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A “disadvantage” is a problem or imperfection that renders you less capable than your attributes, advantages, and skills would indicate. In addition to the traits in this chapter, this includes anything with a negative point cost in Chapter 1: Low Status, below-average Wealth, etc.

You are probably wondering, “Why would I want to give my character disadvantages?” There are two good reasons:

1. Each disadvantage has a negative cost in character points. Thus, disadvantages give you extra character points, which let you improve your character in other ways. But note that disadvantages limit you in proportion to their cost. Be sure to read the disadvantage description in full to know what you are getting into!

2. An imperfection or two makes your character more interesting and realistic, and adds to the fun of roleplaying!

Two kinds of disadvantages are particularly suitable for heroic PCs. Roleplayed well, they might limit the character's choices, but they should make the player's experience more fun.

It might seem strange that virtues such as Truthfulness and Sense of Duty are listed as “disadvantages.” In the real world, we regard such traits as advantages! Their disadvantage value in GURPS comes from the fact that these virtues limit your freedom of action. For instance, someone with Truthfulness will have trouble lying, even for a good cause; therefore, within the framework of the game, he has a disadvantage. This has one very worthwhile benefit: if you want to create a wholly heroic character, you don't have to take any “character flaws” at all. You can get points by choosing only those disadvantages that are actually virtuous!

Many of the greatest heroes of history and literature had a “tragic flaw.” Alcoholism, great ugliness, bad temper, compulsive behavior, and even drug addiction - all are found in the heroes of fact and fiction. So don't assume that your heroes have to be perfect… try giving them significant problems to overcome.

It isn't fun to saddle heroes with endless problems in over-the-top action games. Disadvantages serve mostly to give the PCs obstacles that they can overcome in order to look good. For instance, most real-life people find Lecherousness offensive, but in action movies, it's almost endearing - and when the hero overcomes his problem, the action is that much more dramatic.

The GM should consider using the following optional rule:

Ham Clause: The player can voluntarily inflict one of his PC's disadvantages on him during a pivotal action scene (chase, gunfight, etc.), where this would make sense. In the absence of specific effects, all success rolls during that scene are at -1 per -5 points (or fraction thereof) of disadvantages. The GM should then consider the problem roleplayed for the session, ignoring its usual game mechanics. For instance, in a gunfight at the mall, the player of a hero with Lecherousness (12) [-15] could declare, “I'll bet there's a hottie in the crowd. I'm going to show off!” and fight the battle at -3. After that, the GM should give him the benefit of the doubt when the attractive police sergeant shows up…

Since disadvantages can be controlled like this - and shouldn't burden true action heroes much in any event - they effectively increase campaign power level. As such, a GM invoking this rule should impose a limit. A suggestion is -50 points of disadvantages and reduced attributes or secondary characteristics, regardless of power level, plus -5 points in quirks.

Your GM might wish to “cap” the extra points you can gain from disadvantages; see Disadvantage Limit. This limit applies to the total points you can get from all traits with negative point costs, from Chapter 1 (reduced attributes, low Status, etc.) or the list below. Mandatory disadvantages assigned by the GM don't count against this limit.

Most GMs will want to enforce two additional restrictions:

You cannot take a disadvantage that one of your advantages would mitigate or negate! For instance, if you have Acute Hearing, you cannot take Hard of Hearing. Contradictory disadvantages, such as Curious and Incurious, are also mutually exclusive. The GM has the final say as to which traits are compatible.

Some disadvantages - Sadism, for instance - are not at all suitable for a “hero,” and the GM is free to forbid them to PCs. But they are often found in the more fiendish villains of adventure fiction, so they are included in the interest of good NPC creation.

Like advantages, disadvantages are classified according to how they work in play and who can have them.

Mental disadvantages originate from your mind or soul. They stay with you if your mind ends up in a new body. This category includes the vast majority of “magical,” “psionic,” and “spiritual” traits. Mental disadvantages are marked (M).

Physical disadvantages are associated with your body. You can escape them by moving to a new body! If another mind occupies your body, the new owner gains your physical disadvantages.

You can acquire a physical disadvantage during play, most likely due to accident or combat. In this case, you immediately suffer the bad effects of the disadvantage. Unlike starting disadvantages, however, physical handicaps acquired in play do not “give back” points with which to buy abilities - they just lower your point value!

Example: If you start out blind, you start with an extra 50 points… but if an explosion blinds you during the game, you're just blind and that's that. Reduce your point total by 50 points to reflect your new disadvantage. You should not keep the same point total and take 50 points of compensating advantages!

Physical disadvantages are marked (P).

Social disadvantages are associated with your identity. Should it become important to know whether they go with mind or body, the GM's word is final. Note that this category includes below-average Status, Wealth, and so forth from Chapter 1. Social disadvantages are marked (So).

The GM is the final judge of which category a disadvantage belongs in. It is possible to interpret certain disadvantages in more than one way!

Exotic disadvantages are forbidden to normal humans. Nonhumans may acquire such traits from their racial template (see Chapter 7), but they still need the GM's permission to take additional exotic disadvantages. Exotic disadvantages are marked (Ex).

Supernatural disadvantages are the result of divine intervention, magic, psionics, etc. With the GM's permission, anyone might be cursed in this way - but only if supernatural powers exist in the game world. Supernatural disadvantages are marked (Su).

Mundane disadvantages are everything else. They are inborn, acquired, or self-imposed handicaps that anyone might have. Mundane disadvantages are not marked in any special way. Assume that a disadvantage with neither (Ex) nor (Su) is available to anyone.

You may give your character a disadvantage unknown both to him and to you. Choose a point value and tell the GM. The GM will select a disadvantage and give you its value plus an additional -5 points (e.g., Unluckiness, normally worth -10 points, gives -15 points as a secret disadvantage)… but he will not give you any hints as to what it is! When your disadvantage finally becomes obvious in the course of play (GM's decision), you must buy off the extra -5 points as soon as possible.

The GM must pick a secret disadvantage carefully. It should be something that you could believably not know about. If it is a mental disadvantage, the conditions that trigger it should never have arisen (Berserk, Bloodlust, Combat Paralysis, the less-common Phobias, and Split Personality all work well here). Most physical disadvantages are too obvious - although something like Hemophilia might go unnoticed.

You can only list one secret disadvantage on your character sheet, but this might represent more than one trait. The GM is free to select multiple, related disadvantages worth the appropriate number of points.

Many mental disadvantages do not affect you constantly - you may attempt to control your urges. An asterisk (*) appears next to the point cost of any disadvantage that offers a chance to resist. For each disadvantage like this, you must choose a self-control number: the number you must roll on 3d to avoid giving in. This modifies point value as follows:

You never resist (N/A): 2.5 x listed cost.

You resist quite rarely (roll of 6 or less): 2 x listed cost.

You resist fairly often (roll of 9 or less): 1.5 x listed cost.

You resist quite often (roll of 12 or less): listed cost.

You resist almost all the time (roll of 15 or less): 0.5 x listed cost.

Drop all fractions (e.g., -22.5 points becomes -22 points).

The “default” self-control number is 12: you must roll 12 or less on 3d to avoid giving in to your problem. This lets you use disadvantage costs as written. Choose a self-control number of 15 if you wish to have a tendency toward a disadvantage instead of a full-blown case. A self-control number of 9 will regularly limit your options. A self-control number of 6 can be crippling (especially with genuine psychiatric problems).

Note your self-control number in parentheses after the name of the disadvantage on your character sheet. For instance, if you can resist Berserk on a roll of 9 or less, write this as “Berserk (9).”

In circumstances that are likely to trigger your problem, you may opt to roll 3d against your self-control number to see whether your disadvantage actually affects you. If you roll less than or equal to this number, you resist your disadvantage - this time. Otherwise, you suffer the listed effects. This is called a self-control roll.

Like all success rolls, self-control rolls are subject to modifiers. Exceptionally mild or severe stimuli can give bonuses or penalties. Drugs and afflictions can make you more or less likely to give in. Other disadvantages can make you irritable, reducing your odds of resisting. See the disadvantage descriptions for details.

Example: Your self-control number is 15, but you are in a highly stressful situation that gives -5 to your self-control roll. You must roll 10 or less to resist your disadvantage.

You never have to try a self-control roll - you can always give in willingly, and it is good roleplaying to do so. However, there will be times when you really need to resist your urges, and that is what the roll is for. Be aware that if you attempt self-control rolls too often, the GM may penalize you for bad roleplaying by awarding you fewer earned points.

Optionally, the GM may permit you to use one unspent character point to “buy” an automatic success on a self-control roll. Points spent this way are gone for good, but there will be times when staying on the straight and narrow is worth the sacrifice. In this case, the GM should not penalize you for bad roleplaying, because you are penalizing yourself!

Note that high Will helps you make Fright Checks and resist supernatural emotion control, but it does not improve self-control rolls - not even for disadvantages with effects identical to these things. Mental disadvantages represent an aspect of your personality that you cannot simply will (or reason) away. This is part of what makes them disadvantages!

You may use bonus points to “buy off” many disadvantages - whether you started with them or acquired them in play. This costs as many points as the disadvantage originally gave you. If the GM permits, you may buy off leveled disadvantages one level at a time. Likewise, you can buy off those with self-control numbers gradually, by raising the self-control number. In both cases, the point cost is the difference between your former level and your current one. For more on buying off disadvantages, see Chapter 9.

Certain mental disadvantages - Code of Honor, Disciplines of Faith, Fanaticism, Honesty, Intolerance, Sense of Duty, Trademark, and Vow - are not psychiatric problems, but beliefs or codes of conduct. Such “self-imposed mental disadvantages” share three features that distinguish them from other mental disadvantages:

• They can be “bought off” with earned points at any time. People really do wake up in the morning and resolve to live their lives differently for no apparent reason!
• They cannot be caused by Afflictions, drugs, brain surgery, and similar “quick and dirty” behavior alteration. Such techniques can create a pacifist or a maniac, but you need magic, Mind Control, or prolonged Brainwashing to impose anything as complex as a code of conduct.
• They can be used with the Pact limitation (p. 113) as conditions to which you must adhere to retain certain supernatural powers.

You have trouble focusing on anything not of immediate interest. You have -5 on all IQ and IQ-based skill rolls, save those for the task you are currently concentrating on. If no engaging task or topic presents itself, your attention will drift to more interesting matters in five minutes, and you will ignore your immediate surroundings until something catches your attention and brings you back. Once adrift in your own thoughts, you must roll against Perception-5 in order to notice any event short of personal physical injury.

You may attempt to rivet your attention on a boring topic through sheer strength of will. To do so, make a Will-5 roll once every five minutes. “Boring topics” include small talk, repetitive manual tasks, guard duty, driving on an empty highway…

Absent-minded individuals also tend to forget trivial tasks (like paying the bills) and items (like car keys and checkbooks). Whenever it becomes important that you have performed such a task or brought such an item, the GM should call for a roll against IQ-2. On a failure, this detail slipped your attention.

Example: An absent-minded detective is in a shootout. He was involved in gunplay earlier in the day, in which he fired four rounds, so the GM calls for an IQ-2 roll. The detective fails the roll, and discovers too late that he forgot to reload his weapon, so his revolver has only two bullets left!

This is the classic disadvantage for eccentric geniuses.

You are addicted to a drug, which you must use daily or suffer withdrawal. The value of this disadvantage depends on the cost, effects, and legality of the drug:

Cheap (up to 0.1% of average starting wealth): -5 points.

Expensive (up to 0.5% of average starting wealth): -10 points.

Very expensive (more than 0.5% of average starting wealth): -20 points.

Incapacitating or hallucinogenic: -10 points.

Highly addictive (-5 on withdrawal roll): -5 points.

Totally addictive (-10 on withdrawal roll): -10 points.

Illegal: +0 points. Legal: +5 points.

Examples: Tobacco is cheap, highly addictive, and legal; a chain-smoker has a -5-point Addiction. Heroin is very expensive, incapacitating, totally addictive, and illegal; a heroin addict has a -40-point Addiction.

Non-Chemical Addictions: You can take Addiction to an activity instead of a drug - for instance, telepathic contact or spending time in virtual reality. If this costs money, price the Addiction based on its daily cost. If it is free (e.g., telepathic contact), treat it as “Cheap” if it you can do it almost anywhere (telepathic contact with anyone) or as “Expensive” if restrictive conditions apply (telepathic contact with one specific person). Such Addictions almost always cause psychological dependency (see Withdrawal, below).

A stimulating drug leaves you feeling energized… until it wears off. Then you are depressed and irritable. An incapacitating drug renders you unconscious (or just blissfully, uselessly drowsy) for about two hours. A hallucinogenic drug renders you useless for work or combat, though you might be active and talkative. Some drugs (e.g., tobacco) have none of these effects, while others have unique effects. Side effects are also possible. For detailed rules, see Addictive Drugs (p. 440).

Sometimes, voluntarily or otherwise, you must try to give up your Addiction. Addiction to a drug that causes psychological dependency is a mental disadvantage; withdrawal from such a drug requires a series of Will rolls, and may result in mental problems. Addiction to a drug that induces physiological dependency is a physical disadvantage; withdrawal is a function of your HT, and may cause physical injury. For details, see Drug Withdrawal (p. 440). Should you successfully withdraw from an Addiction, you must immediately buy off this disadvantage.

For an Addiction worth only -5 points, the GM may rule that the expense, stigma, and detrimental long-term effects of use are the whole of the disadvantage, and waive the usual withdrawal rules. This is appropriate for such drugs as tobacco and caffeine. If forced to go without, you must make a Will or HT roll as usual, but the only effects on a failure are general anxiety, irritability, or restlessness. This manifests as a temporary -1 to DX, IQ, self-control rolls, or reaction rolls (GM's choice) - not as insanity or injury. Successive failures prolong the duration of the effects; they do not increase the size of the penalty. If you can make 14 successful rolls in succession, you must buy off your Addiction.

It is also possible to create a 0- point Addiction using these rules. Such Addictions are always Minor Addictions, and you may take them as -1-point quirks (see Quirks).

You are an alcohol addict. Alcoholism uses the Addiction rules (above). It is cheap, incapacitating, and usually legal, so it would normally be a -10-point Addiction. But it is also insidious; therefore, it is worth -15 points - or -20 points if it is illegal.

Most of the time, you may confine your drinking to the evenings, and therefore function normally (for game purposes). However, any time you are in the presence of alcohol, you must roll vs. Will to avoid partaking. A failed roll means you go on a “binge” lasting 2d hours, followed by a hangover; see Drinking and Intoxication (p. 439). Alcoholics on a binge are characterized by sudden mood swings - from extreme friendliness to extreme hostility - and may attack friends, talk too freely, or make other mistakes.

The other drawback of Alcoholism is that it is hard to get rid of. Should you manage to “withdraw,” you no longer need to drink daily… but you must still make a Will+4 roll whenever you are in the presence of alcohol. A failed roll does not reinstate the addiction, but does set off a binge. (Three binges in a week will reinstate the addiction.) Thus, there is no normal way to “buy off” this disadvantage.

Continued Alcoholism will steal your abilities. You must roll yearly against HT+2 until you withdraw. Failure means you lose a level from one of your four basic attributes - roll randomly to determine which.

You've lost your memory. You can't remember any of your past life, including your name. This disadvantage comes in two levels:

Partial Amnesia: You, the player, can see your character sheet, but the GM may reserve up to -30 points of your disadvantage allotment for “secret” disadvantages of his choosing. You know that you can use certain skills, but have no idea where you learned them. You are likely to have enemies - and possibly friends - that you can't remember. If you turn yourself in to the police, they can perform their standard ID checks… but you might turn out to be a wanted criminal. Even if you aren't, finding out your name won't restore your memory! -10 points.

Total Amnesia: The only traits you can specify during character creation are those you could see in a mirror. The GM assigns everything else - and holds onto your full character sheet until your memory returns! You have no idea of your full abilities. Since the GM knows your quirks and mental traits, and you don't, he will sometimes overrule your statements about what you're doing. He will also make all skill rolls for you, because you have no idea what you can do until you try it! Your IQ-based skill rolls are at -2 unless the GM feels that memory would have no effect at all on the task at hand. -25 points.

You can only buy off Amnesia if there is some reason why you might recover your memory; e.g., meeting an old friend, reliving some fateful event, or the ever-popular blow to the head. In most cases, the cure will be related to the cause of the memory loss. Particularly twisted GMs might enjoy making the cause in question some form of brainwashing. In this case, one of the hidden disadvantages will probably be an Enemy with sufficient resources to have arranged the brainwashing in the first place.

(see Wealth and Beauty)

Below-average appearance is a disadvantage, and should be noted as such on your character sheet.

For whatever reason, your spinal column is in bad shape. During strenuous physical activity, you may “throw your back” and suffer crippling pain or further injury. Whenever you make a ST roll, and whenever you roll 17 or 18 on an attack or defense roll in melee combat, or on a roll for an “athletic” skill such as Acrobatics, make a HT roll as well.

Modifiers: Any modifiers to the success roll for the activity that triggered the HT roll. For a long task that allows the luxury of planning, you can try to minimize the strain on your back; a successful IQ-2 or Physiology+4 roll gives +2 on the HT roll.

On a failure, you throw your back. Consequences depend on the severity of your case:

Mild: You are at -3 DX until you rest or someone helps you; a First Aid- 2 roll will reset your back. You are also at -3 IQ, but during the next second only (for your next turn, in combat). On a critical failure, you are at -5 DX and must make a Will roll to perform any physical action. -15 points.

Severe: The HT roll is at -2. On a failure, DX and IQ are both at -4 until you receive rest or help; you are in constant agony. On a critical failure, you take 1d-3 damage and are at -6 DX and -4 IQ. -25 points.

High Pain Threshold halves all DX and IQ penalties (drop fractions), but does not eliminate them completely.

You have a penalty on tasks that require a firm grip. Each level (maximum three levels) gives -2 with such tasks. This penalty is overall - not per hand. Affected tasks include melee weapon use, climbing, catching things, and anything else the GM deems requires a firm grip (e.g., an Acrobatics roll to catch a trapeze).

This disadvantage is mutually exclusive with No Fine Manipulators.

You have poor vision. This applies to all your visual senses: regular vision, Infravision, Ultravision, etc. You may be nearsighted or farsighted - your choice.

Nearsighted: You cannot read small print, computer displays, etc., more than a foot away, or road signs, etc., at more than about 10 yards. You are at -6 to Vision rolls to spot items more than one yard away. When making a melee attack, you are at -2 to skill. When making a ranged attack, double the actual distance to the target when calculating the range modifier. -25 points.

Farsighted: You cannot read text except with great difficulty (triple normal time). You are at -6 to Vision rolls to spot items within one yard, and you have -3 to DX on any close manual task, including close combat. -25 points.

Mitigator: At TL5+, you can acquire glasses that compensate totally for Bad Sight while they are worn. At TL7+, contact lenses are available. In both cases, remember that accidents can happen… and that enemies can deprive you of these items. If you are starting at a tech level in which vision can be corrected, you must take this limitation. -60%.

You exude an appalling odor that you cannot remove, such as the stench of death and decay. This causes a -2 reaction from most people and animals (although pests or carrion-eating scavengers might be unusually attracted to you!). You can mask the smell with perfumes, but the overpowering amount needed results in the same reaction penalty.

You are not in full control of your emotions. Make a self-control roll in any stressful situation. If you fail, you lose your temper and must insult, attack, or otherwise act against the cause of the stress.

You tend to rampage out of control when you or a loved one is harmed, making frenzied attacks against whoever or whatever you see as the cause of the trouble. If you also suffer from Bad Temper (above), any stress may trigger Berserk.

Make a self-control roll any time you suffer damage over 1/4 your HP in the space of one second, and whenever you witness equivalent harm to a loved one. If you fail, you go berserk. You go berserk automatically if you fail a self-control roll for Bad Temper! You may deliberately go berserk by taking the Concentrate maneuver and making a successful Will roll. Once you are berserk, the following rules apply:

• If armed with a hand weapon, you must make an All-Out Attack each turn a foe is in range. If no foe is in range, you must use a Move maneuver to get as close as possible to a foe - and if you can Move and Attack, or end your Move with a slam, you will.

• If the enemy is more than 20 yards away, you may attack with a ranged weapon if you have one, but you may not take the Aim maneuver. If using a gun, you blaze away at your maximum rate of fire until your gun is empty. You cannot reload unless your weapon - and your Fast-Draw skill - lets you reload “without thought” (can take no more than one second). Once your gun is empty, you must either draw another gun or charge into melee combat.

• You are immune to stun and shock, and your injuries cause no penalty to your Move score. You make all rolls to remain conscious or alive at +4 to HT. If you don't fail any rolls, you remain alive and madly attacking until you reach -5xHP. Then you fall - dead!

• When you down a foe, you may (if you wish) attempt another self-control roll to see if you snap out of the berserk state. If you fail (or do not roll), you remain berserk and attack the next foe. Treat any friend who

attempts to restrain you as a foe! You get to roll again each time you down a foe, and you get one extra roll when no more foes remain. If you are still berserk, you start to attack your friends…

Once you snap out of the berserk state, all your wounds immediately affect you. Roll at normal HT to see whether you remain conscious and alive.

Battle Rage: You go berserk in any combat situation, regardless of whether you have been injured. To avoid this, you must make a self-control roll when you first enter combat (even a barroom brawl or a boxing match). +50%.

Vicious: Where a standard berserker must attempt a self-control roll if he or a loved one is harmed, and goes berserk automatically upon failing a self-control roll for Bad Temper, you have to roll if you so much as see anyone who isn’t an ally (for a zombie, that means any non-zombie), and immediately go berserk if you fail a self-control roll for Bloodlust or Uncontrollable Appetite. Consequently, you’ll be berserk far more often! A major benefit offsets this downside: your frenzy ends if you lose sight of enemies, so you’ll never attack allies. Mutually exclusive with Battle Rage. +0%.

You think and react like a wild animal. You have no concept of “civilized” standards of morality or propriety, and no concept of property. You fight or flee from those who frighten or threaten you. You cannot learn skills that, in the GM's opinion, rely on “civilized” notions of art or social interaction, and you have no default with such skills.

You are not necessarily out of control; you simply react in an animalistic manner. You will usually ignore those who leave you alone (unless they're food!), and might even come to display affection for those who treat you with special kindness. You cannot understand property in the human sense, but (depending on your race) you might understand territory and avoid doing damage to objects on another's territory. Whether you regard humans as individuals with territory rights is an open question! You might also understand dominance, and respect or even obey a human who has proved to be stronger than you.

You cannot take an Odious Personal Habit for your beast-like behavior; that's included in the cost of Bestial. But if your behavior is extremely repugnant to humans - equivalent in severity to a -15-point Odious Personal Habit - the GM might rule that Bestial is worth -15 points instead of the usual -10. You are free to take Odious Personal Habits unrelated to beast-like behavior (including “eats humans”), however.

Bestial is not necessarily tied to low IQ, but roleplaying a character who is both Bestial and remarkably intelligent would be a major challenge requiring a lot of thought and effort. The GM may therefore choose to restrict Bestial to characters with IQ scores under 10 (or even under 6!), or simply reserve it for NPCs. Note that the Wild Animal metatrait (p. 263) includes this disadvantage.

A Bestial zombie has lost the basic lessons of civilization. Unlike a beast, though, it wasn’t trained as a pet or raised as a wild animal, so it lacks those lessons, too. Thus, it exhibits atavistic or at best childish behavior. In game terms, whatever its skills before becoming a zombie, and regardless of its IQ:

• It has no concept of cooperation beyond mob behavior. At best, it might attack the same person as another zombie, or surmount a wall by clambering over the backs of its fallen companions.
• It has no skills or skill defaults for anything not directly concerned with survival. This definitely rules out artistic skills, social skills, and all Hard skills based on IQ or Will. Even attempts to use weapons are clumsy: -4 to hit.
• It only understands visible strength. If it’s predatory and not outnumbered, and its prey doesn’t have a higher SM, it won’t feel threatened. It won’t recognize weapons that haven’t hurt it, or grasp “force multipliers.” The same thinking goes for environmental dangers, like being swept away in a swift river.
• It’s incapable of planning or indirect action. If it wants to get from A to B, it does so in a predictable straight line, only detouring to avoid obstacles or things that have injured it in the past.

When in doubt, assume that it reacts like a selfish baby – but an adult-sized baby that, when it throws a tantrum, fights like an angry ape (if it was formerly human; lizard-man zombies are free to fight like angry crocs). It isn’t automatically vicious, though. That’s a function of mental problems like Berserk and Bloodlust. A Bestial zombie without such urges might flee everyone and everything strange, though that wouldn’t be very fun.

You cannot see at all. In unfamiliar territory, you must travel slowly and carefully, or have a companion or guide animal lead you. Many actions are impossible for you; the GM should use common sense.

You are at -6 to all combat skills. You can use hand weapons, but you cannot target a particular hit location. If using a ranged weapon, you can only attack randomly, or engage targets so close that you can hear them. All this assumes you are accustomed to blindness. If you suddenly lose your eyesight, you fight at -10, just as if you were in total darkness. In either case, you suffer no extra penalties for operating in the dark.

If you have Blindness, you cannot purchase superhuman vision abilities. If you see in a spectrum other than the visible one, you have the 0-point version of Infravision or Ultravision - not Blindness and the 10-point version of one of those advantages. Note that Scanning Sense and Vibration Sense are not vision; you may take either of these traits in conjunction with Blindness, at the usual point costs.

You want to see your foes dead. In battle, you must go for killing blows, and put in an extra shot to make sure of a downed foe. You must make a self-control roll whenever you need to accept a surrender, evade a sentry, take a prisoner, etc. If you fail, you attempt to kill your foe instead - even if that means breaking the law, compromising stealth, wasting ammo, or violating orders. Out of combat, you never forget that a foe is a foe.

This may seem a truly evil trait, but many fictional heroes suffer from it. The hero is not a fiend or sadist; his animosity is limited to “legitimate” enemies, be they criminals, enemy soldiers, or feuding clansmen. He often has a good reason for feeling as he does. And, in an ordinary tavern brawl, he would use his fists like anyone else. On the other hand, a gladiator or duelist with Bloodlust would be very unpopular, a policeman would soon be up on charges, and a soldier would risk a court-martial.

You like to push people around whenever you can get away with it. Depending on your personality and position, this might take the form of physical attacks, intellectual harassment, or social “cutting.” Make a self-control roll to avoid gross bullying when you know you shouldn't - but to roleplay your character properly, you should bully anybody you can. Since nobody likes a bully, others react to you at -2.

You are merciless, if not cruel. You can decipher others' emotions, but you do so only to manipulate them - you don't care about their feelings or pain. This gives you -3 on all Teaching rolls, on Psychology rolls made to help others (as opposed to deduce weaknesses or conduct scientific research), and on any skill roll made to interact with those who have suffered the consequences of your callousness in the past (GM's decision). As well, past victims, and anyone with Empathy, will react to you at -1. But ruthlessness has its perks: you get an extra +1 to Interrogation and Intimidation rolls when you use threats or torture.

You cannot spend earned character points to add or improve DX, IQ, skills, or mental advantages, nor can you acquire new techniques (see Techniques, p. 229) or familiarities (see Familiarity, p. 169) to accompany existing skills. You are stuck with your starting abilities!

You can still increase your ST and HT, and add physical advantages (with the GM's permission). As well, Cannot Learn doesn't prevent you from temporarily acquiring skills using the Modular Abilities advantage. Those with computer brains often possess both traits. This trait is most suitable for golems, mindless undead, robots, and other automata.

Some zombie aficionados regard this trait as mandatory, but the source fiction begs to differ. The titular character of Fido clearly doesn’t have this disadvantage – and in Day of the Dead and again in Land of the Dead, even traditionalist George A. Romero hints that zombies can learn. Fantasy RPG zombies are often Reprogrammable, which is just a kind of learning. A possible compromise is to let zombies earn character points through training or long service (both of which would be exceptional situations in most settings), and after they save up 30 points, have them buy off Cannot Learn and go on to learn new things.

Sci-fi settings, especially, occasionally include efforts to “reeducate” zombies. The technology to accomplish this would count as a Mitigator limitation – probably a daily treatment with a unique experimental procedure, for -50%. In that case, the zombie can learn at standard rates (pp. B292-294) while in the program. Should the treatments end, the zombie retains what it learned but cannot learn anything new.

You have a limited capacity for speech. This trait comes in two levels:

Cannot Speak: You can make vocal sounds (bark, growl, trill, etc., as appropriate), but your speech organs are incapable of the subtle modulations required for language. You may still have the Mimicry or Voice advantage, or the Disturbing Voice disadvantage (but not Stuttering). Most animals have this trait. -15 points.

Mute: You cannot vocalize at all. All communications with others must be nonverbal: writing, sign language, Morse code, telepathy, etc. Time spent communicating this way counts at full value for study of the related skills (see Chapter 9). No roll is required (or allowed!) when you try to communicate with PCs who don't know your sign language - roleplay this on your own! You cannot have any other voice-related traits. -25 points.

Technically, if a zombie can moan or say “Braaains!”, then it can make vocal sounds and should have Cannot Speak [-15] rather than Mute [-25]. This is fair for zombies that can vocalize well enough to convey basic information (“Moan once for ‘yes’ or twice for ‘no.’”) – Cannot Speak allows verbal communication, just not spoken language.

However, if the zombie can only make pointless noises – blurting them out at random when questioned or trying to speak – then requiring Cannot Speak instead of Mute amounts to charging 10 points for the capacity to repeat one useless word! As a compromise, a Mute zombie may have one trademark sound which is worthless for communication. If it’s compelled to repeat this even when attempting stealth, add Involuntary Utterance (p. 66).

You are acutely aware of others' emotions, and feel compelled to help those around you - even legitimate enemies. Make a self-control roll in any situation where you could render aid or are specifically asked for help, but should resist the urge. If you fail, you must offer assistance, even if that means violating orders or walking into a potential trap.

You've lost your will to live. You'd commit suicide, but it seems like so much trouble. Make a self-control roll to do anything but acquire and consume the minimum necessities for survival (for instance, to motivate yourself to go to a movie, attend a job interview, or keep a date), or whenever you must choose between two or more actions. If you fail, you take the path of least resistance. This usually means staying put and doing nothing.

If your self-control number is sufficiently low, you will find it almost impossible to do anything at all for yourself, unless someone physically drags you out of your lair. If somebody shows up and demands that you go out and do something with him, make a self-control roll. If you fail, you go along with his plan out of apathy.

You may eventually replace this disadvantage with another one of equivalent value that is more conducive to self-esteem. The GM need only allow this evolution if you roleplay it convincingly. The GM may also require you to roleplay both disadvantages (the new one constantly, the Chronic Depression whenever the GM decides to bring it into play) during the transition period.

You may also acquire this disadvantage in play. If you violate a self-imposed mental disadvantage (see p. 121), or lose a Dependent, the GM may replace that disadvantage with this one.

You have an injury, disorder, or illness that leaves you in severe pain on a regular basis - perhaps even constantly. Examples include arthritis, bone cancer, migraines, and pieces of shrapnel embedded in the body (an “old war wound”).

Roll against the frequency of appearance for your Chronic Pain once per day. If you roll below this number, you suffer a bout of pain. The timing of this attack is up to the GM, but it usually occurs during waking hours - you might wake up with it, or it might be set off by stress (fatigue, exertion, etc.) during the day.

While in pain, reduce your DX and IQ by the amount specified for the severity of your pain (see below). Reduce self-control rolls to resist disadvantages such as Bad Temper and Berserk by the same amount - someone in pain is more likely to lose his cool. If the GM rules that the attack occurs while you are trying to sleep, you suffer penalties for sleep deprivation instead of the usual effects of this disadvantage.

Chronic Pain attacks endure for a fixed “interval,” after which you may attempt a HT roll to recover. If you succeed, you have dealt with your pain… today. If you fail, the attack continues for another interval, after which you may attempt another HT roll. And so on.

Find the point cost of Chronic Pain by choosing a severity and then multiplying the given cost to reflect the interval and frequency of attacks. Drop all fractions.

Mild: -2 to DX, IQ, and self-control rolls: -5 points. Severe: -4 to DX, IQ, and self-control rolls: -10 points. Agonizing: -6 to DX, IQ, and self-control rolls: -15 points.

1 hour: x0.5. 2 hours: x1. 4 hours: x1.5. 8 hours: x2.

Attack occurs on a roll of 6 or less: x0.5. Attack occurs on a roll of 9 or less: x1. Attack occurs on a roll of 12 or less: x2. Attack occurs on a roll of 15 or less: x3.

This can represent many types of disease or injury. Suitably advanced biotech can cure this: surgery for shrapnel, gene therapy for cancer, neurological biomods for migraines. If cured during play, the GM should require the disadvantage to be bought off with character points.

You work well with others and seek out company. This trait comes in two levels:

Chummy: You react to others at +2 most of the time. When alone, you are unhappy and distracted, and suffer a -1 penalty to IQ-based skills. -5 points.

Gregarious: You usually react to others at +4. You are miserable when alone, and use IQ-based skills at -2 - or at -1 if in a group of four or less. -10 points.

You totally miss the point of any wit aimed at you, and are oblivious to attempts to seduce you (+4 to resist Sex Appeal). The meanings of colloquial expressions escape you. Sophisticated manners are also beyond you, giving -4 to Savoir-Faire skill. You have many minor habits that annoy others (e.g., leaving the turn signal on while driving from Chicago to Albuquerque), and may take one or two of these as quirks. Most people will react to you at -2.

Unlike No Sense of Humor, you may make jokes - albeit lame ones - and you can appreciate slapstick and written humor. However, you rarely “get” verbal humor, especially if you are the target (roll vs. IQ-4 roll to realize you're the butt of the joke). And unlike Gullibility, you normally realize when someone is trying to take advantage of you, except in social situations. You are no more susceptible to Fast-Talk than normal, save when someone is trying to convince you that an attractive member of the appropriate sex is interested in you…

This disadvantage is most appropriate for ivory-tower geniuses, aliens from Mars, etc.

You take pride in a set of principles that you follow at all times. The specifics can vary, but they always involve “honorable” behavior. You will do nearly anything - perhaps even risk death - to avoid the label “dishonorable” (whatever that means).

You must do more than pay lip service to a set of principles to get points for a Code of Honor. You must be a true follower of the Code! This is a disadvantage because it often requires dangerous - if not reckless - behavior. Furthermore, you can often be forced into unfair situations, because your foes know you are honorable.

Code of Honor is not the same as Duty or Sense of Duty. A samurai or British grenadier marches into battle against fearful odds out of duty, not for his personal honor (though of course he would lose honor by fleeing). The risks you take for your honor are solely on your own account.

The point value of a particular Code of Honor depends on how much trouble it is liable to get you into and how arbitrary and irrational its requirements are. An informal Code that applies only among your peers is worth -5 points. A formal Code that applies only among peers, or an informal one that applies all the time, is worth -10 points. A formal Code that applies all the time, or that requires suicide if broken, is worth -15 points. The GM has the final say! Some examples:

Code of Honor (Pirate's): Always avenge an insult, regardless of the danger; your buddy's foe is your own; never attack a fellow crewman or buddy except in a fair, open duel. Anything else goes. This is also suitable for brigands, bikers, etc. -5 points.

Code of Honor (Prisoner’s): Always avenge an insult, regardless of the danger; defend what’s yours; stand up for yourself and your gang. Tell the man what he wants to hear, but never snitch. Anything else goes. -5 points.

Code of Honor (Professional): Adhere to the ethics of your profession; always do your job to the best of your ability; support your guild, union, or professional association. This is most suitable for lawyers and physicians (Hippocratic Oath), but dedicated tradesmen, merchants, and so forth may have a similar Code. -5 points.

Code of Honor (Gentleman's): Never break your word. Never ignore an insult to yourself, a lady, or your flag; insults may only be wiped out by an apology or a duel (not necessarily to the death!). Never take advantage of an opponent in any way; weapons and circumstances must be equal (except in open war). This only applies between gentlemen. A discourtesy from anyone of Status 0 or less calls for a whipping, not a duel! -10 points.

Code of Honor (Soldier's): An officer should be tough but fair, lead from the front, and look out for his men; an enlisted man should look out for his buddies and take care of his kit. Every soldier should be willing to fight and die for the honor of his unit, service, and country; follow orders; obey the “rules of war”; treat an honorable enemy with respect (a dishonorable enemy deserves a bullet); and wear the uniform with pride. -10 points.

Code of Honor (Chivalry): As Code of Honor (Gentleman's), except that flags haven't been invented. Respond to any insult to your liege-lord or to your faith. Protect any lady, and anyone weaker than yourself. Accept any challenge to arms from anyone of greater or equal rank. Even in open war, sides and weapons must be equal if the foe is also noble and chivalrous. -15 points.

Your body temperature fluctuates with the temperature of the environment. You are less susceptible to damage from high or low body temperature (+2 HT to resist the effects of temperature), and require only 1/3 the food needed by a warm-blooded being of equal mass, but you tend to “stiffen up” in cold weather.

After 30 minutes in cold conditions (or one hour if you have any level of Temperature Tolerance), you get -1 to Basic Speed and DX per 10° below your “threshold temperature” (see below). At temperatures below 32°, you must roll vs. HT or take 1 HP of damage. Warm clothing gives +2 to this roll.

You regain lost Basic Speed and DX at the rate of one point of each per hour once you return to a warm climate. Double this rate in an exceptionally warm environment.

Point value depends on your “threshold temperature”:

You “stiffen up” below 50°: -5 points. You “stiffen up” below 65°: -10 points.

You cannot see any colors at all (this is total colorblindness). In any situation requiring color identification (e.g., gem buying, livery identification, or pushing the red button to start the motor), the GM should give you appropriate difficulties. Certain skills are always harder for you. In particular, you are at -1 on most Artist, Chemistry, Driving, Merchant, Piloting, and Tracking rolls.

You tend to “freeze up” in combat situations, and receive -2 to all Fright Checks. This has nothing to do with Cowardice - you may be brave, but your body betrays you.

In any situation in which personal harm seems imminent, make a HT roll. Do not roll until the instant you need to fight, run, pull the trigger, or whatever. Any roll over 13 is a failure, even if you have HT 14+. On a success, you can act normally. On a failure, you are mentally stunned (see Effects of Stun, p. 420). Make another HT roll every second, at a cumulative +1 per turn after the first, to break the freeze. A quick slap from a friend gives +1 to your cumulative roll.

Once you unfreeze, you will not freeze again until the immediate danger is over. Then, in the next dangerous situation, you may freeze once again. This trait is the opposite of Combat Reflexes. You cannot have both.

You have a habit - often a vice - that wastes a good deal of your time or money. You must indulge at least once per day, if at all possible, and do so any time you have the opportunity unless you can make a self-control roll. You seek to avoid any situation where you know you will be unable to indulge for more than a day. You must make a self-control roll to enter into such a situation; if you succeed (or are forced into the situation), you suffer from Bad Temper the whole time, with the same self-control roll as your Compulsive Behavior. It's bad roleplaying to try to avoid your compulsion regularly!

The point value of this disadvantage depends on how much your habit costs and how much trouble it is likely to get you into. The GM is the final judge. Examples include:

Compulsive Carousing: You cannot resist the urge to party! Once per day, you must seek out a social gathering and lounge around - feasting, drinking, singing, and joking - for at least an hour. If you are not invited, you crash the party; if there is no party, you attempt to liven things up. Money is no object! If you have it, you will spend it. You try almost any mindaltering substance without a second thought, never refuse a social drink, and aren't particularly picky about your romantic partners. You get +1 to reactions from like-minded extroverts, but -1 or worse from sober-minded citizens - and -4 in puritanical settings. -5 points* (-10 points* in puritanical settings).

Compulsive Gambling: You cannot pass up an opportunity to gamble. Bets, wagers, games of chance, and even lotteries hold an uncanny fascination for you. If there is no game of chance or bet going, you will start one. You try any gambling game proposed to you, whether you know it or not. You do not have to have the Gambling skill, but if you don't, you will need a steady source of wealth! If you are prevented from gambling - for instance, by traveling with nongamblers - you will quickly earn a reaction penalty (-1 per -5 points in this disadvantage, after the self-control multiplier) by constantly talking about gambling and attempting to draw others into games or wagers. -5 points.*

Compulsive Generosity: You are too open-handed. If a beggar asks for cash, you give - and where others give copper, you give silver. You always listen to larger requests for financial aid, if they are even remotely plausible, and you must make a self-control roll whenever you hear a good hard-luck story (if you are broke when asked, you apologize profusely). You aren't a complete sucker - you just feel guilty about being better off than others. In a society with a lot of beggars around, increase your cost of living:

This may earn you a +1 reaction bonus from pious folk; if you are poor yourself, the reaction bonus may be even higher. This trait is incompatible with Miserliness. -5 points.*

Compulsive Lying: You lie constantly, for no reason other than the joy of telling the tale. You delight in inventing stories about your deeds, lineage, wealth - whatever might impress your audience. Even when exposed as a liar, you cling to your stories tenaciously, calling your accuser a liar and a scoundrel. Make a self-control roll to tell the pure, unvarnished truth. If you fail, you lie - no matter how dire the consequences. When you roll to tell the truth to your fellow party members, roll out of sight of the other players. Thus, they can never be sure they are getting accurate information. -15 points.*

Compulsive Spending: Cash just runs through your fingers! You enjoy being seen as a big spender, are too fond of luxury, or find the experience of buying to be fun - perhaps all three. Make a self-control roll whenever someone offers you a purchase that matches any of your quirks or interests, and the cash in your pocket is more than twice the asking price. If you fail, you buy. This raises your cost of living, and gives you a penalty to Merchant skill when you bargain or haggle:

Compulsive Spending is not limited to the wealthy! A poor farmer can be a spendthrift. This trait is incompatible with Miserliness (it's the opposite!), but you can combine it with Greed. -5 points.*

Compulsive Survivalism: Your zeal for preparedness often preempts common sense. Make a self-control roll whenever you see an opportunity to scrounge ammo, food, fuel, medicine, or other scarce resources, even if the area is dangerous; e.g., a “hot zone,” or a mall overrun by zombies or gangs. Failure means you must investigate. Whenever you have downtime, you must dedicate a percentage of it to maintaining gear, inventorying supplies, and triple-checking perimeters, regardless of whether that’s necessary. This reduces the time you have for learning skills, which can ultimately make your survival less likely.

Finally, your insistence on drills and escape plans affects how people react to you: +1 per full -5 points in this disadvantage (after the self-control multiplier) from others who have it, but an equal-sized penalty from those who don’t. -5 points.*

Compulsive Vowing: You never simply decide to do something; you must make it an oath. Although these vows are often trivial in nature, you approach them all with the same solemnity and dedication. You may tack extraneous vows onto legitimate ones. -5 points.*

Some zombies are bound to repeat specific actions, much like haunting ghosts. Those created deliberately – most often with magic, but perhaps via drugs or mind control – might have hard-wired orders, such as patrolling a particular area, turning a capstan or a mill forever, or never straying more than 10 yards from a specific doorway. Ones driven by unfinished business may follow a routine associated with that business. And zombies motivated by vengeance could perpetually seek some enemy or resolution. These sorts of things constitute Compulsive Behavior or Obsession (p. B146), which may take a special form for zombies.

The zombie has programming or a supernatural drive that runs far deeper than a mere bad habit. It never gets a self-control roll to resist this, but because it could be physically or supernaturally diverted from its task, No SelfControl (p. 60) isn’t entirely appropriate. Instead, point value is based solely on how strict the compulsion is:

-1 point: A motivation so trivial as to be a quirk. Example: “Say ‘Braaains!’ every 10 seconds.”

-5 points: A broad motivation that leaves much room for discrimination. This is suitable for servitors with a “default” set of orders that allows reasonable modification, or for zombies tied to a relatively large area. Examples: “Guard the city of Cisra” or “Haunt the lands of Tarchna.”

-10 points: A narrow motivation that leaves some room for discrimination. Examples: “Guard this door at all times” (which allows the zombie to be given a ranged weapon and ordered to defend the portal from 50 or even 500 yards away, or to be told to buttress the door rather than attack those who approach it) or “Pursue my killer, pausing only to find ways around obstacles.”

-15 points: A narrow and completely prescribed motivation that’s easily exploited by enemies. Examples: “Stay within 10 yards of this door at all times, attacking any strangers who approach” or “Pursue my killer in a straight line, surmounting obstacles with brute force alone.”

If the zombie can’t carry out its task, for whatever reason, it suffers from a disadvantage of equal value until the situation is remedied. For a supernaturally cursed zombie, this problem is often Unluckiness – the curse finds an alternative outlet. If the blocked compulsion signifies orders, Confused is the standard outcome. And if it represents vengeance, Berserk usually results! The GM may specify other cases, or vary the consequences to suit the circumstances.

A zombie can’t get points for both Zombie Motivation and another disadvantage that amounts to the same thing; e.g., Duty (15 or less) to a city-state’s ruler, for -15 points, would preclude another -5 points from a Zombie Motivation to protect that city-state. Zombie Motivation can accompany Reprogrammable (p. 63), but the latter cannot revise the former; see Programming and Precedence (p. 63). The zombie-master who wants guards that won’t stray from his fortress gates can build in a Zombie Motivation to that effect, with Reprogrammable to let his lieutenant command the zombies – but if he ever needs those zombies for anything else, they’ll stand around Confused.

To you, the world seems a strange and incomprehensible place most of the time. You are not necessarily stupid, but you are slow to pick up on new facts or situations. In particular, you respond poorly to excessive stimulation. When alone in the peace and quiet of your own home, you function normally. But in a strange place, or when there's a commotion going on, you must make a self-control roll. On a failure, you freeze up instead of taking decisive or appropriate action. This often prevents you from making Tactics rolls and engaging in other sorts of longrange planning. The GM should adjust the self-control roll in accordance with the stimuli in the area. To resist confusion from two friends chatting quietly in a familiar room would require an unmodified roll, but a nightclub with flashing lights and pounding music might give -5, and a full-scale riot or battle would give -10!

If this disadvantage strikes in combat, you must take the Do Nothing maneuver each turn. You are not stunned, and if you are directly and physically attacked, you can defend yourself normally. You can even launch a counterattack against that one foe. But you never act - only react.

This difficulty suits “shufflers”: zombies that don’t merely react instinctively, stupidly, or viciously, but mostly not at all. When a template for zombies that assemble in a horde includes Confused, read “in the peace and quiet of your own home” as “in the company of the horde” – because while the disadvantage text notes that two friends chatting quietly in a familiar room would trigger a self-control roll, two, 20, or even 200 zombies who all suffer from Confused and spend all day shambling won’t offer much stimulation. Similarly, a Vodou slave needn’t roll to labor mindlessly, even alongside dozens of others noisily swinging picks or machetes. In these cases, it’s breaks from routine that trigger rolls.

Really worthless shufflers have Slave Mentality (p. 64) – or the Automaton meta-trait (p. 69), which includes that disadvantage – without Duty (p. 61) and/or Reprogrammable (p. 63) to give them meaning. This is instead of Confused.

You are extremely careful about your physical well-being. Make a selfcontrol roll any time you are called on to risk physical danger. Roll at -5 if you must risk death. If you fail, you must refuse to endanger yourself unless threatened with greater danger!

Cowardice gives a penalty to Fright Checks whenever physical danger is involved:

In some times and places, soldiers, police, etc., react to you at a similar penalty if they know you are a coward.

You are naturally very inquisitive. This is not the curiosity that affects all PCs (“What's in that cave? Where did the flying saucer come from?”), but the real thing (“What happens if I push this button?”).

Make a self-control roll when presented with an interesting item or situation. If you fail, you examine it - push buttons, pull levers, open doors, unwrap presents, etc. - even if you know it could be dangerous. Good roleplayers won't try to make this roll very often…

In general, you do everything in your power to investigate any situation with which you aren't 100% familiar. When faced with a real mystery, you simply cannot turn your back on it. You try to rationalize your curiosity to others who try to talk you out of it. Common Sense doesn't help - you know you are taking a risk, but you're curious anyway!

Like Unluckiness, but worse. When anything goes wrong for your party, it happens to you, first and worst. If something goes right, it misses you. Any time the GM feels like hosing you, he can, and you have no complaint coming, because you are Cursed. You can't buy this off just by spending points - you must determine what has cursed you and deal with it, and then spend the points.

You cannot hear anything. You must receive information in writing (if you are literate) or sign language. However, time you spend communicating this way counts at full value for study of the skills used (Gesture, Lip- Reading, etc.); see Chapter 9.

Debt is a disadvantage that is covered in the Wealth and Influence section.

This is the disadvantageous counterpart to Altered Time Rate. You experience time half as fast as normal: one subjective second for every two real seconds that pass. You only get a turn every two seconds in combat! (Gaming groups that enjoy extra detail might wish to give characters with Decreased Time Rate “half-turns” instead: splitting a Move maneuver across two turns, declaring an Attack maneuver one turn and rolling to hit the next, etc.)

You believe something that simply is not true. This may cause others to consider you insane. And they may be right! If you suffer from a Delusion, you must roleplay your belief at all times. The point value of the Delusion depends on its nature:

Minor: This Delusion affects your behavior, and anyone around you will soon notice it, but it does not keep you from functioning more-or-less normally. Those who notice your Delusion will react at -1. Examples: “Squirrels are messengers from God.” “The Illuminati are watching me constantly - but only to protect me.” “I am the rightful Duke of Fnordia, stolen at birth by Gypsies and doomed to live among commoners.” -5 points.

Major: This Delusion strongly affects your behavior, but does not keep you from living a fairly normal life. Others will react at -2. Examples: “The government has all phones tapped.” “I have Eidetic Memory and Absolute Direction.” -10 points.

Severe: This Delusion affects your behavior so much that it may keep you from functioning in the everyday world. Others react to you at -3, but they are more likely to fear or pity you than to attack. A Delusion this severe can keep you from participating meaningfully in the campaign; therefore, you should always clear it with the GM first. Examples: “I am Napoleon.” “I am immortal.” “Ice cream makes machines work better, especially computers. Spoon it right in.” -15 points.

Depending on your behavior, the same Delusion could be a quirk (-1 point) or worth -5, -10, or -15 points. Consider “Everything colored purple is alive.” If you pat purple things and say hello, that's a quirk. If you won't discuss serious matters with purple things in the room, it's a Minor Delusion. If you picket the Capitol demanding Civil Rights For Purple Things, that's Major. If you attack purple things on sight, that's Severe!

Regardless of how insane you really are, you may not get more than -40 points, total, from Delusions. A GM who wants to shake up his players can have a Delusion turn out to be true. This does not suit all Delusions. Of those listed above, for instance, the ones about squirrels, ice cream, and Napoleon seem unlikely. But the Illuminati might really exist, or Gypsies might really have stolen the heir to the throne of Fnordia… Have fun!

If your Delusion turns out to be true, you don't have to buy it off until the other players realize it's true. (And remember: the GM won't tell you that you are not really crazy. You can be right and still be crazy…)

These mostly annoy others with undue optimism or disturbing behavior: -1 to reaction rolls per -5 points. However, if the GM feels it’s the sort of thing that wouldn’t matter in polite company (or if there’s no polite company left!), he may handle it as a combat disadvantage instead.

Combat Delusions have self-control numbers, and on any turn when such a Delusion would apply in a fight (GM’s decision), you must try a self-control roll (see p. B121). Success lets you act normally. Failure means you must do something risky – much as if suffering from On the Edge (p. B146), and usually involving either an unnecessary skill penalty (e.g., -7 to target the skull when it’ll make no difference) or an All-Out Attack. On a critical failure, you’ll either fight the rest of the battle that way or do something radically unwise (like run into the horde screaming, “Brothers!”).

You must regularly ingest a substance (e.g., a drug or magic potion), touch or carry an object (e.g., a holy shrine or magical amulet), or spend time in an environment (e.g., your coffin or your home country, planet, or plane) in order to survive. If you fail to do so, you start to lose HP and will eventually die. Point value depends on the rarity of the item you depend on:

Rare (cannot be bought; must be found or made): -30 points.

Occasional (very expensive or hard to find): -20 points.

Common (expensive, somewhat hard to find): -10 points.

Very Common (available almost anywhere): -5 points.

Add -5 points to these values for items that are illegal in your game world.

Apply a multiplier based on the frequency with which you must receive the item:

Constantly: You must carry and use the substance at all times - for example, an exotic atmosphere. Lose 1 HP per minute without the substance. x5.

Hourly: Lose 1 HP per 10 minutes after missing an hourly dose. x4.

Daily: Lose 1 HP per hour after missing a daily dose. x3.

Weekly: Lose 1 HP per six hours after missing a weekly dose. x2.

Monthly: Lose 1 HP per day after missing a monthly dose. x1.

Seasonally: Lose 1 HP per three days after missing a seasonal dose (a “season” is three months for this purpose). x1/3 (drop all fractions).

Yearly: Lose 1 HP per two weeks after missing a yearly dose. x1/10 (drop all fractions).

If you need to touch an object or spend time in an environment, you must do so for time equal to your damage interval in order to avoid damage. For instance, to avoid losing 1 HP per hour to a daily Dependency on rest in your coffin, you must spend at least one hour per day in your coffin. To avoid losing 1 HP every two weeks to a yearly Dependency on visiting your home planet, you must visit your home planet for at least two weeks per year.

With the GM's permission, normal humans may take this disadvantage to represent the special requirements of certain chronic illnesses.

Not every life-support requirement qualifies as Dependency. Use Maintenance if you require skilled care - not a substance, object, or environment - to avoid HT loss (not injury). Use Restricted Diet for special dietary requirements that result in slow starvation as opposed to rapid HP loss when you are forced to do without.

Aging: You age unnaturally without the item you depend on. For each HP lost, you also age two years (even if you are normally Unaging). +30%.

Undead zombies and constructs often depend on regular infusions of something weird or supernatural in order to avoid becoming simply dead. Some common situations:

Flesh: Undead that must consume people don’t qualify for Doesn’t Eat or Drink or Reduced Consumption – but because the undead have No Fatigue (pp. 67-68), they cannot pay the standard FP penalty for starvation and don’t qualify for Restricted Diet, either. Treat the grisly diet of such monsters as Dependency (Human Flesh; Common; Illegal; Daily) [-45]. Truly ravenous ghouls might rate Dependency (Human Flesh; Common; Illegal; Hourly) [-60]! Don’t adjust rarity if the zombie needs some specific part (e.g., brains), but feel free to add Slow Eater [-10] (p. B155) if extracting that morsel takes extra time.

Mana: Magically animated zombies usually need constant exposure to mana to avoid destruction. In most settings, at least some mana permeates the whole world but for a few small areas, making it “Very Common”; this gives Dependency (Mana; Very Common; Constantly) [-25]. In a secret-magic or world-jumping campaign, mana might not be as easy to find, but it’s still a near-ubiquitous field where it does show up; use Dependency (Mana; Common; Constantly) [-50]. Zombies like this typically run on mana, almost as if it were fuel, and have Doesn’t Eat or Drink – and probably Doesn’t Breathe.

Sanctity: Zombies that depend on the sanctity of a deity use the rules for mana. Due to considerations such as divine rivalry, and mortal priests having the power to bless or ritually desecrate areas at will, the “Common” price (-50 points) is fairest. Zombies in the last temple of some forgotten god, or lurking in an ancient tomb consecrated to such a divinity, might have Dependency (Sanctity; Rare; Constantly) [-150], rendering them functionally incapable of leaving.

Serum: Plenty of weird-science undead and constructs – including alchemical ones in fantasy – need regular doses of some secret formula to avoid rapid disintegration. Such preparations almost always need to be made, usually by one reanimator, and are “Rare.” Injections are typically daily, weekly, or monthly: Dependency (Serum; Rare; Daily) [-90], Dependency (Serum; Rare; Weekly) [-60], or Dependency (Serum; Rare; Monthly) [-30]. It’s worth more points if the concoction is made from murder victims, plutonium, or anything else that might be cut off because lawmen showed an interest not in zombies but in illegal substances: Dependency (Serum; Rare; Illegal; Daily) [-105], Dependency (Serum; Rare; Illegal; Weekly) [-70], or Dependency (Serum; Rare; Illegal; Monthly) [-35]. A serum needn’t provide vital energy – and if it doesn’t, the zombie won’t have Doesn’t Eat or Drink and might even suffer from Restricted Diet (p. 63).

Weirder Science: Technologically created zombies sometimes draw their power from strange fields; if cut off, the mechanisms that preserve them shut down almost immediately. Experimental broadcast power rates as “Occasional” (it isn’t any more common than a rare serum, but the zombie needn’t return to the lab to get it), while in a world where everything runs on it, it’s found in all civilized parts and therefore “Common”: Dependency (Broadcast Power; Occasional; Constantly) [-100] or Dependency (Broadcast Power; Common; Constantly) [-50]. Etheric and Odic energy fields are mana by another name, and use the values given for it (typically -25 points).

Undead and constructs that slip into a slow decline without the regular attentions of a wizard, mad scientist, etc. have Maintenance (p. 62). This doesn’t preclude Dependency on another item. Living zombies controlled through drugs have Addiction (pp. 57- 58), not Dependency – even when death would result if the drugs were withheld – except in cases where withdrawal is flatly impossible, by any means.

A “Dependent” is an NPC for whom you are responsible; e.g., your child, kid brother, or spouse. You must take care of your Dependents. Furthermore, your foes can strike at you through them. (If you have both an Enemy and a Dependent, and the dice indicate that both appear, then the GM can build an entire adventure around this theme!)

If your Dependent ends up kidnapped or otherwise in danger during play, you must go to the rescue as soon as possible. If you don't go to his aid immediately, the GM can deny you bonus character points for “acting out of character.” Furthermore, you never earn any character points for a game session in which your Dependent is killed or badly hurt.

Three factors determine the disadvantage value of a Dependent: his competence, his importance (to you!), and his frequency of appearance.

Specify the number of points your Dependent is built on. The more points you use to “build” your Dependent, the more competent he will be, and the fewer points he will be worth as a disadvantage. “Point Total” is the Dependent's point total as a fraction of the PC's, except for the last line, which is absolute; “Cost” is the number of character points the disadvantage is worth.

The same person can be both a Dependent and an Ally! Add the cost of Ally and Dependent together, and treat the combination as a single trait: an advantage if the total point cost is positive, a disadvantage if it is negative. You must use the same point total for him in both cases, but frequency of appearance can differ. Roll separately for his appearance as a Dependent and as an Ally. If he appears as a Dependent, he shows up in a way that causes you trouble (e.g., he's captured). If he appears as an Ally, he manages to be helpful and take care of himself. If he appears as both, he is helpful and troublesome at the same time; for instance, he uses his skills to assist you, but also wanders off, is singled out by the enemy, or otherwise causes problems equal to the assistance he offers.

The more important your Dependent is to you, the more you multiply his intrinsic “nuisance value” and worth in points.

Employer or acquaintance: You feel a responsibility toward this person, but you may weigh risks to him in a rational fashion. x1/2.

Friend: You must always try to protect this person. You may only risk harm to him if something very important (such as the safety of many other people) is at stake. x1.

Loved one: The Dependent is a relative or a lover. You may not put anything before his safety! x2.

Unwilling: You feel obligated to take care of someone who doesn’t want your help or protection. This increases his nuisance value. You can’t take less care of him than of a willing Dependent, but he resists being taken care of, and may flee if he gets the chance. If he does, you can’t just let him go; your continuing sense of obligation requires you to find him and possibly regain custody of him. +50%.

Choose a frequency of appearance, as explained under Frequency of Appearance. This should fit the “story” behind the Dependent. If the Dependent were your infant child, for instance, it would be odd for him to appear “quite rarely”!

You cannot earn points for more than two Dependents. However, if you have a group of Dependents, you may count the entire group as your two Dependents. Work out the value of an average member of the group as a Dependent, and then claim twice this point value.

Example: A vigilante who is a schoolteacher by day could have “generic dependents”: all pupils. They are young (-10 points), around “quite often” (x2), and count as “friends” (x1), for -20 points each. However, the two- Dependent limit lets the hero claim -40 points' worth of Dependents. (And if one gets hurt, there are always others.)

As you earn points, the GM will scale your Dependent's abilities proportionally to keep his point total a fixed percentage of your own. Thus, his value as a disadvantage will not change. Children grow up, adults earn money, and everyone learns new skills. Dependents who spend a lot of time around you might become adventurers in their own right. You are free to suggest reasonable improvements for your Dependents, but the GM's word is final.

If your Dependent is killed, or so seriously injured that the GM decides he is effectively out of the campaign, you must make up the bonus points you got for him. You have three options: buy off the amount by spending earned character points, take a new disadvantage (e.g., Chronic Depression), or get a new Dependent. New Dependents are usually inappropriate, but a mental disability brought on by the loss is a good solution. (Ever since the octopus got Amy, you've been afraid of the ocean…)

• For anyone: elderly relatives, teachers, friends, children, younger brothers or sisters, lovers, husbands or wives.

• For crimefighters: young sidekicks, reporters, or wards.

• For wizards: apprentices.

• For ship captains (ocean- or space-going): ensigns or cabin boys.

• For soldiers: orphans or new recruits.

• For criminals or mad scientists: incompetent henchmen.

A disadvantageous Destiny functions identically to an advantageous one (see the Destiny advantage), save that it always leads to something bad - but perhaps not immediately, and not without a chance to gain honor by dealing with it well. A fated, tragic death can be an end worthy of a hero! This kind of Destiny comes in three levels:

Minor Disadvantage: You are fated to play a small part in a larger story, and you will not come off so well. You are guaranteed at least one tragic experience or embarrassing failure - although these things are unlikely to result in your death except under the most desperate and heroic of circumstances. -5 points.

Major Disadvantage: You are fated to play a key role in a sorry turn of events. For instance, you might be late with a message that could save the day… or execute the only competent general in a threatened province, causing its loss to barbarian invaders. Still, you will survive. -10 points.

Great Disadvantage: Death stalks you. Something out there has your name on it. It knows where you are and it's getting closer all the time. You will either die or be ruined, and your fall will have terrible repercussions for others. This kind of Destiny is not suitable for every campaign! The GM does not have to allow it - and if he does, he should plan on letting the campaign take a radical turn, or end, when the Destiny is fulfilled. -15 points.

You must buy off a disadvantageous Destiny as soon as it is fulfilled. This is automatic if the outcome strips you of Allies, Status, Wealth, etc. worth the same number of points. If you lack the points to buy off your Destiny, you gain Unluckiness, regardless of the point value of the Destiny. It is up to the GM whether you can buy off the Unluckiness! Alternatively, the GM might assign you a new bad Destiny, Divine Curse (below), or other supernatural disadvantage.

A zombie’s behavior is more often programmed into it at creation than a consequence of complex external laws governing its actions. One notable exception is the situation of solidified spirits and corporeal undead zombified as a consequence of an ill-conceived vow of vengeance, a broken oath, or an affront to a deity. Such creatures may be cursed by higher powers to wander until they discharge a duty or make amends.

Being fated to die – or in this case, to become restfully dead rather than a zombie – is a bit like Terminally Ill.

However, that disadvantage isn’t worth points for a doom more than two years distant, while cursed zombies sometimes linger for millennia. A -15-point Destiny, the sort that fates its possessor to die, comes closer. For advice on adjusting this point value, see Fulfilling the Mission (pp. 81-82).

Such a Destiny counts as a disadvantage even for zombies that are vaguely aware of their fate and would want to be laid to rest if they had a say in the matter. This is for the same reason why Dependency and Weakness are considered disadvantages: it’s a failing that zombie-killers can exploit. If hunters manage to manipulate events so that the curse ends – e.g., by killing the sole surviving descendent of the individual who wronged the zombies, or by propitiating the god who cursed the zombies – then they can defeat the zombies without a battle. This might thrill the people the zombies once were, but it’s a fatal flaw for the monsters they’ve become.

You live by a strict set of rules in order to achieve a greater understanding of your faith. This might be a personal decision or a requirement of your religion. Such rules are optional in many faiths, though - indeed, some religions might forbid them as excesses! Disciplines of Faith are often a prerequisite for abilities that channel divine power: Power Investiture, True Faith, etc.

Some examples of Disciplines of Faith:

Asceticism: You have renounced the comforts of society to lead a life of self-denial and self-discipline. This often involves some sort of isolation in bleak, austere settings. It might even involve sporadic bouts of severe self-punishment to excise the mortal taint of earthly desire. You must try to transcend all need for worldly possessions, and in any event cannot have above average Wealth, or Status beyond that granted by your Religious Rank (if any). -15 points.

Monasticism: You lead a life apart from worldly concerns. You are completely devoted to religious pursuits, which often involves the denial of ego and self. You must spend at least 75% of your time sequestered from the world, and cannot have above-average Wealth, or Status beyond that granted by your Religious Rank (if any). -10 points.

Mysticism: You engage in deep meditation and trance-like contemplation, with the aim of obtaining a closer union with the divine. You spend most of your time engaged in these rituals, complete with chanting and any other necessary trappings. Individuals other than devout co-religionists will consider you a bit mad, and will react at -2. -10 points.

Ritualism: You adhere strictly to elaborate rituals regarding every aspect of life - from waking to eating to bathing to sex. Each ritual has its proper place, time, words, trappings, and ceremony. Your fundamental belief is that, through the perfect performance of these rituals, you bring each aspect of your life closer to the divine. -5 points.

Your voice is naturally unpleasant or obviously artificial. Details can vary. You might be a robot, or use a technological aid to mitigate the Mute disadvantage. Your voice might be raspy, hollow, or squeaky, or your speech might be monotonous and without inflection. The game effects in all cases are identical to those of Stuttering, although you do not necessarily stutter.

This trait is the opposite of the Voice advantage; you cannot have both.

You suffer from a curse placed by a god or similar supernatural force. The curse might be on just you, on your entire family, or even on your nation or race.

Divine Curse can take any form the GM desires. It can be a continuing commandment (e.g., “You may never sleep at night,” -10 points), a misfortune (e.g., “Every child born to you will die young,” -5 points), or even a particularly nasty disadvantage such as Berserk, Blindness, or Epilepsy (at the usual cost). What makes it distinct from other disadvantages is the potential for removal. The curse was given for a reason, and you can try to uncover this reason and atone in play, thereby lifting the curse.

The GM should judge the point value of Divine Curse on a case-by-case basis, using existing disadvantages as guidelines: the more encompassing or debilitating the curse, the higher its value. Curses that result in standard disadvantages should never be worth more points than those disadvantages. Price commandments as if they were Vows. The terms of atonement will often be nearly as bad as the curse itself, or require great effort to discover and satisfy. Halve the point value if this is not the case.

Once per day, at a specific time - sunrise, noon, sunset, midnight, etc. - you take 2 HP of damage. You can do nothing to prevent this, and cannot heal the damage naturally (even if you have Regeneration!), technologically, or supernaturally. The only way to regain your lost HP is to receive a daily dose of a particular substance. Point cost depends on the rarity of this substance:

Rare (e.g., a special potion): -15 points.

Occasional (e.g., virgin's blood): -10 points.

Common (e.g., human blood): -5 points.

Add -5 points to these values for items that are illegal in your game world. This is not the same as Dependency. You can have both!

You suffer from a supernatural aversion that compels you to keep a certain, minimum distance from a particular item or substance. If outside forces bring you and the item you dread closer together than that, you must move away as fast as you can, by the most direct route possible. You may do nothing else until you are beyond the range of your Dread. If you cannot put at least that much distance between yourself and the object of your Dread, your Dread will render you helpless!

You can instantly sense the presence of the dreaded substance as soon as you enter the forbidden radius. You do not know exactly where it is, but you know what direction it lies in and are compelled to go exactly the other way.

Base value of Dread is -10 points, which prohibits you from coming within one yard of the dreaded substance. A larger radius gives an additional -1 point per yard, to a maximum of -20 points at 11 yards. Find the final disadvantage value by multiplying the point value for your range to reflect the rarity of the substance, as described for the Weakness disadvantage.

Cannot Be Trapped: You cannot enter the forbidden zone of your own volition, but if carried there by an outside force, you no longer feel your Dread. You can act normally in the forbidden zone until you leave the substance's presence, at which time the prohibition reactivates. -50%.

Any number of things might repel zombies, particularly supernaturally animated ones. A few items are especially likely:

Rare (x1/2 point value): One specific kind of holy symbol*, de-zombification ritual, spell, or other sacred or magical countermeasure.

Occasional (x1): Any ordinary religious symbol*; the sound of spoken prayer*.

Common (x2): Fire.

Very Common (x3): Sunlight.

* True Faith (p. B94) repels some undead and solidified spirits, but that advantage is sufficiently rare that being influenced by it is considered a mere quirk (Can Be Turned By True Faith, p. 66). However, a zombie can get further points for a general Dread of holy symbols or prayer. When these things are presented as part of a show of True Faith, and that ability would also affect the zombie, add True Faith’s one-yard standoff distance to the Dread’s radius.

Zombies rarely have the Cannot Be Trapped limitation – they lack the will. Still, if most zombies can be trapped, a variant that can’t be would make for an interesting surprise!

A zombie without Unfazeable may have Phobias (pp. 62- 63) instead of Dreads. These are often more suitable when the supernatural isn’t involved.

If your occupation and social situation saddle you with a significant personal obligation toward others, and occasionally require you to obey hazardous orders, you have a “Duty.” Duty most often accompanies Rank, a Patron, or one of the traits discussed under Privilege. A particularly arduous job might qualify as a Duty, but most ordinary jobs would not. A wholly self-imposed feeling of duty is not a Duty, either (but it can still be a disadvantage; see Sense of Duty). Finally, you cannot claim points for a Duty toward Dependents; the points you get for Dependents already reflect your obligations in this regard.

The GM may restrict the Duties allowed in a campaign, or even forbid them entirely, if he feels they would unduly disrupt the flow of the adventure. If you have a Duty, the GM rolls at the beginning of each adventure to see whether it comes into play. Being “called to duty” could delay your plans… or be the reason for the adventure! Alternatively, your master might give you a secret agenda to pursue, or his associates might harass you while you are officially “on leave.” If you try to avoid your Duty, your GM is within his rights to penalize you for bad roleplaying. The basic point cost of a Duty depends on the frequency with which comes up in play:

Almost all the time (roll of 15 or less): -15 points. At this level, the GM may rule that you are always on duty.

Quite often (roll of 12 or less): -10 points.

Fairly often (roll of 9 or less): -5 points.

Quite rarely (roll of 6 or less): -2 points.

This cost is for an occasionally hazardous Duty imposed through normal social means. If this does not describe your Duty, you should modify the cost:

Extremely Hazardous: You are always at risk of death or serious injury when your Duty comes up. There are significant penalties if you refuse to take these risks: dismissal in disgrace, imprisonment, perhaps even death. The GM has the final say as to whether a given Duty is “extremely hazardous” in his campaign. -5 points.

Involuntary: Your Duty is enforced by threats to you or your loved ones, or is imposed by exotic mind control, a curse, etc. This is unrelated to how hazardous the Duty is when you carry it out - the danger here lies in what will happen if you don't carry it out! A Duty can be Involuntary and either Extremely Hazardous or Nonhazardous. -5 points.

Nonhazardous: Your Duty never requires you to risk your life. This option is mutually exclusive with Extremely Hazardous. +5 points. (If this raises the cost of your Duty to 0 points or more, the obligation is too trivial to qualify as a Duty.)

Example 1: A mayor is indebted to the crime lord who got him elected. His benefactor rarely calls on him for favors (-2 points), but since the mayor faces blackmail or violence if he refuses to comply, his Duty is Involuntary. Duty (Crime Lord, 6 or less; Involuntary) is worth -7 points.

Example 2: A commando is always on duty (-15 points). He might see only a handful of combat assignments in his whole career, but these will be deadly. And his daily routine calls for him to jump out of planes, hike through snake-infested jungles, and train with live ammo. A commando has Duty (Army, 15 or less; Extremely Hazardous), for -20 points.

Mad scientists, necromancers, and so on often program zombie servitors with Duties, the power-hungry standard being “almost all the time” (15 or less), for -15 points. Such a Duty might be Involuntary (giving another -5 points) if the zombie is a living victim who could attempt to resist his master’s orders at some dire cost – usually death or (in settings where it matters) eternal damnation. He’s compelled to behave like a zombie out of fear. Far more often, however, a zombie’s Duty stems from brute-force mental programming and/or removing the subject’s will to break free. That’s Reprogrammable (p. 63) or Slave Mentality (p. 64), and a zombie with either trait cannot get extra points from Involuntary, as these disadvantages already cover similar ground.

A zombie with Duty (Involuntary) or any combination of Duty with Reprogrammable or Slave Mentality – in practice, almost any zombie that has a Duty – cannot be given the Nonhazardous qualifier. Such a zombie is required to risk its life if its master so commands.

You have a crippling reading disability. Even simple maps and road signs are beyond you. You start with a written comprehension level of “None” in your native language. This is included in Dyslexia; you get no extra points for it. Furthermore, you may never improve your written comprehension level beyond “None” in any language. For more on language comprehension, see Language.

You can learn “book-learned” skills at normal speed if you have a teacher to substitute for your inability to use texts. Attempts to learn such a skill without a teacher progress at 1/4 speed - if the skill is one you can teach yourself without books. The GM's word is final in all cases. In traditional fantasy settings, magic is a booklearned skill, and Dyslexia prevents you from ever becoming a wizard.

Note that this is a severe case. Mild dyslexia is not significant in game terms, except possibly as a quirk.

You have a health problem or structural weakness that leaves you prone to catastrophic system failure if you suffer enough damage. Each level of Easy to Kill gives -1 to HT rolls made for survival at -HP or below, and on any HT roll where failure would mean instant death (e.g., heart failure). This does not affect most normal HT rolls - only those to avoid certain death. You may not reduce your HT roll below 3. For instance, if you have HT 10, you are limited to Easy to Kill 7.

Your body language betrays your true intentions. This is not the same as Truthfulness. You have no moral problem with lying, and may even possess Fast-Talk at a high level, but your face or stance gives the game away.

Easy to Read gives others +4 on all Empathy, Body Language, and Psychology rolls to discern your intentions or the truth of your words. As well, they get +4 to their IQ, Detect Lies, and Gambling rolls in any Quick Contest with your Acting, Fast-Talk, or Gambling skill when you try to lie or bluff. (If you also have Truthfulness, your Fast-Talk skill is at -5 on top of this.) This is a crippling disadvantage for a would-be spy, con man, or gambler!

This is a mental disadvantage, despite its physical manifestations; with enough practice, you can “buy it off.”

Your body contains unshielded electronics, or relies on electrical power for its vital energy. This makes you susceptible to attacks that only affect electrical systems, such as spells, advantages, and ultra-tech weapons that drain power or produce “surge” effects, and the electromagnetic pulse from a nuclear blast. A critical hit from an electrical attack causes you to “short-circuit,” rendering you unconscious in addition to any other damage effects.

This disadvantage usually accompanies the Machine meta-trait, but this is not required. Afflictions and Innate Attacks that only affect those with this trait are possible. Apply the -20% Accessibility limitation “Only on Electrical” to all such attacks.

Galvanically animated undead and constructs usually have this disadvantage, as do those that run on batteries (see Internal Energies, p. 80) – it’s a major part of what sets such beings apart from other sorts of weird-science zombies.

An “Enemy” is an NPC, group of NPCs, or organization that actively works against you, personally, on your adventures. Some Enemies want to kill you… others have more devious goals.

Determine the nature of your Enemy when you create your character, and explain to the GM why the Enemy is after you. The GM is free to fill in additional details as he sees fit.

Three factors determine the disadvantage value of an Enemy: its power, its intent, and its frequency of appearance.

The more powerful the Enemy, the more points it is worth as a disadvantage. The GM sets this value. Note that when your Enemy is an organization, the point value is based on the number of individuals who are after you - not on the total size of the group!

One person, less powerful than the PC (built on about 50% of the PC's starting points). -5 points.

One person, equal in power to the PC (built on about 100% of the PC's starting points), or a small group of less-powerful people (3 to 5 people). Examples: A mad scientist, or the four brothers of the man you killed in a duel. -10 points.

One person, more powerful than the PC (built on at least 150% of the PC's starting points), or a medium-sized group of less-powerful people (6 to 20 people). Examples: a single superhuman or a city police department (which numbers in the hundreds, but they're not all after you at once). -20 points.

A large group of less-powerful people (21 to 1,000 people), or a medium-sized group that includes some formidable or superhuman individuals. Examples: the FBI or the Mafia. -30 points.

An entire government, a whole guild of powerful wizards, an organization of supers, or some other utterly formidable group. -40 points.

There are two special cases for which you should adjust the costs given above before multiplying for intent and frequency of appearance:

Evil Twin: Your Enemy looks and sounds like you, and perhaps even uses your name, but acts completely opposite. Often, others will think you suffer from Split Personality, and react appropriately (-3 to reactions). You might never meet your Evil Twin, but you will hear about him - usually when you're taking the blame for something you didn't do. Normally, an Evil Twin has exactly the same skills and abilities as you, but his mental disadvantages are opposite or skewed. This makes him an even match: a -10-point Enemy. If he is more capable than you, he is worth extra points, because he is better equipped to make you look insane, and you are less able to predict and thwart his actions.

Evil Twin is more skilled than you or possesses abilities that you do not (GM decides): -5 points.

Evil Twin is more skilled than you and possesses abilities that you do not (GM decides): -10 points.

Unknown: You know you have an Enemy, but you have no idea who it is. Tell the GM the power level of your Enemy. He will create the Enemy in secret and give you no details whatsoever! The advantage of surprise increases your Enemy's effective power level, and hence its disadvantage value. -5 points.

The more unpleasant the Enemy's intentions, the more you multiply its worth in points.

Watcher: Your Enemy stalks you or spies on you. This is annoying, and makes it hard to keep secrets, but it is rarely more than a minor inconvenience. Examples: an aggressive journalist dogging a politician, detectives shadowing a suspected criminal. x1/4.

Rival: Your Enemy wishes to upstage or inconvenience you, or plays cruel practical jokes on you (this is typical of most Evil Twins), but stops short of anything that would do lasting harm. Examples: a politician's bitter political rival, detectives harassing a suspected criminal. x1/2.

Hunter: The Enemy intends to arrest, bankrupt, injure, or otherwise harm you in some lasting way - or simply wants to kill you. Examples: an assassin gunning for a politician, detectives out to arrest a suspected criminal. x1.

Choose a frequency of appearance, as explained under Frequency of Appearance. Roll at the beginning of each adventure, or at the start of each session of a continuing adventure.

You may not take more than two Enemies, or claim more than -60 points in Enemies. (If the whole U.S. government is out to get you, the fact that your old college professor has lost his mind, and is also after you, pales to insignificance.)

If the dice indicate that an Enemy should show up, the GM must decide how and where the Enemy becomes involved. If an Enemy is very powerful, or if a number of different Enemies show up at the same time, this may influence the whole adventure.

If you take an extremely powerful Enemy, you are likely to be jailed or killed before long. So it goes. You can get a 60-point bonus by taking Enemy (FBI, 12 or less; Hunter), but your every adventure will be that of a hunted criminal. Even with an extra 60 points, your career may be short.

If you start with a weak Enemy, or play cleverly, you might manage to eliminate your foe or permanently change his attitude toward you. But as the saying goes, “There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.” If you get rid of an Enemy, you have three choices:

1. Pay enough character points to buy off the original bonus you got for that Enemy.

2. Take a disadvantage to make up for the point bonus. For instance, you might have been kicked in the head during the final battle, leaving you partially deaf. Or a giant spider might have attacked you, leaving you with arachnophobia. The new disadvantage should have the same point cost as your former Enemy (or less, if you want to buy off part of the disadvantage). If you cannot think of a good substitute disadvantage, the GM will be more than happy to supply one!

3. Take a new Enemy of equal value. You might have destroyed the fiendish Dr. Scorpion - but his brother is continuing his evil work.

Being enigmatic implies that you - as a character or as a race - will answer questions, or make declarative statements, using obscure references, unusual analogies, and peculiar metaphors. Enigmatic folk see no reason to be constricted by normal rules of conversational speech, and treat every sentence as a poem or a riddle in the making. Needless to say, this makes talking to them highly frustrating for most people, especially those depending on them for information. When someone with IQ 10 or less is speaking to an Enigmatic character, they treat their own language skills as Accented; if their IQ is 8 or less, treat their own language skills as Broken. Slow people just can't grasp what Enigmatic folk are talking about, even when speaking in their own language, which can make for short tempers. Also, on average it takes an Enigmatic person three times as long to convey any message more complicated than a single command.

You suffer from severe epilepsy. You are subject to seizures during which your limbs tremble uncontrollably and you cannot speak or think clearly.

Make a HT roll whenever you are in a stressful situation (especially if your life or the life of a friend is threatened).

If you have any sort of Phobia, exposure to the object of your fear counts as a stressful situation; roll vs. HT once every 10 minutes. On a failure, you suffer a seizure that lasts 1d minutes and costs you 1d FP. You can do nothing during that time.

You may attempt to induce a seizure through autohypnosis. This requires one minute of concentration and a successful Will or Autohypnosis roll. Seizures near areas charged with supernatural energies might produce visions. Whether these are useful is up to the GM.

Low-tech individuals who do not understand “fits” may be awed by them, and perhaps even believe your seizure represents a communication from the gods. Make a reaction roll at +1. A reaction of “Very Good” or better indicates religious awe! “Poor” or worse causes the observers to flee - not to attack (unless they had other provocation).

Zombies created through mad-science surgery or powerful drugs might suffer from this problem. Use the guidelines under Confused (p. 59) to assess “a stressful situation.” Don’t give zombies both disadvantages – they’re different ways to represent similar downsides of brain-altering zombification. Zombies with Epilepsy can’t induce seizures deliberately.

You need more sleep than most people. A normal human requires 8 hours of sleep per night. Each level (maximum of four levels) means you need one additional hour of sleep. Thus, you must go to bed early or sleep in for a few hours each day. This gives you less time each day in which to study or work on other projects.

You believe so strongly in a country, organization, philosophy, or religion that you put it ahead of everything else. You might even be willing to die for it! If the object of your Fanaticism demands obedience to a code of behavior or loyalty to a leader, you oblige willingly and unquestioningly. You must roleplay your unwavering dedication.

Fanaticism does not make you mindless or evil. A glaring priest of Set, brandishing his bloody dagger, is a fanatic. But so is a kamikaze pilot, exchanging himself for an aircraft carrier. And so is a patriot who says, “Give me liberty or give me death!” Fanaticism is a state of mind; it is what you are fanatic about that makes the difference.

Extreme Fanaticism: This is an advanced case of Fanaticism. You get +3 on Will rolls to resist Brainwashing, Interrogation, and supernatural mind control in any situation where failure to resist would lead to betrayal of your cult or organization. On the other hand, you will not hesitate to die for your cause, and will undertake suicide missions “matterof- factly.” This is still worth -15 points. Your willingness to die is offset by the significant bonus to Will (which will apply a good deal of the time, if you are roleplaying properly).

You are nervous and timid. Subtract your Fearfulness from your Will whenever you make a Fright Check, and whenever you must resist the Intimidation skill (p. 202) or a supernatural power that causes fear. As well, add your Fearfulness level to all Intimidation rolls made against you.

You may not reduce your Will roll below 3. For instance, if you have Will 11, you are limited to Fearfulness 8.

This trait is the opposite of Fearlessness; you cannot have both.

You tend to experience “flashbacks” when under stress. These are vivid hallucinations, full-participation replays of memories, or similar phenomena. You should choose the type of flashback you experience when you take this disadvantage. The content of each episode is up to the GM.

In any situation that the GM feels is stressful, he will roll 3d. On a 6 or less, you have a flashback. The GM will roll whenever you miss a Fright Check or make the roll exactly, and whenever you fail a self-control roll for another stress-related disadvantage. The flashback occurs in addition to any other results!

Point value depends on the severity of the flashback:

Mild: Duration is 2d seconds. The attendant hallucinations give -2 on all skill rolls, but they are minor - you realize that you are experiencing a flashback. -5 points.

Severe: Duration is 1d minutes. The hallucinations give -5 on all skill rolls, and seem real. -10 points.

Crippling: Duration is 3d minutes. The hallucinations are so severe that they preclude all skill use. The flashback seems completely, 100% real, and can be potentially fatal, as you are receiving no input from the real world. -20 points.

You are susceptible to wounding effects that do not apply to normal humans. Attacks do not injure you any more than usual (that's Vulnerability), but enough penetrating damage can trigger results more catastrophic than stunning, unconsciousness, or bleeding. Possibilities include:

Brittle: You are brittle (like a creature of ice or crystal) or rotten (like a decaying undead monster). Whenever an injury cripples one of your limbs or extremities, it breaks off. If you can make a HT roll, it falls off in one piece; otherwise, it shatters or liquefies irrecoverably. Furthermore, should you fail any HT roll to avoid death, you are instantly destroyed - you shatter, melt, decay to goo, etc., and instantly go to -10xHP. -15 points.

Combustible: Your body burns more easily than flesh. Perhaps it is dry, resinous, or made of wood. Make a HT roll to avoid catching fire whenever you receive a major wound from a burning or explosive attack. You catch fire automatically if such an attack inflicts 10+ HP of injury. Once aflame, you suffer 1d-1 injury per second until you extinguish the fire by immersion in water, rolling on the ground (takes 3 seconds), etc. -5 points.

Explosive: Your body contains explosives, compressed gas, or something else unstable. On any critical failure on the HT roll for a major wound, you explode! You also explode if you fail any HT roll to avoid death by 3+. Treat this as a 6dx(HP/10) crushing explosion. The blast instantly reduces you to -10xHP, regardless of the damage it inflicts. -15 points.

Flammable: Your body contains something highly flammable: gasoline, hydrogen gas, etc. Make a HT roll to avoid catching fire, with effects as per Combustible, after a major wound from any kind of attack. Roll at -3 for a burning or explosive attack, -3 if the attack struck the vitals, and -6 if both. Once you are burning, a critical failure on any HT roll to avoid death means you explode as described for Explosive. You may be Combustible as well. If so, any burning or explosive attack that inflicts either a major wound or 10+ HP of injury automatically sets you ablaze. -10 points.

Unnatural: You are summoned, conjured, or a magical or weird-science “construct” (e.g., demon, golem, or undead). You automatically fail the HT roll to stay alive if reduced to -HP or below, as that much damage severs your ties with the force that animates you. -50 points.

It sometimes makes sense to take more than one of the above (in particular, Explosive and Flammable often occur together). The GM must personally approve any combination of Fragile with Injury Tolerance, as these traits are in many ways opposites.

Living zombies rarely have this disadvantage, but it’s otherwise extremely common. Most zombies that aren’t genuinely alive have Fragile (Unnatural) to represent the lack of biological self-repair mechanisms, will to live, and so forth; for solidified spirits and supernaturally animated corpses with this trait, reduction to -HP (total 2xHP injury) breaks whatever curse, spell, etc. animates them. Fragile (Brittle) suits skeletal and extremely rotten zombies. Fragile (Combustible) is standard for dried-out mummies, while Fragile (Flammable) befits weird constructs that run on a volatile fuel such as gasoline. And use Fragile (Explosive) for fantasy zombies made from corpses that remain permanently bloated, just waiting for some clueless hero to hit them hard enough…

Animals react to you with fear and aggression. Horses do not permit you to ride them, dogs shy away from you or attack savagely, and your mere scent is enough to panic most creatures. You get -4 on all reaction rolls made by animals. Anyone who sees how animals react to you - and those with Animal Empathy - reacts to you at -1. Note that guards or police with guard animals, “sniffer” dogs, etc. decide how to deal with you based on the animal's reaction roll, not their own!

If your disadvantage is due to lycanthropy, vampirism, or a similar trait, observers get +1 on all rolls to deduce your secret!

You function well under a narrow range of gravities. For a normal human, the penalties for non-native gravity accrue in increments of 0.2G; see Different Gravity (p. 350). An increment of 0.1G is worth -10 points. An increment of 0.05G is worth -20 points.

This disadvantage is only allowed in campaigns that feature regular space travel.

You are overly fond of good food and drink. Given the chance, you must always burden yourself with extra provisions. You should never willingly miss a meal. Make a self-control roll when presented with a tempting morsel or good wine that, for some reason, you should resist. If you fail, you partake - regardless of the consequences.

You lust for wealth. Make a selfcontrol roll any time riches are offered - as payment for fair work, gains from adventure, spoils of crime, or just bait. If you fail, you do whatever it takes to get the payoff. The GM may modify this roll if the money involved is small relative to your own wealth. Small sums do not tempt you much if you are rich, but if you are poor, you get -5 or more on your self-control roll if a rich prize is in the offing. If you have Honesty, your self-control roll is at +5 for a shady deal and +10 for outright crime. However, it is almost a foregone conclusion that you will eventually do something illegal.

You feel personally responsible for those who play a significant role in your life. This includes adventuring companions, employers, subordinates, Allies, Dependents, and those toward whom you have a Duty or a Sense of Duty. If anything bad happens to someone like this, you will be wracked by anxiety and guilt - even if there was nothing you could have done to avert the disaster.

If the mishap was not your fault, you will suffer the effects of Chronic Depression for (15 - Will) days, minimum one day. Use your Will as your effective self-control number. If the mishap was your fault, the effects of Chronic Depression will last (20 - Will) days, minimum two days, and your effective self-control number is Will-3.

Others may attempt to help you overcome your feelings of guilt by making Fast-Talk or Psychology rolls. The GM is free to modify their rolls, depending on how convincing they sounded. Roleplay it!

There's one born every minute, and you're it. You believe everything you hear. You'll swallow even the most ridiculous story, if it's told with conviction. Make a self-control roll, modified by the plausibility of the story, whenever you are confronted with a lie - or an improbable truth, for that matter. If you fail, you believe what you were told!

A lie well told, or involving something you have no familiarity with (“My father is the chief of police in this town, and he won't stand for this!”) gives -6 to the self-control roll. A lie concerning a topic you are familiar with (“Didn't you know they bred ducks in your village, Torg?”) gives -3. You believe even a totally outlandish tale (“Of course the Eskimos are descended from Spanish conquistadors; everyone knows that!”), if you fail an unmodified self-control roll.

You also suffer a -3 penalty on any Merchant skill roll, or in any situation in which your credulity might be exploited. You can never learn the Detect Lies skill.

You have unusually poor motor skills. You suffer a penalty to any DX-based roll to do fine work using the skills listed under High Manual Dexterity, and to Fast-Draw skill. For -5 points, the penalty is -3; for -10 points, it is -6. This does not affect IQ-based tasks or large-scale DX-based tasks, nor does it modify combat-related die rolls other than Fast-Draw.

You are also a messy eater, can't tie a necktie properly, and so on. At the GM's option, you get -1 per level of this trait on any Influence or reaction roll where being tidy or well-groomed would matter.

This disadvantage is mutually exclusive with High Manual Dexterity.

You are not deaf, but you have some hearing loss. You are at -4 on any Hearing roll, and on any skill roll where it is important that you understand someone (if you are the one talking, this disadvantage doesn't affect you).

You are a “bleeder.” Even a small wound will not heal unless well-bandaged - and you may bleed to death. Any untreated wound bleeds at a rate equal to its original damage every minute. For instance, an untreated 3 HP wound bleeds for 3 HP of damage per minute until stanched.

First Aid is enough to staunch most wounds, but an impaling wound to the torso causes slow internal bleeding. It does damage every minute, as above, until you receive First Aid. Furthermore, it continues to do damage equal to its original damage once per day until properly treated. Only a Surgery roll or supernatural healing can stop internal bleeding or restore HP lost to it. If proper treatment is not available, you will soon die.

If you suffer from this disadvantage, your HT score may not exceed 10.

You find it difficult to come up with an original thought. You have a -2 penalty on any task that requires creativity or invention, including most rolls against Artist skill, all Engineer rolls for new inventions, and all skill rolls made to use the Gadgeteer advantage.

You must obey the law, and do your best to get others to do so as well. In an area with little or no law, you do not “go wild” - you act as though the laws of your own home were in force. You also assume that others are honest unless you know otherwise (make an IQ roll to realize someone might be dishonest if you haven't seen proof).

This is a disadvantage, because it often limits your options! Make a self-control roll when faced with the “need” to break unreasonable laws; if you fail, you must obey the law, whatever the consequences. If you manage to resist your urges and break the law, make a second self-control roll afterward. If you fail, you must turn yourself in to the authorities!

You may fight (or even start a fight, if you do it in a legal way). You may even kill in a legal duel or in self-defense - but you may never murder. You may steal if there is great need, but only as a last resort, and you must attempt to pay your victims back later. If you are jailed for a crime you did not commit, but treated fairly and assured of a trial, you will not try to escape.

You always keep your word. (In a war, you may act “dishonestly” against the enemy, but you will not be happy about it!) However, you are allowed to lie if it does not involve breaking the law. Truthfulness is a separate disadvantage.

Honesty has its rewards, of course. If you stay alive and in one place long enough for your honesty to become known, the GM should give you +1 on any noncombat reaction roll - or +3 if a question of trust or honor is involved. This is essentially a free Reputation.

You have a horizontal posture, like a cat. You can stand on your hind legs for short periods, but find this very uncomfortable. You can use one hand (if you have hands) while standing on your other limbs, or two hands while sitting on your haunches; in both cases, your ground Move is 0 while doing so. You can carry but not use an object in one hand if moving at half Move. If you are human-sized, you take up two hexes on a battle map.

A horizontal build does not let you put your full weight behind a kick. As a result, your thrusting damage is at -1 per die when you kick. Ignore this penalty if you have Claws - that trait includes the necessary adaptations to strike at full power. The penalty does apply if you have Hooves, however.

Do not take this disadvantage if you are Aerial or Aquatic (see No Legs). If you are fully adapted to a three-dimensional environment, body posture is irrelevant.

You have a spinal deformity that forces you into a twisted or hunched position, usually resulting in a noticeable hump or lump on one or both shoulders. This reduces height by 6“ without changing weight or build. Normal clothing and armor will fit badly, giving you -1 to DX; to avoid this, you must pay an extra 10% for specially made gear.

Most people find you disturbing to see and react at -1. This penalty is cumulative with regular appearance modifiers (see Physical Appearance), and you may have no better than Average appearance. Your appearance is also distinctive, which gives you -3 to Disguise or Shadowing skill, and +3 to others' attempts to identify or follow you.

Realistic hunchbacks should have the Bad Back disadvantage as well, but this is not required.

You hate talk and debate. You prefer action! When you are alone, you act first and think later. In a group, when your friends want to stop and discuss something, you should put in your two cents' worth quickly - if at all - and then do something. Roleplay it! Make a self-control roll whenever it would be wise to wait and ponder. If you fail, you must act.

One “meal” keeps you going for a much shorter period of time than it would a normal human. This is suitable for small creatures that must eat often, or for machines that rapidly exhaust their fuel or energy supply.

Increased Consumption 1: You must eat six meals a day. If you have the Machine meta-trait, you have a 4-hour endurance.

Increased Consumption 2: You must eat 12 meals a day. If you have the Machine meta-trait, you have a 2- hour endurance.

Increased Consumption 3: You must eat 24 meals a day. If you have the Machine meta-trait, you have a 1-hour endurance.

… and so on, doubling consumption and halving endurance for each additional level. A single level of this trait is appropriate for normal humans who have a build of Overweight or heavier (see Build), or the Gluttony disadvantage.

Your environmental requirements in a life-support situation are greater than those of a normal human. Some examples:

Extreme Heat/Cold: You require a temperature above 200° or below 0°. -10 points.

Massive: You require more than a ton of additional weight in order to survive aboard a spacecraft or a submarine, or in any other setting where resources and space are limited. If you can wear an environment suit, this always weighs at least a ton. -10 points.

Pressurized: You require a separate pressurized compartment to survive. -10 points.

Radioactive: You are radioactive or require a radioactive environment. -10 points.

The GM may allow other kinds of Increased Life Support. These should worth no more than -10 points apiece unless they are extremely exotic. Add together the value of multiple special requirements, but note that the total disadvantage value cannot exceed -40 points.

Increased Life Support represents the logistical inconvenience of special life-support requirements, while Dependency, Maintenance, and Restricted Diet all reflect the health effects of doing without such requirements. The same requirement can qualify in both categories if it has consequences for both health and logistics. But note that a Dependency you can satisfy with a one-ounce inhaler of a drug does not let you claim Increased Life Support for a pressurized cabin full of the stuff! The GM's word is final.

With the GM's permission, normal humans may take this disadvantage to represent the special requirements of certain chronic illnesses.

You hardly ever notice things unrelated to the business at hand. Make a self-control roll when confronted with something strange. If you fail, you ignore it! You react at -1 to new things.

You find it difficult to make up your mind. As long as there is a single path before you, you are fine, but as soon as there is a choice, you begin to dither. Make a self-control roll whenever a choice confronts you, modified downward by the number of alternatives you can see: -2 if there are two choices, -3 if there are three, etc. If you fail, you do nothing. Roll again every minute (or every second in combat or a similar high-stress situation) until you make up your mind, after which you may act normally until the next time you face a decision.

If you are Indecisive and Confused, you must roll as described above to decide on a course of action. When you finally succeed, you must make another self-control roll - this one for Confused - to see whether you can act on your decision immediately.

You have an infectious supernatural condition. This works identically to the Dominance advantage (p. 50), except that you do not control those you infect and cannot add them as Allies. This is a disadvantage, because enemies who survive (or don't survive!) violent encounters with you become stronger through the “gift” of supernatural powers, and are completely free to use their new abilities to seek vengeance for what you have done to them.

To prevent PCs with this trait from turning their friends into powerful monsters for free, the GM should consider making infected PCs pay points for supernatural racial templates gained this way. If they cannot afford such a template, the GM is free to balance its point cost with supernatural drawbacks such as Cursed, Dread, Revulsion, and Weakness.

While zombies often spread through contagion, they should have Infectious Attack on their template only if creating a new zombie is an uncontrollable potential side effect of attacking a non-zombie and the convert would be aggressively inimical to its creator. This typically means that such zombies compete as a “race,” though it’s possible that the new zombie poses a direct, personal threat to its maker (see the special enhancements). This trait is rare in zombie fiction – the majority of infectious zombies are mindlessly indifferent toward their creators and have the Infectious feature (p. 67), while most of the rest exhibit a horde mentality, their strength in numbers best represented using heavily modified Dominance (p. 51).

The default assumption for Infectious Attack is that zombies of this kind have mental disadvantages – Bestial, Loner, Uncontrollable Appetite, etc. – that cause them compete for resources (perhaps brains or other flesh) in such a way that they end up bickering like wild animals. Things can be more severe, however:

Instant Karma: Requires Fatal Beating and Survival of the Fittest. The dead victim “turns” a second after being killed (exactly as for the No Onset Time enhancement on Dominance), not after the usual 2d days. +40%.

Serial Curse: Each instance of the zombie curse can afflict but one zombie at a time. As soon as the new zombie comes into being, its creator drops dead, wherever he may be! +300%.

Survival of the Fittest: Mutually exclusive with Serial Curse. The new zombie obsessively seeks out its creator for a showdown. It will settle for nothing less than total victory or utter defeat. In effect, it’s driven by a temporary Zombie Motivation (p. 59). +100%.

Fatal Beating: The attacker must kill his victim with unarmed attacks to “turn” him. This is a limitation, reducing the disadvantage’s size, because it’s harder to create a new zombie rival accidentally. -40%.

Fast Foes: Infectious Attack (Fatal Beating, -40%; Instant Karma, +40%; Survival of the Fittest, +100%) [-10]. Notes: If the zombie beats a target to death, roll vs. HP of injury as usual. Success means the victim “turns” where he lies. A second later, he’ll acquire the same template as his killer, get up, and seek bloody vengeance! -10 points.

You have little or no grasp of mathematics. You cannot learn, and get no default with, Computer Programming, Economics, or any of the skills that benefit from Mathematical Ability (see Talent). You effectively have Incompetence in those areas. This has many frustrating side effects: you must use your fingers to count or perform arithmetic, you have no idea if the results computed by calculating machines are correct (making them basically useless), and you are easily cheated by dishonest merchants (-4 to rolls to notice you've been had).

In “innumerate” cultures, including many cultures at TL4 or below, this disadvantage is widespread, and the GM should not count it against the campaign disadvantage limit (if any). In societies that prize technological or mercantile ability, Innumerate individuals are liable to have a Social Stigma as well. This is worth an additional -5 points and gives -1 to reaction rolls.

You go through periods where falling asleep is very difficult. During such an episode, you must make a HT- 1 roll once per night. On a success, you fall asleep easily, ending that episode of insomnia. On a failure, you lose two hours of sleep that night (and suffer all the usual effects; see Missed Sleep, p. 426) and the episode continues for another night. On a critical failure, you get no sleep that night. Point value depends on severity:

Mild: The GM secretly rolls 3d for the number of days between episodes. -10 points.

Severe: The GM rolls 2d-1 for the number of days between episodes. -15 points.

Regardless of severity, whenever you suffer prolonged stress, the GM can require a HT roll. Failure means an episode starts immediately.

You dislike and distrust some (or all) people who are different from you. You may be prejudiced on the basis of class, ethnicity, nationality, religion, sex, or species. Victims of your Intolerance will react to you at -1 to -5 (GM's decision). Point value depends on the scope of your Intolerance.

If you are thoroughly intolerant, you react at -3 toward anyone not of your own class, ethnicity, nationality, religion, or species (pick one). On a “Good” reaction, you tolerate the person and are as civil as possible (but are stiff and cold toward him). On a “Neutral” reaction, you still tolerate him, but make it plain in words and deeds that you don't care to be around him and consider him inferior or offensive. On any worse reaction, you attack or refuse to associate with the victim. Total Intolerance of this kind is worth -10 points.

Intolerance directed at only one specific class, ethnicity, nationality, religion, sex, or species is worth from -5 points for a commonly encountered victim to -1 point (a nasty quirk) for a rare victim.

Intolerance toward gene-altered people may become a common form of racism. This is worth -5 points if genetic engineering is common, -1 if rare. The reverse is also possible, with gene-altered people being prejudiced against unmodified humans; this is worth -5 points except in settings where baselines are a tiny minority.

The living might technically be just one specific group, but they’re an overwhelming majority in most settings; thus, Intolerance (The Living) is worth -10 points. Treat this as a thorough hatred of anyone not of the same metaphysical class. This disadvantage is common for “evil dead” spat up from Hell or denied entry to the afterlife, and for zombie servants created by truly evil masters (demons, devil-worshippers, greater undead, etc.).

You have no spine, exoskeleton, or other natural body support. Use your full Basic Lift for the purpose of pushing, but only 1/4 your BL to calculate the weight you can lift, carry, or pull. This trait has a small side benefit, however: you can squeeze through much smaller openings than your size might suggest! Note that this trait differs somewhat from the biological term “invertebrate.”

You react poorly toward those who seem smarter, more attractive, or better off than you! You resist any plan proposed by a “rival,” and hate it if someone else is in the limelight. (Jealousy goes well with Megalomania.) If an NPC is jealous, the GM will apply a -2 to -4 reaction penalty toward the victim(s) of his jealousy.

Your brain's pleasure center is burned out or absent. You cannot appreciate the taste of good food, the joy of sex, the savage beauty of combat, and so on. You might not even remember what these pleasures were like! You can “go through the motions,” but you have -3 on all Carousing, Connoisseur, Erotic Art, and Gambling rolls. Others react to you at -1 to -3 in any situation where your lack of appreciation becomes obvious (GM's decision). A bad reaction indicates ridicule from cultured folk, rejection by a lover, etc. - not violence.

Some ultra-tech societies might use surgery to inflict this state as a form of punishment! If so, you won't plot your revenge… because there won't be any pleasure in it.

You are compelled to steal - not necessarily things of value, but anything you can get away with. Make a self-control roll whenever you are presented with a chance to steal, at up to -3 if the item is especially interesting to you (not necessarily valuable, unless you are poor or have Greed). If fail, you must try to steal it. You may keep or sell stolen items, but you may not return or discard them.

You have an uncanny affinity for gross physical blunders. You do not necessarily have a low DX (you may have up to DX 13 and still select this trait) but you are more awkward than your DX would suggest. This disadvantage comes in two levels:

Klutz: Make a DX roll to get through the day without doing a pratfall, dropping books, or knocking over shelves filled with fragile items. This is rarely life-threatening, but it is inconvenient and often expensive. The GM should be creative in inventing minor torments. You should especially avoid laboratories, explosives, china shops, etc. -5 points.

Total Klutz: As above, but in addition, any failure on a DX roll or DX-based skill roll is considered a critical failure for you! -15 points.

This trait might seem silly, but it need not be. Most realistic TL7-8 robots have this disadvantage!

This disadvantage assumes that you are a member of a race with legs. If your entire race is legless, see No Legs.

You have some degree of impaired mobility:

Crippled Legs: You have all of your legs, but some of them are damaged. For a human, this means one bad leg. You are at -3 to use any skill that requires the use of your legs, including all Melee Weapon and unarmed combat skills (but not ranged combat skills). You must reduce your Basic Move to half your Basic Speed (round down), but you get full points for this (see Basic Move). -10 points.

Missing Legs: You have lost some, but not all, of your legs. For a human, this means you have one leg. You are at -6 to use any skill that requires the use of your legs. Using crutches or a peg leg, you can stand up and walk slowly. You must reduce Basic Move to 2, but you get full points for this. You can still kick, but between the standard -2 for a kick and the -6 for this disadvantage, you do so at DX-8! Without your crutches or peg leg, you cannot stand, walk, or kick. -20 points.

Legless: You are missing all of your legs, no matter how many you started out with. You are at -6 to use any skill that requires the use of your legs, and you cannot stand, kick, or walk at all. You must reduce Basic Move to 0, but you get full points for this. -30 points.

Paraplegic: You have all of your legs, but they are paralyzed. The effects and point value are identical to Legless. Unlike a Legless character, you can be struck in the legs for damage. This is balanced by the fact that it isn't inconceivable that you could regain the use of your legs (a Legless character is out of luck). -30 points.

A muscle-powered wheelchair or wheeled platform has ground Move equal to 1/4 your ST (round down), but cannot pass through narrow doorways, negotiate staircases or steep curbs, enter most vehicles, etc. If you have advanced prosthetics that cancel this disadvantage while worn, apply a Mitigator limitation) to Lame and any reduced Basic Move. If surgery or ultra-tech replacement parts eliminate this disadvantage completely, you must pay back the points you received for Lame and reduced Basic Move.

You are violently averse to labor. Your chances of getting a raise or promotion in any job are halved. If you are self-employed, halve your monthly pay (see Jobs, p. 516). You must avoid work - especially hard work - at all costs. Roleplay it!

You have an unusually strong desire for romance. Make a self-control roll whenever you have more than the briefest contact with an appealing member of the sex you find attractive - at -5 if this person is Handsome/Beautiful, or at -10 if Very Handsome/Very Beautiful. If you fail, you must make a “pass,” using whatever wiles and skills you can bring to bear. You must then suffer the consequences of your actions, successful or not: physical retribution, jail, communicable disease, or (possibly) an adoring new friend.

Unless the object of your affection is Very Handsome/Very Beautiful, you need not roll more than once a day to avoid making a pass. If someone turns you down very firmly (e.g., a black eye, or an arrest for sexual harassment) the GM may give you a bonus to future self-control rolls regarding that individual…

Note that you are likely to change your standards of attractiveness if no truly attractive members of the appropriate sex are available!

You have a supernatural aura of death about you. Grass dies in your footprints and will never grow there again, larger plants wilt instantly in your presence, and insects and other tiny creatures die if they get within a yard of you. Your aura has no effect on animals that weigh more than a few ounces, on very large plants such as trees (but the leaves closest to you might die, and a tree you pass daily for years will eventually be affected), on ordinary life forms controlled by supernatural means (e.g., insect swarms conjured up using magic), or on supernatural entities of any kind.

Lifebane gives -2 on reaction rolls made by anyone in a position to notice it. If it stems from demonic powers, vampirism, etc., observers get +2 on all rolls to deduce your secret! This trait makes it difficult to use stealth or invisibility-related abilities outdoors, too: +2 on rolls to locate you in most outdoor environments. It has its side benefits, however. For instance, you need never buy insect repellent!

You do not sleep as soundly or as easily as most people. Whenever you must sleep in an uncomfortable place, or whenever there is more than the slightest noise, you must make a HT roll in order to fall asleep. On a failure, you can try again after one hour, but you will suffer all the usual effects of one hour of missed sleep (see Missed Sleep, p. 426).

You usually wake up if there is activity going on around you (but you are stunned unless you have Combat Reflexes). If you wish to continue sleeping, you must fail a Sense roll. If you wake up, you must make HT rolls to get back to asleep, as above. This can occasionally be to your advantage, but the most likely effect is that you miss sleep whenever inconsiderate companions trade watches or return from a night on the town.

You require a great deal of “personal space.” Make a self-control roll whenever anyone lingers nearby, watches over your shoulder, etc. If you fail, you lash out at that person just as if you had Bad Temper. Loner NPCs always react to others at a penalty.

You cannot understand emotions at all. This doesn't prevent you from having and showing emotions of your own (unless you have something like No Sense of Humor) - your problem is that you don't really understand them. As a result, you have difficulty interacting socially.

You may not take the Empathy advantage, and suffer a -3 penalty on all skills that rely in whole or in part on understanding someone's emotional motivation, including Acting, Carousing, Criminology, Detect Lies, Diplomacy, Enthrallment, Fast-Talk, Interrogation, Leadership, Merchant, Politics, Psychology, Savoir-Faire, Sex Appeal, Sociology, and Streetwise. You can still have these skills - you just aren't as good at them as someone without this disadvantage.

Low Empathy is common in androids, demons, golems, the undead, and some aliens. It is also appropriate for certain humans! This trait is mutually exclusive with the somewhat similar disadvantages Callous and Oblivious, both of which assume some understanding of emotions, however flawed.

You are very sensitive to pain of all kinds. Double the shock from any injury; e.g., if you take 2 HP of damage, you are at -4 to DX on your next turn. You roll at -4 to resist knockdown, stunning, and physical torture. Whenever you take a wound that does more than 1 HP of damage, you must make a Will roll to avoid crying out. This can give away your presence, and may earn you a -1 reaction from “macho” individuals.

You lack self-confidence and underrate your abilities to such a degree that it interferes with your performance. You are at -3 to all skill rolls whenever you believe that the odds are against you or others expect you to fail (GM's judgment). For instance, if you're a mechanic, you have no penalty to repair an engine in your shop . . . but you are at -3 to make the same repairs on the road, in the rain, with only a portable tool kit, and an enemy hot on your trail - on top of the usual modifiers that would apply in that situation!

The moon has a dramatic and inconvenient effect on your personality. During the full moon, you are extremely emotional and volatile (-2 to all Will and self-control rolls), while on nights of the new moon, you are very passive (you temporarily suffer from the Laziness disadvantage). While the moon is waxing, you are focused and pleasant; while it is waning, you are apathetic and a little touchy. Roleplay it!

Magic is more likely to affect you. Add your Magic Susceptibility to the skill of anyone casting a spell on you, and subtract it from your roll to resist any spell that you can resist. For instance, if you have Magic Susceptibility 4, wizards have +4 to cast spells on you and you get -4 to resist.

Magic Susceptibility only makes you more vulnerable to spells cast directly on you. It does not affect Missile spells, attacks by magic weapons, or information-gathering spells that aren't cast directly on you. It also has no effect on supernatural powers other than magic; e.g., divine miracles, psionics, or the innate powers of spirits. Magic Susceptibility works normally against Area spells; do not double its effects as you would those of Magic Resistance.

Magic Susceptibility, and its precise level, can be recognized by any mage who looks at your aura or by anyone who casts a spell on you. You may have no more than five levels of Magic Susceptibility.

You can combine Magic Susceptibility with Magery but not with Magic Resistance.

You require skilled attention at regular intervals to avoid HT loss. Examples include a robot that needs a mechanic, a chronically ill person who needs a doctor's attention, or a god that requires devout prayer.

Decide on the care you require and the skill needed to provide it. Possibilities include electronic maintenance (use Electronics Repair), mechanical maintenance (use Mechanic), medical care (use Physician), and physical repairs (use Carpentry, Electrician, etc.). You may specify an advantage or disadvantage instead; e.g., a god might require worshippers with Disciplines of Faith. You can split Maintenance between multiple skills; for instance, a robot might require Electronics Repair and Mechanic.

Those who maintain you must have access to the appropriate facilities: a mechanic needs tools, worshippers must pray at a temple, etc. No resources are consumed, however; for that, take Dependency.

Each installment of maintenance takes one hour. The base point value depends on the number of people needed to perform it:

Add another -10 points per full doubling of the number of people required; e.g., a god that requires 10,000 worshippers would have a base -130-point disadvantage. Extra man-hours of maintenance may substitute for extra people, if the GM approves. The frequency with which you require maintenance modifies this base cost.

If you miss a maintenance period, your HT attribute drops by 1 and you must make a HT roll. Failure results in some additional incapacity of the GM's choosing. Critical failure means a potentially fatal outcome; e.g., a human might suffer a heart attack, or a vehicle's brakes might fail while it is moving.

To restore lost HT and capabilities requires suitable intervention and skill rolls (repairs if you're a machine, surgery if you're a living being, etc.). If you require an unusual form of maintenance, this might call for exotic measures!

Many zombies – such as constructs whose bits keep falling off, and mechanically or electrically reanimated corpses – work well enough if created and left alone, but won’t last especially long without regular care. The majority of such creatures require upkeep from one person (the classic mad wizard or scientist), but those created by sinister high-tech agencies or corporations might need a “pit crew” of up to 10 experts, while guards or servants raised by covens and cults could rely on dozens or hundreds of crazies. The maintenance interval is typically somewhere between daily and monthly.

The skills required are the interesting part. The go-to skill for zombies created using bizarre technology is Weird Science. However, that might be used only to make zombies, with maintenance involving Physician or Surgery for straightforward repairs to meat, Bioengineering for injections of cells or mutant DNA, Chemistry or Pharmacy for chemical infusions, or even Electrician or Mechanic (Robotics) if the thing has inorganic parts that require care. Supernaturally powered zombies could call for preservation with Alchemy, magical fine-tuning through Ritual Magic or Thaumatology, or prayers offered to the Death God, led using Religious Ritual. And any undead zombie might periodically need its embalming freshened up with Professional Skill (Mortician).

Many of the above could also provide grounds for Dependency (pp. 59-60). That’s fine – just remember that the two aren’t the same. Dependency specifies a substance, energy, or environment needed to avoid injury and rapid destruction. Maintenance defines skill rolls required to prevent HT loss and slow decline.

On a failed HT roll for missed maintenance, the zombie should lose a special ability from its template first; e.g., a construct with Arm ST may find its arms limited by its body strength. This should never be something associated with a meta-trait or the zombie’s fundamental nature, though – poorly maintained undead won’t suddenly lose Doesn’t Breathe and start needing air! If nothing seems to fit, roll on the Hit Location Tables (pp. B552-554) to learn what body part stopped working, with anything in the head (skull or face) indicating a lost level of IQ as well as HT, and locations in the torso meaning a lost level of ST.

Your moods are on a seesaw. You bounce back and forth between bubbling enthusiasm and morose withdrawal. At the beginning of each play session, roll 1d. On 1-3, you are in your manic phase; 4-6 indicates depression. Every five hours of game time thereafter, roll 3d. A 10 or less indicates that you begin a mood swing. Over the next hour, you shift from your current phase to the opposite one. You remain in the new phase for at least five hours, after which you must again roll 3d.

In the manic phase, you suffer the effects of Overconfidence and Workaholic. You are friendly, outgoing, and excited about whatever it is you're doing. In the depressive phase, you suffer the effects of Chronic Depression. You are not interested in doing anything but lying in bed, sitting in a dark room and moping, etc. Your effective selfcontrol number for these effects is equal to your Will.

Emergencies can also cause mood swings; in that case, the switch is immediate. On a roll of 10 or less on 3d, you change phases. This can be good (an emergency jars you into action) or bad (a problem triggers depression and you become worthless).

You believe you are a superman, that you have been chosen for some great task, or that you are destined to conquer. You must choose a grand goal - most often conquest or the completion of some fantastic task. You must let nothing stand between you and this goal.

You may attract followers with Fanaticism, but nobody else enjoys hearing you talk about your brilliance and great plans. Young or naive characters, and fanatics looking for a new cause, react to you at +2; others will react at -2.

This is a better disadvantage for NPCs than it is for PCs.

You are preoccupied with conserving your wealth. You must always hunt for the best deal possible. Make a self-control roll any time you are called on to spend money. If the expenditure is large, this roll may be at -5 or worse (GM's decision). If you fail, you refuse to spend the money. If you absolutely must spend the money, you should haggle and complain interminably. Note that you may have both Greed and Miserliness!

You are missing a finger or thumb.

Missing Finger: Gives -1 DX with that hand (only). -2 points.

Missing Thumb: Gives -5 DX with that hand (only). -5 points.

Mistaken Identity

You are miserable whenever you are in a moving vehicle, be it an automobile, train, airplane, balloon, ship, or spacecraft. You may never learn any vehicle-operation skill. You must roll vs. HT as soon as you are aboard a moving vehicle. On a failure, you vomit and are at -5 on all DX, IQ, and skill rolls for the rest of the journey. On a success, you are merely miserably queasy and at -2 on DX, IQ, and skill rolls. Roll daily on long journeys.

You have a complete lack of experience with the supernatural and the weird. When you first enter play, you can only have mundane skills and equipment. Magic spells, cinematic skills, etc. are off-limits. So are Hidden Lore and Occultism! You can have supernatural advantages, but you can neither use them nor learn any skills that would allow you to use them. In fact, you have no idea that you possess such talents, save perhaps for the odd dream now and then. You must buy off this disadvantage if you wish to use supernatural advantages actively or learn any skill related to the supernatural or the weird.

Mundane Background is only available in settings with supernatural or weird elements! It is not a valid disadvantage in perfectly mundane game worlds.

You suffer from one of several neurological disorders that cause tremors, involuntary movements, facial contortions, etc. Point value depends on severity:

Mild: Your condition is obvious to anyone who observes you for more than a few seconds. You are at -2 to tasks that involve fine manipulation (see High Manual Dexterity), and such tasks take twice the normal time. You also have -2 to social skills such as Acting, Leadership, Performance, Public Speaking, and Sex Appeal in any situation where your condition would be apparent (GM's decision). -15 points.

Severe: You find it difficult to function in normal society. You are at -4 to tasks that involve fine manipulation, and such tasks take four times as long. Your DX and Basic Move cannot exceed your racial average (DX 10 and Move 5 for a human), and might be lower. You get -4 to social skills whenever your condition becomes apparent. -35 points.

Crippling: You find it almost impossible to function in normal society. You are at -6 to tasks that involve fine manipulation, and such tasks take six times as long. Your DX and Basic Move cannot exceed 80% of your racial average (DX 8 and Move 4 for a human), and might be considerably lower. You get -6 to social skills most of the time. -55 points.

Many other symptoms are possible, including gross motor impairment (buy down DX or Move), involuntary vocalizations (treat as Noisy), and facial contortions (reduce appearance level; see Physical Appearance). Violent tics and profane involuntary vocalizations might qualify as Odious Personal Habits.

You have poor night vision. If the vision or combat penalty for poor lighting is between -1 and -4 for most people, your penalty is the worse of double the usual penalty or -3. If the usual penalty is -5 or worse, you function as though you were completely blind (see Blindness). If you have Acute Vision, it only applies in situations with no darkness penalty.

This trait is mutually exclusive with both Night Vision and Dark Vision.

You are tormented each night by horrible nightmares. Sometimes they're so harrowing that they affect your efficiency during waking hours. Make a self-control roll each morning upon awakening. If you fail, you suffered nightmares; this costs you 1 FP that you can only recover through sleep. On a roll of 17 or 18, you are left shaking, and are at -1 to all skill and Perception rolls for the entire day.

These nightmares can be so vivid that they're indistinguishable from reality. The GM might choose to play them out in the game, starting out like a normal scenario and steadily becoming more horrible. The victim should only gradually come to suspect that he is dreaming. Such dreams can have a dramatic effect on the dreamer's waking life, such as temporary Obsessions or Phobias, or even a psychosomatic loss of HP or attribute levels.

If other PCs are involved in the nightmare, they're completely unaffected by anything that occurs there (but if the nightmare takes a long time to play out, the GM might wish to reward the players with a bonus character point as a token of appreciation for their time - maybe two points if they role-played the dream-situation particularly well). It's the GM's option whether to let the other players know in advance that the scenario is a dream. Either way can lead to unique and fascinating roleplaying.

You have two eyes, but you lack effective binocular vision and cannot visually judge distances. This might be due to a vision disorder or a quirk of your racial neurology. The game effects are identical to One Eye; you may not take both disadvantages.

Your body lacks hands and possibly limbs. Point value depends on the extent of your limitation:

No Fine Manipulators: You have no body part more agile than paws or hooves. You cannot use your limbs to make repairs, pick locks, tie knots, wield weapons, etc., or even to grasp firmly. You may only select this trait if you have nothing approaching the human hand in terms of overall versatility. If you have a beak, tongue, prehensile tail, etc. that is as good as a hand, you do not have No Fine Manipulators! -30 points.

No Manipulators: You have no limbs. The only way for you to manipulate objects is to push them around with your body or head. You can still move, and are capable of rolling, wriggling, bouncing, etc. at your Basic Move unless you buy it down to 0. -50 points.

Note that this trait is limited to nonhumans and supers. Either level qualifies you to buy ST and DX with the -40% No Fine Manipulators limitation.

This disadvantage assumes that your race lacks legs. If your race has legs, but you are missing yours, see Lame.

You are a member of a legless race. There are several different forms of this trait, but in all cases, you cannot kick, cannot be struck in the legs in combat, and need not wear leg armor. The point costs below assume that the benefit of having no legs for foes to target in combat balances the drawback of being unable to kick.

Aerial: You cannot move on land, but you can hover, glide, or fly. You must purchase the Flight advantage. Calculate Basic Speed as usual and use twice this value to determine your basic air Move, as described for Flight. Your ground Move is 0. 0 points.

Aquatic: You cannot move on land, but you are adapted to movement on or in water, like a ship or a fish. Calculate Basic Move and use this as your basic water Move. Your ground Move is 0. You suffer no skill penalties for working in or under water. 0 points. If your mobility depends on fins, masts, paddles, or sails that you can't armor, or you can't dive: -5 points. If both: -10 points.

Bounces, Rolls, or Slithers: You move on land without using legs, like a snake or a wheel-form robot. Work out Basic Move and use it as your ground Move, just as a legged character would. 0 points.

Portable: You’re incapable of moving under your own power, but are compact enough to be carried around. You have Basic Move 0 in all environments and get no extra points for this; furthermore, you can’t have traits that imply movement-related body parts such as legs, wheels, tracks, fins, wings, or jets. You aren’t anchored in place, though. Your shape and size let you be carried (like a weapon or gadget), worn (like clothes), attached to a vehicle, or perhaps even implanted inside another character or creature. You might even be able to pilot a vehicle or command a living host to move, although you’ll count as encumbrance, unless you’re carried in Payload. If you have manipulators, you have no penalty on fine work, but you get -6 DX on tasks that require the stability provided by legs, unless you’re anchored to a person or vehicle with at least 10 times your mass. This includes combat, with the sole exception of firing vehicle-mounted weapons. -30 points.

Semi-Aquatic: You “walk” on flippers, like a seal. Use Basic Move as your basic water Move and 1/5 this as your ground Move - that is, reverse the normal relationship between ground and water Move. You suffer standard skill penalties in the water. 0 points.

Sessile: Your base is anchored where you sit, like a tree or a building. You can't move under your own power in any environment, and lack the option of using a moving platform (although you can be moved, with considerable effort). Your Basic Move is automatically 0, and you get no extra points for this. You can still have manipulators. If so, you wield weapons at no DX penalty, because unlike those with the Lame disadvantage, you have a very stable base! -50 points.

Tracked or Wheeled: You have tracks or wheels instead of legs. Specify how many - one to four, or any higher even number. If using hit locations, treat each track or wheel as if it were a leg. You can neither jump nor negotiate obstacles that require arms and legs working together (e.g., a ladder or rope). You always leave a visible trail (giving others a Tracking bonus: +1 for Wheeled, +2 for Tracked). Tracks are also noisy (+2 to all Hearing rolls to detect you), but let you handle rough terrain more easily. Tracked and Wheeled do not reduce Move; in fact, you may buy up to three levels of Enhanced Move (Ground). This disadvantage usually accompanies the Machine meta-trait. -20 points.

==== No Manipulators – see No Fine Manipulators ====

You never get any jokes; you think everyone is earnestly serious at all times. Likewise, you never joke, and you are earnestly serious at all times. Others react at -2 to you in any situation where this disadvantage becomes evident.

This affliction - known as anosmia - prevents you from smelling or tasting anything. Thus, you are unable to detect certain hazards that ordinary people spot quickly. However, the disability has its advantages… you need never worry about skunks, and can always eat what is set before you.

You can only be active when the sun is below the horizon. This represents more than a preference for night over day! As soon as dawn starts to break, you become lethargic - and when the sun clears the horizon, you fall paralyzed and comatose until the sun goes down again.

Note that this is not the same as the biological term “nocturnal.”

Permanent Paralysis: You turn to stone or suffer some other permanent incapacitation if struck by the sun's rays. Only one specific power or item - most often a powerful magic spell - can reverse this effect. Details are up to the GM. +100%.

You make a lot of noise! Perhaps you're a ghost with clanking chains, a cyborg with a rasping ventilator, or a machine with a loud engine… or perhaps you're absurdly inept at stealth.

You make noise constantly - even when standing still - unless you are comatose (for animate beings) or powered down (for machines). Each level gives +2 to Sense rolls to hear you or -2 to your Stealth rolls, as the situation warrants. In some circumstances (e.g., at the opera), each level might also give -1 to reactions! You may not take more than five levels of Noisy without the GM's permission.

You are incapable of processing abstract images and symbols. Graphical computer interfaces, maps, heraldic devices, and magical runes are completely meaningless to you. Like Dyslexia, this is a structural shortcoming of your brain; you cannot normally buy it off.

You cannot learn Cartography, Heraldry, Symbol Drawing, or any similar skill used mainly to design or arrange patterns and symbols. You also cannot use graphical computer interfaces; you are limited to text interfaces and immersive virtual realities. Finally, since you cannot grasp magical symbols, you cannot learn magic save through oral tradition.

Note that you can process text without difficulty, and may learn written languages normally (see Language).

You have no sense of touch. You have a limited degree of pressure sense - enough to feel your weight and stand up and walk without falling over - but you cannot distinguish textures by touch at all. Feats that depend on touch alone (e.g., touch-typing, or untying your hands behind your back) are impossible for you.

When performing a task that requires hand-eye coordination, you suffer all the effects of one level of Ham-Fisted unless you take twice as long to perform the action and can clearly see what you're doing. If you also have Ham-Fisted, add its effects.

You experience pain, temperature, and shock as acutely as anyone else, unless you also have High Pain Threshold, but you won't know where you were injured without looking. Instead, you feel pain as generalized shock throughout your entire body. As a result, you cannot perform First Aid on yourself if you can't see the injury.

You understand others' emotions but not their motivations. This makes you awkward in situations involving social manipulation. You are the classic “nerd”! You have -1 to use or resist Influence skills (see Influence Rolls, p. 359): Diplomacy, Fast-Talk, Intimidation, Savoir-Faire, Sex Appeal, and Streetwise.

Your entire life revolves around a single goal. Unlike Compulsive Behavior, this is not a daily habit, but an overpowering fixation that motivates all of your actions. And unlike Fanaticism, this does not necessarily imply a set of philosophical beliefs.

You must rationalize all of your actions as an attempt to reach your goal. Make a self-control roll whenever it would be wise to deviate from your goal. If you fail, you continue to pursue your Obsession, regardless of the consequences.

Point cost depends on the time needed to realize your goal. A short-term goal (e.g., assassinating someone) is worth -5 points, while a long-term goal (e.g., becoming President) is worth -10 points. In both cases, modify the base cost to reflect your self-control number. If your Obsession causes others to react badly, take Odious Personal Habit or Delusion as well.

Should you ever reach your goal, you must either substitute a new goal or buy off your Obsession.

Odious Personal Habits are covered in the Age and Beauty section.

You take grossly unreasonable risks in the face of mortal danger. Make a self-control roll whenever you face a life-threatening situation: piloting a burning vehicle, staring down an entire street gang while armed only with a toothbrush, etc. If you fail, you may not back down from the challenge - but you may roll again after every success roll or reaction roll relating to the situation. This might be once per second in a potential combat situation but only once per day on a dangerous space mission.

In combat, make a self-control roll every time you take your turn. If you fail, you must make an All-Out attack or engage in some other kind of nearinsane, suicidal behavior.

Most people think you're crazy if they witness this behavior, giving -2 on reaction rolls. Individuals who value bravery over self-preservation (GM's decision) will react at +2.

You have only one arm. You cannot use two-handed weapons, wield two weapons at once (or a weapon and a shield), or perform any task that requires two arms. You get -4 on tasks that are possible with one arm but that are usually executed with two (e.g., most Climbing and Wrestling rolls). You have no penalty on tasks that require only one arm. In all cases, the GM's ruling is final. When in doubt, try a quick reality check if possible!

If you originally had two arms, assume that you lost the left arm if you were right-handed, or vice versa.

If you are a nonhuman who only had one arm to begin with, your “arm” need not be an arm at all - it can be any appendage capable of fine manipulation. For instance, a parrot that used its beak and tongue would have One Arm (and not No Fine Manipulators).

If you have advanced prosthetics that cancel One Arm while worn, apply a Mitigator limitation. Should you ever eliminate One Arm completely through surgery or an ultra-tech replacement limb, you must pay back the points you received for it.

You have only one eye. Either you are missing an eye (in which case you may wear a glass eye or cover the missing eye with a patch) or you have only a single, cyclopean eye. You suffer -1 to DX in combat and on any task involving hand-eye coordination, and -3 on ranged attacks (unless you Aim first) and on rolls to operate any vehicle faster than a horse and buggy.

Some cultures regard those who are missing an eye as unattractive. If this is generally true in your game world, losing an eye will also reduce your appearance by one level (see Physical Appearance). If you start with this trait, assume that it is already factored into your appearance - do not apply an additional reaction modifier.

You have only one hand. For the most part, use the rules under One Arm (above). The difference is that you may make unarmed parries with a handless arm, and possibly strap something to it (e.g., a shield).

Good-quality prosthetic replacements use the rules under One Arm. Not all prosthetics are good enough to count as Mitigators, though. A low-tech mechanical replacement gives you -2 (for a grabber) or -4 (for a hook or claw) on tasks involving that hand. A hook or claw also counts as an undroppable large knife in combat (use Knife skill), and gives +1 to Intimidation skill if waved at your foes. In some societies, such crude replacements will reduce appearance as described under One Eye (above).

You believe that you are far more powerful, intelligent, or competent than you really are. You may be proud and boastful or just quietly determined, but you must roleplay this trait.

You must make a self-control roll any time the GM feels you show an unreasonable degree of caution. If you fail, you must go ahead as though you were able to handle the situation! Caution is not an option.

You receive +2 on all reaction rolls from young or naive individuals (who believe you are as good as you say you are), but -2 on reactions from experienced NPCs.

Overconfidence is like Megalomania on a smaller scale. Robin Hood was overconfident - he challenged strangers to quarterstaff duels. Hitler was a megalomaniac - he invaded Russia! Heroes are rarely megalomaniacal but often overconfident.

You are opposed to violence. This can take several forms. Choose one of the following:

Reluctant Killer: You are psychologically unprepared to kill people. Whenever you make a deadly attack (e.g., with a knife or a gun) against an obvious person whose face is visible to you, you are at -4 to hit and may not Aim. If you cannot see the foe's face (due to a mask, darkness, or distance, or because you attacked from behind), the penalty is only -2, save in close combat. You have no penalty to attack a vehicle (even an occupied one), an opponent you do not believe is a person (including things with Horrific or Monstrous appearance), or a target you can't actually see (e.g., a set of map coordinates or a blip on a radar screen). If you kill a recognizable person, the effect on you is the same as for Cannot Kill (see below). You have no problem with your allies killing; you may even supply ammo, loaded weapons, and encouragement! You just can't do the killing yourself. -5 points.

Cannot Harm Innocents: You may fight - you may even start fights - but you may only use deadly force on a foe that is attempting to do you serious harm. Capture is not “serious harm” unless you are already under penalty of death or have a Code of Honor that would require suicide if captured. You never intentionally do anything that causes, or even threatens to cause, injury to the uninvolved - particularly if they are “ordinary folks.” This trait is especially appropriate for crimefighters, supers, etc. -10 points.

Cannot Kill: You may fight - you may even start fights - but you may never do anything that seems likely to kill another. This includes abandoning a wounded foe to die “on his own”! You must do your best to keep your companions from killing, too. If you do kill someone (or feel responsible for a death), you immediately suffer a nervous breakdown. Roll 3d and be totally morose and useless (roleplay it!) for that many days. During this time, you must make a Will roll to offer any sort of violence toward anyone, for any reason. -15 points.

Self-Defense Only: You only fight to defend yourself or those in your care, using only as much force as necessary (no pre-emptive strikes allowed!). You must do your best to discourage others from starting fights. -15 points.

Total Nonviolence: You will not lift a hand against another intelligent creature, for any reason. You must do your nonviolent best to discourage violent behavior in others, too. You are free to defend yourself against attacks by animals, mosquitoes, etc. -30 points.

In a high-realism campaign, the GM might require all PCs to start out with Reluctant Killer or even Cannot Kill, giving them extra points but putting them at a disadvantage when facing hardened foes.

You are out of touch with reality, and think that everyone is plotting against you. You never trust anyone except old friends… and you keep an eye on them, too, just in case. Most people, understandably, react to you at -2. A paranoid NPC reacts at -4 toward any stranger, and any “legitimate” reaction penalty (e.g., for an unfriendly race or nationality) is doubled. Paranoia goes very well with Delusions, which of course have their own disadvantage value!

You are plagued by whispered phrases that only you can hear. These voices might be unintelligible, or they might repeat the same words over and over. Eventually, your sanity (such as it is) will start to erode.

In any situation that the GM feels is stressful, he may roll 3d. On a 6 or less, you hear voices. The GM will always roll whenever you miss a Fright Check or make the roll exactly, and whenever you fail a self-control roll for another stress-related disadvantage. The voices occur in addition to any other results!

Point value depends on the nature of the voices:

Annoying: You hear voices, but you are reasonably sure that they are not real, and they do not harm you directly. Still, most people who see you responding to unheard noises will react at -2. -5 points.

Disturbing: As above, but in addition, the voices can drown out normal sounds, and may even startle and frighten you (possibly requiring a Fright Check). -10 points.

Diabolical: The voices tell you to kill - yourself or others - or perform other terrible deeds. If you are already under stress, or under the influence of drugs, you might need to make a Will roll to avoid carrying out the “orders” (GM's discretion). -15 points.

Phantom Voices are usually due to mental problems, but they may also be symptomatic of some form of supernatural possession. If so, psychotherapy cannot reveal the cause, much less cure the problem. If you manage to exorcise the evil spirits, you are cured and must buy off this disadvantage.

You are afraid of a specific item, creature, or circumstance. Many fears are reasonable, but a Phobia is an unreasonable, unreasoning, morbid fear. The point value depends on how common the object of your fear is - fear of darkness is far more troublesome than fear of left-handed plumbers.

Make a self-control roll whenever you are exposed to the object of your Phobia. If you fail, roll 3d, add the amount by which you failed your selfcontrol roll, and look up the result on the Fright Check Table (p. 360). For instance, if your self-control number is 9 but you rolled a 13, roll 3d+4 on the table. The result from the table affects you immediately!

If you succeed, you have successfully mastered your Phobia (for now), but you are still shaken, and have a penalty to all DX, IQ, and skill rolls while the cause of your fear persists. The penalty depends on your self-control number.

You must roll again every 10 minutes to see if the fear overcomes you.

Even the mere threat of the feared object requires a self-control roll, although this is at +4. If your enemies actually inflict the feared object on you, you must make an unmodified self-control roll, as described above. If you fail, you might break down, depending on the Fright Check results, but you won't necessarily talk. Some people can panic and fall apart, but still refuse to talk - just as some people do not talk under torture.

A phobic situation is by definition stressful. If you have other mental disadvantages that are triggered by stress, you are likely to have these reactions if you fail to resist a Phobia.

Some common phobias:

Being Alone (Autophobia): You cannot stand to be alone, and do anything in your power to avoid it. -15 points.*

Blood (Hemophobia): The sight of blood gives you the screaming willies! You need to make a self-control roll during most combats… -10 points.*

Cats (Ailurophobia): -5 points.*

Crowds (Demophobia): Any group of over a dozen people sets off this fear unless they are all well known to you. The self-control roll is at -1 for over 25 people, -2 for a crowd of 100 or more, -3 for 1,000, -4 for 10,000, and so on. -15 points.*

Darkness (Scotophobia): A common fear, but crippling. You should avoid being underground if possible; if something happens to your flashlight or torch, you might well lose your mind before you can relight it. -15 points.*

Death and the Dead (Necrophobia): You are terrified by the idea of death. Make a self-control roll in the presence of any dead body (animals don't count, but portions of human bodies do). Roll at -4 if the body is that of someone you know, or -6 if the body is unnaturally animated in some way. A ghost (or apparent ghost) also requires a roll at -6. -10 points.*

Dirt (Mysophobia): You are deathly afraid of infection, or just of dirt and filth. Make a self-control roll when you must do something that might get you dirty. Roll at -5 to eat any unaccustomed food. You should act as “finicky” as possible. -10 points.*

Dogs (Cynophobia): This includes all canines: foxes, wolves, coyotes, wild dogs, etc. -5 points.*

Enclosed Spaces (Claustrophobia): A common, crippling fear. You are uncomfortable any time you can't see the sky - or at least a very high ceiling. In a small room or vehicle, you feel the walls closing in on you… You need air! This is a dangerous fear for someone who plans to go underground. -15 points.*

Fire (Pyrophobia): Even a burning cigarette bothers you if it comes within five yards. -5 points.*

Heights (Acrophobia): You may not voluntarily go more than 15 feet above ground, unless you are inside a building and away from windows. If there is some chance of an actual fall, self-control rolls are at -5. -10 points.*

Insects (Entomophobia): You are afraid of all “bugs.” Large or poisonous ones give -3 to self-control rolls. Very large ones, or large numbers, give -6. Avoid hills of giant ants. -10 points.*

Loud Noises (Brontophobia): You avoid any situation where loud noises are likely. A sudden loud noise requires an immediate self-control roll. A thunderstorm is a traumatic experience for you! -10 points.*

Machinery (Technophobia): You can never learn to repair any sort of machine and refuse to learn to use anything more complicated than a crossbow or bicycle. Any highly technological environment calls for a self-control roll; dealings with robots or computers require a roll at -3, and hostility from intelligent machines requires a roll at -6. -5 points at TL4 or below, -15 points at TL5 or above.*

Magic (Manaphobia): You can never learn to use magic, and you react badly to any user of magic. Make a self-control roll whenever you are in the presence of magic. This roll is at -3 if you are to be the target of friendly magic, and -6 if you are the target of hostile magic. (The magic does not have to be real, if you believe in it!) -15 points in a setting where magic is common, -10 if it is known but uncommon, -5 if “real” magic is essentially unknown.*

Monsters (Teratophobia): Any “unnatural” creature sets off this fear. You have -1 to -4 on the self-control roll if the monster seems very large or dangerous, or if there are a lot of them. Note that the definition of “monster” depends on experience. An American Indian would consider an elephant monstrous, while an African pygmy would not! -15 points.*

Number 13 (Triskaidekaphobia): You must make a self-control roll whenever you have to deal with the number 13 - visit the 13th floor, buy something for $13.00, etc. Roll at -5 if Friday the 13th is involved! -5 points.*

Oceans (Thalassophobia): You are afraid of any large body of water. Ocean travel, or even air travel over the ocean, is basically impossible for you, and encounters with aquatic monsters are also upsetting. -10 points.*

Open Spaces (Agoraphobia): You are uncomfortable whenever you are outside, and actually become frightened when there are no walls within 50 feet. -10 points.*

Psionic Powers (Psionophobia): You are afraid of those with known psionic powers. An actual exhibition of power in your presence requires a self-control roll. You do not voluntarily allow anyone to use a psionic power on you. The power does not have to be real - all that matters is that you believe it is! -15 points if psi powers are common, -10 if they are uncommon, -5 if they are essentially unknown.*

Reptiles (Herpetophobia): You come unglued at the thought of reptiles, amphibians, and similar scaly slimies. A very large reptile, or a poisonous one, gives -2 to self-control rolls; a horde of reptiles (such as a snake pit) gives -4. -10 points.*

Sex (Coitophobia): You are terrified by the idea of sexual relations or the loss of your virginity. -10 points*

Sharp Things (Aichmophobia): You are afraid of anything pointed. Swords, spears, knives, and hypodermic needles all give you fits. Trying to use a sharp weapon, or being threatened with one, requires a self-control roll at -2. -15 points at TL5 or below, -10 at TL6 or above.*

Spiders (Arachnophobia): -5 points.*

Strange and Unknown Things (Xenophobia): You are upset by any sort of strange circumstances, and in particular by strange people. Make a self-control roll when surrounded by people of another race or nationality; roll at -3 if the people are not human. If you lose control, you might well attack strangers out of fear. -15 points.*

Sun (Heliophobia): -15 points.*

Weapons (Hoplophobia): The presence of any sort of weaponry is stressful. Trying to use a weapon, or being threatened with one, requires a self-control roll at -2. -20 points.*

Living zombies sometimes suffer from a fear of dogs (Cynophobia [-5*]), fire (Pyrophobia [-5*]), loud noises (Brontophobia [-10*]), or sunlight (Heliophobia [-15*]).

Rather than use the detailed rules for Phobias whenever someone confronts a zombie with its fear, make a simple self-control roll. Failure means the zombie runs away, while success indicates that it fights at the penalty on p. B149. Supernatural zombies, particularly undead, might have Phobias, but Dread (p. 61) is more fitting. Dread is the only option for zombies with Unfazeable.

You are shaken and sickened by combat, but only after it's over. Make a self-control roll at the end of any battle. It is up to the GM to determine when a battle has truly ended, and he may apply a penalty if the combat was particularly dangerous or gruesome. If you fail, roll 3d, add the amount by which you failed your self-control roll, and look up the result on the Fright Check Table (p. 360). For instance, if your self-control number is 12 but you rolled a 14, roll 3d+2 on the table. The result from the table affects you immediately!

You like fires! You like to set fires, too. For good roleplaying, you must never miss a chance to set a fire, or to appreciate one you encounter. Make a self-control roll whenever you have an opportunity to set a fire.

You are paralyzed in all your arms and legs, or lack limbs entirely. You can neither manipulate objects nor move yourself without assistance. You suffer all the bad effects of Paraplegic (see Lame) and No Manipulators (see No Fine Manipulators). If the GM is enforcing a disadvantage limit, Quadriplegic counts against the limit - but you may reduce ST and DX by up to four levels each without the resulting disadvantage points counting against the limit (points gained from further reductions count normally). For rules governing prosthetic limbs and surgical cures, see Lame and One Arm for legs and arms, respectively.

You can be programmed to obey a master. If you have Slave Mentality, you must obey slavishly, and remain strictly within the letter of your master's commands. If you lack Slave Mentality, you may interpret his orders creatively, as long as you remain within either their letter or spirit (your choice). If you are nonsentient (IQ 0), you have no interest in doing anything but following your programming!

You may have both Duty and Reprogrammable. If so, you must do your best to fulfill both obligations. Should the two come into conflict, your programming always comes first.

This trait is most appropriate for golems, mindless undead, robots, and similar automata. It is rarely suitable for PCs, and the GM may choose to forbid it entirely.

This disadvantage is almost universal among zombies created to serve. Other varieties rarely have it. The “starting” master for such a zombie is its creator, who can transfer the power of command – or even ownership – by designating a temporary commander (who cannot reassign control or mastery) or a permanent owner (who can). He must do so in a way that makes this unambiguously clear to the zombie; in person is best, but TV, exotic telepathy, etc. will work if the zombie can perceive it.

Reprogrammable concerns masters, not standard operating procedures, never mind specific orders. Thus, it can be invoked to alter the subject of the zombie’s Duty, if any, but cannot alter a Zombie Motivation (p. 59). For further details, see Programming and Precedence (above).

Symbol of Authority: You obey whoever is clearly displaying some specific, portable physical artifact: crown, scepter, remote-control unit, weird-science gadget, or similar. This automatically reprograms you to regard that individual as your master. If someone else snatches the symbol, you’ll instantly switch loyalties, even if you were previously ordered to attack the usurper! If the symbol is destroyed, replace Reprogrammable (Symbol of Authority, +50%) [-15] with another -15-point disadvantage – roll 1d. On 1-5, this is Confused (9) [-15], and you mostly stand around uselessly; on 6, it’s Berserk (9) [-15], and you go haywire! +50%.

A negative reputation counts as a disadvantage. Note it as such on your character sheet!

You require a specialized food or fuel that is hard to come by. Unlike Dependency, you do not take damage if you go without… you just can't eat or refuel, which will eventually incapacitate you. Point value depends on the rarity of the item you consume:

Rare: Dragon's blood, exotic nutrient mixture, weapons-grade uranium. -40 points.

Occasional: Virgin's blood, rocket fuel, babies, radioactives. -30 points.

Common: Human flesh, gasoline, liquid hydrogen. -20 points.

Very Common: Fresh meat, any hydrocarbon fuel (gasoline, diesel, etc.), electric batteries, fresh blood. -10 points.

Restricted Diet is appropriate for normal humans with chronic gastrointestinal disorders.

Substitution: You can try to consume a food or fuel similar to the one you require. For instance, a cyborg that requires exotic nutrients could try ordinary human food, or a machine that requires gasoline could try diesel. This sustains you, but you must make a HT roll after each meal or refueling. Failure means your HT attribute drops by one until you receive appropriate medical or mechanical attention. Critical failure means an incapacitating reaction (GM's decision): severe immune response, engine failure, etc. Those who lack this limitation but for some reason attempt substitution derive no sustenance at all and must still make the HT roll above; treat success as failure and failure as critical failure. -50%.

Ghouls often have to eat some specific unpleasant thing to survive. A few examples from fiction: Occasional: Human brains, skin, spleens, or some other specific organ. -30 points. Common: Any human flesh. -20 points. Very Common: Any meat. -10 points.

Requiring specific organs results in a more severe disadvantage because of the longer feeding times – the zombie must crack the skull, skin its victim, or similar. Think of the extra -10 points relative to “any human flesh” as equivalent to Slow Eater (p. B155). Just about any form of Restricted Diet appropriate for zombies may be cause for an Odious Racial Habit (p. 62).

Living ghouls that can subsist on ordinary food don’t qualify for Restricted Diet, and might even enjoy Reduced Consumption (p. 54) with Cast-Iron Stomach. Zombies with Doesn’t Eat or Drink can’t have Restricted Diet. Neither situation prevents consuming brains or other flesh preferentially or unnecessarily, on a twisted impulse. Such behavior still qualifies for that Odious Racial Habit!

Finally, constructs that run on batteries or fuel nearly always have this disadvantage. Use the standard rarities that the Basic Set gives for Restricted Diet power sources. See also Internal Energies (p. 80).

You have an unusually narrow field of vision. A normal character can see a 120° arc in front of him without turning his head, and has 30° of peripheral vision to either side, giving him a 180° “arc of vision” for observation and ranged attacks. On a battle map, this means he has three “front” hexes, two “side” hexes (“left” and “right”), and a single “back” hex. Your vision is considerably more restricted. This comes in two levels:

No Peripheral Vision: Your arc of vision is a 120° wedge to the front. On a map, your “left” and “right” hexes become “back” hexes - that is, you have three “back” hexes, and get no defense against attacks originating from these hexes! -15 points.

Tunnel Vision: Your arc of vision is a 60° wedge to the front. On a map, your only “front” hex is the one directly ahead of you. The hexes to either side of this are “side” hexes: you are at -2 to defend against attacks from these hexes, and can only attack into those hexes with a Wild Swing. Everything else is a “back” hex, as above. -30 points.

You have an incapacitating supernatural reaction to an ordinarily innocuous substance. If you touch or breathe the substance, you must immediately make a HT roll. On a failure, you are at -5 to all skills and attributes for the next 10 minutes. If you ingest the substance, you are at -5 to attributes and -10 to all skills and Sense rolls for 10 minutes. Point value depends on the rarity of the substance:

Occasional (leather, soap): -5 points.

Common (smoke, wood): -10 points.

Very Common (grass, metal): -15 points.

This reaction is physical in nature. For mental aversions, see Dread.

You delight in cruelty… mental, physical, or both. Make a self-control roll whenever you have an opportunity to indulge your desires and know you shouldn't (e.g., because the prisoner is one who should be released unharmed). If you fail, you cannot restrain yourself. Those who become aware of your problem react at -3 unless they are from a culture that holds life in little esteem.

This is a particularly “evil” trait, more appropriate to villainous NPCs than to heroic PCs. The GM may completely prohibit Sadism if he does not want anyone roleplaying it in his campaign.

It is possible, though despicable, to possess both Bully and Sadism.

A Secret is an aspect of your life or your past that you must keep hidden. Revelation would result in lasting negative consequences. The point value depends on the severity of those consequences:

Serious Embarrassment: If this information gets around, you can forget about ever getting a promotion, getting elected, or marrying well. Alternatively, revelation of your Secret might simply attract unwelcome public attention. -5 points.

Utter Rejection: If your Secret is revealed, it will change your whole life. Perhaps you will lose your job and be rejected by friends and loved ones. Perhaps admirers, cultists, long-lost relatives, or the press will harass you. -10 points.

Imprisonment or Exile: If the authorities uncover your Secret, you'll have to flee, or be imprisoned for a long time (GM's discretion). -20 points.

Possible Death: Your Secret is so terrible that you might be executed by the authorities, lynched by a mob, or assassinated (by the Mafia, CIA, etc.) were it revealed. You would be a hunted man. -30 points.

In general, a Secret appears in a particular game session if the GM rolls a 6 or less on 3d before the adventure begins. However, as for all other disadvantages of this type, the GM need not feel constrained by the appearance roll. If he thinks that the Secret should come into play, it does!

When a Secret appears in play, it is not automatically made public. The GM will give you a chance to prevent your Secret from being revealed. This might require you to cave in to blackmail or extortion, steal incriminating documents, or even silence the person who knows the Secret. Regardless of the solution, however, it's only temporary - the Secret will appear again and again until either you buy it off with earned character points or it is finally revealed.

If a Secret is made public, there is an immediate negative effect ranging from serious embarrassment to possible death, depending on the severity of the Secret (see above). There is also a lasting effect: you suddenly acquire new, permanent disadvantages - or lose advantages - worth points equal to twice what the Secret was worth! These new disadvantages replace the Secret on your character sheet, and reduce your point value accordingly. The GM chooses the new disadvantages and lost advantages, which should always be appropriate to the Secret. Most Secrets turn into Enemies, negative Reputations, and Social Stigmas, or reduce or remove advantages described under Wealth and Influence. Some could even turn into mental or physical disadvantages.

Example: A city guardsman has a -20-point Secret: at night, he is a thief. When he is finally caught and brought to justice, his Secret is revealed and immediately replaced with -40 points in disadvantages and lost advantages! The GM rules that he is stripped of his 5-point Legal Enforcement Powers (-5 points), gains Social Stigma (Criminal Record) (-5 points), and is punished by having his right hand chopped off (One Hand, -15 points) and being forced to pay reparations that reduce his Wealth from Average to Poor (-15 points).

A Secret Identity is a special kind of Secret (above): it is another persona that you use for deeds that you don't want connected with your “public” self. Only your closest family and friends know, and you are willing to go to great lengths to keep your privacy. This is a disadvantage because it limits your behavior. It is difficult (and often illegal) to maintain a Secret Identity.

The GM will roll to see whether your Secret Identity factors into a game session, just as for any Secret. If it does, this usually takes the form of someone who threatens to expose your real identity. Anyone with Status 3 or higher gets an extra -10 points for a Secret Identity, because of the attention the media and public pay to his every move, but the GM will introduce a challenge to his identity on a roll of 7 or less instead of the usual 6 or less.

A Secret Identity otherwise works just like any other Secret, its point value depending on the severity of the consequences should it be exposed.

As soon as you reach your aging threshold (age 50 for a normal human, less if combined with Short Lifespan), your organs and immune system begin to fail. You start to age rapidly, making aging rolls every day at -3 to HT.

You cannot get points for both this disadvantage and Terminally Ill. If you are going to self-destruct soon, take Terminally Ill instead of Self-Destruct.

You are self-important and status-conscious, and spend much of your time striving for social dominance. Make a self-control roll whenever you experience a clear social slight or “snub.” On a failure, you lash out at the offending party just as if you had Bad Temper - likely resulting in a bad reaction (-3 to the target's reactions toward you) and putting you in an awkward social situation. Selfish NPCs react to perceived slights at a penalty:

You are altruistic and self-sacrificing, and put little importance on personal fame and wealth. You must make a self-control roll to put your needs - even survival - before those of someone else. A Selfless race will have a “hive mentality.”

You have a semi-upright posture, like a chimpanzee. You can stand up more-or-less comfortably, allowing you to use your forelimbs to bash enemies, hold babies, or even manipulate objects. You can manage a clumsy gait while upright (-40% to Move), but you must use all of your limbs to run at full Move. If you have DX 12 or more, you can carry a small object or two while walking.

You feel a strong sense of commitment toward a particular class of people. You will never betray them, abandon them when they're in trouble, or let them suffer or go hungry if you can help. This is different from a Duty, which is imposed upon you. A Sense of Duty always comes from within.

If you are known to have a Sense of Duty, the GM will adjust the reactions of others by +2 when rolling to see whether they trust you in a dangerous situation. However, if you go against your Sense of Duty by acting against the interests of those you are supposed to be looking out for, the GM will penalize you for bad roleplaying.

The GM will assign a point value to your Sense of Duty based on the size of the group you feel compelled to aid:

Individual (the President, your wingman, etc.): -2 points.

Small Group (e.g., your close friends, adventuring companions, or squad): -5 points.

Large Group (e.g., a nation or religion, or everyone you know personally): -10 points.

Entire Race (all humanity, all elves, etc.): -15 points.

Every Living Being: -20 points.

You cannot claim points for a Sense of Duty toward Allies, Dependents, or Patrons. The point costs of these traits already take such a bond into account.

You can take a Sense of Duty toward adventuring companions. If you do, you must share equipment with and render aid to the other members of your adventuring party, and go along with majority decisions. The GM might make this mandatory in games where the party needs to get along. This gives everyone a “free” 5 points to spend… but if you start backstabbing, running off on your own, etc., the GM is free to overrule your actions and point to these bonus points as the reason why.

See the advantageous version. If you cannot turn this ability off, it is a disadvantage.

You find it difficult to concentrate on a single task for longer than a few minutes. Make a self-control roll whenever you must maintain interest in something for an extended period of time, or whenever a distraction is offered. If you fail, you automatically fail at the task at hand. The GM might give you a small bonus to the self-control roll in situations where concentration is crucial, such as when your survival is at stake.

Your lifespan is much shorter than the human norm. Each level of this disadvantage halves your lifespan (round down). This affects the age at which you reach maturity, the ages at which aging rolls begin and increase in frequency, and the interval between aging rolls; see the table (above right). No more than four levels are possible. Short Lifespan is often found in conjunction with Self-Destruct.

In the absence of magic or mundane preservation, undead zombies decompose. Age and Aging (p. B444) applies, with attribute losses simulating structural decay.

A zombie is considered “mature” when zombified and marks time from there. However, an unpreserved corpse, walking or not, probably won’t last the human-normal 32 years between maturity and the first set of aging rolls; Short Lifespan 4 (giving two years) is likely.

Constructs often suffer from design flaws that give Short Lifespan 1-4 and possibly Self-Destruct. Infected living zombies are customarily Terminally Ill.

You are uncomfortable around strangers. Roleplay it! This disadvantage comes in three levels; you can buy it off one level at a time.

Mild: You are uneasy with strangers, especially assertive or attractive ones. You have -1 on skills that require you to deal with people, including Acting, Carousing, Diplomacy, Fast-Talk, Intimidation, Leadership, Merchant, Panhandling, Performance, Politics, Public Speaking, Savoir-Faire, Sex Appeal, Streetwise, and Teaching. -5 points.

Severe: You are very uncomfortable around strangers, and tend to be quiet even among friends. -2 the skills listed above. -10 points.

Crippling: You avoid strangers whenever possible. You may not learn the skills listed above at all, and are at -4 on default rolls on such skills. -20 points.

You have no initiative, and become confused and ineffectual without a “master” to give you orders. You must make an IQ roll at -8 before you can take any action that isn't either obeying a direct order or part of an established routine. As well, you automatically fail any Will roll to assert yourself or resist social influence except in circumstances where the GM rules that success might be possible, in which case you roll at -6.

This doesn't necessarily imply low IQ or Will. You might be intelligent enough to obey the command, “Program the computer to detect quarks,” but if you were starving and found $10, you would have to roll vs. IQ-8 to decide to pick up the money and go buy food without being told to do so. Similarly, you might be strongwilled enough to make all your Fright Checks in the presence of terrifying monsters, yet roll at Will-6 to resist the unsubtle manipulations of an obvious con man.

This disadvantage is rarely appropriate for PCs, and the GM may choose to forbid it entirely.

Only zombies created as servants or whose brains have been thoroughly destroyed by drugs, fungus, etc. should have this disadvantage. Since a zombie with Slave Mentality is making IQ-8 rolls to do anything but obey orders, it effectively suffers from a variant of Confused (p. 59) and can’t get points for that condition, too. Also, the Automaton meta-trait (p. 69) already includes Slave Mentality – don’t take both.

For interactions between Slave Mentality and other disadvantages that circumscribe free will, see Programming and Precedence (p. 63).

You walk in your sleep (“somnambulate”). This is merely annoying or embarrassing under most circumstances (unless you fall down the stairs), but it can be very dangerous to sleepwalk while encamped in hostile territory!

If sleepwalking would matter during an adventure, the GM will make a self-control roll for you whenever you go to sleep. If you fail, you sleepwalk sometime during the night. You wake up after walking for 1d minutes, or if someone awakens you. The GM will make DX rolls to see if you trip while going down stairs or walking over rough ground - if this happens, you wake up suddenly and are mentally stunned.

You are considered to be in a hypnagogic state while sleepwalking, and thus are very susceptible to telepathic influences. If you possess supernatural abilities, you might use these while sleepwalking (e.g., if you have Warp, you might “sleepwarp” instead).

This is a racial trait. Members of the race need to sleep more than the human norm of 1/3 of the time. Point value depends on the fraction of the time they must spend asleep:

The race's precise schedule is a “special effect.” For instance, a race that sleeps 3/4 of the time might be awake and active for three days straight and then sleep for a full nine days.

This trait can also represent hibernation. For instance, if a race is awake and active on a human schedule for six months, and then hibernates for two months straight, then on the average, that's equivalent to sleeping 1/2 of the time.

You spend a lot of your time eating. Each meal takes about two hours, as opposed to about 1/2 hour for most humans. This reduces the time available for study, long tasks, and travel on foot by 4 1/2 hours per day.

Your body heals very slowly. Each level (maximum three levels) doubles the interval between HT rolls to regain lost HP: roll every two days for Slow Healing 1, every four days for Slow Healing 2, and every eight days for Slow Healing 3. Take Unhealing if you heal even more slowly. Each level also doubles the time allowed between Physician rolls when under the care of a competent physician (see Medical Care, p. 424).

Normal humans may take no more than one level of Slow Healing.

You are not a “morning person.” For one hour after you awaken from any sleep longer than a one-hour nap, you have -2 on all self-control rolls and -1 to IQ and IQ-based skills. Furthermore, whenever the GM assesses attribute penalties for missed sleep, you suffer an extra -1.

You have contracted a contagious, antibiotic-resistant bacteria, retrovirus, or similar disease. This is only transmitted by close, unprotected physical contact. Those who know about it react to you at -1 and automatically resist your seduction attempts. The disease isn't fatal - at least not immediately - but may produce physical symptoms (left to the imagination of the player or GM).

You belong to a race, class, sex, or other group that your society deems inferior. To be worth points, this must be obvious from your physical appearance (a visible brand, tattoo, or magical mark counts), dress, manner, or speech; or easily learned by anyone who cares to check up on you (only valid in societies with free and easy access to information); or the result of public denouncement (e.g., by a powerful leader or media figure) that ensures that everyone you meet knows that you, personally, belong to the disdained group.

A Social Stigma gives you a reaction penalty (-1 per -5 points of Social Stigma), restricts your social mobility, or both. Examples include:

Criminal Record: You have been convicted of a crime that your society considers serious. You may be prohibited from legally acquiring certain items (e.g., weapons), taking certain kinds of employment, receiving security clearances, or even traveling outside your country. Many noncriminals who learn of your past react at -1; police, judges, vigilantes, and other law-and-order types usually react at -2. If you are also wanted, take an appropriate Enemy. -5 points.

Disowned: Your family has publicly snubbed you. This is only worth points in settings where family ties play a significant social role, and never applies to those who voluntarily part ways with their family. This Social Stigma comes in two levels:

• You would normally be an heir in your culture, but someone else has been named in your stead. This is embarrassing, but you may still count yourself as part of the family. This gives -1 on reaction rolls. -5 points.

• The head of your family - or your entire clan - has wholly and publicly disowned you. This gives -2 on reaction rolls. -10 points.

Excommunicated: Your church has cast you out. Followers of your faith react to you at -3. This is only a disadvantage if you are excommunicated by a powerful and widespread religion (most likely state-backed) that plays a significant role in day-to-day life. -5 points.

If your religion has true supernatural power, and you are surrounded by an aura that conveys your shame to co-religionists, angels, and anyone else who would care, no matter how well you disguise yourself, your Social Stigma is worth twice as much. -10 points.

Ignorant: You have not learned a skill required of all responsible adults in your society (that is, you have no points in the skill). Others look down upon you as a slacker or a fool. This gives -1 on reactions for each “expected” skill you lack, up to a maximum of four skills. This is only worth points in highly structured societies, or in primitive ones where individuals depend on one another for survival. -5 points/skill.

Minor: You are underage by your culture's standards. You suffer -2 on reaction rolls whenever you try to deal with others as an adult; they might like you, but they do not fully respect you. You might also be barred from nightclubs, vehicle operation, war parties, guild membership, etc., depending on the culture and setting. You must buy off this trait when you reach “legal age” (usually 18) for your time and place. -5 points.

Minority Group: You are a member of a minority that the dominant culture around you regards as “barbarians” or “inferior.” You get -2 on all reaction rolls made by anyone except your own kind. In an area, profession, or situation where your minority is especially rare, you get +2 on reaction rolls made by your own kind. -10 points.

Monster: You are a large carnivore, magical abomination, or other being that is hated or feared regardless of actual appearance or disposition. This gives you -3 on all reaction rolls, and you are liable to be hunted on sight. However, you get +3 to Intimidation rolls in situations where you have the upper hand (GM's opinion). Examples: a bear or a vampire. -15 points.

Second-Class Citizen: You belong to a group that receives fewer rights and privileges than “full citizens.” This gives -1 on all reaction rolls except from others of your own kind. Examples: a woman in 19th-century America, or members of some religions. -5 points.

Subjugated: You are a member of a slave nation or race. Within the overlords' culture, you have no rights, and suffer the negative effects of Second- Class Citizen and Valuable Property. If you manage to escape to freedom, you acquire the entire overlord nation or race as an Enemy. -20 points.

Uneducated: You are from a class, race, or subculture that lacks a cultural repository of wisdom, eschews formal schooling, and takes a dim view of activities that do not relate directly to survival or procreation. You receive -1 to reactions from more sophisticated folk in any situation where your lack of schooling would be apparent, and you may not start with any “book-learned” skills (GM's discretion; most IQ/Hard skills qualify). You may buy off this trait once you have lived in “civilized” parts for long enough (GM's decision). -5 points.

Valuable Property: Your society regards you as somebody's property rather than as a “legal person.” This takes the form of limited freedom or lack of intellectual respect more than as a reaction modifier. Examples: a woman in 18th-century America or 16th-century Japan. -10 points.

Social Stigmas must bind those who take them. For example, a medieval Japanese lady must pay for her 10-point bonus by giving up her freedom of movement in many cases, and must defer to older male relatives when they are present. A black slave in 19th-century America is allowed to learn very little and own almost no property, and has little freedom of any kind unless he manages to escape. (If he does escape, he has traded his Social Stigma for a powerful Enemy!)

It is possible to have multiple Social Stigmas, provided they do not significantly overlap (GM's decision). For instance, a teenager who drops out of school and joins a street gang could believably end up with Minor, Uneducated, and Criminal Record.

Believe it or not, zombies don’t automatically receive Social Stigmas. Templates for those that can pass as living people – if crazy or filthy ones – shouldn’t normally include this trait. Such zombies may suffer reaction penalties, perhaps severe ones, but these are incidental to the mental and/or physical disadvantages caused by their condition. They aren’t the result of an explicit Social Stigma. If a zombie is visibly unnatural and unable to pass as an ordinary person – living or dead – then it should have Social Stigma (Monster) [-15]. This is the case for mutated infection victims, twisted constructs (alive, undead, or otherwise), or undead so warped in death that they’re widely assumed to be distinct humanoid “monster races.” They’ll be feared much like dangerous animals. And a zombie that’s unquestionably a dead person walking around has a special Social Stigma that cannot be taken alongside any other version of the disadvantage:

Dead: You’re a walking stiff. You suffer all the negative effects of Monster, notably -3 to reactions. However, where a monster might be feared but mostly avoided (or even conserved, like a lion, tiger, or bear, or an infected human), society has specific designs on you – in effect, you belong to a Subjugated group. Just to begin with, because you’re already dead, it isn’t murder to “kill” you! Additional obstacles can by turns resemble those given for Criminal Record, Disowned, Excommunicated, or Minor. Details vary by setting, but examples include being the chattel of your reanimator; receiving none of the courtesies, rights, or privileges that a living person of your former social background would enjoy at your apparent age; and suffering the best efforts of holy folk to put you to rest. -20 points.

Zombies openly kept as slaves in backgrounds where the practice is widely accepted should have Valuable Property. This is instead of Monster or Dead, even if such a zombie is visibly inhuman or undead – though the zombie will still suffer reaction penalties from low Appearance, Bad Smell, and other disadvantages. Such an approach suits Vodou-style zombies in some times and places, and “pet” zombies such as those in the movie Fido, but not reanimated servitors in general. In traditional fantasy worlds, for instance, necromantic zombies are illegal, immoral, and best treated as Dead.

For further discussion of these themes, see Social Traits for Zombies (p. 89).

You are miserable in free fall. You can never learn Free Fall skill; you must always roll at default. In addition, you are at -4 on your HT roll to avoid “space adaptation syndrome” (see p. 434) - and if you fail the first HT roll, the only way for you to recover is to return to normal gravity.

This trait is only allowed in campaigns that feature regular space travel.

You have two or more distinct personalities, each with its own set of behavior patterns. They may interpret their memories differently, and even use different names.

For each personality, select a “package” of mental disadvantages and up to five quirks. The GM may also permit variations in IQ, Perception, Will, and mental advantages, where these would make sense. Each package of mental traits must be worth the same number of points. When calculating the value of your character, count the “package price” once - not once for each personality.

All your personalities have the same physical traits and skills (although some personalities might not use certain skills), and share any mental trait that is not part of one of these packages.

Example: Bob Smith has three personalities. “Col. Smith” is a stern disciplinarian with Delusion (“I am a military officer”) [-10], Code of Honor (Soldier's) [-10], and the quirk “Stands on ceremony” [-1]. “Bobby” is a party animal with -2 to Will [-10], Compulsive Carousing (6) [-10], and the quirk “Sleeps all day and goes out at night” [-1]. “Smitty” is a troublemaker with Overconfidence (12) [-5], Trickster [-15], and the quirk “Steals for fun” [-1]. All three personalities share all of Bob's other traits. Each package totals -21 points. Bob's player claims the -21 points once. With -15 points for Split Personality (12), the total point value is -36 points.

You must make a self-control roll in any stressful situation (but no more than once per hour of game time). On a failure, one of your other personalities emerges, and you behave according to its mental disadvantages and quirks. If there are several possibilities, the GM should either choose a personality appropriate to the situation or roll randomly.

All your personalities are somewhat shallow and affected, which gives -1 to reactions at all times. Those who witness a personality change will feel (possibly with justification) that you are a dangerous nutcase, and react at -3.

You dislike “yucky stuff”: little bugs and crawly things, blood and dead bodies, slime, etc. When exposed to such things, you react just as if you had a Phobia. Note that you do not suffer from the standard fears of insects, reptiles, dirt, and the dead! What bothers you isn't huge bugs or reptiles, ordinary “clean” dirt, and ghosts; it's nasty creepy things, filth, and bits of grue.

Status below 0 is a disadvantage. Almost everyone reacts negatively to you!

This disadvantage is normally available only to characters who are members of races “uplifted” from an animal state.

You temporarily “regress” when frightened, angered, fatigued, or injured. Make a self-control roll in those situations. On a failure, you behave like an animal, acting on impulse and instinct.

Once the stressful situation has passed, make a self-control roll every minute. If friends comfort you, roll at +2. If one of these people has Animal Empathy or Empathy, apply an additional +2. On a success, the attack ends and you return to normal. If you pass out from fatigue or injury before you succeed, you recover automatically when you wake up.

Point value depends on the severity of the attacks:

Mild: You have trouble speaking, and must roll vs. IQ to utter a sentence. You cannot operate complicated machinery, although you may attack wildly with weapons (-4 to hit). -10 points.*

Moderate: You suffer from all of the above problems, and have trouble understanding commands from others as well: roll vs. IQ to understand a sentence spoken by someone else. If you are attacked or challenged, you must make a self-control roll to avoid acting “on instinct.” -15 points.*

Severe: You cannot speak or understand others, or use tools (except possibly as clubs), and automatically act on instinct at all times. You behave like your primitive ancestors! -20 points.*

Stress Atavism may result in additional troublesome behavior. Pick a suitable mental disadvantage, halve its value (drop all fractions), and add this point cost to the above costs before applying the self-control multiplier.

You always want your own way. Make yourself generally hard to get along with - roleplay it! Your friends may have to make a lot of Fast-Talk rolls to get you to go along with perfectly reasonable plans. Others react to you at -1.

You suffer from a stammer or other speech impediment. This gives -2 on any reaction roll where conversation is required, and -2 to Diplomacy, Fast-Talk, Performance, Public Speaking, Sex Appeal, and Singing. Certain occupations (interpreter, newsreader, etc.) are always closed to you.

You have disturbing features that mark you as a demon, vampire, or other supernatural being. You can pass for a normal mortal to casual observers, but closer inspection reveals that you are not quite right. This might give away your secret to the trained eye.

Supernatural Features differ from Unnatural Features in that they aren't usually obvious; they only become apparent under a specific set of circumstances. When they are noticed, though, they result in a reaction penalty. They also give those who know what to look for a bonus to any skill roll (against Hidden Lore, Occultism, etc.) made to identify your true nature.

Supernatural Features can accompany appearance levels Hideous through Transcendent (see Physical Appearance). You cannot get points for Supernatural Features if you are Monstrous or Horrific, however. If you look that scary, you're not hiding any secrets!

No Body Heat: You are cold to the touch. -1 on reaction rolls made by those who touch you, shake your hand, kiss you, etc.; +1 on all rolls to deduce your secret. -5 points (-1 point if you can gain warmth temporarily; e.g., after feeding, for a vampire).

No Reflection: You produce no reflection. You do not show up in mirrors, still water, and similar reflective surfaces, and technological devices such as cameras do not display your image. In some places and times, people will assume that you have no soul! -2 on reaction rolls made by those who notice; +2 on all rolls to deduce your secret. -10 points.

No Shadow: You produce no shadow, regardless of the intensity or direction of the light source. -2 on reaction rolls made by those who notice; +2 on all rolls to deduce your secret. -10 points.

Pallor: You look like a corpse, with bloodless skin, sunken eyes, etc. -2 on reaction rolls made by anyone who can see you without makeup in good light; +2 on all rolls to deduce your secret. -10 points (-5 points if you can gain the flush of life temporarily; e.g., after feeding, for a vampire).

You are telepathically sensitive to the presence of others all the time. You experience a constant, irritating buzz of low-level psychic noise. This does not imply any kind of useful telepathic ability - the thoughts and emotions you receive remain just below the threshold of conscious understanding.

If there are any sapient beings (IQ 6+) within 20 yards, you suffer -1 to DX and IQ. This becomes -2 for 10 or more people, -3 for 100 or more, -4 for 1,000 or more, and so on. If DX or IQ drops below half its original score because of this penalty, you collapse and can take no action until the “noise” goes away. Machine intelligences and individuals behind telepathic shielding (psionic, technological, or otherwise) do not bother you.

There is one beneficial side effect to Supersensitive: the psychic noise you receive warns you if there are people within 20 yards, and the noise level tells you roughly how many. The noise is too diffuse to let you determine their locations, however.

You are extremely sensitive to a particular class of noxious items or substances; e.g., disease or poison. You have a penalty to all HT rolls to resist the negative effects of these things. You do not suffer extra damage, however; for that, see Vulnerability.

If you are exposed to trace quantities of an item to which you are Susceptible - a dose so tiny that it would not affect most people - you must roll against HT+1, modified by your usual penalty for this disadvantage. If you fail, you suffer half the effects (fatigue, injury, attribute loss, period of incapacitation, etc.) you would suffer from a full dose. For instance, Susceptible to Poison would require a roll if you ingested highly diluted industrial waste in drinking water, while Susceptible to Disease would require a roll if you received a “live” vaccine (one that contains weakened microbes). Should there be any doubt as to exposure or effects, the GM's decision is final.

Point cost depends on the item's rarity in the environment:

Very Common (e.g., Disease, Poison): -4 points/-1 to HT rolls. Common (e.g., Bacteria, Gases): -2 points/-1 to HT rolls. Occasional (e.g., Intestinal Disease, Ingested Poison): -1 point/-1 to HT rolls.

You may not take more than five levels of Susceptible to a given item, or more than two separate Susceptible disadvantages, without the GM's permission.

You cannot take more levels of Susceptible than would reduce your effective HT to 3. For instance, if your HT is 7, you are limited to four levels of Susceptible. If you have any form of Resistant that protects against a given item, you cannot also be Susceptible to that item.

This trait can simulate many common health problems. Use Susceptible to Disease for a weak immune system, Susceptible to Ingested Poison for a tendency not to vomit up noxious substances (a “weak vomit reflex”), etc.

You are going to die… soon. This could be due to a nasty disease, a potent curse, an irremovable explosive device embedded in the base of your skull, or something else that will result in certain death. Point cost depends on how much time you have left:

More than two years is worth nothing. Anyone might be hit by a truck in that time!

If you acquire a “miracle cure,” upload yourself into a new body, or otherwise extend your life past your termination date during the course of the campaign, you must buy off this disadvantage. If you cannot afford to do so, the GM is free to make up the difference with new disadvantages related to your illness or its cure (e.g., Chronic Pain, Dependency, Maintenance, or Susceptible).

If the GM is running a one-shot adventure or short campaign, he should disallow this disadvantage as meaningless.

Time travel, dimension travel, and teleportation make you ill. You cannot have psionic talents, magic spells, or technological skills that have to do with this kind of travel, nor can you learn the Body Sense skill. You must make a HT roll whenever you journey through time or across dimensions, and whenever you teleport. On a failure, you are effectively stunned for 1d hours (doubled on a critical failure!). On a success, you are only stunned for 1dx10 minutes.

Timesickness is only allowed if dimension travel, teleportation, or time travel occur regularly in the campaign. The GM may wish to permit a variation on this trait in settings with faster-than-light hyperdrives (“Hypersickness”) or jump drives (“Jump Sickness”).

You have a special symbol - something that you leave at the scene of action, as a way of “signing your work.” The classic fictional example is the carved initial “Z” of Zorro.

Simple: Your Trademark takes very little time to leave and cannot be used to trace your identity, but you absolutely must leave it. You cannot leave the scene until you do, even if your enemies are breaking down the door. A typical example is something left at the scene - a playing card, a small stuffed animal, etc. - as long as it can't be traced and takes little time. -5 points.

Complex: As above, but leaving your Trademark measurably increases your chances of being caught - initial carving, notes, traceable clues, etc. Leaving this sort of Trademark takes a minimum of 30 seconds. Anyone searching the scene receives +2 to Criminology and Forensics rolls to trace or identify you. -10 points.

Elaborate: Your trademark is so elaborate - dousing the captured thugs with a certain cologne, painting the entire crime scene pink, writing a long poem to the police - that it virtually ensures your eventual capture. The GM may give investigators clues without a successful Criminology or Forensics roll! -15 points.

You may have only one Trademark. Multiple actions (e.g., binding your victims with purple phone wire, painting a frog on the wall, and wrecking every computer in the building) simply give you a higher level of Trademark - they are not multiple Trademarks.

Note also that a Trademark is an action separate from capturing the crooks, committing the crime, etc. It's the particular way that it is done. Destroying files on a computer is not a Trademark; trashing them by substituting a “7” for each “5” is.

You crave the excitement of outwitting dangerous foes. This is not ordinary practical joking. Playing simple tricks on innocent or harmless folk is no fun at all - it has to be perilous! There may be no need for this at all (in fact, there probably isn't), but you need the thrill of a battle of wits and dexterity.

Make a self-control roll each day. If you fail, you must try to trick a dangerous subject: a skilled warrior, a dangerous monster, a whole group of reasonably competent opponents, etc. If you resist, you get a cumulative -1 per day to your self-control roll until you finally fail a roll!

You hate to tell a lie - or you are just very bad at it. Make a self-control roll whenever you must keep silent about an uncomfortable truth (lying by omission). Roll at -5 if you actually have to tell a falsehood! If you fail, you blurt out the truth, or stumble so much that your lie is obvious. You have a permanent -5 to Fast Talk skill, and your Acting skill is at -5 when your purpose is to deceive.

You consume something that you must obtain from other sapient beings through force or guile, and you have difficulty controlling your appetites. You must specify what it is you crave. This could be blood, “life force,” sex, or anything else the GM permits.

Whenever you have an opportunity to indulge, you must make a self-control roll. Roll at -2 if someone deliberately tempts you, or if the item you feed on is available in large quantities within range of your senses. If feeding would restore lost HP, this roll is at -1 per missing HP. If you fail, you must feed. Make a second self-control roll to stop feeding once you have had your fill. If you fail, you go into frenzy and overindulge, which could kill your victim.

A zombie with this trait is prone to flying into a “feeding frenzy” at the expense of everything else. When it sees someone it wants to eat (in whole or in part), it must make a self-control roll or attack. If that victim or other potential prey falls down, for whatever reason, the zombie must make another self-control roll or descend upon its meal, biting with All-Out Attacks and ignoring opponents who aren’t trying to pull it off or steal its dinner.

This disadvantage doesn’t require Restricted Diet (p. 63). For instance, a ghoul that can eat ordinary food might still have Uncontrollable Appetite (Brains). It also doesn’t preclude Doesn’t Eat or Drink (p. 51). A classic feature of solidified spirits is that they crave the blood or flesh of the living, and although this doesn’t sate their hunger, they never perish from starvation – their real curse is the suffering they wreak in the world.

Uncontrollable Appetite overlaps Bad Temper and Bloodlust, so it’s best to pick just one: enraged infected that attack to spread plague possess Bad Temper; “evil dead” that hate life and just want to kill exhibit Bloodlust; and “hungry dead” that desire to eat have Uncontrollable Appetite. Any of the three might have Berserk as well!

You have worse cardiovascular health than your HT alone would indicate. This comes in two levels:

Unfit: You get -1 to all HT rolls to remain conscious, avoid death, resist disease or poison, etc. This does not reduce your HT attribute or HT-based skills! As well, you lose FP at twice the normal rate. -5 points.

Very Unfit: As above, but the penalty to HT rolls is -2. In addition, you recover FP at only half the normal rate. You may not purchase any level of Resistant. -15 points.

In both cases, this disadvantage applies only to FP lost to exertion, heat, etc. It has no effect on FP “spent” to power psi or magic spells.

You cannot heal naturally. You get no daily HT roll to recover lost HP, and you cannot recuperate from crippling injuries on your own. The First Aid skill can stop your bleeding, but neither it nor the Physician skill can restore missing HP. Technologies that accelerate natural healing (including herbs, drugs, etc.) are useless. This trait comes in two levels:

Partial: You can heal naturally if a rare condition is met (e.g., when you are immersed in blood or bathed in lava). You can also heal yourself by stealing HP from others using Vampiric Bite, magic, or psionics. -20 points.

Total: You can never heal naturally, and you cannot steal HP from others. -30 points.

Depending on your nature, you might be able to regain lost HP and the use of crippled limbs unnaturally through surgery, repairs (if you're a machine), or exotic means (healing spells, alchemy, psionics, etc.).

Undead zombies and solidified spirits are almost always Unhealing. Constructs, too, often suffer from this complication. It’s rare among living zombies, but a zombie plague could conceivably cause it (or nearly any other weird effect!). In all cases, this nearly always means the Total form. Partial rarely fits because few zombies are vampiric; those that eat their victims do so for sustenance, not unnatural healing.

Unhealing only prevents natural healing and conventional medicine from working. It doesn’t preclude HP recovery in unnatural or weird ways. Healing spells generally work; so does brute-force surgery to stitch the zombie back together.

You exist only in one timeline. If a time paradox occurs, you have no memory of it. If it is particularly severe, you are likely to vanish. In most settings, you would be unaware of this danger until it happened… and then nobody would even remember you! Thus, this disadvantage is usually inappropriate for PCs.

In an alternate-world campaign, being Unique means that you do not exist in any form in an alternate world, even one very much like your own. This deprives you of the chance to befriend “yourself” when you visit such a world. There is one benefit, though: you are effectively Zeroed at no point cost in any alternate world. Unique is only a disadvantage in campaigns in which paradoxes or changes in history - erasing past events or whole timelines - are possible. See Temporal Inertia for the opposite of this trait.

You have rotten luck. Things go wrong for you - and usually at the worst possible time. Once per play session, the GM will arbitrarily and maliciously make something go wrong for you. You miss a vital die roll, or the enemy (against all odds) shows up at the worst possible time. If the plot of the adventure calls for something bad to happen to someone, it's you. The GM may not kill you outright with “bad luck,” but anything less than that is fine. (For lethally bad luck, see Cursed.)

If you wish, you may specify a recurring “theme” for your Unluckiness - for instance, your weapons tend to break, you're always 5 minutes late, or objects have a nasty habit of falling on your head. The GM should do his best to make your Unluckiness work this way. However, this is a characterization tool and not a hard-and-fast game mechanic. Bad luck can always manifest in other ways if the GM wants to keep you on your toes!

You can subsist on human food, but your biochemistry is sufficiently different from that of humans that drugs intended for humans don't work or have unpredictable effects. Drugs that are specific to your biochemistry work normally, but cost 10 times as much as usual.

When you receive a drug intended for humans, roll 1d:

1-3 - Normal effect.

4-5 - Normal effect, plus an additional harmful effect of the GM's choosing: lose 1d FP (sickness and nausea), suffer an amplified version of the drug's usual negative side effects, etc.

6 - No effect at all.

You have sworn an oath to do (or not to do) something. Whatever the oath, you take it seriously; if you didn't, it would not be a disadvantage. This trait is especially appropriate for knights, holy men, and fanatics.

The point value of a Vow should be directly related to the inconvenience it causes you. The GM is the final judge. Some examples:

Minor Vow: Silence during daylight hours; vegetarianism; chastity (yes, for game purposes, this is minor). -5 points.

Major Vow: Use no edged weapons; keep silence at all times; never sleep indoors; own no more than your horse can carry. -10 points.

Great Vow: Never refuse any request for aid; always fight with the wrong hand; hunt a given foe until you destroy him; challenge every knight you meet to combat. -15 points.

Note that if you could represent your Vow using another disadvantage, you only get points for one of the two disadvantages (your choice). No one may get points for Vow (Poverty) and Wealth (Dead Broke), Vow (Never kill) and Pacifism (Cannot Kill), etc. Many Vows end after a specified period of time. You must buy off such a Vow when it ends. Vows for a period of less than a year are frivolous! If you want to end a Vow before its stated time, the GM may exact a penalty; for instance, in a medieval world, you might have to undertake a quest by way of penance.

You take extra damage from a particular attack form. Whenever this type of attack hits you, the GM applies a special wounding multiplier to damage that penetrates your DR. Regular wounding multipliers (for cutting, impaling, etc.) further multiply the damage.

Example: A werewolf with Vulnerability (Silver x4) is nicked with a silver knife for 1 point of cutting damage. The GM multiplies this by 4 for Vulnerability, giving 4 points of damage, and then multiplies by 1.5 for a cutting attack. The final injury is 6 HP.

Point value depends on the wounding multiplier and the rarity of the attack:

Use the categories under Limited Defenses to assess rarity. The GM has the final say on the rarity of a given attack form. You may not take more than two types of Vulnerability without GM permission.

You cannot have Vulnerability to anything against which you have a specific defense: Resistant, Damage Resistance limited to work only against that attack form, etc. You can have both Vulnerability and Supernatural Durability (p. 89), but this reduces the utility of Supernatural Durability.

Fatigue Only: You are vulnerable to an attack that drains FP instead of HP, or to some form of mundane fatigue loss (e.g., x2 FP from hot weather). -50%.

Like many fictional monsters, zombies have their share of unusual vulnerabilities to injury. Some classics:

Rare: Blessed weapons (for the “evil dead”); magic weapons (for some fantasy zombies); specialized biological or chemical weapon (for weird-science zombies).

Occasional: Cutting damage to the neck (for some B-movie zombies).

Common: Crushing damage (for skeletons); electricity (for galvanic zombies); fire (for dried-out mummies); headshots (for most B-movie zombies).

Very Common: All magic (for other fantasy zombies); all physical blows (for zombies so rotten that bits fall off as they walk).

The multiple might be x2, x3, or x4, depending on whether such injury is intended to be merely “extra-effective” (typical of magic vs. fantasy undead) or “instantly fatal” (like headshots for B-movie ghouls). As regular wounding modifiers also multiply injury, this is often chosen to offset the zombie’s Injury Tolerance (Unliving) or (Homogenous). For help with this, see Wounding Modifiers and Zombies (p. 110).

Example: While skull blows to living and Unliving beings inflict x4 injury regardless of damage type, face hits don’t (see p. B399). Piercing attacks – including the majority of bullets – striking an Unliving zombie’s face result in only x1/3 injury (see p. B380). To fix this problem for classic cinematic zombies that can be dropped with shotgun blasts, add Vulnerability (Headshots x3). Now skull hits will deal x12 injury and be reliable kills, cricket bats and golf clubs to the face will cause a satisfying x3 injury, and even bullets to the face will do x1 (compared to a mere x1/3 for the torso).

If the zombie is really easy to put down, combine a sizeable multiplier with modest HP and a suitable form of Fragile (p. 61). For instance, a horribly rotten zombie with 10 HP, Fragile (Unnatural), and Vulnerability (All physical blows x4) will be blown apart by one good swing from a ST 10 man with a melee weapon. This suits the zombies that video-game heroes dispatch by the dozen.

Your jaw is not structured to make full use of your strength while biting. Calculate biting damage normally, then apply an extra -2 per die. This trait is common for large herbivores (e.g., horses), uncommon for small herbivores and omnivores, and very rare for carnivores.

You suffer injury merely by being in the presence of a particular substance or condition (which cannot be a food item or something equally easy to avoid). This injury comes off your HP directly, regardless of your DR or defensive advantages. The more quickly you take damage, the more points your Weakness is worth:

Multiply the base value to reflect the rarity of the damaging substance or condition:

Rare (e.g., exotic radiation or minerals): x1/2.

Occasional (e.g., microwave radiation, intense normal cold, airborne pollen): x1.

Common (e.g., smoke, nearby magic, horses, loud noises): x2.

Very Common (e.g., sunlight, living plants): x3.

Example: An anaerobic organism takes 1d per minute from oxygen. The base value of a Weakness that inflicts 1d per minute is -20 points. Since oxygen is “Very Common,” final cost is -60 points.

You may not take more than two types of Weakness without GM permission.

Fatigue Only: Your Weakness drains FP instead of HP. -50%.

Variable: Your Weakness is sensitive to received intensity. You may specify one relatively common class of barriers that halves the rate at which you take damage (e.g., heavy clothing or sunscreen, for sunlight). On the other hand, intense sources (GM's decision) double the rate at which you suffer harm! -40%.

Weaknesses are less common than Vulnerabilities for zombies, which customarily fall into the “destroyed in combat” category, rendering injury that accrues over many minutes somewhat irrelevant. Still, some zombies do have odd flaws that work best when treated this way:

Rare (x1/2 point value): A specific acoustic frequency, chemical, kind of radiation, etc. (for weird-science zombies); one particular de-zombification ritual, spell, or other sacred or magical countermeasure, or True Faith (for fantasy zombies).

Occasional (x1): Holy water (for “evil dead” and many fantasy zombies); salt (for Vodou zombies); strong electromagnetic fields (for galvanic constructs).

Common (x2): Running water (for “traditional” undead affected by symbolic cleansing).

Very Common (x3): Sunlight or any water (again, for undead affected by cleansing).

Rarity is subjective! If the item is one of the first things that the average person would try, treat it as a step more common; e.g., while holy water isn’t nearly as common as salt in most places, it’s easy to obtain and anybody facing the undead is likely to try it, so it’s bumped up from “Rare” (like other sacred countermeasures) to “Occasional.”

Many substances toward which zombies have Weaknesses occur in doses. These do their usual injury upon exposure, but can only cause further injury after the Weakness’ full damage interval has passed. For instance, a zombie with Weakness (Holy Water; 1d/minute) takes 1d injury when first splashed with holy water, but can’t be hurt that way again for a minute, however many vials of the stuff are tossed at it in the interim.

Zombies rarely have the Fatigue Only limitation, and those with the No Fatigue feature (pp. 67-68) – including most undead – can’t have that modifier. On the other hand, the Variable limitation often fits. At the GM’s option, any Weakness that involves doses might have Variable to reflect the fact that injury, whatever its frequency, is proportional to quantity; e.g., holy water might call for at least a pint to cause 1d injury, with a smaller splash causing just 1d-2 but being pushed into a font of the stuff inflicting 2d.

If a zombie is hurt by the removal of something, see Dependency (pp. 59-60).

Irreversible: Exposure to the substance or condition is a slow death sentence. Injury continues even if it’s removed, barring a rare and miraculous cure. Mutually exclusive with Fatigue Only. +100%.

Difficult to Administer: Weakness normally assumes at least minimal contact between subject and substance: energy has to impinge on him, gases must touch him, liquids have to wet him, supernatural effects (such as spells and True Faith) must be directed at him or an area that includes him, and so on. At most, his enemies might have to shine a light on him, smash a vial on him, or similar – and unless his Weakness has Variable, clothing or armor will have no effect on this. Some Weaknesses require more work, though. If the Weakness works like a blood or contact agent, and demands something like bare skin or injection, it has a -50% limitation; this is typical of weird-science serums. If it’s actually a digestive agent or similar ingested substance (like salt for traditional Vodou zombies), the limitation is -100%; the GM may forbid it on the grounds that Weakness specifically excludes ordinary food items, but this sort of thing is a credible threat when combined with Irreversible.

Below-average levels of Wealth are a disadvantage; be sure to note them on your character sheet.

Strange and bizarre things happen to you with alarming frequency. You are the one demons stop and chat with. Magic items with disturbing properties find their way to you. The only talking dog on 21st-century Earth comes to you with his problems. Dimensional gates sealed for centuries crack open just so that you can be bathed in the energies released . . . or perhaps the entities on the other side invite you to tea.

Nothing lethal happens to you, at least not immediately, and occasionally some weirdness is beneficial. But most of the time it is terribly, terribly inconvenient. People who understand what a Weirdness Magnet is (and that you are one) react to you at -2. The exceptions are parapsychologists, fringe cultists, unhinged conspiracy theorists, and thrill-seekers, who follow you around!

You tend to drive yourself past your limits, and find it hard to relax and turn away from your work. You always work at least half again as long as a normal working day. This often results in missed sleep (see Missed Sleep, p. 426). Most people regard you with respect at first (+1 to reaction rolls), but you eventually suffer -1 or -2 to reactions - especially from friends and loved ones who rarely get to spend time with you.

You have an open wound that will not completely heal, for whatever reason (botched surgery, backfired healing spell, etc.). You are not missing any HP, but your wound serves as a path for infection and toxins, and may complicate new injuries.

A foe who knows about your wound may deliberately target it, at -7 to hit. Such attacks have a wounding multiplier of 1.5 (that is, you take 50% more damage). Blood agents that reach your wound affect you as if carried on a weapon that broke your skin. You must carefully dress your wound each day (requires a First Aid or Physician roll) or get -3 to all HT rolls to resist infection in a plague-ridden area.

At the GM's option, you may acquire a wound like this in play due to torture, scalping, etc. Certain wounds have other effects; for instance, scalping would cost you a level of appearance.

You are instinctively fascinated and attracted by strangers and aliens, no matter how dangerous or frightening they appear to be. Make a self-control roll whenever you meet someone (or something) like this. If you fail, you assume that this person is interested in interacting with you socially. A xenophile finds himself offering drinks to glaring foreign soldiers, making passes at cute vampires, and shaking tentacles with Things Man Was Not Meant To Know while his companions are pointing weapons or running the other way . . .

As partial compensation, you get a bonus to Fright Checks when meeting strange creatures:

NPCs with this trait will react to exotic PCs at a similar bonus.

The GM is welcome to develop new disadvantages. The guidelines given under New Advantages (p. 117) apply here as well - but note that it is easier to abuse disadvantages than advantages. A badly designed advantage might be too powerful, but it costs points, so it isn't a free lunch. On the other hand, a disadvantage that does not restrict the character gives away points. It is a free lunch! Remember the “golden rule” of disadvantage design: A “disadvantage” that does not limit the character is not a disadvantage.

You can turn existing disadvantages into new ones using the processes recommended for advantages: rename, redefine, combine, modify, and finetune. For instance, you could combine the modified disadvantage Weakness (Sunlight; 1d/30 minutes; Variable, -40%) [-9] with the quirk Distinctive Features [-1] and rename it “Albinism,” giving you a new disadvantage worth -10 points. There are a few additional points to note when doing this kind of thing.

Some existing disadvantages are essentially “user-defined.” This property makes them particularly useful for building “new” disadvantages. The most versatile traits of this kind are Addiction, Code of Honor, Compulsive Behavior, Delusions, Dependency, Destiny, Disciplines of Faith, Dread, Fanaticism, Increased Life Support, Intolerance, Maintenance, Obsession, Odious Personal Habits, Phobias, Restricted Diet, Revulsion, Sense of Duty, Susceptible, Unnatural Features, Vows, Vulnerability, and Weakness.

When combining multiple disadvantages to create new ones, remember that advantages can be added to the mix, reducing the value of the composite disadvantage. For instance, a positive Reputation can be associated with a “good” personality trait (such as Honesty or Sense of Duty) that is considered a disadvantage in GURPS because it restricts the hero's choice of actions. If the restrictions outweigh the reaction bonus, the overall trait is still a disadvantage. Finally, when you apply limitations (pp. 110-116) to a disadvantage, remember that they reduce the points gained from the disadvantage. For instance, if you apply an Accessibility limitation worth -40% to a -15-point disadvantage, it becomes a -9-point disadvantage. See the “special limitations” throughout this chapter for examples of suitable limitations. (A few disadvantages have special enhancements that increase disadvantage value, but these are less common.)

The guidelines for creating totally new disadvantages are similar to those for designing entirely new advantages (p. 118):

1. Situational penalties to attributes. Assume that each -1 to an attribute is worth a basic -10 points for ST or HT, or -20 points for DX or IQ, and then reduce the final cost to reflect the limited circumstances under which the penalty applies. For instance, Susceptible to Poison (-2) is -2 to HT (base cost -20 points), reduced to 40% its normal value because it applies only to rolls to resist poison - which are common enough but still a specialized use of HT - for a net value of -8 points.

2. Penalties to skill rolls. Handle skill penalties using the Incompetence quirk (p. 164). This gives -1 point for each -4 to a specific skill. These skill penalties are not symmetrical with the skill bonuses given on p. 118. This is intentional! It reflects the reality that most players select skills for which their characters have an aptitude and ignore those at which their characters are inept. The Incompetence penalty can be changed to -3 or -5 without much effect on game balance, but it must apply to a reasonably common skill to be worth points at all. Price a blanket penalty to an entire group of related skills exactly as if you were pricing a Talent (p. 89), but with minus sign in front of the cost. This makes a penalty to a group of skills a far more serious disadvantage than a penalty to one skill. This reflects the fact that it is difficult to work around ineptitude with every skill in a large, useful category.

3. Penalties to reaction rolls. Reaction penalties use the Reputation rules on p. 26. As explained for new advantages, these modifiers need not be actual Reputations - they could as easily be due to looks, a supernatural aura, etc.

4. Unique disabilities. You can only price unique disadvantages by comparison. Look at comparable disadvantages in the system and assign a similar point value, and then adjust it if the new disadvantage is more or less limiting than the existing one.

The final cost of a disadvantage equals the sum of the costs of its component parts, modified for rarity as the GM sees fit. A rare disadvantage is sometimes worth more points because it is less likely to be treatable, or because it is more likely to generate shock and disgust on a bad reaction roll. A common disadvantage may be worth fewer points by the same logic - that is, it is easy to circumvent using technology, or its social ramifications are mitigated by others' indifference.

In general, though, the point value of a disadvantage won't be that of the “opposite” advantage with a minus sign in front. This is mainly because most traits in GURPS are asymmetric, skewed toward the human norm and biased toward adventuring heroes. For instance, One Arm is a serious disadvantage worth -20 points because having only one arm severely limits skill use, while Extra Arms are a mere 10 points apiece because additional arms rarely benefit most skills. It is also important to realize that for adventurers, there are many qualities where either extreme is an effective disadvantage (for instance, Curious and Incurious) or advantage (consider Common Sense and Daredevil).

This is the end of the file.