When introducing a new set of mechanics to a World of Darkness game, especially one where I am creating the setting as well as the mechanics, there's the question of "just what can I do with this?" Usually it manifests itself with merits and abilities that represent a natural evolution in response to the new mechanics. and since The Foundation is such an old and powerful institution you'd think they'd have a trick or two up their sleeves...that did not include the concealed dart launcher tipped with curare.
Coldblooded (****)
Prerequisites: Composure 4, Empathy 2
Effect:
Some people learn how to be cold, hard, bastards. It does not mean that they are emotionless beings who would not coo at a child, give a happy dog a pat and maybe a good scratch, or that they would never cry at an emotional scene in a movie. It does not mean that they lack human empathy, usually it’s the opposite problem, that they may empathise just enough to develop a greater sense of complex ethical responsibility or that they become inured to such unpleasant tasks that they must find a way to cope with the fact that they still are empathetic human beings.
This mindset does not merely encompass such extreme acts as murder or torture, but also thievery, perjury, or any instance where the person is knowingly performing an act where they know they are somehow harming another human being. While the difference between a mother stealing a loaf of bread to feed her starving family and a detective murdering a serial killer in cold blood because they will get off charges on a technicality are different in order of magnitude the coping techniques used by the people who must learn to do these things are the same. When the character has to perform a sin against humanity that is required from a sense of higher ethical responsibility they receive a +2 Bonus to their Sanity Defence for the purpose of not receiving Sanity Damage.
Note: People who take this merit have learned to cope with the horrific things that must be done, but they have learned how to do them without costing them their ability to empathise with other human beings. Individuals who can do these things without feeling any significant amount of regret are either sociopaths or clinically insane. Remember that.
Jaded (**)
Prerequisites: Emotional Detachment (Asylum P. 50)
Effect:
When you see your first accident close up, you feel disgusted, you might puke, or it might disturb you on an emotional level you’ve never felt before, or never wanted to feel again. But after you’ve seen the same kind of thing again and again, you get used to it, even mass murder can be objectively observed if one has had the misfortune to have seen it often enough. It’s the method of adaptation that is all too human in nature, that when you see bad things often enough, they don’t provoke the same reaction the same way. While you may still feel disgust, horror, or most commonly a great sympathy for what you perceive it just doesn’t shake you anymore, because you’ve seen it all before. The character gets a +3 bonus to Sanity Defence when encountering a horror event that could be described as an atrocity.
Quick Witted (**)
Prerequisites: Wits 3, Composure 3.
Effect:
In an emergency, while everyone else is still in shock, you’re one of the first to recover and take account of the situation. Maybe it’s an enhanced survival instinct, or it’s the fact that you’re good at problem solving in stressful situations, or it’s simply a talent you’ve always had. While most people will still be there slack jawed or panicking you’re one of the people who have already decided to do something. The character recovers two shock damage in the amount of time it would normally take to recover from one.
Unflappable (****)
Prerequisites: Quick Witted, Wits 4, Composure 3
Effect:
Things just don’t faze you like they do others. You aren’t just the guy who is first among the mob to act in an emergency, you’re already trying to figure things out while people are still deciding just what the hell happened. It’s not that you can’t be shocked, surprised, or otherwise caught off guard, it’s that it takes a hell of a lot to do it. On top of the benefit of being quick witted the character also soaks the first two shock damage that the character would normally receive from a horror event.
Dr. J. Daniels Psychiatrist (**)
Prerequisite: Flaw: Addiction
Some people need help coping, some people need chemical help, and we aren’t talking about anti-psychotics...or at least what most people consider anti-psychotics. Though the traditional aids have been alchohol, nicotine, and opium many individuals found their own escapes and ways to deal with those things that keep them up late into the night. When giving into their addiction after receiving a significant amount of sanity damage(more than five points of Trauma damage) the character may heal either three trauma damage or one psychosis damage. This ability may only be used once per game session.
Tempered by Faith (****)
Virtue: Faith
Sometimes believing is enough, sometimes holding to your beliefs can let you deal with the horrors of the world. For you, your Faith in God, Allah, Goddess, or even the sincere compassion of a bodhisattva gives your willpower some extra durability against what the world can throw at you. When a character spends a willpower to increase their Sanity Defence, in the event that damage is still inflicted, the character may soak either two shock damage or one trauma damage.
Pillar of Virtue (***)
Hope, Fortitude, or Justice Virtue
Some people, no matter how screwed up, can find within themselves a powerful foundation built upon their willingness to maintain integrity and keep going in the face of hopelessness. You are the kind of person that proving yourself again and again to be a virtuous person has let you rise above everything the world throws at you. Once per game when the character would otherwise regain all willpower from acting on her virtue they may instead downgrade all Sanity Damage that the character has inflicted upon them.
Willing Ignorance (****)
Prerequisites: Meditative Mind, Resolve 4
Effect:
You’re not sure how you learned the trick, but you can erase your own memories. There is no real manual for this technique, and no one can really teach it, but still some individuals just learn how to affect their own minds adequately to just remove unwanted memories completely. While you may still remember the context of these memories the memories themselves are completely gone, down to the last detail. By spending a willpower the character may remove two trauma damage or one psychosis damage from their Sanity boxes. This ability can only be used once per game session.
Mental Fortresses: “Fighting style” (* to *****)
Prerequisites: Meditative Mind, Intelligence 3, Wits 3, and Academics 2
Effect:
The Ancients had a technique, or more appropriately a method by which long series of information could be memorized through a series of memetic cues that would retranslate information into specific image-thoughts created within a greater construct which could then be added to and improved. In Ancient Rome and Greece this was the method that great orators could perfectly recite hours of speech verbatim from how they were written. In the early history of the foundation these techniques that were normally more academic in nature could be used to reinforce the mind itself. By building a literal fortress of thoughts and ideas to sort through, differentiate, and apply information in a deliberate manner with all the same intent of an architect building a castle.
* - Bricks and Mortar
By having learned the memetic tricks associated with the ancient means of memorization Foundation agents can benefit from the original intent of the Method. The Character can easily memorize any series of information including cognitive patterns; if the character must roll dice to recall information they have actively observed they receive a +2 dice modifier. This stacks with Eidetic Memory.
** - Forming the Walls
From the bricks and mortar of ideas the Agent can now begin rebuilding their mind with the deliberate intent of organizing and reinforcing specific cognitive pathways. In effect the character’s fortress now has walls to keep nuisances out! The Character can use the higher between their Resolve or Composure as their Sanity Defence.
*** - Raising the Watchtowers
With walls in place to prevent unwanted invaders from getting in the Agent then must find a way to foresee problems approaching and for a castle the method to do so was to build watchtowers. For the agent the metaphor applies just as well as they create early warning systems to allow the agent to prepare for incoming attacks. When the character has been warned of a specific horror event they may add +2 to their Sanity Defence as if they spent a willpower point to enhance their defence.
**** - Arming the Ramparts
The best defence is not just a high wall, it’s a high wall with stakes on the bottom, boiling pitch on the top, and several nasty things all over that make the fortress even more uninviting to invade. Agents begin devising constructs within their fortresses designed to work actively in maintaining the defence of the fortress. The character adds +1 to their sanity defence.
***** - Depths of the Hidden Keep
The Castle has been built. The defences are up, and every detail about it means something to the agent who built it. But what Agents learn as they master this technique is that while a fortress can be defined by its walls it may also be defined by its depths. The agent begins creating shortcuts to the forgotten places in the mind where thoughts go to die, and with an expenditure of will, some intended invaders find themselves in such an oubliette. By spending willpower point the character can absorb a number of Sanity Damage points equal to their resolve. The character will soak the worst Sanity damage on the character first. However this ability can only be used once per game session.
These following merits are techniques that were developed by the famous psychiatrist Carl Jung with aid from fellow psychiatrist-psychologist Wilhelm Reich. The works by these two men were both too radical for their mentor Sigmund Freud, and they were certainly too radical for their respective eras, but fortunately their work was long admired by the various agents within the Eulicid Foundation who often remarked that contemporary society seemed to stymie the potential of these two men. Having admired their works from afar In 1950, the Foundation sought both Doctors out to hire for their unique viewpoints and specialties, Jung agreed and worked further in his cognito-symbolic research, Dr. Reich however wished to try to move forward his orgone theories into common usage in the US. When the United States Department of Drugs and Food began their persecution of Dr. Reich with the intent to silence and Jail him the Eulicid foundation chose to aggressively recruit Wilhelm Reich by faking his death in 1957. Noting the unique ability of these men to synthesise esoteric ideas the two doctors were tasked to work together to create new psychological methods to protect Foundation Agents in the field, their achievements were only marred by Carl Jung’s natural death in 1961 at the age of 85. Though his colleague died and their combined work ended Dr. Reich’s continued research in Orgone therapy has long benefited the techniques and skills of Foundation medical teams well past his death in 1998 at the ripe age of 101.
Cerebral Vent (*)
Effect:
The Mind has dark places where things are forgotten, where the stress and strain of existence can vent and release. By adapting a practice that would eventually be discovered by Cognitive Behavioural Therapists the doctors realised that the stresses that would normally crack the human mind could be safely redirected by creating overflow channels into those dark and forgotten places. In any event where a character receives enough sanity damage to roll over a grade, the character in effect negates that one damage preventing the leftmost box of shock into Trauma, or the leftmost box of Trauma into Psychosis.
Resilient Psyche (**)
Prerequisites: Resolve 3, Cerebral Vent
Upon realising the potential of Cerebral Venting Dr. Reich wondered what would happen if they applied the same techniques using an active system rather than a passive one. Rather than allowing the overflow of damage to flood the mind, and letting minor cognitive constructs work to their maximum he devised a method whereby several memetic techniques could effectively redistribute the overflow en mass unto these mental abysses. In the event that a character receives enough psychic damage to roll over into a new grade of damage and it would roll over more than one grade the character may spend a willpower point to negate any additional damage past that single point. Note: this effect stacks with Cerebral Vent’s effect.
Jungian Seed (**)
Effect:
According to Carl Jung, The Shadow is a personality of a person’s unconscious mind that exists in everyone, born of a person’s weaknesses, repressions, fears and ambitions the Shadow exists as both and unwanted element within the psyche and a necessary one as well. The Jungian Seed is a psychological technique using an amalgamation of their specialties they found a means to allow a person to manifest their Shadow in the event of an emergency to save the self and allow the whole self to recover. In the event that the character would be rendered unconscious or otherwise mentally disabled the player may choose to activate the Jungian Shard so that the Character can escape whatever situation caused the effect. Despite the distasteful reputation and makeup the Jungian Shard genuinely cares about the character and has their best interests in mind, though perhaps not the most ethical ways of showing their best interests. In the event of a threat they are as likely to cowardly run away as they are to fight like psychotic maniacs against what they would perceive as a threat. The Shadow can use all of the character’s skills and abilities though they are purely motivated by the fight or flight survival instinct should said threat no longer exist the shadow will return to the character’s unconsciousness. This effect can only last for a number of rounds equal to a character’s permanent willpower, though the player may choose to spend a willpower point to allow the survival instinct of the shadow three additional rounds before expending itself and being dragged back into the unconscious thus causing the character to return to unconsciousness unless they may reawaken(storyteller decision.)
Special Rule: In the event that a character is entirely full of psychosis damage and they have this merit their shadow may manifest for an extended period until the character has had sufficient time to recover at least one psychosis point thus allowing the unconscious mind to assist the process of healing the agent. Though this allows agents to return to duty, the time taken to recover by this means is considerable.
Gestalt Partition(**, ****, *****)
Prerequisites: Meditative Mind, Intelligence 3, Resolve 3, Occult 3
The Consciousness is not a mono-entity, it is made up of many processes that create the whole that we recognise as a person. What Dr. Reich theorised was that it was possible to take some of the functioning of these processes and create a backup consciousness separate from the primary consciousness and supplemental to it. Each 2 dots create another box of sanity “health” that exists outside of a person’s normal mental health like a separate row of boxes. The Character may use these boxes to “store” damage received in the line of duty or to “soak” incoming attacks. As the partition is both supplemental and separate the character does not experience any penalties associated with damage received. The time taken to recover the damage within the partition is added to the recovery time, as the two systems do not function in parallel for purposes of healing.
The Darker Twin (*****)
Prerequisites: Jungian Seed, Gestalt Partition (** or **** or *****)
When the Doctors first discovered Sie Doppelt Dunkler, as they referred to it, they were unsure if it was a benign creation or not. It occurred to an agent who despite her talents and her adoption of the Jungian Seed and Gestalt Partition was frequently found suffering from the mental trauma that would affect her worse than other Agents. However, on a mission in Tajikistan when it seemed that she was rendered catatonic, fellow agents noted that she got back up and began attacking the enemy with renewed vigour, enthusiasm, and cunning that was entirely unlike their previous experiences with her Shadow, not to mention that after the threat was gone the Shadow stuck around. After assessing that it was not possession they took her back to base and it was discovered by Jung and Reich that she somehow amalgamated her Shadow into her Gestalt Partition to create a mirrored personality. Possessing many of the aspects of her Shadow she was a “Dark Twin” to the primary agent’s personality, though it maintained the function and overall goals of the Shadow to protect the primary personality. Though it was discovered that The Darker Twin was a benign form of multiple personality disorder many agents outright refuse to learn how it was done for fear of what their Twin might do or say.
The activation of The Dark Twin is the same as the Jungian Shard, however instead of a being of limited drive and energy the alternate personality that is made from their Shadow and the Partition is instead the shadow’s reflection of the real deal. The Dark Twin has its own sanity boxes at +4 health boxes added to the Gestalt, these boxes can no longer be used to take away sanity damage. The Twin also adds +1 to their sanity defence, defence, perception rolls, social rolls to get what they want, and rolls to attack. However the twin receives a penalty of -2 to any task that involves an extended action or any action that is not actively seeking a direct solution. Furthermore the Twin must roll Resolve + Composure whenever they must do something that would be terribly dangerous and grievously harm the character or do something that will likely threaten their sanity further. Though the Twin cannot be banished by normal means the prime personality recovers sanity at twice the rate while their twin is active.
The Twin personality has all the same attributes and skills and abilities as the Prime Personality, they have however less inhibition, greater arrogance, and often have personality traits that are the exact opposite of the personality they are based on.
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