By Robert Herman (hermanr@ccds.cincinnati.oh.us)
System: The Garou spends one Willpower point. He may then roll either his Intelligence + Science or his Wits + Science -- in either case, the difficulty is 7. He gets one free success if he chooses the Intelligence roll.
If the Garou doesn't have as many successes as he would like, he may spend another Willpower point and roll again; the difficulty is 8. Two more rolls may be made, with difficulties 9 and 10 respectively. A botch at any point means the Willpower is wasted.
The total area that can be affected is 2(successes) square feet.
The way the Garou must actually affect the area is determined by the roll he chose. If he made the Intelligence roll, he must run his hands over the area to be affected. If he made the Wits roll, he must only concentrate for a number of turns equal to (1 + the number of successes used). The surfaces of any number of objects can be affected, but the friction change must be the same for each.
The Gift ordinarily lasts for one scene. If, however, the Garou spends a point of Gnosis when the Gift is activated, the effect will not expire -- however, ordinary wear will tend to normalize the friction over time (high-friction areas get smoothed, low-friction areas may get sticky, get pitted, etc.)
This gift is usually taught by a plastic elemental, who will probably frown on the Gift being overused for sexual purposes.
Here's some examples of the use of this Gift, to get your creative juices flowing:
Other thoughts: Doorknobs are almost impossible to use when they're slippery. You could give someone a horrible wedgie on a water slide. You could lay a trap by using the Gift twice, maximizing the friction on your own shoes, then minimizing it on a section of floor; only you could safely tun over that bit of floor. Weapons can be very difficult to hold or wield effectively. A bullet might be made better than Teflon-coated -- it's almost completely frictionless! Surely there's many more.