Severity & frequency of "Plagued by Supernatural Entity"

Interested to hear what the board thinks of the Major Story flaw "Plagued by Supernatural Entity" (core rulebook p.58).

RAW, a supernatural being 'interferes in your life on a fairly regular basis'. But what's "regular" and to what extent do they interfere in order to be a Major flaw?

Salamander that pops up in your lab every afternoon and sets it alight (maybe not applicable for Flambeau Ignem specialists, whose labs is probably on fire already?)

Werewolf that comes by each full moon and barks at the moon outside your tower?

Your mother's ghost that appears on your birthday and steals your favourite teddy bear?

Remember, it's not just a Major Flaw, it's a Major Story Flaw.

Thus, it's meant to drag the character into stories. How often? As often as other characters with Story Flaws (Major or Minor): e.g. as often as the Tormenting Master or True Love of another PC drags him into a story. That obviously depends on how often you play, how many characters there are, how much the Covenant's Hooks come into play, and how well the troupe manages to tie all ends together activating multiple Story Flaws and Hooks at the same time.

None of these is, I think a good example. A Major Story Flaw is not meant to be (just) a recurrent, off-screen problem. It's meant to be a problem that repeatedly drags the character into stories. The difference between Minor and Major Story is that the side effects they come with tend to be positive in the first case, roughly on par with a Minor "normal" Virtue (a friend, who occasionally needs help; a good reputation/social position, that you occasionally have to defend; etc.) and negative in the second, roughly on par with a Minor, "normal" Flaw (an enemy causing trouble, occasionally serious enough you must step in; etc.).

Better examples would be:

  • You summoned a salamander for your gauntlet, but you botched and it keeps occasionally popping up where you go and setting stuff on fire. Every time it does, you have to fix the damage, or hide it, or perform some task in compensation; sometimes this causes a story. In a fast-paced saga, where your troupe experiences a story every game year or two, the salamander might pop-up every year on the date of the botch, and cause serious enough damage to require a story every decade. (As a Minor Story Flaw, the salamander could actually be a helpful if sickly magical pet that's always around but that occasionally gets ill, so you have to go on a quest for special Ignem vis to heal it).

  • A pack of werewolves come by each full moon and prey upon the local people you are sworn to protect. Generally, they do little more than killing cattle or destroying property, but In a slow-paced saga with several stories per game year they might actually end up taking a human life once every two or three years. When it happens, you know you have to become a hunter yourself, and track down and kill the killers, blood for blood, a life for a life ... lest you be cursed to hunt with the pack for eternity. (As a Minor Story Flaw, the pack of werewolves would be allies and protectors of your folk, who occasionally come to you for help when they are facing some menace they can't handle on their own).

  • Your mother's ghost appears on your birthday and steals your favourite teddy bear. You then have to track it down. Most of the times it's just an interruption of your Lab routine (stress die x 2 days lost). But occasionally, you get involved in some outlandish quest that always ends up with you saving some damsel in distress. You are starting to suspect your mother wants you to marry ...(As a Minor Story Flaw, your mother would only steal your teddy bear when she's trying to set you up with a damsel, and generally arrange for "coincidences" that make you look good with any even remotely eligible girl that you might interact with).

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