Surge
Surges are special points a character can spend to help them out. They usually get them as a result of struggling with their limitations, but a character also gets a surge at the end of a successful pivotal event. A surge can grant you a +2 bonus to a dice pool or reduce the damage of an effect that hit you by 1 or allow you to take an extra action or reaction beyond your normal limit during an action scene. If the action you're taken or attack made against you directly relates to your Descriptor, Occupation, Role, or one of your Limitations, you may get an additional +1 or even +2 for each depending on how appropriate they are (you can apply only one Appearance detail, one Descriptor, and one Limitation) for a maximum possible die bonus of +10 (but usually much lower depending on circumstances).
Underdog Boost: If you use a surge to boost an ability that has a rank lower than half your highest ability (or an action you have no ability for), the die boost increases by one-third the rank of your highest ranked ability (round down, minimum +1). This can allow you to exceed the normal +10 maximum.
| Example: |
| Surge to hit a food golem with frying pan because Lisa's Occupation is Chef and one of her negative descriptors is Always Famished and one of her Limitations is "Compelled to eat tasty things" so her surge goes from being +2 to +8 but since her melee skill was +0 and her highest skill was +7, she gets an additional +2 on top of that from the underdog boost for +10 total die pool on what would've been +0. |