UNDERLINGS

Quirks are what make your character mechanically unique. They represent specific interesting things about your character: aspects of their personality, items that they own, etc. Primarily they are gained at character creation; however, rewards and disadvantages that you gain during the course of play may also be represented by Quirks. While they may occasionally come into play in uptime (such as an NPC related to a quirk appearing in session), Quirks will mainly impact how your plans go in turnsheets.

Quirks come at a variety of costs between -3 and +3, with some Quirks having multiple options for different levels of power or severity. Positive Quirks are advantageous to your character, and can be leveraged in actions to give you a benefit. Negative Quirks are disadvantages, and may crop up at inconvenient moments, or need actions put into them in order to keep them at bay.

When creating a character, you start with 4 free points to spend on positive Quirks, but you can spend up to an extra 6 points (for a maximum of 10) by taking negative Quirks to balance them out. While you can only gain back 6 points by taking negative Quirks, you may, if you are feeling particularly masochistic, take up to 4 points of extra negatives just for fun.

Each Quirk can be taken a maximum of once per character, with the exception of those Quirks labelled (*), which may be taken multiple times if desired.

Some Quirks need you to provide additional information on how they manifest or what they mean to you; please do so as part of your character creation submission.

The Quirks are roughly grouped into sections based on their nature, but this does not represent a specific mechanical difference:

• Physical: Things that materially impact you. This might be about how tough your body is, or what possessions you have access to.
• Mental: This is all about how you think about the world. It includes things like what you know, and how you think.
• Interpersonal: Quirks about anyone else in the game. These might refer to your villain, or someone else entirely. Note these can only be taken in relation to NPCs - you can have character links to other Player Characters but they will be separate from quirks.

You're not clumsy, accidents just happen, right? It's not your fault that a disproportionately large number of accidents seem to happen to you, right? Right?

Sometimes you end up injuring yourself. Sometimes you end up injuring those around you.

You have an ongoing affliction (physical or mental) which could hold you back, or affect you at inconvenient moments. Maybe you faint at the sight of blood, maybe you're clinically depressed, maybe you're a werewolf that can't control your transformations. Unfortunately, it's not something easy to get rid of, either - if it were, you probably would have done it already.

Please ensure you detail the nature of your affliction.

NB: Please make sure to treat real-world disabilities respectfully. Don't forget that real people live with these conditions on a daily basis, and playing an affliction for a few hours does not give you insight into what that is like.

You've given up trying to understand why, but whether it's an exploding canister, a shattering glass pane or an actual bullet, you seem to take the hits and reap the injuries more often than by sheer chance. Your acquaintances are in luck; you are resigned that, once again, the one piece of flying shrapnel that is sharp enough to pierce skin is going to promptly embed itself into you.

You are dependent on something in order to keep functioning. It could be medication, or a drug that you're addicted to. Perhaps you're a vampire spawn that needs to regularly drink your sire's blood. Whatever your dependency, without it, your comfort and quality of life will decrease substantially.

Please ensure you detail what you are dependent on, and the consequences should you go without it.

You have something. It could a book in a language you can't read, some electronic device with ports you don't recognise, or an old box with a curious figurine inside. Whether or not it appears special, you find yourself oddly drawn to it. Describe what it looks like and discover its greater purpose during the game.

Death doesn't stick for you. When you die, as long as some specific condition is met, you can come back from the dead. The condition can be anything sufficiently tropey - maybe you can return as long as nobody finds your body and confirms your death. Maybe you can return if your friends can retrieve your body and get it back to the mad scientist's lab. Maybe you have a phylactery, and will revive as long as the phylactery is intact. Maybe your friends can decant a clone of you with your memories, as long as you were able to wirelessly back up your memory at the moment of death.

Please ensure you detail the condition required for you to cheat death. This should be something that can generally be assumed to happen, but that someone would be able to prevent if they learn of it.

(+3) The process is side effect free, you can revive as many times as you like with no consequences

(+2) The process is… imperfect. You can cheat death, but you come back slightly wrong each time. Something about who you are is lost in the process. This is cumulative, and will continue to worsen each time you die and are revived.

You aren't, strictly speaking, human. Maybe you're a talking animal. Maybe you're a robot. Maybe you're a talking animal PILOTING a robot! Maybe you're a tentacled monstrosity from the abyssal depths. Whatever the case, you look different from the norm, and may have some different capabilities.

Please ensure you detail the nature of your nature!

(+2) Simply put, you're better than human. You might be naturally stronger or faster, you might be able to climb walls like a lizard - your biology is in some way superior.

(+0) Yeah, you're a different shape, but it doesn't make that much of a difference, right? You're just one of the guys. Your unique biology provides you with no mechanical advantages or disadvantages.

(-2) The world isn't designed for people like you. Or maybe you're a failed lab experiment, fortunate enough to survive. Something about your non-human nature makes your life harder on a day-to-day basis.

May not be taken together with 'Tis But A Scratch.

You cannot feel pain. One might think that this is an advantage, but that's not true. When you get injured, you have a tendency not to notice, and will push yourself to the point where you make the injury worse, causing long-term issues.

You have powers or abilities beyond the human norm. Perhaps you can fly, see through walls, or sing a song in no human tongue that rends the mind of all those who hear it. This is a catch-all Quirk; please be sure to specify what your powers do.

(+1) A less useful or situational power e.g. the ability to breathe underwater.

(+2) A more useful or stronger power with broad applicability e.g. flight or super strength.

(+2) You have some kind of valuable resource (e.g. a pile of money, a small business or some rare materials). Perhaps your Villain lets you have a relatively free budget. Be aware that you can use up resources, or they may lose value without further maintenance (e.g. your hoard of diamonds will get smaller when you spend them; a small business may require you to manage it occasionally).

(-2) You're skint. Your Villain is a tightpurse, and doesn't willingly give you any equipment. You're always having to scrounge for the things you need, and you have to make all your plans work on the scrappiest of shoestring budgets.

You have some kind of weakness. Presented with it, you will be at a significant disadvantage, or actively weakened.

Please ensure you detail the nature of your weakness.

(-2) Your weakness is hard to obtain, or difficult to exploit (e.g. a rare mineral, a complex series of strikes to pressure points, a killswitch located in a secret government bunker).

(-3) Your weakness is easy to obtain, or simple to exploit (e.g. silver, the off switch at the back of your neck, a command word).

May not be taken with Oh Look, I've Been Impaled

You can shrug off wounds that would fell a lesser person. You're not sure why, but injuries just don't slow you down as much. You take a lickin' but keep on tickin', as they say. You can continue to function at full capacity even when having taken severe injuries.

You have some kind of useful item that has capabilities beyond what you can do unaided. It might be a robot dog, or some form of vehicle, or an amulet that can track someone with a sample of their blood. This is a catch-all Quirk; please be sure to specify what your tool does.

(+1) A less useful or situational tool e.g. a ring of feather falling.

(+2) A more useful or powerful tool with broad applicability e.g. a cloud of construction nanobots.

You're not very flexible when it comes to new ways of thinking. You have trouble understanding things outside the milieu of your own genre. The tropes you grew up with make sense to you, that's the way the world works. Other ways of looking at the world just… don't click in your brain. You're likely to overlook the abilities of other genres, have trouble understanding their motivations, and generally have an exploitable blind spot a mile wide when it comes to other genres.

The building was on fire, and it wasn't my fault.

~ Harry Dresden

Sure, you wanted to beat up those goons, but you didn't mean to blow up the whole building. Not one for finesse, you tend to leave destruction in your wake, and not always when you actually want to.

There's something you're keeping to yourself - and for good reason. Perhaps at some point in the past, you stole something from your Villain. Perhaps you're an undercover hero or cop, trying to bring about your Villain's downfall. Your dark secret is a secret best kept to yourself; it could damage your standing considerably if it becomes public knowledge, and possibly result in further negative consequences as well.

Please ensure you tell us what your dark secret is!

“Oh, you're a villain, alright. Just not a super one!”
“What's the difference?”
“PRESENTATION!”

~ Megamind

(+1) Although being dramatic doesn't give you an edge in what you do, it does help get you noticed when noticed is what you want to be. This can help to impress people and gain you more respect/infamy, which may lead to you being approached with opportunities.

(-2) You get caught up in the flair, which can slow you down, or give people time to regroup and fight back.

Note: You can take both (+1) and (-2) versions of this Quirk simultaneously. This represents a tendency to successfully impress bystanders with your grandstanding, but at the cost of getting distracted yourself.

You have a few years of medical training or equivalent. You can make reasonable medical deductions on many cases, conduct field surgery, and patch people up decently, although more complex medical issues and unforeseen complications may be more difficult for you to deal with.

May not be taken together with Unnoticeable.

You are noticeable. For some reason, people tend to pick you out of a crowd. Perhaps you are slow to look away, or have a distinctive demeanour. Perhaps you are three heads taller than anyone else. In any case, whether it’s for a team sport or a random strip-search, you seem to be picked a disproportionate amount…

Lesser people, step aside! You're on your way to kick ass and take names. Missile heading for the city? No problem! You're pretty sure that you can take it out. Can't fly? Doesn't matter, you're so amazing that you'll think of something, no doubt - and it's going to be a whole lot better than what anyone else could do. You're incredibly sure of yourself, and supposedly this has gotten you into some pretty difficult situations… But it's never your fault, right? There's always something, or someone, else to blame. After all, you are INVINCIBLE!

It fills you with dread. Sends chills down your spine. Makes you do stupid things, or just sends you running in the other direction. Your phobia should be something broad, not impossibly narrow (e.g. your character could be afraid of birds, but just having a phobia of robins may be a bit too specific). Do please check the Conduct and Themes to make sure your phobia is appropriate for the game.

Please ensure you detail the nature of your phobia.

You follow a strict personal code. It may not have anything to do with following the law - it's much more personal than that. Maybe you have vowed to kill no one, or maybe you have vowed that during each scheme, at least one person must die a grisly death. Deviation from the code is something you just don't do. You will stick to your code, and damn the consequences.

Please ensure you detail the nature of your Code.

May not be taken together with Obvious.

You often go unnoticed. Maybe it’s your quiet demeanor, your ability to hide behind others, or simply a vague expression, but while others are being selected, you seem to escape attention.

Not your fans, of course. Your Villain is super popular, and their fans are extremely persistent. Unfortunately, dealing with them is your problem. Keeping the fans from annoying your Villain, interfering in their plans from an overabundance of enthusiasm, and generally being nuisances is part of your job description. Good luck, you'll need it.

You have always found that animals are well disposed towards you. Small fluffy animals have been known to nuzzle right up to you whilst large ferocious animals usually give you the benefit of the doubt when you accidentally invade their territory.

You have responsibilities outside your job as an underling. Something in your life is more important to you than your Villain, and will occasionally pull you away. Maybe you're a parent, and your kids take priority. Whatever it is, your Villain is unlikely to see things the same way you do, and will be unhappy with you if they realise you're skipping your duties.

Please ensure you detail the nature of your responsibilities.

At some point in the past, someone did you a solid. Maybe they helped you get that promotion, or saved your family from a burning building, or 'accidentally' lost your criminal record. Whatever it is, you owe them. Expect them to collect on the debt.

Please either detail what you owe to who, or the GM team will come up with something for you.

At some point, you obviously made a pretty good impression on one pretty influential person, or several less influential people. You can use the connection(s) to help you out, but be warned: if you act like a jerk to them, they aren't going to keep supporting you.

After extensively using your connections, you may have to start doing favours for them to make up for all that time they spent on you.

This may be taken multiple times, but each must relate to a different person or group.

Please ensure you detail roughly who your friends are.

You know some guys who know some guys. When you need information, your network may have heard something useful about it. With more direct instruction (read: a whole action), they can be a useful tool to find out a bit more.

Alternatively, this Quirk can represent having access to an extensive library. Mechanically this is identical, including the ability to spend an action researching to gain more information, but the results you get will be more geared towards collected knowledge rather than information about current affairs.

You can optionally choose a specialisation for your information network (such as magic, demonology, corporate law, etc), which will result in more in-depth information related to your speciality but less useful information outside that subject.

Please ensure you specify whether this is a network of informants or a library, and what the specialisation is if you would like one.

Your Villain likes to experiment on you. At any given time, you're likely to have various modifications, which will change at the Villain's whim. These may be beneficial, they may be awful, but you never know what you're going to end up with from week to week.

(+2) Your Villain is pretty good at what they do, and your modifications are positive more often than not. This does nothing to mitigate the inherent body horror in occasionally ending up unable to recognise your own reflection, but they are, in some sense, helpful.

(-2) Either your Villain is not very good at this, or they simply don't care about your suffering. Either way, your modifications tend to be painful, debilitating, or otherwise awkward and unpleasant. The good news is that whatever problem you're having to deal with for now is likely to be temporary, as your Villain will remove it at some point. The bad news is that they'll probably replace it with something just as bad.

Note: You can take both the (+2) and (-2) versions of this Quirk simultaneously. In that case, your modifications will be varying levels of positive and negative, changing at the whim of the GM team.

Your Villain's organisation is extensive enough, and you are sufficiently high rank in it, that you have underlings of your own that you are responsible for.

(+2) Your minions are competent, and can generally be relied upon to perform well. They may not have any particularly notable skills, but as goons come, they're pretty solid.

(-2) Well, at least they tried, right? These minions are as incompetent as they come, and their antics will, at various points, end up throwing a wrench into your plans. Unfortunately, as you are responsible for them, their failures are your failures in the eyes of your Villain. You're going to need to keep them closely supervised, or answer for the consequences one way or another.

Someone out there has an issue with you personally, and the drive to make it your problem. This could be an enemy sworn to kill you for whatever reason, but it can also be far more petty than that. Maybe your Villain's beloved familiar has taken a dislike to you, and delights in tormenting you at every turn, knowing that it is safe from retaliation because the Villain will punish you harshly if you dare to so much as touch it. Having a Nemesis simply means that there is someone actively and personally working to make your life harder in some way.

Please ensure you detail the nature of your Nemesis.

May not be taken together with Teacher's Pet

Your Villain is particularly unforgiving. Bad news is not received well. If you bring your Villain news of failure, and cannot cover your arse justify yourself sufficiently well, they might just straight up shoot you.

You're well-known in your own right, at least in the right circles. People have heard of you; your name is on their lips.

(+2) You have a solid rep. Maybe you're your Villain's feared enforcer, and nobody wants to catch your attention. Maybe you're a sneak thief, and everyone knows you can get anything your Villain wants, regardless of how well guarded it is. People know you're competent, and your reputation reflects well on your Villain. It's a solid asset.

(-2) Your Villain is jealous of your fame. They don't like the fact that people have heard of you - maybe even people that haven't heard of them. Expect them to react badly when you get recognised.

You love to gossip, and you know exactly who to talk to when you want a story to spread. You can get information of your choice into the between-turn news, either with your name attached or not, at your discretion.

(+1) You can insert an article into the genre news for your genre each turn.

(+2) You can insert an article into the general news each turn.

May not be taken together with No Room For Failure

Your Villain is surprisingly forgiving, and seems fond of you. You have a lot of leeway when it comes to failure, letting your Villain down rarely carries severe consequences. It probably isn't a good idea to rely on this too much, though.