Everything shudders and shakes; huge rents and holes tear the ground wide open.
Environmental Tilt
Effect: Earthquakes don’t last long, but they don’t have to. When the quake’s actually occurring, all Dexterity-based dice pools (and Defence) suffer a –1 to –5 penalty depending on the quake’s severity. Characters take between one and three points of lethal damage per turn of the quake’s duration, though a reflexive Stamina + Athletics roll can downgrade that damage to bashing — or cancel it entirely on an exceptional success.
Causing the Tilt: Without tremendous supernatural power, it’s almost impossible to cause an earthquake. A character who detonates a powerful explosive underground might simulate the effects over a city-block for a few seconds.
Ending the Tilt: Earthquakes are fortunately very quick events. It’s very rare for one to last more than a minute (20 turns), so waiting them out is the best course of action.