Tyrant Knacks
Tyrant Knacks enable you to impose your will on others, or make them suffer for disobeying you. They are driven by the concepts of oppression and authority.
Tyrant Knacks Master
Tyrant Heroic
• A Voice Like Doom
• A Voice Like Doom
During intrigue play, whenever you try to Shift Attitude or Atmosphere during intrigue play to create feelings of fear or to Encourage Behavior to enforce obedience, you may choose to increase the Collateral pool by up to your Tyrant Calling in dice. For each die you add to the Collateral pool, add +1 Enhancement, which applies before you roll.
• Accept No Failure
• Accept No Failure
When a subordinate or character who possess an attitude of Fear toward you at two points or greater fails a roll in your presence, you may cause them to suffer 1 point of Injury to reroll it, though they must take the second result. Player characters may choose to ignore this effect.
• An Impossible Quest (Plant Dôn-Specific)
• An Impossible Quest (Plant Dôn-Specific)
When you use an Encourage Behavior action to goad someone into a difficult task, you gain +2 Enhancement, and they can’t leverage their negative attitude towards you so long as you offer them some reasonable reward. If they complete your task, you must make good on the reward and suffer a Complication equal to your Tyrant rating until you do so.
• Away From Me
• Away From Me
Rebuke a target within the same scene as you, whether in a social encounter or in combat. If the target is of lower Tier, this Knack as no cost. If the target is the same or higher Tier, spend Momentum and make a Clash of Wills. If successful, the target must leave the same Field as you, thereby removing them from the scene.
• Compliance is Rewarded
• Compliance is Rewarded
Spend 1 Momentum to resolve a Condition afflicting a target who recognizes you as their superior. The next time they try to defy you, they gain a Complication equal to your Tyrant dots; if not bought off, the Condition reasserts itself, and they suffer an Injury. If the Condition was imposed by a character of a higher Tier than you, activating this Knack requires a Clash of Wills with Legend + Presence
• Crushing Inquest
• Crushing Inquest
During information gathering play, you gain access to the following Stunt:
- Tyrant’s Weight (1-3 successes): For each success you spend, create an atmosphere of Fear for any social encounters with a rating equal to the successes spent for the rest of the session.
• Die for Me
• Die for Me
Once per session, make a Knack Skill roll. On any successes, demand a target of lower Tier become the subject of an attack or any other source of harm targeting you, instead. If this causes the subject to die, you may use this Knack a second time.
• Empowered by Sycophants
• Empowered by Sycophants
Gain Enhancement equal to the rating of your Followers or Creature present with you in the scene. This Enhancement may be applied to Encourage Behavior, Encourage Belief, or any Tyrant Knack Skill rolls, or any other rolls made to intimidate, coerce, or otherwise make demands not covered by these other restrictions.
• First and Foremost
• First and Foremost
At the start of a social interaction, you may use this Knack to declare yourself the focus of everyone’s attention. During the initial interactions, all Storyguide characters must target you first with their social actions. If they do not, they suffer -2 dice to any applicable rolls. If more than one character has this Knack, you must agree out of character who gets to be the focus for this scene.
• Greasing the Palm (Shén-Specific)
• Greasing the Palm (Shén-Specific)
Spend 1 Momentum to intuit the perfect bribe to get a particular official to do something for you or overlook your actions. If you give it to them, they improve their attitude towards you by 1 and suffer a Complication equal to your Tyrant Calling on any attempt to betray or undermine you for the rest of the story; if not bought off, their superiors learn they accepted a bribe, and they suffer appropriate consequences. Your first use of this Knack in a scene is free, as are uses against trivial characters.
• Great and Terrible
• Great and Terrible
All things fear you. Spend Momentum. Until the start of your next turn (or action) characters who target you with actions cannot benefit from additional Enhancement unless this Enhancement comes from an innate magical source — such as a Boon or a Knack.
• In My Stead
• In My Stead
Once per scene, you may promote a subordinate of lower Tier who you may then send to perform a social action in your place. For all intents and purposes, this character acts as you, using your applicable Skill and Attribute but not any other Enhancement or special effects from Knacks or Boons. If you fail this roll, you may choose to dispose of the subordinate — either arranging for their untimely death or destroying their social standing — and instead choose to succeed as though you had met the Difficulty exactly.
• Iron-Fisted Order
• Iron-Fisted Order
During Initiative, no Storyguide character of lower Tier may act before you, and must take initiative slots after yours, regardless of the result of their roll. Only one of the players’ characters in the Band may benefit from this Knack at a time during a combat encounter.
• Present Dread
• Present Dread
You may spend Momentum to create the following Complication for anyone opposing or attacking you for a Scene:
- “Aura of Oppression” (+2): Failing to resolve this Complication creates an Attitude of fear for the character attempting the action towards the Scion who created it equal to the Complication’s unresolved rating.
• Pride Goes Before
• Pride Goes Before
You gain access to the following Stunt, which applies to any social action.
- Inflated Ego (2s): In addition to any other social effects, you afflict the target with the “Hubris” Condition. While under the effects of the Condition, any Enhancement the target would benefit from removes successes, rather than adds them. If this would create negative successes, treat it as zero. When the target fails the roll, you gain Momentum as if you’d failed the roll instead, and the target must suffer whatever consequences came from their fail- ure. If the target of this Knack is another player’s character, you must first obtain their consent out of character, and if the penalty would create negative successes, treat it as a botch for the purposes of generating Momentum. The target must still deal with the consequences of failure and cannot dodge them with any ability that might otherwise allow them to.
• Ready Displeasure
• Ready Displeasure
Whenever someone who serves you or has sworn to follow you disobeys the spirit of your orders, you immediately know (though not what exactly they did or why they did it).
• Reward the Obedient
• Reward the Obedient
You may make a Knack skill roll against a target, opposed by their Integrity + Composure or Resolve or most relevant dice pool. On a success, create the condition “Tyrant’s Command” on them. Anytime a character suffering from the “Tyrant’s Command” condition disobeys you, you may end the Condition to instantly inflict one damage to the target. Otherwise, the Condition resolves after they’re away from your presence for at least a day.
• Take the Fall
• Take the Fall
Once per scene, whenever you fail a social action or fail to buy off a social Complication, you may instead redirect the narrative fallout or the result of the complication to another character to whom you have a connection. This is typically in the form of a Bond, though the Storyguide may permit any other narrative connection — especially if the Tyrant was the target character’s leader, boss, or other such figure of authority. If targeting another player’s character, you must get their permission out of character first.
• Terror at Hand
• Terror at Hand
Spend Momentum. You tear the fear out of a target, and shape it into something real. Clear a target’s negative Attitude towards you and reset it to 0. Then, summon a weapon or armor shaped from the target’s emotions, using the attitude rating + Legend in points to spend on Tags. This item persists until the end of the session, but can be purchased as a Relic with a rating equal to the target’s original Attitude when the session ends.
• The Last Word
• The Last Word
Spend 1 Momentum to put an end to a topic of discussion or debate that can’t be brought up again for the rest of the scene. Characters of your Tier or higher can resist with a Clash of Wills, pitting their Legend + Composure against your Legend + Presence.
• Total Authority
• Total Authority
Trivial targets in a procedural scene instantly recognize you as a figure of authority and are compelled to approach and provide useful information relevant to your investigation. This counts as though you had purchased the Extra Clue or Interpretation stunts a number of times equal to your T
• Whom Do You Serve
• Whom Do You Serve
Spend 1 Momentum to automatically intuit the loyalties of a character in the scene, getting a rough but accurate sense of their allies, superiors, and attitudes towards each. This includes characters not present in the scene; if you meet them later, you recognize them as the recipient of that allegiance. Your first use of this Knack in a scene is free, as are uses against trivial characters.
Tyrant Immortal
•• Absolute Terror
•• Absolute Terror
The dread you inspire warps attempts to oppose or harm you. Foes attacking or opposing you suffer any Attitudes of fear they possess towards you as additional Difficulty on their rolls, while foes opposing you with inanimate objects that should happen to fear you must overcome their weapon’s Attitude as Complication or be disarmed.
•• Auspices of Attar (Ilhm-Specific)
•• Auspices of Attar (Ilhm-Specific)
As Attar once rallied humanity against Ba’al, so too may younger Tyrants sound their clarion call. Use an action to draw trivial characters into your service as Heavy Followers with additional Tags equal to your Tyrant Calling; this is usually nigh-instant, but even in truly isolated areas, they arrive no later than the start of the next scene. They serve loyally for one battle or scene. All who die for your cause fade into stardust, commemorated above in the Heavens.
•• Broke No Opposition
•• Broke No Opposition
Characters opposing you must treat close range as dangerous terrain (Scion: Origin p. 73), at a Complication rating equal to the higher of their Attitude of fear toward you or the Atmosphere of fear in the scene
•• Dwelling in Darkness (Apu-Specific)
•• Dwelling in Darkness (Apu-Specific)
Many among the Apu Titans brood in dark places, remnants from the void before time. You may consecrate a location that you own or control as your dark stronghold. You can spend 1 Momentum when suffering an Injury or setback to a plan, returning instantly to your dark stronghold alongside your Bandmates and up to your Tyrant Calling in other willing characters. When you travel towards it by any means, the journey takes half as long as it should. You may consecrate a new location as your dark stronghold in a night-long ritual, releasing your claim on the prior.
•• Faceless Legions
•• Faceless Legions
Make a Knack roll. On a success, you gain followers equal to your Tyrant rating for the remainder of the session, your personal gravity drawing weak-willed humans and lesser supernatural beings to your service. If they fail a roll, you may dismiss them, make an example of them, or disdainfully abandon them. If you do, you lose access to Faceless Legions for the rest of the session, but you gain your Tyrant dots in Enhancement to succeed at whatever they failed at. You may not have more than one group of followers collected by Faceless Legions bound to you at once.
•• Haughty Summons
•• Haughty Summons
You may call a character sworn to your service or a Birthright similarly attached to you to your side in a frightful wind. Spend Momentum: If they could plausibly come to your side in a scene, they arrive immediately; a day, they arrive at the end of the Scene, any longer, they arrive at the next dawn or dusk. If supernaturally kept from meeting your call, you may Clash of Wills against whatever force holds them in durance. Birthrights need not be capable of their own conveyance normally to respond to the summons; players’ characters must always give consent to be affected by this power.
•• I Am Absolute
•• I Am Absolute
Spend Momentum. You command a target to take a social, combat, or procedural action (which may not be self-detrimental), which they cannot refuse. If the target is the same Tier or higher, this costs another Momentum. They roll the action as normal, and may apply any special abilities or powers they have, though they can choose not to. If the target is a God, Titan, or other being of equal power, they may make a demand of you in return (unless you are also of the same Tier). In this case, they may harbor resentment, resulting in story consequences of the Storyguide’s choice. This cannot be used on another player’s character without their out of character consent.
•• I Am That Which Is To Be Obeyed
•• I Am That Which Is To Be Obeyed
When you attempt to assert authority on an Epic scale, such as asserting rulership over a continent or pulling rank on a Titan, imbue rather than spend to invoke your Legendary Title as a Feat of Scale.
•• Might’s Prerogative
•• Might’s Prerogative
Other people exist for your convenience, and sometimes your protection. You may treat subordinates and trivial characters as light cover in combat and may always choose for the results of a collateral pool roll to affect them instead of directly affecting you (though this does not prevent potential Fatebindings). In Divine Rule, you may choose to destroy a Realm Condition you are invested in in place of suffering a Divine Wound once per session.
•• No Balm for Terror
•• No Balm for Terror
Fear is beyond a weapon; in your hands, it’s the creeping tide of oblivion. You may afflict characters with an Attitude of fear or similar emotions towards you with disease or poison conditions at the samerating as the attitude. Trivial characters are at your mercy, while others suffer additional difficulty to any rolls to recover equal to the Attitude. In Divine Rule play, reduce the cost of the Divine Hazard and Slaying Force Stunts by 1.
•• Obvious Superiority ( Devá-Specific)
•• Obvious Superiority ( Devá-Specific)
You gain +2 Enhancement to resist influence and effects that would compel you to submit to someone else’s authority or recognize someone’s status. Once per scene, when resisting such an effect, you may impose a Complication on the source’s next influence action equal to your Tyrant dots; if they fail to buy it off, observers see their influence in the worst possible light, like unhinged ramblings, insecure arrogance, or entitled outrage
•• Petty Tyrant
•• Petty Tyrant
While in your place of power (a hideout, your corporation’s headquarters, your army’s base camp, etc.), you may establish up to your Tyrant Calling in arbitrary rules, which you may change or adjust at the start of any scene. Any Storyguide character who doesn’t follow your rules gains a -2 Complication of “Rulebreaker” to all actions while within your domain. If a target refuses or is unable to buy off the Complication, you may forcibly eject them from your seat of power. Other players’ characters are not required to obey your petty edicts. This Knack applies even if you have tricked an enemy into breaking your rules.
•• Selfish Demand
•• Selfish Demand
Once per session, you may make a demand of a target of lesser Tier, which they must comply with. They perform this action as though they’d succeeded with a number of successes equal to your Tyrant Calling, which they must spend on Stunts if applicable. You cannot demand a target to do anything self-harmful, or anything they physi- cally could not do. For example, you could not demand that a security guard walk into traffic, drink bleach, or jump off a building or do things they simply could not, such as fly or lift a car over their head. You could demand the same guard to grant you access to secured places or deliver a scathing message to their employer, and so on.
•• Shatter Tablets, Seize Crowns (Annua-Specific)
•• Shatter Tablets, Seize Crowns (Annua-Specific)
Upon defeating someone in an obvious contest that they have openly or tacitly agreed to, you may claim one of their honors, positions, or possessions as your own. Until they surrender it to you, they suffer a Complication equal to your Tyrant rank on related actions — driving their illicitly kept car, managing the business that ought to be yours, and so on. If not bought off, characters gossip about the target as a sore loser, cheater, or deal breaker, souring attitudes and atmospheres with every action.
•• Solipsistic Disdain
•• Solipsistic Disdain
Once per scene, you may spend Momentum to ignore an attack against your person, refusing to acknowledge its existence and becoming utterly unaffected by any of its effects. If this was in response to an ambush or surprise attack, you may use this Knack without spending Momentum and may use it one more time during the Scene.
•• Squirming Masses
•• Squirming Masses
When attempting to inflict fear or coerce obedience on a huge Scale, such as cowing an army or demanding the labor of an entire country, imbue, rather than spend, a point of Legend to invoke your Legendary Title as a Feat of Scale.
•• Survey the Empire
•• Survey the Empire
You may take a Leadership + Cunning action to get a sense of the morale, disposition, and needs of anyone below your Tier who is loyal to you or subject to your authority — deifans, worshippers, employees, goons, etc. You gain 1 Leadership Scale to influence them, and you may spend 1 Momentum to fully inhabit the senses of one of these chosen characters for the scene.
•• The Fear
•• The Fear
The fear and terror you cause is absolute, even affecting targets that would normally be unable to feel fear such as unintelligent constructs or inanimate objects. Trivial opponents are unable to target you with physical attacks or other actions to hinder you, barring outside supernatural means, and you may inflict Attitudes of fear or similar emotions on normally invalid targets, such as “fearless skeleton warriors” or “that wall.” Lower Tier foes must succeed at an Integrity + Composure or Resolve or most relevant dice pool rollto affect you, which counts as a normal action in action-adventure play. Foes protected against fear by supernatural means may make a Clash of Wills roll to oppose your ability to create dread.
•• Tools of Tyranny
•• Tools of Tyranny
Intrigue actions or physical attacks made by your sworn subordinates (including followers or beasts) against targets with an Attitude of fear towards you or in an atmosphere of fear gain Enhancement +1. If you’re present, intrigue actions benefitting from this Knack resolve an additional Milestone on a success, while physical attacks gain the Brutal tag.
•• Under My Thumb
•• Under My Thumb
Sometimes you need to remind those beneath you who’s really in charge. When exerting control over another, imbue instead of spending a Legend to invoke your Legendary Title on actions involving coercion, force, or manipulation to get a target to follow your command.
•• Wicked Industry
•• Wicked Industry
When crafting, you may always count “the toil of desperate servants” and “dire plots planned in darkness” as Milestones.
Link to original