Merits & Flaws

In spite of epic tragedies around you, you’ve found True Love – the kind that folks make movies, songs, and ballads about. Whenever things look bleak, Love can pull you through. This capital-L Love is not defined by gender, culture, anatomy, or even species… though that last one might make things difficult for your star-crossed relationship. For extra drama, it could be a forbidden romance: a cyborg, for example, in love with a Cultist, or a straight-laced Chorister whose soulmate teeters on the brink of being Fallen (see also the Flaw: Sleeping with the Enemy, p. 66).

System

-wise, this Merit – which exists in a crux between the Social and Supernatural realms – gives you one automatic success on all Willpower rolls, which can be negated only by a botch. (Magick-casting rolls do not apply, although the success does apply if someone’s trying to influence your character with Mind magick.) Your True Love will move heaven and earth to help you, and other folks might do a Princess Bride if and when they discover that you’ve got True Love on your side. Note, of course, that said Princess Bride-ism usually involves people making the Path of True Love even more difficult for you, too. Such hardships are the reason so many tales revolve around True Love. You shall, by all the gods, have a very dramatic life…

as per the Chapter Five Genres, Storytelling, and Mage entries for Romance and Tragedy! (See pp. 285-286.)

Despite all their enlightenment – and sometimes because of it – mages can be rather clueless when it comes to social niceties. Oh, sure, they can be cool as a vampire, smooth as an oil slick, and more connected than a World Bank conference; even then, however, a mage can make plenty of gaffes, enemies, and other social pitfalls. And when that happens, you get stuff like the following Social Flaws.

You have a true love — a Kinfolk, human, wolf, or perhaps even another Garou. Simply the knowledge that this individual exists provides joy and strength to you even in the darkest hour. The Wyrm may be winning, the battle may be endless, but you know there is something beyond the esoteric to keep fighting for. When you are suffering, the thought of your true love gives you strength. In game terms, this Merit allows you one automatic success on any Willpower roll, but only when you are actively striving to protect or come closer to your true love. Also, the power of your love may be strong enough to protect you from other supernatural forces (at the Storyteller’s discretion). However, having a true love may also be a hindrance, and they may require aid (or even rescue) from time to time. True Love between Garou (even if it is not acted upon) may be seen as near-enough to a breach of the Litany to cause scorn or even scandal if it is suspected by others, making it appropriate justification for a Dark Secret Flaw as well.