Some new abilities I came up with when playing…
1. Overwhelm The aliens move swiftly and decisively, targeting the weakest foes. PCs cannot cancel their own successes to cause the aliens to fail.
2. Chestburster: If the aliens injure a PC, they lay eggs in his chest. Between encounters, the GM may spend a Threat Token to prevent that PC from healing between encounters. If the PC dies on the planet, then all Threat Tokens spent on this planet are added to the current encounter as the trooper is torn apart by a horde of monsters from within.
3. Elusive: The GM must spend a Threat Token to activate this ability. The aliens are hard to detect. At least one PC in the group must succeed on an NFA check each combat round to allow other PCs to attack. Declare who is scanning for aliens before rolling the dice; if no-one who is scanning for aliens succeeds in their NFA roll, those using FA automatically fail.
4. Hit & Run: The GM must spend a Threat Token to activate this ability. In each combat round, only the first PC who succeeds in his FA roll actually scores a hit. Effectively, only one Threat Token can be removed in a turn.
5. Stun: The GM must spend a Threat Token to activate this ability. The aliens hit the PCs with some sort of incapacitating attack – gas, psychic attacks, sticky glue, venom. Each PC must succeed in an NFA roll to free himself or another character from the stun effect. PCs cannot make FA rolls until they are unstunned.
6. Haunting: The aliens project disturbing psychic echoes, or shapeshift into the form of figures from the PCs’ pasts, or maybe something on this alien planet reminds the characters of past mistakes. All PCs reduce their FA and NFA by the number of Weaknesses each of them has used. So, a PC who has used two Weaknesses reduces his NFA and FA by two; a PC who has used no weaknesses is unaffected by this ability.
7. I Can’t Pin Them Down: The GM does not reveal how many Threat Tokens are allocated to each encounter or to the planet.
8. Frenzy: The GM must spend a Threat Token to activate this ability. For the rest of the combat round, any PCs hit by an alien take two kills instead of one.
9. Tough Bastards: Using a Strength does not end this encounter. Instead, it removes half (round down) of any remaining Threat tokens, and the PC who used the Strength gets kills as if using his best weapon at optimum range.
10. Snipers: An extra range band of Very Far exists in any encounter with these aliens. The aliens can attack at Very Far range; PCs cannot, except with weapons that affect a whole encounter like a Paradise Bomb or Orbital Bombardment.
11. Thieving Bastards: Instead of injuring a PC when they make a successful attack, the aliens can choose to steal any one piece of equipment, such as a weapon, combat drugs, the APC. The stolen item is recovered only if the characters kill all the aliens on the planet. If the PCs flee, the item is lost. Armour cannot be stolen.
12. Good Fighters: The aliens are a warrior race, worthy of a trooper’s respect – or fear. PCs who succeed in a FA check but roll lower than a successful AA check do not remove any Threat Tokens or score any kills.
13. Resilient: Reduce all weapon damage by one step when working out kills on these aliens. So, a weapon that does 2d6 damage now does 1d6, a weapon that does 3d10 now kills 2d10 aliens and so on. Weapons that only kill one alien, like an unupgraded Hand to Hand attack are useless against these foes.
14. Predators: The aliens are visible only when attacking. If the aliens fail their AA check, they cannot be attacked this round.
15. Kill Them Before They Breed: If all the PCs fail to score any kills in a round, then add 1d3 Threat Tokens to the encounter.
16. Shapeshifters: The GM must spend a Threat Token to activate this ability. Take one of the players aside and inform him that his character has been replaced by an alien shapeshifter. His aim in the encounter is to keep the aliens alive for as long as possible and to injure any other PCs he can. The PC may not use Strengths, Weaknesses or special equipment. The shapeshifter is identified and killed after the encounter, and the missing PC then rejoins the group. It is assumed that he was fighting aliens while away from the unit – he scores 1d6 kills for every kill inflicted on the other characters in that encounter.
17. Tough Going. PCs may not change range after a successful FA roll. They may change range only through NFA. Perhaps the terrain is really tough going, or the aliens project force shields or other impediments.
18. It’s A Trap!: The GM must spend a Threat Token to activate this ability. Commit all the remaining Threat Tokens to this encounter. PCs may not use Strengths in this encounter.
19. Area Attack: The alien attacks involve lobbing explosives or huge bursts of energy or caustic splashes. Whenever a PC is hit by the aliens, any PCs in the same range band takes a kill.
20. Pacifists The aliens do not attack. However, whenever a PC succeeds in a FA roll against these aliens, he takes one E damage.
Source: http://thatsnotmysquid.com/blog/
Good work on these.