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.
The character owns a mystical object or relic. How the character came to own the object is up to the player. The character might have inherited the object, stolen it, purchased it or just found it by sheer luck. Note that this Merit only represents an object that a character begins play with; if your character finds a relic during a story, you don’t need to pay the experience points for it.
Relics have a variable point cost, determined as follows:
Condition — Cost in Merit Dots
Powers — +1 per Power dot
Durability — +1 per dot
Equipment Bonus — +1 per dot (maximum of +5 above what such an item would normally confer)
Bonded (the item only works for this character) — +1
Cost — -1 per dot of Cost (see p. 116-117)
Curses/Drawbacks — -2 per Curse (see p. 113-116)
Example: Matt, in creating a new character for Chuck’s chronicle, decides to put some Merit points into a relic. He has visions of a ring that looks plain, but in fact contains a deep and abiding power.
Right off the bat, Matt decides he doesn’t want to deal with anyone stealing the ring and using it on him. The ring is Bonded to his character (1 dot). He decides against raising its Durability, and a ring doesn’t normally confer an equipment bonus anyway, so he doesn’t spend points in those areas. For Powers (see p. 87-113 for a full list of Relic Powers), Matt chooses Hypnotic Suggestion and Reward Temptation — the ring allows the wielder greater benefit from indulging his Vice and great opportunity to do so. These are both two-dot Powers, which raises the total to five; a little more than Matt was hoping to spend. Fortunately, there are ways to lower the cost.
Matt decides that the ring is Cursed (see p. 113). Yes, using it can grant the character untold amounts of pleasure and mental fortitude, but it saps his physical well-being. The ring has the Leech curse, sapping the character’s Health away every time he uses it. Matt decides that this Health loss manifests as a wracking cough, sometimes with a bit of blood. This drops the total cost to 3 Merit dots, which both Matt and Chuck feel is fair. All that remains is for Matt to figure out where he got the ring, what it looks like and how he discovered its powers, all details that he will work into his character’s prelude.
Note: The reduction in price for taking Costs is only applicable if these costs are taken in conjunction with the specified cost of the chosen Power(s), not as a replacement for the costs listed. If the relic only works at night, and its Power still costs the specified Willpower to activate, the builder can subtract the appropriate 1-dot Cost value for a Temporal Cost. If the relic only works at night, and the builder takes this limitation in place of its Willpower cost, it does not lower the relic’s overall cost.)
The character has an instinctive understanding of how relics work, what their capabilities are, and how to make use of them. This understanding is by no means
complete, nor does it grant prescience about curses or other pitfalls of the relic. This Merit grants a +1 to any attempts to figure out an item’s “trigger” condition or activation, detect curses and any other roll that involves fi guring out practical (not historical) uses for a mystical object (see p. 132 of Chapter 4 for a sample scenario).
The character can create limited-use mystical items, such as a Hand of Glory or the Writ of Safe Haven (see p. 79-81). Doing so is a time-consuming and sometimes expensive or dangerous process, and not even the most talented and prolific craftsman can churn out such objects quickly.
To create a relic, the character must first have suitable materials. This might require the character to procure components or ingredients. If any preparation is required (carving a statue or writing a poem, for instance), the player makes the appropriate rolls to make the vessel ready for magic (typically Dexterity + Crafts or Manipulation + Expression).
Once the object is ready, the character performs a ritual appropriate to her style of magic and the type of enchantment she is trying to lay upon the object. The player makes an extended Resolve + Occult roll. The target number of successes is equal to five times the relic’s rating, based on the formula presented under the Relic Merit, below. Every roll takes one hour of work, prayer, chanting, dancing or whatever activity is appropriate to the ritual. The player may only make a number of rolls equal to the character’s Resolve + Occult dice pool.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The object has taken on the appropriate magical properties, as far as the creator can tell, but in fact the object has become tainted by faulty enchantment. It takes on a curse (see p. 113-116), which becomes activated when the object’s magic would normally take effect.
Failure: The character accumulates no successes. If the number of rolls surpasses the character’s Resolve + Occult pool before the target is reached, the magic doesn’t “take.” The item must be ritually cleansed and re-enchanted.
Success: The character makes progress toward the goal. If she reaches the target number of successes, the relic is complete and functions as described in Chapter Two.
Exceptional Success: Significant progress is made toward the goal. No other effect.
The character has either made a study of customs and practices in cultures other than his own or, as the name suggests, traveled extensively enough to know such customs. The character receives the 9-again benefit on any Social roll involving dealing with a foreign culture, or Mental roll for remembering the practices and mores of such a culture. This knowledge is purely practical; the character might remember that it’s rude to show one’s bare head in a given country, but not why.