16.1 Conditions in Play

Conditions are effects that are in place due to certain circumstances, powers, or Soulbound Weapons. They affect one or more characters in the game in a way that’s specific to the particular condition. The effects are listed with the conditions below.

You can also link up conditions to goals for some fun possibilities. For example:

Activate Toxic Defense System [3]: Inflict Poisoned condition on all

And then, in reverse:

Activate Antidote Dispenser [4]: Remove all Poisoned conditions

Using conditions in this way adds more variety to your conflicts. The GM should be open to the players suggesting goals that inflict or heal conditions.

Individual and Overarching

Most of the time, conditions are individual effects. This means that they affect only one character. Individual conditions can be countered in many ways, including with the appropriate powers.

Sometimes conditions are overarching. This means that the condition is not just an effect on one character, but it is something that is continuously inflicted on everyone around. Darkness is the only standard condition of this kind, but in the above example, Poisoned could be determined to work as overarching if the Toxic Defense System keeps pumping toxic gas into the room until it is shut down.

Overarching conditions cannot be countered with powers that remove conditions from individual characters, because the condition would immediately be inflicted on the character again. Instead, special powers (such as Brighten for Darkness) or, most of the time, goals are needed to remove the effects of overarching conditions.

If you feel like you’re going to have a lot of changes in conditions during a conflict, I suggest keeping a separate sheet on the table to keep track of them. You should mark overarching conditions as such, so that players don’t plan on using their powers to counter them.

Starting Conditions

Some conflicts take place under unusual conditions, and the GM can determine that the conflict starts with certain conditions in place.

For example, the GM can declare that a fight at night in the absence of strong light sources begins with the Darkness condition in place. Or maybe the PCs find themselves in a cave filled with toxic gas, where all characters (including the adversity) start with the Poisoned condition on them.
The GM should either create or allow the players to suggest goals to counter or perpetuate the starting conditions.

The GM can also establish new conditions during the conflict, either by creating a (possibly parallel) goal for the adversity to achieve, or just because circumstances in the story warrant it. Still, the players should have the option of overcoming them during the conflict with more goals.