More Quirks

[Pursuivant]

Emotionally Scarred (Mental)

Past events in your life have left deep wounds in your psyche. While your bad memories don’t generally interfere with your ability to function, and you aren’t required to act on your feelings, you must roleplay them.

Based on the nature of your emotional scarring, you might react more or less negatively towards a particular person or type of person, you might find yourself drawn towards or repelled by certain groups or personal relationships, or you might have a preference or dislike for certain settings or situations. Alternately, you might react to certain people or situations in a non-productive or irrational fashion.

At the GM’s option, you might have a temporary -1 penalty to Will rolls, Fright Checks, or Self-Control rolls to resist certain disadvantages when you are “triggered” by people or events which remind you of bad times. Occasionally, you might have a -1 penalty to skill rolls, or Reaction Rolls from others, when performing tasks which trigger negative thoughts.

With the GM’s permission, you can further define this quirk with terms like, “Accident Survivor” or “Family Issues.” In such cases, you might be able to behave normally in most situations, but issues relating to your past trauma strongly affect you and might give you double the normal penalties.

This trait can also be defined as a very mild tendency towards one or more mental disadvantages such as Bad Temper, Chronic Depression, Compulsive Behavior, Cowardice, Guilt Complex, Intolerance, Jealousy, or Phobia, but which are only triggered by certain people or situations.

While the causes of your emotional scarring can be as broad or as narrow as you wish, you can only take this quirk once.

This quirk is a classic for cinematic heroes who have survived past trauma, but who never seem to be limited by their experiences when it really matters.

Easily Embarrassed † (Mental)

You feel deep embarrassment or shame if you are caught in a particular situation, and when you observe a situation which would cause you anxiety, guilt, or shame if it happened to you.

You must specify some broad condition or common situation (or a group of less common situations or stimuli) which triggers your embarrassment. It is possible to have multiple versions of this quirk.

You react at -1 to any situation where the potentially shocking behavior seems likely to occur or is implied, and at -2 to any situation it actually occurs.

If the shocking situation happens to you, you must make a Will roll to avoid being Mentally Stunned for seconds equal to your margin of failure. After that, unless you are in a life or death situation, you can only attempt to recover from your embarrassment (e.g., hiding or fleeing). The GM can apply modifiers to your Will roll to avoid mental Stun, similar to those imposed for Fright Checks, especially if you are surprised or you are embarrassed in front of a large group of people.

Unless attacked, or otherwise in dire peril, you can only use your hands or items you are holding to attempt to recover from your embarrassment.

You must also make a Will roll to voluntarily behave in a fashion which is likely to trigger the embarrassing situation.

At the GM’s option this quirk might interfere with certain applications of skills which involve overtly “immodest” behavior, either giving skill penalties, forcing you to make Will rolls to perform a particular action, or both.

Afterwards, you might feel intense guilt, shame, or sense of personal violation, although such feelings must be roleplayed.

This quirk represents a limited form of Code of Honor, Compulsive Behavior, Disciplines of Faith, Intolerance, or Obsession. At the GM’s option, one or more versions of this quirk might be part of any one of those traits if its total negative character point value is -5 points or greater. In such cases, you can’t take this quirk as well.

This is a realistic perk suitable for people raised in highly restrictive or shame-conscious cultures. There are six common variants:

Body Shy: You react badly if you suddenly find yourself naked in public, or are unexpectedly exposed to naked people, especially in an erotically-charged situation.

Fears Loss of Face: You feel deep embarrassment and shame at loss of “face,” which occurs when you are publicly corrected, disrespected, or humiliated, or when your behavior or words might potentially disrespect or humiliate a friend, loved one, or social superior.

You will go out of your way to avoid such situations, possibly going against your best interests or withholding vital information to do so. This quirk is extremely common among members of many traditional East Asian cultures.

Personal Modesty Taboo: You are unusual among members of your culture (or the dominant culture) in that you are far more concerned about personal modesty than most people. This might be a limited form of Code of Honor, Disciplines of Faith, or a minor Phobia.

You must define your personal modesty standards when you take this Quirk. For example, you might be a member of a culture which otherwise doesn't have problems with nudity, but insists on keeping their feet covered in public and which considers pointing your feet at someone, kicking them, or touching objects with their feet to be uncouth or insulting.

Prudish: You have strong negative feelings regarding sexuality, whether disgust, fear, or shame. You react at -2 to lewd jokes, open displays of lewdness, sexuality, or sexually-suggestive nudity (including nudity by anyone of Attractive to better appearance, and people who succumb to the Lecherousness disadvantage). You react at -1 to non-sexual nudity (e.g., anatomy texts, classical nude sculptures), and clinical discussions of sexuality.
You can never learn or use the Sex Appeal or Erotic Art skills, and react at -2 to any attempt to use those skills on you. Should you react positively in spite of your Prudishness, you might enjoy yourself for the moment, but will then be overcome by strong negative emotions which might make you flee or even attack your partner.

The exception is that you can enjoy discreet, legally-sanctioned romances with whatever sexual partners your culture approves of (typically a single spouse, but possibly other partners such as additional spouses, or legally and socially-approved concubines or prostitutes). Even then, your sex life is likely to be limited and unimaginative.

This is a limited form of Intolerance, Phobia, or Squeamishness. If you are secretly drawn to some sort of socially-unapproved sex (e.g., homosexuality, liaisons with prostitutes), you also have a Secret. It is likely to be associated with the Body Shy Quirk.

Self-Conscious: You’re uncertain, or ashamed of, yourself regarding some skill or common area of activity.

Under normal circumstances, you suffer no penalty to use your skill or to perform tasks, but if you’ve recently been mocked, if you’re the subject of public attention, or if you’re feel extreme social pressure to succeed, you must make a Will roll. Failure means that you have a -1 penalty to use that skill or perform tasks regarding some endeavor.

You must specify the affected skill or area where you feel self-conscious. The GM can veto areas or skills where your self-consciousness is unlikely to be a factor. Valid examples are Self-conscious (Driving) or Self-conscious (Guns), “Self-conscious about romantic relationships,” or “Self-conscious about business transactions.”

Waste Elimination Taboo: You have strong negative feelings regarding urination and defecation, whether disgust, fear, or shame. You react at -2 to crude jokes, open displays of elimination, or to any display which strongly suggests such themes. You react at -1 to clinical discussions of waste elimination.

You find it extremely difficult to urinate or defecate where others might see, hear, or smell your activity. The GM can require you to make a Will roll to engage in such behaviors unless you are certain that you have absolute privacy, although possibly with bonuses if the need to eliminate is urgent.

While this seems silly, long term inability to urinate or defecate can result in life-threatening conditions such as intestinal blockages or a ruptured bladder. More typically, inability to relieve oneself causes the equivalent of Moderate or Severe Pain or even Agony.

This is a limited form of Intolerance, Phobia, or Squeamishness. Some animals have a variant of this quirk which makes them go far out of their way to just eliminate in certain locations, carefully cover or disguise their waste, and refuse to eliminate in situations where they might be observed.