Let's Try That Again; Echoes of a Glitch

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 Adapted from Pathfinder #199: To Bloom Below the Web pg. 79, 



Echoes of a Glitch Feat 1

Rare

Reincarnated

Universal Ancestry



Frequency once per day

Trigger: You fail a skill check


Your mind, touched by the bizarre echoes of the Rift, experiences a momentary temporal stutter. A flicker of a past existence—perhaps a simulated life within a forgotten AI, or a fleeting glimpse of a different timeline—resets the moment. You get a chance to fix the mistake. Reroll the triggering skill check and use the new result, even if it's worse than your first roll.


Adventure Hooks Across the Glitch

1. The Glitching Data Vault

  • The Hook: A freelance information broker hires the party to recover a data core from an abandoned, pre-Cataclysm data vault. Ancient, glitching security protocols protect the vault. The security systems are unpredictable and prone to random failures. The character with "Echoes of a Glitch" discovers that their feat not only rerolls their checks, but also causes temporary, unpredictable "hiccups" in the vault's security systems, allowing the party to bypass them in unexpected ways.

  • Why it appeals to the PC: This hook makes the PC's ability a key puzzle-solving tool. It positions them as the only one who can navigate the unstable environment, giving them a sense of purpose and importance. The climax could involve the PC using their ability to stabilize a core system long enough to escape.

2. The Living Echo

  • The Hook: The PC's "glitches" begin to manifest physically. A failed skill check, rerolled successfully, leaves a faint, shimmering afterimage of a different outcome. An eccentric researcher from the Khi'Myr Bio-Commune notices this phenomenon. They believe the PC's abilities are a nascent form of biological reality-warping, a direct reflection of the cosmic interconnectedness of the Rift. The Commune wants to study the PC, offering them access to their advanced biological sciences and symbiotic enhancements in exchange for their cooperation.

  • Why it appeals to the PC: This turns the feat from a simple mechanic into a plot device. The PC can explore the source of their power, but at the potential cost of their individuality, as the Khi'Myr seek to integrate their unique consciousness into the collective. It's an intellectual and ethical challenge that puts them at the center of the Commune's ambitions.

3. The Broken Timeline

  • The Hook: During a critical failure that triggers "Echoes of a Glitch," the PC doesn't just get a second chance—they get a vision. It's a fleeting, vivid glimpse of a catastrophic failure in a parallel timeline where they didn't succeed. For example, a failed hacking check shows a vision of the device self-destructing, and a failed stealth check shows them being captured. A desperate, fractured message embedded in the vision directs the PC to a derelict starship, where a version of a familiar NPC is trapped, a survivor from a timeline that was erased by a massive temporal paradox.

  • Why it appeals to the PC: This hook turns the character into a temporal anchor. Their glitches are not just random chance, but a connection to a specific, important event. The PC is now in a race against time to prevent the same catastrophic paradox from occurring in their own reality, making their ability the linchpin of the entire adventure.

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