Skill Based and General Character Knowledge 4 page

Mute (Cannot be taken by alicorns)– No, ponies with this hindrance aren’t mutants. They just can’t talk. Maybe their tongue was cut out by raiders, maybe they haven’t said a word since that fateful night five years ago, or maybe they were just born that way, but for whatever reason they cannot, or will not, talk. They may communicate via other means, such as Ditzy Doo’s chalkboard, but in-game the player of a pony with this hindrance player should find ways to express their character’s desires that are distinctly non-verbal; their attempts at communication are still governed by speechcraft or whatever other skill may be appropriate. This hindrance is difficult to roleplay, and we recommend that players discuss with their GM before taking it.

Naïve (Stable Dwellers or EVC only)– “Did you just step out of a Stable?” Characters with this hindrance will probably hear this often. Naïve ponies tend to not know or understand a lot of the finer points about how the world works. They’re not stupid – they just don’t know. The world is a big bright hopeful place, and naïve ponies simply haven’t seen the darkest sides of it – yet. At character creation, the naïve hindrance doesn’t cause your waster any problems, save for some roleplaying ramifications. Unfortunately, naïveté doesn’t last forever; ponies with the naïve hindrance must trade it for another hindrance at level 10, or buy it off with a perk. What hindrances are applicable for this trade depends on the experiences of the character, and should be discussed with the GM.

Narcoleptic –Your wastelander has a problem staying awake. This might be due to a chemical condition, or it might be due to some sort of conditioning. Regardless, when exposed to a specific stimulus, such as high amounts of stress, and enveloping warmth, or being veiled in darkness, they fall asleep. What triggers your pony’s narcolepsy should be decided between you and the GM – the three triggers above are merely suggestions. Optionally, or perhaps additionally, the narcoleptic effect could be triggered by the GM spending a luck card as per the Live by Luck rules. Characters with this hindrance can resist the effects, attempting to not fall asleep when presented with their trigger effect, but to do so requires a frustratingly difficult (MFD ¼) INT roll. If not actively resisting the urge before the trigger is presented, the narcoleptic character may not even be presented a chance to resist.

Nasty Habit –Your character regularly does something a little off-putting, but for them it’s a habit they just can’t break. Things like licking the inside of their nostrils (a feat nearly all ponies are quite capable of, I assure you), pulling on their eyebrows (a feat I have yet to see a pony accomplish), winking their eyes individually and out of sync instead of blinking, hocking and spitting phlegm wads mid-sentence, biting their hooves, licking their pipbuck screen, or incessantly picking their teeth with a live-.50 caliber round are all good examples. The habit is not healthy for them, and is more likely than not looked upon as slightly abnormal or even outright disgusting behavior by other ponies.

If this habit makes any sort of noise or requires significant movement, characters with this perk take a -10 penalty on all Sneak rolls unless they can suppress the urge to act out their habit. To do so requires a hard (MFD ½) INT or END roll (player’s choice). Otherwise, this unsightly habit gives them a -5 penalty to all Speechcraft and Mercantile skill rolls and all Charisma rolls.

Obese (Cannot be taken by Alicorns, Ghouls, or with Skinny as a Rail or Pipsqueak) –Characters with this hindrance are overweight. This is a fairly unusual thing, considering that the majority of the Equestrian wasteland is on the verge of starvation, so in addition to the negative effects of actually being morbidly overweight, your character can also expect some astonished or angry looks the next time they’re out and about. They also have a problem losing weight, and tend to eat about one and a half to two times as much as normal ponies. If they can’t get that much food, they are very likely to complain about it.

Obese characters are a bit heartier than their healthy-weight counterparts, giving them a +1 to Endurance at character creation. However, they also take a -1 penalty to AGI for reasons mentioned above, and cannot exceed an AGI score of 8 while they have this hindrance. The large stature of characters with this hindrance gives them a -5 penalty to rolls made to dodge. This hindrance can be bought off, assuming the character does something in game that would actually cause them to lose weight such as exercise regularly and force themselves to eat normal-sized amounts of food for an extended period of time. If an obese pony is attempting (or being forced) to regulate their diet and not consuming and additional meal at least once every two days, they suffer a -1 penalty to END rolls.

Characters with this hindrance weigh (2d8*10) units of weight more than their normal-weight counterparts.

Obligation – Your pony belongs someplace, and has a set of responsibilities that come with it. Whether its membership to a family, tribe or gang, or even citizenship to a larger settlement, they have the responsibilities that come with belonging. Characters with this hindrance have to maintain their place within their organization, or otherwise regularly have to take time during or between sessions to take care of whoever or whatever they are obligated to. Because this is a hindrance, while it may grant the character some benefits from being a part of an organization, the GM should ensure that obligated ponies tend to have to do a lot more for their organizations, and on a more regular basis, than those ponies who take the “Organization” background edge. Those ponies with the Organization background edge tend to be ranked a bit higher than those with the Obligation hindrance when it comes to hierarchy within the same group, but this hindrance is by no means incompatible with that trait. Obligation can also be taken with regard to individuals.

Oblivious –Some ponies want to watch the world burn. Others wouldn’t even notice that the world was burning if it landed on top of them (and even then they still might not realize what was going on). Some ponies are just oblivious. They get by well enough, as long as they aren’t on watch when the raiders attack.

Oblivious characters suffer a -15 roll penalty on all perception checks, and tend not to notice things like land mines, or signs warning that the bridge is out up ahead.

OCD –Commonly referred to as CDO by those under its influence, obsessive compulsive disorder still exists out in the wasteland.In fact, it’s very common among those who leave the stable for the first time to start developing symptoms as a reaction to the abrupt change from sterility to the omnipresent dirt and grime the wasteland offers. While it has no direct numerical impact on a character, it’s a huge roleplaying hindrance, so pay close attention.

There are two parts to this mental disorder: compulsions, and obsessions. For the sake of not driving those with this hindrance mad, I’ll go over compulsions first.

Characters demonstrating OCD frequently have irrational compulsions, most frequently towards cleanliness, that they engage in as a forced distraction from their obsessions. Common overt compulsions include alphabetization (the one referenced most directly in this description), brushing their mane, tail or coat much more frequently than is necessary (or healthy), brushing their teeth even if they haven’t eaten, clearing their throat unnecessarily, counting – either specific things or in specific ways, picking at wounds, making checklists, making checklists of checklists, needlessly reorganizing their gear, touching a certain number of objects in each room before being able to exit, or walking in a certain way (such as only stepping on one color of tile). Many sufferers also engage in more covert compulsions, such as mental math or recitation (particularly entertaining for telepathy-users). Compulsions tend to be subconsciously geared to help the OCD-sufferer overcome or ignore fears or anxieties that result from their obsessions. The GM may suggest compulsions at any time to the character during play; a Willpower roll MFD ¾ (that’s INT and CHA, taking the better of the two rolls) is required for a character to resist performing the suggested action.

Obsessions are recurring thoughts that persist in remaining at the forefront of a character’s mind no matter how much they (the character) confront them. These tend to drive a character through an enormous amount of fear and anxiety related to their obsessions, inspiring the compulsions described previous. Obsessions need not be a single thought or idea, though they commonly are, nor need they be of the conventional “X is going to get me!” variety of OCD most commonly seen on television. The GM may want to suggest thoughts to an OCD character, but this is strictly optional.

Those suffering with this disease understand fully that their compulsions and notions do not correspond with reality, but are compelled regardless to act as though they are correct. If a character fails to resist the notions of their obsessions, OCD can progress into full blown dissociative personality disorder (MPD) or Psychosis. This hindrance works well in tandem with Fixation, particularly if the fixation is on not having something occur.

One Trick Pony (Races with the Magic Racial Skill Only; Cannot be taken with Magical Savant, Stubby Little Horn) – Most Unicorns or Zebras (and many half-breeds with parentage from either of those races) have a selection of spells to choose from, and with sufficient effort can learn any new spells related to their cutie mark that they come across if trained or taught. If your Unicorn or Zebra (or half-breed) has this hindrance, then they aren’t one of those. They only have one spell, and are incapable of learning any others, though not for lack of trying. They might be very good at that one spell, or they might not, but baring extremely powerful supernatural means (such as a Black Book) they will never learn any others. Unicorns with this hindrance may not take spells beyond telekinesis, but the fact that they haven’t had to focus their attentions on broadening their magic has allowed them more time to mature and focus it. They may add an extra layer of overglow beyond what normal unicorns can sustain (x16), without doubling the cost of the spell a fourth time (it still takes an extra action to channel the fourth layer, however).

Unicorn characters that wish to take another spell or recipe aside from telekinesis as their “one trick” may opt to have that spell instead of telekinesis. If characters choose to do this, they may only progress up the spell tree of the additional spell, and may not take more than one spell at each spell-level. They may also not cast any level 0 spells (aside from Telekinesis) unless that spell is their “one trick”. They may still add an extra layer of overglow without doubling the cost.

Zebra with this hindrance have two options similar to unicorns. Their first option is that they may opt to take an extra character creation point and know only the Survival stew recipe (so a total of two points from one hindrance – not too shabby). This means they’ve focused other aspects of zebra culture such as hunting or technology, which manifests as a +5 bonus (this is a roll bonus, not a rank bonus) to three of the following skills of their choice: Small Guns, Melee Weapons, Unarmed, Sneak, Science, Mercantile, Medicine or Repair.

The second option for zebra is to hone their knowledge down into a single school of magic. They start with one level-0 recipe of their choosing within a single school of zebra magic, and may learn one recipe at each spell-level as they progress. While they can learn multiple spells at each level (so long as it stays in the same school), they can only know and be able to use one spell at each level at any given time. Learning another recipe at a level causes them to forget how to perform any other recipes they knew at that level. They must completely relearn the recipe from scratch to be able to perform it again.

Oops! –The title of this hindrance is actually the last word of many characters that have it. Also common were “My Bad!” “I just don’t know what went wrong!” and “OH SH-“. Characters with this hindrance have a problem involving explosives and other thrown items. That is, they’re good at throwing them quickly, but they’re bad at throwing them far enough away. This hindrance reduces the range increment of items thrown by characters from the normal 10 feet to 5, making their maximum thrown range about 15 feet, assuming they can make an MFD ¼ roll with regularity. The tradeoff is that throwing items costs them 5 less AP in SATS.

This hindrance works well with Clumsy.

Optimistic –Your pony is simply incapable of looking on anything but the brightest side of life. This is not a normal characteristic of ponies in the wasteland, considering that there usually isn’t much to look forward to. Nonetheless, while they might not always be grounded in reality, ponies with this hindrance are always looking up. Many ponies in the wasteland tend to give ponies with this positive of an outlook a wide berth; insanity is catching. Ponies with this hindrance tend to mean well, but are frequently misunderstood or taken as foolish. This manifests as a -5 Speechcraft penalty against those not living in secure settlements.

Note that there is no pessimistic hindrance, as that’s just considered normal behavior these days

Overactive Imagination (Requires INT 5 or above) – Quite frankly, you scare the shit out of yourself sometimes, and it’s usually over nothing. Characters with this hindrance have trouble walking into pre-war areas, fearful of what might be around the corner or whose skeleton they might stumble into. A skeleton on a bed might surprise them, driving them into a maddening frenzy of thoughts and speculations on how they died horrifically of radiation poisoning or balefire. A word or a trigger can set their mind off running – Who was this skeleton? How did they die? Sweet Celestia I’ll bet they suffered, and it was awful….

Similarly they tend to speculate horrifically on what might happen to them in dangerous or tense situations. In short, characters with this hindrance get themselves all worked up over things that haven’t happened yet, usually while there’s still a chance to avoid them, and things that have already happened, despite the fact that they’re currently still alive to worry about it. This is a roleplaying hindrance. Depending on how it’s role-played, this hindrance may be incompatible with Sadist or Masochist; if you plan on taking this hindrance in conjunction with either of those hindrances, discuss it ahead of time with your GM.

Pacifist– Ponies with this hindrance don’t think it right to go around shootin’ folk just for looking like raiders. Or even for being raiders. Or, in some cases, even for shooting at you first! Pacifists take “do no harm” to an extreme, and will try to reason with whoever or whatever is attacking them whenever they believe it is possible. Only when all other options are exhausted will a pacifist pony resort to violence, and even then only in self-defense, or in defense of their friends. Hostages, for example, will not be allowed to come to harm if a pacifist pony has any say.

Pacifist ponies aren’t fools; if they’ve had to shoot a member of a specific group in defense of themselves of their friends before, they’ll probably not try to reason with any other members of that group unless they can do so safely. They’ll still try to avoid hurting them if possible, though, and will feel quite badly about it if someone comes to harm in a way that they feel they could have prevented. This may trigger a guilty conscience. This hindrance plays quite nicely with Virtue: Kindness.

Phobia– This is a hindrance for ponies who are terrified of something specific. If they’re terrified of everything, see the cowardly hindrance, located previously in this section. Note that these two hindrances don’t preclude one another, though, so you can have a coward who is particularly afraid of certain things. For this hindrance to work, characters must be afraid of something that isn’t omnipresent in the Equestrian wasteland, but isn’t so rare that they never encounter it. A fear of heights for an earth pony (or certain ground-raised pegasi) would be a reasonable phobia. For stable-dwellers, agoraphobia is likewise logical. For Pegasi, claustrophobia is quite common. If your pony almost drowned at some point, fear of deep water might make sense as well. As long as there is some explanation for how your character came to be afraid of something, there is very little that doesn’t work. Xenophobia and agoraphobia are common phobias for the Fallout Equestria universe.

Ponies with a phobia of something take a -10 penalty on all actions attempted while their phobia is active, i.e. when they’re being afraid, and an additional -20 on top of that for fear checks. This is to prevent agoraphobic ponies from suffering a constant penalty while outside, and claustrophobic ponies from suffering a constant penalty in buildings. Intelligence checks to realize that the condition of the phobia is being met may be required. (Stupid ponies might simply not realize that the thing in front of them is the thing they’re afraid of!)

Picky (Cannot be taken with Omnivore, Tastes Fine to Me!, or Scavenger) –You like to think you have a higher class, more refined attitude towards scavenging, but your companions probably just call you picky. Characters with this hindrance refuse to take items or useful salvage of weight to value ratio less than 1:15, unless they have a specific use in mind for it. They also refuse to take weapons or barding, no matter how useful, that is covered in blood or the remains of characters or creatures (at least, they refuse to take it without cleaning it first). And finally, yes, these ponies tend to be a bit more selective about what they eat, never straying beyond their species’ dietary confines (bacon-be-damned). Many ponies that grew up in The Society or in very secure settlements like Tenpony Tower have this hindrance.

Pipsqueak (Cannot be taken with Obese) –Like the legendary stable dweller, you’re rather small for your age.This is a fairly common hindrance for many in the wasteland as malnutrition runs rampant, but even those equines with sheltered upbringings may be smaller than average due to things like genetics or fetal alcohol syndrome. This hindrance has a few tradeoffs. For one, characters with it have a much easier time fitting into small spaces like ventilation shafts, and their smaller size makes them harder to hit when dodging, granting them a +5 on dodge rolls. The downside is that when taking damage, instead of the normal 10 points of damage required to inflict a wound at first level, they now take one wound per 8 points of damage (which increases to 9 at level 3, and so on). Pipsqueak characters have a carrying capacity that is 10 units of weight less than their normal sized compatriots, and are 2d6” shorter and (2d6*10) units of weight lighter as well. All of the effects of this hindrance stack with the Young hindrance if a character takes both of them at character creation.

Ponikaze (Cannot be taken with Cautious) –Your character is a little bit nuts in terms of how they fight. Running at your enemies with armed grenades in your mouth is not a viable combat strategy! Named for the suicidal charges that the Neighponese guerrilla fighters were known for during the last war, this hindrance grants characters five additional feet of movement per action, and permanently increases their maximum SATS AP pool by 10. This is done by sacrificing defense for speed, however, and lowers their effective DT by 5, as well as conveying a -10 penalty to all dodge rolls. Bonus points if they scream aloud while charging headlong into battle.

Prejudiced (Cannot be Taken with Open Minded)– Some ponies see the world in black and white. We’re good; they’re bad, end of story. They believe that one group or groups is inferior to another group or groups, usually based on bad information or, more often, fear and misunderstanding. Characters with a prejudice against a specific group take a -30 penalty on Speech and Mercantile skills to interact with that group, even if they’re trying to hide their prejudice. If they don’t try to hide it, they may simply be refused service altogether (or be doing the refusing themselves). Some examples of targets for prejudices include: Pegasi, Zebras, Griffins, Earth Ponies, Males, Talon Mercenaries, Alicorns, Hellhounds, Unicorns, Ghouls, Enclave-Members, Members of a specific Gang, Slavers, Steel Rangers, Merchants, Wastelanders, Stable Dwellers, etc. Taking a prejudice against “people with a prejudice” or similar groups with members that are not easily distinguished by a physical characteristic or organization membership is highly discouraged. Prejudice penalties to speechcraft and mercantile over-ride penalties that would normally be associated with race, such as the speechcraft penalties generally associated with zebra or alicorns – the penalties do not stack, you take the higher penalty instead.

Prideful (Cannot be taken with Guilty Conscience) –You may have lost everything else, but you’ve kept your pride and your dignity. Characters with this hindrance can be a little vindictive or grating at times, unwilling to compromise on the things they consider to be most important (whether or not they actually matter), such as keeping their attire clean, never compromising on prices, or altering a “perfectly good” plan that has gone all to hell. Prideful characters hate admitting they’re wrong, that they’ve made a mistake or questionable decision, or that they have personal flaws. Particularly prideful characters absolutely despise being treated as anything less than an equal by anyone else, sometimes to the point that it may cause conflict. This is primarily a roleplaying hindrance.

Some GMs may want to consider this hindrance as a corrupted version of a virtue, in which case those who take it would not be able to take another virtue.

Psychosis – There are any number of different types of mental disorders plaguing the Equestrian wasteland, and we simply can’t fit them all here. To compensate for this fact, we’ve created for your convenience the Psychosis hindrance. If you want your pony to be crazy and none of the other hindrances here are quite fitting the bill, this hindrance is for you. Do they feel that playing cards are a deadly weapon, and regularly try to use them as such? Psychosis covers it. How about if they think that they have the ability to hear the screams of dying plants? That’s also definitely within the realms of this hindrance. Psychoses needn’t be permanent or debilitating, but they should at least have some impact on the way that the character behaves on a regular basis. Dementia-addled characters should act like they have dementia (also, they should probably have the dementia hindrance listed earlier, not this one), characters that believe that brown coated ponies can steal portions of your soul by rubbing against you should not be okay with too much personal contact from ponies of that coloration, etc. If you have an idea for a particular psychosis that might not fit this description, have a chat with your GM and see if you can turn it into something that can be role-played.

Sadist (Cannot be taken with Code of Honor or Virtue: Kindness)– Some ponies just want to watch the world burn, and yours is one of them if they’ve got this hindrance. Your pony takes an enormous amount of pleasure from the suffering of others, particularly when they’ve caused it themselves. Ponies with this hindrance are generally not nice people, but there are exceptions. Some ponies just want to cause specific groups suffering, i.e. all the raiders, all the cannibals, certain members of the Enclave, the majority of Red Eye’s slavers, ponies from a some less reputable settlements, etc. The sadist hindrance is still appropriate for those ponies. Beware of how slippery the slope they’re on is, though – a mass murderer who only kills and takes joy from the deaths of mass murderers still has a lot of blood on their hooves. Don’t expect their karma to stay good for too long.

Scarred (Cannot be taken by Ghouls or Alicorns) –You know that guy whose face looks like it got into a fight with a lawnmower and lost? Yeah, that’s your character. Characters with this hindrance have picked up some sort of horrific (or at least off-putting) looking facial scarring as a result of their past endeavors, possibly as a result of botched medical rolls made to treat facial wounds or of simply not being able to get a wound treated properly in time. These scars can come in almost whatever flavor the player would like; frequent variations are wounds from buckshot or from multiple slashes across the cheeks, eyes and nose.

The exception to this is that this hindrance shouldn’t be taken to represent what I affectionately refer to as “Anime” or “Kenshin Scars” – scars that are so minor or superficial that they only serve to make the character look like someone wrote on their face with a permanent marker, but are actually the result of a horrific loss in a duel. Inigo Montoya’s relatively minor facial scarring isn’t what this perk is meant to represent – that’s a minor enough scar that it should really just be a part of their backstory. This hindrance represents truly disfiguring facial scarring, things that would make even a pony that isn’t obsessed with their appearance deeply depressed, because it’s left them looking at somepony in the mirror that they don’t really recognize any more.

This hindrance conveys a -10 penalty to all charisma based rolls (including speechcraft and mercantile as well as charisma attribute rolls). Speechcraft rolls made to intimidate opponents, however, actually receive a +5 bonus instead. Intimidation rolls still require the Terrifying Presence perk, but attempting to intimidate others without having that perk might get you it as a quest perk.

Scavenger (Cannot be taken with Picky)– Your pony calls themself a scavenger. Others have called them a number of less flattering names – thief, kleptomaniac, crazy person with a sack full of everything you can carry, etc., etc. Ponies with this hindrance have a problematic habit of taking everything that isn’t nailed down. This tends to have a few negative side effects, such as making it harder for them to sneak (because their loot weighs them down and makes noise – see the skills section on sneak for more details), and making it difficult to manage party inventory. However, none of your friends can scoff when it comes time to trade for goods with a merchant. Your pony is compelled to grab everything they can when they go through any location that is either occupied with hostiles or is uninhabited. When the time comes that their saddlebags start to fill, they may then begin prioritizing based on weight to value ratios, but not before. To resist grabbing an item is a willpower roll (that’s INT and CHA, taking the better of the two rolls), MFD ¼, for a pony with this hindrance. This hindrance doesn’t apply to items that are known to belong to a friendly or neutral faction, however – grabbing those would get you in trouble!

Shadow of the Moon (Can only be taken by Alicorns, Half-Alicorns or Zebra Shamans, or with GM permission) -More superstitious ponies may believe that you are cursed to bring destruction to everything you touch, and they might not be entirely wrong. You gain +5% critical hit chance on all attacks (expanding your critical hit range to 1-10; this effect stacks with all other critical hit range expanding perks and hindrances), but all weapons wielded by you decay twice as fast and all offensive spells (any spell that targets and enemy and can possibly deal damage) that you cast cost 2 more magical strain than normal. This extra strain cost is not multiplied when considering overglow.

Sickly (Cannot be taken by Alicorns or Ghouls, or with Zebra Augmented) –Your character is suffering from some sort of chronic ailment that impairs them as they try to go about their day-to-day life. These impairments are usually physical, but may also be mental as well, depending on the disease, poison or sickness in question. The most common cases of this in the wasteland are the end result of prolonged radiation sickness or any one of the many wonderful long-term effects of malnutrition, but these are just examples; the cause of a character’s chronic ailment can be anything from arthritis to and unhealthy dose of zebra poison to just having lived in toxic conditions for an extended period.

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 810