Advantages & Disadvantages

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Advantages and disadvantages are additional traits for characters which can be of use during adventures (either by the player or the GM). All of these have a cost expressed in experience points. Many of them have negative costs, which means the player receives more experience points to use as an incentive to "flesh out" the character.

Advantages and disadvantages must make sense and be within reason for the character. They should not receive more than 2500 EP total for disadvantages (aside from the age disadvantage).

Any character who already has a disadvantage or advantage due to race may not take the same advantage to receive extra experience points.

[95.1] A character who does not know his own True Name is at a disadvantage in life.

While most civilized cultures have Namers present at births to perform the Naming Ritual, some children nonetheless are born without the blessing of this ritual. In such cases, once the child comes of age, they have no knowledge of their own Individual True Name, and therefore do not know their own nature as fully as they should. This means that the character's maximum Will Power is the average for his Race (i.e. 15 + Racial Modifier). Not knowing one's Individual True Name also prevents one from entering a Magical College. Over time, the character may be able to discover his Name by some means, however. For taking this disadvantage, the character receives an extra 250 EP to spend.

This disadvantage is not available to any character starting as an Adept or with a Will Power higher than average for their race.

[95.2] Not being able to speak Common well would make a character subject to some misunderstandings.

The character can only speak Common at rank 2, and is limited to only very simple communication. For taking this disadvantage, the character gets an additional 1000 EP to spend.

[95.3] Everyone has social contacts - people who might be friends, acquaintances, or enemies.

Normal social contacts would tend to be somewhat average individuals who might be helpful to the character in some circumstances while adventuring. They may be someone who would be willing to provide help or information. Such contacts do not have to be a specific person but could instead be a familiarity with a group or trade - such as having contacts within the local Thieves' Guild, the Adventurer's Guild, the City Guard, or even the Local Squealers Anonymous. This does not mean the character is on good terms with the entire guild, just that they have a couple (perhaps anonymous) contacts within the guild. Every character begins play with two contacts (determined by player and GM). The character gets 125 EP for each additional contact, maximum of two.

Patrons are fairly powerful NPCs who have had some past dealings with the character in the past. They can also be a source of aid or information during adventures. Examples of patrons would be a merchant for whom the character had acted as a guard, the captain of some ship on which the character served, or an entire guild of which the character is a member. Essentially, a patron is a contact who has a great deal more influence and power. Each patron the character has will provide an additional 250 EPs.

To take a guild as a patron, the character must fulfill the requirements for membership.

Enemies are NPCs with whom the character has run afoul previously, and there is a fair amount of animosity between them. In fact, the NPCs will probably go out of their way to cause trouble for the character. Enemies can either be on the order of contacts (a single person who bears a grudge) or they might be more powerful or numerous (a noble or powerful Mage or a group of people who bear a grudge). For the less powerful enemy, the character receives an extra 250 EP to spend. For the "patron" enemy, the character gets an additional 500 EP. A character can start with no more than two enemies.

If a character has an organization as a friendly Patron contact, they may hold rank in that organization. Due to this rank, the character should act in the interests of the organization, and they may have more influence in certain situations. In others, it may be wise to keep quiet. This advantage requires that the character have some Patron in whose interests they are acting. This advantage costs 250 EPs.

Any organization in which the character holds rank should be within reason for the character’s heritage.

[95.4] Characters may have some significant religious beliefs.

If the character follows some particular pantheon of gods, and is fairly pious about their worship, then they shall get 500 EP to spend. If they have some particular Patron Deity to whom they pray, then they will get an additional 500 EP (for a total of 1000 EP).

Calling on the gods is always risky business. More likely than not, they will be off doing whatever it is that gods do in their spare time and will ignore the characters. But every now and then they may exert a little influence. This may or may not be in the characters’ favor - depending greatly on how happy the god is with them at that time.

If a patron deity is chosen, then its aid may be a little more dependable and potent if called upon during an adventure. However, it will also be a bit more strict in adherence to "proper" worship. If a character is on particularly good standing with their patron deity, they may receive special bonuses appropriate to the nature of the god/goddess.

And woe unto any mortal who should stray from proper worship of their chosen deities! Talk about bad karma…

For characters with these advantages, the GM should keep track of the degree of piety the character maintains - i.e. how "in favor" they are with their deities.

If a character has a Patron Deity, they may choose to be a priest. In other words, there has been some formal ordainment of the character into the priesthood of this particular deity. As such, they may command more respect from various NPCs (or dislike), or be able to call on certain powers of the god/goddess - depending on the nature of the deity. Being invested into a priesthood costs an extra 500 EP. Taking this advantage requires that the character also have taken the Patron Deity advantage (95.5).

Entry into priesthood usually has more requirements than just belief in the god. Often priests must be scholars of theology. A priest of the goddess of healing would probably be required to be a healer of significat rank.

In some cases, particularly masochistic players may choose to start off with a particular deity rather displeased with their character. In such cases, the deity may occasionally influence events in a manner decidedly not in the character’s favor. Such influence will take on the form of the particular deity’s domain. For instance, having a god of alcohol upset may mean any beverage the character holds will instantly sour, or drunks may take an instant disliking to the character. Taking this disadvantage will provide the character with an extra 1000 EP to spend. (Now, in the case of an upset war god…)

[95.5] Characters may have exceptional luck (good or bad).

A player whose character has good luck may choose to exercise the character's Luck by rolling D10 and using this to modify the roll for an event of his choice (including GM rolls). This advantage can be taken more than once, in which case multiple D10 (up to the number of times good Luck was taken) can be used on one event or divided between several. For example, a character with 3 times good Luck could modify one roll by 3D10, or 3 rolls by 1D10 each. Cost is 250 EP experience points per attempt per game session.

The player who chose bad luck is obviously one who likes a challenge! Yes, in those times when the GM says, "Everyone Roll!" that character gets a BONUS! (only about +5% or so). Also, if there's a time when the results of some action at first appear to be sort of iffy, well… actually they're not! For choosing this disadvantage, the player gets an additional 1000 experience points (essentially, Lady Luck, deity of chance, is upset with the character).

[95.6] Most characters will begin at approximately one-third their race's average life span, but a character can start out significantly older - thereby gaining more experience but decreasing their attributes.

There are four age ranges that may be taken as a disadvantage: Middle-Aged, Over The Hill, Old, and Ancient. For each age classification, a list of attributes is given along with a number (eg. ENx2) representing the number of rolls made against that attribute to determine if it is reduced due to aging.

For each such listed attribute, D% is rolled. If the roll is under (4 x current attribute value), the character loses one point from that attribute. Subsequent rolls are made against the new value.

Exp Age & Effects

10000 Middle-Aged

1/2 average life span for race.

AGx3, ENx2, FTx2

20000 Over-The-Hill

3/4 average life span for race.

PSx2, AGx4, ENx2, FTx3

40000 Old

Average life span for race.

PSx3, MDx2, AGx5, WPx2, ENx4, FTx5, PCx2

60000 Ancient

1/4 or more longer than average life span for race.

PSx4, MDx3, AGx6 WPx3, ENx4, FTx8, PCx5

This advantage is handled differently for Elves because of their extreme longevity. The Player and GM should negotiate the effects.

[95.7] Characters may have senses which are unusually good or bad.

Characters might have enhanced vision, a strong sense of direction, or exceptionally keen hearing. In the cases of the enhanced senses, the character should, in some cases, receive a +4 bonus to Perception when using that sense. For a strong sense of direction, the character has an ability similar to the Ranger’s "bump" of direction at rank 0. If the character takes the Ranger skill, his rank is treated as two higher for this ability. Taking any of these abilities should cost the character 500 Experience Points.

A character might also have a problem with a sense and would suffer a -4 on Perception in applicable situations. Possible problems might be: Night Blindness (-500 EP / -750EP if character has night vision due to race), Farsighted (-250 EP), Nearsighted (-500EP), Sensitivity to bright light (-250EP), or Hard of hearing (-250 EP). Characters with vision impairments should be penalized for attempting tasks which would depend on vision. A nearsighted individual should get a -20% on all ranged attacks. Night blindness would penalize all attacks in the dark.

[95.8] The character may be suffering from some physical handicap.

Either due to a birth defect or some previously inflicted Grievous Injury, the character is in some way physically handicapped. Specific injuries may be determined from the Grievous Injury chart. The player can either choose the injury (character gets an extra 500 EPs to spend), or else choose from two rolls on the table (extra 1000 EPs to spend). If the injury selected is one that will heal completely, then the character is still recovering. Otherwise, if there will be long-term effects, the injury may be as fully healed as possible. If only fatal injuries are rolled (punctured aorta or cranial detachment), then the player may reroll or the character may have been resurrected (-1 EN).

The player may choose a particular impairment aside from injuries described above, and the effects and value of such impairment should be negotiated with the GM. An example would be a character walking with a limp which reduces his TMR by 1, or being hunchbacked which may reduce TMR and Agility - each worth 1000 Experience Points. In such cases, the social impact of these handicaps should also be taken into account.

[95.9] Characters may have a tolerance or adverse reaction to some substance or creature.

The character may have an allergy to some fairly common object (a plant or animal, for instance) and suffers some physical discomfort (itching) or has uncontrollable reactions (sneezing, coughing) when exposed to the object. (-250 EP)

If a character has an addiction to some substance, then they will need to obtain that substance on a regular basis or else suffer from withdrawal. Any such substances should either be somewhat difficult to find (illegal drugs) or else have a profound effect on the character's behavior (alcohol) while they are under its influence. Details should be worked out between the GM and the player. For such an addiction, the character gets an additional 500 EP to spend.

Characters might have a higher resistance to disease, poison, or magic. The character should get a 10% bonus for rolls made for applicable situations. A character with a high disease resistance would also be more resistant to infection. Taking any of these abilities should cost the character 500 Experience Points.

[95.10] The character may have a personality quirk or some form of compulsive behavior.

Whenever a character with this disadvantage is faced with a situation which would lend itself to their particular quirk or compulsive behavior, he must make a Will Power check in order to not succumb to his urges. Examples of this might be a rigid code of honor, absent-mindedness, compulsive lying, womanizing, heavy drinking, too trusting, intolerance of someone or something, gluttony or greed. A character might even be an exceptionally heavy sleeper. The character receives an extra 500 EP to spend for such personality traits.

Occasionally, a character may have a severe phobia of some creature, event, or situation (within reason, and not something which is rare). If confronted with this thing of their nightmares, the character will have to make an automatic Will Power check, or else roll on the Fright Table. Major Phobias are worth an extra 750 EP for the character to spend.

[95.11] The character may be prone to flying into berserk rages in the heat of combat.

The character has a tendency of just getting out of control when the fighting starts. On the bright side, while berserk he/she gets a +20 on all stun and fright checks, will not be affected by having zero fatigue, and has a +5 bonus to Physical Strength. On the down side, only all-out attacks are allowed (see 96.5), the use of shields is unimaginable (except as weapons - berserkers will make use of all weapons in hand), and running away, even against the most hideous odds, will never occur to them once battle has been joined! However, back on the bright side, they get an additional 500 EP to spend. Shapechangers can take this disadvantage as it increases their berserk tendencies..

[95.12] The character may have been a bit too stingy on paying dues for guild membership or equipment upkeep.

Essentially, the character saves the EPs that would have been spent for the one year of upkeep or membership and instead has these EPs to spend on other things. This will either mean they use the skill at some disadvantage (described in the particular skill descriptions) or else are in rather poor standings with whichever Guild.

Please check all advantages and disadvantages with the GM for appropriateness. If you've got an idea for some others, talk to the GM.