Simple Powers

...are powers that have no mechanical effect whatsoever. They're purely for
flavour, but that doesn't mean they don't have powerful effects in the world.
Childhood Friend is a Solaris Simple Power that releases endorphins that make the
target trust you like you two have always known each other.
The Emperor's New Clothes is an amazing Bram Stoker Simple Power that creates
multiple half-intelligent servants out of your blood who will admire you and praise
you without hesitation. It's like creating your own fan-club.
Profiling is a Neumann Simple Power that lets you figure out people's personalities
based on small clues in the surroundings, like Sherlock Holmes.
Morpheus has some of the best ones: Ultimate Chef will make a tasty dish out of any
material the Overed throws into the pot. Folding hides any object or any size by
folding it flat. You can make gruel out of old boots and never worry about parking
again by turning your car into an origami.

I'll be honest here: I adore Simple Powers. They are the greatest, and usually the
best part of the Syndromes.
The book says that "the use of Simple Powers has the potential to break a
scenario", which is one of the biggest examples of how, like I said in the very
first update, DX has a tendency to treat the GM in a very traditional manner, like
they were the owner of the plot and the players sometimes just peskily interfere
with its development.

At character creation, you get to pick four powers among your Syndromes. The book
recommends you not pick more than one power that requires high levels of
Encroachment Rate, as to not limit your options at the beginning of the game. It
also recommends that you don't pick Simple Powers, because they have no combat use
and thus picking them wrecks the balance of your character.

This is, in my view, the single biggest flaw in the entirety of Double Cross: the
cool, narrative, flavourful powers take the same "slots" and have the same
experience point costs as the combat powers. It's just bad design that hampers fun.
It's just encouraging players to skip Simple Powers in favour of combat ones, or
else they become less effective.

Thankfully, this is very easily fixed: since Simple Powers have no combat use at
all anyway, making them separate from regular powers is no trouble. Hell, just give
them to the player with no XP cost. I like my games with plenty of cars being
folded into pockets and inserting fingers into people's temples to read their
memories (that is an Exile one, by the way). But anyway, I digress.

This is it for now. Next time: the goddamned rules! Finally!