{"id":"shared/trait/flaw/phobia","type":"trait","system":"flaw","line":"shared","name":"Phobia","sources":[{"source":"V20","page":494,"folio":486},{"source":"W20","page":479,"folio":477},{"source":"BoS","page":51}],"entries":["You have an overpowering fear of something. Spiders, snakes, crowds, and heights are examples of common phobias. You must make a Courage roll every time you encounter the object of your fear. The difficulty of the roll is determined by the Storyteller. If you fail the roll, you must retreat from the object."],"cost":2,"category":"Mental","_qa":{"flags":[],"parser":"headed_entries","confidence":0.9,"extracted":"2026-10-12","job":"v20-core-merits"},"variants":[{"sources":[{"source":"BoS","page":51}],"entries":["Irrational terror grips you whenever you face the subject of your Phobia: crowds, heights, Black Suits, and so forth. Such terror probably stems from psychic trauma, Social Processing, or some other incident that carved its niche within your mind. Although mages pride themselves upon their strength of will, everybody’s got their weaknesses; this primal fear is one of yours.","The subject of your Phobia must be defined at the time this Flaw is selected. Anytime you’re confronted with that situation, make a Willpower roll or else flee that fearsome situation. Even if you do succeed, you’ll need to roll at least three successes in order to approach the object of your fears and deal with it head-on. The Storyteller bases the difficulty of that roll upon the circumstances of the encounter. An unexpected brush with a normal wolf spider would rate a difficulty of 6 or 7 for an arachnophobe, while being dropped into a pit full of titanic wolf spiders would be, shall we say, somewhat higher. (Difficulty 9 or 10, you poor bastard.)","This Flaw has a three-point variation when applied to vam­ pires and werekin; mages, however, are not subject to uncanny frenzies the way such creatures are, and so the Flaw is worth only two points to a mage or other non-frenzying character. As an optional rule, the Storyteller may allow a character with","the Berserker Merit or the Stress Atavism or Beast Within","Flaws (pp. 53 and 92) to take this Flaw for three points, with the character freaking out and destroying everything in her way as she tries to escape if and when the Willpower roll is failed."],"note":"text differs from V20 (52%)"},{"sources":[{"source":"W20","page":479,"folio":477}],"entries":["You have an overwhelming fear of something. Spiders, snakes, crowds, and heights are examples of common phobias. If you have a mild phobia (2 points), you must make a Willpower roll every time you encounter the ob­ ject of your fear. The difficulty of the roll is determined by the Storyteller and based on the circumstances of the encounter. You must make at last three successes in order","to approach the object of your fear or deal with the fear­ ful situation. If you fail the roll, you must run away. The three-point version of this Flaw requires that you make a frenzy check to resist fox frenzy when you are faced with what you fear. Your Storyteller must approve your choice of phobia."],"note":"text differs from V20 (88%)"}],"_links":{"self":"/api/v1/records/shared/trait/flaw/phobia","html":"/records/shared/trait/flaw/phobia","parent":null,"children":"/api/v1/records/shared/trait/flaw/phobia/children","sources":[{"abbr":"V20","page":494,"folio":494,"title":"Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition"},{"abbr":"W20","page":479,"folio":479,"title":"Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition"},{"abbr":"BoS","page":51,"folio":51,"title":"The Book of Secrets"}]},"_db":{"title":"Phobia","props":[["Cost","2 pts"],["Type","Mental"]],"parent_id":null,"level":2,"category":"Mental","summary":"You have an overpowering fear of something. Spiders, snakes, crowds, and heights are examples of common phobias. You must make a Courage roll every time you encounter the object of your fear. The difficulty of the roll","tags":[],"children":[]}}