Facility: Esoteric Assets

 Esoteric Asset

A useful inmate, designated Eτ.

In order for Inhuman Resources to approve deployment of a Eτ Special Project, the Asset must be willing and able to:

1. Communicate productively with Facility staff.
2. Assist with everyday Facility operations.
3. Safely manage their Effects under stress conditions.

Mundane Facility employees have the right to report Eτ in violation of these tenets to either Human or Inhuman Resources. — A.O.

Qualifications
Normal -1 or less.

Saves
Weapons -2, Trauma -2, Explosions -2, Contaminants -2, Anomalies -2

Expertise
Effects (see Anomalous Abilities).

Uniform
L0 subdermal tag, white jumpsuit.

Like Attracts Like
You have 2 additional Artefact slots.

Anomalous Abilities
The Research Department refers to artefacts’ anomalous properties as Effects. Yours happen to be useful to the Facility — describe how. GM has final say. 

No roll is necessary to use minor and/or passive Effects (a pyrokinetic lighting candles, a telepath's mind-speech, bigfoot's blurriness, ooze moving through tight spaces, a cat's night vision, etc).

Whenever you make a stat roll, save, or attack to which your Effects are relevant, you may apply your Effects as an Expertise. When you Salvage an Effect roll, the result of the Salvage die (before modifiers) also triggers the corresponding entry on the Anomalous Activity table.

Inhuman Resources has ruled that anomalous auras with an effective radius of greater than 10 metres render an individual unsuitable for τ reclassification. — A.O.

In addition, choose at least two of the following benefits. You may choose the same one twice.

1. Attacks you Effect inflict +1 damage on a hit and an additional 1d6 damage on a crit.
2. +1 to a stat of your choice.
3. +2 wound boxes for a stat of your choice.
4. +3 to a save of your choice.
5. Gain an additional Expertise.
6. Start with a Bound companion entity. You cannot Unbind it.
7. Start with a Bound Artefact. You cannot Unbind it.
8. Once per session, you may reroll any die.
9. Describe an anomalous ability of a cryptid you know about. You have that ability.
10. Choose a GLOG class and gain its Template A benefits. This counts as both choices.

Anomalous Activity (1d20)

1. Suffer 2 Wounds to your Normal.
2. Suffer 2 Wounds to your Admin.
3. Suffer 2 Wounds to your Insight.
4. Suffer 2 Wounds to your Science.
5. Suffer 2 Wounds to your Physique.
6. Suffer 1 Wound to your Normal.
7. Suffer 1 Wound to your Admin.
8. Suffer 1 Wound to your Insight.
9. Suffer 1 Wound to your Science.
10. Suffer 1 Wound to your Physique.
11. For the rest of the session, take an additional -2 to saves.
12. For the rest of the session, take -2 to Effect rolls.
13. If this roll would succeed, it fails instead. If this roll would fail, it succeeds instead.
14. Everyone in the Sector learns your current location. For the rest of the session, your internal thoughts are externally audible and/or legible.
15. For the rest of the session, electronics around you short-circuit (Anomalies save prevents; immunizes).
16. For the rest of the session, the temperature around you drops 20 degrees Celsius.
17. For the rest of the session, you and nearby small objects hover.
18. For the rest of the session, immediately apply your Effects to everything within 10m, including yourself. Any Effects with a duration last 1 Shift and may be cleared early with a Break.
19. For the rest of the session, subjects of your Effects other than you must make an Anomalies save or suffer 1 Normal damage.
20. Double the impact of this roll. Its success manifests entirely through anomalous means.

Esoteric Assets also include:

1. Individuals who, through training or accident, have been permanently bound to artefacts.
2. Inmates who broke out in the Incident, according to Inhuman Resources’ triage protocols.
3. Beings that are too large, small, dispersed, etc. to make effective player characters unless the GM is prepared to include them.

— A.O. 

 

Facility: Combat, Encumbrance, and You

Combat

Despite the best efforts of Public Relations, Human Resources, and Legal, everyday operations in the Facility require a significant amount of violence. The Incident has only exacerbated this troubling tendency.

Initiative

To determine order of combat, the player with the highest unimpaired Insight makes an Insight roll. Other players with unimpaired Insight may Help. If the resulting roll succeeds, the player characters go first. If not, the enemies go first. On a Partial Success, players elect a single character to go before the enemies. Play then alternates between sides until one side is incapacitated, surrenders, or flees.

Actions

Characters can make one attack and take one other action of their choice on their turn during combat. Because players take their turn simultaneously, they may take these actions in any order.

Attacking

When a PC attacks, they describe how and roll with the appropriate stat (usually Physique, but Science and Insight are relevant for artefacts and anomalous abilities, and Normal or Admin are appropriate for social attacks). Their target number is 10 plus the enemy’s appropriate save and any other modifiers.

On a Success, the player may either inflict their weapon’s Damage or roll to Critical Hit. On a Failure, the player may accept that their attack missed or roll to Salvage.

Critical Hit Rolls
Make the same attack roll again. This roll counts as a type of Salvage for relevant rules, including Impairment. On a Success, the attack deals its maximum base damage and you may also either inflict an additional 1d6 damage or make a called shot or maneuver. On a Failure, the attack becomes a Partial Success.

Partial Success
Inflict weapon’s Damage to the target, but also suffer Damage from enemies. The PC cannot save vs. this damage, but may ablate it with any relevant PPE.

Salvaged Hit Rolls
Make the same attack roll again. On a Success, the attack becomes a Partial Success (see above). On a Failure, the attack misses and the PC suffers an additional difficulty such as damage, losing their weapon, running out of ammunition, falling prone, etc.

Example Weapons

Unarmed attack: 0 damage, but may still crit.
Improvised melee: 1 damage
Light melee: 2 damage
Heavy melee: 3 damage, requires two hands or Physique of at least +2
Thrown weapon: 1 damage
Pistol: 3 damage
Submachine gun: 1d4 damage, +2d4 on crit
Shotgun: 1d4+2 damage
Automatic rifle: 1d6 damage, +2d6 on crit
Fragmentation grenade: 3 damage, 10’ radius blast, consumable

Whenever you roll a 1 on an attack with a gun with any die, that gun runs out of ammunition and must be reloaded.

If a weapon specifies critical dice, it rolls those dice instead of the normal 1d6 for a critical hit.

Due to Procurement’s difficulties with finding suppliers who will sell weapons in bulk to an anonymous, secretive organization, ammunition is not interchangeable between guns unless you have managed to personally source or modify pieces that take the appropriate cartridge.

Saves & Wounds

Weapons and hazards can wound a wide variety of stats regardless of the save that they target. Wound type may not become apparent until save is failed, but players always have the chance to ablate before suffering the wound.

Physical injuries, especially to the musculoskeletal, circulatory, or respiratory systems, tend to wound Physique. Nervous system injuries that affect cognitive function and/or logical reasoning tend to wound Science. Injuries to the senses and other perceptive faculties tend to wound Insight. Social injuries, humiliation, collapses of leadership, and failures of morale tend to wound Admin. Fear, whether accompanied by other types of injury or not, tends to wound Normal. Examples (non-exhaustive) follow. 

Weapons

• Gunshot ➜ Physique
• Impact-induced concussion ➜ Science
• Deafened by near-miss ➜ Insight
• Squad pinned down ➜ Admin
• Hit by unfamiliar weapon ➜ Normal

Trauma

• Crushed by vehicle, blast door, falling object ➜ Physique
• Framework with which one understands the world undermined ➜ Science
• Distressing hallucinations ➜ Insight
• Sending comrade to die ➜ Admin
• Hunted in the dark ➜ Normal

Explosive

• Shrapnel ➜ Physique
• Lightning ➜ Science
• Flashbang ➜ Insight
• Separated from party ➜ Admin
• Fire ➜ Normal

Contaminants

• Respiratory hazard ➜ Physique
• Mind-affecting pathogen ➜ Science
• Corpse stench ➜ Insight
• Food poisoning ➜ Admin
• Bugs all over your skin ➜ Normal

Anomalies

• Bitten by absence of shark ➜ Physique
• Memory-affecting phenomena ➜ Science
• Sensory manipulation ➜ Insight
• Social phenomena ➜ Admin
• Pretty much anything in the Facility, to be honest ➜ Normal

Encumbrance

Characters have Slots in their bags and Pockets on their clothes. By default, each character starts with 2 Pockets on their clothes, and has a backpack that provides 6 Slots.

Pockets are quick inventory slots that fit small items (you know, pocket-sized ones). Characters can store and retrieve items from pockets at any time, and are assumed to have done so if they take an action that needs one.

In order to retrieve an item from a slot, a character must dig around in their bag for a minute. If they want to do so quickly (i.e. as an action in combat), this takes a Normal roll. If they try and fail to Salvage the attempt, their bag falls open and the contents spill out.

Some items like rifles, bankers’ boxes, and briefcases are Bulky. These are too unwieldy to store in a single inventory slot, and certainly not in pockets. They must be carried in a character’s hands unless a better storage solution like a sling or a handcart has been found.

Wearing Storage Items nonsensically (ask players to demonstrate!) impairs the character’s Physique.

Sample Storage Items

• Coveralls: 6 pockets. Replaces normal clothing.
• Messenger Bag: 2 slots, 1 pocket.
• Sling: Carries a Bulky item. Sheathes and scabbards for melee weapons also count as Slings.
• Fanny Pack: 2 pockets.
• Briefcase: 2 slots, Bulky.
• Toolbox: 3 slots, Bulky.

Maintenance Technician

Qualifications
+1 Science or +1 Normal

Saves
Weapons +0, Trauma +0, Explosions +2, Contaminants +2, Anomalies +0

Expertise
Choose a trade (Science)

Uniform
L1 Clearance badge, orange coveralls, work boots, work gloves, toolbox, 3 slots of Spare Parts.

Kitbash
You may Craft Device as a Research Assistant. The device cannot include artefacts, but only takes a Break to construct.

Maintenance Techniques
To use a Maintenance Technique, roll Xd6, where X is less than or equal to the number of slots in your inventory that are filled with Spare Parts. Expend one slot of Spare Parts for each 4+ you roll, or if X was greater than your Clearance level, expend one slot of Spare Parts for each die rolled. The resulting sum of all dice is referred to as [sum], as is GLOG tradition.

Maintenance Technique — Work Order
When you roll to repair or interact with Facility systems, you may use this Maintenance Technique to add [sum] to your roll.

Maintenance Technique — Dismantle
During a Break (1 hour), convert a piece of large equipment like a centrifuge, mainframe server, or boiler into [sum] Spare Parts. It cannot be repaired or reassembled.

Maintenance Technique — Barricade
Create a sturdy barrier out of Spare Parts and office debris. This takes 10 minutes alone, or 1 round of concerted activity by the whole party. The resulting barrier can suffer [sum]*10 wounds before falling apart. Its maximum height is 10’, and its maximum length is [sum]*10’. It can only take complex shapes like curves or domes if you spend at least 10 minutes erecting it. Barriers constructed this way collapse after an hour, or after 10 minutes if built in 1 round.

Maintenance Techniques — Conduits
The following Maintenance Techniques refer to the conduits that network the Facility’s walls, ceilings, and floors. The Maintenance Technician can always identify the type, presence, and direction of conduits, both exposed and hidden from view. Conduits for electricity, air, gas, water, sewage, and data are ubiquitous. Sectors with unique architecture may also contain rarer conduits such as boiling steam, sulfuric acid, pneumatic tubes, and liquid nitrogen.

Maintenance Technique — Tap
Construct a new access point to a conduit. This access point controls that conduit’s flow for [sum] in either direction. You may activate, deactivate, or alter the flow at your leisure.

Maintenance Technique — Reroute
Extend a conduit across [dice] rooms. This takes 1 hour per room and consumes 1 slot of Spare Parts per die regardless of what was rolled.

Maintenance Technique — Blast
Open a conduit and direct a discharge of electricity, flammable gas, pressurized water, or something stranger into your foes. This discharge inflicts [sum] wounds divided equally between any number of targets in front of you (save vs. Explosives halves damage). You may also break the conduit to inflict one of the following effects based on its type. A broken conduit cannot be discharged again until repaired.

• Electricity: All targets are stunned and can’t attack on their next turn. Localized blackout plunges room into darkness until repaired.
• Gas: All targets are set on fire until they put themselves out. Room fills with flammable gas until vented.
• Water or Sewage: Targets all fall prone and are knocked back 5’ per wound inflicted. Room floods 1’ per round until drained.
• Air: As water or sewage, but instead of flooding, room becomes foggy and loses temperature control until HVAC repaired.

I’m not sure how a data conduit would hurt someone. I do know that I don’t want to be nearby when someone figures it out. — A.O.

Facility: Sector Layout

This die-drop method generates a vertical map of Facility sectors. Grab a handful of dice and throw them on a sheet of paper. Note down the die sizes and face values, then draw connections between nearby dice. Prefer vertical elevators, horizontal halls, and slight inclines.

Sectors

1. Offices
2. Laboratories
3. π Artefact Storage
4. Warehousing
5. Security
6. ρ Object Containment
7. ρ Entity Containment
8. Maintenance
9. Residence
10. Hospital
11. Transport Hub
12. Reactors
13. Archives
14. Large-Scale Containment
15. Resource Processing
16. Executive Branch
17. Abandoned Sector
18. Public Front
19. Bunker
20. Lρ Artefact

If a sector you want (Reactors, Containment, Laboratories) is missing, add it in or change a sector you’re less enthusiastic about.

Determine the type of connection between sectors by the sizes of dice at its endpoints. When a vertical line can be extended such that more sectors can connect to it horizontally, do so — this becomes a Sector Elevator.

Architecture says it’s actually riskier in the long term to build access stairways alongside Sector Elevators. An unappreciated benefit of clandestine operations: we get to write our own fire codes. — A.O.

Two-Way Connections

d20-d20: Tramway, station locked.
d20-d12: Tramway, path obstructed.
d20-d10: Tramway, tram broken.
d20-d8: Tramway
d20-d6: Cargo elevator
d20-d4: Tramway, thru cavern
d12-d12: Hall, locked
d12-d10: Hall, cargo sized
d12-d8: Maintenance stairwell
d12-d6: Personnel elevator
d12-d4: Cavern, bridge
d10-d10: Roadway, locked
d10-d8: Roadway
d10-d6: Cargo elevator
d10-d4: Roadway, thru cavern
d8-d8: Maintenance access, locked
d8-d6: Maintenance elevator
d8-d4: Maintenance access, thru cavern
d6-d6: Elevator, locked
d6-d4: Elevator, thru cavern
d4-d4: Cavern, locked

Locked connections have a Security Checkpoint that requires level (2d3) clearance level to unlock. Checkpoints deeper into the facility or protecting higher-value sectors tend to have higher requisite clearance levels (3d3).

Sector Elevators have Security Checkpoints at every floor and will not stop at locked floors unless appropriate clearance is presented.

Trams can be called and taken along any clear tramway path, but will not stop at locked stations and will crash into broken trams or other obstructions unless the emergency stop is pulled.

Anomalous Sector Connections

Some connections won’t make sense; a tall vertical roadway, a tramway short enough to walk. Convert them to Anomalous Sector Connections.

1. Transporter. High power requirements, continuity of consciousness not guaranteed.
2. Portal highway. Requires transit through hazardous gatespace; denizens may be displeased by increased traffic.
3. Tramway, choked with anomalous growth and/or entities.
4. This connection is a stub, you can help by expanding it.
5. Capsule elevator swallowed and regurgitated by peristaltic tube. Grows new fleshy connections when left to its own devices; regularly pruned by heavily-armed Maintenance task force.
6. Gravity lift. Requires regular cleaning due to nausea and coffee spills.
7. Backroom labyrinth. Exit doors are clearly marked, though paths through the junction never repeat. Traversal always takes 1d6 hours. Complimentary cucumber and lemon water has been cleared for staff consumption.
8. Submarine tram. Aquifer repurposed as containment for anomalous ecosystem including predatory megafauna.
9. Antimemetic effect erases memory of transit through connection. Each traveler must make an Anomalies save or suffer an Insight wound and emerge with d3-2 random items.
10. Structural collapse has created a deep ravine. Cave walls open into multiple sectors.
11. Employees are permitted to establish temporary sector connection through Pπ ritual. Instructions and materials for ritual are stored separately.
12. One-way zipline.

Sector-Wide Hazards

Roll at least one per sector. Players can fix these; the GM can introduce new ones. Additional hazards will appear at smaller scales within the sector, but these are relevant in every room and hallway.

1. Radiation leak.
2. Power outage. Emergency lights offline.
3. Gas leak. 2-in-6 chance it’s flammable, 4-in-6 chance it’s toxic.
4. Power surge. Electrifies conductive surfaces and water supplies, discharges at random.
5. Flooded (1-3. water, 4. sewage, 5. acid, 6. anomalous material)
6. Dense fog. No visibility beyond current room, minimal visibility within it.
7. 40 degrees C. Save vs. heatstroke each Shift without protective gear.
8. -40 degrees C. Save vs. frostbite each Shift without protective gear.
9. Structurally unstable. Collapsed passages are common, sudden moves may cause further damage.
10. Awful smell or noise; impairs Insight without proper PPE.
11. Hostile faction, demanding tribute.
12. Hostile faction, killing on sight.
13. Hostile factions, ongoing firefight.
14. Oπ spore contamination, pending E reclassification.
15. Oρ containment failure, entire sector within effect radius.
16. Ongoing manifestation of PΔ event.
17. Colonized by Lρ anomalous ecosystem.
18. Eρ entity/ies, territorial claim.
19. Eλ entity, Κ designation pending.
20. None. Right?

Facility: Clearance, Redaction, and You

Clearance

Every employee, from the lowest test subjects and janitors to the most dangerous Kappa operatives and Esoteric Assets, are issued identification with a Clearance Level (or just Level) between 0 and 9.

Oversight does not have or need Clearance Level 10. — A.O.

Admin is often forced to issue day passes to Rival Agency liaisons or to Security and Maintenance teams resolving specific issues. These badges are large and clearly marked with a red expiry time stamp 24 hours from issuance.

Many doors, vaults, cabinets, and machines require a passcode that (1d6):

1. Changes daily.
2. Is incredibly difficult to type (roll Admin to input correctly).
3. Pokes fun at a specific employee.
4. Is written somewhere nearby.
5. Hasn’t changed from factory settings.
6. You already know.

L5+ IDs are linked to biometrics in the Facility database. L5+ locks require a number of the following biometric samples equal to their level minus 4.

1. Speech sample
2. Palm print
3. Facial scan
4. Retinal scan
5. DNA sample (saliva)
6. DNA sample (blood)

If you suspect that your biometrics have been compromised due to artefact exposure, please report to Inhuman Resources for a full scan and/or autopsy. — A.O.

L0 — A dog tag, blinking subdermal chip, or visitor sticker.
L1 —  An employee ID and a keyfob, typically worn together on a lanyard. Includes location tracker, can be loaded with vending machine bucks.
L2 — An ID badge, typically carried in a wallet. Easily mistaken for local government agency.
L3 — An employee ID issued to team leaders. Still tracked, but has unlimited vending machine bucks.
    
A privilege, not a right. — A.O.

L4 — A nonreactive metal ID card. Etched to maximize legibility in case of severe mangling. Tracked for your safety.
L5 — Biometric ID card issued to Division Chiefs. Isn’t tracked.
L6 — Biometric ID card. Role and department are redacted.

Admin just doesn’t want to admit that some secretaries need to have the same clearance level as moonshot researchers and Kappa team grunts. — A.O.

L7 — Biometric ID card issued to Departmental Directors. Awarded alongside a small congratulatory plaque.

Bugged by Internal Affairs, naturally. — A.O.

L8 — Matte black ID card. Probably legible under UV or something.

If someone flashes this at you, run. They need the exercise. — A.O.

L9 — Biometric ID card issued to the Facility Director.

Redaction

Lots of media in the anomalous containment space leans on redaction as a tool to build horror. This doesn’t work in the tabletop RPG space, or at least, it has to work differently.

If you redact out any amount of information, players will want to know what’s behind it. In a story, video game, or an SCP-style database entry, the best a reader can do is infer the scariest thing they can think of given the space constraints established by the redaction. In tabletop games outside of the storygame milieu, a GM needs better answers than “you tell me”.

Most tabletop RPGs already presume an amount of redaction due to the vast information asymmetry between players and the GM. Therefore, redaction is useful as a visual signifier of information that can be discovered with further effort. The only difference between a monster’s stat block and an anomaly’s case file is the amount visible to the players; the latter is far more transparent.

If the party knows about an object’s perilous aura, but its effective range is redacted, they can take actions to identify that range and act accordingly. If a player approaches an entity without yet having untangled a large redaction in its file, they will be more understanding when it paralyzes them, emits a roomful poison gas, or fades from their memories. Partial documents become valuable loot. Black boxes become a quest log. A feel-bad moment becomes a successful scouting mission.

At the table, use redaction as a puzzle that generates gameplay. Hand your players your prep, liberally marked up. Let them play smart, metagame, and sneak peeks behind the screen. If any place is appropriate to gain extradimensional insights through creative malfeasance, it’s the Facility.

For examples of productive use of redaction, highlight this page.

Janitor

Qualifications
None.

Saves
Weapons +0, Trauma +0, Explosions +0, Contaminants +2, Anomalies +2

Expertise
Cleaning (Normal), Sneak (Physique)

Uniform
L1 ID, blue coveralls, janitor’s cart (buckets, mundane cleaning supplies, push-broom, mop, vacuum, toiletry refills).

Sanitize
With appropriate cleaning agents and ten minutes of vigorous scrubbing, you may roll Normal to remove all hazardous materials from a room. If you fail, you may Salvage the attempt at the risk of becoming exposed to one of those hazards. Whether you succeed or fail on the Salvage attempt, you must save vs. a hazard you cleaned.

You may spend a Break (1 hour) cleaning to automatically succeed at cleaning 1d6 rooms.

This cleaning process produces a bucket of hazardous sludge that inflicts 1d3 wounds to everyone in the splash zone and may cause additional effects based on the originating hazards. You will also have to clean the resulting mess up again.

Nondescript
You are always the lowest priority target for hostile action. 

Facility: Jobs

Characters in the Facility start with one of several jobs. Most jobs require specific Qualifications. All jobs provide baseline Save bonuses, starting Uniform (including a badge with a Clearance level), Expertises, and abilities.

Facility jobs do not have standard advancement procedures. Instead, advancement occurs through acquisition of new artefacts, equipment, clearance levels, expertise, and titles. Some titles have Qualification prerequisites; some directly replace and upgrade starting jobs.

A “high-level” Facility character wears many hats. A character that started as a lowly Research Assistant may end up as a Team Lead, Entity Handler, Certified Professional Accountant, Third-Rank Adept of the Night, and Research Director.

Under special circumstances such as continuity of administration protocols or blatant nepotism, unqualified candidates may receive high-level positions. — A.O.

Field Agent

Delta Team operatives, External Affairs liaisons, and Public Relations triage teams all wear the traditional black suit and silver tie clip. In the aftermath of the Incident, Agents must adapt their training for a far more dangerous Field: the Facility.

Qualifications
+1 Physique, +1 Insight

Saves
Weapons +2, Trauma +2, Explosions +2, Contaminants +0, Anomalies +0

Expertise
Firearms (Phys), Running (Phys)

Uniform
Agent badge (Clearance 2), field agent suit, 9mm pistol, earpiece radio, tinted glasses (PPE, Rating 1 — Anomalies).

Research Assistant

The Facility runs on an endless succession of bright-eyed recent graduates who want to leave their mark on the world. That mark usually turns out red and sticky.

Qualifications
+2 Science

Saves
Weapons +0, Trauma +0, Explosions +1, Contaminants +2, Anomalies +2

Expertise
Choose one (Science)

Uniform
ID card (Clearance 1), lab coat, lab goggles, surgical mask, latex gloves.

Artefact Analysis
Start with an additional slot for a bound Artefact. You may Bind artefacts with Science rather than Insight.

Craft Device
You can attempt to combine items in your possession into a new device with novel capabilities based on the properties of its parts. Describe this new item to the GM, who sets a difficulty. Spend a Shift crafting the device, then make a Science roll. On a success, you create the desired item. If you fail, save or suffer 1d6 Wounds, and you may consume the items to Salvage the attempt. On a partial success, you create an item with unknown properties. If you fail to Salvage, save or suffer 1d6 Wounds again.
The nature of the save is up to the GM.

Crafting Guidelines

• Base difficulty: 12
• Includes power source: +2
• Large: +2, takes additional Shifts to craft (only roll at the end)
• Modifying a mundane item: -2
• Bound artefact: +2
• Unbound artefact: +4
• +X, where X is the total number of artefacts in the final device
• Weapon: +X, where X is its maximum Damage
• PPE: +1 for each point of Rating and each point added to saves
• Anything else the GM thinks is relevant.

Security Guard

You have a patrol route, a list of duties, a kevlar vest, and a gun. None of these have prepared you for what you’ve seen or what comes next.

Qualifications
+1 Physique

Saves
Weapons +1, Trauma +1, Explosions +1, Contaminants +1, Anomalies +1

Expertise
None.

Uniform
ID card (Clearance 1), security helmet, security vest, submachine gun, walkie-talkie.

Resilience
Add an additional box to each of your stats’ Wound Capacity.

Administrative Assistant

Grease the wheels of bureaucracy by providing real decision-makers with copious amounts of coffee and an outlet for their rage. Maybe learn a thing or two in the process.

Qualifications
+2 Admin

Saves
Weapons +0, Trauma +2, Explosions +0, Contaminants +0, Anomalies +0

Expertise
Choose one (Normal)

Uniform
ID card (Clearance 1), business casual (PPE Rating 1 — Trauma, Contaminants).

Declassify Document
When you encounter a new redacted document, you may roll with Insight. The target number is 12 plus the document’s Clearance. On a success, fill in all the blanks. On a partial success, fill in one blank of your choice. You cannot attempt to Declassify the same document more than once.

Turn Employees
To force Facility staff to follow protocols or browbeat them into compliance, make an Admin roll. On a success, roll 2d6 to determine the total Clearance level of staff that follow your orders until the end of the scene. On a partial success, roll 1d6 to determine the total Clearance level of staff that follow a single order you gave them during the Turning attempt.

You cannot attempt to Turn employees that you have previously failed to Turn until your Clearance increases or you gain a new Title.

Lab Rat

An unkind term for the expendable test subjects demanded by less reputable researchers and containment teams. Not usually a literal rat.

Qualifications
None.

Saves
Weapons +0, Trauma +0, Explosions +0, Contaminants +0, Anomalies +0

Expertise
Sneak (Phys), Climb (Phys), Hide (Phys)

Uniform
ID tag (Clearance 0), grey coveralls, high visibility vest.

Test Subject
Whenever you fail a Save, mark it. At the end of a session, you may erase all marks on one of your marked saves and choose one.

• If you removed one or more marks, gain +1 to that save (to a maximum of +3).
• If you removed three or more marks, gain an Expertise in that save.
• If you removed five or more marks, gain an additional slot for a bound artefact.

Opportunist
When you hit a creature unaware of your presence with an attack, you inflict an additional 1d6 damage.

Binding Artefacts

Wielding artefacts is dangerous. In order to reliably control an artefact’s effects, one must understand both its properties and its interactions with the world around it. This becomes exponentially more difficult when artefacts interact with each other, as experimental conditions diverge further and further from established physical laws. The process of understanding an artefact well enough to use it in a personal capacity is called Binding.

To Bind an artefact, spend a Shift performing scientific analysis and/or occult rituals while making any requisite offerings. At the end of the Shift, make an Insight roll and suffer a Wound to your Normal. On a Success, you Bind it and gain a modicum of control over its anomalous capabilities. On a Failure, you may upgrade that Wound to a Scar to Salvage the roll.

• Gain +2 to the roll if you have the artefact’s fully declassified containment file. Expertise will not help you here, only specific knowledge.
• A Bond gives you more leeway to make creative use of an anomaly without needing to roll, and allows you to benefit from its passive effects at all times.
• Binding yourself to a large, powerful, or intelligent artefact is dangerous. A Bond is a two-way street, and powers one believes they can wield often end up wielding them instead.

By default, a character has two slots for Bound artefacts. When a character is at capacity but wants to Bind a new artefact, they must Unbind an old one, which can be Bound again at a later date. Unbinding is instantaneous, but not without difficulty: make an Anomalies save to avoid Backlash.
The nature of the Backlash is up to the GM, but typically includes several Wounds.
Some Jobs and Titles provide additional artefact slots.

Oπ — “Jar of Wounds”: This glass mason jar is stoppered with a large stained cork and filled with damaged flesh. A damaged label reads “WHOOP-ASS // bottled 12-08-19[illegible]”.

The jar can store up to three points of Wounds and/or Scars. All injuries associated with the wounds disappear into the jar as if poured like a liquid; careful examination of the jar’s contents can identify the wounds contained within. If the jar is opened while full or broken at any time, the wounds and scars escape onto the nearest creature.

A character who has Bound the Jar of Wounds can immediately dump wounds that they would suffer into the Jar until it’s full. The character might direct emptied wounds to small animals crawling on the jar, dump them onto a corpse until the corpse disintegrates, or fire them at an enemy (treat as a Science attack vs. target’s Trauma save).

We don’t have reclassify an artefact to τ just because you Bound it. We have the Special Projects division for a reason — binding the Haunted Tape is impressive, but Legal is never going to sign off on using it to populate break room entertainment cabinets with media pirated from your subconscious. You’re going to watch re-runs of Heritage Minutes like everyone else in the Facility. — A.O.

Further artefacts:

https://archonsmarchon.blogspot.com/2025/07/some-artefacts-first-dossier.html

https://rosepulp.wordpress.com/2025/07/14/36-artefacts-for-facility-core/ 

Facility Core

 A tabletop game for playing in a strange modern megadungeon inspired by Abiotic Factor, CONTROL, Triangle Agency, Prey (2017), Delta Green, and the SCP Foundation.

You are members of an Organization that identifies, captures, contains, and neutralizes supernatural threats. Everything has gone wrong, and the Facility is in total lockdown. Hold out for as long as you can.

1. Rolling Dice

To accomplish an interesting, dangerous, or complicated task, roll d20 and add your relevant stat bonus. Meet or beat 12 (or a higher number, at the GM’s discretion) to succeed.

• If you have a relevant Expertise, add an additional +2.
• If you have help from another player character (declared before the roll), they may also roll with a relevant stats, and on a success they give you an additional +1. Helpers are also exposed to dangers associated with the task. You cannot Salvage a Help roll.

On a failure, you may attempt to Salvage your roll (at the GM’s discretion) and make the same roll again. If you meet or beat the original target number, you get a Partial Success that is less effective, more time/resource consuming, and/or exposes you to more harm than initially expected. If you fail to Salvage, the consequences above still occur.

• Before the Salvage roll, other PCs may chip in and attempt to help.
• You cannot Salvage a Salvage roll.

2. Stats

To generate your stats, roll 3d6 down the line for Physique, Science, Insight, Admin, and Normal, and consult the Employee Competence Scale to get each stat’s bonus.

Employee Competence Scale
3-4: -3        5-6: -2        7-9: -1        10-11: 0    12-14: +1    15-16: +2    17-18: +3

After generating your stats, you may undergo On-the-Job Training and do one of the following:

• Subtract 1 from the bonus of a stat of your choice to gain an Expertise in a different stat.
• Subtract 2 from the bonus of a stat of your choice to gain +2 to the bonus of a different stat.
• Swap two stats.

These cannot take stats below -3 or above +3 (and so you can't subtract 2 points from a stat that's already -2 or less). A stat with a bonus of -3 or below is permanently Impaired (c.f. 3(a) “Wounds & Impairment”).

Stats with bonuses of +2 or higher provide additional benefits, such as Expertise and improved saves. 

(a) Physique

Roll Physique to run, climb, jump, lift, shove, sneak, and make physical attacks.

• +2: Gain a Physique Expertise.
• +3: +1 to your Weapons and Contaminants saves.

(b) Science

Roll Science to understand, remember, treat wounds, utilize the mundane and anomalous principles that govern the Facility, and attack with crafted and/or anomalous weapons.

• +2: Gain a Science Expertise.
• +3: Gain +2 to your Contaminants save.

(c) Insight

Roll Insight to connect the dots, perceive the imperceptible, detect impending ambushes, unravel interpersonal dynamics, and make psychic attacks.

• +2: Gain an Insight Expertise.
• +3: +1 to your Explosions and Trauma saves.

(d) Admin

Roll Admin to search databases, comprehend documents, fill out forms, organize, pull rank, navigate bureaucracy, and make social attacks.

• +2: Gain an Admin Expertise.
• +3: +2 to your Trauma saves.

I’ve stopped finding the jokes funny, thank you very much. The Eχ0001.001 “Nominative Determinism” label sticker someone left on my badge was pretty good. But if anything like this happens again I’m going to HR! And I’m keeping the sticker. — Administrative Assistant Anne O’Malley

(e) Normal

Roll Normal to perform mundane tasks, keep a clear head, navigate social situations, and attack with improvised mundane weapons.

• +2: Gain a Normal Expertise.
• +3: +2 to your Anomalies save.

3. Saves & Harm

Facility characters also have five Saves, which are determined by their job and modified by their stats. Saves can be further improved with PPE, beneficial artefacts, certain job abilities, and delta templates. To make a Save, roll 1d20 and add the relevant save, then compare it to the target number set by your GM (usually 12). Saves cannot be Salvaged, but failed saves can be Ablated with PPE.

Weapons — bullets, blades, claws, fangs, punches, sledgehammers, beam weapons
Trauma — stress, verbal harassment, falling damage, spontaneous dismemberment
Explosions — fire, electricity, grenades, cave-ins, opening a shaken pop bottle
Contaminants — toxins, gas, disease, radiation, mutagens, carcinogens, corrosion, expired break room coffee creamer
Anomalies — reality distortions, anomalous compulsions, adverse teleportation, spaghettification, anything else otherwise unclassifiable

(a) Wounds & Impairment

When you fail a save, you suffer some number of Wounds to a relevant stat. Each stat has a Wound Capacity of 3 plus its bonus. When a stat has suffered Wounds equal to its Wound Capacity, it becomes Impaired. If a stat’s Wound Capacity is ever 0 or less, it is always treated as Impaired.

1 wound is a bad sprain. 2 wounds is a second-degree burn across your entire hand. 3 wounds is a shot from a 9mm pistol to a non-vital area (a headshot inflicts at least 15). A facehugger successfully latching onto a human inflicts 6 damage.

Mercifully, facehuggers are confined to the silver screen. Which is safely contained in the Oπ block, so if you stay out of its cell you’ll be fine. — A.O.

Physical injuries damage Physique. Stress, concussions, and lack of sleep damage Insight. Loss of morale, dignity, and composure damages Admin. Exposure to reality-altering effects and seeing That Which Should Not Be damages Normal. Wounds to an Impaired stat can spill over into any other — the human body is too complex to isolate despite the diligent attempts of τ Special Projects.

I wish Internal Affairs had gone with my suggestion. τ Special Projects? Still ominous. — A.O.

You cannot Salvage rolls with Impaired stats, you cannot use Expertise linked to Impaired stats, and when you suffer Wounds to an Impaired stat, those wounds spill over into another non-Impaired stat. You do not get another chance to Ablate.

If three or more of your stats are Impaired, your character is Incapacitated and cannot act until healed. If all five of your stats are Impaired, your character dies, unless they have made alternate and/or anomalous arrangements for this eventuality.

(b) Healing

An Organization-mandated Break is 1 hour. You may spend a Break resting. Roll a stat; on a Success or Partial Success, remove 1 Wound.

During a Break, a character may Heal another character by rolling Science. On a Success, remove a Wound from a chosen stat. On a Partial Success, move that wound to a different stat.

An Organization-mandated Shift is 8 hours. At the end of a Shift, if you did not engage in any strenuous physical or mental activity and sustained no additional Wounds, remove 1 Wound from each of your stats.

Medical says that the guidelines laid out in this document are wholly insufficient for long-term healing. I’d love to survive to prove them right. — A.O.

(c) Scarring

If one of your stats is Impaired, you may convert all of your Wounds in that stat into a single Scar on that stat. The Scar cannot be healed and reduces that stat’s Wound Capacity by 1.

Scars can be incurred through other means as well. Some Scars have additional narrative and/or gameplay effects — not always negative.

(d) Personal Protective Equipment

Vital for everyday work in the Facility. Under breach conditions, demand far outstrips supply. A vacuum-sealed pack of latex gloves is worth lives.

PPE has a rating and a save. When you fail a save vs the listed hazard, you may Ablate that piece of PPE and mark it to succeed instead. Once a piece of PPE has marks on it equal to its Rating, it loses all its protective qualities, including any save bonuses, but may still be worn as clothing. Some PPE may be repairable; most must be disposed of instead.

Wearing PPE nonsensically (i.e. two stacked hats, nested sets of boots) negates the bonuses from all pieces worn wrong.

A surgical mask only works if it’s over your nose and your chin. — A.O.

1. Hazmat Suit. Rating 3 (Contaminants). Impairs Normal while worn.
2. Hard Hat. Rating 1 (falling objects).
3. Welding Mask. Rating 2 (Explosions, Weapons).
4. Earmuffs. Rating 1 (Explosions). +2 to Explosions saves and saves vs. sonic hazards.
5. Surgical Mask. Rating 1 (Contaminants). +2 to Contaminants saves. Disposable.
6. Respirator. Rating 2 (Contaminants). +2 to Contaminants saves.
7. Gas Mask. Rating 1 (Explosions). +3 to Contaminants saves, impairs Normal.
8. Lab Goggles. Rating 1 (Explosions). +2 to Explosions saves.
9. Security Helmet. Rating 1 (Weapons, Trauma).
10. Security Vest. Rating 2 (Weapons).
11. Lead Vest. Rating 1 (Weapons), +3 to saves vs. radioactive Contaminants.
12. High Visibility Vest. Rating 1 (Anomalies), visible even in minimal light conditions.
13. Body Harness. Rating 1 (Trauma). With time to rig a safe belay, you do not take fall damage.
14. Plate Carrier. Rating 3 (Weapons, Explosions). Without Armor Expertise, impairs Physique.
15. Field Agent Suit. Rating 2 (Weapons). Fashionable.
16. Lab Coat. Rating 1 (Contaminants, Anomalies). +1 to Contaminants and Anomalies saves.
17. Latex Gloves. Rating 1 (Contaminants). +1 to Contaminants saves. Disposable.
18. Work Gloves. Rating 1 (Trauma). +1 to Contaminants saves.
19. Slippers. Rating 1 (things on the floor).
20. Work Boots. Rating 1 (Trauma, things on the floor). +2 to saves vs. electricity.

Facility: Departments & Factions

On a good day, everyone in the Facility is in the same org chart and on the same payroll. Today is not a good day.

When all hell breaks loose, the Facility splinters along departmental and sectoral lines. Off-shift Research personnel in Residences band together with Facility Services to barricade the doors and wait for outside rescue; Kappa teams raid Archives to identify priority targets and start cleaning house, Lambda Containment Research abandons their rampaging experiments and rushes to the eyewash stations, then the bunkers, with covering fire from Security. Under the Facility’s full-scale lockdown protocols, paranoia sets in immediately, resource scarcity soon after, and mad science competes with occult ritual for third place.

Roll at least twice on the Departments list to populate a faction, then again on the Common Cause list to determine their highest priority.

When populating factions with characters, include at minimum an overall leader, and one key NPC from each constituent department. If the same Department appears on multiple factions, you have a good old-fashioned intradepartmental schism.

Departments (d66)

1. Administration
1. Executive
2. Accounting
3. Human Resources
4. Procurement
5. Archives
6. Legal
2. Operations
1. Dispatch
2. Public Relations (REMINDER: circulate memo re. “cover-up” vs. “conspiracy”. while we perform the former, we are NOT the latter)
3. Internal Affairs
4. External Affairs
5. Field Operations “Delta Teams”
6. Kinetic Field Operations “Kill Kappa Teams”
3. Research
1. λ Containment Research
2. Theoretical Research
3. ΧΨ Off-Site Monitoring
4. Facility Architecture
5. Entity Research
6. τ Artefact Exploitation (I’ve scheduled a brainstorming meeting in D-04 at 9:15 EST. The extension is -0451 for anyone who wants to call in and pitch a less ominous department name.)
4. Facility Services
1. Canteen
2. Medical
3. Custodial Services
4. Warehousing
5. Maintenance
6. Information Technology
5. Containment
1. μ Facility Security (Just let the mundane guards have a letter like the real artefact security teams. I know it’s not in ACID, but we have enough turnover in the security department already.)
2. π Artefact Security
3. ρ Dedicated Containment (ATTN Research: Medical won’t give their sign-off on team-wide blinding, even if you call it a team-building exercise. Procurement has sent over a crate of blindfolds instead. Optical hazards are a solved problem. Please stop asking.)
4. Entity Handling
5. Subject Management
6. Inhuman Resources
6. Other
1. Joint task force between Facility and a rival agency
2. Test subjects, human
3. Intern pool (Not to be confused with the contents of Lρ3211.001, the “Intern Pool”, until IHR clears it for Tau reclassification)
4. Rival agency task force, organized incursion
5. PΧ organized Entity incursion
6. Oversight (I finally got permission to include them on the org chart. Please clap.)

Common Cause (1d20)

1. Allocating scarce resources.
2. Contacting outside world for aid.
3. Contacting another Facility for rescue.
4. Contacting another Agency for cleanup.
5. Contacting an Entity for inadvisable reasons.
6. Containing a dangerous artefact.
7. Protecting the outside world from further breaches.
8. Returning the Facility to working order.
9. Re-establishing pre-Incident chain of command.
10. Performing forbidden research.
11. Under the effects of an artefact.
12. Started a cult dedicated to an artefact.
13. Infiltrators from (1. a rival agency, 2. the local government, 3. conspiracy message boards, 4. an artefact liberation front, 5. an artefact cult, 6. another world)
14. Escaping the Facility at all costs.
15. Escaping the Facility with as many survivors as possible.
16. Escaping the Facility once everything has been contained.
17. Leader maintains control over fractious group with pre-Incident credentials.
18. Leader maintains control over fractious group with access to scarce resource.
19. Leader maintains control over fractious group with artefact.
20. Silencing all attempted escapees, both mundane and anomalous.

Sample Factions

Foodbank
In order to generate enough food for the population of the Facility while under indefinite lockdown, a special project team (36) has teamed up with the canteen staff (41) to identify, mass-produce, and distribute (1) the byproducts of nutrient-dense artefacts. So far, they’ve converted a laboratory into a hydroponic garden for anomalous flora and produced ludicrous quantities of a nutritious anomaly they call The Stew, which they trade for the ammunition they need to prune their garden.

Rho Containment Team WDH “We’re Done Here”
A dedicated containment team for an escaped Rho artefact (53), having suffered horrific losses during the breach, has defected to Rival Agency forces that are storming the upper levels of the Facility (64). The Rho team is providing the Rival Agency with insider knowledge on artefacts and layouts in exchange for the tools to avenge their fallen team members during the cleanup effort.

Director Forthright
Immediately in response to the breach, Director Annabel Forthright of External Affairs (24) assumed control of the Monitoring team (33) to use their satellite surveillance tools to assess the scope of the incident. She now leverages her credentials (17), the loyalty of the remaining External Affairs personnel, and the Monitoring team’s fears of reprisal to monopolize all data going in or out of the Facility to make herself the logical choice for Facility Director once the breach is resolved.

E4 (Emergency Executive Entity Enterprise)
Members of the Facility’s Executive branch (11) have identified specific entities under the purview of the Entity Handling department (54) as critical to enforcing their authority (9) against rival agencies, dissident elements within the Facility, and the most dangerous artefacts in the Facility’s depths. They’re now engaged in a high-stakes game of Pokémon; attempting to recapture and weaponize every anomalous entity they can find in their files.

UTILITY
In response to incursions from within and without the Facility, Accounting (12) has decided that an ongoing partnership between a Delta Team and a rival agency’s counterpart (61) is the model for a new era in artefact containment. By demonstrating the efficacy of inter-Agency intelligence sharing, reasonable bipartisan consensus, prudent spending, and common-sense containment regulations, the UTILITY framework sets out principles for an agile, small-Facility era of global security (7). Now they just have to build it.

The Party
The few survivors of the epicentre of the breach (the Lambda laboratory sector) have formed a motley gang of liberated test subjects, Esoteric Assets, and disgruntled maintenance workers. Despite their average Clearance level of 0.5 out of 10, lack of scientific or administrative expertise, and minimal weaponry, their broad variety of expertise across mundane and anomalous fields may just be enough for them to reach the outside (2) and contact their grieving loved ones — if there’s any outside left to reach. 

Facility: Artefact Classification

 The Facility is a megadungeon that contains a wide variety of anomalous artefacts and player characters. At approximately the start of the campaign, an incident occurs and reliable containment can no longer be guaranteed. Once lowly assistants, security guards, maintenance workers, and test subjects, the player characters must explore, salvage, improvise, negotiate, and kill to survive until rescue arrives.

Artefact Classification Identifier (ACID)

The Organization likes to think it takes paperwork seriously. Within the Facility, artefacts are assigned an identifier based on their Mode, Status, and a unique two-part numerical designation (for example: Oρ0255.018, LΔ0023.001, Eτ0994.999). This identifier is listed on all associated paperwork, both the outside and inside of the artefact's containment cell, as well as label stickers on all samples, byproducts, and research team files regarding the artefact in question.

Mode

The Mode is a Latin letter that describes the artefact’s scope and mobility. The Organization currently recognizes five Modes
O: Object
The most common classification. Some objects can be left in a properly secured box (consider: radioactive waste); some objects are world-ending threats (consider: a dinosaur-killer asteroid). Most are somewhere in between.

E: Entity
Anomalous creatures, swarms, people, ghosts, etc. When there’s debate between what’s considered an Entity or an Object, Research considers its nutritional requirements, mobility, and stimulus responses. For the GM: if you’d stat it up as a monster, it’s an Entity. If not, it’s an Object.

L: Location
A physical space with anomalous properties. Some are very small and can be cordoned off without much trouble; larger locations require extensive Public Relations disinformation campaigns and/or the construction of specialized Facilities. While alternate dimensions are Locations; their entry points are sometimes classified as Objects, Phenomena, or even Entities.

P: Phenomenon
Anomalous events occur that are not related to specific Objects, Entities, or Locations. A spontaneous anomalous gathering, a UFO sighting, a memory hole, a disease with no known vector but anomalous symptoms, an unnatural weather pattern — these are all different Phenomenon artefacts. Correctly identified and unfairly lambasted as a wastebasket taxon.

C: CLARAA (CLAssification Requires Additional Analysis)
Correctly identified and fairly skewered as a wastebasket taxon, but one that fulfills an essential function: a placeholder in the Mode field on forms while no one knows what they’re dealing with.

Optimistic researchers regularly submit proposals to reclassify the Organization’s entire artefact catalogue into a novel series of ostensibly-more-rational Modes. These proposals are regularly rejected by tired administrative staff.

Status

The Status is a Greek letter that corresponds to the artefact’s current containment requirements. I have listed ten, which leaves 13 more for enterprising GMs to fill out. Status does not directly correlate to danger. The combination of uppercase and lowercase is intended to maximize the difference between Greek and Latin shapes given the choice of letters.

π Pi
Reliably contained with passive countermeasures. It’s in a box — maybe a big one, but not one that anyone has to check on unless something goes wrong.

ρ Rho
Reliably contained with active countermeasures. Active guard rotations watching a portal, entities that need to be regularly fed and watered.

λ Lambda
Temporarily contained; research into reliable containment underway. Lambda labs are the throbbing heart of most Facilities.

τ Tau
In active use by the Organization. Locations converted into Facilities, artefacts critical to the containment of other artefacts, entities on payroll.

Δ Delta
Containment efforts are ongoing; situation subject to rapid change. Field agents handle Delta artefacts until they’re handed off to a Lambda team. During a containment breach, all artefacts on site are subject to Delta procedures until a Research Lead signs off on paperwork confirming successful recontainment.

Κ Kappa
Cannot be safely contained, monitored, or left alone. Disposal is necessary. Heavy weapons are authorized.

β Beta
Contained by another Organization. Secondary classifications are occasionally awarded to Beta artefacts, but due to significant political and ideological conflicts between Organizations, data is usually insufficient.

Ψ Psi
Externally monitored, uncontained, further containment efforts unnecessary. UFOs are Psi until they crash or start abducting people.

χ Chi
Not contained, but containment is not a priority. Cryptids are Chi until they start eating more people than Public Relations can explain away.

Ω Omega
Disposed of, dead, finished, gone. Records are stored in Archives in case it shows up again.

Class

When combined, Mode and Status are referred to as a Class. For example:

• Eτ Esoteric Assets are under the purview of Inhuman Resources; this is where anomalous individuals on payroll are siloed — alongside various other useful entities, like the Anti-Radioactive Barnacles and Digit the Numbers Station Dog.
• The Organization’s largest containment sectors are warehouses for Oπ artefacts, which require minimal personnel after setup. Some O-Pi artefacts don’t even need bespoke containment cells; they just need to be isolated until they arrive at their temporal origin point, their legitimate owners come to claim them, they finish dissolving into inert mundane chemicals, the Organization figures out how to weaponize them, or the heat death of the universe.
• PΩ refers to events and phenomena that have ended and are not expected to recur. After the mandatory 18-month monitoring period (subject to change based on established periodicity), everyone involved is more than happy to shove another case file into the capable hands of Archives Division.
• Lρ location artefacts often necessitate the construction of on-site Facilities due to an observed tendency for other artefacts to manifest nearby or within their confines. Some are even reclassified as Lτ if their anomalous properties are useful in further containment efforts.
• CΚ artefacts are Research’s worst nightmare. Uncontainable due to their level of danger, unclassifiable due to their uncontainability, handed off to Operations’ ludicrously well-equipped and violent Kappa Teams. Archives has entire bankers’ boxes of CΩ files with incident and cover-up reports that are mostly black marker by volume.

Admin hates the concept of “secondary classifications”. Researchers who insist on marking up new files with meaningless Status strings like τΨρ or χΔ  are reprimanded and forced to attend mandatory classes on how to not waste Oversight’s time.

Numerical Identifier

The first part of an artefact’s numerical identifier is a unique four digit number that distinguishes the artefact from others in its class. When an artefact is reclassified, its ID number may have to change to avoid conflicts, and tracking ACIDs across multiple reclassifications (especially if a new artefact fills its previous slot) is a well-known administrative headache.

The second part of an artefact’s numerical identifier is a unique three digit number that tracks the instance of the artefact. For example, if a flock of thirteen anomalous birds is contained, they receive IDs XXXX.001 through XXXX.013. If one lays three eggs, the eggs become instanced as .014 through .016, and retain those designations after hatching. If one of the birds dies, its instance ID is not reused.

Some artefacts end up with more than 999 instances. The paperwork to add additional digits to an identifier requires sign-offs from Archives and IT, and so many artefacts end up with dozens or hundreds of instances sharing 999. Researchers regularly raise the alarm that this will lead to catastrophic breaches, but so far no administrative action has been taken.

Research teams nickname their artefacts, because the ACID is a mouthful intended for databases rather than human speech. There are no formal conventions or best practices for artefact nicknames, which causes all the problems you would expect — nickname duplication, inappropriate names (disciplinary action recommended), fist fights in the sector canteen (disciplinary action taken), and misleading nicknames that have nonetheless stuck (latest casualty report for Eρ0443.001 “Li’l Buppy” is on file in Operations).

Designer Notes

Everyone has tried to come up with a new classification system, or fairly decided that it’s a bad idea. I wrote the ACID with an eye towards gameplay; to provide players with actionable intelligence but leave details to further research. A π artefact is not going to end up on a random encounter table while its containment holds, so players can probably rest near it without incurring additional dangers. An empty containment cell marked “Eρ” lets the players know there’s something on the loose, though they’ll have to do proper legwork (or get jumped by it) to figure out what. Several of the stranger Status classifications raise immediate questions:

• Beta — “Whose is this, and how can we contact them to learn more?”
• Kappa — “Where is it right now, and how do we get as far away from it as possible?”
• Tau — “What were we using it for, and can we get it back under control?”
• Omega — “What do the old files say about it, and how do we get to Archives?”

Tarot Wizardry

Character Creation

To generate a character, draw six tarot cards and lay them out as follows.

Place the first card in the middle of the spread. This card represents your character’s personality, attitude towards the world, and present state of mind.

Place the second card horizontally across the first card, and interpret it upright. This card represents an obstacle in their life that is so great they believe only magic can address it.

Place the third card to the west of the first card. This card represents why and how your character became a wizard. Write down a skill associated with this part of your character’s life.

Place the fourth card to the east of the first card. This card represents your character’s near future if they do not act to prevent it.

Place the fifth card to the north of the first card. This card represents what your character uses magic to achieve, or how they channel their occult prowess. Write down a skill associated with this part of your character’s life.

Place the sixth card to the south of the first card. This card represents their equipment, trappings, and resources. Write down a skill associated with this part of your character’s life.

Once you have established your character, build your character’s magical Practice. For each suit of the tarot, choose an aspect or element of the world associated with that suit. When your character casts a spell with a card of that suit, their spell manifests as an effect in that chosen medium. For example, a character with the Swords aspect of Perception could use Swords cards to obscure themselves from others, create illusions, scry over great distances, or identify the nature of magical effects.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: See Aspects & Practices below to get ideas. There is no comprehensive list.

Finally, designate one of your character’s Aspects as their Prime Aspect (also called their Home Demesne, Favoured Sphere, Chosen School, etc.). Your character has a special affinity for this aspect of reality, which empowers their spells in that suit.

Play

At the start of each session, each player draws 5 cards from the shared tarot deck. The cards in each player’s hand represent the spells that they can cast this session. The GM draws 7 cards, which represent the challenges they can bring to bear against the player characters.  Whenever the GM runs out of cards in their hand, they draw back up to 7.

To cast a spell, play a tarot card from your hand and interpret its meaning in the context of your character’s magic abilities. After determining the outcome of your spell, put it in the communal discard pile. Magic always affects the world unless explicitly counterspelled, so use magic wisely (or at least prepare yourself for the consequences of failure).

AUTHOR’S NOTE: If you can't narratively apply a card's meaning to a challenge, you can't use it to overcome that challenge. Don’t let this discourage you: twist meanings and wield wordplay to make your will manifest.

When you cast a spell, if the difficulty of the challenge has not already been set, the GM plays a card from their hand or reveals the top card of the deck to determine the task’s challenge rating. If you play a card in the Minor Arcana, you succeed if your spell’s value meets or beats the challenge’s rating (Court cards are 11s, Aces are 12). If you play a card in the Major Arcana, it always succeeds unless opposed by another Major Arcanum, but you suffer a Wound for channeling such a powerful magical effect.

Challenges have a visible rating between 0 (utterly inconsequential) and 15 (impossible without the strongest magic). If you have a relevant skill, whether chosen at character creation or acquired during play, reduce the CR by 2. To achieve a difficult task with mundane efforts, roll 1d10. You succeed if you meet or beat the challenge’s rating. If you fail, the GM narrates the consequences of your actions. You may attempt to save yourself from mundane failure by taking a Wound to cast a spell before the consequences take full effect.

When a player runs out of cards in their hand, their magic is temporarily exhausted until the next session. During the session, if they rest for at least an in-game day and have cleared all of their Wounds, they draw a new hand of 5 cards.

If the deck runs out of cards, you have strained magic itself to a breaking point. Call the session, even if you’re in the middle of something important.

Wounds and Scars

A player character can suffer 3 Wounds before becoming Incapacitated. Any Wound past the third also immediately incapacitates the character. An Incapacitated character cannot make rolls or cast spells until the end of the scene.

If you have 1 Wound, you need a day of rest to clear your wounds. If you have 2 Wounds, you need a week of rest instead. If you have 3 or more Wounds, you need a month of rest to clear your wounds, and one Wound is converted into a permanent Scar. Scars cannot be healed and count towards your total Wounds for the purpose of Incapacitation (but not rest durations). When you take your third Scar, you die.

Removing a wound without resting is a rating 9 challenge. If you fail to remove a Wound, it immediately becomes a Scar.

Wounds and Scars can be physical, mental, occult, spiritual, or even reputational. With cosmic power comes cosmic vulnerability — hexes, curses, and geases all function within the Wound and Scar system.

Enemies

Mundane enemies are represented with static challenge ratings and are handled through narrative play.

Supernatural enemies are represented by a pile of up to 3 face-down cards. When a supernatural enemy threatens a character or a character attempts to overcome the enemy, if that enemy has no face-up cards, the GM reveals the top card of the pile. That card sets the rating for a challenge associated with that enemy. Once all of the enemy’s cards have been overcome, the enemy is defeated.

An enemy wizard has their own hand of 5 cards, their own practice and aspects, and can suffer up to 3 Wounds just like a player character.

Spells

When you play a tarot card to solve a problem, describe how you work magic to address the situation. This description must take two things into consideration: the meaning of the card itself, and your character’s Aspects.

Your character associates an aspect of reality with each suit. When you play a card of a suit, your magic expresses itself through that aspect. Minor Works in your Prime Aspect are called Prime Works, and count their value at +2.

Minor Works

When you play a card in the Minor Arcana, perform a Minor Work. Describe the spell that you cast by interpreting the meaning of the card you played through the lens of your aspect for its suit. For example, if your aspect for Swords is Fire, when you play the Two of Swords, interpret its meanings (such as Avoidance) through that lens. Perhaps you erect a barrier of flame between yourself and an enemy, or you temporarily quell a raging inferno.

Minor Works cannot last longer than the scene, though their effects on the mundane world may linger.

Court cards (traditionally the Page, Knight, Queen, and King of each suit) are part of the Minor Arcana, but share a value of 11 and have an additional suit based on their seat at Court. The Page is associated with Earth, and therefore with Pentacles. The same is true for Knights with Fire and Wands, Queens with Water and Cups, and Kings with Air and Swords. Spells cast with Court cards are Prime Works if either their printed or associated suit match your Prime Aspect.

Furthermore, as Court cards are often used to represent people, they are an effective tool to influence, target, or even summon beings represented by the card in question.

When two Minor Works oppose each other, the spell with the higher value wins out and its caster narrates the ultimate result. Resolve ties between Minor Workings of equivalent value by referencing the suits’ respective elemental dignities.

Support (Wands vs. Swords, or Cups vs. Pentacles): Combine. The spells synthesize into a greater whole. If only one of the constituent spells is a Prime Work, that caster gains control of the gestalt spell; if neither or both of the spells are Prime, the spell becomes uncontrolled.

Weaken (Wands vs. Cups, or Swords vs. Pentacles): Counterspell. Both spells fizzle in their casters’ hands, and inflict damage

Neutral (Wands vs. Pentacles, or Swords vs. Cups): Ships passing. If only one of the spells is a Prime Work, its caster wins. Otherwise, both spells take effect but cannot affect each other.

Strengthen (A suit vs. itself): The Price of Hubris. The spells combine into a Major Work with value equal to their sum and run Rampant. Roll on the Magnum Opus table. This is only possible if a card is played against itself, which shouldn’t happen if you’re only playing with a single deck, but magic oft refuses such mundane strictures.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: These only happen on ties. Don’t worry about the mechanical effects of elemental dignities in other circumstances.

Major Works

When you play a card in the Major Arcana, perform a Major Work. Major Works obviate any mundane challenge and surmount any Minor Work. Furthermore, Major Arcana do not have suits — their effects are so powerful that they can only be channeled through your Prime Aspect. They are not, however, Prime Works — they are something greater.

Major works cannot last longer than the session, and their effects on the mundane world will reverberate.

    A Major Work is also taxing on its caster. To cast a Major Work, you must suffer a Wound. The nature and narrative impact of the Wound are dictated by the card’s meaning and your ultimate intentions for the spell.

When two Major Works clash, roll 2d6 on the Magnum Opus table. An even result means that the Major work with the higher value wins; an odd result means that the Major work with the lower value wins. Before the work resolves, the Magnum Opus result takes effect.

Magnum Opus

12. Projection (As Above). All of your Minor Works for the rest of the session are Prime Works, regardless of their suit or aspect.
11. Exaltation. An angel of your Prime Aspect arrives to deliver your spell in person. It will hang around until the end of the scene.
10. Congelation. Choose one of your non-Prime Aspects. Until the end of the session, that Aspect becomes your Prime Aspect.
9. Multiplication. Until the end of the scene, Minor Arcana may be played as previous Minor Arcana that have been played (and resolved) this scene.
8. Conjunction. Reveal the top card of the deck.
7. Cibation. Draw a card.
6. Dissolution. Discard your hand, then draw 3 cards.
5. Calcination. The spell sets everything it touches on fire, even and especially things that are impervious to mundane flames.
4. Separation. Your skin splits with uncontainable magic power. Take a Wound, and your spell runs Rampant.
3. Putrefaction. Everything nearby begins to wilt, wither, and rot. Everyone in the scene suffers a Wound.
2. Sublimation (So Below). For the rest of the session, all cards are played reversed.

Rampant spells become NPCs under the GM’s control. They may take the form of elementals, spirits, demons, daemons, daimons, or other supernatural beings with inscrutable and orthogonal goals. While they dissipate at the end of the scene or session in accordance with their power, they may return of their own volition or be summoned by an enterprising practitioner.

Aspects & Practices

A practice is a set of correspondences between tarot suits and aspects of reality. These are not mandatory (you can always modify, mix-and-match, or wholly ignore them), but cultural contexts and established occult orders make it easier to find people who use these combinations of aspects.

A Practitioner may select any Aspect of their Practice as their Prime Aspect. A Daemonic practitioner focused on Commanding will behave very differently from one whose Prime is Contracts, Communing, or Calling; while their Minor workings are similar, their Major workings are entirely different.

Practice: Technomancy
Swords — Machines
Wands — Creation
Cups — Data
Pentacles — Money

Practice: Daemonic
Swords — Calling
Wands — Commanding
Cups — Communing
Pentacles — Contracts

Practice: Elementalism
Swords — Air
Wands — Fire
Cups — Water
Pentacles — Earth

Practice: Psychic
Swords — Perception
Wands — Instinct
Cups — Emotion
Pentacles — Memory

Practice: Traveling
Swords — Motion
Wands — Impulse
Cups — Time
Pentacles — Resistance

Practice: Witchcraft
Swords — Hexes
Wands — Animation
Cups — Divination
Pentacles — Healing

Practice: The World
Swords — Weather
Wands — Growth
Cups — Dreams
Pentacles — Flora & Fauna

AUTHOR’S NOTE: I referenced the Rider-Waite-Smith deck when writing this system due to its ubiquity, but these rules should work for even nonstandard decks — homebrew as necessary.

Advanced Workings

With an hour of proper preparations and focus, you may discard a card to perform Divination and look at the top card of the deck.

You may use an evening without distractions or discomfort to Meditate. At the end of your Meditation, discard a card of your choice and draw a replacement. You cannot Meditate in this way more than once a day.

With a night of hard work, concentration, and precise preparations, you may perform Ritual Magic. Describe the spell you are preparing to cast, then draw a card, then play a card from your hand. If the card you play does not have an appropriate meaning for the spell, the spell will act unpredictably even on a success.

When several wizards work together, they may create a spread of multiple cards that imparts greater meaning, versatility, and/or specificity to the resulting spell. Each wizard may only contribute a single card to a spread, and the spread’s value is the highest value of a minor arcana within it. Spreads cannot be Prime Works, but spreads comprised of exclusively Major Arcana are some of the most powerful and dangerous Workings a wizard can wield.

With Great Power: a Superhero World

A Quick and Dirty History Lesson
The first superheroes emerged into the fraught landscape of Prohibition-era American, post-war Europe, and the final decades of imperialism around the globe. They started as urban legends - men who could swerve bullets around corners, women who could walk through walls, children walking out of a house fire miraculously unharmed. The Depression kept the rumors just that, though radio plays about these new legends grew in popularity such that certain supers (and their super-rivalries) became household names. The Miracle Man and the nefarious Fisher King. Titan versus Arrowhead, super-boxers and champions in the ring. Silver Bullet and his old flame Belladonna.

by kris-chandra

World War II

As the Second World War spun up, these legends quickly became a sobering reality. Nazi supers like Blitzkrieg and Panzervulf chewed through armies, cutting a swathe of devastation across Belgium and France. Allied governments looked for any answer to this new threat - and found it. Britain founded the Supernatural Service Division; the USSR founded the KGB's Zero Directorate. America joined the war with its Department of Parahuman Affairs, first putting out a general call to every American with "extraordinary abilities" that got more hucksters and frauds than supermen, then launching a vast internal investigation that gave the supers it uncovered a simple choice: unprotected exposure to the public eye, or service in the War.

News headlines established heroes and villains cleanly along Ally and Axis lines. Local super-crime wasn't on the radar yet - you either served, or you laid low. DPA constructed super-prisons for German and Japanese super-POWs; these prisons wouldn't be declassified until the middle of the Korean war (and in one case, until the 1990s). Heroes like Miracle Man, Stars'n'Stripes, and Silver Bullet provided icons for civilians to rally around, and DPA-approved merchandise sales to fund the war effort rapidly became more popular than war bonds.

The Angeles Initiative is widely credited with ending the war; as a top-secret parahuman research project in Los Alamos that attempted to unlock the scientific principles behind the creation of supermen before the Nazis could. Due to the brilliance of mundane scientists who fled Germany in the late '30s and several daring super-raids on German compounds, the Initiative succeeded - somewhat. A serum was developed that enhanced a human's abilities tenfold, rapidly inducing cellular apoptosis, regeneration, and mutation while subject to intense levels of gamma radiation (the theoretical potential of an "atomic bomb" was dismissed as impractically resource-intensive for another decade). The test subjects were designated Angels, codenamed after American cities - Chicago, Seattle, Detroit, Phoenix, Manhattan - and attached directly to the military.

Each Angel's new abilities were different, but all could go toe to toe with the best of the DPA roster, and each was explosively powerful. They dropped into hot zones across the Pacific and led the charge on D-Day. No mundane Allied soldier ever made landfall on the Japanese islands; the Angels devastated civilian and military infrastructure alike, wiping out entire cities in acts of brutality fueled by superhuman power, racist propaganda, and unlimited latitudes of discretion. Their records were all expunged, and they returned as heroes.

 

The Cold War

The war ended. Nazi supers went into hiding in South America, or were quietly folded into DPA and Zero Directorate forces if they weren't obvious hardliners. The meanings of "hero" and "villain" shifted overnight with the geopolitical landscape; American allies were heroes, Soviet supers were villains. Vigilante citizen supers were heroes, criminals and undesirables were villains. The Soviets stole the Angeles serum, super-crime emerged on the scene; and a dozen high-visibility NATO superheroes (primarily from the Angels, DPA, and SSD) founded the first International Court of Heroes to combat villains from both "criminal" and Soviet camps. Nuclear weapons are an afterthought, built as a last line of defense against an Angel attack from a rival power.

Across the world, local supers led decolonization and independence movements to break away from old colonial masters. While several nations tried to force the Court to intervene, they refused on principle - not because of any guiding anti-imperial motive, but because they were busy fighting a different, colder war. Independence struggles were brutal battles between NATO Jack-tier supers of fortune equipped with tech that let them punch above their weight class, and local Queen or King-tiers backed by mass movements towards freedom.

In the Cold War, super-crises were the order of the day. There was always a missile en route, a rogue villain pulverizing towns in an allied state, or a Soviet super-plot for world domination. Several heroes founded the field of Parahuman Studies. Korea was "won" on the backs of the Angels, Vietnam was lost due to the underestimation of mundane capabilities. The Court stopped a meteor impact in '63, and Civil Rights Era America was forced to reckon with Supersonic - the savior of the world - being Black. The space race got all the way to building moon bases by the mid-70s, and discovered the Nazi super-science division on the dark side of the moon, leading to a brief standoff against Blitzkrieg 2 and Cyber-Hitler before their rapid annihilation in an uncharacteristic alliance between the Court and the Zero Directorate. At the height of the Cold War, both the USA and USSR had several hundred full-powered Angels at their disposal, with plenty more people having illicitly dosed themselves with bootleg serums in the hopes of acquiring powers.

The Modern Era
The late '70s and '80s brought about a sea change in superhumanity. With the USSR stretching itself thin to combat the USA's economic warfare, and Reagan privatizing everything he could, super-crime became the DPA's number one priority. Cops started super-hunter divisions, wielding gadgets designed to nullify or at least counteract their targets' powers. DPA reactivated and refurbished the old Supergrade prisons in Juneau, Denver, and the Marshall Islands. The Court turned a blind eye to the DPA and American miscarriages of justice - it had bigger problems. Namely, the first Ace-tier supers.

Powers gained from the Angeles serum are heritable, and manifest during puberty or in young adulthood in times of great stress. Their powers are at least as powerful as their parent's - even moreso if both parents are Angels. One such super, now dubbed Legion, manifested his powers in the traumatic catastrophe of the 1989 Berlin Event. The death toll of the Berlin Event alone is in the thousands, including half of the First Court's mightiest supers. The Angeles serum was rapidly banned by every government on Earth, leading to a ludicrously lucrative drug trade in variants that never made it to the deep-storage bunkers.

(Plenty of supers get their powers from strange sources rather than the serum; that's how this whole mess started. Don't question someone's origin story, it's rude, and yours is probably weirder.)

The Second Court was founded soon after Berlin, with vast funds from corporate donors and governments interested in the impending carve-up of the Soviet Union and protecting their investments from potential Ace-tier threats. Heroing under the Second Court is a business, complete with marketing tie-ins and cereal box appearances. Villaining is a business, too, one much less glamorous than the private island compounds and orbital death rays of mid-century. Aces emerge (seems like the Angels got around, and no one knows how many there were) and if we're lucky, they join the Court. If we aren't, everyone around puts down their grudges and takes down the Ace.

It's 2019. Everyone can feel the world changing, growing darker, holding its breath, waiting to exhale and blow the established order down. Reliable precogs say 2020's going to be a rough year, but they've said that every year since the middle of the decade. Get in while the getting's good, before everything goes sideways. Make some money. Take some names. Crack some skulls.

 

Super Classification System

Tiers
Jack: Stronger than the strongest mundane, as fast as a car. Approximately 100 people in a metropolitan area are Jack-tier. Local law enforcement has a trained division of super-hunters, referred to as a SNAP team (Superman Neutralization Armed Personnel), to deal with Jacks.
1 to 3 points of Enhanced Abilities, no ability above 2.
 

Queen: Can lift a car in one hand, faster than a speeding train. Approximately 100 people in a state or province will be Queen-tier, and efforts are made by law enforcement to catalogue them and neutralize them if necessary.
4 to 6 points of Enhanced Abilities, no ability above 3.
 

King: As fast as an airplane, can leap tall buildings in a single bound. Approximately 100 people in a country will be King-tier, and efforts are made by federal law enforcement to catalogue them and either get them on payroll or neutralize them.
7 to 9 points of Enhanced Abilities, no ability above 3.
 

Ace: Can vaporize a city block, tank anything short of nuclear weapons. Approximately 100 Ace-tier supers have been officially catalogued worldwide. Theoretical until 1983. Tracking and neutralizing threatening Aces was the stated founding goal of the Second Court.

10+ points of Enhanced Abilities. No known limits.

"Jokers" are below Jack level. They don't get individual classifications, on account of the fact that their powers don't give them a leg up on mundanes, and often cannot be verified as supernatural by anything besides the full Klein-Liu Paranormal Index test.

by kris-chandra

Enhanced Abilities
Divided into four suits, each based on the main difficulty in subduing the super. Supers do not have ratings in all categories; most only have one or two. A rating of 0 is somewhere in the mundane human range.

Suits are assigned based on Enhanced Abilities. Primary suit is the most obviously threatening one to mundanes - not necessarily the highest-level! For example, Legion's field isn't going to kill you because you can't find him in it, his field is going to kill you because a swarm of shadowmen dogpile you and tear you to shreds.

 

Hearts ♥. Hard to hurt.

Agile
    ♥ Effortlessly jump over a mundane, dodge a punch.
    ♥♥ ...over a moving car, dodge an arrow.
    ♥♥♥ ...over a house, dodge a rocket and its explosion.
    ♥♥♥♥ ...down a city block, dodge bullets.

Tough
    ♥ Shake off an attack that would destroy a mundane.
    ♥♥ ...a car.
    ♥♥♥ ...a building.
    ♥♥♥♥ ...a city block.
    Can survive the first few attacks from Smash at the same tier.
 

Diamonds ♦. Hard to outsmart.

Sense
    ♦ Sense every bug in the room.
    ♦♦ ...every person in a concert crowd.
    ♦♦♦ ...every needle in a haystack.
    ♦♦♦♦ ...every grain of sand on a beach.
    At the same tier, Sense beats Sneak when you're paying attention.

Smart
    ♦ As smart in a chosen subject as a well-equipped research lab.
    ♦♦ ...as an entire research department.
    ♦♦♦ ...as every attendee at a national conference combined.
    ♦♦♦♦ ...the sum total of human knowledge in the discipline.
 

Spades ♠. Hard to catch.

Speed
    ♠ Outrun a car at full speed.
    ♠♠ ...a train at full speed.
    ♠♠♠ ...an airplane at full speed.
    ♠♠♠♠ ...a bullet at full speed.
    Typically, but not always, includes enhanced reflexes to avoid obstacles at speed.

Sneak
    ♠ As hard to detect as a fly on the wall.
    ♠♠ ...as a single mundane in a concert crowd.
    ♠♠♠ ...as a needle in a haystack.
    ♠♠♠♠ ...as a single grain of sand on a beach.
 

Clubs ♣. Hard to survive.

Brawn
    ♣ Effortlessly lift a mundane in one hand.
    ♣♣ ...lift a car in one hand.
    ♣♣♣ ...lift a house in one hand.
    ♣♣♣♣ ...lift a container ship in one hand.
    Does not imply a corresponding Smash rating. Will probably take multiple strikes to actually destroy the target.

Smash
    ♣ Destroy a mundane in a single strike.
    ♣♣ ...a car in a single strike.
    ♣♣♣ ...a building in a single strike.
    ♣♣♣♣ ...a city block in a single strike.
 

Paranatural Abilities
Other categories for powers. Originally classified by Rider-Waite major arcana, but reclassified to aid in rapid comprehension and incorporate tiered rankings for supers.

In the Reclassification of '73, several Arcana designations were moved to Enhanced Abilities due to their prevalence. Each Arcana was also associated with a suit, as certain Paranatural Abilities lend themselves naturally to Enhanced Ability classifications.

The playing card classification is incredibly divisive, with many claiming that their focus on killing supers dehumanizes them and creates an inherent sense of danger both around and for those supers. Others simply cite the "poetic" nature of Arcana, and insist on using it for aesthetic purposes.

Various old-school academics, including the current editor of the Journal of Parahuman Studies, stick to Arcana for classification and simply add tiers when relevant. Still more use the Minor Arcana houses as replacements for suits, with Wands as Spades, Swords as Clubs, Pentacles as Hearts, and Cups as Diamonds.

0. Agile ♠ Fool. Defunct, merged into Enhanced Abilities.
1. Blast ♣ Magician. Project power at range. Energy beams, web-slinging, snapping your fingers and something explodes.
2. Precognitive ♦ High Priestess. Can see the future. This one gets you picked up by the DPA, especially if it's long term or particularly accurate.
3. Mental ♦ Empress. Affects the minds of others, like mind control or induced hallucinations.
4. Meta ♦ Emperor. Affects powers, whether that's sharing them with others, modifying, copying, or nullifying.
5. Shaper ♣ Hierophant. Create and manipulate a substance.
6. Shift ♥ Lovers. Has alternate forms. Alt-forms may provide different suites of powers.
7. Fly ♠ Chariot. Can fly.
8. Brawn ♣ Strength. Defunct, merged into Enhanced Abilities.
9. Skill ♦ Hermit. Supernaturally better than everyone else at a particular skill. Rated like Smart.
10. Tech ♠ Wheel of Fortune. Can construct and wield supernatural gadgets. Bounty hunters wielding supertech often get Tech ratings despite being mundanes. Classified as Spades because tech does not lose efficacy on death of the super that created it, allowing for their powers to be a threat long after they're otherwise neutralized. Supers whose main gimmick is building supertech are nicknamed Wheels.
11. Speed ♠ Justice. Defunct, merged into Enhanced Abilities.
12. Outlaw ♥ The Hanged Man. Negate physical laws, whether personally or for others. Includes intangibles, spatio-temporal manipulators, gravity manipulators. Also used as a catch-all for Weird Shit What We Don't Know How It Works.
13. Scary ♠ Death. Fear-based effects. While direct emotional manipulation falls under Mental, some supers have forms and powers that trigger atavistic or post-traumatic fight/flight/freeze/fawn responses. A Shift with a tiger-form or a Swarm that controls bugs will generally get a Scary rating as well.
14. Tough ♥ Temperance. Defunct, merged into Enhanced Abilities.
15. Smart ♦ Devil. Defunct, merged into Enhanced Abilities.
16. Field ♣ Tower. Powers create area of altered physics.
17. Teleport ♠ Star. Can teleport self or other people and objects. Speed rating included based on range, duration between teleports.
18. Sneak ♠ Moon. Defunct, merged into Enhanced Abilities.
19. Smash ♣ Sun. Defunct, merged into Enhanced Abilities.
20. Sense ♦ Judgment. Defunct, merged into Enhanced Abilities.
21. Swarm ♦ The World. Minions, multiple bodies, etc. Can project power across a location or in multiple locations.

If you want more rules, look at whatever deus ex parabola's been doing, it's his fault this post happened.

Jester

J♥: Agile ♥, Tough ♥, Sense ♦

     Fool, Temperance, Justice

The more drugs Jester is on, the faster and tougher he becomes. While his Sense powers don't counteract effects of intoxication, his perceptions become warped to provide improved intuition, to the point where he can catch incoming blows. Constantly a little bit buzzed on something, constantly coming down from something else.

Phoenix
Q♥: Tough ♥♥, Agile ♥, Smash ♣, Fly, Blaster
    Temperance, Magician, Sun, Chariot, Fool.
One of the original Angels. Fireproof. While wreathed in flame, she becomes superhumanly durable and gains the ability to fly. Can throw the fire, but cannot generate or otherwise control it - carries a lighter, as well as a slow-burning suit.

Orbit
K♥: Agile ♥♥♥, Speed ♠♠, Smash ♣, Fly, Blaster, Outlaw.
    Chariot, Magician, The Hanged Man, Sun, Fool, Justice

Creates gravity wells of up to 3Gs within line of sight. Uses these to fly, slingshot around enemies, throw around cars and people. Can maintain up to 3 wells at once. Wears an impact-resistant flight suit, but otherwise is not particularly durable - just very good at controlling her trajectory.

Dreadnought
A♥: Tough ♥♥♥♥, Speed ♠♠♠, Brawn ♣♣♣, Fly, Shift.
    Temperance, Justice, Sun, Chariot, Lovers
Virtually indestructible, her punches go through tank armor. When Dreadnought stops moving her muscles, she's immovable, a fixed point relative to her frame of reference. While in this immovable state, she can alter her coordinates in that frame of reference at will, hence her Fly rating and Shift classification. Founding member of the Second Court, child of two Angels.

 

Anthill

J♦: Sense ♦♦, Scary, Swarm

    Judgment, The World

Was bitten by a radioactive ant-mimicking spider, now all the ants think he's an ant too. Specifically, their queen. He can also talk to ants, and the ants tell him all about where they've been and the food they've found. Can control ants, and lots of them, but has to give them orders by talking in ant, and the one command they won't listen to is "leave me alone".

Cassandra

Q♦: Smart ♦♦, Sense ♦♦, Precognitive, Meta

    High Priestess, Emperor, Devil, Judgment

Has nightly, accurate visions of other supers' actions. Can choose which classifications of super she might get visions of through tarot spreads. One of the reasons various divisions of the DPA still use the Arcana classifications.

The Harvestman
K♦: Smart ♦♦♦, Sense ♦♦, Tough ♥♥, Smash ♣, Tech

    Wheel of Fortune, Devil, Judgment, Sun

Public Enemy No. 1 in the continental USA. Crime boss, at large, responsible for a double-digit percentage of the illicit supertech black market. His tech specializes in integrating other pieces of supertech together, and he's reportedly got a dozen other Wheels on payroll to exploit this ability with. Unknown if his uncannily accurate intel on DPA ops is gained from superpowers or just the deepest subversion of the DPA bureaucracy ever; hoping for the best by assigning him a Sense rating. Independent super-hunters buy up the Harvestman's tech quickly; it's set the standard for modern hunter gear.

 

Double Major
A♦: Smart ♦♦♦♦, Sense ♦, Sneak ♠, Speed ♠, Agile ♥, Tough ♥, Brawn ♣, Smash ♣, Skill, Outlaw.

    Devil, Hermit, The Hanged Man

After a solid night of sleep, she can pick three skills (yes, three, she decided "Triple Major" was too weird a name). She becomes the best person in the world at those skills; at least one standard deviation above the existing "best" mundane. This includes athletic abilities, fields of study, knowledge of specific people, etc. Skills wear off after a 24 hour period, or when she next sleeps (whether induced or naturally).

 
Callback

J♠: Sneak ♠, Sense ♦, Precognitive, Outlaw.
    Moon, Judgment, High Priestess, The Hanged Man.
Can rewind the last 6 seconds of her personal timeline at will, though in that rewind she can't use her powers again. Taxes her mentally - one retry of a six-second block is okay, each additional attempt hurts her exponentially more. Disguises it as precog to avoid unwanted questions about time travel.
 

Nightlife

Q♠: Sneak ♠♠, Smash ♣♣, Tough ♥, Shaper

   Hierophant, Moon, Sun, Temperance

Can manipulate shadows of a similar light level to shadows she's currently within. The darker the area, the stronger she is. Can't see in the dark any better than a normal person, though. The shadow-substance flows like a sticky liquid; it's easy for her to make temporary cover or tendrils, hard to make usable platforms or manipulator appendages.

Supersonic
K♠: Speed ♠♠♠, Brawn ♣♣♣, Tough ♥, Fly.
    Chariot, Strength, Justice, Temperance
Until the first Aces, Supersonic was the fastest man alive. He was a founding member of the First Court, stopped the '63 Impact, and led the charge against the Nazi Moon Base. Doesn't have to breathe if he doesn't want to, can fly at Mach 2, punches hit like a fastball when he's holding back. Still alive, just turned 100, retired in the '80s and doesn't much like the way the world's gone since for all the right reasons. A genuinely good man.

Driver
A♠: Skill ♦♦♦♦, Speed ♠♠♠, Sense ♦, Shaper (Vehicles).
    Hierophant, Hermit, Justice, Judgment
Can manifest, de-manifest, and drive vehicles of his choice (but only if he intends to actually drive them; i.e. he can't summon a cargo freighter on dry land). They act like he expects them to, rather than within their generally-known capabilities. Manifested vehicles can't be driven by anyone else, hence he lacks a Tech rating. Recent Court hire, hid his powers from public attention for over six years by posing as a stunt driver - a record for Aces.
 

Captain Corrosive
J♣: Smash ♣♣, Tough ♥, Outlaw.
    Sun, Temperance, The Hanged Man
Her arms will melt through anything besides silk, gold, and bone. Wears elbow-length silk gloves everywhere. Strong enough to slowly push through solid steel, or like a knife through butter when uncovered, and arms are virtually indestructible except to the aforementioned substances.

Carthage 

Q♣: Brawn ♣♣, Tough ♥♥, Sense ♦♦
    Strength, Temperance, Judgment
Is as big as a siege tower. Is as strong as a siege tower. Has structural-weakness-sight. The quintessential corporate super. Star of an extensive ad campaign for some of the premier construction and real estate firms in the world. Takes photo-ops next to bridges that he's signed his name on - the Carthage Guarantee (tm).

Lady Longshot
K♣: Smash ♣♣♣, Brawn ♣♣, Tough ♥♥, Tech, Blaster.

    Sun, Strength, Temperance, Magician, Wheel of Fortune

Skin like leather, muscles like suspension bridge cords. Built like a kiln. Invents and wields big guns. The only supernatural property of the guns is their size and power generation, which goes a long way towards giving them otherwise impossible properties. If anyone else was to wield one, they'd need a mobile artillery chassis to mount it on.

 

Legion
A♣: Sneak ♠♠♠♠, Sense ♦♦, Smash ♣, Field, Swarm, Scary, Shift.
    Tower, The World, Death, Devil, Sun, Judgment, Lovers
Can project a shadow-field with a radius of 3.14 miles. In that radius, can raise humanoid forms made of an oily substance similar to the material of the field itself. There is no upper limit to the number of forms raised, though they seem to all be identical and highly resistant to conventional arms. Legion perceives everything the field touches, and shifts into a shadowform himself, indistinguishable from the other shadowforms in field. As he moves in this form, the field remains at its original origin point, until he returns and deactivates it.