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The Beholden are people who are linked to some powerful supernatural being. This links may have been established voluntarily (as done by the True Believers who surrender their souls to Leviathan), or unwillingly, like the Avatars who find Divinity roughly thrust upon them. There are two different levels of this Drawback; one is more severe than the other.

At the 3-point level, the Beholden can be used by the greater power as a source of information. The deity or entity can see through the character's eyes, and sense everything going on around them. The Beholden can detect this intrusion by passing a Difficult Perception Test; if successful, he knows the entity is using his sens- es. Trying to stop the entity requires a Difficult

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Willpower Test at -2; if successful, the contact is sev ered for one hour per success level.

At the 5-point level, not only can the greater being use the character's senses, it can also seize control over the character! The character can try to resist by passing a Difficult Willpower Test at - 1 ; if successful, he retains control for one hour per success level. If he loses, the entity seizes control, and the character's actions are in the hands of the Chronicler.

In either version of this Drawback, the entity can "speak" to the character, be it to offer advice, give orders or simply bother the character.

Divine Inspiration 5-point Quality

Prerequisite: The Gift

Your faith has allowed you to transcend the limits of the flesh, and you have now become a tool of a Greater Power. You are Inspired to fight the forces of darkness, and will dedicate your life to this purpose.

The Inspired may be using their own inner strength under the delusion that their power comes from with out, or they may be truly the instruments of an omnipotent being. The important thing is that they must hold dearly to the tenets of their faith, and must never go against them. If an Inspired character breaks a commandment or hesitates in her faith, she will tem porarily (or even permanently) lose the capability to perform miracles. Furthermore, the powers of the Inspired can only be used in ways that will serve the higher power the character worships.

Characters with Divine Inspiration are able to chan nel Essence by their link to a higher power. Most Inspired consider this higher power to be the True God." Characters with Divine Inspiration cannot use Magic or Necromancy, but may have Seer powers.

Essence Channeling Variable Quality

Prerequisite: The Gift (for humans)

Essence is the Force of Creation. It exists in "solid form in all facets of reality, in matter and energy. It is also present in "pure" form, but it is invisible to the Mundanes; Pure Essence is present in our minds and souls, in invisible currents in the physical world, and in apparently solid shapes in the Otherworlds, levels of reality that most humans only access through dreams or visions. Some among the Gifted have the power to channel Essence, to manipulate it and project the very strength of their souls into the world, changing Nature in accordance to their Wills. This is the Art of Magic.

This power is useful mostly to practitioners of Magick who use the flows of Essence to manipulate reality. The level of one's Essence Channeling determines how much power can be brought to bear on any single task

Characters without Essence Channeling can use magic, but such practices take a great deal of time and energy. See Chapter Four: The Wise Craft for more information.

Essence Channeling is bought in levels. These levels determine how many points of Essence can be used on a single turn; they also determine how many Essence points are recovered every minute.

Level Character Point Cost

1-5 1 point per level. 6+ 2 points per level.

Essence Pool

1/5-point Quality; 1 point After

Character Creation

Prerequisite: The Gift (for humans)

While all human beings have Essence, the Gifted generally have the greater amount. Their connec- tion to the Otherworlds has strengthened their souls, making them living beacons of energy. Having a large Essence Pool is both a blessing and a curse. While Essence can be used to affect the world in many ways, it also attracts the attention of evil Gifted and supernatural beings who feed on the Essence of others.

Spending 1 character point adds 5 points to the character's Essence Pool. This can be done multiple times. After character creation, each

Essence point costs 1 Experience Point; this makes it more cost effective to build up Essence when creating the character, representing the relatively slow improve- ment of the Gifted's powers during their lives. Essence can be purchased after any game session where magic or Essence were used, to indicate a strengthening of the character's spirit.

Any character with the Gift can increase their Essence pool, although it is most useful to practitioners of Magic and to the Divinely Inspired. Supernatural creatures can also buy extra Essence.

Good/Bad Luck:

3-points/level

If you have Good Luck, Fortune smiles on you far more often than for most. Sometimes, you pull off amazing stunts that by rights you should find impossi- ble to perform. Whenever you need a break, there is a good chance that circumstances will conspire to give

you one. If you have Bad Luck, on the other hand, Murphy's Law (if anything can go wrong, it will') always applies to everything you do.

In game terms, each level of Luck counts as a +1 bonus (or -1 penalty) that can be applied to a Task or Test, once per game session. Multiple levels can be added together for a big bonus for one Task/Test, or spread around several different actions. For example, if a character has three levels of Good Luck, he can get a +3 bonus on one action, a +1 bonus to three actions, or a +2 bonus for one and a +1 bonus for another.

With Good Luck, the player decides when it comes into play. Bad Luck, however, is in the hands of the Chronicler, who chooses when it will affect a given Task or Test. Chroniclers should exercise caution and good judgment when applying Bad Luck. If they use them for meaningless rolls, then the Drawback becomes little more than a minor inconvenience. On the other hand, applying Bad Luck to Survival Tests or other critical rolls or draws will generate resentment

Armageddon RPG

among players. Make the Bad Luck count, but don't use it to needlessly abuse the characters.

Maleficia

Variable Qualities

Prerequisite: Restricted to Demonic Seraphim and Qliphenim characters.

Maleficia are dark versions of the angelic Theophanies (see below). Rules for purchasing Maleficia are on p. 174.

Miracles

5-point Quality;

Prerequisite: Divine Inspiration

People with Divine Inspiration are able to perform incredible feats in the name of their Deity. Miracles are never used lightly or in commonplace situations, how- ever. To use the power of Healing to cure a small abra- sion, for example, would demean the power. Miracles are meant to be used only in extreme situations, and only against the true enemies of the faith. Characters who use miracles frequently and for trivial reasons risk losing their divine powers.

Miracles cost Essence to fuel; the effects and abilities granted by these Miracles are described fully on page 146. Each Miracle purchased costs 5 points. Most Inspired only have two or three Miracles.

Old Soul

3 points/level Quality

The character has been reborn many times through her life. As a result, her soul has become stronger. Characters with Old Souls tend to be very mature and precocious for their age. It would be nice to believe that age invariably gives wisdom, but Old Souls are equally likely to be depraved or insightful, cruel or kind. Whatever their orientation, it will usually be more extreme, having been refined over several lifetimes.

This Quality can be acquired multiple times during character creation (but it cannot be acquired after- wards). Each "level" represents some 3-5 previous lives lived before the character's current incarnation. The player can determine who these former selves were, where they lived, and what they know, or he can leave such information in the hands of the Chronicler. From a roleplaying point of view, creating a "past lives tree" can be interesting, as one of the tenets in the Armageddon game is that one's previous existence will have an impact on a person's current personality and outlook.

Each level adds 6 points to the characters Essence Pool, even if the character is not Gifted. This makes Old Souls very attractive to evil mages, Vampyres and other predators. Additionally, each level also adds 1 character point to the Attribute Category; these charac- ter points can only be used to increase mental attribut-

es (Intelligence, Perception and Willpower); successive lives tend to increase the character's overall insights and understanding - for good or ill. Example: Mandy the Sorcereress has three levels of the Old Soul Quality; this gives her 3 more points to put into her mental attributes, and 18 more Essence Points. Mandy's player raises the character's Intelligence from 5 to 6 by spend- ing the 3 points.

Old Souls sometimes are able to tap into the knowl- edge of their previous lives. When attempting to per- form an unskilled task, the character may receive a flash of knowledge from one of his previous lives. If the player took the time to decide what her character's pre- vious lives knew, then this is task using twice the char- acter's Old Soul level, but only the skills the previous lives knew are used. If the previous lives are not known, then do not double the Old Soul level for the task, but virtually any skill might be known. The only exception would be high-tech tasks that a previous life would be unlikely to know; trying to ask one's ances- tral memories about how to hack into a computer sys- tem is not likely to work very well...

Theophanies Variable Qualities

Prerequisite: Limited only to Angelic Seraphim and Kerubim characters

The angels have a number of special abilities. Theophanies are a combination of skill, supernatural power, and occupation. Each Theophany has a number of special abilities that to some degree define the angel. For example, Finder is a common Theophany; angels who are Finders can track down anybody and anything. The costs and types of Theophanies are described on p. 160.

6. Skills

Skills are learned abilities, the result of training, study or experience. All the skills of a character combined represent the sum of what she has learned in the course of her life. In general, anything that can be taught is considered to be a skill. The character's back- ground, education and life experiences will determine what skills he would be likely to have.