​

​

FATALISM

​

Some claim that Fate’s mark is on everything, even (and especially) the souls of the dead. Fatalism is the Arcanos that allows wraiths to read Fate’s tapestry, to the extent of interpreting someone’s past or future. Fatalism is a dangerous Arcanos; those who tamper with Fate’s weaving can find themselves horribly ensnared in its webs. There should be stiff penalties for abuses of this power; Fate does not take kindly to meddlers in her works.

​

​Players who invest heavily in Fatalism should bear in mind that many legends of prophets and oracles are ultimately tragic. Having unique insight doesn’t mean a character is in a position to change anything, nor will anyone else automatically believe him. Most wraiths who’ve been around for a while are familiar with Fatalism’s limitations and take anything an Oracle says with a grain of proverbial salt. There’s a reason the Guild invokes Cassandra’s name so frequently.

​

​FLAVOUR: Most arts work as single actions or over a few minutes. Fatalism follows this pattern but the Arcanos and the Oracles’ Guild draw inspiration from traditional divinatory practices that are more time consuming. The Oracle should have appropriate materials (relic crystal ball, Stygian paper tarot cards inscribed with Pardoner’s Ink, soulsteel augural blade and sacrificial Thrall, or an equivalent) and an appropriate venue. Though none of this has any mechanical benefits, but those wishing to truly get into the headspace of the character may draw out the process and make an encounter with an oracle more impressive than a simple roll of the dice.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

FATALISIM SPECIAL RULES:

​

Any use of Fatalism requires the Oracle to see or touch his subject. Unless otherwise stated, perceiving a subject across the Shroud has a difficulty of 7+ local Shroud rating.

while perceiving a subject on the same side of the Shroud has a difficulty of 12+.

 

SHROUD THICKNESS RATING (used occasionally with some Inhabit powers)

RATING                       AREA                                           

    1                             Cearn                                                

    2                             Node/Graveyard                               

    3                             Deep Wilderness                                 

    4                             Rural Countryside                               

    5                             No mans land                                     

    6                             Most Urban Areas                             

    7                             Downtown alley

    8                             Downtown interior locations

    9                             Downtown Mainstreet.          

    10                           Technocratic Lab* 

​

Certain Fatalism powers can be used on those in the Skinlands. The information uncovered will be vaguer than it might be for a wraith, but it will still be useful, and combining Fatalism with Embody will clear things up nicely. Kismet can be used on dwellers in the Skinlands, though it’s often of limited usefulness. Using this art on something with a tendency to reincarnate, like, say, a Garou, can provide glimpses of other lives, instead of the here and now. Vampires are also problematic, as they’ve technically already died. A glimpse of a Kindred’s mortal death, however, can contain some element linking it to how the vampire will meet their ultimate end.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

FATALISM COMMON

◉ KISMET (COMMON)

Fatalism’s earliest lesson is to perceive other beings’ place in Fate’s design — and their connection to death. Kismet is the art of reading deathmarks, the signs that portend a mortal’s imminent demise or reflect the manner of a wraith’s death. It also can reveal the subject’s importance in Fate’s grand tapestry.

SYSTEM:

FREE ACTION

ROLL: PERCEPTION + FATALISIM RANK

DIFFICULTY 12+ or 7 + Shroud Rating 

SUCCESS:

• One - Two success reveals the general manner of the subject’s death (i.e., which Legion would rightfully claim her).

• Three successes, her death’s proximate cause is obvious.

• Additional successes reveal more details of her death’s circumstances or indirect causes. 

• Further more, even one success gives the wraith a sense of the subject’s general importance in the “overall scheme of things.” This is handy for determining who in a scene requires closer attention and who’s just a spear carrier.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

◉◉ FORESHADOW (COMMON)

The Oracle’s attunement to Fate allows him to sense when it turns its attention to him. As a constant low-level awareness, it can give a few moments’ warning of imminent danger. Concentration can reveal subtler signs of major events on the horizon.

SYSTEM I

PASSIVE:

The player adds their dots in Fatalism to any Perception rolls to detect, ambush, trap or similar source of surprise bodily harm.

​

SYSTEM II:

FREE  ACTION: Oracles are able to predict future events with a degree of certainty 

SPEND: 1 PATHOS

GAIN:   1 ANGST if the ability was used to ward against a negative event.

ROLL:     PERCEPTION + FATALISIM RANK

DIFFICULTY: 12+ or 7 + Shroud Rating.

SUCCESS: 

When this ability is used the wraith may gain +1 per success (max 5) to ONE roll they or an ally are required to make during the scene. This can be used for A catharsis roll, a harrowing roll, a combat roll or indeed any roll at all. This ability must be triggered BEFORE it is used for a roll, this does not -reroll- rolls that have already been made. It's good practice to trigger this ability at a start of a scene where you feel the assistance may be useful.

If you forewarn an ally, they may benefit from the bonus -instead- of you, but again, it must be triggered BEFORE a roll. If the ability was not required then that's just fickle fate.

LIMITATION: This ability may be used per day.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

◉◉◉ READING THE BONES (COMMON)

With this art, the Oracle delves deeper into Fate’s designs for other beings or objects. The resulting visions are snap shots of what will occur without outside intervention, so Reading the Bones often prompts proactive Oracles to move to reinforce or deter Fate’s decrees.

SYSTEM:

NORMAL ACTION: The wraith concentrates on his subject for one minute.

SPEND 2 PATHOS

GAIN: 1 ANGST PER QUESTION ASKED ABOUT YOURSELF!

ROLL:   PERCEPTION + FATALISIM RANK

DIFFICULTY: 12+ or 7 + Shroud Rating.

NOTE:        This ability is fairly useless outside of storyteller plots or storyteller plans for player characters or storyteller controlled NPC's

SUCCESS:

• Each Success is one question the oracle can ask fate (The storyteller of the NPC or Storyteller of a particular species ) about the particular individuals -fate- (i.e., their current future without intervention from anyone who knows Fate’s plan)

• The Storyteller is within her rights to give cryptic or incomplete answers. Reading the Bones has one blind spot: the Oracle himself. Any attempt to self-predict with this art gives paradoxical visions of action and inaction that overwhelm the Oracle. Such efforts only yield cryptic and incomplete answers.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

◉◉◉◉ SIDESTEP (COMMON)

Heightening his attunement to immediate dangers, the Oracle gains preternatural awareness of attacks before the attackers swing or fire. This can allow the wraith to be where the attacks aren’t, or to interpose himself between a friend and a bullet from a maggot revolver.

SYSTEM I. Enhanced Dodge.

FREE ACTION:

SPEND 1 PATHOS per +1 bonus  to a single dodge roll

CAP:     The character can spend up to their WITS RANK amount of pathos each turn, either all together on a single roll, or split over several dodge

            Separate dodge rolls they may be required to make that turn.

​

SYSTEM II: Interception.

The wraith  may intercept an attack targeting anyone or anything within the wraith’s running movement distance (as modified by Argos or other effects).

FREE ACTION:

SPEND 1 PATHOS

GAIN:  2 ANGST (if successfully intercepting)

ROLL:    DEXTERITY + FATALISIM RANK

 DIFFICULTY:  12 + or 7 + SHROUD RATING

SUCCCESS:

If the wraith scores more successes on this roll than the attacker scored successes against his target then the wraith takes the damage the target of the attack would have.

If the player rolls fewer successes than the attacker, the Oracle takes 1 health level of damage per success and the intended victim suffers the remainder. 

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

◉◉◉◉◉ BREATHING THE MISTS  (COMMON)

The Oracle immerses himself in events to come, gaining a measure of foreknowledge. Understanding at the time of these visions is rare. Most often, Fate provides only vague generalities. These aren’t enough to issue intelligible warnings, but they are sufficient to inform preparations. The Oracle himself rarely knows the precise set of events for which he’s readying himself until they’re upon him, but to outsiders, it looks like he knew exactly what was coming. 

SYSTEM:

NORMAL ACTION: At the start of the scene

SPEND: 4 PATHOS

ROLL:  PERCEPTION + FATALISIM

DIFFICULTY: 12 + or 7 + Shroud Rating.

SUCCESSES:

Each success may be spent at any point during the scene on one of the feats listed below.  Once spent the success cannot be spent again.

For example if you rolled 5 successes, you could use 5 separate one success advantages, Or 1 five successes plot twist.

At any time during that session, he may expend one or more of these successes to describe an action the Oracle previously took to prepare for the current scene’s events. The action must be something the wraith plausibly could have accomplished “off-screen,” and its complexity and specificity determine the number of successes the player must expend to establish it:

• One success Advantageous in a minor way

(“Well, I have a relic handcuff key, but we’ll still need to get out of the citadel before the maelstrom breaks.”)

• Two successes Helps resolve a generalized, nonviolent plot obstacle

(“Ah, Colonel Sexton, I see my letter of introduction from the Diamond Regent on your desk. Surely it’s within your purview to grant us access to the Imperial Peace Museum?”)

• Three successes, Useful to a given threat or complication

(“I paid a fortune for this coat. Hoped I’d never need it, but I see the Alchemists’ acid-resistant plasmic leather works as advertised.”)

• Four successes Fits the scene’s details, providing major advantage

(“Contessa, if you sign that decree, the Legion will learn what happened to the last Anacreon. Don’t think all your puppets went to the forges.”)

• Five successes Exactingly specific and relevant to a major plot twist

(“I suspected you might betray us, so I took the liberty of securing the loyalty of all of your soldiers through generous contributions of oboli at the barracks before the evening’s festivities began.”)

 

NOTE: This functions in a similar way to the level five TALECRAFT art of changelings, with the difference being this is something that involved predicting the situation. PLAUSIBILITY is the key. This ability can never be used with -violent- intent  to harm another character, or oust them from a earned position in their society. In the level 5 example, those soldiers are likely to be charged with treason after the event, and are not going to turn on their master, they are just likely to allow the character who bribed them to walk out unchallenged.

​

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

​

FATALISM INITIATE

RESTRICTED TO

◉ ORACLES ◉ HARBINGERS ◉ USURERS ◉

​

◉ FRIENDLY CARD  (INITIATE )

An Oracle knows nothing is truly left to chance. Fate’s grand design affects even the smallest turnings. Through learning to read these details, the wraith can nudge the outcome of seemingly random minor events or consistently select the preferred option from apparently equal choices. 

SYSTEM I

FREE ACTION

SPEND: 1 PATHOS

When the Oracle is confronted with a seemingly random choice (left Byway or right By way, cake or death), automatically select the best possible option. As “best” can be subjective, the player must specify whether he wants the most beneficial (or least damaging) option for his character or the option that will best further the story. Generally as with most Fatalism, this is best used in storyteller led scenes or situations.

SYSTEM II:

FREE ACTION

SPEND 2 PATHOS

GAIN: 1 ANGST if boosted roll fails, or 3 ANGST on a botch of boosted roll.

whenever the wraith is involved in a game of chance or equivalent situation with a randomly determined outcome, the player may add the character’s Fatalism dots to one related roll , or to add or subtract the character’s Fatalism dots from the successes of one single-die roll. 

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

◉◉ RETRACE  (INITIATE )

To the practiced eye, every tug on Fate’s threads leaves evidence. This art enables the Oracle to follow up on these clues, discerning how a subject’s destiny has previously been altered.

SYSTEM

FREE ACTION

SPEND 1 PATHOS

ROLL:  PERCEPTION + FATALISIM RANK 

DIFFICULTY: 10 + or 7+ Shroud Rating

SUCCESS:

Each success reveals one prior alteration of the subject’s fate, starting with the most recent and working backward. For each alteration, the Oracle learns when it occurred, who was responsible (at least in general terms, if he doesn’t know the actor), and what the subject’s unmodified fate would have been. The more profound the alteration, the more detail arises.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

◉◉◉ MALOCCHIO  (INITIATE )

The “evil eye” is an ancient and vicious art. With a whispered malediction, the Oracle taints the victim’s threads in Fate’s tapestry, cursing her with ill luck and marking her with signs visible only to other Oracles.

SYSTEM:

NORMAL ACTION

SPEND: 3 PATHOS

GAIN:   3 ANGST (May be spent to add 3 successes to a successful roll, if shadow is likely to agree "The chump had it coming")

ROLL: WITS + FATALISIM RANK vs targets COMPOSURE + RESOLVE

SUCCESS:

For one day per success, the target suffers bad luck. This bad luck is persistent and touches absolutely everything the targeted character does.

IN CONTESTED ROLLS

• Subtract 1 success from any successful roll the character makes (This may reduce their successes to zero)

• Add 1 Success to any (unhelpful) roll made against the character.

IN FEATS

Add + 1 difficulty to all tasks the character makes.

LIMITATIONS:

A character may only be targeted by this art  ONCE per calendar month. This means a character already under its effects can not have another instance applied to it by another wraith (or same wraith for that matter)

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

◉◉◉◉ ENTANGLE (INITIATE )

Described by older Oracles as a binding rite and modern ones as an invocation of quantum mechanics, Entangle conjoins two or more wraiths’ very existences. This can be a blessing or a doom, as the entangled characters share experiences, energies, and destiny itself.

SYSTEM:

NORMAL ACTION: The Oracle must touch both subjects (or, if more than two subjects are to be Entangled, the whole group must hold hands or otherwise be in physical contact with one another and the Oracle).

SPEND: 3 PATHOS

ROLL:    WITS + FATALISIM RANK 

DIFFICULTY:  10+  (Non consenting subjects can roll Composure + Resolve : Difficulty 10+ each success cancels 1 wraith success )

SUCCESS:

1 success per subject to be entangled is required.

EFFECT:

All subjects are entangled until the Oracle chooses to end the entanglement.

• When 1 entangled wraith gains MORE than 1 PATHOS in a single turn, all other Entangled wraith gain 1 PATHOS

• When 1 entangled wraith gains MORE than 1 ANGST in a single turn, all other Entangled wraith gain 1 ANGST 

• When 1 entangled wraith loses MORE than 1 HEALTH in a single turn to LETHAL /AGGRAVATED all other Entangled wraith lose 1 HEALTH to BASHING DAMAGE

​

Entangle works only on wraiths and no more than one application of Entangle may affect a wraith at any one time. The Oracle may include himself in any entanglement without paying Pathos and he doesn’t count toward the required number of successes. If an entangled wraith suffers a Harrowing, his entanglement is snapped and the rest of the group is instantly aware that something bad happened. The rest of the group’s entanglement remains intact.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

◉◉◉◉◉ ENSNARE  (INITIATE )

The Oracle’s greatest weapon grossly and irrevocably alters a victim’s destiny. By entangling a subject in Fate’s web, the wraith redefines not only her existence but her role in things to come. 

SYSTEM: 

NORMAL ACTION

SPEND: 5 PATHOS

GAIN:   2 ANGST PER SUCCESS

ROLL:    WITS + FATALISIM RANK vs COMPOSURE + RESOLVE

SUCCESS:

• If the roll succeeds, the player redefines the victim’s destiny in broad terms.

• Simply put the victims Nature Archetype is changed to another Nature Archetype. The characters Demeanour (Who they pretend to be ) remains unchanged though their Nature Archetype Flaws and Benefits applies to all their future endeavours.

• If the character thus targeted has not chosen to use Archetypes for their roleplay experience then one is chosen anyway. The character will have to choose a Demeanour though.​

DURATION: Conditional.

The new Archetype lasts until the wraith in question fulfils her new destiny. Typically this destiny is a vague prophecy related to the characters new Nature Archetype.

​

"You must protect the redheaded girl" Might be all that is required for the "Defendant" Nature. Shirking this nature is achieved once a redhead is located and protected from an immediate threat.

​

"The people will need a strong leader" will suffice for the "Alpha" Nature archetype, this destiny is achieved when the character takes clear and decisive command of a group and they follow his instructions during a scene of importance (a battle, a rescue etc)

​

Of course negative Archetypes can also be forced upon others. Though these negative Archetypes must play some role in destiny, and not an arbitrary punishment. 

​

"Your suffering will open his eyes" might for example be suitable with the Addict Archetype, where by the conditional release for destiny is when the addiction pushes another character into sympathetic action or gives another character an epiphany about the nature of things.

​

Never can such prophecies be totally locked to a specific instance or character. "Girl with red hair " is vague , "Chloe Montague" is not.

The only condition of such a release from destiny is that it -naturally- unfurl and is not -contrived- or -resolved- with NPC's

​

RUN FROM DESTINY:

There are consequences for not playing the role Destiny (or the Oracle) has chosen for a character.

While under the effects of ensnare each success on the original roll reduces the amount of Pathos the character can gather in a single passion roll. The only way to negate this is to play the new Archetype until such a time as the character  can fulfil the condition of the Prophecy.

​_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​