Secondary Abillities
Secondary or Race Specific Talents
Cooking Food’s your thing. You’re good at preparing it, pulling meals together from odds and ends, and noting when something’s not quite right. What good is this sort of talent for a mage? Ask any decent witch! A gifted cook can whip up an impressive meal on the go (perhaps even working some Life, Matter, Mind, or
Time magicks into the mix to spoil or sweeten the food); spot tainted or poisoned chow; discern unusual ingredients (griffin, horse-meat, Soylent Green…); or create nutritious meals from whatever’s close at and a vital skill in the wilderness or certain Realms!
Diplomacy You’ve got a knack for smoothing things over, making friends, and getting people to see past their differences. When you need to, you can also back up your guile with spine. A combination of ingratiating people skills, social psychology, knowledge of the situation, and innate timing allows you to gain people’s respect and then maneuver them to your desired point of view. A good diplomat can be transparent about his motives and yet still have people doing what he wants them to do while believing it’s their idea to do so. As an adjunct to Mind-based magicks, this Talent can become a huge (and occasionally fearsome) edge in group dynamics.
Instruction You’re really good at relaying information, teaching material, and helping other folks understand potentially complex principles. It’s not so much that you’re an expert on the subject at hand (though you might be), but that you’ve got a knack for taking your subject and making it easier to comprehend. A very
useful Talent for mentors, professors and, of course, instructors for any given course of study, this Ability helps your character share his expertise with other characters.
Intrigue Machiavelli’s ghost smiles upon you. In the vicious whirlpools of backstabbing power, you’re a force to be reckoned with. A combination of instincts, audacity, knowledge, guile, and ruthlessness gives you insights and edges that most folks lack. You may serve a greater purpose, work toward hidden agendas, or simply enjoy making puppets dance. Whatever your ultimate purpose, you’re a player, not a pawn, in your personal Game of Thrones.
Intuition Also known as Instinct, this Talent represents a primal sort of perception that runs beneath your conscious mind. Essentially, you possess an animal-like awareness of your surroundings and circumstances. Though it’s not mind-reading per se, your Intuition helps you spot cues about people’s moods and intentions, notice when “something’s not quite right,” and recognize patterns and connections that your conscious mind might otherwise have missed. Combat vets, street survivors, primal folks, and animal-favoring shapechangers tend to develop such instincts as a survival skill; even then, though, such awareness comes more from innate talent than from practiced techniques. In situations where your character might pick up on subconscious clues or subtle giveaways, add your Intuition to a Mental Attribute to see whether or not that character’s instincts kick in.
Kenning Kenning is faerie sight. It allows a character to sense Glamour in all of its forms. He can recognize the power of cantrips and freeholds, identify “slumbering” changelings, and even discover the elusive prodigals and their magic. This insight is usually an impression. Gremayre is required to know specifics about what the changeling senses.
Mimicry A skilled imitator, you can mimic voices or sounds; the higher your rating, the greater your ability. The human larynx is quite flexible, capable of a wide vocal range. (A touch of magick can make that range even wider if you augment your natural abilities with Life 2 or 3.) At the lower levels, you can imitate accents or the voices of specific people, while higher levels help you fake an impressive range of sonic phenomena.
Negotiation An acute perception for what people want makes you a master wheeler-dealer. Combined with social savvy and the ability to say “No” when you need to do so, this perception lets you bring other folks around to your point of view, helps them strike bargains, and puzzle out the potential agendas that drive them to and away from the bargaining table.
Newspeak Language is your playground. In a brave new age, you coin brave new words. Why? Because language is the gatekeeper of status and initiation. Obfuscatory miscourse is keycode. Disinfotech relegates the bleaters to Sidelinedia. Coprosperity sails on neochop, and so you bait the beespeakers and decompartmentalize linguiblocks. What the hell are you saying, anyway? Whatever the hell you want it to mean! Essentially, this Talent helps you spin and juggle buzzwords, either existing or original. Beyond the roleplaying fun you can have with this Trait, Newspeak provides a verbal arsenal for social entanglements. By pairing Social Attributes with this Ability, you can excite, incite or inspire your audience (Charisma + Newspeak); dazzle, befuddle or intimidate opponents (Manipulation + Newspeak); or blast holes in Preconceptionsville by pairing beauty with brains (Appearance + Newspeak). Intelligence + Newspeak may help you decipher or deconstruct someone else’s wordstorm, while Perception or Wits might help you keep track of a slogan-spitting raconteur… or beat her at her own game!
Primal-Urge This Talent describes a character’s connection to her bestial nature, and her level of gut feelings in her various nonhuman forms. A character with high Primal-Urge relies not just on her heightened instincts, but a whole range of sensory information that humans don’t fully understand. Her understanding of her feral nature gives her an easier time when changing form, and can let her instinctively notice signs of supernatural activity — though this rarely goes beyond the level of a chill down the spine or the hairs on her neck standing on end.
Scan Your quick eyes spot things other people miss. Darting your gaze across a place or situation, you can catch a quick appraisal that would take most people a while to observe. Generally combined with Perception, this Talent helps your character scope out potential targets, threats, clues, faces, escape routes, and other vital details. He might not always know just what it is he sees, and he has to actually think about scanning an area in order to use this Ability. Given time for a fast glance or two, however, he’ll probably snag enough material to work with once he’s got the chance to process what he’s seen.
Scrounging Dude! Where’d you find that? You’re pretty good at spotting goodies in the oddest places. A skilled scavenger, you can discover all kinds of unlikely stuff. Granted, said stuff has to be there first… but then, if you’re a mage, this Talent provides a wonderful excuse for coincidental magick. Even without magick, though, the toss-out nature of consumer culture often puts the odds in your favor.
Style You know how to look good. And although you’ve got an eye for fashion, this Talent’s not so much about what you wear as how you wear it. Style helps you make good impressions based on clothes, bearing, behavior, and appearance… and while it’s most obvious on pretty people, it can have striking effects on those who otherwise look plain.
Secondary or Race Specific Skills
Blind Fighting Either through training, meditation or grim necessity, you can get around without sight even under extreme conditions. Each dot in Blind Fighting reduces, by -1 per dot, your penalty for performing actions while visually blinded. (It does not, of course, give you a bonus for fighting in the dark, although it certainly gives you an edge if your opponents are blind as well.) This Skill does not give you the ability to see in darkness, nor does it add to Correspondence Effects; it does, however, reflect an extraordinary perception of your body and immediate surroundings even when you cannot see.
Climbing The phrase “sheer surface” means less to you than it means to most folks. You can scale walls, trees, mountains, and other surfaces so long as you’ve got something to hold onto. Although this Skill does not grant superhuman abilities, it’s really amazing what a skilled climber can do, even without gear.
Disguise Looking like someone else is your specialty. This might involve impersonating an existing person, concealing your own identity, or creating a whole new persona independent of yourself. Even without Life or Mind magick, your expertise can fool casual observers… and, at the higher levels, fool almost anyone. Add Life and /or Mind to this Skill, and your disguise skills can become damn near perfect. With or without make-up and such, the art of disguise depends upon an ineffable quality that allows a person to slip into another personality. A truly magnificent disguise-artist can change personas with a few shifts of physicality, though most folks need make-up and clothes to complete the illusion. Disguise means “remove appearances,” and so the core of this Skill involves changing the way you come across – not simply gluing on a moustache, but appearing to become an entirely different person.
Elusion You’re good at giving people the slip. With enough cover to work with (crowds, underbrush, rooms filled with boxes, etc.), you can shake pursuit, hide from observation, trick pursuers, and blend in with the landscape. Cleverly employed, Elusion can help you puzzle out new surroundings (Intelligence + Elusion), confuse your pursuers (Manipulation + Elusion), spot traps and hiding places (Perception + Elusion), duck quickly behind cover (Dexterity + Elusion), and trick antagonists into following false leads or falling into hazards (Wits + Elusion). And, of course, you also know what to look for if someone else is trying to hide from you… (Again, Perception + Elusion.) In itself, this Skill is not magickal – it’s all about knowing how to use your surroundings to your advantage. Certain magickal Effects, however, can bend light and sound (the Forces Sphere), shift probability (Entropy), influence bystanders (Mind), or spot “perfect moments” (Time) that take your mundane skill to the next level, often without so much as rippling the Consensus.
Escapology Through a combination of tricks, misdirection, muscular control and really flexible joints, you can shuck most forms of physical restraint. Ropes, chains, holds, and death-traps slow you down, but… given time and perhaps a hidden lockpick or two… you’ve figured out how to foil most of them. This Skill does not confer any supernatural ability, although you can use it to justify magickal escapes if your “audience” lnows that you’ve studied escapist techniques.
Fast-Draw You’re quick. They’re dead. A roll of Dexterity + Fast- Draw (three successes or more) lets you pull a weapon and have it ready to use. The roll’s difficulty depends on where you’d been keeping that weapon stored – a hidden ankle-knife is harder to draw than a pistol in an open holster! This Skill works with any weapon, and can “explain” why that gun in your hand just appeared from nowhere. With the Storyteller’s
approval, you can add the dots in this Skill to your Initiative roll when either you or your opponent is trying to get in the very first shot. (It does not, however, add to that roll after the initial turn.)
Fast-Talk Weaving a blizzard of words, you dazzle folks with brilliant bullshittery. A surprisingly effective tactic (assuming that your target has a Wits rating of three or less; brighter folks are less easily bamboozled), this Skill lets you overwhelm a person’s ability to understand or deflect your agenda. You’re so distracting,
convincing, or downright puzzling that people are inclined to believe you… at least until they’ve had a chance to think about what you’re saying. Deployed by a pundit, debater, salesman or crook, Fast-Talk can be a devastating weapon.
Fencing/Kenjutsu The Art of the Blade, Fencing reflects expertise with an array of European sword-and-dagger-fighting techniques, while Kenjutsu reflects Japanese samurai swordsmanship. Other cultural forms of bladed martial arts, such as Chinese wushu weapon techniques, can be considered as “fencing” for the purposes of dice pools and maneuvers; just change the name to whatever art is appropriate for that character. At its lowest levels, such knowledge is purely sporting; an accomplished fencer or kendoka, though, can be deadly in true hand-to-hand combat. As with most martial arts, a dedicated study of swordsmanship includes philosophy, meditation, vigorous exercise, and a refinement of mind, body, and soul… which makes it an excellent magickal focus technique.
Fortune-Telling/Assessment Analysis Whether or not you actually possess accurate gifts of prophecy, you often have folks believing that you do. Scanning anything from cards to entrails to scripture verses, you can convincingly predict future events, read a person, or otherwise get someone to believe in your incredible prescience. This makes an excellent instrument for Mind-, Entropy- or Time-based magicks, although its believability (and thus, its ability to be considered coincidental) will depend upon both your audience and your own beliefs. A true believer will easily accept an accurate Tarot reading, but a skeptic might prove far harder to convince. A Technocratic variation, Assessment Analysis, does exactly the same thing but with a very different explanation. Instead of using symbolic or religious trappings, such Analysis involves psychological cues, deductive reasoning, body language, and other methods to read a person’s inner landscape, predict potential behaviors, or estimate the probabilities of future events. This lets Assessment Specialists size people up at a glance, determine accurate calculations, or strip away deceptions to perceive the truth beneath them. In the modern world, this sort of thing tends to be coincidental, so long as the Specialist can point out cues or clues that might lead to a rational conclusion.
Gambling Games of nerve and chance are your specialties. Even without the aid of Entropy Arts (which can add a devastating edge to this Skill), you’re good at gauging odds, bluffing rivals, spotting cheats, hedging bets, faking people out, and employing the mind-games and slight-of-hand essential to card games, betting, and apparently random luck.
Gunsmith Shooting guns is easy. Knowing how guns work is a bit more complicated. This Skill reflects a practical knowledge of weapon manufacture, modification, design and repair. The various levels cover expanding categories of firearms expertise. Given time, tools, and enough dots in this Skill, you can fix guns, craft firearms and unique ammo from scratch, and even use Matter and Forces Effects to alter or supercharge mundane firearms in surprising ways. It’s worth noting that modern mass-produced firearms are far easier to modify than antique or archaic weapons are. Attempts to modify or repair older-model mass-produced
weaponry (pre-Vietnam), or small-run models of more recent vintage, will add +1 or +2 to the difficulty of Gunsmith rolls, while firearms from before the twentieth century add between +1 to +3 to the difficulties of such attempts, depending upon the complexity of the attempted modification. Shoddy weapons, of course, will be harder to repair or modify.
Heavy Weapons Military-grade weaponry is a world apart from commercial- grade firearms. Your training, however, allows you to employ serious gear: machine-guns, rocket-launchers, Stinger missiles, and other high-impact forms of portable destruction. Becausesuch weapons tend to be finicky, you know how to field-repair them as well. Perhaps you even have your own YouTube channel,for thrilling the armchair-testosterone set. (“Now that is what I am talking about… And, as always, have nice day!”)
Hunting You score food old-school style: by tracking, trapping, spotting, stalking, killing, gutting, skinning, and packing it out yourself. Some folks think you’re a testosterone sadist, and they might even be right. As far as you see it, though, you’re keeping an essential skill alive. Especially among mages who spend time in the wilderness or Otherworlds, this Skill means the difference between being a live magus and a dead child of the supermarket age!
Hypnotism Using mundane psychological techniques (as opposed to Mind-based magicks), you can place someone in a trance and then rummage around a bit inside his head. Though it’s not nearly as effective as people seem to believe it is, such mesmerism is quite potent under the proper circumstances. Mesmerism typically demands a setting that encourages a subject to surrender himself to the hypnotist’s control; traditionally hypnotic settings, tools, and techniques include religious rituals, quiet clinics, repetitious music, dramatic contrasts of light and darkness, and – believe it or not – television screens. Drawing the subject into a receptive state of mind, the hypnotist gets him to lower his defenses and let her in. If the subject resists, the hypnotist will probably need to resort to Mind magicks rather than simple mesmerism. System-wise, the player makes a resisted roll that pits her Charisma + Hypnotism against her subject’s Intelligence (for
a willing subject) or Intelligence + Willpower (for an unwilling subject). The number of successes reflects the depth of the trance, with one to three successes indicating a mild trance and four or more successes revealing a fairly deep one. For each success rolled, the hypnotist adds one additional die to her second roll; three successes, for example, would add three more dice to that second roll’s dice pool. Next, the hypnotist player rolls a second time against a difficulty of the subject’s Willpower; for each success, she man ages to uncover one piece of information; instill one “trigger phrase”; inspire one idea, behavior or memory that the subject will think is his own; “command” one simple activity; or reduce the difficulty a related Mind-based spell by -1. This process, in turn, takes roughly one minute of in-game time per task
involved. (It would, for instance, take four minutes to instill four triggers or memories.) Contrary to popular perception, short sessions of hypnotic influence cannot drive a person to commit things he wouldn’t do otherwise. Extended influence, on the other hand, can be surprisingly efficacious. Hypnotism is a psychological art, not an exact science. Its effects are unpredictable – not even “experts” can fully control another person’s mind without hardcore Mind-magick. Ultimately, the Storyteller decides how much influence our mesmerist exerts upon her subject. That said, a skilled hypnotist can do some pretty impressive things with a willing subject… especially if she’s adept with the Mind Sphere as well.
Jury-Rigging With a bit of luck and a lot of skill, you can rig a gadget, make temporary repairs, or cobble together something vaguely workable from a pile of spare parts. Naturally, you’ll need the appropriate Traits as well – stuff like Hypertech, Computers, Energy Weapons, and so forth. You can’t rig something you don’t
understand. A brilliant technician, though, can make gear jump through hoops long enough to get through an immediate crisis. Clever technomancers can also use Jury-Rigging as part of their focus if they’ve got something to work with and enough time to make things happen. That said, this is a Skill, not a Sphere; it can’t do something blatantly impossible on its own. Whether or not a Jury-Rigged device is vulgar magick depends on just how outlandish it seems. An armored suit made out of forged steel and weapon-parts? Okay. A flying car composed of Frisbees and dog treats? Um, no.
Microgravity Operations Things get weird when you leave Earth’s gravity. Although there’s no such thing as true “zero-G,” the radically altered gravitational forces found in strange Realms, spacecraft or Etherspace demand specialized training and experience. Without the Microgravity Operations Skill, a character in such environments cannot use dice from any Physical Ability; sure, he’s still strong or dexterous, but that martial arts training won’t do him a damn bit of good when the physics upon which those arts depend have been replaced by micro-gravity. A rare skill-set outside the ranks of Technocratic Void Engineers, Microgravity Operations teaches you how to move and act in altered gravity. Each dot in this Skill allows your character to use a dot in his other physical Abilities. Let’s say that the guy mentioned above has four dots in Martial Arts; he could use one of them at Microgravity 1, two at Microgravity 2, and so on. Without such training, a person bounces and floats with very little control of personal physics; with this Skill, that same person knows how to use that environment to his advantage.
Misdirection “Look! Over there!” Okay, you’re usually more subtle than that. Still, you’re good at distracting folks from what you’re actually trying to do. An essential skill for magicians, pickpockets, seducers, and other people who prefer to redirect attention, this Ability helps you steer someone’s concentration elsewhere. In a fight, this Skill also helps you set someone up for an unpleasant surprise. Each success in a Dexterity + Misdirection roll (difficulty 5 + the target’s Wits) lowers the difficulty of your next strike. Essentially, you throw a fakeout, your opponent responds, and you clock him. Similar applications of this Skill let you set up distractions and then do something else when your target’s back is turned… in game terms, reducing the difficulty of your next roll if you succeed with a Misdirection attempt. Naturally, this sort of trick stops working if you rely upon it too often. Each subsequent attempt with the same target (or group of targets)
raises your Misdirection difficulty by +2. Dude – they’re on to you! Time to try a different tactic…
Meditation Ground, center, breathe, and relax. This Skill helps you sweep aside the clutter of everyday existence and find a spot within yourself that offers calm. Depending on your preferred style, your background, and the purpose for which you practice meditation, this could involve simple quiet time, elaborate postures and breath control, religious devotion, and even ecstatic dance or prayer.
Networking You’re good at making contacts and working them for all they’re worth. While these networks won’t actually act on your behalf (certain Backgrounds cover that sort of thing), they’re real lifesavers when you’re trying to assemble data (Perception + Networking), get something done (Manipulation +
Networking), or win someone over (Charisma or Appearance + Networking) through your various contacts. Simple tasks have lower difficulties, while obscure or difficult tasks demand much better rolls – or, in story terms, a more thorough and dedicated network. Networking demands time, access, and attention. Although cell phones and laptops can link you to your contacts in most tech-enabled locations, you still need to spend time reaching out and maintaining your network. Occasionally, they’ll ask you for favors too you get nothing for nothing, after all! The nice thing, though, about extensive networks is that the people in them have a greater ability to help one another when need be.
Pilot Most folks, when confronted with the complex control panels of conventional aircraft, don’t have the slightest idea where to start. You do. Training and experience allow you to fly, land, and control most types of Sleepertech flying machines; the higher your rating, the more sophisticated the craft.
Psychology Versed in the practice of clinical psychology, you can help folks deal with mental and emotional ailments. Also known as Psychoanalysis, this Trait takes time and trust to deploy you can’t cure phobias during a firefight! Given the space and opportunity to work your craft, though, you can win someone’s confidence and then help him sort out the traumas in his head. For each session of focused psychoanalysis, roll Intelligence + Psychoanalysis, with a difficulty of the subject’s Intelligence + 3. If he’s resisting your efforts, use Manipulation or Charisma + Psychoanalysis, with a difficulty of his Willpower + 3 (max 10). Each success counts toward at least a temporary resolution of an illness or neurosis. Simple quirks are easy to fix (five to 10 successes), while severe mental illness can be much harder (20 successes or more).
On the shadow-side, the same techniques can be used to instill mental quirks and illnesses – false memories, induced phobias, that sort of thing. This application assumes that the subject is resisting you subconsciously (Willpower +3), but can still be quite effective if your patient trusts you. The Satanic ritual
abuse panic of the ‘80s and ‘90s came largely from dishonest psychologists “leading” their patients to “discover” things that had never actually happened. Corrupters, seducers, and “conversion specialists” study psychoanalysis for that very reason. Whether you’re trying to help or harm someone, Mind magick obviously helps with this sort of thing. Thus, “miracle cures” can be explained by your reputation as a skilled psychotherapist.
Research So the building was constructed in 1927, but the site it occupies has occult associations going back almost as far as there were records for the time, Senachib mused. The financier behind its construction committed suicide following the stock market crash, or at least his death was ruled a suicide. It was clear that someone had invested a lot of time and effort into having a building there, but why? For most questions, the answer is out there, if only you know where to look. Research is the skill of knowing where to look for information, gathering it efficiently and organizing it so other people can absorb it without too much trouble. With this Ability, you know the best places to start looking for particular information and the best ways to go about it. Research differs from Academics in that it involves looking for information, while Academics involves knowing information, and Research tends to turn up more detailed information than someone can recall from memory.
Speed-Reading Through a combination of concentration and skill, you can scan and retain large amounts of information in very short periods of time. Speed reading utilizes a number of tricks that help you process things you read quickly. Although complex works demand more time and focus than simple ones do, this skill comes in handy when you’ve got research to do and not much time with which to do it. Although this is a valuable talent for Technocrats, Hermetic mages, Virtual Adepts, and other folks who need to absorb huge chunks of data, it’s a hazardous trick to employ when you’re reading about advanced magickal or scientific matters. Both advanced science and ritual magick, after all, depend upon precise reading in order to get the proper results. Speed-reading techniques depend upon mnemonic shortcuts, and “shortcuts” and "magick” tend to make poor bedfellows. The Storyteller might inflict a penalty upon rites or procedures whose details have been learned through speed-reading, with potentially horrific results if the attempt fails. The moral behind this principle: Don’t try summoning Elder Gods with a ritual you skimmed in your hurry to get through the book!
Swimming You don’t sink – you swim. Under normal circumstances, you can move roughly 8 yards + your Dexterity rating in a turn. By focusing solely upon your speed, you can move up to 12 yards + your Dexterity rating; and by throwing everything you have behind the strokes, you can roll your Stamina + Swimming (difficulty 7) to add three more yards to your movement that turn. Each turn demands a separate roll, though, and you can do this for only one turn per point of Stamina you possess. After that… well, sinking might become an option…
Secondary or Race Specific Knowledges
Conspiracy Theory “They” are not merely the projections of a delusional mind. You know damn well that secret power-players manipulate the world, and you’re on to their schemes. In the World of Darkness, paranoia is a survival technique, and so this Knowledge gives you clues to the conspiracies that may or may not be eating that world from the inside-out. Naturally, such information makes you a target… and though you may indeed
be paranoid, They probably are out to get you… especially if you’re working for Them too.
Chantry/Construct Politics In the corridors of Awakened and Enlightened power, you know your way around. Alliances, rivalries, histories, influential players, status and weaknesses… they’re your bread and butter. Chapter One: Heroic Traits With such expertise, you’re able to accomplish things that leave lesser mages scratching their heads.
This Knowledge comes in two forms: Chantry Politics covers the internal workings of a mystic stronghold, while Construct Politics reveals the inner workings of Technocratic installations. The higher your rating, the more you know. Certain levels of this Knowledge, however, are off-limits to characters under a certain rank. Low-level mages or Technocrats won’t have the security clearance necessary to access high-level
secrets (that is, C-Politics higher than 3), and members of rival factions probably won’t be able to find out much about the other guys at all unless they’re skilled infiltrators walking a very dangerous line. Regardless of the character’s rank or affiliation, C-Politics just gives you data and rumors, not the ability to act on what you think you know. Putting that knowledge to good use requires Traits like Diplomacy,
Subterfuge, Allies, Patron, and Spies.
Cosmology/Sub-dimensions Known by Technocrats and many hypertech mystics as Subdimensions, this trait reflects a working
knowledge of the puzzling Otherworlds beyond the Earthly plane. With it, you stand a decent chance of finding your way around out there without getting yourself killed. (Without it, you’re seriously screwed.) The specific way in which you view the Otherworlds will depend a lot on what you expect to see there; this Knowledge simply gives you the tools to navigate paths, spot hazards, deal with entities, and recognize opportunities or threats when you run across them.
Covert Culture In the alphabet soup of international intrigue (CIA, NSA, ICPO, etc.), you’ve got a backstage pass at the shadow-plays. Probably thanks to hard-won experience, you can spot cues, identify agents, play connect-the-dots between government agencies, and rattle off covert operations as if they were football games. In order to put such knowledge to use, of course, you’ll need other skills to back up the things you know. Still, even James Bond needs to know who to trick, seduce, take orders from, and shoot on sight.
Spoiler for Hiden:
• Dabbler: You know the names and general
data pertaining to the secret service agencies
of major world powers.
•• Student: You keep tabs on every major covert
operations agency in the world, and know
tidbits about various “paraintelligence” groups
(the Arcanum, Zaibatsu, Inquisition, etc.) as
well.
••• Scholar: Beyond the obvious facts and figures
involved in covert operations, you’ve got dirt
on important figures in the community, solid
data about “nonexistent” groups, and enough
so-called “secrets” to make certain folks uneasy.
•••• Professor: You know about, and are known to,
every major party in the covert-culture world,
with plenty of knowledge about other groups
as well.
••••• Master: They just call you “M.”
You’re a walking travel guide, even in places you’ve never visited before. A combination of prior knowledge and innate savvy helps you spot cultural sweet spots and pitfalls before you (or your companions) trip over your own ignorance. Unlike the Etiquette Skill, this Knowledge is less about making friends than it is about figuring out how cultures work as a whole. With it, you can grasp foreign manners, catch subtle cues, unravel complex social roles, and draw conclusions about the importance of gender, politics, ethnicity, and – perhaps most importantly – the cultural expectations of the people in question. In a chronicle that employs reality zones, this can be a subtle but important weapon in the global Ascension War.
Esoterica Esoteric knowledge comes in many forms: astrology, angelography, fortune-telling, yoga, herbalism, demonology, the lore of stones, even the secret code languages of occult societies. For centuries, such mysteries were the province of selected initiates; these days, it’s relatively easy to find the basics in any decent bookstore or website. Even so, the deeper levels remain obscure to all but the most devoted students of the art. Anyone can take a yoga class in the modern world, but the more arcane applications of that art demand years of practice, study, and devotion. Game-wise, the Esoterica reflects your pursuit of an esoteric discipline which suggests the practices and instruments for your magickal focus. The Trait’s overall rating reflects your general knowledge of arcane subjects, whereas each specialty reflects your expertise within a certain field. Unlike the Occult Knowledge – which in reflects an understanding of “secret history” and shadow-cultures – Esoterica represents the practical application of unusual fields. Occult can teach your character who Aleister Crowley was, while Esoterica helps her understand what Crowley did…
and to use those principles herself. In short, this Knowledge sums up a lot of previous editions’ Abilities into a single united Trait. Because esoteric disciplines are often interrelated, you can use the Well-Skilled Craftsman option to purchase a new specialty for only four experience points, assuming that you already have at least four dots in the Esoterica Knowledge, an existing specialty, and a story-based reason to learn that discipline. Say, for example, your character has four dots in Esoterica, with a specialty in Herbalism;
if he gets some time to study yoga, he can spend four experience points and then add a specialty in Yoga to that Knowledge… after which time he can use yoga as a focus tool (assuming that it fits his magickal paradigm), and count 10s as two successes on mundane or magick-casting rolls that employ that practice.
Given an opportunity to study and practice an art, any character can learn Esoterica. Although such disciplines don’t give magickal powers to unAwakened characters, the Knowledge lets them use mundane applications – teaching yoga classes, doing horoscopes, deciphering alchemical texts and so forth – and count 10s as two successes if and when they do so. Understanding the principles of bakemono-jutsu – the ninja “ghost technique” – won’t make you invisible, for instance, but a specialty in that esoteric technique would let you count 10s as two successes on your Stealth Skill roll. Even though they can’t employ mystic powers, non-mages can be far more knowledgeable about such subjects than mages are. Such mentors may teach a mage this Knowledge or allow him to add another specialty to his existing expertise. Let’s say that Dante needs to learn demonology; he goes to the best teacher he can find – an unAwakened monk named Brother Silence – and studies his ass off. In time, Dante understands the names and rituals associated with Infernal powers and can put them to practical use. In such cases, the student may indeed
surpass the master, thanks to the Awakened understanding that unlocks the greatest potential of the art.
Again, an Esoterica practice must fit the character’s belief system if you want to use it as a focus; a computer mage will have a hard time wedging her study of herbalism into a technomagickal hacking routine! This rule, however, helps flesh out your character’s belief system and gives you a practical use for the arcane disciplines that any mage worth that name understands.
Gremayre Gremayre is a character’s understanding of magic, lore, and the ways of Glamour. She uses it when creating an oath, weaving an enchantment, forging a treasure, and understanding faerie history. Gremayre is essential for comprehending all things related to the Dreaming, including mortal and Prodigal magic and mystic practices.
Helmsman The baroque complexity of starship controls is enough to give most folks a headache. Not you. Rigorous training and practice have taught you how to maneuver the weird craft that operate beyond the mundane realm. Although you probably need a support crew to help you (starships are complicated!), you’re got practical knowledge regarding the various screens, buttons, keys, and monitors involved in navigating and steering such advanced vehicles. Despite some cosmetic similarities to the Pilot Skill above, Helmsman works with a very different sort of vehicle. And because this Skill deals with spacecraft, very few characters – other than Void Engineers and certain Etherites – know that it exists… and even fewer have studied its techniques. On a related note, there are some pretty significant differences between the standardized controls of Technocratic-fleet vessels and the more… um, elegant designs of unique Etherite craft. In game terms, the Storyteller should impose a penalty, typically -1 to -3, on a helmsman who’s trying to puzzle out an unfamiliar set of controls. Oh, the consequences of a blown roll can be downright ugly. In (Ether)space, no one can hear you die.
History Those who forget history are doomed to be stupid mages. You’re not one of them. A pursuit of historical knowledge includes not only the usual facts and figures but – especially in recent years – an exploration of the cultural trends behind the big events, the role of “little people” (marginalized populations, commoners,
women, etc.), and other things that old-school historians didn’t think were worth recording but which turned out to be vitally important. Hermetics, Technocrats, and historical recreationists and reclamationists take history very seriously; some of the older ones may even have experienced “historical events” in person.
Power-Brokering When it’s time to set up puppets and get them dancing, this Ability reflects your ability to consolidate connections, facilitate access, introduce power-players to one another, and then lay foundations for the type of influence that gets things done. An “offstage” ability (like Research and Networking), Power-Brokering allows you to set up and manipulate networks of authority and then sit in the center of them and employ the folks who owe you favors. Is this magick? Oh, hell yes. Members of the Syndicate, NWO, Solificati, Virtual Adepts, and Celestial Chorus swear by this type of “enchantment,” as do the most efficient and influential Nephandi. Even Ecstatics, witches and shamans employ these sorts of connections among their related peers. Faces and titles may differ, but social power is universal. Especially when combined with Mind spells, Power-Brokering lets you “make a few calls” to bring influential parties together and point them at common goals. Social-based rolls create those connections – typically composed of Manipulation + Power-Brokering, although Charisma, Appearance, Intelligence, Perception, and perhaps even – within some cultures – Strength could be combined with Power-Brokering as well. In conjunction with Backgrounds like Allies, Influence, Resources, and Spies, or Abilities like Etiquette, Cultural Savvy,
Media, Politics, Subterfuge, and similar Traits, you can forge potent connections without ever resorting to Spheres; if you do nudge things a bit with True Magick, the results can be astounding… just ask the Technocracy… and the Nephandi…
Propaganda From your lips to the world’s ears. You know how to influence public opinion on a mass scale, often by bending an inflammatory truth just enough to boil the blood of John and Jane Q. Public. Given a few days, some resources, and the right venue, you can make your chosen party look as good or bad as possible. Obviously, this demands media access (computers, social media, TV network connections, etc.); assuming you have it, though, you can craft messages that lodge and burn in the public consciousness. Like other “offstage” Abilities, this Trait requires time and patience to employ. In game terms, you decide the message you want to send, the instruments you want to employ when delivering that message, the methods you plan to use in order to get that message across, and the effect you want it to have once it’s out there. A Manipulation + Propaganda roll sends that message out to the court of public opinion; the better you roll, the stronger that idea takes hold. That roll’s difficulty depends on your target, the message, and the general public’s receptivity to the idea. Claiming that the first dark-skinned American president is a malignant foreign infiltrator appears to be a very easy task; convincing the general public that their favorite news sources are owned by an Arabian prince is far more challenging. To many Technocratic Operatives, this Trait makes a perfect venue for large-scale coincidental Mind Procedures. Note, however, that such propaganda, even in Awakened hands, is effective but not perfect. The pervasive
and contradictory nature of mass-media culture assures a certain degree of skepticism in even the most gullible audiences.
Rituals Rituals are an important part of werewolf life. Ritual behavior helps a werewolf control the Rage within. This Knowledge lets the character know about the traditions, mysteries, and ceremonies of the Garou, including how to participate in common rites and how to behave properly towards elders and leaders. Some werewolf rituals are more than formalized behavior: they call upon ancient spirit magics to powerful effect. A character cannot learn a rite of higher level than his Rituals rating.
Religion Recollections of Creation, the war and the Fall lingerin humanity’s collective consciousness as myths and legends. Around those beliefs, humans have built religions, some of which unite more people than any nation or force in the world. At the same time, religions divide people and serve as excuses for atrocities. As focuses for human faith, religions are a subject of keen interest to the fallen, and many study them, both for means of influencing and garnering worshippers and to find clues to the secrets of the past they have lost. Religion covers theology and comparative religious studies along with knowledge of major religions and (with increasing rank) knowledge of lesser-known ones as well. Characters often take a specialty in a particular religion.
Theology You understand religious structures, doctrines and histories… not necessarily from a believer’s standpoint (although many theologians are believers by default) but from an informed perspective. At the upper levels (three dots or more), most people with this Trait tend to notice the common threads between different creeds; that, however, is not a universal tendency – plenty of dedicated theologians remain locked, with intense devotion, into a single religious belief.
Unconventional Warfare Perhaps the biggest hot-button topic of the new millennium, unconventional warfare is as old as war itself. Originally referred to as the Knowledge: Terrorism, this field of expertise deals with the techniques of mass terror, the instruments of fear, the underworlds associated with unconventional warfare, and the most efficacious methods for “sending a message” or catching the people who do. Combined with Traits like Computer, Demolitions, Intimidation, Security, Politics, Media, Covert Culture, andso forth, this Knowledge can reflect the practical as well as the organizational, ideological, and social aspects of terrorism.
Theology or Occult may let a character recognize the religious or mystic aims of terrorism, while Expression and Cultural Savvy unlock the potentially artistic side of mass murder. Since the difference between heroes and terrorists is almost entirely subjective, experts in this field often veer into exceedingly
hazy moral territory with regards to the people they know and the things they’ll do. And while terrorism is unquestionably a dirty business, it can be profoundly effective… especially for mages locked in a shadow war to control Reality on a global scale.
Vice You’re a master and a scholar of decadent pleasures. Sex, drugs, booze, and other thrills both common and forbidden are your specialty. You might be a vice cop or Interpol agent tasked with cleaning such places up; a criminal rooted in those undergrounds; a wizard with a shady past; or a sensation-seeker
of the first and final order. Perhaps you’re a sex-worker, a drugmule, or some other street-level professional… or a tourist in places the guidebooks never mention. Regardless of the source of your information, you know how to find dens of iniquity, chase your favorite dragons, and get what you want or need without getting killed in the process… that is, of course, assuming that you “get lucky” and stay that way.
