Ace Driver

If it’s got wheels or wings, you can drive it. Your background may lend itself to a particular type
of transport, but your natural talent lets you operate any vehicle with an almost instinctive
aptitude. These Focus benefits do not apply to drone piloting, however.
Level 1: Gain Drive as a bonus skill. You have “acquired” vehicles worth no more than the
budget given on page 18, and can replace lost or destroyed gear at a rate of $10,000 per week.
Once per scene, as an Instant action, reroll a failed skill check related to driving or vehicle
maintenance and repair.
Level 2: Gain Fix as a bonus skill. The Speed of a vehicle you drive is increased by 1 point.
Once per vehicle, you can add a mod to it for free, ignoring money and experimental component
costs. Only you can effectively operate this mod, but it requires no Maintenance. You can
change this free mod with a week of downtime.

Alert
You are keenly aware of your surroundings and virtually impossible to take unaware. You have
an instinctive alacrity of response that helps you act before less wary persons can think to
move.
Level 1: Gain Notice as a bonus skill. You cannot be surprised, nor can others use the
Execution Attack option on you. When you roll initiative, roll twice and take the best result.
Level 2: You always act first in a combat round unless someone else involved is also this Alert.

Armored Technique
Applicable only to Arcanists and Magisters, this focus reflects a hero’s determined practice at
channeling arcane energy flows around the encumbrance of heavy armor and unnatural high-
tech materials.
Level 1: You may cast Arcanist or Magister spells while wearing street or combat armor with an
Encumbrance value no higher than one, or in powered armor with a zero Encumbrance value.
Level 2: You may cast Arcanist or Magister spells regardless of the bulk of your armor.

Armsman
You have an unusual competence with thrown weapons and melee attacks. This focus’ benefits
do not apply to unarmed attacks or projectile weapons. For thrown weapons, you can’t use the
benefits of the Armsman focus at the same time as Gunslinger.
Level 1: Gain Stab as a bonus skill. You can draw or sheath a Stowed melee or thrown weapon
as an Instant action. You may add your Stab skill level to a melee or thrown weapon’s damage
roll or Shock damage, assuming it has any to begin with.
Level 2: Your primitive melee and thrown weapons count as TL4 weapons for the purpose of
overcoming advanced armors. Even on a miss with a melee weapon, you do an unmodified 1d4
damage to the target, plus any Shock damage. This bonus damage doesn’t apply to thrown
weapons or attacks that use the Punch skill.

Assassin
You are practiced at sudden murder, and have certain advantages in carrying out an Execution
Attack as described in the rules on page 52.
Level 1: Gain Sneak as a bonus skill. You can conceal an object no larger than a knife or pistol
from anything less invasive than a strip search, including normal TL4 weapon detection devices.
You can draw or produce this object as an On Turn action, and your point-blank ranged attacks
made from surprise with it cannot miss the target.
Level 2: You can take a Move action on the same round as you make an Execution Attack,
closing rapidly with a target before you attack. You may split this Move action when making an
Execution Attack, taking part of it before you murder your target and part of it afterwards. This
movement happens too quickly to alert a victim or to be hindered by bodyguards, barring an
actual physical wall of meat between you and your prey.

Authority
You have an uncanny kind of charisma about you, one that makes others instinctively follow
your instructions and further your causes. At level 1, this is a knack of charm and personal
magnetism, while level 2 might suggest latent telepathic influence or transhuman memetic
hacking augmentations. Where this focus refers to followers, it means NPCs who have
voluntarily chosen to be in your service. PCs never count as followers.
Level 1: Gain Lead as a bonus skill. Once per day, you can make a request from an NPC who is
not openly hostile to you, rolling a Cha/Lead skill check at a difficulty of the NPC’s Morale score.
If you succeed, they will comply with the request, provided it is not harmful or extremely
uncharacteristic.
Level 2: Those who follow you are fired with confidence. Any NPC being directly led by you
gains a Morale and hit roll bonus equal to your Lead skill and a +1 bonus on all skill checks.
Your followers will not act against your interests unless under extreme pressure.

Close Combatant
You’ve had all too much practice at close-in fighting and desperate struggles with pistol or
blade. You’re extremely skilled at avoiding injury in melee combat, and at level 2 you can dodge
through a melee scrum without fear of being knifed in passing.
Level 1: Gain any combat skill as a bonus skill. You can use pistol-sized ranged weapons in
melee without suffering penalties for the proximity of melee attackers. You ignore Shock
damage from melee assailants, even if you’re unarmored at the time.
Level 2: The Shock damage from your melee attacks treats all targets as if they were AC 10.
The Fighting Withdrawal combat action is treated as an On Turn action for you and can be
performed freely.

Connected
You’re remarkably gifted at making friends and forging ties with the people around you.
Wherever you go, you always seem to know somebody useful to your ends.
Level 1: Gain Connect as a bonus skill. If you’ve spent at least a week in a not-entirely-hostile
location, you’ll have built a web of contacts willing to do favors for you that are no more than
mildly illegal. You can call on one favor per game day and the GM decides how far they’ll go for
you.
Level 2: Once per game session, if it’s not entirely implausible, you meet someone you know
who is willing to do modest favors for you. You can decide when and where you want to meet
this person, but the GM decides who they are and what they can do for you.

Cross-Disciplinary Study
Applicable only to Magisters, this allows a hero to learn a spell from the Arcanist list or from a
Magister school other than their own. They must find a source willing and able to teach them the
spell, and it must be of a level they can cast, though if taken at first level, it’s assumed that a
tutor or grimoire was found for the spell.
Level 1: You may pick one spell of any level you can cast. This spell is now known to you. You
can change this spell once per experience level, assuming you can find a source for the new
spell.
Level 2: You may pick one spell for each spell level you are capable of casting, and may change
each of them once per experience level as noted above.

Cultured
Through wide travel, careful observation, or extensive study, you’ve obtained a wide experience
of the cultures of your region and an ability to navigate their customs, laws, and languages. You
know what to do and say to impress others with the reasonableness of your wishes.
Level 1: Gain Connect as a bonus skill. You can fluently speak all the common languages of
your native region and convey at least basic information in the uncommon or esoteric ones. You
can learn a new language with only a week’s practice with a native speaker. Once per game
day, your polished ways automatically gain a minor favor from an NPC that would not put them
to significant expense or risk, assuming the NPC isn’t hostile to you.
Level 2: Once per game session, reroll a failed social skill check as you use your cultural
knowledge to push your interlocutor toward the desired result.

Cyberdoc
Any skilled medic can implant and maintain cyber systems, but you have a special aptitude for
the work.
Level 1: Gain Fix and Heal as bonus skills. You start play with a cyberdoc kit, and you can
implant cyberware even if your Heal skill is level-0. You gain a +2 bonus on all cyber implant
surgery skill checks. If you perform cyber maintenance for a person, the delicacy of your
adjustments decreases the total System Strain cost of their implants by one point until their next
maintenance interval.
Level 2: The quality of your cyber maintenance improves; the System Strain decrease is equal
to two points now instead of one. You never fail to install cyberware correctly. Once per patient,
you can build and install a cyber modification to a system as described on page 74 without any
cost in money or experimental components, assuming you have the requisite skill levels to build
it.

Dealmaker
You have an uncanny ability to sniff out traders and find good deals, licit or otherwise. Even
those who might not normally be disposed to bargain with you can sometimes be persuaded to
pause and negotiate, if you have something they want.
Level 1: Gain Trade as a bonus skill. With a half hour of effort you can find a buyer or seller for
any good or service that can be traded in the community, legal or otherwise. Finding a
marginally possible service, like an assassin willing and able to target a king, or some specific
precious ancient artifact, may require an adventure if the GM allows it at all.
Level 2: Once per session, target a sentient who is not just then trying to kill you or your allies
and make a request of it that it can comprehend. If it’s at all plausible for it to make such terms,
it will do so for a price or favor it thinks you can grant, though the price for significant favors
might be dear.

Developed Attribute
Your hero has a remarkable degree of development to one or more of their attributes. This may
be derived from an eldritch bloodline, native brilliance, or sheer, stubborn determination. This
Focus cannot be taken by heroes with the Mage or Partial Mage classes.
Level 1: Choose an attribute; its modifier is increased by +1, up to a maximum of +3. The actual
score does not change, but the modifier increases, and may increase again if later
advancement improves the attribute enough. You can choose this Focus more than once to
improve different attributes.

Die Hard
You are surprisingly hard to kill. You can survive injuries or bear up under stresses that would
incapacitate a less determined hero.
Level 1: You gain an extra 2 maximum hit points per level. This bonus applies retroactively if
you take this focus after first level. You automatically stabilize if mortally wounded by anything
smaller than a Heavy weapon.
Level 2: The first time each day that you are reduced to zero hit points by an injury, you instead
survive with one hit point remaining. This ability can’t save you from Heavy weapons or similar
trauma.

Diplomat
You know how to get your way in personal negotiations, and can manipulate the attitudes of
those around you. Even so, while smooth words are versatile, they’ll only work if your
interlocutor is actually willing to listen to you.
Level 1: Gain Talk as a bonus skill. You speak all the languages common to the sector and can
learn new ones to a workable level in a week, becoming fluent in a month. Reroll 1s on any skill
check dice related to negotiation or diplomacy.
Level 2: Once per game session, shift an intelligent NPC’s reaction roll one step closer to
friendly if you can talk to them for at least thirty seconds.

Drone Pilot
While anyone can drive a drone under casual circumstances, your knack for it is something
unusual.
Level 1: Gain Drive and Fix as bonus skills. You acquire or start play with a Remote Control Unit
cybersystem and its installation. Through connections, scavenging, and parts repurpose, you
have free drones and their weapons and fittings worth no more than the budget given on page
18. You can repair these drones without needing spare parts, and destroyed drones can be
replaced with a week’s work. You always have the equivalent of a drone repair kit on you at no
Encumbrance cost.
Level 2: You can use the Assume Command drone action once per round as an On Turn action.
Once per scene, gain a bonus Main Action to command a drone. Any drones you control gain a
+2 bonus to their hit rolls, whether or not you’re personally firing their weaponry.

Expert Programmer
A skilled hacker can program their own utilities, but you take this expertise far beyond the norm.
Level 1: Gain Program as a bonus skill. You can create and maintain an additional number of
program elements equal to your character level+2, split among Verbs and Subjects as you see
fit as explained on page 96. You can change your choices with a week’s work. Once per day, as
an On Turn action, you can make an on-the-fly edit to a Subject program element to turn it into
any other Subject program element you need. The element remains altered until you change it
again.
Level 2: Your programs are exceedingly efficient. Any program elements you write take up only
half the usual Memory. A cyberdeck you use gains a CPU bonus equal to your Program skill
level.

Gunslinger
You have a gift with a gun. While this talent most commonly applies to slugthrowers or energy
weapons, it is also applicable to thrown weapons, bows, or other ranged weapons that can be
used with the Shoot skill. For thrown weapons, you can’t use the benefits of the Armsman focus
at the same time as Gunslinger.
Level 1: Gain Shoot as a bonus skill. You can draw or holster a Stowed ranged weapon as an
On Turn action. You may add your Shoot skill level to a ranged weapon’s damage roll.
Level 2: Once per round, you can reload a ranged weapon as an On Turn action if it takes no
more than one round to reload. Even on a miss with a Shoot attack, you do an unmodified 1d4
damage.

Hacker
You have a considerable fluency with digital security measures and standard encryption
methods. You know how to make computerized systems obey you until their automatic failsafes
come down on your control.
Level 1: Gain Program as a bonus skill. When attempting to hack a database or computerized
system, roll 3d6 on the skill check and drop the lowest die.
Level 2: Your hack duration increases to 1d4+Program skill x 10 minutes. You have an
instinctive understanding of the tech; you never need to learn the data protocols for a strange
system and are always treated as familiar with it.

Healer
Healing comes naturally to you, and you’re particularly gifted at preventing the quick bleed-out
of wounded allies and comrades.
Level 1: Gain Heal as a bonus skill. You may attempt to stabilize one mortally-wounded
adjacent person per round as an On Turn action. When rolling Heal skill checks, roll 3d6 and
drop the lowest die.
Level 2: Stims or other technological healing devices applied by you heal twice as many hit
points as normal. Using only basic medical supplies, you can heal 1d6+Heal skill hit points of
damage to every injured or wounded person in your group with ten minutes of first aid spread
among them. Such healing can be applied to a given target only once per day.

Henchkeeper
You have a distinct knack for picking up lost souls who willingly do your bidding. You might
induce them with promises of money, power, excitement, sex, or some other prize that you may
or may not eventually grant. A henchman obtained with this focus will serve in loyal fashion until
clearly betrayed or placed in unacceptable danger. Henchmen are not “important” people in
their society, and are usually marginal sorts, outcasts, the desperate, or other persons with few
options. You can use more conventional pay or inducements to acquire additional henchmen,
but these extra hirelings are no more loyal or competent than your pay and treatment can
purchase.
Level 1: Gain Lead as a bonus skill. You can acquire henchmen within 24 hours of arriving in a
community, assuming anyone is suitable hench material. These henchmen will not fight except
to save their own lives, but will escort you on adventures and risk great danger to help you.
Most henchmen will be treated as Peaceful Humans from the Xenobestiary section of the book.
You can have one henchmen at a time for every three character levels you have, rounded up.
You can release henchmen with no hard feelings at any plausible time and pick them back up
later should you be without a current henchman.
Level 2: Your henchmen are remarkably loyal and determined, and will fight for you against
anything but clearly overwhelming odds. Whether through natural competence or their devotion
to you, they’re treated as Martial Humans from the Xenobestiary section. You can make faithful
henchmen out of skilled and highly-capable NPCs, but this requires that you actually have done
them some favor or help that would reasonably earn such fierce loyalty.

Impostor
You are exceedingly skilled at presenting yourself as something you are not, including
disguises, voice mimicry, and lightning-fast wardrobe changes. Some impostors rely on the
acting skills of Perform, while others lean more to the nefarious tricks of Sneak.
Level 1: Gain Perform or Sneak as a bonus skill. Once per scene, reroll any failed skill check or
saving throw related to maintaining an imposture or disguise. Create one false identity of no
great social importance; you can flawlessly pretend to be that person, such that only extremely
persuasive proof can connect you with it. You can change this identity with a week’s worth of
effort in building a new one.
Level 2: You can alter your clothing and armor such that a single Main Action lets you swap
between any of three chosen appearances. In addition to your original false identity, you can
establish a new false identity in each city or significant community you spend at least a day in.
Imprinted Spell
Applicable only to Arcanists, this focus is for a hero who has so perfectly readied a spell that
they no longer need to prepare it before casting it. They may cast it in place of any other spell of
equal or higher level, losing the spell in that slot in order to fuel the sudden casting.
Level 1: You may imprint one spell of any level you can cast. You can change this spell once
per experience level to another spell you know.
Level 2: You may change your imprinted spell once per day, when you prepare your other
spells.

Initiate of Healing
This focus can only be taken by Arcanists or Magisters with access to healing spells in their
regular spell lists, not including those who add them via other foci or means. With it, a magic-
user can translate the potential energies of their available spells into enchantments of physical
mending and revitalization. These simple magics cannot cure diseases or poisons and cannot
replace lost limbs, but they can heal any victim not too far gone to be saved by a lazarus patch.
Level 1: The user may expend a spell slot to heal a visible ally within 30 meters for 1d6 points of
damage per spell level expended, plus the caster’s Magic skill. Invoking this healing takes a
Main Action, but it is an invocation and cannot be interrupted.
Level 2: The user is so efficient at triggering natural healing in a subject that they can call upon
the subject’s natural physical reserves rather than their own magical energies. As a Main Action,
they can touch a willing subject and heal up to 1d6 points of damage for every three character
levels the user possesses, rounded up. This healing adds one System Strain to the target, and
cannot be performed if the target is unable to take the strain.

Ironhide
Whether through uncanny reflexes, remarkable luck, gengineered skin fibers, or subtle
telekinetic shielding, you have natural defenses equivalent to high-quality combat armor. The
benefits of this focus don’t stack with armor, though Dexterity or shield modifiers apply.
Level 1: You have an innate Armor Class of 15 plus half your character level, rounded up.
Level 2: Your abilities are so effective that they render you immune to unarmed attacks or
primitive weaponry as if you wore powered armor.

Limited Study
This arcane focus is special in that it can be taken by anyone, even those without an arcane
class, assuming the GM allows it in her campaign. It reflects a limited or partial study of the
arcane arts, just enough to master the casting of a handful of spells. An Arcanist or Magister
may also take it, to reflect an outside research topic, but they cannot cast these learned spells
with their usual spell slots.
Level 1: You may learn a single Arcanist or Magister spell of a level no greater than half your
own, rounded up. You can change this spell once per level if you can find a tutor for the spell
you want to study. You do not need to prepare this spell, and can cast it once per day. Your
familiarity with it is such that you can even cast it while wearing armor, without needing Armored
Technique. The spell is cast using your full character level for any level-dependent effects.
Level 2: Your limited study has expanded. You may learn a second spell of a level no greater
than half your character level, rounded up. You may cast this spell once per day with the same
limits as above.

Lucky
Some fund of remarkable luck has preserved your life at least once in the past, and continues to
give you an edge in otherwise hopeless situations. This luck does not favor the already-blessed;
this Focus can only be taken by a PC with at least one attribute modifier of -1 or less.
Level 1: Once per week, a blow or effect that would otherwise have left you killed, mortally
wounded, or rendered helpless somehow fails to connect or affect you. You make any rolls
related to games of chance twice, taking the better roll.
Level 2: Once per session, in a situation of need or peril, you can trust to your luck and roll 1d6.
On a 2 or more, something fortunate will happen to further your goal, provide an escape from
immediate peril, or otherwise give you an advantage you need, if not immediate victory. On a 1,
the situation will immediately grow much worse, as the GM sees fit.

Many Faces
You have multiple usable identities registered with corporate and governmental databases.
These identities are so deeply embedded in the systems that they’re almost impossible to pry
out unless you do something to compromise them.
Level 1: Gain Sneak as a bonus skill. You can maintain one alternate identity at a time per three
character levels, rounded up. These identities have their own names, backgrounds, criminal
records, financial dealings, and bank accounts, and will register as authentic to all normal
corporate and governmental checks. If an identity is compromised or you want a different one,
you can replace it with a week’s work. False identities cannot be important people or involve
corporations you don’t have a Contact in already.

Nullifier
Something about your hero interferes with easy use of magic on them. It may be a strangely
powerful birth blessing, a particular supernatural bloodline, or simple occult incompatibility. This
Focus cannot be taken by Mages or Partial Mages.
Level 1: You and all allies within twenty feet gain a +2 bonus to all saving throws against
magical effects. As an On Turn action, you can feel the presence or use of magic within twenty
feet of you, though you can’t discern details about it or the specific source. The first failed saving
throw against a magical effect you suffer in a day is turned into a success.
Level 2: Once per day, as an Instant action, you are simply not affected by an unwanted
magical effect or supernatural monstrous ability, even if it wouldn’t normally allow a saving
throw. Immunity to a persistent effect lasts for the rest of the scene.

Petty Sorceries
The character is capable of producing minor effects in line with their general style of magic –
phantom sounds, small and obvious illusions, non-damaging puffs of energy or light, minor
physical transformations, or any other trifling magical effect that fits with their tradition and isn’t
so powerful as to cause damage or directly affect an unwilling target. This focus has only one
level.
Level 1: The caster can invoke these abilities freely for flavor and role-playing style, but they can
only be concretely useful in play once per game session. The GM decides whether or not the
concrete use proposed for an effect is appropriate in scale.

Poisoner
You are a skilled poisoner, capable of compounding toxins out of readily-available flora and
minerals. It takes an hour to brew a poison, and you can keep as many doses fresh as you have
levels. Blade venoms take a Main Action to apply and last for ten minutes or until a hit or Shock
is inflicted, whichever comes first. Detecting poisoned food is a Wis/Notice skill check against
10, or 12 if the diner’s not a noble or otherwise normally wary of poison. One dose can poison
up to a half-dozen diners.
Level 1: Gain Heal as a bonus skill. Gain a reroll on any failed saving throw versus poison. Your
toxins inflict 2d6 damage plus your level on a hit or Shock, with a Physical save for half. Your
incapacitating or hallucinogenic toxins do the same, but those reduced to zero hit points are
simply incapacitated for an hour.
Level 2: You are immune to poison and can apply a universal antidote to any poisoned ally as a
Main Action. Any attempt to detect or save against your poisons takes a penalty equal to your
Heal skill. Your ingested poisons count as an Execution Attack against unsuspecting targets, as
per page 44, with Heal used for the Physical saving throw penalty and 1d6 damage per level
done on a success. Such poisons can be non-lethal at your discretion.

Polymath
You have a passing acquaintance with a vast variety of practical skills and pastimes, and can
make a modest attempt at almost any exercise of skill or artisanry. Note that the phantom skill
levels granted by this Focus don’t stack with normal skill levels or give a skill purchase discount.
Only Experts or Partial Experts can take this Focus.
Level 1: Gain any one bonus skill. You treat all non-combat skills as if they were at least level-0
for purposes of skill checks, even if you lack them entirely.
Level 2: You treat all non-combat skills as if they were at least level-1 for purposes of skill
checks.

Pop Idol
Whether a street musician, graffiti artist, underground journalist, cam girl, folk singer, or Robin
Hood-esque thief, you have a devoted following of enthusiasts who are willing to help you when
you need them.
Level 1: Gain Perform as a bonus skill. Once per game week, with an hour or so of messaging,
you can mobilize about a hundred of your fans to perform some act of your choice, provided it’s
no more than mildly criminal or slightly dangerous. Flash mobs, getaway drivers, scouting
reports, tailing people, or instant parties might all qualify as services. Your fans don’t have any
special skills, but they’ll do anything ordinary workers or civilians could do. If you mobilize them
for donations or merch purchases, you get $1,000 per character level, doubled at fifth level and
quadrupled at tenth. You can’t mobilize them to buy your content more than once per month.
Level 2: You can mobilize up to a hundred fans per character level, though major mobs are
likely to draw a law enforcement response. You’ve cultivated fan leaders who can pass along
your wishes deniably, concealing your involvement in the crowd. Your donation and merch
earning amounts double. Your Charisma modifier increases by +1, to a maximum of +2.

Psychic Synergy
Some magic-using heroes have both arcane and psychic powers. This focus allows them to blur
the lines between their abilities, fueling different spheres of effect with their separate pools of
energy.
Level 1: Once per day as an Instant action, Commit Psychic Effort for the day to cast any spell
you have prepared, if an Arcanist, or known, if a Magister, or fuel an Adept power that requires
Effort to be Committed. Conversely, you may instead trade one available spell slot of your
highest level to refresh half its level in Committed Effort, rounded up, or Commit a point of Adept
Effort for the day to restore a point of Committed Psychic Effort.
Level 2: You may convert your power twice per day.

Psychic Training
You’ve had special training in a particular psychic discipline. You must be a Psychic or have
taken the Partial Psychic class option as an Adventurer to pick this focus. In the latter case, you
can only take training in the discipline you initially chose as a Partial Psychic. As with most foci,
this focus can be taken only once.
Level 1: Gain any psychic skill as a bonus. If this improves it to level-1 proficiency, choose a
free level-1 technique from that discipline. Your maximum Effort increases by one.
Level 2: When you advance a level, the bonus psychic skill you chose for the first level of the
focus automatically gets one skill point put toward increasing it or purchasing a technique from
it. You may save these points for later, if more are required to raise the skill or buy a particular
technique. These points are awarded retroactively if you take this focus level later in the game.

Roamer
You might be a footloose bum with a knack for stowing aboard cargo shipments, a hard-bitten
outlander smuggler, or a restless seeker of the horizon. Either way, you’ve seen more of the
world with your own two eyes than any common corper ever will.
Level 1: Gain Survive and Drive as bonus skills. You have conversational skill in all common
languages spoken in the region or city, and you never get lost. You have “acquired” one or more
vehicles worth no more than the budget given on page 18. You can replace lost or damaged
vehicles at a rate of $10,000 per week.
Level 2: Once per scene, as an Instant action, you can reroll a failed skill check related to safe
traveling or vehicle operation, whether to fix a blown engine or talk down a ganger who doesn’t
like strangers crossing his turf.

Safe Haven
You have the contacts and expertise to find safehouses and bolt holes that no one else would
think to find. You know how to persuade landlords into helping you for nebulous future
advantages.
Level 1: Gain Sneak as a bonus skill. If you spend a week in a particular neighborhood, you can
find or arrange a secure safe house and the on-call assistance of a local cyberdoc or medic
willing to perform emergency care for no more than you can afford to pay. This safe house will
always go unnoticed unless you are at Heat 8+ or specifically compromise it; even in that case,
it will remain undiscovered for at least 24 hours if you can get to it without being followed. If a
safe house is burnt, you can find a new one with another week’s work. A PC can’t have more
safe houses active at once than their character level.
Level 2: Your safe houses are actively protected by the local authorities, be they gang
members, paid-off cops, or cooperative corp security. Provided you don’t make them angry,
they’ll defend you from most ordinary degrees of pursuit. You can find safe havens geared with
the equivalent of tech workshops or level one cyberclinics.

Savage Fray
You are a whirlwind of bloody havoc in melee combat, and can survive being surrounded far
better than most combatants.
Level 1: Gain Stab as a bonus skill. All enemies adjacent to you at the end of your turn whom
you have not attacked suffer the Shock damage of your weapon if their Armor Class is not too
high to be affected.
Level 2: After suffering your first melee hit in a round, any further melee attacks from other
assailants automatically miss you. If the attacker who hits you has multiple attacks, they may
attempt all of them, but other foes around you simply miss.

Savage Sorcery
The spellcaster’s powers are keenly attuned to violence and destruction. Even when bereft of
other magical resources, they can still call upon a blast of magical power appropriate to their
tradition or character traits. Some casters might hurl bolts of crackling lightning, while others
could employ lasers, pillars of flame, or lances of concussive telekinetic force. This focus is
usually taken by Arcanists or Magisters, but some Adepts might benefit from the first level.
Level 1: As a Main Action invocation, the spellcaster can blast a visible target within 100 meters
with a bolt that does 1d8 damage plus their character level if it successfully hits, with the hit roll
modified by their Magic skill. They may use this bolt as often as they wish. Any spell they cast
that does hit point damage does an additional +1 damage per die.
Level 2: The spellcaster can convert their magical energy into raw damaging force. The user
casts a spell normally, but at the moment of release, they transform it into a blast of violent
energies that inflicts 1d6+1 damage per level of the converted spell to any single target within
100 meters. This damage includes the bonus level 1 grants to harmful spells.

Shocking Assault
You’re extremely dangerous to enemies around you. The ferocity of your melee attacks stresses
and distracts enemies even when your blows don’t draw blood.
Level 1: Gain Punch or Stab as a bonus skill. The Shock damage of your weapon treats all
targets as if they were AC 10, assuming your weapon is capable of harming the target in the
first place.
Level 2: In addition, you gain a +2 bonus to the Shock damage rating of all melee weapons and
unarmed attacks. Regular hits never do less damage than this Shock would do on a miss.

Sniper
You are an expert at placing a bullet or beam on an unsuspecting target. These special benefits
only apply when making an Execution Attack with a firearm or bow, as described on page 52.
Level 1: Gain Shoot as a bonus skill. When making a skill check for an Execution Attack or
target shooting, roll 3d6 and drop the lowest die.
Level 2: A target hit by your Execution Attack takes a -4 penalty on the Physical saving throw to
avoid immediate mortal injury. Even if the save is successful, the target takes double the normal
damage inflicted by the attack.

Specialist
You are remarkably talented at a particular skill. Whether a marvelous cat burglar, a world-
famous athlete, a brilliant engineer, or some other savant, your expertise is extremely reliable.
You may take this focus more than once for different skills.
Level 1: Gain a non-combat, non-psychic skill as a bonus. Roll 3d6 and drop the lowest die for
all skill checks in this skill.
Level 2: Roll 4d6 and drop the two lowest dice for all skill checks in this skill.

Spirit Familiar
You have a minor spirit, devil, construct, magical beast, or other creature as a devoted
companion. While its abilities are limited, it is absolutely loyal to you.
Level 1: Choose a form for your familiar no smaller than a cat nor larger than a human. It has
the traits and abilities of an entity created by Calculation of the Evoked Servitor on page 68, but
may be summoned or dismissed as a Main Action, appearing within melee range of its owner. It
cannot carry objects with it during its vanishment aside from the clothing natural to its shape. It
has no need for food, water, or sleep. If killed, it vanishes and cannot be re-summoned for 24
hours. Once per day, it can refresh one point of Committed Effort for you.
Level 2: Pick two benefits from the list below for your familiar. This level may be taken more
than once, adding two additional options each time.
• It has hit points equal to three times your level
• It gains the ability to attack with a hit bonus equal to half your level, rounded up, doing 1d8
damage on a hit with no Shock
• It gains a +1 skill check bonus and can apply it to a range of situations equivalent to one
normal human background
• It gains another shape of your choice which it can adopt or discard as an On Turn action
• It can hover or fly at its usual movement rate
• It can communicate freely with others in any language you know

Star Captain
You have a tremendous natural talent for ship combat, and can make any starship you captain a
significantly more fearsome opponent. You must take the captain’s role during a fight as
described on page 117 of the Ship Combat rules in order to benefit from this focus.
Level 1: Gain Lead as a bonus skill. Your ship gains 2 extra Command Points at the start of
each turn.
Level 2: A ship you captain gains bonus hit points equal to 20% of its maximum at the start of
each combat. Damage is taken from these bonus points first, and they vanish at the end of the
fight and do not require repairs to replenish before the next. In addition, once per engagement,
you may resolve a Crisis as an Instant action by explaining how your leadership resolves the
problem.

Starfarer
You are an expert in the plotting and execution of interstellar spike drills. While most
experienced pilots can manage conventional drills along well-charted spike routes, you have the
knack for forging new drill paths and cutting courses too dangerous for lesser navigators.
Level 1: Gain Pilot as a bonus skill. You automatically succeed at all spike drill-related skill
checks of difficulty 10 or less.
Level 2: Double your Pilot skill for all spike drill-related skill checks. Spike drives of ships you
navigate are treated as one level higher; thus, a drive-1 is treated as a drive-2, up to a
maximum of drive-7. Spike drills you personally oversee take only half the time they would
otherwise require.

Tinker
You have a natural knack for modifying and improving equipment, as given in the rules on page
100.
Level 1: Gain Fix as a bonus skill. Your Maintenance score is doubled, allowing you to maintain
twice as many mods. Both ship and gear mods cost only half their usual price in credits, though
pretech salvage requirements remain the same.
Level 2: Your Fix skill is treated as one level higher for purposes of building and maintaining
mods and calculating your Maintenance score. Advanced mods require one fewer pretech
salvage part to make, down to a minimum of zero.

Unarmed Combatant
Your empty hands are more dangerous than knives and guns in the grip of the less gifted. Your
unarmed attacks are counted as melee weapons when it comes to binding up opponents
wielding rifles and similar long arms, though you need at least one hand free to do so.
Level 1: Gain Punch as a bonus skill. Your unarmed attacks become more dangerous as your
Punch skill increases. At level-0, they do 1d6 damage. At level-1, they do 1d8 damage. At level-
2 they do 1d10, level-3 does 1d12, and level-4 does 1d12+1. At Punch-1 or better, they have
the Shock quality equal to your Punch skill against AC 15 or less. While you normally add your
Punch skill level to any unarmed damage, don’t add it twice to this Shock damage.
Level 2: You know locks and twists that use powered servos against their wearer. Your
unarmed attacks count as TL4 weapons for the purpose of overcoming advanced armors. Even
on a miss with a Punch attack, you do an unmodified 1d6 damage.

Unique Gift
Whether due to exotic technological augmentation, a unique transhuman background, or a
remarkable human talent, you have the ability to do something that’s simply impossible for a
normal human. This is a special focus which serves as a catch-all for some novel power or
background perk that doesn’t have a convenient fit in the existing rules. A transhuman who can
function normally in lethal environments, a nanotech-laden experimental subject with a head full
of exotic sensors, or a brilliant gravitic scientist who can fly thanks to their personal tech might
all take this focus to cover their special abilities. It’s up to the GM to decide what’s reasonable
and fair to be covered under this gift. If an ability is particularly powerful, it might require the user
to take System Strain to use it, as described on page 32. As a general rule this ability should be
better than a piece of gear the PC could buy for credits. The player is spending a very limited
resource when they make this focus pick, so what they get should be good enough that they
can’t just duplicate it with a fat bank account.

Unregistered
Whether by unrecorded birth, database corruption, or sheer luck, you simply do not exist in any
government or corporate database. If taken with the Many Faces Focus, your own identity is
lost, but you can create others for your own uses. If this Focus is taken after character creation,
it means your existing records have become hopelessly corrupted and lost.
Level 1: You have no government or corporate database records associated with you, and it is
almost impossible to add any such records without them ending up corrupted or deleted within a
week. Human beings can remember you, but they can’t rely on computerized records to keep
track of you or your activities. You can keep money on credit chips or in cash, but banking or
formal property ownership is almost impossible for you.

Valiant Defender
You are a bodyguard, shieldbearer, or other gifted defender of others, accustomed to the roil of
bloody battle and desperate struggle. You have an exceptional ability to shield your allies from
the attacks of those who would slay them.
Level 1: Gain Stab or Punch as a bonus skill. Gain a +2 on all skill checks for the Screen Ally
combat action. You can screen against one more attacker per round than your skill would
normally allow. Once per round, you can Screen Ally against even intangible spells or magical
attacks or bodily shield them from an area-effect explosion or magic. Such attempts require the
usual successful opposing skill check, with the assailant using their Magic skill.
Level 2: The first Screen Ally skill check you make in a round is always successful. Gain +2 AC
while screening someone. You can screen against foes as large as ogres or oxen.

Vast Erudition
Applicable only to Arcanists, the hero is extremely well versed in magical theory and practical
spell deployment. They automatically know all the usual Arcanist spells of certain levels. This
does not include any esoteric enchantments that may have been devised by individual
practitioners.
Level 1: You automatically know all standard first level Arcanist spells. When you advance a
level, you learn four new spells instead of two.
Level 2: You automatically know all standard Arcanist spells of levels less than the maximum
spell level you can cast. Thus, if you can cast fourth level spells, you know all standard Arcanist
spells of levels one through three.

Wanderer
Your hero gets around. As part of a life on the road, they’ve mastered a number of tricks for
ensuring their mobility and surviving the inevitable difficulties of a vagabond existence.
Level 1: Gain Survive as a bonus skill. You can convey basic ideas in all the common
languages of the sector. You can always find free transport to a desired destination for yourself
and a small group of your friends provided any traffic goes to the place. Finding this transport
takes no more than an hour, but it may not be a strictly legitimate means of travel and may
require working passage.
Level 2: You can forge, scrounge, or snag travel papers and identification for the party with 1d6
hours of work. These papers and permits will stand up to ordinary scrutiny, but require an
opposed Int/ Administer versus Wis/Notice check if examined by an official while the PC is
actually wanted by the state for some crime. When finding transport for the party, the
transportation always makes the trip at least as fast as a dedicated charter would.

War Caster
Your hero is accustomed to casting in combat, and can keep focus when less hardened minds
would be hopelessly distracted by pain.
Level 1: When injured while casting a spell, you may make a Physical saving throw to avoid
losing it. Even if your spell is interrupted, you do not lose the spell slot; only your action is
wasted.
Level 2: Whenever you would lose a spell to an interruption, accept damage equal to twice the
spell’s level to continue casting it. If this damage would reduce you to zero hit points, you
complete the casting before passing out, stable but at zero HP.

Well Met
You have a striking ability to charm and pacify people and creatures you’ve just met. Once they
get to know you, however, their opinions are more likely to be based on experience; this Focus
works only once on a target.
Level 1: Reaction rolls made by those the party meets are given a +1 bonus so long as you are
present, whether or not you do the talking. Even hostile encountered beings will usually give the
party a round to parley before attacking unless they’re in ambush or have a clear reason for
immediate violence.
Level 2: Once per game session, when a reaction roll is made, cause the subject to be as
friendly and helpful to you and your party as it’s plausibly possible for them to be. It’s up to the
GM to decide why the creature becomes so; it might be mistaken about your nature, or find you
hilarious, or perhaps want a favor from you and your allies.

Wild Psychic Talent

Some men and women are born with a very limited form of MES, the mental condition that
allows for the use of psychic powers. While these people are not true psychics, these “wild
talents” can create one limited psychic effect. Training is not always required to develop this
ability, and their MES is so mild that they don’t suffer the risk of madness or brain damage that
more developed psychics risk should they use their powers without proper training. Wild talents
are not treated as psychics for general purposes and cannot “torch” their powers. When
relevant, they are treated as having one point of Effort. Psychics and Partial Psychics cannot
take this focus.
Level 1: Pick a psychic discipline. You gain an ability equivalent to the level-0 core power of that
discipline. Optionally, you may instead pick a level-1 technique from that discipline, but that
technique must stand alone; you can’t pick one that augments another technique or core ability.
For example, you could pick the Telekinetic Armory technique from Telekinesis, because that
ability does not require the use of any other Telekinesis power. You could not pick the Mastered
Succor ability from Biopsionics, because that technique is meant to augment another power you
don’t have.
Level 2: You now have a maximum Effort of two points. You may pick a second ability according
to the guidelines above. This second does not need to be a stand-alone technique if it augments
the power you chose for level 1 of this focus. Thus, if your first pick was gaining the level-0
power of Psychic Succor, your second could be Mastered Succor. You still could not get the
level-1 core power of Psychic Succor, however, as you’re still restricted to level-0.

Xenoblooded
You have been both blessed and cursed by the Outsiders, gaining the ability to survive in alien
environments that humans were never meant to tolerate. This may be from ancient
modifications made to your lineage in order to make them better servants, or it could be that
you’re some sort of alien-human hybrid yourself. Those cursed with such a hated heritage
usually have considerable physical variations from human normality, and usually try to pass
themselves off as merely an unusual kind of demihuman or unfortunate human mutant.
Level 1: Choose one set of benefits from the list below to reflect your alien heritage. Other gifts
may exist.
• You are immune to heat damage and can breathe and see through smoke without hindrance.
• You are water-adapted and can breathe water and see through it up to 120’ regardless of light.
You swim at double your normal Move rate.
• You were built to heavier or lighter gravity conditions; gain a +1 to either your Strength or
Dexterity modifiers, to a maximum of +3, and a -1 penalty to the modifier of the other attribute.
• You are nourished by invisible radiations and need neither eat, sleep, nor breathe. You can
see clearly even in the absence of any light.

Alien Characters

Aptitude for Violence

All members of this species are good at hurting things. They gain a +1 bonus to their normal
attack bonus. Thus, a 1st level alien Expert would have an attack bonus of +1 instead of +0, and
a 1st level Warrior would begin with a +2 bonus.

Environmental Native
As a minor perk, the alien is able to survive in a relatively common hostile environment, such as
underwater, in hard vacuum, amid lethal radiation, or so forth. If the alien requires this
environment, it’s no net benefit at all.

Innate Ability
All members of this species have one or more natural abilities beyond those possessed by
humans. Perfect vision in the dark, tracking by scent, wireless tech interfacing, a lack of need
for food and water, or some other talent might apply. As a quick inspiration, you can look at the
equipment or cyberware list and give them the natural use of 2-3 items. Optionally, you might
give them an ability equivalent to a single psionic technique, plus one point of Effort to fuel it if
needed.

Natural Defenses
The creature has a hard shell or sharp talons. The alien has a base Armor Class of 15 plus half
their character level, rounded up. If you give them body weaponry such as claws or fangs, have
it equivalent to a medium advanced weapon. Weaponry alone is a very small advantage, since
it’s so easy to acquire otherwise, so you might not count this as a benefit if all you give a
creature is a sharp set of teeth.

Origin Skill
All members of the species are particularly good at something. They might all be capable
warriors, have unique technical aptitude, be persuasive speakers, or otherwise have a shared
knack. Receive an appropriate skill as a bonus. Warrior-type races might be allowed to pick
from either Punch, Shoot, or Stab. Psychic Aptitude These aliens are all psychically gifted. The
PC must either be a Psychic or take the Partial Psychic class option from the Adventurer class.
Their maximum Effort score is increased by one point.

Shapeshifting
The alien is either an amoeboid blob that can manipulate objects with extruded pseudopods and
flow through small spaces, or it can actually mimic other species or objects. The former trait is a
minor benefit at best, but the latter one might be sufficient to mimic biopsionic shapeshifting, or
might have a more restricted range of possible shapes.

Strong Attribute
All members of the species are strong, fast, tough, clever, perceptive, or charming by human
standards. Pick an attribute appropriate to the alien; that attribute gains a +1 bonus to its
modifier, up to a maximum of +3. Thus, an alien from an exceptionally strong species with a
Strength score of 10 would have a Strength modifier of +1 instead of +0.

Tough
The alien is big, or hardy, or made of unusually durable biological components. Whenever they
roll their hit dice to determine their maximum hit points, the first die they roll always counts as
the maximum. Thus, a first level Warrior alien would always start with 8 hit points. When rolling
hit points at second level, they’d count their first die as 8 and roll on from there. Further hit dice
that roll a 1 are rerolled.

Unusual Movement Mode

The alien can fly under normal gravity conditions, or make short-range teleportation hops, or
can climb sheer walls as if they were flat. Whatever the details, they can use their Move action
to travel unusually.

Useful Immunity
The alien is impervious to some threat that’s relatively common. A significant or common
immunity, such as against bullets, lasers, edged melee weapons or the like would be a major
benefit, while immunity to minor threats such as toxins, diseases, radiation, or falling damage
might only qualify as a minor perk.

VI Characters

Android
You were built as an android, a robot indistinguishable from a human without a medical-grade
inspection. Most androids are “companion” bots, though other VIs with roles that involve
significant human interaction may also be built as androids. Minor scuffs and cuts don’t reveal
your robotic nature, but if reduced to zero hit points, your unnatural innards are obvious.
Level 1: Gain a bonus skill related to your intended function. You have all the usual traits and
abilities of a VI robot.

VI Worker Bot
You were built for industrial or technical labor, where a human face was an unnecessary luxury.
Most such VI bots are humanoid, if only to more conveniently manipulate human-scale devices,
but their inhuman nature is obvious.
Level 1: Gain a bonus skill related to your intended function. Choose an attribute associated
with your work and gain a +1 bonus to its modifier, up to a maximum of +2. You have all the
usual traits and abilities of a VI robot.

VI Vehicle Bot
Some VIs were instantiated in actual vehicles rather than conventional humanoid bodies. Most
were purely synthetic in origins, but some sectors retain the techniques for brain transplants into
non-human bodies. Some polities have been known to conduct full-body cyberneticization of
soldiers into tanks, warships, attack helicopters, and other military vehicles. As a vehicle, you
are usually equipped with manipulator arms that can be used on adjacent objects. You may
operate the individual elements of your vehicle as if they were your own limbs, attacking once
per round with a mounted weapon of your choice.
Level 1: Gain Pilot as a bonus skill. Pick a vehicle acceptable to the GM, usually a drone,
hoverbike or gravcar. You become that vehicle. You retain your usual attributes but gain the
vehicle’s Armor score. You are Armor Class 10, modified by your Dexterity score. A tech can
improve your Armor Class by aftermarket modifications, adding up to three times their Fix skill to
your Armor Class at a cost of 1,000 credits per point of improvement. You use the vehicle’s hit
points until your own normally-rolled hit point score exceeds that number. Many VI vehicles
purchase a drone or humanoid robot body to carry on board and employ for remote operation in
areas unsuitable for a vehicle; you can pilot a single surrogate body in lieu of your own Main
Action, provided there’s no ECM to jam the control transmissions.