Merits

• NOTICE: When books differ on cost of a merit or flaw, the cost from Mage 20th books is used first.

If there is a reason to use the cost from another book it will be noted in the desc of the merit/flaw.
Example: Sterile can be a merit or Flaw for 1 pt in Mage, and a Kinfolk flaw in Werewolf for 4 points. In this case the most everyone pays 1 pt, except Kinfolk which pay 4, because they are needed to perpetuate the werewolf race.

• Merits and Flaws taken from books other than the Mage 20th set will only include those that fit the game.

Those used exclusively by Garou (ex: Mixed-Morph) will not be included unless that sphere becomes open for play.

Merit	Cost	Type	Notes	Description
Ability Aptitude	1	General	Physical	You're really good at one specific ability! -2 difficulty on rolls involving the specified ability. +note required. Ref: Mage: The Ascension, Revised Ed. 291
Acute Senses	1 - 3	General	Physical	One of your senses is exceptionally sharp, be it sight, hearing, smell, touch, or taste. The difficulties for all tasks involving the use of this particular sense are reduced by two. Ref: Mage: The Ascension (Revised), pg. 288
Alcohol/Drug Tolerance	1 - 2	General	Physical	You can drink most folks under the table or otherwise party till everyone else drops. This merit lets you make a Stamina (Diff 7) to shake off the effects of intoxication - a useful talent for hard-pounding Ecstatics and tough-as-leather Black Suits! 1pt - applies to "natural" drugs (booze, pot, cocaine, etc), not for lab-synthetized concoctions (LSD, meth, krokodil) 2pt - can neutralize the psychotropic effects of any drug unless that drug has been created as a vector for a Sphere-based magickal effect. (Such as a pill that delivers a Life 3/ Mind 3 effect to the person who takes it) For drugs that delivery magickal effects you'd have to use countermagick to remove the effects. Ref: M20 BOS pg 36, WW20 Ann, 472 (Note: point cost used from Mage)
Alpha	2	General	Social	You ere born to lead. The dominant beast in any situation, you provide for you rpack regardless of their species, take command when need be, and embody the will of the group. This does not, contrary to popular misconception, mean you're a bully who does whatever you want to do. Amoung animals, the dominant beast has a responsibility to the pack, and if the pack suffers, its alpha get deposed. Game-wise, this Merit reduces the difficulties of your Social Traid roll by -2, and also earn you a near-automatic deference from the rest of your group unless you're slacking off on your job. So long as you employ your dominance to the benefit of your group, the other feel a near-instinctive submission to your leadership. It's worth noting here that the whole alpha-beta-omega concept is based on flawed research involving captive populations of unrelated wolves in artificial circumstances. Its primary proponent, L. David Mech, spent most of his later career debunking the idea. Still, the Alpha Merit and the Beta and Omega Flaws deal with hierarchy in human-dominated settings, possibly amoung creatures who are at least partially human and whose social dynamics depend heavily on human situations, so these Traits can still aplly to companion characters even if they are not true to real wild animals. Ref:M20 G&M,194
Ambidextrous	2	General	Physical	You have a high degree of off-hand dexterity and can perform tasks with the “wrong” hand at no penalty. The rules for taking multiple actions still apply, but you do not suffer a difficulty penalty if you use two weapons or are forced to use your off hand. Normal rules for performing multiple actions still apply. Ref: M20 BOS pg 36
Animal Magnetism	2	General	Social	Though it might not involve conventionally good looks, you possess a primal sort of attractiveness. Your social rolls subtract -2 from their difficulty when you’re trying to charm, seduce, or otherwise impress folks by appealing to their carnal natures. This benefit doesn’t usually apply to threats or intimidation attempts, although clever applications of raw sex appeal can be rather unnerving, which could facilitate rather effective threats… Ref: M20 BOS, pg 54 and WW20 Ann, 480
Artistically Gifted	1	General	Mental	The Muses work their will through you, or so it appears. Whenever you employee your artistic talent (As in Talent: Art, M20 pg 275) reduce the difficulty of those rolls by -2. This Merit does not reduce the difficulty of casting magick but may reduce the Attribute + Ability rolls that are involved in magickal acts.
Ascension Message **Restricted**	3	Mage	*restricted* Not available to Archmages	You’ll never be an Archmage. Your Avatar just won’t cooperate. Although you can Seek for high Arete (six or more), you can’t develop Spheres above Master level. Though this seems like a liability, it’s not. Your Avatar forces you to broaden your picture. Because you adapt to other viewpoints, you not only get rid of foci more quickly, but also learn to use other paradigms. After you’ve achieved an Arete of six or more, you can access the paradigms of other mages, though you suffer a +4 difficulty on all magical Effect rolls that are done outside your paradigm. For each point of Arete beyond six, your difficulty penalty drops by one, until you can work just about any sort of magic.Ref: Masters of the Art 83
Avatar Companion	7	Supernatural	Supernatural	From lifetime to lifetime, you share a bit of your Avatar with a companion who follows you through incarnations, recalling more about their details than you do. Although he’s not as powerful as you are, and lacks the metaphysical prowess of the Merits: Twin Soul or Shattered Avatar (above), this companion knows a great deal about your reincarnated self… quite a bit more about it than then you do. This loyal (if not always agreeable) character literally follows you for life, typically ending his life when you do; in the meantime, he provides insights, advice, information about previous life times, and whatever other forms of aid he can possibly offer. Like the Merit: Guardian Angel, the Avatar Companion is essentially a walking boost from your Storyteller, subject to her whims but acting in your best interests… for the most part, anyway. Unless it’s purchased in addition to the Background: Allies, your companion isn’t anything special; he could be a person or animal, but not a vampire, a werebeast, or some other Night-Folk entity. Your Avatar Companion could also be a Ward, the focus of True Love, or perhaps an embodiment of a Manifest Avatar. Treat him badly enough, and he might become an Enemy. (See all appropriate entries for details.) As with all other character-based Traits, this companion has his own personality, desires, and so on. He may be loyal, but he’s not suicidal, and isn’t likely to be thrilled if the mage decides to abuse his loyalty! Ref: M20 BOS, 79
Bardic Gift	2	Supernatural	Supernatural	Blessed with uncanny inspiration, you create profoundly evocative artwork. Truth echoes through your words, blazes from your canvas, resonates in song, speaks silently in dance. Although artistic skill is, of course, important, this gift runs deeper than mere technique. Art is your passion, your spirit, your Truth. And that Truth manifests itself in whatever arts you pursue, up to and including the Magickal Arts. When making a roll with the Art Talent, reduce the difficulty by -2. Even when the attempt itself falls short of your expectations (that is, when you fail a roll), your creations feature an unmistak able gleam of brilliance and a preternatural expression of Truth. Although you’re not required (as a player) to employ artwork as part of your magickal focus, chances are good that your approach to magick does feature elements of painting, dance, music, and other manifestations of artistic expression. Ref M20 BOS, 67
Berserker	4	General	Mental	Folks don’t like you when you’re angry. In combat, you become a veritable monster, destroying everything and everyone in sight. In certain ways, this is a blessing, in others, a curse – for although your dedication to slaughter has undeniable benefits, it’s also a distinct liability… especially if you belong to a group that prizes discipline rather than brutality. System: As both a Merit and a Flaw, this Trait has the same effects: under intense stress (combat, injury, disgrace, the death or crippling of a comrade, and so forth), the red haze kicks in. A failed Willpower roll (difficulty 8) leads to a berserk rampage. Your character gains three temporary Bruised health levels, ignores wound penalties, and adds two dice to her Strength and one die to her Stamina until every enemy within easy reach or sight is dead or incapacitated. Ref: M20th Anniversary, 644 Note: Not the same as Berseker in WW20 Ann.
Burning Aura	1	Supernatural	Supernatural	To those who can sense it, your aura burns with amazing brilliance and clarity. Even folks who can’t actually perceive this bright corona of energy realize that you’re “different.” Entities that can read your aura react accordingly; some will treat you with uncommon respect, while others will view you as a nice meal. The nature of your aura cannot be hidden easily (+2 to the difficulty of any attempt to do so), and while this is a dreadful disadvantage for, say, a Nephandus, people who prize forthright integrity may reduce their difficulties by -2 when they’re trying to make an impression that’s in accord with that vivid aura and affecting characters who can sense it. Resonance and Synergy each get a vivid, one-dot boost from this Merit. Ref: M20 BOS, 67
Cast-Iron Stomach	1	General	Physical	Anything you can physically devour and digest is your for the eating. This Merit does not protect you from the effects of those meals. Eating rotten meat can still poison you. You're just able to keep down meals that would make the average person puke. Ref: M20 BOS pg 37
Catlike Balance	1	General	Physical	You have an uncanny sense of balance. Reduce the difficulty by -2 for actions that require you to stay on your feet. (tight rope walking, rolling with a fall, etc) Ref: M20 BOS pg 37
Celestial Affinity	3	Supernatural	Supernatural	You get along especially well with a certain type of spirit entity. Depending upon your practice, you might relate well with nature spirits, High Umbral Courtiers, Digital Web en tities, the Restless Dead, the Loa, angelic or demonic beings, and so forth. When you’re dealing with entities within a single selected category, you reduce the difficulty of your summoning and negotiation rolls by -2. This bonus does not apply to attempts to bind or ward against such beings, as it’s based upon goodwill, not force. It does, however, apply to the Arete rolls when casting the summoning Effect (within the normal modifier limits, as usual), because the entities in question are more inclined to show up when you call upon them. For three additional points per category, you may add another category of spirits, assuming that your practice favors an affinity for such spirits. (A Void Engineer “ghost-buster,” for example, could not purchase an Affinity for ghosts, though a necromancer could certainly do so.) If you abuse this goodwill, as one might imagine, this bonus, and the Merit, both go away – and might wind up being replaced by a Flaw like Immortal Enemy if your mage behaves in an especially foolish manner. Ref: M20 BOS, 69
Circumspect Avatar	2	Supernatural	Supernatural	You’ve never seen your Avatar, and probably doubt that such a thing exists. Sure, you have a shadow, and a reflection, or maybe a little dog who’s followed you around since you were a kid and seems no older even though he should have died of old age years ago, but an Avatar? Nah – that’s a buncha New Age hippie crap! You have yet to encounter any such thing, you don’t go on “seekings” or whatever they’re called, and you get your metaphysical insights the same way any normal person does: through everyday events in the everyday world. Essentially, this Merit grants a “silent” Avatar – one that, for whatever reason, does not hound or guide your character but merely drops hints, cues, and clues that the mage either figures out or doesn’t figure out on her own. Seekings and Epiphanies take place in the physical realm, typically as puzzles and dilemmas that happen to be related to issues that the mage needs to sort through in order to advance to the next level of understanding. During such situations, the Avatar may indeed appear (possibly even manifest – see the Merit: Manifest Avatar), but only as some apparently mundane person, creature or thing, not as an obviously paranormal entity. You could, for instance, get a call from your mother that sends you into an introspective mood which, in turn, leads you to figure out an important riddle from your past; Mom, of course, denies even having called you. Huh. So who could that call have been from, anyway? Or did you, perhaps, just imagine it after all? Ref: M20 BOS, 67
Clear Sighted	5	Supernatural	Supernatural	Even without employing your Arts, you have a preternat ural gift for seeing things as they are, not as they appear to be. Illusions, disguises, cloaking spells, and other forms of trickery rarely deceive your eyes. In game terms, you can make a Perception + Awareness roll to see through metaphysical deception powers: vampiric Disciplines, faerie cantrips, werecreature Gifts, Sphere-based illusions, and other powers that are based on deceiving a witnesses’ perceptions. This roll works only against powers that deceive the target’s perceptions, not against any other form of Gift, Discipline, cantrip, and so forth. (Vampiric Obfuscate, for example, but not Presence or Dominate.) The difficulty for that roll is generally 5 + the highest Sphere Rank or other level involved in that power; a Forces 2 /Prime 2 illusion, then, would be difficulty 7, while a vampire’s Mask of a Thousand Faces (Obfuscate 3) would be difficulty 8. If a character could normally get a roll to see through the illusion then your character subtracts -3 from her difficulty when trying to do so. Your clear sight also reduces your difficulty by -3 when you try to see through a disguise, a cloaking spell or device, or other attempts to conceal the truth from an onlooker. It does not, however, allow you to see through darkness, notice stealthing or invisible characters, or otherwise perceive something that you would not be able to see without this Merit; combining this Merit with the physical Merit: Acute Senses, however, could make you a formidably perceptive character. Ref: M20 BOS, 75
Cloak of the Seasons	3	Supernatural	Supernatural	Adverse weather does not bother you. Regardless of your clothing or lack thereof, you’re essentially immune to the effects of exposure to harsh climates, as described in Mage 20, p. 435. You still need to eat, drink, and breathe – this Merit won’t save you from starvation or suffocation – and climate-based obsta cles (fog, high winds, snowdrifts, ice, etc.) hinder you as badly as they’ll hinder anybody else. Aside from outright attacks by the elements, however, you remain untouched by extremes of temperature and climate. You might not always be comfortable, but you’ll survive. Ref: M20 BOS, 69
Code of Honor **restricted**	2	General	Mental **restricted**	You have a personal code of ethics to which you adhere. The specifics of this code must be worked out with the Storyteller prior to play, and the character must follow it strictly. Characters with this Merit gain two additional dice to all Willpower rolls when acting in accordance with their code (e.g., defending the helpless) or when attempting to avoid situations that might force them to violate their code. Ref: M20 BOS, pg 44 and WW20 Ann, 476
Common Sense	1	General	Mental	Essentially a "Get Out of Doing something Stupid Free card", whenever you announce an action that wouldn't be especially bright, the Storyteller may ask "Are you sure you want to do that?" Thus warned, you are free to ignore the warning of your smarter angels. Ref: M20 BOS, pg 43 and WW20 Ann, 474
Computer Aptitude	1	General	Mental	A true child of the twenty-first century, you’re especially adept with computerized infotech. Reduce all difficulties involving computer-based rolls by -2, up to the usual modifier limit. For Mage: This last caveat is especially important when dealing with computer-based magickal Effects, whose difficulties cannot be reduced by this Merit beyond the usual magick-roll modifier of -3, or below the minimum difficulty for magick-casting rolls. Even so, this Merit provides an edge for mages whose Arts include the guiding technology of our age. Ref: M20 BOS, 43 and WW20 Ann, 474
Concentration	1	General	Mental	You are especially good at tuning out distractions. THis merit eliminates modifiers that be caused by distracting circumstances -- gunfire, thunderstorms, rampaging creatures from space, etc. TRULY distracting situation (trying to hack a computer during a tornado) might demand a successful Willpower roll in order to wipe out the potential penalty. Ref: M20 BOS, 43 and WW20 Ann, 475
Confidence	2	General	Social	You exude an aura of unshakable authority. Nothing seems to rattle you. Folks defer to you by default, and you expect nothing less. Even when you’re making things up off the top of your head, or lying your ass off about your true feelings or intentions, your self-confidence inspires an unusual degree of trust. Cool is your middle name, and the few people who try to get one over on you have a very hard time doing so. When dice start falling, subtract -2 from the difficulty of all social rolls based upon impressing other characters with your capabilities. Other players, however – the Storyteller included – add +2 to the difficulty of social rolls for characters who try to shake your confidence or shatter your calm. Ref: M20 BOS, pg 55
Cyclic Magic	3	Supernatural	Supernatural	The strength or weakness of your Arts is tied to some periodic cycle – the phases of the moon, night or day, your menstrual periods, the rise and fall of the stock market, and so forth. At the peak of your cycle, your magick flows most easily; at its nadir, you find it challenging to work with your magick at all. System-wise, this Trait is both a Merit and a Flaw, granting bonuses at one point in the cycle and penalties on its opposite point. At the highest point, you reduce your casting difficulties by -3 for one hour, while at the lowest point you increase them by +3 for one hour. On either end of that cycle, you subtract or add -1 /+1 to your casting difficulties for each hour on both sides – the surge and the ebb – of that cycle: -2 or + 2 for the two hours on each side of the peak or nadir, -1 or +1 on the two hours on the side of those two hours, and no modifiers during the rest of the time in between. If, for example, Victoria Ashley-Croft bani Flambeau has a peak at midnight and a low at noon, her player would receive a peak modifier of -3 difficulty at midnight, -2 difficulty at 11:00 PM and 1:00 AM, a -1 difficulty at 10:00 PM and 2:00 AM, and no modifiers otherwise, aside from the reverse modifiers (+3 at noon, +2 at 11:00 AM and 1:00 PM, and +1 at 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM) at the opposite end of that cycle. Naturally, you’ll need to decide just what this cycle is when you select this Trait, and then determine what the highest and lowest points of that cycle would be. This Merit must also be tied into your focus – intrinsically connected to the beliefs you hold and the practices you follow. Your choice of instruments is often tied to such cycles too; cycle-bound instruments include celestial alignments, crossroads and crossing-days, formulae and mathematics, group rites, money and wealth, music (peaks and lulls in a song, movements in a symphony, etc.), numbers and numerology, and offerings and sacrifices (“when the stars are right”). A stockbroker will be watching the peaks and ebbs on Wall Street, while a witch pays attention to the cycles of the moon or her blood. By observing your cycles, you’ll have a good idea about the best and worst times to use your Arts. And by observing you, your allies and enemies may be able to figure those things out too Ref: M20 BOS, 69
Danger Sense	3	Supernatural	Supernatural	A heightened state of awareness allows you to sense impend ing harm. This gift could originate from primal perceptiveness, intense conditioning, spirit voices that warn you of danger, nanotech sensors, or other methods of refined cognizance. Whatever the source of this Merit might be, your Storyteller must make a secret Perception + Alertness roll for you when some otherwise hidden threat is heading toward your character. The difficulty for this roll depends upon the immediacy of the danger; a distant, abstract sort of danger (like a plot to kill you) is far harder to sense than an onrushing disaster (like a sniper’s bullet), and would thus have a higher difficulty (say, difficulty 10 for the plot, difficulty 6 for the bullet). A simple success would tell you that something’s wrong, while a large number of successes could pinpoint the nature and location of the threat. Your Storyteller, of course, is under no obligation to give you objective details about that threat. She could be as vague as “A chill tightens across your scalp,” with perhaps a hint of the direction and nature of the danger’s source (“A sudden metallic clicking sound echoes in from behind your right side. What do you do?”). 'Ref: M20 BOS, 69
Daredevil	3	Physical	You excel at taking risks and have a talent for surviving them. When attempting exceptionally risky non-combat actions (such as leaping from rooftop to rooftop thirty stories above the ground), you may add three additional dice to your rolls. In addition, you may negate a single botch die on those rolls. Generally, an action must be at least difficulty 8, and with the potential to inflict at least three health levels of damage if failed, to qualify for this bonus. Ref: WW20 Ann, 472
Dark Triad	3	General	Social	A charming (and chilling) blend of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and sociopathy makes you a smooth-talking rule-breaker. Many people find your Fuck Authority attitude seductive, and they follow your lead even when it’s not in their best interests to do so. To you, however, these devotees are simply toys – useful and enjoyable, of course, but ultimately expendable. Your own pleasure and convenience are the only vital things in life. A natural Merit for cult leaders, tempters, Fallen mages, and corporate tycoons, the Dark Triad adds three dice to all of your Seduction, Manipulation, Leadership, Subterfuge, and Charisma-based rolls. The fact that your character doesn’t truly care about the people she inspires isn’t readily apparent except to people who know what to look for. Because social consequences do not hinder your character, people find her exhilarating to be around. As a result, folks continue to follow and defend her, even when her actions should be indefensible. Despite its obvious power, this Merit contains a significant story-based downside: Dark Triad folks are amoral bastards who act only according to their own perceived interests. Even on a malignant Path, such sociopathy becomes dangerous, especially when other people notice that individual’s behavior. Not even the Nephandi trust such a person once her tendencies become clear – after all, she might sell out the Fallen as easily as she sells out anybody else. The Storyteller may decide that this Merit isn’t suitable for player characters, and restrict it to supporting roles. For more details about extreme self-focus, see Antisocial Personality Disorder on the Derangements sidebar, (M20 Ann, p. 649) Ref: M20 Ann, 643
Deathwalker	4	Supernatural	Supernatural	The Underworld welcomes you. While most Umbral travelers are more or less barred from the Shadowlands and Low Umbra unless they possess special magicks (or have died), you can step sideways into the Dead Lands with a simple application of Spirit 3. When you do so, your aura assumes the pale tone of death, and you become essentially indistinguish able from a ghost unless some knowledgeable entity makes a successful Perception + Occult roll (difficulty 7) to see you for what you really are. If the Avatar Storm is still raging in your chronicle, you can pass into the Low Umbra without suffering the Storm’s effects. This sort of “gift” often leaves macabre traces on the mortals it favors. Hence, this Merit is well-suited for the Flaws: Echoes, Uncanny, and Primal Marks. Thanks to their innate ties to the Dead Lands, Deathwalkers, as a rule, view the Otherworlds through the Vidare Mortem, suffer from Morbidity Quiets, and tend to have a rather fatalistic view of life. Ref: M20 BOS, 74
Drahma's Voice	4 - 6	Akashics		Ref: Tradition Book: Akashic Brotherhood, Revised 59
Double-Jointed				Use Hyperflexibility instead.
Dual Affiliation	7	Supernatural	Supernatural	You’ve been initiated and trained in two different Awakened groups. Perhaps you were a Verbena who gravitated toward the Virtual Adepts, or a Man in Black who sought refuge among the Templars. Whatever your history and affiliations might be, you’re intimately familiar with both groups, have connections (not nec essarily friends) in both groups, and may use and understand the practices, tools and beliefs (in short, the focus) of either group. Ref: M20 BOS, 80
Eidetic Memory	2	General	Merit	You remember, with perfect detail, things you preceive (see, hear, feel, smell, taste). Documents, photographs, conversations, etc., can be committed to memory with only minor concentration. Under stressful conditions, you may need make a Perception + Alertness roll (difficulty 6) to summon enough concentration to absorb what your senses detect. Ref: M20 BOS, pg 44 and WW20 Ann, 476
Enchanting Feature	2	General	Physical	Replaces such merits as Enchanting Gaze, Soothing Voice, Graceful, and other similiar Merits. Reduce your social roll difficulty by -2 in feats that require using that feature. IF your mage uses their Enchanting Feature as part of their magical focus, Then count this Merit as a Personalized Unique/Specialized Instrument. On the plus size, this allows you to reduce certain casting difficulties by -2. On the not so good side, your mage might get their eyes gouged out, vocal cords cut, or their face horribly marred. Ref: M20 BOS pg 38
Expert Driver	1	General	Mental	You were born to drive like a demon where ever the road takes you. All your driving-roll difficulties are reduced by -2. Ref: M20 BOS, pg 43 and WW20 Ann, 475
Faerie Affinity	2	General	Supernatural *restricted*	Fae beings like you. Drawn by an ineffable appeal, they seek you out and share secrets with you that few mortals even comprehend. System-wise, you lower the difficulty of your social rolls by -2 when you’re dealing with changelings and related entities; in return, changelings reduce their difficulty by -2 when they attempt – through whatever method – to obtain Glamour from you, or to enchant you so as to bring you into their ephemeral realm. Story-wise, the Fae tend to favor you over other mortals, even when your temperaments would seem to be at odds with one another. A gruff Nocker, for example, normally has no use for frivolity… but in your case, you silly Cultist, he’ll make this one exception! Technomancers, being considered “banal” in the eyes of the Fae, may not purchase this Merit. Even if they don’t be long to the Technocratic Union, the presence of such mages is metaphysical poison to the Dreaming Ones. Ref: M20 BOS, 68 (There will not have an open Changeling Sphere, this merit will apply to NPCs in stories.)
Fae Blood	4	General	Supernatural *Restricted*	Your veins pulse with the enigmatic blood of the fae. Although not a full changeling, you possess a distant tie to the Dreaming by way of your strange heritage. In Changeling: The Dreaming terms, you’re kinain: a mortal human related to their kind. Your Banality rating is low (no higher than 4, and often lower than that), and you remain permanently enchanted in the sense that you perceive, and are affected by, the changeling world. As a default member of that eldritch fellowship, you also tend to get swept up in their odd intrigues, and know an uncomfortable amount about their hidden world. This Merit is forbidden to technomancers of all kinds. Their Banality is too high to sustain this gift of the blood. Ref: M20 BOS, 74 Changeling Sphere will never be open, but this merit could be useful if NPC fae are introduced into stories.
Favor	1 -3	General	Social	Also known as a Boon, this Merit means that somebody owes you, big-time. You scratched their back, and will eventually call in some scratching of your own in due time. Maybe you aided a Master-level mage… or helped a vampire prince… or did a solid for a wealthy Sleeper, a spirit, a faerie, or a ranking member of the Changing Breeds. Regardless of their identity, this party is more powerful than you are, and can get things done on your behalf that you could not get done yourself. The value of this Merit depends upon the value of that favor. 1pt --Minor acts of benevolence 2pt -- significant 3pt -- a life-debt is worth three. You may purchase several Favors, either from a single party or from several different folks who owe you. A Storyteller may grant this Merit in place of experience points if your character has helped a supporting character and requested, earned or demanded a Favor in return. Once that favor has been performed, however, the Merit is spent. Long-lasting assistance would be counted as a Background like Mentor or Patron. Ref: M20 BOS, 54
Feral Appearance	1	General	Physical	Whether you’re more rugged than average or have a lean, hungry look to your features, werewolves like what they see. It isn’t a matter of physical beauty as human society judges it; there’s just something about you that stirs werewolves’ animal natures. You get an extra die on all rolls involving Appearance when dealing with Garou. Ref: WW20 Ann, pg 382
Fetish	5 - 7	Kinfolk	Supernatural	You own a fetish. You may have inherited this item, received it as a gift, or found it on your own. You and your Storyteller should work together on constructing the item and establishing how it came into your possession. 5pts -- equals a Level One fetish 6 pts -- a Level Two fetish 7pts -- a Level Three fetish. If you do not have the Gnosis Merit, you may not be able to attune the Fetish to yourself or use it. Ref: WW20 Ann, 383 In the rare instance a Fetish is gained during a staff-ran plot and the owner does not have Gnosis Merit as well, put in a +job for staff. This may generic a nice little side plot.
Gall	2	General	Mental	Audacity, guts, pluck — whatever it’s called, you’ve got it. You aren’t afraid to stand up to anyone, from hoodlums to tribal leaders. This isn’t brash, foolhardy behavior, and you’re not necessarily rude or impolite. You simply don’t get the shakes when the Silver Fang Ahroun comes over to speak to you. Many werewolves and Kin (in general, peers) respect you for your honesty and forthrightness. Add an extra die to any Social roll involving a display of backbone. Ref: WW20 Ann, pg 382
Gnosis	5 - 7	Kinfolk	Supernatural	More than any other blessing, the possession of Gnosis among Kin is a special mark of Gaia’s favor. It’s extremely rare for mortals to be so gifted. Having Gnosis grants many privileges, such as the ability to learn a broader range of Gifts, use fetishes, and — if Embraced by a vampire — the chance to die with dignity and honor, rather than suffer unlife. Kinfolk lucky enough to possess Gnosis recover it in the same manner as Garou. Five points spent on the Merit grants one point of Gnosis; six points, two points of Gnosis; and seven points, three points of Gnosis. Ref: WW20 Ann, 383 Kinfolk Only
Guardian Angel	6	General	Supernatural	A powerful entity is watching over you, providing advice, assistance, and occasional protection when things get ugly. Such aid is beyond your control (perhaps even beyond your comprehension) and while this “angel” has certainly supported your best interests thus far, there could be a terrible price tag attached to all this help. You think your angel is of the better sort, but seriously – have you read the lore about angels? Sweetness and light are not among their more noted characteristics. From a Merit perspective, this Trait provides occasional help from the Storyteller. The nature of said help is entirely up to the Storyteller, although it should be beneficial in at least the short term. The help in question should also suit the nature of the mage and her paradigm, although that suitability might turn out to be rather ironic – an actual angel, for example, watching over an Infernalist mage, or a nature spirit protecting an avowed Technocrat. The helpful party waiting for the mage to “see the light,” honoring an ancient vow to the mage’s ancestors, leading the protected party toward a new and unexpected Path, or perhaps setting him up for a final revelation that could be more terrible than the things the angel has been driving away. Ref: M20 BOS, 78
Ghoul	5	General	Supernatural *restricted*	The blood of vampiric Kindred has made you something more than human. Willingly or otherwise, you have supped on a vampire’s blood, and although you’re probably not blood bound to her service any longer (unless you are), that creature’s unnatural vitality has become your own. Trouble is, you need more vitae to sustain your uncanny abilities… and, as many mages have discovered, such blood is exceedingly addictive. A ghouled character ages very slowly, gets one automatic success on any Strength-based roll, and inflicts one extra die of damage with all hand-to-hand, non-magickal attacks. (If your chronicle employs Vampire: The Masquerade rules, your character also has a blood pool, one dot in Potence, and the potential to buy and employ Fortitude, Potence, and an ability from the initiating vampire’s clan. 'WE DO NOT USE V:TM) That’s the good part; the bad parts involve the constant craving for more vitae, the loss of those supernatural bonuses after roughly a month without vampire blood, several dots in Resonance (or the Echoes Flaw, detailed in M20 Ann, pp. 646-647) that reflect the corrupt nature of the undead, and the obvious drawbacks of hanging around with vampires just so you can drink their blood. Ref: M20 BOS, 75 HOUSE RULE: Mages who take this merit can not progress beyond their chargen level. This Merit can only be taken post-chargen by mortals and mortal+. Mages are expected to "know better" once they hit the grid.
Good Old Boy	2	General	Social	You’re an intrinsically nice person, and you genuinely care about your fellows. Werewolves and people tend to like you and confide in you. Even lupus Garou may approach you in a friendly manner; something about you just seems trustworthy and inviting. Take an extra die on all Social rolls involving interaction with Garou or Kinfolk. Shifter Sphere is currently closed. But this is still applicable to the general populace. Ref: WW20 Ann, 382
Grand Reputation ***			**TBR**	Ref: Horizon: Stronghold of Hope 116 and Masters of the Art 83
Green Thumb	1	Supernatural	Supernatural	Plants flourish from your touch. Although they don’t bloom and grow on contact (a wildly paranormal effect which was part of this Merit’s original form), they do attain a healthy boost when you work with them. Reduce the difficulty of all non-Arete rolls by -2, and reduce the difficulty of Arete rolls by -1, when you work with plants, trees, and other forms of vegetation –algae, mold, fungus, seaweed, and the like. Story-wise, your aura pulsates with green vitality, plant matter grows fast and robust in your presence, and your Resonance and Synergy reflect a powerful connection to the green world. A common Merit among Verbena, Bata’a, and other primal mystics, this could also represent a strange acumen for vegetative biomass that certain technomancers enjoy Ref: M20 BOS, 67
Hands of Daedalus	3	General	Supernatural	You’ve got an innate gift for crafting machines and technology. Such devices seem to come to life in your hands, fitting easily into place and functioning with incredible precision once you’ve worked with ‘em. Although this gift does not extend to the ins and outs of software technology, you can work on computer hardware (assuming that you know what you’re doing) as naturally as you can tune a ’58 Ford. From a systems standpoint, any rolls you make to craft, repair, invent, or otherwise modify mechanical technologies are at -2 difficulty when you’ve got the opportunity to put those Hands of Daedalus to work. Tech-based magickal instruments (see the M20 Ann entries for Armor, Devices and Machines, and other hardware-based technologies) and practices (see Craftwork and Hypertech in the Focus and the Arts section of M20 Ann, Chapter Ten) function, in your hands, as Personalized Instruments (M20 Ann, pp. 503 and 587-588) once you’ve had a chance to get familiar with them… and to have them get familiar with you. Ref: M20 BOS, 71
Hideaway / Safehouse	2/4/6	General	Social	When you need time to yourself, there’s a place you can go to that no one knows about except you. It’s small, yeah, and remote enough that your friends and enemies can’t find you there. Chances are, it’s a secret apartment or condo, a distant cottage, a mobile home, or a literal cave or grove or camping spot where you go to escape the stress of your usual life. It could even be a pocket Realm, accessible only to you and whomever you choose to share it with, should you be foolish enough to trust anyone else with this secret hideaway. Unless you give its location away, however, or wind up getting tracked to it by a dedicated stalker, this little getaway is your personal escape hatch. Use it wisely, and be careful when you come and go! Unlike the Merit: Property (see below), or the Backgrounds: Chantry, Node, and Sanctum, this discrete hidey-hole isn’t expan sive, elaborate, or innately magickal. That said, it’s hidden from most forms of casual detection. You could combine this Merit with Property, Node or Sanctum, although those Traits would need to be purchased in addition to your Hideaway, and their existence must remain secret from other characters. Chantries are social by default, and so cannot also become a Hideaway. This place is stocked up with whatever you would need for a roughly two-week stay, and may, of course, be stocked up for longer periods if you bring in additional supplies. Although you might be traced to your hideaway with magick or other tracking methods, your little retreat is not linked to you by any searchable official channels: bills, lease, mail, Internet services, etc. Once per story – if events occur which could lead other people to your hideaway, if you do something that could reveal its location, or if someone dedicates time and effort trying to track you down – the Storyteller may roll two dice against difficulty 6. (Yes, this roll is done in secret, so you won’t know the results.) If that roll gets at least one success, then your secret remains hidden; one failure means that someone has gotten a clue but not your exact whereabouts; four successive failures reveal the location of your hideaway, and a botch on that roll exposes its location immediately. So long as you continue to cover your tracks, however, this place remains yours and yours alone. 2pt - A tiny hideaway. Supplies for 1 person for two weeks. 4 pt - For four points, this Merit could also be purchased un der the name Safehouse. In this case, it’s a secured getaway that features better facilities and protections than a typical Hideaway. Its store of supplies can provide for a dozen or so people for roughly two months, and the Merit includes a small dedicated staff (in game terms, two dots in Retainers or four dots in Backup) to maintain that site. Unlike a Hideaway, this area can withstand a minor-league assault, and features up to three offices /work areas, reinforced walls, bulletproof glass, and a vault-like panic room. This safehouse also includes a shielded communications array (-2 to attempts to hack or trace that system), and a simple but effective alarm and security camera system (again, -2 to subversion attempts). The downside is that the Merit is not your property; it belongs to your superiors, and can be taken away from you if you fall out with the folks who foot the bill for it. Generally, a Technocrat in good standing with her superiors can get a Safehouse Merit (or, for especially good service, be awarded with one), but other mages could obtain a similar facility as well. 6 pt - For six points, your refuge can be both a Safehouse and a Hideaway; in this case, the property belongs entirely to you. Enjoy your Batcave, Mr. Wayne! Ref: M20 BOS,pg 55
Higher Purpose ***	1			Your chosen goal drives and directs you in everything. You do not concern yourself with petty matters and casual concerns, because your higher purpose is everything. Though you may sometimes be driven by this purpose and find yourself forced to behave in ways contrary to the needs of personal survival, it can also grant you great personal strength. You gain two extra dice on any non-combat roll that has something to do with this higher purpose. Decide what your higher purpose is, and make sure you discuss it with your Storyteller. You may not take this merit if you have the flaw Driving Goal. Ref: Book of Shadows, The 30
Huge Size	4	General	Physical	You’re far bigger than usual – possibly over seven feet tall and /or over 400 pounds in weight. Such large people stand out in a crowd, and have a hard time literally “fitting in” to a world built for smaller human beings. Still, your character’s large build gives him one additional health level, which counts as an extra level of Bruised when it comes to wound-based penalties. If he shapeshifts into a smaller form through Life-based magick, that extra health level goes away. In his normal form, however, this large character can be quite imposing and hard to beat. Ref: M20 BOS, 38
Hyperflexibility	1	General	Physical	You are "double-jointed", whether as a result of a medical condition such as Ehler-Danlos Syndrome, magickal augmentation or intense training. Whatever the reason your body flexes in ways most can not. Reduce your difficulty by -2 for any roll that requires physical flexibility such as escape attempts, contortions, extreme yoga, or butoh dance. Ref. M20 BOS pg 37
Hyperfocus	3	General	Mental	Given time and lack of distractions, you can focus your mind to a uncanny extent. For hour spent focusing, without distractions, on a mundane task (not on a magickal casting) you can add 1 die to your task rolls. Not to exceed 3 dice. This modifier is added to EVERY roll on the task, even extended rolls. CAVEAT: This merit does not help in magickal casting, combat (although a strategy-minded character could hyperfocus on planning for a battle, but not on fighting it. Ref: M20 BOS, pg 44
Hypersensitivity	3	General	Physical	Extraordinarily open to physical sensations, you possess a depth of sensitivity most folks can not conceive of having. A mere sip of wine can reveal its vintage to you; a whiff of smoke betrays the quality (or lack thereof) and origins of its burnt tobacco; a faint touch can conjure orgasmic ecstacies. Story-wise you easily "fall into" an enjoyable sensation, relishing it to a degree beyond typical human sensitivity. System-wise: reduce the difficulty of Perception + alertness rolls by -2 if you are trying to identify details about a sensation. On the flip side, painful sensations and over-stimulation can trigger paralyzing agonies and intense pain. Whenever you experience a painful sensation without your permission (being flogged, loud music you didn't want to hear, or injured by something you didn't want to be hurt by) you must make a Willpower roll to avoid being "dragged under" or stunned by the pain for a turn or two. The difficulty of this roll is dependent on the annoyance; diff 4 for minor to diff 10 for screaming agony. Ref: M20 BOS pg 38
Immortal	5/7	General	Supernatural *restricted*	Thanks to some uncanny gift, you age slowly (if at all) and are extremely hard to kill. This gift comes not from Sphere magick but from a metaphysical legacy or curse that transcends the fleeting nature of the flesh. You’re not truly immortal, as death will probably claim you eventually; by normal standards, though, you exist outside of the usual range of human mortality. This Merit features two levels: • (5 points) You age very slowly – perhaps one year for every passing decade – and eventually recover (at the usual speed) from any injuries and illnesses that do not immediately kill you outright. A wasting disease or infection, for instance, won’t kill you (though you might wish it would), but a bullet in the heart would do so. • (7 points) In addition to the slow-aging process, you’re also immune to death itself unless you meet your special doom (as described below) or have your body completely obliterated. Shooting won’t kill you, poison won’t kill you, starvation won’t kill you, but being incinerated or dissolved in acid would end your life for good. Otherwise, your wounds heal at the usual rate, eventually bringing you back from the dead… which, if you’ve been buried, embalmed, entombed, or otherwise trapped could be a very bad thing for you! Regardless of the level of this Merit, you must have at least one special doom: an event that will kill your ass dead for good. This doom could involve decapitation, burning of your body, immersion in salt water, removal of the eternal revivification unit installed within your heart, and so forth. This doom must be determined before the chronicle begins, and if it ever befalls you… well, life was fun while it lasted, right? This Merit goes well with Traits like the Background: Leg end, the Supernatural Merits: Mark of Favor, Nephilim, Spark of Life, and Twin Souls, or the Supernatural Flaws: Phylactery and Primal Marks. (See the appropriate entries throughout this section.) It cannot be taken in addition to the Merit: Nine Lives and, for obvious reasons, this Merit might not be available to player characters within your chronicle at all. Ref: M20 BOS, 75
Immunity ****	1 - 16			Ref: Guide to the Traditions 229
Inner Knight	5	General*	Supernatural	In your heart of hearts, you’re a hero. While your com panions work toward their own selfish ends, you embody a higher purpose. This purpose guides you in uncanny ways that feel, at times, as if you’re being moved by a force greater than yourself – a noble force, naturally, but one that transcends even your personal Enlightenment. In dreams, you see yourself as a Warrior of Reason, a Champion of Truth. A paladin. A genius. A knight of everything that is worth defending. Intended more for Technocratic operatives and skeptical technomancers than for mages who accept reincarnation as a metaphysical truth, this Merit grants you special gifts when it seems like all hope has been lost. These gifts allow you to… • access Traits you don’t possess, as per the Background: Dream (at a rating of 5) but without entering a trance; • add five temporary points to your Willpower Trait, to use during that “hope is lost” crisis; • …and perhaps recall things from a previous life that the character could not possibly have known – a language she does not know, an escape route in a place he’s never visited, a person they’ve never met before, and so forth. These boosts last only through the current scene, but include a burst of vitalizing energy and a sense of your inner hero coming through to save the day again. This isn’t the sort of thing you talk about, of course, especially not if you’re an agent of the Technocratic Union. The benefits, though, cannot be denied, even if their source is clearly… well, improbable, at best. And while this Merit was originally created for the sourcebook Guide to the Technocracy, any mage with a sense of higher purpose can take it. Just remember that the biggest difference between a knight and a murderer is the side of his sword you happen to be on at the time. Ref: M20 BOS, 75
Inner Strength	2	General	Mental	You have the grit of a true survivor. In a crisis, your deep reserve of determination gets you through. Reduce the difficulty of Willpower rolls by two if struggling against overwhelming odds. Ref: WW20 Ann, 476
Insensate to Pain	5	General	Physical	Nothing hurts you till it kills you. Okay, it probably does hurt but not enough to slow you down. Wound penalties do not affect your character at all; until they die, you usually function with with full dice pools intact. This Merit does not change the way you take damage, but it radically changes the way damage affects your ability to get things done. There is a downside to this merit. Pain tells us something is wrong. Without being able to pain you are likely to do things like burn yourself by accident, walk on broken legs, and notice cuts only when the blood has seeped through your clothing. Although pain won't slow you down, shattered bones and organs will. Injuries that inflict significant physical impairment (crushed leg, broken skull, gouged out eyes, etc) supersede your usual dice pool to penalties. Ref: M20 BOS pg 38
Iron Will	3	General	Mental	Even by Awakened standards, you have a formidable Will. When you make up your mind and dig in your heels against mental influence, you determinations is hard to break. Add 3 dice to your Willpower rolls whenever you face a challenge to your convictions, or resists attempts at Mind Magick, torture, exhaustion, and other debilitating attacks. If the character ever crosses paths with a Vampire or other mind-controlling entity, he can shake off the effects of such assaults by spending a single Willpower. Ref: M20 BOS, pg 45 and WW20 Ann, 476
Jack-Of-All-Trades	3	General	Mental	You have a little knowledge about a lot of things. If making a roll on a Skill (not a Talent) you do not possess, you do not suffer the usual penalty to the roll’s difficulty. You may attempt a roll on a Knowledge that you do not possess, although the difficulty for the roll is raised by 2. Ref: M20 BOS, pg 45 and WW20 Ann, 476
Judge's Wisdom	4	General	Mental	You've mastered your emotions to Vulcan perfection. No passion-based assault can rattle your judgement, and the attacks based of heart-twisting fiends have little hold on you. Rule-Wise, you remain IMMUNE to MIND- and LIFE-based effects that INFLUENCE EMOTIONS, and can shrug off vampiric Discipline of Presence unless the vampire has 6 dots in that discipline. Emotion-based from any other Supernatural race do not affect you. However you can still be possessed, mind-controlled, enchanted, etc as long as the effect is NOT EMOTION-BASED Ref: M20 BOS, pg 46
Lack of Scent	2	General	Physical	You either have no scent at all or only a very faint odor. Any humans, animals, or Garou who attempt to track you by scent have a +2 difficulty to do so. You may find it difficult to deal with lupus Garou or wolves, as they tend to mistrust your lack of a “natural” scent. Ref: WW20 Ann, 472
Legendary Attribute	5	General	Supernatural	Gifted with the strength of Shango or the beauty of Lucifer, you may exceed the human capacity for one Attribute Trait. That Trait is not automatically higher than usual (you still need to spend points to raise the favored Attribute), but you may purchase up to six dots in a given Attribute for your character, exceeding the usual limit of five dots. Beyond that higher maximum, you also get one heroic capability that’s linked to that Attribute. The Shango-strength mage might always inflict at least one health level of damage with hand-to-hand blows, while the Luciferian seducer could score an automatic success whenever he tries to charm someone who ought to know better. These bonuses are always subject to Storyteller approval, however, and they don’t kick in until you reach six dots in the given Trait. Not even Lucifer, after all, possessed his full charm when he was just a little devil… Ref: M20 BOS, 77
Language	1	-	-	Use Linguistics skill and associated language rules. Language help
License to… ***			**TBR**	Ref: Guide to the Technocracy 165
Light Sleeper	1	General	Physical	Also known as Seldom Sleeps in WW20. Four hours a night is generally good for you. Though you can enjoy longer periods of sleep. But when the shit hits the fan you are up and ready, able to get by on cat-naps and the occasional light snooze. Ref: M20 BOS pg 37 You are not immune to sleep-causing supernatural effects, and you must still rest (no combat and no efforts requiring rolls) after using taxing rituals or Gifts. You are not always perky, bright-eyed, and bushy-tailed, but you suffer no penalties or ill effects from remaining awake for extended periods. Ref: WW20, 476
Lightning Calculator	1	General	Mental	Your head is a calculator of impressive capacity. This Merit allows you to reduce the difficulty of math- and calculation-based rolls by -2. Simple calculations take no time at all. More complex ones may require a turn or more. Obviously, your character needs access to the proper data before they can work out the calculations. This merit can not reduce the difficulty of magick-casting rolls. Ref: M20 BOS pg 43 and WW20 Ann, 475
Local Hero	3	Supernatural	Social	You’ve done great things for your community, and people love you for it. You might have cleaned out the resident drug dealers, defied slumlords, established a halfway house or a center of worship – whatever it was that you did for the Masses, you get free food, “friends of the house” discounts, places to crash (possibly with happy bedmates!), and other offerings of thanks from the people you have helped. Also known as Folk Hero, this Merit reflects your pop ularity among the local Sleepers. You reduce the difficulty of your social rolls by -2 when you’re dealing with the people of your community, and receive constant aid and respect from those people whenever you need them. The catch, of course, is that you must live up to your heroic reputation; turn your back on these grateful souls, or take their goodwill for granted, and you’ll be “yesterday’s hero” in no time. Ref: M20 BOS,pg 58
Long-Distance Runner	3	General	Physical	Through practice and/or innate skill, you have developed your ability to run very fast for a very long time. You can run at double your normal running speed for one hour per dot you possess in Stamina. You must have at least four dots in Stamina to purchase this Merit. Ref: WW20 Ann, 472
Loyalty	1	General	Social	You’re especially devoted to a certain cause, group, creed or person. When someone tries to turn you against the object of your loyalty, you receive a two-die bonus to your dice pool when resisting that attempt with your Willpower. If the assault uses your Willpower Trait as the difficulty for the attack, then your attacker adds +2 to her difficulty while striving to under mine your loyalty. (See the feat Resisting on the Dramatic Feats chart in Mage 20Ann, p. 403, and the Mind Sphere entry in the same book, p. 519.) Naturally, you must define the source and reasons for your devotion when you select this Merit. Such loyalty will influence many of your roleplaying choices too – your friends, enemies, priorities, magickal focus, and other things besides. For extra fun (ha ha), you can complement this Merit with the Flaw: Conflicting Loyalties, described below. Ref: M20 BOS, pg 53
Lucky	3	General	Supernatural	Lady Fortune has a thing for you. As a result, you may re-roll a failed die roll (botches included) up to three times per story (not per session). Each do-over may be rerolled only once, so don’t push your luck too far. Ref: M20 BOS, 71
Manifest Avatar	3	Supernatural	Supernatural	For most mages, the Avatar remains a mysterious figure, goading them from the sidelines and appearing primarily within a Seeking or during other moments of intense stress. For you, however, the Avatar is a vibrant presence in your life, as real to you as anyone else. Essentially a character in its own right, this manifested Avatar interacts with you on an almost daily basis. In certain situations, it might interact with other people, as manifestly real as any other person in your world. The Manifest Avatar Merit embodies the Avatar as a full character under the Storyteller’s control. On its own, this Merit reflects that Avatar as a person who only the associated mage can see, hear, and interact with on a physical level; in conjunction with the Background: Allies, however, the Avatar becomes a character that everyone can see, hear, and feel. In both cases, the Avatar may come and go as it pleases, bound only by the physical laws with which it chooses to be bound. The physical Avatar’s shell can be injured or killed, but that in itself does not kill the Avatar – merely its body. For obvious reasons, that solid Avatar should have a guise that won’t be too vulgar or bizarre for the Consensus to endure – a cloaked, whispering figure, perhaps, but not a screeching, tentacled monstrosity. The manifested Avatar’s Traits depend upon the value of the Allies Background, as well as the physical form of that incarnation. An equine or lupine Avatar, for instance, will have different Traits than an Avatar that manifests as a crow, shadow, mirror, or child. ... ...Unless either the mage or the Avatar announces its true identity, other characters don’t usually think that your manifested Avatar is anything other than what it appears to be. Mages or Night-Folk who can see auras or souls might catch on, but most other folks remain clueless. Ref: M20 BOS, 71
Mark of Favor	3	Supernatural	Supernatural	A godlike entity has claimed you as its own, and has stamped your features with evidence of that claim. You might have the bushy red hair and sly eyes of Reynard the Fox, the hearty temper and brawny build of Thor, the compassionate fury of the Christ in your eyes, or Legba’s lame leg and penchant for corncob pipes and tobacco. Folks who understand the lore of your associated god-form recognize this Mark of Favor, and even those who don’t know who you’re marked by realize that there’s something special about you. An excellent companion to the Background: Legend, and already an element of the Background: Totem this Trait provides a recognizable connection to a renowned god-form. Whether or not this actually is a sign of divine favor, of course, depends upon your Storyteller’s preferred theological metaphysics. As far as your character is concerned, it totally is. Note that such favor isn’t always a happy thing; mythology is full of people who shared dysfunctional relationships with divine parents and patrons! When dealing with people who recognize the Mark and respect the deity that bestowed it, you subtract -2 from the dif ficulty of related social rolls. Opponents of your divine patron consider you an enemy, and although intimidation-style rolls still receive the -2 reduction in difficulty, rolls that attempt to get on the good side of such people add +2 to the difficulty instead. Ref: M20 BOS, 71
Mastery of Fire ***				Spirit Ways, The 103
Master of Red Tape	4	General	Social	A savant of bureaucracy, you slash your way through official obstructionism. When red tape unspools across your path, you know who to talk to, which forms to fill out, and where the loopholes are. A few calls to the right people, and official obstacles disappear as if by magic(k). After all, it’s not what you ask for but who you ask, and how. When faced with the near-inevitable morass of bureaucra cy, subtract -2 from all difficulties that involve dealing with the system. To use this Merit, you need to decide what you want to accomplish and how you want to go about doing that. Your character makes the requisite calls to the requisite people, and the dice determine the rest. Backgrounds like Alternate Identity, Backup, Certification, Contacts, Influence, Rank, Requisitions, Retainers, Secret Weapons, and Spies often involve bureaucracies, and Allies, Chantry, Resources, and other Backgrounds might feature red tape if the Background in question comes from a larger organization. Although it’s most helpful for members of the Technocratic Union, any modern mage can find this Merit useful. Hermetic Chantries are infamous for byzantine bureau cracy, and the courts of classical China pretty much invented such things, making this an appropriate Merit for Wu Lung and certain monastic Akashayana. Ref: M20 BOS pg 58
Mechanical Aptitude	1	General	Mental	You are naturally adept with all kinds of mechanical devices (note that this aptitude does not extend to electronic devices, such as computers). The difficulties of all dice rolls to understand, repair, or operate any kind of mechanical device are reduced by two. However, this Merit doesn't help you drive any sort of vehicle. Ref: M20 BOS pg 43 and WW20 Ann, 475
Medium	2	General	Supernatural	You possess an unnerving affinity for the Restless Dead… or perhaps it’s that they possess an unnerving affinity for you. Although you cannot actually see ghosts unless you have at least one dot in the Spirit Sphere, those ghosts can talk to you, and you can talk to them. A successful Perception + Awareness roll allows you to sense their presence even if you can’t see or hear them nearby, and your aura shines faintly like a spirit-beacon in the Shadowlands. As a result, the dead tend to favor you (unless they’re trying to kill you), and can become quite chatty if they have something to say. Given how deeply mages prize information, such chattiness can be rather helpful and occa sionally life-changing. Because “chatty” can quickly become “obnoxious,” this Merit is a double-sided blade. You reduce the difficulty of your social rolls by -2 when dealing with ghosts, and may perceive things that the living normally cannot understand. The things you perceive, though, aren’t always pleasant, and – seeing as how ghosts tend to stick around because they have unfinished business to attend to – the dead can get downright annoying with their requests. REf: M20 BOS, 68
My Master is My Slave	5	General	Supernatural	Everyone things your mage commands you. And everyone is wrong. Though he might indeed believe he's the one calling the shots in this relationship, he's wrong. Better still, he gets the blame for whatever it is you choose to do, and through he'd like to think he can take you down if need be, you possess enough leverage (of one form or another) to ruin him if you so choose. Obviously, this Merit applies only to situations where an Awakened mage has a familia, a servant, a retainer, a child, a ward, or else some other sort of apparently dependent character for which he is responsible. That mage has you as Background character, and you dutifully fulfill that role when it suits your purposes to to so. You've got your own agendas, though, and the power dynamic lets you get away with them unless you're really careless about your true intentions. To keep the upper hand, you'll have to clever; that said, you can be a real prick behind closed doors. Your mage considers you a useful burden, but he's the useful one here and once you've gotten what you wanted from this relationship, you'll ditch the burden too. (Please don't use this Merit to be a jerk to your fellow players. Consent is awesone. Thank You.) Ref: M20 G&M, 194
Natural Channel	3	General	Supernatural	You’ve got an innate affinity with the Otherworlds. Sliding through from the mortal realm to the Three Worlds is easier for you than it is for other Awakened folk. System-wise, you subtract -2 from the difficulty of your rolls to penetrate the Gauntlet. Story-wise, crossing over feels, to you, like a primal sort of homecoming, as if you exist between worlds on an elemental level. Ref: M20 BOS, 71
Natural Leader	2	General	Social	You are gifted with a certain magnetism to which others naturally defer. You receive two extra dice when making Leadership rolls. You must have a Charisma rating of 3 or greater to purchase this Merit. Ref: M20 BOS, pg 56
Natural Linguist	2	General	Mental	You have a flair for languages.You also get three bonus dice when making rolls based upon clear communications, typically ones employing Art, Expression, Etiquette, Leadership, and other Traits that involve “speaking their language” to impress someone else. This merit does not allow you to learn more languages than the number permitted by your Linguistics score, but you may add 3 dice to any Dice Pool involving languages (both written and spoken). This Merit does not add any dice to magick-casting rolls when using Language as an instrument. Ref: M20 BOS, 45 and WW20 Ann, 476
Natural Shapeshifter	3	Supernatural	Supernatural	Guided by an innate affinity for metamorphosis, you can change your shape more easily than most mages do. Such changes still demand the usual Life Sphere Ranks and Effects, but your difficulty for such rolls is reduced by -2 (the usual limits apply), and you don’t need to worry about losing yourself in the new form. Such talents don’t necessarily link you to the Night-Folk, although this Merit fits in well with Fae Blood or Shapechanger Kin (and the Mental Flaw: Feral Mind, as well; see p. 52). The gift does not, however, affect your ability to change other people’s shapes in any way. Such talent works for you alone. Ref: M20 BOS, 71
Nephilim /Laham	7	Supernatural	Supernatural *restricted*	Long ago, it has been said, immortals walked the earth, siring offspring whose descendants still live among us now. The Hebrew Bible refers to them as nephilim, an ambiguous word that seems to be related to root words for “fallen,” “prisoners,” and “overseers.” Later transliterations refer to them as giants, monsters, watchers, and the fallen (or violent) ones. Were they gods? Angels? Demons? Not even the Awakened know for sure; you, however, have a bit of High Umbral essence within you, and this nephilim inher-itance – known sometimes by the demon-blooded name of laham – marks you as something more than merely human (Awakened or otherwise). A living crossroads between the Astral Realm and the mortal world, you exist in a heightened state of spiritual essence. Your aura burns with unearthly intensity, and your presence frightens many Otherworldly denizens. Your connection to High Umbral entities might involve a distant relationship to primordial sires, or the far more recent ac-tivities of mortals and spirits who shared a distinctly carnal relationship. (“Mom, seriously – I need to know the truth about Dad”) Are you part-demon? Descended from an angel? Sired by an entity whose nature transcends mortal concepts like “good” and “evil”? You probably don’t even know, although events in your chronicle might reveal the truth whether you want to learn it or not. System-wise, this Merit confers the following drawbacks and benefits: • As noted above, your aura blazes with inhuman clarity and brilliance. • Your temperament favors your Umbral ancestor, and you tend to act accordingly. • You must take at least three points’ worth of Physical Flaws to reflect the unstable nature of your physi-cal form and the surging metaphysical energies it contains. These Flaws do not count toward your total Flaw points, nor do you get points for taking those Flaws. • Those energies give you a Quintessence rating of 7, and those points automatically refresh up to that seven-point maximum each time you go to sleep, regardless of your Avatar rating. • Resonance: you begin play with three points in Resonance, not one. • You subtract -1 from the difficulties of your casting rolls when you cast Effects using the Mind Sphere, the Spirit Sphere, or both in relation to the High Umbra. If, for example, the demon-blooded laham mage Jenatrix wanted to read someone’s mind, her casting difficulty would be normal; if she wanted to project her astral self into the High Umbra, however, she’d reduce the difficulty by -1. • You can travel physically into the High Umbra by using a Mind 4 /Spirit 3 Effect. • When attempting to intimidate, command, or bargain with High Umbral entities, you add two dice to which-ever dice pool you happen to be using in that attempt. Despite your advantage, however, using your uncanny heritage as leverage will not exactly endear you to the entities in question. In such negotiations, it’s generally more constructive to use a carrot than a stick. • On a related note, you suffer a penalty of +2 to the dif-ficulty of your rolls to resist, soak or counter rituals cast by Hermetic High Ritual wizards or Awakened clerics from the Jewish, Muslim, and Christian denominations. These folks have spent millennia studying your kind, and be ye angel or be ye demon, they know how to deal with you more effectively than most mages do. (By rituals, we’re referring to extended-roll ceremonial magicks, not off-the-cuff spells. Your chances are as good as anybody else’s if a wizard tosses a lightning bolt at you; if he draws up a summoning circle, though, you’re kinda screwed.) • At the Storyteller’s option, you may also receive up to seven points in the Advantages described in Mage 20, p. 658 (and expanded further in the Mage 20 sourcebook Gods, Monsters & Familiar Strangers). Demon-blooded laham characters may, instead, take up to seven points in the demonic Investments described in the Mage: The Sorcerers Crusade sourcebook Infernalism: The Path of Screams or the Mage 20 supplement The Book of the Fallen. In either case, these additional and optional benefits get balanced out with a five-point Derangement Flaw of the Storyteller’s choice (see Mage 20, pp. 648-650). Although the player might not know what sort of entity her character is descended from, the Storyteller ought to de-termine the character’s heritage, and then plant clues (dreams, visions, weird greetings from characters who seem to know more about the mage than she knows about herself…) throughout the story. He ought to feed roleplaying notes to the player, too: This Realm seems familiar even though you don’t recall having been here before, You can almost taste the evil in that girl’s soul, Man, you just wanna rip that dude’s throat out and you’re not sure why… The player, of course, can draw her own conclusions – conclusions that might not necessarily be accurate at all. This Merit goes well with Merits like Legendary Attributes, Nine Lives, and Too Tough to Die, Flaws like Immortal En-emy, Primal Marks, or Cast No Shadow or Reflection, and Backgrounds like Cult, Demesne, and Past Life. As with the Merit: “Immortal,” (above) this Trait could be too powerful for player characters to take. Supporting characters, however, could be nephilim-descended, which would make for potent friends and memorable enemies. Ref: M20 BOS, 80
Nightsight	3	General	Physial	You can see in near-total darkness. Only the complete absence of light will negate this merit. This merit does not increase your visual capabilities (use Acute Senses for that). Other visual impediments such as smoke or fog, block your sight as usual, and magickally-imposed darkness (for instance, the sort caused by deflecting light with Forces Sphere) negates this merit when it involves the dispersal of light itself. Perception + altertness rolls would be required as normal in cases that block your sight. Ref: M20 BOS, pg 38
Nine Lives	6	General	Supernatural	Oh, you lucky bastard! Somehow, you manage to cheat the Reaper with hair-raising regularity. If a die roll would result in your character’s death, the person who made that roll must roll again. If the second roll allows your character to live, then you and /or your Storyteller mark off one of your nine “lives” and your character survives the thing that would otherwise have killed her. If that roll fails, then one “life” gets marked off anyway and another roll is made. The rolls continue until either the character survives or the lives get used up. As the name suggests, however, this Merit lasts only nine times, tops. And if the final die roll still results in your character’s death… well, your luck was bound to run out sooner or later anyway. Ref: M20 BOS, 79
Noble Blood	1	General	Physical	You are not necessarily linked to any true aristocracy. However on of your features makes you as a descendant of a "royal" family. Such as the Kennedy smile, the Windsor ears, etc. Your distinguishing feature may not be especially attractive (royal families were notoriously inbred), and will mark you our for enemies of the clan in question. This merit might grant you a -2 difficulty on social roles with people that care about such things as aristocracy, or a +2 when dealing with those that don't. Either way, this merit marks an ACTUAL GENETIC connection, not simply a cosmetic resemblance to your family. Ref: M20 BOS pg 37
Noted Messenger	3	General	Social **Restricted**	A known emissary between groups, you’re treated with a certain amount of deference and courtesy that other mages would not receive. Even enemies of your group won’t try to kill you on general principle, though they might not be especially happy to see you. The things you have to say will be given a certain amount of weight, and your presence may open doors (literal or otherwise) that would remain shut for almost anybody else. That’s the upside; the downside is that you need to behave yourself (and keep a tight leash on your companions) when you’re on someone else’s turf. Passing false messages will undermine your credibility, and obnoxious behavior will get that welcome mat yanked out from under your feet rather quickly. It should go without saying that breaking a truce while acting in your official capacity (or even when you’re not!) will trash your reputation and reflect very poorly on your superiors. Also… well, some folks really do prefer to kill the messenger when things don’t go their way. Tread that red carpet carefully. Ref: M20 BOS, pg 58
Officially Dead	2	General	Social **TBR**	According to the authorities, you’re no longer among the living. Perhaps you’ve successfully faked your own death, or had it faked for you when you assumed a new identity. An especially common Merit among Technocratic operatives, Hermetic magi, and the Chakravanti, this erasure of your former life is often a required part of service within the New World Order, Iteration X, and certain Houses of Hermes. As far as your family, government, and old friends are concerned, you’re six feet under. Naturally, you’ll need to be discreet about your continued existence if you don’t want that death to become more permanent. Ref: M20 BOS pg 56
Oracular Ability	3	General	Supernatural *restricted*	Everything, to you, has a richer significance than it might otherwise appear. The flight of birds, the fall of cards, the patterns of sand after a wave, a spatter of sacrificial blood… in your eyes, they’re all clues to the Universal Mystery. You’re good at deciphering such clues, and so while many enigmas remain unanswered, you often spot insights that other people – even mages – fail to see. In game terms, you can make a Perception + Awareness roll (difficulty 7) whenever the Storyteller feels you’re in a position to perceive a hidden message in apparently random phenomena. If you do spot what appears to be a message, you can make a second roll of Perception + Esoterica (or Occult, whichever is higher) to see if you can interpret the message you think you see. The difficulty of this interpretation roll depends on how random the phenomena is; a deck of cards, for instance, is less random (difficulty 6 or 7) than a scatter of crow feathers (difficulty 8 or 9), and so is better suited for divination purposes. This doesn’t mean you can’t read that scatter of feathers, only that doing so is more challenging than interpreting a deck of cards! A successful interpretation roll wins a vague yet potentially valuable answer from the Storyteller – couched, of course, in symbolic metaphors and wide-open meanings. Ref: M20 BOS, 72
Parlor Trick	3	Supernatural	Supernatural	You’ve honed a special trick – a simple, specific, non-com bat application of your Arts – which you can perform without making a casting roll. Such tricks include things like conjuring a business card, stirring a pot without touching the spoon (or the pot), igniting your cigarette without lighters or a match, producing a small amount of light without mechanical contrivance, changing your hair color with a shake of your head, and so on. To a Sleeper, these tricks look like something a normal person could do with a mysterious bit of skill. You, of course, realize that the skill in question is not quite what they think it is. Three important rules govern this Merit: • It cannot be a feat with direct damage-producing combat applications (though a “light your cigarette” trick could also work with a stream of flowing gasoline). No popping claws or conjuring firearms! • It must be a quick, simple action that a Sleeper witness could explain away as practiced sleight of hand. • These tricks are limited to things you could do with Sphere Ranks 1 to 3, apply to only one specific trick (con juring a rose, say, not conjuring anything that’s roughly rose-sized), and you must have the Spheres necessary to perform the feat in the first place. This Merit does not allow you to cast Effects above your normal abilities! Each trick costs three points, and must suit your character’s metaphysical focus. You can take this Merit up to three times, total. Obviously vulgar feats (making yourself disappear in broad daylight) are prohibited. Ref, M20 BOS, 72
Pawns ***			**TBR**	Ref: Horizon: Stronghold of Hope 116
Perfect Balance	1	General	Physical	Your sense of balance has achieved great heights by constant training or inherited traits. It is very unlikely that you will ever fall during your life. You may trip, but you will always catch yourself before you fully lose your footing or handhold. This merit functions for actions as walking, crossing ice, and climbing mountains. All difficulties involving such feats are reduced by two. It would take a lot to push or shove a character off his feet if he has this merit. Ref: WW20 Ann, 472
Perfect Liar	2	General	Social	Oh gods, you’re good at lying! Falsehoods slide from your tongue like water off a vine leaf, and even the folks who know you well tend to be taken in when you start talking. You also lack the usual “tells” that betray a liar: your vital signs remain stable, your eyes don’t twitch, and your voice never falters. Unless someone is outright reading your mind (as in, using Mind-Sphere magick or some other paranormal power), you still often appear to be telling the truth; even then, the mind-reader might assume that you at least believe you’re telling the truth! Story-wise, people usually believe what you say when you’re lying about small, casual things that are not immediately, obvi ously false. With regards to the dice, reduce the difficulty by -2 when you’re trying to lie about something important. Again, this Merit will not alter auras or change the thoughts in your head, although those folks who can’t actively monitor your soul will be inclined to give you the benefit of the doubt. (Suckers…) Ref: M20 BOS, pg 56
Physically Impressive	2	General	Physical	You are one imposing sumbitch, not so much large as apparently dangerous no matter what mood you might be in at the time. Add 2 dice to any Intimidation roll. People may find you unnerving or dangerously attractive even when you aren't trying to be impressive. Ref: M20 BOS pg 37 and WW20 Ann, 472
Pitiable	1	General	Social	Oh, you poor thing! People want to help you, and you’re willing to let them do so. Although this Merit lowers the difficulty of your social rolls by -2 when you’re trying to get someone to take care of you, it adds +2 to the difficulty of rolls that attempt to intimidate people or otherwise impress folks into taking you seriously. Ref: M20 BOS, pg 54 and WW20 Ann, 479
Poison Resistance	2	General	Physical	Toxins may sicken you, but probably won't kill you. Although magickal poisons might be an exception to the rule. You can shake off the effects of natural and synthesized poisons. Add 2 dice to your Stamina roll to resist. You could woozy, or seriously ill, but you probably won't die. Although it works against toxic bacteria, this Merit does not protect from disease spread by viruses, genetic conditions, and so forth. Also grants the 1 dot version of Alcohol/Drug Tolerance Merit. Ref: M20 BOS, pg 37
Poker Face	2	General	Physical	Nothing rattles you. Nothing. The emergence of a titanic elder thing from the depths of space might make the corner of your mouth twitch. This doesn't mean you don't feel anything, that's the Mental Flaw: Icy. Instead, you simply -appear- to be eternally calm. (Inside you could be screaming!) Reduce the difficulty of Intimidation, Subterfuge, and resistance-to-subterfuge rolls by -2, WHILE also ADDING +2 to the difficulties of anyone trying to get under your skin, or rattle your cage. Applies to attempts to read, seduce, torture, or otherwise get past your Poker Face. Ref: M20 BOS pg 38
Powerful Ally	5 - 8	General	Supernatural	You’ve got seriously badass friends – a vampire lord, a faerie noble, a werewolf pack, Umbrood courtiers, or other similarly magnificent entities. In most respects, this is the Supernatural Companion Merit but with a much higher power-level… a level which might be beyond the capacity of mages below the Master rank. And while the Storyteller determines who your friends are, what they can do, and what they want out of their relationship with you, the value of this Merit depends upon their relative benefit to you: • (5 points) One buddy of considerable power and in fluence within his community – a Prince of the City, a Garou elder, and so forth. • (6 points) A small group of Supernatural Companions (five or so), or an especially powerful representative of his kind. • (7 points) A larger group of Companions (around a dozen), or two or three powerful friends. • (8 points) Over a dozen Companions, a handful of powerful friends, or one ally of near-godlike power. Again, the Storyteller decides who these allies are, why they’re interested in your goodwill, and what the cost of their aid might be. You get nothing for nothing, after all, especially not when such beings are involved! For a commensurate level of enemies, see the Flaw: Immortal Enemy, p. 93. Ref: M2- BOS, 77
Prestige	2	General	Social	Also known as Reputation, this Merit reveals you as an honored personage within your Tradition, Convention, Craft, or another sort of sect. Among your peers, you add three extra dice to all social rolls used to influence folks within that group. Story-wise, allies of your group will tend to like you, and rivals or enemies will tend to… not. When you first select this Merit, decide upon the source of this prestige. Perhaps you earned it through deeds before the chronicle began, or won the Merit in place of experience points. It might represent an honored lineage to which you belong, or reflect a glorious mentor whose rep rubs off on you. Either way, folks expect great things of you, and usually defer to you so long as you live up to the reputation you currently enjoy. For the flipside of this Merit, see the Social Flaw: Infamy. Ref: M20 BOS, 56
Prestigious Mentor	1	Supernatural	Social	Your Mentor (as in the Background Trait of that name) has a reputation that benefits you as well. When you’re making social rolls to invoke your influential teacher, reduce the difficulty by -2. Of course, some folks will be somewhat less than impressed; for rolls that involve rivals or enemies of your mentor, add +2 to the difficulty unless that mentor scares the shit out of them… in which case, you had damned well better be able to live up to the fear his name invokes! SEE HOUSE RULES ON MENTOR BG. Ref: M20 BOS, pg 54
Prodigy ***				Ref: BOS, The 32
Property	2 - 5	General	Social **Capped at 4pts without staff approval**	You’ve got a decent-sized piece of property that, while non-magickal, is certainly useful: a manor house, a farm, a nightclub, bookstore, restaurant, grove, and so forth. The larger and more prosperous the property, the more points this Merit costs. Elsewhere known as the Merits: Nightclub and Mansion, this Merit demands a minimum rating in the Background: Resources (Per House Rule: any Resources background), as noted below. • (2 points) A relatively small property of roughly 3000 square feet /900 meters, with perhaps – if it’s a business – a trickle of income that slightly exceeds its expenses. Examples: a nice house, a comic store, a coffee shop, a penthouse apartment, etc. Minimum Resources: 3 • (3 points) A rather sweet place with dedicated servants /staffers, all necessary facilities (sewer, trash, Internet connection, etc.), and – if it’s a business – an income that contributes to your Resources Background. Examples: A nightclub, a mansion, a small farm, a radio station, a large store, and so forth. Minimum Resources: 4 • (4 points) A substantial location, staffed with skilled (though mundane) employees and connected to an acre or two of associated land. Examples: A small office build ing, a family manor, an arena, a school, a medium-sized farm, a vineyard, a small laboratory, a library, and the like. At this level, it could also represent several smaller, two-point Properties as well. Minimum Resources: 5 • (5 points) An impressive holding that features an extensive staff and a fair amount of property. Examples: An office complex, a stadium, a college, a major laboratory, a shopping center, an archive, and so forth. This level could reflect a number of two-point or three-point Properties, too. Minimum Resources: 6 Although this Merit, by itself, is in no way magickal or hyper tech-equipped, your Property could provide the base of operations for the Backgrounds: Allies, Backup, Chantry, Cult, Library, Node, Resources, Retainers, Sanctum, and even Spies. (Baris tas overhear a lot of crazy stuff…) Unless you’ve got a dedicated manager for the Property, it also demands a certain amount of time and attention, and quickly falls into disrepair and /or bankruptcy if you leave it alone for a week or more while jaunting off on various adventures. Property also tends to attract interest from parties both mundane and otherwise, especially if there’s an ongoing rivalry with competing businesses, family enemies, an archnemesis, and so on. Cops take a dim view of wild stuff going down on your property, and the insurance costs can be murder if (read: when) your place gets trashed by extradimensional entities, HIT Marks, or raging Ascension Warriors. Unless they’re part of the Backgrounds: Allies, Backup, Cult, or Retainers, employees of your Property Merit do count as Sleeper witnesses with regards to magickal deeds on and around such properties. Ref: M20 BOS, pg 56
Recognize Garou ***	3	Supers only	Mental *restricted*	Over the years, you’ve become adept at picking out the werewolves in a crowd. It’s not mystical awareness; you’ve simply learned what physical and personality traits tend to mark Gaia’s warriors once they’ve undergone the Change. All Perception attempts to figure out if someone is a werewolf are made at –2 difficulty. Ref: WW 20th House Rule: Perception + Garou Lore is the roll. Specifically does not apply to other shifting breeds.
Regal Bearing	1	General	Social	Aristocratic charisma is your birthright. Although you might not actually hail from a noble family, your presence radiates dignity. Posture, features, tone of voice, aura of dominion – you’re got them all. People defer to you as a reflex; reduce the difficulty of your Social-Trait rolls by -2 whenever you’re trying to make an impression, and while certain folks will want to take you down a few pegs on general principle, most people are inclined to respect you even if they don’t necessarily like you. Ref: M20 BOS, pg 54
Research Grant	2	General	Social	You’ve been given a prestigious grant from a foundation, an academy, a corporation, or some other moneyed institution. This stipend frees you from the burdens of a regular job, and although it’s probably not a large amount of money, it’ll keep you in rent and ramen for a while… so long as you don’t piss off your sponsors. This grant also includes a certain degree of privileged access to archives and facilities that are connected to your field of endeavor. And yeah – it’s got some strings, too. You need to report your findings on a regular basis, suck up to the necessary authorities, and behave in a manner that reflects well upon your sponsors. In many cases (especially for corporate endowments), said sucking up includes reporting what your sponsors want to hear, not necessarily what your research actually reveals. Failure to please your supporters tends to result in the loss of said endowment. Isn’t research wonderful? Ref: M20 BOS, pg 58
Rising Star	3	General	Social	You’re one of the up-and-comers in the city. Everyone wants to know you and be your friend, even as those in power groom you for positions of greater responsibility. You are at -1 difficulty on all Social rolls against any members of your supernatural community who aren’t actively opposing your ascent. M20 BOS, pg 58
Ritual Congregation ***	4		**TBR* re Cult bg?	Ref: Sorcerer, Revised Ed. 54
Sanctity	2	General	Social	Although you might not actually be innocent, you project an impression of purity. People trust you even if you’re not trustworthy, and they’re inclined to think of you as some sort of paragon. Naturally, this can be an almighty pain in the ass too. When you get in trouble, though (and you will), the authorities will almost certainly go easy on you, friends will aid you, and even strangers may come to your defense because you couldn’t possibly be guilty of what you’re accused of doing Ref: M20 BoS, pg 57
Secret Code Language	2	General	Social *banned*	Your desired secret code language may be bought as a language instead of this merit. (House Rule)
Self-Confidence	5	General	Mental	Mages are Confident, you are even more so. When spending Willpower to gain an automatic success, you don't even need to lose the point unless: 1. The only success earned on the roll is from the spent Willpower...or 2. the difficulty for that action is 5 or less. This Merit only kicks in in challenging circumstances, and tasks with a difficulty of 5 or less are just too easy to demand help from your self-confidence. Ref: M20 BOS, pg 46 and "WW20 Ann, 476
Scientific Mystic/Techgnosi	3	Supernatural	Mental	Scientific Mystic lets a technomancer (Son of Ether, Virtual Adept, a tech-based Orphan or even a rouge Technocrat) - study metaphysical principles from mystic-paradigm mages for no extra cost if that technomancer has the focus Wierd Science (Mage 20, pg 584). That technomancer can also choose traditionally "mystic" tools as up to half of their required instruments. Techgnosi allows the same in reverse for a mystic mage. They can use technology for up to half of their required foci. Ref: M20 BOS, pg 45
Shamanic Authority ***		**TBR**	ref: Spirit Ways, The 104
Shapechanger Kin	4	Supernatural	Supernatural	Through a distant but noticeable quirk of lineage, you share a touch of the Changing Blood. In plain English, you’re related to one of the were-breeds: werewolves, werecats, werecrows, and so forth. This gift does not grant you their powers or Gnosis, but you probably know a few secrets (in game terms, Lore Knowledge) about your kin. You remain immune to the primal-fear Delirium that affects most people in a werecreature’s presence (not that mages suffer from it anyway); can travel in the Otherworlds longer than most mortals manage, without suffering the Disconnection and Acclimation side-effects of such travel (detailed in M20 Ann, pp. 482-483); and possibly enjoy some goodwill from your feral family, so long as you haven’t done anything to piss them off. Their enemies, however, are your enemies, which makes this an extremely double-edged Merit. Ref: M20 BOS, 74 We have no plans to open Shifter Sphere. This merit, however, could come into play when NPC shifters are introduced into stories.
Shattered Avatar	5	Supernatural	Supernatural	Your Avatar has been broken into pieces by some past-life trauma. As a result, the part within you is incomplete… but that situation can be rectified. If and when you locate the missing pieces of your Avatar, you could make that inner spirit stronger. In gamespeak, this Merit allows you to increase your Avatar Background after character creation – a thing that cannot, ordinarily, be done. HOUSE RULE: We have a system to increasing Avatar rating post-chargen. Taking this merit means you can start raising Avatar rating immediately after chargen rather than waiting till you hit Arete 5. As with Twin Souls, above, this Merit provides plenty of dramatic story hooks. The missing pieces of your Avatar might be incarnated in other people; trapped in spiritual prisons (Paradox Realms, demonic hells, soul snares, enchanted gems, and so forth); embedded in a tree in a garden that’s warded by five dragons, and so on. The quest for your soul-fragments can be an epic part of your chronicle, with puzzles, twists, reversals, betrayals, and battles for which your soul is literally the prize. This sort of thing might be hard to reconcile with your beliefs if, for example, you happen to be a Technocrat. Still, until you unite the missing bits of your Avatar, there’ll be an essential part of you that feels incomplete. The Storyteller should determine exactly what it was that shattered your Avatar, and what you need to do in order to reunite the various bits into one spirit again. Whether or not she shares that information with you is up to her – it might be something you’ll discover over the course of the game. With each piece restored, you add one dot to your Avatar Background rating, unless that Avatar was embodied in another mage; in that case, his Avatar rating gets added to your own if you manage to kill him… and if he kills you first, then your Avatar gets added to his own. (There can, apparently, be only one.) No matter how many pieces are involved, however, the Avatar Background maxes out at 5 dots. Although this Merit allows you to raise your Trait’s rating, it does not allow you to raise it above that level. Ref: M20 BOS, 77
Sphere Natural	6	Supernatural	Supernatural	For a single element of magick – the Sphere of your choice – you enjoy an innate proficiency. The powers of that Sphere come to you more easily than usual, and you advance faster in that field of knowledge than you do in other Spheres. System-wise, you pay 70% of the usual experience cost, rounded up, when advancing in that Sphere. Naturally, such advancement costs even less when you’re raising your Affinity Sphere. Rank Cost /Affinity Sphere Cost New Sphere: 7 pts. 2 6 /5 pts. 3 11 /10 pts. 4 17 /15 pts. 5 23 /20 pts. The Mage 20 version of this Merit costs more than the ver sion presented in previous editions because the cost of improving Spheres with experience has gone down, and so the benefits involved in this Merit have gone up. You may select this Merit only once, for a single Sphere, and that Sphere should have some intrinsic connection to your mage’s concept, backstory, and magickal focus. This is, after all, an Art that comes naturally to you, and so that predisposition should come through in many different aspects of your character’s personality. Ref: M20 BOS, 79
Spirit Sight ***				Ref: Spirit Ways, The 105
Socially Networked	2	General	Social	Well-Connected on the Internet (as in the Virtual Adept Merit of that name), you enjoy a high online profile – a web site, at least one blog, more Twitter followers and Facebook friends than you could possibly meet in Meatspace, and so on. When you post, folks read, share, and take it seriously. While this might or might not translate into folks you know in the Digital Web (and really – would you want it to?), you command global influence via the World Wide Web. As a result, you’ve got the sort of influence and resources that most folks cannot imagine: crowdfunding backers, instant information, places to crash all over the world if and when you want them…the details depend upon the sort of presence you maintain and the people you attract, but they go beyond anything you could accomplish without the Internet. Of course, you could fuck things up on a grand scale if you’re not careful – such attention can backfire on you if you post the wrong thing at the wrong time – and certain haters despise you on general principle. Considering that the Internet is a prime front in twenty-first century reality wars, though, this sort of network can provide a major edge for your side. Ref: M20 BOS, pg 57
Spark of Life	5	Supernatural	Supernatural	Blessed with great vitality, you heal injuries with heroic speed and ease. Your own injuries from lethal damage heal as if they were bashing damage and aggravated damage heals as if it were one level higher than it is. (Wounded-level damage, for instance, would heal at the Injured-level rate.) Bashing damage, regardless of its extent, heals within an hour. If you’re trying to heal someone else, you subtract -2 from the difficulty of the roll, even if that roll involves casting a Life Sphere healing Effect. (The usual +3 maximum modifier and minimum difficulty of 3 still apply. As long as you remain in physical touch with the injured party, that character uses your healing rate as her own. Your touch also soothes minor pains – muscle spasms, headaches, and so forth – within a minute or two. Beyond its healing powers, this rush of life-energy simply feels good (Staff Note: you know that feeling where you just completely relax, that. This does not convey any sense of intimate arousal or sexual connotations), too. Your aura shines with bright vitality, and your Resonance reflects your strong connection to the primal life-force. On the inevita ble downside, vampires find your blood delicious – twice as potent as normal human vitae (worth double the usual blood points, for players of Vampire: The Masquerade) – and unspeakably refreshing. Ref: M20 BOS, 78
Spirit Magnet	3 - 7	Supernatural	Supernatural	Ephemeral entities flock to your presence. The essence of who you are – benign or malignant – draws spirits to you, and they, in turn, affect the essence of who you are. For the most part, these entities cluster around you in the Penumbra, invisible to mortal perceptions; whenever you cross the Gauntlet, though (either with your perceptions or with your body), they’re waiting for you there. Spirits that can manifest physical forms may come across the Gauntlet to visit you, and those that cannot take on physical bodies still energize the spiritual atmosphere in your vicinity. Whether or not this is a good thing for you depends upon whether you select this Trait as a Merit or a Flaw: • The Merit form of Spirit Magnet draws generally benevolent spirits – Naturae, Lunes, totem and animal entities of the gentler variety, and so on. These spirits protect you from malignant entities, warn you of impending danger, offer advice, help you out when you visit the Otherworlds, and generally make your life easier. Folks who can sense those spirits (mediums, shamans, medicine-folk, werecreatures, etc.) tend to favor you; after all, if the better sorts of spirits like you, then you must be someone worth knowing. • The Flaw version represents the presence of malevo lent spirits – Banes, demons, and other nasty Umbral beasts. Summoned by curses or spiritual corruption, these entities seek to tempt you, poison you, feed off your vitality, and otherwise turn your life into a self-contained Hell On Wheels. Spirit-sensitive folk will avoid you unless they’re into that sort of thing, and werewolves will consider you to be “of the Wyrm” (whatever the hell that means), if only because of the company you keep. Although you might not consider yourself a bad person at heart, your spiritual companions say otherwise! The value of this Merit or Flaw is, as always, based on how helpful or troublesome the spirits can be, how powerful they are, and how many of them you have to deal with when they appear. • (3 points) Minor entities occasionally offer aid or hindrance. • (4 points) Minor entities show up frequently, or in small numbers. • (5 points) Minor entities surround you often, whether you want them to or not, and more potent ones have taken interest in your existence. • (6 points) You have the interest of one or two entities of significance, and plenty of minor ones pay great attention to you. • (7 points) You’re never alone, even when you probably wish you could be. This spiritual companionship could be directly opposed to your true nature. A really awful person might attract be nevolent entities who want to save her, while a veritable St. Anthony could be plagued with demons intent on fucking up his soul. Even so, such constant presence does have an effect on your overall health. Mind, body, and spirit are interwoven. Ref: M20 BOS, 72
Spirit Mentor	3	Supernatural	Supernatural	A ghost, Loa, or other ephemeral entity has taken a special interest in you. As an expression of favor, this entity teaches you things few mortals ever have the opportunity to learn. Although those lessons do not include Sphere-based magick, you could learn insights that help you to expand your knowledge and better understand the nature of Reality. More often, though, this entity tells you secrets, offers you enigmas, and helps you work through situations that would leave most mortals scratching their heads or crying in corners. Your Spirit Mentor could also teach you new Abilities, or help you improve the ones you have, if such teaching seems appropriate to the spirit in question. A data-entity might be able to teach you about computers, while an incarnation of Zhengyi Zhenren’s tiger could teach you tiger-form kung fu. Such teaching tends to take place in the Otherworlds, or in dreams, rather than in the material realm, although a spirit who can Materialize (as the Charm of that name) could certainly teach a person in her own home realm. As with other character-related Traits, your mentor is a Storyteller character with its own agendas, personality, and so on. This Merit could be combined with the Backgrounds: Ally, Familiar, Mentor, or Totem to represent a spirit who plays several roles in your life. Ref: M20 BOS, 74
Sterile	1	General	Physical	For some physical reason, you’re unable to sire or conceive children. Whether this is a Merit or a Flaw depends upon whether or not you want to sire or conceive children. Generally, this sort of condition can be easily cured with a little Life-Sphere magick; in your case, though, it can’t be rectified until and unless you, the player, discard the Merit or pay off this Flaw. Ref: M20 BOS pg 37 For Kinfolk, Sterile is a Flaw, costs 4 pts. For everyone else 1 point. See Flaws
Strength of Psyche ***				Ref: Sorcerer, Revised Ed. 54
Stormwarden /Quantum Voyager	3	Supernatural	Supernatural **banned**	Not in play. (Ref: M20 Ann, 643)
Student's Reputation ***		**TBR**	ref: Horizon: Stronghold of Hope 116, Masters of the Art 83
Subculture Insider	2	General	Social	You’re innately familiar with a social environment that most folks never visit, much less understand. They know you there, and so even when you haven’t met a given person (human or otherwise) in that environment, they consider you to be an insider. Thanks to your familiarity, you can navigate certain elements of the physical environment there too – the security apparatuses, the “secret handshakes,” the hidden corners that an insider would know about and an outsider would never think to look for, and other obstacles that a subculture puts into place to make certain that only the “right” people can get around. When moving through your subculture of choice, subtract -2 from the difficulties of rolls that grant social or physical access to that subculture’s established turf. The subculture in question can be any kind of exclusive social environment that also includes the physical surroundings employed by that particular group: country clubs, drug cartels, the international mercenary network, the global espionage underworld, high-level finance executives, the fetish community, homeless transient communities, clannish rural communities, hip-hop networks, the jet set, rave festival culture, fantasy fans, the touring road-dog musical community, world financial leaders, “gypsy” Travelers, and so on. Although it can include mages and other Night-Folk, the community must be essentially “mortal” in terms of the majority of insiders. You can buy this Merit several times to reflect membership in several different communities. That insider status, however, takes time to acquire and a lot of attention to maintain. If you neglect your community, you’ll soon find those familiar doors slammed in your face. Ref: M20 Bos, pg 58
Supernatural Companion	3	Supernatural	Supernatural	You’ve got a friend among the Night-Folk: a vampire, a changeling, a werebeast, a ghost, or some other entity who exists outside the Sleeping Masses. This friend isn’t quite as reliable as an Ally Background character, but can aid you if need be. That door swings both ways, of course; your companion will also call on you from time to time, and not always on the most convenient occasions! Folks (and Night-Folks) probably frown upon this friend ship. Werewolves, for example, aren’t fond of you Caern-robbing mage-types! That’s especially true if you’re a Technocrat who’s buddy-buddy with one of those damned Reality Deviants, or a Tradition mage who pals around with a bloodsucking fiend. Yeah, this friendship is worth the trouble, but it can really be a hassle at times. Whoever and whatever this friend might be, the Storyteller creates and controls the character in question… with all the strange priorities, conflicting needs, and secret agendas that situation suggests. Ref: M20 BOS, 74
Ties	3	General	Social	Ref: M20 Ann, pp. 643-644
Time Sense	1	General	Mental	ou have an innate sense of time and are able to estimate the passage of time accurately without using a watch or other mechanical device, even after long periods of unconsciousness. This allows you to know (among other things) what phase the moon is in.Ref: WW20 Ann, 475 HOUSE RULE: Mages may take this merit once they have Time 4 to represent their intimate affinity to the Sphere. Replicates the Time 1 Effect: Time Sense. Acts as on-going rote without rote strain.
Too Touch to Die	5	General	Physical	You’re badass enough to shrug off injuries. They still harm you, but they don’t stop you. Game-wise, this Merit allows your character to soak lethal damage – NOT aggravated damage. Story-wise, those gunshots, knife wounds, broken bones, and so forth still tear your character up – he’s not bouncing shotgun rounds off his chest. By soaking the associated health levels, however, your character can push on through wounds that would cripple or kill most folks. Lethal injuries require the usual amount of time to heal. Soaking is not healing. Ref: M20th Anniversary, 644
Tradition Herald ***			**restricted**	Ref: Bitter Road, The 117
True Faith ***	7	General	Supernatural **restricted**	People with True Faith are rare, and folks with Faith greater than 2 might as well be living saints. Again, a character must live, and perhaps die, by her convictions… a difficult thing, at times, for a mage, thanks to the compromises that a Path so often demands. 'Ref: M20 Ann, 644
True Love	4	General	Social	In spite of epic tragedies around you, you’ve found True Love – the kind that folks make movies, songs, and ballads about. Whenever things look bleak, Love can pull you through. This capital-L Love is not defined by gender, culture, anatomy, or even species… though that last one might make things difficult for your star-crossed relationship. For extra drama, it could be a forbidden romance: a cyborg, for example, in love with a Cultist, or a straight-laced Chorister whose soulmate teeters on the brink of being Fallen (see also the Flaw: Sleeping with the Enemy). System-wise, this Merit – which exists in a crux between the Social and Supernatural realms – gives you one automatic success on all Willpower rolls, which can be negated only by a botch. (Magick-casting rolls do not apply, although the success does apply if someone’s trying to influence your character with Mind magick.) Your True Love will move heaven and earth to help you, and other folks might do a Princess Bride if and when they discover that you’ve got True Love on your side. Note, of course, that said Princess Bride-ism usually involves people making the Path of True Love even more difficult for you, too. Such hardships are the reason so many tales revolve around True Love.Ref: M20 BOS pg 59
Twin Souls	3	Supernatural	Supernatural	To you, the term soulmate is literally true. Your Avatar has a twin that has been embodied within another mortal body. That other person (typically a human being, but potentially an animal) shares your Nature and Essence, and possibly your Demeanor as well. Even so, your “twin” can be a very different person – different gender, different ethnicity, different culture, and again possibly even a “higher” animal like a wolf, bear, hawk, bison, and so forth. That person might live on the other side of the world, and may not even know that you exist. If soul-twins meet in person, though, both feel an unmistakable connection to one another. This connection, however, might not necessarily translate to goodwill. Blood-siblings often clash, and soulmates can clash as well. If that twin is also a mage (many twin Avatars are not yet Awakened), then both mages have the same Avatar rating. You can both share Quintessence and cast spells together if you happen to be physically touching (or, in the Umbra, ephemerally touching). In this case, the character with the highest Arete rating and Sphere Ranks is the one whose Traits get used to cast those Effects. Both mages, when they’re within arm’s reach, also get an amount of bonus Quintessence points that’s equal to their Avatar rating; if Ryan Summers and his twin Sylvia Jane have three dots in Avatar, they each get an additional three points of Quintessence when they’re close enough to touch one another.Shared souls, however, also share equally in any Paradox gathered by their magicks, with each twin separately getting the full amount of Paradox. If Ryan and Sylvia cast an Effect that earns 10 points of Paradox, then both Ryan and Sylvia get 10 Paradox points each. Whether or not your twin is a mage, you can use magick to keep track of them once you’ve met your twin. A single dot of Correspondence will let you know where your soulmate is, a single dot in Life will let you know their current state of health, and a single dot in Mind allows you to share thoughts with one another. A twin’s death, however, is a shattering event; if your twin dies, you must make a Willpower roll (difficulty 8) or else suffer the psychic shock of Things Man Was Not Meant to Know. Until that twin’s Avatar reincarnates (which might not happen in your own lifetime), and is met in person once again, you cannot use the shared powers you had once enjoyed. Ref: M20 BOS, 74
Umbral Affinity	4	Mage	Supernatural	Game-wise, your character suffers no ill effects from first- and second-degree Acclimation (see M20th Core - Chapter Nine, pp.482-483), and all other stages affect her at one stage less than usual. Beyond that, the character does not need to worry about Disembodiment until six full moon-cycles (roughly six months) have passed. In general, the character feels at home in most strange Umbral Realms, and she might be recognized as a natural traveler who has an innate right to be there. M20th Ann, 644
Unaging	2	Supernatural	Supernatural	The years seem to pass you by. Time moves on, but you remain essentially the same physical age as you were when this Merit stopped your aging process. Maybe you discovered the Fountain of Youth, upgraded yourself to perpetual stability, assumed an odd relationship with the time stream, or entered an uncanny bargain that preserved your current age. And so, although you continue to accumulate the scars, experience, and perspective of age, your body maintains a consistent state of chronological development. Note that this is not the same thing as immortality – injuries and sickness can kill you just as surely as they’ll kill any other person. Age-based decrepitude, however, is not something you’ll have to worry about. Ref: M20 BOS, 68
Unobtrusive	1	General	Social	You can pass without notice in most social situations. This is less about the uncanny Background: Arcane (although it can complement that Background) than it is a matter of simply seeming unremarkable. ... Although it does not in any way render you invisible or untraceable, this Merit lets you blend in and slip from memory. Folks need to make a Perception roll (difficulty 6) in order to recall your features or name. On the flipside, you add +2 to the difficulty of any social rolls you need to make, because folks just don’t notice you under most circumstances. For obvious reasons, you can’t take any socially distinctive Merits, Flaws or Backgrounds – such Traits would make you memorable – or have especially distinctive features or clothing. Granted, “distinctive” depends upon who and where you are; the proverbial gray flannel suit, for example, stands out at places like Burning Man! Under most circumstances, though, you blend in wherever you go. Regardging house rules: This Merit works with/against PCs. This Merit only means you are unremarkable but you are not forgotten like Arcane does. Arcane BG does not work against PCs.Ref: M20 BOS pg 54
Untamable	5	General	Mental	You are a wild soul who has never bent to the leash. You are immune to vampiric Domination (but not emotional manipulations via Presence) and these Gifts will not work on you: Roll Over, Obedience, and Mastery. Ref: WW20 Ann, 476
Wolf-sense	1	General	Mental **banned**	Use appropriate lore
Years of Wisdom ***				Ref: Masters of the Art 83

Books:
M20th Anniversary (M20 Ann)
M20th Book of Secrets (M20 BOS)
M20th Gods & Monsters (M20 G&M)
Werewolf 20th Anniversary (WW20 Ann)

Masters of the Art - Revised
Tradition Book: Akashic Brotherhood - Revised