Unwritten: System Reference Document/Stunts and Resources

While character aspects describe important facts about a character and skills describe general capability, stunts represent specific situations where the rules work differently for a character. This can represented by bonuses in certain situations, small exceptions to rules, or rules that apply to just that character in specific situations.

You’ll find guidance on here on building your own stunts; GMs and players are encouraged to work together to build stunt that add the right flavor to the character. We have also provided a list of stunts that you can use as inspiration or just use as-is.

Stunts can represent more than just a character’s personal capabilities. They can represent external entities, called resources. A resource could be a place the character has access to, an item they have, or someone they know who helps them in a specific way. A resource works like a stunt, except that its trigger is being able to access the resource in question.

Creating a Stunt

There is no definitive list of stunts. Rather they are created by players and the GM working together to find things that add the right flavor to the character. Use these general categories and examples as guidelines for building what you need.

Adding a Bonus to an Action

The most basic option for a stunt is to give a skill an automatic bonus under a particular, narrow circumstance, effectively letting a character specialize in something. The circumstance should be narrower than what the normal action allows, and only apply to one particular action or pair of actions.

The usual bonus is +2 to the skill total. However, if you want, you can also express the bonus as two shifts of additional effect after the roll succeeds, if that makes more sense. Remember, higher shifts on a roll allow your action to be more effective in certain ways.

You can also use this to establish any effect worth two shifts as an additional benefit of succeeding at the skill roll. This might be Fair (+2) passive opposition, the equivalent of a 2-point hit, a mild consequence, or an advantage that takes Fair (+2) opposition to remove.

Special Forensics Training. You have been trained to gather detailed physical evidence and tease out as much detail as you can. If you succeed at a discover action while initially examining the scene, you get two additional shifts added to your successful result.

Backwoods MacGuyver. You’ve got a flair for whipping up things (traps, simple contraptions, etc.) with just materials you find in nature. You get a +2 bonus on actions using Craft while in the wilderness that involve you making things on the fly.

Explosive Intellect. You are particularly good at making machines malfunction in messy, distracting ways. If you succeed at a Create Advantage action using Engineering, you place a distracting situation aspect on an area and you automatically create a Fair (+2) opposition for the next person who attempts any action in that area. (Normally you’d have to invoke the aspect somehow, but this is for free).

Adding an New Action to a Skill

Another use for a stunt is to allow a skill to do something that it normally can’t do. It adds a new action onto the base skill in certain situations, for those with this stunt. This new action can be one that’s available to another skill (allowing one skill to swap for another under certain circumstances), or one that’s not available to any skill.

Mind of the Creator. Using Craft or Engineering, you can analyze an item in order to tell you something about the creator as a discover action.

Master of Bluster. You may use Provoke instead of Deceive when making a scene in order to distract onlookers from some other action.

Biofeedback Training. You have studied how the body reacts to stress as well as strategies for alleviating it. You may use Medicine instead of Will to oppose Provoke actions that target you.

Creating a rules exception

Finally, a stunt is a single exception for any other game rule that doesn’t precisely fit into the category of an action. There are all sorts of different little rules about the circumstances under which a skill can be used and what happens when you use them, for example. Stunts can break those, allowing your character to stretch the boundaries of the possible. Additionally, your stunt may simply be narrative with no specific system effects.

The only limit to this is that a stunt can’t change any of the basic rules for aspects in terms of invoking, compelling, and the fate point economy. Those always remain the same.

Friendly Face. You immediately come across as a likeable person, no matter the situation. NPCs are favorably disposed to you when you first meet them until you give them a reason to feel otherwise. This works even if you do not share a language.

Useful Little Things. Your pockets are full of useful little things. Whenever you need something, you have it, provided it’s not something too unusual or too large to fit in a pocket, belt pouch, or backpack. When you say you have something, the GM should be likely to agree.

Carefully Concealed. When you use Stealth to create a Carefully Concealed (or similar) advantage on something, you can always actively oppose any overcome rolls to discover the item (also using the same skill), even if you’re not there. (Normally, if you weren’t there, the investigating character would roll against passive opposition, making it much easier to discover.)

Resources

A resource could be a place the character has access to, an item they have or someone they know who helps them in a specific way. The rules for a resource are exactly like those for a stunt, except that to use the stunt, you must have current access to the resource.

Locations

There are all sorts of places in the Ages that a character can turn into useful resources. These might be hidden strongholds, ancient ruins, or fields of useful materials. The key commonality is that the benefits that such a stunt gives you require you to go to the location in order to use them.

Extensive Library. You have a library full of useful books and research. You get a +2 on actions using Research while you are there.

Garden of Exotic Herbs. You have cultivated a garden of plants with unique medicinal properties. If you have access to your garden, I get a +2 on actions using Medicine.

Restored D’ni Pub. You are the proprietor of a new little restored pub in the D’ni city; it’s a great place to sit down and hash things out. You get a +2 to actions that involve getting people to cooperate while you are dealing with others there.

Gadgets

Engineers build all sorts of things, and the D’ni left all sorts of technology lying around as well. Any of this can be the basis for a stunt. Remember that standard items usually don’t give any special benefit or only serve narrative purposes, such as standard KIs and Linking Books. These would not be stunts unless they are special in some way.

The trick to gadgets is that, since they are items, they can be stolen or damaged. Gadgets represented by stunts can’t be taken away from you permanently, however. At the end of a chapter, at the very least, you’ll be assumed to have repaired it, built a new one or recovered the item in some way.

Incredibly Useful Multi-Tool. You get a +1 on actions involving Engineering or Craft when using it.

D’ni Atlas. You get a +2 to discover actions in the cavern or well-traveled D’ni Ages when it is on hand.

D’ni Sounding Equipment. You’ve salvaged some portable D’ni sounding equipment—it’s like a personal sonar kit. You can use it to detect people or large items on the other side of walls, buried inside the ground, or in complete darkness with an overcome action.

Contacts

And other times, it’s all about who you know. Contacts represent people or organizations that you can call on for specific favors. The stunt represents the relationship you have built with your contact and the arrangements you have made.

Contacts are specific, like all stunts. If you want the relationship to reflect story elements, you should use an aspect instead of, or in addition to, the stunt.

Joey DeAngelo, Carlsbad Pawn Shop Owner. Joey knows people who know people, ya know? You can spend a fate point and go see him to get unusual equipment. Really unusual items may take a long time, or the GM may veto them entirely.

Friends in the Guild of Greeters. You know a lot of people in the Guild of Greeters. When you can go chat with them, you get a +2 on discover actions focused on rumors in the cavern.

Apprentice. You have someone you are teaching your craft to. Pick a skill that you have at Great (+4) or above. You can give your apprentices tasks that use that skill to do while you are doing other things. Their level in that skill is Fair (+2), but you roll the dice. The results are available to you next session.  

Balancing Stunt Utility

If you look at most of the example stunts, you’ll notice that the circumstances under which you can use them are pretty narrow compared to the base skills. That’s the sweet spot you want to shoot for with your own stunts—you want them to be limited enough in scope that it feels special when you use them, but not so narrow that you never see them come up after you take them.

If the stunt effectively takes over all of the skill’s base actions, it’s not limited enough. You don’t want a stunt replacing the skill it modifies.

The two main ways to limit a stunt are by keeping its effects to a specific action or pair of actions (only creating an advantage or only Oppose rolls), or by limiting the situations in which you can use it.

For the best results, use both—have the stunt restricted to a specific action, which can only be used in a specific in-game situation. If you’re worried about the situation being too narrow, back up and think of the ways the skill might be used in play. If you can see the stunt being relevant to one of those uses, you’re probably on the right track. If you can’t, you may need to adjust the stunt a little to make sure it’ll come up.

You can also restrict a stunt by only allowing it to be used once in a certain period of game time, such as once per conflict, once per scene, or once per session.