QHW, Day 9: Ley Lines

You can throw energy blasts or something. Sweet. But where does this ability come from?

d10 Power Sources

1. Alien: Inhuman biology evolved on a planet with 10 times earthly gravity which orbits triplet ulfire stars, or something.
2. Dimensional: Born in a higher dimension. Everyone can do that there.
3. Chi: Focused chakra training resulting in superhuman capabilities and martial arts.
4. Psi: Big brain!
5. Magic: Ley lines, hand-waving and gibberish spouting.
6. Nature: Elemental spirits, influencing the subconscious singlemind of the planet.
7. Miracle: Bloodline heritage (demigod, demonspawn) or patronage (cleric, shaman, warlock).
8. Alchemy: Fullmetal Alchemist-style combat transmutations, or maybe allomancy.
9. Tech: Gadgets, implants, power armour. Does not include biotech.
10. Mutant: Magic DNA powers, but not actually magic. Does include biotech.

Pretty much any effect can be tweaked and flavoured to fit under each power source, so why should you care where does your blasty death beam come from?

• Some powers might be super effective against others. Nature defences trump dimensional attacks because Earth is self-stabilizing against otherworldly incursions.
• Some powers don't work (well) together, like magic and tech. Combining them might lower your effective power level.
• Some powers are blocked in special places. Spirit-shielding stops miracles, kryptonite weakens or blocks alien powers.
• Each power source is boosted by different artifacts and equipment load-outs. There might be synergies.

Elemental Powers: Air, Fire, Water

Continuing from the previous post, here are the other three classic elements.

From Avatar: The Last Airbender.
I still haven't actually watched it.

All aeromancers have good stamina and singing voices, though whether that's an aspect of their powers or the result of the many breathing exercises needed to master them is up for debate.

d66	Air Powers
11	You don't need to breathe and can actually keep breathing out, with up to a gale-force strength.
12	Slowly float or walk in the air.
13	Dash while in the air, performing double jumps and impossible feats of acrobacy.
14	Call winds that will quickly carry you and your companions over long distances. Needs a lot of space to take off and land, not enough control for combat flight.
15	Build up pressure, then release it for a massive jump. Jumping between buildings is easy, jumping over a building takes a little while.
16	Build up pressure, then release it for a shock wave that sends everything around you flying.
21	Empower your voice, letting you speak like through a megaphone or scream with a sonic boom that shatters glass and eardrums.
22	Manipulate the air in your vocal cords, mimicking voices or sounds.
23	Still the air in a small area, damping all sounds or creating outright zones of silence.
24	Stop the air in a small area, creating invisible walls and cages, or holding a creature in place.
25	The winds carry sounds far further for you, letting you whisper or listen at range.
26	Manipulate the air friction of anything you see, slowing or speeding up its movements and falls.
31	Your strikes can project slashing winds.
32	Push the air to create a strong directional blast of wind.
33	Pull the air around anything you see to hurl it in a direction of your choice. Works better on lighter objects.
34	Manipulate air around thrown weapons, directing them around corners and attacking from far further away.
35	Surround yourself with swirling winds, deflecting ranged attacks and confounding nearby foes.
36	Surround yourself with slashing winds, inflicting a thousand minor cuts on anyone nearby.
41	Surround yourself with a tornado. Very long build-up.
42	Sense air movements within a room. Precise enough to dodge a blow from behind or fight blinded. Your range expands greatly when you sit down and meditate.
43	Call a wind that grows stronger over time, up to a hurricane-force after half an hour. The wind power resets if you change its direction.
44	Discorporate into wind for a single heartbeat, pretty much teleporting a short distance. Very disorienting when spammed.
45	Force air out of an area no bigger than 3 m in diameter, creating a bubble of vacuum.
46	Change the temperature within a small area. The change slows down as you go further from normal temperature, but no real limit until you kill yourself with it.
51	Cause a rapid spike or drop in the air pressure, resulting in vertigo, fainting, or even blood vessel ruptures.
52	Selectively heat up the air around you, blurring your movements and creating distracting mirages.
53	Create elemental-like constructs from wind.
54	Form an orb of pressurized air that can be thrown and then triggered like a concussive grenade.
55	Filter gases and pollution from air. Also enhances your smell, as you can concentrate it and push it in your nose.
56	With a touch, induce rapid oxidation in materials.
61	Hyperoxigenate the air in a room, which can help some, but works as a poison for most.
62	Attune to a town-sized area over several days, gaining control over temperature, pressure, the winds, ...
63	Hold your breath to become as light as a feather.
64	The wind lightens your steps. Run as fast as a horse and across twigs, fresh snow, or the surface of water.
65	Move as silently and invisibly as a breeze. Any strenuous action (such as attacking) will break this trance-like state.
66	For a single breath, you can move with inhuman haste, though it will leave you winded.

Also from Avatar: The Last Airbender.

All pyromancers possess a certain level of resistance to fire and heat, from never getting sunstroke to swimming in plasma.

d66	Fire Powers
11	Direct and move flames. The larger and hotter they are, the more tenuous your control.
12	Throw explosive fireballs.
13	Breathe fire in a wide cone.
14	Shoot sticky flames from your palms, like a flamethrower.
15	Spit globs of fire and make them sticky or explosive at will.
16	Any fire you concentrate on burns faster, hotter, stronger.
21	Heat vision, in both senses of the word. You can see in infrared and shoot heat rays from your eyes.
22	Create a miniature sun. It moves at a snail's pace, but burns pretty much anything.
23	Surround yourself in a great aura of flames.
24	Sweat superheated plasma at will, coating yourself in flames.
25	Fire jet flight.
26	Teleport by stepping into a flame and emerging from another within 100 m.
31	Create elemental-like constructs from fire.
32	Create smoke-clones. They cannot deal damage and pop when touched, but you can have a lot of them.
33	Conjure a weapon (blade, bow) made of fire.
34	Touch an object to imbue it with fire. It can be triggered at will to explode.
35	Touch a weapon to infuse it with fire, coating it in searing flames.
36	Anything you stare at will go up in flames. Takes longer for less flammable things.
41	You have flame for hair and bleed superheated plasma.
42	You can raise the temperature of your body enough that your touch will melt metal.
43	The more heat and fire is nearby, the faster and stronger you are.
44	Make nearby fires emit excessive smoke. Move the smoke as you will.
45	Transform into a huge fire bird. You can fly and burn stuff, but are very vulnerable to dousing.
46	Form an ember in your hand that can be thrown like a grenade.
51	Cause walls of flames to erupt from the ground.
52	Concentrate on creatures or objects to grant them fire immunity.
53	Snuff out any fire in sight at will.
54	Conjure many slow-moving orbs of fire. They will home in on enemies at a walking pace.
55	Explode, then reform from the flames. Very exhausting to spam.
56	When you touch a flame, you can see and speak from other fires within 1 km.
61	Sense heat within a city block, the higher the temperature the clearer the awareness. Body heat is barely perceptible.
62	Absorb fire and concentrate it in your cupped hands, then release a devastating plasma beam.
63	Call a pillar of plasma from the sky. Has a long wind-up, but extreme destructive power.
64	Loop fires, letting them burn indefinitely without requiring further fuel. It's very exhausting to loop many or big fires.
65	Consume flammable materials to fuel your inner flame. As long as it burns bright, you don't need to eat and sleep, and never run out of stamina.
66	As long as you stand in flames, you feel no pain nor fear nor hesitation. All mind-affecting or emotional effects are burned from your mind.

From Naruto.

All hydromancers are quite adept at swimming and diving.

d66	Water Powers
11	Move and direct water with concentration. It still has the surface strength of water, though, so no grabbing people with water-tentacles.
12	Strengthen the surface tension of water, until it works like an elastic film that lets things bounce off of the surface and traps creatures who were underwater.
13	Breathe water and swim as fast as a motorboat.
14	Walk or surf on the surface of water, faster than a car can go.
15	Any surface you can see and concentrate on will start leaking water.
16	With a single glance, you can fill a creature's lungs with water.
21	Annihilate water with a touch. This is an instant, clean removal that leaves behind only vacuum.
22	Raise or lower temperature of water within eyesight. You may not affect steam or ice.
23	Breathe superheated steam.
24	Create elemental-like constructs from water.
25	Manipulate the viscosity of water, making it air-like, solid, sticky or slippery.
26	Touch the surface of water to raise waves. Anything from a ripple to a sudden tsunami is possible, depending on the size of the body of water.
31	Purify water with a touch. Touching a bleeding wound turns all of the victim's blood to water.
32	Create whirlpools. Pretty useless unless you have a big body of water, then you can ride in a huge waterspout and throw people around.
33	You regenerate rapidly by absorbing water. Regrowing a limb would take half a swimming pool.
34	Sense all water within a city block. The cleaner it is, the clearer your vision of it. Blood is faint but noticeable when you concentrate.
35	Stomp the ground to trigger the sudden eruption of a new geyser. Cannot be used multiple times in one location as it greatly strains the ground water reserves.
36	Transform into water at will. You are nigh-invulnerable and can flow even up the walls, but cannot talk or see. You may only turn back if all your water is in liquid state and together.
41	Transform into fog at will, but only for a few seconds at a time.
42	Generate fog. The more damp the environment, the denser the fog and wider your area of effect. You can see through the fog, unlike you enemies.
43	A 100 m radius around you is always affected by a rain of your choice, from drizzle to torrential rain or sleet. You cannot stop the rain completely, though.
44	Open a portal to the Plane of Water, no wider than 1 m in diameter.
45	Drink unlimited amounts of water with no ill effect, then vomit it back up at will.
46	Constantly draw and absorb any water-based fluids within 10 m. Stronger when you concentrate, enough to harm people through dessication.
51	Shoot a short beam of high-pressure water from your palms, like a water jet cutter.
52	Control a slowly floating orb of water, 3 m in diameter. It falls apart when you can't see it or lose concentration and nothing stops people from walking/swimming out of it.
53	Call or banish storms. Takes a while, though.
54	Leave behind an after-image of water. Basically when you punch somebody, they get punched again by a splash of water, plus your movements are blurred, but rather loud with all the splashing.
55	Create walls and simple objects out of ice. Requires water or humidity, so cannot be used in dry and hot environments.
56	Cover yourself in a power armour of ice. Requires water or humidity, so cannot be used in dry and hot environments.
61	Cause a mini-blizzard in a 10 m radius around yourself, blasting everything with snow and ice.
62	Flash-freeze all water within 10 m radius. Won't directly kill anything bigger than a mouse, but will chill creatures to the bone and likely trap them in ice.
63	Form a hailstone, then shoot it out. Depending on how long you keep growing it, it can be anything from a tiny grain through bullet to a cannonball.
64	Your senses are greatly enhanced while underwater, allowing you to hear infra- and ultrasound, track by scent, or see clearly even in dark waters.
65	Scry through reflections, displaying any other reflection on the same body of water. For example, when you touch a lake, you can make it reflect what is happening on the other shore.
66	Your deviant hydrokinesis works better on bodily fluids than clean water. You may puppet a creature around, or painfully extract blood through your victims' pores.

 

Elemental Powers: Earth

I like elemental powers. They have a strong theme, inbuilt factions and intuitive interactions. However, all too often they are boiled down to shoot fire, shoot ice, superstrength and flight/telekinesis. Not bad powers on their own, but why should every hydromancer shoot ice? That shouldn't even be the primary use of water manipulation!

I think powers should be diverse and distinct. When you have three hydromancers where one controls water, one ice and one steam, they are already more interesting thanks to their unique styles. Specialized, limited powers are more fun that all-encompassing ones, especially when those are still used only to shoot ice in the end.

Anyway, rant over, have some earth powers. The rest are hopefully coming soon.
 

From Naruto.

d50 Earth Powers
All geomancers have a great sense of direction, as if their understanding of the earth energy flows granted them an intuitive knack for geography.

1. Slowly levitate unworked earth-based materials within eyesight.
2. Move metals with concentration. Choose one metal that you have much better control over.
3. Create elemental-like constructs from an earth-based material (sand, stone, metal, clay, ...; choose one).
4. Create stationary tentacle-minions that can grapple or throw rocks at your enemies.
5. Animate statues with a touch.
6. Call a huge magma golem. It takes a while to arrive, clawing its way up from deep within the earth.
7. Grow blades of glass from anywhere on your body at will.
8. Grow metallic scales when attacked. The more brutal the assault, the stronger the scales.
9. Surround yourself with a small sandstorm, blinding and harming your foes. Also works with glass shards.
10. Transform into sand. You may fire sandblasts and heal by absorbing sand. However, you lose control of any wet sand and may only turn back if all your sand is dry and together.
11. Transform into living metal and even reshape your form at will, but you move as if in slow motion.
12. Transform into night-invulnerable but immobile diamond form. Prone to suddenly form-lock you when spammed.
13. Surf on sand, faster than a car can go.
14. Touch two pieces of metal to fuse them.
15. Call an earthquake. Normally, this shakes the room and creates small cracks or fissures. However, you may meditate for hours to bring about a city-wide earthquake.
16. Stomp the ground to crack-open a deep rift. Also works when you kick a wall.
17. Sense tremors of the earth within a city block. Footsteps require deep concentration to hear.
18. Understanding of geomantic energies allows you to build structures imbued with preternatural hardness and beauty.
19. By raising menhirs and dolmens at certain places, you can alter the flow of geomantic energies and bring great fertility to a region, or make it barren.
20. Feng shui mastery allows you to make any structure into a confounding labyrinth. People will get lost even in a two-room apartment. Stops working when the structure is damaged.
21. Tend to a feng shui garden. If you die, get buried there and not a single stone is amiss, you come back to life. You also don't age and need to eat or sleep in your garden.
22. Raise or lower ground, creating pillars and pits. Cooldown depends on how big the change is.
23. Conjure crystal spikes shooting up from the ground.
24. Grow a crystal shell around yourself or anyone you touch.
25. Discorporate and meld with the ground to possess a small area, moving the earth within as you wish. You may not move beyond the area without releasing your control, though.
26. Fall unconscious and possess a new body formed of earth-based materials. You cannot go too far from your real body.
27. Sink your arm into the ground to grow a gigantic stone arm from somewhere you can see.
28. Petrification/fossilization/crystallization through touch.
29. Tunnel through soil and unworked stone at a walking pace, closing the tunel behind you.
30. Shape an earth-based material (sand, stone, glass, clay, ...; choose one) into weapons and armour, imbuing them with increased strength.
31. Construct a rough "mecha" around yourself from boulders and rocks.
32. Breathe out massive clouds of dust.
33. Projectile vomit asphalt.
34. Spit big globs of magma.
35. Absorb soil to grow in size and power, shed it to return to human form.
36. Absorb metal to fill in injuries and replace missing body parts. Your metal prosthetics work normally, yet keep their hardness. You may even slowly reshape them.
37. Minor geokinesis allows you to pick up and throw boulders with ease.
38. Transmute soil into morass and sand to quicksand. The change is much slower for bigger areas. You can walk on such terrains with ease.
39. Transmute metals (though only about 10 cm³ per day before you start feeling faint) and knead them like clay.
40. Transmute earth to sharp but fragile crystal.
41. Rearrange earth on a large scale. Rough walls and structures take hours, new hills and cave systems take days.
42. Your strength and durability is greatly increased as long as you have skin contact with natural earth (no worked stone or metal).
43. With a touch, start an explosive growth in bones - but only dead bones, or more specifically calcium. Can be delayed.
44. Induce rapid erosion with a touch, turning stone to sand and soil to dust.
45. Annihilate metal with a touch.
46. Explosively shatter any glass or crystal with a glance.
47. Touch an object to make it either repel or attract metal for a short while.
48. Raise the gravity in an area no more than 5 m across severalfold.
49. You have gemstone eyes that cannot be harmed, unbreakable metal bones, or perfect porcelain teeth. Pretty minor as far as powers go.
50. Your skin is cold and marble-like, your wounds crack rather than bleed. You feel no pain and mundane damage is non-lethal for you.

 

Also from Naruto.

Augmentations, Bionics, Bodymods, Cybernetic Implants

When delving through a zombie-infested underground lab in the post-apocalyptic wasteland, you might come upon still-operational auto-doc bodymod station. Or you could kill a gang leader in the cyberpunk ghetto and butcher their body for implants. Or maybe your space ship was hijacked by transhumans who wish to augment you beyond your obsolete baseline humanity.
  

Monocle by yvanquinet

 

These are simple, minimalistic bionics, so each implant is assumed to have an internal power source, barring any special limits noted in their description. There are also no prices listed, as I like games with randomized, scavenged resources more than ones where you can buy your way to min-maxing. Everything should be more or less compatible with any sci-fi OSR, though you might find some GLOG-specific terms.

In any case, two checks are required when installing a bodymod. A surgery check vs Int by the surgeon (there's hope you won't be operating on yourself), getting bonuses from proper skills, tools, or access to an auto-doc. If this check fails, roll on the Failed Implants table instead of the main table of bionics. The recipient then rolls a Con Save to prevent post-surgery complications, taking -1 penalty for each bodymod they already have installed. If this check fails, the augmentation works normally but the body does not properly recover. The recipient takes 1d6 Con damage that can only be healed with another surgery or permanent drug regime.
  

Clone World by OmeN2501

 
d12 Failed Implants

1. Bugged augmentation: It's not working and it's spreading! Save every day, or another implant of yours will stop working until repaired.
2. Visual debilitator: At least it wasn't an IQ enhancement that got this badly botched. You cannot see beyond 10 m.
3. Bionic deformity: A combination of poor surgical installation and unpleasant scarring has lead to the catastrophe you now call your face. Take -2 to Reaction rolls unless covered.
4. Electrical drain: A malfunctioning implant that doesn't perform any useful function, but still draws on your energy reserves. When you use any other implant, it has a 1-in-6 chance of failing due to insufficient power. Tough luck if you have bionic limbs.
5. Overstimulator: One implant backwards, two crossed wires and four burned-out capacitors later you started falling on your face and writhing around at the least convenient times. Every time you take damage, Save or loose your next action.
6. Self-locking thumbs: They hold tight and don't let go (even when you'd rather they did). It takes you a full round to drop anything or release your grip. On the other hand, you cannot be disarmed.
7. Squeaky joints: Your movements are annoyingly loud. Grants -4 Stealth.
8. Voice disruptor: Something went wrong with your throat implants and now you only screech and make robotic noises instead of speaking.
9. Endocrine enervator: A failing pharmaceutical implant makes you constantly fatigued. You don't recover Fatigue during daily rest, only stimulants or extended rest will help.
10. Leaky implant: Whatever was this bionic supposed to do, it's instead leaking toxic fluids into your bloodstream. Unsurprisingly, that's not good for your health. Take -4 to Save vs poisons and diseases.
11. Expired sealant: Bionics should be waterproof, but this one is pretty obviously not. When you are exposed to water (even rain will do) take 1 damage per round as the implant short-circuits and electrocutes you.
12. Self-destruct system: Either you're mad, or you didn't know. Now there's a bomb in you head. You can be careful not to trigger it, but what if a hacker shows up?

 

Dermal plating.

 
d130 Bionics

1. Prosthetic limb: A simple replacement limb capable of full range of motions and sensations. To think that in the not-so-distant past of the 21st century, this would seem like a small miracle!
2. Cosmetic bodymod: Video-tattoos, reskins or body reconfiguration, even pseudo-animal features for the really weird fads.
3. Optical array: Your corneas have been enhanced with an Advanced Visual Aids display. Roll for 2 settings (d10): 1) infrared vision, 2) ultraviolet vision, 3) night vision, 4) powerful zoom, 5) microscope magnification, 6) light-adaptive (protects from flashes and bright light), 7) polarised (removes reflections from glass or water), 8) x-ray vision, 9) augmented reality (including navigation, digital clock, etc.), 10) targeting cross-hair (+2 to hit).
4. Holo-eye: One of your eyes has been replaced with a holographic projector. The projection field covers one cubic meter and cannot project farther than about 10 m.
5. Eye-cam: One of your eyes has been replaced with a camera linked to the datasphere. Everything you see is stored in the Cloud.
6. Finger camera: Less overt than the eye-cam and lets you see around a corner.
7. Finger knives: Self-sharpening surgical scalpels slide out of your fingertips. You can perform a back-alley surgery at any time, or attack for d6 damage.
8. Finger injector: A syringe under your fingernail can deliver all sorts of fun chemicals. The ampoule in your palm must be replaced after each use.
9. Finger laser: Not of the damaging kind. It can be used as a pointer, or to measure distance.
10. Finger hack: It used to be necessary to smuggle a flash drive through security. Now you just stick your finger into a port and start uploading malware or downloading data.
11. Security multi-tool: Everything you could need to jimmy a lock or jam a camera, hidden in your wrist and fingers.
12. Detachable hand: Your cybernetic hand can be detached and remote-controlled. Even better with some more augmentations packed into it.
13. Monofilament garotte: A nanofibre wire is hidden in one of your fingers. A creature you choke in a grapple must Save each round to avoid decapitation.
14. Palm paralyser: A creature you touch must Save or be paralysed for d4 minutes. The device will then slowly charge up over the next short rest.
15. Electroshock emitter: Your touch can deal d12 electric damage, or short-circuit most electronics. The device will then slowly charge up over the next short rest.
16. Force emitter: Release a kinetic blast from your palm. The target must Save or be knocked back 10 m. The device will then slowly charge up over the next short rest.
17. EMP discharger: Release a short-range, directed EMP blast from your palm. The device will then slowly charge up over the next short rest.
18. EMP shielding: Subdermal shielding lattice protects your implants from electromagnetic pulses.
19. Subdermal mesh: Thin wires of plasteel were woven under you skin. Reduce physical damage taken by 1 point.
20. Dermal plating: Skin-coloured plates of implanted plasteel make you look less human than many androids, but offer excellent protection. Grants Def as plate mail.
21. Bionic arms: A whole limb of metal and synthetic flesh. Grants +2 Strength.
22. Bionic legs: A whole limb of metal and synthetic flesh. Grants +2 Dexterity.
23. Bionic heart: It never falters. Grants +2 Constitution.
24. Cerebral booster: A cocktail of drugs constantly drips into your brain, making your synapses faster than ever. The side effects are better not even mentioned. Grants +2 Intelligence.
25. Synaptic reinforcement: An implant monitoring your brain activity will release hormonal countermeasures whenever your determination might be compromised. Grants +2 Will.
26. Penile erector: No more embarrassing failures or unwanted wood. Now you're in control. Grants +2 Charisma.
27. Breast implants: Bigger, firmer, shapely, or even more of them. Grants +2 Charisma.
28. Adrenaline pump: Intravenous injector hidden in your chest can deliver a dose of pure adrenaline when you need it. Treat your Str and Dex as 18 for a round at the cost of 1 Fatigue.
29. Battle module: Bionic processors and databanks loaded with martial arts combat programs are integrated into your nervous system. Grants +2 to hit and Def.
30. Matrix backdoor: Implanted into the base of your skull, this receiver lets you easily link yourself directly to the datasphere, no VR set or other interface necessary. Note that while your brain is immune to malware, your bionics might not be, and there are also memetic hazards to avoid.
31. Kinetic shock absorber: The bones of your legs were reinforced and equipped with inertia dampers. Take no damage from falls, if you can land on your feet.
32. Electromagnetic sensor: A simple passive EM sensor will alert you to all unshielded electronics within 10 m.
33. Polygraphic sensor: Complex physiological sensors in the tips of your fingers allow you to detect lies of anyone you're touching.
34. Air current sensor: Multiple microsensors in your skin grant you a +4 bonus to sense invisible creatures, secret doors and other sources of movement or draught within 10 m, but only when you skin is exposed.
35. Tremor sensor: Implants in your feet locate the sources of tremors as faint as light steps or silenced machinery within 10 m. Double the range in water.
36. Hyper-elastic ankle tendons: Bands of synthetic flesh reinforce your feet. Increases Movement by 50%.
37. Visage module: Malleable synth-flesh allows for quick reformation of facial structure. Also includes polymorphic synth-hair and an iris shifter. Gain advantage on disguise checks.
38. Twitch-mask: Neural impulses firing through your facial muscles cause constant twitching that is specially designed to befuddle face recognition software. It's also illegal as hell and makes you look unhinged.
39. Poker face: Impulse barriers on your nerves allow you to turn off your facial expressions. Gain +4 to bluffing and against interrogation, but others will quickly figure out that something is wrong with your (e)motionless face.
40. Aim stabilizer: Chrome clasps lock your joints in place for steady aim. Gain +4 to hit with ranged weapons if you take a round to aim and lock. Can stay completely still indefinitely.
41. Pentaceps: The quartet of knee joint extensors gain the assistance of a synthetic fifth. Gain +4 to jump checks and double your jump range.
42. Dopamine pump: Intravenous injector hidden in your head can deliver a dose of pure dopamine when you need it. Gain +4 to any Stress-related check at the cost of 1 Fatigue.
43. Integrated commlink: Implanted earphone, subvocal microphone and a corneal screen linked to the datasphere allow you to always stay in touch.
44. Integrated radio: A tiny receiver with a frequency selection is installed in your skull, the antenna interwoven into the spine. Archaic, but still useful to listen in on retro-gangs and under-equipped survivors.
45. Intravenous port: Standardized ampoules can be prepared for later free use of medication or drugs.
46. Motorized treads: This rather extravagant augmentation replaces your legs below the knee with a pair of tiny tank treads. You can move as fast as a car, but lack all of the normal protections and safety features of driving a vehicle.
47. Gun rack: A special platform was fused to your shoulder bones and connected to your spine. You can use it to carry a shoulder-mounted heavy ranged weapon of your choice (rocket launchers, machine guns or laser cannons are common).
48. Implanted weapon: One of your forearms has a light or medium weapon of your choice hidden inside (mostly duralloy claws or a ray gun).
49. Prosthetic weapon: One of your arms was replaced with a heavy weapon of your choice (current favourites are a chainsaw, a flamethrower, or a grenade launcher).
50. Force modulator: Microemitters in your skin synchronize your phase frequencies with the standardized band for force emissions. Walk through force fields unimpeded.
51. Voice modulator: Your vocal cords were partially replaced with cybernetics, allowing you to mimic voices or replay other sounds.
52. Voice amplifier: Empower your voice to boom loud enough to be heard over a noisy town square or a quiet mountain valley. You may also scream, taking 1d6 damage from the strain, but brittle object within 10 m cone will be shattered, and affected creatures must Save vs being deafened and stunned for the same number of rounds.
53. Subsonic box: A pair of subwoofers installed in your back xx
54. Cortical node: A small medical implant used for synchronization of other augmentations. Halve the penalty to the post-augmentation recovery check for all subsequent bodymods.
55. Biomonitor: All your medical signs are constantly monitored. Any medical or surgical intervention on your body is done with an advantage.
56. Databank port: A tiny socket in your skull lets you insert a miniaturized databank. One slot in your Memory becomes unavailable for knowledge learned normally, instead accessing the information on your currently installed databank. Alternately, you may save your sensory input on the databank, simulating an eidetic memory.
57. Skillsoft port: A tiny socket in your skull lets you insert a neurocognitive chip. One slot in your Memory becomes unavailable for knowledge learned normally, instead accessing the skill on your easily swappable chip. The really fun chips are not easy to come by, though.
58. Drone control unit: With a transmitter stuck in your brain, you can control a single drone as a free action, or multiple drones if you do nothing else.
59. Rearwatch: Several covert cameras in your skull grant you a 360° vision without alerting others that you can see them.
60. Spiked heel: You have a retractable plasteel spike hidden in your heel. It is strong enough to sink itself into concrete, or deal d10 damage to a creature you step on.
61. Spring heel: Flexiweave cords in your legs thrum with tension. You can discharge them to jump 10x further than normal, and they will tense up again over the next a short rest. You should be careful about the landing, though.
62. Camo-pseudoskin: Reactive camouflage will render you nigh-invisible as long as you remain still. Unless you cover your skin, that is.
63. Reflec-pseudoskin: Scintillating replacement skin will turn away lasers and other ray-based attacks with a 4-in-6 chance.
64. Enviro-pseudoskin: Durable skin replacement lets you ignore hot, cold, noxious or slightly caustic environments, and even vacuum. Extreme heat or strong acid will get through, though, and you should probably secure an oxygen supply if you wish to expose yourself to such places.
65. Air filtration: Fine tracheal filters purify your air to prevent toxic atmosphere, dust storms, combat gases or nanite swarms from harming your lungs.
66. Internal oxygen supply: An oxygen tank linked to your lungs can hold up to 30 minutes worth of air. A ventilation subsystem will refill it over a short rest.
67. Internal storage: A cavity hidden in your body grants you 2 extra inventory slots.
68. Utility toolset: Hammer, pliers, screwdriver and more are stored in an artificial arm.
69. Pedal mufflers: Silencer implants in your feet let you walk without a sound. Grants +4 Stealth.
70. Wireless eyes: Your eyes can be taken out of their sockets without loosing visual feed.
71. Ethanol burner: With this handy stomach extension, a shot of hard liquor will serve as a ration. You also can't get drunk unless you turn this augmentation off.
72. Rapid fire finger flexors: Your synthetic finger tendons twitch with anticipation. Make +1 ranged attack per round and type like a madman.
73. Thermal dissipation: Internal cooling system linked to an aluminium heat sink on your back makes you immune to hot weather and halves fire damage taken.
74. Sensory dulling: A simple neural control unit lets you switch off any of your senses at will.
75. Smoke generator: Open your mouth and fill a 10 m radius with thick smoke from the exhaust installed under your tongue. A new cartridge must be inserted after use.
76. Toxin exhaler: With a spray hidden under your tongue, a selection of substances can be delivered to your foes with just a breath. Remember not to breathe in. A new cartridge must be inserted after use.
77. Blood filtration: A set of microfilters in your aorta quickly removes most toxic substances from your bloodstream. Gain +4 to Save vs poisons and intoxication.
78. Platelet cloning system: Replacing your bone marrow with bioengineered stem cells, your blood is now oversupplied with platelets. Grants immunity to bleeding.
79. Leukocyte breeding system: Replacing your bone marrow with bioengineered stem cells, your blood is now oversupplied with leukocytes. Gain +4 to Save vs viral and bacterial diseases.
80. Counter-nanites: A cloud of defensive nanites makes it easier to survive in environments contaminated with cyber-plagues. Gain +4 to Save vs nanite-based diseases.
81. Cranial flashlight: When you want night vision but cannot afford it.
82. Integrated dosimeter: Lets you know the exact dosage of radiation you are currently exposed to. It's good to know when you're already dead.
83. Radiation purger: A system of advanced piezomechanical filters implanted throughout your body allows you to partially purge yourself of absorbed radiation. Gain +4 to Save vs radiation.
84. Olfactory enhancement: Why would someone enhance their nose when bioscans and drones with face recognition exist is a good question, yet this bodymod is still quite popular. Grants scent.
85. Power armour interface: A thought-link interface allows for much finer control over the good old full metal jacket than a basic HUD. Gain advantage on all rolls while in power armour.
86. Telescoping arms: Extendable replacements for your arm bones covered in elastic synth-flesh increase your reach to 3 m.
87. Goo shooter: A dispenser hidden in your forearm can spray a so-called "pink goo". The goo quickly expands into a sticky containment foam and takes hours to degrade on its own. A new cartridge must be inserted after use.
88. Grapple shooter: A miniaturized grappling hook along with 10 m of monofilament rope and a winch are concealed in your forearm.
89. Cyber-tentacles: Four 3 m long cybernetic tentacles were welded to your spine. They are not dextrous enough to wield weapons, but are strong enough to support your weight.
90. Remote controller: Compatible with anything from garage doors and holovision to hovercars and hacked battledroids.
91. Stasis field generator: A fist-sized supertech capsule welded to the inside of your ribcage lets you lock your body in a nulltime field. You are immobile and inviolable for exactly 57 minutes, after which the generator needs an hour on a cable charger.
92. Force field generator: Microemitters in your skin can cover your body in a thin sheet of protective energy. Once activated, it will completely negate the next attack to connect with you, and then slowly recharge over the next short rest.
93. Digestive assistance: You have been outfitted with three synthetic stomachs and industrial-grade intestines. Any organic matter is digestible to you.
94. Recycler unit: Careful re-routing of sweat glands and an upgrade to your urinary bladder allow you to survive without water for as long as without food.
95. Nutrient tank: Intravenous feeder with a week of liquefied rations stored for emergency situations.
96. Alarm system: A motion-detecting alarm system will notice any and all movement within a 20 m radius, and will silently alert you. Mostly useful when alone or sleeping.
97. Electromagnetic manipulators: Powerful electromagnets in your palms allow you to attract metal items, or to stick to metallic surfaces.
98. Integrated defibrillator: When reduced to 0 or less hp, get back to your feet with 1 hp on your next turn. Cannot be used more than once per day without electrocuting yourself.
99. Wired reflexes: A series of independent microcontrollers implanted in each of your main muscle groups lets you react before your brain is even aware of any danger. Gain +4 to initiative and never loose your Dex bonus to Def.
100. Black brain-box: Your skull has been converted into a duralloy safebox for your brain, including a cryo module that will keep it viable should the blood supply be cut. Unless you are completely disintegrated, you can live again once someone plugs your brain-box into a replacement body.
101. Pain editor: A simple switch in your brain lets you turn pain on and off at will.
102. Hydraulic legs: Ugly but strong. You never take Fatigue from long marching and gain +2 Inventory slots.
103. Anti-psi lattice: A carefully laid out pattern of hyperfolded wiring in your skull prevents any thoughts from getting in or out. You are immune to psionics, but also cannot use thought-link interfaces or any psychic powers of your own.
104. Pheromone repellent: Your sweat has been biochemically altered. Insects and most animals now need a successful Save to approach you.
105. LDV audio receiver: A laser in your fingertip is used for non-contact vibration measurements of distant surfaces. Basically, you can hear what you point at. Neat!
106. Implanted microcomputer: Everything you would want from a computer, directly in your brain. Be really, really careful about malware.
107. Repair nanites: Unless you outright die, the nanites in your bloodstream will quickly patch you up. Minor injuries or missing fingers will be repaired in a day, while a whole limb might take a week.
108. Locator matrix: A forearm display that offers not only geographical information, but also a compass, maps, tracking, coordinates of your present location, your velocity and altitude, the time of the day and more.
109. Audio analyser: Record and replay what you hear, filter out background noise, amplify quiet sounds and muffle loud ones, even interpret ultrasound. Plus you get sweet robo-ears in chromed retro design.
110. Emergency life support: Internal medical systems will keep your body going even through mortal injuries. You only die at -10 hp.
111. Sleep regulator: You no longer experience the negative effects of sleep deprivation, but must still sleep is you want the benefits of a daily rest.
112. Signal jammer: Interference resonator causes all tech communications within 10 m fail. This includes commlinks, remote controllers and more.
113. Scanner scrambler: Interference resonator prevents scanners from probing your body. Useful for hiding illegal implants, except it's obvious you have something to hide.
114. Adaptive fingerprints: Small-scale skin replacement will allow you to change your fingerprints to any of the templates stored in its database.
115. Fortified feet: People wanted to be cool and walk barefoot like their ancestors. People were too used to their comfort to just walk barefoot. Now those people have hardened pseudoskin feet that are immune to scrapes, sores, wetness, cold, fire, electricity, blades, bullets and nanite-based disintegration.
116. Anti-emotion implant: Who needs them, anyway? You are immune to both negative and beneficial emotional effects.
117. Gyroscopic stabilizer: A whirling gyro in your chest keeps you from falling over. You cannot loose balance.
118. Parabolic audio: Your ears may now look funny, but you can hear clearly from great distances.
119. Skeletal bracing: Coating your bone structure in duralloy makes you heavy and hard to destroy. Halves all bludgeoning damage taken and prevents loosing a limb or having a bone broken due to an injury.
120. Redundant organs: Several spare synth-flesh systems have been added to your body. Gain +1 HD to maximum hp.
121. Phase engine: Excitation of your biodynamic field causes a dimensional leap, momentarily placing you out of phase with this universe. You will be translucent and intangible for 1d6 rounds, and then need an hour on a cable charger.
122. Flux relocator: A quantum computer in your brain floods the local subspace with calculations complex enough to collapse your probability field, teleporting you to a random empty space within 10 m. The sudden space-folding is however very taxing on your bodily integrity, causing d6 damage on use.
123. Gravity normalizer: Subdermal grav-mesh equalizes the effects of increased gravity or inertia on your body. High g will cause no damage or discomfort.
124. Gravity harness: Subdermal grav-mesh adjusts your personal gravity field to your preferences. Walk on walls, fall like a feather.
125. Antigrav array: Strong subdermal grav-mesh allows for a controlled flight, even if slow and clumsy.
126. Rocket legs: They are clunky and more bulky than your natural legs. They need refuelling after about 10 minutes of use. The flight is hazardously fast and very loud. It's still very cool, though.
127. Helping hands: A harness bearing two extra cybernetic arms. Linked directly to your neural cortex, they can be operated as easily as your own hands.
128. Mnemonic enhancement: Nanogrowths reinforce your neural patterns into unalterable rigidity. Gain perfect recall and immunity to memory-altering effects (both amnestic drugs and psionic powers).
129. Cybersymbiont: Integrated AI offers witty remarks and takes over when you cannot act (unconscious, paralysed, frozen with fear, etc). You can use all your implants and linked tech even while helpless.
130. Full body conversion: Nothing but your brain remains from your old organic body. Change your race to a cyborg race-as-class, which I have yet to write.

One way to interpret full body conversion.
Cyborg by disse86

 

Super Duper Heroics

I ran a superhero* one-shot using the Super: Brains & Brawn one-page ruleset. The rules are quite solid for a short, free-form game, and offer a simple resolution for nearly any power you could think of. Unfortunately, they also allow the players to choose their own powers, which can lead to many flying bricks or other stock superpowers.

I wanted to try something different. The players could still choose between three powers or two powers and a sidekick, but then we went over to the Superpower Wiki, which has a

>HANDY BUTTON<

that can be used to give any aspiring cape a nice random power loadout. Of course, some deliberation is needed how to interpret or limit some powers, and stuff like Omnipotence or Author Authority should be rerolled outright, but generally it worked out well.

Case in point, Paper Princess rolled three powers:

High-tech Alien Exoskeleton: The power to own a high-tech extraterrestrial armour.
Paper Bullet Projection: The power to fire bullets of paper.
Illusion Manipulation: The power to create illusions.

She was a university student who happened upon a misplaced, mysterious book in the library. When she attempted to open the book, it exploded into a storm of loose papers that encased her in an armour of paper. She quickly learned that the armour transforms back into a book when doffed, gives her a little bit of strength and protection, and that she can shoot the surprisingly sharp sheets as blades or form various distractions by shaping the paper into objects and barriers.

She went on to become a hero, except that her decisions in the course of play were ultimately informed more by her huge student debt than by heroism.

 
Of course, not everyone ended up so consistent. Another player decided for the sidekick option and rolled Black Lips:

Shadow-metal Breath: The ability to release metal and shadow from one's mouth.
Indexing: The power to encode and preserve any and all sources or information, history, data, etc.

He was a teenage emo with perfect memory and pretty scary breath weapon. His mother forced him to take on Little Bugger, his younger brother, as a sidekick.

Awesome City child protective services failed hard here, as L.B. (not to be confused with B.L.) ended up as every rpg companion inevitably will, that is he was constantly sent to dangerous situations to "scout them out". Miraculously, he survived, unlike Black Lips.

From Astro City.

 
All in all, everyone seemed to have fun playing with an unorthodox powerset, and you could use randomized powers to inspire a build even in much more rules-heavy game. So, who would your villain or vigilante be?

*) More like professed superheros, really.