Flaws and Derangements

# **Flaws**

## **Low-level Flaws (1pt)**

### **Addiction (Mild)**

* You are addicted to some substance, such as caffeine, nicotine, etc. You will start to crave the substance if you don't get it often enough, and have to spend Willpower points to avoid giving in to the urge. The larger the flaw, the more dependent you are on the substance, and the worse things will happen if you don't get what you need.

### **Allergic**

* You suffer from an allergy to some substance; All rolls are at a +1 difficulty when in the presence of this substance.

### **Bad Liar**

* You have tremendous trouble lying. The spontaneous excuses that you come up with are usually unbelievably elaborate or easily refuted with the bare modicum of research. While telling a prefabricated lie, you stutter, stammer, blush or generally look guilty. Increase he difficulty of any roll that involves verbal deception by two.

### **Bard's Tongue**

* What you say tends to come true; you can't control this prophetic ability, and the compulsion to speak an uncomfortable truth is often very hard to resist, though you may attempt to do so by spending Willpower.

### **Airhead**

* Maybe you have trouble paying attention, maybe you're just clueless, maybe you just look like a flake; no matter what, people don't take you seriously. Modify social rolls as is appropriate.

### **Black and White**

* You see all situations in black and white, good and evil, etc. In situations where this limited, judgmental way of thinking may hinder your reaction to something or cause you to act socially inappropriate, add a +1 difficulty to social or relevant rolls.

### **Color Blind (Partial)**

* There are certain areas of the visual spectrum that you have problems perceiving. Which may add difficulty to perception rolls.

### **Compulsion**

* You have a specific compulsion which may cause you problems. You have to spend a temporary Willpower point to fight the compulsion for a short time.

### **Compulsive Speech (Mild)**

* For whatever reason, you have difficulty sticking to the rule, "If you can't say anything nice, don't say it at all. You’re very talkative and a bit blunt.

### **Craven Image**

* There's something about you that makes you appear sniveling and "low." In appropriate situations, social difficulties are at +2.

### **Cursed (Mild)**

* You have been cursed by someone or something. The curse is specific in nature and cannot be easily dispelled. The curse is likely very annoying.

### **Dark Fate**

* You are doomed to suffer a horrible demise, or otherwise have some sort of icky unpleasant fate. You are aware of this, and can kind of make you rather depressed...

### **Dark Secret**

* There's something about you which you don't want people to know, and it would be very bad if they did (or at least you think it would be).

### **Deep Sleeper**

* Waking up is hard; getting you moving is hard enough (+2 difficulty to attempts to wake you), getting you comprehending what's going on after you're up isn't much easier (+1 difficulty to all rolls during the scene). For Vampires, this makes it even harder to stir you during the day, and you may even sleep a good deal past sunset, regardless of Humanity score.

### **Dwarf/Short**

* You are well below average height, and have difficulty reaching high objects, seeing over things, etc. -2 dice penalty to pursuit rolls. On the up side, you may get bonuses to hiding attempts.

### **Eccentric Appearance**

* You dye your hair pink, wear clothes that are fashionable only among fringe subcultures such as Goths or punks, and otherwise appear nothing like the average citizen. When dealing with people not familiar with your particular subculture, increase the difficulty of any Social rolls by two. Your appearance unnerves mainstream people and makes them wary of you. Furthermore, your appearance is eye-catching, though people tend to focus on your attire rather than your actual physical characteristics, such as eye color.

### **Enemy (Mild)**

* Somebody's out to hurt you or your reputation, or even kill you (or people close to you). This enemy is of lesser skill than your own.

### **Hard of Hearing**

* Difficulties for hearing-related rolls are at +2. If you can take an animal form and receive perception bonuses for it, you will only gain that bonus for olfactory senses and/or vision.

### **Hero Worship**

* You absolutely idolize someone, and disobeying them requires an effort of will (spending Willpower or succeeding a Willpower roll at 3+ difficulty). You also are at +1 difficulty to any roll that may force you to admit/realize that your hero may be in the wrong.

### **Illiterate**

* You can't read or write. This may make passing yourself off as that learned professor from Oxford a bit difficult.

### **Inferiority Complex**

* No matter what you do, by your standards, it's just not good enough. In situations requiring you to take charge and strut your stuff, add +1 to all difficulties.

### **Intolerance**

* You have difficulty tolerating a specific thing or type of person. +2 difficulty on rolls involving that thing.

### **Isolated Upbringing**

* You were raised in your supernatural society, or were somehow otherwise sequestered away from "normal" life, so you have trouble dealing with this Outside-World thing. Dealing with any community outside the one in which you were raised adds 1 to social difficulties, or reduces your Social pool by one.

### **Low Alcohol Tolerance**

* Alcohol goes straight to your head. Double any penalties you suffer from consuming alcohol.

### **Masochist/Sadist**

* You either enjoy pain or enjoy inflicting it on others. In addition to the inconveniences this fascination may cause you, you may also be seen as sick (and, well you are), or even more sick people may use you for your obsession.

### **Mistaken Identity**

* People think you're someone you're not; even if that person isn't bad, it can still cause you trouble if they realize you're not who they think you are.

### **Mistreated Minority**

* You belong to a group or have a trait to which the average person will react badly. This depends a lot on where the game takes place and what kind of people you run into, so check with the ST before you assume you can take this. Yes, if you're playing an openly gay man in a backwoods redneck area, that may cause you problems. If you're playing an openly gay man in a game focused on the New York art scene, that probably won't be a problem.

### **Nightmares**

* You're constantly plagued by nightmares, which at the worst may indicate there's something nasty in your fate, and at the least will make you cranky and irritable most of the time. A particularly bad night may cause you to lose -1 dice on all rolls for some time afterward.

### **No Sense of Direction**

* You get lost all the time. Maps, compasses and detailed directions do little to help. You have a lot of trouble figuring out where you are in relation to landmarks that aren't immediately obvious, and maps are largely incomprehensible to you. Increase by two the difficulty of any roll that involves following convoluted directions, backtracking a route or navigating a confusing set of city streets.

### **No Sense of Smell**

* You completely lack a sense of smell. You may have simply been born without it, or perhaps you lost it due to some freak accident. You can't smell anything, no matter how strong the odor might be. Food tastes somewhat bland to you. On the good side, you aren't bothered by the stench of sewers, rotting flesh, or other nasties.

### **No Sense of Taste**

* Your taste buds simply do not function. You cannot appreciate a fine meal, and you have trouble gauging the difference between good and bad food and drink.

### **Old Flame**

* Someone you once cared deeply for is now with the enemy. He still attempts to play on your sympathies “for old times’ sake” while working against you. Unless you succeed on a contested Manipulation + Expression roll against your former friend, you cannot act against him unless the situation becomes life-threatening.

### **Offensive to Animals**

* For some reason, animals fear you or just don't like you. You have a +2 Difficulty to  interacting with animals. Obviously, Vampires can't take this Flaw as they naturally have it (though they can take the 1 point Merit: Inoffensive to Animals, which reverses the effect of the curse).

### **One Eye**

* You lack peripheral vision on one side, and you are at a -2 dice difficulty for rolls related to depth-perception. On the upside, you can wear a nifty eye patch and say "Arrrrr" a lot.

### **Overconfident**

* You think you can do everything even though you probably can't, and you try to prove your belief as often as possible.

### **Phobia**

* You have a specific, incredibly powerful fear. You must succeed on a Willpower roll, or you will refuse to approach the object of your fear. You must get at least three successes, if you get less than three successes you will flee the area

### **Shy**

* You're not a social butterfly, to say the least. Many social rolls are at +1 difficulty, and if you're the center of attention, all rolls are at +2 difficulty.

### **Soft-hearted**

* You can't stand to witness suffering, and if you do, difficulties are at +2 for the next hour.

### **Speech Impediment**

* 2 Point penalty to all verbal communication rolls.

### **Sterile**

* You are incapable of reproducing. If you are in a society which expects you to have children (such as if you are Kinfolk), this is a flaw. You may, however, take this as a merit if you practice lots of sex magic or something in which being fertile may actually cause more problems for you than not.

### **Vengeance**

* You are consumed with avenging something very important to you. Your obsession can only be temporarily swayed by spending Willpower.

## **Medium-level Flaws (2 pt)**

### Addiction (Severe)

* You are addicted to some substance, such as caffeine, nicotine, etc. You will start to crave the substance if you don't get it often enough, and have to spend Willpower points to avoid giving in to the urge. The larger the flaw, the more dependent you are on the substance, and the worse things will happen if you don't get what you need.

### Amnesia

* You have no memory of your past, or at least are missing a significant portion of it. You have the option of taking up to 5 points of extra flaws to be determined by the Storyteller (you don't get to find out about them till you're playing...).

### Attention-Deficit Disorder

* You have a hard time sitting still and paying attention to anything for more than a few minutes. If you must sit still and quiet for more than 10 minutes, such as standing guard, you must make a Willpower roll, On a failure, you lose interest in your task and are distracted from it.

### Bad Sight

* Difficulties for sight-related rolls are at +2, and you suffer from night blindness. If you can take an animal form and receive perception bonuses for it, you will not gain those bonuses for vision.

### Color Blind (Complete)

* You can see only in varying shades of grey, which may make some perception rolls more difficult.

### Compulsive Speech (Severe)

* For whatever reason, you have difficulty sticking to the rule, "If you can't say anything nice, don't say it at all. You sound like a complete prick when you talk.

### Confused

* You have a lot of trouble focusing and/or making sense of the world around you. You can spend Willpower to temporarily overcome your confusion.

### Cursed (Severe)

* You have been cursed by someone or something. The curse is specific in nature and cannot be easily dispelled. The curse is likely very inconveniencing to you and/or to the people around you, and will at least make you and them miserable.

### Curiosity (Mild)

* Your incredible curiosity often overrides your common sense. Resisting temptation requires a successful Wits roll, difficulty depending on the situation. A very bad flaw to take with certain evil sadistic Storytellers.

### Disfigured

* You have an injury or physical defect which makes you perfectly hideous; Presence trait is automatically 0.

### Disturbing Mannerism

* You have a habit or character trait which is peculiar, gross, or annoying. You may not even be aware of it-but boy, everyone else is. Difficulties of social rolls are increased at the ST's discretion.

### Dogged by Fringe Media

* You have somehow attracted the attention of an amateur reporter, one who covers a fringe website or publishes a zine that covers the bizarre or paranormal. This crank occasionally follows you to try to discover any dirt on you. Unfortunately, and in true modern journalism style, he tends to catch you in bizarre circumstances that he simply can't understand. Of course, he tries to interpret them anyway.

### Dyslexia

* Printed information of any sort, from written text to maps, is nearly indecipherable to you. Although you are not necessarily illiterate, you struggle to read the simplest sentences. In order to interpret a map or read anything, you must make a successful Intelligence roll, difficulty 8. On a botch, you interpret the message to have almost it's opposite meaning.

### Graceless

* You always look awkward, no matter what you're doing. +2 difficulty to all social rolls that involve making an impression.

### Low Pain Tolerance

* You have a very low capacity for pain. You turn into a whimpering, blubbering ball of misery at the first sign of it. Although you soak damage normally, you suffer an additional -1 die-pool penalty when you are injured.

### Low Self-Image

* Suffering from a low self-esteem, you have -2 dice in situations where you don't expect to succeed, or you may have to make Willpower rolls to do something that requires self-confidence.

### Lustful

* You can't resist the erotic advances of the appropriate gender(s). You are easily seduced and often exhibit very poor judgment when dealing with sexually attractive people. The difficulty of any attempts to seduce you is reduced by two.

### Midget

* You are well below average height, and have difficulty reaching high objects, seeing over things, etc. -2 dice penalty to pursuit rolls. On the up side, you may get bonuses to hiding attempts.

### Sensation Junkie

* You're addicted to sensation, and will do anything to find new means of stimulation. You must roll Willpower to resist taking the opportunity to try a new kick, difficulty depending on the situation.

### Technophobe

* You are severely intimidated by computer and other technology. You never use and ATM if a teller is available, and you get nervous at the sight of a keyboard. You must make an intelligence roll, difficulty 6, to perform even simple tasks on a computer, ATM or similar device. Increase the difficulty of any Computer or Technology roll by two.

### Territorial

* You are extremely attached to your territory: if forced to leave your territory, you will be at +1 difficulty in most rolls because you are so disoriented. If someone passes through your territory without your permission, you will immediately attack them.

### Ulterior Motive

* You have more reason to be with your comrades than your like for them or for their common goals. Whether this motive is sinister or not, it's a secret for whatever reason, and if you are suspected of this motive, things won't look too good for you.

### Ward

* You are devoted to protecting a "sleeping" human, perhaps a close friend or relative from your pre-supernatural days. These mortals have a knack for unknowingly getting in the middle of whatever mess you're involved with, or may even help create one.

### Weak-Willed

* You can only spend Willpower when survival is at stake or it is appropriate to your Nature (Auspice, Legacy, etc.).

## High-level Flaws (4 pt)

### Absent-Minded

* You have a lousy short-term memory, and need to make a Wits roll to remember more than standard knowledge (like your name, address, etc.). You can spend Willpower as a last resort to try and remember.

### Addiction (Extreme)

* You are addicted to some substance, such as caffeine, nicotine, etc. You will start to crave the substance if you don't get it often enough, and have to spend Willpower points to avoid giving in to the urge. The larger the flaw, the more dependent you are on the substance, and the worse things will happen if you don't get what you need.

### Aging

* Your get up and go has got up and went. Lower any one Physical attribute by one point. This Flaw maybe taken by a character every ten years past the age of 40 (60 or so for Werewolves and similarly long-lived creatures).

### Anachronism

* Not only are you unfamiliar with the modern human world, but you're unwilling or unable to learn. Perhaps you merely think the old ways are best or perhaps you are just too strongly attached to dreams of the past. In any case, you must spend double the experience points to buy any “modern” Abilities.

### Allergic

* You suffer from an allergy to some substance; This allergy is incapacitating or even a potentially fatal.

### Child

* You are a small child (between five and 10 years old), leaving your Physical Attributes underdeveloped and making it difficult to interact with some aspects of mortal society. You may not have more than two dots in Strength or Stamina at character creation, and the difficulties of all die rolls when attempting to direct or lead mortal adults are increased by two. Characters with this Flaw should also take the Short Flaw.

### Curiosity (Severe)

* You’re completely obsessed with any mystery you come across, and you'll do anything to solve it. Resisting temptation requires a successful Wits roll, difficulty depending on the situation. A very bad flaw to take with certain evil sadistic Storyteller.

### Deformity

* You have a withered limb, hunchback, or other physical defect which causes you difficulty in movement, as well as in some social interactions. Depending on the type and circumstance, difficulties can be raised on appearance and/or dexterity rolls.

### Deranged

* You have a permanent, severe mental disorder. You may spend Willpower to fight it at points, but you will never get rid of it. Definitely check with your ST, and possibly your fellow players, before taking this one.

### Driving Goal

* You have some goal which is at the basis of all your motivations, though it is of such depth or impossibility, it could probably never be achieved. Your obsession with your vision can temporarily be soothed by spending Willpower.

### Enemy (Severe)

* Somebody's out to hurt you or your reputation, or even kill you (or people close to you). This enemy is of comparable skill to you.

### Flashbacks

* When under pressure and/or in the presence of something which reminds you of something unpleasant in your past, you flashback to that past event. Whilst in a flashback, everything to you is as it was then.

### Geas (Mild)

* Due to an ancient or not-so-ancient pact, or oath made, you have a supernatural taboo placed upon you. If you break it, you may be cursed for life, lose your powers, or something else bad will happen. It’s likely that this oath affects your everyday life.

### Hatred

* There is something out there which you absolutely loathe, and will do anything to destroy it. You have to succeed a Willpower roll not to go after the object of your hatred, and the appropriate character types will have to make frenzy checks.

### Haunted

* A wraith is plaguing your existence for some reason. Maybe you're its murderer, maybe you have something it wants (like a Fetter), or maybe it just doesn't like you. Wraiths can do all sorts of weird things to you, move things around, possess you and your friends, inhabit your dreams or your refrigerator, etc...

### Lame/Paraplegia

* Your legs are somehow permanently injured, and you suffer a -2 dice penalty to movement-related rolls.

### Lifesaver

* You revere all life and will not risking killing someone at all costs. Unfortunately, in the World of Darkness, this can sometimes be a problem.

### Monstrous

* You look like the very devil, maybe literally. Presence is automatically 0, and some people may take your appearance to believe you're connected to some horrible yucky evil thing.

### Mute

* You are physically unable to speak, and must communicate through writing or sign language (or perhaps telepathy, if you are capable of the skill and are in appropriate company).

### One Arm

* Due to an unfortunate injury or birth-defect, you suffer a -2 dice penalty to rolls where an action would usually require two hands.

### Permanent Wound

* For some reason, you have a wound that never heals, which is effectively a permanent lethal health level. If you repair the damage with magic/super-science, the wound re-opens by the next day.

### Phobia

* You have a specific, incredibly powerful fear. You must succeed on a Willpower roll, or you will refuse to approach the object of your fear. You must get at least three successes, if you get less than three successes you become incapacitated with fear.

## Extreme Flaws (7 pt)

### Ability Deficit

* You're not in tune with your innate abilities, or maybe you just don't have any. You cannot have any skills or attributes higher than 2 at the start of the game. You’re reimbursed for the experience related to unobtainable skills, which must be spent during character creation.

### Archenemy

* Somebody's out to hurt you or your reputation, or even kill you (or people close to you). This enemy could easily kick your ass into next Tuesday.

### Blind

* You can't see. This obviously hinders certain perception attempts.

### Bound

* You owe some Umbrood, angel, demon, spirit, whatever, and you owe him BIG. This is a Very Bad Thing.

### Cursed (Extreme)

* You have been cursed by someone or something. The curse is specific in nature and cannot be easily dispelled. The curse is likely life-threatening to you and/or to the people around you, and will at least make you and them incredibly miserable.

### Deaf

* You can't hear. This obviously hinders certain perception attempts.

### Geas (Severe)

* Due to an ancient or not-so-ancient pact, or oath made, you have a supernatural taboo placed upon you. If you break it, you may be cursed for life, lose your powers, or something else bad will happen. It’s likely that this oath affects your everyday life.

### Pacifist

* A more extreme version of Lifesaver, you refuse to do any physical harm to anyone for any reason. Particularly this'd be tough on werewolves... or worse, vampires.

### Unlucky

* You've dealt with bad breaks all your life. From the true love who had to move across the country to the struggling Internet company you quit two months before it's billion-dollar IPO, you seem always to make the wrong moves at the wrong time. Once per game session, the Storyteller may increase the difficulty of a critical roll you make by two. If you fail he roll, it's due to some random, hard-luck factor. Your bad luck seems to crop up at the most inconvenient times.