Chapter Two Sample, part 2 - Merits (Patreon)

New Social Merit: Telltale Signs (••)

The character has learned to identify Remade by observing their behavior in social situations. After spending at least an hour surveilling or interacting with a person the character suspects is a Deviant, the character’s player may make a Wits + Occult + Acclimation roll contested by the subject’s Composure + Acclimation. If successful, the character identifies subtle cues that reveal that the person is a Deviant (or that they definitely are not). On a failure, the character can’t tell one way or another.

Genotypal: Immersed in Divergence culture as they are, Born have an especially keen familiarity with the behaviors of their fellow Broken. You add one die to rolls to identify a fellow Deviant.

Pathological: In some cases, an Accident may go months or even years without meeting another like herself. Once she does, however, she finds it easy to recognize the patterns in others that she herself has fallen into. This Merit’s rating is instead •.

New Deviant-Only Merits

The below Merits are some of the ones only available to Deviants and are not considered Mental, Physical, Social, or Fighting Merits.

Beloved Community (•••)

Prerequisite: Acclimation •

The Deviant has learned to expand her love to encompass an organization or small community and the people in it. It can be as small as the congregation of a tiny church or the employees at a single branch office, but it can also encompass the residents of a city neighborhood or a small town or the employees of a large company (including a conspiracy).

You can and must assign the community as one of your character’s Touchstones. It counts as a Loyalty Touchstone and cannot be reversed into a Conviction Touchstone, made Wavering, or severed except through the surrender of this Merit (Sanctity of Merits applies normally). A member of the community can be selected as a Conviction Touchstone, in which case they are not considered a member of the community for the purposes of this Merit.

Furthering your relationship with any member of the community counts as furthering your relationship with a Loyalty Touchstone. Risking danger or suffering for any member of the community likewise replenishes all Willpower up to once per chapter.

Drawback: The Remade takes any harm against a member of her community personally. Once per scene, when she learns that a member of her community suffered harm by accident or at the hands of anyone outside of her community, she takes a minor Instability. This is instead medium if the member died. This likewise upgrades (from minor to medium or from medium to major) if it affected multiple members of the community or if the Broken witnessed the event.

Exclusion (•)

Prerequisites: Acclimation •, Variation with Aura

Choose a Variation with the Aura effect when purchasing this Variation. The Broken can exempt a number of potential targets no greater than her Acclimation times Scar Power from the effects of her Aura, or she may choose to affect a 90-degree arc instead of a radius.

Coactive: This Merit instead affects two Variations each time it is purchased.

Invasive: The Cyborg may instead exclude any number of potential targets.

Far-Reaching (• or ••)

Choose a Directed Variation or a Variation with one or more Directed effects when purchasing this Merit. The Remade’s reach with the Variation increases by a factor of 10 — typically from 10/20/40 meters/yards to 100/200/400 meters/yards. If the Variation has an Aura, its range increases by a factor of four — usually from 10 meters/yards to 40 meters/yards. This Merit can be purchased any number of times, but each time it affects a different Variation.

At two dots, the Variation can reach any target not completely hidden by cover, regardless of distance. If an Aura, its radius increases by a factor of 10 (usually to 100 meters/yards).

Remote Targeting (•••)

Prerequisites: Acclimation ••, Far-Reaching

Choose a Directed Variation enhanced by the Far-Reaching Merit. The Deviant can affect targets with this Variation that she cannot perceive directly but is able to remotely — such as through a live security feed, webcam, or news broadcast.

This capability also applies if the Remade is under the effect of Variations that permit remote viewing, including Astral Travel, Body Snatcher, and Clairvoyance. She could, for example, use Body Snatcher to get close enough to an enemy to use Telepathy on them.

The camera or other artificial sensor must be within 10 yards (100 yards with Far-Reaching ••) of the target, and the Scar Finesse roll suffers a –4 range penalty. Further, if the Scar Finesse roll achieves no successes (before the target contests it), the Deviant cannot attempt to affect that target remotely with the Variation again during the current chapter.

This Merit can be purchased any number of times, but each time it affects a different Variation.

Sacred Code (•••)

Prerequisite: Acclimation •

The Deviant has pledged himself to a code of honor or other abstract set of behavioral rules.

You can and must assign a sacred code as one of your character’s Touchstones. It counts as a Loyalty Touchstone but cannot be severed except through the surrender of this Merit (Sanctity of Merits applies).

Choose one or more precepts, which are rules that govern your behavior — whether they are requirements (actions you must take) or prohibitions (actions you must not take). These must delineate behaviors that can be objectively violated or upheld.

Once per chapter, you may either add a new precept to your code to heal a minor Instability or permanently abandon one of the precepts of your sacred code at the cost of a medium Instability. If you abandon your only remaining precept, you must surrender this Merit.

Once per scene, when you risk danger or suffer to uphold one of your precepts, you heal a medium or minor Instability. If you are a Renegade, you also replenish all Willpower the first time you do this in a chapter. If you are a Devoted, you regain one Willpower the first time you do this in a scene.

Drawback: Once per scene, if you violate one of your precepts, you suffer a medium Instability, and your sacred code is considered Wavering until you risk danger or suffer to uphold one of your precepts. The first time each chapter that you violate one of your precepts when your sacred code is already Wavering, you suffer a major Instability.