Post by Phsycodelic on Aug 2, 2016 0:39:55 GMT
General Physical Flaws
Aging (3 point): Your get up and go has got up and went. Lower any one Physical attribute by 1 point. This Flaw may be taken by you for every ten years past the age of 40 (60 or so for Werewolves and similarly long-lived creatures).
Allergic (1-4 point): You are allergic to some substance - pollen, animal fur, alcohol, chocolate, etc. For 1 point, you get hives, sneeze, or become dizzy upon prolonged contact with your bane; for 2 points, you swell up uncomfortably in the affected area, reducing all Dice Pools by 1; for 3 points, your reaction usually incapacitates you, reducing appropriate Dice Pools by 3, and is fatal if left untreated. If the substance is really common in the chronicle, add an additional point to this Flaw.
Anosmia (1 point): Whether from birth or due to some illness or accident, you've lost all sense of taste and smell. You automatically fail any roll involving these two senses, including supernatural Abilities relying on smell or taste for tasks such as tracking or hunting. If you are one of the Changing Breeds it's even more crippling, since smell is most animals' most acute sense; this Flaw cancels out the minus 2 difficulty to Perception rolls a Shifter gets in that form. There's a slight benefit, however: At the Storyteller's discretion, you may be immune to the debilitating effects of environmental conditions and supernatural Abilities that rely on odors.
Asthma (1 point): You have difficulty performing strenuous tasks because you cannot breathe properly. With asthma, your lungs only pull in a fraction of the air that normal lungs require. Any time that you exert yourself you must make a Stamina roll against a difficulty of 6, or be unable to perform any action on the next round while you catch your breath.
Bad Sight (1-3 point): Your sight is defective; there's a plus 2 difficulty penalty to any dice roll where good eyesight is essential. This Flaw is neither nearsightedness nor farsightedness; it's a minor form of blindness. As a 1 point Flaw, this condition can be corrected with glasses or contacts; as a 3 point Flaw, the condition is too severe to be corrected. Shifters with this Flaw don't receive their animal form perception bonus.
Barren / Infertile / Sterile (1 point, 1-3 point for Werewolves, 4 point for Kin, may also be a merit): You are infertile, for whatever reason; perhaps you contracted a virulent disease as a youth. If you are in a society which expects you to have children (such as if you are Kinfolk), this is a Flaw. You may, however, take this as a 1 point Merit if you practice lots of sex magic or something in which being fertile may actually cause more problems for you than not. For Kinfolk who serve the Changing Breeds as perpetrators of the species, inability to reproduce is a serious Flaw indeed. Not only does it carry a social stigma, it may also incur abuse, neglect, or even exile. Kinfolk who can’t reproduce lose a great deal of their value in Shifter eyes. Mokolé may take this Flaw at 2 points only. If other Mokolé know this, they may assume that you're diseased or Dissolver-ridden, or simply avoid you. You can't gain Matre and are an undesirable mate: Mokolé and Kin who know of your "curse" won't want even casual intimacy with you, except perhaps for same-sex relations. Other Shifters take this Flaw at 1 or 3 points only. Perhaps you suffered from battle scars to the abdomen, or were the victim of a botched abortion before your First Change (which happens in your teen years mind you). You can't learn any Mother Gifts or Rites. If you have had children, and simply can have no more, this is only a 1 point Flaw. If you have never borne any children, then you'll be considered a Maiden (or Bachelor?) until such a time as you go through menopause and becomes a Crone (or don't go through menopause if you are male, and become an impotent old fart all the same) - this is the 3 point version of the Flaw. This is the cause of some lowering of status within most of Shifter Society, but especially with the Black Furies; you lose 1 point of Honor Renown. At the Stoyteller's option, depending on the traditions of the group, the latter version of this Flaw may lead to you being considered a Crone. For obvious reasons, Prometheans, Risen, Kuei-Jin, Vampires, and Wraiths cannot take this Flaw.
Bizarre Hunger (2-4 point): You have very odd dietary needs. Rather than normal food, you must consume some odd or disgusting substance in order to maintain your health. If you are unable to acquire and consume your required substance, you begin losing Health Levels at the rate of one per day after your first day of fasting. Although you may eat “normal” food as well, you derive no sustenance from it. Eating such odd fare is bound to attract attention if you do it in public. Some substances are also harder to get than others. In general, the more disgusting the substance required or the more difficult it is to obtain, the greater the cost. Flaw examples:
(2 point) Pig's blood, iodine, or cat food (unless you are a cat).
(3 point) Heroin, rotten meat, or mare's milk.
(4 point) Child's blood, gold, or feces.
Blind (6 point): You cannot see. You can compensate for the loss of vision by becoming more attuned to other sensory input (and purchasing the appropriate Acute Senses merit), but visual cues and images are lost to you. Difficulties of all Dexterity based rolls are increased by 2 and yes, you automatically fail visual perception checks.
Bound Head (1 point): Your head was artificially flattened in childhood by your own people, giving you a bizarre appearance. This doesn't affect Mental Attributes, but Appearance counts only for your own people. For all others, Appearance will be at least 2 points lower, although not below 1. In addition, everyone stares at you everywhere you go, and anthropologists will likely be bothering for interviews all the time. It may also prove difficult to wear most types of headgear not constructed by your people.
Child (3 point): You were a small child at the time of your Chrysalis, Embrace, Change, etc. - between five and ten years old. You may be precocious, but you're still just a kid. You find it difficult to be taken seriously by others (2 dice penalty to all relevant rolls). Your physical attributes underdeveloped; you may not have more than 2 dots in Strength or Stamina (except when Vampires raise physical attributes with Blood Points). You have difficulty interacting with some aspects of mortal society; difficulties of all die rolls when attempting to direct or lead mortal adults are increased by 2. Additionally, you may be subject to parental control, curfews, child labor, and truancy laws. Few clubs will admit you because you are "under-age." Changeling Childlings who don't take this Flaw are for some reason more accepted by those older than themselves. Also, you must also purchase the Short Flaw.
Club Foot (1 point): One of your feet is gnarled and deformed. Your run speed rating is halved.
Color Blindness / Monochrome Vision (1 point): You can only see in black and white. Color means nothing to you, although you are sensitive to color density, which you perceive in shades of grey. Note: color blindness actually indicates an inability to distinguish between two colors, but we fudged it a bit for the sake of playability.
Cyber Reject (3 point): Your body cannot abide cyberware. It simply rejects it. This Flaw may only be taken in a game that has a common availability of cyberware (such as working for the Technocracy or being in a space age civilization). This also limits the use of much of the modern cyber age and beyond medical technique (nanotechnology does not work in your body). Vampires may not take this Flaw, as it their dead nerves do not communicate with cyberware anyways.
Deaf (4 point, 1 point for Mokolé and Nagah): You cannot hear. The difficulties of many Perception rolls are increased by 3, as you could conceivably still notice someone behind you through ambient reflections, shadows, or through other people reacting to a sound that you did not hear. As a Mokolé with this Flaw, you're mostly without hearing, like some large lizards. You're able to hear some things (as the Defective Sense Flaw) in your Homid and Archid forms, but are entirely deaf in Suchid. As a Nagah with this Flaw, the poor hearing of your snake heritage has extended into most of your forms. You're completely deaf in Kali Dahaka, Azhi Dahaka, and Vasuki, your hearing Perception rolls in Silkaram are at a plus 3 difficulty, and even in Homid form you make auditory-related rolls at a plus 1 difficulty.
Defective Sense (1 point): One of you senses is dulled or abnormally damaged in some fashion. Perhaps you are hard of hearing, have limited taste receptors, or are correctably nearsighted. In each case, you suffer a 2 point penalty to the difficulty of all rolls involving the flawed sense. Obviously, you can't take this Flaw in conjunction with the Acute Sense Merit.
Deformity (3 point): You have some kind of deformity - a misshapen limb, hunchback, or clubfoot, for example - which affects your interactions with others and may inconvenience you physically. A hunchback, for instance, would lower your Dexterity by 2 dots and increase the difficulty of die rolls relating to social skills by 1. It's the responsibility of the Storyteller to determine the specific effects of the deformity chosen.
Degeneration (3-9 point): You will die without the aid of magic or science to sustain you. You might be the victim of a disease or curse, or maybe you're something that wasn't meant to be alive in the first place. At the lowest version of this Flaw, you simply do not have the natural healing factor with which most mortals are born. All wounds suffered remain until treated with magic or Technocratic science and you will not heal any damage otherwise. At the 6 point version of this Flaw, you are actually falling apart. A hideous disease might be eating you up from inside, or maybe you're a victim of beetles and / or natural decay if you're the result of someone's half-assed necromancy. Maybe Iteration X didn't tell you that your “perfect android body” was a prototype made by the lowest bidder and that all the warranties are expiring. Whatever the case, you take one Lethal Health Level of damage at three months, one a month later, another a week after that , one more three days beyond that, one the next day and a final one an hour after that. In short, your health deteriorates at an accelerated rate, following the progression for natural healing backward until you are dead. Obviously at this level you don't heal normally, either. With the 7 point version of this Flaw, you fall apart at the same rate as before, but the damage is Aggravated. An alternative to this Flaw is Short Life.
Diminished Attributes (3 point): Life isn't fair. When they were passing out brains, brawn, or beauty, someone else got your portion - maybe several of them. What this means is that you are remarkably lacking in the social, physical, or mental department. You might be a victim of disease or brain damage, or you may just have been born on the shallow end of the gene pool. It happens. However, you have points to spend on other stuff. Real life may not be fair, but at least game reality is. However, Storytellers should be careful with this Flaw, and make certain that you RolePlay the actual realities of being shortchanged. For each dot that you lose from your Attributes, you get 3 points back from this Flaw. This kickback isn't subject to the normal limits of 7 points of Flaws, but you can't take more than one additional Flaw without special Storyteller approval and a damn good story. Note that this arrangement isn't fair in terms of Freebie Points, but it lets you be someone who's totally crippled in one area and still get some payback. For example, if you're creating Dippy the Wonder Twerp and only want 2 points to spend in Mental Attributes instead of 3, get 3 Freebie Points back.
Disease Carrier (4 point): Your blood carries a lethal and highly contagious disease. The disease can be anything from rabies to HIV, and Vampires who drink your blood have a 10% chance of becoming a carrier as well. If you are a Vampire you may spend an extra blood point each night on awakening, or you will begin manifesting symptoms of the disease (increased chance to frenzy for rabies, reduced soak rolls for HIV, etc.). If you are non-Vampiric, then you may not avoid the penalties of the disease.
Disfigured (2 point): A hideous disfigurement makes your appearance disturbing and memorable. The difficulties of all die rolls relating to social interaction are increased by 2. You may not have an Appearance rating greater than 2.
Dissolve (3 point): This Flaw is only for members of the Technocracy. When killed, you disintegrate into a puddle of goo or pile of ash. The advantage (to the Technocracy, anyway) is that no reality deviant can perform necromantic rituals on your corpse, and no medical examiner can identify your remains. The downside (to you) is that once you pass Incapacitated, you're irrevocably, 100% perished after 10 seconds. No Procedure or Rite can restore you to your original form; no magic or science can contact your broken awareness.
Distinctive Appearance / Distinguishing Characteristic (1-2 point): You have something unforgettable about your appearance that makes you very easy to pick out in crowds, like a strange hairstyle, a tattoo in a prominent place, an obvious scar or birthmark, or bi-colored eyes. People who see it will remember it and thus, you. If you're trying to hide or stay unnoticed, this can be a royal pain. This Flaw is worth 1 point if the characteristic is hidden easily under clothes (but still manages to see the light of day every now and again), and 2 points if it is not. For Wraiths, you can cover it with Moliate, but Moliate costs corpus, and who has that much to burn?
Hard of Hearing (1 point): Your hearing is defective. The difficulties of any rolls involving the use of hearing are increased by 2. Shifters don't receive the animal form perception bonus.
Hemophiliac (3 point): You suffer from hemophilia. If you are cut, you will not stop bleeding without medical help. If you suffer lethal or aggravated damage, you suffer an additional level of bashing damage once every five minutes until your wound has been dressed to stop the bleeding. Any Vampire who bites you will find that they cannot seal the wound closed with a lick.
Impractical Dresser (1 point): You tend to dress with an eye toward impressing others rather than personal comfort. Unless you explicitly state that you dress appropriately for physical activity, you wear high heels, tight jeans or something else that hampers physical activity. Increase the difficulty of Athletics rolls by 2 when you wear such clothes.
Inbred (1-5 point): Inbreeding, a common occurrence among the incestuous Giovanni Clan, can take many forms, and this Flaw is best discussed with the Storyteller before you take it. The Inbred Flaw covers all manner of physical, mental, and emotional defects. A 1 point Inbreeding is something simple and unobtrusive, such as eyes too close together or an underbite. A 3 point Inbreeding is more severe: a congenital health condition (for mortals) or a crippling physical deformity. 5 point Inbreedings are grossly disabling or emotionally crippling - everything from uselessly atrophied legs to a of permanent Derangement, decided on mutually by the player and Storyteller. Inbred conditions may or may not be immediately discernible, though their point cost should be relative to their magnitude. This Flaw is suggested for Giovanni, but may apply to other families as well.
----------Incoherent (5 point): Human speech is impossible for you. It might be that your mouth is too misshapen, or that years of living in isolation has made you forget how to communicate. While you can understand what is being said to you, you cannot respond. Telepathy works on you as normal, and you have no problem communicating with animals if you have the ability, but human speech is barred to you.
Lame (3 point): Your legs are damaged, which prevents you from running or walking easily. You are forced to walk with a cane or possibly leg braces, and you have a pronounced limp to your stride. Your walking speed is one quarter that of a normal human, and running is impossible.
Low Alcohol Tolerance (1 point): Alcohol goes straight to your head. Double any penalties you suffer from consuming alcohol.
Low Pain Tolerance (2 point): You have a very low capacity for pain. You turn into a whimpering, blubbering ball of misery at the first sign of it. Although you soak damage normally, you suffer an additional minus 1 dice pool penalty when you are injured.
Mayfly Curse (5-10 point): Common among Progenitor Victors and those with Shifter or Demonic blood, you mature at an accelerated rate - and decline at the same. At the lower level, you age one year every two months, which means that when you're physically eighteen years old, you're chronologically three. At the higher rate, you age a year every week, making you sixteen in less than four months and fifty two by the end of the year. It's not much of a lifespan, certainly, but it's more than sufficient for shock troops. This Flaw can be combined with any degree of Aging.
Medicated (1-5 point): You require a daily medication to stay in good health. As a 1 point Flaw, your medication is important to your long-term health, but has little effect on your day-to-day well-being, as with prescription drugs that keep your cholesterol down. The 5 point version represents insulin shots or something else that is necessary to keep you alive. If you should miss a day's worth of medicine, you automatically suffer an unsoakable Bashing or Lethal Health Level of damage for every 12 hours that pass without your medicine, as determined by the Storyteller. The damage is healed at a rate of one level per 12 hours that pass once you resume your regular medication schedule.
Monochrome Vision / Color Blindness (1 point): You can only see in black and white. Color means nothing to you, although you are sensitive to color density, which you perceive in shades of gray. Note: color blindness actually indicates an inability to distinguish between two colors, but we fudged it a bit for the sake of playability.
Monstrous (2-3 point): There's something wholly monstrous about you, something which makes you hideous in the eyes of others. You look like the very devil ( maybe literally) and some people may take your appearance to believe you're connected to some horrible yucky evil thing. At the 2 point version of this Flaw, you cannot have an appearance rating above 1 dot. With the 3 point version, you automatically have an Appearance rating of 0. If you are a Shifter, your Homid form scarcely looks human, and your Crinos and Lupus forms look horrendous; in what manner they differ from the norm is up to you. Perhaps you've taken on the features of a reptilian animal, and appear as a creature of the Wyrm to certain literal-minded Garou.
Motion Sickness (1 point): You suffer from motion sickness and become queasy and nauseous by the rocking of the sea on boards, when traveling long distances by car, or on amusement park rides. You make a Stamina roll for seasickness against a base difficulty of 8, and if you fail you increase the difficulty of all actions you take by 2 when dealing with these conditions.
----------Mute (4 point): You cannot speak. You may communicate with the Storyteller and describe your actions, but cannot talk to other people unless everyone concerned purchases a commonly understood sign language or you write down what you wish to say.
No Sense of Smell (1 point): You completely lack a sense of smell. You may have simply been born without it, or perhaps you lost it due to some freak accident. You can't smell anything, no matter how strong the odor might be. Food tastes somewhat bland to you. On the good side, you aren't bothered by the stench of sewers, rotting flesh, or other nasties.
No Sense of Taste (1 point): Your taste buds simply do not function. You cannot appreciate a fine meal, and you have trouble gauging the difference between good and bad food and drink.
Old Injury (2 point): You hurt yourself pretty badly back in your younger days and now pay the price with chronic pain and tenderness. Increase the difficulty of any athletics roll by 2.
One Arm (3 point): You were either born with only one arm or lost your arm through an injury of some sort. You suffer no secondary-hand penalty, since you have adapted to using your one hand for most activities. When you need to use two hands, however, you lose 2 dice from your dice pool. For Shifters, your running speed in any non-bipedal form is half of normal.
One Ear (2 point): You are missing an ear, or else you are suffered damage or a birth defect that makes such an organ useless. The difficulties of all Perception rolls within the appropriate sense increase by 2. If you have one functional ear suffers a plus 1 difficulty on all rolls to determine the location of a given sound (due to the loss of binaural hearing).
One Eye (2 point): You have only one eye - which eye is missing is up to you. The difficulties of all Perception rolls involving eyesight are increased by 2, and the difficulties of all die rolls requiring depth perception are increased by an additional 1 (this includes ranged combat).
Paraplegic (6 point): You can hardly move without assistance, such as a pair of crutches or a wheelchair. Even then it can be painful and cumbersome to do so. The Storyteller and you should take care to roleplay this Flaw correctly, no matter how difficult it makes things. You may not take this flaw along with the Merit Double-Jointed.
Permanent Wound (3 point): Due to Pattern damage, a permanent Paradox injury, wounds suffered during the Embrace, or some other nastiness, you have a wound that never heals. Even if you repair the injury with magic, super science, or spend Blood Points to heal, it reoccurs at sunset or sunrise of each day (your choice as to which). This wound causes you to suffer the Wounded Health Level with Agravated damage that can't be soaked upon waking each night or morning. Such damage is cumulative with other injuries (and it could kill a badly wounded mage if it reoccurs while you're already injured), but it isn't self-cumulative. That is, your bleeding head wound doesn't cause any more damage the next morning or evening if you haven't bothered to heal it magically for a day.
Poor Night Vision (2 point): Your eyesight is poor in low-light conditions. Increase the difficulty of any action attempted in dim light, such as what a flashlight might provide or under starlight alone, by 2.
Primal Marks (2 point): You may have an Avatar of the Primordial Essence, some totem or god of legend, or perhaps you've just gained some powerful spirit's patronage and it's set its mark on you. If the totem is an animal, you resemble what such an animal would look like in human form so strongly that people who don't even know you call you "Bear" or "Moose" or "Raven." If your Avatar / Fae Mein / totem / spirit is some well known god or hero, you look just like people would expect you to, including any particular deformities (although you do get extra points for such handicaps). You look the part so much that anyone can guess your nature at a glance, and there's some danger in that, especially if your Avatar / Fae Mein / totem / spirit has a legendary enemy (as most do). Your Avatar / Fae Mein / totem / spirit will also require you to protect its species or finish up its unfinished agenda. You might alternately be the descendant of some famous or infamous house: Pendragon, Muraski, Bacon, Bathory, Borgia, or Le Vey. Besides the family name, you've also inherited the family "look." Students of history can easily picture you banishing the Devil and slaying dragons, or poisoning entire families and bathing in the blood of virgins - especially since they have the illustrations that might give them this idea. Alternately, you may just look the part of your profession too well. Perhaps you have the red hair and green eyes of an Irish witch, the pale eyes and dark skin of an Arabic sorcerer, the grown-together brows and elongated ring-fingers of a born Shifter, or the intense yellow, violet, or emerald green eyes of one the Fae. Students of ancient lore recognize these signs, and you may easily become the victim of witch-hunters. However, some witches, Changelings, Shifters, and others may accord you more status in their societies if you "look the part."
Shaky Hands (3 point): You have a lot of trouble keeping yourself composed under pressure. In an extremely stressful situation such as combat, your hands shake so badly that you have trouble completing any tasks that require a delicate touch and intense concentration. Examples include picking a lock, loading bullets into a revolver or typing at a computer. Increase the difficulty of any rolls for such demanding activities by 2.
Short / Small (1 point): You're well below average height - four and a half feet tall or less - and have trouble seeing over high objects and moving quickly. You have normal Health Levels, but have less body mass. You suffer a minus 2 dice penalty to all pursuit rolls, you have 1 less die on Social rolls and probably aren't considered for leadership, you subtract 1 die from your combat dice pools if you're brawling or using melee weapons, your running speed is half that of an average human, and you and the Storyteller should make sure your height is taken into account in all situations. In some circumstances, this'll give you a concealment bonus. A Shifter in Crinos form doesn't gain as much mass and size as is normal; you're just under average human height in this form. If you would like to go the whole nine yards and lose a Health Level as well, see the Puny Flaw.
Short Life (3 point): This Flaw is for Technocracy members only. Like the replicants in Blade Runner, you have a built-in life span. Under the best of conditions, you may live a year or two. At the end of that time, your body breaks down, your organs shut off, and your life-spark fades to black. Chances are, you also have the Dissolve Flaw to keep authorities from asking the wrong questions. An alternative to this Flaw is Degeneration.
Slow Healing (3 point): The body's natural healing processes are slow, whether due to a bad immune system, old age, bad diet, or just genetics. You therefore heal at half-normal speed. You heal all of your wounds twice as slowly as everyone else. All Life Magic effects heal half the damage they should, rounded down. Mummies have difficulty healing injuries to their Khat. Vampires and ghouls have to spend twice as many Blood Points to heal one level of damage. Other special or supernatural healing methods (such as alchemical potions and other forms of Hekau) are only half as effective as it normally would be, rounded down.
Sterile / Barren (1 point for most, 4 point for Kin, may also be a merit): You are incapable of reproducing. If you are in a society which expects you to have children (such as if you are Kinfolk), this is a flaw. You may, however, take this as a merit if you practice lots of sex magic or something in which being fertile may actually cause more problems for you than not. For Kinfolk who serve the Changing Breeds as perpetrators of the species, inability to reproduce is a serious Flaw indeed. Not only does it carry a social stigma, it may also incur abuse, neglect, or even exile. Kinfolk who can’t reproduce lose a great deal of their value in Shifter eyes. For obvious reasons, Vampires and Wraiths who were Kin while they were alive cannot take this Flaw.
Unable To Swim (2 point): You have never learned to swim, or has been taught but reverts to helpless flailing. Consider your Athletics rating to be zero for purposes of water movement. You can't take this Flaw unless you have at least one dot in athletics, and if you have the secondary ability called swimming you can't take this Flaw for obvious reasons. At the Storyteller's discretion, if you take swimming lessons after game play begins you may buy off this Flaw at the cost of 6 experience points after using experience to raise your athletics score at least 1 dot.
Aging (3 point): Your get up and go has got up and went. Lower any one Physical attribute by 1 point. This Flaw may be taken by you for every ten years past the age of 40 (60 or so for Werewolves and similarly long-lived creatures).
Allergic (1-4 point): You are allergic to some substance - pollen, animal fur, alcohol, chocolate, etc. For 1 point, you get hives, sneeze, or become dizzy upon prolonged contact with your bane; for 2 points, you swell up uncomfortably in the affected area, reducing all Dice Pools by 1; for 3 points, your reaction usually incapacitates you, reducing appropriate Dice Pools by 3, and is fatal if left untreated. If the substance is really common in the chronicle, add an additional point to this Flaw.
Anosmia (1 point): Whether from birth or due to some illness or accident, you've lost all sense of taste and smell. You automatically fail any roll involving these two senses, including supernatural Abilities relying on smell or taste for tasks such as tracking or hunting. If you are one of the Changing Breeds it's even more crippling, since smell is most animals' most acute sense; this Flaw cancels out the minus 2 difficulty to Perception rolls a Shifter gets in that form. There's a slight benefit, however: At the Storyteller's discretion, you may be immune to the debilitating effects of environmental conditions and supernatural Abilities that rely on odors.
Asthma (1 point): You have difficulty performing strenuous tasks because you cannot breathe properly. With asthma, your lungs only pull in a fraction of the air that normal lungs require. Any time that you exert yourself you must make a Stamina roll against a difficulty of 6, or be unable to perform any action on the next round while you catch your breath.
Bad Sight (1-3 point): Your sight is defective; there's a plus 2 difficulty penalty to any dice roll where good eyesight is essential. This Flaw is neither nearsightedness nor farsightedness; it's a minor form of blindness. As a 1 point Flaw, this condition can be corrected with glasses or contacts; as a 3 point Flaw, the condition is too severe to be corrected. Shifters with this Flaw don't receive their animal form perception bonus.
Barren / Infertile / Sterile (1 point, 1-3 point for Werewolves, 4 point for Kin, may also be a merit): You are infertile, for whatever reason; perhaps you contracted a virulent disease as a youth. If you are in a society which expects you to have children (such as if you are Kinfolk), this is a Flaw. You may, however, take this as a 1 point Merit if you practice lots of sex magic or something in which being fertile may actually cause more problems for you than not. For Kinfolk who serve the Changing Breeds as perpetrators of the species, inability to reproduce is a serious Flaw indeed. Not only does it carry a social stigma, it may also incur abuse, neglect, or even exile. Kinfolk who can’t reproduce lose a great deal of their value in Shifter eyes. Mokolé may take this Flaw at 2 points only. If other Mokolé know this, they may assume that you're diseased or Dissolver-ridden, or simply avoid you. You can't gain Matre and are an undesirable mate: Mokolé and Kin who know of your "curse" won't want even casual intimacy with you, except perhaps for same-sex relations. Other Shifters take this Flaw at 1 or 3 points only. Perhaps you suffered from battle scars to the abdomen, or were the victim of a botched abortion before your First Change (which happens in your teen years mind you). You can't learn any Mother Gifts or Rites. If you have had children, and simply can have no more, this is only a 1 point Flaw. If you have never borne any children, then you'll be considered a Maiden (or Bachelor?) until such a time as you go through menopause and becomes a Crone (or don't go through menopause if you are male, and become an impotent old fart all the same) - this is the 3 point version of the Flaw. This is the cause of some lowering of status within most of Shifter Society, but especially with the Black Furies; you lose 1 point of Honor Renown. At the Stoyteller's option, depending on the traditions of the group, the latter version of this Flaw may lead to you being considered a Crone. For obvious reasons, Prometheans, Risen, Kuei-Jin, Vampires, and Wraiths cannot take this Flaw.
Bizarre Hunger (2-4 point): You have very odd dietary needs. Rather than normal food, you must consume some odd or disgusting substance in order to maintain your health. If you are unable to acquire and consume your required substance, you begin losing Health Levels at the rate of one per day after your first day of fasting. Although you may eat “normal” food as well, you derive no sustenance from it. Eating such odd fare is bound to attract attention if you do it in public. Some substances are also harder to get than others. In general, the more disgusting the substance required or the more difficult it is to obtain, the greater the cost. Flaw examples:
(2 point) Pig's blood, iodine, or cat food (unless you are a cat).
(3 point) Heroin, rotten meat, or mare's milk.
(4 point) Child's blood, gold, or feces.
Blind (6 point): You cannot see. You can compensate for the loss of vision by becoming more attuned to other sensory input (and purchasing the appropriate Acute Senses merit), but visual cues and images are lost to you. Difficulties of all Dexterity based rolls are increased by 2 and yes, you automatically fail visual perception checks.
Bound Head (1 point): Your head was artificially flattened in childhood by your own people, giving you a bizarre appearance. This doesn't affect Mental Attributes, but Appearance counts only for your own people. For all others, Appearance will be at least 2 points lower, although not below 1. In addition, everyone stares at you everywhere you go, and anthropologists will likely be bothering for interviews all the time. It may also prove difficult to wear most types of headgear not constructed by your people.
Child (3 point): You were a small child at the time of your Chrysalis, Embrace, Change, etc. - between five and ten years old. You may be precocious, but you're still just a kid. You find it difficult to be taken seriously by others (2 dice penalty to all relevant rolls). Your physical attributes underdeveloped; you may not have more than 2 dots in Strength or Stamina (except when Vampires raise physical attributes with Blood Points). You have difficulty interacting with some aspects of mortal society; difficulties of all die rolls when attempting to direct or lead mortal adults are increased by 2. Additionally, you may be subject to parental control, curfews, child labor, and truancy laws. Few clubs will admit you because you are "under-age." Changeling Childlings who don't take this Flaw are for some reason more accepted by those older than themselves. Also, you must also purchase the Short Flaw.
Club Foot (1 point): One of your feet is gnarled and deformed. Your run speed rating is halved.
Color Blindness / Monochrome Vision (1 point): You can only see in black and white. Color means nothing to you, although you are sensitive to color density, which you perceive in shades of grey. Note: color blindness actually indicates an inability to distinguish between two colors, but we fudged it a bit for the sake of playability.
Cyber Reject (3 point): Your body cannot abide cyberware. It simply rejects it. This Flaw may only be taken in a game that has a common availability of cyberware (such as working for the Technocracy or being in a space age civilization). This also limits the use of much of the modern cyber age and beyond medical technique (nanotechnology does not work in your body). Vampires may not take this Flaw, as it their dead nerves do not communicate with cyberware anyways.
Deaf (4 point, 1 point for Mokolé and Nagah): You cannot hear. The difficulties of many Perception rolls are increased by 3, as you could conceivably still notice someone behind you through ambient reflections, shadows, or through other people reacting to a sound that you did not hear. As a Mokolé with this Flaw, you're mostly without hearing, like some large lizards. You're able to hear some things (as the Defective Sense Flaw) in your Homid and Archid forms, but are entirely deaf in Suchid. As a Nagah with this Flaw, the poor hearing of your snake heritage has extended into most of your forms. You're completely deaf in Kali Dahaka, Azhi Dahaka, and Vasuki, your hearing Perception rolls in Silkaram are at a plus 3 difficulty, and even in Homid form you make auditory-related rolls at a plus 1 difficulty.
Defective Sense (1 point): One of you senses is dulled or abnormally damaged in some fashion. Perhaps you are hard of hearing, have limited taste receptors, or are correctably nearsighted. In each case, you suffer a 2 point penalty to the difficulty of all rolls involving the flawed sense. Obviously, you can't take this Flaw in conjunction with the Acute Sense Merit.
Deformity (3 point): You have some kind of deformity - a misshapen limb, hunchback, or clubfoot, for example - which affects your interactions with others and may inconvenience you physically. A hunchback, for instance, would lower your Dexterity by 2 dots and increase the difficulty of die rolls relating to social skills by 1. It's the responsibility of the Storyteller to determine the specific effects of the deformity chosen.
Degeneration (3-9 point): You will die without the aid of magic or science to sustain you. You might be the victim of a disease or curse, or maybe you're something that wasn't meant to be alive in the first place. At the lowest version of this Flaw, you simply do not have the natural healing factor with which most mortals are born. All wounds suffered remain until treated with magic or Technocratic science and you will not heal any damage otherwise. At the 6 point version of this Flaw, you are actually falling apart. A hideous disease might be eating you up from inside, or maybe you're a victim of beetles and / or natural decay if you're the result of someone's half-assed necromancy. Maybe Iteration X didn't tell you that your “perfect android body” was a prototype made by the lowest bidder and that all the warranties are expiring. Whatever the case, you take one Lethal Health Level of damage at three months, one a month later, another a week after that , one more three days beyond that, one the next day and a final one an hour after that. In short, your health deteriorates at an accelerated rate, following the progression for natural healing backward until you are dead. Obviously at this level you don't heal normally, either. With the 7 point version of this Flaw, you fall apart at the same rate as before, but the damage is Aggravated. An alternative to this Flaw is Short Life.
Diminished Attributes (3 point): Life isn't fair. When they were passing out brains, brawn, or beauty, someone else got your portion - maybe several of them. What this means is that you are remarkably lacking in the social, physical, or mental department. You might be a victim of disease or brain damage, or you may just have been born on the shallow end of the gene pool. It happens. However, you have points to spend on other stuff. Real life may not be fair, but at least game reality is. However, Storytellers should be careful with this Flaw, and make certain that you RolePlay the actual realities of being shortchanged. For each dot that you lose from your Attributes, you get 3 points back from this Flaw. This kickback isn't subject to the normal limits of 7 points of Flaws, but you can't take more than one additional Flaw without special Storyteller approval and a damn good story. Note that this arrangement isn't fair in terms of Freebie Points, but it lets you be someone who's totally crippled in one area and still get some payback. For example, if you're creating Dippy the Wonder Twerp and only want 2 points to spend in Mental Attributes instead of 3, get 3 Freebie Points back.
Disease Carrier (4 point): Your blood carries a lethal and highly contagious disease. The disease can be anything from rabies to HIV, and Vampires who drink your blood have a 10% chance of becoming a carrier as well. If you are a Vampire you may spend an extra blood point each night on awakening, or you will begin manifesting symptoms of the disease (increased chance to frenzy for rabies, reduced soak rolls for HIV, etc.). If you are non-Vampiric, then you may not avoid the penalties of the disease.
Disfigured (2 point): A hideous disfigurement makes your appearance disturbing and memorable. The difficulties of all die rolls relating to social interaction are increased by 2. You may not have an Appearance rating greater than 2.
Dissolve (3 point): This Flaw is only for members of the Technocracy. When killed, you disintegrate into a puddle of goo or pile of ash. The advantage (to the Technocracy, anyway) is that no reality deviant can perform necromantic rituals on your corpse, and no medical examiner can identify your remains. The downside (to you) is that once you pass Incapacitated, you're irrevocably, 100% perished after 10 seconds. No Procedure or Rite can restore you to your original form; no magic or science can contact your broken awareness.
Distinctive Appearance / Distinguishing Characteristic (1-2 point): You have something unforgettable about your appearance that makes you very easy to pick out in crowds, like a strange hairstyle, a tattoo in a prominent place, an obvious scar or birthmark, or bi-colored eyes. People who see it will remember it and thus, you. If you're trying to hide or stay unnoticed, this can be a royal pain. This Flaw is worth 1 point if the characteristic is hidden easily under clothes (but still manages to see the light of day every now and again), and 2 points if it is not. For Wraiths, you can cover it with Moliate, but Moliate costs corpus, and who has that much to burn?
Hard of Hearing (1 point): Your hearing is defective. The difficulties of any rolls involving the use of hearing are increased by 2. Shifters don't receive the animal form perception bonus.
Hemophiliac (3 point): You suffer from hemophilia. If you are cut, you will not stop bleeding without medical help. If you suffer lethal or aggravated damage, you suffer an additional level of bashing damage once every five minutes until your wound has been dressed to stop the bleeding. Any Vampire who bites you will find that they cannot seal the wound closed with a lick.
Impractical Dresser (1 point): You tend to dress with an eye toward impressing others rather than personal comfort. Unless you explicitly state that you dress appropriately for physical activity, you wear high heels, tight jeans or something else that hampers physical activity. Increase the difficulty of Athletics rolls by 2 when you wear such clothes.
Inbred (1-5 point): Inbreeding, a common occurrence among the incestuous Giovanni Clan, can take many forms, and this Flaw is best discussed with the Storyteller before you take it. The Inbred Flaw covers all manner of physical, mental, and emotional defects. A 1 point Inbreeding is something simple and unobtrusive, such as eyes too close together or an underbite. A 3 point Inbreeding is more severe: a congenital health condition (for mortals) or a crippling physical deformity. 5 point Inbreedings are grossly disabling or emotionally crippling - everything from uselessly atrophied legs to a of permanent Derangement, decided on mutually by the player and Storyteller. Inbred conditions may or may not be immediately discernible, though their point cost should be relative to their magnitude. This Flaw is suggested for Giovanni, but may apply to other families as well.
----------Incoherent (5 point): Human speech is impossible for you. It might be that your mouth is too misshapen, or that years of living in isolation has made you forget how to communicate. While you can understand what is being said to you, you cannot respond. Telepathy works on you as normal, and you have no problem communicating with animals if you have the ability, but human speech is barred to you.
Lame (3 point): Your legs are damaged, which prevents you from running or walking easily. You are forced to walk with a cane or possibly leg braces, and you have a pronounced limp to your stride. Your walking speed is one quarter that of a normal human, and running is impossible.
Low Alcohol Tolerance (1 point): Alcohol goes straight to your head. Double any penalties you suffer from consuming alcohol.
Low Pain Tolerance (2 point): You have a very low capacity for pain. You turn into a whimpering, blubbering ball of misery at the first sign of it. Although you soak damage normally, you suffer an additional minus 1 dice pool penalty when you are injured.
Mayfly Curse (5-10 point): Common among Progenitor Victors and those with Shifter or Demonic blood, you mature at an accelerated rate - and decline at the same. At the lower level, you age one year every two months, which means that when you're physically eighteen years old, you're chronologically three. At the higher rate, you age a year every week, making you sixteen in less than four months and fifty two by the end of the year. It's not much of a lifespan, certainly, but it's more than sufficient for shock troops. This Flaw can be combined with any degree of Aging.
Medicated (1-5 point): You require a daily medication to stay in good health. As a 1 point Flaw, your medication is important to your long-term health, but has little effect on your day-to-day well-being, as with prescription drugs that keep your cholesterol down. The 5 point version represents insulin shots or something else that is necessary to keep you alive. If you should miss a day's worth of medicine, you automatically suffer an unsoakable Bashing or Lethal Health Level of damage for every 12 hours that pass without your medicine, as determined by the Storyteller. The damage is healed at a rate of one level per 12 hours that pass once you resume your regular medication schedule.
Monochrome Vision / Color Blindness (1 point): You can only see in black and white. Color means nothing to you, although you are sensitive to color density, which you perceive in shades of gray. Note: color blindness actually indicates an inability to distinguish between two colors, but we fudged it a bit for the sake of playability.
Monstrous (2-3 point): There's something wholly monstrous about you, something which makes you hideous in the eyes of others. You look like the very devil ( maybe literally) and some people may take your appearance to believe you're connected to some horrible yucky evil thing. At the 2 point version of this Flaw, you cannot have an appearance rating above 1 dot. With the 3 point version, you automatically have an Appearance rating of 0. If you are a Shifter, your Homid form scarcely looks human, and your Crinos and Lupus forms look horrendous; in what manner they differ from the norm is up to you. Perhaps you've taken on the features of a reptilian animal, and appear as a creature of the Wyrm to certain literal-minded Garou.
Motion Sickness (1 point): You suffer from motion sickness and become queasy and nauseous by the rocking of the sea on boards, when traveling long distances by car, or on amusement park rides. You make a Stamina roll for seasickness against a base difficulty of 8, and if you fail you increase the difficulty of all actions you take by 2 when dealing with these conditions.
----------Mute (4 point): You cannot speak. You may communicate with the Storyteller and describe your actions, but cannot talk to other people unless everyone concerned purchases a commonly understood sign language or you write down what you wish to say.
No Sense of Smell (1 point): You completely lack a sense of smell. You may have simply been born without it, or perhaps you lost it due to some freak accident. You can't smell anything, no matter how strong the odor might be. Food tastes somewhat bland to you. On the good side, you aren't bothered by the stench of sewers, rotting flesh, or other nasties.
No Sense of Taste (1 point): Your taste buds simply do not function. You cannot appreciate a fine meal, and you have trouble gauging the difference between good and bad food and drink.
Old Injury (2 point): You hurt yourself pretty badly back in your younger days and now pay the price with chronic pain and tenderness. Increase the difficulty of any athletics roll by 2.
One Arm (3 point): You were either born with only one arm or lost your arm through an injury of some sort. You suffer no secondary-hand penalty, since you have adapted to using your one hand for most activities. When you need to use two hands, however, you lose 2 dice from your dice pool. For Shifters, your running speed in any non-bipedal form is half of normal.
One Ear (2 point): You are missing an ear, or else you are suffered damage or a birth defect that makes such an organ useless. The difficulties of all Perception rolls within the appropriate sense increase by 2. If you have one functional ear suffers a plus 1 difficulty on all rolls to determine the location of a given sound (due to the loss of binaural hearing).
One Eye (2 point): You have only one eye - which eye is missing is up to you. The difficulties of all Perception rolls involving eyesight are increased by 2, and the difficulties of all die rolls requiring depth perception are increased by an additional 1 (this includes ranged combat).
Paraplegic (6 point): You can hardly move without assistance, such as a pair of crutches or a wheelchair. Even then it can be painful and cumbersome to do so. The Storyteller and you should take care to roleplay this Flaw correctly, no matter how difficult it makes things. You may not take this flaw along with the Merit Double-Jointed.
Permanent Wound (3 point): Due to Pattern damage, a permanent Paradox injury, wounds suffered during the Embrace, or some other nastiness, you have a wound that never heals. Even if you repair the injury with magic, super science, or spend Blood Points to heal, it reoccurs at sunset or sunrise of each day (your choice as to which). This wound causes you to suffer the Wounded Health Level with Agravated damage that can't be soaked upon waking each night or morning. Such damage is cumulative with other injuries (and it could kill a badly wounded mage if it reoccurs while you're already injured), but it isn't self-cumulative. That is, your bleeding head wound doesn't cause any more damage the next morning or evening if you haven't bothered to heal it magically for a day.
Poor Night Vision (2 point): Your eyesight is poor in low-light conditions. Increase the difficulty of any action attempted in dim light, such as what a flashlight might provide or under starlight alone, by 2.
Primal Marks (2 point): You may have an Avatar of the Primordial Essence, some totem or god of legend, or perhaps you've just gained some powerful spirit's patronage and it's set its mark on you. If the totem is an animal, you resemble what such an animal would look like in human form so strongly that people who don't even know you call you "Bear" or "Moose" or "Raven." If your Avatar / Fae Mein / totem / spirit is some well known god or hero, you look just like people would expect you to, including any particular deformities (although you do get extra points for such handicaps). You look the part so much that anyone can guess your nature at a glance, and there's some danger in that, especially if your Avatar / Fae Mein / totem / spirit has a legendary enemy (as most do). Your Avatar / Fae Mein / totem / spirit will also require you to protect its species or finish up its unfinished agenda. You might alternately be the descendant of some famous or infamous house: Pendragon, Muraski, Bacon, Bathory, Borgia, or Le Vey. Besides the family name, you've also inherited the family "look." Students of history can easily picture you banishing the Devil and slaying dragons, or poisoning entire families and bathing in the blood of virgins - especially since they have the illustrations that might give them this idea. Alternately, you may just look the part of your profession too well. Perhaps you have the red hair and green eyes of an Irish witch, the pale eyes and dark skin of an Arabic sorcerer, the grown-together brows and elongated ring-fingers of a born Shifter, or the intense yellow, violet, or emerald green eyes of one the Fae. Students of ancient lore recognize these signs, and you may easily become the victim of witch-hunters. However, some witches, Changelings, Shifters, and others may accord you more status in their societies if you "look the part."
Shaky Hands (3 point): You have a lot of trouble keeping yourself composed under pressure. In an extremely stressful situation such as combat, your hands shake so badly that you have trouble completing any tasks that require a delicate touch and intense concentration. Examples include picking a lock, loading bullets into a revolver or typing at a computer. Increase the difficulty of any rolls for such demanding activities by 2.
Short / Small (1 point): You're well below average height - four and a half feet tall or less - and have trouble seeing over high objects and moving quickly. You have normal Health Levels, but have less body mass. You suffer a minus 2 dice penalty to all pursuit rolls, you have 1 less die on Social rolls and probably aren't considered for leadership, you subtract 1 die from your combat dice pools if you're brawling or using melee weapons, your running speed is half that of an average human, and you and the Storyteller should make sure your height is taken into account in all situations. In some circumstances, this'll give you a concealment bonus. A Shifter in Crinos form doesn't gain as much mass and size as is normal; you're just under average human height in this form. If you would like to go the whole nine yards and lose a Health Level as well, see the Puny Flaw.
Short Life (3 point): This Flaw is for Technocracy members only. Like the replicants in Blade Runner, you have a built-in life span. Under the best of conditions, you may live a year or two. At the end of that time, your body breaks down, your organs shut off, and your life-spark fades to black. Chances are, you also have the Dissolve Flaw to keep authorities from asking the wrong questions. An alternative to this Flaw is Degeneration.
Slow Healing (3 point): The body's natural healing processes are slow, whether due to a bad immune system, old age, bad diet, or just genetics. You therefore heal at half-normal speed. You heal all of your wounds twice as slowly as everyone else. All Life Magic effects heal half the damage they should, rounded down. Mummies have difficulty healing injuries to their Khat. Vampires and ghouls have to spend twice as many Blood Points to heal one level of damage. Other special or supernatural healing methods (such as alchemical potions and other forms of Hekau) are only half as effective as it normally would be, rounded down.
Sterile / Barren (1 point for most, 4 point for Kin, may also be a merit): You are incapable of reproducing. If you are in a society which expects you to have children (such as if you are Kinfolk), this is a flaw. You may, however, take this as a merit if you practice lots of sex magic or something in which being fertile may actually cause more problems for you than not. For Kinfolk who serve the Changing Breeds as perpetrators of the species, inability to reproduce is a serious Flaw indeed. Not only does it carry a social stigma, it may also incur abuse, neglect, or even exile. Kinfolk who can’t reproduce lose a great deal of their value in Shifter eyes. For obvious reasons, Vampires and Wraiths who were Kin while they were alive cannot take this Flaw.
Unable To Swim (2 point): You have never learned to swim, or has been taught but reverts to helpless flailing. Consider your Athletics rating to be zero for purposes of water movement. You can't take this Flaw unless you have at least one dot in athletics, and if you have the secondary ability called swimming you can't take this Flaw for obvious reasons. At the Storyteller's discretion, if you take swimming lessons after game play begins you may buy off this Flaw at the cost of 6 experience points after using experience to raise your athletics score at least 1 dot.
