Backgrounds

About Backgrounds
Backgrounds are available for purchase. You buy each background only once; they do not scale like Skills do. Backgrounds are also more flexible than skills and play into a character's bio or history. The following backgrounds are available to purchase.

Affiliation/Affiliated
Major Faction 10 point / Minor Faction 5

Your character is currently a member of a Secret Society. If you would like to be affiliated with a society not on this list, please contact the game runner and talk to them about what that affiliation would entail. While you are in good standing with that society, you are able to access means beyond you own. However, should you fall out with the society, you will lose access to some of those means until you regain favor. Once picked, your Game Runner will fill out your character card with the appropriate skills that would come with your faction.
 * Templar Affiliation (Major)
 * Illuminati Affiliation (Major)
 * Dragon Affiliation (Major)
 * Brotherhood Affiliation (Major)
 * League of Monster Slayers Affiliation (Minor - must be a child)
 * Innsmouth Affiliation (Minor)
 * Kingdom Affiliation (Minor)
 * The Black Watchmen (Minor)

Former Affiliation
Major Faction 5 points / minor faction 2

Your characters used to be affiliated with one a faction (either one of the ones listed above or one that has been approved by the Game Runner). You no longer gain the benefits of an active membership, but that doesn't mean you don't benefit from having once been a member. Some factions may force members out at a certain time (such as growing up for the League of Monster Hunters, or graduation from Innsmouth Academy). As with a current affiliation, once picked your Game Runner will fill out your character cards with the appropriate skills.

Child
0

Your character is a minor (specifically under 18 years). This could help them in some situations, but is also a hindrance.

Race
“Common” Races 3pt/“Uncommon” Race 5 pt/“Rare” 8pt

You are not a mortal. Perhaps you once were and something happened, or perhaps you were born into your race. Whatever the case may be, you have abilities beyond that of regular mortals. The available races and their cost are listed here. If you would like to play some sort of mythical or supernatural creature that is not here, talk to the Game Runner. Upon creating a character with a race, talk to the Game Runner about background and how you would like your character to have become what they are if they weren't already born into it.  
 * Common - Werewolves, Vampires, Hedge Mage, Changlings
 * Uncommon - True Fae/Fairies,
 * Rare -

Magic
Human/Mortal - 5 point per path/Other- 2 for In Race Path (first power free), 4 for Non-Racial Paths

Magic is not only very real, but very dangerous. Almost everyone has the ability to learn magic to some extent, but it's a tad more difficult than just reciting a spell out of a book. For the most part, mortals may take the Magic paths at a slightly higher cost than non-mortal races with the understanding that they have dedicated some part of their life to learning and tapping into their natural abilities. All characters get one of their (1) cost active powers for free.

You must purchase this background to gain access to one path of magic. Upon purchasing that path, you then spend only the experience cost for the spells you wish to buy after. To buy a second path, you must buy this background again, and so on for each unique path of magic. Each magic path has two trees: Active and Passive. Purchasing a path gives you access to both trees.

The current paths of magic are as follows: Blood, Elemental, Chaos, Psychokinesis, Prophecy, Alchemy 

Immortal
Minor 35

Immortals are currently unable to be played as starting characters. You may petition your Game Runner to play an Immortal, and it will be reviewed on a case by case basis.

Minor Immortality is not the ability to not die. Rather, one who has this power cannot die by mortal means. Guns, Blades, physical weapons do not work on them. They take damage and feel pain as normal, but will eventually come back. Mechanically, if a character is taken out of a fight through either physical or metaphysical damage, they must wait a certain number of turns to come back into the fight (at the Game Runner's discretion based off of how they gained their immortality, type of damage taken, and other factors). Minor Immortals still age, although much slower than normal. Poison/Venom still affects them as normal. The only way to truly kill them is to kill their spirit, or grind them down and destroy them on an atomic level. They can still be incapacitated through various means (leaving them limbless, trapping them somehow, etc).

Major Immortals are currently NPC only. 

Weapons
2 for the initial purchase.

This gives you the ability to use a broad category of weapons. You know how to fight with these weapons and do not gain a penalty for doing so. Without this background, you cannot use weapons of that category (you do not get equipment bonuses).

Weapon Specializations
1 point per specialization

Weapons that you specialize in are treated as one level higher for the purposes of determining equipment bonuses and if you have stacking specializations, those then further add to your damage after successfully hitting.

Example of the above backgrounds: Weapons - Melee is 2 points. If you want to specialize in Blades, it’s another 1 points, and to further specialize in Long Swords is an additional 1. When wielding a Good tier long sword, you would not only gain the Good benefits, but those would be boosted to Great (thanks to the Blade specialization), and deal an additional 1 damage (thanks to the Long Sword specialization).

Naturally Adept
10 pts

You are a natural when it comes to magic, and may forgo the use of a focus when casting spells. This allows you to wield a weapon that requires two hands or two single handed weapons while still casting spells. Should you still wish to use a focus, that focus gives you a +2 benefit to all casting challenges. Note: this only replaces the focus required to cast a spell. This does not replace material components for paths such as Alchemy

Ambidextrous
3 pts

You are equally skilled with both hands, and thus can use a single handed weapon in either hand. You do not gain any penalty for using a weapon off-handed and may duel-wield weapons/magic foci or use a magic focus in one hand while still using a weapon in your other.