue from a damaged state. The shifter will heal at an accelerated rate compared to other shifters and reduce "downtime". Severed limbs cannot be repaired and wounds made by silver will heal at a human rate.
- Rapid Shapeshift: Shifters are compelled to shift with the moon, always. It is an agonizing process of bone and tissue rearrangement that usually takes hours of time from which to recover. Sometimes, Shapeshifting is something that can be done in a hurry. Rapid Shapeshift allows the PC to shift between forms with a more fluid process and less dire consequences. A shifter will *always* be hungry after a shift, though advanced practitioners of Rapid Shapeshift will encounter a lesser degree of depletion to life force as a result. Please see Shifter FAQ's for more.
- Heightened Senses: Most shifters have senses far more acute than human beings, due to a melding of human and animal nature. These senses will allow a shifter to experience their environment in a whole new level. However, some shifters have senses far beyond even the normal scope of regular shifters. These shifters can be experienced trackers, spotters, evesdroppers, or tasters. Sensation goes both ways, though, and situations with a lot of sensory input may be intolerable for these people. Characters should pick one sense highlight, though the power extends to the other senses as well.
- Animal Form: All shifters are infected in Sin City, except for the extremely rare few, however all shifters are not made alike. While shifting from human to animal is required every full moon, some shifters have the power to halt the transformation halfway. These beast forms retain the intellect of the human but also have the animal instincts of a hungry shifter. Advanced use here is in the finesse of controlling the change. A basic user would be able to shift into 3 distinct forms, while an advanced user might be able to shift into a 'wolfman' creature as well as something more feral.
- Heightened Speed: Shifters move fast. Some can move very, very fast. Heightened Speed allows shifters to move at bursts of accelerated speeds of up to 60-70mph for short distances. They will be very hungry afterwards.
- Heal Others: (Rare) Heal Others is the ability to share some of your abundant life force with other shifters and maybe even humans as well. This will allow you to create more rapid healing in others to help the injured person's own healing process. A dead person is still dead, no matter how skilled you might be, for instance. Humans will have side effects if touched by this power— ask Staff for details on this. This is a rare and valuable skill and uncommon in most shifters. Healing others is exhausting. New users of this power will be able to heal minor wounds and bruises while advanced users will be able to heal broken bones and organs that are not already failing (they cannot restart hearts, for instance).
- Silver Tolerance: Silver Tolerance does not reduce damage a supernatural takes from silver, it only reduces the amount of incapacitation a shifter suffers from being in contact with silver. On occasions, you may see shifters wearing silver jewelry — in effect advertising to the world, "this hurts me, but I remain functional, and maybe you'd better think twice about messing with me." Wearing silver in effect tells the world you are a tougher Shifter than others. Shifters who can wear silver jewelry would be considered basic users while advanced users would be able to push out silver bullets as they would normal bullets (if they also have Rapid Heal). Vampires are always vulnerable to silver though it rarely kills them… but boy does it hurt!
Cat-specific Abilities
- Fascinate: Fascinate is in effect a low-grade form of domination. A werecat can choose to Fascinate someone: to seize their attention, to be the focus of the room. This does not require the Fascinated people to be favorably inclined to the werecat (although many of them are, mistaking the Fascination for a sincere emotion on their part), and in fact people may be annoyed once the effect wears off. A user of this power simply has the ability to turn on a "spotlight" on themselves. Leaders can use this power potently to command riveting attention, while a new user might seem particularly interesting. This power should be consider to work twice as effectively on other werecats than any other race. Vampires are immune to this power.
Wolf-specific Abilities
- Intimidate: Intimidation is a big part of pack politics and therefore can be found mainly in werewolves. It can be described as a feeling of being "outclassed", as if someone scary just entered the room. This power works best on members of your own race and is largely ineffective for others, however a directed use of this power by a strong user will have fellow members tucking tail. Used by Leaders, this is a power that demands compliance on a psychic level, appealing to the animal within rather than the thinking human face. PCs will always be able to opt out OOC, but Icly an advanced user demands respect.
- Howl: This power is the ability to contact members of your race over a broad area. The call goes beyond merely voice alone, and triggers a psychic bond between members of a shifter's race. No actual communication can happen, but this can serve as an alert or alarm in times of crisis. Due to the interconnected nature of the pack, wolves are naturals at this skill. A newbie at this skill would be able to Howl with coverage of a city block, where a skilled user might be able to extend his/her call to a diameter of up to 4 miles (leaders. Most advanced users would be under 3 miles). Regardless of the reach of the call, the sound is the same volume.
Rat-specific Abilities
- Guanxi: Rat domination is done by appeals to complex social agreements called guanxi. Since you know a rat who knows a rat who in turn has blackmail on another rat, and since the rat you're talking to wants that other rat to prosper, the rat you're talking to wants things to go your way. Guanxi is a Chinese word representing a web of obligations and agreements, where pulling on one strand can have effects in far-distant places. The rats, due to their communitarian nature, are masters of guanxi. Leaders would be good at this while neophytes would have lesser connections.
- Bending: This power is the ability to perfom contortions of form in order to fit through seemingly impossible spaces. A useful skill for were-rats, it is developed with time and practice and most novice shifters will need a mentor to gain in power. A shifter with minor skill would be able to fit through tight spaces with non-damaging dislocations of joints. A shifter with great skill in this area would be able to fit in any space he/she could fit their head. This applies to both the human and beast form.
Rats live in communitarian societies where the pecking order is more fluid and loose. Cats and wolves settle a lot of disputes via faceoff and domination — but as often as not, rats will just yawn and laugh at the attempt.
Other Shifters
Please discuss with a staffer as to what your brand of shifter may be able to do (or not).