There’s a perverse imp running around your home. Okay, maybe it’s not an actual imp – it could be a malfunctioning robot companion, a vain and selfish bioconstruct, a trouble­ some spirit, an obnoxious beast, that talking winged tarantula we mentioned a few entries ago… the form of the creature is unimportant. Like the above Flaw: Apprentice, this Trait reflects a companion character who, despite being supposedly on your side, remains a constant pain in your ass.

Originally presented as the adversarial Background for Familiar, this Flaw becomes more significant as the power of the creature, and its attendant nuisance, grows:

• (1 point) A creature of unusual, but minor, ability, which busies itself with trivial annoyances.

• (2 points) An entity whose power and intellect (or at least its cunning) make your life frustrating but not actively hazardous.

• (3 points) A being of notable power whose mischief has begun to shade into actual damage to your property, health, status, and relationships.

• (4 points) A metaphysical pain in the tuchus whose powers cause lasting harm to you and to the things you consider precious.

• (5 points) A walking plague of significant power and malignancy. Said critter might not actually mean to be bad, but its effects on your life are inescapably destructive.

As with an Apprentice Flaw, above, you bear a certain amount of responsibility to this creature – it’s not simply your enemy, or even a nemesis, but a being with whom you share a vital bond. Also as per the Apprentice Flaw, your treatment of this “gremlin” (a legendary being that sabotaged airplanes for fun) may reduce or intensify the value of this Flaw. A formerly malignant entity could be tamed and eventually become a Fa­ miliar (as in that Background), while a poorly-treated familiar might become a gremlin, and a previously annoying gremlin could be annoyed into becoming a serious threat to the mage and his surroundings. As an optional rule, you might even – with Storyteller approval – be able to purchase the Gremlin Flaw in addition to the Familiar Background, to reflect a helpful yet perpetually troublesome companion.

A gremlin, as with all other Trait-based characters, is an entity in its own right. Chances are good that the trouble it causes for your mage has an understandable foundation – a reason that seems inexplicable to the mage yet remains perfectly reasonable to the gremlin. A mage who explores the reasons behind this misbehavior may calm her temperamental com­ panion; then again, an attempt to understand the gremlin’s grudge might only piss it off further…