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Traits
Traits help define the character as lucky, mutated, clumsy, etc.
Attribute-modifying traits fine-tune attributes such as being quite
agile, but having poor handwriting; or being able to run very fast as well as
having the ability to stop on a dime. Attribute-modifying
traits will have the attribute associated with it in parentheses after the
name and are listed on the character sheet after the attribute that it
modifies instead of below in the general traits area (where all other traits
go). Traits differ from backgrounds—as traits aren’t usually
inherited from your parents or involve your experiences—but instead are
inherent knacks that modify attributes or otherwise cannot be covered as a
skill or background.
Roll 2D6+4 to determine the number of traits, and roll on the table
below to determine which ones you possess.
You may then choose up to 4 to remove or trade with traits of your
choice from the Players’ Choice List that follows the random table.
Conflicting traits—such as fine motor skill & poor
hand-eye coordination may cancel each other out, or you may choose one to
keep and simply discard the other. Note
that some traits may seem to be opposing, but are actually not.
An example of this would be stuttering and nice singing voice.
It is possible that your character stutters except when singing.
The descriptions of all traits follow both lists.
Note that as this is an Open-System then there are an infinite number
of untapped traits out there waiting to be discovered; if you have something
in mind for your character, run it past your Game Master.
You can gain traits in play; for example, spending all of your free
time in a library doing nothing but reading can gain you the trait well
read. Note also that many
traits may be selected more than once. Toughness
grants one extra level of damage resistance each time it is selected, very
lucky is the same as lucky x2, and someone with heightened smell x3
would receive +9 to smell something, but –9 to avoid the nausea caused from
a skunk. Even if no game
mechanics are listed, a trait may be selected more than once. I.e. someone with more than one level of Conscience
will have a very loud and forceful inner voice.
Random
01 Alert
(Awareness)
02 Allergy
(substance/allergen)
03 Animal Bonding
04 Animal Hatred
05 Athletic (Stamina)
06 Bad Liar
07 Bad-tasting
08 Balance (Agility)
09 Booming Voice (Personality)
10 Brawny (Strength)
11 Casual (Personality)
12 Chronic Insomnia
13-14
Distinctive (Appearance)
15 Distracting (Appearance)
16 Dodge Well
(Agility)
17 Elegant (Grace)
18 Endurance (Stamina)
19 Eye for Art
20 Fierce (Appearance)
21 Fine Motor Skill (Agility)
22 Forgettable
(Appearance)
23 Frail (Strength)
24 Fully Illiterate (Knowledge)
25 Glide (Grace)
26-27
Good Coordination (Agility)
28-29
Good Memory (Knowledge)
30 Grounded
31 Head for Numbers (Wits)
32 Healthy (Stamina)
33 Heightened Sight (Awareness)
34 Heightened Smell (Awareness)
35 Heightened Taste (Awareness)
36-37
High Pain Tolerance
38 Hopeless Romantic
39 Ice (Grace)
40 Instincts
(Knowledge)
41 Lean (Agility)
42 Learns Fast (Common
Sense)
43 Light Sleeper (Awareness)
44 Lucky
45 Magic Resistance
46 Mechanical Aptitude
47 Minutiae (Awareness)
48 Natural (Grace)
49-50
Natural Direction Sense
51 Natural Linguist (Knowledge)
52 Natural Warrior
53 Natural Weather Sense
54 Nice Singing Voice
55 Nightmares
56 Nimble (Agility)
57 Observant (Awareness)
58-59
Pet Friend
60 Phobia
61 Poetic
62 Poor Hand-Eye Coordination (Agility)
63 Poor Stopping (Speed)
64 Powerful
(Strength)
67 Quiet (Personality)
68 Rapid Start (Speed)
69 Resistance to Alcohol
70 Robust (Stamina)
71 Sensitivity to Poisons
72 Short-Fuse (Personality)
73-74
Skilled (Knowledge)
75 Speech Impediment (Personality)
76 Steady (Agility)
77 Stealthy (Agility)
78 Stout (Strength)
79 Stubborn (Willpower)
80 Stupidly Brave
81 Sturdy (Stamina)
82 Stutters (Personality)
83 Survival Instinct (Willpower)
84 Sympathetic (Grace)
85 Time Sense
86 Tough
87 Traction
(Speed)
88-89
Uneducated (Knowledge)
90-91
Unlucky
92 Water Baby
93 Well-Read (Knowledge)
94-96
Psionic Trait:
01-14
Aura Sight [Psionic]
15-17
Inner-strength [Psionic]
31-34
Mental Push [Psionic]
35-44
Poltergeist [Psionic]
45-59
Sense Supernatural Evil [Psionic]
60-00
Way with Animals
97-00
Uncommon Trait:
01-04
Conscience
05-08
Dense (Common Sense)
09-12
Divine Blessing
13-16 Eidetic Memory
17-20 Gleam (Appearance)
21-24
Hard to Kill
25-28
I.P.B.S.
29-32
Ignored by Undead
33-36
Infernal Influence
37-40
Jerk
41-44
Jinx
45-48
MacGuyver (Wits)
49-52 Natural Born Killer
53-56
Olfactory Flashbacks (Awareness)
57-60
Paranoid: Nervous
(Awareness)
61-64
Pimpin’
65-68
Prodigy
69-72
Prophecy
73-76
Remorseless
77-80
Spiritual Destruction
81-84
Strange Luck
85-88
Stupidly Lucky
89-92
Total Unbeliever in Magic
93-95
Very Lucky
95-00
Wicked Quick (Wits)
Alert (Awareness)
Animal Bonding
Athletic (Stamina)
Aura Sight [Psionic]
Bad Liar
Bad-tasting
Balance (Agility)
Booming Voice (Personality)
Brawny (Strength)
Casual (Personality)
Chronic Insomnia
Dense (Common Sense)
Distinctive (Appearance)
Distracting (Appearance)
Divine Blessing
Dodge Well
(Agility)
Eidetic Memory
Elegant (Grace)
Executive Hair (Appearance)
Endurance (Stamina)
Eye for Art
Fierce (Appearance)
Fine Motor Skill (Agility)
Forgettable
(Appearance)
Gleam (Appearance)
Glide (Grace)
Good Coordination (Agility)
Good Memory (Knowledge)
Grounded
Hard to Kill
Head for Numbers (Wits)
Healthy (Stamina)
Heightened Sight (Awareness)
Heightened Smell (Awareness)
Heightened taste (Awareness)
High Pain Tolerance
Ice (Grace)
Ignored by Undead
Infernal Influence
Inner-strength [Psionic]
Instincts
(Knowledge)
Lean (Agility)
Learns Fast (Common
Sense)
Light Sleeper (Awareness)
Lucky
MacGuyver (Wits)
Magic Resistance
Mechanical Aptitude
Minutiae (Awareness)
Natural (Grace)
Natural Direction Sense
Natural Born Killer
Natural Linguist (Knowledge)
Natural Warrior
Natural Weather Sense
Nice Singing Voice
Nimble (Agility)
Observant (Awareness)
Olfactory Flashbacks (Awareness)
Paranoid:
Conspiracy Theorist (Knowledge)
Pet Friend
Pimpin’
Poetic
Powerful
(Strength)
Prodigy
Psychic Sensitive (Willpower)
[Psionic]
Psychokinetic Affinity (Willpower)
[Psionic]
Quiet (Personality)
Rapid Start (Speed)
Remorseless
Resistance to Alcohol
Robust (Stamina)
Sense Supernatural Evil
[Psionic]
Sensitivity to Poisons
Skilled (Knowledge)
Spiky Hair
Spiritual Destruction
Steady (Agility)
Stealthy (Agility)
Stout (Strength)
Stubborn (Willpower)
Stubborn Old Bastard
(Willpower)
Stupidly Brave
Sturdy (Stamina)
Survival Instinct (Willpower)
Sympathetic (Grace)
Time Sense
Total Unbeliever in Magic
Tough
Traction
(Speed)
Way with Animals
Well-Read (Knowledge)
Wicked Quick
(Wits)
Aggressive
(Personality):
You are assertive, bold, and energetic (this is a nice way of saying
that you are actively hostile).
Alert
(Awareness):
You notice subtle changes in your surroundings.
You get a retest against surprise.
Allergy
(substance/allergen):
You have an allergic response to something specific.
Exposure to this allergen causes a hyperactive immune response from you
body, far beyond what would normally be called for.
For example, many lycanthropes are allergic to silver:
prolonged contact causes irritation—possibly even a rash—being in
an active silver mine would cause severe sneezing fits.
Animal Bonding:
You have the ability to bind an animal to you on a special level.
For each level of this trait you can bind and additional animal to you
as a familiar, mount, guardian, spy, or scout.
Animal
Hatred:
Animals just don't like you. Dogs
bark, cats hiss & scratch, even insects are more likely to bite you.
You could be a kind, wonderful, animal-loving person—but they still
don't like you.
Athletic
(Stamina):
Your exercise routine and love of sports pays off with cardiovascular
endurance. You may work (or play)
as though your stamina was 4 higher, before you become tired or out of breath.
Aura
Sight [psionic]:
You can see the aura surrounding every living thing.
You will need instruction (or practice) to be able to understand what
it is you see. Having only one
level of this trait means that your special vision is faint; you tend to have
'hunches' rather than empirical data. Multiple
levels increase how strongly you perceive.
It is hard to hide things from someone with multiple levels of this
trait as well as the skill of Aura
Perception.
Bad Liar:
You are simply terrible at lying and your effective personality rating
is at –5 when attempting to do so. However,
your appearance is +2 with respect to members of the opposite sex.
Bad-tasting: Whether
from the oils in your skin, or the fact that you don't change your socks; you
taste terrible. An animal that
bites you is likely to spit you out & leave if not pressed.
Balance
(Agility):
Whenever
your ability to stay on you feet is in question, you get a retest.
This applies against failed Agility rolls to prevent loss of balance,
knockdown, etc.
Booming Voice (personality):
Your voice is naturally loud and low-pitched. You can be heard for twice the normal distance, but have
difficulty when trying to speak softly.
Brawny
(Strength):
Each
level of this trait adds 20 pounds to the amount that you can lift.
Casual
(Personality):
You are easy-going and relaxed. Any
time you need to "break the ice" or calm someone you are at +2.
Your casual manner can sometimes be a problem when you need to convince
someone of your professionalism; -1 to checks may apply.
Chronic
Insomnia:
You don't sleep much even if you want to do so.
+1 Knowledge from having more time to study, but -1 Grace from being
perpetually tired.
Clever
(Wits):
Your rapid mental facilities help you in social settings.
You are given extra time to think of something to say.
Conscience:
This is the small still voice in your head that will constantly remind
you of things that are against your moral code. This is helpful for someone truly striving to do right, and a
great annoyance for others. Note
that this trait is based on your morals, so someone with an unethical outlook
may hear schizophrenic-like voices telling her to slay all whom oppose her.
Deceitful
(Personality):
Even though you may be a known trickster, and people don't know or
trust your motivations, you receive a +1 when trying to deceive someone.
Dedicated
(Willpower):
You are able to wholly commit yourself to a given task.
You gain a +3 per level of this trait on any Willpower check or
challenge to keep on track.
Dense
(Common Sense):
You
just don't get it sometimes—and resent being told so. You are at -3 to standard Common Sense checks; i.e. when you
roll to not do something stupid. This
doesn't apply when you roll to learn something, or to other game mechanics
using Common Sense. You do get to
apply your penalty against someone trying to use a social skill against you.
Distinctive (appearance):
You have the kind of face that people don’t easily forget.
Something about the way you look will cause people to remember you
longer. Unfortunately they aren’t
any more likely to recall you name, but they never forget your face.
This trait could represent something indefinable, or a specific feature
such as your eyes being an odd colour. Multiple
levels of this trait suggest different unique features of your appearance.
See the Miscellaneous Character Information chapter for more
suggestions.
Distracting
(Appearance):
You are able to draw attention towards yourself
Divine Blessing:
You gain a free retest per day for yourself or for another.
Infernal Influence opposes this trait and you cannot have both
traits—having this trait also makes you immune to forced retest of Infernal
Influence.
Dodge
Well (Agility):
You are hard to hit. Each
level of this trait adds +1 to Armour Class, and +2 to dodge.
Eidetic Memory:
This is what is erroneously called “photographic” memory; this is
actually having a well-trained memory. This
is different from having a high knowledge score in that being able to
remember something is different from understanding it.
This trait allows a retest for checks involving lore skills, trivia
(knowledge), or other times when recalling a detail.
This allows one retest per fact being recalled.
This also enables greater retention, for example, to memorize a list of
items.
Elegant
(Grace):
Many
people define grace by this trait. You
are at +3 for any attempt to positively impress someone.
Executive
Hair (Appearance):
You have the hair that CEO’s have.
You are more likely to be selected for rapid promotions (helps if you
are also tall). As you grow
older, your hair will turn silver rather than just thin out.
Endurance
(Stamina):
Your Stamina is effectively 3 higher for purposes of figuring out
cardiovascular endurance. In
other words, you can run further, work longer, etc.
Eye for Art:
You have an innate understanding and appreciation for artistic
endeavours—at least the visual ones. You
can discern truly artistic merit from merely pretty drivel.
Fierce (appearance):
You have a naturally mean look to your face. You are at a –3 penalty when trying to get people to like
or trust you, but a +3 bonus when trying to scare or intimidate.
People usually leave you alone.
Fine Motor Skill (agility):
+2 to all tasks involving hand-eye coordination; does not apply to
checks involving the whole body such as tumbling.
Forgettable
(appearance):
People easily forget you. This
isn’t the same as being overlooked, but any description of you would be
generic. You tend to blend in
easily enough that even if you were caught and put in a line-up your odds of
being picked are statistically average. This
is a great merit for thieves and con-artists, but it gets real annoying when
you have introduced yourself to the same person 5 times in one evening.
Frail (strength):
Encumbrance penalties are one level worse than they would be for
someone else with your same strength. I.e.
someone with a 14 strength would normally receive a bonus to effective
encumbrance level, however if that person had the frail trait he would
have no adjustments.
Fully Illiterate (knowledge):
Whereas most functionally illiterate people can still recognize the
picture of the mug above the tavern, even if they cannot read the name—you
cannot even read the picture. You
are iconographically challenged. You
have difficulty with connecting abstract images to concrete concepts.
It is four times harder for you to learn to read and write a language
and will have to be taught literacy in new languages separately rather than as
you are learning to speak the language. You
are unable to start out with any skills that would involve recognizing
symbols.
Gleam (appearance):
your eyes (and possibly hair, skin, nails, and teeth) sparkle and
shine; may indicate elven blood.
Glide (grace):
you move as though dancing, and glide along the floor.
Good Coordination (agility):
+2 to all tasks that involve moving the whole body; for example you
would have a +2 bonus to dodge, but wouldn’t receive a bonus for skill
checks for suturing a wound.
Good
Memory (Knowledge):
Not quite a photographic memory, but this trait gives you a +2 to your
effective Knowledge when you are making a check for recalling information.
Greedy
(Willpower):
You want it all--right now. Your
desire to accumulate wealth and possessions enables you to reduce your
effective encumbrance level by one for carried gear (not weapons or armour).
Grounded:
You are a very physically & materially based person.
As such, you receive +1 to each of you physical attributes, but -4 to
all skill checks for mystical skills & they are harder to learn—double
base time to learn.
Hard
to Kill:
When you really need it, your ability to persevere comes through; +1
Life Point.
Head
for Numbers (Wits):
Those lines of numeric insanity that boggle the minds of others
actually make sense to you. +2 to
checks involving math.
Healthy (stamina):
You get a free retest for saving throws against disease, radiation, and
poison.
Heightened Sight (awareness):
You are at +2 to checks involving your vision, but are at –2 to
checks to avoid attacks such as bright flashes.
Heightened Smell (awareness):
You are at +3 to checks involving your sense of smell and +1 for
tasting, but –3 to checks to resist foul odours or saving throws against
gaseous attacks.
Heightened taste (awareness):
You are at +3 to checks involving your sense of taste and +1 to your
sense of smell, but –3 for saving throws against ingested poison or spoiled
food.
High
Pain Tolerance:
Each level of this trait removes the shock penalty for damage received
by two. For example, if you had
this trait twice and you were hit for 5 points of damage, then you would only
have -1 penalty to rolls due to shock instead of -5.
Hopeless
Romantic:
Members of the opposite sex get an effective +3 for social attributes
& skill checks against you. Tends
to fall in love (& get heartbroken) easily.
Ice
(Grace):
As in "cold as ice." This
is grace under pressure. You have
the ability to keep your composure in a bad situation.
You gain +2 to checks when being intimidated, interrogated, or
tortured.
Imposing
(Appearance):
You are either physically tall, or give the impression of being so by
your bearing.
I.P.B.S:
Ignore Pisant Bull Shit. Your
patience and strength of will is astounding.
This is an odd one: you
have 2D4 levels of I.P.B.S. and can use them to ignore shock, fatigue, or even
to 'walk off' damage (each point of damage ignored counts as 3 levels of
I.P.B.S.). These levels reset
when you have had a chance to be alone & rest / relax / blow off steam.
Ignored
by Undead:
If you don't assault or address them, they won't even notice that you
are there. The living don't
notice you much either: -3
Personality.
Infernal Influence:
You can force someone to retest once per day. This may not be used on yourself. This trait is opposed by Divine Blessing—you cannot have
both traits. You cannot force a
retest on someone with that trait, but they cannot use their retest to oppose
you either.
Inner-strength
[psionic]:
You get one retest against any situation involving endurance and the
will to persevere—whether physical or mental.
For example, you could re-roll a failed Stamina check for long distance
running, or re-roll a failed Willpower check against staying awake on guard
duty.
Instincts
(knowledge):
You instinctively know certain skills.
You gain an additional 1D6 levels in instinctual skills.
As an added bonus, these skills cannot be taken away (although you
could be made to forget that you have them, they never go away).
Teaching others these skills is twice as difficult.
Jerk:
People automatically do not like you, especially once you open your
mouth. Even if you are not
intentionally insulting, people perceive that you are.
There is usually little that you can do to change a first-impression
(even a wrong one). You always
have the option of acting annoying just to piss people off, since they will
generally feel that way already. You
could instead just drink heavily and let nature take its course.
This is the person you have to get to know to like.
Jinx:
This is the opposite of being mechanically inclined.
Complex machinery just seems to have it in for you, from the rope that
breaks at an inopportune time (like any time would be good), to the
technomantic robot that starts shooting randomly whenever you are near.
This is a combination of specialized bad luck & random mechanical
failure. You could be a highly
trained technomancer, but you might not be able to use your own designs.
Lean
(Agility):
Not having much body fat is sometimes a good thing.
Since there is less of you to hit, you get +1 to dodge.
Learns Fast (common
sense):
You gain +3 to your effective Common Sense when learning new skills.
Light
Sleeper (Awareness):
You may make an Awareness check to notice something amiss when you are
asleep. If everyone is allowed
the check (for example, to awaken from a loud noise), then you get an
additional check—in other words a retest.
Lucky:
one retest per game session or day.
MacGuyver
(Wits):
You are at +4 to
design and build a gadget or an invention on the fly.
Magic
Resistance:
At last, a magic resistance system that makes sense without complex
math. You have a 5% chance per
level of this trait to have any magical effect or mystical skill not work on
you. The Game Master can choose
to roll this percentage chance for beneficial magic as well. Technomantic devices and psychic effects are usually excluded
from being affected by magic resistance; this is up to the Game Masters
discretion.
Mechanical
Aptitude:
You receive a +2 bonus to figure out anything mechanical.
Whether you are making a Knowledge check to decipher the instructions
of a technomantic device, or rolling to hit with a crossbow, you get the bonus
as you just have a knack for understanding the engineering principles behind
anything made up of complex machinery.
Mental Push
[psionic]:
This gift allows you to “push” a suggestion into someone’s mind.
The message isn’t noticed consciously and is thus useless for direct
communication. It operates more
as a subliminal message sent telepathically.
Minutiae (awareness):
You have an eye for fine detail. You
enjoy a +2 bonus for noticing small details, but have a penalty of –1 when
perceiving “the big picture.”
Natural (grace):
always looks as though comfortable in whatever situation (in
photography uncomfortable positioning is called “looking natural”).
Natural Direction
Sense:
You have an innate sense of where you are going.
This doesn’t prevent you from getting lost, especially if you are
going someplace new, but prevents you from simply travelling around in
circles. You always have a good
idea of where north is.
Natural
Born Killer:
+2 to-hit & damage, but -3 Personality; may be psychotic.
Natural
Linguist (Knowledge):
Gift-of-gab
or just an ability to ferret-out the roots of language & what people are
really trying to say—you pick up on languages easier than most.
You have +10% chance to learn bonus per level of this trait when
attempting to pick up a new language.
Natural
Warrior:
+1 to-hit & damage.
Natural Weather
Sense:
You can detect the subtle temperature and pressure changes that mean a
change in the weather. While not perfect, your accuracy is around 86%.
Nice
(Personality):
You have to make an effort for people to think poorly of you.
You receive a +2 to your effective personality in friendly settings.
When you need to intimidate someone, you have a -4 penalty.
You just aren't good at playing the 'bad cop.'
Nice Singing Voice:
You naturally have a clear, strong, pleasant-sounding voice when you
sing. You may still have, for
example, an irritatingly nasal speaking voice, or might stutter when talking,
but have a good voice for singing.
Nightmares:
The unfortunate character with this trait suffers from chronic
nightmares that occur quite frequently (20% per level of this trait nightly).
You have the option of choosing the Chronic
Insomnia trait. 1/10th of
your bad dreams are terrible enough to cause you to wake up (cold sweats,
possibly screaming). If you have
any psychic gifts, your nightmares may be prophetic—but there is no way to
know if any given dream is true or not.
Nimble
(Agility):
You gain +2 to all Agility checks and challenges when you are wearing
light or no armour.
Observant
(Awareness):
"Show
me." You think visually
& can learn something by watching someone else.
Watching someone perform a skill counts as having a teacher (for the
same length of time). If they
aren't actively teaching you—you're just watching—then you don't get any
possible bonuses from their teaching skill.
Olfactory
Flashbacks(Awareness):
You have a good memory for smells, perhaps too good.
Each level of this trait gives you a +4 on checks to remember/identify
a scent. Some smells have the
potential to cause you to relive the last time that you experienced that
smell. A particularly strong
memory can impose a -3 on initiative rolls (Game Master's decision).
Paranoid:
Conspiracy Theorist (Knowledge):
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that they aren't out to get
you. With this trait you get a
retest against the chance that your careful, obsessive, over planning would
have prevented an unexpected situation. For
example, when the paranoid character arrives home to his surprise birthday
party, he can make a Knowledge check to notice the loose powder on the
doorstep was disturbed. He can
then set the rabid dogs loose in his house before entering.
Those with this trait tend to have few friends—they cannot trust
anyone.
Paranoid:
Nervous (Awareness):
What's that behind you? Those
with this trait are skittish and jump at the slightest disturbance.
You get a retest against sudden surprises.
For example, if the group were about to walk into an area infested with
hornets (and fails the Awareness check), on a retest the paranoid character
would duck and cringe at the slightest buzz—disturbing the hornets—and
causing them to attack her friends first.
This character gets nervous whenever anyone reaches for her or walks
behind her.
Pet Friend:
You have a loving companion in some animal. The Game Master can disallow any animal he or she deems
inappropriate or may even assign a pet friend to your character.
Phobia:
You have an irrational fear. Having
only one level of this trait means that you strongly dislike the object or
situation, but can control yourself. Having
multiple levels of this trait can be crippling—your phobia is strong enough
to affect your actions. For each
level after the first, you must make a saving throw (against 10 + the level of
the phobia) to take any actions other than trying to avoid the subject of your
phobia. Willpower bonuses against
mental attack help with the saving throw.
Any possible object, circumstance, condition, or situation, may be the
subject of your fear. Phobias do
not necessarily have a cause (i.e. you need not have nearly drowned to be
afraid of deep water); phobias are by their nature irrational.
Pimpin’:
This is the ability to wear clothes that no one else would ever dream
of doing, and look good doing so. In
addition it enables you to say things that no one else could—and get away
with it.
Poetic:
Natural sense of rhyme and meter.
Poltergeist
[psionic]:
This non-controlled manifestation of psychokinetic ability operates
when you are upset, asleep, or stressed.
Small objects move about—often by being hurled, fragile objects may
explode, or sometimes a knocking or tapping sound can be heard.
Since this is an unconscious psychic outburst, the thrown objects never
actually aim at someone, but they may just be in the way.
The possessor of this trait is never directly harmed, but cannot
control this in anyway—for offence or defence.
Poor Hand-Eye
Coordination (agility): -2 to all tasks that do not
involve moving the whole body; for example you would have a –2 penalty to
skill checks for suturing a wound, but wouldn’t receive a penalty for
dodging; the –2 applies to ranged weapon attacks.
Poor Stopping (speed):
Your ability to come to a quick stop is impaired.
Anytime that there is a minimum stopping distance (on ice, for
example,) then it takes you 1 & 1/2 times as long to stop.
Possessive
(Knowledge): "I
know what's mine." You
receive a +2 on checks to remember where you left something or to recall
distinctive markings.
Powerful
(Strength): “Putting
the smack down” essentially sums up your abilities in combat.
You get +1 to hit with each strike when you can put some muscle into it
to power through armour or tough flesh.
Prodigy:
Add 2D4 to one proficiency.
Prophecy:
You sometimes say true things.
These are not exactly predictions, not exactly curses.
Sometimes what you say comes true.
Watch yourself.
Psychic
Sensitive (Willpower) [Psionic]:
You are attuned to your non-physical senses.
All sensory based psychic skills and abilities function at double
strength (time, distance, etc.). Additionally,
you learn sensitive psionic skills at half the normal time and difficulty.
In other words, your base time to learn (listed in the skill
description) is half the usual hours, and your chance-to-learn (based on Knowledge)
is doubled.
Psychokinetic
Affinity (Willpower) [Psionic]:
You possess a rare psychic gift. All
psionic skills regarding movement or manipulation of objects are gained at
half the normal time and difficulty. For
example, you can learn Telekinesis
in only 800 hours (and costs only one skill level), and you learn at your
normal chance-to-learn (rather than
half for this skill). In
addition, all effects of psychokinetic skills are doubled (weight,
temperature, etc.).
Quiet (personality):
You are naturally taciturn and soft spoken. You are at –2 for checks to be heard, but +2 on checks to
avoid speaking or crying out (such as from pain).
Rapid Start (speed):
You can accelerate quickly and achieve you top sprinting speed nearly
instantaneously. +1 to
Initiative.
Remorseless:
Someone with this trait isn’t affected by viewing violence and feels
no regrets about taking someone else’s life.
This trait is similar to the blooded background in that the
character doesn’t suffer any penalties from never having been in or seen
combat.
Resistance to
Alcohol:
Whether from having a mutant liver, or simply from years of abuse, you
can imbibe twice as much as the next drunk before you feel any effects.
Robust (Stamina):
Your wounds patch themselves up quickly. Your stamina is effectively +3 for purposes of healing.
Sense Supernatural
Evil [psionic]:
You can automatically detect the presence of Demons, Old Ones, or other
such incarnations of the unholy. You
can detect traces left behind as a form of psychic evidence or when someone or
something is possessed.
Sensitivity
to Poisons:
50% chance to smell a toxin at 5 paces, but is at -3 to saving throws
against it.
Short-Fuse (Personality):
You
easily fly off the handle. You
are at -2 to any social check or challenge that is frustrating, annoying, or
makes you angry.
Skilled
(Knowledge):
Having
devoted more time to learning, you have 2 additional skill levels to start.
Sneaky
(Speed):
You naturally move quietly. You
can move up to your normal walking speed without making undue noise.
Sophisticated
(Grace): You receive a +2 to your effective Grace when dealing with the
nobility, wealthy, or upper class. You
receive a -1 when dealing with the poor, disenfranchised, and lower class.
Speech Impediment (personality):
Understanding your speech is more difficult for some reason.
You could have an injury, no teeth, a thick accent, or large fangs, for
example.
Spiky Hair:
You are the hero of the story. Once
per day or per game session you can do something heroic and cool—and have it
automatically work. This could be
saying the right thing at the right tome to jumping out a window of a flaming
building and landing in the sunroof of a car filled with bikini-clad women.
The ‘heroic & cool’ action must be something that is actually
possible (at least in theory) and works only if the Game Master decrees that
it is cool enough. If these criteria are not met, then you have whatever pitiful
chance you would normally have if you did not possess this trait—and you
wasted your ‘hero chance’ for the day.
If playing in the 80’s this trait is called “mullet & sports
jacket.”
Spiritual
Destruction:
When you kill something, it stays dead.
Mortals do not return as ghosts, entities do not recycle in their home
plane of existence, and vampires do not need certain rituals to be performed.
The killing blow may be done by any means, bare hands, weapons, magic,
or dropping a big rock on a demon’s head.
Steady
(Agility):
Any
time that uncertainty or shakiness would hamper your performance, you get a
retest against problems caused by bad balance situations, sweaty palms, etc.
Stealthy
(Agility):
You gain +2 to all checks and challenges to remain quiet an unnoticed.
Stout (strength):
You are stronger than you look. Your
effective encumbrance level is one level better than it would be for another
character with your same strength score.
Strange Luck:
This trait is a bizarre combination of both lucky and unlucky.
It is also sometimes called “Serendipity’s Curse.”
When something bad happens to your character it often has a way of
turning out for the best in the end. The
converse also happens; when things are going your way be alert for “the
other shoe to drop;” something terrible is about to happen to you.
Note that this trait is entirely in the hands of the Game Master, so
when you ask for your strange luck to help you out it might come back to haunt
you later.
Stubborn (willpower):
You may be a hard-ass about most things. Changing your mind may be more difficult for someone than
adding a foot to his or her height. However,
this same stubbornness aids you and hinders others when engaged in a contest
of wills. Anytime that you must
roll for contested willpower (whomever rolls a greater amount under
their own willpower wins), then you are at +3 to your effective willpower.
Stubborn Old Bastard
(willpower):
As Stubborn, but worse. The
contested willpower checks are now at +8, but you must roll under your
normal willpower on 2D20 anytime someone asks you to change your mind—even
if it is in your best interest, or even if you think that it’s a good idea.
Stupidly Lucky:
three free retests per game session or day & 1 force-retest.
Stupidly
Brave:
You cannot feel fear.
-2 Knowledge.
Sturdy
(Stamina):
It's
hard to put you down. You are
just harder to kill than most; +2 Hit Points.
Stutters (personality):
You stutter. Whether your
stuttering is socially crippling, or something that the Game Master uses
against you in times of stress depends on how you role-play it.
Survival
Instinct (Willpower):
Your
will to live is quite strong. You
get a free retest when rolling against system shock.
This retest is useable once per round.
If you must roll for system shock for more than one purpose during a
round, this trait can only be used for one of them.
You can retest on successive rounds, for example, when rolling to stay
conscious when dying.
Sweet
(Personality):
You have a pleasing disposition.
Sympathetic (grace):
This is the trait people often assume bartenders have.
You are assumed to be the one people can tell their problems to—whether
you want to listen or not. You
are often privy to private personal information, but have to put up with
listening to the whining of others.
Targeting Sense [psionic]: You are able to tell when someone is looking at you or aiming a ranged weapon at you. The Game Master may ask for an Awareness check, particularly for someone simply observing you rather than attempting to blow you the fuck away.
Teflon Billy:
+3 to all saving throws.
Teflon Gotti:
Free social retest for situations involving being prosecuted.
Teflon O.J.:
One free retest for any saving throw per game session or day, &
combines the traits Teflon Billy & Teflon Gotti.
Threatening
(Grace): Your
menacing nature imposes a -2 when you are trying to get someone to like or
trust you, but grants you a +2 when trying to scare or intimidate someone.
Time
Sense:
Always a useful trait when some lazy bastard wakes you up early for
guard duty, this trait gives you a far better sense of what time it is than
what the average medieval-technology person really needs.
Not quite as good as a watch, but accurate to within about 10 minutes.
Total
Unbeliever in Magic:
This is the person who must have been living under a rock their entire
lives. This is a fantasy game; magic is real here. Seriously though, many people go their entire lives
without ever having seen any magic. The
possibility of magic doesn't necessarily mean that it is common.
Space travel is possible, but I've never even met someone who has been
to the moon. The unbeliever may
be mystically shielding him or herself, ironically enough, from magic by force
of conviction. +4 bonus to saving
throws against all magic, but must save against all magic, even the
helpful variety (after all it isn't real, it's only a trick).
Tough:
Your skin is naturally tougher than most folk. For each level of this trait, you have a natural Damage
Resistance of +1. This means that
you subtract your level of toughness from the damage each attack does that
gets through your armour.
Traction
(Speed): Not
the kind they put you in when you're in hospital, but the kind good shoes
should have. You know how to
place your feet properly to get the best use of a surface.
Any effects caused by uncertain ground (ice, oil, loose rocks, etc.)
are reduced by half.
Uneducated (knowledge):
You haven’t received any “book learnin’.” You are prohibited from starting with any skills that the
Game Master decrees would require formalized training. You can be self-taught on some skills—particularly if you
have a high knowledge score or have the well-read trait.
Unlucky:
The GM randomly hoses your character with ill luck:
your horse becomes unshod, the barmaid serving you happens to be
quitting today, or you look like a notorious villain, for example.
Very Lucky:
two retests per game session or day.
Water
Baby (Stamina):
You take to water naturally. You
automatically have the Swimming skill (or increase it by one level if
you already possess that skill). You
also may hold your breath and swim for twice as long as someone equal Stamina.
In a chlorinated pool, your hair does not turn green.
Way with Animals:
Animals flock to you rather than fear you. You are the one person a ferocious guard dog will approach
with its tail wagging rather than barking and biting.
Well-Read (knowledge):
You have read an extensive collection of books on many subjects.
You receive a +4 bonus on knowledge-based lore skills.
Wicked
Quick (Wits):
You have the reflexes
of a housefly; +3 on initiative.
Wisdom
(Common Sense):
You receive a free retest on Common Sense checks to avoid doing anything
stupid.