Technology Gifts
From Edge of Darkness Wiki
Technology, in the broadest sense, is the way people use discoveries and inventions. It is interdependent and often highly specialized. Technology is the forte of the Iron Masters, who possess affinity with these Gifts. Still, many other werewolves find knowledge of how to thwart high-tech computers and other devices extremely useful, especially in dealing with urban and human affairs. These Gifts also represent how to use existing technology to best advantage. Urban [spirit]s and spirits of various metals and forms of energy such as electricity are the most frequent teachers of these Gifts.
Contents |
Gift Levels
• Left-Handed Spanner
This Gift temporarily disables a specific technological object, such as a cell phone, computer or automobile engine, within arm’s reach. The malfunction has no apparent external cause. In truth, the werewolf using the Gift has interrupted the flow of spirit energy into the object, thus causing its breakdown.
The player must specifically state which object her character wishes to disable, and the werewolf must touch it. The object ceases to work for a number of turns equal to the successes rolled. If the object is carried by another who seeks to avoid the werewolf’s touch, a roll is required to make contact (see “Touching an Opponent,” World of Darkness Rulebook, p. 157). Valid pieces of technology that can be overcome include anything manufactured by industrial means with at least three separate parts; a gun is valid, but a hinge or syringe is not. The object cannot be larger than the werewolf himself in Hishu form. A werewolf can affect the engine of a car, but not the entire automobile.
•• Nightfall
Humans and werewolves alike rely on the power of light for innumerable tasks. This Gift allows the user to extinguish all electric light (i.e., electric lamps, battery powered flashlights, streetlights) in a specific area.
Roll Results
- Dramatic Failure: The failed Gift alerts local technological spirits. Any spirits in the area associated with technology become increasingly hostile toward the character for one lunar month.
- Failure: Nothing happens.
- Success: The character must target a specific area within unaided visual range; the Gift does not work on areas viewed remotely via binoculars, security systems or the like. Success extinguishes the light within a home of about 2,000 square feet, with each additional success doubling the size of the area. Three successes, for example, kill the lights on an entire floor of a large office building. This Gift does not simply turn the lights off — it prevents them from functioning at all. The effects last for one scene, or until the character chooses to end the Gift’s effects.
- Exceptional Success: The character gains selective control over the technological light sources in the area, and may select one source to still function if she chooses.
••• Iron Treachery
With a gesture and snarl, the werewolf temporarily awakens the spirit of a machine, driving it into a brief fit of angry independence. A pistol jerks in the hand of its owner, refusing to be aimed; a steering wheel twists madly.
Roll Results
- Dramatic Failure: The Gift temporarily awakens the spirit, but it is compliant rather than rebellious. The spirit grants an additional die to any attempts to use the object for the rest of the scene.
- Failure: The machine’s spirit does not awaken.
- Success: The Gift user must point at the mechanical device in question, which must be within 10 yards per point of Primal Urge, and must comprise at least two separate moving parts. If someone is currently attempting to use the device, he resists with Resolve. If the Gift user succeeds, the device’s spirit becomes essentially uncontrollable for one turn per success. Any attempts to use the machine while the Gift effects last are reduced to a chance die.
- Exceptional Success: The spirit is exceptionally angry, and rebels for the duration of the scene.
•••• Maschinegeist
A werewolf calling on this Gift merges his being with the spirit of a particular machine or electronic device, such as a computer or a school bus. He sees what the machine sees and feels what the machine feels, taking advantage of any hidden knowledge or extra sensory awareness therein. To those not skilled or familiar with Technology Gifts, this Gift is a little frightening, as the werewolf using Maschinegeist becomes “one” with his subject, temporarily leaving his body and singular consciousness behind.
- Cost: 1 Essence
- Dice Pool: Wits + Computer Skill + Wisdom
- Action: Instant or Extended (10 to 20 successes required; each roll represents a minute’s time)
Roll Results
- Dramatic Failure: The object’s spirit is offended by the character’s intended intrusion and cannot be communed with at all for 24 hours.
- Failure: No contact is made.
- Success: The player succeeds at a Wits + Computer Skill + Wisdom roll for his character to create a bond with a mechanical or electrical device within reach. The werewolf is in a trance as he communes with the subject’s spirit. He cannot perceive the world around him, except as the machine’s spirit does. Communing with a car’s spirit, for example, he “feels” that which touches the car and “sees” through the car’s headlights, windshield or mirrors, but he cannot see what a passenger leaning out a window might. No Gifts can be used while out of body.The machine need not be active (though it must be physically intact, or at least enough so to be in working order) for this Gift to work. The werewolf can commune with a television that isn’t currently on or a car that isn’t currently running. Only one werewolf can communicate with an object via this Gift at a time. If the spirit of the machine is already awake, communion takes a single turn — an instant action. If it slumbers, communion takes time, depending on the intricacy of the machine in question; communion does not actually wake the spirit. An extended action is required to connect with it. A simple machine such as a lawn mower might require 10 successes, while a large or complicated one such as a computer might require 20. The werewolf is in a trance throughout the extended communion process. Forging a bond, the werewolf gains access to any knowledge or information the machine’s spirit possesses, as decided by the Storyteller. Merging with a television set in a seedy motel room may reveal who has been in the room recently and what they did there, though a television set’s “memory” won’t reach as far back as a computer’s. Joining with a mainframe computer may give the character reams of information, more than he can even absorb. The character retains information for one minute after leaving the gestalt. A werewolf can remain bound to a machine’s spirit for a number of turns equal to his Harmony, or he may break contact as an instant action earlier if all information sought is acquired. If the object to which a character’s psyche is connected is destroyed, the character’s identity is thrown back to his body immediately. Any Structure damage inflicted on the object is also inflicted as points of Health to the character’s body. If the werewolf’s body is attacked, he is aware of it immediately. If his body is knocked unconscious, his spirit returns. If his body is killed, his psyche is trapped in the object for the duration of the power and is then lost forever.
- Exceptional Success: The character can remain in contact with the object’s spirit for a number of hours equal to his Harmony dots.
••••• Create Technology
To a master of technological animism, complicated devices are simply another element to be conjured up at will. This Gift allows a werewolf to create sophisticated technology from the basest materials.
- Cost: 1 Essence + 1 Willpower
- Dice Pool: Intelligence + Crafts Skill + Cunning
- Action: Extended (5 to 50 successes required; one turn passes per roll)
