03.14 Ron d6 Disadvantages: Advantage Flaws

Advantage Flaw (1-5 points)

Something is wrong with an Advantage your character has. Pick an Advantage and come up with something that partially (or completely) negates it under certain circumstances. For example, your character may have Increased Attribute Points assigned to Strength. Perhaps when the character is in a fist fight and using brawling, he is not able to use the extra points – because of the character’s the character’s physiology does not allow for violent acts (perhaps the adrenaline gland works in reverse when anger is provoked).

The point costs depend on how negatively the character’s Advantage is affected – and how often. Use the chart below to determine point costs.

Coming up with the exact circumstances of the flaw can be fairly easy and fun. Some of the examples can work very well in a story context as well. For example, a character with “Wealth” may have a one point “Advantage Flaw” the Advantage is partially negated – and a +2 modifier for three Compensation Points. This could mean the “Wealth” the character has is not worth nearly as much (say, half), unless the character is in his or her home sector or planet where the character’s “Wealth” is actually worth something.

Note that the Advantage Flaw also works very well with the Possessions Advantage. The thing you got is damaged or not quite finished yet and causes problems occasionally.

Point Value	Effect
1	Advantage is partially negated when the flaw comes into effect. Some of the Advantage-effect still works, but not all of it.
2	Advantage is completely negated. No benefit can be gained from the Advantage while the flaw is in effect.
3	The Advantage is negated, and there is an additional negative effect. Something bad happens during the flaw – example: the character is also stymied.
+1	The flaw is a very common occurrence. Example: every time the character is damaged in combat, he loses the Advantage until healed.
+2	The flaw is almost always in effect. When the character is not in his home atmosphere/gravity/whatever, the Advantage does not work.

Advantage Flaw (1 point)

Ability Loss, Minor

The character temporarily loses one of or more of his special abilities or the ability to use a common skill at a regular interval (for example, a character who cannot shape-shift when the sun is out; a character who cannot use his natural weapons on a particular day of the month or during a certain phase of the moon; a character who is unable to pick locks while other characters are present, etc.) The Character is aware of what the circumstances are that will cause this.

Price, Minor

There is a price tag attached to the Advantage. Every time the character wants to use the ability, the character has to pay a Price to continue using the ability at least a few times during the adventure. The Price might be an significant fee. If the fee isn’t paid, the Advantage goes away until the price can be paid. But this won’t work for many Advantages, so there are other ways to do it.

Most likely, the Price will be a roleplaying effect. For example, every time a Contact does a favor for a character, he not only demands the normal, negotiated recompense (if any), but the character must do a favor of equal importance for the character. Or, whenever a piece of Equipment is used (most likely after the adventure), parts of it need to be replaced or serviced by a specialist (who may charge a high fee or ask a favor).

An example for 1-point Price would be that the character has to pay one Fate Point or 3 Character points at the end of an adventure to pay for the use of the Advantage. This reflects the fact that the use of the Advantage takes something out of the character when it is used.

Restrictions/Notes: The Price should be fairly easy to meet, but it should take some work. It should be something that the character can roleplay along with an adventure or resolve between Episodes or adventures (like paying off the recipient of the Price). However, if the character does not pay the Price, the Advantage does go away – and, if in the gamemaster’s opinion the character does this too often, both the Advantage and the Price should go away permanently. Price can be taken often at various levels, and the same Price can be linked to more than one Advantage – though, unless the Price is actually double (the character has to pay the same price twice as often), it only counts as one Compensation.

Advantage Flaw (2 points)

Ability Loss, Moderate

Similar to Minor Ability Loss, but when something causes the character to temporarily lose the use of an ability or skill, the removal of that condition will not return the ability or skill to the character. Instead, the character must undergo some sort of(fairly simple) procedure to regain his ability or skill use.

Price, Major

Like Minor Price but more costly. At the 2-point level, the Price for using a particular Advantage, is much higher. Now, Special Abilities will force the character to fulfill certain obligations (perhaps when using water breathing, the character must remain in the water for at least twenty-four hours or suffer a wound for changing environments so quickly). Contacts will be extremely hard to pay off or do favors for – maybe an entire short adventure has to be devoted to paying back a contact who helped out.

Optionally, paying 2 Fate Points at the end of an adventure where the Advantage(s) where used is a quick way of paying the price.

Advantage Flaw (3 points)

Ability Loss, Major

This is similar to Minor Ability Loss, but the character temporarily loses at least two (and probably more) of his special abilities or the ability to use multiple skills at a regular interval until whatever condition that caused this is removed. The character is aware of what the circumstances are that will s cause this.

Infection, Minor

Under certain circumstances, the character passes along certain abilities and characteristics to another character. The character has an infection value of Strength +2D.The gamemaster and the player should determine how the character spreads the infection. It may be as the side-effect of an attack, through physical contact, or through some other means. When the character performs the requisite action, he must generate an infection total. The target generates a Strength total as well. If the character’s infection total exceeds the target’s Strength total, the target is infected.An infection passes certain Advantages and Compensations to the target (to be specified by the player and the gamemaster). It is possible for the infection to pass more Compensations on than Advantages, but is not possible f or it to pass more Advantages than Compensations.

Keep in mind that the infected character may well hate the character responsible for his new state, so the infecting character may have gained an Enemy. In fact, there should be some overwhelming reasons why this is actually bad for the infecting character it is a Compensation, after all. Gamemasters who do not feel that the “Enemy” Compensation is enough of a negative could also work in other sorts of Advantage Flaws as side-effects of spreading the infection.

Advantage Flaw (4 points)

Ability Loss, Extreme

This is similar to “Ability Loss II,” s in that something causes the character to temporarily lose the use of multiple abilities or skills and the condition does not go away when the cause is removed. It may be a physical object, such as the relic of a certain cult, it may be a particular kind of ritual chant, the sight or smell of an herb, etc., or it may be s that the use of one ability (such as possession) makes it impossible to use others. The character must go through a serious procedure to get his abilities back.

Infection, Major

Same as Minor Infection, except that the of character has an infection value of Strength +3D. Also, the penalties for infecting another characters should be more severe – maybe the character infected then knows thing about the infection character that will give him an advantage over his enemy, or perhaps the infecting character temporarily loses more abilities or Attribute points.