(Special Good Creature Trait)
The Fear Factor Trait is designed for monsters, villains and those truly scary individuals who can send people running in terror. They don’t have to be ugly or monstrous – people cowered at feet of Dr Fu Manchu in fear of their lives – but sometimes it is just looking at the creature with the rows of teeth that fills them with fear.
Effect: Fear Factor is a Special Trait and is really only suitable for villains or monsters. It is costs 1 point, but can be purchased multiple times. Each purchase of the Fear Factor Trait adds +2 to any roll when actively trying to strike fear into people’s hearts. See ‘Getting Scared’ on page 133.
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Flight
(Minor or Major Good Creature Trait)
This Trait means that the creature can fly. Either they have wings, a jet pack, some kind of anti-gravity device or rotors, but one way or another they can leave the ground for extended periods.
Effect: Flight as a Minor Good Trait, costing 1 point, means that the creature can take off, hover, and travel slowly at a limited height. In most cases, this is just hovering. Their Speed is half of their Coordination (round down, minimum of 1), and they can usually only ascend to a height of around 100 metres.
As a Major Good Trait, the creature can really take to the skies. Above 100 metres, their effective Speed is three times their Coordination. They can fly as high as they like (though the Gamemaster may want to take other factors into account such as air, cold, and other environmental effects). If they’re travelling below 100 metres, they will probably travel slower to avoid obstacles and the Game-master may impose a limit (or make the character’s player roll additional Awareness and Coordination checks to see if they can react in time to any dangers).
Frenzy
(Minor Bad Creature Trait)
Sometimes, a creature becomes so incensed with rage or blood-lust that they cannot think or act beyond attacking blindly. Creatures that go into these frenzies are incredibly dangerous and able to continue when other creatures would collapse from their wounds.
Effect: Frenzy is a Minor Bad Trait that means the creature is susceptible to a maddening rage that takes control of their actions. When they are injured, they must make a Resolve and Strength roll with a Difficulty of 12 plus the amount of damage taken. For example, if the creature takes 6 levels of damage, the Difficulty to resist going into Frenzy is 12+6=18. The more injured it gets, the harder it is to resist the Frenzy. If the creature fails the roll, they enter into the Frenzy and will not stop until they kill the source of their injury (even if this is an inanimate object!).
If their target is removed from sight, the creature might begin to calm down after a few minutes but otherwise the bloodlust will be too strong. So strong, in fact, they will ignore all injuries - rolls will be made at the creatures full Attributes - unless the creature sustains enough damage to kill it.
When the target has been eliminated, or removed from harm, the creature will rest and recover from the frenzy and any negative effects from injury will be applied.
Grab
(Minor Good Creature Trait)
The creature can seize hold of victims (by holding on when it bites, picking them up with claws, sticking on with adhesive pads or wrapping itself around them).
Effect: Grabbed creatures need to make opposed Strength + Athletics rolls against the grabber to break free. The bigger creature of the pair can still move (at half movement if there’s only one size category between them; otherwise at full movement).
Immaterial
(Special Bad Creature Trait)
Some creatures can shed their physical bodies to become something radically different, no longer physical beings.
Immaterial and intangible, they still exist in our reality.
Some immaterial beings have the ability to manipulate objects with telekinesis, willing the item to move as if they were able to physically manipulate it, whereas others are unable to and spend their existence struggling to regain some form of normal life.
Effect: The creature has no physical form and is unable to interact with physical objects. Most creatures in this state will have the Telekinesis Trait to allow them to move items. It is a debilitating Trait and, while it allows the creature the ability to move into usually inaccessible areas, it is usually more of a trouble than it is a benefit. Imma-terial is a Special Bad Trait worth 2 points.
Immortal
(Major or Special Good Creature Trait)
The Pulps are full of characters who have lived an awfully long time, and may live even longer. Dr Fu Manchu pro-longed his life with an age-retarding elixir, while John Carter of Virginia had always been a man of about thirty and couldn’t remember being anything else.
There are two types of Immortal being in existence. The first never gets old, never ages and will never die of old age. They simply continue on. While it’s rare for them to
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die from a disease, they still can, and can certainly be killed through violence or accident. Immortal at this level is a Major Good Trait costing 2 points, and while it doesn’t really affect the actual game (as they can still be killed through violence) they could have already lived a long time. The Gamemaster may allow them to recall something from their past if it suits the story or something from their history could resurface, provoking a whole new adventure.
If they have lived ‘ages’, then they may automatically gain the Well-Traveled Trait for the past eras that they were alive and active, at the Gamemaster’s discretion.
The second type of Immortal is a Special Good Trait. The character may get a little older in appearance, but their longevity is so epic that their aging is hardly noticeable.
They can be shot, electrocuted, drowned and fried, but they just don’t seem to die. They may fall down and look dead, but it isn’t long before they’re up and active again.
Again, if they’ve been alive for a long time, they will also automatically gain the Well-Traveled Trait for the eras they were alive.
You must have purchased the More Than Human Trait before selecting Immortal, though in rare circumstances Immortality may be granted to player characters at the Gamemaster’s discretion.
Effect: Immortal is either a Major Trait, meaning the character never ages and will not die of natural causes, or a Special Trait, that means the character cannot be killed.
Both may be unbalancing to the game and if you intend to take either version of the Immortal Trait, discuss it with the Gamemaster. Immortal as a Special Trait costs 5 Char-acter Points, as well as reducing the charChar-acter’s maximum Story Points by 4. If killed during the course of an adven-ture, the character looks dead and is unable to be revived.
Without the Fast Healing Trait, the character will heal at a normal rate (this is usually 1 level of Attribute per day of rest). When they have healed all of the damage they have taken, and returned to their full health, they will wake and be fine. If the damage is really severe, the Gam-emaster may keep track of how far into the ‘negative’ your character’s Attributes go, and they will have to heal all of these before they can recover. Any extreme damage, such as loss of limb, may lead to further Bad Traits without the Fast Healing Trait.
Immunity*
(Major Good Creature Trait)
Many villains and monsters are immune to one form of harm or another. For example, a werewolf is immune to bullets but is vulnerable to silver.
Effect: Immunity is a Major Good Creature Trait, costing 2 points. When taking this Trait, the specific thing that the creature is immune to must be clearly defined, whether this is something as simple as bullets, acid, mind control or poison. If the immunity is particularly powerful, such as bullets, the Gamemaster may balance this immunity with a weakness, especially in major villains or player characters.
Infection
(Major Good Creature Trait)
Some creatures have the horrible ability to infect other beings with their characteristics. It may be the foul fungal rash that spreads across the skin until the victim trans-forms into a mushroom monster, or the bite that turns an innocent survivor into a stumbling zombie. Perhaps it’s a sting that implants eggs beneath the skin, or the bizarre neurotoxin that allows the creature’s mind to live within the unsuspecting target.
Effect: Infection can work in a couple of ways, both are Major Good Creature Traits. As a transmittable disease, the target needs to be scratched, bitten or take some form of physical damage. If the damage penetrates any armour worn, or if the victim failed with a Bad or Disastrous result, they become infected. At regular intervals (usually every hour or day) they will have to make a Resolve and Strength roll, against the Resolve and Strength of the creature.
Failing this will mean the infection has spread. The Gam-emaster should decide how many failures mean the target has become like the creature (one fail spreads to a whole arm, two fails to the chest, etc.). It should give the char-acters time to find an antidote!
The other way it can work is by making the target suscep-tible to possession, making them host to the creature, and the infection is actually the creature moving from one host to another. Again, this is usually from sustaining an injury. Once infected (as above), the target will have to make similar rolls, though instead of resisting the infection spreading, this is to resist becoming possessed (see “Being Possessed” page 133).
Invisible
(Special Good Creature Trait)
The ability to be unseen is possibly one of the best weapons and defence on the battlefield. It is a rare ability in nature, but a mild version of this Trait can be accomplished with shifting pigments in the skin, allowing chameleon-like blending into their surroundings.
Full invisibility is more commonly found in ghostly, in-tangible creatures that barely exist in this reality.
Effect: Invisibility is a Special Good Creature Trait that comes in various levels. If the ability is natural, and the creature can blend into the background to be unseen, then this is a Major Good Trait that costs 2 points. If the creature remains immobile, any attempt to spot it suffers a -4 penalty. Full optic camouflage is usually a Trait that would be part of a Gadget and costs 4 points. This provides the same -4 penalty to be spotted but the creature can move around without losing this advantage. While it is usually a Gadget Trait, it can be a natural ability if the Gamemas-ter can rationalise it. If this invisibility cannot be turned on or off, as in the case of the creature being ethereal or immaterial, the same -4 penalty is actually a Bad Trait, providing 2 points.
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All of these levels of invisibility can be purchased or taken multiple times to provide better invisibility with the penalty being cumulative. For example, if the creature has almost perfect invisibility through optic camouflage, they could take the Trait twice, providing a -8 penalty to anyone trying to spot them.
Leap
(Special Good Creature Trait)
Some creatures can leap great distances either horizon-tally or vertically, without the need for a run-up.
Effect: The creature can leap at any point. If the creature makes a successful Coordination + Athletics roll against a difficulty of 12, it lands precisely and can act immediate-ly. If the creature fails the roll it lands poorly and must spend the next Action re-orienting itself before acting.
Leap is a Special Good Creature Trait which costs 3 points and can be taken multiple times. The first time it is taken allows the creature to jump twice its own body length, and each time it is taken thereafter doubles the distance the creature can Leap.
Lurker
(Minor Good Creature Trait)
This creature lies in wait for its prey.
Effect: Characters need to make a contested roll of Aware-ness + Survival against the lurker’s Coordination + Sub-terfuge. If there are several characters in a group, use the lowest result from among the characters’ rolls. If the lurker wins, it gains a +2 bonus to ambush attacks.