Merits & Flaws

Stormbringer. The One Ring. The Monkey’s Paw. Sure, that paranormal doohickey may possess amazing powers, but it’s also a sack of miseries the likes of which few humans can imagine. And you’ve got one. Lucky you…

As with the Background: Wonder (a Trait for which this Flaw was once an adversarial Background), this Trait reflects an uncanny item or device. In this case, however, the “treasure” is more trouble than it’s worth. Perhaps it’s cursed with mis­ fortunes, poorly made, haunted by malignant spirits, seething with Paradox emanations, or too experimental for its own good. It could be the earthly form of an unpleasant entity (“I was a thousand times eviler than thou…”), an alien artifact, or the remnant of a culture that passed into dust millennia ago – and good riddance to them! Or maybe it’s simply a truly wondrous treasure that dislikes you personally, like the Sword of Fighting in JourneyQuest. For whatever the reason might be, you own this mystic /hypertech millstone, and can’t easily get rid of it.

Like all variable-point Flaws, the value of this Trait depends upon its ability to screw up your life. In this case, however, the value of the Flaw is deducted from the Background cost of a Wonder. In order to avoid nightmarish catastrophes of math, every two points in the Flaw are worth one dot in the Wonder Background’s cost. That cost, however, cannot drop below one dot (two points), and so any points that get “left over” between

the value of the Flaw and the two points in that Wonder are added to the owner’s character sheet, reflecting the proverbial dead albatross around the character’s neck: a mighty burden he can’t just toss away.

For expanded rules regarding Wonders, see the section of

that name in Chapter Two, pp. 139-165.

• (2 points) Your Jinxed item features an annoying drawback that, while not deadly, makes life difficult for the person who owns it. Examples: it attracts ghosts, smells bad, makes irritating sounds at inconvenient times, or radiates a pervasive aura of discomfort. •• (4 points) The Jinxed item has several annoying drawbacks (as above), or perhaps one or two problematic ones. Examples: It must shed blood each time it’s employed, has a contentious and unpleasant personality, attracts malignant spirits, or tempts the owner to violate her moral code. ••• (6 points) Your item features a host of annoying drawbacks (at least six of them), three or four problematic ones, and /or a major flaw. Exam­ ples: The item belongs a powerful paranormal entity that wants it back, it inflicts constant pain on whomever uses it (three bashing health levels per turn of operation), the object radiates an aura of corruption and decay, or it steadily drives its owner toward atrocities. •••• (8 points) In addition to at least six annoying drawbacks and /or five problematic ones, plus two or more major flaws, the item also backfires if you fail a roll of Wits + Esoterica (or Wits + Hypertech, if the item employs advanced technology), against difficulty 7. The Storyteller is encouraged to get creative when deciding how that backfire manifests; for suggestions,

see the Mucking About with Wonders chart, Chapter Two, p. 141.

•••••• (10 points) In addition to the previous level of difficulty, the Storyteller essentially has an open license to make your life difficult in unexpected, creative, and often mysterious ways. Examples: A bloodthirsty cult that’s after the treasure, a demonic entity imprisoned within the item, a cross-dimensional vortex of probability fluxes and quirks of physics that manifest in the object’s vicinity, and so forth. These flaws, of course, should be based in the nature of the Jinxed item and its relationship to the owner. That said, there’s no reason that a robot can’t be possessed by evil spirits or a primeval artifact can’t be a technological hazard using unknown technology. Stranger things, in Mage, happen all the time.