I’m looking for some clarification about special abilities that “push yourself”. For example, the Cutter has:
“Not to be Trifled With: You can push yourself to do one of
the following: perform a feat of physical force that verges on the
superhuman—engage a small gang on equal footing in close combat.”
Is this a “free” push yourself, or does this cost 2 stress? Do all push yourself actions require the use of 2 stress, except for the one that state that you can expend 2 armor instead?
Pushing yourself takes 2 stress. To use any of these abilities, you have to push yourself, so it normally costs 2 stress. Note that in the italic text in the book, all of these abilities also say that if a roll is involved, you get the normal benefits of pushing yourself on top of the bonus from the special ability.
Now, I don’t know what you mean by “expend 2 armor”. Do you mean the abilities that say that you can expend your special armor to push yourself for a certain thing? These work quite differently; for these abilities, you don’t get an extra benefit from pushing, but you can mark the special armor box instead of paying the 2 stress cost. If you have “if you push yoursef …” and “expend special armor to push” abilities, you can gain the benefit of the first ability without expending 2 stress if the conditions match up, and mark special armor isntead.
It costs 2 stress (because you have to push yourself to activate the ability) but it gives you with an extra advantage on top of the normal benefit of pushing (+1d, etc.).
Pushing yourself always costs 2 stress: you can spend a special armor instead of paying stress if you have a special ability that allows you to that given the circumstances.
This does require the 2 stress cost, but the PC gets the normal benefits of pushing in addition to the benefits of the Special Ability.
Thanks!