DEX [1]
Used to be, people assumed that ‘reality shard’ was just Infinity, Unlimited’s way of saying “something weird and tangible that we can’t really explain.” Then it turned out that when you broke a reality shard — which was at first assumed to be almost impossible, until field teams started doing so on a regular basis* — you were usually left with about a couple dozen bits of crystallized… reality? Luck? Potential? Whatever it was, the bits could themselves be implanted in mundane items, to be used up later.
This revelation significantly changed Infinity’s cost-benefit analyses on when destroying reality shards were justified.
In game terms, the use of a DEX-infused item guarantees that the user will automatically succeed at one — count it, ONE — skill roll of his choosing, no need to roll, at whatever level of success of the user’s choosing except critical. The only other restriction is that there must be some reason why the item can be used in the specific case (the item containing DEX must be chosen ahead of time). The iconic DEX-infused item would be pretty much anything that James Bond got assigned to him by Q: it would be excellent for escaping bonds, but it would take considerable fast-talking to justify it for use in a seduction attempt. Once used, the DEX is gone — and probably so is the item that it was embedded in. Bond went through a lot of gadgets.
(Generally speaking, DEX is probably best suited for use in either convention games, or else for new players.)
*Typically out of sheer self-defence. Turns out that your average team of I-Cops can get very creative when the alternative is Death By Eldritch.
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