Powers That Be (Vault #33)

Click Here for a Master Index of “The Forge” and “Vault”!

The advanced races amidst the stars have embraced technological enhancements that provide a bevy of abilities. Use the 20 ideas for Powers as supplemental abilities, combat round codes to bolster or afflict adventurers, or custom Loot, plugged into the Card Creator for your Future Forays.

1. _Synthesis_ (#Synthesis) A synth technology for absorbing damaged units into the collective. *The highest Tier foe absorbs the lowest’s health and passive defense. Remove the lowest Tier foe from the Encounter and update the Tier Sum.

2. _Networked Offense_ (#Networked) They act in terrifying concert. *Deal the adventurer with the highest health +1 damage for each Synth Encounter type in play.

3. _Power Surge_ (#Surge) A burst of energy allows a second surge. *One Encounter card in play surges again during round 4.

4. _Networked Defense_ (#Defense) Your foes move in concert to defend each other. *No Encounter card can go below 1 health while any other Encounter card is above 2 health.

5. _Assimilation_ (#Assimilation) The cutting edge of Quantum computing just changed the game on the ground. *If an ability fails this round, attach it to the foe with the highest tier Encounter card. Next round play it against the adventurers [you still roll to see if it is a success].

6. _Adaptation_ (#Adaptation) An algorithm modulates armor and shields to resist attacks. *Whenever any ability type is used twice or more, reduce the damage the Encounter card suffers by 1.

7. _Mimicry_ (#Mimicry) An alogorithm enables mimicry of a recently used skill. *After a skill is burned by an Adventurer, attach it to the highest Tier Encounter card. Use the skill next round against the adventurers at a rating equal to the Encounter’s Tier level.

8. _Shields Up!_ (#Shields) A nimbus of energy flares briefly around the foe. *After an Encounter card takes damage for the first time, all subsequent rounds it takes -1 damage.

9. _Damage Control_ (#DControl) Repair systems activate. *All Encounter cards not damaged this round heal 1 health per their Tier.

10. _Analyze Foe_ (#Analyze) A light pans across you, top to bottom. *Next round the adventurer with the highest health suffers damage equal to the Tier of the highest Encounter card.

11. _Inhibitor Field_ (#Inhib) A hum emanates from your gear…and it fails to work. *Loot cannot be used this round.

12. _Quantum Distortion_ (#Distortion) Space bends about the foe. *No attacks of the “Ranged” type work this round unless the user rolls a 20.

13. _Teleportation_ (#Teleportation) The foe leaps across space. *No attacks of the “Melee” type work this round unless the user rolls a 20.

14. _Null Field_ (#Null) A fizzle and sparks fill the air where magic should be. *No attacks of the “Magic” ability type work this round unless the user rolls a 20.

15. _Counter Wave_ (#Wave) A harmonic wave meant to cancel any Song. *No attacks of the “Music” ability type work this round unless the user rolls a 20.

16. _Psychological Warfare_ (#Psych) The enemy knows how to get inside your head. *No attacks of the “Influence” ability type work this round unless the user rolls a 20.

17. _Counterstrike_ (#Counter) The enemy’s riposte is perfectly timed. *Each successful attacker also takes damage equal to the Encounter card’s tier.

18. _Kinetic Absorption_ (#KAb) The attack is less than effective. *Melee ability attacks restore health this round to Encounter targets instead of causing them damage.

19. _Energy Vampire_ (#EVampire) A chill fills the air as batteries are drained. *Magic ability attacks restore health this round to Encounter targets instead of causing them damage.

20. _Psychic Leech_ (#Leech) It defies known psy phenomenon… *Influence ability attacks restore health this round to Encounter targets instead of causing damage.

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All in the Cards...[The Forge #10]

Click Here for a Master Index of “The Forge” and “Vault”!

Hail Quest Crafters! We're tackling something completely different today--how to make your own cards in the Card Creator. It's fast, it's easy, and it lends endless variation to Expedition bounded only by your imagination. Let's get to it!

The first thing we'll do is go to the Card Creator from the webpage and also the Example Card Sheet in which we'll need to enter all our data.  As the Github guide states, copy that sheet into your Google Drive folder (File--> Make a copy).

Below we've chosen the "Loot" subsheet/tab at the bottom of the Google spreadsheet and created our custom Loot in each of the fields.

We do want to warn you that there are two scripting conventions you may have used in the Quest Creator that may cause you some problems if you use them in the Card Creator:

1. In the Quest Creator we've used the :music: script to get a music icon to appear. Use of : in the Card Creator will cause the text afterword to be placed all in CAPS, it will NOT get us an icon. If we want the icon for music to appear in the Card Creator, we need to use a # prior to the type of icon we want. So #music gets us the desired icon in the Card Creator.

2. If you leave an empty row between entries (ex. you delete everything in "joined chant" row in pic below), nothing beneath the empty row will appear in the Card Creator.

After we've made all our cards, we want to select the URL at the top of the page of the Google Sheet and copy it.

After we've made our Google sheet, we want to go to our browser window where we have the Card Creator opened. You'll notice at the top right-hand side of the sheet there is a drop-down menu. We want to select "Custom".  It will give us a box where we will paste the URL to our spreadsheet.  That is shown below:

Now that we've pasted our URL, we need to reload the page. If we want to narrow down our look at our created cards (say, to look only at the "Loot" sheets), we can select the card type from the drop-down menu at the top left, but we need to refresh the page from the reload button by the URL at the top left, NOT from the icon next to the ? icon on the right. 

And just like that, we have our new Loot items, the Scroll of Precision, Gauntlet of Change, and Quiver of Elemental Arrows, as you can see below...

Easy peasy, just as we promised.  It takes far less time and learning than creating a quest for the app (though we have shown a way you can quickly craft a quest in about 70 minutes, or come up with a mad-lib style plot for GM-mode [no app] in about 15 minutes). 

Now print those cards from the web with Ctrl+P or Command+P . If you're running Expedition as a GM instead of from a created quest in the app, this is a perfect way to add new enemies, abilities, and Loot.  Maybe now you'd consider crafting an adventure to share with the community!  Show off those shiny new cards!

Like this? Consider sharing or Tweeting it, or joining the weekly Quest Crafter mailing list for more writing inspiration.

Have an idea for the next Quest Crafter or feedback on how we can make it more useful to you? Email us at Authors@Fabricate.io or leave a comment below.