Why am I always starting shit?!
Abilities
Merits
Aura Reading (•••) - Advantage
Effect: Your character has the psychic ability to perceive auras, the ephemeral halos of energy that surround all liv- ing things. This allows her to perceive a subject’s emotional state, and potentially any supernatural nature. The colors of an aura show a person’s general disposition, and the ebbs, flows, tone, and other oddities reveal other influences. Note that your character may not know what she’s looking at when seeing something odd in an aura. For example, she may not know that a pale aura means she’s seeing a vampire, unless she’s confirmed other vampiric auras in the past.
To activate Aura Reading, spend a point of Willpower and roll Wits + Empathy minus the subject’s Composure. Perceiving an aura takes an uninterrupted moment of star- ing, which could look suspicious even to the unaware. For every success, ask the subject’s player one of the following questions. Alternatively, take +1 on Social rolls against the character during the same scene, due to the character’s understanding of their emotional state.
- What's your character's most prominent emotion?
- Is your character telling the truth?
- What's your character's attention most focused on right now?
- Is your character going to attack?
- What emotion is your character trying most to hide?
- Is your character supernatural or otherwise not human?
Determine how your character perceives auras. Maybe she sees different hues as different emotions. Perhaps she hears whispers in the back of her mind, reflecting subtle truths about her subject.
Drawback: Because of your character’s sensitivity to the supernatural, she sometimes appears to know ‘a little too much.’ No more than once per chapter, when first meeting a supernatural creature, the Storyteller can roll Wits + Occult for the creature, penalized by your character’s Composure. If successful, they get a strange feeling that your character is aware of their nature. They’re not forced to behave in any particular way, but it could cause complications.
Automatic Writing (••) - Advantage
Your character can enter a trance of sorts, in which she’s temporarily overtaken by a spirit or ghost, and compelled to write mysterious things.
Effect: Your character must meditate for at least one min- ute. Spend a point of Willpower and roll Wits + Composure to enter the trance. For every success, your character writes a single statement or clue about something occurring in the area or relating to a pertinent issue. The Storyteller provides these clues, and they may at first seem completely nonsensical. Characters may attempt to interpret the clues with Wits + Investigation or research efforts.
Drawback: If the roll fails, or the character does not employ a personal item of a local spirit in the meditation, she’s haunted afterward. Any time she fails a roll for the next week, it’s considered dramatic as the spirit intervenes in complicating and sometimes dangerous ways.
Medium (•••) - Advantage
Prerequisite: Empathy ••
Effect: Your character hears the words and moans of the dead. If he takes the time to parse their words, he can interact with them verbally.
Your character has more than just a knack for knowing when ephemeral beings are lurking nearby, he can reach out and make contact with them. By conducting a ritual, meditating, or otherwise preparing to commune with the unseen, and succeeding at a Wits + Occult roll, he temporarily increases the relevant Condition one step along the progression from nothing, to Anchor, Resonance, or Infrastructure, to Open, and finally to Controlled (see p. 133 for more on Conditions as they relate to spirits). The effect lasts until he spends a Willpower point, but if an Influence has been used to progress the Condition further, doing so only reduces it by one step.
Drawback: Speaking with ghosts can be a blessing, but your character cannot turn the sense off, any more than he can turn off his hearing. The character hears the words of the dead any time they’re present. Once per game session, usually in a time of extreme stress, the Storyteller may deliver a disturbing message to your character from the other side. You must succeed in a Resolve + Composure roll or gain either the Shaken or Spooked Condition.
Omen Sensitivity (•••) - Advantage
Effect: Your character sees signs and patterns in every- thing. From the way the leaves fall, to the spray of antifreeze when his radiator pops, to the ratios of circumference on the shell he picked up on the sidewalk, everything has meaning. With some consideration, he can interpret these meanings. This would be far better if he could turn it off. Everything is important. Everything could mean the end of the world, the deaths of his friends, or other tragedies. If he misses an omen, it might be the wrong one.
Once per game session, you can make a Wits + Occult roll for your character to interpret an omen in his surroundings. For every success, ask the Storyteller a yes or no question about your character’s life, his surroundings, a task at hand, or the world at large. The Storyteller must answer these questions truthfully.
Drawback: His ability becomes an obsession. Each time he reads a portent, he gains the Obsession or Spooked Condition.