Supernatrual Flaws

Time has
passed you by… or maybe it simply hasn’t caught up with you yet. Your beliefs,
personality, mannerisms, fashion, and expectations are radically out of step
with your surroundings. This could be a deliberate affection on your part (“The
Old Days were better than today” /“Why wait for the future to arrive when you
can become the future?”), a Time Sphere-related temporal hiccup or Paradox
Flaw, the result of paranormal longevity or back-tracking time travel, the
manifestation of an especially assertive past (or future) life… hell, even you
might not know quite why you’re like this, but you are, and the rest of the
world can’t help but notice.

The value
of this Flaw depends upon the amount of trouble you get into as a result of
your anachronisms:

**1 point**: You seem a little weird, and
potentially offen­sive (“Why are they not sitting in the back of the bus?
Aren’t there laws about that sort of thing?”), displaying quirks from a
recognizably different past or future that isn’t radically behind or ahead of
the current age. Add +1 to the difficulty of understanding current technology
and modes of behavior.

**2 points:** You’re a relic of a distinctly
earlier age, or the harbinger of a seriously advanced one. The things you say,
wear, expect, and believe are disturbingly out of touch with your surroundings,
and can present significant problems… especially if and when you hold forth on
silly little things like politics, social mores, sexuality, and the law.
Current technology puzzles you, either because it’s inexplicably advanced or
staggeringly primitive. Add +2 to the difficulty of all efforts to understand
your current era, including social rolls based upon getting along with people
in this age.

**3 points**: You hail from a time so distant
that the current era seems as alien to you as you seem to people of this era.
Hell, you might not even speak English (a common trait of folks who existed
before the expansion of British and American influence in the 1800s), or speak
your language with an accent and idioms that essentially turn it into another
language entirely (think Shakespeare, or Anthony Burgess’ novel A Clockwork
Orange). Your expectations regarding technology and social mores are wildly
divergent, and you could easily get yourself into serious trouble. Add +3 to
the appropriate rolls, and you may be unable to process certain things (driving,
politics, current computer tech, etc.) at all.

Assuming
you have a chance to acclimate to your surround­ings, this Flaw can be bought
down with experience points. Until that time, your companions will have a lot
of explaining to do on your behalf!

### Ancestral Soil Dependence

**2pt. Flaw**

Your flesh
yearns for a homeland you have never seen. The voice of Kupala punishes your
day sleep if this yearning is not met. The soil from a place important to you
as a mortal will not suffice; in addition, you require two handfuls of the
tainted Eastern European soil of the ancestral Tzimisce homeland.

This Trait
mostly commonly manifests in the childer of koldun and the branch of the Clan
thought to be descended from Yorak. It can even manifest in childer sired
generations after their ancestors relocated. Characters Embraced in Eastern
Europe can’t take this Flaw (they’re already dependent on the local soil).

### Anosmia

**2pt. Flaw**

Your life
in the sewer has removed your sense of smell and taste. This means you are
unperturbed by even the worst stench or most disgusting flavor. However, it
also means you cannot ever succeed at any Perception rolls that rely of taste or
smell. It also does not make you immune in any way to gas attacks or poisons;
you just won’t be able to tell they are there.

### Apprentice

**1 to 5 pt. Flaw**

Most
metaphysical societies, the Technocracy included, employ a mentor /apprentice
system. During a members’ early years, an elder member is assigned to, or
chooses to, teach a new and inexperienced member. During the later days of membership,
an elder is expected to pass on their experience to the younger generation. In
addition to the usual training programs a given group may purse, a new recruit
often winds up in the care of a seasoned member of that group. And in the case
of this Flaw, you’ve got a real winner on your hands.

When you
mentor an apprentice a mentor, you’re responsi­ble for someone (whatever his
formal title might be) who makes your life difficult. You can’t just kick this
person to the curb, but must instead provide discipline, guidance, training,
and quite often a support system (room, board, research space, and so forth) so
that the newbie can become a successful member of your sect. An apprentice,
however, is not a houseplant; even the most cooperative apprentices demand time
and attention, and their deeds – good and otherwise – reflect upon your own
social status. The more troublesome ones, by extension, can drive a mentor
toward curmudgeonly solitude.

As a Flaw,
this Trait reflects the range of potential appren­tices and the effect they
have upon your life:

**1 point**: A cooperative and dedicated ideal
student who takes up very little of your space and time, reflects well upon
you, and seems eager to learn from you while being reluctant to argue very
much.

**2 points:** A typical student who needs a fair
amount of hand-holding; makes occasional mistakes of protocol and discipline;
and takes up a fair amount of time, space and patience. Even so, this person
remains attentive and more or less respectful, providing plenty of reasons for
you to be proud of him.

**3 points:** A rather clueless student whose
presence consumes a significant amount of time and attention. This apprentice
can be clumsy, obnoxious, thick-witted, and occasionally problematic in social
situations and training exercises. He’s got promise, but it’s going to take a
lot of work to get him to realize his potential.

**4 points:** A seriously challenging student
whose behav­ior and dedication leave a great deal to be desired. This
apprentice may have talent, but the burdens begin to outweigh the potential
benefits of his instruction.

**5 points:** An obstinate, haughty,
disrespectful ass whose presence is more trouble than it’s worth. Dangerous to
himself and everyone around him (yourself included), he’s a disgrace to the
society you share. Why are you training this person, again? There might be a
light at the end of the tunnel someday, but it’s gonna take a lot of work and
sacrifice before this apprentice amounts to anything more than a waste of your
time.

Again, this
is a person for whom you are responsible. Unless you dedicate lots of time,
attention, and often mone­tary resources toward bettering his condition, your
apprentice could get worse as time goes on. Conversely, you might be able to
mold a troublesome apprentice into an exemplar of your society. From a
game-system standpoint, you can lower the value of this Flaw through dedicated
work – the obstinate five-point troublemaker could eventually become a
one-point ideal student if you put in the time, work, and roleplaying to make him
so. Storytellers: Allow your player to buy this Flaw down through experience if
and when she makes an effort to straighten up a problematic apprentice, but
also feel free to raise the Flaw’s drawbacks if the player lets things slide
too often and too far.

Despite the
usual preconceptions of age and experience, an apprentice could be older than
his mentor. He may have originally belonged to a different sect (say, a Verbena
defecting to the New World Order or Bata’a), and has a head full of ideas about
how things “should” be done – ideas that run counter to your own teachings. Or
he might be a new mage who Awakened in middle age, and who therefore has
problems taking orders from an experienced mage he considers to be a kid. Even
the best students make mistakes, and so no level of this Flaw is without
headaches – that, after all, is why it’s considered a Flaw!

Once again,
this character-based Trait represents a full-fledged Storyteller character
whose personality, needs, problems, and agendas make him far more than just a
list of dots on a character sheet. In an experienced roleplaying trope, you
might let another player run this apprentice, as either a supporting character
or as their main mage. In such cases, of course, the student will be less
powerful and experienced than the teacher, unless he began his Awakened life as
a mage from a different group. In any case, the apprentice ought to be a major
part of the chronicle, and may eventually even become the center of the tale
(as in the Harry Potter saga) if and when the apprenticeship goes well. A
rotten apprenticeship, on the other hand, could still earn that character a
starring role in the chronicle: as an antagonist whose close history with the
mage just makes the fight nastier for everyone involved.

### Arcane Curse

**1-5pt. Flaw**

Because of
either your studies or someone else’s, you suffer from a magical curse. It
might be an aversion or allergy, or even a strange magical effect.

The level
of the flaw depends on how debilitating the curse is. Curing the affliction may
be impossible, or require some sort of quest or advanced research.

### Aura of the Typhon

**5pt. Flaw**

Something
slithers beneath your skin, coiled in your very essence — something that causes
the Lupines to stalk you for some dread purpose you do not understand. Their howls
follow in your wake. You catch glimpses of blurred motion and the gleam of eyes
and teeth in the dark.

They get
closer every night. What do they want from you?

### Banshee-in-Waiting

**5pt. Flaw**

The Fugue
is gradually driving you towards madness. If your temporary Willpower ever
reaches 0, you automatically gain a derangement which can never be removed. You
may remove other derangements you gain in other ways as usual.

You may
gain a maximum of three of these permanent derangements from losing your
Willpower before being consumed by it. Should it happen a fourth time, you
immediately lose yourself to the Fugue and become a character under the control
of the Storyteller, walking in whatever direction the music takes you and
killing anything you come across.

### Beacon of the Unholy

**2pt. Flaw**

You radiate
palpable evil. Clergy and devout mortals know instinctively that there is
something horribly wrong with you, and react accordingly.

### Beast Within

**5 pt. Flaw**

You’ve got
a truly infernal temper: one so violent it feels like a volcano in your soul.
As with a werewolf or vampire, you’re subject to the dreaded frenzy that turns
you into an engine of hot rage. Under intense stress, you risk losing every
shred of enlightenment you possess. Driven to such extremity, you let loose
with the most immediately destructive powers at your command, and “vulgarity”
be damned! Everyone in your vicinity becomes a target, and the consequences
matter to you only when this inner storm has passed.

System-wise,
this Flaw sends you into deadly rages as per the Berserker /Stress Atavism
Trait. Instead of rolling your Willpower to avoid the frenzy, however, you roll
your Avatar rating plus one die, with your Willpower as the difficulty of that
roll. If, as an example, young Vyper Trabia suffers from the Beast Within Flaw,
with an Avatar of 4 and a Willpower of 5, Vyper’s player rolls five dice
against a difficulty of 5 when that Akashic hothead is under ferocious stress.
A failure on that roll sends Vyper into a berserk rage. Yeah, this probably
happens pretty often. Vyper’s friends don’t stick around for long when things
go poorly.

Considering
that the Avatar could be seen as your inner Beast, a character with the Pattern
Essence cannot take this Flaw. It’s best suited for Dynamic Essences, although
a Quest­ing or Primordial Avatar could attain frightening rages too.

A berserk
mage cannot employ rituals or employ complicated tools; only the most direct
methods of attack – magickal or otherwise – will do. Although mages rarely
suffer from such grotesque lapses of self-control, an Awakened Ghoul (as in
that Merit), a cyborg, a Victor, a Shapechanger Kin (again, as per the Merit),
or an animalistic shape-changer could possess such inhuman monstrousness.

### Bedeviled

**6 pt. Flaw**

Oh, you
poor bastard! A mysterious power has decided to fuck with you, and it’s perfectly
capable of making your life a chronicle of woe. Misery and setbacks are your
bread and butter; should things start looking up for you, you begin looking up
as well to spot the inevitable anvil dropping toward your head. This sort of
thing goes way beyond simple misfortune or even a paltry little curse. Your
enigmatic foe is a dedicated cuss, and whatever it might be (it’s not necessarily
an actual devil, though it certainly seems like one to you!), that force has
apparently unlimited resources and a very sick sense of humor; in short, then,
it’s your typical Storyteller.

A
story-based Flaw, this wretched Trait essentially grants the Storyteller a
license to give your character the starring role in a twenty-first-century Book
of Job. (And again, check out Tragedy.) There ought to be a certain rhyme and
reason behind this metaphysical fuckery, of course, but the source of your agonies,
and the way you could potentially end them, are for your Storyteller to know
and you to find out… should you be fortunate enough to live so long.

### Bestial

**3pt. Flaw**

You are
closer to animals than humans, and it shows. In addition to the Nosferatu Clan
weakness, you have an additional weakness: whenever you frenzy, you gain an
animal feature, similar to the Gangrel Clan weakness With Storyteller
permission, permanently acquired animal features may be justification to
acquire certain Merits after character creation, such as Lizard Limbs or
Monstrous Maw.

If so, the
Storyteller can simply award them, or require an experience point expenditure
(such as two times the Merit point value). Similar Flaws can also be taken, but
cannot grant additional freebie or experience points.

### Betrayer’s Mark

**3pt. Flaw**

Even though
you are loyal to House and Clan Tremere, for some reason you are branded with
the mark of the antitribu. It might be that you have returned to the Clan after
leaving the Sabbat or that you unwittingly or as part of an undercover
operation took part in the Vaulderie.

Whatever
the reason, the mark makes other Tremere wary of you. You will have to go that
extra mile to prove yourself, and few among the Clan will trust you with
positions of power and responsibility.

### Bizarre Hunger

**2 to 5 pt. Flaw**

You prefer
– maybe even need – to eat weird shit… quite possibly in a literal sense of
that expression. Perhaps you’ve sworn a vow, suffered a curse, been treated (or
created) with unhallowed rituals or arcane hyperscience, or initiated into an
occult fellowship with… interesting admission demands. In any case, you must
consume substances that may be degrading, unpleasant, expensive, or downright illegal.

The more
inconvenient the substance, the more this Flaw is worth:

**2 points**: Easy to procure, though not as
easy to devour (paper, fresh eggs, poop, etc.).

**3 points**: Unpleasant, hazardous, and perhaps
illegal to consume (rotten meat, swamp water, raw cannabis, and so forth).

**4 points:** Specialized, foul, criminal, and
/or expensive chow (human blood, custom-brewed potions or meals, and the like).

**5 points**: You really shouldn’t eat such
things… but you must (live humans, toxic sludge, gold dust, highly specialized
food-like concoctions, and other similar forms of sustenance).

For each
dot in your Stamina Trait, you can go one day without satisfying your special
dietary requirements. After that, you lose one health level per day until you
either consume your particular substance, or else die of hunger or thirst, suf­fer
the punishment of a vow unfulfilled, or otherwise endure whichever other
consequences might result from denying your bizarre hunger.

For a
related (and probably essential) companion Trait, see the physical Merit: Cast-Iron
Stomach.

### Blood Magick

**5 pt. Flaw**

Your Arts
demand blood… specifically, your own blood. And while many practices employ
small amounts of ritual cutting or bloodletting, this degree of sacrifice
demands an injurious amount of vital fluid each time you cast a spell.

With this
Flaw, you must suffer one unsoakable health level in bashing damage whenever
you employ an Ef­fect. Story-wise, you cut yourself, slash designs in your
skin, or otherwise hurt yourself enough to shed the required amount of blood.
This sort of thing can, of course, add up quickly if you’re throwing lots of
magick around without giving yourself a chance to heal, as bashing damage soon
leads to lethal damage.

Meanwhile,
your bloodletting looks pretty gross and obvious (often vulgarly so), and tends
to make a mess as well. Your companions might appreciate the results of your
magick, but may well object to the methods you employ… especially since blood
magick has a rather unsavory rep among all but the most primal of practices.

### Blood Weakness

**4 or 7pt. Flaw**

The
Gargoyle bloodline began as an experiment in manufacturing a Kindred from
diverse bloodlines. They perfected the alchemical process, but somewhere along
the way, a weakness in an ancestor caught hold. It manifested in your Embrace.

In addition
to the weaknesses you possess, you also possess either the Gangrel or the
Tzimisce weakness. For four points, choose one of the two weaknesses. For seven
points, you possess both.

Warrior
Gargoyles with the Gangrel weakness version of Blood Weakness may gain both
animal features and stone features from one frenzy.

Additionally,
choose one of the four Disciplines available to the Gargoyles. For you, this
Discipline is considered out of Clan and costs the higher amount of experience
points to advance.

### Blood-Hungry Soul

**2, 3 or 5 pt. Flaw**

In a previous
incarnation, you had been a ghoul in thrall to an unholy addiction to vampiric blood.
Now, you must resist the call of that ravenous past life and its fixation on
intoxicating Kindred vitae.

The deeper
your thirst for this damning fulfillment, the more this Flaw is worth:

**2 points**: You recall the glorious temptations
of the blood, but remember it like a poor choice from long ago. If the
opportunity presents itself to you, however, you’ll need to make a Willpower
roll (difficulty 5) in order to resist the urge to pursue that addiction again.
If you succumb to that temptation again in this life, your difficulty to resist
further temptations rises to 6 every time the chance to consume such blood
arises again.

**3 points:** That temptation is stronger. Now
the roll to resist that first taste is 6, and the roll to resist further
crimson snacks becomes 8.

**5 points:** You’ve got it bad. Really bad!
Obsessed with the memories of glorious mystic blood, you must beat difficulty 8
in order to resist your old habits, and diffi­culty 10 each time you try to
deny that thirst after you’ve fallen back to that damned addiction again.

This is so
not going to end well… See the sidebar Mages, the Blood Bond, and the Effects
of Vitae, p. 76, for the long-term effects of such fatal addictions.

### Body Trail

**4pt. Flaw**

Whether the
Nagaraja is just too sloppy and prone to overlooking details during her kills
or she is especially fond of leaving a signature for every kill to send a
message to others, others can use this to track her down. Each time there are
items at a scene of a crime that could link directly back the Nagaraja, causing
her to always look over her shoulder.

The police
are always one step away from busting her, or the Camarilla’s assassins have
her in their sights. In any case, leaving a trail is a terrible thing. For
every person they kill during a single story, the difficulty to Survival checks
for tracking are reduced by 1. This penalty resets at the beginning of a new
story… if they survive to the next story, that is.

### Bound

**5 pt. Flaw**

Mentor
always told you not to make bargains with strange entities. But did you listen?
Nope. Now you’re in deep to someone whose power dwarfs your own, and your
prospects for getting out of bondage are laughable at best. Haunted by thoughts
of the payment to come, you live on borrowed time and realize that the worst is
yet to come…

Sometimes
known, with minor variations, as Faust’s Bargain, Bound puts your character in
the Faust-like position of getting something interesting in return for
something sig­nificant – her life, her soul, a thousand years of servitude, or
a similarly awful fate that no one in their right mind would want to risk.
Still, occultists are infamous for short-term thinking, and literal devil’s
deals are common currency in the magickal world. The specifics of that deal are
for you and your Story­teller to arrange; you might have received some Merit(s)
and / or Abilities in return for the debt (purchased with the points from this
Flaw), escaped an awful situation (“You want out of this death-trap, dear wizard?
Very well – what do you have to offer me?”), saved someone who was important to
you (“Sure, I’ll bring your mother back from the brink of death – let us
discuss the terms of this favor…”), or otherwise blew a standoff with an Otherworldly
entity.

### Bound to the Clan

**3pt. Flaw**

You have
done more than just drink from the blood of the elders. Whether as punishment
or by choice, you have become fully blood bound to Clan Tremere. You cannot act
against the Clan, and find everything you do works in the service of the
Tremere. You might not like it, but you can’t help yourself doing it. Of
course, now you are bound to the Clan, you cannot be bound to another individual.

Many older
Tremere have this Flaw, as it has been common in the past to completely blood
bind new Tremere.

### Branded

**3 to 5 pt. Flaw**

You’ve been
found guilty by a Traditions Tribunal, who Branded your Avatar with a sigil
that indicates your crime. Folks who can see that sigil recognize that you’re a
criminal of some sort, and the worse the Brand, the more severe your crime and
the more appropriate their reaction will be. Those reactions won’t always be
negative; considering the sort of people who’d be favorably inclined toward a
known criminal, though, do you really want the goodwill of such people?

**3 points:** A temporary Brand for a Low Crime
(see below), which fades after one to three months. At the end of that period,
this Flaw goes away. This Brand raises the difficulty of your social rolls by
+1 for “average” Tradition mages and +2 for especially law-biding ones.

**4 points:** A lasting Brand for a Low Crime.
This Brand lasts for a year or more, and marks you as a rather notorious
offender. The difficulty of your social rolls rises by +2 among most mages who
can recognize the Brand’s significance, and +3 among mages who take such
offenses and punishments seriously.

**5 points:** A lasting Brand for a High Crime,
which will not fade for at least nine years and may be essentially permanent.
The Brand raises the difficulty of your so­cial rolls by +3 for any character
who cares at all about Tradition justice and the people who incur its pun­ishment.
Certain parties will target you for additional punishment, and others will
consider you to be prime meat for their recruiting efforts.

### Brittle Body

**2 or 4pt. Flaw**

Your
already disfigured corpse doesn’t handle the physical demands of being a
Kindred as well as it should. Your bones break at inopportune times, your skin
tears if you move too quickly, and you have to be careful on a nightly basis.

The 2-point
version of this flaw gives you a +2 difficulty to all Physical rolls because of
the delicate nature of your body.

The 4-point
version means that you also hang onto physical damage longer than other
Kindred.

You may
still heal health levels as normal, but any dice penalties remain until the
next evening when you awaken. This is in addition to the penalty to Physical
rolls.

### Broken Antitribu

**3pt. Flaw**

You are one
of those most pitiful things — an Assamite antitribu who still labors under the
Tremere Curse. You have pledged yourself to the Sabbat, but you cannot perform
diablerie and can only partake of Kindred vitae already transubstantiated
through the Vaulderie. As a result, the difficulty of all Social rolls against
other Sabbat members is at +2.

### Bulimia

**4pt. Flaw**

You hunger
for blood, and like all vampires, you will eventually feed, but the thought of
it still makes you sick. Maybe you’re just not cut out for an eternity of bloodsucking,
or you had an eating disorder in life that has followed you to the other side
of mortality.

Whatever the
reason, you can’t hold your blood. Whenever you feed, make a Stamina roll with
a difficulty 8. If you fail, you vomit out the fresh blood before it can be
absorbed into your body, spraying it everywhere (embarrassing at best, a breach
of the Masquerade at worst). Note that blood taken in frenzy is absorbed normally,
though this carries its own risks.

### Can’t Cross Running Water

**3pt. Flaw**

You believe
in the old folklore, and cannot cross running water unless you are at least 50
feet (15 meters) above it. Running water is considered to be any body of water
at least two feet (half a meter) wide in any direction and not completely
stagnant.

### Carrion Presence

**2pt. Flaw**

This
affliction represents the Baali’s true connection to the decrepitude their
bloodline commands. Pestilence is attracted to the Baali; flies leave their
delicious carcasses to circle around the vampire, rats crawl along their limbs
and squeak their praises, and vultures can be seen circling them at almost all
times.

The degree
to which they are afflicted differs from character to character, but there is
no getting rid of their swarm. Swatting their flies simply calls others to take
their place. While quite disgusting to most, these vampires wear such a thing
with pride. It does, however, make dealing in non-Baali circles quite
difficult.

### Cast No Reflection

**1pt. Flaw**

You
actually cast no reflection, just like the vampires of legend. This can have a
detrimental effect when trying to pass as a human.

Vampires of
Clan Lasombra automatically have this Flaw (and you may be mistaken for one of
them if you possess this).

### Cast No Shadow or Reflection

**1 to 2 pt. Flaw**

According
to certain legends, witches cast no shadow. And while that isn’t true of most
mages, it’s somehow true for you. Maybe you suffer from a lingering Paradox
Flaw, manifest your own cultural fears, or made a bargain that cost you your
shadow or reflection. In any case, your shadow and/or reflection are absent
from your presence.

For one
point, you’re missing one of those things, for two points you lack them both,
and although most folks won’t notice this consciously, they do tend to feel uneasy
in your presence even if they’re not sure why. (Techno­logical machines record
this phenomenon, too.)

Add +1 to
the difficulty of all your Social-Trait rolls under most circumstances, and +2
to the difficulty if a witness makes a perception-based roll (difficulty 7) and
figures out why you seem so weird.

### Chandala

**1pt. Flaw**

Being a
member of the lowest jati, the Chandala, is a mixed bag. You are responsible
for the disposal of corpses, as well as many other foul tasks, but at the same
time, you are often ignored. Your Social rolls against other Ravnos are made at
a +2 difficulty.

You do not
have to take this Flaw to be a member of the Chandala jati, but only members of
the Chandala jati may have this Flaw.

### Clan Weakness

**2pt. Flaw**

Despite
your failure to adopt your original Clan’s other abilities, you did inherit
their weakness. While this can be deadly to the unprepared vampire, a canny
Caitiff might turn this to their advantage to better blend among the parent
Clan. Some Nosferatu, for example, would likely never notice, and might even
stand up for the Caitiff even amidst accusations from outsiders.

### Cloistered

**2pt. Flaw**

You have
spent almost all of your undead existence in the halls of the chantry, making
Kindred society rather new and confusing for you. You suffer a -2 dice penalty to
any social interactions with those outside the Tremere.

### Cold Breeze

**1pt. Flaw**

A chill
wind follows you everywhere you go. While it may make for dramatic entrances,
this effect also discomfits mortals (+1 difficulty on all appropriate Social rolls)
and marks you as obviously supernatural. Cold winds sweeping through executive
offices or crowded nightclubs can raise all sorts of questions.

### Consumption

**5pt. Flaw**

There is
something hungry inside of you. But what is it? Portions of the Antediluvian?
Your Vicissitude gone horribly wrong? Whatever it is, it is active, acting like
a cancer, devouring you from the inside out. Your very blood is wrought with corrosive,
flesh-eating bacteria. At the beginning of each evening, you suffer one health
level of lethal damage that cannot be soaked nor healed with blood. The only
way to counteract the effect is by ingesting one-tenth of your body-weight in
flesh to supplement your depleted carcass. Whether you kill and devour the skin
from humans or raid the biohazard containers of liposuction clinics for siphoned
fat, you need your ration of human flesh in order to survive.

If you try
and ingest this macabre meal before damage is done, you’ll simply vomit it out
like any other food — this does not impart the benefits of the Eat Food Merit.

### Contagious

**5pt. Flaw**

Your body
has died on the inside, filling you with noxious bacteria, spores, and even
fungi. Mortals that touch you or on whom you feed must make a Stamina roll
(difficulty 9) not to fall ill.

The illness
puts them in bed with fever and sickness, and each week they may attempt the
Stamina roll again. The Storyteller might reduce the difficulty if the target
is receiving proper medical attention. On a success they recover, but if they fail,
they remain feverish.

At the end
of each month the victim remains ill, they lose a point of Stamina; if they are
reduced to zero Stamina they die.

If the
Nosferatu knows of their contagion and infects someone maliciously, the
Storyteller might call for a Humanity (or appropriate Path of Morality)
degeneration roll if they die. Supernatural creatures generally have the ability
to heal or cure such sickness in themselves, and vampires are immune to these
germs of the dead.

### Crucial Component

**2 to 5 pt. Flaw**

Your metaphysical
practice demands specialized instru­ments. It’s not simply that you need fuel
for your hypermodded Porsche 911 Turbo S – you need your own specially prepared
blend of fuels, or the car won’t go. A simple rowan wand will not suffice –
your spells demand a hand-carved branch cut from an unscarred rowan tree at
high midnight on Samhain Eve. In game terms, at least one of the instruments in
your magickal focus must be specifically created, harvested or modified to work
with your magicks. No lesser tool will suffice.

How hard is
it to procure or employ this specialized com­ponent? That depends on the value
of the Flaw:

**2 points:** Easy to procure and /or employ
(sunlight, yoga postures, motor oil, strong emotions, a book commonly found in
the New Age section at your local bookstore, etc.).

**3 points:** Challenging to procure, employ, or
replace (open flames, the Kurmasana posture, professional racing oil, genuine
sorrow, an out-of-print occult text, and so on).

**4 points:** Pretty damned hard to obtain, employ,
and replace (liquid fire, the Vrschikasana pose, alchemically formulated oil,
deep-core grief, a genuine Roman text of De Daemonum Socrates by Apuleius, and
other rare and precious instruments).

**5 points:** Unique, obscure, forbidden,
cumbersome, or some combination of those four (a bottle of alchemically
distilled sunfire, an impossibly complex yoga posture invented by the practitioner,
personally formulated and distilled hypertech lubricating oil, the heartfelt
scream of a grieving mother, a woodcut-illustrated Renaissance Grimoire of
Honorius inscribed on flayed human skin, and similarly rarified instruments).

When used,
the chosen instrument functions as a Person­alized Instrument – possibly a
Unique Personalized one in the case of a five-point component. In your case,
however, you cannot employ the magick that’s connected to that instrument at
all unless you’re also able to employ that particular instrument. If Lee Ann
Milner depends upon a unique vengeful centipede yoga posture in order to employ
certain Forces Effects through her yoga practice, then Lee Ann is SOL unless
she can assume that posture in time to deploy the necessary Effects.

### Cursed

**1 to 5 pt. Flaw**

Misfortune of
apparently supernatural origins makes your character’s life difficult; the more
points the Flaw gives you, the greater the character’s misfortune.

**1 point:** Minor quirks of fate. Examples: You
have a hard time keeping secrets; tech suffers tiny malfunctions in your
presence; people tend to think ill of you.

**2 points**: Small but annoying problems.
Examples: You stutter at inopportune moments; tires go flat and warning lights go
on when you depend upon your car; expensive clothes wind up ruined by stupid
accidents.

**3 points**: Chronic misfortune. Examples:
Tools break when you use them; children fear you; red lights slow you down whenever
you absolutely, positively need to be somewhere on time.

**4 points:** Major problems arise. Examples:
People dislike you on principle; your greatest plans collapse or no predictable
reason; your bank account keeps suffering unexpected withdrawals from sources
that aren’t you.

**5 points:** Pervasive bad luck. Examples: Your
endeavors inevitably fail; tech never works the way it’s supposed to function;
chronic pain or poor health sap whatever vitality you possess.

The
Storyteller determines the eventual effects of your curse, as well as the
methods you might use to lift it. In any case, the curse becomes a major part
of your character’s story and cannot be dispelled without some major effort on
his part.

### Cyclic Magick

**3 pt. Merit /Flaw**

The
strength or weakness of your Arts is tied to some periodic cycle – the phases
of the moon, night or day, your menstrual periods, the rise and fall of the
stock market, and so forth. At the peak of your cycle, your magick flows most
easily; at its nadir, you find it challenging to work with your magick at all.

System-wise,
this Trait is both a Merit and a Flaw, granting bonuses at one point in the
cycle and penalties on its opposite point. At the highest point, you reduce
your casting difficulties by -3 for one hour, while at the lowest point you
increase them by +3 for one hour. On either end of that cycle, you subtract or
add -1 /+1 to your casting difficulties for each hour on both sides – the surge
and the ebb – of that cycle: -2 or + 2 for the two hours on each side of the
peak or nadir, -1 or +1 on the two hours on the side of those two hours, and no
modifiers during the rest of the time in between. If, for example, Victoria
Ashley-Croft bani Flambeau has a peak at midnight and a low at noon, her player
would receive a peak modifier of -3 difficulty at midnight, -2 difficulty at
11:00 PM and 1:00 AM, a -1 difficulty at 10:00 PM and 2:00 AM, and no modifiers
otherwise, aside from the reverse modifiers (+3 at noon, +2 at 11:00 AM and
1:00 PM, and +1 at 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM) at the opposite end of that cycle.

Naturally,
you’ll need to decide just what this cycle is when you select this Trait, and
then determine what the highest and lowest points of that cycle would be.

This Merit
must also be tied into your focus – intrinsically connected to the beliefs you
hold and the practices you follow. Your choice of instruments is often tied to
such cycles too; cycle-bound instruments include celestial alignments,
crossroads and crossing-days, formulae and mathematics, group rites, money and
wealth, music (peaks and lulls in a song, movements in a symphony, etc.),
numbers and numerology, and offerings and sacrifices (“when the stars are
right”). A stockbroker will be watching the peaks and ebbs on Wall Street,
while a witch pays attention to the cycles of the moon or her blood. By
observing your cycles, you’ll have a good idea about the best and worst times
to use your Arts. And by observing you, your allies and enemies may be able to
figure those things out too.

### Dangerous Secret

**1-5pt. Flaw**

You have
come to know something you really wish you hadn’t discovered. Worse yet, the
people you have the dirt on know that you know. It might be that you have discovered
the Prince’s haven, or that there are infernalists hiding in the diocese.
Whatever it is, you are not sure whom you can tell, and if you do, you will
only make the subjects of the secret more enthusiastic about getting rid of you.
You may even be implicated in the secret and risk going down with them.

The more
potent the Flaw, the more powerful the people in question are, and the more they
want it silenced.

### Dark Aura

**3pt. Flaw**

Even
without the use of Auspex, the Baali seems somehow wrong to anyone they
interact with, emitting a terrifying aura of sickness and power. The character
is always at a slight disadvantage when dealing with other vampires or those
touched by the divine, as they sense the depravity of the Baali’s soul. Baali
with this Flaw suffer a +2 difficulty to all Social rolls, unless they are
using Intimidation.

To those who
use Auspex to view the Baali’s aura, it appears as a thin, red mist surrounding
the character with the occasional watchful eyes appearing within.

### Dark Fate

**5 pt. Flaw**

You’re
screwed. No matter what you do, regardless of your heroic deeds (possibly
because of them), there’s a terrible end in your not-too-distant future.
Prophecies speak of it, visions remind you of it, and other folks seem to know
it too. You realize this fact, and it weighs upon you. From time to time, you must
spend a Willpower point in order to shrug aside the dread of your impending
damnation; otherwise, you lose one die from all rolls for the rest of that day.

It is up to
the Storyteller to determine the exact nature of this fate, and when it will
occur. This is a difficult Flaw to roleplay; ironically, though it may seem as
though it removes all free will, the knowledge of one’s death can be quite liberating.

### Dead Inside

**4pt. Flaw**

You feel
nothing but pain and numbness. While others find ways to make their lives worth
living, you sometimes don’t get that thrill. Once per session, the Storyteller
may cancel any gain of Willpower you made by playing to your Nature or
Demeanor.

### Deathsight

**2pt. Flaw**

Everything
appears rotted and decayed to you. The world appears to you as a corpse;
mortals look diseased or skeletal, buildings seem decrepit, and your fellow Kindred
seem to be walking, moldering cadavers.

You are at
-2 difficulty to resist all rolls based on Appearance, but by the same token
you are at +2 difficulty on all Perception-based rolls. In addition, you find
social interaction difficult and are at +1 difficulty on all Social-based
rolls.

### Demented Eidolon

**3 pt. Flaw**

There’s
someone in your head, and it’s not you. Despite your commitment to logic and
reason, a mad heretic rants through the inside of your skull, insisting that
what you do is magick, not science. This rough voice drives you toward Su­perstitionism
and Reality Deviance. Not that you would ever consider such insanity. No,
really – seriously, never.

A Flaw for Technocratic
operatives and other techno­mancers who refuse to view what they do as “magic,”
this Trait pits your conscious-self against an Avatar hell-bent on reclaiming
the identity of mage. The Eidolon (Technocrat-ese for Essence) invested within
your Genius (Avatar) whips that paragon of Enlightenment into Deviant directions.
While most Technocratic Geniuses behave themselves for the most part, this one
assumes a flagrantly supernatural mien and batters at the fortress of Reason
(and Social Processing) that protects you from Deviant thoughts. It may even be
entertaining to have a different player assume the role of your Genius,
especially during a Seek… I mean, during one of those meditative interludes
which allow you to process the enigmas of Enlightenment. Ideally, this Flaw
compliments a Genius (Avatar) Trait rated at 3 or higher, and it goes well
(from a “dramatic roleplaying” standpoint, anyway!) with Backgrounds like Past
Lives, Destiny, and Legend, Merits like Twin Soul and Avatar Companion, and Flaws
like Throwback, and – as one may imagine – Dark Fate.

### Devil’s Mark

**Vampire:**

**3pt. Flaw**

Whether
product of your Embrace or gained through exposure to infernal or other unholy
power, you’ve been branded with the “Devil’s Mark,” an anatomical aber-ration
that manifests the taint of the demonic.

Possible
deformities include, but are not limited to: bestial or inhuman eyes, hooves,
horns, unnaturally colored or scaly skin, a birthmark in the form of a sigil,
parasitic in-festation, claws, misshapen teeth. or ineffectual (perhaps
additional) limbs. You may never remove or “improve” these disfigurements,
although magic or Disciplines can hide them from plain sight.

A Devil’s
Mark confers the following mechanical effects: Lower the maximum rating in one
Attribute by one (if the maximum rating is 5, it becomes 4), while the cost to
raise said Attribute increases by one (1 + the current rating x 4).

If the mark
becomes visible or is known to a mortal, it confers a -1 difficulty on
Intimidation rolls when dealing with her, but in turn increases the difficulties
for all other Social die rolls by one.

Players
should work with a Storyteller to determine an appropriate Devil’s Mark, and
the Physical Attribute best suited to their mark.

**Mage:**

**1 pt. Flaw**

A pact or
some other metaphysical occurrence has left you with what old-school
witch-hunters consider a “devil’s mark”: a minor but noticeable deformation
that remains insensate to pain and yet allows a creature to draw your Quintessence
out through your body in physical form. Despite preconceptions, the origins of
this mark might not have come from a pact with some infernal entity. That fact
doesn’t keep people – Sleepers and otherwise – from looking askance at you if
and when this mark can be seen, especially since there’s often something
disconcerting about the way it appears – a third nipple, a red or black growth,
a vaguely demonic face or sigil embedded in your flesh, and so forth.

Thankfully,
you don’t have to worry too much about witch-hunters in the technologically
industrialized world. (Other regions are a different story; even rural areas of
so-called advanced nations still hold people who will harm or kill someone
who’s “different.”) The mark’s disconcerting appearance, though, may lead you
to cover it up anyway. Folks who do believe old-fashioned ideas about “witches”
will not take kindly to that devilish brand, so it could become a real problem
under the wrong circumstances. On the plus side, however, you actually can nurture
a Familiar (as in the Background Trait of that name) on the mark, and do so
without physical discomfort. Of course, the idea of a talking, midnight-blue
winged tarantula taking hits of Quintessence off your body may be uncomfortable
in its own right.

### Dreadful Mara

**4pt. Flaw**

You drank
something that still lives within you and hates you, exerting alarming control
over your thoughts and actions. Each night, the Storyteller may convert a
single rolled success into a 1, potentially leading to a botch.

At the
Storyteller’s discretion, the entity may also whisper advice or insults, which
can lead to increased difficulty during attempts to concentrate.

### Echoes

**1 to 5 pt. Flaw**

You display
some of the weird phenomena associated with sorcery. Maybe the air quivers with
strange vibrations, or music plays without a visible source, or shadows gather
in your presence. It could be that Resonance has marked you in noticeable ways…
or perhaps your own beliefs send out vibrations too strong to ignore. Some
curse or blessing might have marked you for favor or damnation.

This Flaw
fits in well with certain Backgrounds (Blessing, Destiny, Influence, Totem),
and can be used as a simple rule system for Resonance if your group doesn’t
want to employ the optional rules associated with that phenomenon.

In this
case, one point in the Flaw could reflect a single dot in Resonance, with more
points reflecting more points in that Trait. The flaw, under these
circumstances, could go up and down; the player, however, gets freebie points only
for the level of the Flaw at the beginning of the chronicle, and so the number
of freebie points involved does not go up or down unless the character loses
the Echoes Flaw completely.

As with
other variable-cost Merits and Flaws, the different levels reflect increasing
degrees of effect, their specific phenomena depending upon the mage and her overall
temperament. The following five-level spectrum could complement the five dots
of the Resonance/ Synergy Trait described in Chapters Six and Ten, showing the
severity of the effects associated with really high levels of Resonance or
Synergy.

**1 point:** Slight manifestations of no real
consequence: perhaps your shadow flickers, milk sours in your presence, or a
vague scent that’s appropriate to your nature follows in your wake.

**2 points:** Mild echoes cause noticeable
effects: animals shy away from you or follow you around; you send out vibes
that a sensitive person can notice; you feel profoundly uncomfortable around
energies, symbols, locations, or people who’re opposed to your kind.

**3 points:** People who know what to look for recognize
you on sight… not simply as a mage, but as the sort of mage you are: plants
bloom or wither in your presence; sounds or music echo through the air; holy or
unholy symbols repulse you (possibly forcing you to make a Willpower roll to
remain nearby).

**4 points:** You stand out in ways that even
Sleepers notice: your shadow moves of its own accord; you don’t cast reflections
in mirrors or liquid; cold winds blow even in a still room. People who know
traditional folklore might be able to disrupt your magicks if they know the
proper legendary precautions to take, essentially performing countermagick with
a successful Intelligence + Occult roll (difficulty is the targeted mage’s
Arete Trait +3).

**5 points:** Reality shifts when you’re around,
rippling with paranormal energies: animals adore you or run away when you
approach; people feel sick or energized when you stand near; environmental
shifts – rain, cold, shadows, warmth, etc. – radiate outward from you. A person
who knows the proper folklore can try to attack or repel you using traditional
charms or counterspells, inflicting one lethal health level of damage for each success
they win in a contested Willpower roll against you.

### Eerie Presence

**2pt. Flaw**

Mortals
have an unconscious awareness of your undead nature, which makes then anxious
and ill at ease in your presence. Because of this, difficulties of all rolls relating
to social interaction with mortals are increased by two.

### Enemy Brood

**3pt. Flaw**

You have
made an enemy of another group of Nosferatu. Unlike your usual enemies, they
know the places you like to go and aren’t too squeamish about following you
there. They keep you on the move, hunting you from sanctuary to sanctuary. The
sewers themselves might not even be safe for you anymore. If you move to a new
city, they use their contacts to pass on the word to their allies to keep hounding
you.

Sooner or
later, you are going to have to take them down to rid yourself of them.

### Faceless

**3pt. Flaw**

You have
escaped the tyranny of physical self-identity. Call no face your own. Every
sunset, you awaken to a new visage, an amalgam pieced together from memory and
dream. Your features, ethnicity, even gender become fluid things while you sleep.
While this Flaw exemplifies the extreme ideals of Azi Dahaka (and should
impress most Metamorphosists), it can cause complications for vampire concerned
with maintaining recognition, reputation, or a mortal alias.

Every
sundown, the player rolls one die and is subject to the results on the
following table:

This Flaw
affects some Backgrounds.

Without a
stable face, Alternate Identity and Fame cannot be maintained. Backgrounds like
Allies, Contacts, Influence, and Status might be complicated by the lack of a
solid identity as well. The vampire can use Malleable Visage and a mirror to
reconstruct her true face from memory, but this requires at least three
successes at difficulty 8 to make her recognizable, and five successes for a
flawless copy.

The
Mistaken Identity Flaw cannot be taken. Other Merits/Flaws may be affected, at
the Storyteller’s discretion.

Characters
must have at least one dot of Vicissitude to take this Flaw.

### Fangless

**2pt. Flaw**

Considered
the mark of a true mongrel, you never developed your fangs, or you lacked teeth
before the Embrace. Either way, you have to use a knife or otherwise drink from
bleeding wounds. You have no natural way beyond Disciplines to inflict aggravated
damage.

### Faulty Enhancements

**2 to 5 pt. Flaw**

Well, crap.
The warranty on your cybernetic gear has expired (assuming, of course, that it
ever had such assurances in the first place), and now you’re stuck with
malfunctioning hardware that has literally gotten under your skin. Does your
BCI keep crashing? Do your legs keep seizing up? Is your bioware constantly
trying to eject your iron? Whatever the problem might be, this Flaw gets rated
by the amount of misery it causes you:

**2 points:** You suffer constant disorientation
and pain.

**3 points:** The malfunctions keep you in such
severe discomfort that you need to take specialized medication, or employ other
forms of pain relief, at least once a day. Failure to do so costs you one die
from all dice pools until the problem is rectified.

**4 points:** Your Enhancements fail you at
critical times (generally on a botched roll), crash or freeze up, and must then
be repaired by a technician who understands the gear you’ve got.

**5 points:** That shitty gear consistently conks
out when you need it most. Roll one die against difficulty 7 whenever you
employ cybertech in some important way (lifting heavy things with bionic arms,
sensor-scanning for enemies, deflecting incoming enemy spells, and so forth).
If you succeed, then the Enhancements function normally; if you fail, they fail
and must be rebooted; if you botch, they lock up or shut down until a skilled
technician manages to repair them.

Obviously,
this Flaw means nothing unless you’ve got the Background: Enhancements.
Although such glitches occur with Technocratic bioware, they’re far more common
in cybernetics that have been installed by factions whose people haven’t main­tained
a systemic and standardized approach to human upgrades for the last few centuries.
Wonky Etherites and overambitious Virtual Adepts invent crappy iron all the
time, and so this Flaw is especially appropriate for cyborgs from those zealously
individ­ualistic Traditions, as well as for ex-Technocrats who’ve managed to go
rogue and survive the experience thus far.

### Flawed Reality

**2pt. Flaw**

Your
illusions always contain a notable flaw, and as such, are easier to disbelieve.
The difficulties of all rolls to disbelieve your illusions are reduced by two.

### Forked Tongue

**2pt. Flaw**

Your tongue
is forked, flickering, and inhumanly reptilian. Upholding the Masquerade
becomes difficult for you. Note that this tongue does not inflict aggravated damage,
nor draw blood.

### Gremlin

**1 to 5 pt. Flaw**

There’s a
perverse imp running around your home. Okay, maybe it’s not an actual imp – it
could be a malfunctioning robot companion, a vain and selfish bioconstruct, a
trouble­some spirit, an obnoxious beast, that talking winged tarantula we
mentioned a few entries ago… the form of the creature is unimportant. Like the Flaw:
Apprentice, this Trait reflects a companion character who, despite being
supposedly on your side, remains a constant pain in your ass.

Originally
presented as the adversarial Background for Familiar, this Flaw becomes more
significant as the power of the creature, and its attendant nuisance, grows:

**1 point:** A creature of unusual, but minor,
ability, which busies itself with trivial annoyances.

**2 points:** An entity whose power and intellect
(or at least its cunning) make your life frustrating but not actively
hazardous.

**3 points:** A being of notable power whose
mischief has begun to shade into actual damage to your property, health,
status, and relationships.

**4 points:** A metaphysical pain in the tuchus
whose powers cause lasting harm to you and to the things you consider precious.

**5 points:** A walking plague of significant
power and malignancy. Said critter might not actually mean to be bad, but its
effects on your life are inescapably destructive.

As with an
Apprentice Flaw, above, you bear a certain amount of responsibility to this
creature – it’s not simply your enemy, or even a nemesis, but a being with whom
you share a vital bond. Also as per the Apprentice Flaw, your treatment of this
“gremlin” (a legendary being that sabotaged airplanes for fun) may reduce or intensify
the value of this Flaw. A formerly malignant entity could be tamed and
eventually become a Fa­miliar (as in that Background), while a poorly-treated
familiar might become a gremlin, and a previously annoying gremlin could be
annoyed into becoming a serious threat to the mage and his surroundings. As an optional
rule, you might even – with Storyteller approval – be able to purchase the
Gremlin Flaw in addition to the Familiar Background, to reflect a helpful yet
perpetually troublesome companion.

A gremlin,
as with all other Trait-based characters, is an entity in its own right.
Chances are good that the trouble it causes for your mage has an understandable
foundation – a reason that seems inexplicable to the mage yet remains perfectly
reasonable to the gremlin. A mage who explores the reasons behind this
misbehavior may calm her temperamental com­panion; then again, an attempt to
understand the gremlin’s grudge might only piss it off further…

### Grip of the Damned

**4pt. Flaw**

There is no
ecstasy in your Embrace — only terror and pain. Mortals upon whom you feed
struggle and shriek while you attempt to feed, requiring you to grapple with
them for as long as you wish to take their blood. For vampires with high
Humanity, this experience may require a Humanity roll, at the discretion of the
Storyteller.

Giovanni
cannot take this Flaw.

### Haunted

**3pt. Flaw**

You are
haunted by an angry and tormented spirit, most likely one of your first
victims. This spirit actively attempts to hinder you, especially when feeding,
and does its utmost to vent its anguish upon you and anyone in your presence.
The Storyteller determines the exact nature of the spirit, its powers, and
whether or not it can eventually be laid to rest.

### Heartless

**4pt. Flaw**

You have
lost your heart. Either you removed it via The Heart of Darkness, or an elder did
it to you, but either way you no longer have easy access to it. The heart might
be in the possession of a foe, or simply missing. If it turns out that a
Cainite possesses the heart (say a Setite elder, or your sire) you must obey their
every command. If it’s merely missing, the anxiety and obsession to find it interferes
with your nightly existence, and may increase the difficulty of Willpower rolls
by +1 at Storyteller discretion.

### Ignorance

**2pt. Flaw**

Many sires
abandon their Caitiff progeny without a word of instruction or warning about
their new nature. For most Princes, ignorance is no excuse for a breach of the
Masquerade, and Sabbat packs are quick to notice weakness.

The
character starts with no knowledge of the abilities, customs, or politics of
the undead, and must learn from their mistakes or find a mentor. Of course, any
vampire willing to take on a Caitiff will most likely blood bond the poor
wretch, leading to a completely new set of problems. Ignorance is deadly for a
vampire, and doubly so for the Clanless.

### Illiterate

**1-2pt. Flaw**

Perhaps you
communicate best through illustration, dance, or impassioned speech; but you
can’t read or write. This is either a temporary Flaw (1pt.) that can be rectified
with a patient teacher, or permanent (2pt.) due to a disability inhibiting your
understanding. This Flaw is enough to get you ostracized by others of your
bloodline (Kiasyd) if you do not conceal it.

### Inbred

**1-5pt. Flaw**

Inbreeding,
a common occurrence among the incestuous Giovanni Clan, can take many forms.
The Inbred Flaw covers all manner of physical, mental, and emotional defects.

A one-point
Inbreeding is something simple and unobtrusive, such as eyes too close together
or an underbite (+1 difficulty on Appearance rolls).

A
three-point Inbreeding is more severe: a congenital health condition (for
mortals) or a crippling physical deformity (+2 difficulty on appropriate
Strength, Dexterity, or Stamina rolls).

Five-point
Inbreedings are grossly disabling or emotionally crippling — everything from
uselessly atrophied legs to a permanent Derangement — decided on mutually by
the player and Storyteller.

Inbred
conditions may or may not be immediately discernible, though their point cost
should be relative to their magnitude, as decided by the Storyteller.

### Incoherent

**5pt. Flaw**

Human speech
is impossible for you. It might be that your mouth is too misshapen after the
Embrace, or that years of living in the sewers have made you forget how to communicate.
While you can understand what is being said to you, you cannot respond.
Telepathy works on you as normal, and you have no problem communicating with animals,
but human speech is barred to you.

### Infectious

**3pt. Flaw**

Madness
flows within your blood, but your bite carries a taint as well. Mortals take a
temporary derangement for every three points of blood you take from them. The derangements
stay until the mortal restores the lost blood.

### Insubordinate

**3pt. Flaw**

You like to
be in charge so much you have a hard time following anyone else’s orders. When
given a plan or told to do something, you tend to do the opposite on principle.

Whenever
you are ordered to do something, you must make a Willpower roll with a difficulty
depending on the importance of the superior and the danger of the task (difficulty
7 is typical for someone directly above the vampire assigning them a moderately
dangerous task). If you fail, you will do anything except what you’ve been told
to do.

### Jinx /Infernal Contraption

**2 to 10 pt. Flaw**

Stormbringer.
The One Ring. The Monkey’s Paw. Sure, that paranormal doohickey may possess
amazing powers, but it’s also a sack of miseries the likes of which few humans
can imagine. And you’ve got one. Lucky you…

As with the
Background: Wonder, this Trait reflects an uncanny item or device. In this
case, however, the “treasure” is more trouble than it’s worth. Perhaps it’s
cursed with mis­fortunes, poorly made, haunted by malignant spirits, seething
with Paradox emanations, or too experimental for its own good. It could be the
earthly form of an unpleasant entity (“I was a thousand times eviler than
thou…”), an alien artifact, or the remnant of a culture that passed into dust
millennia ago – and good riddance to them! Or maybe it’s simply a truly
wondrous treasure that dislikes you personally, like the Sword of Fighting in
JourneyQuest. For whatever the reason might be, you own this mystic /hypertech
millstone, and can’t easily get rid of it.

Like all
variable-point Flaws, the value of this Trait depends upon its ability to screw
up your life. In this case, however, the value of the Flaw is deducted from the
Background cost of a Wonder. In order to avoid nightmarish catastrophes of
math, every two points in the Flaw are worth one dot in the Wonder Background’s
cost. That cost, however, cannot drop below one dot (two points), and so any
points that get “left over” between the value of the Flaw and the two points in
that Wonder are added to the owner’s character sheet, reflecting the proverbial
dead albatross around the character’s neck: a mighty burden he can’t just toss
away.

For
expanded rules regarding Wonders, see the section of that name in Chapter Two,
pp. 139-165.

**2 points:** Your Jinxed item features an
annoying drawback that, while not deadly, makes life difficult for the person
who owns it. Examples: it attracts ghosts, smells bad, makes irritating sounds
at inconvenient times, or radiates a pervasive aura of discomfort.

**4 points:** The Jinxed item has several
annoying drawbacks (as above), or perhaps one or two problematic ones.
Examples: It must shed blood each time it’s employed, has a contentious and
unpleasant personality, attracts malignant spirits, or tempts the owner to
violate her moral code.

**6 points**: Your item features a host of
annoying drawbacks (at least six of them), three or four problematic ones, and
/or a major flaw. Exam­ples: The item belongs a powerful paranormal entity that
wants it back, it inflicts constant pain on whomever uses it (three bashing health
levels per turn of operation), the object radiates an aura of corruption and
decay, or it steadily drives its owner toward atrocities.

**8 points**: In addition to at least six
annoying drawbacks and /or five problematic ones, plus two or more major flaws,
the item also backfires if you fail a roll of Wits + Esoterica (or Wits +
Hypertech, if the item employs advanced technology), against difficulty 7. The
Storyteller is encouraged to get creative when deciding how that backfire
manifests.

**10**
points: **In addition**
to the previous level of difficulty, the Storyteller essentially has an open
license to make your life difficult in unexpected, creative, and often mysterious
ways. Examples: A bloodthirsty cult that’s after the treasure, a demonic entity
imprisoned within the item, a cross-dimensional vortex of probability fluxes
and quirks of physics that manifest in the object’s vicinity, and so forth.

These
flaws, of course, should be based in the nature of the Jinxed item and its
relationship to the owner. That said, there’s no reason that a robot can’t be
possessed by evil spirits or a primeval artifact can’t be a technological
hazard using unknown technology. Stranger things, in Mage, happen all the time.

### Kiss of Death

**2pt. Flaw**

Should you
drain a mortal vessel of all blood minutes after their heart stops beating, the
corpse rises as a zombie. These zombies are free-willed, hostile toward you,
and cannot be directed without some sorcerous or necromantic means to command
them.

### Light-Sensitive

**5pt. Flaw**

You are
even more sensitive to sunlight than other vampires are. Sunlight causes double
normal damage, and the light of the moon can cause lethal damage in a manner
similar to the sun, though it must shine directly upon you. Even bright lights
hurt your eyes, requiring the use of sunglasses.

Followers
of Set and related bloodlines cannot take this Flaw, as they already have a
worse version of it.

### Lightweight

**1pt. Flaw**

Shamefully,
you cannot imbibe the blood of any creatures other than mortals, ghouls, and
vampires. Whenever you attempt to drink from another entity, you’re forced to
purge the contents immediately after and gain no sustenance from it.

### Locked Vidare

**1 pt. Flaw**

Mages view
the Otherworldly Penumbra through a meta­physical perspective called the Vidare.
Most of them can alter that perspective by changing their point of view. Not
you. For you, the Periphery remains “locked” into a single perspective: the
glittering clarity of the Vidare Astral, the primal luminosity of the Vidare
Spiritus, or the rotting deathscape of the Vidare Mortem. Essentially, your
metaphysical perspective is frozen in place. This is literally the way you view
the world around you, and that view never really changes.

In addition
to shaping the way your Storyteller describes the Vidare to you, and guiding
your reaction to what you perceive, this Flaw also influences your personality,
your sense of fashion, your philosophical and metaphysical paradigms, your
magickal focus, and so on. When you perceive things in a certain way, after
all, that perspective tends to color most aspects of your life.

### Lord of the Flies

**2pt. Flaw**

Buzzing
harbingers of decay swirl around you everywhere. Their constant presence makes
it difficult for you to interact socially (+1 difficulty when appropriate) and
nearly impossible to sneak up on someone or hide effectively.

The buzzing
of the flies inevitably gives you away — all Stealth rolls are at +2
difficulty.

### Lord of the Night

**3pt. Flaw**

In your
presence lights dim, tiny flames extinguish, and shadows cling to you or
languidly move about with a surreal unlife, making it impossible to pass as
anything other than inhuman.

The
particular shadow you cast is a malicious entity with a will of its own. It
lashes out at friends and enemies alike, tearing at the scenery, and snarling
at passers-by.

These
effects can be suppressed for a scene by spending a point of Willpower.

### Lost Svadharma

**3pt. Flaw**

You once
knew your svadharma, but when the time came to fulfill it, you failed. Now that
destiny has passed you by, and there may never be another chance to make it
right.

Other Ravnos
know the tale, and hold your failure against you. You are scorned, and your
confidence has been thrown into doubt. Your total Willpower score is
permanently reduced by one and you may not spend Willpower when performing
actions where other Ravnos are directly involved.

### Mage Blood

**5pt. Flaw**

Your blood
is so tied to magic that you find you are unable to use any Discipline apart
from Thaumaturgy (and for Kindred who are not Tremere, it is still paid for at
out-of-Clan rates). While no path or ritual is barred to you, you may not gain
any dots in any other Discipline.

### Member of the Pack

**2pt. Flaw**

You can
only summon, speak to, and command a specific type of animal — ravens, rats,
and so forth — with Animalism. Your Storyteller is the best adjudicator of what
types of animal are appropriate for this Flaw, but the choice should be fairly
limiting. Other animals do not respond to your uses of Animalism at all.

### Mortal Flashbacks

**5pt. Flaw**

Your body
remembers your death. Every night when you awaken, you vividly remember the
pain of your death wound. The wound reopens during the night and closes itself
shortly before you rise. This traumatic reminder of your mortality starts your
night off in a bad way.

You lose a
point of Willpower each night when you awaken, because of the trauma of dying
again.

### Multiple Curses

**3pt. Flaw**

In addition
to the normal curse imposed upon you by your caste or sect, you suffer one
additional one associated with the Assamite Clan.

Most
likely, you are a rare vizier or sorcerer within the Sabbat who suffers the
Baali Curse in addition to your normal caste-imposed curse, but at the
Storyteller’s discretion, other combinations may be possible.

### Oathbreaker

**Mage:**

**4 pt. Flaw**

Sworn oaths
are powerful things, especially when magick is involved. And yet, you have
broken your vow – not a simple promise, but an oath of serious significance.
“I’m sorry” won’t cut it here; you need serious atonement in order to make
things right, and until that point, anyone who can read auras or listen to
gossip within the proper circles will know you for the faithless swine you are.

A
story-based Flaw, Oathbreaker marks your character out as someone who is not to
be trusted. People who place great value in honor will shun her, and others
will exploit what they consider her generally dishonorable nature. Beyond that,
other characters may be hunting her, with the intention of exacting penance or
revenge… maybe both! Resonance, Paradox, Seek­ings, and Quiet will reflect the
metaphysical dimensions of this broken vow.

Some sort
of penance should be available to an oath-break­ing character. She might not
know what that atonement is, though, and the quest for such rectification could
be the seed for powerful stories (cf. the tragedy of Oedipus Rex). Atonement is
rarely a pleasant matter (again, see Oedipus), but the successful performance
of such rituals should erase this Flaw… at least until you make and break
another promise, that is.

**Vampire:**

**2pt. Flaw**

Making an
oath ties one person’s svadharma to another, linking the two spirits until the
oath can be fulfilled. With this in mind, a Ravnos never breaks her word once
given in good faith, and so long as it was done with proper ceremony.

If the
Ravnos spits into her palm and shakes on her word, then the oath cannot be
broken without negatively impacting the vampire’s svadharma (or so Ravnos
superstition dictates). The oathbreaker will lose her way, falling into vice
and worthlessness, until the broken oath can be redeemed.

Anyone who
looks at your aura can see a sickly red slash indicating the broken oath. You
may not spend Willpower to ignore your Ravnos vice, and you do not gain
Willpower from fulfilling your Nature.

### Obvious Predator

**2pt. Flaw**

Your innate
Brujah rage always percolates below the surface no matter how hard you try to
project an image of calm. Mortals find you intrinsically menacing, and instinctively
fear you for the violence you promise to unleash.

**System**: The difficulty of all Social rolls
made against mortals other than Intimidation rolls increases by 2.

### Out of Phase

**2pt. Flaw**

The
character is a little too aware of time and the possibilities surrounding them.
People often seem to be in slightly different places, and speech frequently
echoes in their ears. They see layers of alternate timelines in too much
detail.

Any
perception rolls they make are at +2 difficulty, as they try to see past the
unreal.

### Thousand Meter Killer

**1pt. Merit**

You have
proven yourself worthy to join the Thousand Meter Club
through your remarkable skill with the sniper rifle. The
difficulty of all rolls associated with sniping is reduced by
-1. You also double the normal range when using a
sniper rifle as a weapon.

### Outcast

**2pt. Flaw**

Your have
rejected the ethos of the caste into which you were Embraced. Perhaps you are
one of the few viziers or sorcerers to support the Web of Knives or pursue the Path
of Blood. Perhaps you are a warrior who has little stomach for combat, preferring
instead to be a diplomat or a student of the occult. Perhaps you made some kind
of public spectacle that revealed your disdain for your fellow caste members.

Your sire
now rejects you, as do the other members of your caste. The difficulty of all
Social rolls against members of your caste is at +2.

### Overstimulated

**3pt. Flaw**

Malkavians
notice things that many others do not. That means keeping their eyes and ears
open far longer than anyone else does. That makes you easily distracted when trying
to focus. Take a +2 penalty to all rolls involving Perception.

### Paper Trail

**2pt. Flaw**

You’ve
spent some time in state institutions like prisons or asylums, likely before
your Embrace. Most people have some sort of information that relays date of
birth and other bits of fact. This information is hard to eliminate, and may
endanger the Masquerade.

Enemies
with the right influence may be able to track down the information and use it against
you. It may lead to vulnerable targets or clue hunters to where your haven is
located.

### Paranormal Prohibition or Imperative

**2 to 8 pt. Flaw**

Also known
as Geasa and Magical Prohibition or Imper­ative, this Flaw represents a thing
you either must do, or are forbidden from doing, on pain of awful consequences.
Generally, this imperative comes from an oath you swore, a curse that was
inflicted upon you, or a legacy that follows your family lineage. Faerie grudges,
infernal pacts, godly inheritances, ancient proph­ecies, Fortean quirks of
physics… any one of them can inflict such a burden upon you. So long as you never
cross that line, you should be okay – and may, in fact, possess some blessing
(a Merit or Background Trait) that’s linked to this Flaw. Ah, but life has a
way of pushing us to do things we don’t want to do, and that’s especially true
in the case of people who have a curse or geas upon their heads!

The value
of this Flaw is based on your chances of vio­lating the prohibition, and the
consequences that occur if / when you do:

**1 point:** You break the prohibition only with an easily avoided circumstance (never kill a cat, go to London, or have sex
with a married person), or find it easy to fulfill your imperative (you must shave all your hair off, walk outside every day, or wear blue clothing).

**2 points:** Your prohibition is easy to break (never tell a lie, leave your home town, or have sex with anyone), or your imperative is challenging to fulfill (you must always cover your head, walk at least three miles every day, or go barefoot at all times).

**3 points:** It’s very hard to not break your prohibition (never speak, have a home of your own, or fall in love or lust with anyone), or to honor your imperative (you must blindfold yourself every day even though you can see, walk everywhere you go, or remain naked at all times).

The consequences vary depending on the severity of the flaw.

**+1 point:** Inconvenient consequences – you botch your next three rolls, suffer a migraine, develop a rash for several days, etc.

**+2 points:** Annoying consequences – you lose your voice for a day, lose a die from all your pools for a week due to constant pain, add +2 to all your social rolls with members of your faction until you can atone from breaking your oath, and so forth.

**+3 points:** Painful consequences – until you can atone, you go blind or mute, lose one dot from an Attribute, lose an Ally, Mentor, or Familiar, take the Flaw: Oathbreaker (below), or suffer a similarly awful fate.

**+4 points:** Crippling consequences – until you atone, your Avatar abandons you, you lose a total of three dots from various Attributes, you take the Flaws: Oathbreaker, Deranged or both, or else endure a related punishment.

**+5 points:** Fatal consequences – either you’re gonna die soon, you’ll be whisked off to an Otherworldly punishment Realm, or both. Atonement, if it’s even possible, will be very harsh, so do NOT break this oath or forsake this imperative!

This Flaw
makes an excellent companion to numerous Backgrounds (Familiar, Legend, Past
Life, Totem, Wonder, and potentially others at the Storyteller’s discretion)
and Merits (pretty much anything, really, depending on how you define the
source of that Merit).

Although
this does not reduce the cost of that Trait (despite the description of this
Flaw in Mage Revised, which employed a complex and potentially abusive rule
system that’s not found in other World of Darkness games),  a Prohibition /Imperative can represent vows,
obligations, and /or legacies associated with the beneficial Trait. If, for
example, Riordan Manseragh were to have sworn a mystic oath in order to win his
hawk-spirit familiar, that oath would represent a Paranormal Imperative, with
painful consequences (the loss of his Familiar Background) if he breaks his
promise.

Your
Prohibition /Imperative must be tied in with your character’s backstory, and
probably has a connection to all three elements of her magickal focus
(paradigm, practice, and instruments). The conditions must be something that
could conceivably present an obstacle for your character (no prohibitions, for
example, against having sex with Voormas, or imperatives to get out of bed in the
morning), and your Story­teller will, of course, make a point of throwing said
obstacles in your path at various points during the chronicle. That said, we
also urge Storytellers not to abuse this Flaw, or to apply it out of proportion
with the points the Flaw is worth.

Although
it’s rather unusual, a technomancer could have a metaphysical pact or
prohibition too. She may, for instance, need to work on a Mac, employ only
steamtech, or invent all of her own technology to avoid suffering some
paranormal malaise. Thus, this Flaw is not always “mystical” in nature, even if
the line separating mysticism from paranormal phenomena is more a matter of
semantics than of metaphysical principles.

### Parasitic Infestation

**2pt. Flaw**

Living in
the dark has made you a home to all manner of creepy crawlies and bloodsuckers.
Your skin is crawling with ticks, lice, and leeches of all descriptions. They constantly
bite and burrow, and having fed on your vitae, they have become very hard to
kill.

Not only
can you not command them, you have tried everything to get rid of them and
still they persist. Whatever the reason, they find you so succulent they reduce
your blood pool by the result dirt on know that you know. It might be that you
have discovered the Prince’s haven, or that there are infernalists hiding in
the diocese. Whatever it is, you are not sure whom you can tell, and if you do,
you will only make the of one die divided by 3 (round down) each time you rise.
The constant itch also keeps you on edge, increasing the difficulty of any
Self-Control or Instinct rolls by 1.

### Permanent Paradox Flaw

**2, 4 or 6 pt. Flaw**

Following a
nasty brush with Paradox, you’re got a Flaw that just won’t go away.
System-wise, select a trivial (two points), minor (four points), or significant
(six points) Paradox Flaw as described on Mage 20, p. 551. That Flaw is now
part of your character’s life until you buy off this Flaw, preferably with ex­perience
earned through some extraordinary adventure that’s related to the Paradox Flaw
in question and the mishap that created that Flaw in the first place.

### Permanent Third Eye

**2 or 4pt. Flaw; Salubri and Tremere only**

While most
sealed third eyes are visible as a slight scar, yours remains permanently open
on your forehead. For 2 points, the eye is merely open, and may be closed for a
on a successful Willpower roll (difficulty 6). For 4 points, the eye sheds
light, increasing all Stealth difficulties by 2.

### Phylactery

**7 pt. Flaw**

Your magick,
perhaps your very soul, resides outside of your physical self. Maybe you’ve
placed your soul within a ring, a jar, or a wooden doll in order to protect
yourself from possession and control. Or perhaps you believe that your wand,
not your Will, is the source of your mystic powers. You could have built a
robot as an extension of your Genius, or crafted a jacket into which you’ve
instilled the very essence of who you are. The receptacle itself is not
important except with regards to its portability. This Flaw reflects the fact
that you must have the receptacle before you can employ your Arts. Without it,
you’re just another Sleeper.

All told, a
phylactery offers a few powerful benefits in ex­change for some pretty significant
drawbacks. On the plus side:

* A phylactery allows you to preserve a part of your con­sciousness outside your mortal body. That body may be destroyed, but your soul and consciousness live on until or unless the phylactery is destroyed. With Mind 4, you can project that consciousness into another body or an astral form, while a character with

Mind 5 /Spirit 5 can place your Awakened consciousness into a new body for you.

* If the phylactery is taken from you, or you’re taken away from it, you can retrieve it, or return to it, with a successful application of the Correspondence Sphere. The difficulty for this return Effect is 4 if the return would seem coinci­dental to a witness, 5 if it’s vulgar without witnesses, and 6 if it’s

vulgar with witnesses. (Yes, the usual Paradox applies.)

* A living phylactery retains a psychic bond with you, as if you’re in constant empathic and telepathic contact with that character. (No roll necessary.) If the phylactery is a place, then you retain an awareness of that place, and can check in with it by using Perception + Awareness, difficulty 6. (For very large

areas, the check-in difficulty may range from 7 to 10.)

* With the addition of the Merit: “Immortal” at the seven-point level, your physical body may continue to survive until the phylactery is destroyed… which, if you don’t mind going without your magick for a while, could render you more or less immune to death if you then hide your phylactery away in a safe location. Traditionally speaking, that’s why many mages make phylacteries in the first place: to preserve their mortal lives indefinitely.

* So long as your phylactery remains safe and undamaged, you remain immune to Gilgul and other soul-trapping attacks. Your body may be possessed, but your soul cannot be stolen or destroyed unless someone attacks your phylactery instead… in which case you’re screwed, as described below.

* And if you invest your soul into a place, you literally carry the essence of that place within yourself, while a part of you always remains there. For practitioners of certain an­cestral forms of magic (or simply for hardcore romantics), that’s a very powerful reason to do such a thing.

Those are
the good points. The downsides are as follows:

* If the phylactery gets destroyed, your ability to use magick in this life gets destroyed along with it.

* You cannot perform magick or recharge your Avatar unless you have some form of physical connection to your phylactery. That form could involve a physical gateway to virtual contact, as with a computer that accesses a mainframe, but you still need that gateway in order to reach a distant phylactery. (Yes, you may use Correspondence Sphere magick to reach the phylactery, and you are always counted as being one success away from your phylactery when you use Correspondence to reach out to it.)

* If your phylactery is a place, you must be in that place in order to employ the Spheres. If it’s a living thing, then that character has got to be within touching range before you can use the Spheres. (Explains a lot about Blofeld and his cat, doesn’t it?)

* If you’re using your phylactery to cast magick, you need to be rather obvious about it – shouting commands to your hypertech robot pal, holding your mystic crown aloft, hewing your demonic sword through enemies as you shout invocations to your patron god, that sort of thing.

* If your Avatar communicates to you through an embod­ied phylactery character, then you need to purchase the Merit: Manifest Avatar to represent the Avatar’s physical form.

* If your phylactery is an item, then it’s considered a unique personalized instrument. It can be broken, stolen or repaired, but cannot be replaced if it’s totally destroyed.

Creating a
phylactery of this sort demands high-level magick – Correspondence 5 /Prime 5
/Spirit 5 /Mind 4 to be exact, plus Matter 4 to invest one’s self into a
material item, Life 5 to invest it into a living thing, and Life 5 /Matter 4 in
order to instill it into a place with an active biosphere – a forest or lake,
as opposed to a bare room or large metal box.

Unless your
mage is already a Master of the appropriate Spheres, this Flaw assumes that
some stronger power invested (or trapped) your Avatar and consciousness into
that phylactery for you. According to some practices, a magical practitioner
must create a phylactery in order to use their most potent Arts; although
that’s not true in the greater scheme of Mage, that doesn’t mean people don’t
still believe that it is.

### Plague of Demons

**4pt. Flaw**

No matter
what, demons are constantly drawn to the Baali. Once in a while, this can be a
benefit (Baali with this Flaw are at -1 difficult to summon a particular
demon), but most of the time these nefarious spirits are distractions. They
scream in the Baali’s ear, tug at her clothes, or screw with her possessions…
and always at the worst possible moment.

The
character is at +1 difficulty for any rolls involving Perception. Further, once
per session, the Storyteller can convert one of the Baali’s dice rolls into a
botch.

### Primal Marks

**3 pt. Flaw**

You’ve been
marked by some god, spirit, myth, or other metaphysical entity… and the mark is
not a pleasant one. Maybe you share Papa Ghede’s nasal voice and crude sense of
humor, or Coyote’s grotesquely huge cock, or Christ’s bleeding stigmata. Essentially,
this Flaw is the flipside of the Merit: Mark of Favor; in your case, though,
the mark complicates your life, twists your body, and alerts people who
understand the significance of that mark. In certain circles – say, being
marked by Satan while living in a deeply religious region – a Primal Mark can
be a life-threatening affair. Such marks can also indicate the profound
displeasure of the entity in question, like the Mark of Cain (in a non-vampiric
sense, anyway) which set the First Murderer apart while sparing his life for a
long-enduring punishment. But even if the entity in question likes you, this
particular mark is more of a burden than a blessing. If, for instance, you
stink like a goat and have the heavy, hairy features of Pan, that’s not going
to make you terribly popular with the ladies… especially not if you’re female
to begin with!

Obviously,
you should define the appearance of this feature, and decide the sort of
reaction people have when they notice it. Because this is a Flaw, of course,
that reaction should be negative in some way – the “primal mark of the
Jolie-Pitt Clan” is not exactly a Flaw unless you’re dealing with paparazzi.
The “mark” could also be a tone of voice, a distinct way of moving (birdlike,
catlike, Papa Legba-like), or a certain vibe that nearly anyone can sense.
Whatever their source and manifestation, these Primal Marks are obvious, and they
tend to carry over even when a mage changes shape. People recognize you even
when you’d rather not be recognized, and that sort of distinction can be rather
unhealthy too.

This Flaw
goes well with Backgrounds like Blessing, Destiny, Legend, Past Lives, and, as
suggested earlier, Totem. It could be taken as a genetic Flaw for Enhancements,
or as a reflection of an especially potent Avatar. For extra fun, you might not
even know why you’ve been so marked, who marked you, or what may come as a
result of the mark. As with so many elements of a mage’s life, these Primal
Marks could be mysteries whose answers lay at the end of a long and winding
Path… if, indeed, those answers ever reveal themselves at all.

### Privacy Obsession

**3pt. Flaw**

Perhaps it
is a trait carried in the blood. Perhaps your strict sire carved this lesson
into your mind and flesh. Either way, you carry the Tzimisce respect for
privacy to extremes.

You must
make a Willpower roll (difficulty 6) to enter another being’s dwelling without
being invited, though you can go to fiendishly clever lengths to garner an
unwitting invitation. When disturbed in your haven by an uninvited guest, you
must make a Self-Control or Instincts roll (difficulty 7) to avoid frenzy.

### Private Life

**3pt. Flaw**

You have a
completely separate life that no other Kindred know about. It may be your
mortal family that you have turned into ghouls, or a YouTube channel that you
use to talk in metaphor about your frustrations with Kindred society.

If
discovered, this could risk other vampires accusing you of breaching the Masquerade
(if Camarilla), consorting with humanity instead of being a superior vampire
(if Sabbat), or just overall paranoia and suspicion on why you’re keeping such
deep secrets.

### Prone to Quiet

**4 to 5 pt. Flaw**

In an
effort to avert the inevitable stresses of Awakened life, you tend to drop into
metaphysical Quiets more easily than most other mages do. The easier you fall
into them, the more this Flaw is worth:

**4 points:** Quiet is your default Paradox
backlash, and so a backlash of five points or more automatically sends you into
Quiet.

**5 points:** Quiet is your default backlash, and
you can fall into it even without a Paradox discharge. Roll your Intelligence +
Enigmas dice pool when you’re faced with an unusually stressful situation; if
you succeed, then you’re able to puzzle your way out of the fall – and if not,
well, then, welcome back to Quietville… (The roll’s difficulty ranges from 6 to
10, depending upon the severity of the stress and whether or not you’ve dealt
with this particular kind of stress before.)

Although
it’s most often noticed in Virtual Adepts and other Netizens, who tend to set
off into the Digital Web in order to escape physical unpleasantness, any mage
can suffer from this Flaw.

### Psychic Vampire

**5 pt. Flaw**

Also known
as the Reaper’s Touch, this dreadful curse makes you a life-force siphon. Your
presence consumes vitality from your surroundings and the living things who
happen to get too close to you. Unless you do so, however, your own life-force
withers. Despite your best intentions, you’re essentially a walking void into
which life itself pours in order to sustain your own existence.

Story-wise,
you’re a drain on the energy of your compan­ions. Insects and small plants
perish in your presence, while children and animals smaller than a horse feel
ill when you stand near them. System-wise, any character who’s in physical
contact with you for an hour or more loses one health level per hour to bashing
damage. If you’re unable to soak up someone else’s life-force, though, then
your own vitality drains away. In system terms, you lose health levels in the
reverse order that you would heal lethal damage, dropping to Bruised after one
day, to Hurt after three days, to Injured after one week, and so on.

If you
employ Life Sphere magicks, your difficulties for healing or improvement-type
Effects are raised by +2, while your difficulties with corrupting, damage, or
illness-related Effects are lowered by -2. (In both cases, the usual maximums
and minimums still apply.) Each health level you inflict on someone else with
Life Sphere magick heals you of one health level if you’re injured, or else
forestalls the “starvation” loss of your own health levels by one day per
health level inflicted.

An inversion
of the Merit: Spark of Life, this Flaw darkens your aura, makes your blood
taste awful as far as vampires are concerned, and keeps your close associates
constantly sick with low-level ailments. Life-affirming mages consider this to
be a mark of profound misfortune or outright evil, while folks who love
corruption (Nephandi and the like) see you as a ripe candidate for recruitment.
Mundane science can’t do a damn thing about this metaphysical malady, and
dismisses such fluffy concepts as “life-force energies.” The Technocratic
Union, on the other hand, takes this sort of thing seriously, and tends to view
psychic vampires as Reality Deviants of the most unfortunate kind.

### Putrescent

**4pt. Flaw**

The supernatural
process that usually keeps a vampire’s form from rotting after death has failed
to work on you. Your body has become putrescent and fragile as it gradually
decays.

All soak
rolls you make have their dice pool reduced by 1. You may even lose body parts
if you suffer a solid enough blow. Should this happen, make a Stamina roll
(difficulty 6) and lose a part of your body (Storyteller’s choice) if you fail.
Should you botch, you also receive a level of aggravated damage.

These
missing parts may regrow, but your body continues to rot.

### Rat in a Cage

**2pt. Flaw**

Anytime you
are penned in or physically restrained (such as by a cage, or with handcuffs),
you suffer acute anxiety. The difficulties of any rolls made under such circumstances
are increased by two.

### Refined Palate

**1-3pt. Flaw**

Many Kiasyd
self-impose feeding restrictions: refusing to feed from the poor and diseased,
or even those still wearing skin, or over a certain age. This manifests akin to
the Ventrue Clan weakness, due to conditioning making any blood outside of the
Kiasyd’s preference unpalatable.

The
severity of the Flaw depends on how narrow the restriction is.

### Repelled by Crosses

**3pt. Flaw**

You are
repelled by the sight of ordinary crosses, believing them to be symbols of holy
might. When confronted by a cross, you must make a Willpower roll (difficulty
9) or flee from the symbol for the duration of the scene. If you botch the
roll, not only must you attempt to flee, but the touch of the cross can cause
aggravated damage (one health level of damage per turn that the cross touches
your skin).

This damage
cannot be soaked, even if the vampire possesses Fortitude.

### Repulsed by Garlic

**1pt. Flaw**

You cannot
abide garlic, and the smallest whiff of its scent will drive you from a room
unless you make a successful Willpower roll (difficulty based on the strength of
the odor).

### Revenant Weakness

**3pt. Flaw**

You were
once part of a revenant family. Following the Embrace, you suffered both your
Clan’s weakness and your revenant family’s limitation. The Storyteller might
let you manifest a weakness from a lost or destroyed revenant line.

This could
add mystery to your background and allow for a bit of genealogical detective work,
certainly making you a curiosity to the Romanian Legacy Foundation.

### Scales

**1-3pt. Flaw**

Set blessed
you upon your Embrace, and you bear his mark. A portion of your skin is covered
in scales.

As a one-point
Flaw, a small, easily hidden area of skin is covered. As a two-point Flaw, a
whole limb is covered, while having a scaled, lipless face is a three-point
Flaw.

Kine are
frightened and disturbed by the obviously unnatural scales, and Kindred have
their own prejudices against the Setites.

All social
rolls receive a +2 difficulty when the scales are visible. This penalty does not
apply to social interactions with other Setites.

### Shadow Scarred

**3pt. Flaw**

Since
escaping the Shadowlands, you’ve struggled to reacclimatize to the world of the
living. You see ravenous Spectres in every shadow.

You must
roll your Courage (difficulty 7) or spend a point of Willpower whenever using
Necromancy, as you fear the repercussions of touching the Underworld.

### Shadow Walker

**6pt. Flaw**

The
Giovanni Clan is by its nature inexorably tied to the realm beyond the sudario.
Giovanni suffering from this Flaw are so tied to the Shadowlands that even in
the lands of the living they must interact with the world of the dead on a
nightly basis.

To shadow
walkers, objects in the Underworld are as real as anything found in the physical
world. Such vampires find that the ghosts of walls may impeded their flight,
ghostly objects may strike them, and wraiths’ powers work as if the Kindred
were on the far side of the Shroud. This Flaw is similar to the Ash Path power
Dead Hand, except that Shadow Walker is always on and it in no way allows the character
possessing it to perceive beyond the Shroud.

The
Storyteller may determine that certain Shadowlands topography interferes with
you. Unless you have some ability to do so, you can’t see into the Shadowlands,
so you have to be careful in feeling your way about — essentially, a blind man
subject to the Underworld landscape. At the Storyteller’s discretion,
immaterial walls or environmental effects may restrict you.

### Sphere Inept

**6 pt. Flaw**

A
particular element of Reality eludes you. No matter how devoted you might be to
mastering its complexities, this field of magick remains a challenge.
Essentially, this is the reverse of the Merit: Sphere Natural, described above;
one Sphere costs 130% more (rounded up) to learn than the other Spheres cost.

Again, this
Flaw can apply to only one Sphere (fortunately!), and comes through in your
practice and backstory. Someone who’s inept at understanding, say, Time will
have a very wonky relationship with schedules and timing.

### Spirit Magnet

**3 to 7** pt. Merit or Flaw

Ephemeral
entities flock to your presence. The essence of who you are – benign or
malignant – draws spirits to you, and they, in turn, affect the essence of who
you are. For the most part, these entities cluster around you in the Penumbra,
invisible to mortal perceptions; whenever you cross the Gauntlet, though
(either with your perceptions or with your body), they’re waiting for you
there. Spirits that can manifest physical forms may come across the Gauntlet to
visit you, and those that cannot take on physical bodies still energize the
spiritual atmosphere in your vicinity. Whether or not this is a good thing for
you depends upon whether you select this Trait as a Merit or a Flaw:

**The**
Merit **form of**
Spirit Magnet draws generally benev­olent spirits – Naturae, Lunes, totem and
animal entities of the gentler variety, and so on. These spirits protect you
from malignant entities, warn you of impending danger, offer advice, help you
out when you visit the Otherworlds, and generally make your life easier. Folks
who can sense those spirits (mediums, shamans, med­icine-folk, werecreatures,
etc.) tend to favor you; after all, if the better sorts of spirits like you,
then you must be someone worth knowing.

**The Flaw** version represents the presence of
malevo­lent spirits – Banes, demons, and other nasty Umbral beasts. Summoned by
curses or spiritual corruption, these entities seek to tempt you, poison you,
feed off your vitality, and otherwise turn your life into a self-contained Hell
On Wheels. Spirit-sensitive folk will avoid you unless they’re into that sort
of thing, and werewolves will consider you to be “of the Wyrm” (whatever the
hell that means), if only because of the company you keep. Although you might
not consider yourself a bad person at heart, your spiritual compan­ions say
otherwise!

The value
of this Merit of Flaw is, as always, based on how helpful or troublesome the
spirits can be, how powerful they are, and how many of them you have to deal
with when they appear.

**3 points**: Minor entities occasionally offer
aid or hindrance.

**4 points:** Minor entities show up frequently,
or in small numbers.

**5 points:** Minor entities surround you often,
whether you want them to or not, and more potent ones have taken interest in
your existence.

**6 points:** You have the interest of one or two
entities of significance, and plenty of minor ones pay great attention to you.

**7 points:** You’re never alone, even when you
probably wish you could be.

This
spiritual companionship could be directly opposed to your true nature. A really
awful person might attract be­nevolent entities who want to save her, while a
veritable St. Anthony could be plagued with demons intent on fucking up his
soul. Even so, such constant presence does have an effect on your overall health.
Mind, body, and spirit are interwoven whether we want to recognize that or not,
and a mortal who attracts Otherworldly entities has got something unusual going
on under the skin.

### Stench

**1pt. Flaw**

Most
Nosferatu pick up a certain odor, but you stink so bad even your Clan-mates
find you hard to be close to. Your presence is preceded by your stench,
removing two die from all Stealth rolls.

### Stigmata

**2 or 4pt. Flaw**

Oracles are
often marked as messengers of the gods. Your markings come in the forms of phantom
wounds that seep blood. The bleeding is slight but incessant, costing you an extra
blood point every day just before you wake at dusk.

The 2-point
version of this Flaw means wounds that can be easily hidden from prying eyes,
such as on the hands or the side. You gain a +1 difficulty to all Social rolls
when dealing with someone aware of your condition.

The 4-point
version can’t be easily hidden, like bleeding eyes. The Social penalty
increases to +2, and one of your Attributes also gains a +1 difficulty to all
rolls because of the constant seeping blood.

### Stone Tongue

**3pt. Flaw**

The
transformation of the Embrace didn’t just affect your appearance. It made it
physically difficult for you to speak properly and clearly. It may be because
of a clumsy tongue, some nasty looking tusks, or a raptor-type beak. No matter
the cause, you suffer a +2 difficulty to any Social rolls requiring you to speak.

### Strangeness

**1 pt. Flaw**

Your
metaphysical prowess occasionally warps reality in your presence, even when you
don’t want it to do so. Weird stuff happens when you’re not expecting such
phenomena, and those quirks of strangeness seem to be rooted in the sort of
magick you pursue. A specialist in Entropy could suffer twists of probability
and decay; a Life-attuned healer discovers odd growths and mutations in the
life-forms around him, while a Forces-gifted mage bends the physics in his
general vicinity. These phenomena ebb and flow without your guidance or
control. Perversely, the more skilled you become in magick, the stronger these
tides of weirdness become.

System-wise,
the Storyteller determines, once or twice per game session, to roll your Arete
against difficulty 6. If the roll succeeds, the Storyteller throws in some
random occurrence that’s based on a Sphere you possess – most often, on your
Affinity Sphere. Grass could grow suddenly, mirrors could crack, psychic
impressions could inform you of the sexual habits of the person standing next
to you in the elevator – that sort of thing.

If the roll
fails, then nothing unusual occurs. If the roll botches, however, then a
Paradox backlash expels one point of Paradox in your current pool for each dot
you have in your Affinity Sphere; or all of your current Paradox, if you have
fewer points than that in your Paradox pool. (If, as an example, Jinx has three
dots in Entropy but only one point of Paradox, the backlash dispels that one
point in a backlash.) These small backlashes won’t be terribly damaging, but
given the unpredictable nature of this Flaw, they could come at very
inconvenient times.

### Taint of Corruption

**7 pt. Flaw**

Evil has an
intimate hold on you. Your spirit has been corrupted – possibly since birth, as
with the reborn Nephandi known as widderslainte – and you are, as the
werewolves put it, “of the Wyrm” whether you wish to be or not. This doesn’t
necessarily mean you behave in an evil manner – you can choose to resist the
evil inside you. On a metaphysical level, however, you bear an innate
corruption which tests the ideal of Enlightened self-determination. You may,
perhaps, defeat it, but it’ll be a hard struggle before you do.

From a
story perspective, this Flaw could come from de­monic possession, the aftermath
of an awful Quiet or a badly botched high-level Seeking, corrupt Resonance, one
too many deals with malignant Umbrood, a curse, a vile past life, wicked karma,
Nephandic heritage, poor life-choices, the influence of the Wyrm, a collection
of tainted texts or artifacts, time spent in a hell, or other forms of
metaphysical poison. It almost certainly shapes your magickal focus, and the
things you do in pursuit of your magicks (that is, your practices and
instruments) may well perpetrate this corruption. (Hey, now, hey now now…) To
entities who recognize such soul-stains, you are either a mortal enemy (as far
as most werewolves are concerned), an object of pity and potential salvation
(the nicer sorts of mages), or – most likely – both. (“Hey, it’s a mercy killing,
right?”)

Meanwhile,
inside your skin, you wrestle with the urges born from that corruption. Whether
or not you give in to them (which would, of course, just deepen the decay),
your dreams and impulses hold a distinctly unpleasant edge.

Working
malig­nant magick is frighteningly easy for you (-2 to your difficulties, up to
the usual modifier limits), but your “good” spells are harder to cast (+2
difficulty, as above) and have a tendency to leave traces of corruption even
when you succeed.

Your aura
crackles or swirls with leprous stains, and your Merits, Flaws, Backgrounds,
and other Traits reflect the damnation you carry inside. A truly epic quest
might purge this evil (and buy off this Flaw), but maybe it’s just easier to go
with the flow, even if that flow leads you straight into the gutter and beyond…

### Thaumaturgically Inept

**5pt. Flaw**

Something
about you refuses to respond to Thaumaturgy. Magic just doesn’t work for you.
You cannot take any ability in the Thaumaturgy Discipline or any of its paths or
rituals.

For a
Tremere this is doubly difficult, as skill in Thaumaturgy is often the key to
position within the Clan. While some willingly choose to ignore their
thaumatugical studies and serve in other ways, ineptitude is never excused. Only
Tremere can take this Flaw.

### The Bard’s Tongue

**1 pt. Flaw**

A curse has
rendered you unable to lie. It may even compel you to speak the truth when you
struggle to remain silent. Worse still, you tend to say things that later turn
out to be true even if you hadn’t known anything about them at the time.
(“Don’t try and score food from that guy over there – he’s got a gun and is
having a really bad day.”) You often get a certain “look” when the urge to
speak truth comes up, and folks who know you have begun to recognize the signs
of a forthcoming “honesty blast” before you even open your mouth.

Life and
Mage chronicles are both filled with times when it’s best to keep a lid on the
truth. And so, in order to avoid saying speaking the proverbial inconvenient
truth (or worse), you need to spend a Willpower point to keep your mouth shut
about it. Repressing that truth may also cost you one health level in bashing
damage if the truth you’re clamping down on is one of those “things that really
must be said” which isn’t a smart thing to say under the circumstances. (“Yeah,
Agent Courage, everybody knows you work every angle with every group – that’s not
exactly a ‘secret,’ now is it?”)

### The Eighth

**6pt. Flaw**

Your sire
is one of the Seven, the diablerist Golconda-seekers, trying to ensure the
spiritual wealth of salvation would never be lost with their Final Death. They
sought you as a successor, and proudly prepared you for your sacred duty. You,
on the other hand, smiled at their lies, listened to their bullshit, and ran
for the hills the first chance you got. You’re constantly hunted, not only by
the Tremere, but by your sire, the other Seven, and their various hangers-on.

You must be
at least Ninth Generation to take this Flaw.

### The Largest Maw

**2pt. Flaw**

Due to the
size of the Nagaraja’s shark-like rows of teeth, they find it hard to
communicate verbally. Instead, she speaks through pools of spit and sometimes
bites her own teeth in the process. This makes them quieter than other
Nagaraja, but can also affect situations where clear speech is mandatory, such
as when giving speeches or reciting delicate rituals.

All
difficulties for rolls where speech is a factor are raised by +2.

### Throwback

**1 to 5 pt. Flaw**

Haunted by
a past life (often as per the Background Trait of that name, described above),
you suffer from awful memories and act out in ways that are, shall we say, not
pro­ductive to your current incarnation. Perhaps you still loathe the clergymen
who tortured a former “you” for witchcraft 400 years ago; the smell of cooking
meat still sends you into panic attacks. Or you’ll get vertigo and acrophobic
surges from that time a previous incarnation fell off a castle wall. You may slip
into archaic accents, foreign languages, or terminology that is not exactly au
courant (or socially acceptable) in today’s world. Flashbacks, time segues,
inappropriate behavior – it’s all part of the package in this life you lead
today.

For each
point in this Flaw, up to a maximum of five points (and dice), the Storyteller
will roll one die against difficulty 8 when the potential arises for a past
life to affect your present life. The more successes he rolls, the more that
past life affects you. The symptoms of this “throwback syndrome” generally depend
upon the Storyteller’s whim, but you could collabo­rate with him to hash out a
backstory (or several backstories) for the previous incarnations your character
recalls, and then roleplay symptoms that seem appropriate to those histories.
For especially strong flashbacks (three successes or more), you may need to
roll your Willpower (again, difficulty 8) to suppress the reaction to what your
character recalls.

Described
in Guide to the Traditions as an adversarial Background of Past Life, this Flaw
makes a fitting companion to that Background, the Dream Background, and to
other Merits and Flaws related to reincarnation (Twin Souls, Shat­tered Avatar,
and similar Traits described within this section). With a few appropriate
changes to the symptoms, you could also describe the Throwback Flaw as
manifestations of a Leg­end Background, or as memories from a life that goes several
centuries. You’d rather forget the things you did, and endured, back during the
Conquest of the Americas, but you never really can.

### Tortured Artist

**1pt. Flaw**

Nothing is
ever good enough for your work. No matter how much praise is lavished upon you,
you can only see the flaws and mistakes. This leads to long periods of ennui, which
makes your artistic work irregular at best. Further, you throw yourself into
business arrangements and social situations with intensity, which often leads
to heartbreak, which leads to the pain and passion that fuels your next work.

You are at
+1 difficulty on Social rolls in which you are being praised, complimented, or
treated with respect.

### Touch of Frost

**1pt. Flaw**

Plants
wither as you approach and die at your touch. Your touch leeches heat from
living beings, as though you were made of ice.

### Unblinking

**1pt. Flaw**

Your eyes
do not close. Ever. Perhaps you have left your humanity too far behind to upkeep
such habits, or perhaps you fleshcrafted some form of transparent eye-scale or nictitating
membrane.

Your quirk
probably makes astute observers uncomfortable, adding +1 to the difficulty of friendly
social interactions with humans, Kindred on Humanity, and others with mortal
sensibilities.

### Uncanny

**1 to 5 pt. Flaw**

No matter
how unobtrusive you try to be, you remain re­markably memorable to anyone who
encounters you. You’re the very opposite of “arcane,” which is why this Flaw
was originally described as an adversarial Background for the Trait of that
name; rather than moving through life with near-invisibility, you stand out
like a HIT Mark at a Verbena barbeque.

Why are you
memorable, exactly? Is it an inhuman glow behind your eyes? An unsettling tone
in your voice? A meta­physical miasma that hangs about you despite your
apparently mundane appearance? Does grass grow or die in your shadow? Maybe
dogs cower when they sense your approach. There could be a low buzzing in your
presence, like a chorus of flies, or a disconcerting crackle of electricity
that radiates from your skin, disrupting electrical systems in small but
noticeable ways. Whatever it is that causes people to remember you, that facet
of your presence is a constant reminder that you are not like other folk.

Once again,
the point-value of this Flaw depends upon the extent to which it interferes
with your life:

**1 point:** You stand out in a crowd.

**2 points:** It’s pretty hard to conceal your oddities.

**3 points:** People remember you long after
you’re gone.

**4 points:** You creep people out simply by
existing.

**5 points:** You scare people simply by
existing.

By its
nature, this Flaw represents an unmistakable impres­sion. Each point in this
Flaw adds one die to the dice pool of anyone who’s trying to notice you,
recognize you, or penetrate your attempts at stealth or concealment. (You
didn’t really think those wailing damned souls were gonna shut up just because
you were trying to get past the guards, now did you?) You may, however, attempt
to cover up your uncanny presence with a roll of Intelligence + Subterfuge, assuming
you have a method of doing so – it’s easier to conceal your glowing red eyes
with sunglasses than to get those wailing damned souls to piss off for a few
minutes! The difficulty of such attempts is generally 5 + the value of your
Uncanny Flaw; if, for instance, the clever bioconstruct Victoria Carliotti gets
two points in Uncanny for her too-perfect skin, rippling muscles, and
impossibly green eyes, her concealment difficulty would be 7. That said, this
Flaw does not increase the difficulty of social rolls and may, depending on
what you’re trying to do, decrease such difficulties instead (Storyteller’s
option).

Despite the
potentially grotesque nature of this Flaw, your uncanniness doesn’t necessarily
have to mean that your physical features are fearsome in themselves. An
inhumanly gorgeous or disturbingly ordinary person can be Uncanny in their own
ways. This Flaw makes an excellent companion to a variety of Physical Merits
and Flaws – Enchanting Feature, Hyperflexible, Hideous, and so forth – and fits
in with Back­grounds like Legend, Past Life or Totem quite well too. (See the
appropriate entries for details.)

Although the
Flaw: Echoes can manifest similar odd phenomena, this Flaw reflects a constant
and recognizable distinction. While it probably embodies certain elements of
your metaphysical practices, it’s not tied to your Resonance or activities –
it’s an innate part of who you are. Your uncanniness could represent physical
features (hulking physique, metallic skin, eyes that reflect eternity, and so
forth); metaphysical quirks (an unearthly aura, echoing disembodied voices, a
chilling radius around you, etc.); weird companions (a parade of pink-winged
kittens, smoldering butterflies, howling coyote spirits, or similar
inexplicable critters). Essentially, any sort of localized kink in normalcy’s
tail could be considered a sign of your Uncanny nature. By “uncanny,” incidentally,
we don’t necessarily mean “supernatural.” The unnatural stillness of a Black
Suit, the flawless skin of a Victor, the predatory charisma of a Syndicate
“magic man” – they’re all examples of uncannily Enlightened technology.

### Uncommon Vitae Preference

**2pt. Flaw**

Your
preferred source for vitae is rarified even by the standards of your Clan, such
as “only Korean War vets,” “only Federal Court Judges,” or “only virgins over
the age of 40.” The difficulty of all hunting rolls for your character is
increased by +2, to a maximum of 9.

### Uncontrollable Night Sight

**2pt. Flaw**

Your night
vision is good, but you can’t turn it off. While you can see easily into the
deepest shadows, any light is almost blinding to you. You suffer penalties the
brighter the area you are in is lit, inversely proportional to the standard penalties
for darkness. Even just standing in a well-lit room is uncomfortable to you.

### Unproven

**3pt. Flaw**

Somehow,
you have failed to prove yourself worthy of the name Lasombra. Maybe your sire
did not test you well enough, or an opportunity to prove yourself has not come up.
Whatever the reason, you are not truly considered part of the Clan.

All social
dealings with other Lasombra suffer a -3 dice penalty. You may also not be
chosen to sit in judgment in the Courts of Blood.

### Unsanctioned Embrace

**2pt. Flaw**

Lazarus
decreed no Harbingers should Embrace, but your sire failed to listen. You’re
hopelessly green and unworthy of the vitae in your veins. Until you perform
acts befitting the nobility of your blood, your existence is shunned as a bad
omen.

Increase
difficulties of all Social actions involving your bloodline by two.

### Vassal of the Clan

**6pt. Flaw**

Through
natural predisposition or a curse, you bear a permanent one-point blood bond to
those one Generation lower, a two-point blood bond with those two Generations
lower, and a three-point blood bond to those three or more Generations lower
than you within your own Clan.

These blood
bonds override any other blood bonds you may earn during play. This can be a
great risk for Hand members, as the blood forces allegiances to potentially risky
vampires, or worse, to heretical ideologies.

### Veiled

**5 pt. Flaw**

For some
reason, you’re not immune to the Delirium. Gifts such as Part the Veil and the
Rending of the Veil rite have no effect on you. You do receive a +1 bonus on
the Delirium chart (p. 263) and retain all memories of what you see, but the
sight of a Garou in Crinos form still invokes some sort of instinctive,
uncontrollable reaction in you. This may convince Garou you’re not really
Kinfolk, reduce your likelihood of finding a Garou mate, or throw your heritage
into question.

### Venomous Bite

**2pt. Flaw**

You have
developed venom glands in the roof of your mouth. The venom is a virulent
neurotoxin, fatal to mortals, although Kindred and other supernatural creatures
are unaffected by it. You, of course, are immune.

The problem
is you have no control over your poison glands. When you bite, you always
inject this venom, usually killing your human victims. You must learn to feed
in other ways, perhaps drawing the blood you need with a syringe or razor, if
you do not wish to kill every time you feed.

### Vulnerability

**1 to 7 pt. Flaw**

Some
perilous substance may spell your doom. Thanks to a paranormal weakness – a
curse, a Paradox Flaw, a quirk of belief or cultural legends – you suffer
extraordinary harm from that malignant material. Perhaps you shrivel up in
sunlight, flee from the scent of roses, or melt when obnoxious farm girls throw
water in your face. This substance isn’t generally fatal to most folks
(Awakened or otherwise), but it’s potential death for you.

Your
vulnerability to this substance in question has two potential levels:

* Weakening, which inflicts one aggravated health level on your character every turn she’s in contact with the substance; and…

* Mortal peril, which inflicts three aggravated health levels for each turn she’s in contact with the substance.

The value of this Flaw is based upon two factors: How common the fatal substance is, and how badly it affects you:

**2 points:** You can be mortally wounded by
contact with something that’s almost impossible to acquire (the sound of Pan’s
pipes, a splinter from the True Cross), or weakened by a very rare substance (a
chunk of moon rock, the tooth from an aged lion).

**3 points:** Mortal injury from a very rare
substance, or weakness caused by something that’s relatively scarce and not
obviously harmful (saffron, grave dirt, a raven’s feathers).

**4 points**: Mortal injury from something that’s
relatively scarce, or weakness from a common substance (rainwater, silver, a
baby’s cry).

**5 points:** A common substance inflicts mortal
injury on you.

**+1 point:** You die instantly upon contact with the substance in question.
**+1 point:** The mere presence of the substance means instant death to you.
**-1 point**: The substance must first inflict damage on you through a typical injury (a stab wound, ingested poison, a silver bullet) before it can harm you.
Damage from
this Flaw cannot be soaked unless you’re wearing an appropriate type of armor
to prevent exposure to that substance. (Being aggravated damage, it shouldn’t
normally be soaked anyhow, but mages have ways of getting around such
trivialities.) Your backstory should feature the reason for your potentially
fatal vulnerability to this substance. That vulnerability ought to be tied into
your magickal focus, too – an Alpha Male tycoon isn’t likely to burn upon
contact with holy water, although it might be fun to fling a few dashes of the
stuff around Wall Street and find out for sure! (That would certainly explain a
few things.)

### Wolverine’s Palate

**3pt. Merit**

Though many
do not know this, the dreaded wolverine is one of only a few creatures in the
world that can eat their prey entirely, whether larger or smaller. The Nagaraja
with this Merit has the ability to eat bone just as easily as flesh, sapping
even more spiritual essence from her victim and converting it to blood points.

With one
bite, she can cut through flesh and bone and swallow it all at once with no ill
effect. This also means she may gain up to 5 additional blood points from a
body by consuming the bones.