Merits are special capabilities or knacks that add individuality to your character. They’re purchased during character creation or with experience points over the course of your chronicle.
The Merits in this chapter are organized alphabetically into three broad categories: Physical, Mental and Social. Some apply to your character’s basic traits to enhance them in particular situations. Some have prerequisites that must be met before they can be purchased. For example, a character with the Gunslinger Merit must have a Dexterity of 3 and Firearms of 3 or higher to be able to accurately fire two weapons at the same time. By the same token, some Merits apply drawbacks that balance out their inherent advantages. A character with the Fame Merit, for example, is treated like a star wherever he goes — but has a hard time blending into the crowd when he wants to.
Each Merit has a number of dots (•) associated with it. These dots represent the number of points that must be spent to purchase the Merit. Some Merits allow for a range of dots (say, • to •••). These allow you to purchase a low rating if it’s appropriate to your character concept, or you can start with a low level and increase it over time with experience points.
A character is born with some Merits or develops them early in life, while others can be acquired through trail and error, training and effort later in life.
The first kind can be acquired at character creation only and are labeled as such. The second kind can be acquired during play with experience points.
Merit dots must be purchased sequentially with experience points. You have to buy • and then •• before your character can have ••• or more.
Whenever your character performs a dodge you can add his Athletics Skill dots to his Defense instead of doubling his Defense. He essentially draws on his knowledge of how his body moves to parry and evade attacks rather than rely on his raw ability alone.
Athletics Dodge applies against incoming Brawl- and Weaponry-based attacks, against thrown-weapon attacks, and against firearms attacks made within close-combat range. Your character can move up to his Speed and perform an Athletics Dodge maneuver in a turn.
A character can possess this Merit and also the Brawling Dodge and Weaponry Dodge Merits, but only one can be used per turn.
Your character understands how to survive on a battlefield as a result of either intense military training or personal experience. This includes knowledge of how to use terrain to your advantage and a general state of mental alertness sustainable even under heavy enemy fi re. As a result of this aptitude, your character gains a +2 dice bonus to any situational awareness roll.
Your character has received an award for meritorious conduct of some sort. Characters gain a bonus on all Social rolls relating to one’s Allies, Contacts or Status in the military, regardless of whether the character is currently serving or not.
The three-dot, four-dot and five-dot Merits indicate an exceptional award: the Silver Star for the three-dot Merit; the Distinguished Service Medal or Distinguished Service Cross for the four-dot Merit; and the Medal of Honor for the five-dot Merit.
Those who have earned the Medal of Honor are entitled to a salute regardless of rank or whether they are now civilians.
Servicemen and servicewomen who have received lethal injuries as a result of combat during a military action are automatically awarded the Purple Heart, a two-dot Merit.
Drawback: This Merit rides on the world’s perception of the character’s honor and Morality. The character must be seen to retain honor and dignity in his actions. Should the character commit sins rated 5 or lower on the Morality chart, and should those sins become public knowledge, the Merit may be revoked, earning him the Notoriety Flaw (see “Character Flaws”, the World of Darkness Rulebook, p. 217).
The character is trained in Modern Army Combatives, the modern military style of hand-to-hand combat that blends a number of fighting styles such as Muay Thai to provide a soldier with an all-round means of unarmed self-defense and defense with short weapons (Brawl and Weaponry Skills).
Each dot of this Fighting Style is the prerequisite for the next higher dot; one cannot purchase “Atemi Attack” until one has purchased “Tactician’s Sense”, for example.
• Tactician’s Sense: The character gauges the body language of combatants in his proximity. In game terms, he can make a Reflexive Wits + Composure perception roll and gauge the Initiative modes of all combatants before a fight starts.
•• Atemi Attack: The human body has a variety of pressure points, any of which can cause an opponent great pain. The trained fighter knows where to strike for maximum effect. When striking with a Brawl or Weaponry attack, the character may ignore up to 1 point of the enemy’s Armor protection per dot in this Fighting Style.
••• Forearm Choke: The character applies pressure to an enemy’s carotid artery in an attempt to knock him out. The character must successfully achieve a Grapple attack. The character may apply the choke hold from the following turn. The hostile may attempt to free himself on his next action with Strength + Brawl, his dice pool penalized by the character’s Strength + 1.
This maneuver is designed to render the foe unconscious. The foe may resist each turn at a cumulative –1 dice pool penalty. When your character has sustained the choke hold for a number of turns equal to the hostile’s Stamina, the hostile is rendered unconscious, and sustains a single point of bashing damage. The Forearm Choke is useless against creatures that do not need to breathe.
•••• Bullring: The character is trained in fighting off multiple opponents simultaneously. His Defense is applied in full to each and every simultaneous hand-to-hand attack in a single turn.
••••• Lethal Strike: The soldier’s hands become deadly weapons when the character spends a Willpower point. A successful Brawl strike delivered in a turn in which he spends Willpower delivers lethal, rather than bashing, damage.
Drawback: Because the lethal attack takes place in that turn, the character cannot spend Willpower to boost his attack dice pool.
The character is familiar with the tactical application of force by a small unit: no unit larger than a platoon. The character must be in charge of the unit in question for it to benefit from his tactical leadership. When conducting a tactical maneuver such as a flanking attack, covering fire or when in a CQB (Close Quarters battle) or FIBUA (Fighting In Built Up Areas, aka Urban Warfare) situation, in any turn, the leader may spend 1 Willpower and roll Manipulation + Persuasion reflexively to issue a command to his unit. The Willpower bonus of +3, or +2 to a defensive dice pool, applies to all the men in the unit in that turn, including the leader. Any individual member may also stack their own Willpower expenditure and bonus on top of the leadership bonus conferred by the leader.
Drawback: The Willpower bonus only applies in a situation in which the leader and his men are already well trained, using tactics familiar to all men in the unit. In game terms, all members of the team, including the leader, must have gained 1 experience point at some prior stage whilst under the guidance of the leader. If a situation arises for which there is no SOP (Standard Operating Procedure), the leadership bonus does not apply unless it is applied to a defensive dice pool.
A Trained Observer can spot the smallest anomaly.
No detail escapes his notice. With the one-dot version, the TO ignores penalties of up to -3 on Perception rolls. The three dot version gives Perception rolls the Rote Action quality (see “Rote Actions”, the World of Darkness Rulebook, p. 134).