Two new Mental Merits (NWoD)

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These are just two mental merits that I felt needed to be made, filling
up a few small areas that were missing in the nWoD.

--

Topical Trivia (* or **)
Effect: Your character is a veritable font of useful and interesting
(well...sometimes usefui) information on a narrow item of interest. He
might know a lot about the History of the United States, Firearms, or
even about something as specific as the American Civil War or
Police-issue Pistols. None the less, your character is schooled on all
the intricities of his chosen field and can spout off endless lists of
trivia regarding it without any real effort.

You can make an Intelligence + Wits roll any time your character is
confronted with a situation or phenomnia that falls within his topic of
interest. If the roll is successful, he knows some useful "factoid" that
has to do with the situation at hand. The cost of this merit varies
depending on the topic that the character is knowledgeable about -- very
broad topics count as a two dot merit, while very narrow topics count as
a one dot merit. Unlike it's big brother, Encyclopedic Knowledge, this
merit can be learned after character creation if the Storyteller agrees
that it's suitable.

Bilingual (*)
Effect: Your character has two free native languages, rather than the
normal one. You are considered to speak both of these languages at the
three dot level (as a native speaker). You must specify which two
languages you know when you take this merit, and can only purchase this
merit a single time. Available at character creation only.

Drawback: Your character was raised in a bilingual household, and is
likely to be of an emigrant race of minority status especially if the
game is set in the United States or a similar nationality. Your
character was likely raised in a way quite different than that of most
of the people in his nation of origin.

 

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Brandon Quina <quinabl@earthlink.net> wrote:
: Drawback: Your character was raised in a bilingual household, and is
: likely to be of an emigrant race of minority status especially if the
: game is set in the United States or a similar nationality. Your
: character was likely raised in a way quite different than that of most
: of the people in his nation of origin.

No offense, but this made me laugh out loud. I can bombard you with
dozens of examples and background reasons for bilingual households that
don't involve "being raised in a way quite different fashion in a
emigrant race of minority status family"

I never use merits/flaws (as they were in owod). They restrict
imagination and don't really give anything back into the purpose of
roleplaying.

If someone wants to have a hispano character in US east coast, then
allow him one dot of english. It's not like it's a competition anyways.

This is going to a totally different subject, but how many people have
run games where the characters have had very different power scales when
it comes to stats? Like one player playing an Ancilla vampire, another
his young childe and a third the ghoul that's been in the service of the
Ancilla for some twenty years?

//T

 

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On Thu, 02 Sep 2004 14:05:01 GMT, Brandon Quina
<quinabl@earthlink.net> wrote:

>These are just two mental merits that I felt needed to be made, filling
>up a few small areas that were missing in the nWoD.
>
>--
>
>Topical Trivia (* or **)
>Effect: Your character is a veritable font of useful and interesting

Hows that a Merit instead of a Knowledge?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.whitewolf (More info?)

In news:41375a97.38776944@news.telusplanet.net,
David Johnston <rgormannospam@telusplanet.net> typed:
> On Thu, 02 Sep 2004 14:05:01 GMT, Brandon Quina
> <quinabl@earthlink.net> wrote:
>> Topical Trivia (* or **)
>> Effect: Your character is a veritable font of useful and interesting
> Hows that a Merit instead of a Knowledge?

Well, language is a Merit...

--
T. Koivula

 

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Archived from groups: alt.games.whitewolf (More info?)

David Johnston wrote:
> On Thu, 02 Sep 2004 14:05:01 GMT, Brandon Quina
> <quinabl@earthlink.net> wrote:
>
>
>>These are just two mental merits that I felt needed to be made, filling
>>up a few small areas that were missing in the nWoD.
>>
>>--
>>
>>Topical Trivia (* or **)
>>Effect: Your character is a veritable font of useful and interesting
>
>
> Hows that a Merit instead of a Knowledge?

Cause "Knowledges" don't exist anymore; we instead have 'Mental Skills'.
This is a 'Mental Merit', very similar to Encyclopedic Knowledge.

See the little note up there that says "NWoD"




BrandonQ,

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.whitewolf (More info?)

> No offense, but this made me laugh out loud. I can bombard you with
> dozens of examples and background reasons for bilingual households that
> don't involve "being raised in a way quite different fashion in a
> emigrant race of minority status family"

*shrugs*

I honestly don't care.

I wanted to put some drawback in there, and that's the one I picked.
I'm well aware that it's not always or even usually true. However, the
fact is, at least in America (where my game is based), if you learned
two languages you are probably a minority who grew up in a house hold
different than that of the stereotypical member of the majority.

> I never use merits/flaws (as they were in owod). They restrict
> imagination and don't really give anything back into the purpose of
> roleplaying.

Once again; "NWoD"

This is just a cheap version of the Language merit, which is the NWoD
version of the Linguistics ability. Think of it as a way to save a few
points if your character was raised in a household where he spoke two
languages.

Otherwise you spend 3 of your 7 merit points just to be, for instance, a
Spanish Immigrant.


> If someone wants to have a hispano character in US east coast, then
> allow him one dot of english. It's not like it's a competition anyways.

That'd result in a character who is native in Spanish, and can just
barely speak English, in the NWoD. It doesn't really work for a
character who can speak both languages perfectly fine -- they do exist,
I know tons of people who are equally fluent in both languages.




Brandon,

 

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On Fri, 03 Sep 2004 16:39:52 GMT, Brandon Quina
<quinabl@earthlink.net> wrote:

>David Johnston wrote:
>> On Thu, 02 Sep 2004 14:05:01 GMT, Brandon Quina
>> <quinabl@earthlink.net> wrote:
>>
>>
>>>These are just two mental merits that I felt needed to be made, filling
>>>up a few small areas that were missing in the nWoD.
>>>
>>>--
>>>
>>>Topical Trivia (* or **)
>>>Effect: Your character is a veritable font of useful and interesting
>>
>>
>> Hows that a Merit instead of a Knowledge?
>
>Cause "Knowledges" don't exist anymore; we instead have 'Mental Skills'.
> This is a 'Mental Merit', very similar to Encyclopedic Knowledge.

Beside the point. My question is still why this would be a merit
instead of just a skill like any other. What's so special about it?

 

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David Johnston wrote:

> Beside the point. My question is still why this would be a merit
> instead of just a skill like any other. What's so special about it?

Because the new system is built partially around not adding new skills.
The skill list is complete, and each skill is broad. Narrow knowledge
in a specific field is represented by specialties and/or mental merits.

For instance, the Firearms skill represents knowledge of guns and
marksmanship. To build a character who has the former but not the
latter, a merit is appropriate.
--
Stephenls
Geek
"I'm as impure as the driven yellow snow." -Spike

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.whitewolf (More info?)

>>>Hows that a Merit instead of a Knowledge?
>>
>>Cause "Knowledges" don't exist anymore; we instead have 'Mental Skills'.
>> This is a 'Mental Merit', very similar to Encyclopedic Knowledge.
>
>
> Beside the point. My question is still why this would be a merit
> instead of just a skill like any other. What's so special about it?

No, it's NOT besides the point. Once again; it's a merit very similar
to Encyclopedic Knowledge. In fact, one could say that it's just a 2 or
1 dot version of that merit. For one thing, you don't actually have to
know how to fire a gun to know a lot about guns. You don't have to be
able to SURVIVE in the Everglades to have a lot of /knowledge/ about the
everglades. As far as stuff like "the Civil War" or what not goes, that
overlaps a little with Academics, but this is more focused.

 

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On Fri, 03 Sep 2004 16:57:56 GMT, Brandon Quina
<quinabl@earthlink.net> wrote:

>>>>Hows that a Merit instead of a Knowledge?
>>>
>>>Cause "Knowledges" don't exist anymore; we instead have 'Mental Skills'.
>>> This is a 'Mental Merit', very similar to Encyclopedic Knowledge.
>>
>>
>> Beside the point. My question is still why this would be a merit
>> instead of just a skill like any other. What's so special about it?
>
>No, it's NOT besides the point. Once again; it's a merit very similar
>to Encyclopedic Knowledge.

Except for not being encyclopediac. You can't buy Encyclopediac
Knowledge as a skill because it is too broad. But knowledge of a
specific area of trivia does strike me as being a skill.

 

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Archived from groups: alt.games.whitewolf (More info?)

On Fri, 03 Sep 2004 10:24:19 -0700, Stephenls <stephenls@shaw.ca>
wrote:

>David Johnston wrote:
>
>> Beside the point. My question is still why this would be a merit
>> instead of just a skill like any other. What's so special about it?
>
>Because the new system is built partially around not adding new skills.
> The skill list is complete, and each skill is broad. Narrow knowledge
>in a specific field is represented by specialties and/or mental merits.
>
>For instance, the Firearms skill represents knowledge of guns and
>marksmanship. To build a character who has the former but not the
>latter, a merit is appropriate.

So merits are cheaper than skills, now?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.whitewolf (More info?)

David Johnston wrote:

> So merits are cheaper than skills, now?

Skills are now New Rating x3.
Merits are now New Rating x2.

So, yes, Merits are cheaper than skills. Though it should be noted that
with multi-point merits, one needs to buy each dot -- Unseen sense is a
3-dot merit, and so costs (2 + 4 + 6) 12 XP. Multi-point Merits with
variable cost follow the same rule -- Combat Style: Kung Fu 3 also costs
12 XP, though if you've already got it at 2, buying the third dot only
costs 6.

(I mention this because there seems to be a surprisingly large number of
people on the WW forums who seem to think that each dot of a multi-dot
merit needs to be purchased as its own merit -- for example, Kung Fu 3
would cost [{2} + {2 + 4} + {2 + 4 + 6}] 20 XP -- and they're wrong. A
3 point merit costs 3 Merit points at chargen or 12 XP during play [or
some combination of the two], period.)
--
Stephenls
Geek
"I'm as impure as the driven yellow snow." -Spike

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.whitewolf (More info?)

On 2004-09-03, David Johnston <rgormannospam@telusplanet.net> wrote:
> On Fri, 03 Sep 2004 16:57:56 GMT, Brandon Quina
><quinabl@earthlink.net> wrote:
>
>>>>>Hows that a Merit instead of a Knowledge?
>>>>
>>>>Cause "Knowledges" don't exist anymore; we instead have 'Mental Skills'.
>>>> This is a 'Mental Merit', very similar to Encyclopedic Knowledge.
>>>
>>>
>>> Beside the point. My question is still why this would be a merit
>>> instead of just a skill like any other. What's so special about it?
>>
>>No, it's NOT besides the point. Once again; it's a merit very similar
>>to Encyclopedic Knowledge.
>
> Except for not being encyclopediac. You can't buy Encyclopediac
> Knowledge as a skill because it is too broad. But knowledge of a
> specific area of trivia does strike me as being a skill.

You could argue it's a merit because some people have the ability to
remember all the little trivia you ever throw at them. It's not a skill
just anyone can learn. You can make everyone study a textbook and 'gain
a skill', you can't make them get a knack for remembering
sometimes-useful-but-mostly-pointless facts.


Jelmer
--
"Knock hard, life is deaf." - Mimi Parent

 

[user]

Archived from groups: alt.games.whitewolf (More info?)

1724078088

BQ> Drawback: Your character was raised in a bilingual household, and is
BQ> likely to be of an emigrant race of minority status especially if
BQ> the game is set in the United States or a similar nationality.
Not especialy but only. I myself was raised in bilingual household as anyone
else in Ukraine So it's not a big deal.

BQ> Your character was likely raised in a way quite different than that of
BQ> most of the people in his nation of origin.
Once again - it is true if only character nation is not bilingual.