New Disadvantages

Some new disadvantages that Jared Whitley came up with. Some of these are a work-in-progress.

Quirky: -5 points

You are an inordinately quirky person. In addition to the standard five quirks, you may take five more additional quirks (for a total of ten). The reason why this is a disadvantage is because, just like with the standard five quirks, you must roleplay them or the GM will dock you points.

Debt: -5/-10/-15/-20 points

Character is in Debt the following amount, gauged by his Wealth level.
Money owed Points
50% starting wealth 5 points
100% starting wealth 10 points
200% starting wealth 15 points
500% starting wealth 20 points

Note: the 5 point version is exactly equal to starting wealth struggling. Should the character want to pay it off immediately, he can.

Optional Accounting rules, dependent on TL: Every month, make an Accounting roll. If successful, you avoid interest. A critical success indicates you've found a loophole or a clever investment, and the sum is reduced by 5%. A failure indicates +5% interest. Critical failure +10%!

If a Debt gets exorbitantly high, or a character simply doesn't pay it back quickly, it can turn into an Enemy, as it did for Han Solo. Should the character pay the Debt off fiscally but not with character points, it will turn into a reputation disadvantage. Until that is bought off the character will have a hard time buying a house or gambling!

Heart of Gold: -15 points

Heart of Gold is the "good" disadvantages possessed by characters engaged in extra-legal affairs but are not generally evil. This disadvantage is a package deal of Sense of Duty (pick a 10 point Sense of Duty) and two Reputations. They receive a -1 reaction from law enforcement and government officials (who know the Heart of Gold breaks the law) and a -1 reaction from criminal or underworld figures (who know the Heart of Gold is, at heart, a good person).

Examples of characters with this disadvantage are many: Han Solo, Quark, Mad Martigan, Robin Hood, Rocky the Flying Rooster (from Chicken Run), and Jackie Chan's sidekick in Shanghai Noon. This disadvantage is incompatible with Pacifism (as per Cannot Kill Innocents) and Bloodlust. Unless the player has a good explanation, Heart of Gold is, for starting characters, incompatible with Legal Enforcement Powers or Administrative Rank (as Heart of Gold characters are rogues who operate outside the law.) Han Solo had Heart of Gold from the beginning, and eventually gained Military Rank in the Rebel Alliance through game play. (Although it seems in the Star Wars universe, in order to become general all you need is the ability to form a coherent sentence. And Jar Jar didn't even have that.)

Rebellious: -15 points

A character with this disadvantage opposed authority of any kind but particularly high school principals and fathers who want to send them to Alaska for military school. Rebels receive a -3 reaction from anyone in authority, but a +3 reaction from anyone who is similarly rebellious. This disadvantage includes the Stubbornness disadvantage. While it will be fun for the player to act Unnecessarily Rebellious, it will make things trying for the rest of the group, particularly for whoever happens to be in charge.

This disadvantage is compatible with Legal Enforcement Powers and Administrative rank (unlike Heart of Gold; see above). Popular culture is littered with examples of cops who "get the job done by cutting corners and bucking authority." However, characters starting with this advantage may not put any points into the Leadership skill at character generation.

Examples of characters with this advantage are Hawkeye, Lister, James Dean, and - the author of the book on unnecessary rebellion - Remmick. For a humorous touch, add "Unnecessarily" to the name.

Jerk: -30 points

You are a jerk. People don't like you and you don't like them. You have to role-play this; act like a Jerk. This disadvantage is a package deal including Bully, Stubbornness, and Overconfidence. In addition to those you receive an additional -1 reaction from everyone and a -2 reaction from other Jerks (remember: nobody likes you, you're a Jerk).

This disadvantage has no impact on Social Skills, except in cases where Social Skills are substituted for reaction rolls. Jerks are often very good at sucking up to people. Frank Burns and Rimmer were Jerks.

Cat Magnet: -10 to -40 points

For some reason, you just seem to attract felines of all stripe and flavor. If you and your friends walk into a room where there is a cat, it will immediately run to you. In any place where cats would be found and at terribly inconvenient moments, cats will show up and pester you.

The base point value of this disadvantage is -10 points, modified by the following:

Number of Cats

This affects how many cats are drawn to you and consequently, how long it takes to shoo them away. This also affects how people react to you as you're walking down the street with all these cats following you.

An exception to the above reaction penalties, cat lovers will react to you at +1!

In order to get rid of the cats, you must spend 1 minute per cat shooing them away before they leave.

Frequency of Appearance

Whenever there would reasonably be cats nearby (and especially at inconvenient moments, like when you're trying to sneak up on someone).

Level of Disturbance

This determines how noisy or unruly the cats you attract are:

Light-Sensetive Eyes: -10/-20 points

You are especially bothered by bright lights, even daylight. In such conditions, you are at -2 to all skill rolls and all vision-related sense rolls; Accute Vision bonuses only apply in dim/low light or when sunglasses are worn (see below). At dawn or dusk you are only at -1 to skill/sense rolls. The negative effects of any lights that might stun/blind are double for you.

At TL5 or higher you can wear sunglasses that compensate totally for your light-sensetivity while they are worn. In the late 20th century, contact lenses are available. Remember that accidents or head blows may knock your glasses off, bad guys can steal them, etc.

Anyone starting at TL5 or higher only gets 10 points for this disadvantage, anyone starting lower than TL5 gets 20 points.

I patterened this one after 'Bad Sight' and 'Night Blindness'

Easily Cut: -10 points

Your blood vessels are very close to the upper dermal layers of your skin and you bleed easily when your skin is subject to trauma. This is especially bothersome because cuts on the head or arms hamper your skills. Every time you lose one or more hit points, make a HT roll, subtracting from the roll the number of hits you have taken. If you fail the roll, you get a -1 to all skills where vision or use of hands is required. Use of First Aid will remove these penalties (until you lose another hit point).