Cursed (FiD)

Starfox's Blades in the Dark fan page

This is an open special ability available to all, but it can only betaken during character creation and cannot be taken if you already have the Haunted or Scarred special abilities.

You have previous experience, but suffered a curse while exploring the world. Whenever it comes up, you suffer a -1d penalty.

You can choose three benefits from this list:

• Gan an additional point in an action, to a maximum of three.
• Gain an additional special ability available to you.
• Gain the benefit of a long-term project you could reasonably succeed at, such as acquiring or making an item or inventing something.

Here are some examples of curses you may have suffer from.

1. Abyssal Your blood is a dark purple and you have am alien vitality. You bleed and bruise easily. You must pay 1 stress before you even try to resist physical harm.
2. Aged You appear to be of venerable age. You suffer disadvantage on most Prowl and Sway rolls,
3. Anasyrma Clothes are for folk; animals, spirits, and gods are rarely dressed, and you share this quality. Your body won't carry armor and very few objects. You cannot carry more than light load, wear clothes, or use armor. Surplus items simply fall right through you, as if you were insubstantial.
4. Animal Aspect 'Your head (and at your option other parts, commonly hands, feet, and tail) is that of an animal. While clearly noticeable, this body part is fully functional. Some people might be shocked or reviled at your appearance, while others treat you as a divine avatar.
5. Animal Transformation ''Are you a humanoid miraculously transformed into a small animal, or the other way around? This is an invasive ability unsuited to games with a lot of combat. Pick an animal. You can transform into the shape of this creature. When you suffer consequences of fear or confusion, these may force you to use this ability. After transforming you cannot transform again using this ability for 10 minutes.
6. Bestial You are not a full shapechanger, but in stressful situations and combat you undergo a minor change, where you grow more muscular and gain bestial traits such as fur, scales, fangs, and claws. You stay in this form during the period of stress and for 1 minute afterward. A creature who sees you in this form may not recognize you and treat you as a monster even if they know you.
7. Chained You are constantly bound in magical chains. This imposes disadvantage on all Finesse, Prowl, and Wreck checks and you cannot use two-handed tools or weapons.
8. Child You appear to be a child. You are lighter and shorter than the norm for your race. You suffer disadvantage on Wreck rolls.
9. Cyclopean You have only a single large eye in the middle of your brow. Your eye puts a great demand on your body, consuming enormous amounts of energy. You eat as much as two normal people of your race. You are instantly recognizable because of your eye, and suffer disadvantage on most Consort rolls not involving powers.
10. Ghostly You are translucent and appear to be insubstantial. You are easily mistaken for an undead creature.
11. Haunted You are haunted by certain kind of spirits, generally Fey but some touched are haunted by Fiends, Celestials, Aberrations or other kinds. The spirits are invisible and cannot be interacted with. They do annoying but non-lethal things like tying your shoelaces together or tracing an icy touch down your back. No action you takes ever has less than Risky consequences.
12. Infernal You have been touched by hell. You are surrounded by a faint smell of burnt sulfur or have an evil symbol as a birthmark, and your eyes look afire when you are angry. You suffer disadvantage on most Consort rolls not involving powers, and if there is a witch-hunt you are likely to be a suspect.
13. Jinxed Destiny constantly hampers you, but also preserves you for future misery. Any roll you make always has risky consequences. You cannot trade consequences for effect..
14. Possessed You are possessed by a spirit. Choosing spirit with an outlook similar to yours makes for less conflict, but also less interesting powers. You and your spirit can communicate mentally. Normally you are in control, but the spirit can seize control as a consequence.
15. Preposterous You have a vision that is mostly true but the world disagrees. No matter what you say, people will not take your words to heart, and your advice goes unheard. You have some oracular vision that is doomed not to be believed. This should be a "doom and gloom" type of prophecy, such as "the world will end in sand". Depending on the style of the game this might be predestined to happen or just an ominous possibility. Some with this curse are believed by their crew; for the other player characters it is a role-playing decision whether to believe you or not. You absolutely cannot convince an NPC that your vision is true.
16. Provocative Your appearance elicits desire in all creatures, no matter how they try to conceal it. This can desire can be physical or social as the situation and creature warrants. You must always trade position for effect on Resolve actions, and consequences tend to manifest as expressive desire.
17. Psychography You are constantly writing messages from sources beyond your ken. Your hand moves by itself, writing messages or drawing pictures, especially in times of stress. If you have no writing implement, you will mimic writing in empty air. You need not look at your hand or otherwise focus attention to do this, only your hand is involved. One of your hands must constantly be reserved for this and cannot be used to hold a weapon, shield, holy symbol, or other equipment except for a writing tool. Occasionally such writings might be useful, but this is not the norm.
18. Rapturous You are addicted to magic. You penalized on most actions unless you have been around magic in the score so far. Magical powers must be Advanced or Apex to count.
19. Reverse Aging You perversely age backwards. You begin your career as an ancient, and grow younger as time passes. You are ot of phase with society and suffer penalty on many Consort rolls except those involving powers.
20. Somnambulism The line between being asleep and awake is not at all clear to you. You walk around when sleeping, and may fall asleep when walking around. You suffer bouts of somnambulism as a common consequence both when asleep and awake. The GM may call for action checks when you sleep just to see if you start to sleepwalk.
21. Stigmata You carry permanent bloody wounds on your body that resist all attempts at healing. This is level 1 harm that penalizes physical strength and endurance.
22. Sun-Blind You are blind when exposed to sunlight (treat areas in sunlight as darkness) and treat bright light as if it was dim light.
23. Temptation You are constantly tempted by sacrilegious voices trying to lure you into sin. You can never have a controlled position in a social situation as the spirits push you to spontaneous acts of chaos.
24. Voices You are constantly surrounded by a choir of voices that advice and guide you At least once per session the voices urge you to go to extreme lengths in pursuit of the ideals of your creed. The player or GM should voice this advice at least once per session. Not following the advice of your voices means you must argue with them and cannot initate actions until you come to an agreement or one minute has passed.