Chapter Six - Full Text (Patreon)

Chapter Six: Character Arcs

"You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain."

— Harvey Dent, The Dark Knight

Roleplaying games are a shared narrative, which means no one person (including the Storyteller) knows exactly how events will unfold in play or what will happen. They are also games that involve randomizers (dice), which adds another layer of uncertainty. And in truth, even professional authors who have to contend with neither of those factors often insist that their characters and stories can and do surprise them. So, it isn’t realistic to think that any player knows the precise arc his character’s story will take over the course of the chronicle.

That being said, it’s not a bad idea to have at least some notion of the general shape of your character’s story. Revisions are inevitable, but being able to put into words what you hope to get out of the chronicle before it starts can make the Storyteller’s job easier and lead to a more satisfying experience for you.

Where to Start

Oftentimes, the Storyteller has a clear vision for how the chronicle will open. Other times, she will make that determination based on the character concepts and backgrounds the players offer her. Frequently, everyone begins play at the same starting point. They’re all escaping a conspiracy facility together, for example, or they’re an established cohort and receive intelligence that demands swift action. However, it can happen that different characters start at different points, such as if one of them is rescued by the others — whether as an objective of their actions or a happy accident.

Different opening chapters invite different styles of roleplaying. This doesn’t mean that the whole chronicle will maintain this tone throughout. An action-focused opening can shift into a story focused on human connections just as a quieter one can yield to a series of action-packed chapters. Storytelling is often enhanced by contrasts. Even big, dumb action movies usually have brief low-key scenes meant to humanize their protagonists — or at least hook them up with a love interest.

You may not know how the chronicle will open. Sometimes a Storyteller wants to throw the cohort into the deep end with an unexpected challenge. That’s not always the case, however, and if you have some sense of how the chronicle will begin, you can think about what kinds of mental preparations you might want to make for it.

Prologues

A prologue is a brief, one- or two-chapter introduction, highlighting important choices that led to the existent circumstances as the curtain opens on the greater chronicle. They are often one-on-one roleplaying exercises the Storyteller conducts with each player, but sometimes with the rest of the troupe serving as an audience, or even playing the roles of characters who would normally be portrayed by the Storyteller.

Prologues may or may not involve rolling dice or playing out events in full. Sometimes the point is that they are a summary or flashback that gives the player an opportunity to explore his character’s personality and motivations outside of their interactions with the rest of the cohort. Other times, they reveal secrets the other members of the cohort aren’t privy to — ones that will become important later but that the Deviant who knows them has an incentive to keep hidden.

Pre-Divergence

Chronicles often open with a prologue that ends with the characters’ Divergence. It gives players an opportunity to explore the personalities and motivations of their characters and to illustrate what the conspiracy took (or will take) from them. This can also be a good way to introduce someone who is new to roleplaying games, allowing them to learn the basics of forming dice pools and calling upon Merits without needing to understand how Variations, Scars, and other Deviant-specific systems work.

Less commonly, Divergence becomes a major milestone in another Chronicles of Darkness game. The troupe might play out a story arc as occult investigators, monster-hunters, or others who just couldn’t leave well enough alone, and it eventually leads to an encounter with the Web of Pain. Because of the uncertainty that surrounds the process of creating Remade, it can be difficult to explain how several close associates Diverged simultaneously. This isn’t to say that it’s unworkable, only that it’s probably an unusual event in-world and one likely to excite the interest of the conspiracies (not that it takes much to do that). Alternatively, it could be one branch in a road leading to crossover play — with one companion Diverging, while others acquire supernatural abilities by other means.

How to Start

If you expect the chronicle to open before your character’s Divergence, find out whether the Storyteller expects you to create a true Baseline character or whether you’ll be playing a Deviant who doesn’t have Variations, Scars, and other Remade-only traits yet.

In the first case, you’ll want to focus on your character’s Baseline existence and complete a character sheet that reflects it. This may well include Merits or other traits that she will lose as a result of the Divergence, and that’s okay. Sanctity of Merits is meant to cover such eventualities as losing access to your investment accounts and prestigious job — or your eidetic memory being replaced by one that makes it hard for you to recall what you did just yesterday. Be sure to clarify how much respec-ing will be allowed. It makes sense for the Divergence to invalidate many Merits — either for narrative reasons (such as the aforementioned inaccessible investments) or mechanical ones (including ones in Chronicles of Darkness that interact with Anchors, since Broken don’t have those). Attributes and Skills are less likely to change much, if at all. It helps if you plan your Attribute purchases based on the Scars you expect your character to have after their Divergence.

Devoted Life

Some chronicles will begin with the cohort working for the conspiracy — either willingly or unwillingly (and possibly a mix of the two). This is usually a temporary arrangement. The assumption in a Renegades-focused chronicle is that the characters will spend most of their time fleeing from or fighting against the conspiracy and the Web of Pain. The cohort might serve as Devoted (whether they have the Form or not) for the duration of a prologue or a single story, but eventually they will rebel, break free, or be unexpectedly orphaned by the chronicle’s events.

A long-term Devoted chronicle is beyond the scope of this book, but The Devoted Companion provides considerable support for this.

How to Start

Assuming the Storyteller doesn’t have a specific history in mind, decide whether this is the conspiracy that Remade your character (your progenitor conspiracy) or one that recruited her by fair means or foul (an acquisitive conspiracy). If she is an acquired asset, was she recruited legitimately, under false pretenses, or by coercion? By considering why she serves the conspiracy, it should be relatively easy to determine the sorts of circumstances that could drive her away from it.

This could be as simple as an opportunity to escape if she is an outright prisoner. Matters are more complex, however, if the conspiracy is holding her Loyalty Touchstones hostage or if she willingly serves them for one reason or another. Work with the Storyteller to ensure that you’re on the same page about what it would take to make her turn Renegade.

The Escape

Many chronicles begin with the characters as prisoners of the conspiracy — either the one that Remade them or one that has since captured them. Soon after the story begins (and possibly serving as its inciting incident), the Renegades escape or are otherwise liberated. This option makes for an exciting first chapter of a new chronicle. It is also a common (if not the most common) arc for a one-shot or miniseries Deviant game. If the characters are escaping together, it creates an obvious reason to work together even though they may not know one another. Notably, the surveillance roll is probably moot when the cohort is an actively hostile group within an established conspiracy facility. Prologues can feature escapes, as the why and how of a Renegade’s departure from a conspiracy’s control can reveal much about both the Broken and those who once held him.

How to Start

Chronicles that begin with the escape tend to focus on problem-solving and often feature violence. It is therefore a good idea to reacquaint yourself with combat rules before play begins, especially if you are relatively new to Chronicles of Darkness games. Review the details of your Merits, Variations, and Scars and consider creating a cheat sheet that that tells you what each of them does — or at least offers page references for where to find them. It will keep things moving if you don’t have to look up what your powers do during play, which can put a damper on exciting scenes and eat play time unnecessarily.

Give some attention to the Techniques in Chapter Seven (p. XX), as well. Even if you haven’t purchased any, they are meant as a catch-all system for finding clever ways to use your Variations.

Going to Ground

Some chronicles begin in the brief period between the moment the cohort escapes and the time they finally give the conspiracy’s agents the slip. This is a desperate point in a Renegade’s life. Not only are they pursued by capture (or kill) squads, but they must elude those while gathering any necessary resources they couldn’t take with them. Obvious prison uniforms will attract the attention of ordinary law enforcement, for example, and it might have been a day or more since the Broken ate anything.

The elements and natural hazards can also be a real threat. An escape in the depths of winter or from a facility surrounded by scorching desert might deter pursuers, but it will usually disadvantage the Renegades, as well. This is especially true in a low threat level chronicle, but even dangerously powerful Remade can struggle with the basics if their Variations aren’t geared towards addressing them.

How to Start

As with escape stories, familiarity with action, Variation, and Technique mechanics can be beneficial. However, going to ground is often more stressful for the Renegade than the escape was, so it’s often worth thinking about how your character is likely to deal with the situation — both physically and emotionally. Broken in these circumstances are usually frightened, and that can lead to behavior they wouldn’t indulge in under less pressure. They may end up committing crimes when they were once law-abiding. They might lash out at strangers with disproportionate force for fear that they are conspiracy agents, or even at members of their cohort over minor annoyances.

Place yourself in your character’s shoes. Remember also that this is often the first opportunity the Deviant has to discover how Broken she is. Killing or committing mayhem in self-defense or to escape unlawful imprisonment is one thing. Hurting bystanders because they got in the way or because they might tell someone something that will get back to the conspiracy is something else entirely. Taken with her loss of Anchors and Integrity, pragmatism in response to reasonable fears and needs can quickly give way to horror and self-loathing.

Slice of Life

Some chronicles begin with the day-to-day activities of the cohort. The conspiracy is out there somewhere, no doubt watching for the Renegades while it commits more atrocities, but it isn’t obviously hunting them at the moment. This allows you to show how your character meets his mundane needs, spends his free time, and maintains his bonds with Loyalty Touchstones (or messes with Conviction Touchstones). It can provide an opportunity for the troupe to familiarize themselves with the other members of the cohort — as well as to get comfortable playing their characters, using their Variations, and expressing their Scars.

It’s unlikely to last, obviously, but the first plot hook might not be conspiracy-related at all. Perhaps the threat is a local gang attempting to collect “rent” on the squatting Deviants, or maybe a Loyalty Touchstone has unrelated trouble that the Remade must address.

How to Start

A slice of life opening chapter is going to be heavy on roleplaying. It is an opportunity to engage with Loyalty Touchstones and express Scars, so it is a good idea to familiarize yourself with the ones your character has. It can also lend itself to in-character conversations with other members of the cohort. It isn’t a bad idea to use the time to gather resources and advance future projects, including researching ways to strike back at the conspiracy and your character’s Conviction Touchstones.

Call to Action

The chronicle begins with the cohort learning something that invites the Renegades to strike back at the conspiracy in some obvious way. It may be the location of a conspiracy Node, perhaps one overseen by a Conviction Touchstone. It could instead be rumor of a project whose completion will make the conspiracy an even greater threat — whether to the cohort or to others. It’s possible that the conspiracy has betrayed a vulnerability the cohort can exploit, such as a high-profile press conference that could be disrupted or an accident at a Node that has left conspiracy agents there in disarray (offering the cohort a rare opportunity to steal conspiracy secrets or equipment). As with escapes, this is a common opening for one-shots and miniseries, as it skips cohort introductions (the Deviants are often assumed to know one another) and cuts to the chase with a clear objective in mind.

How to Start

As with escapes, call to action openings often become mechanics-heavy, so it is a good idea to familiarize yourself with any systems that are likely to come up during play — including your character’s Variations and Scars. They usually allow some discussion of the plan before executing it, which means deciding on the cohort’s default problem-solving style, as well as offering a peek into how individual members engage with their fellows. Decisions about what kinds of equipment to bring and whether it is available to the cohort (or whether they can readily acquire it) usually come out in the planning phase, but it’s wise to think of a couple useful possibilities before the chronicle begins, if you can.

In Medias Res

The chronicle begins in the middle of the action. This could be something dramatic like a shoot-out or other action scene. It could instead be the execution of a planned mission, with members of the cohort scattered around a conspiracy facility moments before they start the final phase of their sensitive extraction, burglary, or assassination.

As with a call to action opening chapter, this gives the players a clear goal and can be very exciting. It reduces the risk of analysis paralysis where the cohort discusses the plan to death without moving the plot forward. It can be somewhat more challenging in that some players might feel that they are being forced to execute a plan they don’t think their characters would have signed off on.

How to Start

In addition to the considerations of the call to action, it is vitally important to know what assets members of your cohort will have at the start of play. This includes equipment, but it also encompasses information such as floor plans and the nature and disposition of any opposition and security measures. For operations, some out of character discussion of the plan and the cohort’s goals can prevent players from feeling they’re being forced into an undertaking their characters wouldn’t have signed off on.

Aftermath

A chronicle may begin immediately after a dramatic scene or other event. Perhaps the Renegades have just returned from a mission against the conspiracy or other foes. It may have been wildly successful, harrowing but satisfying, a near miss, or a complete fiasco. Whatever the specifics, the troupe plays out their characters’ response to the event. This kind of opening chapter tends to focus on the emotional consequences, but it may also require strategic decisions. The conspiracy might seek swift and terrible retribution, or a seemingly mundane enemy could turn out to have occult connections they have set upon the cohort.

This opening lends itself to later flashbacks, whether during the current chapter or in future ones. In this way, the story of the events that preceded the opening of the chronicle can be revealed gradually, with ample opportunity to explore its impact on the characters and the overall arc of the chronicle. A variant on this opening chapter is one in which the participants in the event have no memory of it and must learn the truth during play.

How to Start

As a player, you may not know all the details of the event in question. If you’re operating from limited information, try picking an emotional response that fits your character and attaching it to the incident. Are they shaken by the events? Elated? Angry and frustrated? As the chronicle progresses, consider how the specifics of the event could provoke their emotional response.

Also consider one physical detail that hints at the event and its consequences without being specific. Does your character have a fresh injury? Missing or damaged equipment — or a magazine that is missing several bullets? Are they obviously still suffering from one of their Scars?

Mixed Play and Mid-Chronicle Introductions

The above starting points assume that all members of the cohort begin from the same point in their story and at the start of the chronicle, but that need not be the case.

Pre-Divergence

The Transmissible Form, an occult disease, or arcane radiation can be used to explain how multiple Baselines in a Deviant’s company might Diverge successfully. Random chance, evil intent, or desperation could easily lead a Baseline surrounded by Broken to Diverge. This also creates some excellent opportunities for drama, depending on the Baseline’s relationship with the Remade. Her Broken friends know what the Divergence represents, so they may feel responsible for letting it happen to her.

The Dedicated Form provides a clear path to Divergence with a starting point ranging from “basically a Baseline” to “a step away from fully Remade”. It’s easy to use the Form to explore a gradual transition during play, with aspects of mortality excised to make way for the full Deviant template at significant story beats.

Devoted Life

Devoted often attempt to infiltrate Renegade cohorts as spies for the conspiracies they serve. They might be expected to betray their companions in small ways (reporting cohort activities to their superiors, for example) or large (such as outright sabotage at a crucial moment) — or they might be meant to nudge the Renegades in directions the Devoted’s masters want them to go, such as if the conspiracy the Devoted serves is not the one the cohort is actively bent on destroying.

Such “enemy within” stories can be enjoyable and lead to great moments of drama, but they can also cause friction between players, especially if taken too far. It is best not to be an active saboteur unless divided loyalties or dark secrets are an important theme of the chronicle as a whole, and even then, there should be a point where the infiltrator takes the cohort’s side over the conspiracy’s in some important way. The key is that while they may find that they can’t trust the Devoted in their midst, they should feel like they can still count on him when it matters. If intra-cohort tensions reach a point where they become player tensions, an easy solution is for the Devoted to defect from the conspiracy he serves to join the Renegades in truth.

Coupled with The Devoted Companion, one Renegade might come to work with a Devoted cohort for a chronicle’s duration, or a lone Devoted might successfully recruit an entire cohort of Renegades into his conspiracy.

The Escape

It’s not at all unusual for a Renegade cohort to liberate other Remade while striking against the conspiracy, nor for it to result in adding new members to the cohort. This liberation can be accidental — or at least tangential — to the attackers’ original intent. Sometimes the arrival of a Renegade cohort is exactly the distraction an imprisoned Deviant needs to make good his escape. A lone Renegade could also intentionally or accidentally free a cohort and then join it. Perhaps the liberator’s cohort fell to conspiracy agents during the attack, leaving him orphaned but suddenly in the company of Broken who owe him their freedom.

Going to Ground

A cohort (or Renegade) with an established base of operations can be a godsend to a Deviant (or cohort) on the run. On the other hand, taking in a Renegade whom conspiracy agents are actively hunting can be a risk for the one offering refuge, as this usually puts them in the crosshairs of any pursuers. However, a recent escapee may have intelligence about the conspiracy’s current projects that will be invaluable to a cohort with the resources to act on it.

Slice of Life

In chronicles that include only part of the cohort in a quiet, everyday moment, the opening chapter is often a study in contrasts, with one Deviant coming into the situation with news the rest of the cohort can’t easily ignore. He brings a call to action, if not serious trouble. The recipients might resent the disruption or even try to ignore its demands, but they usually have no choice but to engage with the change the new arrival represents.

Call to Action

Renegades responding to a call to action may need to convince others to join them in their operation — including ones who would rather stay in their safe hideaways. They may encounter and recruit Broken fleeing the same facility they intend to infiltrate or strike against. Their arrival might free imprisoned Remade or allow prisoners to escape, and those Broken might join in the fight.

In Medias Res

A lone Renegade or a second cohort might target the same place for an operation as a different cohort, leading to a collision and unexpected cooperation. Alternatively, the Renegades’ actions liberate other Remade.

Aftermath

A lone Renegade returns from a dramatic scene and quickly gets the rest of the cohort involved in the consequences of her actions. Alternatively, the cohort seeks refuge from the consequences of their actions at the hideout of a friendly Renegade. This need not lead to immediate conflict with pursuing conspiracy agents. The striking Renegades might have gotten away clean and simply need a place to lick their wounds, or someone they can regale with stories of their exploits.

Optional Rule: Opening Flashbacks

Just as the optional vignettes at the end of each chapter set the stage for the tension that builds around conspiracy Projects and explores the characters the cohort opposes (Deviant, p. 230), consider opening each chapter with a flashback sequence. Each of these reveals a hidden secret or trauma in the Deviant’s past. It could be something related to the Divergence and its aftermath, but it could just as easily predate or occur after that period. However, it should relate events that occurred prior to the start of the chronicle.

Players take turns deciding who will be the central figure or topic in each chapter’s flashback. They may choose for their character to be the central figure in the current flashback, with the other players taking the roles of supporting characters in the events in question, and the Storyteller serving primarily as a narrator. They may instead pass their turn to another player about whose character they want to know more (although this person may also pass) or suggest a flashback topic that involves multiple members of the cohort. The active player may choose the general content of the flashback or allow the Storyteller to do so.

How to Fight

Deviants are needy creatures. They need to spend time with their Loyalty Touchstones and deepen those vital connections. They also need to hate their Conviction Touchstones and to act on that hatred. Much of a Renegade’s behavior is guided by the latter of these. Conveniently, the conspiracies of the Web of Pain offer Renegades a seemingly endless supply of potential Conviction Touchstones to destroy. Tragically for the members of those conspiracies, Renegade cohorts are seldom satisfied with merely terminating their Conviction Touchstones’ lives. Eventually they get around to destroying the fruits of those Touchstones’ lives — the conspiracy itself.

Deviant: The Renegades tends to focus on the more violent ways of fighting the conspiracies of the Web of Pain. Arson, sabotage, and murder certainly have notes of finality in their favor. An enemy killed is one who will not trouble the cohort again. A secret project consumed by fire is one that has suffered a serious setback, at the very least. And a building leveled by an explosion certainly can’t serve its intended function.

However, as with the ways of opposing a Conviction Touchstone we described in Chapter One, violence is not always a feasible, nor even a necessarily desirable, means of fighting back against the conspiracy. For starters, it tends to get the Renegades labeled as terrorists not just by agents of the Web of Pain but by Baseline law enforcement. Secondly, it reinforces the mantra so popular among conspiracy agents that Deviants are too dangerous to be allowed to run around loose without supervision. Thirdly, not all Remade are well suited to violence, making it a last resort and not a very good one at that. Finally, although all Broken are capable of limitless hate, not all of them are killers at heart — not even after their souls have been damaged and crucial qualities of their humanity blasted away.

Renegade cohorts have many options when they want to do a conspiracy harm.

Exposure

Conspiracies thrive on their obscurity. Many commit heinous crimes in the pursuit of their goals, and none of them have entirely clean hands.  Bringing those crimes to light can draw public scrutiny, legal action, or even law enforcement. It is wickedly difficult to carry out abductions and illicit human experiments on unwilling test subjects when government inspectors are showing up unannounced at your research facilities. Conspiracies that are already arms of criminal organizations have no less to fear from an exposé that makes their wrongdoing the current election cycle’s lead news story. Conspiracies are adept at covering up their crimes or bribing police departments to look the other way, but there are limits to how much scrutiny they can deflect.

The damage doesn’t even stop with external pressures. Conspiracies keep a tight hold on how much their agents know about the atrocities they perpetrate, but public exposure can inflict morale damage that no amount of internal corporate propaganda can overcome. It tends to embolden whistleblowers and complicate recruitment efforts. If sufficiently convinced that the organization they serve is corrupt or serves evil purposes, even Devoted can turn against the conspiracy, which can be catastrophic for its interests should Loyalty turn to Conviction.

Rescue

Conspiracies need Devoted to grow and thrive. In large progenitor conspiracies, these Remade are the shock troops and special agents, serving as the tip of the spear. In small conspiracies, they are often the only clue in the conspiracy’s quest to understand — and reproduce — the Divergence. Destroying those Devoted is a direct attack against the conspiracy they serve, but liberating them does even worse. It takes the spear from the conspiracy’s hand and places the tip at its throat.

Most Renegades free enslaved Remade whenever they find them, but some make it a priority, planning and executing missions whose sole intent is to rescue imprisoned Broken. Others focus on cutting off the conspiracy’s supply of test subjects. They might warn or frighten them away from conspiracy recruitment ploys, intercept shipments of captives before they reach a facility capable of triggering the Divergence, or hunt and destroy the infrastructure (and personnel) needed to lure, kidnap, and transport victims. A few even concentrate their efforts on approaching Devoted and turning them against their masters — a dangerous occupation but one with tremendous potential to destroy organizations that make up the Web of Pain.

Infiltration

Not all Broken who ostensibly serve a conspiracy are truly Devoted. Joining a conspiracy with the intent to spy upon, sabotage, or destroy it from within is a risky but potentially effective strategy. This can backfire spectacularly if the target conspiracy has strong and effective control mechanisms to identify pretenders or enforce obedience in its Devoted. However, few conspiracies have complete control over the Deviants in their service, and most find it more useful to grant at least a small amount of autonomy to them than to deal with Broken engaged in a passive-aggressive campaign of soft sabotage.

Once in, Renegades pursue a variety of goals: Many seek only information, gaining access to it by legitimate or illicit means. For some, the objective is sabotage — whether of material resources or human ones. Others want access to resources they can use to further their own goals, whether they commandeer, suborn, or steal them. Sufficiently motivated Renegades can inflict tremendous damage in surprisingly subtle ways, such as seeming to work in the conspiracy’s interests but doing so in ways that draw unwelcome public attention to its practices.

Rival Conspiracy

It’s not unheard of for a Renegade who wishes to destroy one conspiracy to work together with or even join one of their competitors. Sometimes this is genuine (the Broken become Devoted of the rival conspiracy), but other times it’s skin deep. Membership in a conspiracy offers many benefits that make it a force multiplier for a cohort. It comes with moral hazards, of course, which the Deviants are welcome to justify any way that lets them sleep at night. Perhaps they can reform it from within. Maybe they trust that they can walk away from or destroy their adopted conspiracy at any time. Possibly they convince themselves that the organization is less bad than the conspiracy they’ve been fighting for months or years. Maybe it’s enough that they’re not working for the same conspiracy as their Conviction Touchstones. Or perhaps they’ve convinced themselves that life on the run is no life at all, and joining an organization willingly is better than being pressed into the service of one unwillingly.

Renegades can also find themselves at the center of new conspiracies, even if that was never their intention. Those who rescue captive Deviants find those Broken wanting to stay near them, and of course they feel grateful to the cohort that liberated them. The research team that quit because of the crimes the Remade brought to light may beg the cohort to let them study the Divergence — ethically and with the full consent of their test subjects, this time. Suborned facilities still bring in revenue even when the conspiracy that used to drink from that fountain has been destroyed, which gives the Renegades a source of steady income and other resources. The Devoted Companion discusses this option in detail.

Murder and Mayhem

Even cohorts that regularly deploy violence in their search for revenge do not have uniform methods. Certainly, some go for overwhelming force without so much as a nod to subtlety, relying on shock and occult abilities to diminish the threat of an equally effective counterattack, but for most that is not a productive strategy. Renegades often prefer targeted strikes such as the assassination of key conspiracy agents (or Conviction Touchstones) or the explosive demolition of a facility housing a valuable Icon before the enemy can bring it online (but after the conspiracy has already invested considerable Effort in the endeavor).

Not all violence (or threats of violence) is meant to injure conspiracy agents physically. Making them feel unsafe can encourage them to leave the conspiracy out of concern for the wellbeing of themselves and their families. This can take the form of mundane psychological warfare techniques such as openly stalking them, or breaking into their homes and rearranging objects to make it clear that someone can enter at any time. Additionally, Variations give some Deviants a whole range of tools meant to frighten, inconvenience, or tax the mental fortitude of their victims.

Nor do all forms of mayhem involve burning down buildings or blowing up prototype equipment. Some Renegades take aim at the conspiracy’s data and finances. They might hack conspiracy servers to steal, corrupt, or destroy irreplaceable files. They could use social engineering to trick enemy agents into compromising financial resources, which the Renegades then drain or disable. If a facility is dependent on an outside source of essentials like food or electricity, the Remade might target the supply lines that carry those vital resources.

How to End

While the Storyteller has a lot of say in how long a chronicle lasts and when it ultimately ends, it is worth discussing with him and the rest of the troupe what general concluding arc you’d like to see and which ones you’re not interested in for your character. Such conversations may not mean you get exactly what you want, but they can help avoid what for you would be an unsatisfying end to your character’s story.

Ends to Meet

Consider what you would like to see your character (or his cohort) accomplish before you stop playing him. At the least, consider character and chronicle endings you can’t accept, and be sure to talk it over with your Storyteller and the rest of the troupe during session zero (p. XX) to make sure you’re all on the same page.

Deprivation

The character dies for lack of bodily essentials. She might die of hypothermia during a cold snap. It might be starvation during a trek through the woods. It could be thirst while she is marooned on a desert island.

Most Storytellers won’t let a character die of ordinary deprivation. It’s rarely dramatically appropriate in a roleplaying game. However, many Renegades face situations where deprivation is supposed to be a looming threat within the narrative — whether they’re forced to live on the streets and face its hardships or they embark on a wilderness expedition and must survive the elements.

Mundane Causes

The character dies as the result of something ordinary, rather than something tied directly to his Touchstones or his antagonistic relationship with the Web of Pain. It could be disease, accident, or medical event. In some kinds of stories, characters prone to engaging in risky behavior could die attempting a dangerous stunt.

Unlike deprivation, whether this is an acceptable end to a character’s story is often contextual. Dying of old age (or even cancer), surrounded by your loved ones, after achieving your revenge qualifies as a happy ending for most characters in Deviant, but falling off a roof while cleaning the gutters and breaking your neck isn’t a thing that typically happens in a roleplaying game.

Instability

The character dies of Instability, entering End Stage and dying a likely spectacular (but not necessarily meaningful) death. Perhaps she slid into that final descent after she lost the last of her Touchstones and became Feral. Or maybe she made too much use of Variations and Adaptations that caused Instability. Possibly, she was distracted by urgent problems that prevented her from pursuing her Touchstones.

Within the game fiction, Instability is a constant, looming threat — a doomsday clock ticking away the hours of the Deviant’s life. In actual play, it is usually relatively easy to manage. While it’s not toothless, taking some action against a Conviction Touchstone (or spending some time with a Loyalty Touchstone) at least once per chapter isn’t a high bar to clear. And it’s surprisingly easy to achieve Catharsis unless the Storyteller is actively working to kill or drive a wedge between your character and her Loyalty Touchstones.

That said, death from Instability can be a cool, or at least memorable, event in an ongoing chronicle, one we will explore in greater depth later in this chapter.

Scars

The character dies as a direct or indirect result of his Scars. Bane and Perilous Variation are the most obvious, but Scars that alter behavior, such as Phobia and Reckless, can be killers in the right circumstances. Given the focus Deviant places on a character’s Scars and their impact on his life, having these result in a Renegade’s death can be dramatically appropriate — if not a form of poetic justice, then at least a kind of poetic injustice.

Violence

The character dies in an altercation, her life cut short by a bullet, a weapon, or an enemy’s supernatural power. This is likely to be the most common cause of player character death in a Deviant chronicle. Renegades live violent lives bent on destroying enemies who surround themselves with people who are numerous and no strangers to violence. Moreover, scenes that focus on combat tend to involve rolling the most dice, which introduces the possibility of death. Storytellers may choose to pull their punches to avoid killing a player character — whether by being mindful of the threats they present or fudging rolls when the outcome would derail the story and frustrate the players.

The stakes of the violence often determine a player’s willingness to accept character death as a result of it. Most players recognize that deploying violence in a roleplaying game with an action-horror focus carries a risk that the character will be injured — and death is never completely off the table, at least as far as the Renegade is aware. But it is important to discuss how high those risks will generally be and tailor your character’s willingness to deploy violence based on the answer to that question.

Self-Destruction

The character dies by their own hand — whether in the accomplishment of a real and worthy objective or as an expression of futility and despair. Whereas anyone seeking refuge in violence risks character death, self-destruction means entering a situation knowing that it is not survivable (barring miraculous good fortune or outside intervention).

Self-sacrifice for a greater good is a recurring theme in action-oriented media, where it’s usually treated as heroic and necessary. Many players are comfortable buying into that narrative in a roleplaying game. If your character is going to die, they might as well go down in the name of something or someone they care about. Hollywood tells us that this is a way to forge an enduring legacy, that it is the sort of death where everyone you leave behind is sad to lose you but will universally praise your decision to embrace it.

If you’re playing in an action-oriented chronicle, there’s nothing wrong with adhering to this trope. However, in Deviant, this can take a darker — or at least more sobering — tone. As a consequence of the trauma they have suffered — trauma severe enough to damage their souls — the Remade are abnormally obsessed with the fates (and regard) of others. They can be all too willing to throw away their lives to achieve what can amount to the petty resolution of a grudge (Conviction), or because they believe it will in some way benefit those they care about (Loyalty). This makes them easy to manipulate into making the ultimate sacrifice for reasons that most would regard as unworthy of it.

Take, for example, a Loyalty Touchstone who does not reciprocate the Broken’s love but becomes aware of their feelings for him. He could respond to their promises with faint hints of future rewards in exchange for fulfilling his various requests. When the proverbial bill comes due and he can’t avoid paying it any longer, or when he tires of this game, he asks one final favor — one almost certain to lead to the Deviant’s death. It could be a suicidal attack on the Touchstone’s enemies or a futile quest. From the Remade’s perspective, this is an opportunity to prove themself to the Touchstone, and even if they don’t survive, they are confident that he will think fondly of them afterwards. This is unquestionably an act of self-sacrifice, but it reeks of the tragic, not the heroic.

As an even more extreme exercise, assume that same Loyalty Touchstone didn’t reciprocate but didn’t lead the Deviant on, either. But the Broken, in their desperation to win him over, engages in increasingly risky behaviors to prove themself. They might set out to destroy the Touchstone’s enemies or wrest dangerous prizes from their owners to bring him as gifts. Eventually, they vow to accomplish something both the Loyalty Touchstone and the Remade know will cost the Deviant’s life, and no matter how much he pleads with them not to go through with it, they do it anyway — with predictable results.

Encroaching Instability can also drive a Renegade to self-destruction. In the throes of the End Stage Condition, Broken often turn on their friends — or at least endanger them. Some Remade, having lost their last Touchstone, or feeling the effects of extreme and severe Instability, attempt to spare their cohort by taking their own lives. It can take the form of a spectacular swan song, but it could just as easily be a self-inflicted wound or a self-administered deadly dose.

Deviants can sometimes take this route even without the imminent threat of End Stage, such as if their Scars cause them to hurt their loved ones or innocent bystanders. Or the loss of a Loyalty Touchstone can lead to a quixotic rampage of revenge.

The Broken’s condition is not a heroic one. It often leads to despair, and some Remade are better equipped to endure the tragedy of their Divergence than others. The horror of self-destructive scenarios can make for a dramatic and memorable final narrative arc for a Renegade, but it isn’t to every player’s tastes (and bears additional discussion during conversations about safety tools). Consider what you regard as a sufficiently good reason for your character to choose death. Self-sacrifice to destroy evil or protect the good is often a narratively acceptable character death, but it can still be tragic.

Abandonment

The Deviant leaves the cohort. He may find that his personality clashes with others’, or he has goals (or Touchstones) that are incompatible with theirs. He might decide he is a danger to everyone around him, or that one or more members of the cohort are dangerous to him! He might have gotten a better offer from another cohort or succumbed to the promises of a conspiracy.

On the other hand, the cohort may have abandoned him. They may have banished him because of a specific action or inaction, or they might conclude that they’re better off without him. Perhaps he was jailed (or captured by the conspiracy), and they lack the resources (or stomach) to free him.

Deviants can part ways with their cohort without provoking hard feelings. Farewells can be tearful or even joyful as one of them escapes the cycle of violence and settles into something approximating a peaceful life. However, given most Renegades’ abandonment issues and emotionally unstable natures, contentious breakups are the norm. It can be a valid way of writing out a character the player no longer enjoys playing or who is creating friction that is spilling out of the story.

Consider the circumstances under which you would accept your character’s departure from the cohort for reasons other than death. If he leaves, would you prefer it be with no hard feelings, or do you want him to come back later as an antagonist? Perhaps you intend his departure to be temporary, whether as a narrative device or as a way of explaining your own extended absence (because life happens).

Survival

The Remade survives and remains a member of her cohort until the chronicle’s conclusion. Although the game fiction of Deviant emphasizes the high mortality rate of Renegades, this isn’t an unusual result for the protagonists of a chronicle. Playing the same character for the duration of a chronicle gives you lots of opportunities to explore her personality and engage with the complexities of her life as one of the Remade. It obviates the need to create and introduce a new character in the middle of a chronicle.

Means to the End

In addition to thinking about the fate your character might ultimately meet, consider what you hope for him to accomplish before he meets that end, as well as what you hope the cohort as a whole will achieve. The Storyteller (and other players) will have a say, of course, and the duration of the chronicle and the length of each game session also influence what can be achieved. Be sure to identify and discuss any outcomes that you’ll find unsatisfying or unacceptable.

Signifying Nothing

The death of a member of the cohort can come at any time and need not be narratively satisfying. Any confrontation with a few conspiracy goons that goes poorly could end in one or more of the Deviants bleeding out with no ambulance coming to the rescue. The Renegades can’t even be assured of getting their revenge on those most responsible for their suffering, much less have a hope of dismantling the Web of Pain. Life isn’t fair, and the lives of the Broken are even less so.

This makes for a bleak story, but the theme of Deviant is the revenge tragedy. The tale of characters bent on revenge, hampered by Scars, and faced with impossible odds will not necessarily end like a Hollywood blockbuster.

Notably, many stories with a traditional ending begin with story beats that look like this. The cohort’s first confrontations with their persecutors could end poorly for them. Some of them might even die to prove just how serious the situation is. You could volunteer to create a character whose sole purpose in the narrative is to die in a way that isn’t glamorous and doesn’t achieve anything other than steeling the resolve of the rest of the cohort — keeping your “real” character in your back pocket and bringing her out once that happens. For that matter, the entire troupe could work out some way to decide which of their characters have plot armor and which could die from falling off a roof after a dramatic failure on an Athletics roll.

One Small Victory

Individual Deviants will not meet their end without ensuring that they (or the cohort) accomplish something. The Renegade might save someone’s life — possibly a cohort member or Loyalty Touchstone (or several of them), but maybe just innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire. They may take down or ensure the downfall of a Conviction Touchstone (theirs or a friend’s) or Linchpin, or neutralize an Icon or Node.

Most one-shots are going to adhere to this. There simply isn’t enough time for anything grander. But the players still understandably expect to walk away from the table having achieved something.

This is also probably the default for a high-lethality chronicle. It isn’t incompatible with a chronicle where the cohort achieves larger goals, either. A parade of Renegades could well feed themselves into the woodchipper, each sacrificing themself to advance the cause one more step. It makes for a brutal game unlikely to permit much time for deep engagement with the individual characters, but that can work in a chronicle that unfolds like a war story.

If the chronicle is meant to go this route, consider giving each character one hidden motivation or character-defining secret. This is meant to humanize them. Each player should seek an opportunity to reveal this before the Deviant’s demise.

Central Conspiracy

The character survives to see the destruction of the chronicle’s central conspiracy and is instrumental in its defeat. This can also make a good stopping point for a chronicle. The Renegades may have encountered or even come to blows with other conspiracies of the Web of Pain, but the chronicle doesn’t explore them in detail.

This is ideal for shorter chronicles. There isn’t enough time to unpeel layer after layer of the endless onion that is the Web of Pain. The cohort puts an end to their primary antagonist and rides into the credits.

Endless Conspiracies

No matter how many conspiracies the Renegades destroy, another one always fills the power vacuum. It might be the conspiracy behind the conspiracy, a rival conspiracy, or a new conspiracy born from the old conspiracy’s ashes. This isn’t to say that the fight is hopeless or isn’t worthwhile. Every victory is still a victory, after all. But there’s always more to do, and more enemies to fight.

This is the setting default for Deviant. Primarily, it conveys the limitless scale of the Web of Pain as a meta-antagonist. It quickly makes clear that the Renegades could spend their whole lives fighting the conspiracies and never put an end to the entire web. It also illustrates how quickly and easily Baselines form conspiracies around the Remade and shows how obsession with the Divergence can lead to the accretion of a vast organization bent on studying or harnessing it. Crucially, though, it gives a chronicle unlimited room to continue. The cycle of fight conspiracy, defeat conspiracy, find a new conspiracy to fight has no predefined end point. A troupe can carry out this cycle for as long as they want, no matter how long the chronicle stretches out — until they either settle on an end point or stop playing.

Despite it being the default chronicle and a component of the setting, it is not a requirement of any individual chronicle that the cohort find, fight, and destroy an endless parade of conspiracies, never making any headway. In truth, it is likely to become repetitive after a few cycles, so this is often a middle period in a long-running chronicle rather than the end point of any chronicle.

A Quiet Life

The character escapes the Web of Pain and enjoys a life free of constant conspiracy pursuit. Perhaps the cohort destroys the active conspiracy and manages to lie low enough that others don’t find them. Or maybe they take down two or three powerful conspiracies in such spectacular fashion that the remainder of the Web of Pain collectively determines that hunting the cohort is both futile and self-destructive. Regardless, the character somehow wins a second chance to live a (mostly) normal life.

Rule the World

The character becomes a leading figure in a conspiracy. He might join an existing conspiracy without losing his autonomy in the process. Perhaps they offer him a leadership role to woo him, or he seizes one using the Variations at his disposal. He might instead create a new conspiracy — possibly drawing together a group of like-minded Deviants and sympathetic Baselines (The Devoted Companion discusses this process in greater depth). Sadly, it might also mean he has been captured and turned by the conspiracy, or that he just got tired of the fight and surrendered.

This can represent the Renegade selling out (or, as he would characterize it, buying in), but it can be a more efficient way of fighting back against enemies in the Web of Pain. Although Deviant-led conspiracies certainly aren’t the norm, they aren’t unknown, either. In fact, they can offer many advantages to the Devoted, not the least of which is some serious firepower to ward off any rival conspiracies who come sniffing around looking for new Broken to press into service.

Burning the Web

The character is instrumental in dismantling the Web of Pain. Perhaps she replaces it with something else, renders it obsolete, or destroys it forever. This is probably an impossible goal without making significant changes to the setting assumptions of Deviant, but a clever troupe might find a way to pull it off despite that.

Cured!

Through some plot arc or another, the Deviant is genuinely cured of Divergence, the cracks in her soul sealed up and her Scars removed. This might come at the cost of losing her Variations, or the process that brings it about might leave those intact. It may even be a process she can reproduce, curing the Divergence in other Broken. This could land a telling blow on the Web of Pain or could represent a new stage of human evolution — one that troupes are welcome to explore in summary during an epilogue or at length with one or more separate stories.

Escalation

In the context of a roleplaying game, “experience” is usually presented in terms of its positive connotations, representing increased mastery of valuable skills and a deeper well of specialized knowledge to draw upon. While it retains some of that in Deviant, it also reflects experience in its negative aspects, as hardship ranging from discomfort to extreme trauma. In this aspect, experience is a teacher, yes, but some of the lessons it teaches are the wrong ones, or at least ones that only increase the Broken’s alienation from Baseline humanity.

Most sources of Beats involve things going wrong for the Remade and those he cares about. They involve overcoming adversity (resolving most Conditions) or suffering a dramatic failure. Yes, the Deviant earns a Beat at the end of each chapter, for opposing a Conviction Touchstone (or for serving a Loyalty Touchstone, if he’s a Devoted), and when resolving an Aspiration, but complications related to his Scars provide the most opportunities to earn Beats. Character advancement — in the sense of improved Attributes/Skills, additional Merits, increased Acclimation, and new Variations — therefore depends on the player embracing (and encouraging his fellow players to embrace) those Scars and making them relevant to the events of the chronicle.

Experiences in Deviant are the scar tissue forming in response to the hardships the Broken has endured. How a player chooses to spend his character’s Experiences usually reflects the nature of those difficulties.

Skills and Specialties

Skills represent applied knowledge and muscle memory. They can be improved through training and practice, whether in a controlled environment or a stressful one. Usually, increasing a Skill’s rating has no real impact on the Deviant’s supernatural abilities. Paired with Variations like Hyper-Competence or Lash, they can be force multipliers, but they don’t factor into Scar Finesse or Scar Resistance rolls.

Specialties are narrower than Skills, and serve to flesh out a character. Aside from story-based circumstances, Specialties offer impactful (and inexpensive) benefits in two situations. First, if a character has already purchased five dots in an often-used Skill, a Specialty allows her to effectively exceed the usual five-dot limit, at least when using that Skill in a way that fits the Specialty. This is most useful for Skills that are frequently resisted or contested, or those like Crafts that are rolled many times as part of an extended action (thus increasing the probability of an exceptional success). Second, if a character primarily uses a Skill in the same way over and over, the Specialty applies nearly as often as an additional dot in the Skill and costs half as much. For example, a character who carries a pistol will usually enjoy the bonus provided by a Firearms Specialty in Pistols.

Spending Experiences to improve Skills and Specialties can reduce the Remade’s dependence on her Variations. Doing so is usually either an attempt to fill in gaps that have given her trouble in the past or to increase her effectiveness with capabilities she has come to rely upon. The Skills she develops speak volumes about the person the Divergence has forced (or allowed) her to be. An extra dot of Firearms means she is more effective in a firefight, for example, but it also shows that she lives (or expects to live) a life where guns and gunfighting take on greater prominence.  On the other hand, increased Empathy could indicate that she has learned from the pain of her own dehumanizing misfortunes how better to find the humanity in others, although it might also mean she’s been betrayed and lied to so often that she’s grown adept at spotting the signs of others’ attempts to manipulate her.

Merits

Most Merits reflect a mundane advantage, some of which the Broken may have had before his Divergence. Those he gains during play — as well as any Deviant-only ones — are the resources and specialized training he has acquired because of his experiences as one of the Remade.

Most Merits don’t interact directly with the Broken’s Scars and Variations. Those that do typically reflect increased mastery over the character’s Remade qualities and therefore demand a greater understanding of the Deviant’s condition (an Acclimation prerequisite).

As with Skills, the purchase of Merit dots can reflect a net positive experience, but it can also take on a darker cast. Allies (Academia) is decidedly more cheerful than Allies (Organized Crime).

Attributes

Attributes reflect a character’s raw abilities. Because Variations so often key off Attribute ratings (when calculating Scar Power, Scar Finesse, and Scar Resistance), they make an attractive and effective means of improving both the Deviant’s mundane and occult capabilities. Attribute dot purchases can also shore up weak points taken during character creation that have caused her problems in the past.

The effectiveness of increasing Attributes is somewhat reliant upon having Skills to pair with them. The penalties for untrained actions can be a considerable impediment to success, and the effect on Mental Skills is particularly brutal.

Acclimation

Acclimation reflects the character’s increasing familiarity with their Remade condition. This self-knowledge allows them to exert stricter control over their abilities, to compensate more effectively for their Scars, and to endure more of the stress of Instability without apparent strain. They also open the door to specialized Merits that further improve their Variations without the worsening Scars that usually come with such improvement.

Increasing Acclimation costs a lot of Experiences, but the benefits it provides usually make it a worthwhile purchase. However, improving the trait is only possible during periods when the Broken has no serious (medium or major) Instability, which puts it somewhat at odds with purchasing new Variations.

Fused and Shifting Everything

The Fused and Shifting Scars rule (Deviant, p. 111) can be applied more broadly — to any character respec made for narrative or mechanical reasons to make the game more fun. Can you move Merit dots around if something just isn’t working? Absolutely. Can you shuffle around a couple Skill or Attribute dots? Yes, as long as the new configuration doesn’t result in worse than a 5/4/3 or 11/7/4 division. Can you swap out Variations and/or Scars or entangle them differently? Yes, as long as the resulting entanglements are legal and the Storyteller okays the change. That includes things like realizing you want to increase one of the two Magnitude 4 Variations you have entangled with a Magnitude 5 Scar to Magnitude 5 but “can’t” because a Magnitude 5 Scar can only entangle one Variation if at least one of the intended Variations is Magnitude 5. Entangle the other Magnitude 4 Variation with one of your other Magnitude 4 Scars (or a new one you develop in one of the usual ways).

This isn’t meant to say that major character sheet changes should be made willy-nilly. But if it makes sense within the context of the story, or if it will make the game more fun for you and the rest of the troupe, there’s nothing wrong with the occasional respec. One such change at the end of each story is generally reasonable. More extensive than that requires Storyteller approval and should probably be confined to once per chronicle per character.

The limits of respecs are a good discussion topic to include during session zero (p. XX). Some players and some troupes feel more comfortable with them than others.

Variations and Scars

The purchase of Attributes, Skills, and Merits can reflect experience in terms of either its positive or negative connotations, depending on the reasoning behind the purchase. The acquisition of new Variations, however, is always a reminder of the continual alienation of the Broken from Baseline humanity. It requires him to have (or develop) a Scar capable of supporting the Variation. New Scars do not manifest in a vacuum, either; they emerge only in response to Instability. The appearance of a new Variation is therefore the culmination of his gradual loss of what and who he was before his Divergence — a new phase in his devolution into the monster the conspiracy tells him he is.

That isn’t to say that players shouldn’t want to spend Experiences on new Variations. Nearly all roleplaying games include some opportunity to engage in power fantasies, and Deviant is no exception. Cool powers are fun to use! But it’s something to bear in mind when looking at the game systems surrounding the purchase of new Variations.

Improving Variations

Increasing the Magnitude of an existing Variation doesn’t cost Experiences. The Remade must always have an existing Scar that could legally entangle the Variation at the intended new Magnitude. A Scar’s Magnitude can only increase due to Instability, although some Deviants may begin the chronicle with excess Scar Magnitude, entangle a new Scar with a Variation of lower Magnitude, or end up with a Scar with excess Magnitude after spinning off one of the Variations that was previously entangled with it. For example, Fluctuating Variation is always a Magnitude 3 Scar, but it can entangle a Magnitude 1 or 2 Variation, allowing that Variation’s Magnitude to increase during play. Some narrative justification is preferable, but these can be reflected in mechanics:

•            Instability: As described in Deviant: The Renegades, a Deviant can increase a Variation’s Magnitude when Instability increases the entangled Scar’s Magnitude. If the worsened Scar is entangled with two or more Variations, the Deviant may choose to increase the Magnitude of one, some, or all the entangled Variations. This is the most common situation.

•            Inner Peace: If the Deviant has no Instability and would heal Instability during a scene, he may choose to increase the Magnitude of one Variation he used during that scene by 1.

•            Outrage: The Remade may increase a Variation’s Magnitude when she suffers Instability during the scene but must immediately activate the Variation if it isn’t already active.

•            Self-Mastery: The Broken may increase the Magnitude of one Variation when she purchases a dot of Acclimation.

States of Grace

Catharsis and Fury grant Deviants an additional measure of stability that other Broken do not enjoy. While neither state is common and both are usually temporary, they aren’t exceptionally rare, either. Self-Made Renegades who forge Loyalty attachments early can become Guardians soon after their Divergence, and Self-Made Devoted who form an unusually large number of Conviction connections can quickly achieve Fury. The death or reversal of existing Touchstones can lead to either state, usually by accident, as few conspiracies and fewer Remade are aware of these states or their benefits.

Guardians

Even ignoring the constant pressure the Web of Pain exerts on Renegades (which tends to prune their Loyalty Touchstones and multiply their Conviction Touchstones), achieving Catharsis does not come naturally. In a life defined by pursuing and destroying her enemies — one where she derives enormous satisfaction (and a steady trickle of Willpower) from that hunt — the Renegade must decide that her friends take priority. Moreover, she must seek opportunities to establish, deepen, and maintain relationships despite constant threats to her freedom. For Renegades, finding people to love is much more difficult than finding things to hate — not because of some inherent psychological difference between themselves and Devoted, but because there are so many more opportunities for them to make new enemies.

Of the two states, Catharsis is the more difficult to achieve and the more precarious. A Guardian relies on her connections to her Loyalty Touchstones, any one of whom makes a too-tempting target for the conspiracies. Should any of these Touchstones be a member of a conspiracy (or join or found one), the Guardian can find herself leashed as a Devoted. It’s not surprising that while Guardians want and need Loyalty Touchstones, they must be as careful of whom to trust as any Renegade. Just because a Guardian can trust her Loyalty Touchstones doesn’t mean those Touchstones get along with each other; rivalries and personality clashes can put her in the middle of a conflict between two people she loves who absolutely loathe each other.

Although Guardians have fewer obligations to Conviction than do other Renegades, some are arguably even more violent in the defense of their Loyalty Touchstones. They have more friends, yes, but making new friends that they can trust is still no mean feat. Instability may be less of a threat to Remade in a state of Catharsis, but her Scars are undiminished. Variations, too, present a temptation to anyone who would exploit the Broken for their own ends — and Catharsis does nothing to mask these, either.

Although a desirable state, Catharsis is not without its risks. It grants additional Stability, true, but when it ends due to a sudden shift in the balance between Loyalty and Conviction, it is like the breaking of a dam. The full fury of the Renegade rushes in to fill the void left by the Deviant’s evaporating inner peace, and the Broken can find himself cutting off ties of Conviction and Loyalty unrelated to the shift. In the worst cases, it can leave him entirely hollowed out spiritually, forever incapable of forging strong stabilizing connections to anyone or anything.

Nemeses

Fury is a potent and often self-sustaining state, albeit an undeniably destructive one. Conspiracies often create Nemeses by accident when they refuse the Devoted more than one or two meaningful human connections as handlers (and Loyalty Touchstones) and then feed them constant lists of targets to be destroyed. These Devoted make terrifying assassins and foot soldiers, but they tend to hurl themselves into confrontations with their Conviction Touchstones in ways even the most intent Renegade would not.

For a Renegade, pursuing a Conviction Touchstone is scratching an itch or eating a favorite home-cooked meal. For a Nemesis, facing hardship to fight a Conviction Touchstone is intoxicant, it is orgasm, it is the greatest source of joy imaginable. Renegades can sustain themselves for a long time merely stalking or plotting the downfall of a Conviction Touchstone, but for a Nemesis there is no satisfaction in hatred without confrontation. Renegades are an angry lot, but no one embodies bloodlust like a Devoted in Fury.

Obsessed as they are with pursuing their Conviction Touchstones at all costs, Nemeses can be hard for conspiracies to control. An accident or attack on a handler can leave a rogue Devoted with no Loyalty Touchstones left to dissuade her from pursuing her Conviction Touchstones with a careless intensity bordering on sustained berserk fury. And one unwelcome order to spare an enemy instead of destroying him can result in a reversal from Loyalty to Conviction, leading to a dead handler and a Renegade bent on tearing down the whole conspiracy. This latter scenario is a common story among Renegades; they have become weapons turned against the ones who forged and wielded them.

A Nemesis who has lost all his Loyalty Touchstones is difficult to coax out of Fury. He has no reason to forge new Loyalty connections, as those have become irrelevant to him. They are a fetter that might hold him back from his single-minded pursuit of his Conviction Touchstones. They are a potential source of betrayal whose treachery could force a reversal that drives him out of the joyful state of Fury and renders him merely Renegade. Without those Loyalty Touchstones to hold him back, the Nemesis’s Fury will end only with his death, and that’s much less likely to be the result of Instability — although becoming Feral by killing his last Conviction Touchstone is a real danger.

Because Nemeses are constantly extinguishing their Touchstones, they also require a constant supply of new enemies. Often, they eventually run out of people who have legitimately wronged them and are forced to find excuses to hate new ones. The swath of destruction Nemeses leave behind tends to make them plenty of enemies, but there is little doubt who is the monster in the story.

Falling from Grace

In game terms, when the Guardian leaves Catharsis (or a Nemesis leaves Fury), she Falters against both Loyalty and Conviction (Deviant, p. 93). If she has both Loyalty and Conviction Touchstones, she must choose one of each and make a Faltering roll to retain this connection. This generates Instability and potentially causes a Touchstone to become Wavering just like any other Faltering roll.

If she has no Touchstones of one (or both) appropriate type, she still rolls a chance die to determine the Instability she suffers, but there is no Touchstone to become Wavering. The process is similar if she has Touchstones of that type but all of them are Wavering, except one of the Wavering Touchstones is lost entirely.

Leaving either state by this route therefore carries a significant risk of turning the Deviant into a Feral. This is much more common among Renegades, for whom such a departure is usually the result of the death of a Loyalty Touchstone.

Blowout

The End Stage Condition is the culmination of a long, slow drip of untended Instability. The Broken senses its approach long before it arrives and knows instinctively how to halt and reverse the Instability causing his discomfort — as surely as a newborn knows to nurse to soothe his first pangs of hunger. A Deviant’s final loss of control over his Divergence may surprise (and terrify) strangers, but it never takes him unawares. His close associates, including members of his cohort, rarely overlook the signs, either: increasing loss of control and worsening Scars.

Some Remade try to ignore their symptoms. They may downplay the severity of worsening Scars or tell themselves that they’ll go away on their own. This is much more common with Mental and Social Scars, whose effects can be insidious. Others reassure themselves that yes, they have a problem, but they’ll soon heal the Instability. They might convince themself that they’ll soon destroy a Conviction Touchstone or reassure themself that the cute barista will say yes just as soon as they work up the courage to ask her on a date, and that the relationship that emerges from that date will serve as a lifeline they can count on for months, at least, if not years. In deferring critical personal maintenance, the Broken dooms themself.

A few Deviants, sensing the approach of death by Instability, refuse to deny it. Perhaps they decide that the harm they must inflict to soothe their damaged souls is too great, that they are a danger to those they care about and that pouring all their energy into white-hot hate is no way to live. Or maybe they welcome Instability as a source of more power, and End Stage as an opportunity to accomplish something they can’t with their current Variations — for all that it means they will die once they’ve achieved their goal.

Ferals

Few things demonstrate the precariousness of the Feral condition like End Stage. Unlike Remade who can still forge (and therefore destroy) Touchstones, they cannot escape the gravitational pull of oblivion once they enter its orbit. For a Feral, End Stage is a terminal condition for which there is no cure.

Swan Song

In the throes of End Stage, Variations exceed their normal capabilities. In many cases, they exceed the capabilities of any Deviant’s Variations — at least those of Remade who are likely to see more than a few more days of life. Magnitude 5 Variations push the limits of the stress a human soul can endure without being consumed. Broken in End Stage attain power that should be impossible, however brief the time they have in which to wield it. What they choose to do with that opportunity varies from one Deviant to the next.

From the Brink

Broken who are not yet ready to die have little choice but to use their limited time to seal one of the rifts in their soul by seeking out and destroying a Conviction Touchstone. While this need not involve outright murder, Remade in End Stage don’t have the luxury of time, so the execution of an elaborate and poetic takedown of an enemy that doesn’t involve killing them is seldom an option. The catharsis that follows the deed draws together the broken edges of the Deviant’s soul before it completely disintegrates. It leaves her far from whole; abundant Instability remains. Often, the transformed develops new Scars in the aftermath — permanent reminders of how close they came to annihilation.

Most Broken don’t survive End Stage. Those who do usually find the experience terrifying enough that they steer clear of its abyss in the future, becoming more diligent about their Touchstones. A minority learn the dangerous lesson that End Stage allows them to fully weaponize their Divergence. The power it brings is considerable, and wielding seemingly godlike power, however temporarily, becomes an addiction. Although Remade can’t enter End Stage on demand, some find ways to manufacture situations that will tip them over the edge — or else they have Scars and Adaptations that are inherently destabilizing. Few can repeat this dance more than once or twice before they miss their target and are unable to keep themselves from falling apart completely.

Destroy What You Love

Desperate Broken will sometimes take actions that they couldn’t even contemplate in less dire circumstances and that they may yet regret for the rest of their lives. When a Deviant enters End Stage, they may — without provocation beyond those circumstances — turn on one of their Loyalty Touchstones, reversing them into a Conviction Touchstone. In rare cases, this isn’t even a conscious choice (although it shouldn’t be one imposed by the Storyteller). Many legends of lycanthropic curses say that the werewolf’s first victims are the people she loves the most, and so it is with the Broken, too.

By the time the Remade comes to their senses, it’s too late. The trauma of murdering a Loyalty Touchstone to escape the final beat of End Stage often manifests in new Mental and Social Scars (used to downgrade some of the Deviant’s remaining major Instability to medium) that reflect it. The Broken might preserve echoes of their dead friend as an Alternate Persona who will never forgive them, for example, or they’ll suffer Nightmares of their crime for the rest of their life.

Trail of Destruction

Many Deviants in End Stage are engines of destructive energy capable of tremendous havoc. Even with the power it grants, Renegades don’t always have a clear path to destroy a Conviction Touchstone. In a few cases, those who do may still decide that it’s better to maximize the damage they inflict on the conspiracy, spending their lives and the last light of their dying souls to do so. Whatever their reason, these Broken turn their full fury on their enemies — slaughtering entire offices of conspiracy agents, rendering Icons nonoperational, or even leveling buildings.

This tends to attract the full and focused attention of the conspiracy, Baseline law enforcement (if not their militaries), and every outside group concerned with preventing massive, destructive displays of occult power. Oftentimes, the Deviant meets his end in a hail of gunfire, artillery explosions, or arcane firepower well before his soul is used up.

Martyrdom

Even in End Stage, not all Remade have Variations that facilitate violence — and those that do might decide to use them to protect instead of attack. The Broken performs a miracle as her final act. Perhaps it’s a desperate last stand meant to give her friends time to escape or to ready a counterattack. Maybe she heals the injuries and illnesses of all the patients in an entire hospital or recalls to life all the failed experiments in a conspiracy’s graveyard. Possibly, she rescues hundreds of people from some catastrophe or prevents the destruction of a landmark, priceless work of art, or site of natural beauty.

Whatever form her last act takes, she dies a hero. She has preserved someone or something from harm. Death in the service of some higher purpose is often lauded, placing the survivors in a debt to the deceased that they can never repay. For many Renegades, it might be the best death they feel they can hope for. But it is still death in all its dreadful finality — and unquestionably untimely.

Phoenix’s Ashes

Though potent, a Deviant’s Variations are short-lived and confined to his immediate vicinity. Most last mere minutes. Remade in End Stage, however, sometimes create something more durable — forging the last of their soul’s power into a structure or a relic of occult power. His body burns away or hollows out, but his soul crystalizes into a staff, a gun, an amulet, or some other physical manifestation that contains an echo of his power. Through it, he may aid friends and work wonders in the world despite no longer being a part of it.

These afterimages of End Stage do not always fall into worthy hands. Some of the prototypes conspiracies jealously guard are the recovered remains of Deviants destroyed by the fire of their own souls. A handful of conspiracies have even learned to replicate them — whether by reverse-engineering the devices themselves or by reproducing the End Stage in new test subjects. Although the latter situation is undoubtedly more horrific, having his final sacrifice place a new weapon in the hands of dozens or hundreds of agents of the very enemies the Deviant spent his post-Divergence life fighting is the more personal affront.

Supernova

As described in Chapter Three (p. XX), Variations have intentional limits to their range, duration, and scale. A Deviant in End Stage, however, can often break those boundaries. Most of the time, End Stage merely automatically activates (as a reflexive action) and supercharges the Broken’s Magnitude 5 Variations (as well as those of lower Magnitude that represent the maximum Magnitude for that Variation) until the end of the chapter. This can still have a considerable impact. For each such maximized Variation, choose one of the below effects — whether each Variation gets one effect, one Variation gets all the effects, or anything in between. The Remade may change and/or reassign one effect by spending a point of Willpower:

Control: Scar Finesse rolls to activate or target the Variation enjoy a +3 bonus.

Enlarged Area: The Variation affects a larger area than usual.  If it is not Directed, it grants its benefits to all allies, all non-enemies, or all logical targets within 10 yards/meters. If it is an Aura, its radius extends twice Scar Power times farther than usual (doubled at 1 Scar Power, quadrupled at 2 Scar Power, etc.). If it is Directed, the Deviant may affect multiple targets per turn (no greater than Scar Finesse) and any number of targets may fall under its sway at a time (rather than being limited by Scar Power); resolve multiple targeting as a long burst (Deviant, p. 198). Alternatively, a Directed effect’s range is increased by a factor of 10.

Greater Duration: Once activated, the Variation lasts until the end of the chapter instead of until the end of the scene. If the Variation has the Perpetual keyword, once activated, it counts as being Persistent and Perpetual even if ordinarily Controlled or Involuntary.

Instinctive: The Remade may activate or deactivate the Variation reflexively. If Directed, the Broken can direct its effects as a reflexive action once for each of her turns. She can do this at a time other than her own turn, but once she directs the Variation reflexively, she may not do so again until the beginning of her next turn.

Limitless: Variation effects that are limited to once per scene, chapter, or story do not have this limit.

Shifted Scars: The Scar entangled with the Variation changes. This could be a difference within the same Scar (which things trigger his Phobia, for example, or what behavior Subliminal Conditioning compels), or it could be a complete change in the Scar.

Super-Potent: The Variation gains capabilities normally impossible for it (see below).

Synergy: The Variation’s effects bleed into one or more of the Broken’s other Variations.

Super-Potent Examples

The below are examples of what a Variation might be capable of if made super-potent or if synergizing with similar Variations. Each lists several examples of Variations appropriate to the effect, but this is by no means an exhaustive list.

•            Awareness: The Broken’s senses penetrate phenomena relevant to the Variation with perfect clarity. She enjoys a two-die bonus to Wits rolls. She may also ask the Storyteller questions about anything in the Variation’s purview that she can perceive and receive accurate answers, although the Storyteller may call for Scar Finesse rolls for unusually subtle phenomena. Predator’s Cunning, Precognition, Sensor Array, Specialized Sense

•            Disaster: The Deviant may create a level 4 Extreme Environment relevant to the Variation. He is immune to this environment’s effects and any Environmental Tilts it causes. Bioluminescence, Electrokinesis, Environmental Adaptation, Pyrokinesis, Storm-Caller

•            Gargantuan: The Remade can take the shape of larger objects or creatures, increasing maximum Size by 10. Animal Transformation, Gigantic, Mechanical Transformation

•            Ghost: The Deviant is undetectable and can pass through any substance at her normal Speed. Boneless, Camouflage, Miniaturization, Out of Phase

•            Kill: Whether by means of a powerful Lash or telepathic power that causes victims to die of fright, the Deviant’s Variations become honed for killing. Each turn, as a reflexive action, the Remade may make a Scar Finesse roll. Each success takes a Baseline in range out of the fight. Creeping Dread, Lash, Superhuman Strength, Telekinesis

•            Mark: The Remade inflicts permanent damage on the target, imposing a Magnitude 3 Scar appropriate to the Variation (Magnitude 5, if the roll to target the Variation is an exceptional success). This is permanent for most Baselines; others can overcome it by devoting a story to recovering from the damage in some way. Cryokinesis, Fate’s Agent, Lash, Memory Thief, Telepathy

•            Narration: The Broken may introduce a convenient fact or plot twist to the scene that is relevant to the Variation. The Storyteller may veto any unreasonable suggestions but is encouraged to permit most scenarios. The first time the Deviant does this in a scene, the effect is automatic. Additional uses require successful Scar Finesse rolls with a cumulative –1 penalty, and once the Remade fails one of these rolls, she cannot attempt further plot twists in the current scene. Hidden Compartments, Pheromones, Superhuman Presence, Superhuman Wits

•            Perfection: The Deviant acts with perfect grace or thinks with perfect clarity. Choose Mental, Physical, or Social, as appropriate to the Variation. All the Remade’s actions of that type enjoy the rote quality, and she is treated as having three dots in each Skill of that type in which she has fewer than three dots. Blessing, Hyper-Competence, Omnicompetence, Superhuman Attribute

•            Portal: The Broken can open a gateway large enough for two people to walk through at a time, which remains open for a few minutes (a few turns, in action scenes). Its destination reflects the Variation used to create it. Translocation might lead to any location in the world that she has ever been, for example, Astral Travel to one of her sleeping Touchstones, and Otherworldly Connection to a random location in the otherworld connected to her. Astral Travel, Otherworldly Connection, Shadows of the Past, Translocation

•            Travel: The Deviant is capable of incredible speeds by air, land, or water (as appropriate), doubling the normal Speed of these forms of travel. She may also dodge without using her next action and does not lose her Defense when targeted by firearms and other attacks that ignore Defense. Aquatic, Enhanced Speed, Flight

•            Unkillable: The Broken is functionally invulnerable to physical harm, shrugging off damage and Tilts that reflect injury (although not ones that represent fetters or environmental factors). Anomalous Biology, Carapace, Rapid Healing, Superhuman Stamina

Extinction Burst

As the dramatic conclusion to End Stage draws near, the Deviant’s soul disintegrates under the intensity of her Variations. Most Remade in End Stage never experience this. It is a final surrender to the Divergence from which there is no coming back. Sometimes, the extinction burst reflects the Broken’s state of mind or goal at the time she entered End Stage, but oftentimes it is not so organized, simply a lashing out at random.

Systems: When a Remade has the End Stage Condition, their player may elect to experience an extinction burst. Instead of dying at the end of the current chapter, the character dies at the end of the current scene. Even the catharsis of destroying a Conviction Touchstone cannot reverse End Stage once it reaches this point. Choose one of the following, or suggest a new one with Storyteller permission:

•            Anomaly: The Deviant becomes the center point of an anomaly. The area and everyone in it might be caught in a time loop, for example, or everyone is frozen in place as the Remade’s telepathic control arrests their control over their muscles. The exact radius and duration of this effect is up to the Storyteller, but it typically affects no less than a city block and ends no sooner than the end of the current chapter.

•            Crystalize: The Broken’s powers manifest as an object, likely one of occult power. Troupes with access to The Clades Companion may build this as a prototype.

•            Divergence Event: The Deviant’s soul sends out an occult shriek that cracks the souls of all nearby Baselines. Most die or suffer Scars with no Variations, but some Diverge. The exact radius of this event is up to the Storyteller, but it shouldn’t be less than a city block.

•            Explosion: The power within the Broken explodes out of him with enough force to topple buildings. Baselines at ground zero are killed instantly. The exact radius of this explosion is up to the Storyteller, but it shouldn’t be less than a city block.

•            Miracle: Instead of exploding in a wash of terrifying or destructive force, the Deviant’s soul flows out in restorative ways. It might reverse the last few minutes, undoing the damage done by an accident or natural disaster, for example, or restore all the dead in the area to life. The exact radius and limits of this are up to the Storyteller, but it shouldn’t be less than a city block.

•            Occult Scar: The disintegration of the Remade’s soul leaves a permanent mark on the area. It might become haunted, for example, or gravity might not work as expected. The exact radius of this is up to the Storyteller, but it shouldn’t be less than the size of a small building and could encompass an area measured in city blocks — or even miles, in rare cases.

Methods of Death

A Deviant who doesn’t destroy a Conviction Touchstone (or one who suffers an extinction burst) does not always suffer a biological death. Rather, End Stage brings about such a lasting change to the Remade that they cease to be playable Deviant characters.

•            Burned Out: The Broken loses access to his Variations and Adaptations, but his Scars remain. Touchstones are no longer relevant, but Instability is not a danger, either. In rare cases, the Scars fade, too, but so do the Deviant’s memories of everything that has happened to him since shortly before the Divergence, although his soul remains cracked (he has no Anchors and only has one Aspiration).

•            Husk: The Remade’s body is still there, but his mind is gone, leaving him in a persistent vegetative state.

•            Lost: The Deviant falls (or is dragged) through a portal to another world (or time) from which she has no means of returning. Rescue is either impossible or requires resources the rest of the cohort doesn’t have access to.

•            Physical Death: The Deviant suffers a heart attack, stroke, massive hemorrhage, or other medical event that quickly kills her — or she catches fire from within and quickly burns to cinders.

•            Transformed: The Broken becomes something else entirely that is incapable of interacting with the cohort in any meaningful way. She might be reduced to a bestial monster driven solely by base instincts, for example, or she might be trapped in an inanimate object, turned into a statue, or changed into pure energy.