Game Rules

Example Flaws

High Metabolism (Minor): your character's metabolism is faster than normal. You need to eat twice as much as normal for a Beast your size.

No Hands (Dramatic, Restricted): your breed simply doesn't have hands. You can manipulate objects with your mouth or paws, but without thumbs (or even agile fingers), there are many things you simply can't do. Penalties range from -2 for actions where hands would help, but aren't essential to -4 for actions where hands are vital, to -8 where the task is practically impossible otherwise.

Phobia (Minor/Major): your character is deathly afraid of something. You will avoid contact with the source of your fear whenever possible. Whenever you are forced to interact with it, you have to roll a Willpower test (with the difficulty depending upon how strongly present the object of your fear is) to avoid freezing up or retreating. Even when you succeed, you'll often be at a -1 penalty due to distraction.

Whether this is a Minor or Major flaw depends upon what you are afraid of and how often it is likely to interfere with your life. Being terrified of something that ought to frighten you is more minor than being scared of something beneficial.

Some examples are:

• Open Spaces (Major): you are afraid of open spaces and hate being exposed to the sky. If you have to travel in the open, stick as close as possible to walls or trees. Never go out into the middle of a flat, open area.
• Fire (Minor): you are afraid of fire. A campfire or candle won't bother you so long as it remains under control, but uncontrolled fires terrify you.
• Psychic Powers (Minor): you can't stand it when other people use psychic powers on you. Sendings terrify you and even Empathic Healing seems like a horrific thing to undergo. This doesn't apply to powers that you use on yourself, or powers that other people use on themselves, just the idea of someone else using a power on you.

Radiation Blindness (Major): unlike most creatures, Beast senses can pick up signs of radioactivity. Their eyes perceive it as a faint green glow, their nasal passages burn when there is radioactive dust in the air, and their very skin crawls when something dangerously radioactive touches them. This helps keep them alive in the wastes. A Beast with this flaw loses this ability completely. This can be quite lethal, because by the time you can feel the damage being done by radiation, it's usually much too late to save yourself.

Posted by Kiz at July 3, 2004 11:59 PM