Dark Heresy 2E Quirks
The goal of this project is basically to give PC's a way to more mechanically distinguish themselves from each other and the countless other denizens of the galaxy. During character creation, each player can choose to start with up to two of these "Quirks" for their character if they so desire. That said, I'm not a professional game designer by any means, so it's not exactly perfectly balanced.
Absurdly Abstruse: The PC is incredibly knowledgeable, but frequently has difficulty communicating that knowledge. He gains +5 intelligence and 1 rank in 3 different Scholastic or Forbidden Lores of his choice and receives a +20 to tests involving those Lores, but when attempting to communicate knowledge from one of them he must make a Fellowship check with a penalty equal to 5 times his rank in the relevant lore skill to be understood. If the PC fails, the character he is attempting to communicate with can make a Logic test with a penalty equal to 5 times the PC's degrees of failure to understand what he is attempting to say. (Extremely obvious information gained from a test may not need a test to communicated; for example, the fine points of disrupting a daemonic ritual should require a test, but the fact that the screaming, blood covered cultist should be shot probably shouldn’t.)
Agile Frame: The PC has an uncommonly light, willowy body. He gains +5 agility and 1 rank in Acrobatics and Dodge. However, his slight build is unsuited for tasks that require raw strength; he counts his combined strength and toughness bonus as 2 less for the purposes of determining carrying, lifting, and pushing capacity, and suffers a -20 for using the Heft special use of the Athletics skill.
Bastard Lunatic: The PC is worryingly skilled at killing defenseless people. When making a melee attack against a target that he is engaged with or a ranged attack against a target at point blank range and while the target is prevented from making a reaction (this does not include targets that have simply used their reaction for the turn), his attacks score additional degrees of success and gain additional damage and penetration equal to half of his weapon skill bonus for melee attacks or ballistic skill for ranged attacks. However, there is very clearly something wrong with him; he suffers a -20 tests involving typical social interactions, and particularly nervous individuals may refuse to talk to him at all.
Bloody Blade (From 1E Inquisitor's Handbook): While most combatants within the Imperium prefer guns over swords for obvious reasons, there are some that feel that more modern weaponry is inelegant and uncivilized. Such people prefer to get up close and personal with bladed weaponry, no matter how dangerous that may be. This PC is one of them. He increases his WS by 5, replaces any starting weaponry with a mono sword and six throwing knives, and gains the Low Tech weapon training instead of any weapon training he would normally start with, and when wielding a melee weapon that deals Rending damage against a living target, his attacks gain the Tearing quality if they do not already have it, or the proven(3) quality if they do. Some followers of this philosophy extend it to ranged weapon that deal Rending damage; while such individuals maintain the bonuses of Tearing or Proven (3), they lose the +5 increase to Weapon Skill as their area of expertise is broader, but less deep. Regardless of choice, he must pass a -30 Willpower Test to use a non-Rending weapon against a living target for any reason.
Friendly: The PC is an exceptionally sociable person, especially by the standards of the Imperium. He gains +5 fellowship and reduces the cost of purchasing ranks in the Charm skill by 25%, and in addition gains a +10 on Charm checks to interact with strangers. However, due to his innate tendency to forge bonds with people, he must pass a -20 willpower test to knowingly harm someone he is on good terms with and gains 5 insanity points if he does so. (“Good terms” is purposefully a bit nebulous, but should generally exclude characters who are actively trying to kill him, and other things of that nature.)
Huge: The PC is as large as humans come. He gains +10 toughness and +2 wounds and increases his size trait by one. However, the atypical nature of his bulk imposes a -10 penalty to Weapon Skill/Ballistic Skill tests involving Basic and Pistol Ranged Weapons and One-Handed melee weapons without the Custom Grip modification due to them being designed for nimbler hands. In addition, all common-craftsmanship armour counts as being one level of availability rarer due to the difficulty of finding large enough gear without getting it custom made.
Muscle Saint: The PC is muscular enough to arm-wrestle a Space Marine - and might even be strong enough to win. He gains +10 strength and the Athletics Skill and Bulging Biceps Talent, but is so grotesquely muscular he gains one less degree of success on all agility tests down to a minimum of 1 and reduces his base Agility Bonus by 1 for the purposes of movement.
Relic Bearer (Inspired by the talent of the same name in OW): The PC carries a small item that he (and possibly, though not necessarily, others) consider to be holy. While this trinket is in his possession, he gains +10 an all tests to resist fear and pinning tests and tests to resist corruption and insanity, and rolls a d10 whenever he uses a fate point: on a 10, he may select another standard effect for it to add (if he spends a fate point to re-roll a test and rolls a 10, he may choose to add a +10 to the test, recover 1d5 wounds, etc.) However, losing this relic is a truly grievous blow to him: should the relic be lost or destroyed, he is unable to spend or burn any fate points until it is recovered, repaired, or replaced.
Agile Frame: The PC has an uncommonly light, willowy body. He gains +5 agility and 1 rank in Acrobatics and Dodge. However, his slight build is unsuited for tasks that require raw strength; he counts his combined strength and toughness bonus as 2 less for the purposes of determining carrying, lifting, and pushing capacity, and suffers a -20 for using the Heft special use of the Athletics skill.
Bastard Lunatic: The PC is worryingly skilled at killing defenseless people. When making a melee attack against a target that he is engaged with or a ranged attack against a target at point blank range and while the target is prevented from making a reaction (this does not include targets that have simply used their reaction for the turn), his attacks score additional degrees of success and gain additional damage and penetration equal to half of his weapon skill bonus for melee attacks or ballistic skill for ranged attacks. However, there is very clearly something wrong with him; he suffers a -20 tests involving typical social interactions, and particularly nervous individuals may refuse to talk to him at all.
Bloody Blade (From 1E Inquisitor's Handbook): While most combatants within the Imperium prefer guns over swords for obvious reasons, there are some that feel that more modern weaponry is inelegant and uncivilized. Such people prefer to get up close and personal with bladed weaponry, no matter how dangerous that may be. This PC is one of them. He increases his WS by 5, replaces any starting weaponry with a mono sword and six throwing knives, and gains the Low Tech weapon training instead of any weapon training he would normally start with, and when wielding a melee weapon that deals Rending damage against a living target, his attacks gain the Tearing quality if they do not already have it, or the proven(3) quality if they do. Some followers of this philosophy extend it to ranged weapon that deal Rending damage; while such individuals maintain the bonuses of Tearing or Proven (3), they lose the +5 increase to Weapon Skill as their area of expertise is broader, but less deep. Regardless of choice, he must pass a -30 Willpower Test to use a non-Rending weapon against a living target for any reason.
Chemical Balance: The PC has an affinity for drug use far beyond that of a normal person. When using any substance that can be classified as a drug, he doubles the effective duration of the drug, halves any negative effects from the drug(rounded up), and does not suffer penalties from repeated use (For example, Desoluem Fungus still grants only 1 re-roll, but it lasts for 2d10 rounds, still causes 1 fatigue, and can be used again immediately after it ends). His bizarre internal chemistry prevents him from becoming addicted to any specific compound, but he absolutely MUST have some drugs very frequently. For every 6 hours that pass without consuming some sort of hideous chemical, he receives a cumulative -5 penalty to all characteristics, though they cannot be reduced below 1 from this. Should this reduce his Willpower, Fellowship, or Intelligence to 1, he enters a frenzy that only ends in unconsciousness or drug consumption, which removes the characteristic penalties but not any damage he may have caused. While under this frenzy, his strength, agility, perception, and weapon skill return to their normal values in order to facilitate acquiring the relevant substances. Should the PC be in a situation where he is unable to consume any drugs for an extended period of time (as determined by the GM, but probably at least several weeks), his metabolism greatly slows to avoid completely shutting down. He counts all of his characteristics as being fatigued for the duration of this period, but he doesn’t need chemicals to continue to function.
Curious: The PC has an insatiable desire for new experiences, a trait that is especially frowned upon in this day and age. He gains +5 perception and may re-roll any tests to investigate anything that particularly catches his eye (his specific areas of interest should be established between the player and the GM). However, this interest has frequent dangers: the PC must pass a willpower check to not investigate an item that falls within an area of interest, even when doing so is obviously a very bad idea. (The willpower check should generally be fairly difficult, but should vary based on the exact subject. A PC curious about Xenos would probably not be equally interested in, say, a forbidden book about a minor Xenos species and an actual, living Eldar. )
Dilettante: This PC easily takes to new skills, but has difficulty advancing them to true mastery. When purchasing skill advances of ranks 1 and 2, he counts as having 1 more aptitude than he does to a maximum of 2 (i.e. if he has no related aptitudes, he counts as having 1, if he has 1 aptitude, he counts as having both, if he has both aptitudes, he is unaffected). However, when purchasing skill advances of ranks 3 and 4, even if he has both related aptitudes he only counts as having 1 related aptitude.
Eloquent in my Native Tongue: The PC’s home world does generally communicate in Low Gothic, but uses another language in its place. The PC should choose a different language from the Languages of the 41st Millennium chart on page 107 to use as his default language (This should probably be an Imperial language like High Gothic or Techna Lingua, but that is of course ultimately up to the Player and the GM). When communicating in this language, he gains a +20 on all social interactions due to his incredible skill with it; however, he receives a -10 penalty on all social interactions that are based in other languages due to his obvious discomfort with the language.Dilettante: This PC easily takes to new skills, but has difficulty advancing them to true mastery. When purchasing skill advances of ranks 1 and 2, he counts as having 1 more aptitude than he does to a maximum of 2 (i.e. if he has no related aptitudes, he counts as having 1, if he has 1 aptitude, he counts as having both, if he has both aptitudes, he is unaffected). However, when purchasing skill advances of ranks 3 and 4, even if he has both related aptitudes he only counts as having 1 related aptitude.
Friendly: The PC is an exceptionally sociable person, especially by the standards of the Imperium. He gains +5 fellowship and reduces the cost of purchasing ranks in the Charm skill by 25%, and in addition gains a +10 on Charm checks to interact with strangers. However, due to his innate tendency to forge bonds with people, he must pass a -20 willpower test to knowingly harm someone he is on good terms with and gains 5 insanity points if he does so. (“Good terms” is purposefully a bit nebulous, but should generally exclude characters who are actively trying to kill him, and other things of that nature.)
Huge: The PC is as large as humans come. He gains +10 toughness and +2 wounds and increases his size trait by one. However, the atypical nature of his bulk imposes a -10 penalty to Weapon Skill/Ballistic Skill tests involving Basic and Pistol Ranged Weapons and One-Handed melee weapons without the Custom Grip modification due to them being designed for nimbler hands. In addition, all common-craftsmanship armour counts as being one level of availability rarer due to the difficulty of finding large enough gear without getting it custom made.
Muscle Saint: The PC is muscular enough to arm-wrestle a Space Marine - and might even be strong enough to win. He gains +10 strength and the Athletics Skill and Bulging Biceps Talent, but is so grotesquely muscular he gains one less degree of success on all agility tests down to a minimum of 1 and reduces his base Agility Bonus by 1 for the purposes of movement.
Relic Bearer (Inspired by the talent of the same name in OW): The PC carries a small item that he (and possibly, though not necessarily, others) consider to be holy. While this trinket is in his possession, he gains +10 an all tests to resist fear and pinning tests and tests to resist corruption and insanity, and rolls a d10 whenever he uses a fate point: on a 10, he may select another standard effect for it to add (if he spends a fate point to re-roll a test and rolls a 10, he may choose to add a +10 to the test, recover 1d5 wounds, etc.) However, losing this relic is a truly grievous blow to him: should the relic be lost or destroyed, he is unable to spend or burn any fate points until it is recovered, repaired, or replaced.
Soul Eater (Suggested by Kadoken, from the 1E Daemon Hunters): Many within the Imperium turn to the Emperor's Tarot to know what their god has planned for them. A very few who do discover that the answer is "nothing". Perhaps they are destined to commit an act so deplorable the Emperor will not look upon them; perhaps the Emperor has blessed them with obscurity so that the monstrous forces of chaos cannot harm them. Either way, their immunity to the cruel whims of fate is both a blessing and a curse. The PC begins play with 0 Fate Points and no divination. However, whenever he kills or participates in the killing of a character with a Fate Point total or Touched by the Fates rating higher than his current Fate Point maximum, he increases his total Fate Point threshold by 1, and receives a divination related to the slain character (the GM should decide which divination).
Specialist Training: The PC has been trained from a young age to master a single class of weapons. He chooses Las, Solid Projectile, or Low-Tech as his weapon group of focus: the relevant weapon training replaces any he may otherwise start with, and he may not purchase any other ranged weapon training. He begins play with a single weapon of scarce or less rare rarity of the selected group, and gains +2 damage, +10 to attack rolls, and may choose to increase the semi-automatic and automatic fire rates by 1 when wielding ranged weapons of this group.
Supreme Arrogance: The PC is completely assured in his superiority against any dangers he might face, physical or otherwise. He gains +5 willpower and a +10 on any rolls to resist Pinning or Fear, and to rolls to use the Terrify and Inspire special uses of the command skill. However, anything that shakes this deep-seated sense of superiority can be tremendously threatening to his mental well-being; whenever this character loses an opposed test, he must make a -10 Willpower check or gain Insanity Points equal to the difference between his degrees of success and his opponents'.
Unemotive: The PC is apparently unmoved by even the most extraordinary events, whatever his internal reaction may be. All scrutiny tests where he is the subject suffer a -20 due to him not displaying any tells to analyze. However, this stoniness is a double-edged sword; whenever this character attempts a Charm, Deceive, or Command test based on displaying emotion, whether fake or utterly genuine, he suffers a -20 penalty.
Well Connected: The PC, through birth, deed, or simply luck is connected to people it is very beneficial to be connected to. He increases his influence by 5 and gains one Peer talent of his choice. However, this attention is not without downsides; the GM should choose a group and have the PC gain the Enemy talent for that group, though which group should be kept concealed from the player, at least initially. In addition, the Peer may demand favors in return for their patronage, and should the PC be unable or unwilling to fulfill them, the GM should choose an appropriate response, such as temporarily losing the Peer, losing a point or two of influence, or even permanently losing the Peer and gaining them as an Enemy instead for extreme circumstances, though fulfilling the request can have positive results.
Whim of Fate (From the 1E Book of Judgement Proven Innocent): Trillions of humans die every day. Many of them die without having even the slimmest chance of escaping their fate. This is an unfortunate but unavoidable truth of life in the 41st millennium. However, very rarely, someone lives through something that, rationally speaking, could not have failed to kill them. Whether they were rescued from an uninhabited Death World, survived a Gellar field failing, were acquitted by an Inquisition court, or any other impossible miracle, such a person is surely blessed by the Emperor himself, and begins play with +3 to all characteristics, and with the Jaded and Resistance: Fear talents, as he has surely seen far worse than his current troubles. However, such extraordinary luck does not strike twice: he begins play with one less fate point than he normally would, and adds a +10 to any rolls made the Psychic Phenomena chart, as darker forces have also taken an interest in him.
Unemotive: The PC is apparently unmoved by even the most extraordinary events, whatever his internal reaction may be. All scrutiny tests where he is the subject suffer a -20 due to him not displaying any tells to analyze. However, this stoniness is a double-edged sword; whenever this character attempts a Charm, Deceive, or Command test based on displaying emotion, whether fake or utterly genuine, he suffers a -20 penalty.
Well Connected: The PC, through birth, deed, or simply luck is connected to people it is very beneficial to be connected to. He increases his influence by 5 and gains one Peer talent of his choice. However, this attention is not without downsides; the GM should choose a group and have the PC gain the Enemy talent for that group, though which group should be kept concealed from the player, at least initially. In addition, the Peer may demand favors in return for their patronage, and should the PC be unable or unwilling to fulfill them, the GM should choose an appropriate response, such as temporarily losing the Peer, losing a point or two of influence, or even permanently losing the Peer and gaining them as an Enemy instead for extreme circumstances, though fulfilling the request can have positive results.
Whim of Fate (From the 1E Book of Judgement Proven Innocent): Trillions of humans die every day. Many of them die without having even the slimmest chance of escaping their fate. This is an unfortunate but unavoidable truth of life in the 41st millennium. However, very rarely, someone lives through something that, rationally speaking, could not have failed to kill them. Whether they were rescued from an uninhabited Death World, survived a Gellar field failing, were acquitted by an Inquisition court, or any other impossible miracle, such a person is surely blessed by the Emperor himself, and begins play with +3 to all characteristics, and with the Jaded and Resistance: Fear talents, as he has surely seen far worse than his current troubles. However, such extraordinary luck does not strike twice: he begins play with one less fate point than he normally would, and adds a +10 to any rolls made the Psychic Phenomena chart, as darker forces have also taken an interest in him.
No comments:
Post a Comment