mirrors willpower uses

• Achilles’ Heel: Maybe you’re just having one of those nights with the dice or maybe it seems to you like the Storyteller overestimated the fighting prowess of your character. Either way, you just can’t seem to land a solid blow on the bad guy. This option allows your character to  spot  a  chink  in  the  armor  or  a  window  of  opportunity to get past the opposition’s defenses. By spending a point of Willpower you can reduce either the Defense or the Armor of your target to zero for the duration of one  attack.  Sadly,  the  same  trick  seldom  works  twice, so this option is limited to once per scene per side of the conflict. Specifically, you can’t go around the table, with player after player spending a point of Willpower to get in free shots.

• All  or  Nothing:  Sometimes  a  single  success  just doesn’t get it done. Sure, you’ve still succeeded at the roll, but the result is probably nothing spectacular. This option allows you to dump all your remaining Willpower to gamble with probability. When you choose to go All or Nothing, if your next roll is a success it counts as an exceptional one. If, however, the roll fails, it’s considered a dramatic failure. This option may not be used in combat.

• Automatic  Success:  Statistically,  three  dice  is equal  to  one  success  in  the  Storytelling  System.  This option cuts out the middleman and grants an automatic success  for  spending  a  point  of  Willpower.  The  only caveat to this option is that it may not be used for rolls that  have  been  reduced  to  a  chance  die.  Spending  a single point of Willpower to automatically succeed on a roll that has been reduced to a chance die might be a bit excessive and it would almost certainly put an end to those exciting dramatic failures! This option has no effect during combat.

• Distractions: Combat in the Storytelling System is a “you-go, I-go” kind of affair, based on the initiative of characters involved in the scene. Normally, unless it’s your turn to act, you can’t really interfere with the actions of other characters. In terms of story, though, characters don’t stand around picking their noses, waiting for their turn at bat. They talk, they move around, they duck and weave and they get involved. This option allows you to spend a point of Willpower to harass and annoy an opponent  just  enough  so  he  might  make  a  mistake.  The harassment could be verbal, or include minor non-action physical attempts to intimidate, hinder, and irritate. In play,  each  point  of  Willpower  spent  by  the  group  as  a whole acts as a –1 modifier to a single roll of an opponent. Players  should  describe  the  manner  in  which  they  are distracting the bad guy, without describing actions that would  require  an  actual  dice  roll.  Distractions  might include insults, loud noises, bodily fluids, whatever.

• Even  Footing:  That  keen-eyed  security  guard can foil the cleverest of plans just by noticing the one member of the group that couldn’t manage to avoid step-ping on every dry leaf in sight. This option allows you to even the odds on a contested roll by forcing both sides of the contest to use the lowest dice pool available to either character. In the event that multiple characters are  involved  in  the  contest,  use  the  lowest  dice  pool present for all rolls.

• Get  a  Clue:  When  that  Wits-based  roll  you’re sure was meant to help you notice something fails you can usually accept the –1 penalty and try again, or you can  chose  to  use  this  option.  By  spending  a  point  of Willpower, the character automatically uncovers a clue or other vital piece of information that is hidden in the scene. The downside is that sometimes you didn’t find a clue because it doesn’t exist and the Willpower point is wasted. Kind Storytellers might make up something interesting on the fly, or “refund” the spent Willpower (though,  with  the  refund,  any  hope  of  this  being  a “gamble”  ceases  to  exist).  This  option  has  no  effect during combat.

• Hurry: This option helps cut the time devoted to extended rolls in the hopes that speed is the character’s friend. The character can spend a Willpower point during one roll of an extended action, and in doing so, cuts the time of that “per roll” period in half. Example: John is  foraging  (p.  77,  the World  of  Darkness  Rulebook) for food. Normally, each roll equals one hour’s worth of searching, but by spending a Willpower point during the roll, that single roll is now equal to half that, which in this case is 30 minutes worth of searching. The character may continue to spend Willpower roll after roll, but one must be spent per roll to hurry the process.

• Moral  Victory:  Once  you  pull  the  pin  on  Mr. Grenade,  he’s  no  longer  your  friend, especially  if  you fumble the throw with a dramatic failure. This option allows you to turn a dramatic failure into a simple failure. True, the roll still fails, but at least Mr. Grenade lands further away from you.

• Narrative Elements: Generally, the composition of the environment around your characters is completely up to the Storyteller. No matter how badly you need a handy pond or swimming pool to hide from the baying hell-hounds chasing you, if the Storyteller doesn’t allow such occurrences, then it’s lights-out. This option gives players a measure of control over the environment, in a purely narrative fashion. The system works as follows: a player describes to the Storyteller what sort of narrative element  he  would  like  to  find.  Maybe  he  needs  a  gas station around the next corner to replace a busted tire or it would be nice if the small town you’re trapped in happened to have a silversmith. As long as the proposed narrative  element  doesn’t  have  a  direct  mechanical benefit  (that  is,  it  doesn’t  give  bonuses  to  dice  rolls), almost  anything  is  fair  game.  (Oh,  and  it  helps  if  it’s within the realms of possibility. A character in the desert whose player spends a Willpower point and asks to find a spacecraft or a glacier is asking too much.) Once the player has described the narrative element, the Story-teller tells him if it’s possible, and how many Willpower points it will cost.

• Specialty: Some Skills require a specific Specialty to avoid the unskilled penalty, even with basic compe-tence in that Skill. Shooting a rocket-propelled grenade without  the  Heavy  Weapons  Firearms  Specialty  is  an example of this, as is piloting an airplane without the Pilot Aircraft Specialty for the Drive Skill. This option gives your character “beginner’s luck” for the rest of the scene, negating the unskilled penalty. We suggest limit-ing the use of this option to once per game session.

• Supreme Effort: Every story has a turning point at  which  you  simply  can’t  afford  to  fail.  Maybe  you have one shot to stake the vampire that’s been feeding off your kids or failing a Drive roll along a cliff would result in very bad things. At times like these, the usual +3 bonus gained from spending a point of Willpower just  doesn’t  cut  the  mustard.  With  this  option,  once per story you may spend a point of Willpower to give a single roll the Advanced Action quality (see the World of  Darkness  Rulebook,  p.  135).  This  represents  the protagonist (that’s you) putting all he has into a life-or-death situation.

• Survival: The Storyteller just rolled a shit-load of 10s and now you’re flipping through the books, making a new character to replace the one that just got dead. This  option  guarantees  survival,  at  least  in  the  short term.  Any  time  your  character  takes  enough  damage to kill her; you may spend a dot of Willpower to reduce damage  taken  to  the  minimum  to  ensure  survival.  As an  example,  say  Stephen  had  two  open  Health  boxes left and takes enough damage to fill both of them with aggravated damage. Normally, Stephen is dead. If your troupe  decides  to  use  this  option,  however,  instead  of filling his track with aggravated damage, Stephen burns a  dot  of  Willpower  and  fills  the  last  box  with  bashing damage. Likely he’ll pass out, but he remains alive. Death can only be thwarted in this manner once per story.