The Long Second Age--Firearms Charms For The Long Second Age

Firearms– The following Charms are designed to give the Firearms Ability its own set of Charms. Some of them are based on Archery Charms, some are re-workings of Melee Charms, and some I’ve lifted straight from Atlas Games’ Feng Shui. If you haven’t checked out what Atlas did, yet, pick the dang thing up. It’s an amazingly good game.

Sight without Eyes-Applicable to Firearms Accuracy Without Distance-Applicable to Firearms There is No Wind-Applicable to Firearms.

Dead Eye Cost: 1 mote Duration: Instant Type: Supplemental Minimum Firearms: 1 Minimum Essence: 1 Prerequisite Charms:None The character extends her anima into the world around her, and joins the gunsel, target, and bullet into a single being. Truly, the bullet knows the way to the target, for that is its natural home. For each mote of Essence the player spends, she may add 1 die to a Firearms attack roll, but the number of bonus dice may not exceed her normal Dexterity+Firearms pool. The player must declare how much Essence she will spend in this Charm prior to making the attack roll.

Double Tap Cost: 3 motes Duration: Instant Type: Extra Action Minimum Firearms: 2 Minimum Essence: 1 Prerequisite Charms: Dead Eye The character automatically fires two rounds with a single shot. The shots must be directed at the same target. Both shots occur on the character’s Initiative, and are resolved at that time. Both shots are made at the character’s normal dice pool, with no penalty for splitting his pool, but the shots will be at a multiple action penalty if the character takes any other action during this round–like a Dodge, Parry, or climbing into position for the shot.

Gunsel’s Trance Cost: Varies Duration: Instant Type: Extra Action Minimum Firearms: 3 Minimum Essence: 1 Prerequisite Charms:Dead Eye The character flows with grace and economy, while firing his weapon. Before the character takes his first action for the turn, the player must declare how many extra attacks he will make this turn Each extra attack costs a number motes of Essence equal to twice the total number of attacks the character has made so far, including the attack the character is buying.

For Example: Tetsubo is surrounded by Agents, and needs to act now, regardless of the cost. He fires up Gunsel’s Trance, to make three extra attacks–for a total of four this turn. The cost is 18 motes of Essence; 4 for the first extra attack, 6 for the second attack, 8 for the third extra attack.

The character must declare how many attacks he will make, and pay for them all before he makes an attack roll. The character cannot make more attacks than he has ammunition.

Both Guns Blazing Cost: 3 motes per action Duration: Instant Type: Extra Action Minimum Firearms: 3 Minimum Essence: 1 Prerequisite Charms:Gunsel’s Trance The character becomes a whirlwind of destruction. He must be using two weapons to activate this Charm. The character may take one extra Firearms attack for 3 motes, but this action must be split between the two weapons. He may buy multiple gun attacks–up the character’s Dexterity rating–but these attacks must be split between the two weapons, and he may only move at half speed while using this Charm. He may further split his dice pool to make multiple attacks with two weapons, but in order to gain the benefits, these attacks must be split between the weapons equally–2, 4, 6, or 8 attacks–for each extra action. While splitting the dice pool decreases the Exalts’ accuracy, it is perfect for taking down hordes of Extras. The character is still limited by the ammunition that he carries, and cannot spend his extra actions reloading.

Carnival of Carnage Cost: 8 motes, 1 Willpower Duration: Instant Type: Extra Action Minimum Firearms: 5 Minimum Essence: 2 Prerequisite Charms:Both Guns Blazing The character’s motions become inhumanly smooth and economical, optimized for firing. So long as the character hits with an attack, she may make another attack immediately thereafter. Each attack must be at a different target, and the character cannot make more attacks than she has ammunition. This Charm ends when the character misses, or has hit every possible target once.

Fiery Bullet Cost: 2 motes Duration: Instant Type: Supplemental Minimum Firearms: 2 Minimum Essence: 2 Prerequisite Charms:None The character concentrates Essence in a bullet and then fires, causing it to burst into flame mid-flight. Not only will the bullet ignite flammable materials it hits, it also adds the character’s Essence score to the bullet’s damage. This Charm can indeed ignite a warehouse of flammable barrels in proper cinematic fashion...

Fiery Burst Cost: 4 motes Duration: Instant Type: Supplemental Minimum Firearms: 3 Minimum Essence: 2 Prerequisite Charms:Fiery Bullet The character concentrates her Essence into a burst from an automatic weapon, causing the burst to catch flame mid flight. This attack is considered an area effect, and cannot normally be dodged. The character adds his Essence score to base damage for the fire effect, and even those who aren’t hit by the bullets are affected by the fiery gout –damage equal to the character’s Essence score. Flammable materials are guaranteed to go up in the area of effect of the burst.

Phantom Bullet Technique Cost: 1 mote per bullet Duration: Instant Type: Supplemental Minimum Firearms: 3 Minimum Essence: 2 Prerequisite Charms:Fiery Bullet The gunman is dependant on ammunition, but with this Charm, no more so. The Exalt can conjure ammunition made from pure Essence. The bullets have normal range and damage, but wink out of existence a few seconds after impact–making most Medical Examiners throw up their hands in despair. These Essence bullets can be Comboed to create powerful attacks with even an empty weapon.

Solar Shot Cost: 1 mote per 2 dice of damage Duration: Instant Type: Simple Minimum Firearms: 4 Minimum Essence: 2 Prerequisite Charms:Phantom Bullet Technique The character fires a shot that is laden with Essence, even from an empty weapon, the bullet does a base damage equal to twice the number of Essence motes the character invested in conjuring the shot. The character cannot invest more motes of Essence than he has in his Firearms Ability. The Solar Shot is a bright beacon, and cannot be hidden, but it is unhindered by range or visibility conditions, and its range is the character’s Essence x 100 yards.

Regardless of the target’s soak, the shot strikes demons or the Undead and other unclean creatures will always roll at least as many dice of damage as the character’s Essence. This Charm is NOT compatible with Fiery Bullet or Hail of Leaden Death. The damage is determined only by the amount of Essence spent on the Shot and the number of extra successes she rolls on the attack.

Golden Gun Cost: 5 motes, 1 Willpower Duration: One Scene Type: Simple Minimum Firearms: 4 Minimum Essence: 3 Prerequisite Charms:Phantom Bullet Technique The Exalt can not only shape his Essence into ammunition, but into a weapon as well. This Charm creates a golden gun, an extension of the character’s anima, and is unique to the Exalt who creates it. The stats are comparable to the character’s Strength+Essence for damage, and has the range of his normal favorite weapon. The weapon summoned does not come loaded, and the character will have to use Phantom Bullet Technique to supply it with ammunition.

Hail of Leaden Death Cost: 3 motes per duplicate Duration: Instant Type: Supplemental Minimum Firearms: 4 Minimum Essence: 3 Prerequisite Charms:Phantom Bullet Technique The character bundles Essence around the bullet as he fires, and as it leaves the barrel it is multiplied. Use one attack for all the bullets, but apply the damage from each of them separately. The character cannot duplicate more bullets than her Essence score. All bullets must strike the same target.

Inexhaustible Solar Fire Cost: 10 motes, 1 Willpower Duration: One scene Type: Simple Minimum Firearms: 5 Minimum Essence: 4 Prerequisite Charms: Solar Shot, Hail of Leaden Death The character can fight an entire battle without needing to worry about ammunition. For the rest of the scene, the character fires bolts of concentrated Essence that do the same base damage as the type of ammunition the Solar desires. These rounds are not subject to penalties for range or wind, though visibility may be an issue. They have the weapon’s normal range.

Bolt of Devastation Cost: 10 motes, 1 Willpower Duration: Instant Type: Simple Minimum Firearms: 6 Minimum Essence: 6 Prerequisite Charms:Solar Shot The character fires off a shot from his weapon, and makes his normal Dexterity+Firearms roll, but the base damage is equal to the character’s permanent Essence score. The damage is considered aggravated. The bolt is not subject to range or environmental penalties, and has a range of the character’s Essence x 100 yards.

Quickdraw Cost: 2 motes Duration: Instant Type: Supplemental Minimum Firearms: 2 Minimum Essence: 1 Prerequisite Charms:Dead Eye The character’s speed with a gun is legendary. The character does not need to spend an action penalty to draw his weapon, and may act normally.

Lightning Reload Cost: 2 motes Duration: One Scene Type: Simple Minimum Firearms: 2 Minimum Essence: 1 Prerequisite Charms:Quickdraw The character’s actions for the rest of the scene are optimized, and his hands take on a life of their own, and so long as he carries ammunition, he does not have to worry about reloading. He performs reloads automatically, and does not have to pause while his hands perform their trick. This Charm does not end if the character has no ammunition, but he will not be able to reload until he has access to more ammo–say finding a crate of the appropriate ammo in a warehouse, or leaning against a downed Agent.

Weapon Retrieval Technique Cost: 3 motes Duration: Instant Type: Simple Minimum Firearms: 3 Minimum Essence: 2 Prerequisite Charms:Lightning Reload The character may use this Charm to take a weapon from the battlefield if he finds himself disarmed. He may choose either to pick up a weapon from the field as a free action–or two if he regularly uses two weapons–or he may make a contested Dexterity+Firearms roll against anyone within reach. If the character scores more successes, he succeeds in re-arming himself, and does so before initiative is rolled. The character cannot disarm and fire in the same round, unless he has this Charm in an Extra Action Combo.

Pistol Whipping Prana Cost: 5 motes Duration: One round Type: Simple Minimum Firearms: 4 Minimum Essence: 2 Prerequisite Charms:Weapon Retrieval Technique The character becomes a flurry of action with his weapon, suddenly among his opponents, he may use his weapon as a melee weapon, striking all targets within a yard. He may make one attack with the butt of his weapon per target, using his Firearms+Dexterity die in the place of his regular Fight score. Particularly useful in situations where opponents may be wary of firing into their own.

Crystalline Concentration Cost: 6 motes Duration: One round Type: Reflexive Minimum Firearms: 5 Minimum Essence: 2 Prerequisite Charms:Pistol Whipping Prana The character can literally walk through a hail of gunfire. For the round this Charm is activated, the character can roll his Wits+Firearms to predict where shots and attacks will be placed, and the number of successes rolled are considered his defense pool, or added to his defense pool if he has a persistent defense activated. He may act normally, with no penalties for splitting his die for defense in this round, and all attacks must be applied against his single Wits+Firearms defense. This Charm can be placed into a Combo.

Drive By Technique Cost: 3 motes Duration: One Scene Type: Simple Minimum Firearms: 3 Minimum Essence: 1 Prerequisite Charms:Quickdraw The character can fire without penalty from a moving vehicle or mount. He takes no modifiers for his shots while moving. This can include anything from a skateboard to a sky sail, a carriage or roller blades.

Silent Sanction Cost: 4 motes Duration: One Scene Type: Simple Minimum Firearms: 3 Minimum Essence: 2 Prerequisite Charms:Dead Eye The character draws his Essence around him, and his Anima absorbs the sounds created by his weapon. For the rest of the scene, his weapons make no sound. Shells dropping, bolts being pulled back, or even full automatic fire. This does nothing to suppress the muzzle flashes, nor the sound of his footsteps or even his breath, but his weapons all operate with complete silence.

Armor Piercing Cost: 4 motes, 1 Willpower Duration: Instant Type: Supplemental Minimum Firearms: 3 Minimum Essence: 2 Prerequisite Charms:Silent Sanction The character can take a single shot that ignores armor. The target may only soak with his Stamina. The target may attempt to dodge, but not parry if they are aware of the shooter.

Sniper’s Perfect Shot Cost: 7 motes, 1 Willpower Duration: Instant Type: Supplemental Minimum Firearms: 4 Minimum Essence: 2 Prerequisite Charms:Armor Piercing The character draws herself into the perfect moment for a single shot. For this one shot, she ignores all range modifiers, and other condition penalties, even from wounds. She adds her Essence score in additional dice for this shot, as she focuses completely on the moment. This bonus applies only for this one shot. Note: range penalties are nonexistent for this shot.

Disarming Shot Cost: 1 mote Duration: Instant Type: Supplemental Minimum Firearms: 2 Minimum Essence: 1 Prerequisite Charms:Dead Eye The character fires a shot that sends a target’s weapon flying. The character rolls damage as usual, but it is considered a contested check against the victim’s Strength+Athletics to retain his weapon instead of a normal soak roll. This Charm can be put into a Combo to increase the number of targets. If the disarm is successful, the target will take 1 Bashing damage that is not soakable, and the weapon will fly in the character’s direction of choice, one yard for each point the roll was successful.

Suppressive Fire Technique Cost: 2 motes Duration: One round Type: Simple Minimum Firearms: 2 Minimum Essence: 1 Prerequisite Charms:Disarming Shot The character lays down a withering hail of fire that forces opponents’ to keep their heads down. The character cannot take any other action when activating this Charm, but all opponents on the receiving end of this blistering fire, must check Valor before even poking their heads from cover. All actions that they do take are made at +2 difficulty for the round.

Mercy Shot Cost: 2 motes Duration: Instant Type: Supplemental Minimum Firearms: 3 Minimum Essence: 1 Prerequisite Charms:Disarming Shot The character focuses his Essence to execute a shot that causes a minimum of damage. The shot is performed as normal, and is soaked as Lethal damage, but actually inflicts Bashing damage. Whether the character chooses to “crease” the target’s skull, fire directly into their vest, or even fire above their heads to knock down bricks is up to the player, but the effect is the same–unconscious targets, instead of the dead targets.

Wall Shooting Prana Cost: 2 motes Duration: One round Type: Simple Minimum Firearms: 2 Minimum Essence: 1 Prerequisite Charms:Disarming Shot The character draws a bead on an object, and for the purpose of breaking it, he may double his damage pool against this object. It must be inanimate, and not made of the Five Magical Materials. This doubling can’t be applied in combat, but could be applied to using two weapons to open up a wall–doubling their damage for both weapons. This is considered a full action, and the character cannot normally take any defensive action while this Charm is in effect.

Ricochet Technique Cost: 1 mote per ricochet Duration: Instant Type: Supplemental Minimum Firearms: 2 Minimum Essence: 2 Prerequisite Charms:Wall Shooting Prana The character can bounce a shot off an object and have it hit its intended target without penalty. Each additional ricochet increases the cost of the Charm by 1 mote of Essence. Bouncing a shot off a wall behind a target normally allows the character to hit her target from behind, denying the target the protection from cover or shields. Multiple ricochets can even allow the character to hit targets hiding behind corners. When using this Charm, rolls to hit targets that the character cannot see are at +1 difficulty, if the target’s position is known, and +2 if the character is aiming by sound or intuition.

Sharp Shooting Prana Cost: 1 motes per shot Duration: Instant Type: Extra Action Minimum Firearms: 3 Minimum Essence: 2 Prerequisite Charms:Ricochet Shot The character’s reflexes snap into crisp clarity in a single instant, allowing him to snap off shots without thought. The character can take up to his Dexterity in extra actions, provided that the targets are inanimate objects. The character could strafe an area and wipe out every crystal eye in a single round, shoot the locks from several prisoners’ shackles, shoot the hats from half a dozen House Guards, shoot out the windshields from an approaching cadre of Wyld Hunt Agents, shoot out the tires from a trio of carriages that Agents are trying to reach to chase the characters down, or even shoot several coins from the air. These actions cannot be split, but the actions can be applied to auto fire weapons.

Weapon Breaking Shot Cost: 3 motes Duration: Instant Type: Simple Minimum Firearms: 3 Minimum Essence: 2 Prerequisite Charms:Ricochet Shot The character invests his shot with Essence, and instead of doing damage on a successful shot, he instead breaks the target’s weapon. This weapon cannot be exceptional, or made of the Five Magical Materials, but otherwise if the attack is successful, the target’s weapon is considered useless. This can be used on weapons of all sizes, so long as they are within the character’s range–chainguns to pistols. This Charm can be put into a Combo to allow the character to hit several targets’ weapons. Exceptional weapons can use their soak to resist being destroyed–apply damage as usual, to the object--and objects made of the Five Magical Materials are unaffected.