Packages
At character creation, you choose a basic package. This will give you a handful of skills at max training, some equipment, and an ability or a few minor traits.
As you advance in GAR, you choose a GAR package, that you must meet the prerequisites for. Each GAR you may choose a new package, or to advance a previous package.
Artisan- The artists and dreamers, more in touch with the Dreamlands, and generally possessed of good spacial reasoning and able to make sketches more reliably, freely, and cheaply than a photographer can take photographs.
Artisans possess a resistance to Despair (+Spirit to Despair Soak), Max training in Artisan or Performance, Perception, Research, Focus and Inspiration, and the tools of their trade (chisels, pencils, paintbrushes, etc.)
Investigator- Those who are called upon when there is a mystery. Whether a man wants to make sure his wife isn’t cheating, the police are dropping the ball on a murder, or someone just needs to uncover long forgotten family secrets, the investigator has the skills and connections to do the job.
Investigators have Max training in Athletics, Shooting, Stealth, Perception, and Research, a revolver, and forensic tools based on those carried by Ichabod Crane in Burton's Sleepy Hollow.
Mechanic- Skilled with their hands and knowledgeable about mundane machines. Able to keep such machines in working order, and to build new ones, given time and materials. Both are a rationed commodity in the bottle cities. No one knows quite what, but the leaders of the cities know full well that bad things happen to those with too much time on their hands, and those who build machines simply too powerful.
Mechanics have Max training in [skills], a toolbox full of wrenches, hammers, saws, etc, extra personal funds, and a mundane Device.
Saboteur- Those who, for one reason or another, seem to do little but cause trouble, and know how to do so quite well. Generally skilled in stealth, improvised weapons, explosives, prepared attacks and brawling.
Saboteurs start the game with a personal weapon of choice, a stash of Chemicals and Junk, Max skill in [skills], and Connections.
Scientist- Learned individuals who study the mysteries of the universe Whether life or earth sciences, it can be surprising how useful a knowledge of biology or strata can be.
Scientists have Max skill in [skills], an Assistant, and Equipment consistent with their field of study.
Soldier- Though trapped in bottles, humanity still finds a need for men trained to kill other men in increasingly creative and painful ways. Many Bottle cities are large enough to be closer to small countries than true cities, and contain boroughs, districts, quarters, and so on, which occasionally splinter into factions, with their police forces seeing themselves become militaries. This package thus covers both the common policeman who enforces the laws, and the soldier who enforces the city’s will.
Soldiers possess boosted HP, Max skill at [skills], and a weapon and body armour from their Bottle City's stores.
GAR Packages
As characters gain more Fighting Spirit and unlock the mysteries of the universe through the Dream Energy that runs through their bodies, they can pick up more advanced packages.
Spark- Sparks are lightning rods for Inspiration Particles and Dream Energy, driving them to fits of mad creation. Often originally Scientists, they leave behind theoretical studies for the infinitely more exciting world of practical applications, building and creating. They can use Eldritech without the expenditure of EP, and may spend EP to create devices that are on par with Eldritech. Such devices cost 1 EP per GAR, and take 1 day of downtime per GAR to craft.
GAR 3+
Magical Girl- There are those who are born great, and there are those who have greatness thrust upon them. Magical Girls are those who have greatness thrust upon them because they were born to have it. Commonly they have found a power device in their early adventures and figured out how to unlock the power within, allowing them to initiate a clothes shedding transformation that gives them powers and weapons. They can also, however, simply discover they are not actually human, as they thought, but rather celestine beings, sent to earth to atone for their sins or tempt others to sin. Or maybe you just died and came back through the strength of your Fighting Spirit. The Magical Girl gains use of Spells, especially the Transformation spell. It is possible, at least theoretically, for males to be Magical Girls.
GAR 2+, Transformational Artifact
Dampfengeler- Occasionally, one will, in their early adventures, stumble across a mysterious artifact that does not seem to unlock transformation powers, at least in themselves. They will, soon thereafter, stumble across large, metal humanoid figures, Dampfengels, and find that the first artifact glows, hums, vibrates, pulses, or otherwise reacts to the presence of the Dampfengel, itself reacting in some small, but noticeable way to the presence of the "key." Typically, these devices are small, palm sized drills, though rarely they are other items conducive to Dream Energy. The character almost without fail climbs into the cockpit, inserts their key, and finds themselves in control of a powerful robotic armour, steam pouring from copious small stacks along the back and power and strength emanating from it's very form. Dampfengels run on EP and Fighting Spirit. Though activating one requires very little EP, merely 1/GAR, more EP can be spent to activate special attacks or otherwise enhance the Dampfengel in combat. Amongst those who know of the Dampfengels, it is rumoured that it is possible for them to combine, allowing two pilots to combine their Fighting Spirit and power a single, larger, more powerful mechanical being.
GAR 2+, Fighting Spirit Artifact, Dampfengel
Summoner- Whether you found a dark tome detailing the rituals that call dark and powerful creatures to you and place them under your power, or got whacked in the head by a crazy woman with a guitar, because she thinks you're a pervert, this arouses her, and that's her form of flirting, you have the ability to call something to your presence and make it fight for you. Each GAR of Summoner allows you a choice, you can improve a previously gained summon, or you can learn the secrets necessary to summon a new being.
GAR 2+, Summoning Tome or Mystic Event
Gunslinger Extraordinaire- Welp, you didn't find a Core Drill. No books have fallen in your lap, and strange women continue to refuse to hit you with strange instruments. You never found a pretty piece of jewelry that lets you change clothes in a disconcerting, yet distracting and empowering way. You haven't even felt particularly inspired as of late. But you have your gun, and when all the world's against you, and the chips are down, you know you can trust your old pistol (or rifle, or shotgun) more than anyone else in the world. In fact, you've been able to defeat terrifying monsters and punch holes in Dampfengels with little more than your determination that they're not going to take you down with out earning it first, to the astonishment of onlookers. More, with every passing day, you feel like your gun is becoming a part of you, like it's your soul. It's weird.
Gunslingers can channel EP into bullets, allowing them to better injure eldritch beings and damage Eldritch Devices. If they lose their gun, the will soon find it once again, as they intuitively know it's direction relative to them and fate intervenes to guide it back to their hands. Each GAR allows them to summon the weapon to their hand at greater distances, starting with the ability to draw it from where it is holstered on their body as a "Not An Action." Finally, they can use Eldritch Weapons without expenditure of EP, their gun seemingly melding with the weapon, making it instantly familiar, and their body taps into their latent stores of Dream Energy to allow greater feats of acrobatics.
Skills
A man is not solely his ingrown abilities, he is what he has learned and can accomplish as well. Skills are broken into four categories, one for each Characteristic, the skills in which are generally used with the corresponding Characteristic, and one for GAR, skills which grant abilities just for having them, and utilize GAR in rolls rather than a characteristic. Skills are given with packages and otherwise picked up through the expenditure of Build Points (BP). Max skill training is 4 plus GAR.
Hardiness Skills
- Athletics (running, jumping, climbing things, putting on makeup once you're up there.)
- Brawling (unarmed combat, and combat with body-oriented objects-fists, feet, heads, etc.)
- Drive (anything. Ships, land vehicles, mounts, dampfengels*)
- Intimidation (Convincing people through physical action)
- Larceny (stealing shit. Especially off of other people)
- Shooting (ranged combat that makes use of a tool, such as guns, bows, cannons, etc.)
- Stealth (sneaking around like some goddamned sneak)
- Throwing (muscle powered ranged combat, other than bows, of course. Yes, this means that kicking a ball or the like uses Throwing.)
- Whacking (Armed Melee combat)
Mind Skills
- Argument (Convincing people through reason, evidence, etc.)
- Artisan (making things, whether art, craft or machine)
- Medicine (healing people, performing surgery, diagnosing)
- Operations (operating machinery you don't drive. Quite important for mining equipment, and other devices found in the Bottle Cities)
- Perception (Seeing things, hearing things, taste, smell, etc. Using your senses to learn about the world. Can be used to see the invisible.)
- Research (looking things up in books, finding books, managing knowledge)
- Rigging (cobbling things together into other things, taking things apart, salvaging parts, rope)
- Sabotage (disabling things. And people. And buildings. And if you're really good, ideas. If you're amazing, you can break the unbreakable.)
- Survival (figuring out which mushrooms are edible)
Spirit Skills
- Animal Whispering (talk to animals, get them to do what you want.)
- Empathy (Listening to people, hearing what they're saying, or more importantly, not saying)
- Focus (Push yourself to go on, even in the face of despair. Resist Despair, power many special abilities, touch the untouchable)
- Inspiration (Drive people to new heights, make them evolve beyond the person they were a minute before!)
- Machine Whispering (You talk to machines, but more importantly, they answer)
- People Whispering (talk to people, get them to do what you want. Convince people through magnetism, appeals to authority or friendship, gentle, loving strokes of the hair, etc.)
- Performance (Entertaining people, causing distractions, acting convincingly in disguise)
- Tactics (Developing strategy for battle, getting people to follow it)
GAR Skills
GAR skills are unlike other skills. Where as other skills can be possessed by characters of any GAR, GAR skills require you to be of GAR 2 or higher to possess. In addition, while each has a static benefit you constantly benefit from, making a roll and gaining the additional benefits of a GAR skill requires the expenditure of Fighting Spirit, at a cost of 1 per target. Targetless or personal GAR skills require 1 point of Fighting Spirit. GAR skills which provide a bonus do not typically stack. GAR skills which provide a penalty (such as Wrack) cost exponential amounts upon successive uses (1 FS, 2 FS, 4 FS, etc.)
- Astral Travel (Through sheer Fighting Spirit and GAR, you may move from one place to another, without traveling through the intervening space. Having this skill allows you to move at double your normal speed, though doing so is disconcerting to onlookers, as you flicker between space and hyperspace. A successful roll allows actual teleportation, the distance allowed dependent upon your roll:
[insert table of Thresholds and distances]
Finally, yes, you can bring others with you through the expenditure of additional Fighting Spirit.
- Bless (You may protect your allies from some measure of Despair with your benediction. Having this skill allows you to resist 1 point of Despair whenever you would gain it, so long as you maintain faith in your beliefs. A successful roll can grant this, and higher amounts of protection, to all you so anoint.)
- Call the Azure Flame (You may draw forth a wreath of azure fire, which settles on your weapons and shoulders. Having this skill grants you your GAR as bonus to all combat rolls. A successful roll denies a monster action for one round.
- Call Friend (You can reach out to friends across vast distances. Having this skill gives you a sort of long range communication ability with friends, like telepathy, but you have to shout. A successful roll can bring them to your location, if they desire to go.)
- Fist of Yog-Sothoth (The All-in-One suffuses your being and deigns to power your body. Having this skill grants your GAR as a bonus to combat rolls. A successful roll grants it's threshold as a bonus to your combat rolls, and the rolls of people who you designate.
- Voice of Ra (You may speak with the command of Ra. You gain your GAR as a bonus to Intimidate, Argument and People Whispering rolls. A successful roll grants your GAR as a bonus to all skills for one scene.
- Wrack (You may draw on the power of others at their expense. Having this skill gives you a floating +1 that you may use on any one roll in a scene, and causes plants to wilt in your presence, animals to run away, people to shrink from you, and materials to age noticeable in prolonged exposure. You may roll the appropriate skill at a [slightly worse than normal] difficulty to cause creatures to not react in this way. A successful roll saps one point per Threshold from a target in the stat of your choice and grants you a bonus to that stat for the remainder of the scene. You cannot drain more than your GAR through a single use of this ability)
